Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1322 Terrace ([-])

"Why did the regional administration prepare such a mess?" Second lieutenant Li Zhixin picked up a sausage of suspicious color and a bottle of spirits made from unknown places on the edge of the river beach and swamp in the west of Shunchang Township, and asked with some dissatisfaction. road.Although they are not regular troops, they have been hunting and killing natives in the Patagonia region for a long time. They can be regarded as a part of the local reserve force. Although the Northern Patagonia Regional Administration does not have many people, it can afford hundreds of them. Part of the food and payment of the cavalry (the other part is borne by the Ministry of War) should not be a problem.

Moreover, the food, quilts, wine, sugar, tobacco, tea, and even wages they provided in accordance with the regulations were all in place. This would be fine, but why did they provide such a bunch of things for food?Gone are the unshakable dried whale meats, canned cod and spinach, canned sea bream and mushrooms, and canned boiled squid. Instead, they are replaced by dried beef that is as hard as a rock, sausages of suspicious color, and pickled miscellaneous fish of various sizes. ; The sweet and delicious canned fruits in the past are gone, replaced by some dried fruits and nuts, which seem to be produced in Brazil; even some cows (providing milk) that used to accompany the army are gone. The guy said that the district administrative office allocated them some cows, but they were so thin that they needed to be recuperated for a while, which made everyone a little dumbfounded.

"What's so strange?" Second Lieutenant Pei Dade, who was sharpening his dagger, said weakly, "Since last year, the navy has been plundering all kinds of supplies in Brazil continuously, and there is naturally a lot of food among them——those guys, even It's crazy to see half a bag of pine nuts being snatched away. If other materials can be slowly digested by the Dutch, Japanese and even German businessmen, then the food like these It’s hard to find a market for stuff like this, and there’s no shortage of food and drink in our country. As for what kind of beef jerky can you eat? However, the white shirts on the executive committee have plenty of ways to These rags are turned into cash, such as sorting these foods and sending them out to us as military rations, in the name of not wasting food, but in fact it is not to save money! Do you understand now?"

"Understood!" Li Zhixin, the son of Li Zhengang, the manager of Chuangji Investment Company, and a second lieutenant who graduated from Bingtuanbao, snorted heavily, and said, "The white shirt is not a person, but the Ministry of the Army is kind. , cigarettes, tea and other benefits are also in place, as expected, I am still reliable, and the navy and white shirts are not fun!"

"Hey, who told us to be raised by stepmothers. Among the 527 officers and soldiers, 82 were Spahi cavalry exiled from the Ottoman Empire, 67 were recruited Gauchos, and 69 were Buryat Mongols. , 145 people are from Shandan, 58 are Poles, 19 are Russians, and only 87 people are from the regular army of the cavalry battalion, and there are even many officers and non-commissioned officers. The shirts dare to fool us, damn it!" Pei Dade said gloomily after taking a sip of the slightly sour wine.He also graduated from Bingtuanbao, and he was in the first class with Li Zhixin. He was the adopted eldest son of Pei Qin, the captain of the volunteer team who immigrated to the East Bank in the early days (currently the commander of the Qingdao Fort). Kishi is not bad, it seems to be one level higher than the middle class.

The two were complaining on one side, while the soldiers on the other side had set up a large pot to boil water, and then poured dried beef, shriveled vegetables, salted fish, and some bacon that had some taste into the scalding water. And contentedly smell the aroma of the food.These meals are really not decent for officers or non-commissioned officers, but for those who have joined the army for a few days and have not yet enjoyed the benefits of the Ministry of War's "1647 Military Food Regulations", it is already a good dinner, at least they Many of them cannot enjoy this kind of "food" often when they are in their hometown.

"Continue to search westward tomorrow, and follow the river to the Luyang Island area." In a temporary military tent, Army Captain Guo Handong kept sliding his fingers on a simple map in the dim light. Then, he continued to say: "Luyang Island is rich in water, grass and products. I don't believe that the people of Thuelche will turn a blind eye to it. If my prediction is correct, there must be a big tribe there. Didn’t Xiaohu’s expedition team see a nomadic Tehuelche tribe from a distance when they went there?”

