Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2485 St. Augustine's Bell ([-])

On July 1703, 7, in St. Augustine, Florida, Gao Yi came to a small castle by the sea late at night.

Standing on a high cliff, the castle is small in scale, but has a simple, solemn shape and solid materials. It is a building owned by the local wealthy Nunes family.

This family has not been growing up in Florida for a long time, probably less than 40 years, and it looks like two generations. However, because they have done business with the East Coast for many years, accumulated huge wealth, and at the same time have political security, they have developed very rapidly. , is now one of the few big families in St. Augustine, the capital of Florida.

Interestingly, the Nunes family is also related by marriage to the Almeida family in Portugal.The Nunes family went to Florida to develop, and the Almeida family also provided a lot of funding. Now the Nunes family sells a lot of tobacco, cotton and leather to the Almeida family. The two have become a de facto business alliance and have a very close relationship.

And because they made their fortunes by relying on trade with the east coast, the relationship between the Nunes family and the east coast does not need to be said much.Before Gao Yi came to St. Augustine to take office, his superiors specifically explained to him that the Nunes family can be trusted, but this hole card should not be used lightly until the critical moment. You can give priority to contacting other families to further strengthen the East Bank in St. Augustine. Augustine's influence.

Gao Yi has always adhered to the opinions of his superiors. Since he took office for so long, he has never visited him secretly except for a few times on proper occasions.It seems that there is no intersection, but they all know it secretly. Nunes needs to avoid suspicion, and Gao Yi needs a hole card. The two sides tacitly wait for the arrival of the last moment.

But now things go wrong!When the people on the east coast originally wanted to formally declare war on Spain, they would instigate Florida's independence.Unexpectedly, Philip V of Madrid was different from the mediocre Carlos II before, and actually sent many new officials to the New World, vowing to clean up the politics and economy of the Spanish American colonies.The man who came to Florida was named Antonio Dorado. He was an official from the West India Affairs Council. He had served in the army in his early years, so he had a tough personality and was very difficult to get along with.

When this king took office, he brought more than 1200 soldiers, which is a big deal for the Kingdom of Spain.After all, they don't have the superb navigation skills on the east coast, and they don't have that many big ships, and they have financial difficulties. It is indeed a big deal to transport 1200 people and equipment.

As soon as Dorado took office, he replaced several colonial officials and planned to prosecute them for corruption and dereliction of duty.In addition, several officers in the local garrison were also arrested on charges of stealing and selling arsenals, embezzlement of Mexican military salaries, and so on.In short, after a vigorous and resolute move, the military and government officials in the entire Florida colony were trembling and panicking all day long, for fear that it would be their turn next.

While the officials and soldiers were dealt with, the businessmen naturally couldn't escape either.Some of them were forced to pay a large fine because of tax evasion and other reasons.As for where the money went, no one knew, and no one dared to ask.

In such a situation, the people on the east bank can't sit still.On the surface, Gao Yi, who is the principal of the primary school, immediately held a plenary meeting of the intelligence station to discuss how to deal with Dorado.In fact, everyone's opinions are very unified, that is, "get rid of him" and restore normal order in Florida.However, Gao Yi's idea went a step further than these people, that is, to take advantage of this great opportunity of panic, and simply change St. Augustine's sky!As the largest city in all of Florida, it is also the political and cultural center. Once St. Augustine changes, other places can naturally be determined, and it doesn't take much effort at all.Especially those economic cities bordering on Air Canada's territory have been eager to do so, so that they can take off their shackles and start developing their economies lightly.

Gao Yi communicated his thoughts to his superiors.Soon, a reply came from the other side of the Mobile River. There were only four words on the confidential document: "You can figure it out!" Ken made up his mind, but he didn't expect that group of people to untie himself, so what are you waiting for!

So, just earlier this month, he held another secret meeting.At the meeting, he announced the orders of his superiors, and then asked everyone to unify their thinking and make suggestions for instigating Florida's independence.

Gao Yi is the station master, the person in charge, and with the support of his superiors, everyone naturally has nothing to say.Everyone spoke one by one and put forward a bunch of suggestions. Gao Yi asked the secretary to record them one by one, and then selected a few reliable key points for discussion, and finally formed several resolutions.

First, the upper echelons of the East Coast Chamber of Commerce in St. Augustine secretly asked them to count the number of guards and weapons on hand.There are quite a few people from the east coast doing business in this port, and there are still 80 to [-] people, most of whom employ armed guards, and most of them are non-nationals from the local area.The total number of these guards may not be in the hundreds. Coupled with the good guns produced by the East Bank, they are an armed force that cannot be underestimated.

