Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1742 Pampa (Thirteen)

"Inigo, you are free, someone fished you out." In front of the prison cell on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, a Spaniard with the appearance of an officer in a worn-out military uniform and a ship-shaped cap said loudly. At the same time, he winked at a bearded man who just came out of the cell, looking like they knew each other from the start.

And behind them, a Spanish man with the appearance of a civil servant was writing something in a notebook with a quill pen, and looked at Inigo carefully from time to time, and finally coughed heavily, and said: "Inigo , your luck is really good, you even know the big shots on the east coast. Listen, you bastard, although you are free now, I still have to say, if you do something wrong in my land next time, I can guarantee that you will be dead gone."

Hearing this, Inigo twitched the corners of his mouth at him, then raised the shackles in his hands, and after the guard opened them, he left with a man in a black tunic without looking back.

In the cell behind him, a few skinny prisoners were looking at him eagerly, begging the guards constantly, begging for some food or drink, and of course some people said miserably that they were sick , begging to rest for a day, not to work in the noble lord's field.Unsurprisingly, all these prisoners were scolded and whipped by the guards - also Inigo's former mercenary companions - and then fell silent.

"Inigo, it seems that you failed to complete the task this time." The man in the black tunic sat in the carriage, looked at the colorful Inigo, handed over a pack of cigarettes and a box of matches, and said: "What did I ask you to do? Investigate the Spanish military outpost on the Pampa grassland, but what did you do? You actually went to steal the Spanish warehouse! If it weren't for your national identity on the east coast and how old you are there If it matters, you are now a dry corpse floating outside Buenos Aires."

The man in the tunic suit who spoke was an agent of the State Intelligence Service.When he was in Silver Harbor, he found Inigo, whom he had dealt with before, and forced him to put down his cattle hunting work, and took a few old brothers deep into the hinterland of the plain to find out where the Spanish military outposts were.Although he was a little reluctant at the time, he didn't dare to disobey the authority of the State Intelligence Bureau, so he could only bid farewell to Lao Siji and others temporarily, and called five partners who had a good relationship on weekdays. After receiving a sum of money, he hurried on the road.

The days that followed were hard, long and boring.Inigo and his group of six wandered around on the vast Pampa Plain, relying on their rich experience to identify directions and draw maps, and then luckily found a total of four Spanish military outposts (each outpost was stationed at about There were more than 50 cavalry).

After sending two old brothers back to Silver Harbor with maps and reports, Inigo and two others (one died of a sudden illness in the wild) made their way to Franco, a Spanish town deep inland (located in Later Ciudad Las Flores).This small town that suddenly appeared on the horizon aroused the great interest of Inigo and others, because it was a small town unknown to the outside world, neither a coastal colony nor Cordoba and others. On the land transportation line, it looks very abrupt.

Inigo resolutely sneaked into the town for reconnaissance. They used their identities as leather dealers as a cover, and with their proficient Spanish (Inigo is Hispanic, the other two are Gauchos) quickly entered the town, and then Pretentiously doing business, while inquiring about the inside story of the town.

However, the two gaucho dogs under him couldn't change their eating shit, and even knocked out the treasurer in the town on the third night after arriving, and then swept away a lot of silver coins in the warehouse, intending to fight with Inigo They ran away together, but were caught before they even left the town, which was unlucky.

The two gauchos who directly attacked were executed immediately. Inigo survived because of his Spanish face and never directly participated in the attack, but he was also escorted to Buenos Aires and imprisoned, awaiting trial.Fortunately, there were several guards in the prison who were his fellow mercenaries when he fought in the Southern Netherland, so they took good care of him. Not only did he have enough food, but even the work arrangements were very easy.Coupled with the fact that this person dared to fight hard and had extraordinary skills, everyone in the prison was beaten by him, so for a while the small life was quite nourishing, except that he had no freedom.

