Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 76 The Decisive Battle: The End ([-])

August 8st.Xiao Bailang's fleet, which had been drifting at sea for more than half a month, crossed the Strait of Magellan again, arrived at the east side of Tierra del Fuego, and anchored in a sheltered bay.The "Galicia Flying Fish" and Yunsheng No. 1, loaded with valuable supplies, were moored on the inside, and the gunboats "Eagle on the East Coast" and "Red Trout" were moored on the outside. The sailors went ashore in turn to rest after getting permission from the officers. At the same time, it also replenishes fresh water for the entire fleet.

After sacking Chakao City at the beginning of last month, the entire fleet began to turn south, and then smoothly crossed the Strait of Magellan along the strong westerly wind and current, preparing to return to the Malvinas Islands.The Peruvian fleet stationed by the Spaniards in Callao has divided half of its main ships. These warships, led by the powerful four-masted sailing ship "San Lorenzo", are searching for Xiao Bailang's small fleet all over the world. .Realizing that something might happen if he wandered off the coast of Chile again, Xiao Bailang decisively ordered the end of the attack mission on the Pacific coast. The entire fleet returned to the Atlantic Ocean within a month, driving away the Spaniards who were still looking for them. dumped in Chile.

In general, the attack of Xiao Bailang's fleet was not small.On the one hand, it effectively harassed the Spanish sea transportation lines, made the Spanish insufficiently prepared for the war, delayed the outbreak of a large-scale war, and bought a lot of time for the Executive Committee.On the other hand, they crossed the Strait of Magellan, captured three Spanish towns, wiped out more than a hundred Spanish colonial troops, and plundered a lot of supplies and money.More importantly, he made the Spanish colonial authorities start to look squarely at the crossing people, and the rear area that they thought was safe was also attacked by the enemy, which shook their will to fight to a certain extent.

In addition, the rebellion of the Araucan people began to rise gradually with the help of the cross-border crowd. The Spanish officials in Chile were devastated by this. The economic order of the colony was hit hard, and the losses caused by it were immeasurable.In order to save the situation, the Governor of Peru even sent a considerable number of troops from Lima to help General Santiago stabilize the situation.Without the support from Peru and Chile, relying on the Chalkas Procuratorate alone cannot support the consumption of war in the La Plata area for a long time.This is a way to draw salary from the bottom of the pot, but the dramatic thing is that the Spanish Army lost so fast and so badly in the La Plata area that they were wiped out before they could feel the pressure of materials.Now, officials in Buenos Aires no longer have to worry about raising mountains of war supplies.

While the fleet was moored, Lu Ming took some people ashore and landed on Tierra del Fuego again.After a few months, Lu Ming returned to the old place with some emotion. Behind him was a platoon of army soldiers. These soldiers were carrying large and small packages, which were full of iron pots, Knives, daggers, lighters, salt, alcohol, dried fruits and other items.Obviously, Lu Ming intends to make a deal with the local natives here in Tierra del Fuego—the Ona people.

After walking inland along the coast for half a day, Lu Ming and the others were discovered by the Ona people without any surprise.These natives surged up excitedly, and pulled them into the tribe.Fabian, Mathias and others who followed Lu Ming grinned. Having experienced such a battle, they knew that these simple Ona people had no malicious intentions, they just urgently needed to trade items.Of course, the exchange items they give will definitely satisfy you.

The Ona offered everything they could: bacon, hides, fat, llamas, and more.Among them, the llama is the most popular.Lu Ming has always wanted to introduce this kind of animal, which is the size of a small pony, to the east coast area for breeding. This little thing runs like flying in the thin air of the high mountain area, and can carry heavy loads. It is very suitable for a large number of equipment for future mountain infantry.

An old friend of Lu Ming and the others, the Ona man named Sava who came to have dinner last time also came.This tall Indian took out some not-high-purity gold to exchange supplies with the traveler. Lu Ming was surprised when he saw it. There must be a gold mine near the man's tribe.At least, there will be gold mines on this island.Lu Ming recalled it carefully, but he couldn't think of anything useful.In the previous life, Fuego Island was really a very remote place, and there were only a handful of materials introduced.However, this important information must be reported to the executive committee. In the future, some commodities urgently needed by the indigenous people can be exchanged for the gold in their hands. This is a lucrative business.As for direct mining, because Tierra del Fuego is too far away from Uruguay, there are a lot of security concerns, and this condition is not yet available.

