Advancing step by step and fighting steadily and steadily is what Li Mingyuan emphatically reminded when formulating the battle plan.

The main factor influencing the outcome of a war is the overall strength of a country, and under a situation where there is a huge disparity in national strength, it will not be difficult for a country with strategic superiority to win a war as long as it does not make the mistake of lightly attacking the enemy and destroys the effective military strength of the other side step by step in accordance with a prudent method.

After ten years of hard work, the economic strength and military strength of the Han State have formed an absolute advantage over Argentina. Therefore, in the course of the war, Li Mingyuan's primary consideration was to consolidate his own strategic superiority and not give the Argentine troops a chance to turn over.

After the Han government issued the decree on preparing for war, both the Han and Argentine governments were in full swing to make final preparations, and in the tense atmosphere of preparing for war, the time slowly moved to March 4, 1879, this day, the course of the historical development of South America was changed because of a war.

When the war between the Han and Argentina officially broke out, Li Mingyuan led the main force of the National Defense Force to set off first after holding a pledge meeting at the Xinjing training ground, Wu Fengdian and Chen Shangfa led 60,000 garrisons as strategic reserve troops to delay the departure for four days, and Liu Pu, Zhao Yan, Hu Jinzhong and others stayed in the Han mainland to be responsible for transporting supplies for the front-line troops and maintaining domestic territorial security.

The responsibilities of the 160,000 National Defense Force and the 60,000 garrison troops did not include the transportation of supplies, weapons and ammunition, and these tasks were entrusted to the organized militia units and the Chinese youth who volunteered to support the front.

Under the call of Li Mingyuan and government officials, the third-line militia and the Chinese young men who volunteered to support the front line were divided into logistics and transportation teams of different sizes according to the different settlements to which they belonged, and then under the leadership and command of retired veterans and government officials in each settlement, they prepared their own dry food or pickled meat products, marched along the route taken by the leading troops of the Wehrmacht, and provided the necessary food and material support for the troops.

The number of young and strong Chinese in the Han Kingdom was more than 1.5 million, and excluding the number of people who joined the national defense force and the garrison force, the number of young and strong people who voluntarily reported supporting the front line was 500,000, more than twice the size of the combat troops.

The young and strong Chinese of the Han State enthusiastically participated in the task of supporting the front line, not only because the success or failure of the war in Argentina was related to the interests of every Han people, but more intuitively, they could get enough benefits by participating in the logistics and transportation tasks.

The Han government stipulated that the Han people who participated in the logistics transportation would be granted the status of former volunteers, and when the war ended, those Chinese who had the status of former volunteers could receive fields of varying sizes or monetary rewards by virtue of the merit books issued by the logistics department.

Generally speaking, a Chinese volunteer can receive at least 5 acres of land, and at most 30 acres of land, if he makes other contributions on the way to carry out logistics and transportation. The area of the rewarded land will also increase.

When the proposal was submitted to government officials for discussion, some officials reported that the amount of land to be rewarded was too large and the scale of the rewarded land should be reduced, while others suggested that government expenses should be saved and coercive measures should be taken to recruit people to support the front line without compensation.

After the officials' opinions were fed back, Li Mingyuan did not take them, because according to the experience of later generations, to launch an important decisive battle, only by allowing ordinary people to share the benefits of war can unite the majority of the people and make the government's ruling foundation more solid, and those ruling classes that have embezzled the gains of the war or the dividends of national development, even if they can maintain their rule for a period of time, will eventually be abandoned by the broad masses of the people.

A country with a balanced distribution of interests is more competitive, and when it competes with other countries or wars, it is easier for the whole country to unite into a whole and exert its powerful combat effectiveness.

Li Mingyuan is a principled man, he prefers to protect the interests of ordinary people in the country while guaranteeing his own dominance, government officials are only tools to rule the country, and it is the support of the army and ordinary people who can really maintain power in his hands, so even if many of the policies implemented are not conducive to the bureaucratic class, Li Mingyuan still strongly supports the extension of policies to every corner of the country.

