The scorching sun is like fire.

Under the blue sea and blue sky, two huge warships were sailing in formation, cruising on the sea outside San Juan Island in northeast of Spanish Bo Rico. The dark main gun muzzle always pointed to the Spanish fortress Morro Castle on the opposite island.

These two warships are the main battleships of the Qing Empire Seagrass, two Dengyun-class battleships, Dengyun and Payun.

Since the Qing Empire declared war with the Spanish Empire, Liu Buchan commanded two Dengyun-class battleships to block the San Juan Bay in the northeast of the Spanish Bo Do Rico Island, and shelled the Spanish fortress Morro Castle on San Juan Island at the entrance of San Juan Bay. The purpose of the combat was to restrain the Spanish army and create fighter jets for the Expeditionary Force to surround the city of San Juan (today's new city of San Juan) from behind, and attack the Spanish fortress defenders on San Juan Island from land and sea to land.

In the surrounding area of ​​San Juan Bay is the city of San Juan, the palace of Western Bo Rico.

The entire city is built around San Juan Bay. At the entrance of the bay is San Juan Island, which is also the location of the Spanish colonial government (now the old city of San Juan).

There are three castles on the island, and at the entrance of the bay is Morro Castle. It is an irregular star fortress. The fortress is close to the seaside and is built along the coastline with a 6.1-meter-thick and 427-meter-high city wall. There are dozens of fortress cannons of various calibers deployed on the walls. It is the largest fortification fortification guarding San Juan in Spain.

Morro Castle was built in 1539. It was the site of the Spanish colonial government. The castle was tiptoed at the entrance of San Juan Bay. Its ancient cannon muzzles are still facing the vast sea. The castle was built at the beginning because of pirates at that time. The Spanish merchant fleet used it as a base and was also the target of pirates. The fortress has been war-torn and repaired several times, and is still magnificent.

The second castle on the island is La Fortaleza Palace, which is the oldest administrative residence in the Western Hemisphere. It was built in 1533 and rebuilt from 1639 to 1640. It is the location of the colonial governor of Bo Rico, Spain.

The third castle is Fort San Cristobal, which is located in the southwest corner, located in the Bay of San Juan, facing the coastal residential area of ​​San Juan. If the Fort Moro is defending against foreign threats from the sea, then Fort San Cristobal is only used to rule the residents of the island. The castle was built in 1631-1772 and covers a river of hectares. It was designed by two Irish engineers. It has hidden passages, traps, mi palaces and hidden weapons and other facilities. It is also a place where Spanish defenders hoard materials.

In terms of the defensive firepower of the three castles, the Spanish rule over Bo Rico was mainly directed at local indigenous people and blacks. Therefore, the Fort San Cristobal built in the inner bay was not tall. The wall was only 10 meters thick and only meter thick. The cannons on the top of the city did not have heavy cannons. The largest caliber was millimeter-type 1804 cannons, and the number was not large, only six. However, the Spanish defending barracks were as high as 2,000.

people.

The fortress artillery used to deal with foreign enemies on the sea surface is much more powerful. The guns on the Fortress Moro are very large, including two 320mm 35 times the caliber 1840-year-old sea defense guns, two 280mm 240mm 2 coastal defense survey doors, eight 152mm 8 coastal defense guns, and 105

There are 10 millimeter cannons. All muzzles are aimed at the entrance of the bay and the sea surface, blocking the bay, and attacking powerful enemies from the sea. There are more than 1,400 defenders of the Spanish Coast Defense Fortress above.

The Lattalesa Palace located in the center is an administrative office building. There are no artillery anymore, mainly infantry defense. There are 22 guard troops.

The office building of the Governor's Office actually has only 22 people guarding it. It does not mean that the Spanish do not pay attention to the safety of the Governor. It is really unnecessary. Because only Spanish soldiers allow them to live in the entire San Juan Island, the entire San Juan Island is a large fortress, which is very safe.

However, at this moment, all Spanish defenders were in danger. Because two huge steel warships on the sea would occasionally hit a round of shells, and the battleship 305

The 400-kilogram bomb fired from the millimeter main gun instantly exploded a large gap in the city wall of more than six meters thick. The explosion hit the bo and the top meter. The Spanish defenders within the killing radius were either dead or injured, causing huge psychological pressure to the Spanish defenders.

