Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 33 The Legend of the Inca Treasure

The guard took Rustuart to Li Mingyuan's room. Rustuart stood alone in the middle of the room, feeling a little uneasy.
After being held captive by the Chinese Independence Army for several days, doing the same heavy work as ordinary Peruvian prisoners every day, Rustuart regretted his decision to surrender.
The work in the mines was not suitable for human beings. He was too tired after working for a few days.

Although I had to endure Thomas's anger before, at least I had good food, clothing, shelter and transportation. It was nothing compared to the suffering in the mine.

If it weren't for the last bit of hope for survival, Lustuart would not have been able to hold on.

Fortunately, Rustuart waited for good news. Just when he was working, the Chinese supervisor informed Li Mingyuan that he wanted to see him. So, with the lucky feeling of not having to do heavy work and the uneasy feeling, Rustuart walked into Li Mingyuan's room.

"Go ahead, you're welcome." Li Mingyuan walked out and spoke to Lustuart in English.

As a high-ranking Peruvian military officer, Lustuart could speak English. He said in English, "Thank you, sir. I wonder if you will accept my request to serve you?"

"Mr. Rustuart, your soldiers have already become my prisoners. Don't you think it's too late to talk about surrendering now?" Li Mingyuan looked at him with a smile.

"Sir, you can't do this to me. I only ordered the soldiers to lay down their arms because your subordinates promised to accept our surrender. You can't deceive someone who really wants to join your army." Although Rustuart felt that there was not much use in saying this, he still refused to 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 directly stated his attitude.

"Then why did you call me here?"

"Haha, I'm giving you a chance to prove your worth. Whether you can grasp this last chance to survive depends on you." Li Mingyuan said with a smile, the threat in his tone was obvious.

Lustuart broke out in a cold sweat. He didn't believe that Li Mingyuan was just talking. If he couldn't say something that satisfied him, what might be waiting for him was torture and death.

Thinking of the miserable state of Umato being tortured, 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 general guarding the city, how much gold can you have?" Li Mingyuan said in disbelief.

"I have absolutely no intention of lying to you. Peru is rich in gold. The former Inca Empire was famous for its huge gold reserves. More than a decade ago, I led troops to encircle and suppress a primitive Indian tribe and seized a lot of gold. I used some of the seized gold to bribe officials to get to my current position. I still have 500 kilograms of gold at home. As long as you agree to let me go back, I will definitely give you all the gold."

Five hundred kilograms of gold are only about 130 million yuan now, 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 have shown that in the thousands of years of history before the 19th century, humans produced less than 1 tons of gold in total. For example, only 18 tons of gold were produced in the 100 years of the 200th century.

Due to the discovery of a series of gold resources in the 19th century, gold production has increased significantly since then.
Especially in the second 19 years of the 50th century, gold production exceeded the total amount of the previous 5000 years. It was after 1850 that the price of gold gradually declined as gold mining increased.

Gold is the world's universal hard currency. The Chinese Independence Army captured more than a dozen cities and seized a lot of supplies, but the amount of gold seized was less than one ton.

Before the Chinese Independence Army moved to Brazil, Li Mingyuan also had to purchase a large amount of military supplies from Prussia and other countries.

However, the only mineral resources that the Chinese Independence Army could trade with Prussia were saltpeter and other mineral resources.
Saltpeter mining takes a lot of time. In order to obtain more saltpeter before the transfer, Li Mingyuan put all the captured Peruvian soldiers into the mine.
However, the Chinese Independence Army would move in a month later. In more than a month, even if the Peruvian prisoners tried their best to mine, they could not guarantee enough saltpeter production.

The reason why Li Mingyuan called Rustuart today was that he wanted to pass a message to the President of Peru through him. By trading with the President of Peru, he could obtain some funds to purchase military supplies from Prussia.

After hearing what Lustuart said, Li Mingyuan's eyes lit up instantly. Although five hundred kilograms of gold was of considerable value, it was not the reason that made Li Mingyuan happy.

Through Rustuart's Inca Empire, Li Mingyuan was reminded of the legend of the famous Inca treasure. The Incas were the indigenous inhabitants 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 had been collecting gold since the 11th century. If all the gold of the Incas were accumulated, its value would be equivalent to the total value of gold in other parts of the world at that time.

Because of this, in 1531, the Spanish colonist Pizarro led 180 brave soldiers and attacked the Inca Empire with the most advanced weapons in Europe at that time.

After Pizarro captured the emperor of the Inca Empire, the emperor gave Pizarro 11 tons of gold in order to save his life. After getting the gold, Pizarro did not keep his promise to let the Inca emperor go. After a few days, he killed the Inca emperor.

The betrayal of Pizarro caused dissatisfaction among the Incas, so they hid all their gold collections. Until the 21st century, the Inca treasure was not discovered.

Li Mingyuan recalled that in his previous life, someone said that the Peruvians hid gold in Lake Titicaca, and many tourists found cups, bowls, and jewelry made of gold in the lake.

Lake Titicaca is located on the border between Peru and Bolivia.

The Chinese Independence Army now controls the western part of Lake Titicaca, which originally belonged to Peru. If there is really an Inca gold treasure in the lake, it will not only solve the current problem of the Chinese Independence Army, but also give them a better chance of gaining a foothold in southern Brazil.

According to legend, the Inca treasure contains more than four hundred tons of gold, enough for the Chinese independence army to develop for a long time.

"Sir," Lustuart said and waited for a while. Li Mingyuan still did not respond, so he spoke.

"Well, five hundred kilograms of gold can buy your life." Li Mingyuan came back from his reverie and continued, "In order to reward you for voluntarily offering five hundred kilograms of gold, I decided to give you the three cities of Moyendo, Moquegua, and Tacna."

"Sir, are you telling the truth?" Lustuart said in disbelief.

"Of course it's true, but you have to help me do something." Li Mingyuan said seriously.

"Please tell me, as long as it is something I can do, I will definitely agree to it." Rustuart only had one city before, and the financial power was not in his hands. When he heard that Li Mingyuan was going to hand over three coastal cities to him, he 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 coastal cities, he would have a stable base.
With the mines and trade taxes of the three cities, Rustuart could easily raise an army of tens of thousands. With an army of 10,000, even if Thomas wanted to deal with him, he would have to consider his own strength.

"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 terms, after the matter is completed, not only will the three cities be yours, but your men will also be returned to you intact."

Then Li Mingyuan told Rustuart the terms of the deal with the Peruvian President.

Li Mingyuan's request was not difficult to do. After listening to it, Lustuart nodded and agreed.

"These are the conditions. I will send someone to your house right away to retrieve the hidden gold." Li Mingyuan was very satisfied with Lustuart's performance and gave the final order.

"I understand, sir, but I want to take my adjutant Manuel away and have him deliver the message between you and me."

"Yes, you can go to the mine and take him away now."...

After Rustuart left, Li Mingyuan did not rush to look for the treasure, but planned to take the cavalry regiment with him after Li Dawei's cavalry regiment returned.

(End of this chapter)