At night, it rained and it was pitch black outside the city of Iyaretta.

In the jungle in the east of the city, there are thousands of armed young men who are densely hidden.

A day earlier, after Ma Jizu had successfully persuaded Davis to attack the city of Iyaretta, Davis's nearly 1,000 men marched a rapid distance of fifty or sixty kilometers and arrived near the fortress in the east of the city before evening.

After more than half a year of increasing troops to crack down on the rebel forces in the north, the situation in northern Argentina gradually improved, and the city of Iyaretta, as an important military town in the north, was the largest rebel force that threatened the security of the city by the Argentine troops, and only a small number of remnants of the armed forces fled into the mountains and forests, unable to form a substantial threat to the city.

With the improvement of the security situation, the city of Iyareta was divided into a rear military base by Argentine forces, and not only were a large number of remaining troops deployed to other areas, but even the level of patrol vigilance in the area was rapidly reduced.

When Ma Jizu crossed the blockade of Iyareta for the first time, he observed that there were about thirty soldiers patrolling during the day, and in the evening, perhaps because of the weather, only five or six soldiers stood at the battlements at the head of the eastern fortress.

The guard post set up at the gate of the city also had only two soldiers standing.

Ma Jizu and several of his soldiers took advantage of the cover of night to approach the fortress and observe the actual defense of the defenders, and then retreated to Davis's location.

"General Davis, the Argentine fortress defenders are on loose alert, they shouldn't have noticed anything abnormal, how long does it take for your men to repair before they can attack?"

After Davis's armed forces grew to 1,000 people, he followed Sun Qisheng's suggestion and changed the name of the unit to the Indian Gaucio United Resistance Army, and he became the commander-in-chief of the resistance army, so Ma Jizu used the title of general to refer to him.

"It's raining outside the city, and it won't stop for a short time, and my subordinates can't stay in the rain all the time.

An hour, an hour later the troops attacked. ”

The eastern fortress was backed by a tributary of the Paraná River, with a well-groomed trench stake in front of it, and a guard post on the left side of the gate, so the only way to break through the fortress was to storm it, and moving the attack late into the night would not help the siege.

Ma Jizu nodded in agreement with Davis's plan, and said, "The general and your subordinates will first recuperate and repair, and the Argentine guard posts and trench stakes outside the fortress will be handed over to me to be responsible, and after an hour, ensure that all the obstacles on the passage to the fortress gate disappear." ”

According to the prior agreement, Ma Jizu was responsible for pulling out the nails set up by the Argentines outside the fortress, but considering that the other party only had more than 30 people under his command, in order to succeed in the plan, Davis reminded, "One hour to clear the obstacles set up by the Argentines outside the fortress, the time is relatively short, it is better to send 50 people from my troops to help you." ”

"Davis's good intentions are well understood, but clearing the external obstacles of the fortress requires sufficient concealment, and too many people will increase the possibility of exposure."

Ma Jizu shook his head and rejected Davis's suggestion, and then continued: "The Argentines have four artillery pieces at the head of the fortress, and the general's subordinates should avoid breaking through directly from the main gate when storming the fortress, otherwise the attacking troops will be directly hit by the artillery fire of the Argentine defenders, resulting in heavy casualties. ”

"The eastern fortress is flat on three sides, and the attacking troops will be hit by the artillery fire of the defenders no matter which direction they break through, and the effect of attacking from the flank is not very effective."

Davis, who had the experience of attacking Argentine towns a few months ago, knew that in order to attack a town defended by artillery and defenders, in addition to relying on superior firepower to suppress the opponent, the only way to do so was to use the superiority of troops and pile up a breakthrough with human lives.

"We lack siege artillery, and storming the fortress is the only way to break the city." Ma Jizu did not deny the disadvantage of his side, but seriously analyzed: "According to the traditional siege method, our side needs to break through the eastern fortress within an hour and a half, otherwise the troops in charge of blocking the attack are likely to be unable to resist the opponent's reinforcements, resulting in our defeat by the enemy on the back."

Storming a city will not avoid a lot of casualties, but we should try to minimize siege casualties and let the casualties of our troops be used in valuable ways. ”

Ma Jizu independently planned the battle plan for the first time, and after saying a paragraph, he paused for a moment, sorted out his thoughts and continued, "The main factor in the siege battle is the time difference in obtaining the city, and completing the goal of breaking the city before the arrival of local reinforcements, and the eastern fortress that our side wants to capture, in addition to the main gate and the city gates on both sides, there is also a position that is more suitable as an attack target. ”

"The Eastern Fortress is well defended, and there will be a more suitable target than the city gate?" Davis didn't believe it.

"The general has stopped near Iyaretta, and should have paid attention to the structure of the fortress's walls."

"The front of the eastern fortress and the western wall are about seven meters high, and the eastern wall is built on the old city of the fortress, which is slightly shorter."

Davis said according to the impression of his recollection, and then realized that the breakthrough that Ma Jizu said might be the eastern city wall, and subconsciously shook his head and said, "Although the eastern city wall has been built for a long time, and the structure of the city wall is relatively old, it is still impossible to destroy the city wall with our existing weapons." ”

"It's not that there is no way to destroy the wall, it's just that General Davis didn't see it in South America."

