Peru's political situation is chaotic, the head of state is frequently held by coup warlords, and the current interim president of Peru, Pedro Diez Canseco, has relied on coups to rise to the presidency three times, while Thomas, who is at odds with Pedro, is contacting the opposition to overthrow his rule.

At the critical moment before the coup, Thomas would not sit idly by and watch the loss of his generals, so after receiving a telegram from the defenders of Arequipa asking for help, he immediately ordered the army to come to the rescue.

Umato, the commander of the Puno garrison, and Iquidoc, who belonged to the same side as Thomas Gutiérrez, received Iquitok's request for help and Thomas's order, and made the decision to send troops as soon as possible, while Moyando and Cusco sent troops a little later.

"Master Luo, this is the order of the prince, take a look."

The telegraph, invented in the thirties of the nineteenth century, was already widely used in the West, and even the landlocked country of Paraguay in South America developed its initial industry and installed telegraph lines under the management of López and his sons. However, Li Mingyuan's Chinese army was still in a state of mobile warfare, and could only use backward manpower to transmit information.

"Senior Commander Li, the prince is more thoughtful than us, encircling the point to send reinforcements, and setting up an ambush halfway, it is much easier than attacking the city." After reading the letter, Luo Linshan spoke.

"The prince asked me to stay to contain and confuse the Arequipa defenders, and the heavy task of eliminating the Peruvian reinforcements rests with Commander Luo." Li Sandou's tone was a little sour.

"Division Commander Li's mission is the most important thing, and if the Arequipa defenders find out our true purpose, they won't be fooled."

"Well, it's about thinking about how to fool the defenders in the city." Li Sandou nodded.

"Division Commander Li, we have almost rescued 10,000 Chinese laborers in this sweep, we can arm them first, and set up more tent camps outside the city to confuse the Arequipa defenders."

"It's not enough to do this, Commander Luo, I want your troops to cooperate with me in a feint attack before leaving." Li Sandou thought about it for a while.

"No problem, after the feint, I will leave directly with the army."

Li Sandou and Luo Linshan discussed countermeasures, and the next morning began to feint against Arequipa.

Ikidok slept under the city gate for half the night, and in the morning he was woken up by soldiers who told him that the rebels were preparing to attack the city.

Li Sandou put 20,000 Chinese troops in front, and 10,000 newly rescued Chinese laborers lined up in the back.

There are more than 10,000 people, boundless, and 30,000 people are scattered around the city gate, even if the city has not yet been attacked, the momentum is very terrifying.

"Commander, the rebels under the city are not like the vanguard, they should be the main force of the Chinese rebels."

Anderson, who was in charge of defending the city gates, pointed to the dense army road.

Iquitok looked in the direction Anderson pointed, smoke and dust billowing from the rear of the Chinese army, and countless soldiers with flags kept coming.

"Reinforcements from the rebels are coming, and more than 30,000 people in front are not all their strength." Ikidok observed.

While Iquidoc was observing the Chinese army under the city, two divisions of Chinese soldiers were also lined up.

"Division Commander Li, the troops are ready, and they can give orders." Rollin Mountain Road.

Li Sandou nodded, and the officers around him understood, and quickly returned to their respective units and launched an attack.

A burst of artillery roared out, 10,000 rescued Chinese workers pressed the formation behind, 20,000 Chinese soldiers scattered and braved the artillery fire, the sweeping troops did not have many artillery, when the soldiers marched to 500 meters away from the city wall, only a dozen artillery pieces under the city were still firing, and the other artillery was either destroyed by the artillery on the city wall because of the use of too much dumb fire.

The artillery on the wall of Arequipa is a heavy artillery to defend the city, and a single shell can kill and injure five or six soldiers, and the current artillery uses solid shells, and if it is a flowering shell, the damage to the Chinese troops will be greater.

"Division Commander Li, the troops have suffered hundreds of casualties, and they can order a retreat." The Chinese soldiers on the battlefield had not yet come within 500 meters of the city wall, and they lost two or three hundred men due to heavy artillery attacks.

"Retreat." Li Sandou ordered.

Since the war in South America, it was the first time that Li Sandou and Luo Linshan's soldiers encountered such fierce artillery fire, looking at the miserable appearance of the soldiers who were hit by artillery around them, some of the newly joined soldiers couldn't help but weaken their legs, and when the retreat order was given, the soldiers besieging the city left like a tide.

"Division Commander Li, there were a total of 174 casualties in this feint, of which only 32 people could be saved." After the troops retreated, Luo Linshan did not immediately leave with his troops.

"Casualties are inevitable in battle, and it is important to keep the Arequipa defenders from doubt. Only sacrifices can be made. Li Sandou couldn't bear to look at the appearance of the casualties, but if he wanted to complete Li Mingyuan's order, he could only do this.

"Division Commander Li, if you want to hold back the Arequipa defenders, a similar attack will take two more days, if there are so many casualties each time, you will lose almost a thousand people in two days, and the prince will be dissatisfied if you lose so many soldiers."

Before leaving, Luo Linshan persuaded.

After Li Sandou heard this, his brows furrowed, and he was silent for a few minutes, not thinking of a good solution to the problem.

"Division Commander Li, it's not impossible to reduce the casualties of soldiers."

"What is the best way for Senior Commander Luo?"

"Didn't we capture 2,000 Peruvian youths in this sweep? We can drive them to attack the city at night, so that we can reduce the casualties of the Chinese army and not make the Arequipa defenders suspicious. ”

When the Taiping army was on the mainland before, it had a tradition of driving the captured Qing army to attack the city, and after listening to Luo Linshan's words, Li Sandou decided to adopt his suggestion without much thought.

In Arequipa, after repelling the first attack of the Chinese army, Ikidok was more confident that he would be able to hold the city.

At night, beneath the walls, Ikidok and Anderson stay in the cave.

"Commander, this morning a single artillery bombardment killed hundreds of enemy troops, and it seems that they are not very powerful," Anderson said after drinking a glass of wine.

"The artillery of the rebels has been destroyed a lot by us today, and they can only attack if they want to occupy Arequipa." Ikidok didn't care about the hundreds of Chinese rebels who died, he focused on the artillery of the Chinese army, the main thing that could pose a danger to the city of Arequipa was artillery, in the morning artillery bombardment, most of the artillery of the Chinese army was killed, although the Chinese artillery was not a siege heavy artillery, but after knocking out these artillery, the Chinese army could only carry the artillery to the rear, and between coming and going, when the Chinese army brought artillery, the reinforced Peruvian army almost arrived.

"Sir, the rebels outside are attacking the city again." The two were drinking when a sentry came running to report.

"The rebels were defeated during the day, and at night they must have thrown a large army into the siege. Anderson, immediately gather soldiers to defend the city. ”

"Yes."

The two stopped drinking, and hurried to the city wall with the guards around them to direct the battle, because they couldn't see the people below the city at night, so the power of the artillery was not as great as during the day, and groups of soldiers rushed to the city wall under the city wall with cannons and muskets on their heads.

Unlike the thunder and rain during the day, the attack at night is much more violent. When the Chinese army withdrew the next morning, more than a thousand corpses dressed in rebel clothing were left under the walls.

On the next two nights, the Chinese army outside the city attacked, but apart from leaving behind more than 2,000 corpses, it did not shake the defenses of the Arequipa defenders.

After two days on the walls, Iquidoc was tired, and the rebels outside the city were not much of a threat to Arequipa, and reinforcements were coming soon, so Iquitoc's nerves relaxed after two days of tension and he went home with his guards.