Chapter 306: Encounter Battle

The news that the Spanish army was launching a massive offensive to the north finally reached Fuban, the capital of the Bam Kingdom.

When the Sultan of the Bam Kingdom learned that the Spanish army was invading, he panicked and organized an army, deciding to personally lead his troops south to resist the Spanish advance.

As the Sultan of the kingdom, the Bam Sultan still possessed some military capability. He had about 20, 00 direct troops under his command, and another 10, 00 troops from subordinate tribes.

Of the 20, 00 direct troops, over 5, 00 were equipped with muskets. Although most were muzzle-loaders, there were about 500 breech-loading rifles among the troops.

In addition, the troops were equipped with several cannons covered in rust, which looked to be at least thirty or forty years old.

It must be said, these natives had maintained their artillery quite well. Although the cannons were old, they could at least still be brought out for use.

By the time the Bam Sultan finished assembling his army, the Spanish army had already pushed the front line forward by more than ten kilometers.

The natives here were scattered across the land in small and large tribes, which also delayed the speed of the Spanish army's advance.

Each tribe had its own defensive forces, which were the armies controlled by the tribal chiefs. Depending on the population of each tribe, the scale of the armed forces they possessed varied.

The capital of the Bam Kingdom was in the north, and the larger tribes were also distributed in the lands further north.

Because the south was close to the Spanish Guinea colony, there were no major tribes present.

This was good news for the Spanish army. On the way north from Guinea, the colonial division did not encounter any organized resistance.

When those small and large native tribes saw the Spanish army, they were only concerned with fleeing in a panic; no one was able to rally troops to counterattack the Spanish advance.

On the second day of the Spanish offensive, the Spanish army finally encountered the Bam army.

The place where the two sides met was at the foot of a mountain; the Spanish army was at the foot, and the Bam Kingdom's army was on the mountainside.

Generally speaking, the Bam army occupying the high ground had the advantage. As long as their firepower was sufficient, they could completely pin the Spanish army at the foot of the mountain, thereby easily reaping the lives of the Spaniards.

Qiaoti, who was leading the colonial division, naturally discovered the enemy as well. He used binoculars to observe the situation of the enemy on the mountainside in detail, then put down the binoculars and said with a grave expression: "Damn it, where did the enemy buy their cannons from?

Have the artillery get ready; we must take out the enemy's fire points immediately, otherwise, we will be the ones to suffer."

In Qiaoti's view, the only things the enemy had that could pose a threat to him were those few cannons. Regardless of when the cannons were produced, as long as they could be used, they could cause huge casualties to the Spanish army.

The messenger nodded hurriedly and conveyed Qiaoti's order to the artillery.

On the Bam Kingdom's side, because they were on high ground, they discovered the Spanish army a bit earlier.

However, because it was an encounter battle, they could only adjust their formations in a short amount of time, and by the time they adjusted the positions of their limited number of cannons, most of the time had already passed.

At this moment, the Spanish army also reacted, and the artillery of both sides fired at almost the same time.

"Hey! Their cannons are over there! Artillery, take them out for me!" The moment the Bam Kingdom's cannons fired, the artillery had already discovered the location of the opposing cannons.

Because they had received orders long ago, the Spanish army's artillery did not hesitate at all and prioritized aiming their muzzles at the enemy's cannons.

Although the Bam Kingdom had purchased cannons through various means, they had not received qualified military education.

This led the Bam army to deploy their cannons in the same location, as they believed this was conducive to the loading and transport of shells.

On the Spanish army's side, the cannons were deployed in different locations, which could prevent the enemy from destroying all existing artillery positions at once.

However, it was clear that the enemy did not have such awareness; the main purpose of the opposing cannons was to kill Spanish soldiers, and the shells were fired toward the crowds.

Boom! Boom-boom!

Following one burst of shelling after another, the positions of both sides were filled with smoke, and for a time, it was impossible to see the situation of the other side clearly.

Just in case, Qiaoti did not order a ceasefire, but instead demanded that the artillery continuously pour shells onto the mountainside according to the positions in their memory.

This time, Spain had invested a large amount of military funding, and because they had made preparations in advance, there was no need to save shells.

