Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 91 Siege
Thanks to Overlord's Hardship 12 and Nanyang Empire for their support.

In the northern city of La Paz, Medellin led a group of officers to inspect the city wall defenses.

The North City is the focus of defense for the La Paz defenders. Half of the defenders in La Paz are gathered here. However, after personally observing the morale of the soldiers defending the city, Medellin was a little disappointed.

Melgarejo took 5,000 soldiers with him to quell the rebellion, reducing the number of elite soldiers in the city by half. Moreover, as Melgarejo withdrew from La Paz, the morale of the remaining soldiers was also greatly affected.

Although Melgarejo had ordered his men to block the news of his departure before he left, how could there be no noise when 5,000 men retreated overnight? This morning, some officers who knew about it were discussing Melgarejo's departure, and then the news spread quickly. By noon, almost half of the soldiers guarding the city knew the news.

When Medellin made a surprise inspection, he happened to see soldiers gathered in groups of three or four to discuss.
"The morale of the army is unstable, the enemy is strong and we are weak, the battle to defend the city is not optimistic!"

Medellin sent troops to punish several soldiers who spread the news and temporarily maintained order among the garrison troops, but he had no better solution to the current situation.

When the news of the capture of Sucre came, Medellin once suggested that Melgarejo reconcile with the Chinese Independence Army and agree to let them pass through the border. However, Melgarejo considered more. He was worried that if his attitude softened, the Chinese Independence Army would realize that they were in a difficult situation and make more excessive demands.
Therefore, Melgarejo did not accept Medellin's advice, but instead placed his hopes on suppressing Adolfo's rebellion in a timely manner and then leading his troops to support La Paz. As for the days when he would be away with his troops, it would depend on Medellin and the soldiers defending the city to resist the attack of the Chinese troops.

La Paz is easy to defend but difficult to attack. It has sufficient weapons and food. It can easily hold out for two months under the attack of equal forces. However, no matter how good the city defense is, it still needs people to guard it.
Since Bolivia's independence, some of the older generation of independence heroes are still alive, but they have not experienced a major war for forty years, and the combat effectiveness of Bolivian soldiers is not as good as before.
Medellin knew clearly that the reason why the Chinese independence army outside the city did not launch a large-scale attack on La Paz was not because the Chinese troops were incapable of capturing La Paz, but because they were worried that a strong attack would cause heavy casualties to the troops, so they did not take action. However, this situation would not continue forever. Once the Chinese independence army made up its mind to capture La Paz, Medellin and his troops would face severe tests.

Medellin is now thankful that the Chinese Independence Army has not yet made up its mind to fight to the death with the La Paz defenders. In the past three days, the two armies have been confronting each other without any major conflict.
Medellin hoped that such days could last for a few more days, and when Melgarejo led his troops back to support him, his mission would be completed. However, good luck always runs out one day. Soon after Medellin inspected the garrison troops, the garrison officers quickly reported to him that the enemy outside the city was frequently mobilized and there were signs of launching an attack on La Paz.

Medellin hurried to the city wall with his guards, and saw the scene he did not want to see.

Two miles outside the North City, thousands of Indian soldiers in different uniforms lined up under the guidance of Chinese officers. The same scene was also seen outside the East City, West City, and El Alto City.

Having seen it with his own eyes, Medellin had no choice but to accept the fact that the Chinese Independence Army was launching a massive attack.

Through the telescope in his hand, he saw that there were about seven or eight soldiers outside the north city, most of whom were Indians from Bolivia. The number of attackers on the east and west sides was not large, with about a thousand people on each side.

Putting down the telescope and combining the reports from officers at other fortifications, Medellin felt that the Chinese Independence Army's main attack direction was the north city. Other directions were feint attacks.

"All officers must be prepared to prevent enemy attacks. We must not let a single enemy troop climb the city walls." Although the situation was extremely unfavorable to his side, Medellin still gave strict orders.

"Yes, sir." A group of Bolivian officers responded.

After the Chinese Independence Army formed a formation, they advanced towards La Paz in a black mass. There were over a thousand people, and there was no end in sight. In the north direction, seven or eight thousand soldiers covered all the open space outside the city. The pressure of the huge attacking force brought fear to the Bolivian soldiers defending the city.

