"Yesterday morning, López Jr. sent 10,000 defenders of the fortress to attack the Brazilian army behind him, and the battle lasted for an afternoon, and finally because of the containment attack of the main Brazilian force in the front, López Jr. had to withdraw 10,000 troops to the Humeita fortress, and the Paraguayan side's attempt to break the encirclement of the Brazilian army failed.

There are still 5,000 defenders left in the direction of Asunción, but because of the need to defend the capital, these 5,000 troops will not be transferred to us for command, and the next 5,000 Brazilian troops can only be dealt with by the Chinese Independent Army alone. ”

On the Paraguay River, Li Mingyuan briefed his officers on the military situation.

"The Brazilian army marched in the mountains, and the number of heavy weapons carried by the army should not be much, and the 40,000 field troops of the Chinese Independent Army were pressed down, and it was not difficult to solve the 5,000 Brazilian troops."

Li Sandou said.

"We haven't fought with the Brazilian army, I don't know how effective they are, but according to the record of the Brazilian army, 10,000 Paraguayan troops attacked for half a day and didn't take their defensive positions, presumably these 5,000 Brazilian troops have good combat effectiveness, they are likely to be the elite of the Brazilian army, in the case of not knowing the enemy's combat effectiveness, I don't recommend that the whole army press to start a war with the enemy."

Zhou Guozhu and Li Sandou did not deal with each other, but what he said made a lot of sense.

Garcia pinned his hopes on cutting off the retreat of the defenders of the Meihu Tower Fortress and deciding the victory or defeat of the Paraguayan War in World War I, so as the core part of this operational deployment, the 5,000 troops attacking from the flank must be the elite selected from the Brazilian coalition forces, and if you fight against such a force, carelessness will suffer a big loss.

"It is true that the Brazilian troops are elite, but after a day of fighting with 10,000 Paraguayan troops, their casualties will not be small, and at this time, taking advantage of the favorable opportunity of their exhaustion, the main force of the army will attack, and I believe that the battle will be resolved soon.

If a small number of troops are sent to test the enemy's reality first, it is very likely that the enemy will be caught by surprise, causing the opponent to be unable to hold on tightly, and increasing the difficulty of defeating the enemy army later. ”

What Zhou Guozhu and Li Sandou said has a certain amount of truth, and Li Mingyuan put forward his own opinions based on the ideas of the two: "The rear of the Paraguayan direction is empty, and the little López wants to seize the stronghold occupied by the 5,000 Brazilian troops and has to transfer troops back from the front line. ”

"The Brazilian coalition and Paraguay have fought for several years, and the strength of Paraguay is very clear to the other side, the Asunción defenders are insufficient, once the troops from Asunción are drawn to attack the stronghold occupied by the Brazilian roundabout troops, it is likely to lead to the defeat of the Asunción defenders, at this time, Asunción, who does not have enough troops, will definitely not be able to withstand the attack of five thousand Brazilian troops, and the Brazilian army that won the battle will not give up the good opportunity to occupy Asunción, so that the capital is occupied, regardless of whether the main Paraguayan forces are eliminated or not, Little López, who has lost the core base of the capital Asunción, will become a grasshopper after autumn, and it won't be long before he jumps. ”

Wang Dashan agreed.

Wang Dashan, Zhou Guozhu and others fought many battles with Li Mingyuan, and everyone pointed out the strategic purpose of the Brazilian army in a few words.

It's one thing to know the enemy's strategic goal, but how to crack it requires concrete practice.

"According to information from the Paraguayan side, the place occupied by Brazil is located sixty miles south of Porto Alegre, in the town of Oliva, on the eastern edge of the Paraguay River."

After several people discussed, Li Mingyuan took out the map provided by Paraguay and spread it on the table, explaining: "Oliva Town is located on a high ground, and there are three fortresses built by Paraguay on the river, with a slope of about 14 meters on the left and right sides, and the back is backed by mountains and forests, so it is not easy to occupy it no matter which side you attack from. ”

"The town of Oliva is easy to defend and difficult to attack, how can the Paraguayan army's geographical advantage be captured by the Brazilians?"

Oliva Town has a complete defense system, and it was originally a good stronghold for defense, but now it has fallen into the hands of the Brazilians, which means that if you want to capture Oliva Town, the Chinese Independence Army will have to pay a lot of price.

"The main Paraguayan forces gathered at the fortress of Humeita, and López Jr. did not expect that the enemy would bypass the front-line Paraguayan army under the nose and go straight to the town of Oliva.

It's useless to blame the Paraguayans now, let's think about how to deal with the enemy in front of you! ”

Li Mingyuan left the question to the officers below, rubbed his eyes, and lay down in his chair to rest for a while.

Liu Pu was not around, and Sun Bin was also left behind to be busy absorbing Paraguayan women to join the Chinese Independence Army, all kinds of cumbersome things were pressed on Li Mingyuan alone, and he hadn't slept a peaceful sleep for a few days, so Li Mingyuan could only use a short time to rest for a while, otherwise, I am afraid that it would be even more unbearable to face the war command behind.

The officers below continued to discuss, and after half an hour, they still did not find a good way to deal with the enemy.

The discussion time was not short, and it was difficult to get a good method if the discussion continued, Li Mingyuan opened his mouth to stop the discussion, and decided to adopt the traditional offensive plan, besieging the Brazilian army on all sides, and then sending some soldiers to attack in turn.

In the early hours of May 26, 1868, the Chinese Independence Army launched an attack on the town of Oliva.

