Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 212: Four-Nation Alliance
The conflict between Hongshuntang and Ruishengtang broke out rapidly under Liu Xing's deliberate guidance and soon evolved into a large-scale armed fight.

The Ruishengtang side had more people and more power, and had the upper hand from the beginning of the fight. Although the Hongshuntang side tried their best to resist the opponent's attack, the numerical disadvantage was difficult to reverse. Under the well-prepared attacks of the Ruishengtang, members of the Hongshuntang were constantly knocked to the ground.

The fight lasted for nearly half an hour. In the open space outside the guild hall, only Huang Shengui and a few others were still being besieged by the members of Ruisheng Hall. The rest of the members of Hongshun Hall were either injured and fell to the ground, or were captured by the people of Ruisheng Hall with their hands held down.

Huang Shenggui had more scars. The freed members of the Ruishengtang Church kept joining the team besieging him. Huang Shenggui was about to be captured and humiliated by the members of the Ruishengtang Church when the white policeman in charge of San Francisco's public security finally arrived.

"Master, a group of foreign devils have arrived. Brothers, should we retreat?"

Liu Xing personally commanded his men to besiege Huang Shengui. At this time, one of his men rushed over and said hurriedly.

"Damn it! The foreign devils didn't come earlier or later, but had to wait until I was about to catch Huang Shengui!"

Liu Xing spat fiercely on the ground and said unwillingly, "He's lucky this time. Tell the brothers to retreat immediately!"

"Brothers, retreat!" With Liu Xing's permission, the Ruisheng Hall members shouted loudly, gave up beating and besieging the remaining Hongshun Hall members, and quickly dispersed in all directions.

After the fight, the white police caught more than a dozen Ruishengtang members who were running slowly, interrogated Huang Shenggui and others, and then left the Chinatown Association.

After the white police left, Huang Shengui called on more than a dozen Chinese people with whom he had good relations to help take care of the injured congregants, and sent two Chinese people to call a doctor.

"Zhou Peitang, how are the brothers doing?"

Huang Shengui directed people to move the last injured member into the house, without caring about his own injuries, and said anxiously.

"The people from Ruisheng Hall were very aggressive this time. There were more than ten brothers who were seriously injured, and more than twenty who were slightly injured. Except for four brothers who saw the situation was bad and escaped, everyone else in the guild hall was injured."

Zhou Peitang sighed.

Although overseas Chinese often have conflicts over territory, they generally do not resort to brutal force. In a fight involving hundreds or thousands of people, the total number of people with minor or serious injuries may not exceed ten. Ruishengtang's behavior this time has clearly broken the rules in the Chinese community.

"Zhou Peitang, after you have settled the injured brothers, please help me go to Canada and dispatch 200 people from the headquarters with my letter."

"Master, are you going to go to war with Ruisheng Hall?"

"Others are bullying us. If we don't start a war, are we going to be cowards?"

"Yes, I understand."...

After Lopez Jr. was officially crowned the King of Paraguay, the atmosphere in Asuncion, the capital of Paraguay, gradually returned to calm. In the Presidential Palace of Paraguay, now the temporary palace of the King of Paraguay, Li Mingyuan, Peruvian President Pedro, Bolivian President Adolfo and others who had attended the coronation ceremony of Lopez Jr. sat in a secret room, waiting for the arrival of the real Lopez Jr.

"The kingdom is undergoing restructuring and I'm very busy. I'm sorry to have kept you waiting for so long."

Little Lopez, dressed in a gorgeous outfit, walked into the room with a smile, looking very happy. "Your Highness, you are too polite. We just arrived a while ago."

Li Mingyuan said politely, and then asked, "Your Highness invited us to a gathering. I wonder why?"

"I think you all know that Brazilian Emperor Pedro II is recruiting new soldiers, purchasing warships, and sending more troops to the border areas."

As Little Lopez spoke, he observed the expressions of Li Mingyuan and the other two. Seeing them nod in agreement, he continued, "Brazil is rearming its military, and its ultimate goal is definitely to target the four countries that have territorial disputes with Brazil. So, I think that instead of passively responding to the military threat from the Brazilian Empire, it would be better for the four countries to form a closer alliance, establish a common alliance headquarters, and coordinate the four countries' response to the Brazilian threat. What do you think?"

"I agree with His Majesty Lopez's suggestion. Although Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Rio Grande do Sul are connected by land, transportation is inconvenient. Only by establishing a closer alliance can we more effectively coordinate the military and defense relations of the countries."

Li Mingyuan realized Lopez Jr.'s intention beforehand and was the first to express his support.

"The Brazilian Empire is aggressive by nature. A large part of Peru's territory has fallen into the hands of the Brazilian Empire. I agree that the four countries should form a closer alliance to recover the lands occupied by Brazil."

