PS: Two chapters in one

Ikidok waited contentedly for reinforcements to arrive, unaware that the reinforcements he had pinned his hopes on were entering the encirclement of the Chinese army.

After two days of travel, reinforcements from Puno arrived in the town of Emmodute, thirty miles from Arequipa, where the inhabitants had already run away without a trace, less than a few hours away from Arequipa, and Umatto, who had been on the road for two days in a row, decided to spend the night in the town of Emmodut. Umato arranged the guards around the town before finding a room to rest.

Outside the small town of Emmodut, three dark shadows quickly rode away after observing the situation for a while, they were scouts sent by Li Mingyuan, scattered fifty miles around Arequipa to find out the news of reinforcements.

In order to ensure the encirclement and annihilation of the enemy troops who came to aid the enemy, Li Mingyuan brought out the cavalry regiment, most of the artillery regiment, the first mixed brigade, the three divisions, the broadsword team, and the reconnaissance battalion, with a total number of 45,000 people, and the cavalry regiment and the first mixed brigade of the reconnaissance battalion were the first to arrive in the vicinity of Arequipa, while the three divisions and the artillery regiment arrived in a hurry at noon today.

"Shizi, according to the report of the brethren of the reconnaissance battalion, the enemy forces in the direction of Puno are stationed in the small town of Emmodut." The headquarters of the Chinese Independent Army, Liu Pudao.

"Emmodute is less than twenty miles from our army," Li Mingyuan drew a line on the map.

Then he said, "The whole army will set out at once, and the troops will attack when they have arrived at the battlefield." ”

"Yes"......

Before dawn the next day, the assembled Independence Army soldiers attacked at the height of the enemy's weakness before dawn.

Twenty heavy artillery pieces lined up at the small town of Emmodut, and with the order of the Luo cannon, the artillerymen next to the heavy artillery immediately lit the fuse, and then covered their ears and moved to the side. Zizi's lead burned to the end, and then twenty huge roars sounded, twenty shells fell along the parabola in the Peruvian military camp, and immediately killed and injured a large number of Peruvian soldiers in the tent, and the Peruvian soldiers who were awakened by the sound of artillery ran out of the tent in panic, but running out of the tent did not mean that the doom was over, after the twenty heavy artillery was fired, followed by hundreds of field artillery of all kinds, covering the small town with shells covering the sky, and the Peruvian army could not find the north.

Umato walked out of the room in the small town, grabbed a soldier scurrying around him, and asked, "Which unit are you a soldier in, and why are you running around in the barracks?" ”

"Commander, the lowly post is the company commander of the first brigade and the third regiment, just now a shell hit the brigade commander's room, the brigade commander was killed on the spot, and now the entire first brigade is in chaos, and the commander cannot be found at all."

"Deputy division commander, I order you to take over the first brigade now and immediately organize the troops to defend."

The defenders of Puno were the formation of a division, with Umato, as the division commander,

"The rest of the people follow me to the artillery barracks, and we must suppress the other party's artillery." Umatto shouted at the guards battalion soldiers beside him.

With the sound of artillery, Wang Dashan's first mixed brigade first launched an attack from the east of the town, the east was the first brigade of Peru, commanded by the Peruvian deputy division commander José Bial, when Jose rushed to the position of the first brigade, Wang Dashan's mixed brigade had already attacked, some old Taiping soldiers with long scarves on their heads, the first to rush to the position, the musket in his hand rang out, and a Peruvian soldier in front fell to the ground and forgot, at this moment, a Peruvian soldier nearby turned his gun and aimed at the Taiping veteran who was charging ahead, and the Peruvian soldier was just about to shoot, A loud roar sounded, only to see a flash of white light, and a large knife instantly slashed at the neck of the Peruvian soldier, and the one holding the big knife was the soldier of the broadsword team who was immediately behind the mixed brigade.

"Thanks, brother." The veteran of the Taiping Army found out that the other party had saved his life just now, and thanked him,

"It's all my own brothers, you're welcome." The broadsword team was replying, a Peruvian soldier with a bayonet in his hand sneak attack, the Taiping Army veteran was quick-eyed, pulled out the short knife on his body and threw it instantly, shooting the Peruvian soldier who sneaked up on him to death.

"Now we're even." The soldiers of the Broadsword Team couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat behind their backs.

"Brother, the battlefield is not a place to talk, and when the battle is over, our brothers will have a good drink."

"I agree, let's compete to see who kills the most enemies, and the loser treats and drinks." The Broadsword soldier said.

"It's a deal." The Taiping Army veteran said that he shot down a fleeing Peruvian soldier,

"Brother, I'm more powerful than you."

"Hehe, brother, don't be complacent too early, look at me." The Broadsword soldiers rushed forward as they spoke.

