This is the first time Jiang Ning has come to the mountainous and humid region of southern Chile.

As the battalion commander of the 12th Mixed Battalion of the Army, Major Jiang Ning has a place in the army's east coast army system. After all, there are only 12 mixed battalions in the army, and each battalion is very eye-catching, and its battalion commander is naturally the focus of attention.

Major Jiang Ning, who is now almost 40 years old, has worked in the Bac Ninh area for many years, partnered with Lu Xiaofeng, started as the head of the township armed forces, and finally transferred to other posts in the position of commander of the regional garrison. Now, Major Jiang Ning, who is the commander of the 12th Mixed Battalion, actually understands that it may be difficult for him to go further, after all, there are so many radish pits in the War Department, and a bunch of people are staring at it, and he has no advantage, so it is better not to make plans as soon as possible.

As for finding another way to serve in the military department, it is even more difficult! You must know that with the prosperity of overseas trade and the increasing development of colonies, the naval forces now have more and more say in the Joint Staff Headquarters, and a large number of positions are occupied by naval officers. Major Jiang Ning is also a high-ranking member of the army, and he is not unaware of this situation, so he has long since put out his desire to make progress, unless the state allows the army to be further expanded, but how difficult it is.

Now Major Jiang Ning's greatest goal—or interest—has shifted to practicing his life goals, fighting hostile forces, clearing up natives, and expanding his territory for the east coast. The last time when the Spaniards were about to make trouble at Silver Harbor, it was he who led the 12th Mixed Battalion to land, and then dealt with it decisively and eliminated a disaster. Since then, the ministry has been conducting training on the Pampa Plain, and by the way, it has cleaned up all kinds of local opposition forces on the surface or potential, so as to escort the overall development of the country's fertile land.

And since it is an escort, it will naturally not be limited to one place. If you get the Pampa plain, then you have to go to places like the Brazilian Altiplano, the Chilean Valley, etc. No, after Zhao Ke, the commissioner of the southern Chile region, sent someone to report to the executive committee to request reinforcements, the ministry boarded the whole team from Niuzhuang Port, both ships and trains, all the way to Liucheng Port, and then quickly went north to the territory of Boling County, which was almost the end of December, which can be described as fast.

Today is the beginning of January 1683, and the headquarters of the 12th Mixed Battalion, which has been resting in Boling County for several days, has begun to pack up and head north into the area north of the Jiehe River. In the past two months, the competition between the Spanish and the people on the east coast for the line from Valdivia to Villarica has become more and more fierce, and even a skirmish has broken out, a village has been raided by Spanish cavalry, more than 20 people have been wounded, cattle and sheep have been looted, houses have been burned, fields have been destroyed, and this year's harvest has basically gone yellow.

Subsequently, the East Coasters also organized a counterattack, organized more than 300 militiamen, hijacked a Spanish convoy on the road from Villarrica to Valdivia, and pulled about a dozen truckloads of mercury ore into the Red Flag Prison. This operation, they have been planning for a long time, and they achieved their goal without killing anyone, which can be described as clean and neat.

After that, the two sides fell into silence, as if everyone knew that the other party was not easy to mess with, and did not dare to exacerbate the contradiction too much. The East Coast side naturally can't hope that the incident will be calmed down, and the destroyed villages can be rebuilt, but if the Spaniards do their best, it is difficult to say whether the Red Flag Prison of the East Coast can exist, so it is best to stop here. As for the Spaniards, their natural fear of the East Coast has always been at work, and many old people in Corral and Valdivia have not forgotten how the East Coast Army landed in Chile and slaughtered all sides, Valdivia was broken back then! Therefore, not only did they not dare to be ruthless in the conflict with the East Coasters, causing casualties, but at the same time, after the East Coasters had shown their determination to counteract, they suddenly shrank back like frightened little beasts and carefully observed the situation in front of them.

