Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 25 Fierce Battle II
"Sir, we are still fifty miles away from Arequipa. Should we speed up?"

A Peruvian officer said to Rustuart, the commander of the Mollendo garrison on horseback.

"Manuel, you are still too young and don't understand the ins and outs of this matter." Lustuart looked calm as he rode on his horse.

"Please give me some advice, sir." Manuel leaned forward and asked politely like a studious student.

Lustuart just liked Manuel's submissiveness, which would help him regain the dignity he lost in front of Thomas Gutierrez.

Rustuart was not Thomas's direct subordinate. He was originally a subordinate of Mariano Ignacio Prado, who was also a major warlord in Peru. He came to power through a coup in April 1865. However, after more than two months in the presidency, Mariano Ignacio Prado was ousted by others.

In order to keep his position, Lustuart, who had no backing, joined Thomas's camp after Mariano Ignacio Prado stepped down.

Thomas looked down on the fickle Rustuart and often laughed at him in front of others. Rustuart, who depended on Thomas, could only force a smile but hated Thomas in his heart.

"Manuel, do you know what the difference is between us and the army in Iquidok's hands?"

"I don't know the humble position."

"Haha, you know it in your heart, but you just don't dare to say it."

"I dare not." Manuel thought that Lustuart was dissatisfied with him, so he quickly expressed his opinion.

"Don't be nervous. I don't doubt you."

Lustuart helped him up and continued, "The biggest difference between us and Iquidok's troops is that Iquidok's troops are Thomas's direct troops, while we are a ragtag army. And although I am the chief of the garrison in Moyendo, according to the established rules, Moyendo's port trade taxes should be under my control, but Thomas specially sent a tax officer, saying that it is not good for soldiers to interfere in economic trade, and the military expenses of Moyendo's army are distributed by him every month. It sounds good, but in fact, he is afraid that I will control the trade taxes and expand them, and get out of his control."

"The commander is wise." Manuel flattered him appropriately.

"Manuel, I'm telling you these words because I'm training you to be the successor of the army. You should think more about what you do in the future and don't be sold out by others and count money for them. Now do you understand why I delayed the rescue of Irequipa?" Rustuart encouraged him and considered.

Hearing that Lustuart wanted to make him the successor of the army, Manuel immediately became excited. He carefully pondered Lustuart's question and said cautiously, "Sir, do you mean to let them fight in the front, and when the two sides are almost done fighting, we will go up and take advantage?"

"That's right. If we reach Arequipa too early and fight the rebels, no matter who wins or loses, our army will suffer heavy losses. Without the army in his hands, Thomas will be wary of us. He will definitely find an excuse to drive us out of the army and then distribute the remaining troops to his men."

"Sir, you have foresight and will surely be successful one day."

"Haha, I hope this day will come soon." Lustuart laughed and followed the troops.

Thanks to the timely support of Peruvian artillery, the shaky positions on the east side of the town of Emmodut were temporarily stabilized, but the temporary safety contained the crisis of destruction.

At the Independent Army Command Headquarters, after Li Mingyuan discovered the enemy's artillery position, he immediately ordered the cavalry regiment to attack.

"Captain Li, the enemy's heavy artillery has a longer range than the artillery I captured, so we can only rely on your cavalry regiment to destroy the artillery positions." "Don't worry, my lord. I will complete the task."

"When you attack immediately, I will order the artillery to bombard the enemy positions fiercely to provide cover for you."

"I understand."

After resolving the coordination issue, more than 900 cavalrymen of the cavalry regiment immediately set out and rushed to the battlefield like a whirlwind.

The Peruvian artillery was located in a large open space in the center of the town.

After repelling the attacking forces from the east, Umato ordered the artillery to suppress the Chinese artillery forces. The artillery forces of the two sides were too far apart. Even though the Peruvian army's artillery range was greater than that of the Chinese Independence Army, they could not see the specific position of the enemy's artillery. The Peruvian artillery could only fire based on their feelings. The two sides fired at each other, but rarely achieved any results.

On the four sides of Emodut, the east is the main attack direction of the Chinese troops, the west and south are respectively under the charge of Zhang Ansong and Luo Linshan's troops. Only the north has no troops deployed. Outside the north of the town is a valley. Li Mingyuan deployed 10,000 troops around the valley, commanded by Chief of Staff Liu Pu himself.

As a strategist beside Li Mingyuan, Liu Pu was leading troops in battle for the first time, but he was still very confident about the final combat mission.

The outcome of the battle had not yet been determined, but as Peru's artillery units were exposed, Liu Pu knew that the Peruvian army was not far from defeat.

In order to strengthen Liu Pu's troops, Li Mingyuan gave him Wang Xiaoshan's guard regiment and one of Feng Erhu's regiments.

Feng Erhu was originally the platoon leader of the machine gun platoon. Later, as the army expanded, Li Mingyuan split the machine gun unit into various infantry regiments, and Feng Erhu was assigned to the infantry unit as the regiment commander.

Although Feng Erhu no longer led machine gunners, he still attached great importance to the use of machine gun tactics. When Feng Erhu served as the infantry regiment commander, he specifically asked Li Mingyuan for an additional machine gun platoon, so that his regiment had two machine gun platoons, which made the other infantry regiment commanders jealous.

After arriving at the ambush site in the valley, Feng Erhu gathered the machine guns of other troops, making a total of four machine gun platoons. Two of the four machine gun platoons were deployed directly in the middle of the road in the valley, and the other two were deployed on the mounds on both sides of the valley. After the deployment was completed, the three machine gun positions provided cross-cover, leaving no blind spots.

Feng Erhu is ready to use his specialties to show his prowess, and Wang Xiaoshan also wants to prove himself through this battle.

As soon as they arrived at the ambush position, Wang Xiaoshan said, "I made a mistake in my last reconnaissance and was beaten to death by the prince. Now the prince has given me a chance to redeem myself. When the battle starts later, everyone should give their all. Whoever can capture the Peruvian army commander will be rewarded by the prince himself."

After Wang Xiaoshan's encouragement, the morale of the soldiers of the guard regiment was high, and they were waiting for the Peruvians to arrive and kill them.

"Chief of Staff, why haven't the Peruvians come yet?"

Feng Erhu said anxiously.

"Captain Feng, we're almost there." Liu Pu said, pointing to the galloping cavalry troops outside the town of Emodut.

Li Dawei led the cavalry regiment to make a circle and break through from the western position under the charge of Zhang Ansong.

(End of this chapter)