After the transaction was completed, Lu Ming and the others returned to the warship with seven or eight llamas and bags of supplies. On August 8, the entire fleet set sail again, sailing eastward all the way, and arrived at Sullivan Sheltered Bay on the East Island of the Malvinas Islands after passing through many waves.After arriving here, the entire fleet is not going to make any further voyages for the time being.

The Charuya people on the island waited desperately for Xiao Bailang's fleet to return.They stayed all day long on this island, where the wind and snow were blowing most of the time, and there was no one else on the whole island except the dozens of Spanish and English prisoners, and their companions were only seabirds. Only sea lions and seals.Xiao Bailang and the others were also very happy to see that the Chaluyas were still guarding the small camp safely, which meant that the Spaniards hadn't discovered it yet.

The Spaniards and Englishmen in the island prison have welcomed new partners. They were joined by 42 former sailors from the Spanish Navy battleship Red Trout, bringing the number of prisoners of war in the island prison to 83.During the few months when Xiao Bailang’s fleet left, the Charuya people on the island led these prisoners to build many houses using the building materials piled up in the warehouse, which made this place that looked a little desolate. For the first time, I got a little angry.

The sailors sorted some of the materials on board and moved them into the warehouse on the island: more than 1000 furs of otters, seals, sea lions, foxes, and llamas; 300 woolen blankets; 15 tons of copper and 10 tons of lead; 500 barrels of gunpowder, Several lead bullets and cannonballs.In addition to these, another major achievement of this trip to Chile is the collection of a large number of plant seeds.Chile's agricultural conditions are not bad, and the Spaniards have spared no effort in their development.During this trip, the crowd collected almost all the plant seeds or roots that can be seen from the hands of local Spanish farmers, such as pepper, tomato, corn, sweet potato, peanut, pumpkin, cotton, flax, etc.

Of course, what is most significant to the travelers are the few cinchona saplings that they obtained from the Indians in the Andes that grew in the deep mountains.I am afraid that no one in this era understands the importance of this magical tree better than the people who travel through.The local Indian aborigines only know that the bark of this tree is ground into powder and taken to have the effect of "reducing fever", but it is different in the eyes of the crossing people.At this time, there is no drug in the world that can effectively treat malaria, except quinine, which is made from ground cinchona bark.The next specific development direction of the traveler is to the south of the Gerard Mountains and the Rio Grande do Sul region of Brazil in later generations. Going to this place without carrying the drug quinine with you is simply playing a joke on your own life.

Therefore, Xiao Bailang directed the sailors to carefully protect these saplings and put them aside alone.If it wasn't for the fact that the climate of the Malvinas Islands was not suitable for the growth of this kind of tree, Xiao Bailang almost wanted to plant these few trees immediately.Of course, the seeds of other plants are also very important, and the sailors also carefully preserved them, preparing to bring them back to Uruguay for planting in the future.

In addition to these precious seeds, there are 2 pigs, 6 cows, 8 horses, 9 llamas, and more than 40 sheep on hand. In order to make room for the boat, Xiao Bailang also had these livestock Put them all on the island for free-range breeding.Anyway, the island is full of dense meadows, and these livestock have no shortage of food.

After everything was arranged properly, Xiao Bailang sat down with Wang Tiehammer, Lu Ming, Xie Hansan, Yu Lian and others to discuss the next move.Because I don't know what's going on in my hometown, the whole fleet doesn't dare to rush back like this. If they encounter the Spanish main fleet halfway and cause any damage to everyone, there is really nowhere to complain.

Xiao Bailang and the others were not worried about whether they could stop the Spanish attack in a land battle.They believed that due to the dilemma of the Spaniards coming across the sea and the lack of equipment and supplies, as long as they crossed the crowd and stood firm in the city, the Spanish army could be exhausted.After discussing and discussing, it was finally decided that Wang Tiechui drove Yunsheng No. 100 back to observe.Yunsheng No. [-] has a fast speed and strong firepower. Even if it encounters the main Spanish fleet, Yunsheng No. [-] still has the last more than [-] tons of fuel, so it will not be a problem to drive a few round trips from here to Uruguay.

After the plan was settled, on August 8, the Yunsheng No. 8 carrying a platoon of army soldiers sailed away from Sullivan's Bay in the thin morning fog, then turned to the north and disappeared into the vast South Atlantic Ocean.

(End of this chapter)