Almost every half month, the Spanish mainland would transport a large amount of weapons, equipment, bullets, and shells to the African colony, which was completely sufficient for the consumption of this war.

Qiaoti had previously commanded the Spanish Imperial Guard and had fought battles even wealthier than this, so he had no intention of saving shells.

Boom! Boom-boom!

On the Spanish army's side, the sound of cannons was continuous, and even though smoke filled the battlefield, it did not stop for a moment. Anyway, there was no Spanish army on the mountainside, so there was no need to worry about friendly fire.

At first, one could still hear the sound of cannons coming from the mountainside, but after a few minutes, the sound of cannons from the mountainside could no longer be heard.

Instead, the sound of shells exploding on the mountainside and the screams of the natives were quite piercing, which proved that the other side had already suffered significant casualties under the Spanish army's bombardment.

After bombarding for more than ten minutes, Qiaoti finally ordered the artillery to cease fire and wait for the smoke to dissipate before checking the enemy's condition.

After the Spanish artillery stopped shelling, the enemy showed no signs of counterattacking, which made Qiaoti breathe a sigh of relief.

After the smoke dissipated, Qiaoti used his binoculars to look at the mountainside and found that the original location of the enemy's artillery position had long since become scorched earth, and the bloodstains and gunpowder marks on the large rocks also showed everything that had been suffered here.

Looking higher up, Qiaoti was surprised to find that the enemy already showed signs of retreating.

Although there were still many native soldiers on the mountainside, the native army higher up was already retreating toward the summit. Judging from the scale of these natives, even if this was not all the soldiers of the native army, it was definitely the main force of the Bam Kingdom.

Since it was confirmed that the army in front of him was the enemy's main force, Qiaoti was in no hurry to defeat the army before him.

If the enemy insisted on retreating, the Spanish army had no way to stop them. The other side was not stupid; after feeling a few rounds of bombardment from the Spanish cannons, the natives also cleverly dispersed, effectively reducing the lethality of the Spanish cannons against them.

To defeat this native army, the Spanish army would have to launch a charge and destroy them head-on.

But the problem was that the enemy was guarding the high ground, and if the Spanish army charged upward from the bottom of the mountain, they would certainly suffer heavy casualties.

This did not fit Qiaoti's expectations, so after seeing the enemy slowly retreating, Qiaoti immediately had the intention of stalling the enemy.

Anyway, there was an army of over 6, 00 people on the eastern front sneaking toward the native capital; as long as Qiaoti could stall the majority of the native army, the eastern front had a high chance of a successful sneak attack.

In order to let the eastern front army capture the enemy's capital faster, Qiaoti specifically equipped the eastern front army with over 20 cannons, the number of cannons almost catching up to the colonial division.

As long as the enemy's main force did not return to reinforce, these 20 cannons alone would be enough to easily destroy the native army.

After all, the situation here was different from the eastern front battlefield.

Currently, the front-line battlefield was still a long distance from the native capital, so the Bam army could of course choose a strategy of resisting while retreating, fighting as they withdrew.

But the eastern front battlefield was different. The native soldiers on the eastern front could of course also retreat, but their capital could not retreat.

As long as the native soldiers on the eastern front chose to retreat, they would expose Fuban, the capital of the Bam Kingdom, to the eyes of the Spanish army.

Fuban, without an army to protect it, would be like fish on a cutting board for the Spanish army, left to be slaughtered by the Spanish army.

Once the capital was captured by the Spanish army, these stubbornly resisting native soldiers would also lose their fighting spirit.

After all, the families of many soldiers and officers lived in Fuban; once Fuban was occupied by the enemy, how could they not worry about the situation of their families?

Because Qiaoti wanted to stall the main enemy force on the mountainside, he did not choose to let the infantry launch an attack, but instead let the artillery continue to bombard the mountainside and the summit, while the main force made a show of setting up camp, letting the enemy mistakenly believe that they had successfully delayed the Spanish army's offensive.

Sure enough, when the native army on the summit discovered that the Spaniards had not launched an attack and were only using cannons to bomb from a distance, they immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

The Bam Sultan even smiled and stated that the Spanish soldiers were already afraid of the Bam army; they only dared to fire a few shots from afar and did not dare to launch an attack to fight the Bam army head-on.

