The drizzle rained for three days in a row, and the morale of the officers and men on the east bank under the canopy was slightly low.

Chang Kaisheng wore a pair of high-end rain boots made of whale skin, and stepped on the muddy camp one foot at a time. By this time it was getting dark, and from time to time there was a muffled sound not far away - don't get me wrong, it wasn't thunder, but the artillery was carrying out a routine shelling with a weak breath. After three days of rain, the solid iron ball shells were no longer working, and the artillerymen had already reloaded the explosive shells, and tilted the barrels upwards to send the explosive shells into the city through a certain curved trajectory. It's just that the mute rate of this kind of explosive bomb is too high, and it even reaches more than 60% in this rainy and humid weather. The remaining forty percent of the shells exploded during the flight, or after a long time on the ground, and the Spaniards generally hid in civil fortifications, so the actual combat effectiveness of this shell was very poor.

After carefully observing the camp for a while, Chang Kaisheng decisively ordered the artillerymen to stop the shelling, and at the same time asked them to shift the artillery position, move some of the heavy guns with long barrels as far forward as possible, and use hollow iron shells (spherical shells with cavities in the middle) to shoot at some small fortifications held by the Spaniards. Each gun requires adequate soldier protection and must not be snatched or destroyed by the enemy. This is already the outskirts of Asunción, and when Chang Kaisheng stands on the watchtower, he can clearly see the bustling streets of Asunción.

The Chang Kaisheng detachment has 4 infantry companies, 3 cavalry companies, and 3 artillery companies, totaling more than 135o people; In addition, there are Dongfang County Militia Brigade and Zhenhai County Militia Brigade with a total of 2ooo people; Polish and Tatar mercenaries 1ooo, as well as more than 1ooo freed Klandian slaves who volunteered to join the East Bank army. The total number of these people has reached more than 54oo, but only more than 4ooo can really fight. The Klandians and some of the Tatar herdsmen could only take on some tasks such as battlefield rescue, fortifications, and transporting supplies.

But even that number. It was already far more than the Spanish defenders. The main force of the Spanish army, the La Plata Infantry Regiment, was attacked repeatedly, although some militia were forcibly recruited. At present, the strength of the army has finally been restored, but the combat effectiveness has been greatly reduced, and the weapons and equipment cannot be used to have a single flint gun, which can be described as extremely dejected.

In addition to the La Plata Infantry Regiment, there were more than 4oo soldiers of the Lima Regiment (the Colonial Regiment of the Viceroyalty of Peru, with Indians in the majority) in the city of Asunción - most of them were white or mixed-race whites, and after the outbreak of the war, they forcibly recruited many native whites or new white immigrants from Central and Southern Europe, plus some soldiers who had sneaked in from Tucumán and other places. The Spanish managed to muster their forces to about 8oo men.

These people, together with the Infantry Regiment of La Plata, have a total of nearly 14oo men and 6 artillery pieces (the total number of artillery pieces of the Lima Regiment has increased in recent years to 3o). Although it is far inferior to the 6th Army on the East Coast or even the East Coast Militia in terms of combat effectiveness, it has been able to effectively delay the actions of the East Coast people.

If we count the number alone, the number of white defenders in Asunción at this time is only a minority, and it is the Guarani who really make up the majority of the defenders. The Jesuit monks had mobilized at least 3,000 Guarani people, most of whom had entered Asunción two months earlier, and the rest had been in the field waiting for an opportunity to attack the troops of the East Coast army to cut wood and collect food, much to the annoyance of the East Coast army.

A few days ago. With Chang Kaisheng's acquiescence, Jiang Zhiqing led more than 1,500 people to conduct a "limited security war" against the Guarani villages and tribes on the outskirts of Asunción. According to the vague information from Pravda reporter Li Tatyan, who accompanied the army. The East Bank army carried out bloody and brutal massacres on the outskirts of Asunción, especially the unpaid militia and Polish and Tatar mercenaries, who were the most ruthless, often razing entire Guaraní villages to the ground. Some of the looted cash was handed over and some of it was retained, and the livestock property was sold to the logistics department except for the part handed over. According to incomplete statistics, this month (May) alone, the logistics department paid more than 180,000 yuan in one-year bank acceptance bills to the officers and men of the Northwest Reclamation Bank.

has done such a tragic thing, naturally it can't be seen in any newspapers. Therefore, at the request of Pravda newspaper, Li Tat-yan used the Spring and Autumn style to interview the troops, highlighting the despicable sneak attack carried out by the Guaraní people on the officers and soldiers of our Great East Coast, thus arousing the anger of the public and ignoring some other "details".

"Detachment leader, this is already the highest position of our side." Yang Xu, the commander of the artillery unit, who was promoted to major together with Chang Kaisheng because of his meritorious combat skills, pointed forward with his sheathed saber and said: "Here is an 18-pounder gun, here is also an 18-pounder gun, here is a 12-pounder gun, here are two 8-pounder howitzers......"