Officers such as intelligence staff, marching staff, combat staff, training staff, logistics staff, and liaison staff surrounded Guo Handong, all staring at the map on the grass.It took a long time for the intelligence officer to say: "Sir, the Tehuelche people are nomads or hunters, and they never stay in one place for too long. Even if Luyang Island is suitable for farming, in their eyes, it is only It's just a place to supplement aquatic plants, they won't settle down."

"Nomads and hunting people also have to eat. It's winter now. If they don't want a large number of livestock to die, they must spend the winter in this area, because it is convenient to raise fodder. You know, they don't have so much salt and spices. Butchered and pickled, their productivity level determines their living habits. Chief Meng saw it right in the fall. There must be a Tehuelche tribe living on Luyang Island. Our more than 500 cavalry are rushing In the past, they will definitely be wiped out!" The combat staff also put forward their own opinions.

"Now the food reserves are sufficient. Although it is a bit unpalatable, we can last for a long time. I heard that Deputy Commissioner Cai is borrowing two 72-ton old steamers from the Hai'an County Transportation Bureau to come to the Ludang River. If it is used to transport supplies, we will be able to persist there for a long time." The logistics staff interjected, and his words unsurprisingly aroused a wave of curses from the officers present. Gotta get angry.

Afterwards, everyone discussed for a while, and then basically made a decision to attack Luyang Island, which is more than 200 kilometers away, and then they ate and rested, without talking all night.On the second day, more than 500 cavalrymen (with more than 1000 horses) got on their horses. Except for some escorting slow-moving carriages, the rest of the main force of more than 400 people brought equipment and water, and rushed towards Luyang Island to search like lightning.

On September 1662, 9, hundreds of cavalry from the east coast rushed to the outskirts of Luyang Island. After the forward scouts found the enemy, Guo Handong let them dismount and rest for three hours before getting on another horse. , Go straight to the Tehuerqie tribe.

There is no need to go into details about the battle process, because it was not an equal battle at all. At the cost of more than 20 casualties, the people on the east bank forcibly flattened this large tribe with a population of thousands, and collected hundreds of people and a large number of livestock. Return both.During the post-war interrogation, the people on the east bank also got a very interesting piece of news, that is, on the riverside not far from here, the Tehuelche people once discovered a huge herd of bison, the number of which they could not tell. It just keeps saying that the herd of cattle is very large, and I don't know where they came from.Guo Handong was very excited when he heard the news, and immediately sent people to the north to verify it, while he took the remaining 300 people to clean up the possible remaining Tehuelche people around.

On September 9, the intelligence staff who went out to search for the cattle found the target.In fact, it is not difficult to find. There is not much food suitable for cattle to eat on Gein's platform. If a large herd of cattle wants to survive, they need to get a place with rich water and grass along the river, so they only searched for a few days. , and found this small herd of cattle more than 16 kilometers upstream of Luyang Island—it is estimated that they migrated from the Pampas prairie in the north, and the reason is unknown.

Guo Handong, who found the target, made a decisive decision. In addition to arranging dozens of cavalry to press hundreds of Tehuelche tribesmen to march downstream and meet with the logistics convoy, he led more than 300 cavalry with the main force to search and advance along the river bank to the upstream area. On the morning of September 9th, this herd of cattle, which was wandering leisurely, was adorned with tens of thousands of heads!

It is said that since Pedro de Mendoza brought 72 mares and young horses to Argentina, large livestock from Europe quickly broke into this lush paradise: sheep and pigs in 1550, sheep and pigs in 1552 Years are horses and donkeys, and 1555 is the year of the first cattle.In just a few years, these few animals have multiplied into countless herds because of the natural environment suitable for their growth and their rapid spread from place to place in La Plata. The sudden increase in their numbers is equally astonishing.

