The next day, Li Mingyuan and Liu Pu cooperated with each other and told the disadvantages of using Barangka as a base. The senior officers present, including Chen Guozhu, who was originally inclined to Barangka, also changed their views and agreed with Li Mingyuan in southern Brazil.
Plan for nation-building.
Starting from Barranca, it is a three thousand mile journey to southern Brazil, including Bolivia and Paraguay.
When moving to southern Brazil, except for the distance and the need to bring enough living supplies, all other difficulties can be overcome.
Bolivia has a small population, and has always been a scumbag in all the wars in South America. As long as the Chinese defeat the main force of the Peruvian army, when they enter Bolivia, even if the Bolivians have the courage to intercept them, Li Mingyuan is equally confident that they will not be able to defeat them.
Walk around.
As for reaching Paraguay, it would be more convenient. Paraguay is currently at war with Brazil and Argentina. It is too late to be happy when encountering reinforcements. How could it take the initiative to provoke the Chinese army?
Moreover, there is another advantage after entering Paraguay, that is, you can use the Paraná River that runs through Paraguay and Brazil to transport troops, and then follow the river directly to southern Brazil.
After reaching a consensus on the choice of the location for the founding of the country, the goals of subsequent military operations also became clear. The main goal at the moment was to collect the packhorses, food and materials needed for the transfer of Chinese troops.
The second step is to annihilate the main force of the Peruvian army and create conditions for the transfer.
After discussing the next phase of the combat objectives, Li Mingyuan ordered Wang Linshan and Li Sandou to each lead 10,000 people to sweep the towns around Barangka, rescue miners scattered in various mining plantations, and search for supplies.
After everything was arranged, Li Mingyuan had some free time to check the results of this battle.
The muskets captured on the battlefield have been temporarily distributed to the soldiers participating in the battle. After capturing a thousand defenders of the city, the Chinese army received about a thousand more muskets. In addition to the three thousand muskets stored in the Barangka weapons depot, this
A total of more than 9,000 muskets were seized in this battle.
And because Barranca was a prosperous port city, Li Mingyuan also captured thirty-four Peruvian ships and a large amount of cargo. Although the Peruvian ships were not as good as the warships of Western powers, with these ships, the Chinese
After annihilating the main force in Peru, the army can use sea ships to transport some soldiers to land from the rear of Peru, and cooperate with the main force to occupy the coastal areas of Peru.
There were fifty or sixty merchant ships from Britain, France and other countries in the port of Barangka. Li Mingyuan ordered the soldiers not to touch their ships because the Chinese troops were still too small and a premature conflict with the Western powers would be detrimental to the Chinese Independence Army.
Most of the fifty or sixty merchant ships are British ships. Although the Americans proposed the Monroe Doctrine decades ago, preached that America is the land of the Americans, and warned European powers not to colonize the Americas, they were less than 100 years old.
The United States had not yet developed into the behemoth it would be in later generations, so its words were not very effective.
Not to mention the colonies of the world hegemon, Britain, such as Jamaica and Guyana in the Caribbean, Spain, the original suzerain country in the Americas, still holds the Cuban Islands and other places.
The United States fought the Civil War for four years from 1861 to the end in 1865. Although the North finally won the victory, just three years after the war ended, the Americans were still licking their wounds in their old homes and had no power to interfere with the future trend of South America.
South America has not yet become the back garden of Americans. Li Mingyuan just caught up with the good time to travel. The various forces have not yet taken control of South America. This just gave Li Mingyuan an opportunity to take advantage of the chaos and power vacuum in South American countries to occupy a piece of development.
land, and then bring the remnants of the Taiping Army who have been living in the Southeast Asia to South America. After a few years of development, they can take root in South America.
After more than 20,000 Chinese workers in Barangka were rescued, the Chinese Independence Army added another 20,000 soldiers, plus captured military horses and a large number of weapons and equipment. In addition to the 20,000 Chinese Independence Army sent out to grab supplies and land, other troops
While repairing, intense military expansion and equipment reception began.
The number of people increased by 20,000, and the total number of Chinese troops reached more than 86,000, of which 78,000 were soldiers. The remaining 8,000 Chinese were not idle either. Li Mingyuan assigned them according to the previous Taiping Army system.
It was organized as a rear camp and engaged in some simple transportation auxiliary work. In this way, more than 80,000 Chinese workers, according to precise arrangements, ran effectively like a large machine.
More than a thousand war horses were distributed to more than 100 middle- and high-level officers with meritorious service as rewards. The remaining 900 horses were organized by Li Mingyuan into a cavalry regiment, headed by Zhang Ansong's deputy commander Li Dawei.
Chief officer, Li Dawei was a Nian Army active in the Huaibei area. The Nian Army was a peasant uprising army at the same time as the Taiping Army.
However, unlike the Taiping Army, the main force of the Nian Army was cavalry. Taking advantage of the vast area of the Huaibei Plain, the Nian Army and the Qing Army fought equally. Even the famous Seng Gelinqin died at the hands of the Nian Army. If not
Because he was surrounded by Qing troops on all sides, Li Dawei would not follow the Taiping Army to South America.
While Li Mingyuan was worrying about various military affairs, Wang Linshan and Li Sandou were enjoying themselves in raiding the surrounding Peruvian towns.
After Wang Linshan and Li Sandou set off with their troops, they originally led 10,000 troops each. However, later, they discovered that there were not many Peruvian armed forces in the surrounding towns. The larger towns only had five or six hundred militiamen, and the small plantations only had a few dozen.
They thought it was too slow to move with 10,000 people, so they divided the army into more than a dozen squads. Each squad was led by a battalion commander and dispersed for raids. However, their two leaders met during a raid.
Then the two teams merge into one and act together.
"Brother Wang, the raid this time is like an armed parade. The detachment led by me has conquered more than a dozen towns in two days. I believe your subordinates have also done a good job." Li Sandou asked on horseback.
"It's similar to Brother Li. Yesterday, news came from my subordinates that they had occupied Moquegua and rescued five hundred Chinese from there."
"The task assigned to us by the Crown Prince has almost been completed. We can go back and deliver it tomorrow," Li Sandou said.
"We rescued a lot of Chinese workers this time, and we can expand our troops after we go back," Wang Linshan said.
"Before departure, I heard that 24,000 Chinese brothers were rescued in Barangka City. I estimate that this raid will bring back 10,000 Chinese brothers," Li Sandou said.
"The Crown Prince is wise and brave, thoughtful and led us to win two battles in a row. Now the morale of the brothers below is very high. When they see the Peruvian soldiers, their eyes light up like a wolf seeing a sheep."
"It's been a long time since I've seen the morale of my brothers fighting so high. The last time it was like this was when I followed the Prince of Sui to defeat the Qing army." Li Sandou said fondly.
"With the wise leadership of the Crown Prince, we will never fail like we did in the Central Plains."
"Alas, the kingdom of heaven was prosperous at that time when it was first established. However, there was internal strife between the king of heaven and the king of the east. They killed 20,000 elite Taiping soldiers and broke the hearts of the old brothers in Guangxi. Otherwise, King Yi would not have left Tianjing." Li Sandou.
road.
"It's fine now. The prince told us the day before yesterday that we would build a country based on southern Brazil. I heard that the climate there is mild and livable, similar to that of Jiangnan on the mainland."
"Your Majesty has a well-planned plan. We, as subordinates, can just execute it according to the plan." Li Sandou nodded.