Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 18 Scouting Arequipa
When Wang Linshan's men occupied Moquegua, Sun Qisheng, leading a special brigade of 53 people, had already reached the city of Arequipa.

Arequipa is located in the Chili River Valley at the foot of the Misti volcano in southern Peru, with fertile land and abundant water resources.

It is the largest industrial center in southern Peru and has a few small steel mills and military factories in Peru. Therefore, Li Mingyuan attached great importance to Arequipa. While sending troops to conduct a sweep, he also sent out the newly formed special brigade to carry out the task of investigating Arequipa in preparation for possible future attacks.

"Deputy Captain, the enemy's defense is very tight, it's difficult for us to enter the city."

A soldier whispered to Sun Qisheng that although Zhao Yongzeng was the captain of the special forces brigade, he also commanded the reconnaissance battalion and the sniper platoon, and was considered the joint commander of several special arms, so the general combat operations of the special forces brigade were the responsibility of Sun Qisheng.

"I had expected the Peruvians to impose martial law. Anthony, Todgers, you two change into Peruvian clothes, and the rest of you put on your former miners' clothes. Let's sneak in."

Sun Qishengdao.

Since the Chinese Independence Army uprising, more than 10,000 Peruvian troops have been captured, including many descendants of European immigrants.

After the Chinese Independence Army captured these people, they did not implement the so-called preferential treatment policy for prisoners. All the prisoners, whether they were descendants of Indians or white people, were treated equally and sent to mine.

After Li Mingyuan occupied the saltpeter producing area of ​​Peru, he sent people to contact Prussia and sold saltpeter and other mineral resources to Prussia at a price one-third lower than that of the Peruvians.

Apart from the Ruhr Industrial Zone, Prussia has few mineral resources in other places. Faced with Li Mingyuan's initiative to discuss business, the Prussian talents did not care whether the Chinese were rebels or not, and happily started doing business with the Chinese Independence Army.

Therefore, the captive Peruvians lived a fulfilling life and experienced the life of Chinese workers in the mines.
Anthony and Todgers were re-educated by the Chinese army in the mine. They came to their senses and realized that it was wrong to work for the Peruvian oppressors. They turned to the arms of the Chinese army.

Li Qisheng and others disguised themselves and waited for an hour. They saw a large group of Peruvians coming outside, among whom were more than a hundred miners tied up with ropes.

Obviously, this group of people were Peruvian mine owners who were hiding from the Chinese army. The Chinese miners were laborers they had bought at great expense and they were their private property, so they took the Chinese miners with them when they fled.

"Hey, did you escape from Moquegua too?" Anthony asked, leading fifty miners tied with ropes.

The person in charge on the other side was a white man in his forties. When he saw Anthony and Tojes, he relaxed his guard and replied, "No, Moquegua has been occupied by Chinese rioters. I came here from Moyendo."

"What bad news! My uncle Jules is in Moquegua. I hope he can escape the clutches of the mob." Anthony pretended to be sad.

"May God bless your uncle," the middle-aged man crossed himself, not doubting what Anthony said.
"Sir, let's go into the city quickly. If those thugs come here, we will be in danger." Anthony said with a changed expression.

"Thanks for the reminder. I have already lost most of my property. If we are caught up by the Chinese army, I will lose everything." The white man nodded in agreement.

Then the two teams walked towards the city gate together.

"Deputy Captain, aren't you afraid that Anthony and Toges will betray us?" Wang Chenglin, the platoon leader of the sniper platoon who was walking behind the crowd, asked in a low voice. Snipers usually cooperate with the special forces brigade to carry out tasks, so this time, Wang Chenglin personally led five snipers to act with Sun Qisheng.

"Captain Wang, you are worrying too much. The prince has long considered that these white ghosts are unreliable, so he only organized 300 soldiers whose families are in our hands. Anthony and Tojes both have families in our hands, and even if they don't care about the safety of their families, they must be confident that they can escape from us alive."

Li Mingyuan never recruited Peruvian prisoners on a large scale.

On the one hand, the combat effectiveness of Peruvian soldiers was not high. Except for a few white soldiers, recruiting others would waste the already scarce weapons and equipment.
On the other hand, Li Mingyuan did not trust them. If the Chinese army kept winning battles, it would be fine. But once the army suffered a setback, those Peruvians who were not on the same side as the Chinese would definitely turn against them and attack the Chinese army.
There are countless examples like this in ancient and modern times, both in China and abroad. When the Lan Fang clan was destroyed, the most brutal killers of the Chinese were the natives who had surrendered, so Li Mingyuan only assembled a very small number of Peruvian prisoners.

Anthony and the middle-aged white man were chatting and laughing on the surface, but he was very nervous in his heart. He didn't want to join the Chinese army, but he really couldn't stand the hardship in the mine, so he agreed to work for the Chinese.
Anthony also wanted to pretend to be friendly with the Chinese army and take the opportunity to escape.

However, the Chinese army guarded too strictly. Five days ago, three soldiers who joined the Chinese army escaped within half an hour but were caught by the guards. Then they were shot in front of all the Peruvian soldiers who had joined the army. Their families were also punished by working in the mines.
If Anthony escaped, regardless of whether he could escape alive from Sun Qisheng's hands, he would be terrified at the thought that the Chinese army would vent their anger on his wife Mary because of his escape.
Therefore, even though Anthony had the idea of ​​escaping when facing the city gate guards, he did not dare to take action. He only hoped that this reconnaissance would be successful and that the Chinese army would release himself and Mary.

"Deputy Captain Sun, now that we have entered the city, what should we do next?" After entering the city safely, the group of people found a deserted place to discuss.

"The city gates are heavily guarded, and we can't get close to the garrison camps next to the city gates. We have no idea of ​​the size of the Peruvian army." Sun Qisheng frowned.

"Deputy Captain Sun, why don't you leave most of the people behind? You and I will take a dozen brothers and disguise ourselves as Indians to go out and check again." Wang Chenglin said.

"Okay, but let's bring Anthony with us. He can help us if we encounter the Peruvian inspection." Sun Qisheng said.

"Anthony, that white devil, was smart. He didn't play any tricks when he entered the city just now, otherwise the pistol in my sleeve would have taken his life." Wang Chenglin said with obvious hostility towards white people.

When you are under someone's roof, you have to bow your head. They led a group of people around the city. Anthony, who had just taken a rest, was called up by the two men to accompany them to check the situation in Arequipa.

"Anthony, follow us and work hard. The prince will not treat you unfairly," Sun Qisheng encouraged Anthony because of his good performance today.

"It is my honor to work for the Chinese Independence Army. I dare not have any other thoughts. I just hope that after the mission is completed, Mary and I can be together." Anthony said carefully.

"It's good enough that the prince didn't give your woman to the Chinese soldiers. You even want to do sexual things with women. You are really asking for too much." Wang Chenglin said angrily.

Separating men and women into separate camps was a rule of the Taiping Army in the past. The reason why Li Mingyuan still implemented this policy was not because he agreed with it.
It was because the Taiping Army in South America was composed entirely of men. If the soldiers were allowed to seize women, military discipline would be undermined. Even if an army with poor discipline could win a battle, it would be difficult to maintain sustained combat effectiveness.
Moreover, the Chinese army fought on the move, and carrying women would affect the mobility of the troops, which would be detrimental to future combat.

"Anthony is not one of our old Taiping Army soldiers, so there is no need to blame him." Sun Qisheng advised.

……

(End of this chapter)