The drizzle fell for three consecutive days, and the morale of the officers and soldiers on the east coast under the canopy was slightly lower.

Chang Kaisheng wore a pair of high-end rain boots made of whale leather, stepping on the muddy camp with one foot deep and one foot shallow. At this time, the sky was getting darker, and a muffled sound came from a distance from time to time - don't get me wrong, it was not thunder, but the artillery was carrying out routine artillery fire. After three days of rain, the solid iron ball shells were no longer useful. The artillery had replaced the bombs and raised the barrels to the city through a certain curved ballistic. However, the silence rate of this kind of bomb was too high, and in this rainy and wet weather, it even reached more than 60%. Among the remaining 40%, there were those who exploded during flight, or those who exploded after landing fortifications. In addition, the Spanish generally hid in civil fortifications, so the actual combat effectiveness of this kind of bomb was very poor.

After careful observation in the camp for a while, Chang Kaisheng decisively ordered the artillery soldiers to stop the artillery attack, and at the same time asked them to transfer the artillery positions, move some long-barreled heavy artillery forward as much as possible, and use hollow iron bullets (spherical shells with hollow spaces in the middle) to shoot some small fortifications guarded by the Spanish. Each gun requires sufficient soldiers to protect it and must not be stolen or destroyed by the enemy. This is already the periphery of Asuncion. When Chang Kaisheng stood on the watchtower, he could clearly see the bustling streets of Asuncion.

The Changkaisheng Detachment has 4 infantry companies, 3 cavalry companies, 3 artillery companies, totaling more than 1,350 people; in addition, there are Dongfang County Militia Brigade and Zhenhai County Militia Brigade, a total of 2,000 people; Polish and Tatar mercenaries, and more than 1,000 freed Krandi slaves who volunteered to participate in the East Coast Army. The total number of these people reached more than 5,400, but only more than 4,000 of them could be fought. The Crandi people and some Tatar herders could only serve as some battlefield rescue, construction of fortifications, and transportation of materials.

However, even this number has far exceeded the number of Spanish defenders. Although the La Plata Infantry Regiment, the main force of the Spanish army, was attacked one after another, forced some militias to be recruited. At present, the strength has finally returned to its original state, but its combat effectiveness has been greatly reduced. The weapons and equipment cannot be achieved by a flintlock rifle, which is extremely depressed.

In addition to the La Plata Infantry Regiment, there were more than 400 soldiers from the Lima Legion (the colonial legion of the Peruvian Governor, with Indians as the majority) in Asuncion - most of them were white or mixed-race whites. After the war broke out, they forced many native whites or new Central and Southern European white immigrants to join the army, plus some soldiers who sneaked over from Tucumman and other places. Spain forced to gather about 800 troops.

These people, plus the La Plata Infantry Regiment, had a total of nearly 1,400 people, and had 6 artillery pieces (the total number of artillery pieces of the Lima Legion has expanded in recent years to 30). Although their combat effectiveness is far inferior to that of the East Coast Army and even the East Coast Militia, they have been able to effectively delay the operations of the East Coast people.

If we only count the number of people, the number of white defenders in Asuncion was only a small number, and the Guarani people were the ones who really accounted for the majority of the defenders. The Jesuit monks mobilized at least more than 3,000 Guarani religious people, most of whom entered Asuncion to assist the defenders two months ago, and the remaining troops in the wild were waiting for opportunities to attack the East Coast army to chop firewood and collect grain, which annoyed the East Coast army.

A few days ago, with Chang Kaisheng's acquiescence, Jiang Zhiqing and more than 1,500 people carried out a "limited security war" against the villages of Guarani outside Asuncion. According to the vague information from Li Dayan, a reporter of the "Prince Truth" of the army, the East Coast army launched a bloody and cruel massacre outside Asuncion, especially those militias who did not receive military pay and Polish and Tatar mercenaries. They were the most ruthless and often razed the entire Guarani village to the ground. The part of the looted cash was handed over, and some of them were kept. Except for the part handed over, the rest of the livestock and property were sold to the logistics department. According to incomplete statistics, the logistics department paid more than 180,000 yuan in one-year bank acceptance bill issued by the Northwest Reclamation Bank.

After doing such a tragic thing, it is naturally impossible to see any newspaper. Therefore, at the request of the newspaper "Prince Truth", Li Dayan used the Spring and Autumn style of interviews with the army, focusing on the despicable sneak attacks by the Guarani people on our Great East Coast officers and soldiers, which aroused the anger of the public and then ignored some other "details".

"Captain, this is already the frontier position of our side." Yang Xu, the commander of the artillery unit who was promoted to major with Chang Kaisheng for his merits in combat, pointed forward with a sheathed saber and said, "This is an 18-pound cannon, this is also an 18-pound cannon, this is a 12-pound cannon, this is two 8-pound howitzers..."

