Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 3 Occupy the Mine
The hall where Borja gathered has now been turned into Li Mingyuan's temporary command center. Li Mingyuan looked carefully at the map of southern Peru and frowned. Peru has a population of millions, and the southern region is the most densely populated area in Peru. It is very difficult to seize a piece of land in southern Peru to establish a country.

Li Mingyuan had learned in his previous life that there were about hundreds of thousands of Chinese laborers in Peru. As long as they were all rescued, he could easily organize an army of tens of thousands.

The journey from the mainland to South America was arduous, and most of the Chinese workers in poor health died on the ship. Those who were able to make it to South America alive were healthy young people. Among the hundreds of thousands of Chinese workers in Peru, there were probably more than 20,000 veterans of the Taiping Army, and the others were all young and strong men of the right age. It was impossible to establish a country in Peru, so Li Mingyuan set his sights elsewhere.

Rio Grande do Sul in southern Brazil is the southernmost province of Brazil.

Rio Grande do Sul Province covers an area of ​​28.1 square kilometers, bordering the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Argentina to the west, and Uruguay to the south. It is a vast land east of the Uruguay River and south of the Pelotas River. The northern part belongs to the Paraná Plateau, with an average altitude of 600-900 meters; the southern part is gently undulating hills and plains; the coast is full of sand dunes and lagoons. With a mild and comfortable climate and good ports, it is the most suitable place to establish a country.

Li Mingyuan drew a circle on the map with a pen and decided to use this place as the location for founding the country.

"Prince, Uncle Chen and Uncle Li are here." Wang Xiaoshan walked in and reported.

"Let them in." Li Mingyuan put down the pen in his hand and turned around.

Shortly after Chen Guozhu and Li Sandou arrived, other important Taiping Army personnel also arrived one after another.

After everyone arrived, Li Mingyuan said, "Liu Pu, let us know what we have gained tonight."

"Yes, Prince." The handsome Liu Pu took out a list and said, "Tonight we have seized a total of 300 muskets, 5,000 rounds of ammunition, a Gatling gun, 3,000 rounds of bullets, 200 long swords, and 20,000 silver dollars."

Liu Pu put away the list after he finished speaking.

"My goodness, this old dog Borja is so rich." Chen Guozhu said in surprise.

"What's the use of having so much money? A musket is better." Li Sandou, who had seen the power of muskets and Gatling machine guns, said while touching a pistol at his waist.

"Haha, money and guns are both good things." Li Mingyuan chuckled.

"Prince, Anthony just revealed that a Prussian fleet will arrive here tomorrow." Wang Xiaoshan whispered to Li Mingyuan.

"Very good, someone will bring you a pillow when you feel sleepy." Li Mingyuan said happily.

"Prince, what are you so happy about?" Chen Guozhu asked curiously.

"I have good news for you all. Tomorrow a Prussian fleet will be transporting arms here." Li Mingyuan said.

"Prince, the foreigners will not collude with the Peruvians to encircle and suppress us, right?" Li Sandou asked doubtfully.

"Haha, Uncle Li, don't worry. The Prussians are preparing for war in Europe. They will not abandon the saltpeter in our hands and fight us together with the Peruvians."

Li Mingyuan knew in his heart that Prussia was preparing to unify Germany. At this critical moment, every piece of material was very important to them. They could buy saltpeter from anyone. They would not give up a large amount of saltpeter just because Li Mingyuan was a Chinese.

"Liu Pu, how much saltpeter is left in the warehouse?" Li Mingyuan turned around and asked.

There are 30,000 catties in total, Liu Pu replied. "30,000 catties is enough," Li Mingyuan pondered.

"Prince, the families in the rear camp have been arranged. What should we do next?" Liu Pu asked.

"How many brothers are there now?" Li Mingyuan looked up and asked,
"Excluding the injured and sick, there are a total of 1,500 people." Liu Pu reported the number of people.

One thousand five hundred people is the size of a regiment in the future, but the shortcoming compared to the number of people is the serious lack of weapons. Peru has just gained independence from Spain for decades, and the domestic economy is very backward. The weapons and equipment used by the army are all imported from foreign countries. All the captured muskets are old equipment eliminated by European powers. There are less than 200 muskets that can be used normally. Using these weapons to attack the Peruvian army will suffer huge casualties even if it succeeds. Li Mingyuan regards the one thousand five hundred people as the foundation of his foothold in South America, and he feels pain if any casualties occur, so he must be thrifty.

