Paz decided to start his campaign against the caudillos in Córdoba Province with a small force (about 1000 men strong), many of them veterans who served under him in the Cisplatine War. He defeated Bustos in the Battle of San Roque on April 22, 1829, and took the seat of provincial governor. Bustos fled west to La Rioja, ruled by his friend and ally Facundo Quiroga and asked for help, but Quiroga was also defeated at the Battle of La Tablada on June 23; the superior military skills of Paz neutralised the caudillo's irregular and improvised methods of warfare.