At noon on December 8, 1868, the fleet of ships purchased from Prussia returned to Rio Gro do Sul again.

In the coastal port of Xinjing, more than 200 ships of various types covered the sea, more than 10 large steam ships in front of the fleet sounded their horns, and four gunboats belonging to the naval division of the Wehrmacht stationed outside the port quickly gave way to guide the fleet into the port.

The fleet docked steadily, Sun Bin and the group accompanying the boat stepped on the shore, and saw Li Mingyuan leading a group of civil and military officials towards this side.

"Ministers and Sun Bin greet Your Majesty." Sun Bin walked quickly to Li Mingyuan's side, just wanted to catch up with everyone as before, and suddenly reacted, Rio Gran do Sul was officially established, Li Mingyuan was canonized as the Duke of Brazil by Brazil, and the national administrative and political institutions were formally established. Therefore, hurriedly bow down and bow on one knee.

"Mr. Sun has been bumpy at sea for more than four months, and he has worked hard and made great achievements, so he doesn't have to make this big gift." Li Mingyuan quickly helped Sun Bin up, and saw a group of white people wearing all kinds of old military uniforms following Sun Bin, and asked, "Who are they?" ”

"They were retired soldiers recruited by the courtiers in Prussia and several other German states."

Sun Bin pointed to the white man behind him and explained, "After the war, a large number of outstanding soldiers retired and returned home after the war and could not find suitable jobs, so they could only return to their old jobs to serve in other countries.

When the ministers were buying machinery and equipment in Prussia in large quantities, they did not know how to know the news, and more than a dozen retired German Confederation officers came to me and sold me their mercenaries.

Thinking of the lack of experienced officers in Rio Gran do Sul and the fact that the new artillery purchased this time also needs to be operated by professional officers, he took the initiative to select a group of retired soldiers to bring back, and hoped that His Royal Highness would forgive him. ”

"You are solely responsible for the specific affairs of the mission to Prussia, and the recruitment of retired soldiers is within the scope of your authority, and you have done a good job, and it is not considered an unauthorized action."

Li Mingyuan and Sun Bin said a few words, their eyes turned to the white soldiers behind, more than 300 white people who went ashore were divided into two parts to adjust the queue, and the soldiers who were disembarking in the back were in an orderly manner, which was very different from the casual appearance of the European and American soldiers represented by the United States in later generations.

Seeing Li Mingyuan looking at the recruited foreign soldiers with interest, Sun Bin said at the right time, "Your Highness, the first two troops to go ashore are Prussian retired soldiers and Mecklenburg soldiers, and the Kingdom of Prussia and the Duchy of Mecklenburg have a close relationship, so the recruited retired soldiers of the two countries came on the same ship.

The disembarking soldiers were mainly retired soldiers from the Kingdom of Bavaria and Württemberg, whose countries had fought Prussia two years earlier, and the Prussia-Austrian War ended, and the two countries were forced to join the Prussian-dominated North German Confederation.

Therefore, the recruited retired soldiers of Bavaria and Württemberg were not willing to share the same boat with the Prussians, and their humble duties could only separate them. ”

"There are many princes in the German region, and Prussia wants to unify Germany, and there are many troubles." Li Mingyuan commented as an outsider.

The soldiers on the ship quickly disembarked and assembled, and after about three minutes, there were no more white soldiers coming down from the boat, and Li Mingyuan glanced at the white retired soldiers standing on the coast, divided into five queues, about eight hundred people.

"Go, call their principals, and I'll have a word with them."

The soldier conveyed Li Mingyuan's order, and with a translator, he quickly found two tall foreigners, and through the translation, communication became much simpler and easier.

"Since the two of you have arrived in Rio Gran do Sul, you must have done some understanding beforehand, everyone is from a military background, not much nonsense, I just want to know what skills you and your soldiers have, and then I can give you an equivalent reward according to your ability."

"Your Majesty, I have under my command fifty retired artillerymen, thirty-two retired cavalry, one hundred and twenty retired infantry, one hundred and twelve retired infantry from Mecklenburg and two hundred infantry from other regions are also willing to fight with the Prussian troops."

