Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 283: Responding to the Enemy
On the evening of the 15th, the British expeditionary fleet arrived at the harbor at the mouth of the La Plata River. When Gordon discovered that the blue federal flag on the top of Buenos Aires had disappeared and was replaced by a red dragon flag, he was so angry that he ordered the fleet to bombard Buenos Aires!
The deafening bombardment continued throughout the evening. The majestic city of Buenos Aires had just bid farewell to its old master and welcomed a new perpetrator.

The thick and tall city walls were left with long and narrow gaps under the bombardment of artillery shells. The old wounds had not yet healed, and new wounds had occurred. The city of Buenos Aires, which had been attacked twice in succession, was like a devastated girl. Everywhere you looked, there were ruins, and there was no trace of the former prosperity of the Paris of South America.

At about ten o'clock in the evening, in the British expeditionary fleet, Gordon drove a group of British soldiers who had not had time to rest and adapt, on landing craft, and launched an attack on the coastal beach near the city of Buenos Aires.

With the support of the fleet's heavy artillery, the landing British troops easily occupied the undefended offshore beach and advanced all the way to the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

The next morning, the sun had just risen from the sea level, and the impatient British soldiers launched another attack on the city of Buenos Aires along the siege route of the Wehrmacht a few days ago.

Areas within the city, such as gaps in the city walls, residential streets, and government buildings, became the focus of contention between the two armies.

As soon as the British soldiers, who were charging forward with great momentum, entered the city, they were met with a strong counterattack from the Wehrmacht.

Mortars, machine guns, grenades, and all kinds of street fighting weapons attacked from all directions, making it difficult for British soldiers to defend themselves.

By noon, the British troops who had entered the city had suffered more than 800 casualties out of a total of 4,000 men. Under the relentless attacks of the Wehrmacht, the remaining British troops retreated to a corner of the gap in the city wall and dared not advance a single step into the city.

The war situation in the city was quickly reported to Gordon, who was sitting on the King's class battleship. Faced with the stubborn resistance of the Wehrmacht and the strong advice of the British officers entering the city, Gordon weighed the pros and cons and had to make the decision to order the troops to evacuate the city of Buenos Aires.

The first high-profile offensive ended abruptly but whimperingly. Gordon, who once claimed to be an expert on China, couldn't help but have doubts about the enemy before him.

Twenty years ago, during the battle with the Taiping Army, Gordon was able to quickly observe the enemy's weaknesses and shortcomings. Twenty years later, the British army was equipped with breech-loading rifles with faster firing rate and higher accuracy, and was equipped with more powerful naval guns and improved Gatling machine guns. However, as soon as the two met, more than 800 British regular troops lost their combat effectiveness and could no longer participate in the later battles.

Gordon was curious about how the other party did it.

Twenty years ago, in the war to suppress the Taiping Rebellion, the foreign rifle team composed of scattered soldiers and guerrillas repeatedly defeated the Taiping Army which had superior manpower. In many years of combat experience, the total casualties of the foreign rifle team were only about a thousand people, while in the battle this morning, 800 regular soldiers were killed or wounded, and the loss was more serious than that of the foreign rifle team in several years.

The volley-fire tactics of the pre-fire rifle era were gradually being phased out. The lessons of the Zulu War made the British realize for the first time that the barbaric and backward African natives were also capable of annihilating the British army fighting in large groups.

British soldiers in Buenos Aires were hastily evacuated.

The British fleet anchored at the mouth of the Rio de la Plata cruised at the fork in the port, forming a standoff with the Wehrmacht in and around the city.

At 2:30 in the afternoon, a fleet of more than 20 gunboats and small and medium-sized frigates broke away from the British expeditionary fleet and turned around to head towards the Paraná River.

The La Plata River, a tributary of the Paraná River in the coastal area, has a fast-flowing flow, an average width of 50 kilometers and a maximum width of 290 kilometers. However, when the fleet moves inland and enters the main channel of the Paraná River, the relatively narrow river channel and water depth have a very large restrictive effect on the Baron-class battleships with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons.

