A group of high-level officials dispelled their doubts and reached a consensus on the issue of intervention in Paraguay. Then, the military machine of the Brazilian Republic quickly started to move.
The 20,000 troops garrisoned in Paraná state on the border with Han remained unchanged. The troops stationed in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Campinas and other places, in accordance with the orders of the republican government, marched towards Uberaba and São José to assemble and prepare to take action.
A conservative combat strategy, giving priority to attacking the southern areas of Gonang, Mato Grosso and Yas.
On June 10, 1889, the first batch of 4,000 Brazilian Army of the Republic of Brazil arrived in Sao José. On June 17, 1889, the number of troops stationed in Uberaba increased to 11,000. On June 20, 1889, they gathered near the South
The total number of Brazilian troops in the southern regions of Mato Grosso and Goiás reached 32,000. Just as the Brazilian Republic was nervously mobilizing troops to the border areas, the war to determine the ownership of Paraguay's power was slowly beginning.
More than half a month ago, on June 3, 1889, after a week of rectification and repair, Manli Ili, commander of the Guards Cavalry Battalion, Washburn, commander of the Paraguayan Army's Second Brigade, and Sir, commander of the Paraguayan Army's Third Division.
The three Westres formally declared their oath in Concepción and went south to wipe out the rebellious armed forces of the four regents.
At noon that day, the swearing-in ceremony ended. The three men left 1,500 soldiers to defend Concepcion, and then led the remaining 10,000 soldiers to board more than 40 large and small boats that had been collected recently, and launched their attack down the river in the direction of Asuncion.
attack.
On the evening of June 4, the rebel coalition marched to the middle and lower reaches of the Paraguay River. More than 300 port garrison troops stationed at the Port of Ivabowo surrendered without a fight. They carried weapons and ships and joined the rebel coalition.
On June 6, during the march, several small local garrison troops who came after inquiries were received and reorganized one by one, and the number of rebel coalition forces increased to 11,200.
On June 8, the rebel coalition forces briefly repaired for one night in the small town of San Pedro along the Paraguay River. Then, on the next morning, more transport ships were gathered, and the fleet of soldiers continued to move south in accordance with the battle plan.
At noon on June 8, in order to slow down the military expenditure of the rebel coalition and buy more time to defend Asunción, the four-member regent council signed a troop deployment decree, ordering the Guards and the 1st Infantry Brigade to allocate part of their troops to join forces with
The 1,000 young men recruited by the Asunción government set out together to garrison the Port of Antequera and the town of Rinchio in the northern suburbs of Asuncion on the route of the rebel coalition's advance. Then, after completing the delayed mission, the surviving troops divided into two groups.
One group was led by Major Bucanlan of the Guards and returned to Asunción. The other group was led by Polk, the commander of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Brigade. They took the overland route and went around behind the rebel coalition forces to attack the rebels in a scattered attack.
The logistics supply routes of the coalition forces were harassed and destroyed.
One day after the troop deployment order was issued, on the afternoon of June 9, 1889, a total of 1,800 reinforcements, composed of the First Division of the Guards, the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Brigade and 1,000 temporarily recruited soldiers, arrived in the town of Rinchio.
and the port of Antequera.
The town of Rinchio and the Port of Antequera, one guarding the northern gate of Asunción, and the other a strategic military location in the lower reaches of Paraguay, are geographically very important. 21 years ago, during the First Paraguayan War, the small town
The Paraguayan troops led by Lopez and the coalition forces of Brazil and Argentina once engaged in an 11-month tug-of-war between the two places.
The war that occurred 21 years ago ended with Paraguay's tragic victory. However, 21 years later, when the two parties in the battle were replaced by the rebel coalition and the four-member regency, the intensity of the war was greatly reduced.
At noon on June 10, a section of the rebel coalition arrived at the Port of Antequera and immediately launched a probing attack on the garrison at the port.
On June 12, the rebel coalition invested 3,000 soldiers to join the siege of the port of Antequera.
At 9 a.m. on June 15, a mutiny occurred in the port garrison, and a defense gap appeared in the high ground near the west of the port.
