Chapter 272: Battle of Rosario ends

At the end of March 1879, the strength of the Argentine army after the fiasco defeat in Santa Fe was severely weakened, and it was no longer possible to cope with the threat of the Han National Defense Force on three fronts. Therefore, the enemy on the Parana River front was identified as the main force of the Han nationality Under the circumstances, Mitre significantly reduced the defensive forces on the other two fronts, and then used the window period repaired by the National Defense Forces to continuously strengthen the deployed forces to the positions along the Parana River. "→ お Bookstore Free Serial Novel Reading Network ° C. La

After losing the city of Santa Fe, the barriers that ran across the front of Buenos Aires were Rosario and Parana, one large and one small fortress.

The city of Parana is a small coastal town located in the northern part of the middle of the Parana River. From the perspective of strategic position and defensive capabilities, Parana has a population of less than 10,000 and cannot meet Rosario with a population of more than 100,000. In comparison, therefore, excluding the troops deployed in the defense of Buenos Aires, most of the forces deployed from the other two fronts were strengthened above the Rosario frontline defense positions.

As one of the most important strategic locations for the security of Buenos Aires, Rosario's defensive force quickly increased to the scale of 15,000 after the battle of Santa Fe. Moving forward, Mitre dispatched an additional 5,000 young workers to assist Rosario's garrison in building fortifications.

The Argentine federal government uses precious wartime time to continuously adjust its previous combat deployments, but for the defensive side that hastily responded, the preparation time is always difficult to meet their requirements for the war. Just eight days after the Santa Fe battle ended, Li Mingyuan Leading 140,000 Defence Force troops spared the already costly Parana city, and flew directly towards Rosario along the Parana River south.

早上 On the morning of March 25th, the main forces of the National Defense Forces divided into three routes and attacked Rosario's defenders from north, east, and west respectively.

At noon on the 28th, after three days of continuous attacks, the National Defense Forces successfully occupied the four lines of defense set by the Argentine forces outside the city. All three attacking units pointed at the core area of ​​Rosario Fortress.

It is reasonable to say that the garrison and defensive capabilities of the fortress of Rosario are stronger than the city of Santa Fe, but what made Rosario's garrison generals frightened and confused is that under the strike of the National Defense Forces, Rosario Perimeter ’s perimeter defense is shorter than Santa Fe City.

The number and number of the National Defense Forces used for frontline attacks have not changed much, and the Argentine forces of the outer defense lines are not inferior to the Santa Fe defensive forces. Winning Rosario's outer defense line for a short time was because more than a week passed, the heavy rain weather finally stopped, and the traffic difficulties that plagued the Defense Force's logistics supply were alleviated to a great extent. As a result, the Frontline Defense Forces were able to New weapons such as improved mortars and grenades from the rear.

Mortars and grenades were weapons that were used for combat in the early days of the establishment of the National Defense Forces. However, due to the humble and inadequate industrial technology, the initial production of mortars not only faced shortcomings such as short range, low accuracy, and difficulty in targeting. And most importantly, because the nature of the steel raw materials used as the mortar body is low, the life of the produced mortar is short, and it is easy to cause the risk of explosion due to improper operation and inadequate maintenance.

的 The advancement of mortar manufacturing technology depends on the support of steel technology. Therefore, until the outbreak of the war in Argentina, Harfield discovered a method of smelting manganese steel, which quickly solved many problems that restricted the development of mortars.

There are many commonalities in the synthesis of special steels. After using the manganese element as an additive to solve the hardening problem of steel, Harfield and others quickly began to improve the performance of mortars, and soon made substantial progress. The mortars transported by the troops were an improved result of Harfield and others.

The mortar, which uses newly produced special steel as the raw material, solves the shortcomings such as the heavy weight of the gun body and easy to blast, making it capable of melee combat. In the battle against Rosario's peripheral positions, it was precisely because With the use of a new mortar, the Argentine fire support was destroyed before it could play its due role, thereby speeding up the fall of Rosario's peripheral front and providing the National Defense Forces with a quick solution to peripheral combat. Favorable conditions.

After Rosario's external positions on all three sides were lost, the port connecting the northern Parana River in the north became the only way for the garrison in the city to connect to the outside. At 7:00 on April 1, the National Defense Force concentrated the first and third divisions. More than 20,000 troops launched an attack on the northern port of Rosario. At the same time, the Argentine garrison broke out to defeat the National Defense Force's attack in order to keep the only back road in the city.

九 At 9:00 am, the Third Division of the First Division occupied Argentina's position in the estuary area. A few minutes later, a team of more than 700 Argentine troops arrived at the estuary position and launched a counterattack against the Third Regiment.

The howling fire was roaring, the soldiers were screaming, mutilated or the bleeding corpses were piled up in a narrow space.

The estuary battle entered the feverish stage from the beginning. The positions occupied by the third regiment were captured by the Argentines four times, and then the remaining third regiment launched a counterattack against the Argentines again with the support of additional forces. Capture the position.

The traditional positional offensive and defensive battles turned into tug-of-war battles. The National Defense Force and the Argentine defensive forces continued to devote their living forces to the battle at the estuary. Until 12:00 noon, the first and second divisions suffered 800 casualties. All the Argentine forces that counterattacked at the cost were defeated, and the battle at the estuary was declared over.

At 2.40 pm, Li Mingyuan ordered the Second Division and the First Mixed Brigade to take over the continuous combat of the First Division and Third Division troops, and continued the reactionary attack on the remnants of the northern port of Rosario. The battle continued until 4.20 pm In points, the northern port of Rosario fell into the hands of the National Defense Forces ~ EbookFREE.me ~ The last Argentine army of more than 3,000 people left a large number of wounded and fled back to the city of Rosario, while the National Defense Forces completed the attack on Argentina The siege of the garrison.

For the next three days, under the command of Li Mingyuan, the National Defense Forces laid out a comprehensive siege while sending two troops to the west and east of Rosario to ambush the direction of Cordoba and Buenos Aires. Argentine reinforcements in the direction, but it is a little regrettable that no matter what the National Defense Forces did, Mittre, which lacked strength in the hands, and Urquisa, who was trying to save its own strength, did not send troops to rescue Rosario.

After eagerly waiting for the three prey, Li Mingyuan immediately abandoned the strategic plan of siege support, and launched a final attack on Rosario.

At 3 pm on April 5th, the 155mm heavy artillery regiment blasted Rosario's west wall with a gap of 78 meters wide. Then the first regiment of the 3rd Division attacked the city along the gap under the leadership of the officers of the headquarters. In the afternoon At 3.30pm, the National Defense Forces repelled the Argentine troops blocking Ji, and the main force of the troops began to enter the city. On April 7, after two days of fierce alley fighting, the National Defense Forces initially cleared the enemy forces in the city, and a small number of vandals hidden among white Argentines It was no longer possible to pose a threat to the National Defense Forces. Therefore, at 2:40 pm, Li Mingyuan announced the end of the Battle of Rosario and the National Defense Forces began to prepare for the last large-scale battle in the Argentine War. Ps: My friends, I'm a little mouse on the mountain. I recommend a free novel app that supports novel download, book listening, zero advertisement, and multiple reading modes. Please pay attention to WeChat public account: dazhuzaiyuedu (long press and hold for three seconds to copy) Book friends, pay attention!