Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 442 Fine-tuning ([-])

The newly appointed Foreign Minister Xu Xin sat in a luxuriously decorated office.

The sky outside was cloudy, and it seemed that it was going to rain heavily. Feeling a little stuffy in the office, he turned around and opened the wooden window decorated with transparent glass. A gust of fresh air blowing from the lake in the north immediately made his mind a little dizzy He was refreshed, and his depressed mood immediately became much brighter.

Just sent the inexplicable but self-conscious Spanish baron back to the State Guesthouse, which made his office a little cleaner.What the hell is that guy talking about!He actually asked the people on the east bank to immediately stop the persecution of Catholics, immediately stop the reclamation operations suspected of crossing the border, and send the East Bank Archbishop Pedro to Lima for religious trial.

What is this all about!The first two are okay, but the third one demands that the archbishop appointed by the East Coast people be sent to Lima to die. How is this possible!If the executive committee really did this, not only would the prestige in the country be greatly damaged, but it would also take minutes for the military to rebel.

As for stopping the persecution of Catholics, the meaning is much bigger. It really depends on how you explain it and who has the right to interpret it.According to the view of the Spaniards, people on the east coast refuse to enter the Jesuits, Franciscans and other missionary groups, which in itself is a kind of "religious persecution".As for the massacres of religious natives, that was undoubtedly persecution in the eyes of the Spaniards.Although they still massacred the indigenous people who believed in religion but resisted them in Chile, Chalkas and other places, they played a lot of double standards, so they didn't care what others said about themselves, they would only accuse others of their faults.

Finally, there is the cessation of cross-border reclamation, which makes people scratch their heads even more.Although the people on the east bank have indeed crossed the border and built the Grass Ridge Fort in the hilly area west of Duck Lake in the north, the new Canyon Fort and Ningjin Fort in the Yihe area in the south are all within the legal territory.Of course, the iron mining area of ​​Changshanbao has indeed crossed the border, there is no doubt about it, but this is an area that people on the east coast absolutely cannot give up.

The southern boundary stipulated in the "Rocha Peace Treaty" signed by the people on the east coast and the Spaniards was "the farthest to the west must not go beyond the West Ridge (Grand Cuccilia Mountains)", but the Changshan Fort is obviously already in the West Ridge. The edge of the western half can even be said to have gone beyond the range of Xiling. Strictly speaking, people on the east coast are indeed suspected of crossing the border.At this time, the Baron Bravo also grasped this point and asked the people on the east coast to immediately stop the cross-border reclamation activities that "harmed the interests of the Kingdom of Spain", demolish the facilities that had been built, and compensate the Kingdom of Spain for its losses.

This is simply nonsense!After hearing what Baron Bravo said, Xu Xin even stood up and patted the table regardless of diplomatic etiquette.How important is the Changshan Iron Mine to the people on the east coast, how can it be demolished immediately!To put it bluntly, people on the east coast can lose the capital, Dongfang Port, which has little practical significance, but they are unwilling to lose the Changshan Iron Mine, which can be called the lifeline of the country.Are the Spaniards crazy?Why did you send such a guy to the east bank?Are they so confident that the people on the east coast can succumb to their threats?Don't they worry about Buenos Aires and Asuncion?Hmph, what a madman!Just relying on the three to five hundred soldiers in La Plata and Paraguay, they want to block the people on the east coast, dreaming!

But we really have to find a way to find out what the Governor of Peru and even the Spaniards really think.This 30-year-old "Lengtouqing" is not suitable for communication at all. He is sensitive and self-respecting, arrogant and irritable, and it is very difficult to communicate with him.It is extremely unrealistic to ask the people on the east bank to give up the Changshan Iron Mine, and it is even very unrealistic to ask the people on the east bank to give up cross-border reclamation.Because in the planning of the Executive Committee and the Government Council, in the future, a series of settlements will be built from Fort Canyon to the north, extending to Merlo, and then crossing the Heihe River (Negro River) to the west to Corrales of later generations. The area near the mining area.This place is extremely rich in mineral deposits, including iron ore and manganese ore. Of course, the most famous later generations of the Corrales mining area is the gold mine.This gold mine has been mined for 60 years and was once exhausted. However, in the 21st century, new gold mining areas were discovered in nearby areas, with an annual output of several tons of gold.

But at this stage, the people on the east coast obviously don't intend to mine the gold mine here.Compared with the gold mines, which are not very useful to industry but can easily cause disasters, the Government Council is more interested in the manganese ore and iron ore resources here, especially manganese ore.With the development of East Coast industry to this day, the demand for two extremely important non-ferrous metals, manganese and chromium, is becoming more and more urgent.Especially today when steam engines and various machinery are popular, the lack of high-quality high-strength manganese steel has seriously restricted the further development of the East Coast industry.

