1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 947 The Crisis in La Plata

September 1678, 9, Buenos Aires.

In the early days, the Spaniards successively moved [-] immigrants to the La Plata area, most of whom were peninsula people of the same ancestry.But people are divided into ranks, and the amount of wealth ultimately determines everything.With the passage of time and different personal development experiences, they quickly differentiated. The landless Spaniards wandered around, and some of them combined with the local Indians.The mixed-race descendants they gave birth to are called Gauchos (Gaucho, transliterated from the Spanish word "Gaucho", which means vagabond and prodigal son) because they retain more Indian cultural traditions.

Thiago Almada is an influential gaucho leader in the local area, surrounded by thirty or fifty sturdy gaucho horse herders all the year round.On weekdays, they make a living by grazing cattle and sheep for others and acting as bodyguards.Occasionally, horses will be galloped across the vast pampas grasslands, capturing bison, and selling them to the peninsulas and creoles in the city for a little money.

Oh, sometimes, the gauchos will also be recruited by the Spanish colonial authorities to follow them to conquer the surrounding Pevenchez, Charuya and Tupi people, enjoying the feeling of killing people on the battlefield with horses and recklessly harvesting human lives .

However, in the past few years, the colonial authorities of La Plata have been full of hostility towards these free and unruly gauchos.Even the eyes of the local Creoles and Mestizos are full of malice. If they offend them with words or actions, they will be retaliated fiercely by them, and they will even shoot them directly. them.

Thiago Almada knew that these incidents of vicious revenge against their gauchos were completely self-inflicted.

A few years ago, in order to expel the Qi people who invaded the Spanish territory, the local colonial government recruited them twice successively. Together with the local colonial army and armed militia, they attacked the Qi country's colonial strongholds.But unfortunately, the Spaniards, who were proud and underestimated the enemy, lost three battles in a row, losing troops and losing generals.

In those few battles, the Gauchos were the first to flee the battlefield on horseback, leaving the poor colonial army and armed militia to the Qi people, and became prisoners of war who were slaughtered.

Although this is not the main reason for the defeat of the Spaniards in battle, those narrow-minded peninsulas and Creoles still hate them Gauchos, and attribute all their failures to their desertion from time to time. to take revenge on them.

Seeing that La Plata is no longer easy to mix, Thiago Almada is going to take his brothers to Chaco to try his luck in the near future.It is said that there are many new settlements there, maybe you can find a good job to make a living.We Gauchos are brave and strong, and we are used to living right away, so we will not go hungry anywhere.

But in the evening, several acquaintances from Gaoqiao excitedly approached him and told him a shocking event.

"Launch an armed uprising, overthrow the Spanish colonial rule, and establish an independent kingdom without any racial discrimination, without any oppression, and where everyone is equal?" Thiago Almada stared at the gauchos in front of him. People, with an unbelievable expression on their faces, "Is all this possible?"

"Of course it can be achieved. Not only in La Plata, but also in the entire American continent, there are tens of thousands of people who are dissatisfied with the Spanish rule, and it is not just us Gauchos? It is those native Creoles, who are also against Spanish rule. The royal family is full of disgust and hatred. Those incompetent and stupid peninsula people, why can they ride on our heads and dominate everyone, oppressing and exploiting everyone." A rough gaucho Not without resentment, he said: "We have had enough of all this, and it is time for a complete change."

"Do you represent the Portuguese in the north, or the Qi people in the south?" Thiago Almada took a deep breath, and then turned his head to look at the tall and thin man among several gauchos.

"Although I am loyal to the people of Qi in the south, I always consider myself an American, because not only will I spend the rest of my life here, but my descendants will continue to live in this land in the future." Lai Andro Paredes smiled and said: "Our leader is a noble Qi royal family, with the blood of two Eastern emperors flowing in his body. He is determined to establish an independent, prosperous and inclusive country in the American continent." In this country, all ethnic groups enjoy equal status, and everyone has full freedom of religious belief and personal freedom."

"You talk beautifully, but in the end it is hard to guarantee that you are not using us." Thiago Almada said disdainfully: "As far as I know, the people of Qi are being besieged by thousands of Spanish troops, and the situation is in dire straits. Therefore, You want to use the conflict between the Gauchos and the locals to incite us to launch an armed rebellion, so as to disturb the Spanish's retreat, and then reduce the military pressure on you Qi people."