Even the slippery Valdivian colonial officials had already begun to shake the blame, sending messengers to Lima to report on the situation, on the pretext that the situation was out of their control. They were not authorized to wage war with the East Coasters, so they had to suspend all operations for the time being and wait for a reply from the Lima side - the bureaucracy's instinct to seek advantage and avoid harm was indeed very tenacious, and it was enough to be forced to offend the East Bankers, but now they did not want to continue to exacerbate the conflict.

It was against this backdrop that the 12th Mixed Battalion arrived in southern Chile and immediately became the center of attention – there were many Spanish remnants in the three counties of Boling, and Valdivia had no shortage of sources of information – especially today when the ministry had clearly headed north.

"Come on, come on, eat more oil cakes, and drink milk tea openly. I went to the north of the Boundary River, and the conditions were more difficult, so I couldn't see these things very often. The logistics staff officer brought a table and beckoned all the colleagues from the battalion headquarters to sit down for dinner.

At this time, the group was on the south bank of the Jiehe River, and most of them were resting and having lunch by the wooden bridge leading to the north bank. The temperature in southern Chile was not very high, and it was a cloudy day today, so everyone put this foldable table outside in the open air, and let the orderly bring the food, and use it directly.

Zhao Ke, commissioner of the Southern Chile Regional Administration, was also invited to dine together. He had just sent some supplies to the labor army with the officials of Boling County, so he sat down and had a good chat with Jiang Ning and the others by the way, after all, for a long time to come, the security work in the five exiled prisoner settlements north of the Jiehe River would depend entirely on others, and he could finally disband the militia that had been guarding outside for a long time and release it back to the counties.

"This is a famous Chilean dish, the deer house mixed with sauce, it is very delicious, Camp Chief Jiang should try it well." Zhao Ke pushed a plate of raw deer tongue in front of Jiang Ning, and said with a smile: "This deer is very common in Chile, it is not big, but the taste is very delicious, especially this deer tongue, if it is eaten raw with sauce, there are many advantages, Camp Chief Jiang might as well try it." ”

When Jiang Ning heard this, he immediately picked up a piece with chopsticks with great interest, and praised it while chewing and eating: "It's smooth but not greasy, it's really delicious." In the past, when we were chasing down the Tverche in the Patagonian plateau, we once made a breakthrough too far, lost our way, and lost all our baggage, so that my cavalry brothers and I of two platoons ate pika dried meat for a whole week. It's going to be mixed with some sauce, and it's far worse than that. ”

"Hehe, if Camp Chief Jiang likes it, you might as well stay in our Chile for a while longer, and I will ask the county chef to make some every week and send them over." Zhao Ke laughed when he heard it, and immediately hit the snake and said on the stick, with a hint of temptation in his words.

"Commissioner Zhao, don't be tempted." Jiang Ning said with a wry smile: "It's not up to you and me to decide whether or not to stay in our department. If my superiors tell me to come, we will come, let us go, I have to go, there is no ambiguity about this. The instructions given to us by the War Department were quite clear, that is, to deter the local Spanish colonial forces from interfering with our colonial activities north of the Boundary River. As for when the deterrence will be, this is not said, only waiting for the order of the superiors. ”

"Understand, understand." Zhao Ke himself took a piece of deer tongue and said while eating: "The order from above is indeed the most important. It's just that I can't understand that there are many scattered silver mines on the line from Valdivia to Villarica, and the center is really not moved at all? ”

