Chapter 140: The fleet returns to Hong Kong, and the foreign legion is established
At noon on December 8, 1868, the fleet that visited Prussia for procurement returned to Rio Grande do Sul again.
At Xinjing's coastal port, more than two hundred ships of various types covered the sea. A dozen large steamships in front of the fleet sounded their whistles. Four gunboats belonging to the National Defense Force Navy stationed outside the port quickly moved out of the way to guide the fleet.
Enter port.
After the fleet docked safely, Sun Bin and a group of people accompanying the ship stepped onto the shore and saw Li Mingyuan leading a group of civil and military officials heading this way.
"Your Majesty, Sun Bin." Sun Bin walked quickly to Li Mingyuan. Just as he was about to reminisce with everyone as before, he suddenly realized that Rio Grande do Sul was officially established as a country, and Li Mingyuan was canonized as the Duke of Brazil by Brazil. National administrative and political institutions
It was officially established, but it was as casual and inappropriate as before. Therefore, he hurriedly bowed and bowed on one knee.
"Mr. Sun has been bumpy at sea for more than four months. He has worked hard and achieved great results, so there is no need to give this gift." Li Mingyuan quickly helped Sun Bin up and said. Seeing a group of white people wearing various old military uniforms following Sun Bin, he asked, "Who are they?"
"They are retired soldiers recruited by me in Prussia and several other German states."
Sun Bin pointed to the white people behind him and explained, "Wars were frequent in the German region. After the war, a large number of outstanding soldiers retired and returned home unable to find suitable jobs. They had no choice but to return to their old profession and serve in other countries.
When I was purchasing a large amount of machinery and equipment in Prussia, I don't know how the news got to them. More than a dozen retired officers from the German states came to me to sell their mercenaries to me.
I thought that Rio Grande do Sul lacked experienced officers, and that the new artillery purchased this time also required professional officers to operate it, so I took the initiative to select a group of retired soldiers and brought them back, and I hope that His Highness the Crown Prince will forgive me."
"You are solely responsible for the specific affairs of the mission to Prussia. Recruiting retired soldiers is within your authority. You have done a good job and it is not considered an unauthorized act."
Li Mingyuan and Sun Bin said a few words, and then turned their eyes to the white soldiers behind them. More than three hundred white people who came ashore were divided into two parts to adjust their queues. The soldiers who were disembarking from the ship behind were in order, which was very different from the sloppy appearance of European and American soldiers represented by the United States in later generations.
same.
Seeing Li Mingyuan looking at the recruited foreign soldiers with interest, Sun Bin said in time, "Your Highness, the first two troops to come ashore are Prussian retired soldiers and Mecklenburg soldiers, the Kingdom of Prussia and the Principality of Mecklenburg.
The relationship is so close that the retired soldiers recruited from the two countries came over on the same ship.
The soldiers disembarking behind the ship are mainly retired soldiers from the Kingdom of Bavaria and the Kingdom of Württemberg. Their countries had fought with Prussia two years ago. The Prussian-Austrian War ended. As defeated countries, the two countries were forced to join the Prussian-dominated North.
German Confederation.
Therefore, the retired soldiers recruited from Bavaria and Württemberg were unwilling to be in the same boat as the Prussians, and their humble positions could only separate them."
"There are many princes in the German region, and Prussia will have a lot of troubles if it wants to unify Germany." Li Mingyuan commented as an outsider.
The soldiers on the ship quickly disembarked and assembled. After about three minutes, no more white soldiers disembarked from the ship. Li Mingyuan glanced at the white retired soldiers standing on the coast and divided them into five queues, about 800 of them.
"Go and call the person in charge of them over. I want to have a word with them."
The soldier conveyed Li Mingyuan's order, brought an interpreter, and quickly found two tall foreigners. Through the interpreter, communication became much simpler and easier.
"Since you two have arrived in Rio Grande do Sul, you must have done some research beforehand. You are all soldiers, so I won't talk nonsense. I just want to know what skills you and your soldiers have, and then I can give you some advice based on your abilities."
price remuneration."
"Your Majesty the Grand Duke, I have fifty retired artillerymen, thirty-two retired cavalry, one hundred and twenty retired infantry, one hundred and twelve retired infantry from Mecklenburg and two hundred infantry from other areas.
