Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 441 Local Construction
A group of senior officials dispelled their doubts and reached a consensus on the issue of intervention in Paraguay. Then, the military machine of the Republic of Brazil quickly started to move.

The 20,000 troops stationed in Paraná State bordering the Han Kingdom remained stationary. The troops stationed in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Campinas and other places, in accordance with the orders of the Republican government, advanced and assembled towards Uberaba and São Jose, preparing to adopt a conservative combat strategy and give priority to attacking the southern parts of Conanga Mato Grosso State and Yas State.

On June 1889, 6, the first batch of 10 Brazilian army troops arrived in São José. On June 4000, 1889, the number of troops stationed in Uberaba increased to 6. On June 17, 1.1, the total number of Brazilian troops gathered near Mato Grosso do Sul and southern Goiás reached 1889. While the Brazilian Republic was busy mobilizing troops to the border area, the war to determine the ownership of the Paraguayan regime also slowly began.

More than half a month ago, on June 1889, 6, after a week of reorganization and repair, Manly Ely, commander of the Guards Cavalry Battalion, Washburn, commander of the 3nd Brigade of the Paraguayan Army, and Silvestre, commander of the rd Division of the Paraguayan Army, formally swore an oath of war in Concepción and headed south to wipe out the rebellious armed forces of the four regents.

At noon that day, the oath-taking ceremony ended. The three men left 1500 soldiers to defend Concepcion, and then led the remaining 1 soldiers, boarding more than 40 large and small ships that had been recently collected, and launched an attack downstream in the direction of Asuncion.

On the evening of June 6, the anti-rebel coalition army marched to the middle and lower reaches of the Paraguay River. More than 4 port garrison troops stationed in the port of Iwapovo surrendered without a fight and joined the anti-rebel coalition army carrying weapons and ships.

On June 6, while on the march, they successively accepted and reorganized several small local garrison troops that came to inquire, and the number of the anti-rebel coalition forces increased to 6.

On June 6, the anti-rebel coalition forces briefly rested for one night in the small town of San Pedro along the Paraguay River. Then, the next morning, the fleet, which gathered more transport ships and soldiers, continued to move south according to the battle plan.

At noon on June 6, in order to delay the advance of the anti-rebel coalition forces and buy more time to hold Asuncion, the four-member Regency Committee signed a troop mobilization decree, ordering the Guards and the First Infantry Brigade to each dispatch a part of their forces, together with 8 young and strong men recruited by the Asuncion government, to rush to the port of Antequera on the route of the anti-rebel coalition forces and the town of Lynchio in the northern suburbs of Asuncion to garrison and resist. Then, after completing the delaying mission, the surviving troops were divided into two routes. One route, led by Major Bucanlan of the Guards, returned to Asuncion, and the other route, led by Polk, commander of the third battalion of the first brigade, took a land route to go around the anti-rebel coalition forces from behind, and harassed and destroyed the logistics supply routes of the anti-rebel coalition forces in a dispersed attack manner.

One day after the troop mobilization order was issued, on the afternoon of June 1889, 6, a total of 9 reinforcements, consisting of part of the Guards, the Third Battalion of the First Brigade and 1800 temporarily recruited soldiers, arrived in the town of Lynchio and the port of Antequera respectively.

The town of Lynchio and the port of Antequera, one guards the northern gate of Asuncion, and the other is a military stronghold in the lower reaches of Paraguay. Their geographical locations are very important. 21 years ago, during the First Paraguayan War, the Paraguayan troops led by Lopez Jr. and the coalition forces composed of Brazil and Argentina fought an 11-month tug-of-war in the two places.

The war that took place 21 years ago ended with Paraguay's tragic victory, but 21 years later, when the two parties in the battle were replaced by the anti-rebel coalition and the four regents, the intensity of the war was greatly reduced.

At noon on June 6, part of the anti-rebel coalition forces arrived at the port of Antequera and immediately launched a tentative attack on the port garrison.

On June 6, the anti-rebel coalition forces deployed 12 soldiers to join the siege of the port of Antequera.

At 6:15 a.m. on June 9, part of the garrison at the port mutinied, and a gap in the defense appeared on the high ground west of the port.

