On August 15, 1648, outside Puerto Barrios (later Puerto Montt), artillery fire was in the air.

Thousands of East Coast soldiers lined up outside the city, neatly dressed in dark blue or khaki uniforms, shiny rifles and bayonets, and more than a dozen cannons lined up, all of which told people that this was a well-equipped and well-trained force.

However, the people on the eastern coast have been fighting in the Pacific coast for more than half a year, and naturally there are many servant troops at hand to lead for them. For example, the Araucan Liberation Army led by Vicente Jr., the Crandi Volunteer Army transferred from La Plata by the East Coasters, and of course, the famous Polish and Tatar mercenaries, with these people, Captain Xie Hansan, the army commander-in-chief of the Pacific Task Force, will naturally not consume the precious East Coast Army lightly.

The East Coast Army only needs to send some artillery that is almost ready to fight to suppress the fire of the servant army, and there is basically nothing left for the East Coast people. After fighting for more than half a year, there are still more than 700 Klandi volunteers led by Bianchi, and more than 600 mercenaries led by Malecki (of course, the Tatars in the team may not listen to him), and as for the Araucan Liberation Army under the command of Vicente Jr., this number is getting more and more fighting, because they have attracted many liberated Araucan slaves to join, and the total number has now swelled to more than 900 people.

The port of Barrios was a major Spanish military town in the southern region of Chile and a port often visited by the Spanish-Peruvian fleet. Ever since the rise of the Araucan guerrillas, who were behind the scenes of the East Coasters, a Spanish army has been stationed in Puerto Barrios for regular crusades against the Araucan guerrillas who had infiltrated the central region of Chile. However, there is no decent industrial infrastructure - or that the entire Viceroyalty of Peru does not produce its own weapons, whether in arms, supplies or soldiers. All of them need to be transported across the sea from mainland Spain.

But since the defeat of the Peruvian fleet. After the East Coast Navy took control of sea supremacy. The transport link between Chile and Peru has been effectively cut off. Because no one can cross the Andean Mountains with no passes, and no one can cross the driest desert in the world, Chile is like an isolated island, cut from the vast South American continent, and has become a delicious meal on the lips of the people on the eastern coast.

Since the blockade of the port of Callao was completely ended last December, the three main warships of the East Coast Navy left the unprofitable Peruvian coast and began to move south and north to continue harassing the Spaniards. In the north, they advanced as far as Acapulco. They also fired a few demonstrative shelling attacks at some small Spanish fishing villages on the shore, causing a panic in the Viceroyalty of New Spain -- you must know that the present Viceroyalty of New Spain, except for a few Manila galleons, there are only a handful of large ships, which are no match for the heavy warships of the people on the east coast armed to the teeth, and they can only hide silently under the shelter of the coastal batteries and wait for the enemy to leave on their own.

In the south, they advanced to the south-central coast of Chile, where they harassed the poor people who had lost contact with Peru. In April, the entire East Coast Fleet advanced to the vicinity of Chiloe Island. A large number of land forces were sent ashore, and the strongholds such as the port of Castro and the port of Chaiteng near this sea area were captured one after another. Annihilation of hundreds of Spanish Army personnel (including militia, mostly Indians or mestizos). After completely clearing the area of Spanish military power, the Araucan guerrillas quickly took over the area, where they carried out a harsh policy of persecution of white settlers, and even the mestizos were attacked by them. And a large number of Araucan slaves who "turned over and sang" were even more revenge and revenge, just like what those Crandi turned slaves did in La Plata, the white people fell into a catastrophe, the local social order was in chaos, and the colonial order of the Spaniards had almost completely collapsed.

After clearing the waters around the island of Chiloe, the easterners began to march northward, landing in the fertile Maurin River with superior forces and superior firepower, and then scattered like locusts in the thousands of men to attack every Spanish village and town they encountered. Of course, with the exception of a few mercenaries who hated the whites, the regular army on the east coast was relatively "civilized", and they "bought" all kinds of supplies from the Spaniards by printing crude stamps - well, with bayonets as a guarantee - and the supplies procured were transported to the free city of Araucan by guò ships after a certain amount of dù. In this way, the fruits of more than 100 years of Spanish colonization in south-central Chile slowly flowed into the hands of the people on the east coast.

