Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1870 Central Valley ([-])

This is the first time for Jiang Ning to come to the southern Chilean region with rolling mountains and humid climate.

As the battalion commander of the Army's No.12 mixed battalion, Major Jiang Ning has a place in the Army's East Coast military system.After all, the army has a total of 12 mixed battalions, and each battalion is very eye-catching, and its battalion commander is naturally the focus of everyone's attention.

Major Jiang Ning is now almost 40 years old. He has worked in the Beining area for many years, partnered with Lu Xiaofeng, started as the minister of the township armed forces, and finally transferred to other positions as the regional security commander.Now, Major Jiang Ning, who is the commander of the No.12 mixed battalion, actually understands that it may be difficult for him to go any further. After all, there are only so many radish holes in the Ministry of the Army, and a bunch of people are staring at him. He has no advantage. Make a plan.

As for finding another way to serve in the military department, that is even more difficult!You must know that with the prosperity of overseas trade and the increasing development of colonies, the naval power is now gaining more and more say in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and a large number of positions are occupied by naval officers. It is as difficult as climbing the sky.Major Jiang Ning is also a high-ranking officer in the army, and he is not ignorant of this situation, so he has long since given up his motivation, unless the country allows further expansion of the army, but this is so difficult.

Now Major Jiang Ning, the biggest goal—or interest—has shifted to fulfilling his own life goals, fighting against hostile forces for the east coast, cleaning up the natives, and expanding the territory.The last time when the Spaniards were about to make trouble in Yinhai Port, he led the No.12 mixed battalion to land, and then dealt with it decisively, eliminating a disaster.Later, the Ministry has been conducting training on the Pampa Plain. By the way, it has cleaned up various local or potential opposition forces, and escorted the development of this fertile land for the overall development of the country.

And since it is an escort, then naturally it will not be limited to a certain place.If the Pampa Plain is obtained, then places like the Brazilian plateau and the Chilean valley must also be visited.No, after Zhao Ke, the regional commissioner of Southern Chile, sent a report to the Executive Committee to request reinforcements, the department embarked on a team from Niuzhuang Port. It was a ship and a train all the way to Liucheng Port, and then quickly went north to arrive. Arrived in the territory of Boling County, it was almost the end of December at this time, which can be described as extremely fast.

Today is the beginning of January in 1683. The No.1 Mixed Camp Headquarters, which had been resting in Boling County for several days, had already started packing up and heading north to the area north of the Jiehe River.In the past two months, the battle between the Spaniards and the people on the east coast for the line from Valdivia to Villarrica has become increasingly fierce, and even small-scale armed conflicts have broken out. A settlement village was attacked The Spanish cavalry raided, more than 12 people were injured, the cattle and sheep were robbed, the houses were burned down, and the fields were destroyed. This year's harvest was basically yellow.

Subsequently, the people on the east bank also organized a counterattack, organized more than 300 militiamen, hijacked a Spanish convoy on the road from Villarrica to Valdivia, and handed over a dozen vehicles of mercury ore to Pulled into the red flag prison.They had planned this operation for a long time, and they achieved their goal without killing a single person, which can be described as clean and neat.

After that, the two parties fell into silence. It seemed that everyone knew that the other party was not easy to mess with, and did not dare to intensify the conflict.The East Bank side is naturally eager for the incident to subside. The destroyed villages can be rebuilt, but they are just some property. But if the Spaniards do their best, it is hard to say whether the Red Flag Prison on the East Bank can exist, so it is best to stop here. OKAs for the Spaniards, their natural fear of the people on the east coast has always been at work. Many old people in Corral and Valdivia have not forgotten how the East Coast Army landed in Chile and The one who killed the Quartet, Valdivia was breached back then!Therefore, not only did they not dare to deal ruthlessly in the conflict with the people on the east bank, causing casualties, but at the same time, after the people on the east bank showed their determination to counterattack, they shrank back like frightened little animals, carefully Observe the situation in front of you.

Even the slick Valdivia colonial officials have already started to dump the pot. They sent messengers to Lima to report the news, under the pretext that the development of the current situation has exceeded their control.They are not authorized to fight against the people on the east bank, so they can only temporarily stop all actions and wait for Lima to reply-the bureaucrats' instinct to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages is indeed very tenacious, and they were forced to offend the people on the east bank before Enough is enough, but now I don't want to continue to intensify the conflict.

The No.12 mixed camp came to Southern Chile under such a background, and immediately became the focus of attention of all parties—there are many Spanish survivors in the three counties of Boling, and there are many channels for Valdivia to get news— — especially today when the ministry has clearly gone north.

"Come, come, eat more pancakes, and drink milk tea. I went to the north of the Jiehe River, and the conditions are more difficult. I can't see these things often." The logistics staff brought a table and greeted the battalion staff. Colleagues, sit down for dinner.

At this time, everyone was on the south bank of the Boundary River, and most of them were resting and having lunch by the wooden bridge leading to the north bank.The temperature in southern Chile is not very high, and today is a cloudy day, so everyone put this foldable table outside in the open air, and asked the orderlies to bring meals, which were used directly.

Zhao Ke, Commissioner of the Regional Administration of Southern Chile, was also invited to dine together.He just sent some supplies to the army with the officials of Boling County, so he sat down and chatted with Jiang Ning and others by the way. The work depends entirely on others, and I can finally disband the militiamen who have been guarding outside for a long time and return them to the counties.

"This is a famous dish in Chile. The deer is mixed with sauce. It is very delicious. Commander Jiang must try it." Zhao Ke pushed a plate of raw deer tongue in front of Jiang Ning, and said with a smile: "This deer is very delicious in Chile. Common, small in size, but very delicious, especially this deer tongue, mixed with sauce and eaten raw, has many advantages, Yingying Commander Jiang might as well try it.”