The town of Oliva was small on all sides, and one attack could not accommodate too many soldiers, and in the first attack, the Chinese Independent Army divided 5,000 soldiers to attack from the shore, left and right.

The attack from the left and right was to disperse the forces of the Brazilian army and share the pressure on the Chinese soldiers attacking from the direction of the riverbank.

Three thousand soldiers gathered in the direction of the river bank, and Wang Dashan, who had a steady personality, personally commanded them, launched the first round of attacks.

"Boom Boom" heavy shells fired at the town of Oliva, a puff of smoke on the fortress, the Chinese Independence Army came from afar, and most of the heavy weapons were left in the rear, so most of the artillery carried with them was small artillery with little power, and these guns could only leave some small pits on the fortress, as for breaking through the city wall, the fortress still could not be done.

After a round of artillery fire, before the smoke of gunfire had dissipated, the soldiers of the 1st Mixed Brigade under Wang Dashan attacked the position of the Brazilian army.

The soldiers of the 1st Mixed Brigade were mostly veterans, and at the beginning of the charge they slowly accelerated, and when they were within a hundred meters of the enemy's position, the experienced veterans quickly charged, and in a few seconds ran to a distance of fifty or sixty meters in front of the Brazilian army's position, and then immediately dispersed, hiding behind cover and firing at the enemy.

Although the distance of fifty or sixty meters was not far, it became very difficult for the Chinese soldiers in this position to advance and charge in front of the enemy's position.

Fifty or sixty meters in front of the position of the Brazilian army was a bare open field, and four machine guns on both sides of the position formed a cross-blockade surface, and Wang Dashan commanded the troops to launch six attacks without success, but lost more than 200 soldiers.

The gunfire and artillery fire continued, and the battle lasted for three hours before gradually ending, and the first attack of the Chinese Independence Army ended in failure.

On 27 May, the 2nd Mixed Brigade took over from the 1st Mixed Brigade.

Equipped with grenades of new equipment to launch an offensive against the Brazilian army,

Chinese soldiers used grenades to blow up a fort, eliminate three machine-gun strongholds, and stormed the top of the high ground for the first time an hour after the battle began.

The Chinese soldiers rushed to the high ground, seeing that the victory ticket was in hand, but the anti-slope and the artillery fire in the center of Oliwa town bombarded the top of the hill, and the Chinese paid heavy casualties in a short period of time, and the commander of the fourth company of the third regiment of the second brigade who led the charge was killed, and the platoon commander and deputy platoon commander were killed and wounded three people, two were wounded, and the soldiers suffered three hundred casualties.

The battle of Oliva was a tough battle from the beginning, after the two failed attacks, the Chinese Independence Army launched the third and fourth attacks one after another, and the surrounding positions of Oliva Town were occupied by the Chinese Independence Army successively.

On 30 May, all the defensive positions in the town of Oliva were lost, and the remaining Brazilian troops retreated into the town and relied on their houses to resist stubbornly.

The battle lasted for five days, the Chinese Independence Army paid a total of 3,000 casualties in order to capture the town of Oliva, and the number of Brazilian troops in the town was less than 3,000, of which more than 1,000 were wounded.

The scorching flames roasted the town of Oliva, and the Brazilian troops surrounded by the flames continued to scream and scream, and many Brazilian soldiers who could not stand it shouted and ran out of the town, and they were greeted by ammunition.

Li Mingyuan coldly watched the Brazilian soldiers die in front of his eyes, his expression did not change in the slightest, the huge casualties have made the Chinese soldiers gather a huge resentment, if they are not allowed to vent their grievances, the morale of the Chinese Independent Army will be affected, so the Brazilian army can only consider itself unlucky.

More and more Brazilian soldiers were forced out by the fire, and a team of more than a dozen Brazilian troops attracted Li Mingyuan's attention, because they not only carried white flags, but also were equipped with much better weapons than ordinary Brazilian soldiers.

Li Mingyuan realized that they might be high-ranking officers in the Brazilian army, and beckoned the guards to escort them over.

"Tell me, what is your identity?" Li Mingyuan asked with his eyes focused on the leading Brazilian soldier.

"Canudute, heir to Duke Frobert of the Brazilian Empire." The young Brazilian soldier wiped the sweat off his head and whispered.

As someone else's captive, Canudute didn't dare to be reckless in front of Li Mingyuan, and only thought about spending a sum of money to let his father redeem him.

"Duke Frobert's heir, what reason do you have for me to spare your life."

"I can get my father to pay a ransom to buy me."

"No, we're not short of money, I need other things in exchange for your immortality, such as intelligence from the Brazilian army and your route to the town of Oliva."

Seeing Canudut, Li Mingyuan felt that it was a bit of a waste to kill all the Brazilian soldiers, and it was indeed a good way to use them to find the way to the camp of the Brazilian coalition forces, and then imitate what they did, to give the main Brazilian force a deadly surprise attack.

"I can't betray the Imperial Army, you don't want to know the information of the Imperial Army from me."

Betraying the intelligence of one's own country, no matter in which country, is an unforgivable sin, Kanudut knows me, the consequences of doing so, and immediately exports and refuses.

"If you don't want to cooperate, then it's useless to keep you, come on, throw him into the fire." Li Mingyuan's face changed, and two soldiers immediately stepped forward to set up the card

Nudut walked towards the fire.

"Don't throw me into the fire, I say, I'll tell you everything." The scorching heat terrified Canudut, and the horrified appearance of the burnt Brazilian soldiers frightened the gilded young nobleman who followed the troops.