Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 154: Gunfire in the Jungle
The transport fleet stopped at Great Inaba Island for one night to replenish supplies. Before the fleet left, Chen Xinggui successfully persuaded Liang Xing to immigrate to Rio Grande do Sul with him.

Hou Taiyuan and Chen Sen left to complete their mission, while Liang Xing and Chen Xinggui began to sell the land and plantations that they could not take away, and at the same time spread the Rio Grande do Sul immigration policy to the Chinese in the Caribbean island areas.

With the two men's efforts in communication and persuasion, more than one hundred Chinese businessmen and free Chinese were finally willing to leave with them. Some other Chinese were undecided and chose to stay where they were and wait and see for a while before making a decision.

As time passed, the history of South America turned to the year 1869.

At the end of 1868, the Argentine troops, reinforced by the reinforcements, launched a fierce attack on Morandi. The outer defense lines of Morandi were all lost at one point. At the most critical moment, the Argentine troops even climbed onto the Morandi tower. However, as Istiga mobilized all the reserve forces, he launched a counterattack with the fire support of a Chinese artillery battalion. The Argentine soldiers who climbed onto the tower were successfully wiped out, and one of the three important outer defense lines outside the city wall was successfully recovered.

After about a week of high-intensity fighting, casualties on both the Argentine and Paraguayan sides surged. The large loss of soldiers and rapidly declining morale forced the large-scale fighting to end, and the combat mode changed to confrontation and small-scale sneak attacks and counterattacks.

Modern wars often last for months or even years. In Argentina and Paraguay, the Argentine soldiers outnumbered the Paraguayan defenders, but they could not overwhelm the enemy with numbers. The Paraguayan troops had the city of Morandi in their hands, and could rely on their geographical advantages and artillery to defend the city. At the same time, they were short of troops and could barely hold the city. It was very difficult for them to fight outside the city and defeat the Argentines.

As long as the balance was not broken, the battle of Morandi would be difficult to determine quickly. While the two sides continued to exchange fire, the main force of the 2nd Mixed Brigade and part of the artillery arrived at the Rio Gran Sul border area east of San Javier, and then quietly stationed there, waiting for Li Mingyuan to issue the final offensive order.

On January 1869, 1, near a tributary of the Parana River in northern Argentina, seven or eight Indians were filling water bags with water by the river, with two Indians on each side of the river on guard.

"A boat is coming, everyone hide."

The Indians upstream of the river noticed what was happening and immediately spoke out to alert their companions, but they spoke in Chinese.

Get reminded, take
The few people who stayed by the river to fetch water quickly plugged the mouths of the water bags and carefully ran to hide under the bushes a few dozen meters away.

The boat coming on the river was an inland gunboat equipped by the Argentines. The Battle of Misiones lasted for more than a month. The indigenous Indians in the border area between Paraguay and Argentina were affected by the war and moved away from their original places of residence on a large scale to avoid the harm of the war.

Population movement means chaos. Some wandering white people and gauchos (mixed race of whites and Indians, accustomed to nomadic life) mixed in with the Indians took advantage of the chaotic situation and began to attack white settlers in northern Argentina, stealing their livestock and wealth. Therefore, in order to maintain the security situation in the northern region, the Argentines dispatched some gunboats and inland vessels to carry out armed patrols to deter the armed elements who were ready to move in the north.

The gunboat sailed to where the Indians had just been hiding, less than thirty meters away from the nearest three-person team.

"Captain, three gunboats, and two more behind."

The man dressed as an Indian with a grass ring on his head whispered.

"Argentina has increased its patrol force. The thirteen of us cannot defeat the Argentine troops with three gunboats. Tell the other brothers to stay put and let them pass."

"Yes," the man nodded in response, lowered his body and crawled back, then made a gesture with his right hand towards the bushes behind him, and after receiving a response, he carefully crawled back to his original position.

The first gunboat left, and less than a minute later, two gunboats full of soldiers passed by.

As the gunboat sailed away, the men hiding behind the trees and bushes emerged and gathered together. The leading man walked to the river, washed off the green leaf paint on his face, revealing his traditional Han appearance.

"Captain, the area ahead of the gunboat is the territory of the gauchos. Are the Argentines heading for them?"

Special operations team leader Zhang Song handed the water bag to Sun Qisheng and said.

"We attacked two Argentine patrols some time ago. They probably thought it was the Gauchos who did it, so they sent troops to retaliate."

Sun Qisheng speculated.

After contacting Ferner, Sun Qisheng continued to return to the mountains in northern Argentina in accordance with Li Mingyuan's orders to lurk, build a base for the special forces in the mountains, and look for opportunities to sow discord between local Indians, gauchos and Argentine farmers and create conflicts among them.

"If the Argentines send troops to retaliate, it will definitely lead to greater armed conflict and unrest. We should not interfere in their conflicts next time, but build our base first."

