Both battles were defeated, and more than a thousand white soldiers were lost. The South African colonial army was almost wiped out, and there were only more than 14,000 available army troops. It would take another week for the 30,000 reinforcements promised by Brazil to arrive in Argentina and Argentina.
The British army meets.
With insufficient troops, Gordon could only urge Brazil to speed up and get 30,000 reinforcements on board as soon as possible to the offshore port of Buenos Aires. At the same time, he ordered the British fleet stranded in Tigre to give up entanglement with the National Defense Forces and bypass Tigre.
The defense line in the waters around Gray sailed inland along the confluence of the Paraná and La Plata rivers, blocking and waiting for opportunities to occupy the important town of Rosario as soon as possible, cutting off the water supply routes between the Han mainland and the frontline defense forces.
At noon on May 18, more than 20 frigates and small battleships were divided into two groups, escorting more than 40 transport ships and supply ships, sailing towards Rosario.
At 5:20 in the evening, when the British fleet arrived in the sea about 30 kilometers away from Rosario, several deafening explosions made the commander of the British squadron, Colonel Beard, suddenly change his expression.
Accompanied by a huge explosion, the calm water surface instantly rolled up to a wave of seven or eight meters high. The water wave that hit the sky was stagnant for a few seconds, and then the heavy potential energy carried tens of tons of water and beat it.
Explosion attack on a warship.
The two small warships sailing in the waters ahead were struck by mines and devastated by water waves. The two successive blows caused the two small warships sailing in the waters ahead to lose their balance instantly. More than 40 British naval soldiers were thrown off the warship deck by the explosion and the waves caused by the explosion.
He fell heavily into the rolling water.
The first wave of mine explosions resulted in two sinkings and one damage. Two British frigates with a displacement of about 1,500 tons struggled on the water for more than thirty seconds. The British soldiers in the warship control room and weapons room
Before he could recover from the aftermath of the explosion, he was swallowed by the surging river water and slowly sank into the cool river together with the warship.
The two frigates were silent, and more than 200 naval soldiers on the two warships were buried under the water. Although the other frigate that hit a mine was not silent, the warship's hull was severely damaged and it was unable to continue sailing with the fleet.
The tragic situation of the three mine-struck frigates was intuitively displayed in Beard's eyes. Before the battle with the Rosario defenders, our fleet had suffered the loss of three warships. Beard could guess that if Gordon received his war
What kind of expression will it look like when reporting damage?
The sudden mine explosion made Beard, who had just suffered a defeat in the Tigray battle, feel even more angry and depressed.
Ordering two medium-sized frigates to salvage and rescue the drowned naval soldiers, Beard immediately issued a pre-war order and ordered four warships to be dispatched to perform mine clearance tasks. Other warships, including transport ships, logistics supply ships and other ships, all stopped moving until the four forward warships eliminated the mine threat.
Afterwards, the fleet continued sailing.
At 5:47 in the evening, more than sixty-seven British ships were temporarily anchored in the wide water, anxiously waiting for news of the mine-clearing ships ahead.
"Colonel, telegram from Sir Gordon!"
The communications officer ran to the deck and handed a telegram to Colonel Beard, saying: "Argentine interim President Urquiza was attacked by Han troops during his retreat. Sir Gordon ordered the fleet to arrive at Rosario before seven o'clock in the evening.
Land at the ports around Rosario within two days at the latest to coordinate the retreat of the remaining Argentine troops!"
"Where are the Agen troops located now and how many troops do they have left?"
"Alvarez, about one hundred and sixty kilometers from Rosario."
The communications officer recalled the contents of the telegram and quickly replied, "The Argentine troops were attacked by Han troops yesterday evening and lost more than 20,000 troops. Less than 30,000 troops escaped temporarily."
"Alvarez, Rosario, Cordoba," Beard took out a marching map, roughly browsed the geographical conditions of the three places, shook his head and said, "The road from Urquiza to Buenos Aires was occupied.
, the only road left from Alvarez to Cordoba crosses Rosario. Without occupying Rosario, which was defended by Han troops, Urquiza would not be able to return to Cordoba safely.
"
"The main force of the Argentine troops was damaged. Sir Gordon ordered the colonel to give up the combat mission of covering the Argentine troops' return to Cordoba in a timely manner according to changes in the battlefield situation on the front line."
"The Rosario waters of the Paraná River are full of mines, and the fleet has lost the best opportunity to capture Rosario."
Beard looked down at the map for a moment, then raised his head and ordered, "Send two additional warships to perform minesweeping missions. The combat target is changed to Alvear. Each ship will prepare for battle and set off on time in half an hour!"
Accepting the new combat mission, the parked and waiting British fleet quickly took action, and the six minesweepers in front also accelerated the speed of clearing mines.
At 6:17, as the sun had just set over the mountains, another warship on a minesweeping mission struck a mine and sank on the vast Paraná River. At the cost of a total of four warships, the British fleet opened up a more than ten kilometers long channel.
