Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 72 Before leaving

Outside the city of Arequipa, Rustuart and General Dadini, a general under Peruvian President Pedro, led 40,000 Peruvian soldiers to line up in front of the city gate, waiting for the final transaction with the Chinese Independence Army.

Li Mingyuan did not break his promise. After normal transactions with the Peruvians, the Chinese Independence Army officially handed over the three coastal cities of Moyendo, Moquegua and Tacna to Rustuart, and all the 4,000 captured Moyendo soldiers were returned to him.

After obtaining the three cities, Rustuart immediately exercised his power to sell local interests to business representatives of various countries, obtain cash and loans, and recruited 12,000 troops within a week.

In this transaction with the Chinese Independence Army, Rustuart transferred 10,000 men, on the one hand to strengthen the Peruvian side and prevent the Chinese Independence Army from underestimating Peru.
On the other hand, it was to show his muscles and demonstrate his strength to Dadini to prevent him from taking the opportunity to encroach on his territory.

The easy recovery of lost territory made Dadini despise the Chinese independence army.

"These rebels are not that powerful." Dadini rode on his horse, staring at Li Mingyuan and his group walking slowly towards him. An adventurous idea flashed through his mind.

"Lustuart, after the deal is done, we'll take advantage of the rebels' unpreparedness and kill them. How about it, shall we?" Dadini lowered his voice, a fierce light in his eyes.

Lustuart was shocked by Dadini's idea. His proposal was indeed very tempting, but when he thought of the methods used by the Chinese Independence Army, Lustuart decisively gave up the idea.

Now that he had obtained the territory and army he had always dreamed of, there was no need to take risks in order to seek credit from his superiors.

"General Dadinni, the rebels are very powerful. It will be difficult to defeat them with the army we have."

Dadini was very dissatisfied with Rustuart's cowardice, and his face turned ugly in an instant. However, Dadini was a senior general after all, so he quickly adjusted his mood and pretended to say, "I'm just joking with you, don't take it seriously."

Having been in the Peruvian military for more than 20 years, Lustuart could naturally tell whether Dadinni was joking or not.

When Dadini thought he had covered it up well, Lustuart had already seen from his expression that he despised him, and that what he had just said was not just a joke.

"If you want to die, I won't stop you. Once you see how powerful the rebels are, you'll know who's the fool."

"General Dadini, the enemy's people are coming. Let's go forward and meet them." Lustuart sneered secretly, pretending to respect Dadini on the surface.

"Well, let's go." Dadini waved his hand, and a hundred cavalrymen walked out of the army and walked towards the center of the two armies.

"Lustuart, long time no see. You look very good now." As soon as the two met, Li Mingyuan spoke first with a smile.

"Thank you for your concern, I'm fine now." Lustuart also smiled.

The two of them smiled very naturally, and if you didn’t know them you would think they were old friends who hadn’t seen each other for a long time!

"Lustuart, this must be General Dadini, President Pedro's right-hand man!"

In the previous transactions with Peru, Li Mingyuan did not appear in person, and the specific transactions were handled by his subordinates.
The transaction of the city of Arequipa was the highlight of the deal with the Peruvians. In addition, neither party had made any moves in the previous transactions, so the last transaction was a face-to-face meeting between the heads of both parties to resolve the last step of the transaction.

"Your Excellency is truly amazing for leading the rebels to defeat our southern army. I, a capable general, dare not compare myself with you." Dadini was soft but firm, and directly called the Chinese Independence Army rebels.

"Haha, the Chinese workers' uprising was also a last resort. As for the strength of our army, you can ask Lustuart, and he will tell you the answer."

Most of the transactions between the Chinese Independence Army and Peru have been completed. At this time, Li Mingyuan will not give the Peruvians face and directly responds tit for tat.

"The war is over. Aren't we standing face to face now?" Lustuart said with a smile, "Mr. Li, General Dadinni, the most important thing for us now is to conduct the transaction. As for other topics, let's not talk about them for now, okay?"

"Of course, my troops are ready to set off. I believe your troops also want to recapture the city of Arequipa as soon as possible?" Li Mingyuan said.

