Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 5 Mobilization
In the evening, just after it got dark, the Taiping Army in the mine had finished their meal and were standing in the open space in high spirits, waiting for Li Mingyuan to give the order to march.

"Brothers, yesterday we captured the bloody exploiters of the mines under the guidance of the Heavenly Father. Now we are going to rescue other brothers who are still suffering. Tell me, do you have the confidence to defeat the Peruvians?"

"Yes," the soldiers below shouted in a deafening voice. When the riot started yesterday, the Taiping Army only lost no more than ten people and defeated the Peruvian supervisors. Moreover, this morning, the prince bought a large number of weapons. Now the muskets they have are better than those of the Peruvian supervisors. Yesterday, when they had no weapons, the Chinese workers captured all the Peruvian supervisors. Now the muskets are better than theirs, how could they not be able to defeat them?

Although only one day had passed, Li Mingyuan was completely different in the eyes of ordinary Taiping Army. In the past, they also respected Li Mingyuan, but that was because Li Mingyuan was the son of the King of Attendants. They treated Li Mingyuan better because they respected the King of Attendants.

But one day later, the situation changed completely. First, Li Mingyuan led everyone to a successful riot, and then this morning he brought a large number of weapons to the Taiping Army. If yesterday's uprising was somewhat of a coincidence, today's events could not be explained by common sense. The old Taiping Army soldiers, including Chen Guozhu, all believed in Li Mingyuan and believed that they could only succeed with the guidance of God. They did not need to think about what Li Mingyuan said and subconsciously believed it was correct.

The morale of the Taiping Army was high, and Li Mingyuan was very satisfied. At this stage, the Taiping Army was still in an unfavorable position. Only by gathering all the Chinese together could they survive the subsequent Peruvian counterattack.

The Dulaya Mine was about 40 miles away from Li Mingyuan's mine, and there were about 3,000 Chinese workers.
Li Mingyuan targeted the Duraya mine as his primary target, not only because it was close, but the main reason was that Duraya served as Peru's logistics base in the saltpeter producing area and stored a large amount of supplies. By taking Duraya, the Taiping Army could gain a solid foothold and then arm the surrounding Chinese laborers.

At three o'clock in the morning, a muffled sound of footsteps was heard in the woods outside the Dulaya Mine.

"Prince, the soldiers from each camp are in place." Chen Guozhu reported in a deep voice at the edge of the woods.

"Hide in the woods and don't make any noise." Li Mingyuan said as he observed the mine in front.

Chen Guozhu walked lightly to the back.

"Don't move, in case you are discovered by the Peruvians," Chen Guozhu warned as he walked.

The soldiers passed the message to each other, and the soldiers at the back soon quieted down.

"Xiaoshan, lead the reconnaissance company and kill the sentries around the mine."

"Yes." Wang Xiaoshan saluted, ran to the reconnaissance company's position, and led the soldiers to attack.

As a logistics base, Duraya is stationed with a thousand Peruvian regular soldiers. Unlike the overseers last time, Li Mingyuan will have to spend a lot of effort to defeat them.

"Li Sandou, Chen Guozhu, Zhang Ansong."

"Here," the three people whose names were called responded in a low voice.

"Chen Guozhu, Zhang Ansong, your battalion will be the main attacker. I will immediately assign the artillery platoon and half of the machine gun platoon to you. Capture the main gate of the mine within two hours."

"Make sure to complete the mission." Chen Guozhu and Zhang Ansong said loudly.

"Li Sandou, take your battalion and three machine guns to block the entrance to the valley to prevent reinforcements from the valley garrison."

"Sir, if you let a Peruvian soldier go, I will bring his head to you."

"Uncle Li, most of the Peruvian troops are in the valley. Only by blocking them can we give Uncle Chen time to capture the mine, so I hope you brothers can withstand the attack." Li Mingyuan said solemnly.

"Don't worry, Prince. Old Li has fought in wars for more than ten years. If these Peruvians want to break through Old Li's defenses, they will need to learn for a few more years."

"I'll leave the valley defense line in the hands of Uncle Li."

Li Mingyuan bowed to Li Sandou.

The woods were quiet. Li Sandou and his soldiers had rushed to the valley to set up blocking positions. Chen Guozhu and Zhang Ansong also led their troops towards the mine gate.

Outside the mine gate, several ghostly figures moved quickly in the darkness. With a "puff", a sharp knife stabbed a sentry, and the reconnaissance company soldier behind him covered his mouth with his right hand and dragged the sentry's body back.

A gunshot rang out, hitting the spot where the sentry had just stood.

"Not good, the enemy has secret sentries."

Wang Xiaoshan already knew it without the scout soldier reminding him.

"You two take some men to kill the secret sentry." Since the sneak attack failed, they could only use force.

"Yes," the squad leader beside him called out to his soldiers and crawled forward.

The sentry fired two shots and was killed by the soldiers of the reconnaissance company who caught up from behind. However, the sentry's gunshots had alarmed the Peruvian army in the mine, and it was impossible to seize the gate as easily as last time.

"Daniu, inform the prince that the sneak attack has failed. Ask him to send reinforcements."

"Yes"

In a Chinese workers' camp at the Dulaya mine, a sturdy man in his thirties was quietly rubbing an iron rod on a stone.

"Brother Luo, we are unarmed. Even if you rub an iron stick into an iron gun, you can't beat the Peruvians." A Chinese worker in the tent said.

"Shut up, haven't you suffered enough? I would rather follow Brother Luo and fight the Peruvians than suffer in this life."

"You two stop arguing," the sturdy man glanced at the two of them out of the corner of his eye, and the two of them stopped talking.

The man put down the iron rod in his hand and said solemnly, "The Peruvians don't treat us as human beings. More than half of the thousand people who came from the mainland died. Aren't you fed up?" The man's voice became louder and louder, and the Chinese workers in the nearby tents also secretly ran out to listen to him.

"We Han people have a saying, 'Are kings, princes, generals, and ministers of different species?' Our demands are not high. We don't ask to become a king or a general. But if I have to die in a mine like a pig or a dog, I will never agree to that." The man paused and glanced at the Chinese workers around him: You are all real men, are you willing to work with Lao Luo?

"Damn it, I've had enough. I had a scar the size of a bowl on my head, but eighteen years later I'm a brave man again. Brother Luo, Zhao Yunshan is done with you."

"Count me in, I've lived enough anyway."

Looking at the angry Chinese workers, the man waved his hand to stop the voices below: Brothers, we cannot defeat the Peruvian army now, so we must slowly build up our strength, and when they are careless, we will start the uprising.

The man's name was Luo Linshan. In the original history, in 1870, Luo Linshan led the Chinese miners to launch a riot. The unbearable Chinese workers joined his team one after another. The number of people expanded from a few hundred to several thousand. They even reached the important coastal town of Barranca in Peru. In the end, due to the huge gap in strength between the enemy and us, the Chinese workers were wiped out and Luo Linshan was also killed.

Although the uprising failed, the Peruvian government's view of the Chinese changed greatly, and the social status of the Chinese improved significantly.

"Brother Luo, there were gunshots at the gate, and most of the troops supervising us were taken away."

The Chinese worker on sentry duty hurried back.

Luo Linshan listened carefully and indeed heard gunshots, which became more and more frequent.

"Brothers, this is a God-given opportunity. All the Peruvians have been transferred away. Our chance has come. Follow me and rush out."

Luo Linshan led the Chinese workers to annihilate the small part of the Peruvian troops who remained behind, seized more than a dozen muskets, and led the gathered Chinese workers to the place where the gunfire was the most intense.

(End of this chapter)