America 1881: Legend of the West.

Chapter 561 Lost Target
The matter of selling guns to the Chinese rebel army went very smoothly until the last step.

The first batch of four hundred rifles and bullets boarded a ship flying the Mexican flag and sailed into the port of Santiago, which was still under Spanish control.

This time, in addition to Chen Jianqiu himself, there was also his wife Camilla.

When he returned to New York, he told Camilla about it.

Without saying a word, the Puerto Rican beauty started packing her bags to prepare for the trip with her husband.

"I know it there." Camilla said lightly while packing her luggage.

Her violet eyes blinked at Chen Jianqiu several times, leaving Chen Jianqiu unable to find any reason to refuse.

Regarding this matter, the happiest person is undoubtedly their son Chen Pengkun.

He originally thought that his parents were gone and that only the little Astor godfather who was always obedient to him was left in New York.

I can be lawless.

Unexpectedly, Chen Jianqiu did not follow common sense.

Someone was sent directly to Hawaii and handed the young master to Sean, along with a letter asking him to discipline him strictly.

Chen Jianqiu also brought forty elite members of the Longxiang Group, pretending to be crew members, to escort the weapon to its destination.

The munitions box was stuffed into a pile of potatoes as was customary.

No one wants to open a pile of potatoes that are almost stinky from the sun.

What's more, under the first layer of potatoes, there is an envelope stuffed with Cuban pesos.

Chen Jianqiu hired Santos, a Mexican who has been doing business in Cuba all year round, to handle the matter.

The guns and ammunition were unloaded and dragged to a warehouse that Santos had already found, ready to be loaded onto a carriage and transported out of the city the next day.

Then, as expected, an accident occurred.

Lai Gubei couldn't find where his father's troops were.

According to the original plan, after arriving at the Port of Santiago, Lai Gubei would go to the streets with members of the underground rebel organization in the city to obtain the latest address of the Chinese rebel army.

But when Chen Jianqiu and Lai Gubei walked along the crooked streets to a Chinese-style medicine shop, they found that the door of the medicine shop was closed and even had a seal on it.

"What, what's going on?" Lai Gubei stood in front of the drug store's door and looked around.

He considered whether to knock on the door.

But his shoulders were quickly hugged by Chen Jianqiu.

The latter lowered the brim of his hat, pointed to a Spanish-style church next to the drug store with a smile, and commented:
"The roof of this church is really beautiful, tsk tsk, these lines, tsk tsk, these materials!"

While Chen Jianqiu was commenting, he was communicating with Lai Gubei, who looked confused, as if he was a tourist from out of town.

"Come on, let's take a closer look." He pulled the young man and slowly turned into an alley next to the church.

"Mr. Chen, we."

Lai Gubei's body was out of his control, and he was led away by Chen Jianqiu. His feet just walked subconsciously. He was a little confused and wanted to ask for clarification.

"Be natural, don't look around, and talk as you should." Chen Jianqiu quickened his pace and whispered to him, "We are being watched."

Lai Gubei, who had never experienced this before, suddenly became nervous and had to follow Chen Jianqiu back and forth through the nearby alleys.

The streets in this city are quite unique, that is, none of them are straight from south to north, but are crooked and directional.

But it’s also great for getting rid of stalkers.

After turning around for so many times that he couldn't remember, Chen Jianqiu finally stopped in front of a building with orange tiles and white walls that looked like a Tuscan style.

Lai Gubei was still too nervous to look back.

But Chen Jianqiu calmly took out a cigar and lit it for himself:

"The man has been dumped." He took a puff of his cigar and said, "The drug store is now a trap. Your underground stronghold is probably gone. As for your comrades, they are most likely in the cells of the colonial government."

Lai Gu's north face is as gray as ashes.

"We also have an alternate point of contact, at the sugar cane trading market, theirs"

His words were immediately interrupted by Chen Jianqiu.