At 11 a.m., more than 200 anti-rebel coalition soldiers entered the port's inner defense positions along the gap, and the Antequera port's defense system showed signs of collapse.

At 13:1000 p.m., the number of anti-rebel coalition soldiers pouring into the port's inner defense positions exceeded , and the port's core fortress was facing the crisis of being surrounded on all sides.

At 14 p.m., the commander of the Third Battalion of the First Brigade led the remaining 200 soldiers to evacuate without authorization, exposing the defensive flank of the Guards.

At 16 p.m., a white flag was raised at the Stone Fortress in Antequera Port. Major Bucanlan of the Guards and the commander of the port garrison led about 800 soldiers out of the Stone Fortress and announced their surrender.

The Battle of Antequera lasted for six days. Of the more than 1400 soldiers stationed at the port, excluding the 300 who fled, there were 1100 soldiers left. About 300 were killed or wounded, and about 800 surrendered and were forcibly disbanded and added to the anti-rebel coalition force.

On the fourth day after the Battle of Antequera, the main force of the anti-rebel coalition arrived at the town of Lynchio.

The town of Lynchio originally had 400 regular troops and 200 second-line militia stationed there. After the fall of the port of Antequera, the four-member regency committee sent another 500 regular troops to the town of Lynchio on top of the first batch of reinforcements.

After receiving two reinforcements, the defensive force of Linchio Town reached 2000 people. However, there were only more than 1200 troops who were truly combat-capable. The remaining 800 soldiers were temporarily recruited, either child soldiers who were only eleven or twelve years old, or old soldiers who were over forty-five years old. These soldiers were filled in the positions. Apart from making the number of soldiers appear more substantial, the role they could actually play on the battlefield was very limited.

The shortage of men of marriageable age is reflected in all forces in Paraguay. However, compared with the armed forces controlled by the four-member regency committee, the situation faced by the anti-rebel coalition is much better than that of the four-member regent committee because they have more than twice the regular troops of the other side.

On June 6, the Battle of Lynchio broke out. At the beginning of the war, the anti-rebel coalition forces deployed heavy weapons such as field mountain artillery, gunboat guns, Gatling machine guns, etc. to cover the infantry in launching the attack.

On June 6, the third night of the fighting, the defending troops abandoned their positions in and around the town and fled towards Asuncion, carrying only their rifles.

On June 6, more than 24 anti-rebel coalition soldiers entered the suburbs of Asuncion along the route of Lynchio's fleeing troops.

On June 6, after leaving behind a small number of troops to maintain order on the rear material supply route, the main force of the anti-rebel coalition, with a total strength of 26, arrived at the Porto Ayes area west of Asuncion.

On June 6, 27 anti-rebel coalition soldiers launched a full-scale offensive against Asuncion from Lynchio and Puerto Ayes in the west.

On June 6, the anti-rebel coalition forces successively broke through the two outer defense lines set up by the four-member Regency Committee outside the city and approached the core area of ​​​​Asuncion city.

On June 6, the Anti-Rebellion Coalition dispatched 30 reinforcements to the western front. On the battlefield, the Anti-Rebellion Coalition had nearly 3000 front-line combatants.

On July 7, the last line of defense deployed by the four-member regency committee outside the city fell, and the frontline troops of the anti-rebel coalition advanced to a position only 1 kilometers away from the Asuncion Palace.

On July 7, the four-member Regency Committee reached a consensus and decided that the naval fleet (actually the inland fleet) would undertake the counterattack mission, sailing north from the lower reaches of Paraguay and launching a sea attack on the anti-rebel coalition forces.

At 7:4 p.m. on July 14, when the main force of the anti-rebel coalition gathered outside the city of Asuncion and was launching a new round of attack on the Asuncion defenders, the naval fleet commanded by Major General Falcon suddenly reversed to Porto Ayes west of Asuncion.

Paraguay's naval power was mainly controlled by the four-member Regency Committee. More than half of the artillery batteries and riverside defense fortresses in Porto Ayes were destroyed in the earlier war. Therefore, the anti-rebel coalition forces, which were suddenly attacked by the naval power of the Four-Man Regency Committee, had no ability to organize a strong counterattack.

