In early November 1868, more than fifty large and small merchant ships gathered in the port of Joinvia. Off the port, an ironclad ship led a group of twelve sailing warships and fifteen gunboats to form a battle fleet, setting sail and preparing to set sail.
After the signing of the peace treaty, the Army of the Chinese Independence Army withdrew from the land it belonged to in accordance with the provisions of the treaty, and the Navy dispatched half of its ships to transport Chinese laborers.
In the agreement, the ships transporting Chinese workers were provided by Brazil, but the news from Cuba was not optimistic. In order to complete the task of transporting Chinese workers as soon as possible, Li Mingyuan ordered the Chinese Independent Army Fleet to participate in the transportation work together with the Brazilian fleet.
On October 10, 1868, C.M. de Cespedes, a plantation owner in the Oriente Province of the Cuban colony, staged an uprising in the village of Yala. On October 16, he issued the "Declaration of the Cuban Revolutionary Council to the Compatriots and the People of All Countries".
The book called on the Cuban people to immediately launch an armed uprising, fight for Cuba's independence and equal freedom for the people, and put forward the demand for the liberation of slaves.
After the declaration was issued, Cuban blacks, slaves, mulattoes and planters responded to the call and joined the uprising.
The rebel army quickly increased to 12,000 people, and successively captured Yarra, Baire, Higuani, Bayamo and other towns, and directed its troops towards Santiago, an important town in the east of Cuba.
Affected by the successive victories of the rebel army, armed uprisings also broke out in the provinces of Camaguey and Las Villas.
In just over twenty days, the Cuban uprising intensified, and as a large group of Cuban workers, some Chinese workers also began to join the riots.
The Spanish colonists failed to deal with the Cuban uprising in the early stages, which worsened the situation. However, when Spanish support troops arrived in Cuba, the seemingly powerful rebel army would be wiped out one by one.
The chaos in Cuba has nothing to do with the Chinese Independence Army, but after the Spanish colonists extinguished the rebellion, they will definitely intensify their crackdown on the slaves and Chinese workers who participated in the rebellion. As a result, the introduction of Chinese workers into Cuba will be affected.
Therefore, before the Chinese workers participate in the rebellion on a large scale, bringing them back to Rio Grande do Sul becomes the most urgent matter at hand.
From the late 16th century to the mid-17th century, about 10,000 Chinese came to South America from Manila. Most of the more than 10,000 Chinese stayed in Peru and Cuba, and a small number lived in other places.
The Manila colony controlled by Spain is the closest to the mainland, and it is easier for them to obtain labor than countries such as Britain and France. More than three hundred years later, all the early Chinese who came to South America died in mines and plantations, and the number of laborers gradually increased slowly.
They adapted to the local environment and survived, but still lacked freedom and continued to work in various forms of prostitution.
So far, there are about 100,000 Chinese workers in Cuba. After the Cuban uprising broke out in 1868, a large number of oppressed Chinese workers joined the uprising and fought against the Spanish army. After the uprising failed, the blacks, Indians and Chinese workers who participated in the uprising were executed in large numbers.
After Cuba gained independence with the support of the United States, the political status of the laborers who participated in independence did not improve at all. Some of the land and wealth of the freed Chinese workers were confiscated by the newly established Cuban government. The Chinese workers who lost their freedom still had no right to choose.
In 1911, sixteen years after the establishment of the new Cuban government, there were only a few hundred local Chinese workers left, and Cuba changed from the country with the largest Chinese population to the country with the smallest Chinese population in the Americas.
As for the missing Chinese workers, some fled to other areas, and some slowly disappeared into the dense rubber plantations of Cuba.
Compared with the Chinese in Cuba, the fate of the Chinese workers in Peru was much luckier. Li Mingyuan led them to obtain their own land. Some Chinese soldiers had already found wives to settle down. Facing the Chinese workers in Cuba on the other side of the South American continent, Li Mingyuan extended a helping hand to them.
