Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 549 Uprising ([-])

On October 1646, 10, the Changkaisheng Detachment of the Army, which had rested in Santa Fe for nearly ten days and waited for supplies by the way, began to act again.Their target this time was the city of Corrientes located in the upper reaches of Santa Fe. Corrientes City was a small city mainly engaged in agriculture, with no decent military facilities and a population of just over 25.However, this small city is already the last barrier of the wealthy Paraguay region at this time. As long as it is broken here, the army on the east bank can spy on Asunción. No one can threaten the jewel of La Plata - Asunción.

The Spanish colonial base in La Plata was originally Buenos Aires, but because of the strong resistance of the nearby Indians, the first [-] Spanish colonists built the city several times. Their efforts were interrupted, and as a last resort, they drove to the upper reaches of the Parana River to find a suitable place to build a city, and finally chose Asunción.Since then, Buenos Aires has been abandoned, and the cattle left by the Spaniards eventually multiplied into a large number of bison because of the superior local environment.

It can be said that since the early days of its creation, Asunción has always played the image of the mother city in the minds of the Spaniards in the La Plata region.After establishing a foothold in the Paraguay region with Asunción as the core, countless peninsula people took their Indian slaves down the Paraná River and built Corrientes, Santa Fe, and Buenos in a few decades. The cities of Sairis dotted the desolate and silent Paraná River Basin.

But soon the lower part of the Paraná River will return to desolation.Because the irrational Kelandi people are going around in series, attacking Spanish villages or farms, the wave of uprising is no longer limited to a few areas, but has begun to spread everywhere.The weak military strength of the Spaniards here has been severely attacked by the people on the east coast, and they can no longer effectively suppress any military riots from the barbarians, so a disaster that belongs to the Spaniards came like this.

Chang Kaisheng's detachment left the Army's 106th company with a large number of recruits and 2100 militiamen in Santa Fe City, led by his deputy Jiang Zhiqing.Then he took the remaining four infantry companies, three artillery companies and the remaining militiamen, a total of more than [-] people, and went upstream in a large number of inland steamboats.As for the cavalry of the three companies, they could only march forward along the river bank.After all, the steamship has a limited tonnage and cannot accommodate those hundreds of tall war horses.

In fact, the Ministry of the Army and even the Joint Chiefs of Staff have different opinions on how to proceed next.First of all, everyone agreed that this battle must not be satisfied with the capture of Santa Fe, and the army must continue to attack strategic Spanish towns.It's just that on the vast Argentine plains, the Spaniards' strongholds are too far apart, making it extremely difficult to attack.For example, someone in the Ministry of War advocated attacking Cordoba in the west, and then threatened the densely populated northwestern region of Argentina, and then spied on Chalkas and northern Chile.

From a strategic point of view, Cordoba is indeed a valuable target.Because this is the main traffic route connecting Chile, Chalkas and the eastern part of La Plata, and it is the main transfer station of the Mule Gang, the land transportation vehicle of the Viceroyalty of Peru in Spain.In the past few years, the silver mine in Potosi used to transport part of the silver bars produced by mules to Santa Fe via Córdoba, and then shipped back to the mainland via the La Plata River.In fact, not only silver bars, but many commodities between the two places have to pass through here, so Cordoba is an out-and-out thoroughfare. The capture of this place will inevitably have a great shock to the Spaniards.

However, the distance of hundreds of kilometers between Cordoba and Santa Fe is a natural obstacle. Although they are all flat prairie, the logistical pressure is still very heavy for people on the east coast.They need to raise a large number of heavy freight carriages, as well as prepare a large number of coachmen and laborers. Of course, they also need to prepare a considerable number of troops to protect the supply line. This is simply a fantasy for the people on the east coast who are seriously understrength today. .Therefore, after a brief debate, the Ministry of War quickly rejected this offensive route and instead targeted the city of Corrientes.

As a city of the same period as Santa Fe and Buenos Aires, Corrientes' development today can only be said to be unsatisfactory.The economy dominated by agriculture and animal husbandry and the fact that slavery was concealed by the so-called guardianship system made the whole society as lifeless as a pool of stagnant water.That is, after the smuggling trade with the east coast became popular in recent years, relying on the export of wool, animal hides, cheese, and tallow, the society of Corrientes showed a little bit of vitality.Some small-scale wholesalers and retailers appeared in the local area, reselling goods from the east coast and the local area back and forth. In all fairness, these people have objectively promoted the local economic development and injected a little vitality into the lifeless society.