"For decades, you Gauchos have been bullied and oppressed by the Spaniards. It seems that it is not due to their greed and cruelty, but more because of your passive avoidance, compromise, and even greed for life and fear of death. , so that you are willing to be insulted by those Spaniards from the peninsula." Leandro Paredes sneered: "In my eyes, you are not even as good as those ignorant and backward Pevenchez and Tehuelche people. At least they can enjoy the happiness and freedom that they have not had for hundreds of years under the rule of our venerable King Qing, and become a truly independent person."

"This envoy of Qi, you have successfully aroused my anger." Thiago Almada stared fiercely at Leandro Paredes, "In my opinion, no matter the Spaniard, It is still the people of Qi, and in the end it is all about gaining the right to rule this vast land. Even if the greedy and stupid Spaniards are expelled, in the eyes of us gauchos, it is just a new master, and it will still be repeated again The Spaniards' path of rule continued to divide the different classes and races among thousands of Americans, so as to maintain their so-called legitimate ruling order."

"No!" Leandro Paredes shook his head and said, "Our Honorable King Qing is a very wise and tolerant leader. He has noble qualities, rich knowledge, and a tolerant mind. In our In the territory, everyone has a completely independent personality, whether he was a Spaniard, Portuguese, British, or a local Indian, they are all equal in terms of status. No matter what you are Races, as long as they can prove that they have talents and knowledge, they will be reused regardless of pattern. Even if you were once a slave, in our territory, you can complete a gorgeous identity change, or become an army commander, Or be the commander of a fort, or the commander of a fleet."

"..." Thiago Almada looked at his companions who had already been quite moved, and he was having a fierce ideological struggle in his heart, "Everything you said is not to confuse us Gauchos to launch an armed uprising , and deliberately fabricated it?"

"Do you know what I was like eight years ago?" Leandro Paredes said with a smile: "At that time, I was just a humble indentured slave from Genoa, traveling across the ocean to fill my stomach. I came across the sea to this vast American continent, worked as cattle and horses for greedy and cruel farmers, was abused, and was on the verge of death at any time. Now, I belong to the Gyeongju Black Guards and is a victim Dear second lieutenant officer. I now not only have a happy and warm family, but also a large piece of land that can be passed on forever to my children and grandchildren. All of us will become the true masters of the American continent and will no longer suffer from aliens. The oppression and humiliation of the perpetrators!"

After hearing this, Thiago Almada stared blankly at Leandro Paredes, but his heart was already turbulent.

All of us will become the true masters of the American continent!

Can all this be achieved?
After more than 180 years of colonial rule, the American continent during this period, including Portuguese Brazil, already had serious class and racial conflicts, as well as conflicts between the suzerain country and the colonies.

Back then, the Spaniards and Portuguese relied on their own bachelors to develop their colonies, and only high-ranking colonial officials were able to bring their wives and daughters.

This is because the development of colonies is a very dangerous job for men. In 1514, King Philip II of Spain (that is, the grandfather of Charles V) recruited 2000 knights to go to the Americas. There was no large-scale indigenous resistance. Under the premise, more than 700 people died of hunger and disease within a year.In the early days when the British developed the North American continent, due to various reasons, half of the colonists died in one year.Therefore, the colonists either left their wives and children in their hometown (there were not many people in this group), or they were simply bachelors.

Because they were worried about the marriage of the colonists, Spain and Portugal initially coyly sent Jewish women to the colonies. Later, they simply encouraged the colonists in their own countries to marry the natives, because they couldn't control it at all.

For a long time, the ratio of white men to women in Spain's American colonies was often more than ten to one.However, the Spanish white colonists were too lazy to please their own women, and they did not give their own women "exorbitant gifts" at all, because they could directly take in Indian concubines, and they could use "black pearls" to warm their beds.In the 16th and 17th centuries, on average, each white colonist had nearly ten native concubines and several black maids.

White women are more like a luxury in the Spanish colonies. Winners like Cortez are certainly envied (this guy is the sister-in-law of the Spanish governor in Cuba), but ordinary Spanish colonists don't care.During more than 100 years of colonization, the colonies have formed the status quo of multi-racial and inter-blood de facto marriages.

Because if the white colonists got married formally, they would have fewer chances to get married and have a harem, and the Indian natives and mixed-race descendants also felt that it would be expensive to hold a formal wedding.

Although there were not many legal marriages in the American colonies, there were still ranks among the descendants of the colonists.Gein, the Spaniards are very fond of dividing people into various ranks.For example, they are all Spanish colonists, and the Castilians consider themselves nobler than the Aragonese, because the principle of the American continent is the industry of the Kingdom of Castile, and the flag of the Kingdom of Castile hangs on the American continent The colonists from the Kingdom of Castile would involuntarily murmur when they saw the Aragonese, "The stinky beggars came to our Castilian colony to ask for money."

