Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 687 Go Westward

On May 1648, 5, when the grand autumn commodity trade fair was held in Qingdao Port, a battle had just come to an end outside the city of Santa Fe in the Paraná River Basin.The East Coast Army, which has been greatly strengthened by the belligerent side, is commanded by Captain Jiang Zhiqing, with a total number of more than 1; Indians from Peru.

In late April, the East Coast Army was reinforced by a mixed force composed of more than 4 members of the Second Battalion of the Original Standing Force and the Peasant Army of Wang Jiazhong's Department led by Pei Qin and others.This unit was refitted in Buenos Aires at the end of January, and then was rushed to the Corrientes area by emergency boarding, where some remaining soldiers of the La Plata Infantry Regiment were active. Some Guarani believers who came from the north to the south posed a certain threat to Santa Fe's flank.

After Pei Qin's troops arrived there in mid-February, they quickly launched an attack on the Spanish army, which numbered no more than a thousand, but the result was quite painful.Although their troops have been fully equipped with advanced equipment such as flintlock rifles, standard spears, armor, sabers, and hand-throwing bombs, and there is also artillery support from a company, their combat methods are still in the middle ages. The Guarani believers under the command of Spanish professional soldiers all fought very hard, not to mention the remaining veterans of the Spanish La Plata Infantry. caused by.

Faced with such a situation, Pei Qin, as the leading officer, had nothing to do.After all, more than half of their troops had only fought some low-intensity wars in Shandong. In addition, although the officers and soldiers from the second brigade of the stand-up team had fought against the green battalion of the Qing army many times, in the final analysis they were all fighting When the ancient army fought, the combat effectiveness was just like that.This time around Corrientes, I met those Guarani believers whose minds were filled with religious thoughts. It is not difficult to understand that the fight was more difficult when the equipment of the two sides was not much different.To put it bluntly, it is considered that the soldiers have exhausted their lives in such a battle. After all, the imperial court allocated houses, land, and cattle to everyone, and everyone had to be conscientious.

Fortunately, they just didn't get used to it at first.After nearly two months of stalemate with these Spaniards, they finally became more and more courageous through learning in battle, and began to defeat the Spaniards steadily.In mid-to-late April, under Jiang Zhiqing's strict order, Pei Qin finally launched a general offensive, completely defeating the remaining Spanish soldiers at the cost of 300 casualties.During this battle, Pei Qin, who was born as a cobbler in Gansu Province, rode a Turkmen horse and led a group of cronies to chase him for almost seven or eight kilometers. Only then did he shoot the Spanish commander Major Antonio Carlos to death with one arrow, which was considered a complete end. This protracted war.

After the "leveling" of Corrientes was completed, Pei Qin was ordered to lead the troops to the Santa Fe battlefield where the army gathered, preparing to participate in the military operation commanded by Captain Jiang Zhiqing to completely end the Battle of La Plata.In this battle, three infantry companies, four cavalry companies, two artillery companies, and two militia brigades were invested on the east bank of the battle. In addition, nearly 3000 people from Pei Qin's troops came to support them, and the total strength exceeded [-].

The Spaniards on the opposite side had only three thousand troops, and most of them were Indian soldiers from Peru.The news that the East Coast Pacific Task Force harassed and attacked the coasts of Peru and Chile had already spread. The shocked Spanish frontline commander worried that the rear route would be cut off, so he immediately ordered the main force (mostly white soldiers) to rush to Córdoba. Retreat in the area and wait for the situation to become clear before making any plans.

After the main force withdrew, there were only more than 2000 Indian soldiers left in the Spanish camp outside Santa Fe, and a small number of elite troops composed of whites or mixed-race whites, but there were no artillery.They stayed behind to cover the retreat of the main force, so naturally the superiors would not leave precious artillery to them.

Jiang Zhiqing also quickly noticed the intention of the Spaniards to retreat, so he immediately ordered the various ministries to launch a general offensive on April 4.The soldiers originally stationed in the city of Santa Fe, the trenches outside the city, and the gun towers attacked across the board, and launched a massive counterattack with the reinforcements. They broke the Spanish camp outside the city that night, and the Spaniards who stayed behind took advantage of the night. escape.The cavalry on the east bank also changed the ban on chasing at night in the past. Hundreds of cavalry brandished sabers and searched for the organized Spanish army on the vast prairie to encircle and attack.

The fighting was almost over by the afternoon of the second day (May 5).Pei Qin also took part in the pursuit with a group of old fellows who were former cavalrymen of the Shun Army. During the battle, he personally cut off the head of a mestizo (mixed-race white) officer, and then put his gold cross necklace It was collected as a trophy.

