Thanks to the overlord for the hard bow 12 and the Nanyang Empire for their support.

In the northern city of La Paz, Medellín led a group of officers to inspect the defenses of the city walls.

The northern city was the focal point of the defense of La Paz's defenders, and half of the defenders of La Paz were gathered here, but Medellín was disappointed when he personally observed the morale of the defenders.

Melgarejo took 5,000 soldiers to quell the rebellion, the number of elite soldiers in the city was reduced by half, and with Melgarejo's withdrawal from La Paz, the morale of the remaining soldiers was also greatly damaged.

Although Melgarejo strictly ordered his subordinates to block the news of his departure before leaving, how could there be no movement in the retreat of 5,000 people overnight, this morning some officers who knew about it were talking about Melgarejo leading the troops to leave, and then the news quickly spread, and by noon, almost half of the soldiers defending the city knew the news,

And during the surprise inspection in Medellín, I happened to see soldiers gathered around to discuss,

"The morale of the army is fluctuating, the enemy is strong and I am weak, and the battle to defend the city is not optimistic!"

Medellín sent troops to punish a few soldiers who spread the news and temporarily maintain order in the garrison, but he had no better solution to the situation at hand.

When the news of the capture of Sucre came, Medellín had suggested that Melgarejo reconcile with the Chinese Independence Army and agree to let them cross the border, but Melgarejo thought more, he was worried that once his attitude softened, the Chinese Independence Army would realize the difficult situation he was facing, and then make more excessive demands.

Therefore, Melgarejo did not accept Medellín's suggestion, but pinned his hopes on the timely suppression of the Adolfo rebellion, and then led troops to support La Paz, as for his departure with his troops in these days, it was up to Medellín and the defenders to resist the Chinese attack.

La Paz is easy to defend and difficult to attack, and the ordnance and food are abundant, so it is not a problem to hold out for two months under the attack of the same force, but no matter how good the city fortifications are, someone must defend them.

Since Bolivia's independence, some of the older generation of independent fathers are still alive, but they have not experienced major war trials for 40 years, and the current Bolivian soldiers are not as effective as before.

Medellín clearly knew that the reason why the Chinese Independence Army outside the city did not launch a large-scale attack on La Paz was not that the Chinese troops were unable to capture La Paz, but that they were worried that the strong attack would bring heavy casualties to the troops, so they did not take action, but this situation would not last forever, once the Chinese Independence Army made up its mind to take La Paz, it was the time when Medellín and his troops faced a severe test.

Now Medellín is glad that the Chinese Independent Army has not yet made up its mind to fight to the death with the defenders of La Paz, and there has been no major conflict between the two armies in the past three days.

Medellín hoped that such days would last a few more days, and that by the time Melgarejo had returned with his troops, his mission would be complete. However, luck always ran out one day, and shortly after inspecting the garrison in Medellín, the garrison officer quickly reported to him that there were frequent movements of enemy forces outside the city, and that there were signs of an attack on La Paz.

Medellín hurried to the city wall with his guards, and sure enough, he saw a scene he didn't want to see.

Two miles outside the northern city, thousands of Indian soldiers in different costumes assembled under the guidance of Chinese officers, and the same was true of the cities of East, West, and El Alto.

Seeing it with its own eyes, Medellín had to accept the fact that the Chinese Independence Army was attacking in a big way.

Through the telescope in his hand, he saw that there were about seven or eight soldiers outside the northern city, most of whom were Indians from Bolivia, while the number of attackers from the east and west was small, about a thousand on each side.

Putting down the binoculars, and taking into account the reports of the officers of several other fortifications, Medellín felt that the main direction of attack of the Chinese Independence Army was Beicheng. In other directions, it is a feint.

"The generals of all departments are prepared to strictly guard against the enemy's attack, and must not allow an enemy army to attack the city wall." Despite the fact that the situation was very unfavorable for the side, Medellín continued to give strict orders.

"Yes." A group of Bolivian military officers responded.

After the Chinese Independence Army formed a formation, the black pressure pressed a group to advance towards La Paz, more than a thousand people, boundless, in the direction of the northern city, seven or eight thousand soldiers covered all the open space outside the city, the coercion of the huge attacking force brought fear to the Bolivian soldiers defending the city,

"Bang" Outside the city, before the enemy troops were in attack range, a Bolivian soldier opened fire because of nervousness.

