Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 140: Fleet returns to port, foreign legion established

At noon on December 1868, , the fleet that had visited Prussia for purchasing purposes returned to Rio Grande do Sul.

At the Xinjing coastal port, more than 200 ships of various types covered the sea surface. More than ten large steam ships in front of the fleet sounded their horns. Four gunboats belonging to the National Defense Navy stationed outside the port quickly made way and guided the fleet into the port.

The fleet docked safely. Sun Bin and a group of people on the same ship stepped onto the shore and saw Li Mingyuan leading a group of civil and military officials walking towards them.

"Your Majesty, I, Sun Bin, pay my respects to you." Sun Bin walked quickly to Li Mingyuan's side. Just as he was about to reminisce with everyone as he had done before, he suddenly realized that Rio Grande do Sul had been officially established, Li Mingyuan had been canonized as the Duke of Brazil, and the country's administrative and political institutions had been officially established. It would be inappropriate to act casually as before. Therefore, he quickly bowed and knelt on one knee.

"Mr. Sun has been on the sea for more than four months. You have made great contributions. There is no need for such a great honor." Li Mingyuan quickly helped Sun Bin up and saw a group of white people wearing various old military uniforms following Sun Bin. He asked in doubt, "Who are they?"

"They are retired soldiers I recruited in Prussia and several other German states."

Sun Bin pointed to the white man behind him and explained, "There were frequent wars in the German region. After the war, a large number of excellent soldiers retired and returned home. They could not find suitable jobs and could only return to their old jobs to serve in other countries.

When I was purchasing a large amount of machinery and equipment in Prussia, I don't know how the news got to them, and more than a dozen retired officers from the German federal states came to me and tried to sell me their mercenaries.

I thought that Rio Grande do not have experienced officers, and the new artillery purchased this time also needs professional officers to operate, so I took the initiative to select a group of retired soldiers to bring back. I hope Your Highness will forgive me. "

"You are fully responsible for the specific affairs of the diplomatic mission to Prussia. Recruiting retired soldiers is within your authority. You have done a good job and it is not considered as an unauthorized action."

Li Mingyuan said a few words to Sun Bin and turned his gaze to the white soldiers behind him. The more than 300 white people who had come ashore were divided into two groups to adjust the queue. The soldiers who were getting off the boat behind him were in an orderly manner, which was very different from the sloppy appearance of European and American soldiers represented by the United States in later generations.

Seeing Li Mingyuan looking at the recruited foreign soldiers with great interest, Sun Bin said at the right time, "Your Highness, the first two troops to land are retired Prussian soldiers and Mecklenburg soldiers. The Kingdom of Prussia and the Duchy of Mecklenburg have close relations, so the retired soldiers recruited from the two countries came here on the same ship.

The soldiers who were getting off the ship at the back were mainly retired soldiers from the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Kingdom of Württemberg. Their countries had fought with Prussia two years ago. After the Prussian-Austrian War ended, as defeated countries, the two countries were forced to join the North German Confederation dominated by the Prussians.

Therefore, the recruited Bavarian and Württemberg veterans were unwilling to board the same ship as the Prussians, so I had to separate them. "

"There are many princes in the German region, and it will be very troublesome for Prussia to unify Germany." Li Mingyuan commented as an outsider.

The soldiers on the ship quickly disembarked and assembled. About three minutes later, no more white soldiers got off the ship. Li Mingyuan glanced at the white retired soldiers standing on the shore. They were divided into five teams, with about 800 people.

"Go, call their leaders over here. I want to have a word with them."

The soldier conveyed Li Mingyuan's order, brought an interpreter, and quickly found two tall foreigners. With the help of the interpreter, communication became much simpler and easier.

"Since you two have come to Rio Grande do Sul, I'm sure you must have done some research beforehand. We are all military men, so I won't waste any more time. I just want to know what abilities you and your soldiers have, and then I can give you equivalent compensation based on your abilities."

"Your Majesty, I have fifty retired artillerymen, thirty-two retired cavalrymen, one hundred and twenty retired infantrymen, one hundred and twelve retired infantrymen from Mecklenburg and two hundred infantrymen from other regions who are willing to fight with the Prussian troops."

