The guards took Lustarte to Li Mingyuan's room, and Rustuart stood alone in the middle of the room, feeling a little apprehensive.

Captured by the Chinese Independence Army for several days, doing the same heavy work every day as ordinary Peruvian captives, Rustuat has regretted his decision to surrender.

The work in the mine is not done by people at all, and he is tired after a few days of work.

Although I used to be angry with Thomas, at least food, clothing, shelter and transportation were good, where did I suffer the sins in the mine,

If it weren't for the last hope of survival, Lustuat wouldn't have survived.

Fortunately, Lust Tuart waited for the good news, and while he was working, the Chinese overseer informed Li Mingyuan that he wanted to see him, so with the luck and apprehension that he did not have to do heavy work, Lust Tuart walked into Li Mingyuan's room.

"Do it, you're welcome." Li Mingyuan came out of it and spoke to Lustuatt in English.

As a high-ranking military officer in Peru, Lustuat still knows English, and said in English at the moment, "Thank you, Your Excellency, I don't know if Your Excellency accepted my request for service?" ”

"Mr. Lustuat, your soldiers have already been taken prisoner by me, and now you still say that you are going to surrender, don't you think it's too late?" Li Mingyuan looked at him with a smile.

"Sir, you can't do this to me, your men promised to accept our surrender before I ordered the soldiers to lay down their arms, you can't deceive a person who really wants to join your army." Although Lustuath felt that it was useless to say this, he still did not give up.

"I don't need to surrender, my soldiers are brave enough, and I don't need foreigners who may rebel at any time." Li Mingyuan directly stated his attitude.

"And what did you call me for?"

"Hehe, I'm giving you a chance to prove your worth, whether you can grasp the last chance to survive depends on yourself." Li Mingyuan smiled, and the threat in his tone was self-evident.

A cold sweat broke out behind Lustuat's back, he didn't believe that Li Mingyuan was just talking, if he couldn't say what satisfied him, what awaited him might be torture and death.

Thinking of the miserable torture of Umato, Lustuath immediately became frightened, and hurriedly said, "Your Excellency, 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're just a city general, how much gold can you have?" Li Mingyuan didn't believe it.

"I absolutely don't mean to lie to you, Peru is rich in gold, the former Inca Empire was famous for its massive gold holdings, and I led troops to encircle and suppress an Indian primitive tribe more than ten years ago, and seized a lot of gold, I only relied on a part of the gold seized to bribe officials to achieve my current position, I still have five hundred catties of gold at home, as long as you promise to let me go back, I will definitely give you all this gold."

500 catties of gold is now only about 130 million yuan, but more than 150 years ago, the price of gold was still very high.

Before the 19th century, the level of gold productivity of human society was very low, and some studies believe that in the thousands of years of history before the 19th century, human beings produced less than 10,000 tons of gold in total, such as only 200 tons of gold in the 100 years of the 18th century.

Due to a series of discoveries of gold resources in the 19th century, gold production has increased dramatically since then.

In particular, in the last 50 years of the 19th century, gold production exceeded the total of the previous 5,000 years, and it was from 1850 onwards that the price of gold gradually declined as gold mining increased.

Gold is the world's common hard currency, the Chinese Independence Army captured more than a dozen cities, seized a lot of supplies, but captured less than a ton of gold.

Before the Chinese Independence Army was transferred to Brazil, Li Mingyuan had to purchase a large amount of arms and materials from Prussia and other countries.

However, the only thing that the Chinese Independence Army could trade with Prussia was saltpeter and other mineral resources.

Saltpeter mining takes a lot of time, and in order to get more saltpeter before transferring, Li Mingyuan threw all the captured Peruvian soldiers into the mine.

However, a month later, the Chinese Independence Army was about to move in, and for more than a month, even if the Peruvian captives tried harder, there was no guarantee that enough saltpeter would be produced.

The reason why Li Mingyuan called Lustuat here today is that he wants to send a message to the Peruvian president and obtain a part of the funds to purchase arms and materials from Prussia through a deal with the Peruvian president.

After hearing Lustuatt's words, Li Mingyuan's eyes lit up instantly, although the value of five hundred catties of gold was not low, it was not the reason why Li Mingyuan was happy.

Through the Inca Empire in the mouth of Lustuat, Li Mingyuan remembered the legend of the famous Inca treasure.

The Incas were indigenous to Latin America, and in the 11th century, they gradually annexed neighboring tribes, establishing a powerful slave Inca empire by 1438.

The Incas loved to collect gold,

It is said that the Inca has been collecting gold for generations since the 11th century, and if all the Inca gold is added up, it is worth as much as the rest of the world at that time.

Because of this, in 1531, the Spanish colonizer Pizarro led 180 brave soldiers to attack the Canadian Empire with the most advanced weapons in Europe at the time.

After Pizarro captured the emperor of the Inca Empire, the emperor of the Inca Empire gave Pizarro 11 tons of gold in order to survive, and after getting the gold, Pizarro did not keep his promise to spare the Inca Emperor, and after a few days, he killed the Inca Emperor.

The treacherous Pizarro caused displeasure among the Incas, who hid all their gold collections, and until the twenty-first century, the Inca treasures were not discovered.

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

Lake Titicaca is located at the junction of Peru and Bolivia,

The Chinese Independence Army now controls the western part of Lake Titicaca, which was originally part of Peru. If there is really the gold treasure of the Incas in the lake, it can not only solve the problems of the Chinese Independence Army, but also have a better chance of gaining a foothold in southern Brazil in the future.

According to legend, the Inca treasure contained more than four hundred tons of gold, which was enough for the Chinese Independence Army to develop for a long time.

"Your Excellency" Rustuat waited for a while after speaking, but Li Mingyuan still didn't react, so he spoke.

"Well, five hundred pounds of gold can buy your life." Li Mingyuan reacted from his reverie, and then said, "In order to reward you for taking the initiative to sacrifice five hundred catties of gold, I have decided to hand over the three cities of Moyando, Mokegua, and Tacna to you. ”

"Your Excellency, are you telling the truth?" Rustuatt said in disbelief.

"Of course it's true, but you're going to do something for me." Li Mingyuan said seriously.

"Please, as long as I can do it, I will promise you." Lustuat used to have only one city, and the financial power was not in his own hands, and when he heard that Li Mingyuan was going to hand over three seaside cities to him, he immediately became excited.

The armies of southern Peru were wiped out by the Chinese Independence Army, and if Lustuat controlled 10,000 square kilometers of land within the boundaries of the three seaside cities, then he would have a stable base.

With the mines and trade taxes of the three cities, Lustuatt could easily pull up an army of tens of thousands, and with an army of 10,000, even if Thomas wanted to deal with him, he had to weigh his own energy.

"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 the three cities will be yours, but your men will also return them to you as they are."

Then Li Mingyuan told Lustuart about the terms of the deal with the Peruvian president.

Li Mingyuan's request was not very difficult, and after listening to it, Lustuatt nodded and agreed.

"That's the condition, I'll send someone to your house right away and get back the gold you've hidden." Li Mingyuan was very satisfied with Lustart's performance, and finally commanded.

"Yes, Your Excellency, but I want to take my lieutenant Manuel away and let him pass on the news between me and you."

"Yes, you can go to the mines and take him away right now." ……

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