With the roar of several cannons, the Spaniards' offensive was once again successful, and the corpses of more than 100 Crendi servants were scattered everywhere, telling people about their tragic fate.

This is Santa Fe, the front-line battlefield of the fierce battle between the Spanish and the East Coast armies. More than 2,500 soldiers on the east coast and more than 3,800 officers and men of the Spanish Lima Regiment fought to the death for control of the important port of Santa Fe.

The Spaniards said that there were more than 3,000 people, but more than 2,000 of them were Crandi servants, all armed with spears and other cold weapons, and their combat power was very limited. Of course, there were also a considerable number of servants on the side of the East Coast, such as more than 300 Crandians and 200 gauchos, all of whom were rebels who had some trouble with the Spaniards - of course, after more than a month of fighting, the festival between them seemed to be getting bigger and bigger.

Except for the beginning when the main forces of both sides stepped forward to fight for a while, both the Spaniards and the East Coast have been a little silent recently. The Spaniards suffered too many casualties, after all, attacking the fortified positions of the people on the east coast, and in the face of the dense fire of many muskets and artillery, no one could hold out for long. Therefore, after the Spanish Lima Army paid more than 400 casualties (about a quarter of them were white Spaniards, and the rest were Peruvian Indians), they decisively gave up and sent two kilograms of randi recruited in Córdoba and other places to attack in turn.

However, the Krandi were not fools, and their attacks were always weak, which was nothing more than a tickle for the East Coasters, but rather caused a lot of harm to the remaining Spanish settlers in the vicinity, which made the Spanish officers who led the team crooked their noses. Today (July 2o), the Spaniards launched an offensive early in the morning, which is the largest in the last ten days. But only a hundred Crandians were killed or wounded. The 6th Army on the East Coast, hiding in a turtle shell, even had only 7 killed and 14 wounded (mostly lightly wounded). This deepened the desperation of the Spaniards.

Yes, the Spaniards have no hope of conquering Santa Fe these days. The loss of artillery, the difficulty of supplying ammunition and supplies, and the long-term camp in the field were undoubtedly eroding the Spaniards' will to fight, and now they only needed an opportunity to withdraw their camp to Córdoba to rest.

Anda 15 had just returned from patrolling the front-line artillery towers and trenches, and a large number of mud spots were splashed again on the clean military pants that he had just changed into this morning. Yesterday it rained, and the whole battlefield was soaked in soft mud, which added to the difficulties of the Spaniards to attack. And the people of the East Coast were already exhausted at this time. Unable to launch a large-scale counterattack, the 2,000-strong force has so far suffered more than 400 casualties - mostly militiamen.

On the 1o day of this month, Luoqia County had replenished 100 people here, and then faced the front's demand for continued additional reinforcements. They even sent a deputy county magistrate to the executive committee to complain that the grain sowing area had not been expanded at all this year, that the plan drawn up by the county government to increase grain production was facing miscarriage, and that more than 19,000 people in Luoqia County (including 10,000 students in the 10th grade of the Bingtuanbao) still needed to import wheat from neighboring counties -- the county had little arable land per capita and mainly planted high-yield miscellaneous grains -- and that life could hardly be carried out. Of course, the Executive Committee rejected the request made by the Luoqia County side, but in view of the actual situation. It also vetoed the military department's request for additional troops to be allocated to Luoqia County.

Thus, the militia brigade of Rocha County on the Santa Fe side fought for several months. More than 300 people have already been killed or wounded (including the attrition of the disease-led people) -- the epidemic in May even killed and injured 700 or 80 people, and only 700 people are still fighting at present. The 6th Company, cavalry, and artillery units of the 6th Army on the east bank were also wounded and sick, and 350 men were still able to fight as of today. If you add in some miscellaneous troops such as the Klandi rebels, the Gaucho volunteers, and the Tatar herdsmen, there are only about 1,800 soldiers on the east bank who can continue to fight in and around Santa Fe.

Eighteen hundred tired soldiers were not enough for a major counterattack, for the Spanish Lima Legion on the opposite side had 500 fully organized cavalry, more than 800 musketeers, and more than 1,200 Crandi servants armed with spears and bows. And the Spanish army, which had lost all its artillery and other heavy weapons, could not afford to gnaw down the fortified fortresses of the East Coast, because the East Coasters not only had artillery, but also obviously had much more firepower than them, because they were backed by a large river and had convenient supplies.

The two sides were in a stalemate, occasionally sending people to fight a few battles during the day. The Spaniards didn't know what they were waiting for, the daily consumption of thousands of people going to the front line to fight was definitely not a small number, and the mule gang in Córdoba didn't know how many livestock had to die to deliver food, munitions and other supplies to the city of Santa Fe. Perhaps they had also built a transport station along the way, but Anda XV did not dare to send out the only 300-odd Tatar herders at hand to search for them, as this might incur heavy losses.

