The transport fleet stopped at Grand Inaba Island for one night to replenish supplies. Before the fleet left, Chen Xingui successfully persuaded Liang Xing to immigrate to Rio Grande do Sul with him.
After Hou Taiyuan and Chen Sen left on their mission, Liang Xing and Chen Xingui began to sell the land and plantations that they could not take away with them, and at the same time spread Rio Grande do Sul's immigration policy to the Chinese in the Caribbean island.
After the two people's efforts to contact and persuade, more than a hundred Chinese businessmen and free Chinese were finally willing to leave with them. Some Chinese were undecided and chose to stay where they were and wait and see for a while before making a decision.
Time passed slowly, and the history of the South American continent turned to the page of 1869.
At the end of 1868, the Argentine troops, who had received reinforcements, launched a fierce attack on the city of Morandi. For a time, all the outer defense lines of Morandi were lost. At the most critical moment, the Argentine troops even boarded the Morandi tower. However, as Isti increased its strength,
All reserve forces were mobilized and a counterattack was launched with the fire support of a Chinese artillery battalion. The Argentine soldiers who boarded the tower were successfully wiped out, and one of the three important peripheral defense lines outside the city wall was successfully recovered.
After about a week of high-intensity fighting, the number of casualties on both sides of Argentina and Paraguay surged. The large number of soldiers lost and the rapidly declining morale caused the large-scale battle to end, and the battle mode changed to confrontation and small-scale sneak attacks and counterattacks.
Modern wars often last for months or even years. Between Argentina and Paraguay, the Argentinian soldiers have more soldiers than the Paraguayan defenders, but they cannot crush each other with numbers. The Paraguayan troops have the city of Morandi in hand.
You can rely on geographical advantages and use artillery to defend the city. At the same time, facing a lack of troops, you can barely defend the city. It is very difficult to defeat the Argentines if you want to fight outside the city.
As long as the equilibrium situation is not broken, it will be difficult to quickly determine the winner of the Battle of Morandi. While the two sides continued to exchange fire, the main force of the 2nd Mixed Brigade and the artillery unit arrived at the Rio Grande do Sul border area east of San Javier, and then in
They quietly stationed themselves there, waiting for Li Mingyuan to issue the final attack order.
On January 3, 1869, near a tributary of the Paraná River in northern Argentina, seven or eight Indians filled water bags with water on the river bank. Two Indians were on guard on each side of the river bank.
"A boat is coming, let's hide."
The Indians on the upper bank of the river noticed the situation and immediately warned their companions, but the words they spoke were in Chinese.
get reminder, take
The few people who stayed by the river to collect water quickly blocked the mouths of their water bags and carefully ran to hide under the bushes dozens of meters away.
The boat coming up the river was a river gunboat equipped by the Argentines. The battle for Misiones lasted for more than a month. The indigenous Indians in the border area between Paraguay and Argentina were affected by the war and moved away from their original places of residence on a large scale to avoid the war.
harm.
Population movement meant disorder. Some wandering whites and gauchos mixed among the Indians (whites and Indians mixed, accustomed to nomadic life) took advantage of the chaos to fish in troubled waters and began to attack white settlers in northern Argentina and rob them.
Their livestock and wealth. Therefore, in order to maintain the security situation in the northern region, the Argentines sent some additional gunboats and river vessels to perform armed patrols to deter armed elements in the northern region who were ready to move.
The gunboat sailed to the place where the Indians had been hiding, less than thirty meters away from the nearest three-man team.
"Captain, there are three gunboats, and there are two more behind them."
The man dressed as an Indian with a grass ring on his head whispered.
"Argentina has increased its patrol strength. Thirteen of us can't handle the Argentine troops with three gunboats. We sent a message to the other brothers to stay still and let them pass."
"Yes." The man nodded in response, lowered his body and crawled back. Then he made a gesture with his right hand to the bushes behind him. After receiving the response, he carefully climbed back to his original position.
The first gunboat left, less than a minute apart, and two gunboats full of soldiers passed by one after another.
As the gunboat moved away, the men hiding behind the trees and bushes appeared and gathered. The leading man walked to the river and washed off the green leaf paint on his face, revealing his traditional Han appearance.
"Captain, the area ahead of the gunboat as it sails is the territory of the Gauchos. Are the Argentines going towards them?"
Zhang Song, the captain of the special operations team, handed the water bag to Sun Qisheng and said.
"We attacked two groups of Argentine patrols some time ago. They probably thought it was the Gauchos who did it, so they sent troops to retaliate."
Sun Qisheng speculated.
After Sun Qisheng contacted Felner, he continued to lurk in the mountains and forests of northern Argentina according to Li Mingyuan's order, built a base for the special forces in the mountains and forests, and looked for opportunities to sow discord between the local Indians, Gauchos and Argentine farm owners, and gave them
Create conflicts.
"When the Argentines send out troops to retaliate, it will definitely trigger greater armed conflicts and unrest. Let us not intervene in their conflicts and build our base first."