After clearing the agricultural areas along the lower Maurin River (which originates in Lake Yankiwe and eventually empties into the Pacific Ocean) and "buying" large quantities of grain and livestock, the East Bank army began to follow the Maurin River up the river and swagger towards Puerto Barrios and other places. Anyway, now that the East Coast Navy has the control of the sea on this side of the Pacific Ocean, it is impossible for Chile to have reinforcements or materials from the outside world, so everyone is still quite confident in conquering such an important town as Port Barrios.

Some time ago, the Joint Staff Headquarters of the mainland sent two staff officers to give an order, urging the officers and men of the Navy and Army of the Pacific Task Force to speed up the progress, carry forward the spirit of not fearing sacrifice, and quickly capture the Spanish towns in Chile and disrupt their social order, so that they will not be able to play a role for the Spaniards in a short period of time.

The two staff officers confessed to Lieutenant Commander Lu Ming, who led the team, that the escort fleet returning from Europe had brought back the latest news on negotiations. According to the diplomatic letter sent back by Mo San, the armistice negotiations with the Spaniards were now quite deep. The bottom line of the Spaniards is already a rough idea, that is, La Plata is basically sure to return it to the Spaniards, not to mention Chile, and the people on the east coast should burn high incense if they can get a port to settle here, and there is basically no other possibility.

Although the military department had expected this, it was still extremely disappointed. They believe that the economy of the east coast has passed the most dangerous and difficult period, that domestic construction is still continuing tenaciously, inflation has eased, and there is no shortage of precious metals for importing all kinds of materials, so there should be no truce at all. Instead, we should continue to deepen the war and beat the Spaniards to a greater dividend.

But the civil servants did not agree with this. They believe that the current operation of the national economy is very unhealthy, that there is still a great shortage of labor in the country, that the shortage of materials can be seen everywhere, and that the debt of the whole country is at an unprecedented high, so that it is time to put an end to the war with the Spaniards for two years, and then find a way to restore some of the markets that have been lost in Europe for the goods of the East Coast over the years, and to work hard to improve the level of economic development, and to digest the territory that has been gained. I. Qiē and other countries will talk about it later when their comprehensive strength increases.

The differences between the two sides are obvious. Perhaps in view of the growing influence of the civilian faction in the decision-making of the Executive Committee, the military leaders of the Joint Staff Headquarters were somewhat dissatisfied, so they took advantage of the fact that the war was not over and began to order the naval and army forces to intensify their offensives in an effort to expand the results of the war in the near future and gain more bargaining chips. Previously, they gave Jiang Zhiqing's troops an order to attack Córdoba, but now they sent people to inform the navy and army that are still operating in the Pacific waters to completely take Chile is another link.

Lu Ming, commander of the Pacific Task Force, sighed after hearing the official order of the military headquarters handed over by the staff officers. To be sure, he himself does not support such madness. Let's not say that there will be damage and attrition in the war, but even if you take the best areas of La Plata such as Córdoba, Jujuy, and Turkmenistan, or completely conquer the Chilean region that has become the turtle in the urn, so what?

There are only a few small silver mines in the Chilean region, and the production is not very large. It has always been dominated by wood, leather, wool and grain, and is not a wealthy place for the Spaniards. The same is true for the La Plata region, which is also sparsely populated and does not produce any goods that are in high demand in Europe, so it has had a limited negative impact on the Spaniards. On the contrary, in order to maintain such a large scale of military operations, the East Coasters are bound to re-recruit several disbanded militia brigades in the country, and at the same time, they also have to squeeze out some civilian productive forces to ensure military supplies, and the negative impact is not small. Moreover, we must also consider the changes in the international situation, and a prolonged war with the Spaniards that seems to have no end is very dangerous for the weak East Coast, because it will obviously attract the covetous eyes of other predators.

However, since the order has been given from above, it is not appropriate to ignore it at all. Therefore, Lu Ming made a compromise plan, that is, to send the main army force to land on the banks of the Maurin River, and then break through the old Spanish towns such as Puerto Barrios and Osorno one by one. I have such a small number of people on hand, and if something goes wrong, it will make the Spaniards turn the tables.

In addition, he will send people to focus on combing the island of Chiloe and its vicinity. It is full of dense temperate and cold coniferous forests, which are extremely rich in timber resources, and the production of horse mackerel here is also terrifying, and there are many high-quality furs such as foxes, otters, and seals. As a key area for the future operation of the Southern Cone area, it is still necessary to take a good look here.

After doing all this, the main forces of the navy can almost assemble again and go north. The Spaniards are about to start a new year's movement, last year they were hit hard enough by the East Coasters, and the Peruvian fleet was also wiped out, and I don't know what the Spaniards plan to do this year. (To be continued......)