Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 73: Captivity of Dadini

In the cold and wild mountains, a long army walked into the road between the two mountains.

The 30,000 men under Dadini were Pedro's direct troops. Their equipment was better than that of the ordinary local armed forces, but they were slightly inferior to the re-armed field troops of the Chinese Independence Army.

As the president of Peru, Pedro had to maintain a large army. The huge military expenditure prevented him from purchasing military equipment on a large scale. Therefore, among the 30,000 Peruvian troops, there were only 2,000 cavalry troops and the artillery was not large either.

In this nighttime surprise attack on the Chinese Independence Army, Dadini led 20,000 soldiers, and the remaining 10,000 stayed in Arequipa to consolidate the newly recovered territory.

Dadini led two thousand cavalrymen marching in the center of the army. At this time, smoking homemade grenades were thrown into the Peruvian army.

Hand grenades have a long history and were first invented by the Chinese.

Hand grenades filled with black powder appeared in Europe in the 15th century and were mainly used for fortress defense and prisons.

In the middle of the 17th century, some European countries equipped their elite troops with field grenades, and called the soldiers who were specially trained to use this ammunition grenadiers.

By the 19th century, with the development of guns and artillery and the reduction of castle attacks and defenses, grenades were once unpopular.

Hand grenades played a role on the battlefield again in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904. In World War I, hand grenades were widely used due to the rise of trench warfare.

The hand grenades used to ambush the Peruvian army were urgently manufactured by the Arequipa Military Factory under the order of Li Mingyuan.

Li Mingyuan's original plan was to order custom grenades from Western countries, but after discussing with Liu Pu and others, Li Mingyuan decisively gave up this idea.
Because hand grenades are easy to make, they only need three parts: gunpowder, iron shell and fuse. Any small arms workshop can complete the manufacture of hand grenades.
During the Taiping Rebellion, the Taiping Army used the same principle, filling iron coffins with gunpowder, burying them under city walls, and blowing up the walls with great success.

After listening to Liu Pu's explanation, Li Mingyuan also recalled that in the past, during the New Year in the countryside, many children would take apart the firecrackers they picked up, pour gunpowder into a small iron box, and then add the firecracker fuse and ignite it. The noise was loud and the power was quite strong.

The grenades used this time were made of black powder, and their power was slightly less than that of grenades made of high-performance explosives.

After this type of grenade explodes, it usually breaks into seven or eight pieces, which makes it difficult to kill the enemy directly, but it can cause considerable damage to the enemy, making the enemy temporarily lose its combat capability.

The smoking grenade attracted the attention of the Peruvian soldiers. A few curious Peruvian soldiers picked up the grenades thrown at their feet and heard a deafening explosion. Then they fell to the ground and rolled back and forth.

As the first grenade exploded, explosions continued to ripple through the Peruvian army, stretching for dozens of miles.
The roar startled the two thousand Peruvian cavalry. Dadini's horse was frightened and suddenly jumped forward, knocking Dadini off his horse.
Fortunately, the guards around him were quick to pull Dadini out, otherwise Dadini might have become the first Peruvian general to die from a horse's kick.

The grenades were thrown by the Chinese troops ambushed halfway up the mountain. There were 3,000 soldiers, each throwing five grenades. Fifteen thousand grenades were thrown in two minutes, immediately disrupting the Peruvian army's formation.
The reconnaissance battalion and the special forces brigade were concentrated in the central area of ​​the ambush position. After the grenades were thrown, 600 soldiers from the special forces brigade and the reconnaissance battalion emerged from their hiding places and quickly rushed to the main road in the mountains.

While the Peruvian soldiers were still in a daze, they rushed up to them and killed the enemies in front of them with the rifles and machetes they carried with them.

The mountain road chosen by the Chinese Independence Army for the ambush was about 400 meters wide. The Peruvian troops were arranged in rows of 30 men each, marching within a 100-meter radius in the middle of the mountain road.
The road was rugged and full of gravel within a hundred meters on both sides of the mountain road, which not only made it difficult for the Peruvian army to advance, but also hindered the offensive speed of the Chinese Independence Army.

The special forces soldiers were good at camouflage and concealment. They used the cover of boulders and earth pits to avoid the searches of the Peruvian guard soldiers. Therefore, when they cut the Peruvian army in two, the Chinese soldiers who were ambushing halfway up the mountain had not yet rushed down the slope.

After the initial attack by the Chinese Independence Army, the Peruvian army reacted quickly. At the interface where the special forces cut it in half, the Peruvian armies in the front and back each gathered five or six hundred soldiers to launch an attack on the special forces.

The mountain road occupied by the Special Forces Brigade and the Reconnaissance Battalion was about 300 meters long. The Special Forces Brigade soldiers were responsible for the Peruvian soldiers on the east side of the mountain road, while the Reconnaissance Battalion was responsible for the Peruvian troops on the west side of the mountain road.
"Bang, bang, bang," one hundred rifles fired at the same time, and sixty to seventy Peruvian soldiers who were attacking the reconnaissance battalion fell immediately. The Peruvian army's offensive formation was relatively concentrated, and the first round of shooting caused a small half of the soldiers in the front to fall down.