On 9 March, five days after Li Mingyuan led the main force of the National Defense Force to set off, a contingent of Chinese who were responsible for logistics and transportation formed a line of more than 10 miles and marched along the Uruguay River.

"Brother Lu, after the town in front, I went out of the border, the Uruguay River has not been very peaceful these days, and there are often scattered Argentine soldiers attacking the transport team, should we be careful?"

Wang Shizhen, who was riding on a big brown fur horse, asked Lu Rongting, who was traveling with him.

"Be careful."

Lu Rongting nodded, and ordered, "Brother Yang, inform the brothers behind to strengthen their vigilance, don't let the white-skinned barbarians take advantage of the loopholes." ”

"Yes, Captain."

Yang Guangzong, who had just turned sixteen, replied, then turned his horse's head and ran back.

"Brother Lu, I heard from the wounded soldiers who came back that the armies of Argentina and Uruguay resisted fiercely, and it took Brigade Commander Chen's troops two days to capture the city of Paisandu, do you think we have a chance to go to the front?"

After Yang Guangzong left, Wang Shizhen asked.

"Probably not, Brigade Commander Chen's second mixed group plus more than 10,000 other troops, the wounded soldiers who have been transported back one after another in the past two days are only seven or eight hundred, less than one-tenth of the total number of troops under Brigade Commander Chen, so the second mixed brigade still has a complete offensive capability, and there is no need for militia troops to supplement it for the time being."

Lu Rongting's judgment is roughly consistent with the real situation on the front line, after Li Mingyuan led his troops to set off, he first marched down the south of the Uruguay River, and then after conquering Salto, a city on the right bank of the Uruguay River, he left Chen Zongbai's second mixed brigade, a cavalry regiment, a reinforced reconnaissance battalion and a 105-mm artillery regiment to continue to advance along the Uruguay River, while Li Mingyuan himself led the protagonist troops of more than 150,000 people across the Uruguay River and advanced all the way south, pointing the first attack spearhead at Santa Fe, an important town along the Paraná River.

The city of Santa Fe is the capital of the Argentine province of Santa Fe and the confluence of the Paraná and Salado rivers, and is an important strategic hub in the Paraná River basin.

The strategic position of Santa Fe City is critical, once the Wehrmacht successfully occupies there, it will cut off the communication links between the northwestern provinces of Argentina and Buenos Aires, and at the same time occupy the city of Santa Fe, the large fortress in front of Buenos Aires will be left with only Rosario, and without the mutual cover of Santa Fe City, there will be an irreplaceable hole in the defense of Paraná City in the south of Santa Fe City, so as long as the Wehrmacht takes Santa Fe City within the planned time, the gains and losses of Paraná City will be in Li Mingyuan's thoughts.

After the focus of the main offensive of the Wehrmacht shifted to Santa Fe and the Paraná River valley, the offensive in the Paraguayan direction became a feint led by Chen Zongbai.

The feint attack does not mean that the combat mission is easy, and unlike ordinary people's perception, the feint mission that Chen Zongbai is in charge of is, to a certain extent, no less difficult than the main force's attack on Santa Fe.

Therefore, on the first day of the attack on Paisandu, Chen Zongbai pulled out the 105-mm artillery regiment reinforced to the Second Mixed Brigade, and fired two bases of ammunition at Paisandu City, and at the same time, as soon as the shelling ended, he sent six battalions of more than 3,000 troops to launch a non-stop attack, and finally relied on fierce artillery attacks and continuous rotation tactics to defeat the 6,000-man garrisoned Paisandu City.

Second, Chen Zongbai must ensure that the reality of the feint attack force is not detected by the enemy in advance, and drag the Argentine troops in front before the main force achieves the set strategic goal.

Finally, if possible, break through directly from the direction of Uruguay and march under the city of Buenos Aires, where it will join forces with the main forces and form a siege of Buenos Aires.

The capture of Paisandu City was the beginning of a feint mission, and if the battle situation deteriorated, Lu Rongting and other militia and logistics teams would also join the troops in order to confuse the enemy army with their numbers.

However, from Lu Rongting's point of view, this possibility is very small.

It is likely that their militia units and transport units will not have the opportunity to participate in the front-line battles until the end of the war.