Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 183: Sequel
On July 10, Liu Yongfu led the remaining 700 men to Jinpu and personally met with Sun Bin to express his intention to join the National Defense Army. Sun Bin was very pleased that his old friend changed his mind and joined the National Defense Army. He immediately appointed Liu Yongfu as the commander of the 7th Independent Battalion, commanding 400 soldiers, and Shen Fushan was transferred to the Guangning Army Headquarters to assist Sun Bin in managing the local affairs of the two provinces.

The Battle of Ha Long and the subsequent occupation of the three coastal provinces in northern Annam allowed the Quang Ninh troops to seize a large number of weapons and supplies. Among these seized weapons, except for 1,300 old-fashioned muskets in good condition, all other weapons were sold to Wu Yazhong in exchange for the young and strong Chinese in the area under his control.

People are cheap but guns are expensive. The total number of Chinese refugees in Annan exceeds one million. Before Sun Bin and the National Defense Force arrived in Annan, the peasant armed leaders and the Annan troops regarded ordinary Chinese refugees as tools to gain benefits. When facing the encirclement and suppression of the Annan army, the peasant armed leaders summoned the Chinese refugees in the controlled areas, distributed some simple cold weapons to let them serve as cannon fodder to consume the strength of the Annan army, and then led their core armed forces to launch a counterattack and break the encirclement and suppression of the Annan army.

The Chinese refugees were all poor lower-class people. When the armed leaders of the peasant army used the refugees as cannon fodder to occupy a place in Annan, the treatment of the refugees did not improve at all. The seized money was divided up by the high-level peasant army leaders, and the fields in the controlled area were still handed over to local tyrants in exchange for their support. In order to survive, ordinary refugees, under the organization of the peasant army leaders, rented the fields of local tycoons and continued to be oppressed by the landlords.

If the leaders of the peasant army left a chance for ordinary Chinese refugees to survive, the Annan army would kill them. The Annan army could not defeat the organized peasant army, and when they encountered small groups of Chinese refugees, they would often massacre them all and then use their heads to claim credit to their superiors.

Indiscriminate killing of innocent people and falsely claiming credit were common tactics used by the Annan troops. In order to appease the troops, most of the officials turned a blind eye and covered up the matter. Also, due to the indiscriminate killing by the Annan troops, various Chinese refugees built strongholds to protect themselves, and were also very brave when fighting against the Annan troops.

The special war environment has made the Chinese refugees in Annan capable of enduring hardships and fighting. Among the one million Chinese refugees, nearly half are young and strong, and most of the sick and old people died in the war. Therefore, it is not difficult to recruit soldiers in Annan. The difficulty lies in the lack of food supplies and weapons.

Annan has a small land area and a large population. The people are generally poor, the government's tax revenue is limited, and food supplies are in severe shortage due to the war. Weapons are difficult to obtain due to the French blockade.

In general Chinese armed forces, it was considered very good if a group of three to five hundred young and strong men could own a dozen breech-loading rifles. However, a large armed force like Wu Yazhong, with tens of thousands of people, had no more than three hundred breech-loading rifles in total, and one hundred of them were gifts sent to him by Sun Bin.

Although the performance of more than 2,000 old-style muskets was not as good as that of breech-loading rifles, it was still a great deal compared to the peasant armies that mainly used cold weapons. In order to recruit more than 10,000 Chinese refugees, Sun Bin was willing to exchange more than 2,000 muskets with Wu Yazhong. When the news spread to Chinese refugees in other places, they all praised Sun Bin, which also triggered a wave of migration to join the Guangning Army.

It was a fair trade, and both sides got what they needed. Sun Bin made a name for himself among the Chinese forces in Annan by paying the price of two thousand obsolete muskets, and gained the much-needed Chinese population in Southern Rio Grande, while Wu Yazhong obtained weapons and food. On the surface, neither side suffered a loss, but in fact, because of Wu Yazhong's despicable means, the armed forces under his command were deeply dissatisfied with him.

