On May 16, 1868, the vanguard led by Li Mingyuan arrived at the port of Casado, and the troops temporarily repaired for a day.

The Paraguay River, which runs through the entire territory of Paraguay, is an important water transport route between the coastal and inland regions of South America, and is also a busy commercial river.

However, since the outbreak of the war, the Paraguay River has not been as prosperous as it once was, and the lower reaches of the Paraguay River have been blocked by Brazil and Argentina, and merchant ships have been prohibited from supplying goods to Paraguay.

Blocking the trade routes of the great rivers will not hurt much for Brazil and Argentina, and the merchants of the two countries will lose a trade route at most, and the interests of goods will be damaged, but Uruguay will not be the same.

Uruguay is a landlocked country sandwiched between Brazil and Argentina, two large South American countries, with rugged terrain, crisscrossed mountains and difficult transportation, so the Paraguay River and the Paraná River in the southern border area are very important for Paraguay's economic development, and if the Paraguay and Paraná rivers are blocked by hostile countries, Paraguay will fall into a huge risk of shortages.

The fate of Paraguay's country was at stake between the two great rivers, as both López Jr. and the commander-in-chief of the Brazilian coalition were well aware of, and soon after the outbreak of the war, the warring parties launched a series of attacks around control of the river.

The Paraguayan side attacked Mato Grosso in order to control the upper source of the Paraguay River, while the Brazilian coalition forces went up the Paraná River to reduce the living space of the Paraguayans.

Paraguay is landlocked, and its national size and comprehensive national strength are not the opponents of the Brazilian coalition army, so in the face of the all-out attack of the Brazilian coalition army, the Paraguayan army retreated step by step, first retreating from Mato Grosso, and then abandoning, Encarnacion, Formosa and a series of riverside strongholds, and finally formed a stalemate between the fortress of Humeita and the Brazilian coalition army.

Located less than a hundred kilometers from the capital Asunción, the fortress is the most important military stronghold in Paraguay, and once it loses it, Paraguay will face the fate of complete defeat.

In order to defend the fortress of Humeita, little López can be said to be omnipresent, from fifty-year-old people to twelve-year-old children, as long as the man can carry a gun, all are conscripted into the army.

Paraguay is landlocked, except for the riverside areas that can contact the outside world, most of the other areas are closed, in such a closed country, López Jr.'s prestige is unmatched, after the outbreak of war, López Jr. preached that the Brazilian coalition is a murderous demon, they provoked war, invaded Paraguay in order to kill all the Paraguayans, and then seize their land.

López Jr.'s words may seem flawed today, but they are convincing in Paraguay, which has only been independent for decades.

Paraguay is mostly of mixed white and Indian descent, and the other part is naturalized Indians.

Both mestizos and naturalized Indians are uncivilized barbarians in the eyes of Brazilians and Argentines, and in past interactions between the two countries, Paraguayans have been able to experience first-hand the contempt of Brazilians and Argentines.

Therefore, Paraguayans are mostly convinced of López Jr.'s claims.

Arousing the morale of the domestic people to unanimously fight against the enemy, López Jr. took it alone, and successively mobilized 50,000 domestic men to defend the Humeita fortress and coastal defense positions, and used the family wealth left by the old López to continue to bleed the Brazilian coalition army, and at the same time, he also continued to shed the blood of Paraguay.

The Fortress is like a meat grinder, constantly devouring the lives of soldiers on both sides, and after three years of fighting, Paraguayan troops have suffered casualties, and the people who died of starvation, dysentery, and cholera due to lack of food far exceeded the casualties caused by the war.

By the time the Chinese troops arrived in Puerto Casado, the population of Paraguay was about 270,000, of which about 200,000 were women and children, and the remaining 70,000 were mostly Paraguayan men who had joined the army.

The war has reached such an extent that Paraguay is on the verge of extinction, and López Jr., who single-handedly brought Paraguay into danger, is unaware of it, and is still commanding defensive operations in the fortress of Humeita.

Forgetting the war will be dangerous, the belligerent will die, the lesson of López Jr. has had a great impact on Li Mingyuan, who personally felt the cruelty of war, the state of the Chinese in South America is similar to the situation in Paraguay, the two sides are all soldiers, the slight difference is that López Jr. is a war maniac, taking the initiative to provoke wars with other countries, and vainly trying to swallow the big with the small, while the South American Chinese organized an uprising but had to take up arms to fight in order to survive.

The reasons were different, but the results were very similar, the Chinese Independence Army under the command of Li Mingyuan defeated a strong enemy all the way and moved thousands of miles to Paraguay.

Once the Chinese settle down in Rio Gro Sul, Li Mingyuan will set about restoring the normal order of the Chinese, and then bury himself in farming and improve his own strength.

On the bank of the Puerto Casado River, Li Mingyuan walked along the river for a while and then returned to the barracks.

