Chapter 469: Western Offensive

Fillmore did not immediately make a decision on Jackson's appointment or dismissal, which, to some extent, had already shown his attitude.

That is, he did not want to replace the supreme commander of the front during the war. He called Liang Yao for advice under pressure from the War Department.

To be honest, Liang Yao really wanted the command of the Southern Army.

However, with the warlord style of the various units of the Southern Army, Liang Yao did not think that he would do better than Jackson after taking Jackson's position and be able to command tens of thousands of Southern troops.

If he rashly took the position of the commander-in-chief of the Southern Army, it would only have a counterproductive effect.

After careful consideration and careful consideration of the telegram, Liang Yao finally replied to Fillmore that the responsibility for this defeat was not Jackson's. Jackson had made outstanding contributions in attacking Mexico, and he could not make a risky decision to replace the supreme commander based on a small defeat caused by the greed and recklessness of a few units.

Liang Yao defined the destruction of the Arkansas Regiment as a small defeat, and wanted to temporarily stabilize the people's hearts in the rear.

Expressing support for Jackson to continue to serve as the supreme commander of the Southern Army on the Eastern Front was a favor to Jackson.

With Liang Yao's reply, Fillmore barely shut up the War Department and let Jackson continue to sit on the front line.

A telegram can only temporarily shut up the War Department.

However, if they want to stabilize the rear and continue to support this war that is not justified, Liang Yao and Jackson must show their achievements to shut up the domestic anti-war activists.

The United States and California have always done a good job in infiltrating Mexico's intelligence, and even the Mexican telegraph companies are all American companies.

The telegraphs of this era did not have the concept of military codes, civilian codes, secret codes and clear codes.

The dissemination of military information was also quite rough, that is, it was sent directly in clear codes, and even the effort of decryption was saved.

According to the telegrams exchanged by the Mexican army these days and the intelligence collected by the spies, Liang Yao has mastered a lot of useful information. 瓮

He asked the staff of the Western Brigade to summarize all this information and create a very intuitive sand table.

The deployment of the Mexican regular army and the main logistics points were nakedly presented on the sand table.

"The Mexican regular army has 30,000 people. As long as we can weaken the Mexican regular army, we can weaken Mexico's war potential and achieve a quick victory." Liang Yao talked about the war on the sand table.

"However, the number of our regular troops is barely half of that of the Mexican army. In addition, the Arkansas regiment has just been defeated. It may not be so easy to easily defeat Mexico now."

Bell frowned.

The Arkansas regiment was completely wiped out, and the regiment commander was killed by an unknown Mexican junior, which caused a great psychological shadow on the Southern Army. Bell also put away the idea of ​​despising the Mexican army.

"Although the Mexican army has a large number of people, they are mainly concentrated in the eastern battlefield. There are only four regular army regiments on the western battlefield, and the troops are relatively scattered. There is no cavalry regiment and no professional artillery regiment . I think we can share the pressure for General Jackson on the eastern front." Liang Yao expressed his thoughts.

"Half of the four Mexican infantry regiments on the Western Front are deployed in Tepic, half in Puerto Vallarta, one in Colima, and the remaining two in Guadalajara.

Their forces are relatively scattered, so we can concentrate our forces to quickly eat up half of the regiment in Tepic and half of the regiment in Puerto Vallarta. Then surround Guadalajara."

Santa Anna only deployed four regiments on the Western Front and took a defensive position, concentrating the remaining main forces on the Eastern Front.

Its purpose is already very clear, it is nothing more than wanting to delay the Western Brigade on the Western Front, concentrate superior forces on the Eastern Front, and hope to defeat Jackson's Southern Army on the Eastern Front.

Then free up your hands to deal with Liang Yao's Western Brigade.

There is no problem with this tactic, provided that the four Mexican regiments can complete the task of delaying the Western Brigade.

"What about Colima's regiment?" Bell pointed to Colima on the sand table and asked. urn

"Colima's regiment will not participate in the battle." Liang Yao said.

