Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1802 Pampa (Sixteen)

And while Earl Sebastian, Huang Hanhua, and He Yuan were discussing the Pampa Plain and the situation in Spain, far outside Buenos Aires at the other end of the Yanbu Railway, the preparations for the Yanbu Railway Chen Jiazheng, director of the headquarters, was talking with Meng Xiaohu who had returned from the survey.

"I heard that the Spaniards collapsed in the Old Continent. The ten provinces of the Southern Netherlands were occupied by the French and six of them were occupied by the French. Franche-Comté and Lorraine were also divided by the French and German allied forces. They almost turned into a piece of white land. Sicily is still in the middle of a stalemate. The French army has not been driven away, and the local nobles are also unpredictable. Oh, yes, their defense line in the Pyrenees is almost unstoppable, and they have lost Roussillon and others. After that, Catalonia and other places are not safe, and the situation is very critical." After lighting a cigarette for Meng Xiaohu with a match, Chen Jia said with a smile.

Where they are now is the Buenos Aires train station - yes, they have stopped covering it with a commercial station, because it is not necessary - after the surprise construction of the Goshkin construction company, the main building is now It has been completed, and only some ancillary buildings such as freight yards and warehouses are still under construction, so Chen Jia has already moved his headquarters from Yancheng to this place in order to receive local materials and personnel nearby, and direct the railway construction— —Of course, he also set up an office in Yancheng, and sent capable men there to supervise. After all, Yancheng County is currently the only area where railway tracks are laid.

"If it's not urgent, how can you take advantage of the fire to loot?" Meng Xiaohu looked at the busy Russian construction workers outside the window while puffing, and said, "Actually, it's not bad here, we are civilized. At least the country will not do such excessive things. I am more worried about the Old Continent. Once King Carlos of Spain dies and a war breaks out, I don’t know how many places will be destroyed and how many people will be buried. War."

Hearing Meng Xiaohu's "Holy Mother" remarks, Chen Jia couldn't take it anymore, and the two of them had different backgrounds after all, so he couldn't openly argue with each other on some issues, so he brought the topic to other places: " Ah, by the way, Teacher Meng, I have vaguely heard people say that Carlos II, the king of Spain who has just grown up, may not be able to give birth to an heir, this will be troublesome, and war may be unavoidable."

"Who says it's not?" Meng Xiaohu frowned even more when he heard this, and after hearing him sigh, he said, "I'm afraid the members of the executive committee are aware of this problem. How should I put it, I'll just be a There are rumors in the market, don’t take it seriously, let alone go out, I heard that the Ministry of Health plans to send a team of experts to Spain secretly by boat to see the disease of King Carlos, and see if he can regain his glory, after all Our Chinese civilization has a long history, and there are many strange and ancient gadgets, and the southern New World also produces some rare and rare herbs, so it may not be impossible to produce results."

Chen Jia almost laughed out loud, but managed to hold back.He thought to himself that the lives of European nobles had been corrupted since the Middle Ages, and there were some magical potions or pills, and the means might not be bad.They can't do anything until now, then maybe they really can't do anything, this is life, and they have to accept it.However, the above are all rumors in the market, and may not be true. The Madrid court has never denied this matter. This can be seen from the fact that they actively recruited a wife for King Carlos. Perhaps His Majesty’s illness has been cured Good or much improved?These are hard things to say.

"But you have to be prepared for everything, and you can't pin your hopes on one thing. No, the members of the executive committee are now starting to reform the tax system. To put it bluntly, isn't it for making more money? Where? At least part of it is already clear to us, that is, it is used in the army! More precisely, it is used in the navy. The executive committee is playing a big game of chess, and I am afraid it is not for the future. We are preparing for the Spanish succession war that may break out." Meng Xiaohu added: "At that time, we must try our best to protect Spain. It is in our best interest to maintain the status quo of this country. Once France or Austria is annexed, Then everything will stop, so we will definitely send troops at that time, unless someone can fully satisfy our interests. I just hope that this day will come later, and the casualties of the people will be less."