At 11 a.m., more than 200 rebel coalition soldiers entered the inner defensive position of the port along the gap. The Antequera port defense system showed signs of collapse.
At 13:00 in the afternoon, the number of rebel coalition soldiers who poured into the inner defensive positions of the port exceeded 1,000, and the core fortress of the port faced the crisis of being surrounded from all sides.
At 14:00 in the afternoon, the commander of the third battalion of the first brigade led the remaining 200 soldiers to evacuate without authorization, exposing the defensive flank of the Guards.
At 16:00 in the afternoon, the white flag was raised at the Antequera Port Stone Fortress. Guards Major Bucanlan and the port garrison commander led about 800 soldiers out of the stone fortress and announced their surrender.
The Battle of Antequera Port lasted for six days. Excluding the more than 300 soldiers who had fled, of the more than 1,400 soldiers stationed at the port, about 300 of the remaining 1,100 soldiers were killed or wounded. They surrendered and were forcibly dispersed.
There were about 800 rebels against the coalition.
On the fourth day after the Battle of Antequera, the main force of the rebel coalition arrived in the town of Rinchio.
There were originally 400 regular troops and 200 second-line militia stationed in the town of Rinchio. After the fall of the port of Antequera, the four-member regency committee dispatched an additional 500 regular troops to the town of Rinchio on the basis of the first batch of reinforcements.
After receiving two reinforcements, the defensive strength of Linqiao Town reached 2,000. However, among them, there are only more than 1,200 troops with real combat effectiveness, leaving about 800 temporarily recruited soldiers, or those who are only 11 or 12 years old.
Baby soldiers, or veteran soldiers over forty-five years old, are everywhere in the battlefield. In addition to enriching the number of soldiers, their real role on the battlefield is very limited.
The phenomenon of lack of men of suitable age is reflected in all forces in Paraguay. However, compared with the armed forces controlled by the four-person regent committee, because it has more than twice the regular force of the other party, the situation faced by the rebel coalition is more difficult than that of the four-person regent committee.
The committee members are doing much better.
On June 21, the battle for Linzio began. At the beginning of the war, the rebel coalition invested in heavy weapons such as field mountain artillery, gunboat naval guns, and Gatling hand-cranked machine guns to cover the infantry attack.
On June 23, the third night of the fighting, the defenders abandoned their positions inside and outside the town, and fled towards Asunción, carrying only their rifles.
On June 24, more than 600 rebel coalition soldiers entered the suburbs of Asunción along the route where Linzio fled.
On June 26, after once again leaving a small number of troops to maintain order on the rear supply routes, the main force of the rebel coalition, still with a total strength of 10,000, arrived in the Puerto Ayes area in western Asunción.
On June 27, 4,000 rebel coalition soldiers launched a full-scale offensive against Asuncion from the direction of Rinchio and Puerto Ayes in the west.
On June 28, the rebel coalition forces successively broke through the two peripheral defense lines set up by the four-member regency committee outside the city and approached the core area of Asunción city.
On June 30, the rebel coalition dispatched 3,000 reinforcements to the western front. On the battlefield, the number of front-line combatants on the rebel coalition reached nearly 7,000.
On July 1, the last defensive position deployed by the four-member regent committee outside the city fell, and the forward troops of the rebel coalition advanced to a position only 8 kilometers away from the Asuncion Palace.
On July 3, the four-member regent council reached a consensus and decided that the naval fleet (actually the river fleet) would undertake the counterattack mission, sailing north from the lower reaches of Paraguay to conduct a naval attack on the rebel coalition.
At 14:00 in the afternoon on July 4, when the main force of the rebel coalition gathered under the city of Asunción and was launching a new round of attack on the Asunción defenders, the naval fleet commanded by Major General Falcon suddenly moved retrograde to Aye in the west of Asunción.
Port of Sri Lanka.
Paraguay's water power is mainly controlled by the four-person Regency Council. More than half of the forts and riverside defense fortresses in Puerto Ayes were destroyed in earlier wars. Therefore, the rebel coalition was suddenly attacked by the four-person Regency Council's water power.
