Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 990 Heaven-sent Land ([-])

Guo Zili sailed close to the sea off Mianhe Port on the battleship "Free Trade".Because no special wharf for large warships to enter and leave the port has been built here, the "Free Trade" can only anchor in the open sea far away, and then transport materials and personnel back and forth by small boats, which is troublesome.

Of course, the "Free Trade" did not come to Cotton River Port alone. In fact, it came with several other ships of the Second Fleet, including 2 sail escort gunboats, 3 fast cruisers, and 1 armed transport ship. There are 7 professional warships in total, which are almost all the ships of the Second Fleet (there is also a fast liaison ship and a small training ship at home).

Taking advantage of the southeast wind in the cool season, these ships first sailed south from Xinhua Port, stopped at Guihua Island and Tacheng Port respectively, and then bypassed the French colony at the southern end of Xinhua Island, following the southeast wind all the way north. , Arrived at Cotton River Port.They will stay here for a long time, because Ma Wanpeng of Mianhe Port reported to Shi Qinjie that foreign ships have frequently appeared in the waters off Mianhe Port recently, so it is not known what happened.

Shi Qinjie was about to leave his post, so he was extremely unwilling to make troubles at this time, so he immediately discussed with Major Guo Zili, commander of the Second Fleet (the Second Fleet is not under his jurisdiction), and asked the other party to lead the fleet to patrol around the island, and then stay Focus on inspections in the area of ​​​​Mianhe Port to drive away or capture any suspicious foreign ships to ensure the safety of this important place of Mianhe Port.There is an intersection with the natives here, and the place across the sea is also a Portuguese colony, so it is very sensitive.Moreover, considering the increasingly tense relationship between the East Coast Republic and the Kingdom of Portugal recently, we must be extremely careful and vigilant against the Portuguese who are not weak here-especially to prevent them from colluding with the French at the southern end of the island bad thing.

A few days ago, Guo Zili took a few ships to the south for inspection, and landed in the southern Mahafali Plateau offshore, exchanged gifts with the local aboriginal Bara people, and established a primary contact.The Bara people are the aborigines of the driest area on the island (Mahafali Plateau). They have established a loose Bara Kingdom (actually a tribal alliance) with a low level of civilization, but their temperament is relatively fierce. The relationship between the French and the Sakarava people in the north is very bad, and this is undoubtedly the basis for the establishment of a friendly alliance between East and Pakistan.

It is said that since the end of 1651 when troops were dispatched to conquer the Sakarawa people, Xiao Baitu had "wasted a huge amount of food and salaries" and "killed and injured two thousand soldiers" (Ma Wanpeng's report to Shi Qinjie), but he had never been able to completely pacify Mo Kingdom of Naboo.Although they greatly killed and wounded the kingdom's vital forces, looted a large amount of supplies (more than [-] hump cattle, more than [-] sheep, and more than [-] pieces of leather), and also occupied the palace of this indigenous kingdom— ——It is located in the area of ​​Bezaha in the later generations, but it still can't end the war, and can't let the Sakarawa people admit defeat.

And since the Manabo Kingdom does not admit defeat, the people on the east bank will always have to spend a lot of manpower, material and military resources to accompany the native kingdom to play hide-and-seek games in the hills, grasslands, and forests. So far, the cumulative number of casualties has exceeded two. Thousands—Among them, Polish soldiers accounted for about a quarter, and the rest were all eight banners of the island.Among the casualties, less than half were caused by frontal battles, and more than half of the remaining half died of various diseases or simply exhausted, which made people feel helpless.

At present, Xiao Baitu, the war madman, has about 2000 main troops (about 1000 Polish and German soldiers, and the rest are native soldiers from the Eight Banners of the island), stationed in Pingman Fort (that is, the native palace originally located in Bezaha) , named Pingman Fort after it was conquered), and planned to implement a long-term occupation of this area.In addition, in order to ensure the smooth transportation of the rear, Xiao Baitu also ordered 500 people (4000 captured by the Qing army, and another [-] islands and Eight Banners native soldiers) to set up a transfer station in the Tunguburi area, and named the place In order to commemorate the great victory of the stronghold, he led his army to defeat the army of the Manabo Kingdom and wiped out three to [-] enemies here more than a year ago.

However, Xiao Baitu's attitude of ignoring the reality and chasing and beating the natives made Ma Wanpeng quite displeased.Without him, one is that the material consumption is very large, and the other is that the manpower consumption is very large-and this is the key point. Originally, the East African transportation company transported many Polish prisoners of war from the Ottoman Empire. Due to the continuous frontline wars, many people were forced to send them to fight in the past, which undoubtedly affected production.

