Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 648 Digging the Foundation ([-])

After lingering in Dongfang Port for a while and meeting with a number of middle and senior officials of the East Coast Republic, on the 20th, Liaison Officer William from the Dutch West India Company took Captain Couette on the three-masted cap of the "Tesyer Shoal" The Lun ship, loaded with wheat, leather goods and cotton cloth from the east coast, left Qingdao port and turned southeast towards South Africa.

They would stop at a river port on the east bank to resupply before heading north to Recife via the Dutch West African colony.The reason why we went around in a circle is that there are only two ways to go north from the southern tip of the South American continent in this season. One is to catch the westerly wind from the east coast between San Vicente in Brazil and Ping An Harbor on the east coast and go east to West Africa, but this is obviously not very safe, after all, it is the area where Portuguese ships usually move; the other is to capture the westerly area formed by the southward shift of the direct sun point in summer from the southeast ocean of Buenos Aires, and then cross the sea Travel to South Africa, follow the current to the Gulf of Guinea, and return to Recife.There are also many ports and cities on this route, and it is also a good thing to do some trade by the way.

Not long after Liaison Officer William left, on the 25th, Blanco Sousa de Almeida, who had not been on the east coast for almost a year, arrived at Dongfang Port on a fast boat, and then quickly requested to see Huaxia East Bank Xu Xin, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic, was summoned by Xu Xin the next day.

"You can't do this!" Blanco's first words were this, "The Dutch are treacherous bitches who only know money, and they are still smuggling all kinds of goods to the Spaniards in Peru. Every year from In fact, one-fifth of the Spanish fleet sailing from Cadiz or Seville is Dutch ships. They are full of machines, munitions, cloth and various luxury goods, and they go to Panama to sell. Otherwise, you think that the Spaniards only rely on the colonies With my own efforts, how could I have been able to fight the war with you for such a long time? All of this is caused by the Dutch!"

"So?" Xu Xin stretched out his hand to invite Blanco, who was a little emotional, to sit down, and then lighted a pipe for himself. At this time, his secretary was also sitting behind him, spreading out his notebook and began to record the two parties. conversation.

In fact, Xu Xin was a little surprised that Blanco got the news so quickly.You know, the liaison officer of the Dutch West India Company came to the east bank only a month ago, and the news has already reached Sao Vicente, Brazil. The news of the Almeida family is well-informed. The staff broke the news to them.

"The Dutch are your enemies too! Every musket you sell to them may end up in the hands of the Spaniards! So you should ban the sale of weapons to the Dutch, which is obviously an enemy!" Blanco still had some emotions Excited, I saw him making various gestures with his hands, intending to strengthen his persuasive power.

"Last year you mobilized 400 troops from the mainland, [-] of whom were deployed to the area north of the Gerard Mountains, and in the second half of the year, [-] mercenaries from the Scottish Highlands were also deployed there. They were equipped with flintlock The muskets and cannons have good combat effectiveness, and they seem to have a lot of experience in war." Xu Xin ignored the excited Blanco, and after exhaling a milky white smoke ring, he sat comfortably on the Xinhua Rosewood On the chair of the grand master, he continued: "Why are so many troops deployed there? Isn't your front line engaged in war, why do you deploy hundreds of experienced and valuable soldiers so close to us? What are you worried about? Worried about us? Is it?"

What Xu Xin said made Blanco choke.This question is difficult to answer, because the Portuguese deployed hundreds of troops to the north of the Gerard Mountains, obviously stimulated by the people on the east coast who have continued to extend the northern border northward for the past two years. These people are obviously They are planning to occupy the southern edge of the plateau, and use a condescending posture to prevent the people from the east bank from continuing to advance north.But you can't tell the truth, especially at this sensitive moment.

Over the years, the East Coasters have insisted that they have sovereignty over the entire Gerard Mountains in accordance with the "Treaty of Rocha" signed with Spain in 1633.However, the Portuguese refused to recognize the treaty signed by Spain. They believed that according to the agreement between Spain and Portugal when they merged, the overseas colonies of the two parties would maintain the status quo, that is, the Kingdom of Spain had no right to dispose of the former Portuguese colonies. The clause that "the farthest must not go beyond the Gerard Mountains" on the northern border of the Republic of Shores is invalid.The Portuguese had been protesting to the east coast that the Gerard Mountains belonged to Portugal before 1640, and the frequent exploration activities carried out by the people on the east coast had seriously violated their rights; and after Portugal's de facto independence in 1640, they began It is planned to set up urban settlements in the Gerard Mountains area, so as to firmly control this outpost area deep into the Brazilian plateau, and push back the black hands who coveted the Brazilian plateau from the east coast.

