After years of fighting, the number of troops in the 1st and 2nd Divisions of the Brazilian Army has dropped to less than 10,000 in each division, and the two divisions plus a part of the army in charge of the guard headquarters are nearly 20,000 men, which is the largest force that Garcia can draw.

The defensive line encircling the fortress stretched for more than 30 kilometers, and the remaining 30,000 troops faced more than 20,000 Paraguayan defenders in the fortress. In order to maintain the defensive line surrounding the fortress from crumbling, Garcia must defeat the enemy forces on the riverbank before the Paraguayan defenders launch a full-scale counterattack, and then return to the fortress line.

Half an hour after the cavalry unit set off, the assembled Brazilian army of 20,000 then set out, and on the way of the troops, Garcia kept urging the army to speed up the march.

All the way, 20,000 Brazilian troops arrived at the edge of the riverbank base, and the Chinese soldiers who served as patrol guards exchanged fire with the vanguard of Brazilian reinforcements.

The troops were rushing and could not immediately enter the battle, so after arranging the troops in charge of vigilance, Garcia and a group of senior generals went into the makeshift headquarters to study the combat deployment.

The sound of artillery and gunfire at the Brazilian naval base on the river bank in front of the front disappeared, and the corpses of horses and cavalry in front of the enemy position were everywhere, all of which showed that the Brazilian naval forces had been completely wiped out, and the 2,000 cavalry reinforced by them also shed their last drop of blood under the opponent's defense.

Where are the enemy troops coming down the river? As soon as he met with the Brazilian army, he killed the latter's expeditionary navy and 2,000 cavalry. The number of troops, weapons and equipment, and origin of the opponent are unknown, and how many points can you be sure of victory in a decisive battle with an army that you don't know at all?

Having seen the tragic situation of the cavalry troops in front, Garcia's determination to fight the enemy was slightly shaken.

It was difficult to make up a mind about whether to fight or retreat in a short period of time, and Garcia's change of thinking also affected other senior officers in the temporary command, and some of the senior officers who originally advocated fighting changed their attitudes, and tended to retreat back to the camp and hold out, waiting for the Brazilian side to send reinforcements.

The commander of the 2nd Division was the main officer who held this idea, and the reasons he gave were quite good, the enemy annihilated the navy and the reinforcements of 2,000 cavalry in half a day, and the swift and decisive way of fighting was enough to prove the strength of the enemy army,

The 40,000 Chinese Independence Army basically landed ashore, and the gradually improving defensive positions and sufficient numbers of artillery and machine guns would deal a huge blow to the Brazilian army's attack.

40,000 troops are deployed in a small riverbank base, and the number of troops of the Chinese Independent Army has an approximate number in front of the senior generals of the Brazilian Army, and even the number of soldiers deployed by the Chinese Independent Army in the frontline positions is not less than 20,000, not to mention the repaired troops behind?

The opinion of the commander of the 2nd Division was conservative, but no matter how good his opinion was, it could not convince the other officers until it actually collided with the Chinese Independence Army.

The troops hurried away, and retreating without engaging the enemy was a great blow to the morale of the army, and it was not easy to explain to the higher authorities if they lost the shore supply base for no reason.

War is a continuation of politics, as a group of people who hold the highest power in the Brazilian Empire, Garcia not only has to consider a separate war factor, various political factors are still an inevitable and important reason, in the original history, Garcia successfully besieged the Tiger Meta Fortress, forcing López Jr. to give up the main force to escape, and occupied Asunción, the capital of Paraguay, not long after, because of the intensification of domestic contradictions in the Brazilian Empire, Garcia did not care about pursuing and encircling López Jr., and left Paraguay in a hurry, so that López Jr. got a chance to breathe, Tens of thousands of troops were re-recruited, and the war in Paraguay dragged on until two years later.

The fortress is still in the hands of López Jr., and the war in Paraguay shows no sign of ending, but Garcia has to face a big choice in advance.

Emperor Pedro II of Brazil is an accomplished emperor, during his reign as emperor, he promoted the political and economic reform of Brazil, abolished the black slavery system, and promoted the economic development of Brazil. I will oppose you and pull you out of office.