The latter glanced at him with a cigar in his mouth and said unceremoniously:
"Young man, let me tell you that the first rule of thumb for someone engaged in underground work is to never reveal the name, location and other information about the contact person to a third party."

He stared straight at Lai Gubei:
"This habit of yours will kill them."

Chen Jianqiu was slightly worried.

If the intelligence personnel of the Chinese rebel army were as good as Lai Gubei, I'm afraid the whole team would be turned upside down by the Spaniards.

"Sorry, Mr. Chen, I was anxious just now." Lai Gubei soon realized that his behavior was too reckless and apologized.

"Don't contact them at the backup contact point for the time being." Chen Jianqiu smoked a cigar, leaned against the white pillar, thought for a moment and said, "Let me think about any new methods."

The two of them walked along the alley towards the hotel where they were staying.

"Our troops should not be too far from here, because the task my father received is to contain the Spanish army here."

On the way, Lai Gubei whispered to Chen Jianqiu.

"Before I left, I made an agreement with my father that he would wait for my equipment near San Diego."

Chen Jianqiu walked, listened, and nodded.

They passed a newsstand.

Chen Jianqiu bought one copy of each of the newspapers placed on the newsstand.

These newspapers are all in Spanish.

The Spanish that Chen Jianqiu knows is limited to some simple or crude greetings.

Examples include "Good morning, baby!" and "Fuck you."

The former was taught to him by Camila, and the latter was taught to him by himself after dealing with the Mexican gangsters for too many times.

Of course, at this level, one cannot read these newspapers.

Chen Jianqiu rolled them up and held them in his hand. The part he couldn't hold was directly given to Lai Gubei.

The two men quickly returned to the hotel.

This hotel is the largest hotel in the Port of San Diego, close to the port, next to the warehouse where they store guns.

Chen Jianqiu asked Lai Gubei to rest first, then climbed up to the second floor and returned to his room.

At this time, Camilla was packing their luggage.

Including clothing and weapons.

"How's it going? Is it going well?"

Camilla took out three improved grenades from the box and put them into another box like soap.

Chen Jianqiu shook his head.

He told Camilla the details.

"Here are the newspapers from the past two days. See if they can help me find something useful." Chen Jianqiu threw the newspapers he bought onto the bed and spread them out one by one. Camilla put down what she was doing, straightened her skirt, sat down on the bed, and began to quickly search the contents of the newspapers.

Sure enough, she soon found some useful information.

"The leader of the Santiago garrison is Francis, with the rank of colonel. According to information disclosed in the newspaper, the number of Spanish troops stationed here is about 20,000."

Camilla said as she flipped through the newspaper.

"But according to Colonel Francis, these 20,000 people are not used to defend the city, but to take the initiative to attack and deal with those 'ungrateful rebels.'"

Chen Jianqiu raised his eyebrows:

“You can see all this in the newspaper?”

"Yeah." Camilla nodded, pointed her slender finger at a piece of news in the newspaper and began to read:
“Colonel Francis warned the rebels who tried to attack this city: If you want to surrender, it’s not too late. If you are still dreaming, I’m sorry, I have found you, you scum, wait for hell!”

"'I have found you'?" Chen Jianqiu thought about this sentence.

It seems that my guess is reasonable.
Eliminate the possibility of intimidation.

Colonel Francis was not so far as to attempt to drive back the insurgents in this way.

He wished he could directly launch a major battle and inflict heavy defeat on the rebels.

Either the people in the drugstore that was shut down rebelled and provided the specific address of the rebels, or the colonel obtained the address through some other means.

In short, the Spaniards knew the address, at least the colonel knew it.

So, just deal with the colonel's mouth.

Chen Jianqiu was prepared for this matter.

He walked to the bed and took out two things that looked like documents from the compartment of the box.

"The press pass from the famous New York World." Chen Jianqiu said with a smile.

Camilla took it and looked at it carefully.

The cardboard is ordinary as can be, with the name of The New York World printed on it, and its unique pattern is impressive.

