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After looking at the map sent by Adolfo for a while, Li Mingyuan had a general siege strategy in his heart.

The northern wall of La Paz was facing the attacking positions of the Chinese Independence Army, while El Alto occupied the hill of the wall to provide fire support to the defenders of the northern wall, and was able to flank the troops attacking the city head-on.

Judging from the construction of the fortifications and the armament of the two cities, the Bolivians also placed their main firepower on the north wall, with eight fixed heavy guns, evenly arranged on the eight gun ports of the north wall, while the east and west sides were only equipped with two heavy guns and a few light guns.

In the past, Li Mingyuan did not know the specific situation of the Bolivians' firepower, and Li Mingyuan did not dare to easily send troops to attack La Paz, but now the situation is much clearer.

The northern wall was the key area of the Bolivian defense, which was difficult to attack, and the high terrain on the west was not suitable for the Chinese Independence Army. Only the eastern part of the country, which is far from the range of El Alto's fire deterrence, and the slope of the hill is relatively small, is the most suitable target for the main attack at the moment.

Li Mingyuan observed the terrain outside the eastern city wall a few days ago, and there was a flat mountain area two hundred meters away from the foot of the city wall.

But now it is different, the distribution of the army on the opposite wall is clear, and the height of this flat land is just seven meters high enough to attack the heavy artillery on the east wall, as long as the two heavy artillery defending the city are destroyed, and then the artillery of the side is used to kill and injure the defenders on the opposite side, it can clear the siege obstacles for the siege troops below in advance, and provide a favorable advantage for the final capture of La Paz.

With a clear direction for the siege, Li Mingyuan asked Liu Pu and more than a dozen staff officers to deduce and perfect the details of the attack, and then summoned the high-ranking officers of the Chinese Independence Army and the leaders of various Indian ethnic groups who participated in the siege to a temporary meeting tent to announce the latest battle plan.

In the military tent, Liu Pu, Wang Dashan, Luo Linshan, Li Dawei, Zhao Yongzeng and other generals of the Chinese Independent Army sat on the left side of the tent, while more than a dozen Indian leaders sat on the other side, waiting for Li Mingyuan to speak.

Among the people seated, Wang Dashan, Zhao Yongzeng, Wang Xiaoshan, and Luo Linshan were all no more than 30 years old, but they each controlled an elite army, while the older generation of Chen Guozhu, Li Sandou, and Zhang Ansong were all in their 40s, experienced in combat, and were in the golden age of a general.

From the Taiping Rebellion to the South American riots, both the newly grown young generals and the older generation of Taiping veterans have keen insights into war.

For three days under the city of La Paz, digging tunnels, night raids, and blasting under the city, the methods used to siege the city could be imagined by the generals of the Chinese Independent Army sitting there, but after a little in-depth study, each method was difficult to achieve.

La Paz was built on a mountain, crisscrossed by rocks under the city walls, and it was very difficult to dig a tunnel, and the Chinese Independence Army also tried to blast the city under the city, attack the city at night, and other methods, but without success.

According to most people's understanding, special forces are omnipotent, and breaking the city over the wall should be a matter of hand-to-hand, but the matter of conquering a fortified city with hundreds of special forces can only happen on TV, because special forces are also people, and their non-long-term combat capabilities are much stronger than ordinary soldiers, and they can play an important role in specific battlefield situations, but for a well-defended fortified city, sending hundreds of special forces to attack at night is equivalent to sending them to death, and there is no possibility of success.

The siege was frustrated and the Chinese Independence Army could not stay under La Paz for long, and most of the Chinese generals guessed that Li Mingyuan had gathered everyone to issue an order to storm the city.

Storming the city is bound to be a bloody battle, but the Chinese Independence Army, which has grown up through large and small battles, is not afraid of bloody battles, they firmly believe that Li Mingyuan will lead them to the final victory, thinking that the big war is coming, a row of Chinese independence army generals look steady, waiting for Li Mingyuan to issue a battle order.

"Ladies and gentlemen, before the meeting officially begins, let me tell you the good news: Sucre has a coup d'état against Melgarejo, the coup leader General Adolfo conquered Sucre yesterday, and Melgarejo has led his troops out of La Paz last night after learning the news of Sucre's loss, and now La Paz's defense forces are at their weakest, so now is the best time to attack La Paz."

As soon as Li Mingyuan finished speaking, the generals and Indian leaders below began to discuss in a low voice.

"Shizi, is the intelligence true? It can't be the fake news released by the defenders of La Paz, deliberately luring us into falling for it, right? ”

Zhang Ansong led the troops of the palace to make peace with Li Mingyuan not long ago, and he didn't know much about the situation in Bolivia, so he asked this question.

"There is no doubt that these two are the messengers of General Adolfo, and they are the ones who passed on Sucre's information." Li Mingyuan pointed to the two Bolivians standing behind him.

Sent out by Adolfo as messengers, the two of them naturally had evidence of winning the trust of the Chinese Independence Army, after Li Mingyuan introduced them to the Chinese generals and Indian leaders present, the two looked at each other, and then took a step forward and spoke; "My general promised your army that as long as your army helps us defeat Melgarejo, Bolivia will not only allow your army to cross the border, but will also provide food guides on the way to ensure the safety of your army's march in Bolivia."

"Melgarejo has an army of 20,000 under his command, and if you want the Chinese Independence Army to help you defeat his troops, just providing food guides along the way is too low."

"Yes, although Melgarejo took some soldiers, there are at least more than 10,000 defenders in La Paz City, how many casualties will the Chinese troops pay for the storming of La Paz City, have you calculated how many casualties your general has? A batch of grain wants the Chinese Independence Army to take the fire for you, are you sending it to call Huazi? ”

As soon as the Bolivian courier's words fell, the two Chinese officers immediately retorted.

