Chapter 51 The Battle of the New Alamo (Part 2)

Author: Seven Years Period

Chapter 51 The Battle of the New Alamo (Part 2)

Several Mexican soldiers drove the prisoners to the gates of the Alamo.

These prisoners were very cooperative. After all, they had just experienced the hellish pursuit. They wanted to survive, so they shouted hard.

"Colonel Travis and the Alamo brothers, we are Colonel Manin's men. We were ambushed by the Mexican army. No one will come to your aid. Surrender quickly!"

Colonel Travis and Bowie in the city both knew that if the prisoners in front of them were allowed to continue shouting, the Alamo garrison would collapse, because some people were wavering now. After all, no one wanted to make a hopeless struggle.

Now all they could do was to shut these poor people up forever. Colonel Travis took a puff of his cigar and placed it on the fuse of the cannon.

But at this time, Crockett stopped Travis.

"What are you doing? I know these people, they are Colonel Maning's men."

"They are traitors!"

Travis pushed Crockett away and lit the fuse.

With a loud "boom", the prisoners who came to persuade them to surrender shut their mouths forever.

Seeing such behavior made Tasang Anna very angry. It was clear that he had exhausted all his kindness, but they actually dared to reject his kindness!

It's not just Tasan Anna who is angry. Even Gablenz and Stadion are also angry. They even kill their own people. These people are simply crazy. It seems that they can't help Archbishop Rauscher's instructions.

finished.

At this time, the letter from Archduke "Franz Karl" arrived again.

Hearing the name Franz Karl, Tasan Anna's brows relaxed slightly.

There is only one sentence in the letter.

"The next step is to attack the city, and the first step is to attack the heart."

Tasan Anna laughed after reading the letter. He handed the letter to Gablenz and Stadion and praised Archduke Franz Karl as a genius.

Gablenz and Stadion both knew that Archduke Franz Karl's brain was not very good, but they both accepted the letter curiously.

Gablenz and Stadion seemed to understand something after reading the letter.

This time Tasan Anna's messengers came to the Alamo again.

"General Tasan Anna ordered you to let the old, weak, women and children in the city leave. The general swore to God to ensure their safety. After the civilians evacuated, a full-scale bombardment of the Alamo would be carried out."

This time Travis did not hesitate. He didn’t know if this was a Mexican conspiracy, but if the other side really attacked the city in full force, the Alamo would probably be a river of blood. As a soldier, his honor prevented him from letting the old, weak, women and children

, to be buried with myself.

James Bowie agreed with Travis, after all, fighting is between men.

However, Crockett had a different opinion. He believed that as long as the old, weak, women and children were still there, the Mexicans would not dare to conduct a full-scale bombardment. If they did, Tasan Anna would have to be responsible for the bombardment of civilians.

In the end, the military's sense of honor made Travis reject Crockett's opinion.

This is the second time Travis has offended Crockett, which made the US congressman very unhappy.

Two hours later, the old, weak, women and children had left the Alamo, and Tasan Anna sent his most capable assistant to escort those people to San Antonio.

The sixteen-pounder gun was also ready, and at the same time, accompanied by the loud sound of the trumpet, the bombardment began.

This time the artillery bombardment was much more accurate than the previous artillery bombardment, because Gablenz and Stadion took advantage of the departure of the old, weak, women and children to adjust the firing angle and gun position to ensure that the artillery could hit the target at the first time.

The power of the sixteen-pound siege artillery was huge. The first shot destroyed the tower on the south side. The collapsed tower directly buried the garrison team stationed near it.

But before the defenders of the Alamo had time to rescue the people buried under the rubble, shells roared one after another.

Inside the Alamo Fortress, rubble was flying and fire was everywhere. Many people were injured by the rubble hit by the shells. Travis wanted to organize a counterattack with artillery fire, but the opponent's firepower was too strong and he could not raise his head at all.

The Mexican army's small-caliber artillery has been replaced with incendiary bombs. The incendiary bombs of this era are a type of grenades filled with flammable substances such as grease. They ignite surrounding objects through explosion, and are very inefficient.

But it is more lethal than firing solid iron bullets and can make the defenders exhausted.

The power of the sixteen-pounder cannon is astonishing. Each shot can cause large-scale collapse. Its power is not comparable to that of the three-pounder cannon.