Second, secretly contact the Spanish nobles or businessmen who are friendly with the east coast and tend to be independent.These people belong to local snakes, and at least two generations have been in business, their power is deeply rooted, and their hidden energy is extremely huge.If they all stood up against Dorado, they would be able to pull out a militia team of more than 2000 people in an instant, and with the help of geographical advantages and intelligence advantages, they would definitely be able to catch those peninsula people by surprise.

The difficulty in this matter was how to persuade these native nobles to rise up against the peninsula people.Although they had never been very confrontational, they would not fight each other immediately. After all, this was a rebellion, and the king had always been cruel to rebels.But the new general Dorado's messing around has become an excellent assist. The people on the east coast clearly told them that Dorado doesn't trust all of them, and they will all be liquidated, especially on weekdays. Those who are closer to businessmen from Li and the East Coast are the ones who are the focus of attention.Once it is launched in the future, it will be lucky for them to be able to bankrupt and eliminate disasters, and it is even more likely that they will be thrown into prison.Considering the good things that the East Coast Navy had done in Gibraltar before, Philip V would have very low tolerance for anything related to the East Coast. Dorado, adhering to his wishes, naturally knew what to do to please the king.

In order to reassure them, the representatives from the East Coast who came to persuade them said with pats of their chests that the warships on the East Coast anchored on Huaiyuan Island had already set sail and would arrive off the coast of Florida in the near future.As long as they stand up bravely, overthrow the tyrannical rule of the peninsula, and establish an autonomous government, then the East Coast Navy will guarantee that there will be no sea threat near Florida.And the absence of maritime threats means that troops from the peninsula or other parts of Spanish America cannot come to crusade, and their safety is guaranteed.

The third thing is to contact the Nunes family and prepare them for an uprising.The biggest secret of this family is that they secretly hide a lot of weapons imported from the east coast, including more than 20 cannons. Once used, it is enough to set off a storm in the city of St. Augustine.

Gao Yi has secretly visited this ancient castle and secret weaponry twice this month, and negotiated many details with the Nunes family.This family can't do anything about it, the name is too big, and the rise is too fast. Not only the local nobles are jealous of them, but even the newcomer Dorado wants to steal from them.This time, Bao Buqi, a peninsula man, is fabricating crimes with his confidants and is ready to strike at any time, so the Nunes family really can't afford to wait, and must do it as soon as possible!

The Nunes family also has a certain armed force. There are about 100 people, most of whom are mixed-race mestizos. They work in various jobs on weekdays and concentrate on training in their spare time—in a place with a very low degree of development like Florida. Not only are the remaining Indians a threat, but also the vicious pirates from the sea are a great threat. Therefore, ordinary manor owners or big businessmen will raise thugs to avoid being bloodbathed.This is a lesson learned in the blood of the nobles of the coastal cities of Spanish America for 200 years. Since the establishment of the Florida colony, the number of pirates has been infested countless times-what?The last large-scale pirate invasion was the people from the east coast decades ago?Uh, this question is too dangerous, let's not continue the discussion.

Gao Yi promised the head of the Nunes family that as long as they don't hide their personal interests and make great efforts this time, the East Bank will give them the monopoly rights of more commodities afterwards, and the franchise period will not be less than 30 years. Old Nunes Immediately I was moved. The 30-year exclusive right to supply goods in high demand is enough to lay the foundation for their family's No. [-] wealthy family in Florida. This time, it's worth it!

After the matter was settled, Gao Yi decided to choose an opportunity to hold a meeting attended by all the nobles who wanted to rebel.Of course, this kind of thing has the possibility of leaking secrets, but when is it now, and the situation is urgent, that's the only way to go.However, if only reliable core personnel are summoned, the possibility of leaking secrets should be minimized, and then these people will be allowed to mobilize other people to launch together to control the situation in St. Augustine in the shortest possible time.

In this operation, a capable operation team from the East Coast Intelligence Station will also participate. Their task is to assist a secretly infiltrated Spanish colonial army, raid the church in the center of the city, and then ring the bell in the bell tower to start the operation. This serves as a signal to start.And in view of this, the code name for this operation aimed at overthrowing the Spanish Kingdom's colonial rule in Florida was also determined, that is: Dolores-oh no, the bell of St. Augustine.

In the operation of the bell, only success is required, and failure is not allowed!This is the red line that Gao Yi set for himself, otherwise he would have no face to stay here, so he packed his bags and went home as soon as possible.

(End of this chapter)