More than 50 ocean-going merchant ships and more than a dozen warships formed the first batch of transportation fleets. A month later, British and Dutch merchant ships hired will form a larger fleet to participate in transportation.
The hiring of the British fleet was an agreement reached between Liu Pu and the British representative during the negotiation. After the negotiation was concluded, Liu Pu followed Li Mingyuan's instructions and, in addition to purchasing a large number of material orders, proposed to purchase two 3,500-ton ironclads from the United Kingdom.
and the terms of business for the employment of British merchant ships.
When Li Mingyuan asked Liu Pu to put forward the above conditions, he just had a try attitude. Unexpectedly, as soon as Liu Pu proposed it, the British representative readily agreed.
After Liu Pu came back, he relayed the words of the British representative to Li Mingyuan. Li Mingyuan suddenly realized that the British Empire was currently in a stage of rapid development and there was still some way to go before it became the absolute hegemon at the beginning of the twentieth century. Li Mingyuan was worried that the British would use technology against the Chinese Independence Army.
Blockade and refused to sell to the Chinese Independence Army armored ships, but then I thought about it, the Chinese Independence Army controlled the two states, with a population of only one or two hundred thousand, so the British would not regard it as a threat at all with such a size and strength.
After all, several South American countries are fighting for territory, but the South American countries fighting with European obsolete weapons are just like playing house. Just send a few regular regiments of troops to sweep across the powerful South American countries, and even the other side of the ocean.
The United States is no match for the British regular army. In the past few years, the United States, which felt that it had no rivals in the North American continent, became more ambitious and attacked Canada. As a result, it was severely beaten by the British troops stationed in Canada. Even the White House in the capital was burned down by the British troops.
The British agreed to sell warships and hire merchant ships for themselves, and Li Mingyuan was happy to accept.
Ten large British merchant ships, thirty medium-sized merchant ships, fifteen medium-sized merchant ships provided by the Netherlands, forty-five ships can transport 17,000 people one way, plus the second batch of ships left by the Chinese Independence Army, a rapid
Twenty-three thousand people is not a big problem.
A large number of merchant ships were hired within a month, and the price paid by the Chinese Independence Army was not small. Liu Pu returned to Rio Grande do Sul from Brazil with a British business representative, and handed over ten tons of gold in Rio Grande for the purpose of hiring a fleet and purchasing warships.
, deposit for purchasing materials.
At this time, the British currency pound had been linked to gold, and the Chinese Independence Army directly traded gold. The British were very happy and did not ask stupid questions about the origin of the gold. They immediately contacted merchant ships to gather at the designated location by the Chinese.
Calculating all the costs of purchasing machinery, purchasing warships, and hiring merchant ships, more than half of the gold reserves of the Chinese Independence Army were spent, and it also cost a large amount of money to resettle Chinese workers in Cuba. All of these costs were wasted, and Li Mingyuan's new financial problem became
Important issues to consider.
After watching the first batch of fleets leave the port, Li Mingyuan temporarily put aside the issue of exploring new sources of income, and entered the Joinvia port under construction with Liu Pu and others.
There are five large and small ports along the coast of Santa Catarina. Among them, Florianópolis on Invia and Santa Catarina Island has a better hydrological environment and is suitable for construction as a naval base for the Chinese Independence Army.
The naval force of the Chinese Independence Army has experienced the Battle of Joinvia and has been undergoing intensive training for nearly half a year, and is now ready to officially become an army.
The naval force will be formally formed into the army after completing the transportation of Chinese workers in Cuba. Before that, the three ports of Porto Alegre, Joinvia, and Florianópolis were built as naval bases, and the main naval force was docked in Alegre.
Port Legre is responsible for guarding the maritime security of the headquarters of the Chinese Independence Army. Joinvia and Florianópolis serve as naval sub-bases, deploying certain warships for guard duties. At the same time, the officially established Marine Corps base is located in Jo
Invia,
In addition to the defense facilities destroyed by artillery fire in the area under construction in Invia Port, the rest is the Marine Corps camp.