Ma Jizu chuckled and spoke, and then ordered the soldiers to carry him over as a killer weapon to break the city.

The four soldiers complied, carried a large creature tightly wrapped in a tarpaulin from a wooden frame, and slowly placed it on a plank separated by a tree trunk.

"General Davis, this is the weapon used to destroy the walls." Ma Jizu pointed to the big guy on the wooden board, and then explained, "The Wehrmacht was born out of the Heavenly Army, in the early days of the rise of the Heavenly Kingdom, the Taiping brothers used poorly packaged iron bombs to break the city one after another, and later the Manchu Qing army strengthened the defense system of important cities, and the Heavenly Army could not get close to the bottom of the city wall to plant iron bombs, this siege method gradually became ineffective, but for this small fortress that we want to break, as long as your subordinates can contain the fire of the defenders and cover some soldiers to transport the iron bombs to the east city wall, can achieve the purpose of breaking the city. ”

The large bombs made of iron-wrapped explosives have a huge effect on small fortresses, but because of the poor production process and the heavy quality of the bombs, it is very difficult to transport the bombs to the local heavily defended city walls in actual combat, which is also the reason why Li Mingyuan did not include weapons such as iron bombs and iron barrel cannons in the army's equipment after purchasing a batch of new field guns, and the conditions restricting the use of iron bombs did not exist when capturing the eastern fortress of Iyareta City, therefore, after Ma Jizu thought about it, The rudimentary weapons that had been obsolete by the Wehrmacht were reclaimed, and two large iron bombs were urgently made using the gunpowder collected.

Through Ma Jizu's introduction, Davis had a novelty and attention to the actual power of the iron bomb, and after some communication, the two confirmed the main direction and general details of the operation. ……

An hour later, Ma Jizu led his soldiers to successfully solve the guards outside the fortress and clear the wooden stakes set up near the trench. Davis's large forces then launched a surprise attack on the fortress in three directions as planned.

Thousands of armed men rushed to the gates of the fortress in an orderly manner, but after entering the two hundred meters of the gates, the number of losses under Davis's men increased rapidly.

Ten minutes later, after an initial panic, the defenders of the fortress quickly resumed their combat posture, using the torches lit on the city walls and the brightness of the shells outside the city gates to determine the position of the besieging troops, and then directed the artillery to carry out the strike.

The rumbling cannon roared incessantly, and rows of siege fighters fell under shells and bullets, while Davis's men were still more than twenty meters away from the nearest of the three city gates.

The combat range of more than 20 meters outside the city gate was very narrow, and the ammunition fired by one or two hundred rifles at the head of the city became a harvesting ground for the attacking soldiers.

The killing on the besieging side continued, and in the other direction, Ma Jizu forced himself to calmly observe the situation at the scene, and then decisively issued action instructions.

The dark night was illuminated by artillery fire, and the small team of more than 30 people in Ma Jizu's party was very inconspicuous among the thousands of people.

Mixed in the middle of the attacking troops, Ma Jizu approached the east gate, and then after about fifty meters away from the east wall, he quickly broke away from the siege team, and thirty people were divided into two teams, each carrying an iron bomb to the foot of the east wall.

The night sky flickered in the flames of battle, and after choosing two places to plant bombs, two teams of soldiers quickly took down their shovels and raced against time to dig the tunnel.

Minutes and seconds passed, and nearly an hour later, several gauchos arrived from the rear to urge.

Ma Jizu dug out a shovel vigorously, measured the depth of the tunnel with his right hand stained with muddy water, "one meter and five deep, stop digging, and immediately plant an iron bomb." ”

Ma Jizu instructed his men to quickly place the iron bomb properly, and then carefully pulled out a lead and covered it with a rainproof cloth.

After finishing planting the iron bomb, Ma Jizu replied to the gauchos, "Inform General Davis that this side is ready, and once the bomb explodes, my men will rush into the city along the gap in the city wall as soon as possible, hoping that his troops will follow up immediately." ”

After a brief translation, several gauchos immediately returned to report, and a few minutes later, another group of iron bombs was planted.

When everything was ready, Ma Jizu ordered his subordinates to evacuate 50 meters away from the bomb planting range, and then selected two agile soldiers to carry out the ignition mission.

The two selected soldiers were both veterans of Ma Jizu's men, and the two accepted the task of taking out the fire folds prepared in advance after the others had evacuated. Carefully align the spark at the fuse twist,

The "Zizi" fuse ignited as soon as it caught fire, and the soldier holding the fire fold immediately turned around and ran backwards when he was sure that the ignition was successful.

Silence, a special silence in the flames of war, half a minute later, an earth-shattering roar suddenly sounded, accompanied by a roar, a wall of the eastern fortress collapsed, and a gap six or seven meters wide appeared in the center of the wall.

Before the defenders could digest the sudden upheaval, another roar sounded, and the city wall, which was less than a hundred meters away from the gap, collapsed again, forming another huge gap.

Gunsmoke and dust filled the battlefield, and two loud noises covered all the sounds of the battlefield, and after the loud noises were over, two groups of soldiers poured out about fifty or sixty meters away from the gap, and then more gauchos and Indians poured in from the gap, and the eastern fortress of Iyareta fell.