Chapter 1527: I Am Not the Jianwen Emperor of America!

"Both the King of Jiaging and the King of the United States are imperial princes, both are Princes — the King of Jiaging is the uncle, the King of the United States is the nephew, so the Regional Commander of this campaign should be the King of Jiaging!"

"His Highness the King of Jiaging has commanded the army at the front and fought fiercely against the Spanish for more than two months. He knows the front-line situation and the enemy's strengths and weaknesses — he should rightly command the allied forces!"

"Indeed! With His Highness the King of Jiaging commanding the allied forces, this battle is certain to be won!"

Several senior ministers of the Kingdom of Jiaging sat upright in their seats in a conference room inside the Fort of Guaymas, mustering all the qi in their dantians as they loudly voiced their opinions.

Listening to their opinions were the King of the United States, Zhu Hehao, and the King of Jiaging, Zhu Cihuan, seated side by side.

At this moment Zhu Cihuan wore a smile and seemed in excellent spirits — his scheme had succeeded. The investors of the United States, unwilling to let the enormous sums they had just poured into Jiaging go down the drain, had indeed forced the King of the United States to send troops — more than 15,000 men, all regular soldiers who had undergone long training and were superbly equipped.

As soon as this relief force arrived, it "scared off" Don Juan José, who had been digging parallel trenches in preparation for besieging the Fort of Guaymas. Now Don Juan José's great army had withdrawn from the province of Sonora and slipped away to the Los Mochis mountains in the northern part of the province of Sinaloa to take up defensive positions.

For Zhu Cihuan, the war had reached this point — in truth, it was already won!

His goal had never been to destroy the New Spain army, but merely to take the provinces of Sonora and Sinaloa — and if possible, to add the province of Nayarit as well, and he would be fully satisfied.

To achieve this strategic objective, he only needed to face off against Don Juan José between the Fort of Guaymas and the Los Mochis mountains for a few months, dragging things out until the scorching summer — that should be enough to force Don Juan José to retreat.

Because the United States army and the Jiaging army controlled the Fort of Guaymas, whose facilities were still in fairly good condition, and the port of Guaymas was only three hundred li away, the difficulty of logistics transport was not great.

But Don Juan José's great army garrisoned in the Los Mochis mountains did not have such good conditions. The estates around the Los Mochis mountains had all been destroyed, and the New Spain army could only camp in the open field. Once the rainy season arrived, epidemics would easily break out.

Moreover, Don Juan José's supply line was far longer — the Los Mochis mountains were more than two thousand li from Mexico City. Although most of that stretch was fairly prosperous and populous, travel would still become quite difficult when the rainy season came.

By then Don Juan José's army of tens of thousands would fall into dire straits and would have no choice but to withdraw on its own.

Although such a victory would not be very glorious, for the Kingdom of Jiaging, with a population of only a little over a hundred thousand, it was the most practical.

A true decisive battle that killed 1,000 of the enemy while losing 800 of his own was something Zhu Cihuan's Kingdom of Jiaging could not afford. From the start of the war until now, the Jiaging army, which had never actually fought a proper pitched battle, had already lost more than a thousand men to various causes!

If there really were a great pitched battle, even if they won, the Kingdom of Jiaging would lose several thousand men!

But he knew very well that since his nephew Zhu Hehao had come to the front, he must want to fight a decisive battle that would raise his prestige. As for how many people died, Zhu Hehao did not much care — after all, he had a million gun-wielding rioters under him, and casualties of several thousand or even ten thousand were entirely bearable for him.

So before the uncle and nephew met, Zhu Cihuan had made arrangements for his own ministers to step forward and contend for command authority on his behalf.

And when Zhu Hehao heard the suggestions of the King of Jiaging's Japanese ministers, although he still wore a smile on his face, inwardly he was already furious.

He had originally thought Zhu Cihuan had been beaten nearly to death by the Spanish, which was why he had hurriedly brought troops to the rescue — but he had never expected that the King of Jiaging was simply "feigning defeat." Other people feign defeat to deceive the enemy; this fellow feigned defeat to deceive his investors into doubling down! Wasn't that just too treacherous? Who had he learned that from?

What was even more hateful was that the King of Jiaging was using his seniority to claim command of the allied forces. If Zhu Hehao handed over command authority, then he might well become the "Jianwen Emperor of America"!

