Álvarez Rodríguez returned to Buenos Aires, accompanied by his son José.

A meeting was held in the Pampa Plains, and they were forced to subscribe for more than 10,000 yuan in shares, and at the same time, they were also implied to donate some grain, cured meat, and forage to the American Railroad Company to relieve them of the pressure of purchasing supplies. These things all made Rodriguez extremely upset, and the East Coast people called them over to make apportionments, which was really depressing.

In addition, protests against the attacks of the "horse bandits" on the east coast also ended in vain. The vice president of the American Railroad simply dismissed the matter as not part of his business and asked him to report to the relevant departments through formal diplomatic channels. Of course, it is difficult to satisfy Rodriguez with such an answer, but there is nothing he can do, the railway company really doesn't care about this matter, and it is useless to say it. And through the so-called formal channels? Then it was even more ineffective, neither General de La Plata nor the ambassador to the East Bank could achieve any positive results. The vast bureaucratic apparatus on the East Coast did not seem to react to their complaints, or even if they did, it would not have been the result they had hoped for – Alvarez still remembers that when tens of thousands of East Coast settlers had already arrived on the Pampa Plains, the East Coast government sent a team of investigators to investigate because of the Spanish protests, and came to the absurd conclusion that there were only "a hundred" settlers engaged in agriculture in the Pampa Plains.

If you really want to talk about these things, you still have to blame yourself for your lack of strength! The people of the East Coast are extremely realistic people, and they attach great importance to strength. You don't have the strength, and he will definitely not take you seriously. When did they respect the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Spain? As a result, Alvarez has now resigned himself to his fate, and this matter, like most previous protests, has slowly disappeared in the endless prevarication and ridicule of the East Coast, and no one has paid attention to it again.

However, the matter of the "horse bandits" on the east coast can be ignored for the time being, but what is the destruction they caused and what is their purpose? Alvarez had spoken to some of the manor owners who had suffered losses some time ago, and felt that it was likely that things were not so simple, because the attack was much more powerful and timeless than before, and seemed to be more than a simple act of revenge, but also mixed with some other factors. As for what the other factors were, Alvarez had a vague idea, but he didn't dare to confirm it yet, because it was too appalling and too nonsensical, that is, the East Coasters wanted to drive them out of Buenos Aires!

It's not impossible! It's no secret how rich and crucial Buenos Aires is and how desperate the people of the East Coast want to know about the city, especially when the railroad has been built to the outskirts of the pearl of La Plata.

But there were many obstacles that stood in front of the people of the East Coast, the biggest of which was undoubtedly the importance of Putrajaya and the many Spanish farmers, herdsmen, soldiers, merchants, clergy and others who lived there. Without these men and their families gone, the encroachment of the East Coasters on the city would never succeed unless they obtained the rightful possession of the city through political means, which seemed impossible at the moment.

So they used this kind of indiscriminate means? Alvarez was a little unsure, but felt that it was more likely. But then again, this speculation is not enough to convince the president of the Buenos Aires Inquisition Court and the top dignitaries such as General de la Plata to take drastic measures. Putrajaya's upper echelons were rotten for a long time, lacking enough courage in the face of the East Coasters and being imposing when it came to extorting merchants. If it weren't for some particularly conclusive evidence, the old men would have continued to pretend to be deaf and dumb until their term was exhausted, and there was no other possibility, and Alvarez knew those people too well.

Should the pagans of the East Coast continue to wreak havoc on the vast plains of Pampa? Looking at his son José's wrinkled face because of his long involvement in family affairs, remembering his grandson Pedro's attachment to the savannah, and then remembering his grandfather Manuel and father Álvaro's hard work to run the family business, Alvarez was sad. He felt that he had to do something, but he let go of these plans because the risk was too great. It is unforgivable that the Rodriguez family's business for generations cannot be ruined by his personal likes and dislikes.

