Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2486 St. Augustine's Bell ([-])

August 1703, 8, St. Augustine, late at night.

Today's weather is not very good, thick dark clouds piled up over the city, covering the white moonlight.There was no light on the land, except for a few areas such as the General's Mansion that had gas lamps imported from the east coast, the entire city was shrouded in darkness and silence.It's a pity that the wind is not strong enough tonight, otherwise it would really be the legendary night with a dark moon and high winds, suitable for murder and arson.

At 11:40 p.m., Gao Yi sits in the basement of Palm Tree Primary School, reviewing documents by dim candlelight and listening to reports from his subordinates at any time.This basement was built secretly, and it is very strong and secret. There are archives, lounges, storage rooms, and meeting rooms inside, but there is no weapon storage, because this is not the secret headquarters of the intelligence station, but a temporary base for frequent activities. Mainly teachers and some parents from the school.

The real headquarters of St. Augustine's intelligence station is in an inconspicuous farm outside the city.The owner of the farm is a Spaniard with "roots are red", from Seville, and immigrated to St. Augustine with his father in 20 years.After his father died, he took over the farm and continued to operate it, mainly growing cotton and tobacco, and had no connection with East Coast merchants.This background is so clean that it couldn't be more clean. No one would have thought that this kind of "big eyebrows and big eyes" peninsula people would be spies serving the intelligence agencies on the east coast, which shows the power of the National Intelligence Agency.

The St. Augustine Intelligence Station has an action team of more than ten people, all of whom are shrewd and capable professionals.Stealing secrets, stalking, assassination, kidnapping, sabotage, etc., are all good guys who have been trained for years.Today the entire action team was sent out, led by captain Wang Shen (whose identity is the teacher of Palm Tree Primary School) to assist a group of indigenous white armed forces to secretly control and hide in St. clergy), waiting for an opportunity to ring the bell as a signal to launch an uprising.

Yes, the rebels are ready.They came mainly from the surrounding countryside of St. Augustine, where native whites lived and were the most important source of rebels.Over the years, they have long been fed up with the privileges, discrimination, and arrogance of the peninsula people.Why can bishops only be made by people from the peninsula?Why are senior government and military positions reserved only for Peninsulars?Why are people in the peninsula subject to so few restrictions and low taxes when doing business?Why can't the tax collected by Madrid be used locally?Too much dissatisfaction!Even in Florida, a colony that is not rich and not very populous, native whites, mixed-race whites, and Indians have suffocated, and now it is time for liquidation.

What I have mentioned above is the situation in the countryside. In fact, in the cities, native-born whites are also very powerful.In the military system, except for the army composed of pure peninsula people from Europe (this kind is relatively small), a large number of colonial troops are composed of local people, peninsula people serve as senior officers, native whites serve as a small number of high-level and almost all middle-level officers, Mestizos served as junior officers.The fundamental nature of this kind of colonial army is actually localized. If it cannot represent local interests, or even damage local interests, it will inevitably be alienated from Germany.No, under the infiltration and instigation of someone with a heart, a group of gentlemen in the city of St. Augustine no longer sided with the Spaniards, even a few years ago.

The main colonial army, composed of mestizos and Indians, was also much the same.These people have a worse impression of the Peninsulars. Although the image of the people on the east coast is not much better in their eyes, if they are on their side to help overthrow the tyranny of the Peninsulars, it is not impossible to cooperate.After all, it was the Indians and Mestizos of South America who were harmed by the people on the east coast, and they were not harmed after all.

To put it bluntly, these localized legions are the most important factor for the local nobles to dare to oppose Madrid. Other revolutionary courage and beliefs are fake, and they dare not do it without soldiers.What's more, without the foreign aid and security commitment provided by Ren Dong'an, even if they have a considerable advantage in strength, they would not dare to act now, because they are afraid of retaliation.If there were no British people desperately investing in money, weapons, and training personnel for the vigorous revolution in South America caused by later generations of Bolivia and St. Martin, and then encountered a favorable international situation, they would not have dared to rebel if they had the guts.

But it's really different with foreign aid.Many of the officers systematically trained by the people on the east coast were stuffed into the army by the local native nobles. The nobles themselves had their own private armaments and stockpiled a large number of weapons-to tell a bad joke, these weapons were more expensive than the Spanish soldiers who came with Dorado. The ones in hand are even better-the East Coast Navy also provides them with security guarantees, so what worries do they have?Just do it!If you don't do it, I'm afraid that both sides will be offended. That cannibal Dorado will deal with them one by one, and the people on the east coast will probably not let them go. In fact, there is only one way, and there is no other choice.

