The sky was clear, the breeze was swaying, the city of La Paz, which had just experienced the destruction of the war, regained a trace of calm, and the south gate, which had been closed for more than ten days, was reopened, and pedestrians came and went from the south gate continuously, because of the excessive number of people entering the city, the Chinese officers guarding the city gate, with the assistance of more than a dozen locals, ordered pedestrians to line up to enter and exit the city gate, so as to maintain the normal circulation of the city gate.

After the Chinese Independence Army occupied La Paz, it only confiscated the property of Balivian and other high-ranking officers of the Bolivian army, and did not deprive ordinary residents of their property and food.

Outside the city, Bolivians were lining up to enter the city, when the soldiers guarding the city gate suddenly stopped checking the crowd into the city, and the city gate unit composed of more than a dozen locals drove the crowd away under the command of a Chinese officer.

These Bolivians were well-behaved soldiers selected by the Chinese forces from among their captives, and used their familiarity with La Paz to assist the Chinese forces in temporarily administering the law and order of La Paz.

The Bolivian soldiers drove the crowd away, and then out of the city came a group of Indians, mostly armed with captured muskets, and some with primitive broadswords, bows and arrows.

Seeing the troops in the city, the Bolivians crowded on both sides of the city gate flashed a trace of disdain in the corners of their eyes,

"A group of uncivilized natives, relying on the support of the Chinese, will not die sooner or later."

"Shhhh

"What are you afraid of, I killed two Indians two years ago, so I'm not afraid of them."

The Bolivian man said stiffly, but his voice was unconsciously lowered.

The eyes full of hatred fell on the eyes of the strong Indian man in front of the team, and he couldn't help but feel a wave of anger in his heart,

"Patriarch, these people don't know what to do, we let them go when we entered the city, and now they still hate us, patriarch, let me take someone to teach them a lesson."

The Indian man said angrily.

"Benardy, don't be reckless," the old Indian glanced at the strong man and said, "They are just a group of poor creatures who dare to be angry and dare not speak, don't care about their eyes, now we have more important things to do, you go to the back and urge the tribesmen to hurry up and leave, the Kechu tribe has set off a while earlier than us, we can't waste any more time." ”

"Yes, patriarch, I'll go to the back." Benardi agreed, but he was still angry, so he waved the big knife in his hand at the disgruntled Bolivians, frightening a group of people to retreat, seeing the reaction of the crowd, Bernardi let out a bad breath, and then went to the back to convey the order of the old patriarch.

A group of Indians outside the city gate were Aymara, who were ordered by Li Mingyuan to sweep away the remnants of the Bolivian army in La Paz province, so they were in a hurry to leave the city.

Before the Aymara people left the city, Li Mingyuan led 3,000 cavalry to leave the troops pursuing Melgarejo, while Wang Dashan led 7,000 infantry to set off later, as a support force for the cavalry troops.

It has been three days since Melgarejo left, and according to the confession of the prisoners in the city, the troops Melgarejo took away were mixed cavalry and infantry troops, of which 2,000 cavalry troops and 3,000 infantry troops, but Melgarejo looted most of the pack horses in the city before leaving La Paz, so that the 3,000 infantry also had two pack horses each, and the speed of the march was greatly increased.

The distance between La Paz and Sucre was about 800 li, and it took six days for the cavalry to march at full speed, while it took about eight days for the mixed pack horse Melgarejo troops, which meant that Adolfo had to hold on for at least one day before the Chinese troops arrived at Sucre, otherwise when Li Mingyuan arrived with his troops, he would have to face the enemy army defended by a fortified city.

Adolphus himself is also from the old army, and it stands to reason that it should not be a problem to hold Sucre for a day, but after all, Sucre is a base camp that has been operated by Melgarejo for several years, in case Melgarejo attacks Sucre, and the remnants of Melgarejo's men in the city take the opportunity to make trouble, then the situation will be critical.

Considering the importance of the Battle of Sucre, Li Mingyuan sent three groups of messengers to deliver news to Sucre, on the one hand, informing him that the Adolfo Chinese Independent Army would arrive in Sucre in the near future, and agreeing on a time for the two sides to jointly send troops against Melgarejo, and on the other hand, reminding him to be wary of the remaining Melgarejo supporters in the city and not to be attacked by the enemy from within.

After sending the messenger, Li Mingyuan led his troops to Sucre non-stop.

Five days later, when Melgarejo finally arrived outside Sucre, he heard bad news.

"President, the morning after you left La Paz, the enemy army was all pressed on the attack, I led the defenders of the city to resist with all their might, but they were outnumbered, and after holding out for most of the day, the eastern city was first broken by the enemy, and then the other generals who assisted in the war led the team to escape, causing the La Paz defense line to collapse, and my subordinate had to lead the remaining soldiers to leave to report to the general."

In the military camp outside Sucre, Medellín dragged his wounded right arm to inform Melgarejo of the loss of La Paz.

