Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 21: The March to Arequipa
In the early hours of the morning, Li Mingyuan had just fallen asleep when he was awakened by a hurried knock on the door.

"What's the matter?" Li Mingyuan developed the habit of sleeping with clothes on due to his long life as a mercenary in his previous life. Putting on a military coat and shoes, Li Mingyuan opened the door.

"Sir, please take a look at this urgent letter from Master Li and Master Luo."

"Notify all officers above the regimental level to come to the conference room for a meeting." After reading the letter, Li Mingyuan immediately lost his sleepiness and gave the order.

The intelligence from Arequipa was a surprise. Li Mingyuan's original plan was to wait for the opportunity to fight the Peruvian army in Barranca, but the actions of Li Sandou and Luo Linshan disrupted the original plan, and everything had to be redeployed.

"This is the current situation. Please share your views."

After a staff officer finished his letter, Li Mingyuan spoke.

After conquering Balanga, Li Mingyuan thought of establishing a staff officer system. So the day before yesterday, he appointed Liu Pu as the chief of staff of the Chinese Independence Army and recruited several smart officers to serve as staff officers.

"Commander Li and Commander Luo have almost arrived in Arequipa. It is impossible to call them back, so we can only send troops to support them." As the newly appointed chief of staff, Liu Pu spoke first.

"Old Li was a little impatient this time. He acted on his own without informing the public of the situation, which put the entire Chinese Independence Army in a passive position. It is impossible not to support them, but supporting them will disrupt the prince's original deployment." Chen Guozhu said.

"Old Chen, you can't say that. The situation in Arequipa is favorable to us. Old Li's decision to surround Arequipa was the right thing to do. I would do the same if I were in his position."

Zhang Ansong, who seldom speaks, said.

Li Mingyuan listened carefully to everyone's speech and comprehensively considered the pros and cons of sending troops.

Li Mingyuan has some military acumen, but his ideas are not all correct, so every time something major happens, Li Mingyuan always listens to different opinions first and then makes a decision.

There is no doubt that troops should be sent out. According to the time, the two divisions of Li Sandou and Luo Linshan have already surrounded Arequipa. Giving them an order to retreat now will not only undermine the morale of the Chinese soldiers, but also alert the enemy. It will not be so easy to lure the enemy deep into our territory in the future.

Li Mingyuan walked to the newly drawn up sand table and carefully examined the spheres of influence of the Chinese and Peruvians.

Arequipa is connected to the road leading to Cusco, and Puno and Cusco along the road can transport reinforcements to Arequipa. These two places are also the places where Peru's heavy troops are assembled.

Because Puno is close to Lake Titicaca, it has 15,000 Peruvian troops, and Cusco also has 1,000 to 2,000 troops. Together with the 5,000 troops in Mollendo south of Arequipa, the number of troops supporting Arequipa reaches 30,000, accounting for almost a quarter of the total number of Peruvian troops.

The 30,000-strong Peruvian army should not be underestimated, because they are equipped with brand-new muskets and cannons. If the Chinese army uses the existing number of people and equipment to fight a tough battle with them, the final result may be a lose-lose situation for both sides.

During the Spanish rule, Peru was a mining base in South America. After independence, the Peruvians made a lot of money by selling mineral resources. Naturally, the wealthy Peruvians would not mistreat their army. Peru bought a large amount of arms and equipment from the British and French to arm their soldiers. In addition to purchasing arms, the Peruvians also developed their own military industry. Arequipa was an arms base that the Peruvians had spent a lot of effort to build. Therefore, when Arequipa faced the attack of the Chinese army, other Peruvian troops would certainly provide full support.

"Pao Luo, based on the information provided by Sun Qisheng, does your artillery regiment have the confidence to capture Arequipa?" Li Mingyuan asked after thinking for a while.

"The fortifications of Arequipa are stronger than those of the Barranca. If the artillery regiment wants to blast through the city walls, it will have to use all its cannons."

The last time they attacked Dulaya, Luo’s cannons failed to blast open the city gate, so they didn’t dare to brag this time.

"Chief of Staff, how long will it take to capture Arequipa with the support of the artillery regiment?"

"Because of Arequipa's city defenses, we can take it in two days if we storm it. However, in two days, other Peruvian reinforcements will arrive, and we will likely be attacked from both sides."

Liu Pudao.

"Don't worry about that for now. I want to know if there's any problem taking Arequipa."

"Prince, there is no problem in taking the city. The key is that we don't have that much time." Liu Pu said.

"No, Chief of Staff, you misunderstood me. I don't plan to attack Arequipa by force. Considering all the circumstances, it is not difficult to capture the city, but we will take a great risk, and we don't have the capital to rise again after failure, so I decided to give up the attack on Arequipa."

As soon as Li Mingyuan finished speaking, Zhang Ansong said anxiously, "Prince, Commander Li, Commander Luo and 20,000 to 30,000 Chinese brothers are still waiting for our support. If we don't go, they may be attacked by the Peruvian reinforcements and be wiped out. Prince, please think twice."