But this vitality quickly dissipated with the outbreak of war.With the destruction of the La Plata fleet and the successive fall of Buenos Aires and Santa Fe, the originally peaceful society of Corrientes began to be violently turbulent.Many wealthy landowners, ranchers, and big businessmen began to transfer their valuables to Asunción, and later, with the frantic influx of defeated and remnant soldiers from the La Plata Infantry Regiment, these so-called gentlemen also gave up their last With a hint of fantasy, he got into the carriage and started heading towards Asunción. After all, it will always be safer than Corrientes, which has become the front line.

After making the decision to continue going north to attack Corrientes, Chang Kaisheng did not hesitate, and began to lead the main force of the detachment with more than 2400 people on the journey to the north.They sat on a comfortable and comfortable inland steamboat and moved forward easily on the abundant water of the Paraná River.For the people on the east bank at this time, the significance of this river cannot be overestimated, because this river undertakes all the transportation of materials and personnel on the east bank.Without this river, it would be very difficult for people on the east bank to fight from Buenos Aires to the city of Santa Fe.

The Changkaisheng detachment did not move fast along the way, because they needed to keep pace with the cavalry on the shore.Besides, they also encountered several Spanish villages along the way under the reminder of the cavalry. Naturally, the people on the east coast were not very polite to these villages.After the security tax was levied, the Indian slaves in the village were pardoned according to the procedure, and then weapons were distributed to them to encourage them to "fight for freedom."People on the east bank do this in almost every village or farm they visit, and it seems that they are determined to wipe out the Spanish colonial power in the Paraná River Basin.

Due to the task of liberating the Kelandi people, Chang Kaisheng and others did not go fast. They were either freeing Indian slaves along the way, or surveying the terrain and drawing maps. In short, when the calendar turned to November 11th At that time, they had just arrived in the city of Corrientes on the left bank of the Paraná River.

The city of Corrientes has only a little over 1000 white residents. This number has also increased sharply in the past ten years.In addition to more than 300 white residents, there are hundreds of gauchos who acted as their thugs and accomplices, and there are more than 1000 Indians in the city-including Guarani and Kelandi.It is worth mentioning that many of these Indians are also on the side of Spain. Most of them are believers who were assimilated by missionary groups such as the Jesuits and the Franciscans. The number is about 5000.

The military force in the city includes more than 200 soldiers of the La Plata Infantry Regiment who fled from the city of Santa Fe, in addition to about 90 or 2400 militiamen who were reinforced from the northern Paraguay region-more than [-]% were Guarani .This kind of force is not enough to resist the East Coast Army with a number of more than [-] people. Like Santa Fe or Buenos Aires, they have almost no chance of winning in the face of the East Coast Army that uses artillery to wash the ground. .

Before the land battle started, the four inland river shallow water gunboats accompanying the army had already attacked first, and turned several small Spanish single-masted transport ships on the river upside down. A large amount of food, gunpowder and other materials sank to the bottom of the river, making the city The Spaniard twitched when he saw it.

"Prepare to attack!" Chang Kaisheng smiled with satisfaction when he saw that his subordinates had skillfully prepared for the attack.He is sitting in a wheat field outside the city at this time. The fields that should have been sown in spring this season have been largely abandoned due to the war. It can be seen that even if the people on the east coast withdraw their troops, there will be a big famine in Corrientes next year. Unless the Paraguay region mobilizes a large amount of food supplies.

But what does it matter to me?Chang Kaisheng shook his head, then decisively ordered to start a frontal attack, and the battle broke out.

Due to adequate preparations, the Spaniards built quite strong defense facilities in the city this time, with sufficient supplies and as many as 6 artillery pieces, which made the Changkaisheng detachment's progress in the attack slower.Even, the Spaniards organized several small-scale night raids at night. Although they did not achieve any results under the strict defense of the east bank army, they eventually caused some troubles to the east bank people and lost some manpower.

But the Spaniards can only create some minor troubles.Under the extremely patient and step-by-step combat method of the people on the east coast, the Spaniards, who were weak in both firepower and troops, could not last long in the end.What's more, there is a steady stream of steam ships behind the people on the east coast to send the huge military supplies to the front line, but the supply line of the Spaniards has been cut off by the gunboats on the east coast. This is doomed that the Spaniards cannot persist in Corrientes for a long time.

On November 11, after ten days of monotonous and boring siege battles, the East Bank army captured the city of Corrientes at the cost of 30 casualties.The remnants of the Spanish La Plata Infantry Regiment were hit hard again. 58 people under the head of the regiment, Major Anthony Carlos, were killed, and only a few dozen people managed to break through.A quarter of the hundreds of soldiers who came from Paraguay were also casualties, and the rest fled overnight.

The Corrientes offensive battle is over!At this time, the East Coast Army seems to have reached a certain limit of its own, whether it is physical, psychological or material supply, it has reached a limit, and it needs a long period of rest.

(End of this chapter)