Willing to fight with the Prussian troops."
"The artillery and cavalry will be mobilized to join my army. The remaining soldiers will be under your unified command. Captain Frank, is there no problem?"
Li Mingyuan called him by his military rank before he retired.
"You are the employer and I am willing to follow your arrangements." Frank said without hesitation.
The two mercenary leaders, Frank, had more than 500 soldiers under his command, and the Bavarian Aldrich had 300 soldiers under his command. After selecting the artillery, cavalry and other technical arms among them, there were still 700 soldiers left.
"You two, I will form the Rio Grande do Sul Foreign Mercenary Corps based on your soldiers. You are the first batch of foreign mercenary soldiers. I hope you two will cooperate well. When I need the foreign mercenary army to fight,
Show your due fighting power.”
"Your Majesty the Grand Duke, how do we calculate our weapons, equipment and treatment? When Sun was in Prussia, he promised us that he would pay military expenses at three times the salary of soldiers serving in the Prussian Army.
The soldiers don't have much money with them, I hope you can fulfill your promise and release one month's military expenses in advance." Aldrich said.
"I will arrange for military expenses to be distributed to you later. Weapons and equipment will be equipped with newly purchased Dresser rifles in accordance with field army standards." Li Mingyuan promised: "During peace training, ordinary soldiers and officers will receive military expenses three times as much as the Prussian army."
, when a war breaks out, military benefits are increased to four times. If someone dies in the war, pensions will be paid to their families.
The Kingdom of Prussia has a liaison officer stationed in Rio Grande do Sul, and the pension will be transferred to the fallen soldiers by him, so you don’t have to worry about anything."
Li Mingyuan gave generous treatment to the first batch of white mercenaries, not only to win people's hearts and set an example by trading horse bones for a thousand gold, but also for practical purposes. From the second half of the 19th century until World War II, European and American whites occupied the hegemonic position in the world.
Although the Chinese established their country in South America, it was still more convenient to do some things under the guise of white people. Therefore, Li Mingyuan made plans in advance.
He used generous treatment to stabilize the morale of the white mercenaries. He temporarily appointed Frank Rio Grande do Sul as the foreign legion commander and Aldrich as the deputy commander. Li Mingyuan led people to arrange their accommodation, and then began to direct the soldiers to load and unload mechanical equipment and
arms.
Most of the more than 200 ships were hired from Prussia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and other North Sea countries after arriving in Prussia.
Mechanical equipment and weapons and military equipment account for nearly half of the fleet. The remaining half of the ships are mostly loaded with artillery and personnel. The purchase of 10,000 rifles is the least expensive among several procurement items.
After gathering two-thirds of the garrison and retired soldiers in Xinjing, they spent a busy afternoon and only moved a quarter of the mechanical equipment and half of the artillery to the shore. It was getting late and the sun was about to set under the sea. Li Mingyuan ordered
The soldier stopped working and walked to the shore with Sun Bin, who was busy back and forth, to rest under a tree.
"Your Majesty, I got a lot of good things from this mission to Prussia. Under the raincloth in the north is a complete set of 105mm howitzer production equipment, including barrel processing and ammunition processing equipment.
Five Dresser rifle production lines, two sets of 75 mm field guns, and three sets of 65 mm mountain cannon military equipment have not been unloaded on the ship..."
Sun Bin had just taken some time off, and without feeling tired at all, he introduced the purchased military equipment to Li Mingyuan like a treasure trove.
In fact, the number of main weapons and equipment has been introduced in the telegram. Li Mingyuan did not interrupt his interest and continued, "Rifles, three types of field artillery and supporting ammunition production equipment. With these, Rio Grande do Sul has
With the initial systematic defense industry system, coupled with the procurement of mining and smelting steel equipment, over time, the power of the Chinese in South America will be qualitatively improved."
From scratch, we have our own industrial system belonging to the Chinese in South America. Although it is only a small industrial system composed of more than a dozen types of industrial equipment, it is still of great significance to the Chinese forces under the leadership of Li Mingyuan.
The elder Lopez took charge of the landlocked country Paraguay and developed Paraguay into a small South American hegemon that could challenge Brazil. The territory of Rio Grande do Sul is not much different from Paraguay. Li Mingyuan believed that he could do better than the elder Lopez.