Later, maybe he was tired of staying in prison, or maybe he was afraid that the sheriff who came to see him once would try him, so Inigo asked people to find a way to pass the news to the East Coast businessman in South Village, and then let the national intelligence The General Administration knew where he was, and that's how the scene just now happened.

At this moment, when he was being questioned by the intelligence officials on the East Coast, Inigo, who had always been rebellious, did not explode. Instead, he sat upright in front of him and listened to the teachings solemnly.At this time, the intelligence officer continued to scold: "I also heard that you smuggled spirits and sold prisoners' clothes in the Spanish prison. You made a small fortune. Inigo, I said you are not good at it." Little boy, did you spend all the money in the end, so you thought of sending someone to notify us? Otherwise, how long will you hide from us?"

"Sir, it's not as exaggerated as you said, I'm just..."

"Okay, shut up, don't say any more!" The intelligence officer stretched his right hand forward, interrupting Inigo's next words, and said, "I don't want to hear your excuses, I know who you are , I don’t want to pursue your bad things before, and now you have a new task.”

"Sir, I have been imprisoned for several months, and my body is still a little weakened. You actually let me go on a mission..."

"If you are not satisfied, I can send you back there again, you know if I'm telling the truth." The intelligence officer looked at Inigo with a dangerous look and said, "I'm telling you now, just listen The task this time is very simple. It is to assist one of our railway survey teams to move around Buenos Aires and ensure their safety. Remember, you have to follow them wherever they go, and you are not allowed to take a step Make sure there are no suspicious elements approaching them. Of course, if anyone obstructs them from surveying the line, you can also shoot, but you must exercise restraint and try not to kill people, or at least not in crowded places, understand Yet?"

"But now I have no one, no money, weapons, horses and everything." Inigo spread his hands and said.

"You can come to me to get 3000 yuan. We supply the weapons and you recruit the personnel. You can figure out the horses, saddles, etc. on weekdays. You can eat with the survey team and live in tents together. There is no other expenses other than that, and I think 5000 yuan should be able to support you for a long time." The intelligence officer took out a machine-made saber and a rifle from under the seat cushion of the carriage, and said, "I can't find the bayonet for a while. , let’s make do with a saber. This gun is a high-end product, as for the rifled gun, it shoots accurately and has a long range, so take care of it at ordinary times, and I’ll give you five in total, and you can allocate them accordingly.”

"Wow, it's really a rifled gun. Ah, this is a bullet mold! I said what happened to those military factories in China. After all these years, we haven't solved the problem of processing accuracy. Even the bullets have to be made by ourselves. What are we doing? ?” Inigo took over a brand-new Minie rifle, feeling a little fond of this kind of weapon that was only equipped with the regular army before.

When he was in the Southern Netherlands, Inigo heard some veterans who returned from the Caribbean brag that the proportion of rifled guns among pirates was not low, and the bullets were made by pirates to make a final decision at critical moments.However, the cost of that method is too high after all, the rifling is very easy, and it may take a bit of work to make the bullets that fit the barrel, so it has never been popularized, and it is only popular in a small range because of the special hobbies of pirates.

However, the East Coast Republic has industrialized production power and revolutionary design. Although the barrel accuracy of each gun cannot be made roughly the same, the efficiency of drawing the barrel rifling is much higher than that of Europeans, and the cost is also low. a lot.The only trouble now is that the bullets have to be processed by the soldiers themselves with molds and pliers to fit the actual situation of their guns. Of course, this is not a big problem. Soldiers can make bullets by themselves in their spare time. Later generations of Europe When many countries went to war, soldiers used their night time to open molds to make bullets. Of course, compared with the copper bullets of pirates, the lead bullets made by the people on the east coast were much cheaper and easier. .

"If you can use this gun, just have fun." The intelligence officer lit a cigarette for himself and said, "Besides, if you are really short of manpower, is there any familiar or reliable staff in the prison where you were originally? Candidates? I will find a way to 'buy' them all out, and then hand them over to you to govern. Remember, you must be reliable. If you have bad luck because of the ineffective protection of the survey team, you will definitely have more bad luck before then."