Thinking of this, Alvarez had a little headache: this time he had agreed to subscribe for almost 15,000 silver pesos of shares in the salt cloth railway from the people on the east coast, how could this convince other old fellows to subscribe for investment is really a troublesome matter? You know, there are quite a few people whose property has been damaged by this mad dog-like attack by the "horse bandits" on the east coast. It's a very challenging thing to get them to pay for when they've just been stimulated, and Alvarez isn't sure he'll be able to accomplish such a feat! No, in the end, the Rodriguez family still has to find a way to contribute some of their own money to make up for the shortfall.

Why is it so hard? Álvarez let out a long sigh, then clenched the cross hanging from his chest and meditated before returning to his villa, accompanied by his son José. He planned to rest for two days to calm down, after all, he was not too young, and he was no longer the young man who had smuggled goods back to La Plata from the east coast with his grandfather and father. After the break, he planned to visit the leading figures in the city to exchange views with them about the current situation, and then he would visit his old friends one by one to see how the matter of subscribing for shares should be resolved.

The spring breeze is blowing and the greenery is abundant.

On the third-class national highway temporarily built for the construction of a railway outside Xinying Township, a long team of horses had just finished replenishing water and was heading north. They were men and horses of the Yanbu Railway Garrison Command, commanded by Major Inigo, the deputy commander, and their destination was the port of Nancun in the north, where they would join up with a company of tax police commanded by Cai Dao, and at the same time receive some weapons and ammunition, and also replenish the fifty recruits who had been allocated from above.

Today is October 25, 1684, and they have been active in the northern part of the Pampa Plain for almost a month. There are still about 50 of the more than 70 soldiers of the garrison under his command, all of whom are heroic and extremely powerful, and at first glance they are a group of ferocious people who are accustomed to it. From this point of view, Alvarez calls them "horse bandits", which is not nonsense, because they do look alike.

Inigo's men had just been chased by a Spanish cavalry force, so they were able to shake off the enemy and enter the new camp to resupply. The head of the township of this settlement knew that it was very powerful, and arranged food and lodging for them as soon as possible, and at the same time summoned the few medical personnel to treat the wounded soldiers, not to mention how attentive they were.

Dozens of meters away, the townspeople of the town of Franco, Kingdom of Spain, watched the "triumphant" return of this team with complicated faces. As the southernmost colonial town of the Kingdom of Spain on the Pampa Plain, Franco is not ignorant of what has happened in the steppes recently. Considering that they lived next to the East Coast Pioneers, this was even more complicated, and they were afraid that the murderous East Coast "horse bandits" would rush over here and then join forces with the East Coast Settlers next door to take the few hundred remaining colonists in Franco.

Fortunately, nothing like this happened in the end. The "horse bandits" on the east coast did come, but they only came to buy some supplies, and by the way, they sold the stolen goods on a small scale, and then they swaggered away, without even looking at their town. This kind of behavior made the town of Franco breathe a sigh of relief and at the same time wondered: Could it be that the legend that the people of the East Coast are interested in Buenos Aires is not just speculation, but a real fact? If you think about it, it's very shocking, if Buenos Aires is lost, then what is their lonely town of Franco?

The Spaniards didn't care what Inigo thought, he only knew that Colonel Guo Handong, who was said to be the Minister of War in the next government, praised him and personally sent him a message, encouraging him to work hard and work hard to expand the living space of the people of the Great East Coast. At the same time, the Qingyuan County Government of his hometown also recruited Inigo's two sons into the county middle school without examination, and the future is limitless. All of this makes Inigo's desire to make a contribution more intense and unstoppable. Driven by the trust, respect and reasonable incentives given by the people of the East Coast, this once down-and-out Spanish soldier and veteran with excellent swordsmanship worked hard to fight for the colonization cause of the Great East Coast.

The port of Nancun is the terminus of the Yanbu Railway and one of the most important outer ports in Buenos Aires, and has always been very prosperous for business. Since the establishment of the tax police battalion on the east coast, a company has been stationed here, and it has been used as a base to attack all kinds of smuggling activities that evade taxes. Now stationed here is the company led by Cai Dao, who had fought in the vicinity before, and they, together with the many commercial establishments on the east coast set up here, have encompassed almost the entire city and turned Nancun Port into the de facto territory of the people of the east coast.

