Five days ago, the news that Peru's three-way reinforcements had been destroyed and Arequipa had fallen into the hands of the Chinese Independence Army was transmitted back to Lima, the capital of Peru.

"Thomas, the southern region of Peru is your defense area, and the three-way reinforcements and the Arequipa defenders are also your subordinates, I don't understand how more than 30,000 elite Peruvian soldiers can be defeated by a group of laborers who have just taken up arms, if you can't give a reasonable explanation, I will remove you from office with the right of the president and investigate your responsibility for dereliction of duty."

As soon as the meeting began, Peru's interim president, Pedro Diez Canseco, opened fire on Thomas.

"Pedro, you are only interim president and have no right to remove me from office." Thomas's 20,000 subordinates were all wiped out, and they were in a state of anger, not giving Pedro Diez Canseco face at all, and calling him by name.

"Thomas is presumptuous, do you still have me as a president in your eyes, I now use the rights granted to me by the Peruvian Constitution to announce the removal of you from the post of commander-in-chief of the Southern Theater of Operations."

Thomas was secretly plotting to overthrow him, Pedro had long known that if it weren't for the elite troops under Thomas, he would have killed Thomas a long time ago, and now that Thomas's troops have lost most of them, Pedro no longer has any scruples, and directly went crazy at the meeting, intending to take Thomas in one fell swoop.

"The reinforcements were all wiped out, and General Thomas bears some responsibility, but the main responsibility lies with the command errors of the front-line generals, and if General Thomas is relieved of his duties because of this incident, the punishment will be too severe." Watching Pedro get serious. Politicians and bigwigs who were in close contact with Thomas hurriedly persuaded.

Pedro originally wanted to take Thomas directly, but seeing that so many people were interceding for him, he knew that it was unlikely that he would want to kill Thomas on this matter alone. In a relaxed tone, he said, "Thomas, your responsibility will be discussed later, and the reasons for the defeat of our army will be explained clearly first." ”

Thomas was angry for a while and collided with Pedro, and after reacting, he felt a little afraid, the army he relied on was lost, there was no suppression by the army, he and Pedro were purely looking for death, and he no longer took the shelf at the moment, and said seriously, "The combat effectiveness of the Chinese rebels is much higher than we imagined, and the specific situation is determined by these soldiers who escaped." ”

Thomas beckoned, and Molabase and four other soldiers who had escaped walked out.

"Tell me about the rebels first." Pedro pointed to Mourabase, who was standing in front.

"Yes, President." Morabase saluted and said, "I heard that the rebels were besieging the city of Arequipa, and under the telegram of General Thomas, I immediately gathered the nearby military horses into a hidden mountain three hundred miles away, and the enemy reacted quickly and sent a large number of troops to reconnoiter our whereabouts. ”

"To get to the point, what I want to listen to is the combat effectiveness of the rebels, and I don't have time to listen to you here slowly." Pedro interrupted Molabase impatiently.

Morabase turned his head to look at Thomas, who nodded for him to continue, so he skipped the previous part and directly introduced the combat effectiveness of the Chinese army.

"Entering the military horse farm is the cavalry of the rebels, their riding skills are not as strong as ours, but all of them are not afraid of death, only 300 of the 700 people under the humble army are combat troops, and the other 400 are herdsmen who take care of the horses, I led the soldiers to resist the enemy's attack desperately, but they were outnumbered, so they could only retreat while fighting, and finally came back alive with five soldiers."

After Morabasse finished speaking, he looked at Pedro carefully, worried that he would kill himself directly if he was dissatisfied.

Pedro didn't take Morabase to heart, he was dealing with a Peruvian big man like Thomas, and Morazarce didn't put it in his eyes.

After questioning Molabasse, Pedro asked several other soldiers, and they all got the statement that the rebels were very powerful, and everyone was not afraid of death, and no one could say how powerful the Chinese troops were.

The Peruvian soldiers didn't lie, Morabasse ran away without fighting the Chinese troops, and the other four soldiers were all Lustuat's subordinates, so naturally they would not be brave enough to fight the Chinese Independence Army, so it was impossible to expect to get the combat power of the Chinese Independence Army from them.

However, from the descriptions of Peruvian soldiers, Pedro and other Peruvian high-ranking people also got an intuitive impression.

That is, the combat power of the Chinese Independent Army is higher than that of the Peruvian army, otherwise the more than 30,000 troops would not have been dumped by others.

Knowing the general situation of the matter, the Peruvian bigwigs sitting here must come up with a solution as soon as possible.

The southern part of Peru is rich in minerals and is the lifeblood of Peru's economy, and it is impossible for them to let the Chinese army occupy it forever.

"According to their descriptions and the information we have, the number of Chinese workers in the rebellion has reached 100,000, and after they have eliminated more than 30,000 elite troops of our army, all the important areas in the south have fallen into the hands of the Chinese rebels, and there are supplies from the south, especially the military factories in the city of Arequipa. The strength of the rebels will increase rapidly, so if we want to defeat them, we will need to mobilize the whole country. ”

"I'm against that," said a Peruvian politician sitting at the conference table.

"Tripa, do you have anything to say?"

Pedro, who was interrupted by others, was dissatisfied.

The obese Tripa didn't look at Pedro's face, and said to himself, "The total Peruvian army has a total of 120,000, because the southern battle has lost 40,000, can the remaining 80,000 be able to defeat the rebels?" I don't think it's likely. ”

"80,000 people are not enough, you can recruit soldiers, Peru has a population of 10 million, can you still not recruit soldiers?"

Pedro countered.

Pedro's calculations were good, and the southern Peruvian army suffered heavy losses, which he used as an excuse to expand the strength of his troops.

"No, Peru's economy has just developed, and recruiting more troops will bring down Peru's economy."

"Then what do you say, don't you want the south? Tripa, are you going to be a traitor? Pedro said in a stern tone.

"President, you don't have to buckle my hat, I oppose the expansion of the army, it does not mean that the southern region will not be recovered. As long as we sell the mines in the south to the British, the British will help us destroy the rebels. Tripa slowly spoke his mind.

"Tripa, I usually knew that you hugged the thighs of the British, but I didn't expect you to be so shameless that you sold the national interests of Peru to the British, and how many benefits the British gave you to make you speak for them." Thomas, who was sitting in a chair, heard that Trippa was going to sell the resources of the southern mines to the British, and immediately retorted.

The mining resources in the southern region are not Thomas alone, and the other Peruvian bigwigs have a share.

Shouted against it at the moment.

Asking the British for help was painful, and the politicians represented by Trippa did not agree to the expansion of the army for a while, and after a day of discussion but no consensus was reached, Pedro returned home depressed and waited for the meeting to resume tomorrow.