On the bridge of the battleship Dengyun, Liu Buchan used a high-power telescope to observe the Morro Fortress six nautical miles away.

Chief of staff next to him asked: "Sir, when will we start shelling today?"

The shelling of the Fortress of Morro has been going on for more than a week. Liu Buchanlou swept two Dengyun-class battleships and poured shells on the Fortress of Morroro every day. The number of attacks is uncertain every day, and the time of each attack is also uncertain.

The purpose of Liu Buchan doing this is to restrain the attention of the Spanish army and gain time for the landing troops. The second is to test the firepower configuration and troop strength of the Spanish fortress. Since it took more than ten days for the expeditionary force to land, Liu Buchan had time to study these issues.

Liu Buchan put down his telescope and said, "We have shot the Fort Moro by bombarding the Fort Moro in an irregular manner every day. Now we have cleared the firepower configuration of the Spanish Fortress defenders, and have discovered the caliber, range, ballistic coverage of the fortress guns, as well as the test of the reaction time and counterattack power of the Spanish defenders. It can be said that the Fort Moro is like an unclothed girl in front of us, with no secrets."

Sun Jingren smiled and said, "What sir is saying! Can we start an attack on the wholesale?"

Liu Buchan waved his hand and said, "It's not the time. If Lou attacks now, the Spanish defenders will have time to change their firepower and troop configuration after suffering losses. We need to wait until the Expeditionary Forces occupy the city of San Juan from behind and encircle San Juan Island.

We attacked at the same time, and scored with one blow and took the Spanish fortress."

Sun Jingren nodded and agreed: "Yes, there are mountains in the middle of this Bo Rico Island, and the population is concentrated in the plains near the coastline. I heard that the island has a population of less than 500,000, and more than 300,000 people are concentrated in the city of San Juan. Once our expeditionary forces capture the city of San Juan, it is equivalent to occupying the entire Bo Rico."

Liu Buchan said, "I don't know what the Spaniards think. I didn't build the fortress on the main island, but I just built the fortress on a small island next to the main island. The island hangs alone on the sea.

Once the main island is lost, the island will fall into a surrounded Jedi. There is no need to fight, and they will be trapped to death."

Sun Jingren smiled and said, "I heard that foreign devils have occupied this island for several years. When foreign devils invaded this island, they were the strongholds built on the small island of San Juan, and then used this as a springboard to invade the entire Bo Rico island. Although the indigenous people on the island could not defeat the Spaniards, they did not let the Spaniards calm for several years. Therefore, the Spaniards did not dare to go deep into the main island, so they had to establish settlements next to their fortresses on the edge of the main island. As a result, a few years later, the strongholds of that year became cities and became what they are now."

Liu Buchan nodded, and he also read the information about Bo Rico provided to them by the Americans.

Bo Rico was originally the residence of the Indian Taino tribe. It started from Christopher and Columbus sailing here in November 1943 and named it San Juan Island. By 1508, the Spanish J Ponce,

De and Leon established colonial strongholds on the island. The original indigenous Indians on the island became slaves and were driven to farms and gold mines to work. Many died of overwork and malnutrition, or died of diseases transmitted from the Spanish because they had not yet formed immunity in the Indians. In 1511, the Tainos under their leadership of Guaibana, and were suppressed by the colonial authorities. 6,000 Indians were massacred. Many Indians fled to the mountains or to nearby islands. Later, African slaves were transported to replace them.

The black slaves in the continent brought popular days, resulting in another one-third of the existing Indians being killed, thus reducing the indigenous people to 4,000, which is equivalent to the original population in the middle of the first century. The Taino people were wiped out, and colonists transported blacks from Africa to serve as slaves and planted sugarcane. Since then, the number of immigrants and black slaves has increased, and they are increasingly dissatisfied with the rule of the suzerain. In 1869, under the leadership of Emmetrio Betanses, the people of Rico held an uprising in the town of Lares. On the 24th, they announced the establishment of a republic and were later suppressed by the Spanish colonial army.

