Soon after Li Mingyuan returned to the tent, he received another report from the soldiers: "Three kilometers away from the camp, five or six hundred Indians are preparing to cross and come to the side of the Chinese Independence Army. ”

"Did the nine Indians send them back?"

"Lang Zhong just took care of their wounds, and he hasn't let them go back yet."

"The Indians who crossed the river should be their people, you go and bring the nine Indians, and we will meet them."

The Aymara are the largest indigenous people in Bolivia, and their weapons and equipment are inferior, and they are no match for the Chinese Independence Army in frontal combat.

However, it is not a wise choice to provoke them, they can't defeat the Chinese Independence Army, but in the process of transferring, they can make trouble for the Chinese Independence Army, and it is a headache to delay the march speed of the Chinese Independence Army, so Li Mingyuan handled it carefully and tried not to make the Indians hostile.

Two or three kilometers away from the meadow, by the river, five or six hundred Indians set up rafts, vigilantly observing the heavily armed soldiers on the opposite side, and did not dare to cross the river easily, but they did not rescue their tribesmen, and they were not willing to retreat.

"Uncle, please take them to the middle of the river to negotiate with the Indians, and explain that this conflict is a complete misunderstanding."

"Shizi, their people are injured, and the alpacas they raised are also lost, should we give them something to compensate?" Zhao Youde said respectfully.

The Indians in Bolivia are living in poverty, a dozen alpacas may be all their belongings, and it is difficult for those Indians to survive without their alpacas.

Bullying these poor Indians is not what Li Mingyuan wants to do, after listening to Zhao Youde's words, Li Mingyuan nodded and agreed: "They still have primitive bows and arrows in their hands, it seems that the local government is very strict with them, so let's pick out thirty muskets that we captured in the last battle and give them them, presumably they will be satisfied with these gifts." ”

After making arrangements, Zhao Youde took three soldiers on two rafts, drove to the middle of the river, and then stopped moving forward.

The Indians on the opposite side saw their companions on the boat and understood what Zhao Youde meant, and they also sent a small raft to the middle of the river.

When the two rafts met, Zhao Youde conveyed Li Mingyuan's meaning to the other party, and then the Indians on the raft rowed back to the shore and muttered to a middle-aged Indian on the shore.

The middle-aged Indians should be their leader, and after listening to the report, they discussed with a few old people around them for a while, and then nodded frequently.

After the Indians had agreed, the raft sailed again to the middle of the river.

"Shizi, the Indians agreed to defuse this conflict, and they are very happy with the guns we have sent."

After sending the nine Indians back, Zhao Youde returned to the shore and reported to Li Mingyuan.

"What's the matter with all these furs?" Li Mingyuan pointed to the alpaca fur on the raft.

"The Indians said that the gifts we gave were valuable, and that their people had been treated well with us, so they gave us the furs as gifts." Zhao Youde explained.

"Shizi, the climate and temperature here vary greatly, and these furs can just make a leather coat for you to keep out the cold." Sun Bin said.

Bolivia is located in the highlands, and the temperature is much lower than Peru, and many soldiers huddle together at night to keep warm because of their thin clothes.

"No, give the fur to the weaker soldiers." Li Mingyuan waved his hand and refused.

There are not many particularly cold places in Bolivia, and the reason why the Chinese Independence Army suddenly feels that the weather has become colder,

On the one hand, it is because it is a little uncomfortable to leave the hot area of Peru and enter the Bolivian Altiplano, and on the other hand, the Chinese Independent Army is located in the southern part of Lake Titicaca, which is affected by the surrounding high-altitude climate, as long as you leave this area, the climate will be much better.

Seeing off the Indians, the Chinese Independence Army set off to continue on its way.

From the beginning of its entry into Bolivia to Sucre, the capital of Bolivia, the water sources of Lake Titicaca and Lake Popo form more than a dozen rivers of varying sizes.

The area through which the river passes is a densely populated area in Bolivia, and the Chinese Independence Army also migrated along this route.

Ingarve, a tributary of Lake Titicaca formed,

Here, the reconnaissance battalion, which served as the vanguard of the Chinese Independence Army, encountered the first resistance into Bolivian territory.

More than 300 Bolivian soldiers disembarked from the small boat and stood in front of the reconnaissance battalion.

"Zhao Erlang, tell the Bolivian soldiers blocking the road that we have no ill intentions. Hopefully they don't get nervous. ”

The reconnaissance battalion commander instructed the son of Zhao Youde, who was acting as a guide.

