The next day, at nine o'clock in the morning, the open space outside the mine was full of people.
The news of Li Mingyuan's military competition spread out two days ago. Sixty thousand Chinese workers were sitting in a desert mine with nothing to do, so they all came out to watch the competition.
"Old Liu, I heard that the winner of the competition will be personally received by the Crown Prince."
"That's not all. I heard from the company commander that as long as you perform well in the competition, you can become an official."
"Then I'll join too. I'm strong enough to fight two or three. I also want to be an officer."
Officer-oriented thinking has always been serious in China. After Li Mingyuan announced the news of selecting some officers through military competitions, the soldiers below showed enthusiasm and lined up to sign up.
Because there were too many people who signed up, Li Mingyuan divided the competition locations into fifteen, and conducted selections for the four events of shooting, fighting, running, and weightlifting respectively.
"Liu Pu, brothers are very enthusiastic." Li Mingyuan walked around several locations to watch the performance of the soldiers.
"Brothers all want to serve the prince." Liu Pu flattered Li Mingyuan.
Li Mingyuan smiled and ignored Liu Pu's flattery.
In order to encourage soldiers to participate in the competition, Li Mingyuan not only gave out a large amount of captured gold and silver as prizes, but also promised that the champion of each event would be the battalion commander, and other soldiers with good performance would also become company commanders, platoon leaders, and squad leaders.
As soon as they heard that they could become officers, the soldiers below immediately lost their composure. They could not become champions. As long as they performed well and became company commanders or platoon commanders, there was still hope, so they felt that they had some abilities and made the soldiers sign up to participate in the competition.
"Liu Pu, how many people have signed up to participate now?"
"A total of five thousand people signed up."
"Fifty-nine hundred people, accounting for almost one-tenth of the total number of people." Li Mingyuan said with emotion.
"Eight hundred of the 5,900 people are those from four divisions conducting group simulated operations."
The military competition is divided into two parts. One is a team competition mainly involving four newly formed divisions. Each unit sends a part of its troops, and then conducts an offensive and defensive competition in a simulated war environment.
The remaining more than 5,100 people were selected for personal specialties, which tested the soldiers' individual abilities.
"Five thousand one hundred people is quite a lot. After this competition, a thousand people with good performance will be selected to serve as grassroots officers in the company and squad, which can just fill the gap in officers after the expansion of the army."
Peru's counterattack was imminent, and Li Mingyuan did not have time to slowly promote officers. Although it was a bit arbitrary to use military competitions to select officers, it was also the most appropriate method now.
"If the Peruvians want to deal with us, they must send at least 30,000 people, otherwise they will send us equipment." Liu Pu has always been responsible for the logistics of the army, so he gave weapons to the Taiping Army, which was renamed the South American Chinese Independence Army.
The equipment is well understood. With the existing equipment, the Peruvian army with less than 30,000 people will not be a match for the Chinese Independence Army.
"The gap in weapons and equipment is too big, otherwise I would have taken down Barangka directly." Li Mingyuan said with some regret,
After capturing Duraya, the independent army successively seized some weapons and equipment. Now there are more than 20,000 muskets in total, but most of them are backward muskets seized from the mines. There are only about 6,000 muskets with intact performance.
Because there were not enough muskets, about half of the soldiers still carried cold weapons such as swords and spears. With these weapons, they could defend the city, but it was impossible to attack the heavily guarded Barangka.
Because Barranca is an important port city in Peru, hundreds of merchant ships dock at Barranca every day, so the Peruvian government has stationed a large number of troops in Barranca.
These troops were not used to supervise the Chinese workers, but to guard against the Chileans. In the eyes of the Peruvians, although the Chinese workers were hardworking and capable, they had a cowardly character and could not imagine that they would launch an uprising.
Li Mingyuan wanted to attack Barangka, not only to seize supplies, but the main purpose was to obtain an outlet to the sea, and then trade with Prussia and other powerful countries through sea channels.
"The Barranca is the nail in the back of Peru's entry into the Patibilca Valley. Only by taking it can we fully prepare for the war against Peru." Liu Pu nodded.
The two people walked and talked, and soon arrived at the shooting competition venue.
"Zhou Daniu, the humble guard captain, is reporting to the crown prince." Li Mingyuan was suddenly interrupted by a loud noise while he was talking to Liu Pu.
Li Mingyuan turned around and looked. It turned out to be Zhou Daniu during the first riot. At that time, Zhou Daniu led a hundred people to protect the old and weak of the Taiping Army and did not participate in the task of attacking the hall.
But it was also Zhou Daniu's bad luck. After the riot was successful, Li Mingyuan lacked capable men, so he left Zhou Daniu to guard the old camp. As a result, he did not participate in the subsequent battles and did not gain any military merit.
"Daniu, how are you doing in the security regiment?" Li Mingyuan asked with a smile.
"Your Majesty, please change Daniu's troops to another unit. Keep guarding the old camp. Lao Niu's hands are itching." Zhou Daniu said.
"The security regiment is responsible for the security work of the old camp. It has a heavy responsibility. Letting you be the leader of the security regiment shows your importance. Why are you still not satisfied?"
"No, Your Majesty, the work of the security guard is important, but Lao Niu is not qualified to do this. When there was a shortage of manpower during the riots, you asked me to do the work of a security guard, and Lao Niu did not hesitate. But now that the army has expanded, there is no shortage of manpower.
It’s not too much for Lao Niu to change his army,” Zhou Daniu said without giving up.
"Haha, I can let you be the head of the security regiment for a period of time. Let's do this. You will hand over the duties of the security regiment and take up a post in the newly established Second Mixed Brigade tomorrow."
The Second Mixed Brigade is one of the two mixed brigades directly under the headquarters. The other is headed by Wang Dashan.
The mixed brigade has a strength of six thousand, and its level is half a level lower than the division.
Although the number of the mixed brigade is not large, most of the soldiers are from the Taiping Army with combat experience, and they are directly under the independent army headquarters, so the weapons and equipment are better than those of the four divisions.
"Yes, I will go through the handover procedures now." Zhou Daniu did not expect that Li Mingyuan would make him the brigade commander of the mixed brigade. He was so happy that he couldn't wait to complete the transfer procedures immediately.
"Don't worry, since I promised you, I won't keep my promise. Come on, come with me to see the soldiers' shooting results." Li Mingyuan called to Zhou Daniu who turned to leave.
"Aren't I too happy?" Zhou Daniu said embarrassedly.
"Daniu, you are responsible for the shooting competition. Please help me introduce the situation of the competition." Li Mingyuan said.
"Your Majesty, there are 437 soldiers who have signed up to participate in the shooting. After two eliminations, there are still 25 people participating in the competition."
"There are a few people participating in the shooting competition." Liu Pu next to him added.
"There are not many people participating in the shooting competition, but the standards of those who came to sign up are good. There are five soldiers with sharp marksmanship and can hit a target 150 meters away." Zhou Daniu said.
"Oh, I hit the target from 150 meters, I want to meet them." Li Mingyuan said with interest.
During World War II, the sniper rifle was invented. With the assistance of a scope, a sharpshooter could only hit a target of about 200 meters at most. The accuracy would drop at a further distance. Therefore, without the assistance of professional aiming equipment, he could hit a target of 100 meters.