The economic interests of Colima are deeply tied to California. The miners in the state are all members of the Coal and Steel Union. They have expressed to Liang Yao that as long as the Western Brigade does not attack Colima, the armed forces of Colima will remain neutral.

"Are you so sure that the Mexicans in Colima will not join the war?" Bell was reserved about this.

"Definitely." Liang Yao said very confidently.

"They dare not play tricks with me with their money. I can give them something that the Mexican government cannot give."

"It is better to be on guard. God knows what tricks these Mexicans are playing."

Seeing Liang Yao so confident, Bell did not say anything more but just reminded Liang Yao to be careful, and at the same time he expressed his position.

"The Texas Regiment is willing to cooperate with the Western Brigade to fight and formulate a battle plan. We urgently need a victory now, at least to open up the situation on the Western Front and share some pressure for Jackson."

After receiving Liang Yao's telegram, Stanford took the steamer of the Global Shipping Company and arrived at Salina Cruz, a Pacific port in southern Mexico.

The purpose of his visit was to visit his business partner Comes, a former Mexican general who was frustrated in the political struggle and unemployed at home.

After retiring from the brutal political struggle, Comes became cautious.

Mexico's great victory on the Eastern Front excited the whole country, and President Santa Ana's reputation also rose. This was not good news for Comes.

Comes knew that this business partner came to him at such a sensitive time, obviously not to discuss business matters.

Therefore, facing Stanford's visit, Comes chose to avoid it temporarily.

After being rejected, Stanford was not discouraged.

Stanford was a very patient person. He found a hotel in Salina Cruz to stay temporarily, waiting for the next opportunity to visit.

At the same time, Liang Yao made a battle plan.

According to the battle plan, the three main regiments of the Western Brigade, the Texas Regiment, as well as the cavalry battalion and the artillery battalion all participated in the battle.

The main force of nearly 5,000 people swept southward quickly like autumn wind sweeping fallen leaves.

The first to be conquered was the small town of Tepic.

The American troops attacking the city were very fierce, and the other side had no intention of leaving any chance for the Mexican defenders in the city to survive. In just one day, the US artillery unit fired thousands of shells into the city.

Bell had never fought such a rich war. Taking the opportunity of Liang Yao, the sucker, paying for the shells, he ordered the newly established artillery company of the Texas Regiment to fire at Tepic City as hard as he could to let the artillerymen practice.

The morale that the Mexicans had just built up was ruthlessly shattered by the fierce artillery fire.

The uninterrupted bombardment throughout the day made the defenders in the city panic, and this fragile little city was also tottering in the landslide-like bombardment.

It was already four o'clock in the afternoon when the bombardment ended. Half of the Mexican defenders in the city heard the artillery sound stopped and breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the US artillery had finally stopped and they could finally get some time to breathe and rest.

Some carefree Mexican soldiers even started to prepare dinner.

Just five minutes later, a large number of US soldiers rushed into the city like a tide.

The Mexican defenders, who were mentally broken and lacked heavy weapons, could not resist in time. Urn

An hour later, Tepic City fell.

Half of the city's garrison was captured or annihilated, and no one escaped.

When the U.S. troops on the western front were coming fiercely and attacking Tepic, the garrison of Puerto Vallarta hurriedly asked for help from nearby Colima and Guadalajara.

More than 30 consecutive telegrams were sent to Colima and Guadalajara.

The garrison of Colima remained unmoved, while Guadalajara asked them to defend Puerto Vallarta to the death and delay the U.S. troops as much as possible.

After taking Tepic, seeing that there was no reinforcement to the king's land, half of the Mexican garrison of Puerto Vallarta did not choose to resist to the end, but chose to abandon the city and flee to Guadalajara.

The U.S. military seemed to have predicted that the garrison of Puerto Vallarta would abandon Puerto Vallarta. Halfway through their hasty escape to Guadalajara, this half-regiment of Mexican troops encountered a battalion of U.S. cavalry.

In less than half a day, this half regiment of Mexican troops was completely wiped out, and Puerto Vallarta was declared a new owner.