What Meng Xiaohu said made Chen Jia deeply agree.Spain is a forbidden country on the east coast, so how can anyone else get their hands on it? If the French or the Austrians don't know how to do it, then the navy, which is gradually updating its equipment and buying new ships, will teach them how to behave!Of course, no one knows the future of King Carlos. Maybe he will die suddenly tomorrow, maybe he can live to be 70 or [-] years old, maybe he has no offspring, maybe he has several offspring, who can say for sure?Let's still care about the present and do our own work well. We will talk about things that are too far away later.

Meng Xiaohu and Chen Jia then chatted about the construction of the Yanbu Railway, such as the choice of route, etc., and then they had lunch together before leaving.After leaving Chen Jia's preparatory headquarters, Meng Xiaohu first went back to his camp to arrange some work, and then called his guard captain Inigo, and asked him to bring a few elite cadres to Buenos with him. Sierras City, intends to discuss the final route selection of the Yanbu Railway with the supreme official of Spain and the president of the trial court, Constantin de Obando, and if both parties have no objection to the route , then the matter can basically be settled, and the two parties can also sign the annex to the agreement to completely end the matter.

However, when he went to visit the official office of Obando in the city, he was told that General Obando (or the dean) had left Buenos Aires and went to the country manor to recuperate. He suffered from a serious illness and was extremely uncomfortable and unable to perform his duties.Moreover, the most important thing is that he had already sent a messenger to Lima on a fast horse a week ago, and asked His Excellency the Governor of Peru to resign from the posts of General La Plata and the President of the Buenos Aires Prosecutor's Court because he He admitted that he had done nothing in the event of the [-] troops landing on the Pampa Plain on the east coast last year, which caused the kingdom to lose face, and that he was no longer qualified to continue working, so he resolutely resigned.

Meng Xiaohu was also very shocked when he heard the news, and at the same time sighed endlessly.General Owando, he still knows, has been running La Plata painstakingly for many years. The construction process of the tower was once criticized by conservative nobles and priests, and secretly ridiculed by people on the east coast.But now it seems that after the matter of the Pampa Plain is a foregone conclusion, this person actually resigned from the numerous senior positions in the Governor General of Peru. It seems that he is really disheartened and does not want to do it anymore, which makes Meng Xiaohu Once again, sympathy overflowed, and I sighed endlessly.

There may also be Count Sebastian, the Spanish ambassador to the East Coast, who shares the same disease.This man's reputation is probably ruined now, and the stain of signing a border demarcation treaty with the people on the east coast cannot be washed away. ", there is no doubt about it.Meng Xiaohu vaguely heard that this person planned to resign from the post of ambassador after finishing the work at hand (in fact, he would not be able to continue the job if he did not resign), and returned to the territory of his hometown in Iberia. Relying on the wealth accumulated over the years, he bought machines, Run a business, teach the Hidalgos in Spain with practical actions, stop donating wealth to the church, and do something meaningful, such as developing industries, because this may be able to rejuvenate the declining Spain—— The people on the east coast have been bullying them for so many years. The Castilians with a glorious history should learn some of the strengths of the people on the east coast. This is the main idea of ​​Earl Sebastian at the moment.

Meng Xiaohu can't comment on whether Earl Sebastian's move is good or bad. He can only analyze it from an economic point of view. At this time, the business environment in the Kingdom of Spain is very poor, and the possibility of investment is not in vain. Small, it is really hard to say whether the road of saving the country through industry will be successful.But even from the most pessimistic point of view, even if Earl Sebastian's industry had better decline, at least it could leave a little positive fire for conservative Castile, although it is not known how long this fire will last.

