ps: Thank you for your tips, I was delayed a few days ago, I'm sorry.

At the end of 1878, on the South American continent, Bolivia and Chile, which had been peaceful for many years, were inevitably on the verge of war because of a premeditated sneak attack.

On December 7, 1878, the Chilean government suddenly sent troops to occupy Antofagasta without declaring war, and the next day, the Bolivian government declared war on Chile, at the same time, the Peruvian government announced a general military mobilization in accordance with the alliance agreement signed with Bolivia, and on December 10, officially declared war against Chile.

History has taken a small turn at this moment, because of the changes in the balance of strength of all parties in South America, on the one hand, Bolivia and Peru, which are hostile to Chile, are backed by Paraguay and Han, and their overall strength is much stronger than in history; on the other hand, under the influence of the sudden rise of the Han army, the British government has strengthened its support for the Chilean military junta in order to protect its commercial interests in South America, so that Chile's military strength, especially its naval strength, has been greatly improved.

Chile has a long and narrow land area, lacks the strategic depth of long-term confrontation with hostile countries, and is vulnerable to maritime threats from other countries.

Since the seventies of the nineteenth century, the Chilean Navy has maintained a dominant position over the navies of Peru and Bolivia, before 1868, the tonnage of the main warships of the Chilean Navy was maintained at a level that exceeded the total tonnage of the total warships of Peru and Bolivia, and in the decade from 1868 to 1878, the technology of building ironclad ships in Britain and France became more and more mature, and the Chilean government relied on the abundant financial funds obtained from the export of mineral resources to customize ironclad ships and heavy guns and other warships and weapons from Britain on a large scale. By the end of 1878, the tonnage of the main warships of the Chilean Navy had reached 2.5 times that of the combined tonnage of the navies of Peru and Bolivia, which was 0.5 times higher than the original historical figures.

At the same time, taking advantage of the vacuum of power amassed by Peru and Bolivia after the declaration of war, the Chilean Navy shelled and blockaded the Peruvian fortress of Iquique on 12 December, forcing the Iquique defenders to retreat into the fortress and unable to provide support to the Peruvian troops stationed in the northern Atacama Desert.

On December 14, the Chilean Navy left an old ironclad ship to continue the blockade of the Iquique Fortress, and the main fleet went south to cooperate with the Chilean Army to land in Tocopia, and after learning the news of the Chilean Navy's main force going south, the commander of the Bolivian naval fleet remaining in Tokopia consulted with the commander of the fortress defenders, and led the fleet to leave Tokopia that night, and fortunately escaped the siege of the Chilean Navy, and successfully evacuated to the southern Peruvian port of Moyando the next day, where it joined the Peruvian naval fleet there.

The Bolivian naval fleet was weak, and the Bolivian navy, which had lost its port base, posed a limited threat to the Chilean navy, so after missing the opportunity to laugh at the Bolivian naval fleet, the main fleet of the Chilean navy did not continue to search for the whereabouts of the other side, but continued to sail south according to the original plan, arriving at its destination on the morning of the 15th.

Tocopia is located at the junction of Bolivia and Peru, is the main copper and saltpeter producing area in the Atacama Desert, and after the fall of Antofagasta, Tocopia became the last outlet of Bolivia to the sea, therefore, in the face of the attack of the Chilean army and navy, the Bolivian government on the one hand strictly ordered the defenders of Tocopia to stand by for reinforcements, on the other hand, ordered the neighboring troops to quickly reinforce, while the Chilean army side was supported by the naval fleet. However, due to the strong fortifications of the fortress of Tocopia and the stubborn resistance of the Bolivian defenders, the army was unable to capture the enemy's core position, although it launched several attacks without counting casualties, and the battle soon entered a brutal bloody stalemate after an initial smooth progress.

On 16 December, nine days after the outbreak of the war between Chile, Bolivia, and Peru, Li Mingyuan's face became solemn after reading the information collected and summarized from various sides.

The rise of the Han State in South America has leveraged the general trend of historical development, because of the existence of the Han State in South America, the outbreak of the Guano War was more than two months ahead of schedule, and the Chilean Navy achieved absolute maritime superiority in the early days of the war, although the Bolivian Navy escaped the encirclement of the Chilean Navy, but the Bolivian Navy, which was inferior in overall strength, was still not the opponent of the Chilean Navy even if the Peruvian Navy was added.

The meaning of the existence of the navy is to maintain the maritime lifeline of a country, and compared with the Chilean navy, the navies of Peru and Bolivia are not only backward in the performance of their warships, but also the overall tonnage of warships is far lower than that of each other. Such a fleet would either be trapped in the harbor waiting for the war to end and be left to the disposal of the other side, or it would venture out and be wiped out in a battle with the Chilean Navy.

In the original history, it was precisely because the Peruvian and Bolivian navies were defeated and the Chilean side completely controlled the sea, so that the Chilean army could attack any area along the coast of Peru and Bolivia through warships, which led to the defeat of Peru and Bolivia.

If the Chilean Navy successfully destroys the naval fleets of Peru and Bolivia and forces the two countries to surrender and admit defeat in advance, Chile, which has withdrawn from it, is likely to form an alliance with Argentina with the support of the British to resist the Han attack on Argentina.

Chileans will not understand the truth of cold lips and teeth, and because of the support of the British, the boss behind the scenes, Chile and even Brazil may stab Han in the back when Han attacks Argentina, resulting in huge variables in Han's occupation of Argentina.

Although the risk of occupying Argentina and Uruguay is huge, as long as the Han State succeeds in swallowing the two countries, the Han State will have the capital to take off, and the South American Chinese also have a stable rear, therefore, the operation of attacking Argentina and Uruguay cannot be canceled due to changes in external factors, and if you want to solve the challenges brought about by Chile's early start of the Guano War, there are only two options in front of Li Mingyuan,

First: Wait until all combat preparations are completed, and then launch an offensive according to the original plan.

Second: Advance the implementation of the strategy against Argentina, and take advantage of the undecided war between Chile, Bolivia, and Peru to occupy Argentina.

If the first option is chosen, the IDF may face troops from Argentina, Chile or even Brazil, while if the second option is chosen, the Wehrmacht's combat readiness is not yet complete, and an early attack could lead to a delay in the war and heavy losses in the strength of the Wehrmacht.

Li Mingyuan is not an indecisive person, if the war is launched in advance, even if the Wehrmacht suffers heavy casualties, as long as the strategic goal can be achieved, he will not hesitate to make up his mind to do it, but if the Wehrmacht still does not achieve the expected goal after paying a heavy price, then what will greet Li Mingyuan and the Han State will be the bad luck of the destruction of the family and the country.

Li Mingyuan sat in the study all night, until the sky brightened, he picked up a piece of paper full of battle plans from the messy desk, and then firmly drew a cross on the paper, with Li Mingyuan's final pen, it meant that the original battle plan was canceled, and the Han attack on Argentina was also started in advance.

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