Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 17

Fast forward to mid-September.It is already late winter and early spring, and the temperature in Uruguay is still hovering around zero degrees.There have been a few heavy snowfalls this winter, but for the traveler, the bad weather can't stop their fiery determination.

Both sides of the Dayu River have been busy throughout the winter, with the construction of residential areas, factories, public facilities, office and storage facilities, docks, and so on.Travelers are like hardworking ants, building their homes bit by bit.

The agricultural areas on both sides of the Xiaoxi reservoir have now reclaimed a large amount of farmland, almost as many as several thousand acres.It is winter when everything is withered, and now there are only [-] mu of wheat fields and [-] mu of vegetable fields with crops growing. However, the thin snow cannot cover up the hope in people's hearts. The large flat fields indicate that next year will be a year full of hope. harvest year.

The scale of the Animal Husbandry Bureau is also getting bigger and bigger.Previously, the cows and mares brought by Captain Couette were all pregnant. Now Kinkola takes care of these animals meticulously, and visits them several times a day to make sure nothing goes wrong.

His apprentice Zheng Bin, a middle school student, is doing these things decently now. He is mainly in charge of the sheep pen and pig house.The number of pigs and sheep imported at the beginning has greatly increased to dozens of heads today. He and a few classmates are busy all day long, silently making their own contribution to everyone's future life.

In August, two ships returning to Europe from Santiago passed by.The two Spanish merchant ships were surprised when they found a port here, and the captain of one of the ships even asked to berth at the port.

The Executive Committee has always adopted an extremely cautious attitude towards the Spaniards, so they asked them to leave quickly after the Spanish merchant ships were replenished.The Spaniards took pictures of the power of the Yunsheng No. [-] moored in the port, and after hastily trading a few sets of [-]-year-style full-body armor, they set sail and left.

But they were clearly not the only visitors.

In early September, a Swedish merchant ship from Gothenburg unexpectedly came to the port of Chuanzhong.

After questioning, I learned that rumors of Chinese porcelain in Tartar Port are now secretly spreading in the Netherlands and Germany.After the captain of the Swedish merchant ship paid a lot of money to find out the details of the transaction between Captain Couit and the "Tatans", he immediately recruited more than 200 people from Livonia and Finland who went bankrupt due to wars or natural disasters in a very short period of time. After that, they came to the "Tatan Port" after a long journey full of various supplies, expecting to trade porcelain with the "Tatan people".

Taking into account the agreement with Captain Couette, the executive committee politely told him that the porcelain could not be sold.Then the Executive Committee recommended to the disappointed Swedish captain a new generation of foreign exchange-earning flagship product—the three-year-style full body armor.

The three-year-style full body armor is made of high-carbon steel, which is repeatedly forged by hydraulic forging hammers. The total weight is about 40 catties. It can withstand the frontal shooting of an arquebus gun at a relatively long distance. It also has a certain degree of protection at medium distances. It can be said that This armor was designed for the European aristocracy during the Thirty Years' War.

The Swedish captain bought fifty sets on the spot without hesitation after seeing the arquebus shooting experiment demonstrated by the cross-country crowd.Trinity-style full-body armor is priced at 400 riyals per set. Now the Swedish Legion led by King Gustav II of Sweden is fighting in Germany. I believe this batch of full-body armor will have a good market.

The Swedes were well prepared this time and brought a lot of things. In addition to seeds, cloth, canvas, rigging, copper, lead, matchlock guns, Finnish horses and other materials, there were also some artillery, including: 24 pounds of copper 2 naval guns, 18 2-pound cast iron naval guns, 18 2-pound copper naval guns, 12 2-pound cast iron naval guns, with several projectile gunpowder.The people from the Finance Bureau estimated the price of these materials, plus the cost of immigration, it reached almost 50000 riyals.

Tangyuan, the financial committee member who calculated the figure, suddenly felt a little headache. This fee is close to one-sixth of the current cash in the hands of the crossing crowd.Even if the payment of 20000 riyals for the full body armor is deducted, the traveler still needs to pay up to 30000 riyals in silver coins. If such transactions are repeated several times, the traveler will go bankrupt immediately.

And this time the new immigrants are not reassuring.The immigrants brought by the Swedes mainly came from Livonia and Finland in the Baltic region. Nearly half of the 227 immigrants were Finns, and the rest were of mixed composition, including Estonians, Latvians, Samogitians, Swedes, Prussians, Poles, Lithuanians and even Russians, just like a hodgepodge of ethnicities.

