Chapter 366 Tears of Argentina (Second update, please subscribe)
On this day, the South China Army, which had entered Buenos Aires, carried out a final sweep of the city. Before they launched the final general offensive, Argentine President Sarnto left the presidential palace, boarded a warship with Argentine dignitaries, and hurriedly left the city.
That night, the last main force of the Buenos Aires provincial army also left. They boarded the requisitioned merchant ships. It was difficult to hide the whereabouts of tens of thousands of troops. It was their retreat that led to the complete collapse of the Buenos Aires defense line. The troops and civil defense teams from other provinces all abandoned their defense lines.
For a time, the city was full of deserters and fleeing civilians. When everyone was fleeing, many people took advantage of the situation to loot. Among them were deserters, thieves, hooligans and vagrants in the city.
These thieves and hooligans who usually dared not act recklessly under the restraint of the police ran to the streets where the rich people lived in groups of three or five. Although there were many rich people on the streets who were preparing to flee from here, they saw these guys but did not stop them.
At this time, everyone was living for themselves, and the people who were fleeing looked on with a blind eye as the thieves and burglars broke into the empty houses on the roadside with impunity.
When thieves broke into roadside houses to rob, they would occasionally encounter the owner of the house. After a burst of rapid gunfire, the robbers' wanton shouting would be heard from the room. Soon, the cries and screams of women would be heard.
Thieves and vagrants transformed themselves into robbers and looted houses in the wealthy areas with impunity. At this time, the law had completely disappeared.
As for the police, they had disappeared somewhere long ago and there was no one to maintain order here.
"Who can help me, who can help me?"
Christina didn't even know how she escaped.
She was running on the street in her pajamas. She had been hiding in the bedroom. The rumbling sound of the explosion made her feel extremely nervous and scared.
She could only feel safe hiding in her bedroom. But she never expected that robbers would break into her home, rob and kill her servants.
Christina was awakened by the gunshots. Before she could figure out what was going on, she heard the men's lewd laughter and the maids' cries. In order to avoid the robbers, she jumped out of the window and ran barefoot on the street.
The once peaceful streets were now noisy and chaotic, like a slum. People were running around in horse-drawn carriages. Although she kept calling for help, no one paid any attention to her.
There were horse-drawn carriages parked in front of some houses, and people were moving things there, such as tables, chairs, and even pianos. They were all loaded onto the carriages.
It seemed that someone heard Christina's cry for help.
Then someone walked towards her, and she ran over and shouted excitedly.
"Sir, please, come and help me, my home...ah."
When Christina saw who was coming, she screamed in fear. The man walking towards her was dirty and tattered, and he also had a pistol on his waist.
Seeing Christina running over, the man grinned, revealing a smile with a few missing teeth.
"Hey, how can I help you, pretty?"
Looking at Christina's horrified expression, the man looked at her with greedy eyes.
"Beauty, come and stay with me, I promise to make you feel like you are in heaven..."
"You, don't come over here."
Christina screamed in fear, but the man who came over ignored her screams. Just when she turned around and wanted to run away, the man ran over and grabbed Christina's hand.
“Help!”
While calling for help, Christina struggled and tried to get rid of the man, then turned around and kicked the man in the vitals.
"Ah! You damn stinking bitch!"
The man who was kicked screamed in pain, but his hand did not let go of Christina, still holding her wrist tightly like an iron clamp.
"You damn stinking bitch!"
When Christina struggled, the man with a ferocious face slapped her twice.
In an instant, Christina felt stars in her eyes and fell to the ground with a scream.
"Help, who can come and save me?"
Christina was lying on the ground, crying and screaming. The man with a hideous face stared at the woman lying on the ground like he was sizing up his prey, grinning obscenely.
"You stinky bitch, I'll let you know how powerful I am in a moment..."
Christina, sensing danger, couldn't stand up, but she still struggled and tried to escape backwards, crying and shouting as she ran.
"Oh God, help me!"
Christina's cries were met with the men's unbridled laughter. At this time, a few more men came over, staring at the woman who had no way to escape and laughing unbridled.
"Damn you bitch!"
The ferocious-looking man completely ignored Christina's request for help. He took off his pants as he walked.
Just as he bent down, a gunshot suddenly rang out.
The man who was taking off his pants saw his accomplice fall to the ground. When he looked up in confusion, gunshots rang out again. The man fell to the ground. Seeing this, the others all fled in fear.
Christina, who was crying for help, heard the gunshots and looked in the direction where the gunshots came from. She saw a group of soldiers running towards her.
"Help me, please help me!"
Christina ran towards the soldiers desperately.
Running and calling for help.
"Please, there are robbers in my house, there are..."
As she ran in front of the soldiers, she collapsed from exhaustion. As she collapsed, someone supported her.
"Please, help me, save Sophia and the others..."
It was only at this time that Christina realized that this person's appearance was completely different from theirs.
They are invaders...
…
As the invaders advanced into Buenos Aires, the city was in chaos. Soldiers were fleeing, and so were residents.
The soldiers rushed to the bank of the La Plata River like a tide. When they reached the river, there was the wide La Plata River in front of them and the pursuers who were about to kill them behind them.
In order to escape Buenos Aires, the soldiers who arrived at the port swarmed onto any available boats. Many even jumped into the water, swam to the boats and climbed on board using the ropes. Some also jumped onto small boats and tried to paddle to the other side 50 kilometers away, towards Uruguay on the east coast.
There were as many as 50,000 Argentine soldiers who fled to the river and boarded any available boat.
