Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 92: Chapter , Chapter : Breaking the City
ps: I have to review for the exam recently, so there won’t be many updates. Please forgive me.
"Boom boom boom"

The three city-defending artillery pieces fired their first shot, and the shells hit the dense attacking crowd, causing more than twenty casualties.

The first test firing of the three artillery pieces achieved good results, which added a lot of confidence to the Bolivian soldiers on the city wall.

"Test firing completed. All units prepare for the first salvo, targeting the enemy's siege ladders."

The artillery officer who was defending the city ordered his artillerymen to prepare for firing, and then suddenly lowered the command flag in his hand.

"emission"

As the order was given, eight heavy artillery pieces and a dozen light artillery pieces fired shells one after another.

The sound of cannons rumbled, and more than 20 large and small artillery shells hit the Indian army attacking the city, immediately disrupting their offensive formation.

The open space outside the north city was wider than that outside the east and west walls, but with more than 6,000 Indian and Chinese soldiers launching an attack together, the open space still seemed not very wide.

"Don't panic, maintain the offensive formation, and charge forward another hundred meters. The enemy's shells will be useless! Brothers, follow me and charge forward."

The shells roared, and the Chinese officer commanding a ladder shouted orders.

"boom"

A shell landed seven or eight meters to the left of the Chinese officer, directly destroying a moving ladder and causing most of the Indian soldiers manning the ladder to be killed.

"Platoon leader, are you okay?" The wave generated by the artillery shell knocked the Chinese officer to the ground. The soldiers behind him hurried forward and helped the Chinese officer up.

"No need to support me, keep moving forward. If you stay here you will just become a target!" The Chinese officer stood up and ordered loudly, ignoring the roar in his ears.

"Yes"

The Chinese soldiers realized that their commander was not seriously injured, so they quickly returned to their positions and pushed the ladder forward.

On the walls of La Paz, Medellin observed the situation on the battlefield from a high position.

Advancing under enemy fire, the attacking force paid the price of 500 casualties and reached within 80 meters of the northern city of La Paz, less than 100 meters from the city wall. The threat of the Bolivian defenders' artillery to the attacking force was weakened. At this time, the soldiers of both sides fired at each other across the city wall.

A team of fifteen Chinese soldiers holding shields guarded both sides of the ladder to protect the soldiers below the ladder from the threat of the enemy.

Sixty meters, thirty meters, ten meters, the huge ladder and logs finally reached the edge of the city wall. The ladder was lifted and placed on the city wall with a bang. The Chinese soldiers below began to climb up along the ladder.

On the wall of La Paz, Medellin, who was personally supervising the battle, looked increasingly unhappy. Were these still the same uncivilized Indians as before? Normally, the Bolivian army would just fire a volley of muskets and these Indians would flee.

However, these Indians before them, under the leadership of a few Chinese officers, not only dared to take the initiative to attack the Bolivian army, but were able to persist in the attack even with five or six hundred casualties. Could it be that the Chinese troops were really so powerful that they could make the cowardly Indians brave in just a few days?
The more Medellin thought about it, the more scared he became. Now it was difficult to deal with the Indians under the Chinese troops. If the main force of the Chinese Independence Army attacked, how many days could the city of La Paz hold out?

Ladders were placed on the city walls one after another, and the Bolivian soldiers hiding behind the firing lines felt increasingly overwhelmed.

"General, the enemy is increasing in number. My men are almost unable to resist. I beg you to send reinforcements."

Leaving the task of defending the city to his deputy, the chief officer of the North City defense ran to Medellin to ask for support.

"There are no reinforcements. The enemy is attacking both East City and West City. The last reserve force was just sent to support West City. Now I have no troops to send."

Medellin Road.

"General, the enemy's offensive power in the East City is weak. It would be a waste to place a large number of troops in the East City. I implore you to send reinforcements from the East Gate, otherwise the North City will be in danger."

The battle in the North City was fierce. Although there were also enemies attacking from the east and west, the intensity of the attack and the number of enemies could not be compared with that of the North City. Therefore, Medellin believed that the main attack direction of the Chinese Independence Army was the North Gate. At this time, wasting troops in other places would be disadvantageous to defending the city. So Medellin agreed to his subordinates' suggestions and transferred troops from the East City to support the North City. The distance between the East City and the North City was not far. After receiving Medellin's order, the East City defender immediately sent a thousand soldiers to reinforce the North Gate. With the addition of a thousand fresh troops, the North City defenders immediately launched a counterattack against the Chinese and Indian soldiers who climbed the city wall, constantly forcing them to the edge of the city wall, temporarily reversing the unfavorable situation of the La Paz defenders.