, there is no ability to organize a strong counterattack.
At 18:00, the water battle in Port Ayers lasted for four hours. The rebel coalition forces docked at a nearby port. More than half of the transport fleet on the river was lost, and more than two-thirds of the ammunition and supplies were lost.
At 19:00, half an hour after the naval fleet commanded by Rear Admiral Falcon withdrew, some troops equipped with large artillery arrived on the battlefield.
More than half of the water power, which was not dominant in the first place, was lost. After the battle of Port Ayers, the imbalance in the water power controlled by the rebel coalition and the four-person regent committee was further widened.
In the days after July 4, Rear Admiral Falcon commanded the naval fleet to frequently attack and circumvent the water lines of communication controlled by the rebel coalition.
The maritime supply route was attacked, and more than two-thirds of the ammunition and materials initially stored in the stockpile were lost. The combination of various unfavorable factors forced the rebel coalition to reduce the intensity of the frontline offensive and postpone the final timetable for occupying Asunción.
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The domestic war in Paraguay has entered a white-hot stage. The rebel coalition and the four-person regent committee continue to fight fiercely outside the city of Asunción. The situation is stalemate. On the other hand, the Republic of Brazil sees the opportunity revealed by the Paraguay civil war and is busy mobilizing troops.
General, making final preparations for officially sending troops to Paraguay.
Faced with the impact of the changes in Paraguay, the Han Dynasty only paid close attention to three aspects: military, intelligence, and diplomacy.
In other aspects, normal construction activities are still carried out in accordance with the development strategy formulated earlier.
On June 2, 1889, Tesla arrived in South America. In order to express his importance to Tesla, Li Mingyuan sent several local scholars working at the Academy of Sciences to personally greet him at Songjiang Port on his behalf.
On June 3, 1889, the Chinese Academy of Sciences issued a letter of appointment, officially appointing Tesla as an academician of the Physics Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In the scientific academic field, in addition to inviting Tesla to work locally, the Academy of Chemical Sciences also adhered to Li Mingyuan's instructions.
Taking advantage of Han's first-mover advantage and academic influence in the international chemical community, we openly invite academic exchanges to the chemical communities around the world.
On June 5, the 34-year-old chemist Richard Sigmundi (born in 1865), who had just received his PhD from the University of Munich and was still unknown at this time, was the first to accept the invitation after hearing the news.
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On June 6, German scholar Emil Fischer (born in 1852) and German organic chemistry expert Adolf von Beyer announced their acceptance of the invitation from the Chinese Academy of Chemical Sciences.
On June 9, it was announced that the number of people who had accepted the invitation had expanded to more than 60 people. Among them, scholars who would win the Nobel Prize for Chemists in the future include Wilhelm Wastwald (born in 1853, German), Otto?
Eleven people including Wallach (born in 1847, German), Arrhenius (born in 1850, Swedish), Emil Fersch, etc.
The number of scholars who accepted invitations from the Han Academy of Sciences was still increasing, and at the same time, the Han Navy's ship purchase plan soon came to fruition.
On June 15, 1889, the Han Navy signed a formal ship purchase agreement with the British Pembroke Shipyard. The agreement stipulated that the Han Navy purchased two Orlando-class armored cruisers, one of which was from the British Pembroke Shipyard.
The other ship was built in London, England. Experts and technicians dispatched by Pembroke Shipyard assisted personnel transferred from the three major local shipyards to build it at Xinjing Shipyard.
Among the two armored cruisers, the cost of the warship built in London is calculated as 210,000 pounds per ship. The Orlando-class armored cruiser built locally requires design drawings, technology transfer, technician training, and British experts and technicians outside.
Preliminary estimates of subsidies and other expenses put the total cost at about 400,000 pounds, which is twice the price of an ordinary warship.
While outsourcing, while learning and absorbing the shipbuilding technology of the European powers, is the basic guiding principle for local shipbuilding technology. Therefore, although it has to pay the price of one more armored cruiser, the Han Dynasty still agreed to follow the Pembroke
The shipyard proposes a price and signs a ship purchase contract.
