Early in the morning of September 21, 1646, two detachments of the Eastern Coast Army, after communicating, simultaneously launched a final offensive against the remnants of the Spanish garrison trapped in the inner city of Buenos Aires.

Under the continuous bombardment of 24 field artillery pieces and 2 24-pounder siege guns, the southeast corner of the wall cracked and collapsed in the afternoon of the same day. Chang Kaisheng, who was overjoyed, immediately transferred the main artillery force here, and after a heavy bombardment, the gap was widened, and the Spanish Army soldiers who were besieging the gap suffered heavy losses. This was followed by a normal and orderly attack, and the East Bank army once again opened the way with artillery, firmly occupied the gap, and then expanded inward.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, Xie Han's three detachments, which were attacking in the north of the city, also broke through the gate on the north side. The Spaniards, who had rushed to meet the battle, were unable to completely block the gate, so they were soon attacked by the East Coast Army and attacked the city. The Spaniards, who had been wounded on their backs, lost the courage to resist, and about dozens of soldiers were killed after unsuccessful attempts to break through, while dozens more surrendered. General Diego de La Plata. Garcia hid in his general's palace with a number of local officials and chamber of commerce leaders, and then relied on the last remnants of more than fifty Spanish soldiers and about thirty or forty Guarani servants to resist stubbornly.

The East Coasters didn't give them a chance to go head-to-head. The besieging artillerymen aimed a total of 26 guns at the white, two-story building, and spent several hours completely smashing it into rubble. Appointed by the Kingdom of Spain to General Diego de La Plata. Garcia was killed instantly, along with several local councillors and business leaders, and the East Coast Army rescued only two surviving businessmen from the rubble.

Chang Kaisheng was surprised that the Spaniards had such a tenacious will to fight. But it's just a surprise. The East Coasters ultimately relied on numerical superiority. At the same time, it made full use of its artillery firepower and thus completely occupied Buenos Aires, the second most important city in the Paraná - the second most important city in the La Plata River basin - and the most important city was naturally Asunción.

The casualty statistics of the battle also came out very quickly, and the five infantry companies, three artillery companies, and half a regiment of cadets of the East Bank Army who participated in the battle had a total of 35 killed and 62 wounded, of whom 11 were seriously wounded, and a total of 409 Spanish Army soldiers were killed, wounded and captured - it is clear that this figure includes many white Spanish peasants who were improvised and armed.

After the two battles, the naval and land forces on the east coast have already suffered 252 casualties, which made Lu Ming, the commander of the First Fleet, who got the news, frown. Although there were probably more than 100 of them, the injuries were not very serious. More than eighty percent of them were able to return to the battlefield, but the heavy casualties were still a bit heartbreaking. Moreover, the Spaniards were not as imminent as the radical soldiers in the military department thought, and they often fled or surrendered only when they could no longer hold on.

It can be said that the tenacious fighting will of these Spanish colonial soldiers made all the soldiers on the East Coast who participated in the battle awe-inspiring. In particular, the last 50 or so people who followed General Garcia to hold the general's palace were all killed in the two-story building. Mountains of corpses and a sea of blood, fighting to the end, are not unique to the soldiers of my Great East Coast!

After the occupation of Buenos Aires, the main force of the East Bank Army rested for a day after sending cavalry units to search the nearby area in case the enemy La Plata Infantry Regiment suddenly appeared. Meanwhile. The more than 300 militiamen who landed with Xie Han's three detachments began another important task, that is, the task of confiscating enemy property, which everyone loved to see.

The confiscation of enemy property was mainly aimed at the upper social families such as large merchants, large ranchers, and large ranchers who had engaged in hostile acts with the people of the East Coast. For example, the municipal councillors and members of the Chamber of Commerce who died in the General's Palace during the attack on the inner city of Buenos Aires. The people of the East Coast are treated as enemies, whether they mean it or not. Anyway, what everyone needs is just an excuse, the point is to divide the property of these people, the country wants to get rich, and the individual wants to get rich! Especially those militiamen, why do you think that they have no salary and are working tirelessly to transport supplies to the officers and soldiers on the front line, and they have not worked so hard to share the spoils!

On 22 September, another 300 militiamen arrived from the port of Buenos Aires. After handing over the supplies to the army, they broke into the estates of these merchant landlords in the suburbs, led by some white indentured slaves and gauchos from Central and Southern Europe who volunteered to lead the way. The wolf-like militia killed all the opponents with muskets and cannons, and then removed all the grain, livestock, gold and silver, furs, farm tools, and other valuable items they saw in the manor. In addition, all the slaves he met were pardoned, and those who were willing to go to the east coast were picked up by boat, and those who did not want to go were given half a bag of grain and left to fend for themselves.

