Wild North America 1846

Chapter 579 The war has begun
In the classical style palace where we stayed
The Eleventh Prince, His Highness Tang-Li Xin, had the opportunity to meet with the deputy commander of the expeditionary force, Major General Fan Pengfei, who was in charge of commanding the army.

There are also Brigadier General Hu Changda, Commander of the 3rd Division of the Royal Marine War, Brigadier General Meng Hu, Commander of the 4th Division of the Royal Marine War, and the heads of the regiments. These are experienced generals transferred from the former Royal Army Field Division. Dozens of battles, big and small, with excellent command ability.

Together with Commodore Zheng Huaishan, deputy commander of the expeditionary force, Colonel Pan Shouguo, chief of staff of the expeditionary force, and Colonel Liu Daqing, chief of joint logistics, the middle and senior officers of the expeditionary force were all present.

in front of subordinates

His Highness Tang-Li Xin showed a calm atmosphere far beyond his age, and said to everyone with a solemn expression;
"By the imperial decree of His Majesty the Holy Emperor of the Tang Dynasty..."

All the officers immediately put their legs together, raised their heads with a bang, and raised their hands in a military salute to show their respect.

His Highness Tang-Li Xin paused for a moment, and after looking around at the crowd, he continued calmly;
"Excuse me, take it easy...

Thanks to His Majesty's great kindness, this duke conferred the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, shouldering a mountainous responsibility and the earnest entrustment of the people of the empire.

The aim is to spread the glory of the empire, to raise the prestige of our country and the monarchy beyond the waves, to deter the young people in all directions, and to fight back any provocation with strong force.

The glory of the empire cannot be denied by anyone.

The conquest of the army is imminent. As the commander of the expeditionary force, the Duke once again reiterated his strict military discipline, ordered and prohibited, and the whole army will work together to win the glory that belongs to the expeditionary force.

Anyone who violates the military order will be killed without mercy.

Those who shrink back will be killed without mercy!

Those who confuse the crowd with gossip will be killed without mercy!

Those who disobey orders will be killed without mercy!

Those who leave the army without permission will be killed without mercy!

The duke does not dare to slack in the heavy responsibilities. I hope that the generals and officers will cooperate sincerely with me to defeat the enemy.Don't violate the military rules and regulations, then I can only take the head of your class to strictly enforce military discipline and punish lawbreakers.

No matter who dares to take a step beyond the thunder pool, I will kill him!Don't say it's unexpected. "

After a murderous display of prestige, the complexions of all the senior generals present changed, and they replied solemnly in unison; "The lowly ranks are following the military order, and dare not go beyond the threshold."

"That's good..." His Highness Tang-Li Xin's face softened when he said this, and after taking the lead to sit down in the center, his voice became much gentler; "Since you have something to say first, let's all sit down and discuss it. The next step of the itinerary... let's sit down and talk, don't be so formal."

Give me a slap and a sweet date.

It has to be said that the noble blood born in the royal family has extraordinary skills, and is familiar with this set of tricks. The senior officers of the expeditionary army sat down one after another, not daring to show any strangeness on their faces.

There are a lot of things involved in the expedition of the army, especially the 4 troops of the 3.2rd and [-]th Royal Marine Divisions assembled in the new Xi'an port, and tens of thousands of immigrants, including many grassroots colonial officials, engineers, Railway survey technicians, doctors and teachers, various factory technicians, tractor drivers and logistics personnel, etc., as well as the wives and family members of some immigrants, involved a wide range of areas.

in Xi'an port

Ships were also prepared to transport bulk materials such as grain and building materials for the expeditionary force, and ships specialized in transporting cattle, sheep, livestock and poultry. The fleet size was as high as 51, and there were only 23 large and medium-sized immigration ships. The average number of passengers per ship reached More than 1800 people.

In addition to the 23 warships and cargo ships of the expedition fleet, the total number reached 74. When sailing at sea, it must be divided into 4 large fleets. The contact and communication of the maritime formations are big problems.

This is still the result of one-stop compression, otherwise the number of fleets will be even larger.

The 3rd and 4th Divisions of the Royal Marines were each assigned a cavalry regiment, and the required horses were not carried on board. This alone reduced seven or eight transport ships.

War horses are actually very delicate and large animals, and their mortality rate is very high in the harsh environment of transoceanic transportation. It is not uncommon for more than half of them to die when they are transported to the ground.

Therefore, the empire had already made preparations and sent a small team of more than [-] people to purchase high-quality Arabian horses in Nejd and Yemen, preparing to use them in the war against Egypt.

These Arabian horses are more familiar with the local dry and hot environment, and can save a lot of transportation expenses, and can also avoid huge losses caused by death in the middle of transportation.

this age
Limited by backward meteorological observation technology, ships sailing in the ocean often encounter severe sea conditions or typhoons.As long as the ship does not sink, most immigrants in good health can survive the storm for a few days and usher in the rain after the rain.

But war horses are not necessarily the case, and the destruction of the entire ship is a high probability event.

