Chapter 541 California Mobilization

United States, Grande River Camp.

Because the Mexicans in New Mexico (Colorado) were unable to resist, the U.S. military established a stronghold on the Colorado River and could use the river to transport troops and supplies.

This allowed Lieutenant General Stephen Kearney's troops to be quickly replenished, and the United States also demonstrated for the first time the terror mobilization ability of an emerging power.

Stephen Kearney asked John Tyler for 50,000 reinforcements, and the latter directly sent 80,000 people, as well as heavy artillery necessary for sieges and supplies for the army.

In fact, since the Austrian army did not burn the agricultural area of ​​San Pascual when retreating, the U.S. military could completely be self-sufficient with local materials.

It's just that Fort San Gabriel is much more difficult to conquer than he imagined. Although the main body of the fort is a salient fort built by the Spanish in the 16th century, after the Austrian side's transformation, its tolerance to artillery fire has been greatly increased.

In fact, Archduke Karl Ferdinand piled up a slope of earth outside the salient fort, plus a trench. But don't underestimate this layer of "soil", it can greatly alleviate the impact of artillery fire.

Because Austria lacks heavy artillery in California, the Austrian side did not gain much advantage in the artillery battle between the two sides.

However, due to the existence of the anti-artillery slope, the heavy artillery of the US military did not play much advantage.

There are pros and cons. The anti-artillery capability of the salient bastion after Austria's transformation has been greatly enhanced, but due to these temporarily raised earth slopes, the height of the city wall has also been reduced.

The difficulty of infantry assault has been greatly reduced, but this has also greatly increased the bloodiness of this war.

In the initial battle, the US recruits rushed up the gentle slope fearlessly with courage, and then jumped into the trench. At this time, these people found that the original low city wall had "grown taller" in an instant.

The wall of the bastion is actually low in the distance and high in the near, because many people pay more attention to the slope in front, and do not notice the trench behind.

So the first batch of attacking US troops fell into this simple trap like dumplings, and the Austrians, as the defenders, only needed to shoot from the shooting hole to solve the problem comfortably.

In fact, the Americans have never fought any serious siege battles since the Revolutionary War, let alone attacking a fortress that has been painstakingly built by defense experts.

(In fact, Archduke Karl's family are all experts in defense warfare, but Albrecht and Friedrich are better at attacking.)

During the American Revolutionary War, most battles were fought by the French, and the Americans usually relied more on guerrilla warfare.

At this time, Fort San Gabriel was like a natural moat blocking the US military. No matter how many people Stephen Kearny sent, they could only return empty-handed.

In fact, he was wrong, because Fort San Gabriel was built on the mountain, and the area for troops to deploy was very limited.

So no matter how many people Stephen Kearny sent to attack the fortress, only one or two thousand people could directly fight with the defenders.

The reason why Archduke Karl Ferdinand abandoned San Pascual was because of this reason. On the other hand, the narrow terrain of Fort San Gabriel was not conducive to the deployment of large troops.

At the same time, it can also slow down the opponent's advancement speed, and this period of time can be used to solve the "future troubles" that may arise.

This situation is what Americans are most reluctant to see, because this war of attrition may last for several months or even half a year, until one side can no longer bear the casualties.

And John Tyler's order is to end the war within three months, otherwise it will impose a huge burden on the United States.

But the reality is that after the night attack, the morale of his soldiers fell to the bottom, and the recruits did not have enough understanding of the war, and every attack would suffer heavy casualties.

In fact, that was just Stephen Carney's perspective, because as long as the cannons on the city wall sounded, the US offensive troops would roll and crawl back.

But in fact, since the US military did not take a line attack, but was in a scattered formation, the artillery bombardment did not cause many casualties.

Coupled with the low morale of the US military, except for the initial attack, almost no one would be stupid enough to jump into the trench to directly attack the Austrian city wall.