Until September 23, when the main force of the army began to advance to Santa Fe, a Spanish stronghold in the upper Paraná River, Liao Xiaoyao, the commander of the 35th Regiment of the Cadet Corps, who was appointed commander of the Buenos Aires garrison, was still carrying out an in-depth operation to confiscate enemy property. At this time, he only had about 350 student soldiers left at hand, and it was already very difficult to control a huge city and a port a few kilometers away, and it was too reluctant to send troops to the countryside to "rob".

In desperation, he could only ask the navy anchored in the harbor to send some sailors to help go ashore, and the troops were slightly sufficient. At the same time, he gathered together the freed white indentured slaves and Indian slaves, numbering about 1,000 men, and ordered them to transport all kinds of supplies to the port docks on pack horses, and assisted the sailors of the ten flute transports docked there to register and load the booty into the hold one by one. As soon as each vessel is fully loaded, it returns to the port of Buenos Aires to continue loading the cargo, and after unloading the cargo at the port of Rocha.

No one knows how long the whole operation will last, but in the first five days the people on the east coast have confiscated more than 5,000 cattle, more than 25,000 sheep, more than 900 horses, more than 800 tons of grain, more than 10,000 preliminarily processed cow and sheep skins, more than 7,000 bags of wool, more than 2,000 logs, and gold and silver coins worth more than 300,000 pesos. If these things were to be transported only by the ten flute-type transport ships that the people on the east coast had at hand, I am afraid it would take several months or even half a year to transport them. There are so many materials that have been seized, and sometimes it's a happy annoyance!

As a last resort, Liao Xiaoyao asked the mainland to bring a letter back to the mainland, on the one hand, asking the mainland to send hundreds of more militiamen to assist him in defense, and on the other hand, he also asked the mainland to send troops to land in the Colonia Free Trade City and the Montevideo outpost set up by the Spaniards. After the occupation of these two places, the mainland should collect a sufficient number of inland steam carriers to come to the Río de la Plata, use their high speed to transport cattle, sheep, horses, and other livestock from the port of Buenos Aires to the east coast, and then send special personnel to drive these animals back by land. As for the remaining grain, fur, coins, timber and other materials, they are really not worth mentioning, and they can all be pulled back by boat directly.

Leaving aside for the moment how Liao Xiaoyao handled the seized supplies in Putrajaya, let's turn our attention back to the main force of the East Coast Army led by Army Captain Chang Kaisheng. At present, the Chang Kaisheng detachment and Xie Han's three detachments that originally attacked Putrajaya have been merged again and become a new detachment, with Chang Kaisheng as the detachment leader and Xie Han as the third deputy. The detachment had about 1,400 men in five infantry companies, three cavalry companies, and three artillery companies, in addition to about 1,000 militiamen who served as logistical support - of course, they also had weapons and could be used in combat if necessary.

If such a force were to meet the La Plata Infantry Regiment, which had only 600 troops, and if it was to fight head-on, Chang Kaisheng believed that the East Coast Army, which had a complete range of infantry and artillery weapons, would be able to defeat the enemy in one battle. The only thing to worry about is that since the La Plata Infantry Regiment did not make it in time to rescue Buenos Aires, it is likely that they will no longer engage in a frontal field battle with the East Bankers. They may retreat to fortifications in Santa Fe and prepare for a stalemate defensive battle with the East Coasters.

Perhaps, even the missionaries in Paraguay will organize a large number of Guarani cannon fodder down the river to support the battle of Santa Fe, and even hope to defeat the invading East Bank army in one battle, so that all the problems facing the Spaniards will be solved. Thinking of this, Chang Kaisheng couldn't help but secretly wonder if the number of troops was a little small, should he ask the local government to support more militia to come over? Even if it's only 500 or 800 people, that's good! These militias were well-trained, and the number of live firing even exceeded that of the standing armies of many countries on the Old Continent, and the fighting was definitely not bad, and the enemy could not defeat them lightly when they entered the battle formation.

In addition, the naval fleet did not dare to sail into the upper reaches of the Paraná River, so in order to maintain the long supply line, a large number of small river steamboats were needed on the east bank to transport supplies and personnel. At present, none of these things are in place, and the materials carried by the detachment alone will not last long, maybe only enough to support half a month at most. If the supply hasn't arrived in half a month, where will these four uninhabited ghost places go to replenish? To put it mildly, even if you rob, you can't find the object of robbery.

And of course, the Executive Committee and the Ministry of War will not forget them, and every move of this army, which is currently fighting bravely for the interests of the country, is eye-catching. Thus, after almost half a month of advancing towards the upper Paraná River, on October 5, a convoy of four shallow-water gunboats of the Amur class finally arrived. The fleet also consisted of 20 shallower draft 72-ton river/offshore utility steamships, loaded with large quantities of supplies and nearly 600 militiamen from Rocha County.

After the materials and personnel were in place, the strength of Chang Kaisheng's detachment reached more than 3,000 people, and the morale was also boosted a lot. So they started to speed up and try to get to Santa Fe in the near future. (To be continued......)