For example, with the higher strength manganese steel, the cutting speed of the machine tool can be greatly increased, and the wear resistance and precision of the processed parts will be greatly improved. This is of great significance, because it means that the quality of the East Coast parts is better Good, higher reliability, higher precision, and many mechanical equipment that cannot be developed due to the limitation of processing accuracy finally no longer have to stop.In addition, with this kind of alloy metal with high hardness and strong flexibility, the steam engine of the East Coast people can also break through the bottleneck and achieve further development.In this case, they no longer need to make the boiler and cylinder larger in order to obtain higher power, because they have better materials, and the output power of the steam engine under the same volume is much stronger than before. .

After the breakthrough of the steam engine, the steam locomotive currently being developed by the East Coast people can be more perfect.They can use new steam engines with more advanced and greater thrust. At the same time, some parts will be more wear-resistant and more precise than before. Such steam locomotives are definitely incomparable to the rough locomotives made by Stephenson later. of.

It can be seen that the smelting of non-ferrous metals is an imminent matter for the industrial development of the East Coast Republic today. Therefore, the Executive Committee made a decision to expand to the inland Heihe area, and at the same time instructed the Government Council to move the new settlements to It is arranged there so that in the future it will be built into another important industrial town on the east coast - a special steel and machining center.

Under such circumstances, how could it be possible for you to let the people on the east coast give up their coveting of that piece of land!Xu Xin wandered around in the office. Spain is now deeply involved in the 30-year war, especially after the failure of the Battle of Rocroix. In such a predicament, you still have time to take care of the affairs of the New World, what a sick mind!Uruguay and the Duck Lake area are simply barren lands for you. Besides the missionary area, how can there be half a colony?

But after thinking about it for a long time, Xu Xin felt that the Kingdom of Spain probably wouldn't be so unwise. Even if their idiot king didn't understand the actual situation in the New World, wouldn't the bunch of bureaucrats in the Viceroyalty of Peru also understand?It is understandable that one or two of these bureaucrats have taken the wrong medicine, but they will not take the wrong medicine collectively and break up with the people on the east coast. After all, their defense in La Plata and the rich Paraguay area is too weak.The war with the people on the east coast has just subsided for more than ten years, and they have experienced it well, they will never do such a terrible thing. If the people on the east coast are forced to occupy Paraguay directly and then march on Potosi of Charcas , See how these bureaucrats explain to the king.

Therefore, after thinking about it, Xu Xin felt that the Baron Bravo in front of him probably felt too good about himself, or his personal feelings were too strong, which made things look scary.Maybe the bureaucrats in the Viceroyalty of Peru didn't intend to make things so tense, they just sent the wrong person over?Well, anyway, it's better to find a way to find out what they really think.Well, this matter will be discussed in the Executive Committee meeting later, and then it is best to send a letter to Peru through La Plata to see what the real situation is like?As for Baron Bravo, who is as proud as a big rooster, let someone keep an eye on him first, keep him from running around and be perfunctory by the way, until we figure out the situation.

As for before that, the policy is estimated to have to make some fine-tuning.It’s best to suspend the campaign to wipe out the aborigines in the Yihe area. Anyway, there are few aborigines there, and now it’s estimated that there are not many left. Let’s give the Spaniards a face first.The Guarani natives in the hilly area of ​​the Duck Lake Basin in the north are the key targets. There are at least tens of thousands of people living in those vast hills. This is absolutely unbearable for the East Coast Republic. They must be expelled and eliminated. Or exile, try not to leave troubles to future generations.

In the afternoon, the executive committee had a detailed discussion on the incident, and finally agreed to get in touch with Peru through some relationship channels in La Plata, and establish a communication channel to exchange information, and at the same time Understand the other party's true intentions and attitudes.This matter is neither big nor small. As the relationship between the East Coast people and the Netherlands has not improved significantly, try not to provoke another powerful enemy.Of course, this does not mean that the people on the east coast are afraid of the Spaniards. After all, Spain’s weaknesses are also exposed to the swords of the people on the east coast. As long as the people on the east coast are willing and ready to come back, Buenos Aires and Asia The fall of Songsen is a high probability event.But the problem is that the two sides did not have to go this far. The two sides have a common enemy, the Netherlands. It is better to downplay the contradictions and conflicts between these two sides. A military confrontation will only make the Dutch secretly laugh.

(End of this chapter)