Chapter Thirty-Three The Legend of the Inca Treasure
The guards took Lu Stuart to Li Mingyuan's room. Lu Stuart stood alone in the middle of the room, feeling a little uneasy.
After being captured by the Chinese Independence Army for several days and doing the same hard work as ordinary Peruvian prisoners every day, Lou Stuart already regretted his decision to surrender.
The work in the mine is not done by humans at all. After working for a few days, he became too tired and couldn't bear it.
Although I had to suffer from Thomas's anger in the past, at least I had good food, clothing, housing and transportation. How could I have suffered the sins in the mine?
If it weren't for the last hope of survival, Lou Stuart wouldn't be able to survive.
Fortunately, Lou Stuart had received the good news. While he was working, the Chinese supervisor informed Li Mingyuan that he wanted to see him. So, with the luck and uneasiness of not having to do heavy work, Lou Stuart walked into Li Mingyuan's room.
"Do it, you're welcome." Li Mingyuan walked out and said to Lu Stuart in English.
As a senior military officer in Peru, Lustuart could still speak English. He immediately said in English, "Thank you, Your Excellency. Do you accept my request for surrender?"
"Mr. Lou Stuart, your soldiers have become my prisoners, don't you think it's too late for you to surrender now?" Li Mingyuan looked at him with a smile.
"Sir, you can't do this to me. I ordered the soldiers to put down their weapons only after your subordinates promised to accept our surrender. You can't deceive someone who really wants to join your army." Although Lu Stuart felt that saying this was of little use.
, he still didn’t give up.
"There's no need to surrender. My soldiers are brave enough. I don't need foreigners who may rebel at any time." Li Mingyuan expressed his attitude directly.
"Then why did you call me here?"
"Haha, I'm giving you a chance to prove your worth. It's up to you whether you can seize the last chance to survive." Li Mingyuan smiled, and the threat in his tone was clear.
Lu Stuart broke out in a cold sweat behind his back. He didn't believe that Li Mingyuan was just talking. If he couldn't say something that satisfied him, what awaited him might be torture and death.
Thinking of Umato's torture, Lustuart immediately became frightened and said hurriedly, "Sir, I have a lot of gold at home. I can give it all to you. I just hope you can let me go back."
"You are just a city-defending general, how much gold can you have?" Li Mingyuan didn't believe it.
"I definitely don't mean to lie to you. Peru is rich in gold. The former Inca Empire was famous for its massive gold reserves. More than ten years ago, I led troops to encircle and suppress a primitive Indian tribe and seized a lot of gold. I
I only reached my current position by bribing officials with part of the seized gold. I still have five hundred kilograms of gold at home. As long as you promise to let me go back, I will definitely hand over all this gold to you."
Five hundred kilograms of gold now costs only about 130 million yuan, but more than 150 years ago, the price of gold was still very high.
Before the 19th century, the level of gold productivity in human society was very low. Some studies believe that in the thousands of years of history before the 19th century, humans produced a total of less than 10,000 tons of gold. For example, in the 18th century, only 200 tons were produced in 100 years.
gold.
Due to the discovery of a series of gold resources in the 19th century, gold production has increased significantly since then.
Especially in the 50 years in the second half of the 19th century, gold production exceeded the total amount in the previous 5,000 years. It was only after 1850 that the price of gold gradually declined as gold mining increased.
Gold is a common hard currency in the world. The Chinese Independence Army captured more than a dozen cities and seized a lot of materials, but the gold seized was less than one ton.
Before the Chinese Independence Army moved into Brazil, Li Mingyuan had to purchase a large amount of arms supplies from Prussia and other countries.
However, the only mineral resources that the Chinese Independence Army could trade with Prussia were saltpeter.
Saltpeter mining takes a lot of time. In order to obtain more saltpeter before moving in, Li Mingyuan put all the captured Peruvian soldiers into the mine for mining.
However, in a month, the Chinese Independence Army would move in. For more than a month, even if the Peruvian prisoners worked hard to mine, they could not guarantee enough saltpeter production.
