Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 32 Summoning Lustuart

"Lord Morabassi, a group of rebel cavalry are attacking in the direction of the military horse farm." A Peruvian soldier urgently reported in the mountain base.

"Let the defenders stop the enemy. Military horses are important strategic materials for Lord Thomas and must not be lost." Morabasse ordered.

After the Peruvian soldiers left, Morabasai was restless in the base. The military horse farm was located in the rear of Arequipa and hidden in the mountains, so it should be relatively safe.

The large-scale enemy attack now can only mean that the city of Arequipa is in danger, otherwise the rebels would not have been able to get here by bypassing the Arequipa defenders and three Peruvian reinforcements.

The more Morabas thought about it, the worse it felt. The Arequipa garrison was wiped out, and there was no news of the reinforcements. Could they have been attacked by the rebels? However, the three Peruvian reinforcements plus the Arequipa garrison totaled more than 30,000 people. It was impossible for the rebels to defeat so many Peruvian troops.

While Morabaseh was struggling, three or four Peruvian soldiers came running in, but this time they were on horseback.

"Sir, the rebels acted quickly and our army was caught off guard and defeated. Now the enemy has entered the military horse farm. Our army is in a critical situation and faces the danger of being wiped out."

The Peruvian officer who rushed in did not even bother to dismount and salute, and directly reported the current situation of the Peruvian garrison to Morabasse.

Morabassi was only an official in charge of the management of the military horse farm. He was not good at marching and fighting, and he didn't know what to do when faced with the current situation.

"Sir, please arrange for the soldiers to break out immediately. The enemy doesn't have much time left for us." The cavalry officer couldn't stand Morabasa's helpless look and said urgently.

"Lord Thomas attaches great importance to the military horse farm. We will definitely be punished if we lose it." Morabas said cautiously.

"It's already this late, why bother about whether to punish or not? If we don't break out now, we will definitely die if we are caught by the rebels. Can't you tell which is more important, sir?"

"If I don't run away I'll die. If I run away at least I won't die now." Morabasa thought to himself, then made up his mind, and without saying anything, he quickly mounted a horse brought by the Peruvian cavalry officer and ran along the valley with them. After running with them for a while, Morabasa felt something was wrong. They were not running towards the exit of the valley, but towards a steep place at the foot of the mountain.

"Shouldn't we run towards the exit of the valley when escaping? How are we getting into the mountains?" asked Morabasa.

"The mountain pass has been blocked by the rebels. Going over there is a dead end. There is a steep path over here. We can just pass through here."

"So that's how it is." Morabasai suddenly realized. Five or six people rode forward for a distance and found a small path on the edge of the cliff that was only wide enough for one person to pass.

"Sir, please dismount and pass quickly, otherwise if we are discovered by the rebels, none of us will be able to escape."

"I'm coming." Morabasai got off the horse and looked at the steep cliff with some fear. At this moment, several sounds of huge creatures falling into the water were heard from under the cliff. Morabasai looked down and saw that all six military horses had fallen into the water.

Before he could ask, the leading Peruvian officer said, "Leaving the horses here will leave clues for the rebels. If we push them into the water, they won't be discovered."

Morabasai had already stopped caring about the lives of the 700 Peruvian soldiers at the horse farm, and of course he would not care about a few horses. Looking at the corpses of horses floating under the cliff, Morabasai suppressed his fear and took the lead to pass through the path. Then the others followed and left.

The military horse farm in the mountains was quite large. Li Dawei led the cavalry regiment and it took two hours to clear out the Peruvian soldiers in the valley.

"Commander, according to the prisoners' confession, the person in charge of the military horse farm has not been caught." In a cave in the military horse farm, reconnaissance company commander Fang Minghong reported to Li Dawei.

"He's just a horse guard, Bi Ma Wen, and he ran away," Li Dawei said indifferently.

"Have you counted the number of seized horses?" Li Dawei asked.