Acre State is a region protruding in the central part of Peru. Because Acre State is controlled by the Brazilian Empire, the strategic depth of central Peru is compressed, and the territory is wide on both sides and narrow in the middle. The strategic situation is bad. Once the Brazilian Empire launches an attack on Peru from Acre State, Peru is likely to face the dilemma of having its territory cut in half. Therefore, Pedro has always hoped to completely recover the Acre State region and eliminate Peru's strategic disadvantages.

Li Mingyuan, Pedro representing Rio Grande do Sul and Peru successively expressed their support for Pedro's proposal. As the weakest party in terms of military strength, Adolfo representing Bolivia also chose to support the establishment of a closer alliance.

The representatives of the three countries unanimously agreed to Lopez Jr.'s proposal. At the same time, as the initiator of the proposal, Lopez Jr. was successfully elected as the leader of the alliance.

After the establishment of the alliance, the first thing was to establish a cooperative relationship among the four countries. Therefore, Lopez Jr. first proposed to establish formal diplomatic relations among the four countries, establish embassies of the other three countries in each country, and raise the diplomatic relations between the four countries to the highest level of ambassadors.

Before the establishment of the alliance, the four countries had already set up offices among each other. Lopez Jr.'s proposal was equivalent to formalizing the offices as fixed bases for information and intelligence exchanges among the four countries. It would be of great benefit to each country in obtaining external intelligence, so it was also agreed and passed.

After the first clause of the alliance was passed, Lopez Jr. immediately put forward a second suggestion: adjust the number of troops of each country, and deploy the troops of the four countries in different areas to disperse the military pressure of the Brazilian Empire.

"On August 12, after Pedro received loans from the United States and France, he quickly expanded the size of the Brazilian army. According to intelligence, the regular army of the Brazilian Empire now has 5 people, and the number of black volunteers is 15. The size of the Brazilian regular army is still expanding, and it is likely to reach 20 in the end. When the expansion is completed, the Brazilian Empire will have a standing army of more than million people, which is five times the number before the Paraguayan War. In addition, if war breaks out again, Brazil will be able to recruit more young and strong people to join the army. At that time, the pressure faced by the Four-Nation Alliance will far exceed the previous war."

Little Lopez introduced the military threat from Brazil, and then said, "Based on the military pressure in the border areas between the four countries and Brazil, I have established that Rio Grande do Sul will deploy no less than 30,000 troops on the front line of Santa Catarina State, Peru will deploy about 25,000 troops in Acre State, Bolivia will deploy 20,000 soldiers at the border with Brazil, and Paraguay will bear the military pressure of facing the main force of Brazil, and deploy 20,000 troops in the north near Magrosso do Sul and in the east near Paraná to defend against the Brazilian army. If one of the four countries goes to war with Brazil, the other three countries should immediately put pressure on Brazil from other directions, forcing the Brazilian Empire to disperse its forces and create conditions for the alliance to ultimately win the war against Brazil."

"Your Highness Lopez, Bolivia has only 40,000 regular troops. These 40,000 troops are needed to maintain domestic order and defend against military threats from Chile and Brazil. If half of the troops are used to defend against Brazil, the remaining 20,000 troops will not be able to deal with other threats to Bolivia. Bolivia can only maintain a force of 10,000 troops near Brazil at most. If the number is larger, the government finances will be difficult to support."

"The population of Rio Grande do Sul is less than 400,000, and our country is also unable to maintain a force of 30,000 troops in the border area."

Lopez Jr.'s suggestions were rejected by Adolfo and Li Mingyuan one after another. In disappointment, Lopez Jr. turned his attention to Peruvian President Pedro.

"Peru is a country of warlords, and the government army needs to station its main forces in the country to maintain deterrence against the warlords. It cannot mobilize 25,000 troops to be stationed in the border areas."

Stationing a large number of troops in border areas during peacetime will not only easily arouse Brazil's vigilance, but will also drag down the domestic economy and put tremendous pressure on the government's finances. No one, including Pedro, Adolfo and Li Mingyuan, is willing to share the military pressure from the Brazilian Empire for Paraguay at the cost of damaging their own interests. As the leader of the newly formed alliance, Lopez Jr. does not want the alliance to split internally, so he took a step back and said, "Not long after the last war ended, each country faced a certain degree of economic difficulties. I can understand your difficulties, but coordinating defense against the expansion of the Brazilian Empire is a major matter related to national security. We cannot sit idly by and watch the border defenses empty because of temporary economic difficulties. This will only create opportunities for the Brazilian army to invade our land. I hope that everyone will combine the actual domestic situation and deploy more troops in the border areas as much as possible to consolidate the defense of their respective border areas."

(End of this chapter)