I Became The Crown Prince Of The Mexican Empire - Chapter 136



Only Noblemtl

Mexican-American War (9)

The night of April 29, 1846.

A huge tent city spread out on the plains near Memphis.

The sheer number of tents visible everywhere indirectly revealed the size and supply level of the Mexican Imperial Army.

Isaac and Dequan were both tired of walking, but they felt a sense of uneasiness as they tried to sleep in front of the enemy.

‘We will win.’

Since His Highness the Crown Prince said so, it will definitely happen. I kept thinking that, and before I knew it, I fell asleep.

Morning of April 30th.

The music of the military band spread, and the morning of the imperial army began. The Mexican imperial army quickly began to pack up their tents and prepare for battle.

Isaac’s unit was moving east. Given the size of the army, they were expected to fight over a wide area.

“···Now I can’t even see the city?”

“You can’t just slam it in there.”

This time, it seemed that the United States had also prepared well. Many defensive structures, such as defensive walls and artillery batteries, were visible along the defensive line formed in a straight line to the south of the city.

The defenses right in front of the city, near the river, seemed to be the strongest, and the further east you went, the fewer defensive structures there were.

“The fleet is going to have a hard time.”

As soon as Isaac said that, the sound of battle starting was heard from the riverside.

Boom! Boom!

“···It just started.”

The imperial fleet was the first to initiate the battle.

***

The Mississippi River southwest of Memphis had a peculiar geography. It had a protruding feature called President’s Island, and the river flowed around it. This area was ideal for blocking enemy fleets, as the river narrowed.

Although this terrain is called an island, it is strictly speaking a peninsula because it is connected to the land. This is also a factor that makes defense more advantageous.

“You prepared well.”

“Yes, the fortress is heavily painted like some city building.”

Brick forts were lined up along the western bank of the river and along Presidents Island to the east. Admiral Castillo, seeing that each fort had a large number of cannons, gave up trying to enter.

“If we go into the middle of there, there won’t be any fleet left.”

These were cannons that could hit even ironclad ships. Ships other than ironclads wouldn’t last long.

If the cannons were fixed on the riverbank, the ironclads would take fire instead and other ships would provide support fire, but the cannons on top of the fortress could go beyond the ironclads and attack other ships.

“The Libertador will be the left front ship, and the Cuauhtémoc will be the right front ship! The rest will provide support fire from the rear with their main guns! We will slowly advance, destroying the fortress entrance!”

“yes!”

Boom! Boom!

It was the Mexican Empire’s fleet that began to cut through the defensive line, led by two ironclad ships.

“Tell the Army. The fleet’s support is going to be difficult.”

“yes!”

In this way, the most important weapon of the Mexican Empire was blocked.

***

“Forward!”

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Wedge-

“Eww!”

Isaac ran like crazy as American artillery fire rained down.

The Mexican Empire was the first to fire cannons.

It was a steel cannon ambitiously prepared by the Mexican Empire. This steel cannon had a much longer range than existing cannons, making a mockery of the efforts of the American army, who had painstakingly built a battery on the flat ground, but there were very few of them.

The extremely high unit price was also a problem because it was made of solid steel, and since steel was given priority for producing machine guns, not much was produced.

Although they were shot first, the American soldiers stood their ground without wavering, knowing that there were very few cannons with that range.

“There’s no cover!”

The area around Memphis was a plain. There were no hills or forests, not even rocks or trees, because everything had been cleared for farming.

“Spread out as much as possible!”

The Mexican Empire also anticipated this situation, so they extended their front line eastward and spread their troops out as much as possible.

If it were a normal rotation, the density of the battle line would be low, making it a perfect tactic for breaking through and surrounding the troops, but now, this side was clearly divided into the attackers and the other side was the defenders.

The defensive walls and emplacements that the US military had painstakingly built were quite useful. Chest-high defensive walls made of wood and earth were placed throughout the battlefield and were sufficient to block bullets or reduce their power.

The battery was nothing more than a small pile of dirt on which a cannon was placed, but in areas without hills, even this was a welcome relief.

Boom!

“···I can barely hit the cannon.”

The American command looked down on the battlefield from the heights of the fort. There was no time to build a proper defensive fort, so they built it for their command advantage.

“Yes, it seems the enemy is running in a widely spread formation···.”

“That was expected, I knew all along that they wouldn’t form battle lines.”

“Shall we deploy the cavalry as scheduled?”

No matter how much weapons developed and the status of cavalry was not what it used to be, infantry scattered like that were just food for cavalry.

“Yes. And the artillery should focus on targeting enemy artillery units that come within range rather than enemy infantry.”

“yes!”

The supposedly newly developed Mexican long-range cannons were few in number. Most of the cannons had a range similar to that of the ambitiously prepared cannons of the United States.

Wedge-

Bam!

Part of the artillery unit that was preparing to load the cannons that had just been brought in was broken apart.

“Don’t be agitated! Quickly reload and take revenge! Aim for the cannons that are clearly visible over there!”

“yes!”

Similar things happened all over the battlefield.

Boom! Boom!

It was the American artillery that fired one more shot before the Mexican artillery could finish preparing.

Wedge-

Bam!

“Eww!”

The cannon shattered and the shrapnel hit, screaming, but they could not stop preparing.

“Continue loading! Move the wounded to the rear!”

As the Americans prepared for their third strike, Mexican artillery began to arrive, fully prepared.

“Loaded!”

“Fire all at once!”

“firing!”

Boom! Kwakwakwakwak!

