I Became The Crown Prince Of The Mexican Empire - Chapter 131



Only Noblemtl

Mexican-American War (4)

Kwaang!

Another ship capsized.

The waves crashed hard, foaming around the capsized ship. The sea seemed angry, showing off its power to the fleet.

“We must fall back! The damage to the Idaeroun fleet is too great!”

A contact ship sent by the captains of the monitor ships swarmed the flagship carrying Admiral David Connor.

“Never back down! The moment you back down, defeat is certain! Respond with a barrage of fire!”

As the admiral’s orders were delivered, the tense air aboard the flagship instantly grew heavier.

Admiral David Connor could not accept that what he had thought was going according to plan was being destroyed by a single ironclad attack.

‘Those little bastards who grew up ignorantly but with big bodies…’

Admiral David Connor’s eyes were filled with discontent and contempt. Deep down, he knew that this battle was not a simple contest of strength, but a battle of experience and strategy.

Although the Mexican Navy had poured money into building a huge fleet, it was woefully lacking in experience.

As expected, despite that huge force, they fell victim to the US military’s operation. At that moment, when they felt the joy of catching a big fish, the enemy commander showed his wit and turned everything around.

The withdrawal of the Monitor was tantamount to final defeat, and defeat in this battle meant that New Orleans, the representative metropolis of the South, would be caught up in the flames of war, and furthermore, it would almost certainly result in the loss of waterway access on the Mississippi River.

‘If you give me the Mississippi River…’

Admiral David Connor, having thought about it that far, shook off his thoughts.

“Tell everyone, never back down.”

The mass-produced monitor ships produced by the United States were focused solely on damaging enemy ironclad ships, thus reducing construction costs.

Of course, it was incomparably inferior to the Mexican monitor ships, but it was an inevitable choice for the U.S. Navy, which had to fend off the enemy within a limited budget.

‘You can give up monitoring, but you can’t give up fighting.’

But the course of the battle did not go as Admiral David Connor had hoped.

“Fire on signal!”

“firing!”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Tutter tutter!

Five or six monitor ships simultaneously struck the Cuauhtémoc in time with the signal, but the ship was only slightly pushed back by the impact and continued to move, flipping over a nearby monitor ship.

That wasn’t all.

“Main gun, aim for the nearest monitor ship!”

“yes!”

Boom!

The main guns of the Cuauhtémoc opened fire.

A shell fired from hundreds of meters away had different destructive power than one fired from less than 30 meters away.

Boom!

“Penetration! Penetration···”

Phew!

The monitor ship, which had been unfortunately hit by an ammunition depot, exploded.

When fired from a distance, the monitor ship would sway violently but not flip over, but when hit by close range fire, it could not withstand the impact and began to be penetrated or flipped over.

As the supporting fire from the US Navy monitor ships ceased, the situation on the fortress side also deteriorated rapidly.

“Armored frigates, approach the enemy fortifications and strike!”

The Vice Admiral, who was commanding the fleet in place of Admiral Castillo, who had departed east to intercept the American monitor ships, gave the order.

They succeeded in suppressing most of the large-caliber coastal guns. While the ironclads and monitor ships fired their main guns, the armored frigates that had been watching from the center approached the fortress.

“Accelerate sequential firing!”

“yes!”

Kwakwakwakwakwang!

Kwakwakwakwakwang!

Although relatively small-caliber, the firepower created by sequentially firing 42 cannons was overwhelming in a way different from the main guns of ironclads and monitor ships.

Dozens of shells swept across a wide area of ​​ground in an instant, turning many soldiers into blood clots.

It showed a killing power on a different level from the main gun, which was powerful but took a long time to reload and had a small number of cannons.

Kwakwakwakwakwang!

No matter how great the fortress was, it could not endure to the end once it had lost its means of fighting back.

“Retreat! Retreat! Fall back and regroup!”

In effect, it was giving up the fortress. The fortress was important, but the lives of the soldiers were also important.

“Survivors, prepare to move to New Orleans with equipment and wounded people!”

As Port St. Philip in the north, which had suffered relatively heavy damage, came out like that, Port Jackson in the south also issued the same order.

“There is no point in holding out now that the naval support fire has almost stopped! We must also retreat and preserve our forces.”

“Okay. Let’s recover as many supplies as possible and then retreat.”

Port St. Philip to the north had already decided to retreat. It was Port Jackson that decided on a quick withdrawal without hesitation.

“It’s over.”

Even Admiral David Connor, who had been stubborn to the end, had no choice but to admit defeat when he saw his soldiers leaving the fort.

“Let us retreat too.”

The adjutant, who had been waiting for the admiral to speak, immediately shouted loudly.

“Retreat! We must preserve the fleet as much as possible!”

Cuauhtémoc and the Mexican fleet also did not pursue the retreating American fleet.

The fleet had also suffered considerable damage, and there was no time to pursue them. Their destination was not the sea, but up the Mississippi River.

“It’s a victory!”

“Wow!”

When the battle formation was declared over, the soldiers cheered, but Admiral Castillo had mixed feelings.

‘Even with overwhelming power, we almost suffered enormous damage.’