"Deputy division commander, the enemy attack is fierce, and we are almost unable to stop it," the commander of a regiment in charge of the defensive position east of Emmodute reported to José.

"You have to resist me, or we're all doomed." Jose's face was blackened by the gunfire, revealing only a pair of eyes.

"Deputy division commander, please let the commander send artillery support, otherwise you won't be able to hold the position even if you kill me."

"Herald, ask the division commander for help, ask the artillery battalion to shell opposite our army's position to the east."

The Peruvian artillery battalion was hidden at night from the Chinese Independence Army. Umato commanded the artillery to set up the position, and before he could suppress the artillery of the Chinese Independence Army, he received a report from Hossey for help.

"What is He Sai doing to eat, Lao Tzu can't stop the enemy's attack if he gives him a brigade."

Umato shouted at the heralds, but the reinforcements needed to be reinforced, otherwise the position at the east gate would not be able to be maintained, and everything would be finished.

"Order the artillery to turn around and aim in the direction of the enemy to the east." Umato's order, and the position of the cannon that had just been fiddled with was moved back by the soldiers.

Li Mingyuan stood on the mound outside Emodut, holding a telescope to observe the situation inside the town, it has been an hour since the offensive began, the Peruvian army has reorganized its defense after the initial chaos, and now the battle situation has been initially stabilized, only the eastern position is crumbling under the attack of the mixed brigade and the broadsword.

In the first wave of the attack, Li Mingyuan invested 30,000 soldiers, and only after breaking through the enemy's defensive positions would he throw the remaining 15,000 men into the battlefield.

After an hour of fighting, Li Mingyuan initially estimated that the enemy had suffered at least 2,000 casualties, most of which were killed or wounded by the Chinese army after the shelling.

Although the artillery was powerful, the impact on the enemy was mainly psychological, and the Peruvian troops who died directly under the shells were about five or six hundred people.

"Shizi, the brothers of the other troops are about to capture the enemy's position, and the cavalry regiment can't just stand and watch the show." The commander of the cavalry, Li Dawei, asked for battle.

"Don't worry, wait until the enemy's artillery unit appears before you can play."

Wang Dashan's 1st Mixed Brigade and the Broadsword Brigade attacked sharply, and the positions east of the town had broken through several gaps, and more than 200 Chinese Independent Army soldiers rushed to the Peruvian positions to engage in white-knuckle combat with the enemy.

When on the mainland, most of the Taiping troops used cold weapons and Qing soldiers to fight, so for white-knuckle warfare, the Chinese soldiers had an innate advantage, most of the more than 200 soldiers who rushed to the Peruvian position were veterans of the Taiping Army, and a small half were soldiers of the broadsword team.

In the Chinese Independence Army, the soldiers of the Broadsword Brigade learned the special chopping technique, while the ordinary Chinese soldiers practiced bayonet tactics.

Both the chopping knife method and the bayonet tactic have their own advantages and disadvantages.

A qualified soldier of the broadsword team can kill two ordinary soldiers with bayonets without effort, but if you want to master the knife technique, the soldiers of the broadsword team need to go through a long period of hard training, and the requirements for selecting the soldiers of the broadsword team are much stricter than ordinary soldiers.

Many people know that during World War II, Japan's bayonet tactics were powerful, and Japanese soldiers in groups of three and fifteen Chinese soldiers could not fall behind.

However, few people know that the Japanese learned their bayonet tactics from the French. In his previous life, Li Mingyuan, who served in the French Foreign Legion, also learned a lot about French bayonet tactics, so in addition to the battle, Li Mingyuan compiled a set of manuals on soldiers' white-knuckle combat, and each company distributed a copy to the troops, and the squad and platoon commanders below excerpted it from the company commander. Moreover, every night, after explaining the tactics to the senior officers, Li Mingyuan would also spare half an hour to explain the bayonet tactics to the company commanders of the Chinese Independence Army.

After more than 20 days of assault training, the Taiping soldiers who had a foundation in ice weapon fighting made the most rapid progress, and now the general three-person tactics have been mastered, while the newly joined Chinese workers are still far from being proficient.

The Peruvian soldiers on the position fought bayonets were no match for the Chinese soldiers, more than 200 Chinese soldiers killed 1,000 Peruvian soldiers and kept retreating, and as time went by, more and more Chinese soldiers poured into the positions of the Peruvian army, outside of Emmodute

The eastern line of defense was about to be completely broken by the Chinese army.

"Deputy division commander, the enemy has already occupied a third of the position, and the brothers have retreated if they can't resist it."

"None of them are allowed to retreat, artillery support will arrive immediately." José, the deputy commander of the Peruvian Army, roared as he brandished the pistol in his hand.