It doesn't matter what you're doing with the Spaniards, even if you continue to increase your troops, it's none of my business, as long as you can maintain the transport lines! Anyway, I just need to keep Santa Fe, and it will be a great achievement to keep this transshipment port, and I don't bother to care about the rest.

"Commander, today I have sent 19 cash boxes from upstream, totaling more than 612,000 yuan in gold and silver coins of various types, and the commissioner of the Ministry of Finance has already counted them and sealed them in the No. 1 warehouse. I have arranged for twenty Ministry of Internal Affairs policemen to be stationed there while the Navy's large steamship is loaded and departed. The cadet cadre from the Corps Fort saluted Anda Fifteen, and then reported to him. Anda XV was the commander of the Santa Fe garrison, the supreme and plenipotentiary of the land, and therefore he had the right to know all the qiē.

Anda returned the salute and encouraged the young cadet cadres a few words. At that moment, a herald handed him an order from Buenos Aires, and Anda Fifteen couldn't help but close his eyes and fall into deep thought. After a long time, he opened his eyes, smiled, and said: "The retreat order of the military headquarters has been issued for several days, and the chief of general staff Liao has also issued an order to form the Santa Fe theater, with Captain Jiang Zhiqing of Corrientes City as the commander-in-chief of the theater. The military strength of the new theater will be greatly expanded, and all naval gunboats will also be sent here to support our troops......"

"Commander, then what is the arrangement of our 6th Company? Still stationed here? An officer asked.

"Yes." Anda 15 nodded, "The 1O1 Company of the 6th Army will also go here at the same time, in addition, the Meilin County Militia Brigade will also be stationed here to defend, and the Luoqia County Militia Brigade will return to the local Baoan Township to rest." As for the last militia brigade on the mainland, the newly formed West Lake County Militia Brigade, it will be sent by the Navy to Buenos Aires to take over the defense of the 35th Regiment of the Cadet Corps there. Well, Commander Liao's student corps (350 people) is afraid that he will have to cross the sea to fight somewhere else. In addition, all cavalry units, as well as a significant portion of the Klandi and Gaucho rebels, will remain here. According to my rough estimates, the total strength of my Santa Fe theater will reach more than 4ooo men this time, and after the integration, I will no longer be afraid of the more than 2,000 Spaniards in the area outside the city. If they get to know each other and go away, if they are still obsessed, then they must give them some color. ”

The soldiers of the 6th Company were not very happy when they heard the news, on the contrary, they were generally a little disappointed. Everyone knows how rich Chile and Peru are, and now that so many Spaniards have been attracted to Santa Fe, and even they have the possibility of continuing to increase their troops, then the rear must be very empty, right? At this time, if you seize the opportunity, you will definitely be able to make a fortune behind enemy lines! It's a pity, Asunción didn't let us go, and now even Peru and Chile don't give us the opportunity to go, is it true that the 6th Company of our 6th Army was raised by our stepmother? Do we have to push all the way through the Big 6 traffic line from Santa Fe to the city of Córdoba?

Up to now, even ordinary grassroots officers and men are discussing when the Executive Committee and the Military Department will organize an expedition to the Pacific. Because if the Spaniards insisted on pretending to be dead and did not see it, the fall of La Plata would not have touched them much. And if the Spaniards were to face up to the reality of the East Coast invasion, they would have to be impressed by something very impressive - such as the capture of important towns on the Pacific coast, and nothing else.

The 6th Company of the 6th Army had been stationed in Santa Fe for several months, and the oil and water received was limited. Especially when the Chang Kaisheng detachment conquered Asunción in early June, ships came from the river almost every day for more than a month, sometimes loaded with cash boxes full of gold and silver coins, sometimes full of grain, sometimes precious furs, sometimes a large number of prisoners, in short, the booty was a boatload after a boat, and everyone knew that the army on the east coast had made a lot of money in the Paraguayan region.

According to the Ministry of Finance's commissioner, more than $800,000 in gold and silver coins alone were shipped back from Paraguay, not to mention a large amount of jewelry and works of art. In addition, there were more than 4,500 tons of grain (wheat and corn), more than 80,000 furs, about 16,000 Andalusian black cattle, more than 10,000 goats and sheep, 600 pigs, more than 800 horses, and a number of chickens, ducks and geese. In short, the total value of the property recovered from Paraguay by the East Coasters this time was no less than 1.7 million yuan, which was not in vain for thousands of troops and a small army of half a year of hard fighting. Not only have the military expenses and pensions been earned, but it seems that there is a large surplus, in short, it is much more oil and water than La Plata.

These livestock can be exchanged for a large number of bills of exchange and cash from the farmers on the east coast, which will be of great help to alleviate the government's current financial predicament, and if we add the 800,000 yuan in cash directly obtained and the more than 14o yuan of goods brought back by the navy from Europe a while ago, it seems that the budget for the next year can barely be done. If we have more bank acceptance bills to buy grain in the hands of the people, it will no longer be so difficult to maintain next year's fiscal expenditure.

Sure enough, it's still a quick way to make money by fighting wars, but it seems to be addictive. (To be continued......)

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