Turning against the Triumvirate orders, however, Belgrano decided to fight the royalists at Tucumán, obtaining a great victory and then decisively defeating the royalist army at the Battle of Salta, in northwestern Argentina, forcing the bulk of the royalist army to surrender their weapons. Tristán (a former fellow student with Belgrano at Salamanca University) and his men were granted amnesty and released. Then again, the patriot army was defeated into the Upper Peru at the battles of Vilcapugio and Ayohuma and retreated to Jujuy.