Xu Xin, the new foreign minister, sat in a lavishly decorated office.

The sky outside was a little cloudy, it seemed to be raining heavily, he felt a little stuffy in the office, he turned around and opened the wooden window decorated with transparent glass, a fresh air blowing from the lake in the north suddenly made his mind a little groggy and his spirit was lifted, and some depressed mood suddenly brightened a lot.

The Spanish baron, who had just returned to the State Guesthouse with an inexplicable but self-conscious feel, had made his office a little clearer. What the hell is that guy talking about? He demanded that the people of the East Coast immediately stop the persecution of Catholics, immediately stop the reclamation operations suspected of crossing the border, and send the Archbishop of the East Coast, Pedro, to Lima for a religious trial.

What is this? The first two are okay, but the third asks for the archbishop appointed by the people of the East to be sent to Lima to die, how is this possible! If the Executive Committee really does this, not only will its prestige in the country be greatly damaged, but it will also be a matter of minutes for the military headquarters to rise up and rebel.

As for stopping the persecution of Catholics, the meaning is greater, depending on how you interpret it and who has the right to interpret it. If, according to the Spaniards, the people of the East Coast refused to enter missionary groups such as the Society of Jesus and St. Franciscan, this in itself was a kind of "religious persecution". As for the massacre of religious natives, it seemed to the Spaniards that they were properly persecuted. Although they slaughtered the indigenous people who believed in religion but rebelled against them in Chile, Chalcas and other places, they played with double standards and didn't care what others said about themselves. They will only blame others for not being the same.

Finally, there is the cessation of cross-border reclamation, which is even more head-scratching. Although at present, except for the hilly areas west of Yazi Lake in the north, which did cross the border to build the Fort of Grass Ridge, the newly established Canyon Fort and Ningjin Fort in the Yihe area in the south are all within the scope of legal territory. Of course, there is no doubt that the iron mining area of Changshanbao has crossed the border, but this is an area that the people of the east coast will never give up.

The southern boundary stipulated in the "Peace Treaty of Luocha" signed between the people on the east coast and the Spaniards was that "the farthest west should not cross the West Ridge (Great Kuchilia Mountains)", but Changshan Fort was obviously already on the edge of the western half of the West Ridge, and it could even be said that it had already crossed the range of the West Ridge. At this time, the Baron Bravo also grasped this point and demanded that the people on the east coast immediately stop the cross-border reclamation behavior that "harms the interests of the Spanish Kingdom", dismantle the facilities that have been built, and compensate the Spanish Kingdom for its losses.

This is a bunch of nonsense! At that time, after hearing Baron Bravo say this. Xu Xin even stood up and slapped the table directly regardless of diplomatic etiquette. The Changshan Iron Mine is so important to the people of the East Coast. How can it be said that it will be demolished! To put it mildly, people on the east coast can lose the capital Dongfang Port, which has little practical significance, and they are not willing to lose the Changshan iron mine, which is the lifeblood of the country. Are Spaniards brain-dead? Why did you send such a guy to the East Coast? Are they so confident that the Easterners will be able to succumb to their threat? Aren't they worried about Buenos Aires and Asunción anymore? Hmph, what a madness! With their three or five hundred soldiers in La Plata and Paraguay, they wanted to hold back the people on the east coast. Dream!

But we really had to find out what the Peruvian governor and even the Spaniards really thought. This "stunned young man" in his thirties is completely unsuitable for communication. He is sensitive and self-respecting. Arrogant and irritable, it is difficult to communicate with him. It is extremely unrealistic to ask the people on the east coast to give up the Changshan iron ore mine, and it is also very unrealistic to ask the people on the east coast to give up the behavior of crossing the border to reclaim land. Because in the planning of the Executive Committee and the Government Council. A series of settlements will be built from Fort Canyon to the north, extending to Merlot, and then west across the Black River (Negro) to the vicinity of what would become the Corrales mining area. This place is extremely rich in minerals, including iron ore, manganese ore, and of course, the most famous gold mine in the Corrales mining area. The mine was mined for 60 years and was once exhausted, but in the 21st century new gold fields were discovered in the vicinity, producing several tons of gold per year.

However, at this stage, it is clear that the people of the East Coast do not intend to mine the gold here, it is purely an act of seeking death, and even they plan to never let people discover the secrets here. Compared with the gold mines, which are of little use to industry but are prone to causing trouble, the Government Council is more interested in the manganese ore and iron ore resources here, especially manganese ore. With the development of the East Coast industry, the demand for manganese and chromium, two extremely important non-ferrous metals, is becoming more and more urgent. Especially in today's steam engine and various machinery, the lack of high-quality high-strength manganese steel has severely restricted the further development of the East Coast industry.