Because of the delay in the Paraguayan war, Pedro II's situation at home became more and more difficult, and republican figures in Brazil even advocated the abolition of the imperial system and the introduction of a federal republic.

As a well-known royalist leader-level general, Garcia has to consider the status of Pedro II, and if he does not fight a war, he will be indifferent to the occupation of the riverbank base by the Chinese Independent Army, and when the news reaches Brazil, the republicans who smell the smell of fish will surface like sharks, accusing Garcia's command ability and even splashing dirty water on Pedro II's head, which is unacceptable to Garcia.

For the sake of their own honor and power, and also to preserve the position of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil, the battle against the Chinese Independence Army was imperative.

The Brazilian army repaired in front of the riverbank position for more than two hours, and just when the Chinese soldiers on the front line thought they were going to repair it again, rows of soldiers and horse-drawn wagons with artillery behind them approached the Chinese Independence Army position.

When the Brazilian army advanced to a mile from the Chinese Independence Army position, it stopped, and the artillery behind the troops was pushed to a nearby mound by soldiers pulling a wagon, and an engineer company attached to the artillery carried shovels and other tools to dig up the earth and level the land.

A thousand light cavalry on guard duty surrounded the mound, alerting the enemy in front for an attack on the artillery position.

The Chinese Independence Army did not attack the Brazilian army, and the Chinese soldiers in the front positions carried ammunition, checked their guns, and made final preparations before the battle under the command of officers.

It was not easy to tow large artillery, and the Brazilian army only carried small and medium-sized field artillery, and after a meal was completed, the Brazilian artillery adjusted the angle of the artillery, and then first carried out artillery strikes.

The cannon roared, a machine gun on the position was hit by a shell, and the shattered machine gun mount flew into the sky, and finally landed five meters in front of the position.

"The white-skinned ghost raised by the son of a bitch, let Lao Tzu hide in the pit and eat soil, and you look good in the back!"

Chen Guozhu scolded Lielie, pulled a herald, and said loudly, "The soldiers of all units are not allowed to act without authorization, return to the position after the shelling is over, and give me a hard beating." ”

"Yes" The herald took an iron plate and put it on his head and ran towards the rest of the troops in the trench.

The shelling ended, and the Brazilian Army units went on the offensive.

The Brazilian Army was originally not large, and after the outbreak of the Paraguayan War, no one expected that the war would last for three years. The first and second divisions gradually expanded from a regimental-level unit with a scale of 2,000 men to a division-level unit with a full strength of 13,000 in the continuous expansion of the army, and the increasing number of troops reduced the pressure of the front-line troops to besiege the fortress of Humeita, and at the same time reduced the combat effectiveness of the troops to a certain extent.

Sirebat is a native white who was recruited into the army, and he was followed by the black Gorant, who was originally a black slave, after the Paraguayan war entered a stalemate, the Brazilian government in order to end the war as soon as possible, in addition to recruiting young white people to enlist in the army, also used free bodies as a reward to encourage black slaves to fight, Golant was in the town after hearing the news, secretly ran to the recruitment place to register, for this, Golant also suffered a severe beating from his master, until now the wound on his back has not healed.

Sirebat looked down on the dark-skinned Golant, believing that fighting with him was an insult to his reputation and would be looked down upon by other whites.

The Brazilian army quickly approached the defense line of the Chinese Independent Army, the machine guns on the position clicked and fired at the Brazilian soldiers who were attacking intensively, the Brazilian soldiers in the front row advanced less than ten meters, and fell under the fierce fire of the machine guns.

Traditional offensive and defensive warfare, relying on the fortifications of the city walls, may last for several months or more than a year, while firearms positional warfare may determine the outcome of the war in a few days or hours.

An hour's charge broke through the perimeter of the Chinese Independence Army, at the cost of more than 3,000 Brazilian soldiers wounded and killed.

Sirebat and Golant were among the few lucky ones, their company of more than 150 people was in the forefront of the attacking force, and the intermittent attack of an hour resulted in heavy casualties in the whole company, the company commander and four platoon commanders died in front of the enemy position, and they were the only ones alive and sound.

Stopping the time to recuperate in the attack, Sirebat took out the cross he wore around his neck and prayed earnestly to God for his blessing, while Golant was alone on the ground, trembling with his rifle.