With the decline of Spanish rule, Spain's colonies in the Americas continued to be independent, and large-scale armed uprisings never stopped. In March 1897, Bodo Rico was finally granted the power of local autonomy by Spain. Spain sent 60,000 troops stationed in Bodo Rico to Cuba to suppress the Cuban uprising, which resulted in Bodo Rico's army now being only 20,000 troops on the island, of which 15,000 were local security forces in Bodo Rico. The real Spanish army had only more than 5,000, all stationed on San Juan Island.

"According to the plan..., the Expeditionary Force will arrive at the rear of San Juan tomorrow. I think the local security forces of Bo Do Rico cannot stop our Expeditionary Force. I think we will launch a general attack the day after tomorrow." Sun Jingren nodded and said, "Sir, I have never understood why Junzuo has to travel thousands of miles to seize Bo Do Rico? I heard that Bo Do Rico has no economic value.

On the contrary, Cuba is known as the pearl of the Caribbean. I heard that Cuba’s sugar, tobacco, cocoa, and coffee are very profitable. Why don’t we not have Cuba?” Liu Buchan smiled bitterly and said, “If you ask me who will I ask? Junzu has always been wise and brave. Although this Bo Rico has no economic value, I think this is a signal that our country is moving towards strength. With a colony in the Americas, we can participate in American affairs in the future. I think Junzu should mean to improve.

Our internationally renowned? After all, we have been bullied for decades. The whole world knows that we are a sick man from East Asia. If we don’t fight a few international wars, we may not be able to straighten our backs." Sun Jingren nodded in agreement and said, "It seems that this is the case! When we first arrived at the US Naval Base, you didn’t see what those Americans looked at us. We looked at monkeys. We cut our braids. If we didn’t cut our braids, it would be like we were monsters."

Liu Buchan sighed and said, "This reminds me of when I was studying in the UK, I was really regarded as a monster."

Sun Jingren suddenly asked, "Sir, you said that Junzuo asked us to cut all the braids this time, what should we do this country? Isn't this against the court?" Liu Buchan smiled and said, "Stay your head without leaving, and don't leave your head without leaving. After a few years, we should change it. However, we don't have to worry about those things."

Sun Jingren wanted to ask a few more questions, but Liu Buchan interrupted him and said, "Transfer the order, bombard the shelling for ten minutes!"

Sun Jingren quickly said yes, and took the order and turned around to make arrangements.

"Ten minutes of shelling preparation!"

"Ten minutes of shelling preparation!"

The orders were issued step by step, and the main gun, secondary gun and rapid-fire gun of the Dengyun battleship were quickly loaded.

"The target position is 295, the distance is 6,000 meters, the shooting height is 40 meters, and our ship's speed is 14 knots."

The two double-equipped 305 mm 40 times extended main gun turrets at the bow and stern turned abruptly, and the muzzle was aimed at the Morro Fortress in the distance.

"The target position is 295, the distance is 6,000 meters, the shooting height is 40 meters, and our ship's speed is the old festival."

While repeating the target parameters from the reconnaissance room, the gun ginseng of each level quickly freezes on paper to calculate the shooting elements, and use tools such as compass angle rulers to predict the ballistic advance amount during the shooting, then calculates the data and hand it over to the gun barrel, and the gun barrel quickly adjusts the shooting elements.

All work must be completed within one to two minutes. The main gun takes longer, followed by the secondary gun, and the rapid-fire gun is the fastest.

“It’s ready!”

"Prepare...fire!"

"Dongdongdongdongdong!" The two double-mounted twelve-inch main guns in front and behind the Dengyun battleship roared at the same time, spewing dazzling flames. When the huge shells weighing nine pounds burst out of the cannon chamber instantly, the entire battleship trembled suddenly. As the roll cycle reached the critical point, it shook suddenly to the other side. The high-pressure air waves sprayed from the main gun formed two huge water circles on the sea surface on one side of the entire battleship's shelling, pressing sea water into the depth of more than ten millimeters below the sea surface. This shows how powerful the huge power of the main gun of the battleship is.

Immediately afterwards, the Battleship of the Thuyun also opened fire, causing a row of natural smoke covers composed of flames and smoke to form on one side of the entire formation to shell. As the warship moved quickly, the secondary cannons that flashed through the smoke screen area were not to be outdone and joined the shelling.

"Dongdongdongdongdongdong!"

The shells fired by the main gun had not yet reached the Japanese mark, and the 152mm secondary gun on the side of the second ship had already opened fire, and the shells that were out of the barrel were roaring and chasing them.