For example, with higher strength manganese steel, the cutting speed of the machine tool can be greatly improved, and the wear resistance and accuracy of the processed parts will be improved a lot, which is of great significance, because it means that the quality of the East Coast parts is better, the reliability is higher, and the precision is higher. In addition, with this alloy metal with high hardness and strong flexibility, the steam engine of the East Coast people can also break through the bottleneck and achieve further development. In this case, they no longer need to make the boiler and cylinder large in order to obtain higher power, because they have better materials, and the output of the steam engine in the same volume is not much stronger.

After the breakthrough of the steam engine, the steam locomotive that is currently being developed by the East Coast people can be more perfect. They will be able to use a new, more advanced and thrust steam engine, and some of the parts will be more wear-resistant and more accurate than before, a steam locomotive that would be unmatched by the crude locomotives that Stephenson would have built.

It can be seen that the smelting of non-ferrous metals is an urgent matter for the industrial development of the East Bank Republic today, so the Executive Committee made a decision to expand to the inland Heihe area, and at the same time instructed the Government Council to arrange the new settlement there, so as to build it into another important industrial town on the East Bank in the future - special steel and machining center.

How is it possible that in such a situation, you get the people of the East Coast to give up their coveting of that land! Xu Xin walked around the office, Spain is now mired in the Thirty Years' War, especially after the defeat of the Battle of Rocroix, the French army has been advancing all the way, Austria has lost its armor and collapsed, you Habsburgs have fallen into this predicament, you still have time to take care of the affairs of the New World, it is really a brain disease! Uruguay and the Duck Lake area are simply barren land for you, and there is no colony other than the mission area, and you don't allow me to come if you occupy the pit and don't?

However, after thinking about it for a long time, Xu Xin felt that most of the Spanish kingdom would not be so unwise, even if their idiot king did not understand the actual situation of the New World, could it be that the bureaucrats of the Viceroyalty of Peru did not understand either? It is understandable that these bureaucrats have taken the wrong medicine one by two, but they will not collectively take the wrong medicine to break with the East Coasters, after all, their defenses in La Plata and the rich Paraguay region are too weak. The war with the people on the east coast had just been over for more than ten years, and they would not have done such a terrible thing if they had forced the people of the east coast to directly occupy Paraguay and then enter Potosí in Chalcas, and see how these bureaucrats would explain to the king.

Therefore, after thinking about it, Xu Xin felt that most of the Baron Bravo in front of him felt too good about himself, or his personal feelings were too strong, which made things look scary. Maybe the bureaucrats in the Viceroyalty of Peru didn't want to make things so nervous, they just sent the wrong person? Well, anyway, it's better to find out what they really think first. Well, I'll take this to the Executive Committee later, and then it's better to send a message to Peru through Guò La Plata to see what the real situation is? As for this Baron Bravo, who is as proud as a big rooster, I will send someone to keep an eye on him first, and at the same time let him run around and perfunctory by the way, until we have clarified the situation.

As for before that, the policy is expected to have to be fine-tuned. It's better to pause the operation of clearing up the natives in the Yihe area, anyway, there are few natives there, and now it is estimated that there are not a few left, so give the Spaniards a face. The Guarani natives in the hills of the Duck Lake basin in the north are the main targets, and there are at least tens of thousands of people living in those vast hills, which is absolutely beyond the reach of the eastern republic, and they must be expelled, exterminated or exiled, and try not to leave the trouble to future generations.

In the afternoon, the Executive Committee had a detailed discussion of the incident, and finally agreed to get in touch with the Peruvian side through some of the channels of Guò de la Plata, and to establish a communication channel to exchange information and learn the true intentions and attitudes of the other party. This matter is not big or small, and in the absence of any major improvement in relations between the people on the East Coast and the Netherlands, it is better not to provoke another powerful enemy. Of course, this does not mean that the people on the east coast are afraid of the Spaniards, after all, Spain's weakness is also exposed to the knife of the people on the east coast, as long as the people on the east coast are willing and ready to make a comeback, the fall of Buenos Aires and Asunción is a high probability event. But the problem is that the two sides did not have to come to this point, the two sides have a common enemy, the Netherlands, and it is better to downplay this kind of contradiction and conflict between each other, and it will only make the Dutch snicker secretly when they meet each other. (To be continued......)