Hearing Zhao Ke say this, Jiang Ning was also silent, and said after a long time: "The matter of the silver mine is more sensitive, if we move, the negative impact will be very great." To be honest, the Spaniards have been with us over the years, and have gradually figured out our routines and know what we are really interested in, and that is the land in the Southern New World. Of course, they are very annoyed that we are constantly encroaching on and encroaching on their lands, but to be honest, is this annoyance really the same annoyance as we usually understand it? Not really. I have heard from some of my friends in the General Intelligence Directorate that the Kingdom of Spain now has a deep tacit understanding with our country, and that they have adapted well to the change of role, and no longer to fight against us, but to be a partner with whom they can solve all sorts of problems, such as finances, security, and other matters. And some of the lands that we have occupied that originally belonged to the Kingdom of Spain, such as the Transoxian, Southern Chile, and parts of the Pampa Plain, are in fact paid to us by them. And they ask themselves if they can afford this kind of payment if they control the rhythm well, so they tolerate our various small actions step by step, all kinds of small infiltrations and so on. Otherwise, do you think we would be able to get so much land so easily? Impossible, at least not so easily. ”

"So—" Zhao Ke listened intently.

"So there was a tacit understanding between the Princes of the Executive Committee and the Kingdom of Spain. That is, we regard much of the land in the Southern New World as a temporary deposit with the Spaniards for their own belongings, which can be retrieved at any time, and that the Kingdom of Spain is only a temporary custodian, when we do not have enough energy to keep it. Major Jiang Ning put down his chopsticks, took a sip of beer, and said: "And the money we have paid to the Spaniards for the purchase of land has been for the sake of people's good looks, and secondly, it is also to support the various actions of the Kingdom of Spain in Europe, which can be regarded as interfering in the situation on the European continent in disguise." Therefore, petty fights are allowed and within the rules of the game, and the Spaniards have long since lost the confidence to keep many lands, including La Plata, in perpetuity, and the reason why they are holding on is only to make the game last longer. But this time, the matter of Hongqi Prison is obviously a little different, because it involves gold, silver, copper and mercury, and touches the bottom line of the Spaniards, so there is a fierce backlash from them this time. Tearing down and burning down our colonial villages, robbing us of our belongings, and destroying our fields have not been unheard of in the past, but they have always been rare. Especially since this tug-of-war between the two sides has been going on for months, and it wasn't until you fought back hard that the Spaniards stopped. But I judge that this pause is only temporary, and after more clear instructions from Lima, the Spaniards in Valdivia and other places are expected to be mobilized to make trouble for us, so this time they are probably moving in earnest. ”

"I also felt that something was wrong this time. In fact, when I crossed the border to settle in the Hejian area, the Spaniards were actually very reluctant, and once sent cavalry to invade the village, but they were beaten away by our people. But it's really rare to see things like this one that have been going back and forth for months. What's more, the current background is that the Spaniards' attitude towards us is getting softer and softer, and they have the courage to toss for so long, which should make them feel threatened. Alas, it is estimated that it is the matter of those mines, and they are really concerned about these things, and it seems that they really don't care much about the land or something, and they want silver. ”

"That's for sure, without the gold and silver of the Americas, they wouldn't be able to sustain themselves in the Old World." Jiang Ning said affirmatively: "Actually, this time the boss sent our battalion over, it is not without the meaning of temptation, that is, to see where the bottom line of the Spaniards is." That is, once we do threaten some of the silver mines here of the Spaniards, albeit small, how will they react, will they resist resolutely? I think that if the Spaniards can give up even these small silver mines, then their bottom line is really low, or there is no bottom line at all, then we can speed up some actions, and we don't have to pay too much attention to their thoughts or take care of their feelings, and everything is according to our own set plan. ”

"It turns out that there are so many twists and turns in it." Zhao Ke immediately laughed after hearing this, and only heard him say: "This is actually equivalent to a strategic test of the Spaniards to see if they can pass or not." If they do finally back down, then it will prove that they are not unavoidable to give up the less core land of the Viceroyalty of Peru, then not only the Governors of Peru, but even I will know what to do, hehe. The Spaniards don't want this part of the central valley of Chile, so you're welcome. ”

Jiang Ning also smiled when he saw this. His 12th Mixed Battalion will be able to cross the river almost today, and then he will lead his troops to the area of Hongqi Prison first, collect information, observe the situation, and then directly break into the area of the later Lanke Town, set up a fortress, and see how the Spaniards will react.