The shelling of the sixteen-pounder gun directly hit the fortress wall, causing a large-scale collapse. Even horses, not to mention infantry, could easily pass through such a large gap.

Bowie immediately organized people to block the gap with caravans and furniture, but the Mexicans had no intention of attacking.

"Damn it, do the Mexicans have endless artillery shells? Do they want to bury us with heavy artillery?"

Crockett passed by carrying a bucket.

"Stop complaining and put out the fire first, otherwise you will be choked to death if not burned to death."

The bombardment lasted for 2 hours, and the Mexican army stopped the bombardment, not because they ran out of shells or because they were preparing to attack the city, but because the barrels of the guns were overheated and would explode if fired further.

Crockett found his old servant in the ruins.

"John, you old guy, I knew you were still alive."

The old servant slowly opened his eyes, spit out a pile of debris, and looked at his master with tears in his eyes.

"Mr. Crockett, I can't move my legs..."

Crockett didn't care about his worn hands, but comforted John.

"Don't worry, when I get back to Tennessee, I will find the best doctor and I will definitely cure you."

But Crockett didn't find the old servant's legs.

"Mr. Crockett, go home, the mistress is still waiting for you."

The old servant, whose consciousness was about to disappear, used his last strength to push Crockett away. At the same time, the broken wall on the side could no longer support it and collapsed, hitting Crockett's position heavily.

"No! John! Damn it! I'm going to fight those Mexicans!"

In the Alamo Fortress, many soldiers who had lost relatives and friends roared in anger.

"Yes! If you go out and fight! You'll end up dead anyway!"

“Show them the courage of the Western Cowboy!”

"Kill them and take revenge!"

"revenge!"

Bowie's leg was penetrated by a shrapnel, but he also thought that instead of waiting for death here, it would be better to rush out and kill him.

But Travis stopped them because he saw that the Mexican troops around him had been staying in the fortifications, and it would be suicidal to rush out now.

"That's enough. Go back to your posts. If you go out, you will commit suicide. General Houston will come to save us."

"Where is General Houston! Where are the reinforcements?" a soldier shouted angrily.

"We were abandoned!"

"We are outcasts!"

"I want to go home!"

Travis fired his gun into the air.

"That's enough. Tasan Anna is a dictator and a barbarian. You will die if you go out. Didn't you see that red flag? As long as the Mexicans raise that red flag, it means they will not accept any prisoners.

Believe me, General Houston will definitely come to rescue us."

The thing about the Mexican red flag is a rumor. The Mexicans not only have red flags, but also green and white ones, which are the colors of the Mexican flag.

In the afternoon, the Mexicans continued their shelling but did not launch an attack.

Tasan Anna was not in a hurry because he knew that he could capture the Alamo at any time now.

The Alamo defenders could not bear this situation of being passively beaten. At night, Crockett organized more than twenty desperadoes to prepare to destroy the Mexican artillery position, at least to destroy the sixteen-pounder cannon.

However, the Mexicans were well prepared. After a firefight, Crockett and several fellow Tennessee natives fled back to the Alamo in embarrassment.

The Mexicans did not pursue them, not because of their high military literacy, but because they did not know how many people there were on the other side.

Due to malnutrition, many Mexican soldiers suffered from night blindness, so there were hundreds of people fighting with more than 20 people, and in the end only a dozen people were killed.

When Crockett returned to the Alamo, Colonel Travis had put on his uniform.

"Do you know what you are doing? You should be court-martialed, or even I can shoot you right now."

"Colonel Travis, Crockett is also doing it for everyone's benefit. The Mexican cannons are too powerful. Fifty of our people died in the shelling during the day. Almost no part of the front wall is intact. If this continues, we will

There’s not even any shelter from the wind.”

"Don't think that just because you are a U.S. congressman, I won't dare to shoot you. This is Texas!"

This sentence made Crockett and the volunteers from the United States very unhappy.

On March 10, 1836, the bombardment continued.

Tasan Anna invited Gablenz and Stadion to have lunch together on the hillside, while enjoying the scene of artillery fire covering the Alamo.

"This artillery is really powerful. If our Mexican army was equipped with all this kind of artillery, we would no longer be afraid of the Americans."

Gablenz and Stadion complained in their hearts, "If any army takes dozens of these things on the road, the marching speed will probably be slower than a tortoise crawling."
To be continued...