On October 10, 1646, when the 3,000 men of Chang Kaisheng's detachment were already distraught by the monotonous and boring scenery on both sides of the Paraná River, the cavalry units at the forefront fired warning shots. Chang Kaisheng, who was riding on a tall horse, was startled at first, and then sent a herald to inquire about the news.

The news soon came back, and the cavalry unit that had been the vanguard had spotted some gauchos. The gauchos, who seemed to have been hired by the Spaniards, swung around the wilderness with scimitars, and dispersed again as the East Bank cavalry came to drive them out. But it won't be long before they quietly return again. This time, the East Coast cavalry set up a trap and killed two gauchos with a salvo of rifles, and the gang stopped.

After hearing the news, Chang Kaisheng understood that this place must be close to Santa Fe City. Although the towns of Santa Fe and Corrientes are listed on the map along the Paraná River by the people of the East Bank, no traveler from the East Bank has ever visited this closed land due to the de facto closure of the Paraná River basin. They only knew the words of the Spanish sailors who came and went through guò, and they knew that there was such a city, and they knew the approximate location, but they had to look for it along the river. And by now, they should have approached the city.

After ordering the cavalry to expand the reconnaissance area, Chang Kaisheng ordered the whole detachment of more than 3,000 people to speed up the march, and sent people to inform the fleet of boats walking on the Paraná River, so that they could pay attention to the surrounding situation. After giving the order, Chang Kaisheng thought about it and was still not at ease, so he sent 20 gun-wielding militiamen to each ship, and then he was a little relieved. After all, the baggage and supplies of the whole army are on the ship. No sloppiness.

At present, this section of the Paraná River basin is crisscrossed by rivers. Woods, reeds everywhere. Moreover, because of the existence of the shallow swamp area, the fleet was also separated from the main force by a certain distance, so Chang Kaisheng was very worried about their safety. Fortunately, the road was quite peaceful, and the Spaniards did not know whether they were too late to react, or if there were no decent surface ships at all, and in short, the river flotilla transporting supplies was not attacked by any enemy. But this is not a reason for Chang Kaisheng to relax his vigilance, after all, be careful to sail the ship of ten thousand years.

When the troops marched here, everyone became mud monkeys one by one. It's full of swampy mud fields. An unexplored landscape. Many of the clothes and shoes were completely soaked, even the cavalrymen, who often had to lead their horses through some swampy areas, and the men and horses were very tired. If it weren't for the accurate information sent back by the brothers of the 1st Cavalry Company who fought at the front station, Chang Kaisheng would have even doubted whether there were Zài Spanish towns in this land full of wild atmosphere.

Sure enough, the Paraguay region and the Argentine region in the future are two worlds at this time! Paraguay is densely populated, rich in products, and has a relatively developed economy, while Argentina is a completely poor place. During the hundreds of kilometers from Buenos Aires to Santa Fe, people on the East Coast encountered only a handful of Jesuit missions. There were very few white peasants in these missions, less than two hundred combined, and they employed a few gauchos. At the same time, a large number of Indians were enslaved, and they farmed and grazed the land in the area. Life is also quite passable.

Such a sparse population and wild land were an eye-opener for soldiers from the East Coast. They always thought that their land was already vast and sparsely populated, but they didn't expect that neighboring La Plata was even more sparsely populated. You know, in the last decade or so, the Spaniards have been heavily immigrating to the La Plata area because of the threat from the east coast, which has made the area a little more popular. If it had not been for more than a decade of continuous immigration, it is conceivable that the people of the East Coast might not have encountered even these missions on the road.

For these Spanish villages, which might threaten the rear of the people on the east coast, Chang Kaisheng did not have a good face for them, and there was a lot of food and livestock that should be levied, and all weapons were collected. As for the Crendi Indian slaves, of course, they were all released. Seeing the stunned and then grateful expressions of the released Indians, Chang Kaisheng, who was greatly satisfied, decided to give them some weapons for "self-defense". Well, they were all swords, spears, arquebuses, and so on from the Spaniards, and I hope that the Spanish peasants and gauchos will have a good time after the departure of the East Coast army.

On 12 October, after two days of trekking through muddy water, swamps, and meadows, the troops on the east bank finally saw a port city standing on the right bank of the Paraná River in the distance. Undoubtedly, it was Santa Fe, the outer port of Asunción City's trade. Any goods shipped from the western colonies would gather in the port of Santa Fe and then either trade north with the Paraguayan region, or be transported by water to the port of Buenos Aires along with goods exported from the Paraguayan region, and then transported by sea ship back to mainland Spain in the Old Continent.

