Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 271 The Battle of Rosario Ends
At the end of March 1879, the Argentine army had suffered a disastrous defeat in Santa Fe and was severely weakened. It was no longer able to deal with the threat of the Han National Defense Army on three fronts at the same time. Therefore, after initially judging that the enemy on the Paraná River front was the main force of the Han Dynasty, Mitre drastically reduced the defensive forces on the other two fronts, and then took advantage of the post-war repair window of the National Defense Army to continuously strengthen the drawn forces to the positions along the Paraná River.

After the loss of Santa Fe, the only barriers left in front of Buenos Aires were two fortresses, one large and one small, Rosario and Paraná.

Paraná is a small coastal city located in the northern part of the middle section of the Paraná River. In terms of strategic position and defensive capabilities, Paraná, with a population of just over 10,000, cannot be compared with Rosario, with a population of over 100,000. Therefore, in addition to the troops transferred to Buenos Aires for defense, most of the troops dispatched from the other two fronts were used to strengthen the first-line defense positions in Rosario.

As the most important strategic location for protecting the security of Buenos Aires, Rosario's defense force quickly increased to 15,000 people after the Battle of Santa Fe. At the same time, in order to block the advance of the Han troops to the greatest extent, Mitre dispatched an additional 5,000 young and strong laborers to assist the Rosario defenders in building defensive fortifications.

The Argentine federal government used the precious time between wars to continuously adjust its previous combat deployments. However, for the defending side that was hastily responding to the battle, the preparation time was always unable to meet their requirements for the war. Just eight days after the end of the Battle of Santa Fe, Li Mingyuan led 140,000 National Defense Forces to bypass the Paraná City, which had become a waste, and went south along the Paraná River and headed straight for Rosario.

On the morning of March 25th, the main force of the National Defense Army was divided into three routes and launched a fierce attack on the Rosario defenders from the north, east and west.

At noon on the 28th, after three days of continuous attacks, the National Defense Forces successfully occupied the four lines of defense set up by the Argentine troops outside the city. The three attacking forces all pointed their spearheads at the core area of ​​the Rosario Fortress.

Logically speaking, the garrison and fortifications of the Rosario Fortress were much stronger than those of the City of Santa Fe. However, what frightened and puzzled the generals defending Rosario was that under the attack of the National Defense Forces, the outer defense line of Rosario held out for a shorter time than that of the City of Santa Fe.

The numbers and numbers of the Wehrmacht troops used for the front-line attack did not change much, and the military strength of the Argentine troops on the outer defense line was no less than that of the Santa Fe defenders. The reason why the Wehrmacht was able to take over Rosario's outer defense line in a shorter time when the strength of the offensive and defensive sides did not change much was that more than a week had passed, the continuous heavy rain finally stopped, and the traffic difficulties that plagued the Wehrmacht's logistics supply were alleviated to a great extent. As a result, the Wehrmacht troops on the front line were able to obtain new weapons such as improved mortars and grenades from the rear.

Mortars and hand grenades were weapons used in actual combat in the early days of the National Defense Forces. However, due to the simplicity and inadequacy of industrial technology, the mortars initially produced not only faced disadvantages such as short range, low accuracy, and difficulty in aiming and shooting, but most importantly, the steel raw materials used for the mortar body were of poor quality, resulting in the mortars produced having a short service life and being easily at risk of exploding due to improper operation and inadequate maintenance.

The improvement of mortar manufacturing technology needs to rely on the support of steel technology. Therefore, it was not until the outbreak of the Argentine War that Harfield discovered the method of smelting manganese steel, and many problems restricting the development of mortars were quickly solved.

The synthesis of special steels has many common features. After using manganese as an additive to solve the hardening problem of steel, Harfield and others quickly began to improve the performance of mortars and soon made substantial progress. The mortars transported by the logistics troops were the results of improvements made by Harfield and others.

The mortars made of newly produced special steel solved the shortcomings of the heavy weight of the gun body and easy to explode, making it capable of close combat. In the battle to attack the outer positions of Rosario, it was precisely because of the use of new mortars that the Argentines' firepower support points were destroyed before they could play their due role, which accelerated the speed of the fall of the outer front of Rosario and provided favorable conditions for the National Defense Army to quickly resolve the outer battle. After all the outer positions on the three sides of Rosario were lost, the port connected to the Paraná River in the north became the only channel for the defenders in the city to connect to the outside. At 7 o'clock in the morning on April 1, the National Defense Army concentrated more than 20,000 troops from the First Division and the Third Division to launch an attack on the northern port of Rosario. At the same time, in order to keep the only retreat in the city, the Argentine defenders broke out with a combat effectiveness far superior to that of ordinary troops and stubbornly resisted the attack of the National Defense Army.

At 9 o'clock in the morning, part of the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Division occupied the Argentine position in the estuary area. A few minutes later, a team of more than 700 Argentine troops arrived at the estuary position and immediately launched a counterattack against the 3rd Regiment.

Artillery fire roared, soldiers shouted, and mutilated or bleeding bodies piled up in layers in the narrow space.

The battle for the estuary entered a white-hot stage from the very beginning. The positions occupied by the soldiers of the Third Regiment were captured by the Argentines four times. Then the remaining soldiers of the Third Regiment, with the support of additional troops, launched a counterattack against the Argentines again and captured the positions from the enemy.

The traditional positional attack and defense war turned into a bloody tug-of-war. The National Defense Army and the Argentine defensive forces continued to devote their manpower to the battle for the estuary position. It was not until 12:10 noon that the First and Second Divisions defeated all the counterattacking Argentine troops at the cost of 800 casualties. The battle for the estuary position was declared over.

At 2:40 p.m., Li Mingyuan ordered the Second Division and the First Mixed Brigade to take over from the First Division and the Third Division, which had been fighting continuously, and continue the reactionary attack on the remaining enemy forces in the northern port of Rosario. The battle lasted until 4:20 p.m., and the northern port of Rosario fell into the hands of the National Defense Forces. The last Argentine force of more than 3,000 people fled back to the city of Rosario in a panic, leaving behind a large number of wounded, while the National Defense Forces completed the comprehensive siege of the Argentine defenders.

In the following three days, under the command of Li Mingyuan, the National Defense Forces, on the one hand, prepared for a full-scale siege, and on the other hand, sent two troops to the west and east of Rosario to ambush the Argentine reinforcements from Cordoba and Buenos Aires. However, it is a bit regrettable that no matter what actions the National Defense Forces took, Mitre, who was short of troops, and Urquiza, who was trying to preserve his own strength, did not send troops to rescue Rosario.

After waiting for three days without seeing any prey falling into his trap, Li Mingyuan immediately gave up the strategic plan of besieging the point and attacking the reinforcements, and instead launched a final attack on Rosario.

At 155 p.m. on April , the mm heavy artillery regiment blasted a seven or eight meter wide gap in the west wall of Rosario. Then the st Regiment of the rd Division, led by its officers, entered the city along the gap. At : p.m., the National Defense Forces repelled the Argentine troops blocking Ji, and the main force of the troops began to enter the city. On April , after two days of fierce street fighting, the National Defense Forces had initially cleared the enemy forces in the city. The small number of defeated soldiers hiding among the Argentine whites could no longer pose a threat to the National Defense Forces. Therefore, at : p.m., Li Mingyuan announced the end of the Battle of Rosario, and the National Defense Forces began to prepare for the last large-scale battle in the Argentine War.

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(End of this chapter)