Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 96: The Siege Frustrated
Thanks to the lazy readers for their support.

Melgarejo was good at commanding troops, but his luck was not very good. When he was defending La Paz, the city was well defended and had sufficient troops, so the Chinese Independence Army did not dare to attack rashly.
However, the favorable situation did not last for a few days before news of Adolfo's coup came in. As a last resort, Melgarejo led his troops back to Sucre, while La Paz was occupied by the Chinese Independence Army.

After attacking Sucre for most of the day, Melgarejo's troops had a good opportunity to break into the city. More than 200 rebels inside the main gate attacked the gatekeepers, and the rebels were less than ten meters away from the gate. If the troops outside the city noticed the situation at the gate and sent more troops to attack, it would be very likely that the gate would be broken in one fell swoop.

However, the situation changed here. Melgarejo, who had not slept all night and rushed to the battlefield to command the battle in person, suffered a relapse of his old injuries due to eight days of continuous raids and the loss of La Paz when the defenders in the city launched a rebellion, and was unable to personally command the siege.

Therefore, Melgarejo temporarily handed over the command of the army to his younger brother Balivian and went back to rest for a while.

Balivian participated in the battle to suppress the Native Americans, but when faced with a large-scale war, his reaction was not quick enough.

A part of the defenders on the city wall rebelled and evacuated the defense area, creating a weak link in the defense of the city wall.

The siege officer discovered the situation and, on the one hand, commanded his soldiers to attack the weakly defended areas, while at the same time passing the message to Balivian.

The weak areas in the defenders' defensive positions were either caused intentionally by the enemy or due to an emergency in the city, resulting in insufficient defensive forces.

The battle lasted for most of the day and both sides suffered heavy casualties. Deliberately giving up the city wall position to let the enemy enter the city was undoubtedly an act of seeking death. Balivian ruled out this possibility from the beginning.

Therefore, the only possibility left is that an emergency occurred in the city.

The defense of Sucre entered a white-hot stage, and the city wall positions were occasionally breached by siege troops. Balivian judged that the pressure in other defense areas of Sucre was too great, and the defenders of the city wall drew troops from other defense lines to support them, which led to loopholes in the city wall defense line.

Balivian's judgment was basically correct, but he did not consider the possibility that the defenders in the city would launch a rebellion themselves. Therefore, facing the newly emerged weak points in the defense on the city wall, Balivian dispatched soldiers to reinforce this point in an attempt to break through Sucre's defense line.

Balivian's decision was not wrong, but he only saw the direct factor of the loopholes in the city wall defense line and did not consider the deeper reasons. As a result, Adolfo personally supervised the battle with the few remaining guards around him and resisted the attack of the siege troops, while the troops sent to the city gate and the remaining city gate defense troops attacked from the front and back and quickly wiped out the rebel soldiers.

The opportunity was fleeting, and Balivian did not seize the opportunity of the rebellion of the city defenders to break through the city gate, giving the Sucre defenders a chance to catch their breath. It would be even more difficult to capture the city gate next.

As the war continued, the roar of artillery fire drowned out the shouts of killing on the battlefield. Artillery shells and bullets poured onto the enemy's positions without mercy. The dead soldiers had no time to be transported away and were densely distributed on the positions under the city. The wounded soldiers, after a simple bandage, picked up their rifles and returned to the battlefield.

The red sun gradually set in the west. Melgarejo stood on a high ground outside the city with a telescope and carefully observed the battle situation.

Battle is a test of wills. The quality of the siege troops is much higher than that of the defending soldiers, and they showed impressive combat effectiveness in the initial attack.

However, no matter how powerful an army is, it cannot withstand long-term, high-intensity combat. After arriving outside the city of Sucre, they were thrown into battle without rest. After fighting for a whole day, there was still no obvious breakthrough. Not only did it affect the morale of the siege soldiers, but even Melgarejo felt a sense of loss.

Putting down the telescope, Melgarejo issued an order: the attacking troops should temporarily suspend the siege of the city, and all soldiers should withdraw to two miles away for rest.