At 18:4 in the afternoon, the water battle in the port of Ayes lasted for hours. The anti-rebel coalition forces lost more than half of their transport fleets docked in nearby ports and rivers, and more than two-thirds of their ammunition and supplies.

At 19: in the afternoon, half an hour after the naval fleet commanded by Major General Falcon withdrew, some troops equipped with large artillery arrived at the battlefield. More than half of the water force, which was not dominant to begin with, was lost. After the battle of Port Ayes, the imbalance between the water force controlled by the anti-rebel coalition and the four-member regency committee was further widened.
A few days after July 7, Major General Falcon commanded the naval fleet to frequently attack and encircle the water transportation lines controlled by the anti-rebel coalition forces.

The sea transport supply routes were attacked and more than two-thirds of the initially stockpiled ammunition and supplies were lost. All these unfavorable factors combined to force the anti-rebel coalition forces to reduce the intensity of the front-line offensive and postpone the final timetable for occupying Asuncion.

The war in Paraguay entered a white-hot stage. The anti-rebel coalition and the four-member Regency Committee continued to fight fiercely outside the city of Asuncion, and the situation was at a stalemate. On the other hand, the Republic of Brazil saw the opportunity of the Paraguayan civil war and was busy mobilizing troops and making final preparations for officially sending troops to Paraguay.

Facing the impact of the changes in Paraguay, the Han Kingdom only paid close attention to the military, intelligence, and diplomacy aspects.
In other aspects, normal construction activities are still being carried out in accordance with the development strategies formulated earlier.

On June 1889, 6, Tesla arrived in South America. To express his importance to Tesla, Li Mingyuan sent several local scholars working in the Academy of Sciences to represent him and personally welcome him at Songjiang Port.

On June 1889, 6, the Chinese Academy of Sciences issued a letter of employment, officially employing Tesla as an academician of the Physics Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In the field of scientific academia, in addition to inviting Tesla to work locally, the School of Chemical Sciences also followed Li Mingyuan's instructions.

Taking advantage of China's first-mover advantage and academic influence in the international chemical community, we openly invite the chemical communities around the world to participate in academic exchanges.

On June 6, upon hearing the news, Richard Sigmondi (born in 5), a young chemist who was 34 years old, had just received his doctorate from the University of Munich and was still unknown at the time, was the first to accept the invitation.

On June 6, German scholar Emil Fischer (born in 6) and German organic chemistry expert Adolf von Bayer announced that they had accepted the invitation from the Chinese Academy of Chemical Sciences.

On June 6, it was announced that the number of people who accepted the invitation had expanded to more than 9 people. Among them, there were eleven scholars who would later win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, including Wilhelm Wastwald (born in 1853, German), Otto Wallach (born in 1847, German), Arrhenius (born in 1850, Swede), and Emil Ferch.

The number of scholars accepting the invitation of the Han Academy of Sciences continued to increase, and at the same time, the Han Navy's ship purchase plan soon produced results.

On June 1889, 6, the Han Navy signed a formal ship purchase agreement with the British Pembroke Dockyard. The agreement stipulated that the Han Navy would purchase two Orlando-class armored cruisers from the British Pembroke Dockyard. One of the ships would be built in London, England, and the other would be built at the Xinjing Shipyard by experts and technicians dispatched by the Pembroke Dockyard and personnel drawn from the three major domestic shipyards.

Of the two armored cruisers, the cost of the warship built in London is calculated at 21 pounds per ship. The cost of the Orlando-class armored cruiser built locally is calculated at 40 pounds, including the cost of design drawings, technology transfer, technician training, British experts, and subsidies for technicians abroad. It is preliminarily estimated that the total cost is about pounds, which is twice the price of an ordinary warship.

The basic guiding principle for the development of domestic shipbuilding technology is to learn and absorb the shipbuilding technology of European powers while purchasing from foreign countries. Therefore, although they had to pay the price of an extra armored cruiser, the Han Dynasty still agreed to sign the ship purchase contract according to the price proposed by Pembroke Shipyard.

