Chapter 306: Encounter Battle

The news that the Spanish army was attacking northward on a large scale finally reached the capital of the Bam Kingdom, Fuban.

When the Sultan of the Bam Kingdom learned that the Spanish army was coming, he panicked and organized the army, and decided to personally lead the army south to resist the Spanish attack.

As the Sultan of the kingdom, the Bam Sultan still had some military ability. He commanded about 20,000 direct troops, and other subordinate troops of tribes also had about 10,000 people.

20,000 direct troops had more than 5,000 people wearing firearms. Although most were muzzle-loading guns, there were also about 500 breech-loading guns equipped in the troops.

Besides that, the troops were also equipped with several cannons covered in rust, looking like products from at least thirty or forty years ago.

Not to mention, these indigenous people's maintenance of the cannons was considered quite good. Although the age of the cannons was old, at least they could be pulled out and used.

After the Bam Sultan gathered the army, the Spanish army had already advanced the border line by more than ten kilometers.

The indigenous people here were scattered in tribes of various sizes at not-so-far distances, which also delayed the speed of the Spanish army's attack.

Each tribe had its own guard force, which was the army controlled by the tribal leader. According to the different number of people in each tribe, the scale of the armed force possessed by the tribe was also different.

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

The south, because it was close to the Spanish Guinea colony, did not have any large tribes.

This was good news for the Spanish army. On the way from Guinea northward, the colonial division did not encounter any large-scale resistance.

Those indigenous tribes of various sizes, upon seeing the Spanish army, only cared about fleeing in a panic; no one could gather the army to counterattack the Spanish army's attack.

On the second day of Spain's launch of the attack, the Spanish army finally met the Bam army.

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

From common sense, the Bam army occupying the high ground was more advantageous. As long as their firepower was sufficient, they could completely suppress the Spanish army at the foot of the mountain, thereby easily harvesting the lives of the Spanish.

Qiao Di, who commanded the colonial division, naturally also discovered the enemy. He used binoculars to observe the enemy's situation on the hillside in detail, then put down the binoculars and said with a heavy face: "Damn it, where did the enemy buy the cannons?

Let the artillery be ready, we must destroy the enemy's firepower point in the first time, otherwise, the one who will suffer will be us."

In Qiao Di's view, the only thing that could pose a threat to him was 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 repeatedly and conveyed Qiao Di's order to the artillery.

On the Bam Kingdom side, because it was located at a high place, the time they discovered the Spanish army was earlier.

However, because it was an encounter battle, they could only adjust the formation in a short time, and then adjust the limited few cannons to the position, and more than half of the time had already passed.

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

"Hey! Their cannons are there! Artillery, destroy them for me!" At the first moment the Bam Kingdom's cannons fired, the artillery had already discovered the position of the opponent's cannons.

Because there had been an order long ago, the Spanish army's artillery did not hesitate at all and prioritized aiming the muzzle at the enemy's cannons.

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

This led to the Bam army deploying the cannons at the same location; in their view, this was conducive to the loading and transportation of shells.

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

However, it was obvious that the enemy did not have such consciousness; the main purpose of the opponent's cannons was to kill Spanish soldiers, and the shells were fired at the crowd.

Boom! Boom boom!

With a burst of shelling after another, the positions of both sides were also filled with gunpowder smoke, and for a while, they could not see the situation of the other side clearly.

To be on the safe side, Qiao Di did not order to stop firing, but instead required the artillery to constantly pour shells toward the hillside according to the remembered positions.

This war Spain invested a lot of military spending, plus it was prepared in advance, so there was no need to save shells.

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

Qiao Di previously commanded the Spanish Imperial Guard and fought battles richer than this, so he had no idea of saving shells.

Boom! Boom boom!

On the Spanish army side, the sound of cannons was continuous, and even if the battlefield was filled with gunpowder smoke, there was no pause at all. Anyway, there was no Spanish army on the hillside, so there was no need to worry about accidentally injuring friendly forces.

At first, he could still hear the sound of cannons coming from the hillside, and after a few minutes, he could no longer hear the sound of cannons on the hillside.

Instead, the sound of shells exploding on the hillside and the screams of indigenous people were quite ear-piercing, which proved that the opponent had already suffered not small casualties under the bombing of the Spanish army.

After bombing for more than ten minutes, Qiao Di then ordered the artillery to stop firing and wait for the gunpowder smoke to disperse before checking the enemy's situation.

After the Spanish army's artillery stopped firing, the enemy also had no appearance of counterattacking, which made Qiao Di breathe a sigh of relief.

After the gunpowder smoke dispersed, Qiao Di used binoculars to look at the hillside and found that the position of the enemy's cannon position had long become a piece of scorched earth, and the bloodstains and gunpowder traces on the big stones could also show everything suffered here.

Looking further up, Qiao Di was surprised to find that the enemy already had signs of retreating.

Although there were still many indigenous soldiers on the hillside, the indigenous army higher up was already retreating to the top of the mountain. From the scale of these indigenous people, even if this was not all the soldiers of the indigenous army, it was definitely the main force of the Bam Kingdom.

Since it was determined that the army in front was the main force of the enemy, Qiao Di was not in a hurry to defeat the army in front.

If the enemy insisted on retreating, the Spanish army had no way. The opposite side was not stupid; after feeling the few rounds of bombing by the Spanish cannons, the indigenous people also smartly dispersed, effectively reducing the damage of the Spanish cannons to themselves.

