Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 105 Oliva Battle

"Yesterday morning, Lopez Jr. mobilized 10,000 fortress defenders to attack the Brazilian army behind him. The battle lasted for an entire afternoon. In the end, due to the diversionary attack of the main Brazilian force in front, Lopez Jr. was forced to withdraw 10,000 troops back to the Humeta Fortress. Paraguay's attempt to break the Brazilian army's encirclement failed.

There are still 5,000 defenders in Asuncion, but because they need to defend the capital, Lopez Jr. will not transfer these 5,000 troops to our command. The Chinese Independence Army will have to deal with the current 5,000 Brazilian troops alone."

On the Paraguay River, Li Mingyuan briefed his officers on military intelligence.

"The Brazilian army is marching in the mountains, so the number of heavy weapons they carry should not be large. The 40,000 field troops of the Chinese Independence Army will be fully deployed, so it won't be difficult to deal with the 5,000 Brazilian troops."

Li Sandou said.

"We have never fought against the Brazilian army, so we don't know how strong they are. However, according to the Brazilian army's record, 10,000 Paraguayan troops failed to capture their defensive positions after a long attack. I think these 5,000 Brazilian troops are strong. They are probably the elite of the Brazilian army. Without knowing the enemy's strength, I don't recommend that the entire army go to fight the enemy."

Zhou Guozhu and Li Sandou don't get along well with each other, but what he said makes a lot of sense.

Garcia hoped to cut off the retreat route of the defenders of the Fortress of Mehuta. One battle would decide the outcome of the Paraguayan War. As the core part of this combat deployment, the 5,000 troops for the flank attack must be the elite selected from the Brazilian coalition forces. Fighting against such a force, carelessness would lead to great losses.

“It is true that the Brazilian troops are elite, but after a day’s battle with 10,000 Paraguayan troops, their casualties will not be small. Now is the time to take advantage of their fatigue and attack with the main force of the army. I believe that the battle can be resolved quickly.

If we send out a small number of troops first to test the enemy's strength, it is likely to alert the enemy and cause them to defend themselves tightly, making it more difficult to defeat the enemy later."

Zhou Guozhu and Li Sandou both made sense. Li Mingyuan combined their ideas and put forward his own opinion: "The rear of Paraguay is empty. If Lopez Jr. wants to seize the stronghold occupied by 5,000 Brazilian troops, he has to transfer troops back from the front line. The Brazilian coalition should have known this long ago, so they can confidently send 5,000 troops to block the rear of the Humeta Fortress."

"The Brazilian coalition forces have been fighting with Paraguay for several years, and the other side knows Paraguay's strength very well. The Asuncion defenders are short of manpower. Once troops are withdrawn from Asuncion to attack the strongholds occupied by the Brazilian flanking forces, it is likely that the Asuncion defenders will be defeated and return. At this time, Asuncion, without sufficient troops, will definitely not be able to withstand the attack of 5,000 Brazilian troops, and the victorious Brazilian army will not give up the good opportunity to occupy Asuncion. In this way, the capital will be occupied. Regardless of whether the main force of Paraguay is eliminated, Little Lopez, who has lost the core base of the capital Asuncion, will become a grasshopper in autumn and will not be able to jump for long."

Wang Dashan agreed.

Wang Dashan, Zhou Guozhu and others had fought many battles with Li Mingyuan, and they pointed out the strategic purpose of the Brazilian army in a few words.

Knowing the enemy's strategic goals is one thing, but knowing how to crack them requires specific practical operations.

"According to the news sent back from Paraguay, the territory occupied by Brazil is located sixty miles south of Porto Alegre, in the town of Oliva on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River."

After a discussion, Li Mingyuan took out the map provided by Paraguay and spread it on the table, explaining, "Oliva Town is located on a high ground. There are three fortresses built by Paraguay on the riverside. There are slopes of about 14 meters on the left and right sides, and there are mountains and forests behind. It is not easy to occupy it no matter which side you attack from."

"Oliva is easy to defend but difficult to attack. How could the Paraguayan army, with its geographical advantage, be captured by the Brazilians?"

The town of Oliva has a complete defense system and was originally a good stronghold for defense, but now it has fallen into the hands of the Brazilians. This means that the Chinese Independence Army will have to pay a heavy price to capture the town of Oliva. Thinking of this, Wang Dashan, who was sitting silently, couldn't help but blame the Paraguayan side for betraying his teammates.

"The main force of Paraguay gathered at the Humeta Fortress. Little Lopez did not expect that the enemy would bypass the front-line Paraguayan army and head straight to the town of Oliva.

There is no point in blaming the Paraguayans now, let's think about how to deal with the enemy in front of us!"

Li Mingyuan left the question to the officers below. He rubbed his eyes and lay down in a chair to rest for a while.

Liu Pu was not around, and Sun Bin was left behind to recruit Paraguayan women to join the Chinese Independence Army. All the tedious tasks fell on Li Mingyuan alone. He had been busy for several days and had not had a good night's sleep. Therefore, Li Mingyuan could only use a short period of time to rest for a while, otherwise, he would be even more overwhelmed by the subsequent command of the war.

The officers below continued to discuss, but after half an hour they still had not found a good way to deal with the enemy.
The discussion lasted for quite a while, and it would be difficult to come up with a good solution if they continued. Li Mingyuan spoke up to stop the discussion and decided to adopt a traditional attack plan, encircling the Brazilian army from all sides, and then sending some soldiers to attack in turns.

In the early morning of May 1868, 5, the Chinese Independence Army launched an attack on the town of Oliva.

