Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 4 Arms
The next morning, Li Mingyuan was sleeping in the room that originally belonged to Bohar when he was suddenly awakened by a shout.

"Prince, there is a fleet of large ships on the sea." A guard newly assigned to Li Mingyuan shouted.

"I understand," Li Mingyuan sat up from the bed with a start, put on his coat and walked quickly towards the beach.

"Everyone put away your guns first. I'm going to talk to them." Li Mingyuan had just arrived at the beach when he saw a group of Prussian soldiers coming down from the fleet and confronting the Taiping Army. He hurriedly spoke out to stop them.

"Prince, it's too dangerous for you to go alone." Chen Guozhu objected loudly.

Li Mingyuan smiled bitterly in his heart. He didn't want to negotiate with the Prussians, but most of his men didn't even know a few Chinese characters. How could he ask them to communicate with the Prussians?

"It doesn't matter. What they want is saltpeter. As long as you guard the mine, they won't do anything to me." Li Mingyuan comforted everyone.

"Prince, isn't Anthony a Prussian? Don't go. Let me take him to negotiate with the foreigners." Liu Pu spoke when he thought of a Prussian among the prisoners.

"I almost forgot about Anthony." Li Mingyuan slapped his head and said. When he was a mercenary, he was used to facing danger, but now his identity is different. Li Mingyuan's safety is related to the life and death of hundreds of thousands of Chinese in South America. He can no longer take risks easily.

"Brother Liu Pu is right. I didn't think it through. I'd like to trouble Brother Liu Pu to negotiate with the foreigners on my behalf. Dashan, you take the two brothers with you to protect Liu Pu's safety. Also, don't let Anthony play any ulterior motives." Li Mingyuan honestly admitted that he didn't think it through enough, and arranged for someone to go with Liu Pu.

Liu Pu took Anthony on board to negotiate with the Prussians, while Li Mingyuan and his soldiers guarded the seashore closely to prevent the foreigners from doing anything bad.

Half an hour later, Liu Pu, Wang Dashan and others got off the boat safely, with a missionary by their side.

"Prince, the Prussians have basically agreed to trade with us, but the specific details need to be discussed between you and Missionary Paul." Liu Pu walked up to Li Mingyuan and said,

"Hello, Mr. Chief, I am here to discuss the details of the transaction with you on behalf of Colonel West," said the pastor.

"Thank you for your kind cooperation." Li Mingyuan said.

"Sir, you can speak German?"

"Of course, this is what I learned from a German missionary when I was a child." Li Mingyuan made up an excuse.

Because Li Mingyuan could speak German, the subsequent negotiations went smoothly. Li Mingyuan signed a contract with the missionaries and began to unload the weapons on the ship and the saltpeter in the mine under the supervision of soldiers from both sides.

"Please tell Colonel West that we are just a group of kind-hearted Chinese workers pursuing freedom, not cruel thugs. We sincerely hope to find a piece of land that belongs to the Chinese. We hope that when we have a foothold on the land, we can still cooperate with the colonel." Seeing that the soldiers were unloading their weapons and the Prussians were not playing any tricks, Li Mingyuan spoke to the missionaries.

"Of course, may God bless you with good luck." The missionary made the sign of the cross on his chest and said. Although the missionary said this, he actually did not take Li Mingyuan's words to heart. His mission was only to help complete this transaction, and it was not his responsibility to worry about what would happen in the future.

Li Mingyuan took out all the saltpeter and silver dollars to trade with the Prussians, and bought out more than half of the munitions stockpiled by the Prussians. Li Mingyuan originally wanted to buy the remaining munitions, but the Prussians refused to sell them.

The Prussians are not stupid either. They have sold all their weapons to you. What will you do if your fleet encounters pirates at sea?

After seeing off the Prussian fleet, Li Mingyuan began to calculate the materials for this transaction. There were a total of 2,000 muskets, 100,000 rounds of ammunition, 10 Gatling guns, 10,000 rounds of ammunition, and the relatively rare cannons, of which Li Mingyuan also bought three.

There were more weapons than Li Mingyuan had expected. After arming the current 1,500 men, there would still be a lot of muskets left. Looking at the mountain of weapons in front of him, Li Mingyuan laughed out loud with joy. With so many weapons, plus the Taiping Army under his command, it would not be difficult to rescue the other Chinese miners.

"Uncle Chen, Uncle Li, Uncle Zhang, take the muskets from the musket battalion first."

"Yes, Your Majesty," the three men replied, and could not wait to arrange for their soldiers to unload the weapons belonging to their respective camps.

"Liu Pu, please transport the extra weapons to the warehouse,"

"Yes," Liu Pu said, and then he took a few soldiers to manage the muskets to prevent other soldiers from taking too many.

Li Mingyuan did not assign the ten Gatling machine guns and three cannons to the three musket battalions. Machine guns and cannons are now strategic weapons, and Li Mingyuan treasures them very much. He plans to set up a machine gun platoon and an artillery platoon respectively, which are directly under the command of the regiment. The organization of the machine gun platoon is larger than that of ordinary musketeers. Three Gatling machine guns form a machine gun squad. Each machine gun has a main shooter, two deputy shooters, and a loader, which requires a total of four people. In addition to the 40 combat personnel, the ten machine guns are also equipped with a squad of security personnel, which adds up to 60 people, which is almost two platoons of ordinary troops. The chief officer of the machine gun platoon is at the same level as the commander of the musket company. Feng Erhu, who came from Li Mingyuan's guard, serves as the platoon leader. The machine gun platoon is usually trained separately from other troops, and Li Mingyuan will equip the troops for combat.

The Taiping Army was no stranger to cannons. The King of Shi had fought in the Jiangnan region for more than a decade, often fighting against foreigners, and there were many soldiers in the army who used muskets and cannons.

Li Mingyuan knew an old Taiping Army soldier named Luo Zhongguo, nicknamed Luo Cannon. He was very good at operating cannons, so it was perfect for him to be the artillery platoon leader.

After the soldiers from the three musket battalions received their weapons, Li Mingyuan asked someone to find Luo Zhongguo.

"Cannon, can you operate this kind of cannon?" In the warehouse, Li Mingyuan pointed to three brand new cannons.

Luo Dapao's eyes immediately lit up and he stroked the gun with both hands, as if he had seen a beautiful woman.

"Your Highness, this is a Prussian six-pound cannon. The shell weighs five kilograms, and the entire cannon weighs one thousand four hundred kilograms." Luo Dapao said in detail.

"Very good, Cannon. I plan to let you be the platoon leader of the artillery platoon. Are you confident that you can do it well?"

Luo Dapao hadn't touched a cannon for three years. Li Mingyuan was very satisfied to see that he could quickly describe the performance of a newly produced cannon.

"Don't worry, my lord. Leave the cannon to Lao Luo and I guarantee it will hit wherever you point it."

"Very good, these three cannons are yours. Pick some brothers who are good at artillery, and after dinner, go and rescue the other brothers."

"Yes," Luo Dapao saluted the Taiping Army with his head tilted, then trotted out.

Li Mingyuan not only bought arms from the Prussians, but also some meat. They would attack other mining areas tonight, so Li Mingyuan prepared to give the Taiping soldiers a big meal. After eating a good meal, the soldiers would have enough strength to fight at night.

(End of this chapter)