Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 184 Part

At the end of the war, the 2,000 Guangning troops who went out to fight suffered about 300 casualties, including 105 killed in action or from their wounds, and 210 seriously injured.

The casualties of more than 300 people were within Sun Bin's tolerance. The troops were formed not long ago, and only by going through real combat baptism could they become an elite force.

After arranging the compensation for the killed and wounded soldiers, Sun Bin began to look through the battlefield seizure records handed over by Chen Zongbai.

"Four hundred old-style muskets, six hundred long swords, five hundred bows and arrows, seventy-five thousand taels of silver..." After taking a quick look at the records, Sun Bin closed the notebook and said, "Pick out a batch of suitable muskets for use in the army, and hand in the damaged ones to the headquarters for repair. Cold weapons such as swords and bows and arrows will be distributed to young and strong militiamen. As for the silver, sixty thousand taels will be handed over to the warehouse for use, and the remaining fifteen thousand taels will be kept as rewards for soldiers who participated in the war."

"On behalf of the brothers who participated in the war, I would like to thank you, sir." Fifteen thousand taels of silver were divided among more than 1,800 people, and each person received an average of eighty taels. Eighty taels of silver was equivalent to one or two years' salary of an ordinary soldier, so Chen Zongbai behaved like this.

"Fifteen thousand taels of silver is what the brothers deserve. You don't have to thank me." Sun Bin waved his hand, thinking of the task he had given to Chen Zongbai, and asked, "How many Annan women have you recruited?"

"There are 24,000 people in total, most of them are women between 18 and 30 years old, and there are more than 3,000 teenage girls who were orphaned due to the war. I felt sorry for them, so I brought them back. Please punish me for making the decision without authorization, sir."

"Brother Chen did a great job, what crime did you commit?" Sun Bin helped Chen Zongbai up as he saluted, and said with a smile, "Your Highness the Crown Prince has always advocated the continuation of some correct administrative measures from the Heavenly Kingdom period. Brother Chen's treatment of the girl is in line with the Crown Prince's advocacy. I haven't had time to reward Brother Chen yet, so how could I blame you?"

"Thank you, sir. I was just soft-hearted at the time and didn't think so much about it."

"It's okay, Brother Chen, as long as you understand that this matter is beneficial to the National Defense Army." Sun Bin invited Chen Zongbai to sit down and continued, "There are still 200,000 brothers who are single in Rio Grande do Sul. The proportion of Chinese men in Quang Ninh and Lang Son exceeds that of women. Selecting women of marriageable age from the Chinese to make up for the imbalance between men and women is not very effective for the time being, so to solve the imbalance between men and women, we still have to find ways from other aspects." Sun Bin took a sip of tea, paused for a while and continued, "Because of the war in Annan, young and strong men have suffered heavy casualties, and the proportion of women of marriageable age is higher than that of men. Therefore, obtaining women from Annan is the most effective method at present."

"Annaese women are gentle and obedient. In addition, Annan has been influenced by the Central Plains culture for thousands of years. Most Annanese women are willing to marry Chinese," agreed Chen Zongbai.

"When Brother Chen led his troops to fight, the Annan women in the areas they passed through were afraid of the chaos and harm and might not want to follow the troops back. However, after nearly a month of governance by our army, the people in Quang Ninh and Lang Son provinces have stabilized and many women are willing to marry Chinese brothers. The number of Annan women willing to go to South America to share the land has also reached nearly 40,000."

"I heard from you that South America is vast and sparsely populated. Annan women have always been hardworking and able to endure hardships. They can help our brothers a lot when we arrive in South America." Chen Zongbai said with a smile.

"Haha, Brother Chen, do you also want to marry an Annan woman?" Sun Bin joked.

"Hey, to be honest, sir, I saw an Annan woman on the road and wanted to marry her. I hope you will allow me."

"Marrying a wife or a concubine is your private matter. I have no right to interfere."

"Oh, I understand."

"Go back and take care of your personal affairs. I have a few things to tell you." "Sir, please go ahead."

"You should have heard about Wu Ya's fall from power and the peasant army led by Lu Zhiping, Huang Chongying and others being recruited, right?"