However, these Peruvian soldiers seemed to suddenly become brave, stepping on the bodies of the dead Peruvian soldiers in front of them and continued to rush forward.

"The first row of musketeers crouch, the second row fire."

The Chinese officer in charge of the battle calmly issued orders. After firing, the musketeers quickly squatted down, put down their muskets, and took out the grenades they had brought with them. The special forces soldiers charged ahead and were not able to carry heavy weapons.

In order to avoid casualties, Li Mingyuan equipped each special forces soldier with ten grenades. As long as the special forces soldiers could delay the Peruvian army for three minutes, the Chinese troops on the mountainside would be able to rush to the battlefield and achieve the combat goal of encircling the Peruvian army.

The Chinese Independence Army ambushed 20,000 troops. Although the number of Peruvian troops was less than Li Mingyuan estimated, the Chinese Independence Army would have to pay a price to wipe them all out.
Therefore, in Li Mingyuan's plan, he would use the special forces' attack to split the Peruvian army into two parts, concentrate superior forces to destroy the Peruvian army in the front, and let the Peruvian army in the back go.

After three rounds of musket fire, the Peruvian army attacked to within fifty or sixty meters of the reconnaissance battalion soldiers. At this time, more than a dozen soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion also suffered casualties.

"Fire," the reconnaissance battalion commander gave the order and threw a grenade. Then the "whoosh" sound reached the ears of the attacking Peruvian soldiers.

The rumbling sound continued on the mountain road of more than 100 meters. After the sound died down, none of the Peruvian soldiers attacking in front of the reconnaissance battalion could stand up again. They all lay on the ground screaming in pain.

The blocking of the special forces and the reconnaissance battalion soldiers bought time for the Chinese soldiers on the mountainside.
By the time the Peruvian troops opposite the reconnaissance battalion organized another attack, the Chinese soldiers on both sides of the mountain had already rushed to the mountain road.

The deafening shouts of killing reached the ears of the Peruvian army as the Chinese soldiers rushed down the mountainside. Looking around, there were countless Chinese soldiers on both sides of the mountain road.

At midnight, the Peruvian soldiers who were charging on the mountain road thought that the whole mountain was full of Chinese troops. The courage they had just felt when their superiors pointed guns at them to attack disappeared in an instant, and they turned around and retreated.

"The general is still surrounded by the rebels. You are not allowed to retreat." The one commanding the attack on the reconnaissance battalion's position was one of Dadini's trusted subordinates. Seeing that the number of rebels was increasing, he hurriedly waved the pistol in his hand and shouted.

There was a constant stream of gunfire and explosions on the mountain road. The Peruvian soldiers retreating in front could not hear the commander's shouts at all and continued to retreat.

"Bang, bang, bang" a row of muskets fired at the Peruvian soldiers who were retreating in panic, and a group of soldiers fell down immediately.

"Hold on, everyone. If you don't rescue the general, you're all dead." After a burst of gunfire, the Peruvian officer waving a pistol was shouting wildly. Suddenly, a bullet was shot at him. The Peruvian officer immediately lost his voice and fell straight down.

The person who fired the shot was a platoon leader of the reconnaissance battalion. The Peruvian officer's shouting exposed his identity, leading to the premature end of his life.

"Well done. I'll commend you after the battle." The reconnaissance battalion commander patted him on the shoulder happily and encouraged him.

"Thank you, Battalion Commander." The Chinese platoon leader said with a simple smile.

Without the command of their officers, the Peruvian soldiers, who had no intention of fighting to the death, suddenly had no worries. They no longer considered Dadini who was surrounded by the Chinese troops and retreated to the rear.

The Peruvian army lined up in a long queue of more than 20 miles. When the army in front was attacked by the Chinese Independence Army, there were still many soldiers behind who did not enter the ambush circle.

The fleeing Peruvian soldiers in front disrupted the formation of the army behind. Hearing the exaggerated news from the fleeing soldiers, many Peruvian soldiers followed suit and retreated.

Then the Peruvian soldiers who were unable to figure out the strength of the Chinese troops were forced to retreat. By the time the news reached the Peruvian officer in command of the rear, Dadini had become a prisoner of war of the Chinese Independence Army.

Although the Chinese Independence Army had plundered a lot of war horses, since they had to travel thousands of kilometers, the more military horses and pack horses the better.

Although Datini was saved by his men, he could not escape the fate of being captured. When the two thousand Peruvian cavalry entered the ambush circle, they were noticed by the ambushing troops.
When the battle started, many Chinese soldiers rushed towards the Peruvian cavalry. The narrow mountain road was not suitable for the cavalry to deploy, and the violent explosions caused most of the Peruvian cavalry to lose control of their horses.
Therefore, the first thing the Chinese soldiers who rushed down the mountainside faced was not the charging Peruvian cavalry, but the war horses that were frightened by the explosion and running back and forth.

After controlling the surviving Peruvian cavalry, Dadini was surrounded by a group of Chinese soldiers in a small space. Knowing the situation, Dadini did not choose to die gloriously in battle. Instead, he decisively revealed his identity to the Chinese soldiers, then laid down his arms and surrendered.

(End of this chapter)