Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 102: Cutting off the Brazilian Coalition Forces’ Retreat

At dawn, in the small town of South Palmares, three small gunboats were anchored in the empty military port, and seven or eight fishing boats were scattered on the beach. An early-rising fisherman sat on the fishing boat, carefully making preparations for fishing.

After working for a while, the fisherman yawned and habitually glanced at the sea in front of him, only to see a small boat heading towards the coast on the misty sea.

The fishermen were a little confused. The warships in the port had been gone for five or six days, and the fishing boats that went out to sea to fish had not yet set off. Why were the boats returning now?

In order to judge whether he was seeing things, he stood up, rubbed his sleepy eyes, and looked at the sea in front of him with wide eyes.

The small boat came with the wind and headed straight for the coast. As it got closer, the silhouette of the boat gradually appeared in the eyes of the fishermen. The small boat became bigger and bigger, and two Chinese soldiers with weapons appeared in the fishermen's sight on the towering sails. Behind the small boat, forty or fifty large and small ships were sailing on the sea, blocking the entrance to the port.

"Pirates are coming"

The fisherman was so frightened that he shouted something subconsciously, then without caring about his fishing boat, he jumped into the sea and swam towards the shore.

The small town of Palmares do Sul is located about 50 kilometers east of Porto Alegre. It is a seaside outpost belonging to the state of Rio Grande do Sul and serves to transmit alarms to Porto Alegre.

There is a naval base in the port of South Palmares, which is home to a coastal patrol fleet of seven gunboats and a full garrison of 300 people.

However, South Palmares does not have so many troops now. Because the war in the front is intense, more than half of the ships of the South Palmares Coast Guard have been transferred to perform missions.
Half of the soldiers in the garrison were also transferred to the front line.

Therefore, South Palmaris is now at its weakest military strength.

Brazil has experienced little war since its independence, and more than ten years have passed since the uprising in Rio Grande do Sul. The defense of the defenders of Palmares do Sul, which had long lacked the tempering of war, gradually relaxed. Therefore, when they discovered a team of unknown armed forces appearing on the sea, the other side was already preparing to land.

In the center of the fleet, Luo Linshan stood on the bow and observed the enemy's defensive deployment on the shore.

The port of Palmares do Sul is located to the west of the town. Through a telescope, one can see three gunboats lined up on the sea. On both sides of the port stands a small defensive artillery battery. Upon discovering the enemy's attack, the Brazilian garrison soldiers are hurriedly unloading artillery shells, preparing to block the attack of the Chinese fleet.

In the fortress east of the port, a team of more than fifty soldiers were coming to reinforce the port.

The port artillery was the only weapon that could pose a threat to the fleet, and preventing the fleet from landing would require a lot of effort from the artillery, so the defenders had to transfer their limited troops to guard the artillery.

"Two batteries, three gunboats, a fort, and a garrison of no more than three hundred men."

Based on what he observed, Luo Linshan summarized the strength of the South Palmares defenders.

The enemy's garrison was obviously insufficient in strength, and the Chinese fleet could wipe out the enemy as long as they successfully landed. However, Luo Linshan was not a professional naval general after all. Before making the final decision, he asked the Prussian adviser Hans next to him.

After the Chinese fleet arrived off the coast of Brazil, the Prussian fleet completed its escort mission and separated from Luo Linshan and others. However, before leaving, the Prussians, in accordance with the prior agreement with Li Mingyuan, left behind ten Prussian naval officers to serve as advisers to the Chinese fleet and assist the Chinese fleet in subsequent war command.

Captain Hans has the highest military rank among the ten-member advisory group, and he also stays with Luo Linshan as the head of the advisory group to help Luo Linshan solve problems related to naval warfare.

The question Luo Linshan asked was very simple: could the fleet destroy the defenders' artillery with the least sacrifice?

In Luo Linshan's eyes, the two artillery batteries were huge in size, and the black muzzles would pose a considerable threat to the attacking fleet. If five or six ships were lost in attacking the artillery batteries, that would be too great a loss, so he hoped to get a breakthrough to capture the artillery batteries from Hans.

