The next day, at nine o'clock in the morning, the open space outside the mine was full of people.

The news that Li Mingyuan was holding a military contest spread two days ago, and 60,000 Chinese laborers stayed in the desert mines and had nothing to do, so they all came out to watch the contest.

"Lao Liu, I heard that the winner of the competition will be personally received by the prince."

"Not only that, I heard the company commander say that as long as you perform well in the competition, you can become an officer."

"Then I will also participate, I have all my strength, it is no problem to fight two or three, and I also want to be an officer."

After Li Mingyuan announced the news that he relied on a competition to select some officers, the soldiers below showed enthusiasm and rushed to sign up in line.

Because there were too many people who signed up, Li Mingyuan divided the competition sites into 15 places, which were selected for shooting, fighting, running, and weightlifting.

"Liu Pu, the enthusiasm of the brothers is very high" Li Mingyuan walked around several locations, watching the performance of the soldiers.

"The brothers all want to serve the son." Liu Pu patted Li Mingyuan's ass.

Li Mingyuan smiled and ignored Liu Pu's sycophancy.

In order to encourage the enthusiasm of the soldiers to participate in the competition, Li Mingyuan not only took out a large amount of captured gold and silver as prizes, but also promised that the champion of each event would be the battalion commander, and other soldiers with good performance would also become company commanders, platoon commanders, and squad leaders.

As soon as he heard that he could be an officer, the soldiers below immediately became calm, the champion could not be a champion, as long as he performed well and became a company commander, the platoon commander still had hope, so he felt that he had some ability to provoke the soldiers to sign up for the competition.

"Liu Pu, how many people have signed up now?"

"In total, 5,000 people signed up."

"Five thousand nine hundred, almost one-tenth of the total." Li Mingyuan said with some emotion.

"Of the 5,900 people, 800 were people from four divisions who conducted group simulated operations."

The military competition is divided into two parts, one is a team competition based on four newly formed divisions, each unit sends a part of the army, and then simulates the war environment for offensive and defensive competitions.

The remaining 5,100 or so were selected for their individual specialties, which tested the soldiers' individual ability.

"5,100 people is not a lot, and after this competition, 1,000 people with good performance will be selected from among them to serve as grassroots officers in the company platoon squad, which can just fill the gap in officers after the expansion of the army."

Peru's counterattack is imminent, Li Mingyuan does not have time to slowly promote officers, and although it is a bit arbitrary to select officers by means of military competition, it is also the most appropriate method now.

"If the Peruvians want to deal with us, they must send at least 30,000 people, otherwise they will send us equipment if they come less." Liu Pu has always been in charge of the logistics of the army, so he knows very well the weapons and equipment of the Taiping Army, which was renamed the South American Chinese Independent Army, and with the existing equipment, the Peruvian army of less than 30,000 people will not be the opponent of the Chinese Independent Army.

"The gap in weapons and equipment is too big, otherwise I will directly take Balangka." Li Mingyuan said with some regret,

After the capture of Duraya, the Independence Army successively seized some weapons and equipment, and now there are more than 20,000 muskets in total, but most of them are backward muskets captured from the mines, and only about 6,000 muskets in good condition.

Because there were not enough muskets, about half of the soldiers still carried cold weapons such as broadswords and spears. With these weapons, it was more than enough to defend the city, but it was impossible to attack the heavily fortified Barangka.

Because Balangca is an important port city in Peru, and hundreds of merchant ships dock through Balangca every day, the Peruvian government has stationed a large number of troops in Balangca.

These armies were not used to supervise the Chinese workers, but to guard against the Chileans. Because in the eyes of Peruvians, although the Chinese workers are hardworking and capable, they are cowardly and could not imagine that they would start an uprising.

Li Mingyuan wanted to attack Balangka, not only to seize supplies, but also to gain access to the sea, and then trade with Prussia and other great powers through sea lanes.

"Barangca is a nail in the coffin behind Peru's entry into the Patibilca Valley, and we will be able to prepare Peru for the tournament if we win it." Liu Pu nodded.

The two of them walked while talking, and soon came to the arena of the shooting competition.

"Zhou Daniu, the head of the lowly garrison, reports to the prince." Li Mingyuan was talking to Liu Pu when he was suddenly interrupted by a loud voice.

Li Mingyuan turned around and looked, it turned out to be Zhou Da Niu during the first riot, when Zhou Da Niu led a hundred people to protect the old and weak of the Taiping Army, and did not participate in the task of attacking the hall.

But it is also to blame Zhou Daniu's bad luck, after the success of the riot, Li Mingyuan lacked capable subordinates, so he left Zhou Daniu to guard the old camp, so that he did not participate in the later battles, and his military merits were not gained.

"Da Niu, how are you doing in the garrison regiment?" Li Mingyuan asked with a smile.

"Shizi, you can change the army for Da Niu, he has been guarding the old camp, and Lao Niu's idle hands are itchy." Zhou Da Niu Road.

"The garrison regiment is responsible for the security work of the old battalion, and it has a heavy responsibility, so letting you be the head of the garrison regiment is an important thing to you, why are you still not satisfied?"

"No, Shizi, the work of the guards is important, but Lao Niu is not the material for this, when the riot was short of people, you let me do the work of the guards, Lao Niu has nothing to say. But now that the army has expanded, there is no shortage of manpower, and it is not too much for Lao Niu to change the army. Zhou Daniu said without giving up.

"Hehe, it's okay to let you be the commander of the garrison regiment for a period of time, so let's do it, you hand over the duties of the garrison regiment, and tomorrow you will serve in the newly established Second Mixed Brigade."

The Second Mixed Brigade is one of the two mixed brigades directly under the General Headquarters, and the other brigade is with Wang Dashan as the brigade commander.

The mixed brigade numbered 6,000 people, and its rank was half a level lower than that of the division.

Although the number of mixed brigades is not large, most of the soldiers are Taiping troops with combat experience, and they are directly under the headquarters of the Independent Army, so their weapons and equipment are better than those of the four divisions.

"Yes, I'll go through the handover now." Zhou Daniu didn't expect Li Mingyuan to make himself the brigade commander of the mixed brigade, and he couldn't wait to complete the transfer procedures immediately.

"Don't worry, since I promised you, I won't talk or talk, go, accompany me to see the soldier's shooting results." Li Mingyuan shouted to Zhou Daniu, who turned around to leave.

"Am I not so happy?" Zhou Daniu said embarrassedly.

"Da Niu, you are in charge of the shooting competition, you can help me introduce the competition." Li Mingyuan said.

"Shizi, there are 437 soldiers who have signed up for shooting, and after two eliminations, there are now 25 people participating in the competition."

"There are fewer people participating in the shooting competition." Liu Pu next to him continued.

"There are not many people participating in the shooting competition, but the standard of those who came to sign up is good, and there are five soldiers with sharp marksmanship who can hit targets at a distance of 150 meters." Zhou Da Niu Road.

"Oh, one hundred and fifty meters to the target, I want to meet them." Li Mingyuan said with interest.

During World War II, the sniper rifle was invented, and with the assistance of the scope, the sharpshooter could only hit the target at most about 200 meters, and the accuracy would drop if it was farther, so without the assistance of professional aiming equipment, it was still very powerful to be able to hit a target of 150 meters.