The attack on La Paz City was a spontaneous act of the Chinese Independence Army, and even if Adolfo did not send someone to contact Li Mingyuan, he would storm La Paz City, but since Adolfo took the initiative to seek cooperation, the Chinese Independence Army naturally wanted to ask for more benefits.

As soon as the first two Chinese Independence Army spoke, the other Chinese Independence Army generals quickly understood and denounced Adolfo for not cooperating sincerely.

No matter how small the mosquito is, it is still meat, and Adolph took the initiative to send it to the door to be slaughtered Li Mingyuan will naturally not be polite, but the issue of remuneration needs to wait until after defeating Melgarejo, and the current problem is to capture La Paz as soon as possible.

"Okay, everyone, be quiet," as soon as Li Mingyuan spoke, the Chinese generals below immediately stopped denouncing, but more than a dozen Indian leaders did not give up, and angrily reprimanded the messengers sent by Adolf, looking at the fierce appearance, if it wasn't for the Chinese Independence Army camp, the two messengers would have been eaten alive by the Indians.

The contradiction between the indigenous Indians and the descendants of Europe is what Li Mingyuan is happy to see, and these Indians are also his means of counterbalancing Adolfo, as long as Adolfo is not a fool, after defeating Melgarejo, he will not dare to backtrack, because in that case, Li Mingyuan can also unite with the Indians to deal with the white descendants, maybe Adolfo really doesn't care about the position of president of Bolivia, but he will not risk the loss of the white descendants to rule Bolivia and turn against the Chinese Independence Army.

Speaking out to appease the angry Indian chief, Li Mingyuan continued: "Last night, Chief of Staff Liu and I worked out a battle plan overnight, and now we put it forward, let's see if there is anything to add. ”

Li Mingyuan picked up a small wooden stick as he spoke, pointed to the sand table in the middle of the crowd and said: "The defense of the east and west cities of La Paz is weak, and the terrain of the east city is relatively good, which is suitable as a breakthrough for the siege, so the main attack location this time is the east city of La Paz. ”

"Shizi, the enemy's firepower configuration is unknown, is it a little inappropriate to rashly use Dongcheng as the main attack location?"

Now the general Chinese Independence Army generals will not question Li Mingyuan's decision, only Chen Guozhu and other veterans of the older generation of the Taiping Army watched Li Mingyuan grow up, and when they encountered something they did not agree with, they would speak out against it.

Li Mingyuan led the Chinese Independence Army to win every battle, and the beliefs brought by religion caused the Chinese Independence Army generals to have a kind of blind confidence in him, this situation has been realized since Li Mingyuan and Liu Pu had a long talk, but the best solution to this situation is to give his generals more opportunities to lead troops alone, so that they will not be influenced by Li Mingyuan and make judgments alone.

Prior to this, Li Mingyuan's decision to divide the Chinese Independence Army into three units, the sea, the field army, and the logistics army, was based on the overall situation and the consideration of training his subordinates to stand alone.

"Hehe, Uncle Chen is too worried, I have already obtained the fortification configuration map of La Paz City, and the battle plan is also formulated after actually inspecting the terrain outside the East City." Li Mingyuan said with a smile.

"When the prince says this, my old Chen will be relieved." Chen Guozhu laughed and said.

After explaining, Li Mingyuan continued: "Dongcheng is the main direction of attack, I am ready to invest a brigade of troops to attack, Dashan, and I will hand over the main attack task to you." ”

"Yes, lowly command."

"In order to confuse the enemy and prevent him from discovering our true intentions, I have decided to launch an attack on the west city, the north city and El Alto at the same time, and we want to create the illusion that the north of La Paz is the focus of our attack, and the other three points are nothing more than feints.

Drive the enemy's forces and create favorable conditions for the capture of Dongcheng. ”

The Chinese generals and Indians in the military tent moved with the wooden stick in Li Mingyuan's hand, and also focused their eyes on Beicheng.

The northern wall was the largest attacking surface, and the losses of the troops on both sides were also the greatest, and the Chinese generals sitting there did not want their soldiers to suffer heavy casualties, so none of the generals took the initiative to undertake the task of attacking the northern city.

Li Mingyuan was just about to open his mouth to appoint a candidate, when the old patriarch of the Aymara people, who had been standing behind, spoke: "General, the task of attacking the northern city will be handed over to us Aymara people, I promise to drag the enemy and cover the general's capture of La Paz." ”

Li Mingyuan glanced at the old patriarch of Amara with appreciation, and said with a smile: "The old patriarch takes into account the overall situation, and I can't say nothing, so let's do it, after attacking Krabas, I will give the Aymara people 500 muskets, and the capture of the city gate of La Paz also has a share of the Aymara people." ”

Aymara village as the first Indian tribe to cooperate with the Chinese Independence Army, from the Chinese Independence Army has received nearly 200 muskets, with the musket in hand, Aymara village has attracted a lot of small Indian tribes of the same race, now Aymara village has not only recovered its vitality, the size of the village is also larger than before, the tribe can fight the young people reached 1,500 people, this time in order to assist the Chinese Independent Army to break through La Paz, the old patriarch brought a thousand young strong.

Of course, a thousand people to attack Beicheng was not enough, Li Mingyuan set his sights on other Indian leaders,

"There is no free lunch in the world, if the leaders are willing to send troops to attack the northern city, you can get a share of the musket and the distribution of the capture after the war, there is only one chance, you should think about it."

The Indians did not value the captured food and other materials very much, but the muskets strictly controlled by the Bolivian army were what they desperately wanted. A dozen Indian chiefs whispered among themselves for a moment and made the same decision as the Aymara.