Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 39 Emergency Meeting in Peru

Turning our attention back to five days ago, the news that three Peruvian reinforcements were destroyed and Arequipa fell into the hands of the Chinese Independence Army was passed back to the Peruvian capital Lima. The Peruvian bosses panicked and immediately held an emergency meeting.

"Thomas, the southern part of Peru is your defense zone, and the three reinforcements and the Arequipa garrison are also your subordinates. I don't understand how more than 30,000 elite Peruvian soldiers could be defeated by a group of laborers who just took up arms. If you can't give a reasonable explanation, I will use my presidential authority to remove you from office and investigate your responsibility for dereliction of duty."

As soon as the meeting began, Peru's interim president, Pedro Diez Canseco, immediately opened fire on Thomas.

"Pedro, you are only the interim president and have no right to remove me from office." Thomas' 20,000 direct subordinates were completely wiped out and he was very angry. He did not give Pedro Diez Canseco any face and called him by his name directly.

"Thomas, you are so presumptuous. Do you still regard me as the president? I am now using the power granted to me by the Peruvian Constitution to announce the removal of you from your position as the commander-in-chief of the Southern Theater."

Pedro had known for a long time that Thomas was secretly planning to overthrow him. If he had not been concerned about the elite troops under Thomas, he would have killed Thomas long ago. Now that most of Thomas' troops have been lost, Pedro no longer has any scruples and directly lost his temper in the meeting, intending to take down Thomas in one fell swoop.

"General Thomas bears some responsibility for the annihilation of the reinforcements, but the main responsibility lies with the mistakes made by the frontline commanders. If General Thomas is dismissed for this, the punishment would be too severe." Seeing that Pedro was about to take real action, the politician who was closely connected with Thomas hurriedly advised.

Pedro originally wanted to take Thomas down directly, but seeing so many people pleading for him, he knew that it was unlikely to kill Thomas just based on this incident. He said with a relieved tone, "Thomas, we will talk about your responsibility later. First, explain the reasons for our army's failure."

Thomas was angry and contradicted Pedro. After he came to his senses, he felt a little scared. The army he relied on was completely destroyed. Without the army's suppression, he and Pedro would be courting death. He stopped being arrogant and said seriously, "The combat effectiveness of the Chinese rebels is much higher than we thought. Let these escaped soldiers tell us the specific situation."

Thomas waved his hand, and four other escaped soldiers from Morabasi came out.

"Tell me about the rebels first." Pedro pointed at Morabasai who was standing in front.

"Yes, President." Morabasel saluted and said, "I am in charge of the military horse farm near Arequipa. When I heard that the rebels were surrounding Arequipa, I immediately gathered the nearby military horses in a hidden mountain 300 miles away under the order of General Thomas. I deployed strict defenses in the mountains to prevent the enemy from launching a surprise attack. As a result, the enemy reacted quickly and sent a large number of troops to investigate our whereabouts."

"Let's get to the point. What I want to hear is the rebels' fighting power. I don't have time to listen to you talk slowly." Pedro interrupted Morabasai impatiently.

Morabasi turned his head and looked at Thomas, who nodded for him to continue, so he skipped the previous part and went straight to introducing the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army.

"The cavalry of the rebels entered the horse farm. Their riding skills were not as good as ours, but they were not afraid of death. Only 300 of my 700 men were combat troops, and the other 400 were herdsmen who took care of the horses. I led the soldiers to fight desperately against the enemy's attack, but we were outnumbered and could only retreat while fighting. In the end, I returned alive with five soldiers."

After Morabasai finished speaking, he looked at Pedro carefully, worried that he would kill him out of dissatisfaction.

Pedro didn't take Morabasai seriously. He was dealing with a Peruvian big shot like Thomas, and he didn't take Morabasai seriously.
After asking Morabasai, Pedro asked several other soldiers. They all said that the rebels were very powerful and no one was afraid of death. As for how powerful the Chinese troops were, no one could tell.

The Peruvian soldiers did not lie. Morabaseh ran away without fighting with the Chinese troops, and the other four soldiers were all Lustuart's men. Naturally, they would not be brave enough to fight the Chinese Independence Army. Therefore, it was impossible to expect to get the combat effectiveness of the Chinese Independence Army from them.

However, from the description of the Peruvian soldiers, Pedro and other Peruvian senior officials also got a direct impression.

That is, the combat power of the Chinese Independence Army is higher than that of the Peruvian Army, otherwise more than 30,000 troops would not have been completely surrounded by others. After understanding the general course of events, the Peruvian leaders present must come up with a solution as soon as possible.

They have to send troops. Southern Peru is rich in minerals and is the economic lifeline of Peru. They cannot allow the Chinese army to continue occupying it.

"According to their description and the intelligence we have, the number of rebellious Chinese workers has reached 100,000. After they wiped out more than 30,000 of our elite troops, all important areas in the south fell into the hands of the Chinese rebels. With the supply of materials in the south, especially the military factories in Arequipa, the strength of the rebels will increase rapidly. So if we want to defeat them, we need to mobilize troops across the country."

"I object," said a Peruvian politician sitting at the conference table.

"Tripa, do you have anything to say?"

Pedro was interrupted and said unhappily.

The obese Tripa didn't look at Pedro's expression and said to himself, "The total Peruvian army is 120,000. Because they have lost 40,000 in the battle in the south, can the remaining 80,000 defeat the rebels? I don't think it's possible."

"Eighty thousand people are not enough, we can recruit soldiers. Peru has a population of five million, how can we not recruit soldiers?"

Pedro shot back.

Pedro's calculation was very good. The Peruvian army in the south suffered heavy losses, and he used this excuse to expand the strength of his own troops.

"No, Peru's economy has just started to develop. Recruiting more soldiers will bring down Peru's economy."

"Then what do you say we should do? Don't we want the South anymore? Tripa, are you going to be a traitor?" Pedro said sternly.

"President, you don't have to put labels on me. My opposition to military expansion does not mean that I will not recover the southern region. As long as we sell the mines in the south to the British, the British will help us eliminate the rebels." Tripa slowly expressed his idea.

"Tripa, I knew you were clinging to the British, but I didn't expect you to be so shameless as to sell out Peru's national interests to the British. The British have given you so many benefits to make you speak for them." Thomas, who was sitting in a chair, heard that Tripa was going to sell the resources of the southern mines to the British, and he immediately retorted.

The mining resources in the southern region do not belong to Thomas alone, other Peruvian bosses also have a share.

He immediately shouted in opposition.

Asking the British for help was painful, but politicians such as Tripa did not agree to expand the army. After a day of discussion without reaching a consensus, Pedro returned home in frustration and waited for the meeting to continue tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)