At the end of the short rest, the soldiers, led by the ministers, lined up in a long and narrow marching column and continued to hurry at the right time.

The pace of the march of the troops gradually increased, and the distance to the destination was getting closer.

At 3.09 p.m., when the troops were marching to a flat area on the outskirts not far from the Paraguayan village, several soldiers disguised as Paraguayan civilians ran back on horseback and brought back information from their reconnaissance: "There were a large number of Paraguayan militia and civilians killed in the village. Their bodies were left on the ground with no one to sort them out, and many of them were already showing signs of decay and stinking, presumably two or three days ago, when the Brazilian army arrived and led the massacre of the Paraguayan militia and ordinary people in the village. ”

"Are there any people alive?"

"We found seven or eight children alive in the village, all of them very old, the youngest was three or four years old, and the older ones were no more than eight or nine years old, and we suspect that those children may have been playing outside the village at the time of the massacre, so they escaped the disaster."

"However, the surviving children were in very bad condition, they must have not eaten for several days, and when we arrived in the village, we saw them lying on their stomachs next to the ditch, drinking the dirty water in the ditch that had been contaminated with corpses and blood," a young officer in charge of the reconnaissance mission. ”

"Suddenly in a catastrophe, all relatives and parents were killed, and the few surviving children were just relying on instinct to try to find a way to survive."

Although the soldiers of the Han Dynasty treated the enemy cold-blooded and ruthless, they were not beastly animals like nomads after all, so when they heard the tragedy of the Paraguayan children, standing behind Cai Jiu, Zhang Shishan, who had graduated from the military academy, inevitably felt a trace of sympathy in his heart: "Regiment commander, do you want to send someone to take in those poor Paraguayan children, their parents and relatives have been killed, leaving them in the village, no one to take care of them, and it is difficult to survive until the end of the war." ”

"The imperial army is a righteous army, and our army was ordered by His Majesty to go abroad to fight, and it originally had the mission of rescuing the Paraguayan people from fire and water, and it is also the duty of our army to shelter the Paraguayan children who were killed by the Brazilian army."

Compared with the increasing number of young officers in the army who have received formal military academy education, although Cai Jiu has not received formal military education, the various hardships he experienced in the Peruvian plantation in his youth and the dozens of battles he participated in after joining the Chinese labor army have also honed his temperament and made him have a calmer battlefield judgment than the former.

In the village not far ahead, the plight of ordinary Paraguayan people may make him feel a little sympathetic, but it will not interfere with his normal judgment, the task of the mixed assault force is to arrive at the destination as soon as possible, take Elisa Town as soon as possible, and rescue the Paraguayan children is also one of the political tasks of the Han army, but it is not the primary task.

Cai Jiu had already made a decision in his heart, so in the face of the slightly emotional suggestion of his officers, he made it clear: "However, the first task of our army is to occupy Elisa Town, and any matter unrelated to the task of occupying Elisa Town must be postponed."

Battalion Commander Zhang, please send a telegram to the front headquarters, report what we saw on the way to the front headquarters, and ask the front headquarters to send a special logistics and containment force to take over the homeless Paraguayan children, and at the same time bury and dispose of the corpses scattered inside and outside the village, so as to stop the spread of germs and plagues that may be caused by the decomposition of the corpses in advance. ”

"Yes, Captain." …………

The village in front was littered with corpses, and in order to prevent the army from getting sick, Cai Jiu ordered the mixed assault force to spare the village and pass north from a small river near the east of the village.

The small river near the east of the unnamed Paraguayan village was no more than four or five meters wide, and the gentle water mixed with yellow filth flowed along the river, and it was supposed to hear the movement of the troops, and several Paraguayan children in shabby clothes came out of the village, looking at the soldiers wading across the river with numb expressions.

On both sides of the river are destroyed rice fields, and pieces of trampled green seedlings are hanging and prostrate on the water.

Near the rice paddies were dozens of corpses crouching on the ground, some rotting and stinking corpses of Paraguayan militiamen, perhaps soaked in water for too long, like drunks with a stomach full of wine, lying there silently.

A few wild dogs roaming near the riverbank, like hungry ghosts, greedily devouring the corpses that had not yet decomposed.

The scattered corpses, the numb Paraguayan children, the filthy and disgusting river, and the sight in front of them are all comfortable.

The soldiers silently marched across the river, and when a few young soldiers, unable to help their curiosity, looked behind them, the image that came to their minds was a pair of greedy eyes glowing green, and the wild dogs' greedy gaze, those Paraguayan children with unkempt hair and dull eyes as far as the wild dogs greedily looked.

"God bless Haotian, bless them to survive safely." …………

Endless trees and destroyed farmland kept coming into view, then slowly moving backwards.

Dust jumped wildly in the scorching heat. The tributaries of Paraná appeared and disappeared, disappeared and reappeared, and in this way, the mixed assault forces went from morning to noon, and from noon to afternoon,

At 5:30 p.m., the sun slowly set in the west, and the hot weather gradually reduced its power because of the arrival of evening.