"Architecture is the core of our army's battles. It is our army's tradition to not fight without artillery. We must protect artillery." Chang Kaisheng nodded, and then continued to ask Yang Xu beside him: "Are there any difficulties at present?"

"Some infantry brothers who belong to my artillery have been soaked in the wet and muddy fortifications for a long time. Many people have rheumatism. It's late autumn again. 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: "It's not easy for everyone, especially those Guarani people may charge from time to time on rainy days. The brothers have to fight with them through barbed wire. Fifty or sixty people have been killed and killed these days. Not to mention anything else, at least prepare more hot soup and hot water for everyone, and prepare all the medicines, otherwise this battle will be too difficult to fight."

"The problems you mentioned are being solved." Chang Kaisheng was not ignorant of the difficulties of the soldiers. After all, he often ran to the front line, so he said: "The quantity of drugs should be insufficient. It can be used for a long time when I send them to the rear. Now civilian aspirin drugs have been rationed and sold, and everything should be guaranteed to the front line. There should be no shortage of fuel. At present, two inland steamers pulling coal to the front line were moored at Corentes Port a few days ago.

The crew was sunk and the crew was killed. This was probably done by the Spanish. Now the Santa Fe side should have organized subsequent transportation. Before that, I think that the soldiers of the various departments were still organizing rotational warfare to log in the suburbs. Don’t be afraid of being attacked, and organize more people. If you think the trees that have been wet in the rain, then go and demolish the Spanish farmhouses in the suburbs as firewood. Send the Crandy and the Tatars, and they can do all the murder and robbery. It’s a nonsense to demolish the house.”

"As for the charges of the Guarani people, what are the mercenaries?" Chang Kaisheng raised his voice and said, "I know that many soldiers of the troops like to boast about their bravery and often fight with the Guarani face to face with the Guarani people. This spirit is commendable and should be commended, but the officers leading the troops must have a brain! Are the Crandi people, the Gaucho people, the Poles, and the Tatars here to have a fresh meal? They have armor on their bodies and spears in their hands. Can't they fight with the Guarani barbarians?"

"These people do all these things in the future. What jokes are there? Wearing breastplate, arm armor, helmets, sharp sabers and spears, can't we fight with the Guarani people who don't have a few pieces of cloth all over them? I think those Poles have great combat experience, and they are not the first brothers on the battlefield. Many people have fought with the Ottomans, Swedes, and Russians. They are all big scenes of tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of people. There is no problem in coming to the New World to fight the barbarians."

After inspecting the troops, Chang Kaisheng came to the logistics department on rain boots filled with water. The logistics department's baggage soldiers were killing cattle. The lieutenant of the baggage soldiers who were the chief swordsman came from Sanpaotai Township, Zhenhai County. He immigrated to Yongping Prefecture, Zhili, the north of the Ming Dynasty. He was originally a butcher. At this time, killing cattle was considered his own business. Some of these cattle were collected "ownerless things", while others were bought by asking the nearby obedient Spanish or Guarani villages.

At first, the East Coast army paid these people a two-year forward bank acceptance bill and then purchased some materials in large quantities. Later, as more and more materials were purchased - mainly wheat, beer, red wine, pigs, cattle and sheep. The bank acceptance bills on hand were chimes, Chang Kaisheng ordered the use of temporary printed military tickets locally in the name of the La Plata Expeditionary Force to purchase materials. In the eyes of the Spaniards, bank acceptance bills and military tickets were no different from those of them. They needed to be under the pressure of the East Coast people's bayonets to accept this "paper piece" to sell materials.

After Chang Kaisheng tasted the benefits of using military tickets, he immediately ordered the use of military tickets in the occupied areas to purchase various materials to reduce the pressure of transportation in the rear. Although the Spaniards were very reluctant, the East Coast army was famous and the massacre was done. Now it is a big deal to ask you to "buy" something, so they had to accept it.

It’s not that you don’t pay, you can exchange bills or military tickets for exchange until the war is over. Of course, the Spanish’s concerns make sense. Bills of exchange may really be able to get money back from the East Coast Bank, but military tickets are hard to say. Because these roughly printed things were issued in the name of the East Coast Army La Plata Expeditionary Force. If the La Plata Expeditionary Force disbanded after the war, it is inevitable, and the East Coast people deliberately refusing to pay, who will ask for money? But even if there are many unwillingness, the East Coast people just put their rifles and bayonets in front of you, and the Spaniards can only surrender obediently.

After Chang Kaisheng inspected the logistics department for a while, he hurried back to his command center. He also wanted to make a decision with his staff and adjutants. It seemed that the weather would clear tomorrow, and the East Coast army would restart the large-scale offensive that had been paused for three days, and try to take advantage of the good weather to knock out some Spanish strongholds outside Asuncion, and then attack the city in one go, so as to end the battle that had been delayed for a long time as soon as possible. (To be continued...)
Chapter completed!