Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 28 Moyendo's reinforcements surrender

A loss rate of 1 to 7.5 was a big victory, but when Li Mingyuan saw the casualty data of the Chinese Independence Army, he could not be happy.

More than 2,000 people were lost in one battle, and in the subsequent ambushes in Moyendo, Cusco, and the attack on Arequipa, another 3,000 to 4,000 people were lost according to this casualty ratio.

The Chinese army was difficult to replenish, and Li Mingyuan was not confident in recruiting local South Americans as soldiers, so he was troubled by the number of casualties among the Chinese Independence Army.

After the battle of Emmodut was over, Li Mingyuan called Liu Pu to hear if he had any good ideas to reduce the casualties of the Chinese Independence Army.

"Prince, our army suffered heavy losses in this battle." Liu Pu has always been in charge of combat statistics, so after listening to Li Mingyuan's words, he directly acknowledged the fact that the Chinese Independence Army suffered losses.

"However, there are reasons why more than 2,000 people were killed and wounded in this battle. The Peruvian army has good combat effectiveness on the one hand, but our army has expanded too quickly, resulting in a decline in the average combat effectiveness of soldiers, which is also a factor that we have to consider."

"The rapid expansion of the Chinese Independence Army does pose a big problem. After capturing Arequipa, all the troops will need to rest for a period of time." Li Mingyuan nodded.

"Prince, I have a question, but I don't know whether I should ask it or not," Liu Pu asked tentatively.

"You know who I am. If you have any questions, just tell me. I won't get angry."

"Since you are planning to use southern Brazil as our base, why do you want to waste time in Peru? As far as I know, the three Brazilian countries are stepping up their attack on Paraguay. I am worried that the Paraguayans will not be able to withstand the attack of the three countries and surrender. At that time, even if we increase our troops by tens of thousands, we will not be able to defeat the armies of the three countries."

"The Paraguayan army fought tenaciously. It would not be easy for the three Brazilian countries to force Lopez Jr. to surrender."

It is now January 1868, and there are still more than four months before Lopez Jr. breaks out of the Humeita Fortress, so Li Mingyuan is not in a hurry to move in.

"Prince, after destroying the three reinforcements, do you want to send troops to occupy Moyendo, Puno, and Cusco?"

"The three reinforcements have been eliminated. These three places are not heavily guarded. Of course we must take the opportunity to occupy them." Li Mingyuan said subconsciously, not understanding what Liu Pu meant.

"Prince, let's not talk about the losses of our army after this battle. After occupying these three places, we need to station no less than 25,000 troops. In addition, Arequipa, Barranca, Duraya and other places need to be defended. The defense force in the occupied areas alone will take up about 50,000 troops. With this, there will not be many troops that can be assembled to deal with the Peruvian counterattack army."

Li Mingyuan frowned. He ignored the issue of garrison defense. The area occupied by the Chinese Independence Army was a sparsely populated mining area, so leaving some second-line troops behind could deter the Peruvians in the area.
However, with the victory of this battle, the Chinese Independence Army would certainly expand its sphere of influence. While occupying a large maneuvering space, the Chinese Independence Army had to leave enough troops to defend the place to prevent the Peruvians in the occupied areas from rebelling.

"Dispersing the garrisons is not a good idea. Our army has always been able to achieve victory by relying on flexibility and mobility. Dispersing the garrisons will restrict our limited troops to various towns, giving the enemy the opportunity to defeat them one by one."

After thinking about it, Li Mingyuan admitted it.

"Prince, after destroying the Peruvian reinforcements and searching for Chinese workers in the newly occupied areas, our army will have a total of 120,000 Chinese under its command. Even if there are Chinese workers in other parts of Peru at this time, there will not be many left, so I suggest that after rescuing the Chinese workers in Puno, Moyendo and other places, our army quickly withdraws from the occupied areas, rests in Arequipa for a month, and then moves to southern Brazil."

Li Mingyuan originally had no plan to occupy Arequipa and other southern Peruvian areas, so he considered luring the enemy deep into his territory and exchanging captured Peruvian soldiers for Chinese workers. Now the situation has changed. There are not many Chinese workers left in the hands of the Peruvians, and waiting to exchange them for Chinese workers would be a bit of a loss.

"It is necessary to withdraw from the occupied areas, but giving up the occupied areas for nothing will be too easy for the Peruvians," said Li Mingyuan.

"We took away the supplies from the occupied areas, and the Peruvians only got empty cities. They didn't gain much advantage."

"Okay, after this battle, all captured materials will be shipped to Arequipa in batches, and other occupied areas will be gradually abandoned."

Although the city of Arequipa was still in the hands of the Peruvians, after dealing with the largest group of Peruvian reinforcements, it was only a matter of time before the city of Arequipa was captured.

When the battle of Emodut was over, Chen Guozhu's soldiers were attacking Moyendo's reinforcements.

