Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 66 Receiving Weapons
I was not updating yesterday, sorry, and I would also like to thank the lazy readers, Nanyang Empire, and Jiangbian Zhizhi for their donations.

At noon, a long convoy was driving on the road leading to the port of Balangka. At the front of the team, Sun Bin and Zhao Yan were riding on horses, preparing to go to the port to receive weapons.

"Congratulations, Brother Sun, on your promotion," Zhao Yan said with a smile as he bowed to Sun Bin while riding on his horse.

After Sun Bin was promoted to the director of logistics, he contacted the local indigenous people through the descendants of Chinese in Peru and found 6,000 alpacas within a week, exceeding the task assigned by Li Mingyuan.
For this, he was praised by Li Mingyuan and promoted to deputy chief of staff and director of logistics. Sun Bin stepped into the core senior leadership of the Chinese Independence Army.

The Chinese Independence Army lacked civilians. Before Sun Bin was promoted to deputy chief of staff, there was only one chief of staff, Liu Pu, in the General Staff Headquarters. Most of the positions of the deputy chief of staff and the directors of the subordinate departments were vacant, and the affairs of the general staff were handled by the deputy heads of each department.

In the early days of the army, there was a shortage of talent. If people with incompetent abilities were promoted to high positions, problems would easily arise.
Therefore, Li Mingyuan adopted the method of preferring to have nothing rather than to have too many people, and gave the few civilians in the army low positions, and promoted them after they had made achievements in deputy positions.

In this way, officers in the general staff have room for promotion and are more cautious and serious in their work, reducing the number of errors in troop operations.

"Brother Zhao, you are too polite. I just completed the mission by chance, so the prince mistakenly chose me as the deputy chief of staff." Sun Bin said modestly.

"Brother Sun, you are too modest. Everyone has seen your performance in the General Staff. Therefore, the position of Deputy Chief of Staff should be held by Brother Sun."

During the feudal period, the imperial court paid great attention to the appearance of officials. It was unlikely that Sun Bin would serve as an official since he had a lame leg. However, the Chinese Independence Army was just established and there were not so many rules. So after a preliminary investigation, Liu Pu transferred him to assist him in his work.

Sun Bin cherished the hard-won opportunity and conscientiously assisted Liu Pu in managing the logistics of the Chinese Independence Army. He completed the task at hand very well and won Liu Pu's favor. He was promoted step by step and eventually caught the eye of Li Mingyuan, which led to his current position.

"Haha, let's not talk about my business. How is the work done by Brother Zhao's men?"

Zhao Yan also had a heavy burden on his shoulders. He was responsible for purchasing medicines, managing doctors, and allocating food.

Zhao Yan had been very busy with his work these days, so when he heard Sun Bin asking about work, he smiled bitterly and said, "The food problem is easy to solve. The food in the occupied areas has been transported to Arequipa, but it took a lot of effort to get enough medicine and doctors."

"Tell me the specific situation."

"The troops had to pass through hot and humid forest areas during their transfer, so the list of medicines to be purchased included many drugs for preventing and controlling tropical diseases and insects.

Moreover, the prince specifically instructed me to purchase a large amount of quinine cream. The total amount of these medicines is very large. In order to complete the task, I not only visited merchants from various European countries one by one, but also personally collected medicines to meet the demand for medicines. "

Zhao Yan rolled up his sleeves, revealing his scarred right arm, and complained, "These scars are from collecting cinchona."

"Tropical forest areas are prone to various diseases. A sufficient supply of medicines is very important for the troops to reach their destination safely. So, Brother Zhao, purchasing medicines is a big deal, and you deserve to endure some hardship."

"Haha, I understand what Brother Sun said. I don't say this just in front of you. When it comes to doing real work, I will not be careless."

Zhao Yan smiled and jokingly said, "Since I worked so hard to collect herbs in the mountains, Brother Sun, why don't you reward me?"

"Okay, after we finish receiving the weapons, I'll treat you to a drink tonight."

When Sun Bin was promoted to deputy chief of staff, Zhao Yan was also promoted to director of the Military Affairs Department. The gap between the two was not very big, so they got along well with each other as they did in the past, with no obvious distinction between superiors and subordinates.

"Brother Zhao, as far as I know, there are not many Chinese people who know medical skills. How did you gather enough people?"

After discussing dinner in the evening, Sun Bin asked.