Puerto Casado is a nice place to be, with its mountains along the river, lush greenery and beautiful scenery, but the stinking corpses and ragged, hungry Paraguayan civilians in the riverside villages are far from the beautiful scenery.

Everyone has their own fate, and the miserable appearance of the Paraguayan civilians did not win Li Mingyuan's sympathy, and the vanguard troops did not have much food to carry forward, and if the food was distributed to the Paraguayans, then the food of the Chinese soldiers would not be enough to eat.

Li Mingyuan does not have the feelings of the Holy Mother who sacrifices himself for others, and his own people still can't eat enough to help others with the little food left, is this noble or stupid?

The camp of the Chinese troops was located next to the riverbank, and was surrounded by a rudimentary wooden fence that was not intended to protect against the Paraguayan and Brazilian armies, but to prevent the Paraguayan hungry from congregating there.

A strong sense of hunger can prompt dangerous actions among the people, especially the hungry people of Paraguay, who have a tradition of bravery, and soon after the Chinese Independence Army set up camp by the river, a group of more than 200 hungry people flocked to the camp to seize the food from the Chinese soldiers.

The hungry Paraguayan people are crazy, but the muskets in the hands of the Chinese soldiers are not burning sticks, after a burst of musket shooting, the Paraguayan hungry people left hundreds of corpses, and the rest of the people turned around and retreated under the threat of muskets, but the Paraguayan hungry people who had learned the lesson of the muskets did not go far, but gathered not far from the camp, and looked at the Chinese camp from time to time.

The tents and fences in the camp have been placed, and the large iron pots carried by the army have also been removed, and they are cooking on a fire.

Li Mingyuan walked into the camp, found a random place to sit down, chatted with the soldiers around him for a while, and then walked into a tent under the reminder of the guards.

"Mr. Sun, please be seated." Li Mingyuan walked into the tent and beckoned Sun Bin to sit down.

"Shizi, I saw a lot of local residents gathered outside, and I don't know what happened?"

"After years of war in Paraguay, those people outside were hungry people who had no food, and when they saw us carrying a lot of food, they stuck around us, maybe they thought we were Indians from somewhere else, hoping to get food from us for their lives."

Li Mingyuan just explained the situation, and felt that something was not quite right, Sun Bin should be clear about the situation outside, and it is unlikely that he would ask himself questions knowingly.

"Mr. Sun didn't come today to ask about this, did he?"

"Shizi Mingjian, the humble position is indeed here for this matter."

Sun Bin bowed his hand and said, "Since our army entered the territory of Paraguay, most of the places passed through were dilapidated, the people were hungry and cold, and the local people were all women, children, old and young, and adult men were almost difficult to see. Therefore, it was suggested that some local women of appropriate age should be recruited with food and goods to marry Chinese soldiers. ”

"It's a good way to recruit Paraguayan women to balance the gender ratio of Chinese."

After a little thought, Li Mingyuan affirmed Sun Bin's suggestion.

Entering Paraguay territory, as long as the Brazilian army is defeated, it is very convenient to reach Rio Gro Sul along the river, and at this time it is really necessary to consider the problem of finding wives for Chinese soldiers.

The total number of Chinese traveling by land and water is 150,000, and even if a part of the population is reduced due to unexpected factors, the number will be more than 100,000 after arriving at the destination.

Therefore, balancing the gender ratio of Chinese is the first problem to be solved when entering Rio Grande do Sul.

Emigrating young women from the mainland is the safest way to do this, but this matter cannot be implemented until everything is stable, and the imbalance in the gender ratio of Chinese people will still be difficult to solve in the short term.

Sun Bin's suggestion provided Li Mingyuan with a good solution to the problem, Paraguay's male and female ratio is unbalanced, a large number of women lack the right age to match, the Chinese Independence Army can just use Paraguay's scarce food, medicine and other materials in exchange for Paraguayan women to join the Chinese army group, and then settle down before marriage.

The Han Chinese regard white as beauty, and Paraguayan women are mostly mixed-race and white descendants, which conforms to the aesthetics of ordinary soldiers, and treating them as marriage partners for Chinese soldiers will not attract opposition from soldiers.

As for the reaction of López Jr. after recruiting Paraguayan women, Li Mingyuan is not worried at all.

Little López is now unable to protect himself, and the Chinese Independence Army has come all the way to help you fight the Brazilians, and by the way, to help you solve the problem of imbalance between men and women, isn't this very good, what's not to be satisfied with.

Besides, the Chinese troops are slowly recruiting Paraguayan women in the back, and there is no way to stop it, and when the war is over, will Little López still be able to turn against the Chinese troops?

Li Mingyuan quickly made a decision to continue the field troops after repairing and continuing to hurry, and the task of recruiting women was entrusted to Sun Bin and the large rear troops.

Of course, in the process of recruiting Paraguayan women, everything will not go smoothly, and some necessary means such as forced relocation still need to be used, and these specific tasks do not need to be bothered by Li Mingyuan, and Sun Bin, as the executor, will handle it well.