The order was passed to the front-line siege troops. The officers commanding the attack breathed a sigh of relief and quickly ordered the soldiers to retreat. The soldiers defending the city also cooperated and did not attack the retreating soldiers.

The battle lasted a whole day. Not only were the attacking troops weak, but the soldiers defending the city were also exhausted. The two sides, who were both at the bottom, fought each other because they belonged to different camps. As descendants of white people, they had no irreconcilable hatred. A temporary ceasefire was what both sides hoped to see. Therefore, the soldiers on the front line quickly disengaged, and soon there were no attacking soldiers under the city. As night fell, a bonfire was lit in the military camp two miles outside the city. Seven or eight soldiers who were lucky enough not to be injured lay together and rested around the bonfire.

The temperature difference between day and night in the Bolivian Plateau is large. The temperature begins to drop shortly after the sun sets. By eight or nine o'clock in the evening, the camp outside the city becomes a little chilly.

The fighting during the day was fierce. Among the 6,000 siege troops, 830 were killed and 1,072 were injured. The total number of casualties reached 1,900, accounting for one-third of the total number.

In ancient China, an army might collapse if one-tenth of its soldiers were killed or wounded. In the 19th century, with the formation of modern armies, the degree to which an army could withstand casualties increased greatly, and some elite troops could still continue to fight even if more than half of their soldiers were killed or wounded.

The siege troops suffered nearly one-third casualties and were close to the red line of collapse. Melgarejo did not dare to take the risk of ordering his troops to attack.

This unit is his most loyal unit. Since taking office, Melgarejo has invested a lot of resources in the construction of his troops. Good weapons and sufficient training make the army of more than 5,000 people, although not large in number, have obvious advantages when facing equal enemies. Because of the support of this unit, Melgarejo dared to confront the Chinese Independence Army head-on.

Of the 830 men killed in the battle, 570 were the remnants of Medellin's army, less than 260 were Melgarejo's direct troops, and of the more than 1,000 wounded, more than half were still able to fight and kill the enemy.

If all the soldiers were organized, Melgarejo would have a total of 4,600 combat-capable soldiers under his command.

When he just retreated from the battlefield, Melgarejo planned to rest for a while before continuing the attack, but when he heard a piece of news, he reluctantly gave up this decision.

When he received the news of the fall of La Paz, Melgarejo sent soldiers to investigate the whereabouts of the Chinese Independence Army. The soldiers just brought news that the vanguard cavalry of the Chinese Independence Army had advanced to a distance of less than 50 miles from Sucre, and the enemy cavalry unit was only 100 miles away from them.

What does a distance of one hundred miles mean? As long as the enemy moves at full speed, the two sides will meet head-on in less than half a day.

The Chinese Independence Army's marching speed was faster than Melgarejo had expected, and it was very dangerous to continue the attack at this time.

The longer people hold high positions, the less likely they are to take risks. Melgarejo has the same mentality now.

During his three years as President of Bolivia, he not only provided his army with a large amount of sophisticated equipment, but also accumulated a lot of money for himself. The fall of La Paz and Sucre caused Melgarejo to lose more than half of his property, but the money he deposited in Peru and other countries was still enough for him to live a carefree life for several lifetimes.

Losing the power of a country is certainly painful, but compared with losing the war and being sent to the gallows, holding a rich fortune is still a relatively better choice.

The attack on Sucre was unsuccessful, and with the Chinese Independence Army about to arrive, Melgarejo's chances of a comeback were slim.

After all, as a warlord and political giant who had been active in Bolivia's military and political circles for more than 20 years, Melgarejo quickly realized his situation. With Adolfo and the Chinese Independence Army joining forces, he would undoubtedly be defeated if he was attacked from both sides.

Knowing that resistance would only lead to a more miserable death, Melgarejo made a pragmatic decision: to make peace with Adolfo and the Chinese Independence Army.

(End of this chapter)