Southeastern Colombia.

Julian Leal tightly gripped the strap of his flintlock gun, nervously surveying the dense rainforest as he briskly walked by the rushing river.

"God, why would the Portuguese come to this godforsaken place..." He turned his head to the lieutenant beside him, "We didn’t take the wrong path, did we, sir?"

"Of course," the latter nodded, "Not only have they come, but there might be forty to fifty thousand of them."

Leal swallowed hard, "But how are we supposed to beat them?"

The attack squad he was part of consisted of 4 infantry companies and 1 skirmisher company, along with a small cavalry force, totaling just over 600 men.

They had only been recruited by the National Army Headquarters in New Granada recently, with training less than 20 days. Well, the headquarters was established just a month ago.

Though most of them were previously disciplined militia or hunters with some firearm knowledge, their combat strength was surely far inferior to the Portuguese regular army.

Let alone their numbers being just a fraction of the enemy’s fraction.

Yet, the headquarters issued an order for proactive offense.

The big guy behind Leal grinned, "We’re not here to directly fight the Portuguese. Our target is their transport ships. Even if we just fire a few shots from afar to prevent them from sleeping peacefully at night, it counts as a success."

The lieutenant looked over approvingly, "Well said. Soldier, what’s your name?"

"Nicanor Ureña, sir. I went with an adventure squad to Caceres before, burned the tower of the Brazil Company."

In the past few decades, although Spain and Portugal hadn’t engaged in large-scale wars in South America, regional friction never ceased. So-called "adventure squads" were mostly raid teams organized by colonial authorities.

The lieutenant asked a few more questions, then nodded, "Very good, I happen to need an arson squad, you can serve as the captain. Go pick 10 team members."

Ureña immediately excitedly saluted, "Yes, sir!"

The lieutenant patted him, "Do a good job, I’ll apply for a special allowance for you, it should be 12 reales a month."

reales is roughly equivalent to 8 francs, which is certainly not a small amount in New Granada.

Well, since the deputy commander of the National Army and over half of the positions in the headquarters were held by Creoles, all Creoles were extremely excited.

Previously, Creoles could only reach the rank of captain at most, and this time even the Chief of Staff was held by a Creole — Colonel Moskra.

Feeling respected, Creole merchants and plantation owners generously donated to the National Army. The headquarters now had an additional 103,000 escudo gold coins in its accounts!

And the New Granada National Army recruited nearly 20,000 soldiers in less than a month, most of whom were Creoles.

Subsequently, the New Granada Executive Officer Meeting passed a resolution to formally declare war on the Portuguese-Brazilian Union.

At the request of the full authority envoy sent by Charles IV to New Granada, all Peninsula People fully cooperated with the actions of the Creoles, even handing over the Royal Armory directly to the National Army Headquarters.

After the Executive Officer Meeting, as Joseph had predicted, Creoles began to buy into the New Granada Wealth and Trade Fund in large numbers under the newspaper propaganda.

In just over a month, the fund’s principal skyrocketed to 3.15 million escudos, and this was just the purchase volume in the Bogota area, with a large number of purchase applications from cities farther away still on the way.

The Fund Committee immediately announced investment projects to expand Cartagena Port and Cauca Valley coffee plantations, and subsequently raised the dividend expectations.

This made Peninsula People holding the original shares of the fund spend their days calculating how much money they could receive this year, and they were deeply grateful to the king who granted them all this. Even without an envoy overseeing them, no one had any objections to the reforms.

As for high officials among the Peninsula People, over half have applied to return to Europe.

They knew very well that facing the Portuguese army, they must rely on the Creole strength to win the war. And if they lost, as pure Spaniards, they would be left with nothing.

On the southern section of the Cassiqueiare Canal, several flat-bottomed transport ships, under the cover of a light gunboat, struggled to move towards the shore.

In less than an hour, it would be dark. They had to anchor the ships at the shore before then, or if a rapid current appeared at night, they wouldn’t know where they’d be swept to by dawn.

A team of Portuguese infantry cleared a space by the shore and started a fire to cook soup, while the crew tied the ropes to newly-driven iron stakes.

At this moment, a sudden burst of gunfire erupted from the northern side, causing a streak of blood to spray from the bodies of the dozen or so crew closest.

The Portuguese infantry hurriedly picked up their guns, forming ranks under the officers’ orders.

Yes, they hadn’t even set up a watch — in this primitive jungle, aside from monkeys, there were only parrots; they hadn’t seen a single human shadow all the way from Manaus.

"Is it the Indians?" A Portuguese captain loudly asked the northern soldiers.

"Not sure, sir. But they have quite a few guns."

The captain saw his subordinates were barely arranged into three lines and pointed to the location where the gunfire originated, "Follow me to disperse those fellows!"

As the Portuguese infantry line advanced steadily, the "Indians" immediately turned and fled.

The Prussian Army chased for two miles; the sky was already starting to darken, and they had to return to the temporary camp.

At that moment, a glow of fire appeared on the southern river surface, and then two soldiers rushed over, shouting to the captain, "Captain Steven, our transport ships have been attacked!"

"Damn, we were deceived! How many people?"

"Possibly over 200, maybe over 100..."

By the time the Prussian infantry returned to the mooring area, a burning transport ship was already tilting, while another had a smaller fire, with the crew desperately trying to extinguish it.

The attackers had long disappeared.

In the jungle several kilometers away, Ureña turned to look at the fire glow on the canal and excitedly said to the nearby team members, "Everyone did great. Especially Leal, swimming faster than an otter!"

The previous assault to the north and the later attack on the Portuguese camp were all to cover them.

They risked swimming from the river to those transport ships and successfully set two of them ablaze.

Although two days later the Portuguese Army main force occupied San Carlos Town and established a solid defense, during that time, their supply line, which stretched over a thousand kilometers, was attacked 4 times, losing over ten thousand loads of grain and a large amount of ammunition.

Moreover, up to 7 Creole assault squads were waiting for them along the Orinoco River ahead.