Like a dragon entering shallow water, the mountain-like main warships of the British Navy were unable to enter the inland area of ​​the Paraná River. However, the pressure posed by the ironclad ships of the frigate standard on the National Defense Forces was far greater than that of the Brazilian Navy ten years ago.

More than three hours later, in Tigre, a small town on the southern coast of the Paraná River estuary, north of Buenos Aires, more than 10,000 National Defense Force soldiers were busy.

The town of Tigre is about ten kilometers away from the river port. In the dense forests on the outskirts of the town, the noise of horses neighing and cows mooing destroys the quiet and peaceful atmosphere.

The mild and humid natural environment of the La Plata Plain provides good conditions for the development of animal husbandry.

After ten years of development since the founding of South America, the livestock industry in the Han Kingdom has become a major source of government revenue. According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, there are more than 110 million livestock on the 1500 million square kilometers of land in South America, and more than 20 households engaged in livestock breeding. On average, each farmer or herdsman raises to livestock.

The livestock breeding in the Han Dynasty was mainly cattle and sheep. Among the more than 1500 million local livestock, the number of cattle and sheep exceeded 1000 million.

There are 300 million draft horses and alpacas, and about 200 million pigs, deer and other livestock.

After settling in South America for more than a decade, the living habits of the early Chinese immigrants have slowly changed as they adapt day by day.

The Chinese in the north and south, who used to eat rice and flour as their staple food, gradually accepted the eating habit of combining beef, mutton with rice and flour.

Entelho Rios Province and Corrientes Province are the main rice producing areas in Argentina. When the two provinces fell under the control of the National Defense Forces, the rice supply in the country became more abundant. Every year, the excess rice output was transported to European countries such as Germany and France by ocean-going fleets.

The export of rice alone provided the Han government with considerable income every year, effectively alleviating the financial pressure brought about by the National Defense Force's military expansion and preparation for war.

The grain and livestock industries have low technological intensity, but before organic fertilizers were used in agricultural production, the grain and livestock produced in the La Plata Plain in South America had high value advantages for Europe and other regions.

Groups of pack horses were pulled out of the woods by the soldiers, with two large backpacks symmetrically placed on both sides of the horses' backs to carry the soil dug out for building tunnels and trenches.

Pack horses and alpacas are standard marching equipment for all Wehrmacht units. Generally speaking, a mixed brigade with a full strength of 9000 people is equipped with 2000 pack horses and 500 llamas, and a garrison brigade is equipped with 1000 pack horses and 300 alpacas.

In the event of heavy rain or cloudy weather, each brigade-level unit will also be equipped with a certain number of buffaloes to replace pack horses for traveling on muddy roads.

Around 5 p.m., at the Tigray National Defense Force garrison, straight wisps of smoke rose from the rugged and winding tunnels and trenches.

The 80-centimeter-long marching pots were filled with large chunks of beef and mutton, with vegetables, oil, salt, seasonings and other ingredients scattered around. Firewood collected nearby was placed under the pot, emitting roasting heat.

"Gudonggudong"

Bubbles rose from the boiling iron pot, and the rich aroma of meat accumulated above the trenches, tempting the soldiers' appetites.

When it was time for dinner, the garrison soldiers, who had worked hard all day, put down their tools, washed their muddy hands with clean water from a nearby stream, and then lined up to wait for dinner on the battlefield.

Broth, potatoes, and rice, a simple yet hearty dinner, slowly relieved the soldiers' fatigue.

At a quarter to five, the soldiers had just finished dinner when an uninvited fleet disrupted the entire Wehrmacht position.

"Enemy ships are attacking! All troops on alert!"

Sharp warnings sounded throughout the small town of Tigre. After a brief chaos, the army of more than 10,000 people quickly split into two forces, front and rear, and rushed to the preset positions to meet the enemy!

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(End of this chapter)