When the two armies were fighting, not only did Medellin personally command the battle, but Li Mingyuan was also behind the attacking troops, observing every move on the battlefield.

When the enemy is weak, pretend to be strong; when the enemy is strong, pretend to be weak. A feint attack does not mean just pretending. It is just to attack once and then retreat. A feint attack can also be used as the intensity of the main attack. After mobilizing the enemy's manpower, make a breakthrough and then take advantage of the opportunity when the enemy's defense line is destroyed. Put all the combat forces on the field and attack in all directions. Every attack direction can become the main attack direction.

"Sir, the enemy's forces in the East City are weak. The opportunity our army has been waiting for has come. Should we order the troops to attack immediately?"

Liu Pudao.

"Well, tell them that it's time to start." Li Mingyuan put down the telescope and said with a smile, "We'll keep our troops at the gates of La Paz for a few days. Now is the time to remove this nail."

"After we take La Paz, there shouldn't be any large-scale battles before we engage the Brazilian army."

Liu Pu sent out a messenger and continued.

"The attack on La Paz consumed a lot of ammunition. I have to take more compensation after entering the city."

Before the battle of La Paz, Li Mingyuan had no intention of plundering Bolivian cities, but after the conflict with the Melgare Kingdom, Li Mingyuan changed his mind.

After all, La Paz is one of the largest cities in Bolivia. The only city in Bolivia that can rival La Paz is Sucre. It would be foolish to leave such a big trophy behind.

Li Mingyuan's words were very straightforward, and Liu Pu naturally understood.

"Let's forget about the ordinary residents in La Paz. After all, the troops still have to march a long distance in Bolivia. If we allow the soldiers to rob Bolivian residents, it will have an adverse impact on the troops' subsequent march."

"Well, after entering the city, the troops will only confiscate the property of the Bolivian government. As for ordinary residents, as long as they are not enemies of our army, we will leave them alone."

Li Mingyuan said.

……

Before taking the city of La Paz, Li Mingyuan and Liu Pu began discussing the issues that would arise after the occupation of the city. However, the issues they considered were not redundant. After the order was issued, the troops attacking East City quickly launched the attack.

Two light artillery pieces were placed on the mound built outside the East City. Since the distribution map of La Paz's fortifications was obtained by the Chinese Independence Army, the two artillery pieces were put to good use. According to the data marked on the map, they launched an artillery attack on the East City.

The accurate artillery fire of the Chinese Independence Army destroyed the artillery of the defenders hidden behind the city wall. Soon after the attack began, several artillery pieces of the East City defenders were destroyed by two artillery pieces of the Chinese Independence Army.
Without artillery support and the East City defenders were insufficient, the Chinese attacking forces reached the east city wall half an hour after the attack was launched. As for the East City defenders, except for a small number who escaped, the rest were either killed by Chinese soldiers or surrendered.

The East City was breached and loopholes appeared in the entire La Paz defense system. When Medellin first learned of the fall of the East City, he tried hard to gather 800 people to provide support. However, less than ten minutes later, less than half of the reinforcements returned, and they were followed by more than 200 Chinese soldiers.

The last effort to defend La Paz failed, and Medellin gave up hope and quickly fled towards the south gate under the escort of hundreds of soldiers around him.

As soon as Medellin fled, other warlords of all sizes in La Paz were not willing to be left behind. They successively withdrew from the city walls and escaped from the south gate.

The Chinese Independence Army had limited numbers of people when they first attacked the city wall, and they also had to divide their forces to encircle and suppress the remaining defenders on the city wall, so they had no chance to stop the enemy from escaping from the south gate.

The Bolivian soldiers ran away, but Li Mingyuan didn't care much about it. What he valued was the wealth and materials in the city, because these things were the most helpful to the Chinese Independence Army.

The sound of a cannon is worth a ton of gold. War is the best way to expand a force.

The Chinese Independence Army was extremely poor at the beginning of the uprising, and it was only by constantly fighting to seize Peruvians' minerals, weapons, and wealth that they had today's elite troops. Therefore, Li Mingyuan was not opposed to a war where the gains outweighed the costs.

(End of this chapter)