Inviting European chemists, the problem of signing the ship purchase contract was solved one after another. On the fifth day after the ship purchase contract was signed,
Another bill involving the interests of all classes of local citizens was promulgated.
On June 20, 1889, in order to further promote the growth of the local population, the Han government formulated a more detailed bill to encourage childbirth.
The specific contents of the bill include: 1. Increase the standard of birth rewards, and increase the reward standard for each child born and raised from 5 acres of land for free to 8 acres!
Encourage every woman of school age to have 6 children! For families with more than 6 children, additional land and tax exemptions will be provided!
2. Increase the construction of medical, health and education systems!
It is mandatory for each state to establish at least one medical college, and the funds for establishing and maintaining medical colleges shall be shared by the central government and local state governments.
It is stipulated that the teaching model of the state medical college is mainly based on clinical medicine, and the capital investment in childbirth, infant treatment, etc. must account for more than one-third of the total financial allocation.
Third, simplify the entry procedures for women of appropriate age and encourage intermarriage between local residents and overseas women.
In principle, naturalization is allowed for women of appropriate age imported from coastal areas of the Indian Ocean as long as they meet the entry standards. (Han transport ships pass through the Indian Ocean and will bring a group of local women every time they return.)
The population issue involves the future development of the Han State. Implementing a policy to encourage childbirth and using a large amount of state-owned land as a policy reward to distribute to families who have children is much more costly than indiscriminate and unprincipled integration of various ethnic groups.
However, after suffering the great losses caused by their ancestors doing this, Li Mingyuan and his officers and soldiers would not choose such a way to increase the population.
Moreover, the Han State not only did not relax its policy on introducing other ethnic groups, but also tightened the entry threshold for European personnel because some European personnel used the guise of investment to engage in illegal activities in the country.
After 1885, Han's economic development entered its second peak period, and the local demand for funds increased.
In order to use overseas funds to accelerate local infrastructure construction and industrial development,
The local government not only relaxed restrictions on European capital, but also granted certain preferential policies to foreign capital investing in basic transportation, industrial construction and other fields. Attracted by economic benefits, many foreign capitals were tempted and regarded Han as a country.
In addition to Japan, it is another emerging investment paradise. After the promulgation of policies to encourage foreign investment, a large amount of capital from Germany, France, the United Kingdom and other countries poured into the mainland of Han. Among these overseas capitals, except for formal commercial investment
Enterprises are also mixed with some teams of scammers composed of gangsters, gangsters and even wanted criminals.
After such people arrive at the home coast inspection port, more than 80% will be exposed on the spot and then sent back to the ship.
A small number of adventurers who can speak Spanish and Portuguese, are smart, and are willing to take money to do things, after being screened, have the opportunity to be deployed as intelligence agents in Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia, Peru and other countries to serve as intelligence agents for the Han Dynasty.
Part of the construction source is to collect intelligence on different aspects for the Han government.
Another group of opportunistic whites with qualified physical fitness and combat capabilities were recruited into the Foreign Legion. As part of the second-line military force of the Han State, they were dispersed and placed in various areas of the Congolese colony, responsible for assisting the Congolese colonial governor-general in maintaining local order.
In addition to the above three categories of people, there are also a very small number of people who luckily escape inspection and enter the territory of Han, and then rely on clever and cunning means to take advantage of certain loopholes in the local foreign affairs act to carry out some activities that violate the law.
The economic development of Han Dynasty has always maintained a trend of rapid growth. Although only a very small number of white people escaped inspection and entered the native areas, in order to strengthen public security management and eliminate the possibility of white Europeans sneaking into the mainland to steal all aspects of intelligence,
According to Li Mingyuan's instructions, the Han government reviewed and passed the "Economic Investment Management Act" on June 24, 1889. The bill clearly stipulated the standards for external personnel allowed to invest in the country, raised the entry threshold, and increased the
Increased penalties for illegal entry and unfavorable supervision of officials.
The promulgation of the "Management Act" is part of the improvement and refinement of policies during the rapid development of Han's economy. As Han's economy, comprehensive national strength, international status and other aspects are further developed and improved in the future, more improvements and details will be made.
