open sea

Chapter 839
The atmosphere in Mexico City has been terrible lately.

First, the city was captured by hundreds of people from the Ming army, and then the Indian slave labor rebelled. Although Mexico City changed hands twice and failed to determine the direction of the war, the fluctuation of people's hearts in Mexico City is inevitable.

The green cloaks of the Ming army captured the city, but the defenders and citizens hardly resisted. When they saw the Ming army appearing in the city, the news that Bernal was annihilated spread wildly. The morale of the defenders collapsed, and a large number of nobles fled, but there was no major damage to the town.

It was different when the Indian slave workers raised their troops. They themselves were the property of the Spaniards. What’s more, once the long-standing resentment broke out, more than a thousand Spaniards died in the chaos. city.

The Duke of Alva, who led the army into the town to suppress the uprising, even doubted from the bottom of his heart: what made these Indians burn down their city.

None of this happened when Hernán Cortez captured Mexico City more than 60 years ago.

The Duke of Alva is not only a military strategist in Spain. As a feudal nobleman, he naturally has multiple identities, such as generals, nobles, and politicians. As the governor of the country, he sent troops to the Netherlands and suppressed the mob of butter makers and cheesemongers in just a few months.

He is the most professional in suppressing businessmen and citizens who oppose His Majesty Philip, and there is no other good player like him in the whole of Spain.

The situation in Mexico City will not be more complicated than that in the Netherlands-at least he thought so when he led his army into Mexico City.

But the real situation is much trickier than imagined.

On the one hand, the Duke of Alva wanted his subordinates to summarize the reasons for Bernal's several defeats, and to find out the shortcomings of the Spanish Legion, so as to deal with the more complicated world situation after the Ming Dynasty.

He did a good job and found the problem: the firearms and equipment of the Spanish army were too low. From the muskets picked up by the deserters, it was inscribed on the muskets made in the first year of Wanli by the Qianhusuo Military Bureau of Xiangshan. Sword, in order to counter the bayonet dagger in close combat.

The clerk next to the Duke wrote a report on the matter, and the well-read monks pointed out that this is a Chinese variant of the ancient firecrackers. The Portuguese monks who lived in Shuangyu in the early years had seen the standard long-barreled firecrackers'quick guns of the Ming army. ', is the structure of inserting the spearhead into the gun barrel to increase the ability of melee combat.

After seeing this weapon, the officers of each legion submitted reports on the tactics of the Ming army. These reports have different focuses, but the same thing is that they pointed out that the land warfare methods of the Ming army and the Western army were comparable to those of the Europeans. The countries are more similar, and they also use legions to fight, but the organization is different.

According to the report, the Western Army has 3000 people and can be divided into ten small phalanxes of 300 people or three large phalanxes; the Ming Army has 600 people and can be divided into five troops or fifty teams.

All military reports finally point to one point. The muskets with thorns and the common heavy armored musketeers greatly enhanced the close combat capabilities of Ming musketeers, so that their spears were only used to deal with cavalry, and more muskets fired in salvo. Let the Ming army have more firepower when fighting against the Western army phalanx.

Acosta's report pointed out the root cause of the high morale of the Ming army from the system-cruel first-level meritorious service and strict military law.

The monk concluded from the conversations with the common people, the banner army, and the bureaucrats in Changsheng County: The first-level merit system followed by the Ming Dynasty provided ordinary soldiers with a common opportunity to become nobles, so in the dominant battle, it is usually from the bottom to the top. Will show extraordinary courage.

The weakness of this system is that when they face a disadvantage, they will flee in large numbers in order to save their lives. Only strict military laws cut off their way of life after fleeing can they maintain high combat effectiveness.

Dozens of legionary infantrymen who escaped from the Battle of Baimahe still have lingering fears about the scene of the Ming army marching forward under the hail of bullets and the silence of the drums.

The Duke of Alva believes that the tactics and system of the Ming army can be learned, because the target of his army is Portugal, and the tactics of the Portuguese are almost the same as those of Spain. If the Ming army can defeat the Spaniards, then use the Ming army to deal with them. The way of the Spanish Legion must be easier to deal with the Portuguese.

If the problem is found, it must be solved. The lack of artillery and different systems cannot be changed in a short period of time. The Duke decided to start with firepower.

The Duke of Alva did a good job in this matter. In the past two months, workers in Mexico City rushed to produce [-] light guns and [-] heavy guns, which greatly enhanced the firepower of the Spanish Legion.

However, I encountered some difficulties in the thorns. The land lacked iron, and all the iron that could be collected was used to make muskets. Some mail armor and cotton armor were made with guns and found to be unsuitable.

The calibers of their muskets were different, and the thorns could not be inserted, or they would dangle in them, and they would fall out after one barrel on the straw man.

And even if the size is right, it won't fall out if you poke it twice.

Later, the witty Duke of Alva snatched the insoles of half of the Spanish citizens in Mexico City—unlike the Ming Dynasty, their insoles were made of cork, and the artisans crushed the insoles and remade them to fit the wooden sword handles. This time the guns produced The thorn was finally able to go in, but couldn't be pulled out.

If you can't pull it out, you can't pull it out. The blade keeps breaking. The disheartened Duke of Alva finally feels that his men don't need the spear in Portugal, which is something new that those sea ruffians have never seen. Pack the report and send it back to Spain, and ask King Philip to order Toledo, the Spanish sword-making center, to make qualified steel thorns.

His confidence in defeating Portugal was already sufficient, but now that he has seen the outstanding aspects of the Ming army, his confidence is even stronger.

But in contrast, things in Mexico City are getting more and more difficult.

How do you say that?There is no harm without comparison.

If there is no border line of the Ming Dynasty, all Indians will be content with the status quo. There are rumors everywhere in the south and north that the tribes who resisted the Spaniards were suppressed and annihilated. The impression of the invincible Spaniards has long been deeply rooted in every Indian. In their minds, the word "resistance" never occurred to them.

But it was different now. The successive defeats in the battle against the Ming Kingdom brought trouble to Duke Alva not only because he was tired of dealing with Chen Mu, who was a demon with horns on his head, but also the turmoil in Mexico City.

The Ming Dynasty gave the Indians a very good life. Today they fled to the west of the border with bare buttocks and a pocket on their backs. The next day, they will wear cotton clothes and put their hair up in a bun. Appeared swaggeringly on this side of the border, carrying Tongbao to buy their relatives from the plantation owners.

Planters can choose not to sell it, of course, but those green cloaks holding muskets are looking at you with a half-smile - who dare not sell it?
Alva didn't even know how the news got out. In New Spain, which had been eaten away by half, there were rumors that the life of the slave laborers had escaped to the border. Even he had heard that the imperial court willing to farm would give Renting a certain amount of land, planting whatever you like, as long as you pay the emperor the "tax" and "[-]th tax", you are completely free, just like immigrants from the Ming Dynasty.

Even if they don't want to farm, there are countless jobs waiting for them, and they can earn Tongbao in everything.

Alva's three winning ways against the Netherlanders: extermination, massacres, riot committees, didn't work here, and he was driving him mad.

At this time, a ship docked from the Old World arrived in Havana, bringing exciting news-the Portuguese King Sebastiao broke the Mahazan River, the Portuguese army was defeated, and the king fell into the river and drowned!
(End of this chapter)