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Chapter 1329 Reluctant
"Is this fire too big? I feel like the whole city is burning! Gao Dusi, what do you think? Should we launch an attack?"

Just when the city of Lima was in chaos and leaderless, a fleet flying the sun and moon flags was cruising slowly on the sea a few kilometers away.

Compared to Setel, the flagship captain Wu Bing was much more gentle, but his skin was equally dark. At this moment, he was holding a telescope and carefully observing the movements of Lima Port. Seeing the scene of thick smoke, he felt it was particularly unreal.

"... Let's wait a little longer. There's still an hour and a half before the contact time. Let's hear what the people from the Statistics Department say first. It's so unlucky!" The soldier standing next to Wu Bing was older and taller, but his face looked very ugly, as if he was angry with someone.

He was Gao Budong, the commander of the Central China Military Region, who led the 25th Guard to join the expeditionary force, hoping to gain some military merits before retiring. Unexpectedly, he was almost left at Pearl Harbor for recuperation due to severe seasickness.

After ninety-nine bows, how could he miss the last one? After obtaining Du Wenhuan's approval, he was driven onto the ship by the guards. He finally made it to the Galapagos Islands, but in the end he still didn't get any military merit.

The 25th Guards attacked the port of Guayaquil and successfully captured all the targets without any casualties. How could they not have any merit? However, because the attack was so successful, the attacking troops did not have much merit and could only be considered mediocre.

After running so far and spitting out half of his life, he was unwilling to just follow the crowd. So he found Du Wenhuan again, and relying on his personal relationship for many years, he got the task of leading the battle again, and there were two at once, Lima and Panama.

Without much hesitation, Gao Budong chose Lima. Guayaquil Port was not a big city in the Viceroyalty of Peru. If it were not for the shipyard, it would not appear on the military map. It was just a big fishing village.

But Lima is different. After all, it is the capital of the Viceroyalty of Peru, with tens of thousands of permanent residents. More than half of the Spanish regular troops are concentrated here, and its resistance strength is recognized to be the greatest.

In order to cooperate with the army's landing operations, the Army Statistics Department also put a lot of effort in Lima City, and made more than ten sets of plans. When the fleet arrived at the sea off Lima, the Statistics Department's ship had been waiting here for many days, and they had to continue waiting, waiting for changes in the city.

Up to this point Gao Budong didn't think that anything major would happen. Since the Statistics Department had made arrangements, it didn't matter if he waited a few more days. It would be a great thing if it could reduce the casualties among his soldiers.

As for seasickness, as the saying goes, there is no hardship that cannot be endured, only happiness that cannot be enjoyed. After more than two months of drifting on the sea, the army soldiers who were able to reach the Galapagos Islands were basically not seasick. Some of them even started to learn sailing techniques from the sailors and learned them quite well.

As the ancients said, man proposes, God disposes. Just by waiting like this, they lost a lot of the credit that was within their grasp. If the fire in Lima was not deliberately set by the Spanish defenders, then this battle seemed to be anticlimactic.

"Master Gao, Lima is the seat of the Governor's Office after all, and there is no information that the Spanish Governor has left. If we can capture or kill him, this achievement should not be small, right?"

Wu Bing knew why Gao Budong was unhappy. As a fleet commander, he should not have been involved in the army's affairs. But he also felt depressed because it was his initiative to choose to come to Lima, leaving Panama for Settle.

As a result, there was no scene of annihilating the remaining Spanish naval forces in one fell swoop, and there seemed to be no scene of the fleet firing thousands of artillery at the city defenses. The carefully selected warships really became the army's nannies, just responsible for delivering people safely to the destination. It was so unwilling.

"...That's right, we must capture them alive, as they are more useful alive than dead ones! No more waiting, let's prepare for landing immediately. Captain Wu, I'll have to trouble our brothers in the navy to send a small boat closer to the shore to confirm the landing point." Gao Budong's expression immediately improved as he woke up from his dream. He walked around the steering wheel twice with his hands behind his back and already had an idea in mind. With a wave of his hand, a staff officer immediately spread the map on the deck.

"Of course, it's just a small matter... But the riots have already started in the city, and the Spanish governor may not stay in the governor's palace obediently. How can we identify him then?"

At this time, Wu Bing was very much like Settle a few days ago, trying every possible way to fill in the gaps for the army. But he was not as bold as Settle, and only dared to give advice, not to leave the ship and land to attack with the army.

"Captain Wu, please make it clear. Gao will not let him down!" This question really stumped Gao. The General Staff had issued some portraits of Spanish officials, which must include the Governor-General of Peru, and all the family members.

But these portraits are very different from the real people. This is not a guess, but a fact. We tried it in Guayaquil Port. We took the portraits to the captured Spanish officials and asked them one by one. Less than 30% of them could be recognized, and more than half of them were guessed by the clothes.

"Commander, please look here. This is Lima. According to the intelligence obtained by the Chief of Staff, there is a road east of the city leading to Cusco, which was once the capital of the Inca Empire and is located in the mountains.

There is a mountain road further south from Cusco that leads to the Potosí mining area. South of Lima, there are only two places that can be called cities and are relatively large and have Spanish troops stationed.

The port of Guayaquil was captured, and the enemy's movements were unknown. The Governor of Peru would not flee to the north. However, he had little choice, and it seemed that there were only these two places.

But it is 800 kilometers from Lima to Cusco, and more than 1500 kilometers to Potosí, all on mountain roads. It would take forever to get there by donkey and two legs! It is not clear whether the governor usually lives a life of luxury, but he certainly does not want to travel through the mountains.

So I think he must have prepared ships nearby. As long as we get on a boat, even if it's just a small fishing boat, and head south along the coastline, we can arrive here in less than 10 days... It's not on your map, so you should look at our navy's.

Look, this is the location. This was originally just a small bay with dozens of fishermen and a few small wooden boats. They didn’t even have fishing nets, so they relied on holding their breath and diving to catch seafood to make a living.

But ever since the Spanish discovered Pearl Harbor, the navy's exploration ships discovered it and began to build a dock here. Although it was made of wood, it was quite large and was definitely not used to dock fishing boats.

Based on the fact that this place is only 500 kilometers away from the Posito Silver Mine, the Navy Staff believes that it may be a backup for the Port of Lima, a silver transshipment port built by the Spanish to prepare for any eventuality. "

Did Wu Bing have a way to identify Spanish officials? Really not. In the eyes of the Ming people, many Europeans looked the same. Not to mention not knowing them, even if they had seen them several times, they would still not be able to tell them apart in a crowd.

However, what he wanted to talk about was not how to distinguish who was an official and who was a commoner, but to use the intelligence in his hands to figure out where the Spanish officials were most likely to flee to. As long as they found this place, no matter what they looked like, they would be unable to escape.

(End of this chapter)