"I heard something when I came back. Lu Zhiping, Huang Fusheng and others put Wu Ya under house arrest and finally surrendered to the Hue court. Then Huang Chongying and other troops followed suit. The Hue court subdued most of the Chinese armed forces in the country without a single soldier. For this reason, the King of Annan promoted Huang Jiyan to the first-rank Grand Secretary of the Qinzheng Palace and the Commander-in-Chief of the Five Military Commands, controlling the military and political power of the Hue court."

"Huang Jiyan is not good at fighting, but he is very good at playing with power. Through the merit of recruiting Chinese armed forces, he won the high position of the Five Military Commander-in-Chief Office in one fell swoop, becoming the real number one person in North Vietnam. Our army must be careful when dealing with him in the future."

"Although the various peasant armed forces have surrendered to the Hue court, they actually control the same areas as before. The Annan army still cannot control them. In this case, there is no need for us to be afraid of Huang Jiyan."

"We must plan ahead to avoid any disaster. We must guard against Huang Jiyan secretly sowing discord and destroying the balance between the various Chinese armed forces."

Chen Zongbai looked confused, so Sun Bin did not go any further and said, "Our army is strong enough and is not afraid of the Annan troops' open and covert attacks. I am telling you this to remind you in advance so that you can be mentally prepared.

The situation in Annan returned to stability. Huang Jiyan was busy dealing with the political affairs of the Hue court on the one hand, and coping with the French ambitions of annexation on the other. He would not provoke the Chinese armed forces in the north in the short term. Therefore, during this time, the troops mainly did two things: the first was to train the army and improve the combat effectiveness of the soldiers; the second was to send people into Guangxi Province to recruit the surviving brothers of the Heavenly Kingdom and young and strong refugees.

I will make my own arrangements to send people into Guangxi, and the fleet from South America will arrive in a few days. The officers and foreign instructors on board will assist you and other troop commanders in training the troops. You must prepare carefully and don't fall behind in the training."

"Don't worry, sir. I won't let other brothers laugh at me."

Sun Bin's private conversation with him showed his respect for him, so Chen Zongbai immediately expressed his opinion. ...

After the armed civil rebellion, the peasant army, which posed the greatest threat to the Qing army in Guangxi, was reduced to only a few thousand young and strong men, and the territory it occupied was reduced by nearly half.

The remaining peasant army led by Lu Zhiping and Huang Fusheng saw their strength greatly reduced, and after being recruited by the Annan court, they no longer posed a threat to the Qing army in Guangxi.

Since the people did not report and the officials did not investigate, the peasant army surrendered to the Annan court and no longer caused trouble for the officials in Guangxi. The Manchu officials who were usually high and mighty were happy to have nothing to do. In addition, after some operations, the officials in Guangxi spent no idea how much money to rescue the imprisoned Wu Yazhong from the peasant army. Then, it was a smooth process to wipe out the peasant army and kill the rebel leader Wu Yazhong. This became the credit of the officials in Guangxi. Taking this opportunity, the governor and provincial governor of Guangxi, who had always looked down on Feng Zicai as a Taiping rebel, expelled Feng Zicai from Guangxi and sent him with his officers and soldiers to the Yunnan and Guizhou frontier to suppress bandits to obey orders. The position of Guangxi admiral left vacant by Feng Zicai was taken over by Xie Jigui, the military governor.

Xie Jigui was a close confidant of Zhang Kaisong, the governor of Guangxi. In the original history, Wu Yazhong's counterattack on Taiping Prefecture failed. In order to increase his military merits and replace Feng Zicai, Zhang Kaisong ordered Xie Jigui to send troops to Annan to encircle and suppress Wu Yazhong's remaining troops. As a result, there was no result for a long time. Feng Zicai was forced to send troops to quell the rebellion. As a result, Feng Zicai sat firmly in the position of governor of Guangxi for 20 years. This time, Xie Jigui did not suffer a defeat. He got what he wanted by using Wu Yazhong's head, and Feng Zicai could only leave in disgrace to make room for Xie Jigui.

(End of this chapter)