Last night, a total of more than [-] cavalry followed the fleeing Spaniards and pursued them. When everyone returned to camp in the afternoon, there was no longer any organized Spanish army on the grassland.The corpses of Indian headless soldiers are everywhere on the grasslands, hillsides, and streams. At this time, it doesn’t matter what Indians, Mestizos, Creoles, and Peninsulars are. The sabers of the shore cavalry became dead souls, and even their heads were taken away as military exploits.

Jiang Zhiqing received the statistics of the battle results at five o'clock in the afternoon, and more than [-] Spanish soldiers were killed, wounded and captured!This number made him sigh deeply. The total number of Spanish troops outside Santa Fe was only about [-], but after adding up the results of the various statistics (the number of heads handed in), the total number had already exceeded [-].There is actually only one explanation for this outrageous situation, that is, the cavalry units that attacked last night and some infantry units that attacked during the day today have a large number of acts of killing good people and pretending to be meritorious!That is, they killed all the Clandids they encountered on the road, and maybe a few mestizos, creoles, or gauchos, and then decapitated them to return the credit.

Most of this kind of thing was done by the officers and soldiers under Pei Qin's command. They were used to this method of counting merit in the Ming Dynasty, so when they saw a large number of "two-legged sheep" in the wild, they couldn't help besieging and killing them all. .However, they also put in a lot of hard work in yesterday's battle, and they fought more heroically. At this time, they can't be blamed for some "little things", so they should turn a blind eye and report to the military.Well, killing six thousand enemies is a great victory!

After clearing the Spanish army near Santa Fe, the Spaniards' attempt to open up the connection between Paraguay, Chile, and Peru was completely bankrupt.On the contrary, Jiang Zhiqing, who had just won the victory at this time, was full of ambition and wanted to go westward, follow the escape route of the Spaniards to Córdoba, and completely destroy the wealthy areas that the Spaniards had been running for a long time——There is no doubt , these places are much wealthier and more populous than places like Buenos Aires.

However, there are many problems in this way. The biggest problem is the supply. The road from Santa Fe to Cordoba is hundreds of kilometers, and the road conditions are very bad. There are forests, swamps, and rivers everywhere. Increased the difficulty of transportation.The Spaniards relied on a large number of Krandi masters conscripted in Córdoba, Turkmenistan, Jujuy and other places to transport supplies by mules and horses. The people on the east coast did not have this condition.

More than 300 donkeys and mules were captured in the battle last night, but this number is obviously not enough. More than 6000 people attacked Cordoba. Without thousands of carts and tens of thousands of donkeys and mules, it is difficult to maintain the supply line.The current strategy is to move forward step by step. First, set up military depots on the intermediate node from Santa Fe to Cordoba, and store supplies in advance. Only in this way can it be possible to support the activities of the East Coast army in this area.After all, in any war, logistics and transportation are always the most head-scratching.

Jiang Zhiqing's battle plan was reported back to the mainland the next day (May 5). On May 2, the latest order from the Ministry of Military Affairs was sent back. The general meaning was that Mo San, the government envoy stationed in Europe, may have been conducting peace talks with the Spaniards. To expand the results of the battle, don't have any hesitation!

At the same time, in recognition of Captain Jiang Zhiqing's great victory in the Battle of Santa Fe, the military department specially promoted him to the rank of major of the army, equal to Chang Kaisheng.Dozens of officers and non-commissioned officers were also promoted together. At the same time, a batch of trophies were also distributed, and the morale of the soldiers was immediately mobilized.

Jiang Zhiqing, who was promoted to an official position, was immediately full of spirits. He began to order various ministries to go to the field to recruit Kelandi people to serve as masters. At the same time, he also recruited all the livestock within sight to serve as pack animals for transporting logistics.Of course, during this time, three of the four cavalry companies have already been released, and they will search for and pursue the Spanish army that has not retreated to Cordoba smoothly at this time-there are still two people in this group. There are more than a thousand people, and the equipment and training are quite good.

On May 5, the first troops began to march west.Pei Qin took the lead with the old brothers who had shrunk to 15 at this time. They drove the hundreds of carts that they had collected with great difficulty, and with the assistance of more than 2700 Kelandi masters, they sent a large amount of building materials for the construction of the military station. (Boards, bricks, etc., mostly obtained from demolished houses in Santa Fe City) were transported westward.

They will eventually stay in the San Francisco area west of Santa Fe, and use simple tools to build a small stronghold in advance, and then wait for the arrival of follow-up troops to reinforce it into a complete military depot, so that they can be stored for the long-term operations of the army. of various materials.

(End of this chapter)