Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 54 The Buenos Aires Shelling Incident

Buenos Aires has never been so crowded in its more than 50 years of history as it is at this moment. Soldiers from the surrounding towns and the Paraguayan region on the upper reaches of the Rio de la Plata almost blocked the entire city.Having nothing to do, they either get drunk in the bar all day, or fight with the gauchos, in short, there is never a moment of rest.In addition, the sharp deterioration of law and order has also dissatisfied the city councilors of Buenos Aires. They did not agree to launch this war. Looting and destruction, this is how unbearable.

Captain Torres is also battered by this, he is now like sitting on the crater of an ever-heating volcano, the dissatisfaction of the soldiers and the senators and gentlemen is like the anger that is about to erupt, he even smells the pungent sulfur smell, But can't do anything.At this moment, he was looking forward to the fleet commander Diego Garcia defeating the Tartan fleet as soon as possible, and then rushing back to take charge of the overall situation. As for the poor Viscount Fernandez, Torres had already forgotten him for a long time.

"Sir, please see Mr. Manuel Ignacio Rodriguez." The guard walked into Torres' office and reported softly.

Torres, who was counting material consumption data, raised his head and said with a tired face: "Let him in."

Manuel Rodriguez is an old man who is nearly sixty years old. He started his business in the leather business. When he was young, he ran from Seville to the New World to try his luck. After decades of hard work, he even set a record Not a small family business, and now one of the city councilors of Buenos Aires.The veteran, he didn't wait for the guards to fully open the door, so he pushed the guards away and rushed in, yelling at Torres: "We must stop this meaningless war! Torres, we must stop the war, it is meaningless!"

"Dear Mr. Rodriguez, you can appeal to the Justice of Lima and the West Indian Affairs Office of the Kingdom about the rationality of the war launched by the Governor, and they will give you a complete answer. But I think I remind you that we are now in a state of war, and the governor will not stop this war until we have achieved our goals or obtained enough benefits." Torres said slowly, his voice low but firm: "Now everyone They are all fighting for the benefit of the kingdom, and I will not allow anyone to disrupt this war. Mr. Rodriguez, the order for the cowhide ammunition package that I handed over to you must be delivered within one week, otherwise I will submit it to Chilkas for inspection. The Court of Appeal cancels your leather processing license."

Manuel Rodriguez looked at Torres coldly, and said after a long while: "Very good, Captain Juan Cruz Torres, I will complete the military orders on time. But the recent one from Asuncion It's outrageous to help the gangsters. They robbed the countryside wantonly at night. Several sheep have disappeared from my pasture. Someone must be responsible for this, 'Don' Cruz! This is also the unanimous opinion of the town council members , I hope you can seriously consider it! Goodbye!" After speaking, Manuel Rodriguez left Torres' office angrily.

Torres put down his pen and looked at Rodriguez's back, feeling a little headache.According to the plan, the army should have completed its assembly in April, and then landed near Tatan Port to launch an offensive.But the plan is always just a plan. The procrastination of the local garrison, insufficient material preparation and untimely arrival of the commanders made the army's departure time delayed again and again. Now it seems that half of May has passed. The material preparation The work is not yet complete.It was really a headache. The Tatans even had time to slowly harvest the grain in the field, and then waited for the arrival of the Kingdom Army.

"Bang!" Captain Torres, who became more and more depressed as he thought about it, slapped the table angrily, and he didn't know who he was angry with.At this moment, the guard pushed the door open again and reported, "Sir, there is something new."

"Just tell me directly!" Torres glared at the other party.

"The situation is a bit complicated." The guard's face was a bit strange, "Sir, you can see what's going on after you open the curtain and take a look outside the port."

Hearing this, Torres stood up, opened the velvet curtains, looked at the port hundreds of meters away, and was stunned.Outside the port, a large pitch-black ship stood there like a hill, with a red-bottomed double-sword goshawk flag flying high, and the black cannons on the deck aimed at the port.

"God! The battleship of the Tartans!" Torres blurted out, "Why didn't the fort fire? Hurry up and fire, don't let her break into the port!"

"Sir, this ship is out of range of the coastal defense artillery of the fort." The guard reminded in a low voice.

Torres suddenly came to his senses, but then became angry again: "Then what does this mean? Is this a demonstration? What about Commander Garcia's fleet? He actually let the Tartan warships be blocked in the sea off the Rio de la Plata. A disgrace! An absolute disgrace!"

