The arrival of U.S. reinforcements made General Torres immediately realize that his situation was very dangerous, especially since the U.S. military always fought within the protection of naval guns at sea, which was very disadvantageous to him. After discussing with Diego, he decided to head west
To retreat, we must at least drag the US troops out of the range of naval guns.
His retreat made Schefter relieved. Of course he would not follow Torres's ideas. Only a fool would leave the protection of naval guns! Even with reinforcements, his situation is still very tense. According to the guerrillas sent
According to the intelligence, at least 50,000 Spanish troops are coming here, half of them are elites transferred from the Philippines, well-equipped and rich in combat experience, far beyond what his junior brothers on the battlefield can match, so now he
The consideration is still defense.
"We must increase the number of machine guns, be it Bofors, Browning, or even Gatling. Our enemies have a large number of machine guns in their hands, and our soldiers can only be beaten like dogs by them when charging.
Shooting to death, under such circumstances, it would be suicidal for us to leave the protection of the naval guns and fight in depth.
There are also mortars. This kind of light artillery must be equipped with every regiment. Before these new weapons are shipped, all we can do is to hold on to Matanzas." General Schefter summoned the division commanders and said, in fact, he
There is one important thing left unsaid. The morale of the US military is extremely low now. Even the newly arrived troops were greatly stimulated after seeing the tragic situation on the front line. It is impossible to count on these young men until their morale is revived.
They still have the guts to continue charging.
His decision was unanimously supported. Even Roosevelt felt a little regret after seeing the wounded soldiers in Matanzas. The casualty rate was one-third, which meant that he would have a one-third casualty rate.
There is a chance that he will die in Cuba. He is here to improve his image, not to die. Since Schefter does not want to attack, that is the best thing.
The U.S. War Department has nothing to say about this. Just one Matanzas was captured. The army's casualties exceeded 6,000. This is definitely abnormal. The problem must be found and solved. Since Schefter said it was weapons
The question is, buy it. Raytheon Company produces these things anyway, and Texas is very close. If you want a machine gun, buy it! If you want a mortar, buy it! If you want poison gas bombs, there really is no such thing. Prince Yang has approved it.
The People's Broadcasting Station publicly read out his confession, confessed to God for his sins of creating this devil, and claimed that he would never use mustard gas again unless it was a battle to defend his own country. Not to mention selling it to outsiders.
.
Moreover, this guy also publicly called on all countries to sign a convention banning the use of mustard gas, so that no one would use this thing in the future, which made the leaders of various countries boo.
Just as Schefter was digging trenches and building forts in Matanzas, preparing to welcome the arrival of the Spanish, the two Spanish fleets joined together in the port of Santiago. Because of Cervera's outstanding military exploits, he was appointed as the new commander.
The fleet commander is in charge of all battleships in the Caribbean, including two battleships. In fact, according to international standards, they can only be regarded as large armored cruisers, and the armor is still very thin.
There are four steam-powered armored cruisers, two of which are still under repair, three diesel-powered armored cruisers, one of which is under repair. Sixteen high-speed destroyers, two of which are under repair. The Cologne here is built in the UK.
Produced by Armstrong Shipyard, it is not only brand new but also performs very well.
As for other old-fashioned cruisers, they are not worth mentioning. These junks are parked in the port as fixed forts and do not have any naval combat capabilities. There are also two landing ships, which are of little use for the time being and can only be used as transport ships.
.
Although he received the order to go north to bombard American ports, Cervera was not in a hurry to do so. While he sent the Princess Astrias to continue returning to the Florida Strait with the destroyer fleet to bully the Dewey fleet, he began to fight according to this period.
He used his experience to refit his main fleet, especially the wooden decorations that would not serve any purpose other than causing fires. The Empress Theresa and Vizcaya, including the sunken Oquendo,
The main reason is that it is destroyed in the hands of these things.
After learning that the Kamala fleet had arrived in San Diego, the American coastal residents breathed a sigh of relief. They finally no longer had to worry about it. At the same time, given that the Spaniards had no intention of going north, the Schley fleet that originally stayed behind also headed south to Key West to participate in the battle.
During the escort operations in the Strait of Florida, after all, Dewey suffered heavy losses at this time. Guarding this strait was too strenuous. In addition, he continued to refit a large number of auxiliary cruisers, and even went to Brazil to purchase civilian merchant ships and refit them. U.S. shipyards also began to
Speeding up the construction of warships, including the two protected cruisers under construction originally planned by Brazil, which were also purchased at a large sum of money.
You Spaniards rely on warships, okay? I will just use warships to kill you.
