On September 18, the United Kingdom sent a diplomatic note to the United States, demanding that the United States provide an explanation for dispatching the main force of the Atlantic Fleet and holding a secret meeting with the Republic of Brazil.
The next day, the United States reiterated its stance on the Monroe Doctrine and refused to disclose to the British the true purpose of dispatching the Atlantic Fleet and holding secret talks with the Republic of Brazil?
On September 20, following the United States, the Republic of Brazil also made a statement, emphasizing that the secret talks between the Republic of Brazil and the United States were normal commercial cooperation and would not harm Britain's economic interests in the Republic of Brazil.
The Americans' insistence on going their own way and the Brazilian Republic's ambiguous answers did not satisfy the British and Chinese parties. However, just when the British and Chinese high-level officials contacted each other to discuss and prepare to take further countermeasures, the Paraguay battlefield
However, the situation changed drastically due to the sudden fall of Asunción.
Rewind the time to six days ago. At noon on September 14, 1889, the reconnaissance force sent out by the Republic of Brazil discovered traces of the headquarters of the Paraguayan Army's 1st Division.
The Brazilian army bypassed the frontal defense line and moved to a forest about seventeen miles away from Asunción City, where they laid an ambush and waited for the arrival of the Paraguayan Army's First Division.
At six o'clock in the evening, two hours after the movement of the Army of the Republic of Brazil moved to the eastern suburbs of Asuncion City, the headquarters of the Paraguayan Army's 1st Division, which had been marching for a long time, arrived at the opponent's planned ambush site.
The Paraguayan Army's First Division has a total of about 7,000 people, of which nearly 5,000 are combat personnel. The total number of soldiers is only half of the number of soldiers from the Republic of Brazil. In addition, long-distance marches have led to a decrease in the combat effectiveness of the soldiers. Therefore, when the battle just started,
, the headquarters of the 1st Division of the Paraguayan Army was completely passive and vulnerable to attack.
At 6:47 in the evening, when the battle lasted for more than 40 minutes, the number of casualties in the First Division of the Paraguayan Army quickly rose to more than 600. About 2,000 Paraguayan soldiers were suddenly attacked by the Brazilian army and were divided into several groups.
In part, contact with the main force of the First Division was lost.
At 7:03 p.m., after experiencing the initial blow of the battle, General Engrodes, the commander of the Paraguayan Army's First Division, urgently organized the troops around him that he could command, established defensive positions on the spot, and tried to close in and rescue the divided and surrounded troops.
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The First Division of the Paraguayan Army was the most elite military force in Lopez Jr.'s era. In order to guard against possible threats from Han, Lopez Jr. had always deployed the First Division near the border with Han. However, after Lopez Jr.'s death, the Paraguayan Army's First Division was
The 1st Division lost its strong military and spiritual leaders. Although under the leadership of the division commander, General Engrodes, it was able to perform at a normal level, it no longer had the kind of outnumbered power it had in the days of Lopez Jr.
Earth people, the spirit and will to fight tenaciously.
At 7:29 in the evening, General Engrodes' rescue operation failed completely. Not only were the more than 2,000 soldiers who were separated and besieged not rescued, but in the process of organizing a temporary counterattack, the Paraguayan Army's 1st Division headquarters
The number of casualties increased by more than 400.
At 7:52, the First Division of the Paraguayan Army was short of ammunition and the consequences of the lack of heavy weapons gradually became apparent. Under the steadily advancing offensive of the Army of the Republic of Brazil, the First Division of the Paraguayan Army quickly faced the danger of being surrounded.
At 8:01 in the evening, seeing that the operation to rescue the divided troops failed, in order to avoid greater losses, General Engrodes could only make the decision to abandon the divided troops and choose to lead the remaining troops to break out.
At 8:37 in the evening, Engrodes led about 3,400 Paraguayan soldiers to break through the obstruction of the Brazilian Republic's army and successfully broke through, while the remaining more than 3,000 soldiers were completely surrounded by the Republic of Brazil.
At 12 o'clock in the morning, the fighting in the forest valley on the eastern outskirts of Asunción gradually ceased. In the evening battle, the Brazilian Republic won the battle with twice the strength of the Paraguayan army, killing and capturing the 1st Division of the Paraguayan Army.
There are more than 3,200 soldiers on our side (some of the surrounded soldiers fled to the forest to hide), and our side suffered more than 2,600 casualties.
As for Paraguay, although the 1st Division of the Paraguayan Army escaped the fate of being completely annihilated, it lost more than half of its main force, and the remaining troops lost the ability to reinforce the defenders of Asuncion. From this aspect, in the Battle of the Forest Valley, Brazil
The Republic not only achieved a tactical victory, but also achieved a victory that was beneficial to its own side in terms of overall strategy.
The Battle of Forest Valley ended, and after the Army of the Republic of Brazil cleaned up the battlefield, it set off back to the Asuncion front line at 8:00 a.m. the next day.