In the Spanish American colonies, the peninsula people had the highest status. Their parents were white people born in the Iberian Peninsula. They could hold high-level positions in the colonies and took away the most lucrative colonial benefits.

The second is the descendants of white people born in the colonies, they are called Creoles.The word Creole was originally Portuguese, referring to the black slaves of the master's family.Among the Creoles identified by the Spaniards, there are actually descendants of the Inca royal family, and the Spanish colonies still have the tradition of selling blood certificates for money, so the Creoles are regarded as colonial whites with suspicious ancestry.

These two groups of people were important pillars of the Spanish American colonies, and the entire upper class of society, including colonial officials, large estate owners, large ranchers, large plantation owners, large merchants, mine owners and textile factory owners, were governed by them. Composition, and a very small number of Mestizo people.Officials of the colonial government held administrative and judicial powers; the local nobles enjoyed the privileges of the Spanish nobles, possessed wealth and power, and did not pay poll taxes, assisting the former in ruling the indigenous people.

There are only about 1200 to 1500 native Spanish soldiers in the two major governorships of Spanish America, but there are nearly [-] Creole militiamen, and the Creoles also serve as middle-level cadres and plantation owner.

The descendants of white colonists and Indians are called mestizos (they have more Hispanic cultural heritage than the gauchos in La Plata), and the best of them are also called mestizos. White colonists valued that if their father was Castilian, they were called Castizos, and their status was comparable to that of Spaniards.

But if an Indian hunk finds a mestizo beauty, their children will be called Choro, and if the Choro finds an Indian, the grandson and grandson of the Indian hunk will become Chamizo.The descendants of Spanish whites and black slaves are called mulattos, and these mulatto beauties are very popular in the many mines in the colony.

The descendants of Spanish white men and Murato are still called Moriscos, and their status is far lower than that of Castizos.The offspring of Indians, blacks, and mulattos combine to become Sambo.Blacks and Indians also have different statuses, and even Indians in different regions have different statuses.

Because hundreds of thousands of Spanish colonists could not control their lower body, they eventually created dozens of ethnic groups of different origins and status in the colony.

Well, it's a bit dizzy to analyze now, but people at the time didn't think so.In the Spanish American colonies, duels for blood and honor were commonplace, and handsome mixed-race men had to be especially good at fighting if they wanted to attract beautiful women.Mestizos and Creoles often took the initiative to fight against Indian tribes for land and wealth, and the mulatto people in Portuguese Brazil often went to Paraguay to capture Guarani Indians.

Due to the limited distance of Qi State and the lack of any attractive economic interests, the number of Han ethnic groups that rely on the core of Qi's American colonial areas is very small.

This made Qi Zibo have to follow the advice given by the staff group around him, absorb all cannon fodder that could be the king's precursor, and use barbarians to control barbarians.Oh, no, it should be to unite all ethnic groups and classes of people who are anti-Spanish colonial forces in the Americas, establish a broad united front, gradually expel and encroach on the Spanish colonial territories, and finally build a country of their own for the Americans.

In order to establish a so-called America’s own country, Qi Zibo also specially studied the process of the Qing Dynasty’s prosperity in a corner of Liaodong, and prepared to fully learn from and refer to how the Qing Dynasty used the Manchu Eight Banners as the core, the Han Eight Banners and the Mongolian Eight Banners as the auxiliary wings. A series of political and military strategies led by many surrendered Han troops, and then swept the entire Central Plains.

In response to the sharp racial conflicts, class conflicts, and suzerain-vassal conflicts in the Spanish American colonies, the high-sounding slogans of the so-called freedom, equality, and religious tolerance of the people of Qi are still extremely demagogic and inflammatory.

In late September, the colonial authorities in La Plata, Spain, were dismayed to discover a heinous rebellion by the recalcitrant gauchos.

Numerous plantations were attacked, farmland was trampled and burned, manors were set on fire, men were killed, women were raped, and all property was looted.Even on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, there were gauchos riding around from time to time to intercept and kill lonely colonial officials and businessmen.

The whole of La Plata suddenly fell into a huge turmoil, so that the Spanish army in front of it was conquering the colonial stronghold of Qi, and there was a hidden danger of its logistical supplies being cut off.

(End of this chapter)