Herrera was a self-respecting professional soldier, and his father was a member of the first expedition to Coronado in the New World, which is said to be so.

In fact, all he had to say about his father, except for a fraction of the blood that flowed through his body, was the name Herrera.

After all these years of searching and speculation, he may have more than a thousand brothers and sisters in the New World, after all, after his father became a new nobleman, he took over all fourteen brothers in the family, regardless of whether they were high or low.

Some people are lucky enough to be recognized and reused by their families, but more people are like him, lonely ghosts, joining the army, serving the army all their lives, and it seems that people's lives should be spent like this.

All his life he had been exposed to was fighting and deterrence, and he knew before he killed those chiefs that this would cause even greater turmoil.

But the more so, the more so.

New Spain is already in chaos.

This land has been chaotic since he was born, and forty years have passed, and the chaos here has calmed down, and the arrival of the Ming people has broken everything that is calm.

He personally received Bernal's order to redeploy his troops, and as a rank commander, he was ordered to lead his army to Mexico City, and he and the other half-blood commander accepted the order as a matter of course.

Then, he watched Bernal take control of Mexico City by force and be appointed acting governor by the Council of the West Indies to control the New World.

Herrera had always thought that Bernal was loyal to Almanza, and for a time believed that he was loyal to Bernal – until the letter of appointment of the Acting Governor of New Spain was issued by the Commission.

Maybe he's wrong.

It seems that the strength and guns are more important than the bloodline.

"Legion Commander, the corpses of a group of scouts were found in the west of the camp, killed by powerful bows and arrows, and their armor and weapons were taken away, as well as their heads, the monk said it had been two days."

"Take the head?"

Herrera had big eyes, and instead of looking less like a Spaniard, he looked like he was holding the name Indian.

When the soldier entered the tent, he was holding a silver wine glass and pondering, when he heard the rumor, he frowned in surprise and asked, "Cut off the head, the Aztecs did not have such a custom, is the heart still there?" ”

The soldier in charge of delivering the message nodded and said, "The heart is still there, and the accompanying monks suspect that there are others on this battlefield." ”

The indigenous people of the Aztec homeland near Mexico had the custom of cutting open the hearts of their enemies, but no one ever intentionally cut off the heads of their enemies.

"When I was a child, I heard that some small tribes on the northern islands used to cut off the heads of their enemies, how could the white horse gather an army so far away, if he could gather the Indians so far away, it would not be only six thousand."

Herrera put down her glass, got up and looked at the map on the table, and said to the soldiers: "Send scouts to the west again, be careful, the Ming army also has the habit of cutting off heads or ears." ”

To the north of the Herrera legion on the map, there are large Indian camps circled with ink pencils at intervals of seven miles, and five Indian camps are marked in front and back.

The scout battle between the two sides was very simple but very brutal, Herrera would send the subordinate Native Indians to scout the north, and the Indian tribal leader White Horse would have the tribal warriors wear the armor of the Spaniards to scout here.

The two sides look similar, and when they are far away, it is impossible to see who belongs where, so that there are often cannibalistic situations in the dense forest.

The Herrera Legion noticed the problem first and simply put their men back in armor, which significantly reduced the chances of the scout being killed during the course of the day, but not the next day.

After decades of colonization and strife, the two sides were almost identical in equipment.

The two sides changed the secrets of their clothing and armor that only their own people knew, and finally they both wore armor at all, and only changed some small decorations on their bodies every day to distinguish their identities, so as to detect each other's movements.

Even after it was discovered that the Indian chieftain White Horse had gathered more than 6,000 troops, Herrera remained optimistic about the outcome of the battle, and even believed that it would help to defeat the subsequent recruitment.

But what if the Ming army comes?

Herrera shook her head, how could the Ming army come?

There were only two thousand men in all, and there were craftsmen and boatmen mixed in, and they knew very well that we had gathered more than 8,500 troops near Mexico to shrink our defenses, and unless the Ming army went crazy, they would not land on the soil of New Spain at this time.

"It took a lot of effort to lure the white horse to this side, and it must not fall short, so that the Ibi company guarding the bridge raised its spirits, and the two cavalry companies detoured back to the back of the white horse from the east of the river, their logistics were very bad, and the decisive battle was in these two days."

"Even though they have muskets and horses, they won't be our Spaniards!"

In fact, Herrera is also trying to change his identity, he has always been a military general, in the words of the Ming Dynasty, 'the merit has been extreme', but since Bernal became the new acting governor, he seems to see a higher room for improvement.

I can't help but think more in my mind, and of course, this also involves a difference in culture, that is, the Western military merits in this era are different from the Eastern military merits.

Just like Spain did not have the habit of cutting off the head and cutting off the ear, the reason is that there is no military merit.

A low-level soldier will never become a corps commander for the rest of his life, and the reason why the corps commander is a corps commander is not because they are excellent soldiers, but because he is an excellent officer.

The general reason is like Liu Xian's two guillotines to cut out the chief military officer, it is impossible to happen in Spain, even if he can cut it again, he will only be a mercenary captain born in Spain.

Just like the ranks of soldiers above the Western level are basically from the nobility of all ages, most of them will choose to surrender when they run out of ammunition and food, because surrender can save them from death and give the other party the right to demand ransom.

In China, the first rank is the only way for a soldier to be promoted, and the higher the official rank, the more valuable the first rank, and it is useless to capture the poor eggs, and it consumes food.

But Herrera's time for a difficult choice has arrived.

Not long after, the cavalry sent along the east bank of the river to return to the rear of the White Horse chieftain, they met four companies of Bernal's regiment retreating from the north.

"In Puerto Vallarta, the Ming fleet attacked the port more than ten days ago, sank and burned all the ships in the port, and did not land, and the fleet followed to the south and disappeared from our eyes."

"We want to salvage the artillery from the sunken ship, but there is not a single ship, and the corps commander has not received news from the Ming fleet here? They should be coming this way. ”

The Ming army is really coming.

Herrera's back was tinged in the back with this news, and combined with the deaths of two scout squads, it was easy to think that the Ming army had quietly advanced to his left flank and could attack him at any moment.

"Has the legion commander discovered the traces of the Ming army?"

The rider who came to deliver the message was a junior officer in Bernal's legion, from a mercenary squad, and he said to Herrera: "Then it's time to retreat, quickly withdraw from the east bank to outside Mexico City, the Ming army is small, we have enough opportunity to ambush them on land." ”

"But retreating will cause them more trouble with the Indians and cause us more trouble - how far are your four companies from here?"

"Three leagues, tomorrow morning the infantry and cavalry companies can rush behind the Indians to cross the river."

Herrera nodded slowly and said, "You are now led by me, tomorrow at noon, I will send six companies to attack White Horse, and three companies on the left flank will ambush the possible Ming army, you and I will attack the Indians together, we will defeat them, and if the Ming army does not appear, we will retreat to Mexico City." ”