The first part of "Crossing the Days in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" is coming to an end, and the second part is the biography of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the Americas.

The first stop of the gaiden is Peru in South America, have you guessed it?

Inspired by an article on the Internet, Jia Yang has excerpted this article below for everyone to enjoy first. Of course, Jiayang can't write exactly according to this article, it must be more exciting than this article, and the content will be a lot richer, please look forward to it.

In 1860, although the Taiping army led by Li Shixian, the prince, won many victories in Fujian, it was defeated by the joint strangulation of the Western powers and the Qing army, but the remaining Taiping army still had tens of thousands of people, and it seemed impossible to stay and continue to resist the Qing. There were Qing soldiers all around, and there were warships of Western powers overseas, and the only way was to be sold abroad as piglets as "contract miners", and the rest of the Taiping army of about 30,000 people chose this only way of life.

In 1862, more than 10,000 remnants of the Taiping Army, along with their relatives, were transported to Iquique, Peru, South America, to work as guano and saltpeter miners. They wanted to resist many times, but they were surrounded by foreigners with loaded guns, and they wanted to go back to China, but they were afraid of being killed, so they could only endure it silently, so there were many people who died of illness and committed suicide.

In 1866, when Chile fought the Saltpeter War with Peru and Bolivia, the remnants of the 10,000-strong Taiping army finally saw hope, and they saw the Chilean army as liberators. In March 1867, Iquique's Taiping army staged an uprising, killing the mine supervisor Sigos, seizing the weapons of the saltpeter mining company, and engaged in a fierce battle with the Peruvian army that came to suppress it, killing two Peruvian majors and capturing 200 Indian mercenaries. The rebels elected Weng Derong from Hunan and Chen Yonglu from Guangdong as leaders, reorganized the original Taiping army, and sent captured Indian mercenaries and a Brazilian to the commander of the Chilean army, Major General Cirapizzo, to offer help Chile against the Peruvian and Bolivian armies. Major General Sirapizo was overjoyed and sent a second lieutenant disguised as a second lieutenant to the Iquique mining area, where the rebel forces were stationed, and brought a letter from the President of Chile, giving Chilean nationality to all the Taiping soldiers and their families, and saying that Iquique would be handed over to the Taiping Army and their families after the war.

Boneda fortress ambush

Major General Sirapizzo appointed Onn Derong as major and Chen Yonglu as captain, and organized the Taiping Army into the Chilean 6th Border Column "Brown Army", and ordered them to cooperate with the Chilean army in the Peruvian province of Tarapacá, cooperate with the landing of Ilo and Pacocha ports, occupy Moquegua, and capture the city of Iquique with the Chilean army.

In 1868, the Taiping Army launched a military operation at the request of the Chilean army. Instead of adapting to the Western establishment as required by the Chilean military advisers, they adopted the Taiping Army to establish two armies, and set up Taiping officer posts such as division commanders, brigade commanders, and two horses. They did not have many firearms in their hands, so they used local resources to build cold weapons such as the Taiping Knife, so that in June of this year, they launched an operation to attack the rear of the Peruvian army in Tacna. 500 Taiping soldiers disguised as local Indians infiltrated the fortress of Boneda and captured 300 Peruvian soldiers and the commander of the fortress in one fell swoop, and then they engaged in a fierce battle with the Bolivian army that rushed to hear the news, and their vanguard first sent 300 men to lure the Bolivian cavalry unit into a forest, and then launched an ambush, killing more than 70 Bolivian soldiers. Then about 1,000 Taiping soldiers wearing yellow and red turbans, wearing brown clothes, rushed into the Bolivian army with various weapons and slashed and slashed, the Bolivian army of about 4,000 people, including more than 2,000 Indian mercenaries, their weapons were only crossbows, and they were not able to defeat the Taiping army at all, and soon the Bo army retreated, more than 100 corpses, about 1,000 Indian mercenaries surrendered, and the Taiping army captured a lot in this battle, which is the famous Boneda fortress ambush.

In 1869, in order to coordinate with the landing at the Chilean port of Pacoca, the Taiping Army, under the command of Chen Yonglu, fought again in Moquegua against the Peruvian-Bolivian coalition. They still used the typical combat methods of the Taiping army to lure the enemy into the ambush circle, and although they did not win, they made a deep impression on the enemy. An officer of the Bolivian Army said: "These brown people with turbans waved their flags and shouted from outside the firing range, and when they got closer, they disappeared, and when they fought, they made so much noise that many Indian mercenaries thought they were ambushed and fled, and even the officers could not stop them." This is the usual thrilling battle of the Taiping army. Due to the military operations of the Taiping Army, the Secret Boli Coalition Army was greatly restrained, and there was no time to deal with the battle in the port of Pacocha, so the Chilean Army landed smoothly with minor casualties.

Battle of Moquegua

In the Second Battle of Moquegua, when the Taiping army finally fought alongside the Chilean army, Major General Silapizo (then Lieutenant General) met with Chen Yonglu and learned that Weng Derong had died of illness two months earlier, so he conferred the rank of colonel on Chen Yonglu and visited his army. He recorded at the time: "This army did not have the discipline of Western armies, but it had a discipline with unique Chinese characteristics, they were equipped with many triangular flags, using snail horns instead of military horns, and their soldiers were armed with various weapons, but more often used two Oriental-style short knives (Taiping knives)", and Chen Yonglu was instructed to change the word Taiping on the pennant to the Chilean national emblem.

In the Battle of Mokegua, the Taiping army bravely killed the enemy without fear of sacrifice and defeated the secret glass coalition army very badly. The commander who commanded the secret glass alliance army that day almost went crazy, and the battlefield was full of secret glass alliance troops who were cut down by the Taiping army, and the Taiping army also suffered 400 casualties, and they captured 4 cannons and 15 military flags, a large number of baggage and more than 200 war horses. Sirapizo awarded Chen Yonglu the Order of the Chilean Congress and gave pensions to the families of the Taiping soldiers who died in battle. Then the Taiping army cooperated with the Chilean army in the two battles of Tacna and Arica to completely defeat the Bolivian army, so far, the Chilean army has occupied all the saltpeter producing areas on the Pacific coast of Bolivia and Peru, and Bolivia has lost the ability to continue the war, and has effectively withdrawn from the war.

After the end of the war, the Chilean government decided to give Iquique to the remnants of the Taiping Army to establish a self-governing town, but on the condition that it continue to help Chile attack Peru, but the Taiping Army was unwilling to continue to be cannon fodder for foreign countries, so they did not accept it and were willing to integrate into the local society. It is said that 1/4 of the local population of Iquique today is of Chinese descent, and the food culture there is also heavily influenced by China, with restaurants in the local language called "Qifa" (Cantonese for eating) and chaos called "Wandan" (Zhejiang dialect chaos).