"Artillery is the core of our army's fighting, and fighting without artillery is our army's tradition, and we must protect the artillery." Chang Kaisheng nodded, and then continued to ask Yang Xu beside him: "Are there any difficulties at present?" ”

"Some of the infantry brothers belonging to my artillery have been soaked in damp and muddy fortifications for a long time, many of them have rheumatism, and now it is late autumn, and everyone's clothes have not been changed for a long time, and their morale is very low." After thinking about it, Yang Xu still spoke truthfully for the infantry who accompanied the artillery battle: "It's not easy for everyone, especially on rainy days, those Guarani people may charge from time to time, and the brothers have to fight with them with bayonets across the barbed wire, and there have been fifty or sixty casualties these days." Not to mention anything else, at least prepare more hot soup and hot water for everyone, and prepare medicines, otherwise this battle will be too difficult to fight. ”

"These are all being solved." Chang Kaisheng is not ignorant of the difficulties of the soldiers, after all, he himself often runs to the front line, so he said: "There should be no shortage of medicines, and it can be used for a long time to send them over once in the rear. At present, there is a shortage of fuel, and the two small river steamboats that were pulling coal to the front line were scuttled and sank at night in the port of Corrientes a few days ago, and the crew members were also killed, which is estimated to have been done by the Spaniards. Now Santa Fe should have been organizing follow-up transportation, and before that, I think the various departments still organize soldiers to go to the suburbs to cut wood, don't be afraid of being attacked, organize more people. If the trees that have been rained are damp, then go and tear down the Spanish farmhouse in the suburbs and burn it for firewood. Just send those Klandians and Tatars, they have done all the murder and looting, and the demolition of houses is a piece of. ”

"As for those Guarani charges, what are those mercenaries for?" Speaking of this, Chang Kaisheng raised his voice and said: "I know that many officers and soldiers of the army like to boast of their bravery and often fight face-to-face with the Guarani people with bayonets. This spirit is commendable and should be commended, but the officers who lead the troops must have brains! Did the Klandians, the gauchos, the Poles, the Tatars come to eat dry rice? They have armor on their bodies and spears in their hands, can't they go and fight the Guarani barbarians? ”

"From now on, these people will do all these things, what are they kidding, wearing cuirasses, gauntlets, helmets, and sharp sabers and spears, and not being able to fight the Guarani who have little cloth on their bodies? I think those Poles are very experienced in combat, and they are not the first brothers on the battlefield, many of them have fought with the Ottomans, Swedes, and Russians, and they are all big scenes of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people, and there is no problem at all in coming to the new big 6 to fight the barbarians. ”

After Chang Kaisheng inspected the troops, he stepped on rain boots filled with stagnant water and came to the logistics department. The baggage soldiers of the logistics department are killing cattle, and a second lieutenant of the baggage soldiers who is the main knife is from Zhenhai County, Sanbaotai Township, Daming Beizhili Yongping Mansion, who was originally a butcher, and at this time it is also a business to kill cattle with knives. Some of these cattle were collected "ownerless", while others were bought from nearby obedient Spanish or Guarani villages.

The East Coast Army initially paid these men a two-year usance bank acceptance and then purchased a large number of supplies. Later, as more and more supplies were purchased—mainly wheat, beer, wine, pigs, cattle and sheep—and the banker's acceptance bills were used in hand, Chang Kaisheng ordered the use of temporarily printed military stamps in the name of the La Plata expeditionary force to buy supplies. And in the eyes of those Spaniards, there was no difference between bank acceptance and military bills for most of them, and they needed to be pressed by the bayonets of the East coast to accept this "piece of paper" to sell supplies.

After Chang Kaisheng tasted the benefits of using military tickets, he immediately ordered the use of military tickets in large quantities to purchase various materials in the occupied areas to reduce the pressure on rear transportation. Although the Spaniards were very reluctant, the East Coast army was notorious, and the massacre had been done, and now it would be a fart to ask you to "buy" something, so they had to accept it.

It's not that you don't pay, and when the war is over, you can exchange money orders or military bills for huàn. Of course, the Spaniards' fears were justified, and the bills of exchange might actually get money back from the East Coast Bank, but the military bills were hard to say. Because these crudely printed things were carried out in the name of the 6th Army of the East Bank of the La Plata Expeditionary Force, in the event of the dissolution of the La Plata Expeditionary Force after the end of the war - a necessary thing, and the East Coasters deliberately failed to pay the bills, who would they ask for money? But in spite of all their reluctance, the East Coasters just throw their rifles and bayonets in front of you, and the Spaniards have no choice but to give in.

After Chang Kaisheng also inspected the logistics department, he hurriedly returned to his headquarters, and he had to make another calculation with his staff officers and adjutants. It seems that tomorrow the weather will be clear, and then the army on the east coast will resume the large-scale offensive that has been suspended for three days, and try to take advantage of the good weather to knock out some more Spanish strongholds on the outskirts of Asunción, and then storm the city in one go, so as to end this long-delayed campaign as soon as possible. (To be continued......)

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