The ethnic composition is so complicated that although it is easy to rule, how to communicate has become a big problem.I have no choice but to take it slowly. It seems that the language school will expand its enrollment soon.

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Suddenly there were 8 more naval guns. Wang Qinian was overjoyed. He ignored Peng Zhicheng's resentful eyes and rushed to Ma Ganzu's office.

At present, the defense facilities of "Tatan Port" are limited, which is indeed outrageous.Therefore, other members of the executive committee did not embarrass Wang Qinian at the meeting of the executive committee. In this way, the matter of building the fort was confirmed.

Wang Qinian took Shao Shude, who was a civil engineering student, to survey the vicinity of the port for a full week, and finally determined the construction plan for the fort.

At present, there is a limestone hill more than 20 meters high on the south side of the pier. The terrain is fairly dangerous and the view is extremely wide.In the planning of Wang Qinian and Shao Shude, the future No. 500 Fort (main fort) will be built here.About [-] meters in front of the left front of the main battery, there is a protruding part facing the sea on the north side of the wharf. The two plan to build the second battery here; in the right front of the first battery, there is an alluvial island on the south side of the mouth of the Dayu River. Build the No. [-] Fort here.Forts No. [-] and No. [-] are under the fire coverage of the main fort, and the three forts are distributed in an inverted triangle, forming crossfire with each other.

It is no exaggeration to say that as long as the three forts are carefully built, a large number of artillery and a sufficient number of skilled gunners are added, supplemented by a certain size of fort defense team, the sea defense of the port will be impregnable.

Before that, the people who traveled through the sea could not say that they were not at all concerned about the coastal defense facilities. Several artillery emplacements had been built on the hill in the dock area.The artillery positions are made of masonry and are semi-enclosed structures. There are currently 6 artillery positions, equipped with 24 2-pound copper cannons, 18 2-pound steel cannons, and 12 2-pound steel cannons.The two 24-pound bronze guns were naval guns purchased from the Dutch, and the remaining four guns were all steel guns cast by European gunsmiths in the arsenal during this period.

This kind of steel cannon is cast from molten steel smelted from graphite crucibles with different proportions in the vest experiment. Compared with the copper cannon, it is much lighter in weight, has a longer barrel, and has a very good range and power.It's a pity that these gunsmiths were mediocre and inexperienced. The yield rate of the cannons they cast was astonishingly low, less than half, and the cost was so high that Wang Qinian took a deep breath.

After casting the four cannons, the vest said nothing to let the gunsmiths continue to practice.Although the cannons that failed to be cast can be returned to the furnace for resmelting, this also consumes coal, and what the executive committee lacks now is coal.

After confirming the plan, the construction team entered the terminal as quickly as possible.Some of the new immigrants were assigned to various units, and the rest were also sent to the pier to build forts.The construction team sent by the executive committee this time has reached 250 people, among which, except for dozens of people who have traveled through the country, the rest of them are old and new groups of European immigrants.

With sufficient supplies, the construction team overcame the adverse effects of the cold weather and fought for a full month. By the beginning of October, when the crossing commemorated the first anniversary of the crossing, the infrastructure construction of the fort was basically completed, and all types of artillery were also equipped. One by one installed in place.

两门24磅铜质舰炮同样被安装到了主炮台上。这样一来，主炮台上总共就有了4门24磅铜炮、2门18磅钢炮、2门18磅铜炮和2门12磅钢炮，基本覆盖了整个港口的外围海域。二号炮台安装了两门18磅铁炮，正对港口内的锚泊地和航道；三号炮台则安装了2门12磅铁炮，对着外海。

The bunkers where these guns are installed are all made of masonry and cement, which are extremely strong, and a lot of mud and sandbags are piled outside the bunkers.The shooting field of view of the gun position is wide, and the gun mount is also fixed in the bunker with a large number of sandbags, which can be reset quickly and can greatly increase the rate of fire of the gun.A large number of artillery positions are also reserved for each fort, and they will be installed and purchased after the number of artillery increases in the future.

After a total of 14 guns were installed, the fort finally had some appearance.At this time, Wang Qinian seemed to have rejuvenated, leading a group of newly recruited gunners to practice the firing process and familiarize themselves with the performance of the artillery all day long.From time to time, there will be some live ammunition shooting exercises, that is, shooting into the sea, which makes the heart of the executive committee heartbroken. Every shot is worth money.But Wang Qinian was confident: no skilled gunner, no matter how strong the fort, no matter how sophisticated the cannon is, it is useless.For the safety of the port, a lot of live ammunition is required.

(End of this chapter)