"Deputy division commander, we are already surrounded by the enemy, if we continue to fight, my brother will be finished, so let's surrender quickly."

The Peruvian regiment commander was frightened by the ferocious fighting style of the broadsword soldiers, just now a Peruvian soldier was split in half by the broadsword, and blood was splashed on his face, if it weren't for the desperate protection of the guards around him, he would have died under the knife of the Chinese soldier.

"If you say anything more to disturb the morale of the army, I will kill you." José pointed his revolver at the Peruvian regimental commander.

Jose and Umato, who belong to the core of Thomas's faction, would not spare them if they lost 15,000 troops under their command, even if they returned alive, so they showed such initiative on the battlefield.

As the two men confronted each other, a roar of artillery rang out from behind the position, and a swarm of shells flew over the heads of José and the Peruvian regimental commander and smashed into the attacking Chinese troops.

"It's not good, the enemy is shelling, quickly lie down"

The Chinese officers on the position heard the enemy's artillery and immediately gave the order.

The Chinese soldiers who charged ahead were all veterans of battle, and they immediately prostrate on the ground without the orders of the officers, and the Chinese soldiers reacted quickly, but the Peruvian shells still wounded a dozen unlucky ghosts. None of the Chinese soldiers who were hit by the shells survived, and all of them died on the spot.

"Order the front-line soldiers to retreat immediately."

In the east command post, Wang Dashan calmly gave orders.

"Brigade Commander Wang, the brothers are about to capture the enemy's position, isn't it a pity to retreat now?" Wu Feipeng, the captain of the Broadsword Team, was also in the command post.

"Allowing the brethren to continue the offensive now will only increase unnecessary casualties, and the prince said before the start of the battle that no matter which unit encounters enemy shelling, do not hesitate to retreat immediately."

"Since the prince has been notified in advance, there must be a way to deal with it, so I will do it according to the prince's request."

After the Peruvian artillery was fired, the hundreds of soldiers who had attacked the enemy position quickly retreated, and the battered eastern position was returned to the Peruvians.

"Deputy division commander, the soldiers of the First Brigade suffered two thousand casualties, and there are less than two thousand five hundred soldiers left to go to the battlefield." After the Chinese soldiers temporarily retreated, the combat staff officers around He Sai reported to him on the situation of the battle.

"Deputy division commander, two of my three battalion commanders have been killed, and if the enemy attacks again, I'm afraid we won't be able to resist it."

"Rest assured, as long as we hold on, reinforcements from Moyando and Cusco will definitely come to our rescue."

The casualty rate is nearly half, if there was a war with other countries in South America, they would have surrendered a long time ago, because they didn't know about the Chinese Independence Army, and they were afraid of retaliation in the hands of the Chinese, so they insisted on not surrendering, but this insistence didn't last long, just now the Peruvian regiment commander who was frightened by the broadsword team shouted to surrender, so He Sai didn't dare to blindly threaten his opponents, but gave them a hope of salvation.

In fact, what He Sai didn't know was that Moyando's reinforcements were about to suffer a similar fate to them, and the four thousand Moyando troops did not carry heavy equipment such as cannons, and only rushed to reinforcements with a dozen machine guns.

Moyando was closer to Arequipa than Puno, but the commander of the Moyando garrison was a little contradictory to Iquidok, so he deliberately delayed a little, and when the Puno defenders were struggling in the face of the attack of the Chinese soldiers, Moyando's reinforcements were still more than fifty miles away from Arequipa, and had not yet entered the ambush circle of Chen Guozhu and Zhou Daniu's troops.

"Senior Commander Chen, the Shizi's side has been fighting for more than an hour, why hasn't there been any movement on our side, could it be that Mo Yanduo's reinforcements are not coming." Zhou Daniu, commander of the Second Mixed Brigade, asked.

"Damn, I can't understand it, Moyando is the closest to Arequipa, but Puno's reinforcements have been there for more than an hour, and they haven't moved."

"Could it be that the commander of Moyando has a grudge against the commander of the defenders of Arequipa, so he will not save him when he sees death." Zhou Daniu pondered.

"There is such a possibility, and this situation was encountered in the past when the Qing army was fought on the mainland," Chen Guozhu agreed.

"But if Mo Yanduo's reinforcements don't come, we don't have to wait in vain," Chen Guozhu said suddenly.

"Division commander, Brigade Commander Zhou, discover the enemy forces in the direction of Moyando." While the two were thinking, a soldier reported.

"Where did they go?" Li Guozhu asked.

"The enemy is still fifteen miles away from us"

"Brothers, be ready to fight for the total annihilation of the enemy army later."

"Yes" The soldier next to him rested for a day, heard the enemy finally coming, and responded loudly.