The issues of inviting European chemists and signing the ship purchase contract were resolved one after another. On the fifth day after the ship purchase contract was signed,

Another bill involving the interests of all classes of local citizens has been promulgated.

On June 1889, 6, in order to further promote local population growth, the Han government formulated a more detailed law to encourage childbirth.

The specific contents of the bill include: 5. Raising the fertility reward standard, increasing the reward standard for each child born and raised from 8 acres of free land to acres!
Encourage every woman of childbearing age to give birth to 6 children! Families with more than 6 children will be given additional policy guarantees in terms of land and tax exemptions!

2. Increase the construction of medical, health and education systems!

It is mandatory to establish at least one medical college in every state, and the funds for establishing and maintaining medical colleges are borne jointly by the central government and local state governments.

It is stipulated that the teaching model of state medical colleges should be based on clinical medicine, and the investment in childbirth, infant and child care, etc. must account for more than one-third of the total financial allocation.

Third, simplify entry procedures for women of marriageable age and encourage local residents to marry overseas women.

In principle, women of marriageable age imported from the coastal areas of the Indian Ocean were allowed to become citizens as long as they met the entry standards. (Han transport ships passed through the Indian Ocean and brought back a group of local women every time they returned.)
The population issue involves the future development of the Han State. It is necessary to implement a policy to encourage childbirth and distribute large amounts of state-owned land as policy rewards to families with children. Although the cost is much higher than indiscriminately and without principles accepting all ethnic groups, after suffering the great losses caused by their ancestors' actions, Li Mingyuan and his officers and soldiers will not choose this way to increase the population.

Moreover, not only did the Han state not relax its requirements on the policy of introducing new ethnic groups, but it also tightened the entry threshold for European personnel because some European personnel carried out illegal activities in the country under the guise of investment.

After 1885, the economic development of the Han Dynasty entered its second peak period, and the demand for funds from the local side increased.

In order to utilize overseas funds to accelerate local infrastructure and industrial development,
The local government not only relaxed restrictions on European capital, but also granted certain preferential policies to foreign capital invested in the fields of infrastructure transportation, industrial construction, etc. Attracted by economic benefits, many foreign capitals were tempted and regarded Han as another emerging investment paradise besides Japan. After the policy of encouraging foreign investment was released, a large amount of capital from Germany, France, Britain and other countries poured into Han. Among these overseas capitals, in addition to formal enterprises that truly engaged in commercial investment, there were also some scammers composed of gangsters, ruffians and even wanted criminals.

When these people arrive at the mainland coast inspection port, more than 80% will be exposed on the spot and sent back to the ship.

A small number of adventurers who can speak Spanish and Portuguese and are smart and willing to work for money, after screening, have the opportunity to be placed in Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and other countries as intelligence agents. As part of the Han Dynasty's intelligence construction source, they collect intelligence in various aspects for the Han government.

Another group of opportunistic white people who were physically fit and capable of fighting were recruited into the Foreign Legion as part of the Han country's second-line military force. They were dispersed throughout the Congo colony and were responsible for assisting the Congo Colonial Governor's Office in maintaining local order.

In addition to the above three groups of people, there were also a very small number of people who managed to escape inspection and enter the territory of the Han Dynasty. Then, relying on clever and cunning means and taking advantage of certain loopholes in the local foreign law, they carried out some illegal activities.

The economic development of the Han Kingdom has maintained a high growth trend. Although only a small number of white people escaped inspection and entered the local area, in order to strengthen public security management and eliminate the possibility of European white people sneaking into the local area to steal all kinds of intelligence,
In accordance with Li Mingyuan's instructions, the Han government reviewed and passed the Economic Investment Management Act on June 1889, 6. The act clearly stipulated the standards for outsiders who were allowed to invest locally, raised the entry threshold, and increased the penalties for illegal entrants and officials who failed to supervise.

The promulgation of the "Management Act" is part of the policy improvement and refinement in the rapid development of the Han Dynasty's economy. As the Han Dynasty's economy, comprehensive national strength, international status and other aspects are further developed and improved in the future, more complete and detailed laws will be promulgated and implemented.

(End of this chapter)