1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 696 Breaking the promise

A battlefield on the border of northern Kansas and Nebraska.

Another battle ended, and the air was filled with a pungent smell of gunpowder and blood.

The noisy shouts and sounds of gunfire stopped temporarily. The bodies of the generals from both sides were scattered almost everywhere in front of the Western Army's position. The bodies in gray-green uniforms and blue uniforms were mixed together. The faces of these soldiers were all blurred, and their limbs were mutilated and twisted.

In front of a cannon, dozens of soldiers' bodies lay, almost forming a corpse mound. The faces of these bodies were all torn by shotgun shells, and their appearance in life could no longer be recognized. Their muscles and bones were exposed, and their blood had gradually merged with the soil, forming mottled bloodstains.

Zhang Zhaoyu knelt on the ground, supporting his knees with his hands. He could hardly bear the purgatory-like scene before him.

A second lieutenant who died to cover him fell beside him. The lieutenant was hit in the face by shrapnel, his eyeballs fell out, blood coagulated on the exploded face, and the skin and flesh were distorted.

Zhang Zhaoyu stared blankly at the fallen second lieutenant, who was also from Chaozhou. Tears silently flowed down his blood-stained face and dripped onto the scarlet grass.

"Our ammunition is running out." Hawke, with injuries on his shoulder and right leg, came to Zhang Zhaoyu with the help of his personal soldiers. He endured the pain and raised his wrist to glance at the hands on his watch.

"According to the Yankee custom, in two hours they will bombard our positions again."

After two days of fighting, Hawke has figured out the enemy's habits.

Although many soldiers had already fled, and many soldiers stayed in their positions because they had nowhere to run, Hawke had no intention of blaming these soldiers brought from Western Mexico at this point in the battle. They had done a good job and performed beyond their expectations.

As for the artillery battalion on which they relied most, nearly half of them had suffered casualties.

"General Hawke, you lead the brothers to break out. I will stay behind to cover your retreat." Zhang Zhaoyu wiped the tears from his face and said, "Lead the brothers to break out and leave a fire for the Mexican Brigade."

After fighting bloody battles in a trench for two days and two nights and experiencing the test of life and death together, Zhang Zhaoyu no longer had any prejudice against these militiamen from western Mexico and regarded himself as a part of this collective.

Although he was very reluctant when he was transferred from the regular army to the Mexican militia brigade.

The food they brought with them and the water they collected from the Prairie Dog River were sufficient, so they did not have to worry about food and water for the time being.

But their ammunition and medicines were running out, and even if they ignored the casualties, they would not be able to stop the next round of attacks by the Northern Army.

The Yankee attack had just ended and they needed to rest. Sacrificing some people to cover the breakout of other soldiers was their only option.

Zhang Zhaoyu had no idea whether he could break through successfully, but there was still hope. It was better than everyone staying where they were and waiting to die.

"Do you think I can still walk in this state?" Hawke shook his head. "Colonel Zhang, lead the brothers of the artillery battalion and the brothers who are not injured to break through. I will leave all the horses to you. It is my selfishness and greed that has harmed everyone. You lead everyone to break through. You are all still young. The future of the Republic belongs to you."

As he spoke, Hawke tremblingly took out two letters from his pocket.

"These two letters, one is for Boss Liang, and the other is for Doctor Robinson. If you can successfully break through, please pass them to them on my behalf. This is my last wish."

Zhang Zhaoyu looked at Hawke's expectant eyes and the injuries on his body, and knew that this was not the time to be hesitant, so he nodded and agreed.

Seeing that Zhang Zhaoyu agreed, Hawke was very happy. He ordered someone to bring the flag of the Mexican militia brigade and solemnly handed it to Zhang Zhaoyu.

"Colonel Zhang, the Mexican Brigade is now in your hands."

Half an hour later, Zhang Zhaoyu led the remaining soldiers to break out under the cover of darkness.

Seeing this, the Northern Army launched a fierce attack on the Western Army's positions.

Hawke used up his last bit of strength to lead his personal soldiers and the remaining soldiers who could still move to delay the Northern Army's attack. After confirming that Zhang Zhaoyu had gone far away, Hawke looked at the remaining soldiers around him, almost all of whom were injured, with reluctance, and raised the white flag, indicating that he wanted to negotiate with the other side and discuss surrender.

As for the Northern Army, although the light weapons they used had a slow rate of fire, it objectively saved them some ammunition.

But the ammunition consumption in this battle, especially artillery ammunition, has exceeded their original expectations.

The Western Army was willing to surrender, which was exactly what the Northern Army wanted.

The person who came to discuss surrender with Hawke was Ames's adjutant Joshua.

Hawke only put forward one requirement: to ensure the personal safety of the surrendered soldiers and provide medical treatment for the wounded.

Joshua felt that this request was in the clear, so he agreed to Hawke's surrender request on behalf of Ames and Brannan.

"Mr. William Hawke, no, I should call you General William Hawke now."

After surrendering, Hawke was carried to the Union Army camp. In a trance, Hawke heard someone calling his name. Hawke looked up at the person who called his name.

