Chapter 463: Special Military Operations

The investigation team left Tijuana and returned to San Diego with the so-called evidence. Lan

Krueger was overjoyed and hurriedly sent a telegram to Liang Yao in San Antonio, reporting on the evidence obtained by the investigation team in Tijuana, as well as the demands of local American expatriates, and requesting Liang Yao's next instructions.

Soon, Kruger received the news from Liang Yao: launch a full-scale attack on Mexico and occupy Tijuana within one day.

The infantry of the Western Brigade, which had been prepared for a long time, quickly launched an attack on the city of San Diego under the cover of artillery.

The Mexican army stationed in San Diego had no intention of resisting tenaciously.

As soon as the cannon fired, Tijuana's defenders either surrendered or fled, and the battle went surprisingly smoothly.

The only resistance the Western Brigade encountered in Tijuana was from Tijuana's mayor, Hernandez.

Hernandez is the only bloody Mexican in Tijuana. He organized more than a hundred Mexican hot-blooded militiamen to defend the government building in the city center. Lan

In front of the fully-organized Western Brigade, the resistance of more than a hundred people was nothing more than a mantis' arm acting as a chariot.

Facing the solid municipal building, Kruger did not choose to attack by force. Instead, he brought in heavy artillery and directly flattened the municipal building.

Under the bombardment of Sacramento's heavy artillery, Hernandez's internal organs were shattered before he could direct the militiamen to fire a few shots, and he finally died in this small municipal building.

Have any of the remaining militiamen seen this formation? Facing the Western Brigade's absolute firepower advantage, these militiamen could only raise the white flag and walk out of the municipal building to surrender to the Western Brigade.

The resistance of Tijuana Mayor Hernandez was the only resistance the Western Brigade encountered during its attack on Tijuana.

After the remaining Mexican militiamen surrendered, the Western Brigade raised the American Stars and Stripes and the California Bear Flag in downtown Tijuana.

The largest city in Baja California announced its change of ownership in a very simple and relaxed way. Lan

After the flag and state flag were raised, Kruger glanced at the time on the bell tower.

It took them only one hour and twenty minutes from the beginning of the offensive to the capture of Tijuana.

After successfully occupying Tijuana, Kruger immediately sent a telegram to Liang Yao to report the fighting situation here.

Tijuana has a high proportion of American expatriates. In this city with a population of 30,000, 12,000 are American expatriates.

In addition, the Western Brigade's military discipline was very good. After occupying Tijuana, they did not commit any crimes against American expatriates or Mexican residents, so they did not encounter resistance from the local residents.

Kruger also quickly stabilized the newly captured city.

As for the more than 800 Mexican surrendered soldiers and militiamen captured, these people certainly cannot let them stay in Tijuana. Lan

After discussing with Deng Wenshun, Kruger decided to send these prisoners to the California Railroad Company to repair the railway.

After doing this, Kruger came up with a rigorous combat plan based on Liang Yao's instructions.

He sent a battalion of the Arizona Infantry to attack another small Mexican border town: Mexicali.

At the same time, he personally led the main force of the Western Brigade, the San Francisco Militia and the Los Angeles Militia by boat to Mazatlan, and began to open up the communication line between the two states.

As for the task of garrisoning Tijuana, it was handed over to Sutter's Sacramento militia.

After Kruger occupied Tijuana, Liang Yao, who was far away in San Antonio, Texas, learned the news immediately.

The Western Brigade performed very well, and Liang Yao gave Kruger the deadline to win Tijuana within one day. Lan

In fact, it would be acceptable even if it took Kruger two or three days to win Tijuana Liang Yao.

After all, the Mexican garrison in Tijuana is quite large, with one and a half regiments of regular troops and a militia group.

Unexpectedly, the battle in Tijuana went so smoothly. The Western Brigade took only one hour and twenty minutes to capture this important Mexican border town.

The deal is done, and now it is no longer up to Congress to declare war or not.