Therefore, as an important intermediate trade node, the population of Santa Fe should still be quite large. According to the comprehensive analysis and estimation of the military department, the population of Santa Fe should be about two or three thousand, of which one-third are white, and the rest are mixed-race gauchos. As for the number of Indian slaves, it is difficult to estimate, and it is estimated that it is several times to more than ten times that of whites.

Of course, these figures do not include the largest Spanish military force in the La Plata region, the La Plata Infantry Regiment. The people on the east coast of this infantry regiment have figured out that its strength is about six hundred men, most of them musketeers, and a few cuirassiers spearmen. As for the equipment of the musketeers, half of them were already equipped with flintlock pistols thanks to the generous patronage of the wealthy Paraguayan region, while the other half still wielded old-fashioned arquebuses. Their regimental leader's name was Anthony. Carlos, a captain or major in the Spanish Army, studied modern military theory in the Spanish system.

It is worth noting that the Spanish resistance in Santa Fe may have been much larger than the Infantry Regiment de La Plata, and in addition to about a hundred local defenders, it is likely that they also had a large number of Guarani from various missions in the upper Paraná River. But it is gratifying to note that these Guarani people are poorly equipped, not only are there very few muskets, but also not much armor, bows and arrows, etc., most of them are supposed to be spearmen, and their training time is limited, and their combat skills are often poor. But they are a nuisance after all, and deserve the East Coast Army's caution.

On October 12th and 13th, the people on the east bank frantically excavated fortifications and built temporary wharves and temporary camps. Although everyone was tired to death, the militia brothers who were responsible for logistics could not take turns to rest like the regular army. They had to unload supplies, build camps and temporary docks, dig trenches, erect barbed wire, assist the artillery in digging fortifications, and so on.

And the Spaniards, naturally, did not watch the East Coast complete this qiē in these two days. They sent a large number of Guarani to make a tentative assault on the unfinished camp of the East Bankers, but they were repelled by their prepared army brethren with heavy volleys of guns and artillery. They did nothing to stop them, but instead abandoned dozens of corpses in the grass in vain.

After the failure of the daytime attack, the Spaniards did not give up, and they sent more Guarani to storm the camp on the east bank at night. However, they returned in front of three barbed wires, and with their poor equipment and combat skills, they could not break the well-fortified positions of the East Coast people with only their enthusiasm and religious fanaticism, but instead lost more manpower, and even their own morale was severely damaged.

According to Pravda correspondent Le Ta Yen, who accompanied the army, on October 13 the East Bank Army dumped no less than 300 corpses, all of them Guaraní, into Paraná Hanoi. The corpses will float down the river, and it is not known how the Spaniards downstream will be frightened when they see it.

On the morning of 14 October, the camp of the East Coast was rudily completed. They used the timber brought with them to set up a small temporary pier at the confluence of the Paraná and Salado rivers and moored the fleet there. At the same time, four shallow gunboats on the "Amur River" with a draft of only 0.8 meters also began to patrol the vicinity, and from time to time shelled any Spanish facilities they encountered on the shore, killing and wounding the Spaniards who were caught off guard, and the Indian slaves on the docks of Port Santa Fe were scattered. And by the time the Spaniards finally brought in artillery to defend the docks, the gunboats of the people on the east coast had already drifted away.

At the confluence of the Paraná and Salado rivers, which are crisscrossed by rivers and shallow lakes, there are so many places that river steam gunboats with very shallow drafts can go, and dozens of Spanish farms, lighthouses, docks, warehouses, and even lumber yards and fish ponds have been ravaged by the eight-pounder guns of the gunboats. Years of colonization efforts by the Spaniards were reduced to ruins, and the losses were devastating. In the future, it will take a lot of money and years to restore many of the facilities here.

On October 15, after another day of friction, early in the morning, the East Coast Army almost moved out to line up south of Santa Fe. Santa Fe, like Buenos Aires, is mostly a mix of brick and wood, with the exception of a few important buildings that are stone, and there are no decent walls, if wooden fences count. For such a city, there is no reason why the army on the east coast, supported by many artillery, cannot be attacked.

Seeing two or three thousand soldiers lined up outside the city on the east bank, complete with infantry and artillery, and four extremely fast and agile gunboats on the river, the Spanish infantry regiment of La Plata did not dare to meet it face after all. They decided to rely on the houses in the city to defend and wait for the army on the east coast to attack. (To be continued......)