Li Mingyuan thought for more than ten minutes and said, "Our weapons and equipment are still insufficient, and our brothers are exhausted. I decided to rest for a day and rescue other brothers after receiving new weapons."

The people in the hall breathed a sigh of relief when they heard that they didn't need to rush to attack other mines. Everyone was very tired after working in the mines during the day. If they attacked other mines now, many people would not be able to bear it.

"Everyone, I plan to reorganize 1,500 people into a regiment according to the foreign military organization. Do you have any opinions?"

"I agree with the prince's method. The Heavenly Kingdom has perished on the mainland. If we openly adopt the Heavenly Kingdom's military organization, it may attract the attention of the Qing Dynasty and bring us unnecessary trouble." Liu Pu spoke first.

"I, Old Chen, have never been to school and don't understand matters concerning military organization. But as long as the prince says so, I will support him," Chen Guozhu stated loudly.

"Everything will be arranged by the prince." As soon as the two confidants of Li Wen in front expressed their opinions, the Taiping Army soldiers behind them all echoed them in unison.

"Everyone agrees, so I will talk about the specific organization," Li Mingyuan sorted out his thoughts and continued, "The new army is named the South American Chinese Independence Army. It currently has a regiment under its jurisdiction, and I will personally serve as the regiment commander. The new regiment includes three musket battalions, the first, second, and third. All the soldiers in the musket battalions will use the muskets that will be shipped tomorrow. There is also a training battalion composed of elite soldiers, a reconnaissance company, and a logistics supply company.

The whole regiment adopts the three-four system, with a squad of twelve people, a platoon of three squads totaling thirty-six people, a company of three platoons totaling one hundred and twenty people, and a battalion of four companies totaling five hundred and fifty people. Except for the training battalion with a scale of 300 people, all other troops are organized in this way. "

After finishing the discussion on the compilation, Li Mingyuan said, "If you have different opinions, you can raise them."

"Prince, according to your calculation, 1,500 people cannot form a regiment." Li Sandou frowned.

"Let me explain to you all. This kind of organization is planned to be adopted after we gain a foothold in South America. As for the problem of insufficient manpower, we can just not fill up the staff first. We will first fill up the combat units, and then supplement the other subsidiary units after rescuing other brothers." Li Mingyuan said.

After solving the staffing problem, Li Mingyuan began to arrange everyone's position. The people standing in the hall were all former subordinates of the king, so it was not difficult to arrange them. Allen planned to let Chen Guozhu, Li Sandou and another Taiping Army veteran Zhang Ansong take the positions of the three musket battalions. Li Mingyuan was also the battalion commander of the training battalion. Li Mingyuan believed that the gun was the source of power. The founding monarchs of all dynasties must have led troops to fight. Even Liu Bang, who was not very good at military talent, spent most of his time in battle.

The training camp is the place that Li Mingyuan has decided to train officers. By having him as the battalion commander, he can not only teach the soldiers the military knowledge he learned in his previous life, but also gain the soldiers' loyalty. Once the soldiers from the training camp are transferred to ordinary troops as low-level officers, Li Mingyuan can control the grassroots soldiers through them and ensure that the troops obey his command.

As for the important commander of the reconnaissance company, Li Mingyuan planned to let Wang Xiaoshan take the position. After learning military knowledge from Li Mingyuan for two months and growing up in the Taiping Army Boy Camp, it was not difficult for Wang Xiaoshan to command a company of troops.

In order to enhance the combat capability of the reconnaissance company, Li Mingyuan specially selected 15 people from the 50 trained young guards to serve as squad and platoon leaders at the grassroots level.

The other thirty-five people were not kept, and they were all transferred to the musket battalion as officers. With these grassroots officers who had been trained by him for two months, Li Mingyuan believed that the newly established South American Chinese Independence Army would have stronger combat power.

Li Mingyuan told the people in the hall about his plan. Everyone agreed with Li Wen's suggestion. All the officers were appointed and they were just waiting for the fleet to arrive tomorrow and to form an army immediately after taking the arms.

(End of this chapter)