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Chapter 1331: Keep the green hills alive

"This is the plan of the Statistics Department! Where are your intelligence agents?" Looking at the people hanged on both sides of the street, Gao Budong couldn't help it and shouted at the officials of the Army Statistics Department.

The order he received was to capture the city of Lima, eliminate the remaining enemies as soon as possible, appease the people, and restore order. Now the capture should not be a problem, and it seems that it is not difficult to eliminate the remaining enemies. But if every street is like this, there will not be many people to appease, let alone restore order.

The General Staff wanted a living city, but now it has become a dead city. No matter who is responsible, it seems that the mission has not been completed. As for him and the 25th Guard, they did not get any merit, and if things go wrong, they will have to pay compensation.

"Sir, it is clear that the Spanish had internal strife, which caused panic, riots, and burned down the city. The army did not fire a single shot, as my brothers in the navy can prove. This situation was an accident and was not part of the battle plan.

I think the most urgent task is to deal with the accident. We should first find and resettle the survivors, capture the murderer, clean up the city, deploy defenses, and figure out the whole thing as soon as possible. Then, we can gradually expand the buffer zone to the surrounding areas and take control of the initiative. "

The officer of the Army Statistics Department was only of the rank of centurion, but he remained unmoved by the harsh questioning of his superiors. With just a few words, he cleared all the responsibilities of all the attacking troops and pointed out the correct approach to take next.

According to him, everything that happened in Lima happened before the attack, so it had nothing to do with the army and navy, or the Statistics Department. It was entirely caused by internal strife among the Spanish.

Since the actual situation has changed, the battle plan should also change accordingly. The current battle goal should be how to save the surviving people in this city and severely punish the murderer. As long as you can do it well, it will still be considered a merit.

"...Go and do your thing. My guards are at your disposal. Execute anyone who has killed anyone... on the spot!"

Gao Budong lowered his head and turned around a few times. When he looked up again, the anger on his face had dissipated. He must have understood the analysis just now. But he did not spare the Statistics Department and handed over the hard work of killing people.

"I don't know what it's like in the navy, but no one in the army likes to deal with them." After the official from the Statistics Department walked away, Gao Budong whispered to Wu Bing. If his eyes could shoot bullets, they would surely shoot the centurion's back into a sieve.

"Alas... sometimes they are quite cute, but sometimes they are too cold-blooded. If they do too many sinister things, it will shorten their lifespan." Wu Bing also felt the same way on this issue. Not only him, but everyone in the navy didn't like these mysterious guys.

It's not that there are too many differences in personal grudges or treatment, but the style of this group of people is unacceptable. In addition to sneaking around, they use coercion, inducement, poisoning, kidnapping, assassination, sowing discord, and fanning the flames.

They can break up a married couple, and even close brothers can become enemies. They show almost all the dark sides of human nature, and even if the final result is in their favor, it is still difficult to make people feel comfortable.

For example, what happened in Lima is definitely related to the Statistics Department. Yesterday they said they would wait and see what happens, but when things went wrong, they immediately denied it. They turned a blind eye to the consequences, as if the bodies in the city did not exist at all, and just brushed it off with a few words.

However, no one can do anything about them. Unless they report to the top of the Statistics Department, other departments have no right to intervene, including the commander of the combat troops. Gao Budong's approach is correct. If you can't control it, just don't offend them. But then again, they are not deliberately making trouble. They are all working towards the same goal. Now that Lima has become a ruin, it is not all bad for the army. At least they don't have to attack the city, which means no casualties.

Every soldier has a family, and no one wants to board the ship alive and kicking, only to return home as a jar of ashes. No matter how many merits one has, they are for the living to enjoy. As a commander, he still hopes that every soldier can return home alive.

"It seems that you guessed right. The Spanish governor and officials had no intention of defending the port. They probably started planning how to escape after knowing that Guayaquil Port had fallen. Is it too late to chase them now?"

After a few complaints, Gao Budong quickly regained his composure. Now was not the time to chat, he had to make the right judgment immediately and use the troops in his hands to expand the results of the battle.

"The Spaniards knew they were no match for the enemy, so they were prepared to abandon the city. But they wouldn't leave too early, otherwise the city would have become like this. Based on this, we can infer that they were gone no more than two days ago, so it's definitely not too late to catch up with them now!"

Perhaps it was because he was a bystander that Wu Bing had no mission to capture the city, so he didn't worry about it. But he was more interested in going south to look for the remaining Spanish warships. Now that Lima had surrendered without a fight, the civilians in the city had suffered heavy casualties, and the army had no worries, so it was time to act immediately.

"...wait for another day and see. If there are no major accidents, you and I will set off tomorrow!"

If Lima had not been destroyed, Gao Budong would not have been so anxious to go south. Now he also wanted to capture a few governors or Spanish officials who had escaped, so that he would have solid evidence in hand and would be more proactive in rewarding merits and distinguishing responsibilities after the war.

At the same time as the Ming army entered Lima, Governor de Cabrera and 200 Spanish soldiers were stumbling along the mountain road in the south of the city. The riots in the city were not part of his plan, and he did not pay much attention to them at first. When the mobs grew larger and larger, he could no longer control them.

He simply ignored it and immediately led the guards to quietly leave the city through the small door behind the church cemetery and head towards the pre-planned small port.

In addition to the Archbishop of Peru, there were also two of the largest local estate owners. They were all members of the royal family. As long as they could return to Spain alive, the responsibility for losing Lima and abandoning the Viceroyalty would be reduced to a small matter. Such amulets must be brought with them.

According to Governor de Cabrera's plan, it was absolutely impossible to defend Lima. This was a seaport city, and when it was built, it was not considered that there would be naval guns with such a long range in the future, so the western city wall and part of the urban area were within the coverage of the Ming Navy's naval guns.

The dilapidated artillery batteries on the city walls and the coastal artillery built in the last century were definitely not able to fight against the Ming Navy. Without the advantage of artillery fire, the area near the city walls could not be defended at all and would be breached sooner or later, and there would be no time for reinforcements to arrive.

Although the Ming army's land combat capability is not clear, judging from the navy's capabilities, it should not be too weak. Instead of waiting for the city to fall and then retreating in a hurry, it is better to make plans in advance.

(End of this chapter)