New Han Dynasty 1834

Chapter 104 is less of an attack and more of a takeover.

After Li Anbang roughly understood the situation in California, he reached a consensus with his staff on the operational strategy and officially began preparations for the operation.

On July 1st of the third year of the Hanchang era, the Beiyang Fleet, with thirty ships of various sizes, carrying a total of five thousand imperial guards, set sail from the Second Village Port for California.

The fleet sailed into the bay where San Francisco is located on July 10, which is historically known as San Francisco Bay.

When the fleet approached the port of San Francisco, it did not immediately raise the necessary alarms; the lookouts in the city were clearly not doing their jobs properly.

It wasn't until some of the warships had approached the dock and were visible to the naked eye that a huge panic finally broke out among the citizens.

"My God—where did this fleet come from? What's going on here—"

Although Li Anbang and others considered the Mexican officials in California to be useless, Li Anbang still arranged for the army to maintain a relatively serious combat approach as much as possible.

First, they tried to suppress the shore-based gun emplacements with ship-borne artillery, but found that the enemy was unprepared and did not resist, so they quickly destroyed the emplacements.

Then, under the cover of artillery fire, some infantrymen went ashore to seize and control the dock from the flank.

Finally, the transport fleet was brought ashore, allowing more army troops to disembark and begin taking over the entire city.

Under the threat of the fleet and artillery, none of the people in the city offered any direct resistance.

Upon seeing the approaching hordes of burly men and their menacing demeanor, they almost all surrendered immediately.

This includes the current head of the Republic and Governor of California, Alvarado.

However, when Alvarado surrendered, he repeatedly and sternly declared to his soldiers: "California is the territory of the United States of Mexico. You have violated the territory of the United States of Mexico; this is an act of war!"

The soldiers capturing the prisoners couldn't understand what he was saying, and they didn't care what he was saying.

Following Li Anbang's pre-arranged plan, all the prisoners were tied up, loaded onto a ship, and sent to Vancouver Island to mine coal.

After capturing San Francisco, a thousand royal guards were left to garrison the city, while the rest of the army set sail again to take over other settlements in California.

Just as Li Anbang had predicted, the entire operation was less a war or an attack and more a "takeover".

More accurate.

No large-scale battles broke out throughout the entire process; the vast majority of Mexican settlements surrendered directly.

Although a few die-hards put up a stubborn resistance, their leader was immediately sniped with a rifle, and the remaining members were then blasted away by artillery fire.

In northern San Francisco, there is actually a stronghold of the Rakshasa people.

They specialized in growing grains and raising livestock to supply food and meat to trading posts in the Alaskan region.

The Han army did not ask about their identities or origins at all, and directly took over and confiscated all their assets, while also arresting all the local immigrants.

The Rakshasa's reaction seemed no different from that of the Mexicans, and they even appeared weaker, completely unwilling to confront the Han army.

In less than ten days, Li Anbang took over all the settlements in California.

Then, for the people living here, whether they were Hispanic or American immigrants, or other European immigrants or native Catholics, they all gained general equality under the rule of the Han.

Regardless of their original status—whether they were governors or former governors, mayors or captains or colonels, or businessmen or farmers—Li Anbang sent them all to work as miners or road construction laborers.

Li Anbang cleared out the major settlements in California one after another, and then transported Han militia from Oregon to take over the settlements and cultivate the surrounding land on a large scale.

At the same time, some militia members were arranged to go deep into the Greater Bay Area, follow the Sacramento River into the Central Valley, and search for suitable places along the river to reclaim land for farming and build new settlements.

This year, a total of 60,000 troops will be sent to the Americas. The current arable land is not producing enough food. We must reclaim as much land as possible as soon as possible and try to plant as much food as possible before winter.

Achieve food self-sufficiency in the Americas before the food shipped from the Americas runs out next year.

The land in the California Bay Area and the Central River Valley is also one of the most fertile and resilient potential lowland areas, with a climate that is very suitable for growing winter wheat.

It is warmer in winter and cooler in summer than Wenjiatun, making it more comfortable than Wenjiatun.

The plains in this area are several times larger than the river valleys south of Wenjiatun, and even with the current level of agricultural technology, they could support at least tens of millions of people.

After the Great Han took control of California, there was no need to specifically search for food bases in the short term, nor was there any need to worry about the Americas not being able to supply enough food.

Only then did the Han Dynasty truly have a relatively stable foothold in the Americas.

After the war, Li Anbang remained in California and personally led the militia to continue reclaiming and cultivating the land.

Following the direct arrangements made by Liu Yulong, the California region was renamed California State, and San Francisco City was renamed San Francisco City.

Meanwhile, the Beiyang Fleet's transport ships returned to Shanghai port on July 5.

The artisans at the Naval Governor's Office quickly inspected and repaired the ships while arranging for the serving militia to load cargo.

The fleet set sail again on July 25, following the same route it had taken in the spring, heading back to the Americas.

On October 15th of the third year of the Hanchang era, the Beiyang Fleet's transport fleet once again arrived at the Gulf of America.

Based on the current situation, Li Anbang adjusted the deployment and expansion of the army.

Ten thousand imperial guards were stationed in Jiaozhou and the Meizhou Bay area respectively, and were concentrated in the Second Village and Jinshan City.