Safe passage, the follow-up warships accelerated along a narrow water path under the guidance of five minesweepers.
Urquiza is cunning and sophisticated, he has been involved in Argentine politics for decades, and he defeated his old rival Mitre, but in the end he still did not escape the attack of the National Defense Forces.
When the news that Buenos Aires was captured by the National Defense Forces reached Urquiza, he realized that the situation was not good. Urquiza first concealed the news of the destruction of the main force of the Argentine Federation, and then quietly replaced the troops who were under his orders.
, replaced the Argentine troops from other provinces and continued to attack the National Defense Forces, giving the illusion that everything was normal. Then that night, Urquiza, who had hastily prepared, retreated towards Cordoba with more than 20,000 troops. The next day
In the morning, more than 50,000 National Defense Forces rushed to the fighting positions between the two sides from the direction of Buenos Aires, and immediately joined the attack on the Argentine troops.
Buenos Aires fell, Miter was killed, friendly forces fled, and each piece of bad news defeated the Argentine troops who did not belong to each other. The battle lasted less than a morning, and was abandoned by Urquiza around 12 noon.
Of the more than 36,000 Argentine local troops, only 2,000 were killed in the battle, and the remaining 34,000 were all captured. Less than 600 people took advantage of the chaos to escape.
Urquiza's unit has certain strength, and considering the political influence of the other party who announced to temporarily take over as the president of Argentina on the way to escape and called on Argentine civilians to take up arms to resist the rule of the National Defense Forces, as soon as he learned that Urquiza had escaped,
Li Mingyuan quickly ordered the westward marching troops to deploy troops to pursue Urquiza, and he must not be allowed to escape back to Cordoba Province.
Morale was low, most of the logistics and supplies were abandoned in the rush to escape, and the marching speed of the Argentine troops was greatly slowed down. On the night of May 17, when Urquiza's troops were retreating, they found that the road back to the army had been seized by the National Defense Forces. In anger, Urquiza
Kisa ordered the troops to launch three rounds of attacks. As a result, the three rounds of attacks failed each time. At this time, there was news that the large army of the National Defense Force in the rear was less than 30 kilometers away from us. He was frightened and scared, worried that he would follow Miter's retreat.
Urquiza had to order his troops to abandon the attack and instead take the Rosario line, hoping to open a passage back to Cordoba with the support of the British fleet.
At 8 o'clock in the evening on May 18, the British fleet suddenly launched an attack in the small riverside town of Albial, thirteen kilometers away from Rosario.
Naval artillery bombardment and infantry follow-up. More than a thousand third-line militia troops of the National Defense Forces were defeated by the British offensive. After suffering more than 400 casualties, they fought and retreated to cover the wounded people's evacuation from the battlefield, leaving Alvear to the British landing force.
.
On the morning of May 20, four thousand British reinforcements came out of Albial and attacked all the way. However, they were blocked by the Wehrmacht troops and were never able to join Urquiza's troops.
At three o'clock in the afternoon on May 20, the Argentine troops who were fleeing in embarrassment were surrounded by the National Defense Forces. Two hours later, as Urquiza raised his hands and surrendered, the remaining Argentine troops gave up resistance one after another, and the British troops who had lost their rescue target were worried.
Away from the fleet, it was besieged by the Wehrmacht. After the last rescue attempt failed, the troops withdrew and disengaged from the Wehrmacht.
Urquiza surrendered, all armed forces in Argentina were wiped out, and the National Defense Forces quickly launched operations to occupy various parts of Argentina.
On May 20, the President of Uruguay fled from the British Expeditionary Fleet, and on May 21, Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, fell. Five days later, Mercedes, which had been holding on for several months, was broken, and the entire territory of Uruguay was occupied by the National Defense Forces.
On May 27, after a day of fighting, the National Defense Forces wiped out more than 4,000 Argentine troops and occupied the city of Cordoba, the capital of Cordoba Province. Then the westward column dispersed and attacked, successively occupying
San Luis Province, Mendoza Province, La Rioja Province and other southwestern provinces.
On June 20, the southward column occupied Trenlaoken, Santa Rosa, Neuquen and other places, and joined Ye Chenglin's troops on June 22.
On July 3, after Li Dawei and Ye Chenglin's troops successively occupied the Patagonian Plateau on the east side of the Andes, they divided their forces all the way across the Andes and landed on Chiloe Island, quickly mopping up the weak Chilean Patagonian garrison.
, occupying the entire area south of Patagonia, including Puerto Montt.
On July 4, the Chilean government forcibly suspended its joint operations plan with the British Expeditionary Fleet on the grounds that its homeland security was threatened, and transferred more than a dozen warships, including two ironclads, back to the country to support homeland operations.
On July 5, the National Defense Forces made some repairs and replenishments, and then directed their troops towards Valdivia, and occupied Valdivia two days before the return of the Chilean support fleet, completing the combat objectives assigned by Li Mingyuan.