After Garcia took over the mess left by Mitchell, he did not rush to launch an attack on the fortress, but ordered his troops to repair in place and at the same time stop the shelling of the fortress.

During the repair of the troops, Garcia personally explored the terrain around the fortress of Humeita, and observed in detail the deployment of troops on the Paraguayan side.

A plan gradually took shape in Garcia's mind.

The main defensive direction of the fortress is the Paraná River in the west, and the high mountains and dangerous mountains as a barrier in the east.

In previous offensive and defensive battles, the main direction of attack of the coalition forces has always been the western river position, while the eastern side only carried out a tentative attack, and as a result, the attacking force did not reach the position behind the fortress of Humeita, and returned halfway due to illness, getting lost in the mountains and forests, etc.

After the failure of the detour from the east, the coalition forces abandoned the plan of attacking on the flanks in favor of attacking from the front.

Garcia questioned several of the surviving soldiers who had participated in the roundabout operation, and found that the roundabout attack was not without the possibility of success.

The failure of the first exploratory offensive was certainly influenced by the steep mountains and forests and the harsh environment, and the lack of preparation of the attacking troops on the part of the coalition forces was also an important reason for the failure.

When deciding on the roundabout battle plan, the allied high command only demarcated the marching route on the map, and then sent 1,000 soldiers to set off directly, and the material and logistical support work was arranged according to the standard of the mountain march, without considering the difficulty and danger of marching in the mountains and forests of Asunción, with the result that the roundabout troops had to withdraw more than half of the march, and the consumption of food and medicine was too large.

Knowing the information he wanted from the surviving soldiers, Garcia was confident about the siege and annihilation of the defenders of Tiger Meta Fortress.

After a month of repairs and preparations, the morale of the coalition forces was restored to a certain extent, and at the same time, Garcia began to officially begin the encirclement and suppression deployment of Humeita.

First, Garcia brought in the most expensive ironclad ships from the navy to deal with Paraguayans' mines and artillery fire from the shore.

Secondly, the artillery units resumed the shelling of the Humeita Fortress, and the coalition forces launched an attack on the Paraguayan defenders, and the Humeita Fortress, which had been silent for a month, was once again filled with gunsmoke and fire.

The frontal artillery fire was fierce but not brutal, in contrast to the roundabout attack on the coalition forces behind the fortress from the flanks.

The allied forces of Shu Qian, transported by the naval fleet, landed on the shore two hundred miles from the fortress of Humeita, where they would climb over the mountains and dense primeval forests to intersperse the back of the Paraguayan defenders, cutting off the connection between the defenders of the fortress and the remaining troops in Asunción, so as to achieve the goal of annihilating the main force of Paraguay in World War I.

For this roundabout attack, Garcia used all the naval forces on the Paraná River, and in order to prevent the defenders of Humeita Fortress from discovering the strategic purpose of the coalition forces, Garcia mobilized the naval forces of Porto Alegre to blockade the waters around Humeita Fortress, temporarily cutting off the communication between Humeita's defenders and other forces.

Porto Alegre is the capital and naval base of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, with 5,000 guards stationed, but as the coalition forces advanced to the core of Paraguay, Rio Grande do Sul, located in the southernmost part of Brazil, got rid of the direct threat of the Paraguayan army and became a large rear of security, so the Brazilian troops originally stationed in Porto Alegre were gradually transferred to the front line in Paraguay to replenish the missing coalition forces, and when Garcia's order came, the last group of offshore ship units went to the front line, The entire Rio Gro Sul garrison was empty, with a garrison regiment of about 1,000 men left in the regular army, and 800 militia units that could be assembled to meet the enemy in case of emergency, plus a few small gunboats in the harbor, the armed force of 2,000 men was the entire defense force of Rio Gro Sul.

Paraguay was driven back to its homeland, with Rio Gro Sul flanked by the Allied spheres of influence of Argentina and Uruguay on both sides, and the other four southern Brazilian states behind it, and even if the main defensive forces were removed, Rio Gro Gro Sul would not be in danger of being attacked by Paraguay. Based on this judgment, Garcia decisively transferred the remaining troops from Porto Alegre to carry out his roundabout encirclement plan, but Garcia's strategic deployment made by precise planning left out the influence of the Chinese troops.

On February 15, 1868, before Mitchell was dismissed, the main force of the Chinese Independence Army marched from Sucre and marched along the tributaries of the Mamoray River towards Paraguay.

In the first half month of the journey, because of the guidance of Bolivian guides, the Chinese troops did not encounter much setbacks in the Bolivian highlands, but after crossing the city of Uyuni, the road ahead gradually became difficult, the Gobi and the hills divided the plateau into scattered parts, and it was very difficult for horse-drawn carriages, mules and horses to walk on the fragmented roads, and the climate of the southern Bolivian plateau was unpredictable, hail and torrential rain often fell on the heads of the marching troops without warning, and more than 1,000 Chinese died of disease due to heavy rain and hail.

Crossing the Bolivian plateau with unpredictable weather, the Chinese troops entered the temporarily ownerless Chaco wasteland, and trekked on the wasteland for a month, and the main Chinese force finally entered the territory of Paraguay, and at this time, the Chinese troops lost a total of 3,500 people, and most of the 3,500 people lost in the process of marching were middle-aged laborers who were originally physically weak, and the number of young and strong Chinese laborers did not exceed 1,000.

And this is the only thing that makes Li Mingyuan feel lucky.

Traveling thousands of miles by land is difficult, with heavy losses in life, and moving by sea is also not a pleasant trip.

The fleet sailed along the coast of Chile when a hurricane caused serious damage to three ships full of Chinese laborers and had to dock in the coastal area of Patagonia for repairs.

Shortly after the convoy docked, a small Chinese detachment out hunting encountered the local Indians, the Mapuche.

At first, the Mapuche regarded the Chinese troops as invaders like the whites, and the two sides were about to start fighting as soon as they met, but at this time, the officer of the Chinese detachment who led the team sent a soldier to take the initiative to negotiate, and the two sides did not break out into conflict.

Knowing that the Chinese troops were also hostile to the whites, the Mapuche became enthusiastic, and they gave the collected animals to the Chinese troops as gifts, and the leading officer gave the Mapuche two muskets in return.

The fleet stayed off the coast of Patagonia for a week, and after exchanging food and fresh water with the Mapuche with the muskets that were behind the ship, the fleet set sail again, and the fleet was not in danger until the Strait of Magellan,

However, after entering the Strait of Magellan, the fleet suffered a serious loss, three cargo ships were seriously damaged, two merchant ships carrying Chinese people ran aground and sank, only 200 of the 1,000 Chinese on the two merchant ships that sank were rescued, and all the 300 people on the three cargo ships transporting food and materials were killed.

Enduring the risks of storms and reefs at sea, on April 25, 1868, the fleet reached the sea off Rio Grande do Sul. And the lighthouse of Porto Alegre also appeared at the front of the fleet.