The reason why Li Mingyuan called Lu Stuart here today was because he wanted to use him to send a message to the President of Peru and obtain part of the funds through transactions with the President of Peru to purchase arms supplies from Prussia.
After hearing Lu Stuart's words, Li Mingyuan's eyes lit up instantly. Although five hundred kilograms of gold was valuable, it was not what made Li Mingyuan happy.
Through the Inca Empire spoken by Lou Stuart, Li Mingyuan remembered the legend of the famous Inca treasure.
The Incas were the indigenous people of Latin America. In the 11th century, they gradually annexed neighboring tribes and established a powerful slave-owning Inca Empire in 1438.
The Incas loved collecting gold,
It is said that the Incas have been collecting gold for generations since the 11th century. If all the gold in the Incas were accumulated, its value would be equivalent to the sum of the gold in the rest of the world at that time.
Because of this, in 1531, the Spanish colonist Pizarro led 180 brave and capable soldiers to attack the Inca Empire with the most advanced weapons in Europe at the time.
After Pizarro captured the Inca Emperor, the Inca Emperor gave Pizarro 11 tons of gold in order to survive. After receiving the gold, Pizarro did not keep his promise to let the Inca Emperor go. After a few days, he gave Pizarro 11 tons of gold.
The Inca emperor was killed.
Pizarro's betrayal aroused dissatisfaction among the Incas, who hid all the gold in their collection. Until the 21st century, the Incas' treasures were not discovered.
Li Mingyuan remembered that in his previous life, someone said that Peruvians hid gold in Lake Titicaca. Many tourists found gold cups, bowls and chopsticks in the lake.
Lake Titicaca is located on the border of Peru and Bolivia.
The Chinese Independence Army now controls the part of Lake Titicaca that originally belonged to western Peru. If there is indeed an Inca gold treasure in the lake, it will not only solve the current problems of the Chinese Independence Army, but also have a better chance of winning in the future in southern Brazil.
.
According to legend, the Inca treasure contains more than four hundred tons of gold. This much gold is enough for the Chinese independent army to develop for a long time.
"Your Excellency" Lu Stuart waited for a while after finishing his words, but Li Mingyuan still didn't respond, so he spoke.
"Well, five hundred kilograms of gold can buy your life." Li Mingyuan reacted from his reverie and continued, "In order to reward you for offering five hundred kilograms of gold, I decided to give Moyendo, Moquegua and Tacna three
I’ll leave this city to you.”
"Sir, are you telling the truth?" Lou Stuart said in disbelief.
"Of course it's true, but you have to do something for me." Li Mingyuan said seriously.
"Please tell me, as long as I can do it, I will definitely promise you." Lou Stuart only had one city before, and the financial power was not in his own hands. When he heard that Li Mingyuan was going to hand over three seaside cities to him,
, and immediately became excited.
The armies in southern Peru were all wiped out by the Chinese Independence Army. If Lustuart controlled 10,000 square kilometers of land within the three seaside cities, then he would have a stable base.
With the mining and trade taxes of three cities, Lou Stuart could easily raise an army of tens of thousands. With an army of ten thousand, even if Thomas wanted to deal with him, he would have to weigh his own energy.
"My request is very simple. As long as you act as a liaison between me and the President of Peru and help me persuade him to accept my conditions, after that is done, not only will the three cities be yours, but your men will also remain intact."
Back to you."
Then Li Mingyuan told Lu Stuart the terms of the deal with the Peruvian president.
Li Mingyuan's request was not difficult to handle. After listening to it, Lu Stuart nodded and agreed.
"These are the conditions. I will send you and I to go to your house right away to get back the hidden gold." Li Mingyuan was very satisfied with Lou Stuart's performance and gave the final order.
"I understand, Your Excellency, but I want to take away my adjutant Manuel and let him deliver the news between you and me."
"Okay, you can go to the mine and take him away now."...
After Lu Stuart left, Li Mingyuan was not in a hurry to find the treasure. Instead, he planned to take Li Dawei's cavalry regiment with him when they returned.