The short, stout Anda XV stood solemnly on a hill outside the city of Santa Fe, surrounded by a strong smell of blood, when a Spanish artillery shell hit the 6th Army's lookout post on the east bank like a divine help, killing a 6th Army soldier who was watching the enemy and two Crandy mercenaries who were digging fortifications.

The news of the arrival of the Spaniards had been known three days before Anda XV, when the cavalry on the east coast, which was patrolling west of Santa Fe, had spotted the Spaniards and engaged in an outpost with their cavalry. Anda XV, who was in Santa Fe, was informed and immediately concluded that it was an army coming from the direction of Córdoba. The fact that the Spaniards sent such an army from the direction of Cordoba after conquering Buenos Aires on the east coast for more than half a year is already very efficient. Now that they seem to have finally gathered men and supplies, and at the same time suppressed the rising uprisings of the Crandis people in Córdoba and Tucumán – apparently influenced by their compatriots who revolted in the Río de la Plata Valley – they belatedly made their way to the vicinity of Ciudad Santa Fe.

After receiving the alarm of the coming Spaniards, Anda XV sent people to Corrientes and Asunción upstream, and also to Buenos Aires downstream. At the same time, he also ordered all the troops who were remaining in the city to be stationed in the fortifications that had been repaired and ready to fight the enemy, and several small troops that were collecting food (in fact, collecting livestock) outside the city were also immediately recalled.

As of today (May 2o), a total of 400 tons of wheat, 100 tons of sorghum, 30 tons of rice, and 150 tons of sweet potatoes, potatoes and corn have been stored in more than a dozen large brick and wood warehouses hastily built in Santa Fe. This food was enough for the officers and soldiers on the east coast of Asunción, Corrientes, and Santa Fe for about three months.

In addition to the staple food. There are also 2o barrels of marinated cod (1ooo per barrel), 1o barrels of squidling, and 15o tons of marinated whale meat. as well as a large number of vegetables, soybean oil, salt, cane sugar, tobacco, spirits and other consumer goods. Almost two-thirds of the factory's production capacity was used to maintain the consumption of the 6th Army in the La Plata area, so that the black market price of pickled cod in the country has risen several times, reaching an appalling price of 1.6 yuan per piece. Pickled cod, which was once "affordable", has become a symbol of luxury, as no one wants to spend a third or a quarter of their salary on a fish to try.

Even though the South China Sea Fisheries Company has now grown in size and recruited many sailors to fish in Patagonia, and there is a constant stream of daily vessels plying between the ports of Rocha and Mar del Plata, the meager output is still not enough to compensate for the enormous consumption. In order to support the war on the front line. Ordinary people must endure the side effect of the war – shortages.

In addition to food, the largest storage in the city is, of course, a large amount of gunpowder (more than 4ooo barrels), lead bullets, various types of artillery shells, armor and cold weapons, all of which are urgently needed war materials on the front line. There is even a logistics management department in the city, which has a material dispatch office, a gun repair office, a health center, a veterinary office and other institutions, where all kinds of damaged guns and cannons brought back from the front line are repaired or replaced, and then transported back to the front line for continued use; The wounded and sick are also treated simply, and then discharged or transferred back to their home country, depending on the situation.

And just yesterday, Captain Liao Xiaoyao of Buenos Aires sent 50 cadets of the 35th Regiment of the Cadet Corps to escort a batch of medicines, the most eye-catching of which was 10,000 aspirin anti-inflammatory pills. This medicine has been proven to be quite effective after being used in large numbers by the Guarani people. The soldiers on the front line also loved it. Encouraged by the feedback received from frontline fighters, the North Pharmaceutical Factory in Ping'an County is now planting willow trees in the country. On the one hand, a large number of willow bark are imported in order to gradually expand production capacity and benefit more people.

To sum up, it can be said that Santa Fe at this time was the largest war logistics base for the East Coast in the La Plata area, and as long as it was defeated, the Spaniards would be able to plunge the East Bank army on the front line into great confusion and collapse without a fight. Therefore, it is quite reasonable that the Spanish colonial army that came from the Córdoba region would target the attack. The people on the east coast were naturally able to guess the movements of the Spaniards, and they had spent several months driving the nearby Spaniards, gauchos, and Clandians to build a series of fortifications in and around Santa Fe in order to deal with the possible attacks of the Spaniards.