Fortunately, they found a breakthrough in the middle, but if they had continued with their original tactic of suppressing the enemy with overwhelming fleet power, they would have experienced a Pyrrhic victory.

“This battle was almost dangerous.”

The junior who had come up to the flagship for a while also spoke. As a vice admiral, he only brought up the words he had been holding back when the meeting was over and it was an informal setting.

Admiral Castillo stared out at the calm sea for a moment. The marks of the battle seemed to slowly melt into the deep blue of the sea.

“Yes. It was dangerous. It wasn’t our fault that Mexico is now considered a naval power, but I became arrogant without realizing it.”

Admiral Castillo readily admitted.

“Well, I’m the same way. But I realized it halfway through and things worked out well, didn’t I?”

“That’s fortunate, but we must not forget the lesson we learned this time.”

The two were among the most senior members of the Mexican Navy, having joined the Navy at a time when the country had no warships after independence.

I knew very well that the reason the Mexican Navy was called the second best in the world was not because of the long training and experience it had gained from other countries. It was all due to the massive investment of the imperial government.

Admiral Castillo took the lesson he had learned this time to heart.

***

“What on earth is the justification for interfering in a war that is none of our business!”

“That’s right! War is nonsense. Isn’t there a non-aggression pact?”

Arthur Wellesley’s desperate plea was recently blocked by the rising tide of Liberal MPs.

Mexico, which had recently grown rapidly, was as important a trading partner to Britain as the United States, and the British people had a perception that Mexico was a friendly country to Britain, so there was no way that a sudden argument to join the war on the side of the United States would be accepted.

The grounds for its impossibility were clear from the beginning.

non-aggression pact.

Although it was a treaty with a ten-year term, it was a treaty that was renewable unless either side expressed its intention to refuse extension.

The British Empire and the Mexican Empire first concluded a non-aggression treaty in the winter of 1828, and did not express any intention of extending it in 1838, meaning that the non-aggression treaty would last until 1848.

As public sentiment was not good, the young Conservative Party members also worked hard to persuade Arthur Wellesley, the party leader and senior member.

“I agree that Jeronimo Iturbide is dangerous. But isn’t this war itself a boon for us, Britain?”

“That’s right. This war is not something that will end easily. The United States has the upper hand in population and economic power, while Mexico has the upper hand in military power. We just have to watch the two countries fight fiercely and continue to ‘manage the world.’”

The United States has the upper hand in population and economic power, while Mexico has the upper hand in military power. However, the vast territory and physical strength of the United States cannot be easily conquered by a strong military. Didn’t Britain also experience the tenacity and physical strength of the United States in the past?

Whichever side wins, both countries will end up making enormous sacrifices. That was the common ‘opinion’ of British politicians and intellectuals.

Even fellow Conservative MPs were persuaded to do so, and Arthur Wellesley could not continue to insist on his hard-line stance of going into the war on the American side.

The streets of London that Wellesley saw through his window were calm, but inside his heart was like a stormy sea.

“···Good. For now, let’s give up on participating in the war. However, if this war ends too unilaterally and too quickly, it won’t be in the interests of our British Empire. Do you agree with this?”

The young Conservative MPs nodded.

“Yes, because the two countries must maintain a balance so that they can check each other.”

“How about watching the course of the war closely and helping if one side becomes disadvantaged too quickly? If the non-aggression pact is the problem, there are many ways to help even without directly participating in the war.”

It was a suggestion that could be made because I thought that a war between the two countries could never be escalated.

“I agree. We will have to wait and see when the time comes, but I think the Liberal Party will accept those conditions.”

It was a much more reasonable argument than before, and there was an awareness within the Conservative Party of the dangers posed by Mexico, so the proposal was agreed to.

It was the moment when the groundwork was laid for Wellesley to intervene in the war in any way possible.

***

The armies of the two countries were marching side by side along the river.

“Haha, this is a bit of a funny situation.”

“In many ways, it will go down in the annals of world warfare. Not only was it the first to declare war, the first to be attacked, and to occupy an area of ​​over 300 kilometers, but now the two armies are advancing tens of kilometers south, side by side, along the river.”

It’s a little funny, but it was all according to the operational plan. There was no need to force yourself to cross the Mississippi River and fight when the US military was waiting for you to come in.

The Mississippi River is not an easy river, but a river almost a kilometer wide. If the garrison was small, they planned to just rush in, but the enemy had sent all the troops they had available, so the troops guarding it were too burdensome to just cross.

After confirming the presence of the enemy, Vice Admiral Antonio began to move south along the river for a day’s rest and joint operations with the Navy.

The target is New Orleans, a major city in the South.

As I was walking south, I saw someone riding a horse coming from afar.

“You’re a messenger.”

“I hope I bring you good news.”

A messenger brought news that the Mexican Navy had broken through the first line of defense leading to New Orleans.

“It’s faster than I thought. Tell them that I’ll arrive by February 17th, even if it’s a bit difficult.”

“yes!”

As the Mexican army picked up speed to match the operational schedule with the Navy, American forces across the river followed suit.

I don’t know what happened, but I couldn’t fall behind.

February 16, 1846.

In the distance, the great southern city of New Orleans could be seen.