However, the name column is currently empty and needs to be filled in manually.

"Did Nigo make a fake one?" Camilla glanced at Chen Jianqiu and asked.

Chen Jianqiu shook his head:
“These two books are really true.”

"I was having dinner with Pulitzer at Astor Jr.'s house before. When he heard that I was going to Cuba, he immediately pulled out two blank press cards from his clothes behind him."

"He gave it to you directly?" Camilla was a little confused.

"Yes, not only did he give me a press card, he also said that in Cuba, I was his reporter, and I even negotiated a salary with him."

Chen Jianqiu said with a smile.

"None of the famous journalists he had worked with were willing to come to Cuba, which disappointed him."

"This guy was drunk when he left. I still remember what he said to me at that time: Give me photos and I will give you war."

Camilla found a pen from somewhere on the table on the dressing table and filled in her name on the press card.

"Camilla, the Cuban correspondent for the New York World." Camilla showed her husband the press card with her name on it. "Mr. Chen, you'd better just be my assistant."

"Yes, sir." Chen Jianqiu saluted Camilla with a smile.

Generally speaking, it is not easy to make an appointment with the highest commander of a city’s army, because these people are often afraid that they will say something they shouldn’t say during interviews and conversations.

But Colonel Francis from Spain is an exception.

He is very keen on exaggerating his achievements and often speaks frankly about many things.

Because he looked down on the Cuban insurgents, especially the Chinese volunteers near Santiago.

So, as a former bullfighter, Colonel Francis felt that it was only a matter of time for him to get rid of these people.

At that time, Spain and the United States had not yet completely torn their relations apart.

The New York World is also a very famous newspaper in America.

But what ultimately made him decide to take the interview was hearing his subordinates describe in detail the stunning appearance of the female reporter who requested the interview.

What "successful man" can say no to a female reporter?

The interview was arranged in the Colonel’s office in the middle of San Diego.

As expected, in front of Camilla, the colonel showed off his abilities hard, like a male peacock in heat spreading its tail to show off the hair on its butt.

"We will soon be able to wipe out the rebels near Santiago," the colonel vowed. "They are mainly Chinese. According to our latest news, these rats have already emerged from the Sierra Maestra Mountains."

"What about their exact location?" Camilla smiled at the colonel. "Can you tell me?"

Colonel Francis almost lost half his soul.

"I told you, just keep it to yourself, don't write it in the newspaper." The colonel winked at Camilla playfully, "In Sage, a small fishing village."

Captain Lai Hua stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the deserted village that had turned into ruins.

The surrounding area was in ruins, most of the houses had been burned down, and the remains of the buildings were scattered on the winding roads.

The road has been destroyed and it is impossible to tell what the road looked like originally;

The scorched earth extended outside the village. The fields were no longer green as they should be at this time of year in previous years. Instead, they were barren, which looked particularly dazzling under the setting sun.

This used to be a small fishing village.

Lai Hua has brought his team here more than once.

It was peaceful and calm.

But their new opponent, the new governor "The Butcher" Viller, in order to prevent the rebels from obtaining manpower and supplies, forcibly concentrated the residents of those villages near cities and towns where Spanish troops were stationed.

The lives of these Cuban residents who lost their land were naturally extremely miserable.

Tens of thousands died of hunger.

But the Butcher didn't care.

He would rather leave a scorched earth for the rebels than let Spain's rule here end so simply.

The current situation of the rebels is very bad.

As a Chinese soldier who had followed General Maceo since the First Cuban War of Independence, he had witnessed the arduous and arduous Cuban War of Independence over the past thirty years.

From the "Ten Years' War" to the "Little War" and now to the "Second Cuban War of Independence".

From unity to internal division, to renewed hope, and now
Lai Hua vaguely remembered it.

He was still a young man in his twenties when he joined the rebel army with a group of Chinese workers working on the plantations, armed with axes and hatchets.

Now my temples are already gray.

What he is most worried about now is his son.

(End of this chapter)