Although they attacked on the gentle slope many times, the accuracy of the smoothbore rifle is limited after all. Even if the hit rate is less than 50 meters, it is very touching, so the US soldiers did not lose many.

Anti-infantry rockets can effectively kill infantry at this distance. The problem is that the Austrian arsenal in California cannot produce this new type of rocket, and even cannot produce standard small iron beads. They can only put some nails and iron sheets in it.

Similarly, the number of shells is getting smaller and smaller, because the local industrial production capacity is seriously insufficient, and weapons production mostly relies on blacksmiths and gunsmiths.

This is actually Franz's intention to weaken the local resistance and make it dependent on Austrian industry. Therefore, weapons and equipment in California are mainly imported from Austria.

In normal times, Austria would use its colonies in Central America to transport supplies to California, but now with the blockade of the US Navy, Karl Ferdinand and John Sienna can only fend for themselves.

John Sienna is not a mediocre person. After receiving the news of Archduke Ferdinand's victory, he began to send people to persuade the US Navy on the California coastline to surrender.

As for logistics, John Sina has converted factories used to produce civilian products into temporary arsenals.

At the same time, a group of craftsmen were recruited from the prisoners of the US Army. Many of these people were gun-making and blacksmith apprentices before joining the army.

Although California is a wealthy area, his food reserves are enough for several years. However, for the sake of insurance, he began to artificially raise prices, which was actually to strengthen the control over the local area.

The price increase did not significantly affect the lives of local people and immigrants, and it could increase the supply of materials for the army and increase fiscal revenue, which was a great test of the ability of the administrator.

Fortunately, John Sina was such a person. He was very energetic and often had to give speeches in front of the people. At the same time, he had to handle a lot of official business and deal with local chiefs and opinion leaders at night.

Archduke Karl Ferdinand was very depressed. He was annoyed by the harassment of the US Navy, and there was no good way to deal with it.

At this time, the important cities in California were almost all on the coastline, but his troops were not enough to defend them all.

The army at that time was completely incomparable to the navy in terms of mobility, so even if it was exhausted, it could not do mobile defense.

San Francisco, City Hall, temporary supreme command during wartime.

Archduke Ferdinand sat at the table looking at the map with a frown on his face. John Fremont's fleet was almost everywhere. It seemed that the latter was very familiar with the defense arrangements in California. At this time, the most sensible approach seemed to be to give up some less important areas.

John Sina knew the former's concerns. California was a place full of gold. No matter where it was lost, it would be a major loss for the Austrian Empire. So he suggested.

"Archduke, you don't have to worry about this. I have sent people to negotiate, and I believe there will be results soon. Their marines are finished, and there will be no results if they continue to fight.

But as long as they surrender to us, they will have money that they can spend for a lifetime."

Archduke Ferdinand shook his head.

"If it really worked, they should have surrendered long ago. It has been almost a month, and the attacks are still going on. Although there has not been much damage, my soldiers are almost exhausted.

The most important thing now is to ensure the safety of Fort San Gabriel."

"But that was Archduke Franz's suggestion. We should trust the Archduke's judgment." John Sina insisted.

"He is just a child. Are you guys pinning your hopes on a child who has to follow two nannies wherever he goes?"

Archduke Karl Ferdinand did not have a good impression of Franz. In his eyes, this guy who has nannies everywhere seems too weak.

John Sina was speechless for a moment, but he thought of another point in Archduke Franz's letter.

"Then you can recruit more troops. Don't those Mexicans, Indians, and Californians want to join our army?

Why not put them in the area you want to give up."

In fact, Franz still hopes to create a historical memory of common struggle for California, a region with many immigrants. After all, this is more conducive to national integration.

"No!" Archduke Ferdinand answered firmly, "The loyalty of these people cannot be guaranteed. If they rebel, wouldn't that help the Americans?"

"Wouldn't it be better if they rebel? Then we would save the time of screening traitors, and as long as these people reach the land, you and your army can annihilate them, right?"