Rise of Australia

Chapter 349 The Conflicting Frontier

The two countries, Argentina and Chile, also had conflicts and numerous disputes with each other in the hundreds of years since the establishment of the country because of the border issue.

If it's a general small conflict, it's okay. Although the big powers will pay attention, they basically won't interfere too much.

However, if it is a large-scale conflict with a greater impact, the situation in South America will inevitably usher in the intervention of the great powers.

No way, the strategic significance of this area is too high.Chile has the largest natural saltpeter mine in the world, and saltpeter is an important raw material used to make fertilizer and gunpowder.

Needless to say, the importance of chemical fertilizers and gunpowder, one can promote the development of agriculture, and the other can promote the development of military affairs.

For the major powers in the current chaotic world situation, the importance of natural saltpeter mines from Chile is self-evident.

Chile and the British Empire have always had good relations, and the British Empire also controls all the saltpeter mines in Chile.

In the past, various countries vigorously researched the synthetic ammonia technology in order to get rid of the control of the British Empire on the saltpeter ore, and then searched for a material such as synthetic ammonia that could replace the saltpeter ore.

But with the current technology and development, synthetic ammonia is not enough to completely replace saltpeter ore.

It can only be said that it has been replaced in some aspects, the importance of saltpeter mines is still very high, and the British Empire is always paying attention to news from Chile.

The bad news is that this is an Argentina-Chile clash, and it's decidedly different than usual.

To be precise, this conflict between Argentina and Chile is more like an extension of the previous South American naval arms race.

The South American naval arms race was caused by Brazil taking the lead in building dreadnoughts, but Brazil lost its leading position in the arms race because of the outbreak of the naval uprising.

The real reason for the uprising was actually the contradictions caused by ethnic conflicts.

Most of the ordinary soldiers in the Brazilian Navy are black, but the middle and high-level officers who lead these blacks are all white.

When the whites command these black naval soldiers, they often don't care about the opinions of the blacks. In severe cases, they don't even care about the life and death of the blacks. This led to the naval uprising.

After this incident, the combat effectiveness of the Brazilian Navy has been greatly reduced, and the government no longer trusts the navy.

This also indirectly led to the forced sale of Brazil's third battleship, the Rio de Janeiro.

After Brazil withdrew from the naval arms race, the only two remaining countries still competing were Argentina and Chile.

Argentine naval vessels are built in the United States, and Chilean naval vessels are built in Australasia.

Although the tonnage is similar, from the perspective of the advanced degree of warships, Chilean warships are more advanced than Argentine warships.

Although due to the relatively late start of construction, Chile may formally equip these warships about a year later than Argentina.

But once the Chileans obtain these warships, Argentina's navy will be at a disadvantage, which will cause the power gap between Argentina and Chile to widen again.

You must know that Chile's saltpeter mines are very important to the British Empire, so the British Empire also attaches great importance to the relationship with Chile.

This also led to the fact that although the founding time of the two countries is similar, the development potential at the beginning is also almost the same.

But with the friendship between Chile and the British Empire, there is already hope of catching up with Argentina.

The Argentines naturally don't want this to happen, because it is likely to mean that the three disputed islands completely belong to Chile, and even Argentina's homeland will be threatened.

After all, Argentina is Chile's closest neighbor, and it has a decades-long feud with Chile.

Watching Chile gradually become stronger and stronger, this is more uncomfortable for the Argentines than losing money.

Perhaps it was the Second Balkan War that broke out not long ago, which gave the Argentines hope.

Or maybe it was contact with a certain country, which gave the Argentines a certain amount of cards and confidence.

In short, in June 1913, a moderate military conflict broke out on the southern border of Argentina and Chile.

The conflict resulted in the death of about a dozen soldiers from Argentina and Chile and the wounding of dozens more.

Tensions between Argentina and Chile were instantly ignited because of this conflict.

The governments and congresses of the two major countries have demanded that the army be prepared for war and seek justice for the citizens of their own countries.

The real cause of the conflict is known only to the soldiers on the border, but the soldiers on the border on both sides were either injured or died.The other soldiers also had their own stories, and it was difficult to determine which side was really responsible for the conflict.

After the conflict broke out, both Argentina and Chile sent military officers to closely control the troops on the border.

But it is clear that at least in Argentina, the control of border troops is not strict.