After Sirebat finished praying, he saw Grande's frightened expression and disdainfully scolded "", and suddenly felt that the courage in his chest had increased a lot, and he looked down on Grande's cowardice even more.

After a short period of repair, a part of the soldiers was replenished from the rear, and the offensive resumed.

This time, Garcia moved the artillery unit forward and placed it on the outer line of defense occupied by the army, and fired artillery shells close to assist the army troops in the attack.

The outermost line of defense was the decoy prepared by the Chinese Independence Army for the Brazilian army, and the specific position parameters of this line were measured, and the artillery units set the firing angle according to the parameters, just waiting for the Brazilian army to take the bait.

Breaking through the outlying positions, the Brazilian army's attack became more fierce, with 10,000 soldiers attacking together, and artillery shells and machine gun bullets rained down on the positions of the Chinese Independent Army.

The Brazilian army was all mobilized, the Chinese artillery units that had not shown up began to return fire, the twelve captured Napoleonic field guns were once again powerful, one by one the shells fell on the Brazilian artillery positions, the huge explosion shock wave gradually covered the entire peripheral positions, artillery, soldiers and piled up shells, after the shelling, only a piece of broken weapons and corpses everywhere remained.

The Brazilian artillery positions were destroyed, and the Napoleonic field guns and other types of artillery extended their fire, targeting the rear of the attacking Brazilian army, and hundreds of artillery pieces fired one after another, and the shells exploded to form a tight blockade, and the Brazilian soldiers in front of the shells were isolated, and they were greeted by more intense machine gun fire.

When defending the outlying positions, in order to prevent the Brazilian troops from being scared away, the machine guns on the positions were reduced by half, and when it was time to counterattack, there was no need to hide them, and the machine guns and the few remaining grenades were all beckoned, and the lives of the Brazilian soldiers were quickly harvested.

The situation on the battlefield reversed, most of the Brazilian soldiers who were divided by artillery fire were killed and wounded, and the remaining soldiers lost the courage to continue the attack and turned and retreated.

The artillery units were completely annihilated, the attacking soldiers suffered heavy losses, and the Chinese soldiers with high morale did not miss a great opportunity, and jumped out of their positions one after another to pursue the retreating Brazilian soldiers.

Sirebat's face turned pale, and he used all his strength to run to the rear, the Chinese soldiers behind him shouted and killed closer and closer, Sirebat wanted to run fast but couldn't speed up, the sound of swishing bullets passing through the air came into Sirebat's ears, and the two Brazilian soldiers who ran in front of him were shot and fell to the ground, Sirebat's feet did not obey the call, and looked blankly at the comrades who died in front, one of them was the black man Golant he looked down on.

He was stunned for a moment, and when he came to his senses, five or six Chinese soldiers had come to him not far away, subconsciously raised their hands, Sirebat saved his life, became a prisoner of Chinese independence, there was no hope of escape, and more and more Brazilian soldiers surrendered, Garcia put down the binoculars in his hand, and lost his mind and said, "Defeated, completely defeated." ”

The main force of 20,000 was defeated by the enemy, how many soldiers were able to escape, and with 20,000 soldiers in their hands, could they hold the camp with the remaining 30,000 soldiers? Garcia shook his head in pain, grabbed the short gun on his waist and aimed it at his head to kill himself.

"Commander, there are still 30,000 soldiers in the rear, and they are still counting on you to take them home safely, you can't leave it alone!"

The surrounding officers noticed Garcia's actions and immediately took his hand and persuaded him.

"Home? Yes, they are the best troops of the Empire, and I can't let them die here in vain. ”

Garcia muttered to himself, regaining some of his senses, "Immediately retreat and try to bring the soldiers back to the camp." ”

Garcia gave the order to retreat and, escorted by the surrounding soldiers, fled to the rear camp.

The Brazilian Army was hit by the fighting on the banks of the river, and only 3,000 Brazilian soldiers finally escaped back to the camp, while the Chinese Independence Army killed 5,000 enemy soldiers and captured 10,000, and the other 2,000 Brazilian soldiers fled in the mountains and forests around the battlefield, and no more than half of them were able to return to the Brazilian camp safely.