August 1. Xiao Bailang's fleet, which had been adrift at sea for more than half a month, crossed the Strait of Magellan again and arrived on the east side of Tierra del Fuego, where it anchored in a sheltered bay. The Galician Exocet and Yunsheng I, laden with valuable supplies, were moored on the inside, and the gunboats Eagle and Red Trout were moored on the outside, and the sailors took turns to go ashore to recuperate with the permission of the officers, while at the same time replenishing the fleet with fresh fresh water.

After sacking the city of Chacao early last month, the fleet began to turn southward, and then crossed the Strait of Magellan with strong westerly winds and currents to return to the Malvinas. The Peruvian fleet anchored by the Spaniards in Callao had half of its main ships, and these warships, led by the mighty four-masted schooner San Lorenzo, were searching for Xiao Bailang's small fleet in the world. Realizing that something might happen if they lingered off the coast of Chile any longer, Xiao Bailang decisively ordered the end of the attack on the Pacific coast, and the entire fleet returned to the Atlantic within a month, leaving the Spaniards who were still looking for their traces far away in Chile.

In general, Xiao Bailang's fleet still gained a lot from this attack. On the one hand, it effectively harassed the Spanish sea transportation lines, made the Spaniards unprepared for war, delayed the outbreak of 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 large amount of supplies and money. More importantly, he made the Spanish colonial authorities begin to face up to the crossing crowd, and the rear of the rear, which was originally thought to be safe, was also attacked by the enemy, which made their will to war be shaken to a certain extent.

In addition, the Araucan rebellion began to rise with the help of the Crossing Crowd, which frustrated the Spanish officials on the Chilean side, and dealt a heavy blow to the economic order of the colonies, causing incalculable damage. In order to salvage the situation, the Peruvian governor even sent a considerable number of troops from Lima to help General Santiago stabilize the situation. Without the support of Peru and Chile, a single Chalcas court district alone will not be able to sustain the war in the La Plata region for a long time. It was a ploy to draw a salary, but dramatically, the Spanish Army had lost so quickly and badly in the La Plata area that they were wiped out before they could feel the pressure on supplies. Well, the officials of Buenos Aires no longer have to worry about raising mountains of war materials.

While the fleet was at anchor, Lu Ming took some people ashore and landed on Tierra del Fuego again. After a few months, Lu Ming was quite emotional when he returned to the old place, and he was followed by a platoon of army soldiers, these soldiers carried large bags and small bags, which were full of iron pots, knives, short swords, lighters, salt, wine, dried fruits and other items seized from the Spanish towns on this trip. Obviously, Lu Ming planned to make a deal with the local natives of Tierra del Fuego, the Ona people.

After traveling inland along the coast for half a day, Lu Ming and the others were unexpectedly discovered by the Ona people. The natives rushed up excitedly and dragged them into the tribe. Fabian, Matthias and the others who followed behind Lu Ming grinned, and after 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 you will definitely be satisfied.

The Ona people provided everything they could: cured meat, hides, fat, vicuñas, and more. Among them, the vicuña is the most popular. Lu Ming has always wanted to introduce this animal the size of a foal into the East Coast region to be raised, this little thing can run like a fly in the thin air alpine area, and can carry heavy loads, it is really very suitable for a large number of mountain infantry that may appear in the future.

Lu Ming and the others' old friends, the Ona man named Sava who came to eat last time also came. This tall Indian took out some gold of not very high purity to exchange materials with the traversers, Lu Ming was greatly surprised when he saw it, and after some guessing and exchanges, Lu Ming was sure that there must be a gold mine near this Ona tribe. At the very least, there will be gold mines on this island. Lu Ming recalled it carefully, and really couldn't think of anything useful. In the previous life, Tierra del Fuego was really a very remote place, and there were only a handful of information introduced. However, this important information must be reported to the Executive Committee, and some commodities that are urgently needed by the natives can be exchanged for gold in their hands, which is a lucrative business. As for direct mining, Tierra del Fuego is too far away from Uruguay and there are many safety concerns, which are not yet available.

