On the morning of 15 April, as the soldiers of the Presidential Army got out of bed stretching their waists, they were shocked to find the troops of the Western Parliamentarian Army in La Serena lined up outside the city, along with dozens of artillery pieces.

The Parliamentarian army is coming. This discovery terrified the presidential army in La Serena, which now has only more than 1,000 defenders and four French-powered 4-pounder field guns due to the large number of troops that have gone to Kopiapo to support. It would have been almost impossible for such a force to stop the Parliamentarian army from attacking the city. The only way to do this was to let the Parliamentarians enter the city, fight them in the streets and wait for the Santiago Metropolitan District or the friendly forces in Kopiapo to come to their aid.

But the idea is very plump, and the reality is very skinny. After shelling the city with artillery and then blasting open the gates of La Serena, the Parliamentarians poured into the city. The defenders of the Presidential Army, which initially relied on streets and houses for defense, did inflict heavy casualties on the attacking Parliamentarians, and the offensive was curbed for a time.

But after the Germans joined the battle, the presidential army saw what it means to be a professional urban assault.

The German Army had no such training, but the Marines planned for Jochen to attack coastal cities and ports with limited forces. Therefore, urban fortification is a key training subject. During the two months he was in Chile, the Army learned a lot from his fellow Marines. Fire suppression, mutual cover, and cross-advance are used in a decent way.

The Presidential Army discovered that the Germans were not charging through the streets in the same orderly manner as the Parliamentarian Army. The cat bends its waist and clings to the base of the wall, using any corner or ruin to hide its body, and will immediately fall to the ground as soon as it is shot, and then there will be a fierce return fire.

The attempt conceived by the soldiers of the Presidential Army, who were hiding in the house, to inflict heavy casualties on the enemy when they broke into the room and opened the narrow door of the room, also did not materialize. The Germans generally attacked a room in three steps: kicking the door, throwing a grenade, and rushing in for a shotgun, smashing a window, throwing a grenade, and rushing in for a shotgun.

Of course, the Germans had a simpler and more crude way, although they brought early mortars without buffers, but as the most experienced mortars in the German Army, they said that it was still possible to ensure accuracy by opening a skylight in a house at close range in the city.

Therefore, in the face of houses that are really difficult to attack, the Germans do not rush over and kick the door and smash the window to throw grenades, but directly call the mortar crew. Then enthusiastic Germans would come to the community to bring warmth, and a steaming 60-millimeter high-explosive bomb would be delivered to the door immediately.

Not only that, but any soldier of the Presidential Army who dares to show his head or accidentally shows his head will be taken care of by the precision shooters of the Marine Corps and the snipers of the KSK.

The defenders, who had the numerical superiority, were overwhelmed by the numerically inferior attackers. In the face of machine gun suppression, sniper rifle roll call, mortar gifts, and grenade waiting for the German advance, the position of the presidential army was disintegrated and encroached on little by little. Seeing that the Germans had opened the situation, the Parliamentarian army attacked again. This time they learned to be obedient and attacked like the Germans. Although not as skilled and efficient as the Germans, the Parliamentarian offensive finally began to make headway.

Fierce fighting lasted all day, and after the defenders were mostly annihilated, the Parliamentarians surrounded the remaining Presidential positions, and pulled artillery into the city, aiming the muzzles of the Black Hole at themselves, the commander of the Presidential Army in La Serena finally decided to surrender. The capital of the Coquimbo district fell, and the parliamentary forces officially severed the link between the Atacama district and the Santiago Capital District.

The Presidency suffered more than 700 casualties, the Parliamentarian army lost more than 500, and the Germans paid the price of 8 killed and 22 seriously wounded. At the request of the German advisory team, the seriously wounded were evacuated by the Chilean Navy from the port of Guò Coquimbo and returned to Iquique, where medical conditions were better. The remaining forces remained in La Serena to assist the Parliamentary Army in blocking the President's attempt to reopen Santiago and Atacama.

In order to consolidate this strategic point and respond to a possible counterattack by the presidential army, the port of Monttonguò Cogumbo again transported some 2,000 troops to La Serena. By this time, the Parliamentarian army had more than 5,000 troops to fight in the area, and with dozens of artillery pieces and machine guns, La Serena could be called impregnable. At this time, the parliamentary faction believed that the war situation was decided, and the defeat of the presidential faction was imminent.

However, joy and sorrow soon gave the parliamentary party a big gift.

As a result of the loss of La Serena, the nearly 7,000-strong troops stationed in Copiapo will not be able to rush back to support Santiago Capital District in the event that it is caught between the north and the south. The parliamentary faction can use the guò navy to constantly mobilize and replenish the army, and the parliamentary army, which is constantly replenished with personnel and equipment, puts more and more pressure on the presidential faction of the Santiago Capital District. As a result, an attack on the navy became the only means by which the presidential faction tried to salvage the situation.

