Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 61 Chinese Pirates
ps: Thanks to Guardian 1, Nanyang Empire, Jiangbian Zhizhi, Qin Han Tang Song Ming 5 for the reward
On a small island near Puerto Rico, Shopkeeper Wang and the dark-skinned man walked into a simple wooden house.
A burly man with a yellow scarf on his head came into view. He was the general Hou Taiyuan mentioned by Wang, a subordinate of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's naval commander, Prince Mori Hou Yutian.

After the fall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Hou Taiyuan fled to Hong Kong with five or six hundred Taiping sailors. As a result, he was hunted down by people sent by the Qing Dynasty in Hong Kong. He had no choice but to sell himself to Cuba. Then, when he was about to reach his destination, he killed the guards on the ship, robbed five or six merchant ships, and became a pirate in the Caribbean.

"Brother Nagata, what's the matter that makes you so anxious to see me?" Hou Taiyuan asked.

"General Hou, there have been ships transporting Cuban Chinese workers to Peru these days. I think what they are doing is a little unusual."

"I know a little about what Brother Nagata said. Four Peruvian ships full of Chinese workers passed through the Caribbean Sea in one week. However, the fleet's defenses were tight, and we had no way to rescue them."

"I learned from Sun Lien-teh that the Peruvians paid a huge price to get the Governor of Cuba to release the Chinese workers.

I don't believe that the Peruvians were kind enough to rescue the Chinese workers for no reason. There must have been a major accident in Peru, so they were so eager to transport these Chinese back." Wang Yongtian speculated.

"Li Han, is there any news from Peru?" Hou Taiyuan asked the dark-skinned man who was standing with Wang Yongtian.

"Peru and the Caribbean Sea are not adjacent to each other. Apart from this time of transporting Chinese workers, the Peruvians have not made such a big move in the Caribbean Sea, so we don't know what happened in Peru." said Li Han, who was responsible for gathering information.

The Panama Canal had not yet been opened, and there was no direct route from the Caribbean to Peru. It took a long time for the situation in Peru to be transmitted to the Caribbean.
In addition, Pedro blocked the news, so Hou Taiyuan and others did not know about Li Mingyuan's uprising in Peru.

"General Hou, I have a way that can not only help us find out what's happening in Peru, but also help us rescue some of our compatriots." Wang Yongtian spoke up when he learned that Hou Taiyuan had no news from Peru.

"Brother Nagata, if you have any good ideas, please share them with us."

"Today, my grocery store clerk and I discovered that there are only five merchant ships and two small wooden sailing ships in the port of Boqueron. We can gather our forces and ambush the Peruvian fleet on the route they must take, then attack them by surprise and seize the merchant ships full of Chinese workers."

"We can still deal with two small frigates." Hou Taiyuan thought to himself.

"Just do as Brother Nagata said." Hou Taiyuan's group of pirates now has only more than 300 people. Seizing the merchant ship can not only increase their manpower, but also obtain weapons and supplies on the ship. Hou Taiyuan decided to take action without much thought.

"Li Han, gather the brothers, we are going to do a big deal tomorrow."

"Yes," Li Han replied, and turned to gather people. ...

After the inspection of the military factory, Li Mingyuan, Liu Pu, Sun Bin and a group of people rode horses and strolled around the city of Arequipa.

"Director Sun, although you have difficulty walking, you ride the horse very steadily. It's really admirable." Li Mingyuan praised Sun Bin, who was riding a horse like him.

"Please excuse me, Your Highness. Although there is something wrong with my right leg, I still have no problem riding a horse." Sun Bin said with a smile.

"Was Director Sun's leg injured in the battle some time ago?" Li Mingyuan asked.

"No," Sun Bin shook his head. "Before coming to America, I served as a staff member in General Liu Jianye's army. Later, during a night raid, my right leg was injured and I was separated from the main force. Then I came to America." Sun Bin briefly introduced his experience.

"Director Sun is wise and righteous. He gave up literature and took up military action to fight against the Qing Dynasty. He is a real Chinese man." Li Mingyuan said sincerely.

"Your Highness, you are too kind. I was dissatisfied with the Qing court's oppression of the Chinese Miao people at that time, so I joined General Liu's army."

"What happened to General Liu later?" After the Taiping Rebellion, peasant uprisings in other places did not end well.

