Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 35 Material List
"I have completed the task assigned by the prince and come to report to him." Li Dawei walked into the hall and said loudly.

"The Cavalry Regiment did a great job, and I will do what I promised you, but I called you here for another matter this time."

Li Mingyuan briefly told them about the treasure.

"If the cavalry regiment marches at full speed, it will take most of the day to reach Lake Titicaca. Do you want to set off now, Prince?" Li Dawei said.

"There's no rush. The brothers in the cavalry regiment have been working hard for a few days. Let them rest tonight and set off tomorrow morning."

"yes."……

After returning from the conference room, Liu Pu called his two deputies to discuss the matter.

In Liu Pu's residence, Liu Pu and his two deputies Zhao Yan and Sun Bin sat together eating and chatting.

"Chief of Staff, should we find more trading partners? By comparing prices from three suppliers, we won't be at a disadvantage as easily." Zhao Ting said.

"Let's first release the news that we want to purchase weapons and supplies, but our final cooperating captain will still be Prussia." Liu Pu said.

"Chief of Staff, I don't understand why we must choose to cooperate with Prussia?" Sun Bin asked puzzledly.

Liu Pu put down the wine glass that was about to be passed to his mouth and said, "Baranka has business representatives from Britain, the United States, France, Austria, Prussia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and other countries.

The British are the most powerful, and now they are expanding their sphere of influence all over the world.
The South American countries have been independent for nearly half a century, and each country has accumulated a lot of wealth. Moreover, South American countries are vast, sparsely populated, and have fertile land, making them natural agricultural production areas.

Due to the American Civil War in previous years, Britain lost its important agricultural production base and industrial product dumping market, so in the past two years, Britain has directed its expansion towards virgin South America, striving to make up for its losses through trade and economic expansion into South America.

The ongoing Paraguayan War is due on the one hand to the territorial division issue between the warring parties, and on the other hand to the rejection of Britain's proposal for free navigation on the Paraná River. The British were dissatisfied and supported Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay behind the scenes to declare war on Paraguay.

As the biggest beneficiary of the current order in South America, Britain will not allow anyone to disrupt the current order. Therefore, in the face of our war with the Peruvian government, Britain will fish in troubled waters and gain benefits from saltpeter and other minerals from the Peruvian government, and will not support our expansion. "

"What the Chief of Staff means is that the British use us as pawns to threaten the Peruvians. Once the Peruvians offer a price that satisfies them, the British will support the Peruvians in dealing with us without hesitation," Sun Bin continued.

"Yes, the British have been playing balancing games on the European continent for hundreds of years and are very knowledgeable about how to gain maximum benefits." Liu Pu nodded.

Liu Pu has read a lot of books, but he did not learn this knowledge from books. Instead, Li Mingyuan told him this knowledge in bits and pieces.

"What about other countries?"

"France is the second most powerful country in the world after Britain, but the French are very arrogant. If we take the initiative to ask for trade with them, on the one hand, their asking price will definitely be high, and on the other hand, the arrogant French will definitely not be willing to escort our fleet." Less than half a century after Emperor Napoleon's death, under the influence of Napoleon, the French are now very arrogant and regard themselves as the most loyal in the world. Even Britain despises them from the bottom of their hearts. Naturally, they are unwilling to escort the Chinese fleet for some economic benefits.

"Austria and France are similar. They are proud of their status as the thousand-year-old empire in Europe and will not help us with escort. The Netherlands and Belgium are weak. Even if we trade with them, they will not be able to provide the materials we need within a month. As for the Americans, they have just experienced a civil war and their economy has not yet recovered. They can only take part of our orders."

The development of the United States is based on the Civil War. The current United States has just ended the war and has a lot of work to do domestically. It has not yet entered the fast lane of development and is unable to meet the requirements of the Chinese Independence Army.
And there is another sentence that Liu Pu did not say: if the Chinese Independence Army wants to gain a foothold in the United States, it will definitely face attacks from American capital in the future.
Since the Monroe Doctrine, the United States has always regarded South America as its own backyard. If the Chinese Independence Army wants to grow and become stronger, it will definitely not be welcomed by the United States.

So from the very beginning, Li Mingyuan tried his best to avoid having anything to do with the Americans and not give them the opportunity to infiltrate the Chinese base.

After excluding the previous countries, only Prussia is left to be discussed.

Liu Pu took a sip of wine and continued, "Prussia has united the princes in the German region to develop industrial construction, hoping to bind the various principalities together through economic interests. Therefore, the Prussians are able and willing to swallow our big orders.
Moreover, we had a good cooperation with the Prussians last time. Faced with a much bigger deal than last time, the Prussians will definitely not refuse it. "

"Germans' industrial products are good. The soldiers responded well to the rifles and artillery we bought from them last time." Zhao Ting said.

"We are going to buy a lot of things this time, 20,000 rifles, 300 pistols, 100 machine guns, 50 nine-pound cannons, 30 twelve-pound mountain cannons, 1 million rifle bullets, 30,000 machine gun bullets, 2,000 nine-pound shells, 500 twelve-pound shells, 100,000 sets of custom-made military uniforms, and 1,000 marching tents,"

Liu Pu recited the list of supplies he wanted to buy in one breath.

"The number of Chinese has reached 120,000. According to the prince's previous habits, excluding some with weak constitutions, there will be at least 100,000 soldiers out of the 120,000. The daily consumption of an army of 100,000 is huge. No wonder the prince wants to purchase so many supplies." Sun Bin said with some emotion.

Except for the two thousand rifles that were traded with the Prussians in the first transaction, the rest of the rifles in the hands of the Chinese Independence Army were captured from the Peruvians.

Relying on the captured weapons, the Chinese Independence Army armed 70,000 soldiers. The remaining Chinese soldiers had to use broken rifles for simulated training.
Among the 70,000 troops with rifles, 30,000 had intact guns and 40,000 had outdated guns.
Moreover, among the 70,000 rifles, there were weapons from various countries. The most common ones were the Enfield rifle produced in Britain, the Spencer rifle produced in the United States, and the Dresser rifle produced in Prussia. There were more than a dozen types in total, making it very difficult to supply them.

"Don't you need to buy medicine? We don't have much in stock." Zhao Ting said.

"Medicines and other daily necessities are listed separately and purchased from other countries."

"We have to buy so many supplies, I'm afraid we don't have enough money." Sun Bin frowned.

"The prince will take care of the money issue. Your task is to complete the procurement of materials."

Liu Pudao. …

(End of this chapter)