Sun Qisheng wiped his face with his sleeve and asked, "How are you guys learning Indian?"

“Most brothers only know a few everyday phrases.”

Zhang Song shook his head and said, "Each Indian tribe has its own language. The Tilcara language we learned is only used by a few mountain tribes in the north. If we meet other Indian tribes, they won't understand us."

“If you want to pretend to be Indians, you have to learn to be real. I don’t require all of you brothers to master Teokal, but you have to be able to understand a few simple conversations, otherwise it will be easy for others to find your flaws.”... About a hundred miles west of the river bank, more than 160 soldiers from three gunboats, under the command of an Argentine company commander, launched an attack on the village on the river bank.

The village is not large, with about 500 people, including men, women, old and young, of which about 30 are gauchos, and the rest are Indians who rely on the gauchos.

In the early days of colonization in South America, most of the people who came there were white men. They married local Indian women and gave birth to mixed-race children. However, due to racial discrimination, white men were often unwilling to recognize Indian women as their wives. Instead, they abandoned the women and children after they gave birth.

The mixed-race children who were not recognized by their white fathers were raised by their Indian mothers. Because they inherited the cultural traditions from both parents, they formed a new race, which the white people called Gauchos.

The status of the gauchos was only slightly higher than that of the Indians, and they were excluded from mainstream rule by the Spanish whites. Therefore, the dissatisfied gauchos often attacked colonial settlements and were hostile to the Spanish.

The gauchos have Indian blood in their veins, and the skills they learned from white society make it easy for them to establish prestige among the Indians. Therefore, many gauchos use their skills to recruit a group of Indians to pledge their loyalty and become the main force in resisting white colonial rule.

After hundreds of years of mutual hatred, even after Argentina gained independence, the village leader, the gaucho Davis, had no good feelings towards the white Buenos Aires who inherited the Spanish rule.

When the gunboat appeared five miles away from the village, the gauchos stationed outside the village issued an early warning. Therefore, Davis quickly arranged some personnel to cover the transfer of the elderly, the weak, women and children, while he led more than a hundred young and strong people in the village to delay the Argentine attack.

The village was located 170 meters from the river bank. The Argentines sent infantry to approach the village while using three small artillery pieces on the gunboat to provide fire support.

"Boom, boom, boom" three artillery shells whizzed into the middle of the village, and the two wooden houses hit by the artillery shells collapsed.

As artillery shells continued to bombard the area, casualties among the young and strong villagers who had been hiding near the wooden houses to block the Argentine attack increased rapidly, and the previously simple and small wooden houses were turned into ruins and burning wood under the bombardment of artillery fire.

"Chief, three groups of brothers were trapped under the wooden house, two groups of brothers were burned by the fire, and one group of brothers was hit by a shell and died on the spot,"

The shelling stopped and a gaucho in his thirties reported the casualties to Davis.

The casualties in five groups were 24 people. Argentina's artillery bombardment alone caused the Gauchos to lose one-fifth of their manpower. Davis felt heartbroken, but thinking of his wife and two sons who were retreating, he made up his mind: "The Argentines even brought artillery with them. They must be planning to completely destroy us. Our wives and children haven't gone far yet. We can't let them catch us. Tell the brothers to hold on for a while. We won't leave until the elderly, weak, women and children reach a safe place."

"Yes, chief." The gaucho quickly left to convey Davis's orders to other people in the village.

The battle between the Argentine infantry and the gauchos took place in the woods near the wooden wall of the village. Relying on artillery cover, more than one hundred Argentine soldiers advanced to a distance of about seventy meters from the wooden wall.

Stand, shoot, and cross-cover.

The Argentine infantry still used the infantry tactics of the Napoleonic era. More than 160 people were divided into three columns and fired under the command of the column commander.

Without machine guns, artillery or trenches, the Argentine infantry's alternating offensive tactics caused considerable losses to the gauchos. The young and strong men on the wooden walls were hit one by one. Although the injuries were not fatal, they made them lose their combat capability.

"Retreat and stop the enemy behind the woods."

The Argentine infantry was less than fifty meters away from the wooden wall, and the casualties among the young and strong were increasing. Davis decisively changed the name.

The gauchos hurriedly left the village, and the injured young men were abandoned.

The Argentine infantry entered the village, carefully alert to the dangers around them, while sending some soldiers to collect prisoners.

There were about thirty surviving prisoners, each with gunshot wounds. The Argentine company commander looked at the prisoners with disgust, winked at his officers, and then led most of the soldiers to continue the pursuit.

More than a hundred Argentine soldiers left the village, and soon a burst of gunfire was heard behind them.

War is a life-and-death struggle, and the enemy will not be shown mercy just because they have the same white blood in their bodies.

Only death awaits the gaucho captives.

(End of this chapter)