Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1038 Argument and Compromise ([-])

Blanco didn't know how many times he had come to Dongfang Port.In addition to the good memories of the first few years, with the strong rise of the East Coast Republic, his memories of coming to the East Coast these years are mostly gray and bleak, although his business is still booming (even a little expansion), but the loss of the kingdom is real. The rising east coast began to intervene in the situation between La Plata and Brazil, and its face became more and more hateful. In many cases, it even bothered to cover it up, which made Blanco even more powerless ——When did this neighbor suddenly rise to such an unstoppable level?

After sending his servants out and closing the door, Blanco looked at the Spaniard sitting opposite him in some silence.

"Aren't you going to say something?" Baron Raul Bravo sat casually on an oriental wicker chair, looked at Blanco, and said, "After all, you invited me to meet, maybe you Is there anything I would like to talk about that interests me?"

The two Iberian Peninsula countries, Spain and Portugal, are still at war. Of course, this is limited to the Old Continent. In the overseas colonies of the two sides, there is still a general peace between them. Therefore, this is also Blanco's visit to Bravo. The basis of the Baron.After all, everyone came to the colony to make a fortune. When there is money to be made, if things don’t reach a certain level, there is no need to kill them. It’s not worth it—and the people on the Iberian Peninsula These two neighbors are obviously making money at present, one depends on silver mines, and the other depends on sugar, tobacco and mahogany.

"Don't you think the east coast is developing too fast? It's only been a few years since they started from scratch, and they have already reached such a scale. Don't you feel afraid?" Blanco organized his words, and then used He said in fluent Spanish: "And they must have sold their souls to the devil, so they got unrivaled technology. Look how many new things they have come up with over the years? Steam engines, huge aspect ratios (they call them clipper ships) ) ships, railroads and trains, rubber products, and the wire telegraph, which has been much talked about lately, isn't that enough?"

"What do you mean?" Baron Bravo's face remained unchanged, still staring at Blanco, and asked slowly: "Please tell me what you want to say, I don't like guessing riddles."

"What I mean is that their development speed is astonishing, and their depravity is very deep, so they have acquired many incredible technologies and abilities. And it is precisely because of this that this group of heretics will become more dangerous. They are now It's crazy. They teamed up with the lowlanders who only knew money, and brazenly interfered in the situation in Recife. At the same time, they wantonly intimidated and expelled the believers of the Lord in the Gerard Mountains, causing many tragic casualties; in addition, they The Southern Cone Railway has been fully completed, and now they can easily transport a large number of people and materials safely to the Pacific side in a short period of time, without having to risk their lives through the Strait of Magellan or Cape Horn. They are still in the Southern Cone Is it not enough to show their ambitions?" Blanco said without stopping, and after he finished speaking, he stared at Baron Bravo carefully , but the baron did not move, which made him a little disappointed.

"This—Mr. Almeida, perhaps some of my actions have misunderstood you and caused you to have undue expectations. I am deeply sorry for that." After a long silence, Baron Bravo said: "It is true , although your country betrayed King Philip, the pagan country on the east coast now has certain ambitions for both Brazil and La Plata - we are well aware of this - so we have the interests and foundation of cooperation, This is your understanding, right?"

After being confirmed by Blanco, Baron Bravo continued: "But this is just your wishful thinking. In fact, King Philip's attention has always been on the Old World. How can the impoverished Chile and the rich Southern Netherland Compared? The desolate Patagonia is not comparable to Naples and Sicily, even Paraguay, which is said to be rich, is not as important as Catalonia, so - you understand?"

Blanco turned pale when he heard the words, and then he said angrily: "So this is why your country tolerates the infidels' unscrupulous settlements in the Southern Cone? So your country also wants to win over the heretics. Turn a blind eye to La Plata's ambition? So your country is determined to fight to the death with His Majesty Joao?"

After hearing this, Baron Bravo did not deny it. At the same time, he slightly raised his chin and looked at Blanco with somewhat arrogant eyes.Now he is somewhat disdainful to explain to this traitor that the main reason why King Philip can endure the cross-border behavior of the East Coast people in the Southern Cone area is that they have already planned to completely mortgage (sell) this place to the East Coast people. — After all, no one thinks that the Spanish Kingdom, which is in poor financial condition, can pay off a large debt after ten years; secondly, as Bravo said, the lifeblood of the Spaniards has always been in the Old Continent, Their number one enemy is also the French. You must know that His Majesty Louis wears the title of Earl of Barcelona (no matter how many people admit it) on his head. In addition, the despicable Portuguese are also the kingdom's confidantes and must be severely punished.And before defeating these enemies, what does it matter if the Kingdom of Spain loses some insignificant benefits in the New World?As long as the production and transportation of the silver mines in Chalkas are not affected, as for the rest, the kingdom is very busy now and can't manage so much.