Hearing this, Jiang Ning immediately picked up a piece with chopsticks with great interest, chewed and ate while praising: "Smooth but not greasy, it is indeed delicious. In the past, when chasing the Tehuelche people in the Patagonian plateau, a sudden attack Too far away, lost the way, and lost all the luggage. Two platoons of cavalry brothers and I lived a whole week by eating raw and dried pika meat. What kind of sauce would we mix it with? It’s far worse than that.”

"Hehe, if Battalion Commander Jiang likes it, he might as well stay in Chile for a little longer. I'll ask the chef in the county to make some and send them over every week." Zhao Ke laughed as soon as he heard that, and immediately hit the ground with a stick. Said, there is a taste of temptation inside and outside the words.

"Commissioner Zhao, don't try it." Jiang Ning said with a wry smile: "It is not up to you and me to decide whether my department will stay or not. If the superior tells me to come, we will come. If we are told to leave, I will leave. There is no way to be vague about this. This time when our department went north, the Ministry of the Army gave us quite clear instructions, that is to deter the local Spanish colonial armed forces so that they will not interfere with our colonial activities north of the boundary river. As for when the deterrence will last, there is no mention of this, only Waiting for orders from superiors."

"Understood, understood." Zhao Ke himself licked a piece of deer tongue, and said while eating: "The order from above is indeed the most important. However, what I can't understand is that when Valdivia arrives in Villari There are many sporadic silver mines scattered along the line, so is the central government really not interested at all?"

Hearing what Zhao Ke said, Jiang Ning was also silent. After a long time, he said: "The matter of the silver mine is more sensitive. If we move, the negative impact will be very great. To be honest, the Spaniards have been with us for so many years. We have gradually figured out our routine and know what we are really interested in, and that is the land in the southern New World. Of course they are very annoyed by our continuous encroachment and encroachment on these lands, but to be honest, their Is this kind of annoyance really the annoyance we understand in the usual sense? In fact, it is not necessarily the case. I heard some friends from the General Intelligence Bureau say that the Kingdom of Spain has a deep tacit understanding with our country now, and they have adapted well. The change of role is no longer against us, but as an object that can cooperate and solve various troubles for them, such as financial, security and other matters. And some of the areas we have historically occupied originally belonged to the Kingdom of Spain The land in Hejian, Southern Chile, and some parts of the Pampa Plain are actually paid by them to us. And they think that if they control the rhythm well, they can afford this kind of reward, so they tolerate it step by step Our various small actions, various small infiltrations and so on. Otherwise, do you think we can get so much land so easily? Impossible, at least not so easy."

"So—" Zhao Ke listened intently.

"So there is also a tacit understanding between the princes of the Executive Committee and the Kingdom of Spain. That is to say, we regard many lands in the southern New World as our own belongings that are temporarily deposited with the Spaniards, and can be retrieved at any time. The Kingdom of Spain is only a temporary safekeeping People, when we don’t have enough energy to keep them.” Major Jiang Ning put down his chopsticks, drank a sip of beer, and said: “And the land money we paid to the Spaniards in the past, one is for their face, and the other is disguised. Supporting the various actions of the Kingdom of Spain in Europe, it can be regarded as interfering in the situation in Europe in disguise. Therefore, small troubles are allowed and within the scope of the rules of the game. In fact, the Spaniards have long lost their permanent reservations Confidence in many lands including the tower, the reason why I am holding on now is just to make this game last longer. But this time the matter in the Red Flag Prison is obviously different, because it involves gold mines, silver Mines, copper mines and mercury mines have touched the bottom line of the Spaniards, so they have a relatively fierce backlash this time. Demolishing and burning our colonial villages, robbing our property, and destroying our fields, this kind of It’s not that this has never happened before, but it’s always rare. Especially this time, the tug-of-war between the two sides has lasted for several months, and it wasn’t until you fought back heavily that the Spaniards calmed down. But I It is judged that this cessation is only temporary. After more clear instructions are sent back from Lima, the Spaniards in Valdivia and other places are expected to be mobilized to trouble us, so they probably moved this time. For real."

"I also feel that something is wrong this time. In fact, when I crossed the border to cultivate in the Hejian area, the Spaniards were actually very reluctant. They once sent cavalry to invade the village, but they were beaten away by our people. But like It’s really rare to see things like this for a few months. What’s more, the current background is that the attitude of the Spaniards towards us is getting softer and softer. They have the courage to toss for so long, which should make them feel threatened. Alas, I guess it's about the mines, they really care about these things, they don't seem to care much about the land, they just want money."

"That's for sure, without the gold and silver from America, they can't survive in the Old World." Jiang Ning said with certainty: "Actually, the superior sent us to camp this time, not without the intention of testing, just to see the Spaniards. The bottom line is there. That is, once we actually threaten some of the Spanish silver mines here-albeit small silver mines-how will they react and will they resist firmly? I think so, Spaniards If even these small silver mines can be abandoned, then their bottom line is really low, or there is no bottom line at all, then we can speed up our actions and don't need to pay too much attention to their thoughts or take care of their feelings. Come according to your own plan."

"It turns out that there are so many twists and turns." Zhao Ke laughed immediately after hearing this, and only heard him say: "This is actually a strategic test for the Spaniards, to see if they can pass. If they really If they finally back down, it will prove that they are not inseparable from the not-so-core land in the Viceroyalty of Peru. Then not only the members of the Executive Committee, but even I will know what to do, haha. If the Spaniards don’t want this part of the valley, then I won’t be polite.”

Seeing this, Jiang Ning also smiled.His No.12 mixed battalion will be able to cross the river almost today, and then he will lead his troops to the Red Flag Prison to collect information and observe the situation. How would the Spaniards react.

(End of this chapter)