Sun Qisheng casually wiped his face with his sleeve and asked, "How are you doing with your Indian language skills, brothers?"
"Most of the brothers only know a few everyday words."
Zhang Song shook his head and said: "The Indians have their own language per tribe. The Tilcara language we learned is only used by a few mountain forest tribes in the north. When encountering other Indian tribes, they cannot understand it."
"To pretend to be an Indian, you have to learn to be more serious. I don't require my brothers to master all the Tiokar language, but they need to be able to understand a few simple conversations, otherwise it will be easy for others to find out the flaws."...
About a hundred miles west of the river bank, more than 160 soldiers from three gunboats, under the command of an Argentine company commander, launched an attack on the villages on the river bank.
The size of the village is not large, with a total of about 500 people, men, women, old and children, among whom there are about 30 Gauchos, and the rest are Indians who rely on the Gauchos.
In the early days of the colonization of South America, most of the people who came to the area were white men. They married local Indian women and gave birth to mixed-race children. However, due to racial discrimination, white men were often unwilling to recognize Indian women as their wives. Instead, after the other party gave birth,
Abandon women and children.
Mixed-race children who were not recognized by their white fathers were raised by Indian mothers. Because they inherited the cultural traditions from both parents, they formed a new race. The white people called them Gauchos.
The status of the Gauchos was only slightly higher than that of the Indians, and they were excluded from mainstream rule by the Spanish whites. Therefore, the dissatisfied Gauchos often attacked colonial settlements and became enemies of the Spaniards.
The Gauchos retain the blood of Indians, and the skills learned from white society make it easy for them to establish prestige among the Indians. Therefore, many Gauchos rely on their skills to recruit a group of Indians to become loyal and become a resistance force against white colonial rule.
the main force.
They have been vendetta against each other for hundreds of years. Even if Argentina becomes independent, the village leader Gaucho Davis does not have a good impression of the white people in Buenos Aires who inherit the Spanish dominance.
When the gunboat appeared five miles away from the village, the Gauchos stationed outside the village issued an early warning. Therefore, Davis quickly arranged some manpower to cover the evacuation of the old, weak, women and children, while he led more than a hundred young people from the village to lag behind the Argentinians.
attack.
The village was established 170 meters away from the river bank. While the Argentines sent infantry to approach the village, they also used three small artillery guns on the gunboat to provide fire support.
"Boom, boom, boom" three artillery shells roared into the middle of the village, and the two wooden houses hit by the shells collapsed suddenly.
The shells continued to bombard the villagers who were hiding next to the wooden houses to block the Argentinian attack. The casualties increased rapidly, and the simple and compact wooden houses in the past were turned into ruins and burning wood under the bombardment of the artillery fire.
"Chief, there are three groups of brothers trapped under the wooden house, two groups of brothers were burned by fire, and another group of brothers were hit by cannonballs and died on the spot,"
The shelling stopped, and a Gaucho in his thirties reported the casualties to Davis.
There were twenty-four casualties in five groups. Argentina's shelling alone caused the Gauchos to lose one-fifth of their manpower. Davis felt heartbroken, but thinking of his wife and two sons in the retreat, he still made up his mind: "
The Argentines have even brought artillery. They must intend to completely eliminate us. Our wives and children have not gone far yet and cannot be caught by the Argentines. Tell the brothers to hold on for a while, and we will wait until the old, weak, women and children reach a safe place.
leave."
"Yes, chief." The Gaucho man quickly left and conveyed Davis' order to the rest of the village.
The battle between the Argentine infantry and the Gauchos took place in the woods beside the wooden wall of the village. Relying on artillery cover, more than a hundred Argentine soldiers advanced to a place about 70 meters away from the wooden wall.
Stand, shoot, interactive cover.
The Argentine infantry still used the infantry tactics of the Napoleonic period. More than 160 people were divided into three queues and fired under the command of the queue leader.
There were no machine guns, artillery, or trench barriers. The alternating attack tactics of the Argentine infantry caused considerable losses to the Gauchos. The young men on the wooden wall were hit one by one. Although the injuries were not fatal, they lost their combat ability.
"Retreat and go behind the woods to stop the enemy."
The Argentinian infantry was less than fifty meters away from the wooden wall, and Qingzhuang's casualties were increasing. Davis decisively changed the name.
The Gauchos left the village in a hurry, and the injured young man had no choice but to be abandoned.
The Argentinian infantry entered the village. While being careful to warn of dangers around them, some soldiers were separated to collect the prisoners.
There were about thirty prisoners alive, each with gunshot wounds. The Argentine company commander looked at the prisoners with disgust, winked at his officers, and then led most of the soldiers to continue the pursuit.
More than a hundred Argentine soldiers left the village, and gunshots rang out soon after.
War is a life-and-death struggle, and the enemy will not be spared just because he has the same white blood in his body.
The only ending that awaits those Gaucho captives is death.