"The Peruvians let some of their horses run away when we attacked. Now we have captured 4,500 horses." "Our men are guarding the mountain pass. The horses that haven't been caught can't escape. Immediately send soldiers to search the valley, both to find the lost horses and to clear out the remaining enemies that have escaped."

"Yes"……

The cavalry regiment spent several hours searching for the horses, and it was not until dark that the scattered horses were found. During the search, the cavalry soldiers captured more than one hundred Peruvians who were hiding.

The military horse farm was far away from the Peruvians' sphere of influence, so there was no need to worry about their attacks. So Li Dawei sent a letter of reporting his achievement to Li Mingyuan, and then spent the night at the military horse farm.

It was already the next morning when Li Mingyuan received Li Dawei's letter. In the past two days, the troops sent out had been continuously reporting good news. Some reported that they had occupied a small town here, and some reported that they had rescued hundreds or thousands of Chinese workers there. In total, Li Mingyuan had received dozens of similar good news.

However, although Li Mingyuan was happy when he received the good news, he was not as excited as he was when he saw Li Dawei's letter.

When Li Mingyuan gave Li Dawei the goal of 5,000 military horses, it was just to motivate him to work harder to plunder. In fact, in Li Mingyuan's heart, he would be satisfied if he could get 3,000 military horses. Unexpectedly, Li Dawei not only completed the task, but also unexpectedly seized 2,000 more horses, which really solved a difficult problem for the Chinese Independence Army's transfer.

To reach southern Brazil from Peru and fight in Paraguay in between, the Chinese Independence Army needed a lot of logistical support, and horses were the most convenient means of transportation for long-distance migration.

Of the horses captured by Li Dawei, Li Mingyuan would leave him a little over 4,000 horses suitable for combat, and add them to the more than 900 war horses he had previously to form a cavalry brigade with a total of 5,000 horses.

The expanded cavalry brigade has a full staff of 4,000 people and is composed of four cavalry regiments. The First Cavalry Regiment is the main force of the cavalry brigade. Each person has two horses and is mainly used to carry out long-distance raids.

Of the remaining 3,000 war horses, 1,000 were allocated to other troops as mounts for the reconnaissance troops, and the last 2,000 horses of the worst quality were assigned to the logistics troops to transport supplies.

The troops that set out to occupy Cusco and other places have only been sent out for two days, and no news has been received yet. After they transport back the looted supplies and rescued Chinese workers, the Chinese Independence Army will have to go through a period of rest and digest the results of this battle.

It would take at least a month for the Chinese Independence Army to recuperate. During this period, Li Mingyuan did not plan to fight the Peruvian army again. The goal of destroying part of Peru's main forces had been achieved. It would not be worthwhile to spend too much energy fighting the Peruvians.

The result of the discussion between Li Mingyuan and Liu Pu two days ago was to voluntarily withdraw from the occupied areas and no longer provoke the Peruvian army, but now Li Mingyuan has found a better way.

Li Mingyuan already knew that Rustuart had offered to serve. Although his service was worthless, using him as an intermediary to negotiate with the President of Peru was a good choice.

Peruvian President Pedro Diez Canseco is having a hard time now. Thomas and others are eyeing him covetously. In the original history, he would have been ousted by the opposition in seven months.

Therefore, Li Mingyuan planned to use the occupied Peruvian mining areas to exchange with him for urgently needed supplies and the Chinese workers who had not been rescued in Peru.

The mining area occupied by Li Mingyuan belonged to Thomas and others who opposed Pedro Diez Canseco.

Li Mingyuan's occupation of these places is equivalent to indirectly helping Pedro Diez Canseco. There is no conflict of interest between the two and they have a good basis for cooperation. Li Mingyuan believes that Pedro Diez Canseco will not give up the opportunity to control the Peruvian mining area.

"Go and bring the prisoner Lustuart."

After thinking it over, Li Mingyuan said to the guards around him.

"Yes." The guard turned and left.

(End of this chapter)