"What? The city of La Paz was breached by the enemy in half a day, this is impossible! ”

As the military commander of La Paz, Bali Vian knew the tightness of La Paz's fortifications, and there was such a possibility that the Chinese Independent Army would attack Krabas, otherwise he would not have left with Melgarejo, but it was broken by the Chinese Independent Army in half a day, even if it broke his head, Bali Vian could not believe it.

"Medellin, say, are you greedy for life and afraid of death, as soon as the enemy attacked, you led your troops to escape, otherwise how could La Paz fall so quickly!"

Although he was mentally prepared for the loss of La Paz, Balivian still couldn't let go of everything in the city, you know, most of Balivian's belongings were in La Paz City, and this time he only had time to bring some jewels and gold with his brother to send troops, and all the other belongings could be placed in the castle in the city, but after the loss of La Paz, all the belongings he had accumulated for many years were gone, and when he thought of the situation in the castle falling into the hands of the Chinese troops, Balivian couldn't help but be angry, Even Medellin, who came to report the news with faithfulness, hated it so much,

Balivian looked at Medellin with red eyes, and as long as he admitted that he had abandoned the city and fled, Balivian would not hesitate to kill him.

"General Baliviaan, it's my responsibility to lose La Paz, but you can't wrongfully accuse me of escaping, you are an insult to a soldier, if you don't apologize for your words and deeds, I will fight you in a duel."

Medellín is a descendant of French immigrants, because he has admired the Emperor Napoleon since childhood, so he attaches great importance to the honor of soldiers, and he cannot accept the insult of Paliviaan to him, and in a moment of excitement he utters cruel words about the duel.

Although the duel in the West is full of knightly romance, but the ending is often bloody, the great Russian poet Pushkin duel with others in order to defend his dignity as a man, and died under the opponent's sword, this incident happened in 1837, only thirty-one years ago, so the duel that Medellín said was not just lip service, once the two did not give in to each other, it is really possible to cause irreparable consequences.

When Balivian reprimanded Medellín, Melgarejo did not exit to block, the loss of La Paz had a huge impact on the situation of the entire country in Bolivia, in order to resist the attack of the Chinese troops, he left most of the army in La Paz, even when he left with his troops, the La Paz army plus the young and strong also had 15,000 people, so many people did not even hold for a day before the enemy broke through the wall, not to mention that Balivian did not believe it, even if he suddenly heard it, it was hard to believe,

Balivian and Medellín were pitted against each other, and Melgarejo had to speak out to dissuade him: "I believe in General Medellín's character, he will not do anything to escape, Ballevian, you should apologize to General Medellín." ”

"Big brother......" Balivian was not convinced, but seeing Melgarejo's cold eyes, he had to hide what he was about to say, and held back his anger and apologized to Medellín.

La Paz was lost in his own hands anyway, so Medellín couldn't get up and accepted Balivian's apology.

"Medellin, you said that the enemy broke through from the East City, is that true?" Remembering what Medellín had just said, Melgarejo asked.

La Paz is surrounded by mountains, and the direction of the enemy's attack is only the North City, the East City, and the West City, and as an important passage in and out of La Paz, the North City should be the main direction of the enemy's attack, but the Chinese troops did the opposite, using the East City as the breakthrough point, which made Melgarejo puzzled.

"Yes, President, the enemy not only broke through from the eastern city, but the enemy seems to be well aware of the distribution of the fortifications in La Paz, and some of the artillery and defensive support points of our army have not yet appeared, and the enemy's blow has arrived, therefore, from the very beginning of the enemy's offensive, our army is in a disadvantageous position."

After listening to Medellín's words, Melgarejo no longer understood that a traitor inside was a fool.

"It must have been Adolphus this bastard who betrayed me,"

Melgarejo roared.

"President, what now?" Waiting until Melgarejo went overboard, Medellín asked.

"How many more soldiers did you bring with you?"

"There were 400 men when they left the city, and when they collected the routs along the way, the number reached 1,000."

La Paz had 15,000 defenders, and only 1,000 returned, and Melgarejo was devastated when he heard it.

Of course, it was impossible for all of the 14,000 men to be wiped out by the Chinese forces, in fact, after the capture of La Paz, only 7,000 Bolivians were captured and annihilated, while the other 7,000 fled under the leadership of the various warlords, and did not make peace with Melgarejo.

With the loss of La Paz and the fact that Melgarejo is facing a two-sided attack from Adolfo and the Chinese Independence Army, Melgarejo is now facing a more serious situation, and those shrewd warlords can naturally see that it is normal not to make peace with Melgarejo.

A thousand soldiers in Medellín plus five thousand under Melgarejo, six thousand men were enough to attack Sucre.

In the eight days since the departure, Adolfo should have gathered a lot of soldiers in Sucre, and the longer the time drags on, the more unfavorable it will be for Melgarejo, so without giving Medellín time to rest, Melgarejo ordered his troops to divide into two teams and take turns attacking Sucre.