Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 65 Military Law Regulations

The invasion and harassment of local residents by Chinese soldiers was not an accident. Under Li Mingyuan's strict orders, five or six incidents of Chinese soldiers violating military discipline were discovered one after another.

As the investigation deepened, it was discovered that there were more than a thousand Chinese soldiers addicted to opium, and almost all the soldiers who violated military discipline were addicted to opium and had other bad behaviors.

It takes several years to build a strong army, and pests that infiltrate the troops can easily erode the army's combat effectiveness and destroy a unit.

A thousand-mile long dike is destroyed by an ant hole. Li Mingyuan showed no mercy to the soldiers who violated military discipline. He instructed Liu Pu to try them according to military law, beheading those who deserved to be beheaded and punishing those who deserved to be punished.

Within three days, 200 of the 1,300 Chinese soldiers found were sentenced to death, and the rest were sentenced to different years of labor reform.

After the verdict was announced, many officers in the army came to Liu Pu to plead for leniency for these soldiers. However, Liu Pu dismissed them with a sentence: "The verdict has been submitted to the prince for review."

Li Mingyuan was strict in his military discipline, and Liu Pu's trial was based on military law. If they dared to ask Li Mingyuan for mercy, they would definitely not end up well. Therefore, the officers who asked for mercy stopped one by one and went back to remind their soldiers to strictly abide by military discipline and not fall into Liu Pu's hands.

Sentencing more than 200 soldiers to death at one time was indeed a bit harsh, but Li Mingyuan had to do so in order to rectify the morale of the troops and make an example of them.

Forcing Chinese workers to join the army without discrimination was a last resort when they were facing life and death.

After annihilating the main force of the southern Peruvian army and reaching a deal with Peruvian President Pedro, Li Mingyuan has realized that
The disadvantage of a troop filled with different types of people is that when the troop wins, the whole team can be united as a whole.
However, once encountering a powerful enemy, the team is likely to fall apart due to the confusion among the people.

In order to solve the problems existing in the army, Li Mingyuan reorganized the army a month ago. The reorganized field army served as the core force of the Chinese Independence Army, and the soldiers with slightly weaker combat effectiveness were placed under the command of the garrison army.

What made Li Mingyuan happy was that most of the soldiers captured this time were from the garrison and logistics forces, and only five or six soldiers from the field army were punished for delaying training due to drinking. This at least proved that the troop reorganization some time ago was successful, and the military discipline of the field army soldiers was much better than that of the garrison.

The current military law of the Chinese Independence Army follows the military law of the Taiping Army. It does not clearly define the problems of many soldiers violating military discipline. Therefore, when encountering soldiers' violations of law that are difficult to judge, Liu Pu has to personally consult Li Mingyuan.

"Liu Pu, there are many loopholes and unreasonable aspects in the current military law. Look at this one: If a soldier talks back at his superior, he will be whipped ten times in public." After dealing with the soldiers' illegal issues, Li Mingyuan pointed out an unreasonable aspect of the military law to Liu Pu.

"Sir, there are clear ranks in the army. Caning a soldier for talking back to his superiors is not a severe punishment. In the past in Heaven, a soldier who talked back to his superiors was directly sentenced to death."

In feudal armies, it was common to arbitrarily punish and kill soldiers. Li Mingyuan wanted to build a modern army, so he had to abolish the backward feudal military law.

"Liu Pu, we need to take a long-term view.
Now is not the time when we were fighting for the world at home. The military industry of the Western powers is developing rapidly. The feudal Qing army is vulnerable when facing the Western powers. We must learn lessons and not only catch up with the Western powers in terms of weapons and equipment, but also learn from them in terms of troop management.

We should learn from the foreign powers in order to defeat them. We should learn from the foreign powers in the aspects that are beneficial to the Chinese independence army and should not be bound by the previous understanding. "

The strength of the armies of the great powers is a fact that is obvious to all. Most Chinese, like Liu Pu, believe that foreigners are strong because of their advanced weapons and equipment, without considering the deeper reasons.

"Here are the newly drafted military regulations. If you find no problem with them, I will publish them." Liu Putong
After the meeting, Li Mingyuan handed over the prepared "Military Law Regulations"

Take it out and hand it to him. The new military law has a total of 32 articles, abolishing the regulations on flogging and corporal punishment that are insulting to soldiers, and replacing them with confinement, labor reform and military criminal law. At this stage, the Chinese Independence Army has no stable base, so the soldiers sentenced to punishment are temporarily replaced by labor reform.

The new military law gave soldiers greater equality in life, but the punishment for violating military discipline was much stricter than before.

Deserting from the battlefield, robbing women, and making excuses to delay the battle will all be punished by death.

The thirty-two articles of military law were only five or six pages in size. Liu Pu read each article carefully and did not find any particularly abrupt parts, so he nodded in agreement.

The next day, at the execution site of more than 200 soldiers who violated discipline, Liu Pu held up the new military law written by Li Mingyuan and said loudly, "Since ancient times, a strong army must have strict discipline, and these soldiers below ignored the military law and committed serious mistakes. According to the interrogation, they are sentenced to death."

As soon as Liu Pu finished speaking, the more than 200 soldiers sentenced to death immediately became agitated, and were pinned to the ground by the supervising soldiers.

"Before the execution, I announced the new Military Law: Anyone who deserts the battlefield will be beheaded.

Those who falsely claim to have captured two captives will be beheaded
Three people who rob the people will be beheaded
Four. Those who embezzle military pay shall be executed
......"

Liu Pu read out the thirty-two military regulations in one breath, took a breath, and said solemnly, "Execute."

In just one morning, more than 200 soldiers were executed.

The soldiers watching felt for the first time the severity of military law.

This execution was not as lively as when Li Mingyuan gave a speech in front of the soldiers. The entire execution process was silent, and the soldiers watching the execution also showed a serious look in their eyes.

Both kindness and severity are important, rewards and punishments are equally important. "I hope that through this large-scale punishment, I can change the atmosphere in the army." Li Mingyuan hid not far from the execution site and thought to himself.

Dealing with the illegal soldiers was just a small episode. As the transition was imminent, the Chinese in the Peruvian occupied area were busy preparing for the final matters before the transition.

The closer it gets to the end, the busier it gets. In the past few days, Sun Bin has sent news that the exchange of alpacas with the Peruvian natives is going smoothly. Five thousand alpacas have been gathered and will be transported to Arequipa in two days.

There is also news about the arms and supplies purchased by the Chinese Independence Army. Tomorrow at noon, the arms and supplies shipped by the Prussian fleet will be unloaded in Baranka. By then, the weapons and equipment of the Chinese Independence Army will be more sophisticated.

Everything was going on in an orderly manner. On the Andes prairie, Li Dawei led the cavalry brigade to round up a group of antelopes. Fang Minghong rode up to him on horseback and said: Brigade Commander, the time set by the prince has come, and we should go back.

Li Dawei looked far in the direction of Arequipa and said, "It's time to go back."...

(End of this chapter)