At this time, Anda XV was standing at an observation post on a small high ground outside the city, and this observation post was also a turret, on which four guns were installed, facing west and north. Two platoons of 42 officers and soldiers were stationed in the turret, and the gate was usually blocked with stones, and the entrance and exit gate relied entirely on ladders, which was easy to defend and difficult to attack.

Such turrets coexist outside the city of Santa Fe, and along with the turrets are some semi-permanent 6th Army defensive facilities, in which 1,000 militiamen of the Rocha County Militia Brigade are stationed day and night. Originally, there were also a considerable part of the gaucho cavalry and the so-called Krandi Volunteer Army (in fact, it was a rabble), but at the beginning of this month, the city of Santa Fe suffered a not very severe epidemic, and more than 500 residents and soldiers inside and outside the city died one after another, including about seventy or eighty East Bank 6th Army (including militia), and more than 100 hired Tatar cavalry also fell ill and died more than 50 people.

At the same time, officials sent by the Ministry of Health also began a large-scale cleaning of the city and beyond, and the dead people and animals were required to be buried or cremated immediately, and the garbage should also be strictly landfilled, and a large amount of lime powder was sprinkled on some gutters, toilets, streets, and walls. With such a multi-pronged approach, the epidemic in Santa Fe was contained immediately when it first showed its signs, so that the death toll was kept to a minimum.

And when the rare autumn epidemic broke out in Santa Fe City, those Gachos and Krandi who were also infected immediately scattered everywhere, and at most there were more than a thousand of them, only about two or three hundred people were left here, and most of them were thin and weak. These people were unified into the baggage team by Anda 15, responsible for transporting supplies and ammunition from the warehouses in the city to the strongholds outside the city, and as for the war, there was no need to count on them for the time being.

There was still no convincing exact number of the Spaniards' incoming troops, and the intelligence staff judged that the Spaniards numbered more than 1,000 based on reconnaissance information from the cavalry returning—a remarkable number for the Spaniards in La Plata and even in Peru. It is very telling to know that in the battle of Colonia between Spain and Portugal decades later, the Spaniards used their strength to mobilize about 3,000 soldiers throughout La Plata, of which more than 2,000 were Indians.

According to the last information received this morning, the five hundred cavalry of the Spaniards had crossed the Salado River to the west, and in the afternoon their artillery had also crossed the river, and then began to attack the artillery towers on the east bank outside the city. Naturally, these mixed brick and wood turrets could not withstand the onslaught of the Spanish artillery, which was mainly used to deal with infantry attacks, but similarly, the simple field artillery fortifications of the Spaniards could not withstand the fire of the guns on the turrets.

It was not clear that the Spaniards could not attack Santa Fe because of the turrets set up outside the city on the east bank, so as soon as they arrived here, they immediately arranged the field gun emplacements and began to attack the two east bank turrets in the west of the city. The artillery on the east bank immediately returned fire, and the first battle between the two sides began in the thrilling form of an artillery battle.

Anda XV, after observing the Spaniards' gun emplacements, camps, and the appearance of the soldiers who had crossed the river, climbed down the rope ladder from the turret, and when he and his guards came down, the rope ladder was retracted from the turret. Anda XV glanced at the Spaniards who were standing in the distance, then turned on his horse and returned to Santa Fe with his retinue.

The big battle is imminent, and he still has to check the status of each department again in order to fight this crucial defensive battle. The Spaniards came from Córdoba on a long expedition, and there may not be a shortage of troops, ammunition, and supplies in the short term, but they will certainly not be able to support it in the long run. Therefore, the Spaniards were in a good position to fight, but the East Coasters were able to fight a defensive war of attrition in their spare time.

The Spaniards have colonized Tucumán, Jujuy, Córdoba and other places northwest of La Plata, and these colonies are far away from Buenos Aires and other places in terms of population, economy and other aspects, and it can be said that these places are the essence of the Spanish colonization in the La Plata region except for Paraguay. In many cases, supplies from northern Chile, Bolivia and even Peru were transported by mule and horse to the port of Santa Fe through the city of Guò Córdoba, and then sailed to the sea, and at this time there was only one way from these places to the mouth of the Río de la Plata. As for the rest of the place, it is either dense forests, muddy swamps, in short, completely impassable large-scale convoys.

In other words, if the Spanish army coming from the west could not pull out the nail of Santa Fe, then they would not be able to effectively support Asunción, which was being fiercely attacked by the army on the east bank; And if it is forced to bypass, then the supply line is in danger of being cut off by the cavalry on the east coast. In short, the battle of Santa Fe – a comfortable defensive battle for the East Coasters – was inevitable. (To be continued......)

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