The attacking troops outside the city did not stop at the sound of a single gunshot, but continued to advance.

"Don't be nervous, take a closer look at the enemies outside the city, most of them are Indians who have just stepped out of the mountains and forests, young men, are you still afraid of the uncivilized natives?"

Medellin stood in the northern city and personally pressed the battle, and saw that the soldiers defending the city were nervous, so he spoke out to encourage him.

One day to conquer the three lines of defense outside the city of El Alto, the Bolivian soldiers have seen the power of the Chinese Independent Army, but the Indians are different, which time in the past few hundred years has it not been the white descendants who have pressed the Indians to fight, in the eyes of ordinary Bolivian soldiers, the Indians are completely their prey to be slaughtered, and there is no need to be afraid of them at all.

After Medellin's reminder, the soldiers defending the city looked down, and sure enough, they found that more than 1,000 soldiers with improvised shields in front were Chinese, and the black ones behind were shirtless Indians.

Among them, the Bolivian soldiers also saw many young Indians with feathers on their heads, these people were warriors of all tribes, and only they could cause a certain danger to the Bolivian soldiers in hand-to-hand combat.

However, the bravery of the Indian warriors could hardly be used by the forced siege of the city, and some Bolivian soldiers, who were encouraged by Medellín and regained their courage, even planned to shoot at the Indian warriors with feathers on their heads when the battle began.

In addition to the 5,500 Indians, there were 1,500 Chinese troops attacking Beicheng, of which 1,000 Chinese soldiers lined up in front of the attacking troops with shields in hand to block the shooting of the Bolivian soldiers on the city wall, while the remaining 500 Chinese soldiers were temporarily scattered and mixed with 5,000 Indians, who would serve as middle and low-level officers among the Indian soldiers to guide the Indians in the attack.

The Indians were oppressed by white European descent, and after witnessing the Chinese Independence Army kill the Bolivian soldiers outside El Alto like a melon and a date, the Indian leaders rushed to ask Li Mingyuan to send soldiers and officers to help them train the tribe to be strong.

Li Mingyuan considered that he needed the Indians to help attack the city, so he agreed to their request and sent five or six hundred soldiers and officers to help them train the young and strong.

Officers and commanders of the army are the key to determining the combat effectiveness of an army, during the Southern Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty army was defeated by the enemy, but surrendered to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, replaced a few officers, the original loose troops jumped into the fierce and vicious two devils, and the combat effectiveness rose sharply.

Although the Indians are different from the Nanming army, the improvement of combat effectiveness is the same, in just a few days of training, although the specific individual combat ability has not improved much, but the fighting spirit of these trained Indian soldiers has improved a lot.

The most obvious change was that under the command of the Chinese officers, the originally undisciplined Indians knew about the coordinated attack, and most of their fears disappeared in the face of the Bolivian soldiers.

"The front team stops, and the ladder and log move forward." Approaching to be within range of the Bolivian soldiers, the Chinese officer, who led the team, ordered.

The order was passed to the front and rear teams, and the 1,000 Chinese soldiers in front immediately stopped and stood their shields on the ground to form a defensive posture, while the soldiers behind spread out more than a dozen passages, and then a cacophony of squeaks sounded, and more than a dozen tall ladders and log siege vehicles were transported from the rear.

In the nineteenth century, in the development stage of the use of firearms, cold and hot weapons were used alternately on the battlefield, while the traditional siege weapons ladders and log siege vehicles still played an important role on the battlefield.

The city wall of La Paz is strong, the main body of the city wall is all made of boulders, and ordinary artillery hitting the city wall is like tickling, which cannot cause fundamental damage to the city wall, so Li Mingyuan cut down the surrounding trees to create siege equipment such as ladders under the advice of Liu Pu and other veterans of the Taiping Army.

The ladder was active in the history of Chinese warfare for 2,000 years, until the Anti-Japanese War, because of the lack of heavy weapons, the Chinese army also used the ladder to attack the county town defended by the Japanese army, and now, the ancient siege equipment has to exert its residual heat in a foreign land.