As a result, under the premise that the Chileans exercised restraint, Argentina's border troops still invaded the Chilean border from time to time, and the two sides tended to break out again.

Theoretically speaking, Chile has the support of the British Empire behind it, and it is impossible for Argentina to start wars and conflicts blindly.

But the current state shown by Argentina should have corresponding hole cards and confidence.

This also means that Argentina should have the support from the great powers before it has the confidence to take the risk of offending the British Empire and provoke a conflict with Chile.

Although the conflict between Argentina and Chile has not yet spread to the saltpeter mining area, the British Empire has paid close attention to this conflict.

However, things have not yet developed to the point where the British Empire will intervene, and the Allied Powers and the Entente Powers have only spoken out, calling on both parties to exercise restraint.

It's a pity that such conflicts are no longer within the control of the governments of both sides.Because the last conflict caused close to hundreds of casualties on both sides, it also made the border forces of Argentina and Chile very hostile to each other.

Under the tense atmosphere on both sides, on June 1913, 6, the second conflict ensued.

Since the outbreak of the last conflict, both sides have urgently mobilized some weapons and equipment to the border area to guard against possible attacks by the other side.

At the same time, the border between Argentina and Chile has several times more garrisons and patrols.

Although this effectively ensures the security of the border, it also virtually increases the possibility of conflict between the armies of the two sides.

After all, the patrols from both sides may only encounter each other once in a week or two.

But now, after the increase of border guards, the patrol forces of both sides can meet almost every day, and it is impossible not to break out of conflict.

Eduardo Montalva is an ordinary Chilean border guard who belongs to a patrol squad of the border garrison.

Because it was almost winter in the southern hemisphere, Eduardo Montalva's patrol force basically wore thicker cotton clothes.

Before the conflict broke out, Eduardo Montalva and his comrades thought it was just a simple patrol.

Although it has only been a few days since the last conflict broke out, both Argentina and Chile know that the other party has sent more troops to station on the border, and the outbreak of conflict at this time is very likely to detonate a larger war.

For several days in a row, the armies of both sides were relatively calm, which also made the soldiers secretly relieved, thinking that the conflict was basically impossible to happen again.

But the accident came so suddenly.

The squad leader of Eduardo Montalva's patrol squad took the lead. He climbed over the hill covered with yesterday's snow, and what he saw was an Argentine army with dozens of people.

Before the "enemy" squad leader had time to say a complete sentence, he was directly hit by an oncoming bullet, and instantly fell into the white snowdrift.

In just a few seconds, a large amount of blood spewed out, dyeing the pure white snow red, and the snow mixed with blood, quietly flowed to the feet of Eduardo Montalva and his comrades.

"The enemy has crossed the border! Hurry up and fire the flare gun!" Eduardo Montalva reacted first, took out the Lee Enfield rifle on his back, and said to his comrades beside him.

Although the gunshots will soon attract the attention of the armies of both sides, it is difficult to judge the specific direction in such a mountain forest.

If you use the flare gun, you can quickly identify the place where the conflict broke out, which is conducive to the arrival of your own reinforcements.

Of course, this also has a disadvantage, that is, the opponent can also see the flare gun, and it is very likely to attract the opponent's support.

At this time, it will be faster than whoever supports the two sides. This not only determines the outcome of this conflict, but may also determine who has the upper hand in this conflict between Argentina and Chile.

After calling his teammates to use the flare gun, Eduardo Montalva carefully climbed to the top of the hill and counterattacked with a rifle.

Eduardo Montalva knew that if the enemy's attack was not suppressed with firepower, when the enemy climbed the hill, his entire patrol squad would become a living target for the enemy, and the result would only be death.

Fortunately, the quality and firepower of British-made Lee Enfield rifles are reliable enough.

As the rifle with the fastest firing rate at present, the fire suppression of the Lee Enfield rifle is very good. Eduardo Montalva also successfully made the Argentine army huddle in the mountain stream, unable to advance half a step.

boom!
Accompanied by a slightly dull gunshot, a stream of red smoke shot straight into the sky, and finally exploded high in the sky, leaving behind conspicuous red clouds and exhaust.

Almost every border patrol squad in Chile is equipped with one or two flare guns to guard against possible accidents.

Once the troops stationed at the border see this red smoke, they will rush to the place where the smoke is located as soon as possible to rescue the troops who may be in danger and distress.

