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The Centaur of the North

Doroteo Arango looked from atop his horse to the men working about and was filled with pride again. If he was honest with himself, he had been defeated; El Perfumado had won the round.
Sure, it could have been worse, he could have ordered more charges at the enemy defenses instead of stopping at twenty or so, but a defeat was a defeat. The more than a thousand bodies on the ground proved that [1].

Yet the men were still confident, and morale was as high as ever. After all, since the start of the Revolution they had tasted nothing but victory: first against Diaz, then the usurper Huerta, and now against Carranza.
Defeat had visited them today, but they were going to change that.

“General Villa!” someone called for him, and he saw a man riding toward him.
“What is it?” he asked the excited man.
“They're here, sir!” he saluted.

General Pancho Villa grinned and rose his horse toward the crowd gathered at the train station. Among the group unloading he found the thin man with stern eyes.
“General,” Villa called. The man turned and saluted. “How do you feel, sir?”
“I'm good, sir,” General Felipe Angeles replied. “The fall only hurt my pride [2].”
“That's what I want to hear,” he said. “Ready to get Obregon out of Celaya?”
“I'll need to see the defenses he's prepared,” Angeles answered. “But it should be doable.”
“That's what I want to hear!” Villa grinned again.


[1] Because of the POD Villa doesn't order the roughly 40 charges he did OTL and doesn't lose the roughly 3000 men he did.
[2] POD. Felipe Angeles doesn't break his ankle in Monterrey, and is able to join the Battle of Celaya.


Welcome to my new TL! I just couldn't stay out of the alternate history game for long, so I chose to write about one of my favorite moments of the Mexican Revolution, the Battle of Celaya.
That said, there is still stuff going on in my personal life, so this won't be as ambitious as my other TL and updates might be a bit more sporadic.
As always, feel free to offer comments and suggestions!
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