In fact, the situation was not as serious as Zhang Ansong said, because it took two days for the Peruvian reinforcements to arrive in Arequipa after receiving the news, and it would definitely take less than two days for Li Sandou to arrange the retreat after receiving the retreat order from the headquarters.
Zhang Ansong said this because he was worried that Li Sandou would disobey Li Mingyuan's orders and insist on taking Arequipa, thus falling into the encirclement of the Peruvians. On the other hand, Zhang Ansong also agreed with Li Sandou's approach. "Since the prince does not intend to attack Arequipa, you should send someone to send a letter to Li Shizhang and his men, asking them to retreat overnight."

Li Mingyuan did not plan to attack Arequipa by force. Liu Pu felt regretful but also relieved. Although he lost a good opportunity to capture Arequipa, he could still ensure the safety of the troops.

"Prince, no one can guarantee victory in a war. In order to capture Arequipa, I think it's okay for the army to take some risks. Moreover, the risk of attacking Arequipa this time is not as great as imagined. If we haven't captured the city when the Peruvian reinforcements arrive, the worst that can happen is that we can retreat to Barranca and fight them. The Heavenly Kingdom defended Tianjing for eleven years. Can't we, with so many people, defend Barranca?" Zhang Ansong continued without giving up.

"Uncle Zhang said the worst possible outcome, but I won't choose to do that."

Seeing that Zhang Ansong was about to speak, Li Mingyuan stopped beating around the bush and said with a smile, "You misunderstood me. Although I said that I would not attack Arequipa, I did not say that I would not attack the Peruvian reinforcements."

Just now when looking at the sand table, Li Mingyuan suddenly thought that they had to worry about the Peruvian reinforcements when attacking Arequipa, so it would be better to use Arequipa as bait, surround the point and attack the reinforcements, concentrate superior forces, and eat up the three Peruvian reinforcements one by one. Without the reinforcements, Arequipa could be taken easily.

"Your Highness, do you mean to surround the city and attack the reinforcements?" Liu Pu had been struggling with the question of whether to attack Arequipa or not. He did not think of attacking the Peruvian reinforcements first.
As soon as Li Mingyuan said this, the officers including Liu Puzai understood it instantly.

Encircling a point and attacking its reinforcements was not the first move of some party in later generations. Sun Bin surrounded Wei to save Zhao and annihilated the Wei army on the way, which is a well-known example. Therefore, the officers present were no strangers to encircling a point and attacking its reinforcements.

"Prince, should you have told me earlier? You caused me to have a false alarm." Zhang Ansong said.

"Haha, I just thought of this idea." Li Mingyuan chuckled and continued, "Moyendo and Puno are relatively close to Arequipa. They will definitely send out their troops first, so I decided to eat up these 20,000 people first, and then attack the reinforcements from Cusco."

"The prince has made a big move. By consuming three reinforcements, the defenders of Arequipa are now trapped. We can deal with them without much effort." Liu Pu said.

"Yes, I want to fight a big battle this time, wipe out the main force of southern Peru in one battle, and force the Peruvians to make peace with us." Li Mingyuan said with high spirits.

"Prince, after we annihilate the Peruvian reinforcements and occupy Arequipa, the weapons and equipment problems that have plagued the army can be solved, and the combat effectiveness of our soldiers can be fully exerted." Liu Pu said happily.

"Liu Pu, after occupying Arequipa, you will be responsible for protecting the military industry. There cannot be any mistakes."

"I understand."

"Uncle Chen, Daniu, lead your respective troops to ambush on the road that Moyendo must take to support Arequipa, and annihilate all the reinforcements."

"Yes, sir," they said in unison.

"Commander Zhang, lead your division and the headquarters troops to ambush the enemy forces in Puno."

"Yes"

"Chief of Staff Liu, send a letter to Division Commander Li, asking him to transfer Division Commander Luo's troops to reunite with the headquarters. He will lead a division and the rescued Chinese workers to continue besieging the city until we have dealt with the reinforcements and then reunite with them."

"Yes."

After the task was issued, Li Mingyuan smiled and said, "Uncle Chen, a division plus a brigade with 16,000 people can eat 5,000 Mo Yanduo, right?"

"If our total force of three to one still cannot annihilate the Peruvians, I will tear my head off and let the prince kick it like a ball," said Chen Guozhu.

The officers on the side laughed when they heard his words.

After everyone stopped laughing, Li Mingyuan said, "Our weapons and equipment are still a little different from those of the Peruvians, so we have to make up for the shortfall with our numerical advantage. However, after Peru mobilizes, its army will definitely be larger than ours, so I hope you can lead the troops well. After we capture Arequipa and have sufficient weapons and equipment, we will be able to defeat the enemy with a small force, even if it's one against three. Do you have the confidence to do it?"

"Yes," the officer in the hall shouted.

"Very good. It is one o'clock in the morning now. The whole army will set out in one hour."

"Yes," everyone responded and quickly left the meeting room and rushed to the various troop bases.

(End of this chapter)