Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 23 Feint Attack
Peru's political situation is in chaos, with the head of state frequently being assumed by coup warlords. The current interim president of Peru, Pedro Diez Canseco, has ascended to the presidency three times through coups, while Thomas, who is at odds with Pedro, is contacting the opposition to overthrow his rule.

At the critical moment before the coup, Thomas would not sit idly by and watch the loss of his generals, so after receiving the telegram for help from the Arequipa defenders, he immediately ordered the army to rescue.

The chief officers of the Puno garrison, Umato and Iquidoq, both belonged to the camp of Tomas Gutiérrez. After receiving Iquidoq's request for help and Tomas' order, they made the decision to send troops immediately, while Moyendo and Cusco sent out troops a little later.

"Master Luo, this is the order from the prince, please take a look."

The telegraph invented in the 1830s was already widely used in the West. Even Paraguay, a landlocked country in South America, developed a preliminary industry and installed telegraph lines under the management of Lopez and his son. However, Li Mingyuan's Chinese army was still in a mobile combat mode and could only use backward manpower to transmit intelligence.

"Commander Li, the prince has thought it through more carefully than us. Surrounding the point and attacking the reinforcements, setting an ambush along the way are much easier than storming the city by force." Luo Linshan said after reading the letter.

"The prince asked me to stay behind to contain and confuse the Arequipa defenders. The task of eliminating the Peruvian reinforcements now falls on Commander Luo." Li Sandou said in a sour tone.

"Commander Li's mission is the most important. If the Arequipa defenders discover our true purpose, they will not be fooled."

"Well, we need to think carefully about how to deceive the defenders in the city." Li Sandou nodded.

"Captain Li, we have rescued nearly 10,000 Chinese workers during this raid. We can arm them first and set up more tent camps outside the city to confuse the Arequipa defenders."

"This is not enough, Commander Luo. I want your troops to cooperate with me in a feint attack before they leave." Li Sandou said after thinking for a while.

"No problem. After the feint, I will leave with the army."

Li Sandou and Luo Linshan discussed a countermeasure and began a feint attack on Arequipa the next morning.

Ikidok slept under the city gate for half the night. In the morning he was awakened by soldiers who told him that the rebels were preparing to attack the city. Ikidok went straight to the city wall without even washing his face.

Li Sandou placed 20,000 Chinese troops in the front and 10,000 newly rescued Chinese workers in the back to boost morale.

There were over ten thousand people, boundless and 30,000 people scattered around the city gate. Even though they hadn't attacked the city yet, their momentum was terrifying.

"Commander, the rebels under the city don't seem to be the vanguard. They should be the main force of the Chinese rebels."

Anderson, who was in charge of defending the city gate, pointed at the densely packed army.

Ikidok looked in the direction Anderson pointed and saw smoke and dust billowing behind the Chinese army, and countless soldiers holding flags kept pouring in.

"The rebel reinforcements are on the way. The more than 30,000 troops in front are not all their forces." Ikidok said after observation.

Just as Iquidok was observing the Chinese army outside the city, two divisions of Chinese soldiers also lined up.

"Commander Li, the troops are ready, you can give the order." Luo Linshan said.

Li Sandou nodded, and the officers around him understood and quickly returned to their respective troops to launch an attack.

There was a roar of artillery fire. Ten thousand rescued Chinese workers followed in the rear while twenty thousand Chinese soldiers dispersed and advanced under the artillery fire. The mopping-up troops did not bring many artillery pieces with them. When the soldiers advanced to five hundred meters from the city wall, only a dozen or so artillery pieces were still firing under the city walls. The other artillery pieces either misfired due to excessive use or were destroyed by the artillery pieces on the city wall.

The artillery on the walls of Arequipa is a heavy artillery for defending the city. One shell can kill or injure five or six soldiers. Today's artillery uses solid bullets. If it were shrapnel shells, the damage to the Chinese troops would be even greater.

"Captain Li, the troops have suffered several hundred casualties. You can order a retreat." The Chinese soldiers on the battlefield had not even gotten within 500 meters of the city wall when they lost two or three hundred men to heavy artillery attacks. "Retreat," Li Sandou ordered.

Since the war in South America, it was the first time that the soldiers under Li Sandou and Luo Linshan encountered such fierce artillery fire. Looking at the miserable appearance of the soldiers who were hit by artillery beside them, some newly joined soldiers could not help but feel their legs go weak. When the retreat order was given, the soldiers attacking the city left like a tide.

"Commander Li, there were a total of 174 casualties in this feint attack, and only 32 of them can be rescued." After the troops retreated, Luo Linshan did not lead his troops away immediately.

"Casualties are inevitable in war. If we want to prevent the Arequipa defenders from becoming suspicious, we have to make sacrifices." Li Sandou felt sorry for the injured and dead soldiers, but if he wanted to complete Li Mingyuan's order, he had no choice but to do this.

"Captain Li, if we want to hold back the Arequipa defenders, similar attacks will have to continue for two days. If the casualties are this high each time, we will lose nearly a thousand men in two days. The prince will be unhappy to know that you have lost so many soldiers."

Before leaving, Luo Linshan advised.

After hearing this, Li Sandou frowned and remained silent for a few minutes. He couldn't think of a good solution.

"Captain Li, there are ways to reduce the casualties of soldiers."

"Master Luo, do you have any good ideas?"

"Didn't we capture 2,000 Peruvian strongmen during our raid? We can drive them to attack the city at night. This will reduce the casualties of the Chinese army and will not arouse suspicion among the Arequipa defenders."

When the Taiping Army was on the mainland, they had a tradition of driving captured Qing troops to attack cities. After listening to Luo Linshan's words, Li Sandou decided to adopt his suggestion without much thought.

In the city of Arequipa, after repelling the first attack of the Chinese army, Iquidoque became more confident that he could defend the city.

At night, under the city wall, Ikidok and Anderson stayed in the soldier cave.

"Commander, we killed hundreds of enemy soldiers in a shelling this morning. It seems that they are not that powerful," Anderson said after drinking a glass of wine.

"We destroyed a lot of the rebels' artillery today. If they want to occupy Arequipa, they can only attack by force." Iquidoque didn't care about the hundreds of Chinese rebels who died. His focus was on the artillery of the Chinese army. It was the artillery that could pose a threat to the city of Arequipa. In the artillery bombardment in the morning, most of the Chinese army's artillery was destroyed. Although the Chinese artillery was not heavy siege artillery, after destroying these artillery, the Chinese army could only move the artillery to the rear. By the time the Chinese army transported the artillery, the reinforcements of the Peruvian army had almost arrived.

"Sir, the rebels outside have begun attacking the city again." The two men were drinking when a sentry came running to report.

"The rebels were frustrated in their siege during the day, so they must have deployed a large army to attack the city at night. Anderson, gather the soldiers to defend the city immediately."

"Yes."

The two men stopped drinking and hurried to the city wall with their guards to command the battle. At night, because they could not see the people below the city clearly, the power of the artillery was not as great as during the day. Groups of soldiers rushed to the city wall with cannons and muskets on their heads to attack the city.

Unlike the daytime thunder and little rain, the night attack was much more violent. When the Chinese army retreated the next morning, more than a thousand bodies dressed in rebel uniforms were left under the city wall.

For the next two nights, the Chinese troops outside the city attacked, but apart from leaving more than 2,000 corpses, they failed to shake the defenses of the Arequipa defenders.

After staying on the city wall for two days, Iquidoc was quite tired. In addition, the rebels outside the city posed little threat to Arequipa, and reinforcements were about to arrive, so Iquidoc relaxed his tense nerves and took his guards home.

(End of this chapter)