While the battle between the artillery batteries was fierce, the American cavalry was called out from various places to catch the Mexican infantry who were fearlessly charging in a scattered manner.

The Mexican cavalry did not sit still either. They took to the battlefield as soon as they saw the American cavalry.

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo-

As tens of thousands of cavalrymen began to gather pace, the battlefield began to rumble.

“Shoot!”

Tata tata tang!

The Mexican cavalry fired first with the Eduardo Carbine, a modified version of the Eduardo Rifle for cavalry use, and the American cavalry responded with rifles.

The United States Army cavalry and the Mexican Imperial Army cavalry exchanged shots from medium range and clashed head-on in the middle of the battlefield.

Both cavalry units now drew their pistols before their cold weapons, even in close combat.

Tata tata tang!

It was a pistol called a revolver in the United States and a revolver in Mexico.

Hehehehehehe-

“Cough!”

The battle between the cavalry units quickly degenerated into a melee.

A horse hit by someone’s bullet fell, the rider was crushed, he tripped on it and fell, and was crushed again.

In the middle of the battlefield, a thick cloud of dust rose, and those who had exhausted their pistols finally took out their cold weapons.

“Hey, wait a minute, those guys have two revolvers each!”

“What? This fucking shit···.”

bang!

The United States also issued revolvers to all cavalrymen. It was a bit of a stretch to issue them to all, as the rapid-fire revolver had already proven itself to be very useful in close combat.

But each of the Mexican cavalrymen had two of those revolvers. They were naturally preloaded, and when the American cavalrymen pulled out their cold weapons, the Mexican cavalrymen pulled out their new revolvers and started shooting.

Bang! Tata tang!

Chaeng! Chook

The convenience and lethality of the revolver were overwhelming, but in a close fight like this, cold weapons were still a threat.

It was impossible to stop the steel sabers wielded by the American soldiers with revolvers. The Mexican cavalry had no choice but to draw out their cold weapons.

There were fierce battles between artillery and artillery, and between cavalry and cavalry.

Meanwhile, the Mexican infantry had moved close enough to fire safely.

Gasp-gasp-gasp-

I was out of breath from running for my life, but my hands were moving.

“Ugh-those… idiots… Ugh, they’re still lining up to shoot.”

Clang- bang-

The Mexican infantry had no cover, while the American infantry had some, albeit dirt and wood, cover. However, the American infantry formed a line, while the Mexican infantry fired from a scattered position.

Clang- bang-

All around, the sound of bolt-action rifles being fired, reloaded, and fired again reverberated repeatedly.

The American rifles, modeled after those of the Mexican Empire, were also bolt-action, but there could not have been enough to arm 150,000 soldiers, and about a third of the infantry carried the older muskets.

In this battlefield where it was difficult to run even with just a rifle, there were those who ran pulling carts.

Boom!

“This way! Get out of here!”

Wedge-shaped

Bam!

The shells fell, and the dirt they threw up poured down like rain.

“Sergeant! The machine gun is down!”

“Hey kid! You didn’t even fire a single shot! Run! You guys are riflemen now!”

The American artillerymen weren’t stupid, so even while engaging the enemy artillery, they targeted the cart pullers.

In some cases, soldiers were killed, machine guns were destroyed, or both, but in others, they arrived safely.

“Keuk-huk- machine gun ready!”

The squad leader who had personally brought the cart shouted out for preparation while holding his breath.

“One, two!”

The squad members took the machine gun out of the cart, fixed the machine gun’s legs on the ground, and loaded it.

“Ready!”

“Fire immediately!”

“shooting!”

Doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-

Huh-huh-

I was already exhausted from running, and since it was a manual machine gun, I had to turn the lever.

Fortunately, this VA-45 was not sensitive to the speed at which the lever was turned. It improved on the biggest weakness of the prototype VA-43.

“Replace it!”

Each machine gun was manned by three soldiers: one to turn the lever, one to load the cartridges, and one to aim.

Naturally, the amount of stamina consumed was overwhelmingly greater on the lever side, and rotation was continuously performed to conserve stamina.

Soon the sound of machine guns began to be added to the battlefield.

Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo-

Eww-

Keuheuk-

The hail of bullets fired by multiple machine guns easily penetrated the makeshift defensive wall prepared by the US military, but its lethality was significantly reduced, and the US military held out by adding wooden planks that they had prepared.

“Hold on! Fill up the ranks!”

The loss of life began to be enormous, but even with each death, someone new took their place.

At some point, Isaac, who had been lying on the floor and shooting like crazy, reflexively searched his pants pockets when he found that there were no bullets in the leather pouch he had brought, but he found nothing.

“Huh…Huh? Bullets, I’m out of bullets!”

“Me, me too!”

It wasn’t just Isaac. He was so absorbed in the battle that he couldn’t hear it, but at some point, the sound of gunfire and the sound of horse hooves began to die down.

The only constant sound was the sound of cannons, for the shells were within easy reach.

The Mexican army ran out of bullets and was unable to push back the American lines until dark.

Beep-

“This is a retreat order! Retreat!”

It was dangerous to turn your back when the enemy was pointing their guns at you, but it was already dark and you couldn’t see very well.

There were many who were struggling to walk or run, but the American soldiers who had been resisting fiercely did not pursue them, perhaps because they had entered a lull.

The artillery didn’t even retreat. It was a day with weak moonlight. There was no reason to waste shells when you couldn’t see anything.

As night fell, the battlefield became quiet, and the only sounds were the groans of the patients in pain.

Thus ended the first day of the Battle of Memphis.