"General, you overestimate the power of the forts." Hans said with a smile, "Look, although the two forts are huge, the cannons are obviously very old. I guess these two forts are probably equipment left by the former Portuguese colonists. They can scare some inexperienced pirates with two old-fashioned cannons, but when the two sides really go to war, the forts will play a limited role."

After Hans' explanation, Luo Linshan picked up the telescope and looked again. As expected, he found something strange. The barrels of the two cannons were rusted and there were some irregular gaps at the muzzles.

"Brazilians are really interesting. They use two old antique cannons to scare us. Brothers, get ready and let them have a taste of the power of our cannons."

After seeing the strength of the two cannons, Luo Linshan felt relieved and immediately issued an attack order.

After the order was issued, the fleet accelerated forward, with more than a dozen small boats on the right side landing on the beach to block the connection between the defenders in the fortress and the port batteries. The remaining ships, under the assistance of Prussian advisers, lined up in a row and bombarded the port batteries.

"Boom boom boom" more than 30 warships fired one after another, and the waves stirred up made the command ship where Luo Linshan was riding shake.

Luo Linshan held the bow mast and observed the battle situation ahead.

In the first test firing, most of the shells fired fell into the sea, and the shells that landed on the shore did not cause any damage to the fort. However, the fierce artillery fire still hit the morale of the defenders of the fort. More than 20 Brazilian soldiers who were carrying the shells lay on the ground and dared not move, for fear of being hit by the inconsiderate shells.

The first bombardment was to correct the position of the port artillery. The blow to the enemy's morale was only on the morale, and there were few real casualties. However, the next one was different. After roughly determining the position of the defenders' artillery, shells whistled in one after another as if they were risking their lives.

"Boom!" A shell hit the fort, and a gap was blown out of the turret under the gun body. The splashed soil and rocks were scattered everywhere. The dozen Brazilian soldiers standing on the fort were the first to be hit. They were injured by the rubble and lay on the ground screaming in pain. A shell hit the fort, instantly eliminating one-third of the combat power of the fort on the left side of the port, and the surviving soldiers on the fort became even more terrified.

After a round of test firing, the defenders of the fort began to fire back. However, even though the two isolated cannons had great power, they posed no threat to the Chinese ships. After several rounds of firing, most of the shells fell into the water. Only one shell was lucky enough to hit the mast of a warship behind the fleet, causing it to temporarily withdraw from the battlefield.

The defenders were not lucky. Just when they forced a Chinese ship to withdraw from the battlefield, they were hit by three shells in succession. Two of the three shells hit the turret and did not cause much damage to the artillery, and the other shell hit the gun body directly. The huge impact force caused the gun body to tilt, and the shell in the gun body was also detonated. With a loud bang, the shell exploded in the gun body, and the entire turret was completely destroyed. Almost all the soldiers on the turret were knocked to the ground by the impact of the artillery explosion. Less than ten minutes after the battle began, a turret was destroyed. The situation that followed was even more unfavorable for the Brazilian defenders.

On this side, the Chinese fleet's artillery suppressed the enemy's artillery, while on the other side, more than 500 soldiers avoided the front of the fortress and landed on the coast more than 400 meters away from the fortress.

There was artillery fire flying across the sea, and both the artillery positions and fortresses were the focus of attention from the Chinese fleet. More and more soldiers landed on the coast, and the fortresses and ports were gradually surrounded by Chinese soldiers.

An hour later, the last artillery battery was also destroyed by artillery shells. Then the surviving soldiers raised the white flag and, under the leadership of their respective officers, walked out of the fortresses and artillery batteries and surrendered to the Chinese troops.

The battle is over, but Luo Linshan still has a lot to do.

Count and arrange the captured Brazilian soldiers, unload the weapons and supplies on the ship, receive the spoils of war, and plan the next battle plan.
The specific and detailed tasks took up a lot of Luo Linshan's time. He was busy until two or three in the afternoon before he finished sorting out all the tasks.

After working for most of the day, Luo Linshan finally had some time to rest. Just when he was about to lie down to sleep,
Hans came to his room.

"Captain Hans, what do you want from me?"

Everything in the morning had been arranged, and Luo Linshan didn't understand why Hans came to see him now.

"I'm sorry to disturb your rest, General, but I have important information to inform you."

