In the early hours of the morning, Li Mingyuan had just fallen asleep when he was woken up by a rapid knock on the door.
"What's going on?" The long-term mercenary life in his previous life made Li Mingyuan develop the habit of sleeping while wearing clothes. He put on a military coat and shoes, and opened the doorway.
"Your Majesty, please read the urgent message from Master Li and Master Luo."
"Inform all officers above the regiment level to come to the conference hall for a meeting." After reading the letter, Li Mingyuan immediately lost his sleepiness and ordered.
The information about Arequipa was an accident. Li Mingyuan's original plan was to wait for work and face the Peruvian army in Barranca. However, the actions of Li Sandou and Luo Linshan disrupted the original plan, and everything had to be redeployed.
"The current situation is like this, everyone can tell us what they think."
After a staff officer finished his confession, Li Mingyuan said.
After conquering Barangka, Li Mingyuan only thought of establishing a staff officer system, so the day before yesterday he appointed Liu Pu as the chief of staff of the Chinese Independent Army, and recruited several flexible officers as staff officers.
"Commander Li and Commander Luo have almost arrived in Arequipa now. It is impossible to recruit them back, so we can only send troops to support." As the newly appointed chief of staff, Liu Pu spoke first.
"Lao Li was a little impatient this time. He took action without reporting the situation. This made the entire Chinese Independence Army very passive. It was impossible not to support them. Supporting them would disrupt the prince's original deployment." Chen Guozhu said.
.
"Old Chen, you can't say that. The situation in Arequipa is beneficial to us. Lao Li made the right decision to surround Arequipa at the opportunity. I would do the same if I were in his position."
Zhang Ansong, who rarely spoke, said.
Li Mingyuan listened carefully to everyone's speech and comprehensively considered the pros and cons of sending troops.
Li Mingyuan has some military acumen, but not all of his ideas are correct, so every time something major happens, Li Mingyuan will always listen to different opinions before making a decision.
There is no doubt about sending troops. The two divisions of Li Sandou and Luo Linshan have now surrounded Arequipa. Ordering them to retreat now will not only damage the morale of the Chinese soldiers, but also alert the enemy to lure the enemy deeper in the future.
It's not that easy anymore.
Li Mingyuan walked to the newly prepared sand table and carefully examined the spheres of influence of the Chinese and Peruvian people.
Behind Arequipa is the road to Cusco. Puno and Cusca along the road can transport reinforcements to Arequipa. These two places are also the gathering places for heavy troops in Peru.
Because Puno is close to Lake Titicaca, there are 15,000 Peruvian troops, and Cusco also has 12 million troops, plus 5,000 troops from Moyando south of Arequipa to support Arequipa.
The number of Pa's troops reached 30,000, accounting for almost a quarter of the total number of Peruvian troops.
The 30,000-strong Peruvian army cannot be underestimated, because after all, they are equipped with brand-new muskets and cannons. If the Chinese army uses the existing number and equipment of the Chinese army to fight a tough battle with them, the final result may be that both sides will lose.
Peru was the mining base of South America during the Spanish rule. After independence, the Peruvians made a lot of money by selling mineral resources. Naturally, the rich Peruvians would not mistreat their own troops. Peru bought goods from the British and French.
A large amount of arms and equipment armed soldiers, and in addition to purchasing arms, the Peruvians also developed their own military industry. Arequipa is an arms base that the Peruvians spent a lot of effort to build, so Arequipa faced the attack of the Chinese army.
At that time, other Peruvian troops will definitely provide full support.
"Luo Dapao, based on the information provided by Sun Qisheng, are your artillery regiment confident in taking Arequipa?" After thinking for a while, Li Mingyuan asked.
"The city defenses of Arequipa are stronger than those of Barranca. If the artillery regiment wants to blast through the city wall, it must use all its cannons."
When he attacked Duraya last time, Luo Cannon did not blast open the city gate, and he did not dare to brag this time.
"Chief of Staff, how long will it take to capture Arequipa with the support of the artillery regiment?"
"Because of Arequipa's city defense layout, if we attack by force, we can take it in two days. However, within two days, other Peruvian reinforcements will arrive. By then we will probably be attacked from both sides."
Liu Pudao.
"Don't worry about this for now. I want to know if there is any problem in taking Arequipa."
"Your Majesty, there is no problem in taking the city. The key is that we don't have that much time." Liu Pudao.
"No, Chief of Staff, you have understood me wrong. I do not intend to attack Arequipa. Considering all the circumstances, it is not difficult to capture the city, but we have to take a lot of risks, but we have not failed.
capital, so we decided to give up the attack on Arequipa."
As soon as Li Mingyuan finished speaking, Zhang Ansong said anxiously, "Your Majesty, Commander Li, Commander Luo, and twenty to thirty thousand Chinese brothers are still waiting for us to support them. If we don't go, they may be attacked by Peruvian reinforcements."
If the whole army is wiped out, the prince should think twice."