Of course, as long as the kingdom frees up its hands in the future, end some unnecessary wars, and spend ten or eight years recuperating, then sooner or later, these yellow-skinned heretics will be cleaned up, making the South Cone, the East Bank, and even Brazil returns to His Majesty's control.In this regard, Baron Raul Bravo also has some expectations, especially the east coast area is now thriving with a group of pagans. If it is really taken back, how good would it be?Isn't it another filthy rich Netherlands?

By the way, Portugal must also take it back. Iberia can only have one ruler, and that is King Philip of Castile!If even the shameful betrayers of Portugal cannot be pacified, wouldn't Basque Country, Catalonia, Granada, Andalusia, and Galicia all have to follow suit?Such a result must be unacceptable to King Philip.

Besides, in today's increasingly prosperous smuggling trade, it is quite difficult to instigate Peru and Brazil to unite against people from the east coast.Unless the king of the peninsula personally ordered and sent a respected nobleman to bring several regiments of heavily armed soldiers to supervise, otherwise he would not be able to pass the businessmen and plantation owners who are doing business in the Viceroyalty of Peru first. ——A large number of native white elite families are involved behind them. The potential power should not be underestimated. Faced with their alliance, even the king must be cautious, not to mention there are a large number of resentful colonial officials whose interests have been damaged. They Backlash is also something that must be carefully considered.

Therefore, Blanco's trip is doomed to be fruitless: the Spaniards are now unwilling and unable to pay attention to the affairs of the New World. They are only vigilant about their core interests in the local area. Turn a blind eye and close one eye in exchange for economic assistance from the East Bank; even, their dislike of the East Bank may not have forced Portugal, the "traitor" who stabbed himself in the back at a critical moment. What--especially the nobles who share weal and woe with the Kingdom of Spain have a worse impression of Portugal.

After Blanco returned from Baron Bravo, he discussed with his entourage in the middle of the night, and finally decided to send his housekeeper Silva to Qingdao Port by boat the next day. Charles, and fully exchange views with him on the rampant activities of heretics on the east coast in the Gerard Mountains - if necessary, he can give up part of the economic interests on behalf of the Portuguese Brazilian authorities in exchange for the British substantial aid on.In today's Old Continent, the only thing Blanco and others can count on is the sudden emergence and surprise of the Englishman.

After finishing all this work, on July 7th, Blanco urgently asked Mo San, the new foreign minister of the East Coast Republic of China, to discuss the deteriorating situation between the two countries.And because Xu Xin was receiving representatives of the Italian investment business group at this time, and then met with some personnel of the Dutch West India Company, he had no time to talk to Blanco for several days, which made the Portuguese even more uneasy. .

On July 7, after more than 31 militia brigades from Dongfang and Luocha counties destroyed several Guarani tribes who had lived in the Geral Mountains for generations—at this time, the people on the east coast no longer participated in the attack. The action of the pioneers on the shore, the innocent and innocent Guarani people were all overthrown, and all the so-called unsightly ones were wiped out-the Portuguese were still not received, which made them even more anxious.

However, Blanco from Dongfang Port was not received. The special envoy of Governor Silva of Brazil and sugar tycoon Vieira, who came to Ping'an County from the north by land, received Mo Received by Colonel Ming.

After Chief of Staff Mo took office, he has been trying to do something to revive the army's prestige and momentum.In fact, the border frictions in the past six months and the meaning of the Executive Committee were not worth making a fuss about. We just need to punish the Indians lightly, and stop it as soon as possible. It must not damage the overall stability of the country—but The problem is that Marshal Mo doesn't see it that way. He thinks this is an excellent opportunity to increase the influence of the army, so he hastily brought his team to Ping'an County, and he and Vieira also had this kind of relationship. meet again.

"What? Your country wants to renegotiate the border?" Marshal Mo is indeed not a generous person, and a certain sap he gave obviously undoubtedly made the sugar tycoon a little dizzy, so that Vieira The gentleman shouted loudly regardless of diplomatic etiquette: "The border between your country and ours is sacred, and at the same time, it is also clear. We have been bounded by the Gerard Mountains for so many years, and there is no problem with each other, so why? You are now suddenly proposing to renegotiate the boundary? Please forgive me, I have not received authorization in this regard, and this is also very embarrassing and unacceptable. I think it is not only me, but even people far away in San Salvador Governor Silva, as well as all the civilized gentlemen in Brazil, absolutely cannot accept this!"

In fact, according to the opinion of the executive committee, the people on the east coast certainly have not yet crossed the border to annex the Portuguese land. The Portuguese promised to restrain the native tribes attached to it and compensate the people on the east bank for their losses; the second is to ask the Portuguese to open up the Brazilian market more deeply instead of half-opening it as before (this is beneficial to the prosperity of the east coast. The development of industry and commerce is extremely important); thirdly, they must acquiesce to the status quo in Recife and stop doing things.

But the question is, does their army really need to fully obey the wishes (chaos) of the executive committee?

(End of this chapter)