This Zhu Cihuan — he truly was greatly cunning!

After the several Japanese had finished spraying spittle, Zhu Hehao slowly turned his gaze toward his uncle and said coolly, "Imperial Uncle, is this your intention?"

Zhu Cihuan laughed and said, "In truth, no matter who is Regional Commander, we are certain to win this campaign. We need only hold the Fort of Guaymas firmly, protract the struggle against the enemy, and leave Don Juan José unable to advance or retreat. When the rainy season comes, his army of tens of thousands will surely be unable to hold out, and then he will withdraw, and the two provinces of Sonora and Sinaloa will belong to Jiaging. At that time, I shall hand over the Fort of Los Angeles to the United States, and change the country's name to the Kingdom of Qing — how would that be?"

The character "Jia" in "Kingdom of Jiaging" came from the California colony of New Spain, while the character "Qing" came from Qing Province, which had been established in the southern part of the former California colony (the Fort of Los Angeles and the region to its south).

Now Zhu Cihuan was voluntarily offering to hand over the land of the Fort of Los Angeles and remove the character "Jia" from the country's name, as if making a gesture of goodwill toward Zhu Hehao.

But if Jiaging removed the "Jia," only "Qing" would remain. Zhu Hehao thought to himself: That is a single-character country name! What are you planning? Do you want to be the "King of Qing," or do you want to be the "Emperor of Qing"?

But this was not the time to quibble over titles with Zhu Cihuan, because Zhu Hehao could not fight the battle before him according to the wishes of this utterly treacherous imperial uncle of his.

So Zhu Hehao could not let Zhu Cihuan muddle through, and he pulled the topic back to the question of operations.

"Don Juan José cannot drag this out — but neither can we!" Zhu Hehao said. "Imperial Uncle, the reason your nephew has personally led a great army to the rescue is that this campaign must be decided quickly and cannot be prolonged. Because the population and wealth of the Kingdom of New Spain far exceed both of our domains combined! If the war becomes protracted, Don Juan José will fully mobilize his nation's strength! By then it will not be tens of thousands of New Spain troops fighting us, but a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand enemies.

Furthermore, your nephew has received word that two nomadic hunting tribes on the great plains of North America — the Great Sioux and the Apache — have been won over by the French and have formed a combined army of France, the Great Sioux, and the Apache, and will soon march west into the Great Stone Mountains.

When that time comes, your nephew will have to lead troops eastward to fight them to the death, and therefore cannot remain long in Sonora!"

Zhu Hehao had not entirely lied — he did indeed intend to personally lead troops eastward, though not to resist the combined army of France, the Great Sioux, and the Apache, but to seize the gold of the Mississippi River!

"Then," Zhu Cihuan asked, "what fine plan for defeating the enemy does my worthy nephew have?"

Zhu Hehao said, "Divide the troops into two routes. Your nephew will lead the United States army pressing forward from the front, seeking a decisive battle in the Los Mochis mountains! Imperial Uncle will lead his army on a detour through the mountains east of the Los Mochis range, cutting behind the New Spain army and striking straight at the Fort of Guasave!"

"What?" Zhu Cihuan was stunned by his nephew's proposed plan. "Worthy nephew, you intend to defeat Don Juan José's twenty thousand-plus men with fifteen thousand?"

Zhu Hehao nodded and said, "The disparity is not great — the odds of victory are eighty percent! Imperial Uncle, your Jiaging army is not skilled in formation battles, but excels at sudden raids, skirmishing, and night fighting, so there is no need for it to take part in the decisive battle against the Spanish. That way your casualties will not be too great either. There is no problem with that, is there?"

No problem?

Zhu Cihuan furrowed his brow and thought: Don Juan José is a famous European general, a soldier from his youth who has campaigned half his life. Although he has no particularly brilliant record, he has nonetheless seen plenty of bloodshed and storm on European battlefields. Will his twenty thousand-plus men really be defeated by your ten thousand-plus? When the time comes, don't let Don Juan José defeat you!

Zhu Hehao glanced at his uncle, then swept his eyes over the roomful of Japanese samurai, and said coolly, "Do not worry — your nephew has full confidence of certain victory. However, after this battle is won, your nephew will lead his troops north to fight the combined army of France, the Great Sioux, and the Apache. Affairs in the south will then be entrusted to Imperial Uncle and all of you."

(End of Chapter)