"There are only 27 Chinese who know how to do medicine. The prince asked me to gather 100 doctors. This is a difficult problem, but since the prince has given the order, I have to do it no matter how difficult it is. So I picked out more than 20 military doctors from the captured Peruvian army, and then searched in the occupied area. It was not until yesterday that I finally gathered 100 doctors."

The Chinese Independence Army had strict discipline and did not harm ordinary Peruvian civilians in the occupied areas. However, they would bring urgently needed talents such as doctors into the army and leave with the troops, regardless of whether they were willing or not.

Sun Bin nodded in agreement with Zhao Yan's approach. The importance of military doctors to the army was obvious. Although Zhao Yan's approach was a bit simple and crude, it was also suitable for the current situation of the Chinese Independence Army.

They chatted all the way until they arrived at the port of Baranka. Dozens of ships were parked on the sea, and boxes of weapons and ammunition were being unloaded from the ships. "Brother Sun, we are a little early. They haven't finished unloading the weapons yet." Zhao Yan pointed at the busy Prussian sailors in the port with a whip in his hand.

"Other troops are still waiting to be equipped with new weapons. Let's not waste time and let the brothers behind help them transport the weapons down."

"Okay, I understand," Zhao Yan glanced around the port while riding on his horse and found that the Prussian business representative was talking to a middle-aged white man in military uniform.

"Brother Sun, the Prussian commercial representative is there. Let's discuss the transportation of weapons directly with him." Zhao Yan pointed at Hoffman and the middle-aged white man.

"Yeah," Sun Bin responded, got off the horse and walked over there.

"Hello, Mr. Hoffman, I am the person in charge of handing over weapons to you, and this is my deputy." When Sun Bin and Zhao Yan walked up to Hoffman, he was still talking to the middle-aged white officer and did not notice their arrival.

"Oh, Sun, Zhao, nice to see you again." Hearing the voice, Hoffman turned around and saw Sun Bin and Zhao Yan. He recognized them as the two people who discussed the arms sale with him last time. Therefore, he said enthusiastically.

"Nice to meet you too, Mr. Hoffman," Sun Bin said with a smile and shook hands with Hoffman.

"Who is this gentleman?" After greeting Hoffman, Sun Bin looked at the middle-aged man next to him and asked.

"Sorry, I forgot to introduce you. This is Mr. West, a captain of the Prussian Navy."

"Hello, Colonel." Sun Bin took the initiative to extend his hand.

"Do you remember the last time we cooperated?" West said.

"I remember now. You are the commander of the Prussian fleet that traded with us for the first time." Sun Bin said suddenly.

“Haha, this is our second collaboration.”

"Yes, thank you for trading arms with us." The first arms trade with the Prussians provided the Chinese workers with weapons for expansion. Without that batch of weapons, the Chinese Independence Army would not have its current size. Therefore, Sun Bin still had a good impression of West, who sold weapons to the Chinese Independence Army.

"No, you used money and mines to exchange for weapons, so you don't have to thank us." West shook his head.

"This foreigner can't even listen to polite words. He is indeed a barbarian." Sun Bin despised him in his heart, but his face was still smiling: Mr. Hoffman, Colonel West, I would like my soldiers to help you carry weapons, is that okay?

"Thank you very much for your kindness." Hoffman readily accepted Sun Bin's kindness and sent one of his men to lead the Chinese soldiers to carry the weapons.

"Mr. Sun, I'm very curious about how you were able to defeat tens of thousands of Peruvian regular troops with just a group of laborers. How did you do it?" When West came to trade, he heard Hoffman talk about the expansion process of the Chinese, so he asked curiously.

"Haha, we defeated the Peruvians under the leadership of the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince is a great leader. Under his leadership, we have never failed." Sun Bin said with a smile, with an expression of admiration on his face.

"Your prince is a wise and intelligent general. I want to meet him." West said seriously.

Prussia has a strong military atmosphere. West admires from the bottom of his heart a general who can lead his subordinates to victory under adversity.

"If the colonel wants to see the prince, I can introduce him to him." Before Sun Bin came, Li Mingyuan told him to maintain good relations with the Prussians, because after the founding of the country, there would be many areas that would require cooperation with Prussia.

"It's a deal then. After the arms deal is completed, you and I will go to meet your prince."

"It's a deal."...

(End of this chapter)