Of course, this was just bragging. The warship was not brought by strong winds. The key was to quickly buy Yang Feng's destroyers and torpedoes. The U.S. Minister to Sweden accompanied the smiling face to find Ericson, the head of the Yang Group's headquarters.
After pleasant negotiations between the two parties, the U.S. government officially ordered 20 Viper-class destroyers, 300 steam gas torpedoes, and 50 10,000-horsepower military diesel engines from the Swedish Young Shipyard. The total value is close to 10 million pounds. It can be said that
The largest arms purchase in the world's history.
However, it is a pity that when this procurement case was submitted to the Swedish government's arms export authorities for approval, it received a cold reply, prohibiting the export of any weapons or key components for weapon systems to any warring country.
Now the Americans were dumbfounded.
"There is nothing I can do. My diesel engines and torpedoes are produced in Sweden and are not available in China. They are not allowed to export and there is nothing I can do." Yang Feng said to Tian Bei with a look of helplessness.
"Your Highness, with your influence in Sweden, it shouldn't be difficult to solve this small matter, right?" Tian Bei said with a smile.
"Oh, let me give it a try! But I can't guarantee it. Although I have a lot of industries in Sweden, I am not a Swedish citizen after all. It is hard to say whether Prime Minister Boström can consider my opinion." Yang Feng
After thinking for a while he said.
Then he sent a telegram to Eriksson in a serious manner, asking him to find Swedish Prime Minister Boström to see if he could be accommodating. After all, Americans wanted so many things at once, which would have a huge boost to the Swedish economy.
Even the Swedish government can make a lot of money from taxes alone. Anyway, it has nothing to do with Sweden if they go to fight the Spaniards.
Unfortunately, Boström refused rudely and made it clear that the Swedish government would never violate the neutrality law for money. Now even the U.S. government had a headache. The U.S. minister to Sweden went to the Prime Minister's Office eight times a day and was there every day.
The embassy held a banquet to entertain the members of Congress, and of course gave them some souvenirs and so on. However, it took a lot of effort, but the Swedish government refused to relent and insisted on the neutrality law, making it seem as if it really worked.
And during this period, the Spanish government also launched a massive public relations campaign in Sweden and tried its best to stop the deal. The diplomatic war between the two countries intensified. In the end, they even started to recruit friends to help. The Spanish asked Germany to join the Swedish government.
To exert pressure, the Americans begged the British to come forward, but the friend they found was not very effective. The opposition voices in the Swedish Parliament actually outweighed the voices of approval.
Fortunately, compared with the difficulty of purchasing weapons for the Navy, the procurement of weapons for the Army is very simple. Although Raytheon asked for a very high price, the U.S. Department of the Army still purchased one hundred Bofors water-cooled machine guns at one time, and another fifty.
82mm mortars and supporting ammunition, and also ordered 100,000 smokeless rifles. Because they were in urgent need, they were basically priced at 50% higher than the normal price. In fact, they also understood that buying these things
Just to buy Yang Feng's favor and make this guy happy, maybe he can get the torpedo as soon as possible.
To say that his energy cannot solve the resistance of the Swedish government, who would believe it! More than one tenth of the population of that country depends on him to feed him, and even if he wants Boström, it is just a matter of words.
It is easier for Americans to understand than anyone else that the reason why they are unwilling to help is simply because of the dissatisfaction they have accumulated against the United States over the years. Otherwise, if they are really serious, they can just randomly take out some from their reserves in China.
It's time for Americans to respond to emergencies.
In order to make him happy, the Americans even dropped the monopoly investigation of General Electric and General Motors, and also imposed severe sanctions on some people suspected of infringing on his patent rights, including Edison and Westinghouse's AC power supply
Systemic patent infringement, especially when several guys who were researching steam turbines were directly punished and bankrupted. Currently, Yang's Power Systems holds hundreds of steam turbine patents, from axial flow to radial, from reaction to
Impulsive, from unipolar to multi-level, a dedicated team of lawyers is responsible for the surveillance of various countries. Whoever provokes them in this regard is seeking death?
These weapons were sent directly to Matanzas by the Dewey fleet, using battleships to brave the attacks of Spanish warships. By this time, the Spanish had arrived and launched a large-scale attack. Due to the addition of poisonous gas bombs, the US military was suffering terribly.
Fortunately, because the wind near the sea was relatively strong, the Spaniards were restrained in using poison gas, so they did not break through the defense line.
Now when they saw these things arriving, Schefter and his generals' eyes turned green, and they pounced on them like wolves one by one.