A few seconds later, the enemy fortresses in the distance were hit one after another. A cluster of red and black mushroom clouds suddenly rose up when they were hit by shells. Then a huge explosion rumbling and filled the entire sky.

Although they are far apart, the officers and soldiers on the ship seem to be able to hear the cheers on the enemy's fortress, which form a unique symphony of war.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

The shell exploded, and in an instant it was like a mountain shaking distance. No matter where it landed, it would immediately become a cemetery of death near it. In an instant, dust was flying, gravel was splashing, and flesh and blood were flying. The violent air waves stormed the nearby Spanish soldiers, and they might just fall into the fortress. When the city walls of more than 40 meters high fell, they immediately turned into meat pies.

The blank after the main gun was fired was also filled with the subsequent secondary gun, forming a firepower net that could not escape.

Rounds of artillery shells roared, and the strong fortress walls were suddenly covered with bullet marks.

The Spanish fortress defenders immediately fired back, but because their large-caliber fortress cannons were basically front-loaded guns half a century ago, with slow firing speed and short diameters not far away. Even if they could barely hit the opponent's warship, the shells lost their kinetic energy and penetrated. In front of the powerful Dengyun-class, Lian Po was already old.

With the powerful firepower of the two Dengyun-class battleships, there is no problem suppressing the firepower of the Moro Fortress, so Liu Buchan was not in a hurry. When he waited for the expeditionary force to arrive at the rear of San Juan, he attacked the front and back and took action together.

After more than a week of artillery attacks, the Spanish fortress defenders had become a little nervous. In their eyes, this was the first time they saw a battleship and the first time they had experienced the powerful firepower of the battleship. Before Liu Buchan had started attacking, many Spanish defenders were already scared and lost.

It has to be said that the two Dengyun-class battleships have put huge psychological pressure on the Spanish defenders, which will quickly turn into fear as the general attack begins.

On January 4, the Chinese Expeditionary Force, which crossed the Carolina River, quickly advanced towards San Juan.

At the same time, more than 12,000 Spanish Autonomous Army also advanced towards Carolina. The proud commander of the Spanish Army Major General Carolina believed that the Qing Empire's army was vulnerable, so he did not go to disturb the landing of the Expeditionary Force, but waited directly until the Expeditionary Force crossed the Carolina River before he began to take action.

According to Carold's plan... he was preparing to destroy the Chinese Expeditionary Force on the north bank of the Carolina River in one fell swoop and drive all the Expeditionary Forces down the river and eliminate them.

His tactics seemed to be based on a battle against the enemy, but he had never thought about the gap in strength between the two sides, nor did he know what the actual strength of the Chinese Expeditionary Force was, how many cannons, and how many heavy machine guns were, which he knew nothing about.

On the morning of January 5, the two sides met in the plains west of Baya Méng, so the two sides stopped moving forward and began to deploy combat.

Obviously, Carold's purpose is to prepare for a decisive battle with Feng Guozhang and make a decisive battle.

At this time, the Spanish army's ideas were still in the era of linear tactics. The Qing and Russian War did not give any hints to the Spanish Empire, let alone the autonomous army of the Spanish colony. They still used the ancient linear platoon tactics.

Feng Guozhang and the soldiers of the Expeditionary Army had combat experience in the Aihui War. Seeing that the Spanish army adopted outdated linear tactics, they immediately felt relieved.

The Independent Division of the Expeditionary Force was under the command of three brigades. Feng Guozhang placed the first brigade on the front, the second brigade on the left wing, and the third brigade on the right wing. Governor Duan Qirui strengthened the artillery regiment to press the formation behind the 1st brigade, and the heavy machine guns of the 2nd and 3rd brigades were strengthened to the 1st brigade, so that the 1st brigade had 120 ting heavy machine guns. The Cavalry Regiment of the Volunteer Army divided the two cavalry battalions of the Second Brigade as the main attack. A cavalry battalion of the Third Brigade was assigned to the Third Brigade as the restraining force.

Governor Feng Guozhang planned to contain the main force of the Spanish army in the front, and then conquer the left and right wings in order to achieve the goal of completely annihilation of the main force of the Spanish army.
Chapter completed!