"Oh, shit! Damn it, come and help!" Eduardo Montalva, who was fighting hard, couldn't help but stand there in a daze after watching his teammates shoot the signal gun. With a curse secretly, he scolded loudly.

But it's no wonder that Eduardo Montalva's comrades-in-arms, for a small country like Chile that doesn't have many wars, the training of the army is naturally not as active as that of the great powers.

Especially border patrol soldiers like Eduardo Montalva, they just went through simple training and joined the patrol team with weapons and equipment.

They didn't know the cruelty of real war. Facing the squad leader who was talking and laughing just now, he fell in front of them, bleeding all over the ground, making them look a little helpless and at a loss.

After hearing Eduardo Montalva's scolding and scolding, everyone quickly reacted, took their weapons and quietly climbed up the hill, and started to fight back against the Argentine army down the hill.

There is no difference in the combat quality of the Argentine and Chilean armies, but because of the excellent performance of Chile's Lee Enfield rifles, even if the number of Chilean soldiers is smaller, the two sides are in a state of balance for a while.

The battle lasted for more than ten minutes, and hundreds of bullets were consumed.Eduardo Montalva and his comrades were a little dumbfounded for a while looking at the Argentine army that had not been reduced in size.

In fact, the Argentine army under the mountain was also a little dumbfounded.Although the rate of fire of the standard rifles of the Argentine army is not so fast, because of the advantage of the large number of people, the consumption of bullets is more than that of the Chilean army.

But judging from the current firepower of the Chilean army, their attrition is not much.Unless there is one situation, that is, they have a large number of soldiers. Once attrition occurs, the prepared troops will directly make up for it.

But this possibility is also very low. After all, the Argentine army only has dozens of people. If the Chilean army has a large number, they would not choose to hide on the top of the mountain and shoot secretly.

For the first time, the armies of both sides felt a real war, and the consumption was so huge, whether it was for life or weapons and equipment.

If there were satellites capable of counting casualties on both sides, soldiers in Argentina and Chile would have discovered a slightly exaggerated figure.

The two sides combined consumed thousands of rounds of ammunition, but the actual casualties were very small, even less than ten.

Strictly speaking, except for the head of the Chilean patrol squad who was directly hit and killed by a bullet because of his bad luck at the beginning, the other soldiers were basically hit by stray bullets.

Argentina and Chile combined averaged one casualty for every five hundred rounds.

If only the death data is counted, even every thousand bullets can cause the death of one enemy on average.

This is because the distance between the armies of the two sides is not far away, and the Argentine army without any camouflage is more conspicuous on the Chilean side, which caused a small number of casualties.

Even those who are careful can find that when the comrades around them fight back, the barrels of their guns may have stretched into the sky.

No one is not afraid of death, let alone armies like Argentina and Chile that have not received much training and ideological education.

In order to ensure that they do not become the most unlucky person, when some people shoot, they even just stretch out their hands, while the rest of their bodies are still huddled in the nearby bunker.

Faced with such a situation, both sides have some heart.It is estimated that it will not be long before support from both sides may arrive.This is not good news for the Argentine army, because this is Chile's territory after all, and it is closer to Chile's border forces.

To break this predicament, the only option for the Argentine army at present is to cause mass casualties to the Chilean army in front of them, force them to retreat, or even kill them.

Without the encumbrance of these Chilean patrols, the Argentine army can, as before, hide in the long mountains on the border and ambush the Chilean army.

At this time, the Argentine commander felt a little regretful. In order to facilitate the movement, this operation did not carry any heavy weapons, and there was no good way for the Argentine army to face the Chilean army on the mountain.

Even though he knew that the number of Chilean troops was far smaller than his own, there were no bunkers on the long hillside. If he attacked the Chilean army on the mountain, he would undoubtedly send the Argentine army to his death.

If there is an artillery, even a small-caliber artillery, it can pose a threat to the Chilean army on the mountain and even wipe them out quickly.

And with the cover of artillery, the Argentine army can also find opportunities to touch the top of the mountain to deal with these cunning and annoying Chilean troops.

But now, it is obviously not the time to make the Argentine commander regret it.Seeing that the army had been dragged by the Chileans in the mountain stream, the Argentine commander understood that he had to make decisive decisions to save the lives of himself and his soldiers.

　Ask for a monthly pass!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)