Dadini nodded with a sullen look on his face, and the two sides handed over the specific materials of the last transaction, and then Li Mingyuan and Dadini returned to their own camps. "Yongzeng, monitor the movements of the Peruvian army, and report to me immediately if you find any unusual movements from them." From the previous conversation, Li Mingyuan sensed Dadini's hatred for the Chinese Independence Army, so he ordered the special forces commander Zhao Yongzeng to prepare in advance.

"I understand. The reconnaissance battalion and the first special forces squadron will be responsible for monitoring the Peruvian army." Zhao Yongzeng replied.

"Yeah," Li Mingyuan nodded and continued, "You go tell Sun Bin to come and see me." As the person in charge of 90,000 Chinese, Liu Pu has led the troops to set off in advance, and the main force of the field army under Li Mingyuan is temporarily serving as the rear guard. Therefore, the staff work in the field army is temporarily in the charge of Sun Bin.

Sun Bin, like other senior officers, was monitoring the transaction between the two parties at the city gate. After hearing the message from the guards, Sun Bin rode to Li Mingyuan on horseback.
"Sun Bin, I feel the Peruvians may launch an attack tonight. You are responsible for arranging the troops on alert." Li Mingyuan said.

Li Mingyuan's success in previous battles has proved his accuracy in grasping the opportunities for battle. Since Li Mingyuan believes that the Peruvians will launch an attack, he is about 90% sure that it will really happen, so Sun Bin responded and then arranged the specific defense matters of the troops.

In the Peruvian camp, a soldier walked into Rustuart's tent and reported: "General, as you expected, General Dadini's troops are being mobilized."

"I see, you go down."

After sending away the soldier who brought the news, Rustuart did not experience the joy he had expected after the news came true. Instead, he paced back and forth in the military tent with a sad face.

Dadini mobilized the army without telling me, and I knew what he was going to do without even thinking about it.

Although what Dadinni was going to do had nothing to do with Rustuart, his actions put Rustuart in an awkward position.

Logically speaking, Datini and Rustuart belonged to the same camp and should work together.

But Lustuart knew clearly that Dadini was no match for Li Mingyuan. If Dadini's attack failed, Li Mingyuan would not think that he had nothing to do with it.

When the time comes, the Chinese Independence Army will launch a retaliatory attack, and Dadini can just leave with his troops, but the three cities he had just acquired would have to change owners.

The more Lustuart thought about it, the more unwilling he became. Finally, he gritted his teeth and made up his mind. …

At midnight, all the Chinese in Arequipa evacuated, and the 10,000 Chinese workers who had just been accepted by the Chinese Independence Army also joined Liu Pu's logistics troops under the escort of 2,000 soldiers.

Li Mingyuan led 20,000 Chinese Independence Army soldiers to ambush on a road outside Arequipa.

During the day, Rustuart's messenger told Li Mingyuan the news that Datini had sent troops to attack the Chinese Independence Army, which confirmed Li Mingyuan's previous inference.

As for the joint rehearsal between Rustuart and Dadini to deceive Li Mingyuan, on the one hand, Rustuart had no motive to do so, and on the other hand, even if they acted to lure the Chinese Independence Army into being deceived, Li Mingyuan had made arrangements and was not afraid of falling into their trap.

Under the bright moonlight, a group of dark shadows quietly appeared in Li Mingyuan's sight.

"Prince, they are here." Zhao Yongzeng crawled beside Li Mingyuan and whispered.

"Yongzeng, how about accepting the arrangement?"

"Don't worry, Prince. The soldiers of the special brigade and the reconnaissance battalion are all lying in ambush in the pits on both sides of the continent. They won't find us."

"We need to fight this battle quickly and decisively. We cannot waste our limited ammunition and supplies here."

On the surface, it was unnecessary to fight against the Peruvian army under Dadini. The Chinese Independence Army could just ignore them and move in.

But on the other hand, if the Chinese Independence Army surrendered this time, it would have a bad influence on other Peruvian troops, making them think that the Chinese Independence Army was busy escaping and would not fight a hard battle with them.
As a result, the Chinese Independence Army would suffer a large number of attacks from the Peruvian army during its retreat, which would slow down its advance and consume its ammunition and supplies. Therefore, in the long run, this battle had to be fought.

(End of this chapter)