Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 505 "Visit" ([-])

The breeze is blowing, and the sea and the sky are on the line.Standing in the fence on the second floor of the poop of the battleship "August [-]th", the flagship of the First Fleet, Lieutenant Colonel Lu Ming put down the binoculars hanging on his chest.

The Rio de la Plata is called the Freshwater Sea for a reason.In this river, which may be the widest in the world, the main force of the First Fleet of the East Coast Navy gathers together, including three battleships, three fast cruisers, and six escort gunboats. The windows make it impossible for everyone who sees them to ignore their existence.

When they "visited" the Port of Colonia earlier, they had already amazed the various businessmen gathered there. The local La Plata businessmen even thought in horror that a war had broken out.And when their extremely large fleet in the New World arrived at the Rio de la Plata at this time, the Spaniards in Buenos Aires were also greatly shocked.

The "Cadiz Rock" warship, which was transferred from the Peruvian fleet to the newly formed La Plata fleet a few years ago as the flagship, can only hide under the shelter of the port turret at this moment, acting as an existing fleet.Before figuring out what happened, the La Plata Fleet, which only has four or five warships of different sizes, should not rashly rush out of the port to fight the enemy, or some embarrassing tragedies may happen.

"Turn the rudder, adjust the yard, and sail as planned!" Lu Ming gave the latest instructions to the fleet, and then the sailors scattered and got busy.After the demonstration, they will then go south along the coast of La Plata and "visit" various Spanish colonial points on the coast along the way.It is said that the Spaniards have brought quite a lot of central and southern European immigrants from the old continent to La Plata over the years. Although many of them were lost to the east coast, the rest were still developed under the organization of the colonial authorities in La Plata. Some new settlements were opened, or the population of old settlements was greatly enriched.

In view of the traffic situation in La Plata, these colonial towns are generally built by the sea, and most of the residents make a living by farming, grazing or fishing. Some fishermen even often go to the east coast port to sell their catch.The population of these small settlements ranges from a few dozen to a few hundred, being densest along the Rio de la Plata; then down the Atlantic coastline, becoming sparser after crossing the Mar del Plata (meaning Silver Sea), and eventually disappeared near the Gulf of Blanca.

Port Blanca (White Bay) is the southernmost settlement of the La Plata authority. The development of these places in later generations is extremely slow, and the settlements will not gradually take shape until the end of the 19th century.In this time and space, due to the butterfly wings instigated by the people on the east coast, La Plata's colonial development process has been greatly accelerated.The Spaniards are very worried about their new neighbor, so they have been investing heavily in the development of La Plata over the years, and even their king has saved part of the extravagant court expenses to develop the city of La Plata. A colony on the front line against the East Coasters.

To be honest, His Majesty King Philip IV of Spain is not particularly concerned about the fate of La Plata. What he cares about is the Potosi silver mine located in the Chalcas Tribunal District (roughly Bolivia in later generations), which is his purse.But La Plata is also a barrier for Charcas. If La Plata is lost, then Charcas is obviously directly exposed to the guns of the people on the east coast, and it will be a matter of time before it is lost.Therefore, for the sake of his own pocketbook, for himself to continue to live that extravagant life, and for the sake of the Lord's people, the king of Spain thought he had to keep La Plata.And this is the reason why the Spaniards made great efforts to develop it in La Plata.

From the end of January to the beginning of February 1646, this large east coast fleet "visited" these Spanish colonial points in turn.The local residents were naturally shocked and puzzled, and the fort they placed by the sea wisely did not make any drastic reactions.Everything seemed so natural, and the East Coast Fleet even went ashore to purchase some non-staple food and vegetables from them, and they obediently cooperated, but the atmosphere seemed extremely strange.

After declaring their military prestige here, the East Coast Fleet headed south quickly along the Brazilian warm current. They will first go to the Falkland Island Baleen Whale Harbor for a short rest, and then several motor sailing boats will go to the Strait of Magellan in a team, and the local aboriginal Ona People, Patagonians get in touch.Over the years, trade between the East Coasters and the natives of Tierra del Fuego has been going on and on.The fleet on the east coast passing by Baleen Whale Harbor sometimes separates a ship to carry goods to Tierra del Fuego, exchanging spirits, tobacco, metal tools, salt, calico and other commodities for the animal skins, tallow and wood they have on hand. — Mainly the latter.Timber is an urgently needed material for the residents of Baleen Whale Harbor, and it is too troublesome to transport it from the mainland, so it would be great to be able to buy it from the aborigines on Tierra del Fuego.