And the task of accomplishing this fell on the two torpedo gunboats in the hands of the president's faction. Rear Admiral Lynch and Rear Admiral Condell, two torpedo gunboats, were ordered by the Chilean Navy in 1889 from Laird Shipbuilding in the Port of Birkenhead, England. The ship's name is a reference to the important figures of the 1879 South American Saltpeter War, Rear Admiral Patricio Javière de Los Dolores Lynch i Solo de Saldivar and Rear Admiral Carlos Arnaldo Condell la Haza.

Both ships underwent sea trials in January 1891 and returned to Chile in February. As the newest warships in the hands of the President, the two ships have been here since the capture of Valparaiso by the President.

With a displacement of 714 tons, a speed of 20.2 knots, and armaments with British 76 mm guns and French 57 mm guns, the two ships were more in line with Jochen's image of a destroyer than a torpedo gunboat. Its five 356-mm torpedo tubes fire white-headed torpedoes that can cause great damage to large ironclad ships.

At this time, the main force of the Chilean Navy was divided into two parts, with the ironclad ships Admiral Cochran and Huazca making their home port in Talcavano in the south. The second ship of the Admiral Cochrane, the Blanco Nkadala, the protective cruiser Esmeralda, and the gunboat O'Higgins remained in the port of Iquique.

In order to attack the Atacama sector, the Blanco Nkadara and O'Higgins moved south into Caldera, a port northwest of Copiapo, to support the army's operations.

On 22 April, the Rear Admiral Lynch and the Rear Admiral Condell quietly departed port and headed north for Caldera the Parliamentary Naval Anchorage. In the early morning of April 23, the two ships arrived at Caldera and infiltrated the anchorage, where they fired a total of six torpedoes at the anchored Chilean Navy's main ironclad ship, the Blanco Nkadala, and one torpedo was hit. Because the watertight door in the ship was not closed at this time, the 3,650-ton Blanco Nkadala disappeared into the sea with 182 sailors in just 10 minutes.

This attack was significant, as the presidential army achieved a brilliant victory after a series of defeats, which greatly boosted the low morale.

And the attack power of the torpedo gunboats was demonstrated in real combat, which not only made the Argentine Navy, an old rival of the Chilean Navy, look forward to the two 520-ton Espora-class torpedo gunboats it ordered in the United Kingdom, but also ordered a larger Parthia with a displacement of 1029 tons the following year. This also made the torpedo ship race an important part of the naval race between Argentina and Chile in the future.

However, the joy of victory did not last long, and the parliamentary army, ready to attack the Santiago Capital District from both the north and south. The Parliamentarian attack went very smoothly. On 10 May, the parliamentary forces attacking from both directions met under the city of Valparaiso. The presidential army, which was in a critical situation, decided to abandon Copiapó, and all 7,000 defenders were dispatched, carrying all their artillery to attack La Serena in an attempt to return to Santiago.

The prepared parliamentarian army, under the guidance of the Germans, built a fortification and, with the support of machine-gun artillery, held back the presidential army. In this battle, the parliamentary army annihilated more than 4,000 presidential troops at the cost of more than 900 casualties, and the remaining presidential troops surrendered. The Germans lost 19 killed and 37 seriously wounded.

At the end of the campaign, only the Santiago Capital District was left in the presidential district. On 12 May, after a three-hour artillery bombardment of Valparaiso by naval guns, more than 10,000 men of the Parliamentary Army attacked Valparaíso. Valparaiso had an elite army of 4,000 men at this time, all of whom were loyal to President Balmaceda.

After three days of fierce fighting, with more than half of the casualties, the Chilean naval headquarters, which had been lost at the beginning of the war, was returned to the hands of the navy.

At this time, the last troops of about 1,000 troops of the presidential army could only retreat in the capital city of Santiago, and Monte, who had no worries, transferred nearly 4,000 troops from La Serena to supplement the troops lost in Valparaiso, barely enough to gather 10,000 men to surround Santiago.

After all, the Germans came to Chile to gain experience, not to accompany the Chileans to fight to the death. With a total of 27 killed and 59 seriously wounded, 17 of whom were crippled by shells of the Presidential Army in the Battle of La Seres and never recovered, the Germans said they would no longer participate in the military operations of the Parliamentary Army. By this time, however, the Parliamentarians had won the game, and there was really no need for the Germans to do anything.

The Chilean Civil War, which had lasted for eight months, had entered the countdown after only three months due to the intervention of the Germans.

It's time for Chileans to cash in on their pay.