"Did Lucas speak?" After signing a document, Gao Yi asked his secretary a question.

Lucas was a former Florida general who had been in office for three years and had made no achievements, so he was replaced by the West Indian Affairs Council.Now he was a poor man, out of office, without guards, and, save for half a dozen followers who had followed him from Iberia, he was almost alone.What's even worse is that during his reign, he had offended many influential nobles by beating the locals. These people all had a chance to kill him, especially in this sensitive period.

General Lucas also keenly sensed something unusual, so he panicked.Although he began to change his course after working for a year, eased the relationship with the local nobles and people on the east coast, stopped caring about the shitty things they planned, and concentrated on making money, but many people already hated him, and he is very angry now. Dangerous, very dangerous.

Fortunately, he is not an extremely stupid person after all.In desperation, he secretly found a person from the East Bank and said that he could "cooperate", and it happened that the East Coast intelligence officer was also looking for him, so the two hit it off.The so-called cooperation is actually very simple, that is, General Lucas sold some valuable information about St. Augustine to the East Coast intelligence officials, including but not limited to the number of garrisons (obviously the actual number, not the roster to fool people data), weapons and equipment, defense change information, morale status, etc.Although these information can also be obtained by local native white people, it is good to have one more source to confirm each other, so as not to only listen to the local people's one-sided words, and finally be tricked and not know.

General Lucas also needs to explain what is in the material warehouse, it is best to make a list.Which of the government and military officials are loyal to the Kingdom of Spain, which are half-hearted, and which are full of hatred for the Iberian court.These can be corroborated with the situation in the hands of the native white people, so as to prevent someone who clearly has a heart for Madrid, but pretends to sympathize with the native nobles, defrauding their trust and destroying their ongoing events.

The last value extracted by General Lucas is that he knows the black material (reselling the arsenal) of a senior military officer from the peninsula, and he can use this as an excuse to blackmail that person into submission, otherwise he is likely to be ordered to hang himself by the convenience of Mexico City. die.Although this man was only the commander of the coastal defense batteries near the mouth of the Matanzas River, he could have been of great help if he had done something during the uprising and ordered the officers and soldiers of the batteries to remain neutral.

All in all, General Lucas is more cooperative, and the information he provided is extremely valuable. Therefore, after listening to the secretary's report, Gao Yi "Long Yan Joyful", directly ordered to protect General Lucas, and bring him, his family and others to the hospital as soon as possible. A group of followers were sent to the old castle of the Nunez family, and waited for the matter to subside before being sent on a merchant ship on the east coast to Europe.In addition, he personally signed a check of [-] yuan issued by the Agricultural Bank of the East Coast as a reward for General Lucas for providing information-people on the East Coast have always been very generous, and everyone knows this!

"Sort up and screen the information, and then send it to Nunes as soon as possible. He is now the leader of the uprising." Gao Yi ordered in a deep voice: "Also, I want to emphasize to him again that no matter how many difficulties there are, I just want to See the results as soon as possible. The matter has been dragged on for a long time. If it continues, Dorado is not a fool, and he will definitely hear some rumors. Therefore, start as soon as possible, preferably within three days. After the success of the uprising, our government will They will immediately recognize the Republic of Florida and establish diplomatic relations with it at the ambassadorial level. Moreover, the security commitment given by the Navy is not empty talk. They have already set off for many days, and they have sufficient capabilities to prevent the Spanish Windward Fleet from interfering with the situation in Florida. At this juncture, Madrid will definitely not be able to spare any extra warships to come to the New World, and their safety is assured."

"Yes, I'll handle it right away." Secretary Xiao Zhang nodded and replied softly.

"Wait a minute. Go talk to Deputy Station Master Luo about the 'Bright Lantern Project' and push it forward. This is a sensitive matter, don't rush, take your time, he knows what to do." Gao Yi suddenly shouted again Stopped by Secretary Zhang, exhorted.

"Understood." Secretary Zhang nodded and exited the room.

As the station master's confidential secretary, he certainly knew what was going on with the so-called "Bright Lantern Project", which was a plan to bury nails in the future Florida Republic and develop East Coast informants.The reason why it is named Bright Light is to hope that because of the existence of these people, the internal confidential affairs of the Republic of Florida can be fully revealed, and the people on the east coast can see everything inside, and there is no secret hidden under the darkness.

To put it bluntly, people on the east coast do not naturally trust these native whites.Supporting you up is also to better control you.Its leadership should be honest in the future, otherwise, all kinds of accidents will happen if they are not in order.

(End of this chapter)