-In the meantime, the rest of the state's forces would follow behind and stay at the southern edge of the mountains which stand in the middle of the route
-The bulk would be under a Brigade General
-He'd follow the vanguard along with another Brigade General

He already had two such generals in his Divisional Infantry and Artillery. Neither were trustworthy, particularly Guedes who wanted to entrench at the border and negotiate, and whom he just hated in general. He hated him enough he was willing to grab a Colonel, promote him to General on the spot and send him off. But in December 1963 he found a willing General in Muricy. He'd later come to regret it as Muricy was part of Castelo Branco's clique and carried out his agenda, but Muricy it was.

As for the workarounds:
#1: Diplomatic success but never had to come into play.
#2: Despite extensive efforts the police was still a subpar fighting force. This might not be incompetence, and just the state's material limitations.
#3: Muricy didn't like the quality of the troops he found.
#4: The timing was completely off, botched by his allies, and the plan wasn't implemented. Muricy was of the opinion that it'd have failed. It was foolish to expect he could just waltz into Rio de Janeiro with two battalions without anyone batting an eye, shout to the country "I'm the boss!" and everyone going along with it. Even if he got inside the huge garrison would just leave their quarters and swat him like a fly.