At Lurín, on 11 January 1881, between 400 and 1,000 Chinese men led by Quintana gathered before a shrine to Guan Yu, a Chinese god of war, drank a rooster's blood, and swore an oath of allegiance to Chile, to follow Quintana, and to free Chinese slaves. These men, many of them veterans of the Opium Wars and Taiping Rebellion, organized themselves into the Vulcan Legion () and joined the command of Chilean general Manuel Baquedano, then preparing for the Lima campaign. They served primarily as porters and caregivers, but were also proficient with the use of dynamite and thus cleared mines and blasted for water wells. They saw combat at the Battle of Chorrillos and Battle of Miraflores from 13 to 15 January, where they demolished obstacles and fought the Peruvians with captured weapons.