In fact, the situation is not as serious as Zhang Ansong said, because it takes two days for the Peruvian reinforcements to arrive in Arequipa from receiving the news, and it will definitely take less than two days for Li Sandou from receiving the retreat order from the headquarters to arranging the retreat.
Zhang Ansong said this because he was worried that Li Sandou would disobey Li Mingyuan's orders and insist on taking Arequipa and be surrounded by Peruvians. On the other hand, Zhang Ansong also agreed with Li Sandou's approach.
"Since the Crown Prince has no intention of attacking Arequipa, it is better to send someone to deliver a message to Commander Li and others, asking them to retreat overnight."
Li Mingyuan did not plan to attack Arequipa by force. Liu Pu felt regretful and relieved at the same time. Although he lost a good opportunity to capture Arequipa, he could still ensure the safety of his troops.
"Your Majesty, no one can guarantee victory in a war. In order to capture Arequipa, I think it is okay for the army to take some risks. Moreover, the risk of attacking Arequipa this time is not as high as imagined. If the Peruvian reinforcements arrive,
We haven't captured the city yet, so the worst we can do is retreat to Barangka and fight them. The Heavenly Capital has been guarded for eleven years, so can it be that there are so many of us still unable to defend Barangka?" Zhang Ansong continued, unwilling to give up.
"What Uncle Zhang said is the worst possible outcome, but I won't choose to do that."
Seeing that Zhang Ansong was about to say something, Li Mingyuan stopped going around in circles with them and said with a smile, "You have misunderstood me. Although I said I would not attack Arequipa, I did not say I would not attack the Peruvian reinforcements."
When he was looking at the sand table just now, Li Mingyuan suddenly thought that if he had to worry about Peruvian reinforcements when attacking Arequipa, he might as well use the city of Arequipa as bait, surround the point to recruit reinforcements, concentrate his superior forces, and eat the three Peruvian reinforcements separately.
With no reinforcements, the city of Arequipa will not be captured just yet.
"Your Majesty, do you mean to surround the point and mobilize reinforcements?" Liu Pu had been struggling with the issue of whether to attack Arequipa. Liu Pu did not think of attacking the Peruvian reinforcements first.
As soon as Li Mingyuan said this, the officers including Liu Puzai understood instantly.
Encircling a point for reinforcements was not the first initiative of a certain party in later generations. Sun Bin besieging Wei to rescue Zhao and annihilating the Wei army on the way is a familiar example. Therefore, the officers present were no stranger to encircling a point for reinforcements.
"Did the prince tell you earlier? It gave me a false alarm." Zhang Ansong said.
"Haha, I just thought of this method." Li Mingyuan chuckled, and then said, "Moyando and Puno are relatively close to Arequipa. They will definitely send out their troops first, so I decided to eat the 20,000 people first."
, and then attack Cusco’s reinforcements.”
"The crown prince's skill was very great. After eating three reinforcements, Arequipa's defenders became a turtle in the jar. They can be eliminated without much effort," said Liu Puda.
"Yes, I want to fight a big battle this time, and kill the main force in southern Peru in one battle, so that the Peruvians have to make peace with us." Li Mingyuan said with high spirits.
"Your Majesty, after we annihilate the Peruvian reinforcements and occupy Arequipa, the weapons and equipment problems that plague the army will be solved, and the combat effectiveness of our soldiers can be fully unleashed." Liu Pu said happily.
"Liu Pu, after occupying Arequipa, you are responsible for protecting the military industry. There can be no mistakes."
"I understand the humble position."
"Uncle Chen, Dashan, you lead your respective troops to ambush on the road Moyando must pass to support Arequipa, and annihilate all the reinforcements."
"As ordered," the two said in unison.
"Commander Zhang, lead your division and the headquarters troops to ambush the enemy forces in Puno."
"yes"
"Chief of Staff Liu sent a letter to Commander Li, asking him to bring Commander Luo's troops to meet with the headquarters. He led a division and the rescued Chinese workers to continue to besiege the city, and will wait until we have dealt with the reinforcements before meeting with them."
"yes."
After the mission was issued, Li Mingyuan smiled and said, "Uncle Chen, one division and one brigade with 16,000 men can eat 5,000 mo Yanduo, no problem."
"If we still can't annihilate the Peruvians with a total force of three to one, I will twist my head off and play it as a ball for the prince to kick," Chen Guozhu said.
The officers on the side laughed when they heard what he said.
After everyone stopped laughing, Li Mingyuan said, "Our weapons and equipment are still a little different from those of the Peruvians, so we have to use our numerical advantage to make up for the shortcomings. But after Peru is mobilized, there will definitely be more troops than us, so I hope everyone will do well."
Lead the troops, wait until Arequipa is captured, and have sufficient weapons and equipment. We will be able to win with a small number of enemies, even one against three. Are you confident that you can do this?"
"Yes," the officer in the hall said loudly.
"Very good, it's one o'clock in the morning now, and the whole army will set off in an hour."
"Yes" everyone responded, quickly left the meeting hall and rushed to the military bases.