Thanks to Overlord for taking the bow 12, and the Nanyang Empire for the reward and support.
In the north city of La Paz, Medellin led a group of officers to inspect the city wall defenses.
The North City is the defense focus of the La Paz defenders. Half of the La Paz defenders are gathered here. However, after personally observing the morale of the defenders, Medellin was a little disappointed.
Melgarejo took away five thousand soldiers to put down the rebellion, and the number of elite soldiers in the city was reduced by half. Moreover, as Melgarejo withdrew from La Paz, the morale of the remaining soldiers was also severely damaged.
Although Melgarejo strictly ordered his subordinates to block the news of his departure before leaving, how could five thousand people retreat overnight without any movement? This morning, some informed officers were first talking about Melgarejo leading his troops to leave, and then the news
It spread quickly, and by noon, almost half of the soldiers defending the city knew the news.
During a surprise inspection in Medellin, they happened to see soldiers in twos and threes gathered together to discuss.
"The morale of the army is unstable. The enemy is strong and we are weak. The battle to defend the city is not optimistic!"
Medellin sent troops to punish several soldiers who spread the news and temporarily maintained order among the troops defending the city, but he had no better solution to the situation at hand.
When the news came that Sucre had been captured, Medellin once suggested that Melgarejo reconcile with the Chinese Independence Army and agree to let them cross the border. However, Melgarejo had more to consider. He was worried that if his attitude softened,
, will make the Chinese Independence Army aware of the difficult situation they are facing, and then put forward more excessive demands,
Therefore, Melgarejo did not accept Medellin's suggestion, but placed his hope on suppressing Adolfo's rebellion in time, and then leading troops to support La Paz. As for him to lead troops to leave these days, he will rely on Medellin and
The soldiers defending the city resisted the attack by the Chinese troops.
La Paz is easy to defend but difficult to attack, and there are abundant weapons and food. It is not a problem to hold on for two months under an attack of the same force. However, no matter how good the city defense is, it still needs someone to defend it.
Since Bolivia became independent, some of the older generation of independence heroes are still alive, but they have not experienced a major war in 40 years, and the current combat effectiveness of Bolivian soldiers is not as good as before.
Medellin clearly knew that the reason why the Chinese Independence Army outside the city did not launch a large-scale attack on the city of La Paz was not that the Chinese troops were unable to capture La Paz, but that they were worried that a strong attack would cause heavy casualties to the troops, so they did not take action.
, but this situation will not last forever. Once the Chinese Independence Army is determined to capture La Paz, Medellin and his troops will face a severe test.
Medellin is now fortunate that the Chinese Independence Army has not made up its mind to fight to the death with the La Paz defenders. In the past three days, the two armies have not had any major conflicts except for the constant confrontation.
Medellin hopes that such days can continue for a few more days. When Melgarejo leads his troops to return for reinforcements, his mission will be completed. However, good luck will eventually run out one day. After inspecting the defending troops in Medellin,
Soon after, the city garrison officer quickly reported to him that the enemy troops were mobilizing frequently outside the city and there were signs of launching an attack on La Paz.
Medellin hurried to the city wall with his bodyguards, and saw a scene he didn't want to see.
Two miles away from the North City, thousands of Indian soldiers in various costumes gathered in formation under the guidance of Chinese officers. The same scene was also seen in the East City, West City, and under the city of El Alto.
Seeing it with his own eyes, Medellin had to accept the fact that the Chinese Independence Army was launching a massive attack.
Through the telescope in his hand, he could see that there were about seven or eight soldiers outside the North City, most of whom were Indians from Bolivia. The number of people attacking from the east and west sides was not large, with about a thousand people on each side.
Putting down the telescope, based on the reports from several other fortification officers, Medellin felt that the Chinese Independence Army's main attack direction was Beicheng. Other directions were feint attacks.
"General officers of all ministries should be prepared to guard against enemy attacks and never allow a single enemy to attack the city wall." Even though the situation was very unfavorable for his side, Medellin still gave strict orders.
"As ordered." A group of Bolivian military officers responded.