"Well, you have the final say." Hearing that he could get a few helpers for free, Inigo immediately relented, and asked in a casual tone: "Sir, once this railway After the construction is completed, the Pampa Plain can’t escape, right? I heard that the Spaniards divided the Pampa into wet Pampa and dry Pampa, of which the former is the richest, while the latter is so-so. If there is a chance in the future, I will build another branch line Leading to Cordoba, tsk tsk, the entire Pampa Plain can’t escape. The Spaniards have completely let go of this vast land. Maybe they used to attach great importance to it, but under the current situation, they can’t take much care of it. Is it? Sooner or later, this land will be lost to us, the difference is only the price."

The intelligence officer was a little surprised when he heard the words, as if he was quite surprised that a guy like Inigo who had been in prison for half a year was able to get in touch with outside news. He nodded, then seemed to think of something, and then Said in a relatively solemn tone: "By the way, Inigo, since you mentioned the difficult situation facing the Kingdom of Spain today, then I think you can try a more important thing, that is, try to Influence and recruit the gauchos living on the Pampa plains and let them serve us. I have to remind you that serving us means that once the Spanish policy changes and wants to do something against us, these gauchos Do you think it is possible for the Joes to be organized in as short a time as possible to fight the Spaniards, such as attacking those Spanish military outposts in the interior?"

"I can only say that I can try it, but the result is really hard to guarantee." After thinking for a while, Inigo said, "But if this is the case, 3000 yuan may not be enough."

"We'll talk about it later, I can't give you the money now." The intelligence officer stopped Inigo's idea of ​​continuing to swindle money, and said, "If you can really pull out a team on the Pampa Plain, then I will report to the superior , and then I will send you money, weapons, numbers, and titles, and I will definitely not treat you badly."

After talking with Inigo, in the afternoon, the intelligence officer took him to meet the leader of the survey team, Meng Xiaohu, and several of his deputies, and said that Inigo would be responsible for their safety, and the General Intelligence Bureau would call four more Three agents followed Inigo to assist him in recruiting and managing the team to deal with various complex situations.

Meng Xiaohu has traveled all over the world for many years, and it is rare that he still has some impressions of Inigo. He knows that this guy is a lawless and rebellious person. He has been recruited several times by the army, Mei agencies, and gendarmerie, with a complicated background.This time, he was fished out of the Spaniard's prison by the people of the State Intelligence Agency and entrusted with a heavy responsibility. It seems that he also trusts him very much.Of course, Meng Xiaohu believed in the vision of the General Intelligence Bureau, so after looking at Inigo for a few times, he shook hands with him and expressed his approval with a smile.

In the next few days, Inigo found four or five old acquaintances from Buenos Aires.These guys are in their 40s and [-]s. They work as soldiers in the city and carry guns. They can't make much money after a year, and they are still bachelors.Being fooled by Inigo, he took off his military uniform and ran away with Ya without saying hello.

At this time, the official from the National Intelligence Agency also managed to snatch seven or eight people designated by Inigo from the prison.Most of these people were gauchos, mestizos, or even Quechuas who committed crimes. They looked sad, dressed in rags, and not only had bright eyes, but also bright eyes.Inigo spoke to them in Spanish for a long time, threatening and promising, and then issued a saber to each of them. With the assistance of four agents from the General Intelligence Bureau, he and the four or five old mercenaries compiled a In the first platoon, Inigo named himself the platoon leader, and officially started the guard work.

On December 12, the location of the Buenos Aires train station was finally determined. It is not far from the outer port of Nancun, which is convenient for transportation.And on this day, a three-masted galleon quietly sailed from the east coast to Nancun Port, and left hundreds of organized Polish and Ukrainian laborers here, planning to officially start the construction of the railway station— ——The footsteps of the people on the east coast to get involved in the Pampa Plain are really one step at a time, which makes the Spaniards feel a little breathless.

(End of this chapter)