"Captain Hans, please speak."

"Among the captured Brazilian soldiers, there was an officer of German descent who revealed to me the reason why the Southern Palmares was short of manpower."

Hans told Luo Linshan in detail the information he had obtained from the German-descended prisoners.

"You mean that the main force of Porto Alegre has been transferred to Paraguay. We can take advantage of this opportunity to take over the entire Rio Grande do Sul in one fell swoop."

Luo Linshan understood everything immediately.

"Yes, the troops of Rio Grande do Sul are mainly concentrated in Porto Alegre. Now Brazil has withdrawn most of its troops to reinforce the Paraguayan front, resulting in a serious shortage of troops in the rear of Rio Grande do Sul. We can take advantage of this opportunity to sweep Porto Alegre and bring the entire Rio Grande do Sul under our rule."

The news brought by Hans was very tempting. Before the fleet set off, Li Mingyuan and Luo Linshan reached a plan that the Chinese fleet would occupy part of Rio Grande do Sul, and then wait until the main force defeated the Brazilian army and cooperate with the main force to take over the entire Rio Grande do Sul.

The original plan was steady and feasible, but now an opportunity to take over the entire Rio Grande do Sul state in one fell swoop was in front of Luo Linshan, which made him unable to make up his mind for the time being.

After thinking it over again and again and verifying the feasibility of the information brought by Hans, Luo Linshan made up his mind: "Let's follow Captain Hans's advice and try to wipe out the Porto Alegre defenders, then threaten the Brazilian army's rear, and assist the main force in winning the war from the side."

Luo Linshan made the decision to fully capture Rio Grande do Sul, and therefore took on the risk of being attacked by the main Brazilian forces. Once the Brazilian side realized that their retreat was cut off, they would definitely send a large number of troops to attack Luo Linshan's troops. At that time, the troops led by Luo Linshan would face a real test.

"General, you don't have to be so pessimistic. As long as we wipe out all the defenders of Rio Grande do Sul, it will take at least half a month for the Brazilian coalition to discover anything unusual. I think in half a month, your main force will also fight with the Brazilian coalition. Even if the Brazilian coalition can send troops to open up the retreat, the number of troops will not be too large, so General Luo does not have to worry too much."

Hans saw Luo Linshan's concerns and explained.

"Before you think about victory, you must think about defeat. Once the war begins, you must be prepared for the worst."

Luo Linshan had to consider the overall situation and various possibilities after the war broke out, so there were many aspects to consider. However, what Hans said made sense. As long as the battle went smoothly and the Rio Grande do Sul army was completely wiped out, the Chinese troops would gain a more advantageous position in the upcoming decisive battle.

Palmares do Sul is not far from Porto Alegre, and the battle situation in Palmares do Sul would soon reach the ears of the Porto Alegre defenders. Therefore, Luo Linshan gave up his rest and summoned his main generals to announce the battle deployment.

Before departure, there were a total of 20,000 people in the fleet, including 10,000 combatants. Excluding 2,000 people lost during the sea voyage, the total number of Chinese was less than 18,000, of which nearly 10,000 were able to participate in the battle.

Ten thousand men have an absolute advantage over the remaining Brazilian troops. However, the Chinese troops not only have to annihilate the remaining Brazilian troops, but also have to occupy 28.1 square kilometers of Rio Grande do Sul, which is equivalent to the area of ​​two provinces on the mainland. It is somewhat insufficient for only ten thousand men to occupy the land. Therefore, Luo Linshan decided to send only a small number of troops to occupy other places, and gather the main force in Porto Alegre. First, they would kill the main force of the remaining Brazilian troops, and then cooperate with the main Chinese forces in the battle.

Time was running out, so Luo Linshan did not make a detailed attack plan. The entire attack plan was simply divided into two routes. The sailors and part of the infantry boarded the captured gunboats and two steam merchant ships in the fleet and rushed to Porto Alegre by water to block the sea retreat of the defending troops. The other route was led by Luo Linshan himself and went straight to Porto Alegre by land.

The new battle orders were transmitted to every landing troop. The soldiers on the coast who had no time to rest set out again. With pack horses and boats, the mighty army left South Palmaris to continue their unfinished journey.

(End of this chapter)