The chaos was like nothing Maj. Gen. Henrys and Edward Thornton had ever seen, as people scrambled to escape Buenos Aires, Maj. Gen. Henrys said.
"Perhaps, this is the scene of a fallen country..."
"Who knows?"
Edward Thornton shrugged helplessly. His eyes turned to several Argentine warships that had joined the British fleet. Looking at the well-dressed Argentine dignitaries on the deck, he said.
"Even if Argentina is destroyed, it will not have much impact on them. They will continue their lives in their mansions in London or Paris. Their lives will still be luxurious..."
But what about those poor people?
Looking at the Argentine soldiers who were pushed into the river and struggling in the water on the shore, even if they managed to escape to Uruguay, what would be waiting for them?
A life of poverty without any change.
Perhaps, this is the sadness of ordinary people!
Sarnto and others seemed to turn a blind eye to all this. All they cared about were the troops in Buenos Aires and, of course, the gold in the National Bank.
"Has all the gold been loaded on board?"
In the warship commander's cabin, Sarnto asked the governor of the central bank.
"Yes, all the gold and silver coins in the treasury have been loaded onto the ship, Mr. President. All we have left for them now is an empty city."
In the past few days, they have been quietly transferring the gold and silver coins from the treasury. Not only did they transfer the gold and silver coins from the treasury, they also loaded all the silver coins in the bank onto the ship.
"Well, that's good. This money determines whether we can continue to fight. Uruguay has agreed to let us enter. Ask the British and tell them that we hope to form a fleet with them to go to Uruguay."
Why act with the British?
Because everyone knows very well that the Argentine Navy is no match for the South China Navy. It is better for them to follow the British fleet and rely on the power of the other side to ensure their safety!
It has to be said that as a politician Sarnto may not have succeeded in defending Buenos Aires, but his intuition was extremely sensitive. In order to ensure safety, he ordered the fleet to meet up with the British, and then sailed away from Buenos Aires with them to Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, located on the east bank of the Rio de la Plata.
However, when Sarnto and the British fleet sailed towards Montevideo, they did not know that due to a misjudgment - they did not expect Buenos Aires to collapse so quickly, Nanhua's fleet had not yet reached the mouth of the river.
When the main force of the First Fleet, two 1,600-ton "Fubo-class" and two 2,800-ton "Shanxi-class" armored ships, led 26 small gunboats of about 100 tons, arrived at the estuary, they encountered hundreds of large and small civilian ships - those ships were all packed with soldiers and civilians trying to escape.
"Order them to stop the ship immediately!"
Standing on the command tower of the flagship "Shanxi", Lin Yuehu put down the telescope and gave the order.
"We will remain vigilant in the rear, and the gunboats will carry out the mission!"
With an order, those small hundred-ton gunboats sailed towards them like sharp arrows. Although these gunboats were small, they were equipped with a thousand-horsepower steam engine and a speed of more than 23 knots. The reason why the Coast Guard was equipped with so many small gunboats was that they could be turned into torpedo boats with just a little modification.
In fact, they are torpedo boats, but they are not equipped with torpedo tubes.
"All ships stop immediately!"
Although the officers and soldiers on the gunboat warned the fleeing ships through flag signals, the Argentine officers and soldiers who controlled the ships threatened the captain and crew with weapons.
"Go upstream into the river. Don't listen to them. If they seize the boat, they will kill us all..."
The officers made such a judgment because the river was a mess with large and small boats everywhere, and Nanhua had so few boats that even if a fight broke out, they would have the opportunity to escape in the chaos.
When the deserters were shouting, some of them saw that there seemed to be only Gatling guns on the small gunboats, and no cannons. They didn't know who gave them the courage to fight, and they even picked up rifles and shot at the sailors on the gunboats.
The battle began the moment the gunshots rang out.
"Fire!"
After being attacked, the sailors were enraged by these daring enemies. They immediately set up four 20mm Gatling guns on the side of the ship. Although it was a machine gun, in order to increase its power, Nanhua's arsenal had specially developed explosive warheads for it several years ago.
As the sailors cranked the handles, gunshots rang out like firecrackers on the wide surface of the La Plata River. The small shells were fired at the fleeing ships like a rainstorm. The shells hit the hulls, not only sending wood chips flying from the old wooden-hulled ships, but also exploding in the planks. In the successive explosions, book-sized holes were blown out on the side of the ship. When the turbulent river water poured into the cabin, the Argentine soldiers on the deck were also strafed by machine guns. For a moment, blood splattered on the deck, and broken limbs and arms kept falling from the deck and onto the river, turning the surface of the river red.
The twenty-six gunboats were like twenty-six sharp arrows, their small hulls sailing across the river, and the machine guns on both sides of the ship were like the scythe of the god of death, firing indiscriminately. Although their weapons were small in caliber, the explosive projectiles were extremely deadly to the wooden-hulled ships, and could easily shatter the hull and make bowl-sized holes in the seemingly solid hull.
The battle on the Rio de la Plata was so one-sided that it was not even a battle but a massacre.
Sometimes, they even relied on their sturdy hull to directly crash into some small boats trying to escape, and the Argentine soldiers on the boats all fell into the water. These Argentine soldiers drifting on the river were eventually eaten by fish.
"Sir, a ship has raised a white flag!"
"Did you see that?"
There was no doubt that no one saw any white flag. Since there was no surrender, the fight should continue.
When it was all over, the wide Laprata River was littered with burning ships...
(End of this chapter)
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