In the port of Puerto Duguaisou, on the vast waters of the Paraná River, a loading and unloading fleet composed of small steamers and wooden sailing ships frequently shuttles back and forth between the fleet and the port.

Boxes of cargo are unloaded from the transport ships and transported to the interior of the harbor by small steamers, where groups of soldiers act as manpower to move the goods to the barracks.

The convoy was full of artillery shells, ammunition and other military supplies for the use of the headquarters of the Paraná Front of the Brazilian Republic.

Standing on the shore of the harbor, looking to the right front, Rodriguez could even see gleaming rifle bullets through the holes in the torn wooden boxes.

The hole in the wooden box was obviously not caused by improper loading and unloading, but rather resembled damage from an old breech rifle bullet.

Rodriguez's guess was correct, and this is easily verified by the fact that several officers were wearing white bandages.

"General, I'm sorry. On its way from Guairah to Doguaízú, the convoy was attacked by several Paraguayan resistance forces, resulting in more than 40 casualties among the soldiers in the convoy and the destruction of six boxes of ammunition and supplies on board. ”

An officer with the rank of colonel on his epaulettes and a white bandage on his right arm walked up to Rodriguez and said with a slight apology.

"It's not your fault, the resistance in north-central Paraguay is becoming more and more rampant, and you have been able to cross the basin of rebel armed activities and safely transport ammunition and supplies to Duguaisú, which is considered to have completed the task, and as for the loss of some ammunition and materials in transit, it is inevitable."

Rodriguez understands the difficulties of carrying out logistics and transportation tasks, so he did not make excessively harsh accusations against the transport fleet, but he also has a doubt in his heart, the execution of military material transportation tasks is a military secret, and the departure time of the transport fleet and the stopover and supply location are generally not leaked, but how can the Paraguayan resistance forces predict the departure time and place of the transport fleet, and ambush in advance near the various supply and docking ports along the route to carry out precise raids?

Rodriguez thought about it carefully, and he noticed something abnormal,

Those who knew the departure time and the place of call of the convoy were confined to the Paraguayan army, and without the information from insiders, it would have been impossible for the Paraguayan resistance to accurately predict the movement of the convoy.

The result of the speculation is very close to the truth, but after thinking about it, the phenomenon of FǔBài and factional tilting within the Brazilian Republic has emerged in an endless stream, and many high-ranking military and political officials have leaked all kinds of information to the Han side intentionally or unintentionally out of economic and self-interest.

It can be said that it is very likely that the officials and generals of the Republic of Brazil, who advocate the values of money and interests, will sell the military intelligence within the Brazilian Republican ** team in order to obtain the money and possible future political commitments given by the Han side.

One or more bribed Brazilian officials and generals transmitted the information obtained about the convoy to the Han side through secret channels, and the Han intelligence organization then leaked the information on the departure and stopover of the convoy to the local resistance forces in Paraguay through the intelligence subdivision deployed in Paraguay.

It is not difficult to achieve this level by transmitting military intelligence from the inside out through a secret intelligence channel that spreads throughout Brazil, Han China, and Paraguay, and analyzing the capabilities of the Han intelligence department in Brazil and Paraguay for more than 10 years.

After roughly speculating on the truth behind the attack on the transport fleet, Rodriguez was suddenly vigilant, and even had doubts about the Brazilian officer in charge of the transport mission.

However, suspicions based solely on speculation had no effect and would not have had a positive effect on the operations of the front-line army of the Brazilian Republic, so despite his suspicions, Rodriguez did not appear to be abnormal on the surface, and carried out the transfer of supplies to the other side in accordance with the established rules.

After spending most of the day moving all the military supplies to the shore of the port, Rodriguez got up and returned to the barracks.

"General, why is the war material transported this time less than last time by one-third?"

A middle-aged general walked into Rodriguez's room, held a list of supplies, and asked.

"The fighting in the direction of Asunción is fierce, and the consumption of war materials is extremely high, so the central government has decided to divert part of the military supplies scheduled to be supplied to us and give them to the Asunción Front."

"But the supply of war materiel to our army is also very tight, a month ago, Rio de Janeiro had already cut the amount of military materiel supplied to our army by a quarter, and now another third is being diverted from the direction of Asunción.

Checkmate! Due to the lack of supplies of living and military supplies for the front-line troops, there have been more than 20 cases of looting of Paraguayan villages.

If the central government is allowed to continue to mess around like this, I am afraid that our army's sustained combat capability will be greatly weakened! The morale of the army will also suffer a major blow! ”

Major General Mahiel, chief of staff of the Paraná Front Army, said in an air: "We must reflect to Rio de Janeiro the current predicament that our army is facing, and there must be no more reductions in military supplies, otherwise, this battle will not be fought." ”

"The Rio de Janeiro side also has their problems, the Asunción front is the main direction of the Paraguayan war, the fighting there is more intense than the Paraná Valley front, and they do need more military supplies."

Rodriguez explained: "As long as we take Asunción, we will increase our chances of winning this war by half, and we will give priority to the supply of military supplies in the direction of Asunción, which is essentially no problem.

Of course, the role of the Paraná River Valley front cannot be ignored, and it would not be so easy for the Asunción front to achieve a final victory if it were not for the Han ** team that our army pinned down on the flanks and delayed the direction of Encarnacion.

Therefore, I will fight for the military supplies that should be fought for in Rio de Janeiro. When it is time to back down for the sake of the overall situation, we must also make concessions generously. ”

Rodriguez patiently comforted his chief of staff, and then continued: "The current military material reserves are enough to support our army to maintain a medium-sized campaign for a week's war attrition, and the transfer of part of the military supplies to the direction of Asunción has no impact on the current front-line situation of our army, and after a week, if the war is deadlocked, our army can also apply to Rio de Janeiro for new ammunition and material supplies." ”

"Yes, General."

Mahiel sighed, reluctantly accepting Rodriguez's persuasion.

"Okay, don't worry about logistics, let's put our minds on the frontline battlefield first and care about the march of the advance troops."

Rodriguez squeezed a smile on his face and asked, "Where has Major General Geturio's Ninth Division gone?" How far is it from Biarrica? ”

"General Getulio called back an hour ago to say that the Ninth Division is currently stopping in Mauricio County for repair, and that they are still about three hours away from Biarrica."

"Call back General Getulio, give the Ninth Division two hours to repair and stay, and when the two hours are over, immediately leave for Biarrica, and be sure to ensure that the Biarrica railway station is in the hands of the advance troops."

"Yes, General!" …………