With the light from the surrounding kerosene lamps, Hawke saw the man's face clearly. He felt that the man looked familiar, as if he had seen him somewhere, but he just couldn't remember who the other person was.

"Who are you?" Hawke asked.

"My full name is Caleb Elijah Brannan." Brannan gave his full name quite proudly.

"Are you Sam Brannan's brother?" Hawke quickly recalled his gold rush in California.

No wonder this guy looked familiar, it turned out to be Sam Brannan’s younger brother.

Sam Brannan, the first millionaire west of the Great Lakes, was a name that no early gold prospector was unfamiliar with.

"You are a born traitor. You betrayed the Boston Company, betrayed Brandon, and now you surrender to us and betray Liang Yao." Brannan looked at Hawke lying on the stretcher with contempt and mocked him bluntly.

"I surrendered for the sake of my wounded soldiers!" Hawke struggled to get up from the stretcher despite his injuries and vowed, "I will never betray Mr. Liang!"

"You bastard! You are such a disgrace to the people of Boston. As a noble white man, you actually betrayed your companions and worked for the despicable colored people!" Brannan's face gradually became ferocious. "If it weren't for people like you, California would still belong to us white people! It wouldn't be tainted by the yellow evil from the East!"

Brannan stubbornly and ridiculously believed that if it weren't for the betrayal of people like Hawke, the master of California would not be Liang Yao, but their Brannan family.

"Hahahaha!" Hawke laughed out loud as if he had heard a very funny joke. He pointed to the ground, then to the east and said.

“The natives of this land we are standing on, and even your capital Washington, are not the noble white people, but the colored people whom you despise.

You and your brother are simply cut from the same cloth, and have never reflected on yourselves. When you sold us miners eggs for 80 cents each, shovels for $20 each, and gold pans for $24 each, you never considered giving us a discount based on our skin color.

Hawke knew that the reason Liang Yao's power could take root in California and bear fruit today was not just because he had overthrown the Brannan family. The Brannan family was just the first big nail Liang Yao pulled out.

The fact that the white gold diggers and gold mining companies in Jinshan and Sacramento would rather cooperate with Liang Yao's American company than with the powerful Brannan family in Brannan speaks volumes.

"If I knew you were the commander of this Northern Army, I would rather die in battle than surrender!" Hawke did not forget to add the finishing blow.

Seeing that he could not defeat Hawke in the debate, Brannan stopped debating with Hawke and took Hawke to the prisoner-of-war camp.

In the prisoner-of-war camp, thousands of prisoners were huddled together like a flock of sheep in a pen, even the wounded were among them.

Twenty yards away, thousands of Union troops lined up with bayonets on their rifles, pointing them at the prisoners.

Seeing this, Hawke pointed at Joshua and yelled, "Colonel Joshua! You promised to guarantee the safety of the prisoners! You are a bunch of liars! You are a bunch of liars who don't keep your word!"

Joshua and Ames kept their heads down and said nothing, even though it was Brannan who came up with the idea of ​​killing the prisoners.

But they were unwilling to fight with these burdens, and sending them to Kansas City, 400 miles away, was even more impossible.

Since Brannan was willing to take the initiative to do the dirty work of slaughtering the prisoners, they had no reason to stop Brannan.

On the other hand, at this moment, on the Eastern Front, the battle between the Southern Army and the Northern Army has entered a white-hot stage.

After the Battle of Manassas, in order to protect the safety of the capital Washington and curb the Confederate Army's momentum to advance northward, Scott made a desperate move and sent the 2nd and 3rd Connecticut Infantry Regiments, the 1st Massachusetts Infantry Regiment, the 12th New York Infantry Regiment, the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry Regiment, James Ricketts' temporary artillery detachment and several militia units, which were originally used as reserves, into the battle.

This fresh force of 1.8 men was led by the famous Northern general McDowell, and they sailed south along the Potomac River.

Another Union army of more than 1.7 troops led by Pope, after repelling the Confederate vanguard in Fairfax, advanced towards Manassas by land, trying to recapture the town.

The Confederate Army stationed in the northern suburbs of Manassas at this time was General Thomas Jonathan Jackson's Virginia Army.

弗吉尼亚军团为南军劲旅，下辖第1弗吉尼亚步兵团、第2弗吉尼亚步兵团、第4弗吉尼亚步兵团、第5弗吉尼亚步兵团、第7弗吉尼亚步兵团、第27弗吉尼亚步兵团、第33弗吉尼亚步兵团、弗吉尼亚炮兵团、三个骑兵侦察分队。

The Confederate Army was formed in a hurry and there were almost no fully staffed troops.

Although Richmond attached great importance to and cared for the Virginia Legion, not a single infantry regiment in Virginia was fully staffed.

Each regular infantry regiment of the Virginia Corps generally had between six and seven hundred men.

Therefore, although Jackson had 7 regular infantry regiments, the total number of these 7 regular infantry regiments was only 4500. Including the artillery and cavalry for auxiliary combat, the number of troops under Jackson's command was less than 5500.

(End of this chapter)