The better ones would go into exile overseas under a false name, while the worse ones would be caught by the Qing court and executed by slow slicing. Therefore, Li Mingyuan was very worried about the fate of General Liu mentioned by Sun Bin.

"After I separated from the troops, I heard that General Liu led his troops to Annan." Annan is Vietnam in later generations. Vietnam is now facing French invasion, and Annan will soon become a complete French colony.

"Annan, Vietnam," Li Mingyuan chewed on these four words slowly, and suddenly a name flashed in his mind.

"Director Sun, among the troops transferred into Annan, is there a man named Liu Yongfu?"

Liu Yongfu was the leader of the Black Flag Army in the late Qing Dynasty. After the uprising in China failed, he led his men to Vietnam and defeated the French attacks many times with his 3,000-man army.
Later, when the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 broke out, Liu Yongfu led the Black Flag Army to Taiwan to fight against the Japanese invaders. Although he was forced to withdraw from Taiwan due to being outnumbered, he also made significant contributions to China's territorial integrity. Li Mingyuan admired such a person very much.

So when he thought of Liu Yongfu, Li Mingyuan immediately asked Sun Bin about him.

"Among the troops that moved to Annan, apart from General Liu, there were few generals with the surname Liu." Sun Bin recalled carefully and spoke.

"I heard that Liu Yongfu's troops use a black flag as their military flag. Think carefully about whether there is such a team?" Li Mingyuan reminded.

"Black flag?" Sun Bin whispered to himself.

"Prince, I remember now that before I left, I heard that General Liu Jianye's troops and another rebel army were reorganized and used black triangular flags as their military flags. I wonder if they are the troops you mentioned?" Sun Bin raised his head and said.

"Black pennant, Liu Jianye." Li Mingyuan read the two words together.

"Yes, Liu Yongfu is the name he was given after entering Vietnam. Liu Jianye is Liu Yongfu." Li Mingyuan understood and said excitedly.

Sun Bin and Liu Pu felt a little puzzled as they watched Li Mingyuan muttering a name they had never heard of before.

"Ahem." Li Mingyuan coughed to cover up his gaffe.

Liu Yongfu led a few hundred defeated soldiers to gain a foothold in Vietnam, expanded his army to several thousand people, and then relied on a few thousand soldiers with crude and backward weapons to defeat the well-equipped French army several times.
This clearly shows that Liu Yongfu has an outstanding military mind. Li Mingyuan is in great need of such military talents who can stand on their own.

"Director Sun, I have a mission for you. Once we have a stable base, you will take my letter and go to Vietnam to invite General Liu."

Sun Bin didn't understand why Li Mingyuan liked Liu Jianye, who was thousands of miles away. However, Liu Jianye was his old boss after all. After the Chinese established a country in South America, bringing him over would help him bring out his talents, so he nodded and agreed.

The Chinese Independence Army lacks senior generals. Except for Zhou Guozhu, Li Sandou and Zhang Ansong, who used to follow the King of Attendants Li Shixian and have experience in leading large armies, the rest of them were promoted on the front line. Although there is no problem now, it will have an impact on the future development of the army.

Therefore, Liu Yongfu, a general with rich experience in jungle warfare, is exactly the talent that Li Mingyuan urgently needs. Southern Brazil and southern Argentina are densely mountainous, and the environment is similar to that of the mountainous areas of Vietnam. Liu Yongfu's arrival is just the right place to put his talents to good use.

As for whether Vietnam would be occupied by the Vietnamese more quickly without Liu Yongfu, Li Mingyuan didn't care at all.

China has been relatively good to Vietnam both in ancient times and after its founding. Without China's support, Vietnam would not have been able to easily drive away the American soldiers and unify North and South Vietnam.

However, soon after Vietnam was unified, it deprived more than one million Vietnamese Chinese of their property and expelled them from the country. Some of these overseas Chinese returned to the mainland, some were accepted as refugees by Western countries, and a large number died at sea while fleeing.

The Vietnamese turned ruthless and used the money they had plundered from overseas Chinese to develop their own industry.
Ungrateful and shameless. Li Mingyuan hated them so much that he didn't care whether they would be occupied by the French.

Just when Li Mingyuan and his group were about to go back, a cry for help suddenly came from the street. Li Mingyuan did not stop and immediately rode towards the source of the sound.

(End of this chapter)