On August 26, 1650, after several days of rainy weather, the sun finally showed its face through the thick clouds and sprinkled the earth with golden light. The army on the east bank, which had been waiting in Laojunmiao Township to get moldy, finally got the order to set off, so more than 3,000 soldiers, accompanied by 1,500 people who had been temporarily recruited, used a large number of horses, mules and other pack animals to carry war materials and marched towards the "Yiling" in the north.

From Laojunmiao Township to the north to Yiling, the road along the way is not easy to walk. You see, this is not a flat steppe on the east coast, but a forested swampy area - there are even annoying crocodiles in the swamps - and in many places there are no roads at all, so they have to be temporarily opened. Especially after encountering some unavoidable wetlands and swamps, the army must cut down trees one by one and then lay them across the swamp so that the pack beasts carrying supplies can pass through the valley safely.

On the way, they came across a small Indian village, and the Guaraní people who settled in the village did not expect that the East Coasters, who had always been "passive", would take the initiative to attack this time and mobilize such a large army, which they did not expect. However, their reaction was also fierce, and an assistant judicial officer on the East Coast who came forward to declare them "guilty" was shot with a bow and arrow on the spot, which provoked the anger of Major Zhu Liang, who commanded the operation.

Seeing that he commanded his sword forward, a large group of cavalry on the east bank rushed into the small village of Guarani, which was about to flee in all directions. The soldiers brandished their sabers and cut down almost anyone on sight, the Guarani were caught off guard and had no time to organize an effective resistance, the women and children fled outside the village without caring for anything, and the men slowly retreated with weapons and stubbornly resisted. They fought like a pack of wounded beasts. But the balance of power is too great. Under the joint strangulation of cavalry and infantry musketeers on the east bank. They were soon dead and dead. The people on the east bank did not even have many men, and the main force remained silently in the open space outside the village, watching with indifference as a cavalry company and a small militia rushed into the village to extinguish the last resistance of the Guaraní.

The Guaraní resistance was stubborn, and one man, whose elbow was cut off by his sabre, pulled down the horse-mounted cavalry of the east bank, and then bit down on a piece of the soldier's flesh with his teeth, even when his eyes were gouging out; A Guaraní man was lying on the ground and pretending to be dead, badly wounded, as East Coast militia walked past him. With the last of his strength, he leaped to his feet, and threw his hands at the soldier's throat, which he soon had slit with a bayonet by his comrades beside him; Other Guarani pretended to surrender, but were wounded when the soldiers from the east coast approached, and of course they were soon killed by musket fire; Few Guarani adult men were still alive, for the people of the East could not believe that they had surrendered, and even though one or two cried and begged for forgiveness, they were mercilessly cut down by the cavalry.

The corpses were scattered all over the place, and the scene was extremely bloody......

After leaving a few militiamen and masters to clean up the battlefield, the main force that had lined up outside the village and watched the whole battle did not stop long. They collectively turned to the right at the officer's command, and then slung their rifles to their shoulders. Keep going.

On 29 August, the main force on the east bank, marching at a "turtle speed" of less than 10 kilometers a day, finally arrived near "Yiling" in the afternoon of that day. It was home to a huge Indian tribe, dotted with villages scattered over a very large area, with a thin wooden fence and a number of watchtowers outside the villages, which seemed to have been built under the direction of the Spanish missionaries - of course, the Spanish missionaries always liked to arm the Indians against the East coasters, the Brazilians, and even the Spanish colonists themselves. After all, their interests were not very much aligned with those of the secular colonizers, who wanted land and wealth, and they wanted faith.

The watchtower was already covered with a large number of Indian archers, with their faces painted with oil paint, bright feathers on their heads, and linen clothes that had only been available after the arrival of the colonists, who nervously looked at the well-equipped and well-armed East Coast troops in dark blue military uniforms in the open space outside the village, subconsciously a little frightened, but more angry.

"Stop, people of the East Coast, you have broken the sacred covenant! Five years ago, we had agreed that we would respect each other's sacred borders and not to intrude on each other's territory, but you destroyed this qiē, causing you to illegally occupy large areas of fertile forests and land on both sides of the Yakui River, and countless descendants of the gods were expelled and killed by you for no reason. But you are not satisfied now, do you want to take away even the last place of our tribe? Answer me, East Coaster, isn't that so? An old Indian chief, surrounded by several strong guards, went to the front of the East Coast and asked in fluent Spanish. His expression was unusually sad and sad, both angry at the fact that the people of the East Coast had not kept their promises, and at the same time despair of the future of his tribe.