But Blanco is not stupid, if you tell the truth at this time, wouldn't it add fuel to the fire?The East Coast and Portugal have held six formal negotiations on the ownership of the Gerard Mountains, but each time they failed. At present, this disputed area between the two parties is still actually controlled by Portugal, and it has always been Portugal’s A heartache - especially as their war with Holland rages on.

“The Guaraní people from the Paraguayan region often come into our country illegally, they steal our livestock, they damage our crops, they attack our people. We must guard against this, because we do not want our people to suffer any harm. Hurt." Blanco began to talk nonsense with his eyes open, "Also, the smuggling trade on the border with Paraguay has become popular in recent years, we must deploy enough manpower here to fight against those heavily armed smuggling caravans, Protect the economic interests of regular businessmen in our country."

Xu Xin glanced at Blanco approvingly, as if surprised by his "professional diplomatic qualities".

"Speaking of the smuggling trade, according to the feedback from our army from the front line, some smugglers in your country are acting as suppliers of arms to the Spanish defenders in Paraguay. At the same time, they also provide various other military supplies. The relationship between our two countries has caused some damage. Don’t you think of a way to ban this kind of smuggling trade? Could it be that the relationship between your two countries is not as good as these small commercial profits?” Xu Xin still relied on Sitting on the teacher's chair, he still spoke in a moderate tone.

Blanco was a little silent.People on the east coast sold weapons to the Dutch unscrupulously, and now the Portuguese are not allowed to sell weapons to the Spaniards. This really smells of double standards, so Blanco seems to be silent in protest.

"Are you dissatisfied? Are you protesting?" Xu Xin ignored Blanco's ugly face, stood up and paced the room and said, "Of course you have the right to be dissatisfied. We blatantly promised to sell various It seems unreasonable to have cheap military supplies and not allow you to sell even a barrel of gunpowder to Paraguay, but—so what?"

Speaking of this, Xu Xin took a sharp puff on his pipe, and began to let out a smug air: "Branko, we are also old friends who have cooperated for many years. We are not clear about many small tricks you have done on the east coast these years. For example You sent spies into the east coast, stole some young animals and plants, seeds, secretly drew some mechanical drawings and designs, and at the same time secretly collected various information about our society. I didn’t care too much about interest-free loans. However, your deployment of troops in the Gerard Mountains and providing military funds to the Spanish remnants in Paraguay is beyond the limit of our patience. Seriously, you guys You are provoking war! What do you think the [-] troops and [-] mercenaries transferred from the old continent can do? Believe it or not, our country can immediately mobilize thousands of well-trained soldiers to go north. The Laer Mountains completely destroyed your stronghold?"

After finishing speaking, he did not wait for Blanco to refute, and immediately raised his voice and said: "Yes, we have indeed reached some agreements with the West India Company, and we will provide them with a batch of stockpiled ordnance. But to be honest, whether in the future We are still considering to continue to provide military funds to the Dutch, and your performance will be one of the important basis for our decision-making."

"You mean...?" Blanco immediately pricked up his ears when he heard Xu Xin directly pointing out some cooperation details with the Dutchman. Hearing that Xu Xin seemed to have something to say, he immediately couldn't help asking. .

"You need to do two things." Xu Xin stretched out two fingers and said: "First, immediately ban trade with Paraguay, listen clearly, I am talking about all trade, whether it is military trade or ordinary commodity trade , everything must be banned, we don’t want to see the Spaniards in Paraguay and even the La Plata region get even a single commodity from Brazil; second, you have reduced the cotton quota exported to us a while ago, why is that? ?Because the merchants in the Old World offered higher prices? Or because the planters in your country refused to export cotton to our country because of some religious sympathy for the Spaniards? Interested to know, I just need your country to resume cotton exports to China immediately, and at the same time, the supply will increase by at least one-third of the previous basis, and the price will be in accordance with the long-term agreement we signed before. If you do these two things point, then I will petition the government not to consider exporting the second batch of war materials to the Dutch for the time being."

"You are digging the foundation of the Spaniards' rule in Paraguay. There are not many channels for them to communicate with the outside world. Apart from the jungle trail leading to Chalkas, there is only one commercial route leading to us. If We have also cut off trade with them, and they will not be able to persist anytime soon." Blanco said weakly, "You have asked a lot, I have to go back and discuss it before I can give you a formal answer, sorry."

(End of this chapter)