After the transaction was completed, Lu Ming and the others returned to the warship with seven or eight vicuñas and large bags of supplies. On 3 August, the fleet set sail again, sailing eastward, and after navigating the waves, it reached anchor in Sullivan's Sheltered Bay on the eastern island of the Malvinas Islands. Once here, the fleet was not ready to make any further voyages for the time being.

The Charuya people on the island were already waiting for Xiao Bailang's fleet to return. They spent most of their time on the snowy island, where nothing had to do, and there was no one on the island except for the dozens of Spanish and English captives, and they were accompanied only by sea lions and seals. Seeing that this group of Charuas was still safely guarding this small camp, Xiao Bailang and the others were also very happy, which meant that the Spaniards had not discovered this place yet.

The Spaniards and the English in the island's prisons have welcomed new companions. They were joined by 42 sailors from the former Spanish Navy battleship Red Trout, bringing the number of prisoners of war in the island's prison to 83. In the months since Xiao Bailang's fleet left, the Charuya people on the island took these prisoners to build a number of new houses using the mountains of building materials in the warehouse, which gave the place that had looked a little desolate to life for the first time.

The sailors sorted some of the ship's supplies into the island's warehouses: more than 1,000 otters, seals, sea lions, foxes, vicuña pelts; 300 wool blankets; 15 tons of copper and 10 tons of lead; 500 barrels of gunpowder, lead bullets, and a number of shells. In addition to these, one of the great takeaways from the trip to Chile was the collection of a large number of plant seeds. Agricultural conditions in Chile are not bad, and the Spaniards have spared no effort in exploitation. The travelers collected seeds or rhizomes from local Spanish farmers, such as pepper, tomatoes, corn, sweet potatoes, peanuts, pumpkins, cotton, flax, etc.

Of course, the most significant thing for the crossing were the several cinchona saplings that they had obtained from the Indians of the Andes that grew deep in the mountains. In this day and age, no one knows the importance of this miraculous tree better than the Travelers. The local Indians only know that the bark of this tree has a "fever-reducing" effect after being ground into powder, but it is different in the eyes of the traversing public. At this time, there was no drug in the world that could effectively treat malaria, except for quinine, which was made from the milling bark of the cinchona tree. The next specific direction of the crossing is south of the Gérard Mountains, and later the region of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, where you would be joking with your life if you don't take quinine with you.

Therefore, Xiao Bailang instructed the sailors to carefully protect these saplings and put them aside. If it weren't for the fact that the climate of the Malvinas Islands was really not suitable for the growth of this kind of tree, Xiao Bailang almost wanted to plant these trees immediately. Of course, the seeds of other plants are also important, and the sailors have taken care to keep them for later years to take back to Uruguay for planting.

In addition to the seeds of these treasures, there are 2 pigs, 6 cows, 8 horses, 9 vicuñas, and more than 40 sheep on hand. Anyway, the island is full of dense meadows, and there is no shortage of food for these livestock.

After everything was arranged, Xiao Bailang sat down with Wang Tiezhu, Lu Ming, Xie Hansan, Yu Lian and others to discuss the next actions. Because I don't know what happened to the hometown of Lu Dao, the whole fleet didn't dare to drive back so rashly, in case of encountering the main fleet of the Spaniards on the way, causing any damage to everyone, it would really be nowhere to cry out.

Regarding whether they could block the attack of the Spaniards in the land battle, Xiao Bailang and the others were not worried. They believed that with the dilemma of the Spaniards coming across the sea and lacking equipment and materials, as long as they crossed the city and held the city, the Spanish army could be consumed to death. Discussion came and went, and finally decided that Wang Tiezhu drove Yunsheng No. 1 back to observe. Yunsheng No. 1 has fast speed and strong firepower, even if it encounters the main Spanish fleet, it is not afraid, and at present, Yunsheng No. 1 still has more than 100 tons of fuel oil, and it is not a problem to drive a few back and forth from here to Uruguay.

After the plan came to a halt, on August 8, the Yunsheng One, loaded with a platoon of army soldiers, sailed out of Sullivan Bay in a thin morning fog, then turned north and disappeared into the vast South Atlantic.

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