"Sir, the enemy is ambushing." Manuel lay on the ground to avoid the artillery fire from the Chinese army.

"Fool, even a fool would know there's an ambush."

Lustuart cursed.

"Manuel, I will give you a regiment of troops to resist the enemy's attack and cover the retreat of others."

The equipment and combat effectiveness of Rustuart's soldiers were inferior to those of Umato's troops. The Chinese army retreated after attacking for less than twenty minutes, and some Peruvian soldiers simply surrendered with their heads in their hands.

"Sir, the enemy is too numerous. I cannot resist their attack. I'd better retreat with the main force to protect your safety."

Just now you said I would be your successor, but now you want me to take the bullet when we are in danger. I am not that stupid. Manuel cursed in his heart, but he made excuses for not resisting the enemy. Chen Guozhu and Zhou Daniu had four times the number of Peruvian troops. They took advantage of Lustuart's unpreparedness and beat the slow with the fast. The Peruvian army had no power to fight back.

Seeing that his defeat was overwhelming and it was impossible to organize a counterattack, Rustuart ran to the desert westward without hesitation.

Like commander, like soldiers. When Rustuart ran away, the remaining Peruvian soldiers followed suit and scattered in all directions.

"Commander Zhou, you must lead the soldiers to deploy defenses in all directions. We cannot let any Peruvian soldiers escape."

What's more, although Rustuart's soldiers were not good at fighting, they were very good at escaping. Taking advantage of the Chinese army's charge, more than one hundred Peruvian soldiers passed through the gap left by the charging Chinese soldiers and escaped from the encirclement.

"Yes, the Third and Fourth Regiments, follow me." Zhou Daniu shouted, and the soldiers of the Third and Fourth Regiments who were charging immediately stopped, turned around and ran towards their original defensive positions.

After letting more than 300 Peruvian soldiers escape, Zhou Daniu led his troops to block the escape exit of the Peruvian army.

"Sir, there are enemies all around us, we can't run away." Because there were more than 500 soldiers gathered around Luce, Zhou Daniu specifically surrounded his team, which prevented Luce Stuart from escaping.

"Don't run away. Manuel, go tell the Chinese rebels that we are willing to serve them and ask them not to harm our soldiers anymore."

Luce said, pausing to catch his breath.

"Sir, I don't speak Chinese, you should let someone else go." Manuel made a bitter face, fearing that he would be killed by ordinary soldiers before he even met the chief officer of the Chinese troops.

"I have a soldier here who knows Chinese. Let him go with you."

Manuel was about to refuse, but when he saw Rustuart's unfriendly expression, he stopped talking and obediently took the translator to negotiate with the Chinese troops.

"Commander, the Peruvian army sent two people holding white flags. They said they want to join us and serve the Chinese Independence Army."

"Haha, this is the first time I've encountered Peruvian troops willing to serve us," Chen Guozhu laughed.

"Go and tell them to lay down their weapons. We will accept their surrender."

"Commander Chen, the prince has not allowed us to accept the full-fledged Peruvian army to join us. This is not a good idea," said Zhou Daniu.

"Commander Zhou, you don't understand. Let them lay down their weapons and surrender first. As for the matter of surrendering, we will report it to the prince. Whatever the prince decides at that time will have nothing to do with us."

"All's fair in war, Commander Chen is still superior." Zhou Daniu said suddenly.

Because Lustuart volunteered to join the battle, the ambush on Moyendo ended in just one hour.

Chen Guozhu and Zhou Daniu's men suffered a total of ninety-eight casualties, of which only seven were killed in action.

The results of the battle were much more fruitful. A total of 3,600 enemies were killed, of whom more than 3,300 surrendered voluntarily, and less than 200 were killed in battle.

"Haha, the prince will be very happy to see our battle report." Chen Guozhu laughed as he looked at the sorted post-war data.

"We eliminated 3,600 people with less than 100 casualties. Although the enemy voluntarily surrendered, the results are still impressive." Zhou Daniu said happily.

"Yes, I will send someone to deliver the battle data to the prince now, so that he can be happy."

Chen Guozhu said.

"Sir, we agreed to surrender to them, why are they holding us like prisoners?" Manuel asked while staying in a wooden fence.

"It's all your fault. I asked you to talk to them about surrendering, and you came back and said they agreed to our surrender, so I ordered the troops to lay down their arms. But now they have detained us. Who do you think is to blame for this?" Lustuart said, still not satisfied, and kicked Manuel. If he hadn't had a pistol in his hand, he would have shot Manuel long ago.

The captured Peruvian soldiers around him glared at Manuel, believing that their current fate was caused by his failure to reach an agreement with the Chinese.

Manuel had no way to express his grievances. Rustuart had forced him to negotiate surrender with the Chinese Independence Army. After the deal was done, the Chinese refused to acknowledge it, and all the Peruvian soldiers blamed him. It really lived up to an old Chinese saying: Young people have no experience and deserve to be cheated.

(End of this chapter)