Not long after the expedition fleet arrived in New Xi'an, several more freighters arrived one after another. These freighters were carrying North American cowboys who were keen on adventure, and their destination was also Egypt.

Under the general environment of the Tang Empire's martial arts
These North American cowboys can always be seen in a series of large-scale military operations during the war against the United States, the Mexico War and the South American desert expedition over the years.

The typical North American cowboy outfit is wearing a wide-brimmed cowboy hat on his head, a flowered handkerchief around his neck, a leather jacket or a rough-style denim jacket, and a bullet belt around his waist on a three-finger wide leather belt. Hanging one or two revolvers.Wearing pointed leather boots with spurs on the feet, this look is almost synonymous with tattooed gangsters and violent madmen.

Once the North American cowboys appear in groups, it must mean big trouble.

This group once went to North America to participate in desert expeditions. The word of mouth is good and bad. The good thing is that many North American cowboys have earned a lot of money through hard work and achieved legendary experiences.

And some North American cowboys rob their own pastures and trophies, provoke troubles after drinking, and kill innocent people indiscriminately. Most of these vicious incidents are also related to these North American cowboys.

The most egregious case was a group of wandering North American cowboys. After being received by the Chinese manor owner, they even got the manor family drunk, and then killed more than [-] Indian workers in the manor regardless of gender. Cut off the ears for bounty.

after this

The Andean Governor's Office canceled the killing reward policy for Indians to prevent these North American cowboys from taking advantage of loopholes and disrupting the peaceful life of local manor owners who had settled down.

Even so
In the vast wilderness villages and towns in South America, the Indians dare not go out of the manor, for fear of losing their lives if they go out.

Objectively speaking, most of the North American cowboys are good, and there are only a few who are vicious and unruly.

This is a social group that is keen on adventure. There are retired soldiers, nobles and civilians, and passionate young people stimulated by legendary experiences. This is the group of people who followed the expeditionary force to Egypt.

For them, the expeditionary army neither accepts nor rejects them, and can provide conveniences such as board and lodging, but will not bear the consequences of their death in a foreign country.

When necessary, rewards can also be issued to allow these cowboys to fight together.

Although these cowboys only have more than 1300 people, there are still a steady stream of followers behind them, and they are basically light cavalry, many of whom are skilled in combat, and they are a place where crouching dragons hide tigers.

All these North American cowboys went to Egypt at their own expense, and it was impossible to have no family background.

But even facing all kinds of difficulties, these North American cowboys can't stop them from seeking the thrill of war and an adventurous life. Going out with the army is their favorite thing to do.

After mid-December 1871
The expeditionary army was divided into four fleets and set off one after another, heading for the remote Arabian Peninsula, embarking on a vigorous journey of conquest.

After a long journey, on January 1872, 21, the first fleet arrived at Seina Bay in Yemen on the Red Sea coast and anchored here.

The Seine Bay in this era is just a very simple smuggling port, with a wooden trestle extending about 80 meters into the sea, which can berth two to three hundred-ton sloops, or small sailboats of tens of tons.

No matter how big it is, it can only park in the bay, and cannot rely on the trestle with a very shallow draft.

The arrival of the fleet caused a commotion in Senna City. Many Yemeni locals flocked to the beach to watch the excitement, pointing and talking, and the number was several thousand.

And some Arabs with guns were also mixed in, showing hostile and vigilant expressions, as if they did not welcome visitors from afar.

for the sake of caution
The advance fleet put down a dozen small sampans one after another, armed sailors went ashore with guns, and established a landing site to isolate the locals.

Soon more soldiers went ashore between the small sampan and the berth and the shore. The expeditionary fleet also sent people familiar with Arabic to go ashore to understand the situation, trying to get in touch with the team members who arrived earlier.

Soon they got a shocking news;

The team that arrived earlier was attacked, and more than 40 people were killed in the attack, more than half of them were locals employed by the team, and more than 70 people were still sticking to a strong local house, and there were about 10 people. wounded.

Most of the Arabian horses purchased by the squad were also looted. A total of more than 2700 high-quality Arabian horses disappeared, and there are less than 400 horses in existence.

It is said that several chiefs of the local tribes in Yemen were jealous, so they joined forces to snatch these high-quality war horses, which is a lot of wealth!

Commodore Zheng Huaishan, who was in charge of the advance fleet, was furious when he heard about it, and immediately sent 500 soldiers into the city, lifted the siege of the squadron's house by the local armed forces, and rescued the people who had been struggling for more than a month.

After detailed inquiries, the situation was quickly clarified.

It was not because of the envy of the chiefs who were rumored by the locals, but because a raiding team hired by businessmen from Egypt took away the horses that had been collected after months of hard work.

As a native of North Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt is very well informed. When they learned that a group of Orientals had come to collect war horses near the port of Sena in Yemen, they realized that it might be related to the Datang Fleet on the expedition to Egypt.

So preemptively, it turns out that the war has already started thousands of miles away.

(End of this chapter)