"Sir, could it be that something happened to Commander Garcia's fleet?" the guard asked hesitantly.

"Shut up, Raphael. If you think about it with your toes, you know it's impossible! A huge fleet of seven main battleships, in this sea area, no one can resist." Torres angrily said, "Damn cunning The Tartans, they must have escaped the capture of the Garcia fleet, and then sneaked to the mouth of the Plata River, trying to shake our will to fight! These despicable and shameless Tartans!"

At this moment, there was a puff of blue smoke coming out of the gun muzzles on the deck of the battleship on the sea, followed by the sound of rumbling guns. "God! They're firing!" the guard Raphael exclaimed.

A 24-pound iron bomb flew a long distance and then plunged into the sea water in the harbor, splashing a large canopy of water.

Captain Torres stared blankly at the Tartan warships firing towards the harbor, his face was terribly gloomy.Not only him, but all the Spaniards in Buenos Aires who saw this scene grinned in disbelief, as if seeing some unreal mirage.For the first time since the city was founded in 1580, Buenos Aires was bombarded by hostile naval forces.

Alvaro was patrolling his workshop with his father Manuel Rodriguez, and when he suddenly heard the news from the servant, he couldn't help but lose his voice for a moment.

"Alvaro, the strength of these Tartans has exceeded our expectations." Manuel's hoarse voice suddenly sounded, "I have a hunch that this war may be difficult for the kingdom to achieve the desired result, and the Tartans will gain the East." de facto dominion over the coast. Maybe they'll get an added benefit commercially, and we'd better be prepared for that."

"Commercial interests?" Alvaro asked with some doubts. "Father, do you mean that the Tatans will obtain the legal right to trade in the La Plata region? It seems difficult."

"Not unlimited trading rights, of course," Manuel explained, "Perhaps the Governor of Peru will limit the tonnage and number of ships the Tartans can trade each year, just like the few foreign companies that have been given trading concessions in the Caribbean. And this is an opportunity for our family, we must seize it!"

……

"Haha, happy!" Wang Tiechui grinned and laughed, "It's so cool to stand in front of others and show off your power! Look at the boats moored in the port, who dares to come up and challenge us. I just came to provoke, what's the matter? Ah, does anyone dare to come up?"

"There are only a few fishing boats moored in the harbor. Do you expect this kind of thing to come out and challenge us?" Xiao Bailang also laughed and said, "You should be careful about some Spanish forts. I think there are quite a few artillery pieces, at least twenty Above the door. Don't capsize in the gutter, it's not worth getting shot here."

"Don't worry. From what I can see, the old 8-pound, 12-pound and 18-pound guns on the Spaniard fort can't hit this far." Wang Tiechui shook his head nonchalantly, "Don't worry, I won't force my way into it." We went, this time to scare the Spaniards and let them know that they are not safe and are in danger at any time. Well, this is also part of the overall battle, to shake the enemy's determination to fight."

While the two were talking, several iron projectiles whizzed across the bay and hit the sea hundreds of meters in front of the port side of Yunsheng No. [-], creating some large and small water columns.Perhaps these Spanish coastal defense artillery officers and soldiers really couldn't bear the arrogance of Yunsheng No. [-], and they decided to respond to the provocative behavior of Yunsheng No. [-] with artillery shells.

"Okay, let's leave when you've had enough fun." Xiao Bailang held up the binoculars to observe carefully, and wrote down on the paper the specific positions of the several artillery positions that the Spaniards fired just now, and then said: "This time the ship can It carried a lot of supplies, as well as some army soldiers accompanying the ship, so it’s important to go to the Falklands first.”

Wang Qinian brought the Yunsheng No. [-] to sink three Spanish offshore warships off the Dayu River. He fought hard at the meeting of the executive committee, and finally got the authorization of the executive committee to recruit two temporary deployments of the army.Peng Zhicheng left the meeting in the middle of the meeting to protest, and the conflict between land and sea once again intensified.

But Xiao Bailang and Wang Tiehammer didn't care so much, Wang Qinian would take the responsibility for the quarrel, and they would do it themselves for making a name for themselves.

Yunsheng No. [-] turned its rudder, hoisted its sails, and slowly left Buenos Aires under the gaze of countless complicated eyes.

(End of this chapter)