The marching troops still maintained their due discipline and vigilance, and the cavalry, infantry, and artillery marched in turn, and when the time slowly turned to 5:49, a relatively wide river appeared in front of Cai Jiu's eyes.

"The battlefield has arrived."

As if to confirm Cai Jiu's guess, just a few minutes after the troops stopped, a few sparse gunshots rang out in the woods not far from the other side of the river.

"All on alert! Artillery, cavalry looking for favorable cover! ”

The first time he heard the gunshots, Cai Jiu decisively gave a combat order.

"Commander, did the Brazilian army discover us?"

"Unlikely, the brothers of the second company of the reconnaissance battalion arrived on the other side of the river one step ahead of us, and if the Brazilian army finds out about our whereabouts, the people of the second company of the reconnaissance battalion will inform us in advance."

Cai Jiu squatted behind a forest and continued: "And according to the analysis of the intensity of the gunshots, there are only more than 20 people shooting on the opposite side, if the Brazilian army finds us, or exchanges fire with the brothers of the second company of the reconnaissance battalion, it is impossible for the troops they sent out to have only so many people." ”

Cai Jiu took off the monocular hanging in front of him, and while watching the movement on the other side, he ordered: "Tell the brothers not to act rashly, first temporarily find out the situation on the other side and then decide on the follow-up battle plan, without my order, not a single shot can be fired!" ”…………

On the other side of the river, in the small town of Elisa, dozens of soldiers from the second company of the reconnaissance battalion, which Cai Jiu and others had high hopes for, were like still statues, hidden in all directions close to the town.

In the small town of Elisa, the Paraguayan defenders and young militiamen, enraged by the brutal methods of the Brazilian army, finally broke through the defense line by the superior Brazilian army after holding out for four days.

Most of the regular Paraguayan army and militia were killed in the fighting four days earlier, and a small number of Paraguayan militia members who were lucky enough to save their lives hid in the villages and resisted.

On the Brazilian side, the Asunción Front Command transferred about 6,000 soldiers from Asunción to join the encirclement of the surrounding area of Asunción, of which about 2,000 were engaged in the siege of the small town of Elisa.

Like a turtle in a carapace, the thick earthen walls of the external defense and the strong doors without gaps were destroyed by artillery fire.

One after another Paraguayan militia hiding in civilian houses were found and killed.

Without the protection of their own army, the Paraguayan people in the small town of Elisa are lambs to be slaughtered.

In the chaotic town, the Paraguayan people who fled out of the country were constantly killed in the streets, and the Paraguayan people who were lucky enough not to die and were captured by the Brazilian army did not have a much better fate than their dead relatives and friends.

More than 40 Paraguayan men, estimated to be over 50 years old, were taken by Brazilian soldiers to a clearing west of the town.

The interpreter asked many questions, and some people beat and kicked them. Frightened to death, they collapsed to the ground, seemingly half unconscious before they were killed. The Brazilian soldiers looked at the poor old men with a smile like a naughty child teasing a lowly insect.

They tremble in the abyss of fear. They were frightened by this sudden, greatest and worst misfortune, and they were at a loss as to what to do. A Brazilian soldier stuck in a bayonet and stabbed straight out!

The rest of the Paraguayan elders saw the pitiful fate of their companions, and they all trembled and fell to the ground. It's not so much lying on the ground as lying on the ground. They clutched the ground with both hands, and the level of fear in their hearts could be imagined.

The old Paraguayan people were desperate, the sound of bayonets and gunfire continued to sound, and one after another familiar neighbors and friends fell under bayonets and bullets.

The killings continued, and from inside the town to outside, all Paraguayans, except for Paraguayans of school age, were targeted by the Brazilian army.

More and more Paraguayans tried to escape from the town, and under the gunfire and bayonet killing, in addition to the more and more people who fell, the number of Paraguayans who were lucky enough to escape through the Brazilian army and flee across the river bank was also slowly increasing.

Gunfire and shouts mingled as more than a dozen Paraguayan militiamen, who had thrown away their weapons, jumped into the river, while behind them were more than two dozen Brazilian soldiers in hot pursuit.

"Bang bang bang," the Brazilian soldier chasing to the riverbank repeatedly pulled the trigger and fired the killing bullet into the water.

Blood stained the nearby waters, and the number of Paraguayan militiamen hit by bullets grew, while fewer remained on the surface.

Perhaps sensing the thrill of killing, the Brazilian soldiers standing on the shore did not seem to be in a hurry to shoot all their prey, they patiently assigned their targets, and then shot bullet after bullet.

At this time, most of the Paraguayan militia had been hit by bullets, and only four or five Paraguayans were left swimming towards the opposite shore under the threat of death.

One moment they dive into the water and the other they resurface. Countless bullets chased them,

However, the hit rate decreases rapidly as the distance increases.

At 6:41 p.m., the sun set on the mountain, white fog appeared on the water, and the gunfire near the water surface gradually thinned out, and the two Paraguayan militiamen who had escaped the pursuit were exhausted and lay in the muddy ground on the shore, while the Brazilian troops on the opposite bank also ended the game of water shooting after venting their killing anger in their hearts, put on their rifles and began to walk back.

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