"The artillery and cavalry are drawn out to join my troops, and the rest of the soldiers are under your unified command, Captain Frank, is there no problem?"

Li Mingyuan said with his military rank before retiring.

"You are an employer and are willing to follow your arrangement." Frank didn't hesitate.

The two mercenary leaders, Frank had more than 500 soldiers under his command, and the Bavarian Aldrich had 300 men, and the artillery, cavalry and other technical arms among them were singled out, and there were 700 soldiers left.

"Two, I will use your soldiers as the basis to form the Rio Gran do Sul Foreign Mercenary Legion, you are the first batch of Foreign Legion soldiers, I hope you two will cooperate well and play your due combat effectiveness when I need the Foreign Legion to fight."

"Your Majesty, how do we count our weapons and equipment and treatment? When Sun was in Prussia, he promised us that he would pay three times the salary of a soldier serving in the Prussian Army.

The soldiers don't have much money on them, and I hope you will make good on your promise to pay a month's worth of military expenses in advance. Aldrich said.

"I will arrange for someone to distribute the military expenses to you later, and the weapons and equipment will be uniformly equipped with the newly purchased Dresser rifles according to the standards of the field army." Li Mingyuan made a promise: "During the period of peaceful training, ordinary soldiers and officers were paid three times the salary of Prussian troops, and when the war broke out, the military expenses were increased to four times, and if someone died in the war, the pension was paid to their families."

The Kingdom of Prussia has a liaison officer stationed in Rio Gran do Sul, and the pension will be transferred from him to the fallen soldiers. ”

Li Mingyuan gave the first batch of white mercenaries generous treatment, not only to win people's hearts and set an example in the way of a thousand gold and horses, but also for practical purposes, in the second half of the nineteenth century until World War II, white Europeans and Americans occupied the hegemonic position in the world, although the Chinese founded the country in South America, some things still have to be done under the guise of white people to be more convenient, therefore, Li Mingyuan made plans in advance.

Stabilize the morale of the white mercenaries with favorable treatment, temporarily appoint Frank as the commander of the Foreign Legion in Rio Gran do Sul, and Aldrich as the deputy commander, Li Mingyuan led people to arrange their accommodation, and then began to direct the soldiers to load and unload machinery and weapons.

Most of the more than 200 ships were hired from Prussia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and other North Sea countries after arriving in Prussia.

Mechanical equipment and weapons and military-industrial equipment account for almost half of the ships in the fleet. The remaining half of the ships were mostly loaded with artillery and personnel, and 10,000 rifles were purchased, the least of several procurement items.

Gathering two-thirds of the garrison and retired soldiers in Xinjing, busy for an afternoon, only a quarter of the mechanical equipment and half of the artillery were unloaded to the shore, the sky was getting late, the sun was about to set under the sea, Li Mingyuan ordered the soldiers to stop working, and Sun Bin, who was busy going back and forth, went to a tree on the shore to rest.

"Shizi, this mission to Prussia has fished a lot of good things, and under the tarpaulin on the north side is a complete set of 105 mm howitzer production equipment, including barrel processing and ammunition processing equipment.

Five production lines of Dresser rifles, two sets of 75-mm field guns, and three sets of 65-mm mountain guns have not been unloaded on the ship......"

Sun Bin had just been idle, and he didn't feel tired at all, and introduced the military equipment he bought to Li Mingyuan like a few treasures.

In fact, the number of main weapons and equipment has already been introduced in the Asian telegram, and Li Mingyuan did not interrupt his interest, and continued: "With rifles, three types of field artillery, and supporting ammunition production equipment, with these, Rio Gran do Sul will have a preliminary systematic defense industry system, plus the procurement of mining and smelting equipment, and in time, the strength of the Chinese in South America will be qualitatively improved." ”

From scratch, they have their own industrial system belonging to the Chinese in South America, although it is only a small industrial system composed of more than a dozen types of industrial equipment, which is still of great significance to the Chinese forces under the leadership of Li Mingyuan.

The elder López is at the helm of the landlocked country of Paraguay and has developed Paraguay into a small South American hegemon that can challenge Brazil, and the territory of Rio Gran do Sul is not much different from Paraguay, and Li Mingyuan believes that he can do better than the elder López.