At noon on September 16, the Army of the Republic of Brazil, which ambushed the First Division of the Paraguayan Army, arrived at the Asunción front line, and with them returned to Asuncion were nearly 3,000 prisoners of the First Division of the Paraguayan Army.
When the captured soldiers appeared in the open space outside the city wall, the Paraguayan defenders in Asunción instantly panicked.
The First Division of the Paraguayan Army is, besides the Han army, the most combat-effective and the last regular force under the command of Paraguay’s senior leaders. At present, the Han reinforcements have not yet arrived, and the First Division of the Paraguayan Army, which they have high hopes for, has been
The Republic of Brazil was "annihilated". When hearing such bad news, one can imagine what a huge blow it would have on the defenders.
At 7:10 pm on September 16, the Army of the Republic of Brazil uncharacteristically chose to launch an attack on the city of Asuncion at night.
At 8:30 in the evening, the Army of the Republic of Brazil gradually strengthened its front-line offensive forces. The number of soldiers directly used to attack the fortifications of Asuncion City exceeded 20,000.
At 8:59 in the evening, the last highland defense line outside Asuncion was lost. More than 70 Paraguayan soldiers stationed on the highland defense line were killed in the battle, and the remaining nearly 500 soldiers all chose to surrender to the attacking forces, ending the battle.
At 10:47 in the evening, using the captured high ground and the artillery deployed on the high ground, the Army of the Republic of Brazil, with the cooperation of artillery, launched a third large-scale attack on the Asuncion garrison.
With the roar of artillery fire and the rain of ammunition, under the all-out attack of the Brazilian Republic's army, the Asunción city wall defense line, which had been devastated by months of war, was crumbling like a rotten old tree.
At 11:02 in the evening, the first large-scale conflict broke out between the four-member regency committee and the rebel coalition in the residential city. The top leaders of the two parties fought over whether to stick to Asunción, even to the point of using guns.
At 11:00 noon on September 17, the Brazilian Republican Army concentrated heavy weapons and continued to launch an attack on the Asuncion city defense front.
At three o'clock in the afternoon, after nearly a day of fierce fighting, the Army of the Republic of Brazil advanced the front line 290 meters at the cost of more than 3,000 casualties, and the artillery forward position advanced to within 700 meters of the Asuncion city wall.
On September 18, the battle situation continued to develop in a direction that was not conducive to the defenders of Asunción. The Army of the Republic of Brazil used artillery fire to suppress the counterattack of Paraguayan soldiers and inflicted continuous heavy blows to the defenders of Asunción.
At 10 a.m. on September 19, the Army of the Republic of Brazil advanced to within 300 meters of the city fortifications.
At 12 noon, under the bombardment of Brazilian artillery, several gaps with a width of more than 50 meters appeared in the Asuncion city defenses. At 1 p.m., a Brazilian army of about 600 people crossed the gap and rushed into Asunción city.
The city of Asuncion, run by two generations of Lopez and his son, has complete fortifications. Therefore, when the army of the Brazilian Republic invaded the city, the retreating Paraguayan army quickly used the fortifications in the city to form new defensive positions.
At the same time, the Chinese troops who arrived in Villarrica also launched an attack on the Brazilian army, hoping to defeat the enemy in front of them and quickly move to Asuncion for reinforcements.
However, facing the salvageable situation in Asunción, in order to preserve our strength and prevent the troops from suffering a devastating blow during the battle with the Army of the Republic of Brazil,
The troops of the four-member regent committee, who were always wary of the rebel coalition, were the first to evacuate the city's defense lines without notifying the friendly forces, and using the cover of night, they kidnapped Lopez's son Carlos and headed towards Asunción.
Escape to the east.
The soldiers of the four-man regency committee evacuated without authorization, leaving holes in the defense lines in Asunción. After realizing the actual situation of the empty defense front on the opposite side, the Brazilian army quickly adjusted its military deployment and advanced along the empty defensive fronts.
At 11 o'clock at midnight, the defense line in Asunción completely collapsed. The nearly 10,000 Paraguayan soldiers who learned about the evacuation of friendly forces were frightened and resentful. They also followed the evacuation path of the four-person regent committee and headed toward the east of Asunción.
They fled one by one in directions not controlled by the Brazilian army.
Without the command of officers at all levels, nearly 10,000 Paraguayan soldiers swarmed toward the eastern suburbs of Asunción. However, due to the superior deployment of the Brazilian Republic's army, they fell into a death trap.
At midnight and two o'clock in the morning, also in the forest valley in eastern Asunción, the embarrassed Paraguayan troops were ambushed by the Brazilian army in advance. Unlike the last time the Paraguayan Army's 1st Division was ambushed, they lost the protection of the fortifications in Asunción, and
Facing the two directions of Asunción and the forest valley, the superior enemy forces were constantly ambushing and pursuing them. The Paraguayan soldiers, who had been in a state of war for several months and were in a state of mental and physical fatigue, completely lost their fight and persisted.
In less than two hours, he quickly laid down his weapons and chose to surrender to the Brazilian army in a humiliating way.
