Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 101 The curtain opens

After Garcia took over the mess left by Mitchell, he did not rush to launch an attack on Fort Humeta, but ordered the troops to rest on the spot and stop shelling Fort Humeta.

During the troops' rest period, Garcia personally explored the terrain around the Humeta Fortress and carefully observed the deployment of Paraguayan troops. After a month of observation and preparation,
A plan gradually formed in Garcia's mind.

The main defense direction of Humeita Fortress is the Paraná River in the west, and the east relies on high mountains and dangerous ridges as a barrier.

In previous offensive and defensive battles, the main attack direction of the coalition forces had always been the river positions in the west, while the east only launched a tentative attack. As a result, the attacking troops returned halfway due to illness, getting lost in the mountains and forests, etc. before they reached the position behind the Hume Tower Fortress.

After the failure of the flanking attack from the east, the Allied forces abandoned the plan of flank attack and focused on attacking from the front.

Garcia questioned several surviving soldiers who had participated in the flanking operation and found that the flanking attack was not without the possibility of success.

The failure of the first exploratory attack was certainly due to the steep mountains and forests and the harsh environment, but the coalition forces' lack of preparation for the attacking forces was also an important reason for the failure.

When deciding to carry out the flanking operation, the Allied Command simply marked the marching route on the map and dispatched a thousand soldiers to set off directly. Supplies, logistical support and other work were configured according to the standards of mountain marching. The difficulty and danger of marching in the Asuncion Mountains were not taken into consideration, which resulted in the flanking troops consuming too much food and medicine when they were halfway through the march, and they had to withdraw.

After learning the information he wanted from the surviving soldiers, Garcia was fully confident that he could encircle and annihilate the defenders of the Humeta Fortress.

After a month of repairs and preparations, the morale of the coalition forces was restored to a certain extent. At the same time, Garcia officially began to deploy the encirclement and suppression of Humeta.

First, Garcia transferred the most expensive ironclad ships from the navy to deal with the Paraguayan mines and shore artillery fire.

Secondly, the artillery unit resumed the bombardment of the Humeita Fortress, and the Allied forces launched an attack on the Paraguayan defenders. The Humeita Fortress, which had been silent for a month, was once again filled with smoke and flames of war.

The artillery fire on the front battlefield was fierce but not brutal, in sharp contrast to the Allied forces that attacked from the flank behind the Hume Tower Fortress.

The allied forces of more than 1,000 people were transported by a naval fleet and landed on the shore two hundred miles away from the Humeta Fortress, where they would cross the mountains and dense primeval forests to infiltrate behind the Paraguayan defenders, cutting off the connection between the defenders of the Humeta Fortress and the remaining troops in Asuncion, thus achieving the goal of annihilating the main force of Paraguay in one battle.

For this flanking attack, Garcia mobilized all the naval forces on the Paraná River. In addition, in order to prevent the defenders of Fort Humeta from discovering the strategic purpose of the coalition forces, Garcia mobilized the naval forces of Porto Alegre to blockade the waters around Fort Humeta, temporarily cutting off the communication channels between the defenders of Humeta and other troops. Porto Alegre is the capital and naval base of Rio Grande do Sul state in Brazil, with a guard force of 5,000 stationed there. However, as the coalition forces advanced into the core area of ​​Paraguay, Rio Grande do Sul state in the southernmost part of Brazil got rid of the direct threat of the Paraguayan army and became a safe rear area. Therefore, the Brazilian troops originally stationed in Porto Alegre were gradually transferred to the Paraguayan front to supplement the slack of coalition forces. When Garcia's order came, the last batch of offshore ship troops went to the front line, and the guard force of the entire Rio Grande do Sul was emptied. The regular force still had a guard regiment of about 1,000 people, and a militia of 800 people who could be assembled to meet the enemy in an emergency. Together with several small gunboats in the port, the armed force of 2,000 people was the entire defense force of Rio Grande do Sul.

Paraguay was driven back to its homeland. Rio Grande do Sul was surrounded by the spheres of influence of the Argentine and Uruguayan allies on both sides and the other four states in southern Brazil behind. Even if the main defensive forces were transferred away, Rio Grande do Sul would not face the danger of being attacked by Paraguay. Based on this judgment, Garcia decisively transferred the remaining troops from Porto Alegre to implement his own roundabout encirclement plan. However, Garcia's carefully planned strategic deployment omitted the influence of the Chinese troops.

On February 1868, , before Mitchell was dismissed, the main force of the Chinese Independence Army set out from Sucre and marched towards Paraguay along the tributaries of the Mamore River. The geographical environment between Sucre and Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, changed successively, including plateaus, deserts, and Asunción forests. The Chinese troops, numbering more than , encountered various difficulties while walking in the uninhabited plateaus and deserts for thousands of miles.
In the first half month of the journey, the Chinese troops did not encounter too many setbacks in the Bolivian plateau because of the guidance of Bolivian guides. However, after crossing the city of Uyuni, the road ahead gradually became difficult. The Gobi Desert and hills divided the plateau into scattered parts. It was very difficult for carriages, mules and horses to travel on the fragmented roads. Moreover, the climate in the southern Bolivian plateau was unpredictable. Hail and heavy rains often fell on the marching troops without warning. More than a thousand Chinese died of diseases caused by heavy rains and hail.

After crossing the unpredictable Bolivian plateau, the Chinese troops entered the temporarily ownerless Chaco Desert. After trekking for a month, the main Chinese force finally entered Paraguay. At this time, the Chinese troops had lost a total of 3,500 people. Most of the 3,500 people lost during the march were middle-aged laborers with weak physical fitness. The death toll of young and strong Chinese workers did not exceed 1,000.

And this is the only thing that makes Li Mingyuan feel fortunate.

The thousands of miles of land migration were fraught with difficulties and resulted in heavy casualties, and the sea migration was also not a pleasant journey.

The fleet sailed along the coast of Chile and encountered a hurricane on the way. Three ships full of Chinese workers were severely damaged and had to stop in the coastal area of ​​Patagonia for repairs.
Shortly after the fleet docked, a small Chinese team out hunting encountered the local Indian Mapuche people.

At first, the Mapuche people regarded the Chinese troops as invaders like the white people, and the two sides were about to fight as soon as they met. At this time, the leading officer of the Chinese detachment sent a soldier to negotiate proactively, and thus a conflict was avoided between the two sides.

Upon learning that the Chinese troops were also enemies of the white people, the Mapuche people immediately became enthusiastic. They gave the animals they had collected to the Chinese troops as gifts, and the leading officer gave the Mapuche people two muskets as a return gift.

The fleet stayed off the coast of Patagonia for a week, exchanging food with the Mapuche people using the outdated muskets on the ship and replenishing fresh water. Then the fleet set sail again and did not encounter any danger until the Strait of Magellan.

However, after entering the Strait of Magellan, the fleet suffered serious losses. Three cargo ships were seriously damaged, and two merchant ships carrying Chinese people ran aground and sank. Only two hundred of the one thousand Chinese on the two sunken merchant ships were rescued, and all three hundred people on the three cargo ships transporting food and supplies were killed. Just crossing the Strait of Magellan, the Chinese troops lost 1,100 people. It has to be said that it was a huge loss.

Enduring the risks of storms and reefs at sea, the fleet arrived off the coast of Rio Grande do Sul on April 1868, . The lighthouse of Porto Alegre also appeared in front of the fleet.

(End of this chapter)