"Bang!" A Bolivian soldier opened fire due to nervousness before the enemy troops outside the city entered the attack range. The attacking troops outside the city did not stop because of the gunshot, but continued to advance.

"Don't be nervous. Take a close look at the enemies outside the city. Most of them are Indians who have just walked out of the mountains and forests. Boys, are you still afraid of the uncivilized natives?"

Medellin stood in the north city to personally lead the charge. Seeing that the soldiers defending the city were nervous, he spoke out to encourage them.

The three lines of defense outside the city of El Alto were conquered in one day. The Bolivian soldiers had seen the power of the Chinese independence army, but the Indians were different. For hundreds of years, the descendants of white people had always suppressed the Indians. In the eyes of ordinary Bolivian soldiers, the Indians were completely their prey to be slaughtered, and there was no need to be afraid of them at all.

After Medellin's reminder, the soldiers guarding the city looked down and found something fishy. The more than 1,000 soldiers in front holding simple shields were Chinese, while the black mass behind them were Indians with bare upper bodies.
Among them, the Bolivian soldiers also saw many Indian youths with feathers on their heads. These people were warriors from various tribes. Only they could cause certain harm to the Bolivian soldiers in close combat.

However, the bravery of the Indian warriors could hardly be used in a forced siege. Some Bolivian soldiers, who were encouraged and courageous by Medellin, even planned to specifically aim at the Indian warriors with feathers on their heads when the war started.

In addition to the 5,500 Indians, the troops attacking the North City also included 1,500 Chinese troops. Among them, 1,000 Chinese soldiers were specially lined up, holding shields and walking in front of the attacking troops to block the shooting of Bolivian soldiers on the city wall. The remaining 500 Chinese soldiers were temporarily disbanded and mixed with the 5,000 Indians. They will serve as middle and low-level officers among the Indian soldiers to guide the Indian attack.

The Indians suffered from oppression by the descendants of European whites. After seeing the Chinese independence army easily kill the Bolivian soldiers outside the city of El Alto, various Indian leaders vied with Li Mingyuan to ask him to send soldiers and officers to help them train the young and strong people in the tribe.

Li Mingyuan considered that the Indians would be needed to assist in the siege, so he agreed to their request and sent five to six hundred soldiers and officers to help them train the young and strong.

Officers and troop leaders are the key to determining the combat effectiveness of an army. During the Southern Ming Dynasty, the Ming army collapsed when facing the enemy, but after surrendering to the Qing Dynasty and replacing several officers, the originally loose troops suddenly became ferocious and fierce, and their combat effectiveness increased sharply.
Although the Indians were different from the Southern Ming army, their combat effectiveness was the same. After just a few days of training, although their individual combat capabilities did not improve much, the morale of these trained Indian soldiers was greatly improved.
The most obvious change was that under the command of the Chinese officers, the Indians, who had originally had no rules, learned how to coordinate attacks, and facing the Bolivian soldiers, their inner fear also largely disappeared.

"The front team stops, and the ladders and logs move forward." The leading Chinese officer ordered as the team was about to enter the attack range of the Bolivian soldiers.

The order was passed to the front and back teams. The thousand Chinese soldiers in the front stopped immediately and placed their shields on the ground to form a defensive posture, while the soldiers behind spread out into more than a dozen passages. Then, with a creaking sound, more than a dozen tall ladders and log siege vehicles were transported from the rear.

The 19th century was a period of development in the use of firearms, with hot and cold weapons being used alternately on the battlefield, while traditional siege weapons such as ladders and log siege vehicles still played an important role on the battlefield.

The walls of La Paz are strong, and the main body of the walls are built entirely of huge stones. Ordinary artillery hitting the walls is like tickling, and cannot cause fundamental damage to the walls. Therefore, Li Mingyuan, under the advice of Liu Pu and other Taiping veterans, cut down the surrounding trees to make ladders and other siege equipment.

Ladders have been active in China's war history for two thousand years. Even during the Anti-Japanese War, due to the lack of heavy weapons, the Chinese army used ladders to attack county towns defended by the Japanese. Now, the ancient siege equipment is about to play its residual heat in a foreign land.

(End of this chapter)