After the Chinese Independence Army formed their formation, they advanced towards La Paz in a dark mass. There were more than a thousand people, and they were boundless. In the direction of the north city, seven or eight thousand soldiers covered all the open space outside the city. The pressure of the huge offensive force gave the defenders a
Bolivian soldiers bring fear,
"Bang!" Outside the city, before the enemy troops entered the attack range, a Bolivian soldier accidentally opened fire due to nervousness.
The attacking troops outside the city did not stop because of the sound of gunfire, but continued to advance forward.
"Don't be nervous. Take a closer look at the enemies outside the city. Most of them are Indians who have just walked out of the mountains and forests. Boys, are you still afraid of the uncivilized natives?"
Medellin stood in the north city and held down the battle in person. Seeing that the defenders were nervous, he spoke out words of encouragement.
After conquering three lines of defense outside the city of El Alto in one day, the Bolivian soldiers had seen the power of the Chinese Independence Army, but the Indians were different. For hundreds of years, there had never been a time when white descendants had not suppressed the Indians. In ordinary Bolivian soldiers,
In their eyes, the Indians were completely their prey and there was no need to be afraid of them.
After being reminded by Medellin, the defenders looked down and discovered something fishy. The more than a thousand soldiers holding simple shields in front were Chinese, while the dark group behind them were bare-chested Indians.
Among them, the Bolivian soldiers also saw many young Indians with feathers on their heads. These people are warriors of various tribes. Only they can cause certain harm to the Bolivian soldiers in close combat.
However, it was difficult for the bravery of the Indian warriors to be effective in the forced siege. Some Bolivian soldiers who were inspired by Medellin and regained their courage even planned to specifically target and shoot at the Indian warriors with feathers on their heads when the war started.
In addition to the 5,500 Indians, the troops attacking Beicheng also had 1,500 Chinese troops. Among them, 1,000 Chinese soldiers lined up specially, holding shields and walking in front of the attacking troops to block the shots of Bolivian soldiers on the city wall, while the remaining 500 Chinese
The soldiers were temporarily disorganized and mixed with the five thousand Indians. They would serve as middle and low-level officers among the Indian soldiers and guide the Indians in the attack.
The Indians were oppressed by white Europeans, and after seeing the Chinese independence army kill the Bolivian soldiers outside the city of El Alto, various Indian leaders rushed to ask Li Mingyuan to send soldiers and officers to help them train the young men of the tribe.
Li Mingyuan considered the need to use Indians to assist in the siege, so he agreed to their request and sent five to six hundred soldiers and officers to help them train young men.
Officers and army commanders are the key to determining the combat effectiveness of an army. During the Southern Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty army collapsed when facing the enemy. However, after surrendering to the Manchus and replacing several officers, the originally loose army suddenly became a fierce and vicious enemy.
Combat power rises sharply,
Although the Indians are different from the Nanming army, the improvement in combat effectiveness is the same. In just a few days of training, although the specific individual combat capabilities have not improved much, the fighting spirit of these trained Indian soldiers has improved a lot.
The most obvious change is that under the command of Chinese officers, the originally disorganized Indians learned to coordinate attacks, and most of their inner fear disappeared when facing Bolivian soldiers.
"Stop the front team, move the ladders and logs forward." As they were about to enter the strike range of the Bolivian soldiers, the leading Chinese officer ordered.
The order was passed to the two teams in front and behind. The thousand Chinese soldiers in front immediately stopped and put their shields on the ground to form a defensive posture. The soldiers in the back spread out through more than a dozen passages. Then there was a creaking sound, and more than a dozen tall ladders were launched.
and logs were brought from the rear for siege engines.
The nineteenth century was in the development stage of the use of firearms. Hot and cold weapons were used alternately on the battlefield, but traditional siege weapons such as ladders and log siege engines still played an important role on the battlefield.
The city wall of La Paz is strong, and the main body of the city wall is entirely made of huge stones. Hitting the city wall with ordinary artillery is like scratching an itch, and cannot cause fundamental damage to the city wall. Therefore, Li Mingyuan, on the advice of Liu Pu and other veterans of the Taiping Army, cut down the surrounding areas.
Trees formed ladders and other siege equipment.
Cloud ladders have been active in the history of Chinese wars for two thousand years. Until the Anti-Japanese War, due to the lack of heavy weapons, the Chinese army still used ladders to attack counties defended by the Japanese army. Now, the ancient siege equipment has to exert its residual heat in foreign lands.