Turning our attention back to five days ago, Peru's three reinforcements were destroyed, and the news that Arequipa fell into the hands of the Chinese Independence Army spread back to Lima, the capital of Peru. The Peruvian bosses panicked and immediately held an emergency meeting.
"Thomas, the southern region of Peru is your defense area, and the three reinforcements and Arequipa garrison are also your subordinates. I don't understand how more than 30,000 elite Peruvian soldiers could be defeated by a group of laborers who had just taken up arms.
If you cannot give a reasonable explanation, I will use the power of the president to remove you from office and hold you responsible for dereliction of duty."
As soon as the meeting began, Peruvian interim president Pedro Diez Canseco immediately attacked Thomas.
"Pedro, you are only the interim president and have no right to remove me from office." Thomas was furious when all 20,000 of his direct subordinates were wiped out. He did not give Pedro Diez Canseco any face, and directly called him
with his name.
"Tomas is so presumptuous. Do you still think of me as president? I am now using the rights granted to me by the Peruvian Constitution to announce the dismissal of your post as Commander-in-Chief of the Southern War Zone."
Thomas was secretly plotting to overthrow him. Pedro had known for a long time that if he hadn't been concerned about Thomas' elite troops, he would have killed Thomas long ago. Now that Thomas has lost most of his troops, Pedro no longer had any worries and went directly to the meeting
He went crazy and planned to take down Thomas in one fell swoop.
"The reinforcements were completely wiped out. General Thomas bears some responsibility, but the main responsibility lies with the frontline generals' command errors. If General Thomas is dismissed from his post because of this, the punishment would be too severe." He looked at Pedro and was about to move.
Really. Politicians who were closely connected with Thomas hurriedly advised him.
Pedro originally wanted to take down Thomas directly, but when he saw so many people interceding for him, he knew that it was impossible to kill Thomas based on this incident alone. He said in a relaxed tone, "Thomas, we will discuss your responsibility later. Let's take care of our troops first."
The reasons for failure should be clearly explained.”
Thomas was angry and contradicted Pedro for a moment. After he reacted, he felt a little scared. The army he relied on had been completely lost. Without the suppression of the army, he and Pedro were simply seeking death. He stopped putting on airs and said seriously, "Chinese rebels."
The combat effectiveness of the army is much higher than we imagined. The specific situation can be explained by these soldiers who escaped."
Thomas waved, and Morabasse and four escaped soldiers came out.
"Tell me about the situation of the rebels first," Pedro said, pointing to Morabasse standing in front.
"Yes, President." Morabasse saluted and said, "In my humble position, I am responsible for managing the military horse farm near Arequipa. When I heard that the rebels were surrounding the city of Arequipa, under General Thomas's telegram, I immediately
We gathered the nearby troops and horses into a hidden mountain three hundred miles away, and set up tight defenses in the mountains to prevent the enemy from sneak attacks. As a result, the enemy responded quickly and sent a large number of troops to investigate our whereabouts."
"To get to the point, what I want to hear is the combat effectiveness of the rebels. I don't have time to listen to you slowly here." Pedro interrupted Morabasse impatiently.
Morabasse turned his head and looked at Thomas, who nodded for him to continue, so he skipped the previous part and directly introduced the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army.
"The people who entered the military horse farm were the cavalry troops of the rebels. Their riding skills are not as good as ours, but none of them are afraid of death. Only 300 of the 700 men under my humble command are combat troops, and the other 400 are herdsmen who take care of the horses. I
He led his soldiers to resist the enemy's attack desperately, but was outnumbered, so he had to retreat while fighting, and finally came back alive with five soldiers."
After Morabasse finished speaking, he looked at Pedro carefully, worried that he would kill him if he was dissatisfied.
Pedro didn't take Morabase to heart. What he had to deal with was a Peruvian big shot like Tomas. Morabase hadn't taken it into his eyes yet.
After asking Morabasse, Pedro asked several other soldiers, and what he got from them was that the rebels were very powerful and no one was afraid of death. As for how powerful the Chinese troops were, no one could say.
come out.
The Peruvian soldiers did not lie. Morabasse ran away without fighting the Chinese troops. The other four soldiers were all Lu Stuart's men. Naturally, they would not be brave enough to fight against the Chinese Independence Army, so they expected to
It is impossible for them to get the combat power of the Chinese Independence Army from their mouths.
However, from the descriptions of the Peruvian soldiers, Pedro and other Peruvian senior officials also got an intuitive impression.
That is, the combat power of the Chinese Independence Army is higher than that of the Peruvian Army. Otherwise, all the more than 30,000 troops would not have been made dumplings by others.
After understanding the general story of the matter, the Peruvian big guys sitting here will come up with a solution as soon as possible.
Troops must be sent. Southern Peru is rich in minerals and is the economic lifeline of Peru. They cannot allow the Chinese army to continue to occupy it.
"According to their description and the intelligence we have, the number of Chinese rebels has reached 100,000, and after they eliminated more than 30,000 of our elite troops, all important areas in the south fell into the hands of the Chinese rebels. With the south
The supply of materials, especially the military factory in Arequipa. The strength of the rebels will increase rapidly, so if we want to defeat them, we need to mobilize the national troops."
"I object," said a Peruvian politician sitting at the conference table.
"Tripa, do you have anything to say?"
Pedro said dissatisfied with being interrupted by others.
The fat Tripa didn't look at Pedro's face and thought to himself, "The total Peruvian army has a total of 120,000 people. Because 40,000 people have been lost in the southern battle, can the remaining 80,000 people defeat the rebels? I don't think it is possible."
.”
"Eighty thousand people are not enough. We can recruit soldiers. Peru has a population of 10 million. How can we not recruit soldiers?"
Pedro countered.
Pedro's calculation was very good. The southern Peruvian army suffered heavy losses. He just used this excuse to expand the strength of his army.
"No, Peru's economy has just developed. Recruiting more troops will drag down Peru's economy."
"Then what do you think we should do? Don't you want the south? Are you going to be a traitor, Tripa?" Pedro said in a stern tone.
"President, you don't need to blame me. Just because I oppose military expansion does not mean that we will not recover the southern region. As long as we sell the mines in the south to the British, the British will help us eliminate the rebels." Tripa said slowly.
idea.
"Tripa, I usually know that you hug the British's lap, but I didn't expect you to be so shameless and sell Peru's national interests to the British. How many benefits did the British give you to speak for them?" Sitting on the chair.
When Thomas heard that Tripa was going to sell the southern mining resources to the British, he immediately couldn't sit still and retorted.
The mining resources in the southern region are not owned by Thomas alone, but other Peruvian bosses have a share.
Immediately they shouted against it.
It hurt to ask the British for help. Politicians represented by Tripa refused to agree to military expansion for a while. After a day of discussion and no consensus was reached, Pedro returned home depressed and waited for the meeting to continue tomorrow.