Zhao Erlang put down his weapon and walked towards the Bolivian soldiers who blocked the way in his localized Spanish.

"Bang," a bullet hit Zhao Erlang in front of him, and the sudden attack startled him and jumped up suddenly.

The Bolivian soldier on the opposite side pointed at Zhao Erlang and laughed, as if he was looking at a ridiculous monkey.

The Indians were regarded as uncivilized barbarians in the eyes of the descendants of white Europeans, and the white people in the province of La Paz, Bolivia, treated the Indians even worse, in addition to depriving the Indians of their land, they also broke out massacres against the Indians from time to time.

In October 1861, the then military commander of La Paz massacred hundreds of local Indians in the name of purging the previous president's men.

After Mariano, who came to power in the name of opposing tyranny, he oppressed the Indians more severely, and he followed the strategy of the Americans, driving the Indians to places with bad conditions, and then sending his henchmen to be stationed everywhere to suppress the forces that opposed his rule.

La Paz, as an important city after the Bolivian capital Sucre, was very important to Mariano's rule, so he sent his younger brother Balivian as the new military commander of La Paz, responsible for the military deployment in La Paz province.

Ingarvey is under the direct jurisdiction of La Paz province, and more than 300 Bolivian soldiers are personal soldiers brought by Balivian from Sucre.

They each have a musket, and their armament is an elite unit in Bolivia.

The vanguard of the reconnaissance battalion was only more than fifty people, and the soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion riding tall horses initially caused a certain deterrent to them, but when they saw that they sent an Indian to negotiate with them,

The confidence of the Bolivian soldiers was instantly restored, and the Indians, as the existence crushed by them, what could the cavalry mixed with the Indians have.

Noticing the provocation of the Bolivian soldiers, the soldiers of the more than 50 reconnaissance battalions were all enraged, although Zhao Erlang looked like an Indian on the outside, he was after all a Chinese descendant and a deserting representative of the Chinese Independence Army, and the Bolivian soldiers ridiculed Zhao Erlang so much, it was undoubtedly a slap in the face.

"Battalion commander, these Bolivian soldiers are too hateful, you should give the order quickly!"

The surrounding soldiers said angrily.

"Give me all the quiet." The reconnaissance battalion commander coldly glanced at the restless soldiers around him, and said, "Let Zhao Erlang withdraw first, and if they don't know what to do, then teach them a good lesson." ”

The soldiers can vent their anger on the battlefield, but the commander can't be rash, and now Zhao Erlang is in the middle of the two soldiers, rashly launching an attack, which is likely to lead to Zhao Erlang's early death.

Therefore, letting Zhao Erlang step back first is what should be done now.

Zhao Erlang stood in the middle of the two parties, angry and angry in the face of the teasing threats of the Bolivian soldiers, but he couldn't get out for a while.

After the Bolivian soldiers teased Zhao Erlang, they took off their muskets one after another and slowly approached in the direction of the Chinese Independence Army.

Zhao Erlang was already a little late after getting the order to retreat, and if he ran backwards at this time, he would undoubtedly be beaten into a sieve by the Bolivians.

The actions of the Bolivian soldiers clearly signaled the start of battle, and the commander of the reconnaissance battalion raised his rifle and made a gesture of preparing for battle with his left hand backwards.

The other soldiers nodded silently, their rifles clenched in their hands, ready to charge on horseback.

The Bolivians advanced to a distance of about three hundred meters from the soldiers of the reconnaissance battalion. The commander of the reconnaissance battalion shouted and lay down,

Immediately lead the cavalry to charge.

Zhao Erlang had conducted a month of military training in the Chinese Independence Army, and when he heard the word lying down, he immediately subconsciously lay on the ground.

At this time, several shots rang out, and the bullet hit Zhao Erlang not far away.

The cavalry of the reconnaissance battalion charged forward a hundred meters, then turned the horse's head, and more than fifty cavalry divided into two units and outflanked the Bolivian soldiers.

Outflanking tactics is one of the basic tactics of cavalry drills, the reconnaissance battalion cavalry is not large in number, and direct charging is likely to lead to the annihilation of the entire army, therefore, the reconnaissance battalion commander adopts the tactics of scattered attack and harassment, seizing the opportunity to knock out the Bolivian soldiers on the periphery, causing psychological pressure on the other side, and forcing the enemy to retreat.