On 18 December, the troops marched to Pasufondu, where the 2,000 men of the 2nd Mixed Brigade and half of the artillery turned to the west, while the remaining soldiers continued their pilgrimage to San Pedro.

The two sides engaged in a formal battle on 6 December, and for 12 days, the Paraguayan army conquered a number of towns controlled by the Argentine army, and the vanguard carried out reconnaissance activities in Posadas, the capital of the province of Misiones.

The Paraguayan army has been in battle for a long time and has rich combat experience, but the troops suffered too many casualties in the war, the main force was limited in number, and the early fierce offensive lasted for five or six days, and it was faced with the dilemma of dividing troops to occupy disputed towns and reducing the number of front-line troops, resulting in the lack of stamina of the attacking troops.

The Argentines then concentrated their front-line forces in a counteroffensive, recapturing four towns on the banks of the Paraná River, forcing the Paraguayans back to the west of San Pedro outside Port Morandi's Engineers, and the two sides began to fight over the city of Morandi.

"Boom," more than 20 artillery pieces shelled the city gate, the shells hit the city wall, leaving small pits, stirring up a little stone dust mixed with gunpowder residue on the tower, the pungent smell of gunpowder entered the mouths of the Argentine soldiers defending behind the city wall, and there was a cough, and the sound was muffled by artillery fire.

After three rounds of scattering, the artillery fire stopped, the battlefield was quiet for a moment, and the bronze bell on the "Boom" tower broke the peace.

"Hurry up, get back to your combat position. The Paraguayans are coming up! More than a dozen Argentine grassroots officers shouted loudly,

Thousands of soldiers left their hiding places and hurried back to their defensive positions.

Beneath the city walls, Paraguayan soldiers rushed to the city gate with rifles in hand, "Da da da," five or six machine guns fired into the crowded area, and rows of soldiers fell in unison like harvested wheat.

The soldiers in front fell, and Paraguay in the back stepped over the corpses of their comrades and continued to charge, while the machine guns on the top of the city stopped after a few minutes of sounding, two of the six machine guns were overused, the remaining four machine guns were depleted of ammunition, and the auxiliary machine gunners around were busy reloading them.

Machine guns used in the South American battlefield belong to the new thing of this era, and the machine guns that have just appeared on the battlefield have various shortcomings, such as limited service life, heavy machine guns, need to be transported on pack horses, slow firing speed, and easy jamming of ammunition.

All these shortcomings hindered the large-scale popularization of machine guns, and the newly organized Wehrmacht only purchased some machine guns and formed a special machine gun team, instead of issuing machine guns to combat units at the squad and platoon level as later generations.

The machine guns in the positions outside the city gate were muted, and the obstacles in front of the attacking soldiers were greatly reduced.

"The follow-up troops followed, the artillery provided cover, and the positions outside the city were taken this morning!"

Colonel Istigalibi stood in the forward command, saw the battle ahead through the telescope, and decisively ordered.

"Yes."

"The second echelon reinforces the first echelon, attack immediately."

Istigalibi's lieutenant commanded the lieutenant.

The adjutant grabbed a rifle and was stopped before he could leave.

"No more heralds. I personally went to the front to command. ”

Istigali saw through the telescope that the Argentine machine-gun positions set up outside the city had been broken through, and more than a hundred Paraguayan soldiers had entered the first line of positions on the Argentine periphery, and the defeated Argentine soldiers were retreating to the rear.

"The Argentine peripheral troops were defeated and retreated, and the enemy did not have time to arrange the defensive line in a panic, and our army attacked closely behind the enemy's defeated soldiers, disrupting the deployment of the Argentines and taking advantage of the situation to attack the city!"

Sensing the favorable opportunity, Istigali immediately decided to press all the soldiers and break the Argentine army's defenses.

Staff officers and guards followed Istigari to the front line 500 meters away, while the Paraguayan soldiers in the trenches lined up and went on the offensive under strict orders.

The Paraguayan army mixed with the Argentine troops on the periphery, and the artillery on the walls stopped firing at the positions below the city to prevent accidental wounding of the soldiers.

Istigali ventured to charge among the front-line soldiers, and the adjutant next to him tried to stop him but was torn away.

"The soldiers besieged the city with their lives, and I should be an example to the whole army and fight with them!

Captain! Pick up your guns and destroy the Argentines, the shame of the Paraguayan military needs to be washed with victory, carry out the order immediately! ”

"Yes, sir." The adjutant was frightened by the cannibalistic eyes of Istigali, drew the pistol from his belt, gritted his teeth and rushed forward.

Colonel Istigali was a general under López Jr.

During the Paraguayan War in May 1865, López divided his small force into two parts, and he personally led the main force into Corrientes, while the rest of the soldiers, led by Colonel Istigalibi, attacked Misiones as a partial division.

Istigali was short of troops, and during the attack on Misiones, he was besieged by the superior armies of Brazil and Argentina, and had to choose to surrender.

After the victory of the Paraguayan War, López Jr. did not blame Istigali, ransomed him from the Argentines, and continued to take care of him.

During the Zhenguan period of the Tang Dynasty, Li Shimin, Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, appointed Li Jing, who had made a mistake, as the main general to send troops to crusade against the Turks, creating Li Jingxue's night raid and killing Hu 100,000.

López Jr. may not have heard the Chinese allusions, but he was able to use the core ideas of the allusions flexibly, trusted Istigali, and reassigned the important task, and in return, Istigali completely returned to his heart and worked the battlefield to command and prove his ability.

Senior generals of Western armies are rarely on the front line, and Istigali, either with meritorious service or under the influence of some officers of the Chinese army, orders the guards around him to carry the military flag symbolizing the status of the commander and charge with the ordinary soldiers.

The military flag fluttering high and the figure of Istigali at a distance from the military flag fell into the eyes of the nearby soldiers, and the soldiers of the unit quickly rose.

Inspired by the second echelon of soldiers, they charged with all their might, and after a few minutes, they joined forces with the first echelon soldiers to eliminate the defeated Argentine troops outside the city and take control of Morandi's east gate.

Ignoring the emergency closure of the city gate and the dense mass of soldiers' corpses outside the city gate, more than 300 Paraguayan soldiers, escorting more than a dozen truckloads of explosives, rushed to the east gate under artillery fire.

More than a dozen three-wheeled heavy trucks loaded with gunpowder lined up in a parallel column, and on the way, the heavy trucks were constantly hit by shells, and the explosives detonated, and dozens of Paraguayan soldiers around them were all killed, but because there was enough distance between each heavy truck, the explosives of the martyrdom did not affect the nearby vehicles.

Armed with artillery and Peruvian rifle bullets, four of the more than a dozen heavy trucks finally reached the city.

Hurriedly lighting the fuse, the remaining fifty or so Paraguayan soldiers quickly left the tower and ran outside.

"Boom Boom Boom" four loud bangs in succession penetrated all around the battlefield, accompanied by a big explosion, the eastern city wall could no longer withstand the damage, and collapsed when the loud noise was not over, leaving a gap more than 30 meters long, and all the Argentine soldiers on the collapsed city wall were buried under the rubble.

The battle of Morandi ended quickly with the fall of the city walls, and the capture of the city and the port along the river, Istigali reported to López Jr. and asked for additional reinforcements, while repairing the walls in case of Argentine reinforcements.