Since the Sultan said so, the officers of the Bam Kingdom naturally could only echo their Sultan.

Occasionally, there were officers who did not believe the Spaniards would be so cowardly, but looking at the Spanish army at the foot of the mountain appearing to set up camp, they could only believe the words spoken by the Sultan.

For a time, the two armies were deadlocked like this.

The Bam army, forced by the Spanish army's powerful firepower, did not dare to come down to the mountainside to fight the Spanish army.

And the Spanish army showed no signs of launching an attack; the soldiers occasionally fired a few shots, but more often, the artillery bombarded at their own whim.

On the native army's side, the smile on the Bam Sultan's face became more obvious as the time dragged on. He was deeply convinced of the Spanish army's cowardice, and consequently, he also looked down on other European colonists.

If it weren't for the Spanish army's firepower being too powerful, the Bam Sultan even had the thought of ordering the army to go down the mountain to launch an attack.

Although briefly suppressed on the summit by the Spanish army's firepower, the Bam Sultan also discussed the next step in his plan when holding a meeting with several officers under his command.

As long as the Spanish army showed signs of insufficient shell numbers, the Bam Sultan would order the army to head south to attack, to let the cowardly Spaniards see how the heroic and fearless Bam people fought.

If the Spaniards had a sufficient number of shells, then at worst, they would just wear them out here. Anyway, they could mobilize a large amount of food and supplies from the capital Fuban; as long as there was no danger in the rear, even if they were deadlocked with the Spanish army for a long time, it was acceptable to the Bam Sultan.

After delaying for two days, Qiaoti decided to do something to attract the attention of the native army.

Qiaoti was worried that these natives would discover he had no intention of attacking and quietly retreat to the capital Fuban to defend.

If all these people returned to Fuban, it would not be so easy to capture Fuban.

After all, the enemy also possessed a certain number of rifles; if urban warfare were to occur, it would certainly cause heavy casualties to the Spanish army.

Coupled with the fact that the enemy was more familiar with the terrain here, if the Spanish army attacked rashly, they would only be the ones to suffer.

In these two days, Qiaoti thought carefully about his plan.

He decided to accompany these natives in front of him to perform a good play, letting the natives mistakenly believe that they could defeat the Spanish army, making them more proactive in fighting the Spanish army.

In this way, Qiaoti could easily stall these native armies in front of him. As long as those three colonial garrison regiments could capture Fuban, that would be the time to launch the general offensive.

The three colonial garrison regiments that captured Fuban could head south at any time, and under the pincer attack from north and south, no matter how many rifles and cannons these native armies had, they would not be able to break out of the Spanish army's encirclement.

On the third day of the two armies meeting, the Bam Sultan was surprised to find that the cowardly Spanish army had actually started to attempt to launch an attack.

Although the number of enemies launching the attack was not large, compared to the relatively calm situation of the previous two days, this was indeed a significant change.

Just in case, the Bam Sultan immediately ordered his army to be ready to engage the enemy at any time, and moved his most elite army—the 5, 00 men equipped with rifles—to the front line of the battlefield, ready to give these attacking Spaniards a surprise at any moment.

After about a few minutes, the Spanish army had slowly approached the mountainside.

The Bam Sultan could not wait any longer; he looked at the increasing number of Spanish soldiers and gave the order to fire.

Bang! Bang-bang-bang!

Following the order being conveyed, the Bam army took the initiative to launch an attack on the Spanish army.

It must be said, whether it was a muzzle-loader or a breech-loader, hitting a person would result in a huge wound; there was basically no difference.

The disadvantage was that the Bam army's accuracy was not enough; in a volley of thousands of people, only a few soldiers on the Spanish army's side were hit.

However, because Qiaoti had given instructions long ago, many soldiers still pretended to be injured, howling with panic on their faces, and continuously retreated toward the rear.

Some soldiers, in order to act more realistically, even abandoned the rifles in their hands. The Bam Sultan, located on the high ground, also saw the chaotic state of the Spanish army; he was excited, believing that this meant the cowardly Spaniards had lost all fighting spirit.

"Take them out for me! These damn Spaniards have been scared out of their wits; let them understand who is the master of this land!" the Bam Sultan shouted excitedly.

(End of chapter)