After Wu Ya finally obtained food and muskets, he simply waved his hand and distributed 1,500 muskets to his direct troops. Then he distributed the remaining 500 muskets and 500 severely worn-out rifles that had been discarded by his direct troops to the collateral troops. He also kept all the food in his own hands and only distributed enough food for three to five days to the collateral troops.

The young and strong collateral armed forces accounted for the vast majority of the exchanged ones, and when it came to the distribution of weapons and supplies, each collateral armed force only received a small portion.

The contradictions did not accumulate overnight. Wu Yazhong's intention to abandon the Annan base and counterattack Taiping Prefecture had already caused dissatisfaction among most people. However, when distributing supplies and weapons, he openly favored the direct troops. The dissatisfaction of the collateral peasant army accumulated to a critical point. It only took a trigger, and the other peasant army leaders who erupted would blow Wu Yazhong to pieces.

The peasant army leaders did not wait too long for this introduction. Ye Chenglin, under the order of Sun Bin, sneaked into Gaoping City and contacted three or four peasant army leaders with whom he had a good relationship. After a few complaints and discussions, they reached a decision to drive Wu Yazhong out of office. On the night of July 14, Wu Yazhong, who was drunk and sleeping, was awakened by his guards, who told him that all his men had rebelled and that only more than 400 peasant army soldiers who were guarding Wu Yazhong were still resisting.

His subordinates turned against him, and what Wu Yazhong had been worried about became a reality. Before he could summon his subordinates from other areas of the city for reinforcements,

The subordinates led by peasant army leaders such as Lu Zhiping and Huang Fusheng attacked the inner house and captured Wu Yazhong.

Wu Ya was finally captured, and the peasant army that was still resisting quickly laid down their arms and surrendered. In just one night, Wu Ya, who had been on the border of Yunnan, Guizhou and Annan for several years, was finally taken prisoner and lost control of the tens of thousands of Chinese armed forces in Gaoping.

Wu Yazhong had a great reputation in the peasant army, so after being captured he was only placed under house arrest instead of being executed in public. Although Wu Yazhong temporarily saved his life, he lost control of his troops. Even if he could escape later, he would not be able to pose a threat to others.

After successfully taking over the territory left behind by Wu Yazhong, the peasant army leaders including Lu Zhiping and Huang Fusheng, in accordance with the prior agreement, led 4,000 peasant army armed forces willing to join the Quang Ninh troops, along with 20,000 old and weak, to leave Cao Bang Province and rush to Lang Son Province controlled by the Quang Ninh Army.

Lu Zhiping and Huang Fusheng were elected as the chief and deputy commanders by the remaining nearly 5,000 peasant soldiers, responsible for commanding the remaining peasant army forces.

After dealing with the internal power distribution, Lu Zhiping and Huang Fusheng accepted Ye Chenglin's suggestions and took the initiative to join the Hue court.

On July 20, the Hue court and the peasant army reached an agreement to recruit the peasant army. The peasant army withdrew from Bac Giang and Ha Duong provinces. The Hue court recognized the peasant army's control over Cao Bang Province and appointed Lu Zhiping as the governor of Cao Bang and Huang Fusheng as the deputy governor.

Less than three days after the news of Lu Zhiping and Huang Fusheng's recruitment spread, Huang Chongying was appointed as the third-rank commander by the Hue court, in charge of Mengkang and Baosheng counties in Lao Cai Province, where they were originally based. Other Chinese armed forces who were recruited were appointed as Annan military officer positions such as the fourth-rank Guanqi, fourth-rank envoy, cavalry commander, and fifth-rank defense commander according to the size of their power.

The Chinese armed forces that had troubled Annan for many years were recruited one after another, and the Annan army was able to devote more strength to dealing with local rebel forces in the country. At the end of July, the last large-scale rebel force was defeated, and the Annan army successfully recovered the provinces occupied by the rebels, and the counter-insurgency operation ended.

(End of this chapter)