America 1881: Legend of the West

Sergio Gonzalez, official lieutenant, a very ordinary Spanish officer.

He has more than a hundred men stationed in the town of Songa.

It is located between two major strongholds in the south, Santiago and Guantánamo.

The lieutenant's fort was close to the town.

He was very confident in his fortifications, and the stone walls were extremely strong.

Two brand-new heavy machine guns were mounted on it.

These days, it's not easy to get a heavy machine gun, but getting two of them and the corresponding bullets has something to do with your superiors.

These were more than enough to deal with the ragged Cuban rebels.

The supplies in the fortification are also sufficient, enough for his one hundred people to use for a long time.

Although Cuba has become shockingly poor after experiencing famine and war, the Spaniards are capable of scraping a piece of flesh off a mosquito's leg.

There are many such fortifications between San Diego and Guantanamo, and they will be built in basically larger towns.

The purpose of the existence of such a fortress is mainly to prevent one of Santiago and Guantanamo from falling. The enemy will not immediately rush to the other side unimpeded and form a siege on the city.

Although the Cuban rebels, especially the Chinese troops, have occupied most of the countryside, there is still no good way to capture towns and such fortresses.

They don't have enough weapons to break through the city wall. If they attack by force, many people will die.

This is not in line with the strategic guidelines Chen Jianqiu set for them.

Gonzalez, besides watching wild dogs baring their teeth in the fields outside the fort every day, would go back to where he lived to paint.

This is his only way to relieve his homesickness.

He's been posted here for almost three years.

Since the second independence movement in Cuba in 1895, the lieutenant has been sent here.

His hands were stained with a lot of Cuban blood.

At first, Gonzalez felt that his Governor's methods were a bit cruel, but he soon got used to it.

He prefers to use red in his paintings.

At this time, the lieutenant, as usual, set up an easel on the city wall and began to copy the scenery in the distance.

Cuba is a small island country, but it brings together a variety of scenery, including swamps, rainforests, mountains, and savannahs.

It's beautiful, but it's not the same as the Iberian Peninsula.

The lieutenant held the palette in one hand and a paintbrush in the other, daubing on the canvas while listening to the soldiers report the latest news.

"Sir, our government has declared war on the Americans," the soldier said.

"Did we announce it first?" The lieutenant paused with the brush in his hand, "When?"

"Four days ago," the soldier replied, "the U.S. government passed the Taylor Act, unilaterally declared Cuba's independence and required us to withdraw from Cuba, so the government decided to declare war on the United States."

"Americans are really interesting. They like to force others to declare war first." The lieutenant snorted.

The brush in his hand began to move on.

Ever since the sinking of the Maine, the lieutenant knew that there would be a war between the United States and Spain, sooner or later.

He now somewhat admired his foresight in storing enough supplies, including water and food, in the fortress.

If those Americans dare to come, they will definitely be dealt with severely.

"Any other news?" Lieutenant Gonzalez continued to ask.

"There is another thing. Our investigators found some new Chinese troops nearby. Their dress is different from the previous rebels, and their uniforms are all uniform." The soldier continued to report.

"New Chinese troops? Are you sure it's not those damn guerrillas who got new clothes?"

The lieutenant said while still staring at his painting.

The soldiers dared not say a word.

They didn't know where these Chinese soldiers came from.

The reconnaissance team did not dare to get too close and could only take a rough look.

"After changing their skins, these people are still guerrillas, and they still can't do anything to us." Lieutenant Gonzalez straightened up.

"You all should pay attention to me. If they dare to attack, I will let their corpses litter the land!"

He straightened up, dipped a little red paint into his pen, and smeared it on his canvas.

The next day and the third day, the lieutenant still climbed up the city wall to complete his painting.

This was not because he was arrogant, but because the Chinese soldiers he was talking about did not appear in his field of vision.

Outside Songe's fortress is not a flat plain, but a stretch of rolling hills.

It was overgrown with weeds and wild dogs roamed freely.

"Have those mud-legged soldiers withdrawn?" the lieutenant asked the soldier behind him.

"No, there seem to be more and more people, just behind those trees." The soldier pointed to a dense jungle not far away.

"Did they take no action at all?" Lieutenant Gonzalez touched his chin.

Some people have a characteristic called crow's mouth.

The Lieutenant seems to fall into this category.

As soon as he finished speaking, a dark crowd of people suddenly poured out of the jungle.

These people were traveling very fast and pressed towards the city wall.

"The enemy is attacking! Get to your positions! Get closer and then attack!"

The lieutenant gave the order calmly.

In his opinion, although there were a lot of mud legs in front of him, they definitely did not pose a threat to the fortress under his feet.

He planned to wait until these people were close to a distance of about 500 meters, and then use the range advantage of the Mauser rifle in his hand to kill them.

But these troops pressing forward suddenly stopped at a distance of about 800 meters.

The lieutenant couldn't see what they were doing with his naked eyes, so he raised his binoculars.

Most of the people opposite are indeed Chinese, and they are also wearing uniforms.

However, their formation was scattered, two or three in a pile.

These soldiers raised their guns casually and fired in their own direction.

The gunfire was uneven and scattered.

The lieutenant hid behind a bunker.

He could hear the bullets whizzing by, but they were far away.

Most of the bullets hit the wall or flew somewhere.

The lieutenant scoffed.

Sure enough, they are a bunch of rabble.

"Fight back! Fight back!" He ordered the soldiers behind him.

"But our effective range is not as far as theirs." The soldier muttered.

"Then bring our two heavy machine guns over here. I want these mud-legged people to understand what the shock of the new era is!"

Lieutenant Gonzales gave the order.

But when his men were busy carrying the machine gun and setting it up, the Chinese infantry on the opposite side had already withdrawn.

The Spaniards counted them and found that three were hit by stray bullets, and two were not seriously injured, with superficial wounds.

Only one unlucky guy was in a worse situation. He was hit in the chest and was carried back to lie down.

"Sir, are they testing fire?" The soldier looked at the empty front line in front of him, full of suspicion.

"They are all a bunch of cowards, they don't even have the courage to move forward." The lieutenant dismissed them, turned around and walked towards the steps of the city wall.

In the open space behind the jungle in the distance, Chen Jianqiu had led the soldiers back to the camp.

"Boss, can we just shoot and be done?" Li Sifu asked without knowing why.

"Well, today's task is completed, we will continue tomorrow." Chen Jianqiu said nonchalantly as he walked towards the camp.

"Oh." Li Sifu nodded in agreement.

Although he didn't understand the boss's purpose, he understood one thing after following Chen Jianqiu for so many years.

Just listen to the boss and that's it.

In the next few days, Li Sifu would take people outside Songe to shoot guns for a while, but basically at a relatively safe distance.

Lieutenant Gonzalez initially went up to the city wall to take a look, but later he simply refused to leave.

"If you want to fight back, fight back," the lieutenant said to his soldiers.

However, he didn't know that the real danger was coming from behind him.