Cai Dao was very clear about what Inigo and the others were doing on the Pampa Plain, so after Inigo's men arrived, he readily opened his arsenal, took out a large number of stockpiled weapons, ammunition and other military items, and handed them over to Inigo and others under the supervision of the representative of the War Department.

Inigo looked at those things and was very satisfied. The new rifled rifles will replace the old flintlock pistols they have on hand, and will be more comfortable against the Spaniards who are only armed with smoothbore flintlock pistols. You must know that the East Bank government's control over rifled guns is still relatively strict, and most of them are still equipped in the regular army system, and very few have flowed into the reserve forces. Inigo was able to receive a hundred rifles and a large amount of ammunition in one breath this time, which was really a blessing to the sky, and he was very satisfied!

Of course, Inigo was not so satisfied, that is, before leaving, Chen Jia, the vice president of Amtrak, who rushed to Nancun Port to discuss loans with bank officials, talked to him. With a bitter face, Mr. Chen asked Inigo if he could suspend the attack on the Spaniards and reduce the tension between the two sides, because Amtrak was recently trying to raise money from Spanish businessmen, and Inigo's doing so would probably hurt the interests of those businessmen, leading to the failure of the financing operation, which in turn affected the construction progress of the Yanbu Railway.

To be honest, Inigo was a little tired of Chen Jia's words. These civil affairs officials always feel that the army system is causing trouble for them and sabotaging their work, so they always have a very strong desire to "guide" them, and to a certain extent, they even want to set up a Ministry of National Defense and bring the army and navy under the jurisdiction of the Government Council. As a member of the Army, Iñigo has long been instilled with this concept by his colleagues, and naturally lacks a good impression of the white shirts, especially after the many demobilized cadres who flooded the railway department gradually lost power.

Because of this, his various persuasions to Chen Jia were only perfunctory, and he didn't take it to heart at all, and planned to rectify his subordinates as soon as possible as soon as he returned to his jurisdiction, and then give the Spaniards a big surprise. The pearl of Buenos Aires will be eclipsed sooner or later! Since the Spaniards had caused so much trouble to the people on the east coast in the construction of the railway, it was time to give them retribution.

Chen Jia saw Inigo's attitude and knew that he wouldn't listen to him, so in addition to being angry, he had nothing to say, so he could only smoke a cigarette depressedly, and began to think about where to get money. On second thought, the only way to convince the Treasury to raise funds is to add a temporary tax, and there seems to be no other way. But tax hikes have always been very sensitive. It's really hard to say whether the bosses of the Ministry of Finance are happy or not, so this matter has to be coordinated by a central boss of the Central Committee of the Iron General Committee to see if the resolution can be passed in the end.

"How can the military spending of the army and navy skyrocket so much at once? This is all at the cost of squeezing out the funds for national construction! Chen Jia said with a frown. Of course, he knew that the country's heavy investment in the army and navy must have some purpose, but as the so-called ass decided the head, because the military spending had skyrocketed, the construction of the railroad was unsustainable, which of course made him a railway official angry.

Moreover, this is only the construction of the army expansion in the early stage, and after the construction is completed in the future, the annual maintenance cost will also be a very staggering figure. Chen Jia can't figure out how much there is for a while, but it will always have to grow by five or six percent on the existing basis. And this is still a peacetime figure, once a war breaks out between the East Coast and other countries, even if the scale is not large, the cost will be lost, and then I am afraid that the construction of the entire country will have to be replanned, and the short-lived institution of the Planning and Production Management Committee will also be re-emerged, right?

"What is the idea of this country that has invested heavily in building up its army (mainly its navy)? And against whom? Portuguese? Spaniard? French? It's not very likely! It is a bit possible for the Dutch and the English, but with the current situation, there is no possibility of a deterioration in diplomatic relations in the short term. Is it to go on an expedition to the Mediterranean to help the Ottoman Empire's mud that can't help the wall? Impossible, right? Chen Jia was a little irritable, not knowing where the country would go in the future, and worried about the future of the Yanbu Railway, which a year ago was heavily subsidized by the government.