After doing business with the Ona people and the Arakalus on Tierra del Fuego, another branch of the Arakalus was distributed on the north shore of the Strait of Magellan, Leskos, and the Brunswick Peninsula. Because he often crossed the Strait of Magellan to Tierra del Fuego by canoe, he gradually learned about the existence of the people on the east coast.Soon, under the deliberate fawning of the people on the east bank with some unknown thoughts, this Arakalu lady also established a trade relationship with the people on the east bank, and sold five boxes (50 bottles) of Daqu in the river The price was to sell a hidden piece of land to the East Coasters.

Agents from the National Intelligence Agency built a liaison post with more than ten houses on this land and opened up a playground for hundreds of people to train.There are probably more than 20 people from the east coast, including the secret police, stationed here to help the Araucan guerrillas who come here regularly to solve various troubles, or to help them contact the mainland on the east coast to solve their problems. Various needs.

When it comes to the Araucan guerrillas, we have to mention the fact that when the people on the east coast first established their country, the ship breaking fleet led by Yunsheng No. [-] attacked Chiloe Island off the coast of Chile.After the people on the east coast defeated the few Spanish colonists on the island, they distributed the seized weapons to hundreds of Araucan resisters headed by Vicente, and persuaded them not to be confined to the island, but to keep the Mountains across the sea where the range of activities expands.The strength of the Spaniards there was relatively weak, which made it easier for them to win the support of the oppressed Araucans.

Over the years, Vicente's rebel army has experienced several ups and downs, and even Vicente himself died near the later Puerto Montt, but this force has never been completely wiped out, making a group of Spanish officials in the San Diego Prosecutor's Court District sleep and eat Uneasy.After realizing that the Spanish power in the central and northern regions of Chile was too strong, the rebel army later turned to the continuous mountainous areas of southern Chile.The Spaniards were extremely weak in these poor mountainous areas, and there were very few white immigrants; and due to the terrain restrictions here, the Spaniards' military advantage was also infinitely reduced, and the Spanish colonists themselves did not pay attention to the desolate southern regions, which made the This rebel army was able to survive and grow slightly in the next few years. It has reached a scale of 800 people.

Of course, this Araucan guerrilla can survive, and the people on the east coast also contributed a lot.For nearly a decade, agents of the General Intelligence Service have been secretly contacting the guerrillas through the land regions of southern Patagonia and secretly financing them with a large number of old-style arquebus guns, Spanish rapiers, European-style breastplates , bows, spears and other weapons.Sometimes, when their food is insufficient, the people on the east coast will even mobilize some potatoes from the warehouse in Baleen Whale Port to these bitter guerrillas so that they can continue to fight.

Generally speaking, the pawn laid by the East Coast people in Chile was quite successful.For more than ten years, the investment of the people on the east bank is nothing more than some old weapons seized from warehouses, some food, and a small amount of intelligence personnel sent to help the Araucan people train soldiers, but the harvest is huge.Due to the existence of these Araucans, the Spanish colonization of the southern mountains of Chile was impossible to talk about, and the colonization in the south-central region was also severely hindered. So far, only a few hundred white farmers have been sent to Osor. A small wooden castle was built on the seashore south of Nuo, named Puerto Barrios (later Puerto Montt)—named after the Spanish captain Barrios who opened up this place, as the base camp for attacking and destroying the Araucan guerrillas ——This is another butterfly effect caused by people from the east coast.At the same time, they also enriched the forces on Chiloe Island, so that this place, together with Puerto Barrios, could be used as an important base for destroying the Araucan guerrillas.

This time the East Coast Fleet went to the Strait of Magellan, of course not to do any trade with those aborigines—or they just did some trade along the way, but the main purpose was to strengthen the relationship with the aborigines on both sides of the Strait of Magellan (focusing on the north shore) Contact, and at the same time go to the secret intelligence station occupied by the people on the east coast, and send the latest instructions from the mainland and a large amount of supplies to the personnel stationed in the station. By the way, see if you can meet there. Araucan guerrillas.

On February 1646, 2, after wandering for several days outside the Strait of Magellan, the east coast fleet composed of three motor-sail hybrid battleships finally found a time when the visibility at sea was relatively high, and then the three ships Uniformly lowered the sails, and sailed into the Strait of Magellan at low speed purely by steam power.And this is also the second time for Lieutenant Colonel Lu Ming, who led the team, to enter the Strait of Magellan after more than ten years.

(End of this chapter)