And after Owando and Sebastian resigned at the same time, it will inevitably lead to the delay of Yanbu railway boundary survey and contract signing, which makes Meng Xiaohu a little annoyed.After all, he has been in this place for too long, and it is impossible to stay here, so what he always thinks in his heart is to get things done quickly, but it is obviously not possible now.

After leaving the official office of the president of the trial court with a heavy heart, Meng Xiaohu, under the protection of Inigo, braved the light snow, and returned to the camp of the expedition team, a leased Spanish manor.Somewhat surprisingly, they met Alvarez Rodriguez, who had just returned from South Village Port, near the manor, and they chatted immediately.

It is said that the Rodriguez family has really "struggled" for decades.In the early years, they traded with the east coast, developed rapidly and made a lot of money.Later, when the East-West War broke out, they were affected, and under the oppression of the Spanish colonial government and the power of the church, they cut off trade with the people on the east coast for a long time, and once disappeared from the list of important foreign agents of the East Coast Ministry of Trade, just like Al Maida family.

But in the end, they couldn't stand it anymore, and began to contact the east bank, gradually restoring a certain amount of trade.Especially later, in cooperation with Zhao Ke in Baoyi County, Hejian District, they supplied a large amount of special products such as tallow and cowhide, and imported various industrial products and daily necessities from the east coast. It was only after re-listing in the foreign business directory of the East Coast Trade Department that I got a certain degree of preferential treatment (mainly the convenience of bank credit).

Now, Alvarez, the head of the Rodriguez family, has seen it clearly. In front of the increasingly powerful people on the east coast, neither the Hidalgos nor the church forces have any good solutions. Therefore, he resolutely adjusted his family strategy and put his focus on trade with the East. After years of development, he took advantage of his family's fairly good distribution network and personal network in La Plata to make another leap forward. He became the number one trader of East Coast goods, and was very influential among the Creoles.

For such a native white elite family, the East Coast National Intelligence Agency will definitely not let go of the opportunity to infiltrate and win over.No, thanks to their years of persistent efforts, the relationship between the Rodriguez family and the East Bank is already inextricably linked and inseparable.A lot of information from the East Coast government comes from the family’s first-hand information. Many things that are inconvenient to do will be handled by the Rodriguez family. The importance is still very high—according to the words of some intelligence officials on the East Coast To put it simply, it may be too much to say that Alvarez Rodriguez is a "Western traitor", but if they are accused of harming the interests of the Kingdom of Spain and collaborating with foreign countries, it cannot be completely wronged They can be seen from this.

Meng Xiaohu and Alvarez had met on several occasions, but the relationship was not very deep, so the conversations between the two were mostly out of politeness and general talk.And through talking with him, Meng Xiaohu also learned that the Rodriguez family has now put more energy into the west coast besides providing food and building materials for the east coast construction team near Buenos Aires. On the other side, that is to act as an agent for goods from the east coast and sell them to the densely populated places in the west such as Santa Fe, Cordoba, La Rioja, Tucumán, Jujuy, and Salta.Even in the mule and horse caravan leading to Potosi, the core city of the Chalcas Prosecutor’s Court District in the north, there are many second-level agents under the Rodriguez family. Commodities such as medicines, cloth, leather goods, and weapons were transported to Charcas, which is rich in silver, and then transported back a large number of commodities such as silver ingots, tin ingots, and quinine cream. The business was really great.

At the same time, Meng Xiaohu also saw that with the dominance of the people from the east coast on the Pampa Plain, more and more native whites saw the gap between the people from the peninsula and the people from the east coast, and gradually began to cooperate. The control of colonial officials and the church on them became weaker and weaker with the strength of the people on the east coast.Well, if this is the case, if the people on the east coast digest the eastern part of the Pampa Plain in the future, and then have ambitions for the western half, even the Chaco Plain, and Paraguay, it is conceivable that the resistance will be much smaller than imagined, and it may be ruined. It is another invisible benefit brought by the Pampa Plain.

(End of this chapter)