Liang Yao called Jackson to the telegraph room and showed Jackson the telegram from the Western Front.

"The Western Brigade took Tijuana so quickly?"

Jackson was alarmed by the speed of the Western Brigade's progress. Lan

At the same time, he also realized that if the Southern Army did not take action on the eastern front, with the speed of the Western Brigade's advance, the first post-war victory would fall to the Western Brigade.

It is shameful to think that the results achieved by the Confederate Army of more than 10,000 men were not as good as the results achieved by one brigade of the Western Brigade.

Is it embarrassing? The most important thing is who contributed more in the war. They will have a greater say in the distribution of benefits after the war.

This is also the reason and motivation for the South to send troops to fight.

If Jackson still hesitates now, he will have no answer for the entire South.

"Now that Mexico is not fully prepared, we can catch Mexico by surprise." Liang Yao encouraged.

"General Jackson, this opportunity must not be missed before it comes again. Once the Mexican army is organized, it will be difficult to achieve similar results, and our army's casualties will also double."

Without much hesitation, one day after the Western Brigade captured Tijuana on the Western Front.

General Jackson, the commander-in-chief of the Eastern Front, also used the Mexican authorities' persecution of American expatriates as an excuse to announce that he would launch a special military operation against Spain to protect the rights of American expatriates in Mexico.

When the news reached Washington, even the Washington authorities and congressmen in Washington were confused.

It is not the first time that war has broken out between the United States and Mexico, but this is the first time that such an undeclared war has occurred.

Members of Congress in Washington were also helpless at this time. The outbreak of war had become an established fact. Although some northern congressmen did not want to go to war with Mexico, they had to vote in favor of the bill on whether to declare war on Mexico.

Of course, the most confused were the Mexican authorities.

The delay of the United States in declaring war made the Mexican authorities misjudge the situation.

The Mexican authorities originally thought that the United States’ deployment of troops on the border was just a diplomatic intimidation against them, and that the United States would not violate international conventions and declare war on Mexico without declaring war.

Facts have proved that they still underestimated the shamelessness of the Americans.

After the US military launched the attack, the Mexican authorities were instantly caught in a panic.

Not only did Mexico not start mobilization, they did not even complete the assembly of the army.

Mexican President Santa Anna found the British, French and Spanish ambassadors to Mexico overnight.

Santa Anna denounced the shameless behavior of the US military to the British, French and Spanish ambassadors, hoping that the three countries could mediate and put pressure on the US authorities.

The attitudes of the ambassadors of Britain, France and Spain are also very intriguing.

The British ambassador, considering his country's interests in Mexico and even the entire America, naturally does not want the United States to seize more territory from Mexico. After all, the territory of the United States is already large enough, and they do not want another big country like Tsarist Russia to appear in America.

It's just that the war in the Near East has not yet ended, and the coalition forces and Tsarist Russia are conducting key negotiations.

At this time, withdrawing troops from the Near East to interfere in the affairs of the Americas will undoubtedly reduce the bargaining chips of the British side at the negotiating table.

Britain needs to maintain sufficient troops in the Near East to deter Tsarist Russia and force Tsarist Russia to accept the armistice conditions of the coalition forces as soon as possible.

The French ambassador did not express his position considering the friendly relations between the French Empire and the United States of America, especially the friendly relations between the French Empire and California.

After all, California still supplies some of the French army's arms on the Near East front. It is unwise to express his position at this time and it is not in the interests of France.

Spain's attitude is more positive. The expansion of the United States over the past half century is obvious to all.

Spain was worried that if America's expansion momentum was not effectively curbed, America would extend its hand to Cuba and other few remaining Spanish colonies.

However, Spain was already on the decline and its national strength was no longer what it used to be.

Spain no longer had the ability to independently send troops to interfere in American affairs.

Spain was just instigating Britain and France to send troops to deter America.

However, Britain and France were not fools. The ambassadors of the two countries put their own interests first and did not take the words of the Spaniards seriously.