There are many people in the Chinese Independence Army who are familiar with water, but not many can serve as senior naval commanders. Among the naval forces, Chen Sen is barely qualified, but his military merit and qualifications are not high, so Li Mingyuan sent him to station in the Caribbean.
Try to control a fleet on his own. If he performs well, he will be given a seat among the senior officials of the officially established navy.
Chen Sen was unable to return for a short time in the Caribbean, so naval affairs were temporarily handed over to Liu Pu, while the Marine Corps, which was about to become an army, was handed over to Feng Guoan. Feng Guoan, formerly known as Feng Erhu, served as the regimental commander in the Chinese Independence Army.
Feng Erhu fought steadily and decisively, which was quite different from his name, so he was renamed Feng Guoan by Li Mingyuan.
Li Mingyuan inspected the construction progress of the Joinvia port, and Feng Guoan followed him. After inspecting the port fort, he came to a coastal camp near the sea, where hundreds of Chinese soldiers were training against the current in the sea.
"Your Majesty, the more than 100 people in front of the wave are veterans of the frogmen unit, and the 300 people behind are new recruits who have been training for three months. The total number of soldiers in the Marine Corps is here. There are still 200 people left before the 600 people you requested.
gap."
Feng Guoan saw Li Mingyuan focusing on the soldiers training in the sea and complained at every opportunity.
"If you don't have enough soldiers, you have to recruit them. You need me to teach you about this problem."
Li Mingyuan said without turning his head.
"Your Majesty, to tell you the truth, in order to recruit troops, I humiliated myself and went out with an army, but no matter how good I was, I couldn't recruit the number of people that met the prince's requirements.
If the Crown Prince hadn't inspected the base today, I would have reported to you personally tonight."
"Oh, are other armies not allowing you to recruit their soldiers?"
Li Mingyuan turned his head and smiled.
Before Feng Guoan spoke, Liu Pu smiled and replied, "I know something about the Marine Corps recruitment situation.
Commander Feng followed the prince's order to recruit troops from four divisions and three mixed brigades. At first, the chief officers of each department were relatively cooperative. Later, Commander Feng took out a training plan from nowhere and selected soldiers according to the standards in the training book.
, as a result, the commander-in-chief of each army was unwilling. Not only did they not allow Commander Feng to recruit troops in the army, they also sent the report to me."
"What training book are you holding?" Li Mingyuan noticed something fishy.
"It's the training book that the Crown Prince gave to Beizhi. Beizhi did it according to the Crown Prince's requirements."
Li Mingyuan looked at Feng Guoan, saw an unnatural look in his eyes, and understood the truth of the matter.
"Commander Feng, you take the training plan I arranged for the frogmen unit as a recruitment standard, right?"
Feng Guoan nodded and did not deny it.
"You asked me for a frogman unit training plan, but I didn't expect to use it for recruiting." Li Mingyuan found it a bit funny. Feng Guoan used the frogman unit's standards to recruit soldiers. No wonder the other army commanders were unwilling. Every elite soldier in the unit was very good.
How can they manage the army if Feng Guoan has poached it all by himself?
"Let's do this. The recruited soldiers will be returned to the original unit with 100 soldiers, and I will transfer 100 soldiers from the guard regiment, the first mixed brigade, and the second mixed brigade to you respectively. The 600-man establishment will be fully recruited first."
"Prince!" Feng Guoan opened his mouth to object, but was blocked by Li Mingyuan. "Okay, this matter is over. If you object again, I will send back all the soldiers you recruited and let you recruit new ones."
!”
Feng Guoan hurriedly stopped and did not finish his words. He recruited troops by himself, which aroused the dissatisfaction of the chief officers of various ministries. If he recruited troops again, they would not let him choose at will.
The Feng Guoan matter was just an episode. After inspecting Joinvia, Li Mingyuan returned to his residence and continued to be busy with the resettlement issues in the newly occupied areas.