As early as 1596, Asunción declared that the wild livestock around Buenos Aires belonged to the conquerors' heritage, because the source of these livestock was the livestock that escaped when the colonists' strongholds were destroyed by the Indians in the early years.According to this decree, they divided the Pampas grassland into hunting areas for organized hunting of bison, wild sheep, wild horses, and wild donkeys.

According to the Spanish records, a group of people rode their horses towards the cattle, brandished a spear with a half-moon-shaped iron knife at the top, and slammed the shins of the cattle, breaking their knee joints.The cow that was hit by this blow immediately curled up with its injured leg, staggered and limp for a few steps, and then fell to the ground.After seeing the wounded cow could no longer stand up, people galloped towards other cows, and the cows fell down everywhere they went, unable to escape.Using this method, 18 or 20 people can turn seven or eight hundred cows in one hour.

And when the cattlemen finally got tired, they all jumped off their horses to rest and recover their strength.Taking advantage of this opportunity, the surviving cattle fled away one after another, leaving thousands of wounded cattle scattered all over the field.Then the cattle catchers rushed to these cows that could no longer resist, cut off the head, peeled off the hide, took out the fat and tongue, and discarded all the remaining meat and internal organs. They really wanted to eat beef so fast Vomited.

This activity may not have been particularly popular in the 17th century, but reached its peak in the 18th century, when Felix de Asara estimated that there were over 18 million bison in the wild throughout La Plata at the beginning of the 8400th century (decreased by the end of the century). For 600 million heads) - this is an astonishing number. It must be known that in 100, more than 1875 years later, Argentina's first national agricultural survey counted only 5700 million heads of various types of livestock, and the number of sheep in 1895 was the highest. The record is only 7400 million—but even if we don’t recognize the 18 million bison on the La Plata grassland in the early 8400th century, which may be exaggerated, the number of bison on the grassland at this time must be in tens of millions , otherwise it would not be able to survive the century-long indiscriminate killing by the Argentines. After all, by the end of the 19th century, there were still news of people discovering bison herds on the Argentine grasslands and getting rich overnight, which is enough to prove their huge number up.

"I'm a little lucky now that our country has implemented an import tariff and quota system for La Plata beef, otherwise the bison on the Pampas grassland will soon be killed by the Spaniards." Guo Handong, who saw the spectacular sight of the bison herd, was a little lost He thought to himself, "Fortunately, we have monopolized La Plata's foreign trade. Otherwise, Dutch, British, and French merchant ships would come here and bring back hundreds of thousands of cow hides a year (whether they can be sold or not). The buffalo herd on the Lata prairie will also be hunted down. We are even more fortunate that during the second East-West War, the Kelandi people’s uprising was encouraged, and the number of white people dropped sharply, which indirectly protected the buffalo herd on the prairie..."

"The bison will be ours from now on, because we will definitely get La Plata." Li Zhixin, a second lieutenant officer, walked over with bright eyes and said, "What a huge fortune this is!"

"This should be a small population that came from the southern edge of the Pampas grassland in the north. The scale is so large. One can imagine how many real buffalo herds are on the prairie. I'm afraid there are millions of them. Tens of millions? Thanks to the Indians who defeated the colonists, it has only been more than 100 years, and the number of bison on the grassland is so large, it is really scary." Pei Dade also rode his horse to follow, and said with emotion.

"Don't sigh, the key is to find a way to get this herd of cattle back. We are not Spaniards, just to earn some money for beef tongue, tallow, horns and cowhide. These are precious wealth, and it is cheaper to transport them back. How much help can it provide for agriculture by selling it to the people at a low price?" Guo Handong finally ordered: "Let the Gaoqiao people and Mongols who are proficient in cattle driving in the team come out, and the others will cooperate and follow their instructions to strive for this The large herd of cattle was caught, and then they rushed all the way downstream—at least, they had to go to Luyang Island first, where supplies are convenient, and everything is easy to talk about.”

"Good job!" After receiving the order, several officers went to organize their staff.

Half an hour later, more than 300 cavalrymen were divided into more than a dozen groups, and they slowly rode their horses towards the cattle. The work of rounding up the cattle finally officially started!

(End of this chapter)