Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 281 After the War
The night was dark and the battle was raging. Teams of Argentine soldiers attacked in dense formations, but were immediately repelled by artillery and machine gun fire.

There were more and more corpses left on the battlefield. By dawn, the two or three miles long defense line was filled with dead Argentine soldiers.

The desperate breakout became a naked act of suicide under the firepower of the Wehrmacht. At around five in the morning, seeing that there was no hope of breaking out, Argentine President Mitre was unwilling to suffer the humiliation of being captured, so he ended his life with a pistol. The remaining Argentine soldiers, less than 2,000 in number, laid down their arms and surrendered to the Wehrmacht under the leadership of Colonel Brest.

As the largest armed force in Buenos Aires surrendered, most of the other stragglers who spontaneously resisted the National Defense Force chose to give up their meaningless resistance and surrender after learning the death of President Mitre. The small number of stubborn armed forces were eliminated one by one under the targeted attacks of the National Defense Force.

After the war, except for the civilians who fled the city, the Argentines who were reluctant to leave their assets in the city stayed trembling in their homes, praying devoutly for God's protection, hoping that the Defense Forces would not kill them and rob them of their property, wives and daughters.

The huge city of Buenos Aires seemed to have turned into a dead city after the war, with uncollected corpses of Argentine soldiers and collapsed house ruins everywhere. Some bodies that had died long ago had not been buried in time, and the foul smell of decay filled the turbid air.

Luo Linshan carefully avoided the dead bodies under his feet, walked forward for more than 30 meters, and came to a slightly cleaner street entrance. He instructed the officers beside him, "His Highness will inspect the situation in the city at 9 o'clock in the morning. You should notify the military doctors who have entered the city and ask them to carry the prepared disinfectants to the main streets in the city and carry out necessary disinfection and sterilization treatment on each street."

"General He and his brothers from the garrison are assisting Doctor Sun in treating the wounded at the military hospital. I estimate that it will take some time for them to make time to rush to the city."

"We have been in Buenos Aires for a long time. Many of our soldiers have been killed or wounded. It looks like the doctors in the military hospital will be busy for a while."

Luo Linshan recalled the months of siege and began to understand the difficulties of the military hospital.

"General, there are a group of soldiers in the division's logistics support team who have received simple disinfection training. Why don't we transfer them here first to carry out preliminary disinfection and sterilization of the city?"

"Well, let's arrange it this way for now."

Luo Linshan nodded, and then began to instruct, "There were eight to nine thousand young civilian workers who followed the army into the city yesterday. Take my warrant and temporarily gather a group of young civilian workers from the city to clean up the enemy's corpses and rubble.

This matter must be completed before His Highness inspects it, so go and gather some people now."

"I will do it right away."...

After assigning the tasks of clearing the ruins in the city and protecting Li Mingyuan's safety one by one, Luo Linshan was about to return to the barracks when he saw Wu Fengdian leading his troops hurriedly into the city.

"Commander Wu, I haven't seen you for a few months. I hope you are well."

"General Luo."

Wu Fengdian recognized the identity of the person in front of him, pulled the reins, stood up and dismounted to greet Luo Linshan, "Just arrived outside the city, I heard that General Luo led his soldiers to annihilate the army of Argentine President Mitre. I am really envious of him!"

"Haha, it's all thanks to the prince's planning and winning the battle outside the battlefield. I, Luo, am just mobilizing the troops according to your highness's instructions!" Luo Linshan said a few humble and polite words as the colorful sedan was carried by everyone, and then asked about the other party's situation.

"Brigade Commander Wu sent someone to inform us five days ago that the 3rd Mixed Brigade was expected to arrive in Buenos Aires yesterday. Why did it take a day to arrive?"

"The situation changed midway. The evening before yesterday, our unit was attacked by local Argentine armed forces, which delayed us for a day."

"Commander Wu, have you figured out the identity of the enemy? The Third Mixed Brigade has nearly 10,000 troops. The strength of the troops that can delay Commander Wu for a day must be something that cannot be underestimated."

"It was the Argentine reinforcements from Cordoba. At that time, in order to complete the task of gathering in Buenos Aires, our troops had a face-to-face encounter with the enemy. After that, the two sides fought on and off until they marched to the vicinity of the town of Balleste and met with part of the garrison army. Only then did the Argentines give up fighting with our troops."

"The enemy that Brigade Commander Wu encountered should be Urquiza's troops. After the Argentine federal army was destroyed by our army, the only force that could confront our army head-on was Urquiza's."

"I think so too. With Buenos Aires about to fall, Urquiza and his affiliated forces are aware of their own crisis and have repeatedly recruited young and strong men from the rear to support the frontline troops. Based on the combat experience of the Third Brigade in the past half month, it is estimated that the total number of Argentine militias recruited from all over the country may reach 50,000."

"Fifty thousand people?"

Luo Linshan estimated the accuracy of the number of Argentine militias in his mind, and then smiled and said, "The main force was wiped out. I guess Urquiza could only squeeze out 50,000 or 60,000 people at most despite his efforts."...

The Battle of Buenos Aires ended, leaving Li Mingyuan with not only a brighter future for the Han Kingdom in South America, but also a series of complicated matters that he needed to deal with personally.

The National Defense Forces suffered 6100 casualties and 7400 wounded, the Garrison Forces suffered 2000 casualties and 4000 wounded, and the civilian workers suffered 3000 casualties. The National Defense Forces wiped out more than 23000 Argentine federal troops at a total cost of about 9 casualties. If the local warlords in Argentina were also included, the Argentine side lost more than 10 troops.

The loss of more than 23000 people was completely valuable in the face of the war results achieved. Excluding the troops killed, wounded and non-combat casualties, the front-line troops of the National Defense Army, supplemented by young and strong people and militia in the rear, always maintained a strength of about 22.

The Han Kingdom can recruit between 600 and soldiers from its own territory. The military-first political system that has lasted for ten years has provided the National Defense Army with a large number of reserve soldiers. However, compared with the country's total population of million, Li Mingyuan would not choose the extreme method of exhausting all resources to fight against the great powers unless the country is at the critical moment of extinction.

Based on the future development of the local industry and economy and the logistical supply pressure of the front-line troops, maintaining a combat force of 22 regular troops is almost reaching the limit of the Han Dynasty. If the number of troops increases further, not only will the logistical supplies be difficult to guarantee, but the weapons and ammunition supply of each troop will also face the crisis of collapse.

After more than two months of overload operation, the local reserve of war materials was consumed at an alarming rate. More than 200 large and medium-sized artillery pieces were deployed, consuming 17 artillery shells, 700 million rifle and machine gun bullets, and 7400 tons of various war materials.

The rapidly decreasing material reserves restricted the combat capability of the front-line troops. At the same time, in order to cope with the intervention of the British Expeditionary Force and the Brazilian Army, the Wehrmacht had to adjust its organizational structure after achieving its main combat objectives, dispersing and concentrating its main forces into several large combat units, and using multi-point combat methods to clear the armed forces of the local warlords in Argentina and achieve the strategic goal of keeping the enemy out of the country.

(End of this chapter)