If they wanted to defeat the indigenous army in front, the Spanish army could only launch a charge and frontally eliminate them.

But the problem was that the enemy guarded the high ground, and the Spanish army charged upward from the foot of the mountain, which would definitely bear huge casualties.

This did not meet Qiao Di's expectations, so after seeing the enemy slowly retreating, Qiao Di immediately had the intention to drag the enemy down.

Anyway, there were more than 6,000 troops on the eastern front sneak attacking the capital of the indigenous people; as long as Qiao Di could drag down most of the indigenous army, the eastern front had a high possibility of succeeding in the sneak attack.

To let the eastern front army break through the enemy's capital faster, Qiao Di specially equipped the eastern front army with more than 20 cannons, and the number of cannons was almost catching up with the colonial division.

As long as the enemy's main army did not return to aid, relying on these 20 cannons, they could easily eliminate the indigenous army.

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

Currently, the frontal battlefield was still a long distance from the capital of the indigenous people, and the Bam army could naturally choose the strategy of retreating while fighting, retreating while fighting.

But the eastern battlefield was different. The indigenous soldiers on the eastern battlefield could naturally also retreat, but their capital could not retreat.

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

Fuban without the protection of the army was like fish on the chopping board of the Spanish army, only allowed to be slaughtered by the Spanish army.

Once the capital was captured by the Spanish army, these indigenous armies that resisted stubbornly 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 Qiao Di wanted to drag down the main force of the enemy on the hillside, he did not choose to let the infantry launch an attack, but let the artillery continue to bomb the hillside and the top of the mountain, and at the same time, the main force had a trend of camping, letting the enemy mistakenly think that they successfully delayed the Spanish army's attack.

Sure enough, when the indigenous army on the top of the mountain found that the Spanish did not have the intention to launch an attack, only using cannons to bomb a few times from a distance, they immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

The Bam Sultan even smiled and expressed that the Spanish soldiers were already afraid of the Bam army; they only dared to fire a few shots from a distance and did not dare to launch an attack and fight the Bam army frontally at all.

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 that the Spanish would be so cowardly, but looking at the Spanish army at the foot of the mountain camping, they could only believe what the Sultan said.

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

The Bam army, forced by the powerful firepower of the Spanish army, did not dare to go down the hillside to fight the Spanish army at all.

And the Spanish army also had no appearance of launching an attack; soldiers occasionally fired a few shots, and more often, the artillery bombed at their own mood.

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

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

Although briefly suppressed on the top of the mountain by the Spanish army's firepower, the Bam Sultan also discussed the next step plan when convening a meeting with several officers under his hand.

As long as the Spanish army had a performance of insufficient shell quantity, the Bam Sultan would order the army to go south to attack and let the cowardly Spanish see how the brave and fearless Bam people fought.

If the Spanish's shell quantity was sufficient, then at worst, they would consume with the Spanish army here. Anyway, they could mobilize a large amount of food and materials from the capital Fuban; as long as there was no danger in the rear, for the Bam Sultan, it was also acceptable to deadlock with the Spanish army here for a long time.

After dragging on for two days, Qiao Di decided to do something to attract the attention of the indigenous army.

Qiao Di was more worried that these indigenous people would quietly retreat to the capital Fuban for defense after discovering that he had no intention to attack.

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 they carried out street fighting, it would definitely cause huge casualties to the Spanish army.

Plus the enemy was more familiar with the terrain here; the Spanish army attacked rashly, and the one who suffered would only be themselves.

During these two days, Qiao Di thought well about his plan.

He decided to accompany these indigenous people to perform a play, letting the indigenous people mistakenly think that they could defeat the Spanish army, letting them more actively fight with the Spanish army.

In this way, Qiao Di could easily drag down these indigenous armies. As long as those three colonial garrison regiments could capture Fuban, then it would be the time to launch a general attack.

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

On the third day when the two armies met, the Bam Sultan was surprised to find that the cowardly Spanish army actually began to try to launch an attack.

Although the number of enemies launching an attack was not large, compared to the relatively calm situation of the first two days, it was indeed a quite large change.

To be on the safe side, the Bam Sultan immediately ordered his army to be ready to fight the enemy at any time, and moved his most elite army, the 5,000 people equipped with rifles, to the front line of the battlefield, ready to give these Spanish who launched an attack a surprise at any time.

About a few minutes passed, and the Spanish army had already slowly approached the hillside.

The Bam Sultan was a bit impatient; he looked at the Spanish army with more and more people and issued the order to fire.

Bang! Bang bang bang!

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

Not to mention, whether it was a muzzle-loading gun or a breech-loading gun, hitting a person was a huge wound, basically no difference.

The shortcoming was that the Bam army's accuracy was not enough; several thousand people fired a volley, and the number of soldiers hit on the Spanish army side was only a few.

However, because Qiao Di had orders long ago, many soldiers pretended to be injured, howling in panic, constantly retreating to the rear.

Some soldiers, to pretend to be more like it, even did not want the rifles in their hands. The Bam Sultan, located at a high place, also saw the collapse of the Spanish army; he was excited, thinking that this was the cowardly Spanish who had lost all fighting spirit.

"Destroy them for me! These damn Spanish have already been scared out of their wits, let them understand who is the master of this land!" The Bam Sultan shouted excitedly.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 307 =====