You know, the area of ​​cotton fields developed between the Mian River and the Hun River Basin and the total cotton output are one of the important bases for Ma Wanpeng's performance evaluation. If you send people to fight for transportation, the state-owned cotton farms naturally don't have enough The manpower has gone to work, isn't this hindering Ma Ling's "progress"?As a result, Ma Wanpeng's attitude towards Xiao Baitu has now changed from being supportive to not supporting it.But what if it is not supported?It is easy to start a war, but it is not so easy to end it. Xiao Baitu killed more than [-] Sakarawa soldiers and civilians, and even occupied their royal court, seizing a large amount of gold, silver, jewelry, cattle, sheep and livestock. At the same time, some wives and daughters of the chiefs of the Manab Kingdom who had not escaped in time were handed over to the subordinate soldiers for lust. The two sides had already formed a deep hatred.

What's more, the Sakarawa people are notorious for holding grudges. If you humiliate the other party like this, it's no wonder that the other party doesn't fight with you. This is obviously one of the important reasons why the war has continued to this day.Looking at it now, if you want to completely end this war that has been going on and off for a long time, you still have to completely maim the opponent, and there is no other way.Therefore, you can see recently that the people on the east bank have obviously strengthened their relations with the Bala people on the Mahafali Plateau, the scattered Sakarawa tribesmen in the Daqing Basin (they are also often conquered by the Manabo Kingdom), and the people in the east. Melina's connection.

Especially those Melinas who are feuds with the Sakaravas, they will spare no effort to attack them whenever they have the opportunity.Although in recent decades, due to the soaring combat power of the Manabo Kingdom (there are a large number of arquebus soldiers), the Melina people have been defeated repeatedly, and their forces have completely withdrawn to the central highlands, but they have never negotiated peace with the Manabo Kingdom. , the small-scale conflicts between the two sides (mainly the kingdom of Manabor going to the central highlands to fight grass valleys) have been going on for decades.It can be said that they actually hate the Sakaravas far more than the people on the east coast.

So, more than half a year after the war between the people on the east coast and the Kingdom of Manab broke out, the people of Melina on the central highlands finally couldn't hold back their actions.Although they did not get in touch with the people on the east coast at the beginning, so the effect of the coordinated operations was not very good, but this still completely collapsed the Manabo Kingdom, which was already dealing with extremely difficult situations. The old king and his two sons each brought a branch The people scattered over a vast land and fought intermittently with the enemy.

At first their enemies were limited to the people of the East Coast and the Melinas, but soon the Bala people on the Mahafari Plateau in the south also joined the battle group. It just hit it off, and soon crossed the Hun River (Unilashi River) from the south and launched an attack on the Kingdom of Manab.In order to support their actions, Xiao Baitu made the decision and Ma Wanpeng approved, and presented them with a batch of cold weapons so that they could better attack the Sakarawa people.After the fighting lasted until this year, the Melina people also got in touch with the people on the east coast. The two sides agreed to send troops to compress the Sakarava people's activity space and wipe out their vital forces, so as to completely solve this common confidant of both parties.

To be honest, whether it is the vision of the upper-class figures or the combat effectiveness of the lower-class soldiers and civilians, the Manabo Kingdom is quite good in Xinhua Island, otherwise they would not have unified the entire western half of the island in a mere few decades in history , and they would have taken the northeastern part of the island even if it hadn't been for the civil war.Not to mention that they repelled the attacks of Western colonists many times and wiped out the remnants of the Arabs on the island. Compared with them, the achievements of the Melinas are incomparable in terms of military and warfare except for their excellent farming. carry.

Of course, their weakness is also quite obvious, that is, the lack of economic strength.Especially now that the country is just in the initial stage of its rise, and the main way of life is nomadic and nomadic farming. After the evil East Coasters captured, their strength plummeted.

Xiao Baitu understood this very well, so he insisted on chasing and attacking the Sakarava people, because only he knew how weak the opponent was now.Every time you attack, you can see that Sakarava has fewer and fewer livestock, and every time you attack, you can see that their population is getting smaller and smaller. If such a weak enemy is not defeated in one go, when are you going to wait?Wait until they catch their breath?

However, Xiao Baitu's wishful thinking has recently suffered a small setback.Because they found that the number of firearms in the hands of the Sakarava natives has increased from hundreds to more than a thousand. This is simply terrifying!After the situation was reported to Ma Wanpeng, he also felt that this matter could not be neglected, so he sent a clipper to notify Shi Qinjie of Xinhua Port. The French intervened in the four-way melee in the west of Xinhua Island.

The Portuguese may be less suspicious, but the French are definitely more suspicious, because they and the British are the two European countries with the closest economic ties to the Kingdom of Manab.The British merchants have disappeared recently, but the French have two colonial strongholds on the big island, Fort Dofan and Saint-Louis, so don't be too suspicious!

Therefore, Guo Zili brought the main force of the Second Fleet to Mianhe Port, and he planned to teach the Frenchmen who dared to come here to trade with the natives an unforgettable lesson.

(End of this chapter)