Oliva Town was small on all sides and could not accommodate too many soldiers in one attack. In the first attack, the Chinese Independence Army divided 5,000 soldiers to attack from the shore and the left and right sides.
The attack from the left and right sides was intended to disperse the Brazilian army's strength and relieve the pressure on the Chinese soldiers attacking from the river bank.

Three thousand soldiers gathered on the river bank, led by the steady Wang Dashan, who launched the first round of attack.

"Boom boom boom" Fierce shells were fired at Oliva Town, and a puff of smoke rose from the fortress. The Chinese Independence Army had come from a long distance, and most of their heavy weapons were left behind, so most of the artillery they carried were small artillery with little power. These artillery could only leave some small pits on the fortress, but they still couldn't break through the wall fortress. After a round of artillery fire, before the smoke had dissipated, the soldiers of the First Mixed Brigade under Wang Dashan attacked the Brazilian army's position.

Most of the soldiers of the 1st Mixed Brigade were veterans. In the initial stage of the charge, they slowly accelerated. When they were within a hundred meters of the enemy position, the experienced veterans charged quickly, running to a distance of fifty to sixty meters in front of the Brazilian army position in a few seconds, and then immediately dispersed, hiding behind cover and exchanging fire with the enemy.

Although the distance of fifty or sixty meters is not far, it becomes very difficult for the Chinese soldiers in this position to advance and charge to the front of the enemy position.

Fifty or sixty meters in front of the Brazilian army's position was a bare open area. Four machine guns formed a cross blockade on both sides of the position. Wang Dashan led the troops to launch six attacks but none of them succeeded. Instead, he lost more than 200 soldiers.

There were constant sounds of gunfire and artillery fire, and the battle lasted for three hours before it gradually ended. The first attack of the Chinese Independence Army ended in failure.

On May 5, the 27nd Mixed Brigade replaced the st Mixed Brigade.

The newly equipped grenades launched an attack on the Brazilian army,

The Chinese soldiers used grenades to blow up a fortress, destroyed three machine gun positions, and rushed to the top of the hill for the first time an hour after the battle began.
The Chinese soldiers rushed to the high ground and seemed to have secured victory, but unexpectedly, artillery fire from the reverse slope and the center of the town of Oliva bombarded the top of the mountain. The Chinese suffered heavy casualties in a short period of time. The company commander of the 4th Company of the 3rd Regiment of the 2nd Brigade who led the charge was killed, three platoon leaders and a deputy platoon leader were killed, two were injured, and 300 soldiers were killed or wounded.

The battle of Oliva was a tough one from the beginning. After two failed attacks, the Chinese Independence Army launched the third and fourth attacks. The positions around Oliva were successively occupied by the Chinese Independence Army.

On May 5, all defensive positions in the town of Oliva were lost, and the remaining Brazilian troops retreated into the town and relied on houses to put up a desperate resistance.

The battle lasted for five days. The Chinese Independence Army suffered a total of 3,000 casualties in order to capture the town of Oliva, while the number of Brazilian troops in the town was less than 3,000, of which more than 1,000 were wounded. The battle was brutal and the Chinese Independence Army suffered heavy casualties. Li Mingyuan did not intend to continue wasting troops and fighting street battles with the Brazilian army. Using the firewood collected these days, Li Mingyuan planned to burn the remaining Brazilian troops alive.

The scorching flames roasted the town of Oliva. Screams continued to come from the Brazilian army surrounded by the fire. Many Brazilian soldiers who could not bear it ran out of the town shouting, and what greeted them were bullets of ammunition.

Li Mingyuan looked coldly at the Brazilian soldiers dying in front of him, his expression did not change at all. The huge casualties had caused the Chinese soldiers to accumulate a huge resentment. If they were not allowed to vent their resentment, the morale of the Chinese Independence Army would be affected, so the Brazilian army could only blame themselves for their bad luck.

More and more Brazilian soldiers were forced out by the fire. Among them, a team of more than ten Brazilian soldiers caught Li Mingyuan's attention, because not only did they hold white flags, but the weapons they were equipped with were much better than those of ordinary Brazilian soldiers.

Li Mingyuan realized that they might be high-ranking officers of the Brazilian army, and waved to the guards to escort them over.

"Tell me, who are you?" Li Mingyuan asked, focusing his eyes on the leading Brazilian soldier.

"Canudut, heir to the Duke of Fu Robert of the Brazilian Empire." The young Brazilian soldier wiped the sweat from his head and whispered.

As a prisoner of others, Kanudut didn't dare to show off in front of Li Mingyuan. He just wanted to spend some money to ask his father to redeem him.

"Heir of Duke Forbert, what reason do you have for me to spare your life?"

"I can ask my father to pay a ransom for me."

"No, we are not short of money. I need other things to save your life, such as the intelligence of the Brazilian army and the route you will take to enter Oliva."

Seeing Canudut, Li Mingyuan felt that it was a waste to kill all the Brazilian soldiers. It would be a good idea to use them to find the road leading to the Brazilian coalition camp, and then imitate what they did to give the Brazilian main force a fatal surprise attack.

"I cannot betray the Imperial Army. You will never learn any intelligence about the Imperial Army from me."

Selling out one's own country's intelligence is an unforgivable sin in any country. Kanudut knew the consequences of doing so and immediately refused.

"If you are unwilling to cooperate, then there is no point in keeping you. Come on, throw him into the fire." Li Mingyuan's face changed and two soldiers immediately stepped forward to set up a cart.
Nudut walked towards the fire.

"Don't throw me into the fire, I said, I will tell you everything." The scorching temperature frightened Canudut. The painful appearance of the Brazilian soldiers who were burned to death frightened this young noble who followed the army to gain gold.

(End of this chapter)