"Honorable Chief, according to the Treaty of Valladolid signed between the Republic of East China and the Kingdom of Spain, the area east of the Wujiang River is the legitimate territory of our country. As to your claim to dwelling here, the North Duck Lake District Circuit Court of our country has just handed down a final decision the day before yesterday, which has decided not to accept it, and ordered you to surrender all the land you have illegally occupied by September 1, 1650. In the spirit of humanitarianism, as long as you agree to peacefully surrender the land you possess and cooperate with the resettlement plan of our government, you will have a resettlement site twice the area of the existing land on Xinhua Island. All the output of this new land will belong to you, and you will also receive a right to the official residents of the overseas colonies of the East Coast Republic of China......"

"Enough!" The aged chief interrupted the shameless speech of an assistant judge of the East Bank, then looked at the army of the East Bankers, raised his voice and asked, "If we do not obey your will, will you use force to achieve our ends?" ”

No one answered him.

The old chief looked at the shiny bayonets in the hands of the army soldiers on the east bank not far away, and then shouted as if he had exhausted all his strength: "We are men, so let's decide the ownership of this land in a man's way!" ”

……

Laojunmiao Township.

Zhao Yan and Zhao Zhenren were leading a group of subordinates to carefully count the supplies, which were donated by believers from all over the country, including flour, clothing, medicine, agricultural tools, and some grain - all of which were necessary to open up new territories. In addition, there were more than 300 tall Patagonis, almost all of whom were devout believers, wearing special heavy armor, carrying heavy axes and short spears at their waists, escorting a group of new Livonian immigrants (500 people) towards Yiling.

These newcomers were all pioneers who were about to settle there, so they brought with them about a dozen catties of wheat seeds, a little clothing, some dry food, and some livestock and farm tools in the team, in short, almost all the qiē needed to settle down. What the? You say that the battle is not over yet, and the Yiling area is still in the hands of the barbarians? What are you kidding, don't you see that my invincible army on the East Coast has been dispatched to destroy them? That's not all it takes! Maybe before we get there, the battle is over, and we just in time to clean up the battlefield and receive the qiē left behind by the barbarians.

These people did not have the slightest sense of being invaders, nor did they have the slightest sense of guilt for taking over the stockades, houses, fields, livestock, grain, and other goods left behind by the Guarani barbarians. It is simply unforgivable to them that barbarians have no right to exist, and that their civilization is so low and ridiculous, yet that they still dominate the wealth of such a vast and fertile land! This is their original sin! Tianzun has given us the power and freedom to conquer and educate the barbarians, so let's use fire and sword to teach the barbarians this qiē!

"Is the City God Temple all arranged?" sent away the immigration team that served as a logistics master, and as soon as he returned to the Laojun Temple village, Zhao Yan and Zhao Zhenren found their assistants and asked him about the things he explained.

"It's been set up, and I've ordered the inside to be cleaned and decorated. There are also candidates for temple wishes, Jiangbei Huai'an Mansion people, who used to be the temple of the land temple, and later received special religious training in the capital, and the theoretical knowledge is also available, and now he is presiding over the City God Temple, there should be no problem. The assistant immediately replied respectfully.

The Chenghuang Temple mentioned in their conversation is located in almost every county in the territory of the East Coast Republic today, and is usually located in the seat of the county government. In the past, these city god temples were dedicated to either the outstanding people of the county who died, or the people who made special contributions to the county, or the heroes who died on the battlefield.

In January of this year, with the approval of the Executive Committee, the Chenghuang Temple system was officially brought under the jurisdiction of the Religious Affairs Office, but in fact the state religion was administered by Taoism. After this adjustment, the biggest change is that the restrictions on being able to enter the temple have also been greatly relaxed - or almost none. From now on, even ordinary people can enter the tomb system of the City God Temple after death, and their funerals will also be presided over by the local City God Temple, which undoubtedly greatly enhances the influence of Tianzun, and the benefits to the earthly apostles of Tianzun are also self-evident, so Zhao Yan and others cannot pay attention to it.

"That's good, after this Yiling Raid is over, we can officially intervene in these things." Zhao Yan said, "The ritual of the war dead must be done beautifully, this is a good opportunity to improve cohesion, and there can be no accidents." (To be continued......)