"The artillery and cavalry will be transferred to join my troops, and the remaining soldiers will be under your unified command. Captain Frank, is that ok?" Li Mingyuan addressed him using his military rank before retirement.

"You are the employer, and I am willing to follow your arrangements." Frank said without hesitation.

The two mercenary leaders, Frank, had more than 500 soldiers under his command, and the Bavarian Odrich had 300 soldiers under his command. If you pick out the technical arms such as artillery and cavalry among them, there were still 700 soldiers left.

"You two, I will use your soldiers as the basis to form the Rio Grande South Foreign Mercenary Corps. You are the first batch of soldiers in the Foreign Corps. I hope you two will cooperate well and show your due combat effectiveness when I need the Foreign Corps to fight."

"Your Majesty, how are our weapons and equipment and treatment calculated? When Sun was in Prussia, he promised us that he would pay us three times the salary of a soldier serving in the Prussian Army.

The soldiers don't have much money on them, so I hope you can fulfill your promise and pay them one month's military pay in advance." said Odrich.

"I will arrange for someone to distribute the military funds to you later. The weapons and equipment will be equipped with newly purchased Dresser rifles in accordance with the field army standards." Li Mingyuan made a promise: "During the peaceful training period, ordinary soldiers and officers will receive military funds at three times the Prussian troops. When the war breaks out, the military funds will be increased to four times. If someone dies in the war, the pension will be paid to their families.

The Kingdom of Prussia has a liaison officer stationed in Southern Rio Grande, and the pension will be handed over to the fallen soldiers by him, so you don't have to worry about it."

Li Mingyuan treated the first batch of white mercenaries generously, not only to win their hearts and set an example by selling horse bones for a large sum of money, but also for practical purposes. From the second half of the 19th century to before World War II, white people in Europe and the United States occupied the hegemonic position in the world. Although the Chinese established a country in South America, some things were still more convenient to do under the guise of white people. Therefore, Li Mingyuan made plans in advance.

In order to stabilize the morale of the white mercenaries by using generous treatment, Frank was temporarily appointed as the commander of the Foreign Legion in Rio Grande do Sul, and Odrich as the deputy commander. Li Mingyuan led people to arrange their accommodation, and then began to direct the soldiers to load and unload machinery and weapons.

Most of the more than 200 ships were hired from North Sea countries such as Prussia, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Denmark after arriving in Prussia.

Mechanical equipment and weapons and military equipment accounted for nearly half of the fleet. The remaining half of the ships were mostly loaded with artillery and personnel, and 10,000 rifles were purchased, which was the least expensive among several procurement items.

After assembling two-thirds of the garrison troops and retired soldiers in Xinjing and working hard for an afternoon, they only managed to unload a quarter of the mechanical equipment and half of the artillery to the shore. It was getting dark and the sun was about to set below the sea. Li Mingyuan ordered the soldiers to stop working and walked to the shore under a tree to rest with Sun Bin, who was busy running back and forth.

"Your Highness, we got a lot of good stuff during this mission to Prussia. Under the tarp on the north side is a complete set of 105mm howitzer production equipment, including barrel processing and ammunition handling equipment.

The military equipment of five Dresser rifle production lines, two sets of 75mm field guns, and three sets of 65mm mountain guns were on the ship and had not been unloaded yet..."

Sun Bin had just had some free time, and he didn't feel tired at all. He introduced the purchased military equipment to Li Mingyuan as if they were his own treasures.

In fact, the number of major weapons and equipment had already been introduced in the telegram. Li Mingyuan did not interrupt his interest and continued, "Rifles, three types of field artillery and supporting ammunition production equipment. With these, Rio Grande do Sul will have a preliminary systematic national defense industrial system. With the purchase of mining and steel smelting equipment, in time, the strength of the Chinese in South America will be qualitatively improved."

From scratch, they have their own industrial system for Chinese in South America. Although it is only a small industrial system consisting of a dozen types of industrial equipment, it still has important significance for the Chinese forces led by Li Mingyuan.

The elder Lopez was in charge of the landlocked country of Paraguay and developed it into a small South American overlord that could challenge Brazil. The territory of Rio Grande do Sul is not much different from that of Paraguay. Li Mingyuan believes that he can do better than the elder Lopez.

(End of this chapter)