A total of 30,000 militiamen were stationed in various military settlements in the Jiaozhou area, and 27,000 militiamen were stationed in various military settlements around Jinshan Bay.

Following Li Anbang's instructions, the transport fleet delivered personnel and supplies to various cities and military settlements. By the time all unloading was completed, it was already November.

Then, as planned, one-third of the fleet and the vast majority of the transport ships immediately set sail back to their homeland to prepare for the next year's operations.

Two-thirds of the fleet patrolled the Gulf of California and the Gulf of America to guard against potential threats, primarily the British.

In June 1837, the British-organized fleet for operations in the Americas, carrying 6 ships prepared by the Hudson's Bay Company—

The army joined forces with another 3,000 troops organized by the United States on the east coast of America.

The fleet then transported these army soldiers to the Nicaragua region of Mexico, where they were arranged to travel on Mexican riverboats via the Nicaragua River and Lake Nicaragua to the Pacific side.

Before the Panama Canal opened, there were two traditional routes across the Central American isthmus.

One of them was the later Panama region, where there was a simple gravel road, about six kilometers long.

The entire route is a land passage through the tropical rainforest.

The other route is the one that goes through Nicaragua, which is over 200 kilometers long in total.

However, within a distance of more than 200 kilometers, there is a large natural lake and a river connecting the lake and the sea.

Most of the journey can be undertaken by boat, with the shortest land section being only eighteen to twenty kilometers.

The physical exertion required to travel through the Nicaragua Canal is less than that required through the Panama Canal, which is why the Nicaragua Canal is more commonly used.

The British naval fleet sailed south, bypassing the southernmost tip of South America, and passed through the Strait of Magellan into the Pacific Ocean.

They then sailed north to the Pacific coast west of Nicaragua, where they continued northward with a total of six thousand British and American troops.

According to the pre-arranged plan of Britain, the United States, and Mexico, they would arrive at the port of Acapulco in western Mexico to join the Mexican troops heading north, and together they would travel to the California region.

But after the fleet arrived in Acapulco, British representative Mike Laughlin and American representative James Buchanan made contact with the Mexicans and immediately received both good news and bad news.

The good news is that former Mexican President Santa Anna, who has served four terms, will lead 6,000 troops in a personal campaign.

The bad news is that the Han have already occupied California, with an estimated five to six thousand troops participating in the war. The local California separatist forces surrendered without any resistance.

When Buchanan and McLaughlin met Anna, the volatile military strongman seemed extremely angry, complaining and roaring without any regard for his image: "Alvarado is a traitor. They colluded with the Han Chinese, declared California independent, then let the Han Chinese attack California, and then they surrendered."

"We absolutely cannot tolerate these traitors. We must suppress and destroy them and take back California."

"You've come at the right time. Let's go together to retake California, and then we'll take back Oregon and British Columbia for you."

After Buchanan and McLaughlin figured out what was going on, they were stunned: "How could this be? How could the Han army suddenly attack California? Did they already know that the three parties were preparing to cooperate? Are they already able to mobilize five or six thousand troops to attack California?"

"This... Mexico has lost California, so where are we going to set up camp? Are we going to attack San Francisco directly from Acapulco?"

Anna said loudly and confidently, "That's right! They should have five to six thousand troops, so I organized an army of six thousand."

"With the addition of your two countries' 6,000 troops, we have at least twice the military advantage and are sure to achieve victory."

"Of course we have to start from Acapulco; the only way to get to California is from here."

"Isn't the British navy cooperating? Is there a problem?"

McLaughlin was exasperated by Anna's arrogance: "Acapulco! It's a full two thousand miles (3400 kilometers) from San Francisco!"

Before Anna could respond, Buchanan looked at McLaughlin and said, "Anyway, that's the situation now. We can only go and see for ourselves."

"If all else fails, we'll go to Alaska and settle down temporarily in the land of the Rakshasa."

McLaughlin had dealings with the Rakshasa people of Alaska.

They even had serious discussions with them about building farms in the Oregon region specifically to supply food to Alaska.

Before the operation, McLaughlin's superior, George Simpson, made a special trip to St. Petersburg to exchange views with the directors of the Rakshasa Americas.

Therefore, McLaughlin was very familiar with the situation in Alaska: "The food supplies for those trading posts in Alaska used to come from California. How could they possibly support our 16,000 troops?"

Russia established a special outpost in California to cultivate land and supply food to Alaska.

Buchanan helplessly spread his hands and said, "There's no other way right now. We can only go and see what's going on."

"If the Great Han cuts off Alaska's food supply, then the Rakshasa will have no choice but to side with us completely."

McLaughlin's face darkened considerably, and he thought to himself:

The Alaskan Rakshasa don't even have enough food to eat, so how dare they join us in fighting against the Han Chinese who control the food supply?

If the Han Dynasty were to cut off their food supply and then launch a direct attack on the Kamchatka strongholds from its homeland, then the entire Alaskan region would have no choice but to surrender.

But McLaughlin realized at that moment that there was no point in saying such things now.

Buchanan is right. I have no other choice but to go and see the situation there first.

So McLaughlin said nothing more, arranged for the British fleet to transport six thousand Mexican troops, and then sailed north toward California.