The servant lightly brought the dinner.

It was a plate of golden-colored bread smeared with honey, and there was enough to eat for a few people at the table. On the table, there are several other servings, including anchovies with Spanish oregano, beef tongue grilled to the right extent, spiced whale jerky imported from the East Coast, and some delicatessen leafy dishes such as purslane, spinach, onions, and tequila imported from New Spain to accompany the meal, which looks quite hearty.

This is how life is life in Buenos Aires' high society. Even if there were a lot of horse bandits on the east coast overnight in the wilderness, and the supplies for the city were reduced, the big men would not be lacking at all, just like today's ordinary dinner, General Constantin de Ovando and Father Ramos didn't even give a second look at the food.

"That's the good thing about the New World, it's cheap. Beef, lamb, fish, honey, butter, cheese, bread, wine are almost inexhaustible and inexhaustible, and even the damned, disloyal Catalans, can easily enjoy these foods. Of course, in Andalusia, Granada, Catalonia or Galicia, people can buy these things, but the cost is much higher. General Owando said as he happily enjoyed his current food.

"Yes, the cost is very high, and I heard that there is still a famine in the past few years, so we have imported wheat from Egypt and Syria. It is ironic to think that Castilian life may not even be as good as that of the Catalans, Southern Netherlands or Neapolitans who have immigrated here. Father Ramos's snow-white napkin wiped his mouth, echoed General Owando, and said, "As you said, the Old World is full of wars and famines, and now the number of immigrants to the New World has increased by more than a third every year. Of course, this data may not be accurate, as no one has ever made such a statistic, but it is most likely true of all the content of the correspondence I have exchanged with other people in this regard. ”

In fact, in the 16th and 17th centuries of history, the average number of Spaniards who immigrated to the New World every year should be 5,000-6,000 people, no more, no less. It could have been higher, but like the Portuguese, the Spanish king only allowed his subjects within his territory to immigrate to the New World, and only Catholics.

However, in this time and space of the East Coast people, because the trade between Peru and New Spain was developed more than in the same period of history, and a large amount of capital, population and technology were generated, the number of subjects of the Kingdom of Spain who immigrated to the New World increased, and it should have reached 7,000-8,000 people, including some Catholics from relatives (i.e., the Austrian Habsburgs), which increased the number of people on the peninsula in the Viceroyalty of Peru and New Spain. But similar to history, these seven or eight thousand immigrants were also mostly bachelors, and the number of immigrants with their families was not much, which is not a pity, at least at this time General Owando and Father Ramos thought so, after all, the Mestizos were naturally inferior in blood in their opinion.

"So we shouldn't have given up the Pampa Plains, should we? My priest. We have many towns here, including Buenos Aires, Rosario, Santa Fe, Resistencia, etc., as well as small towns such as Franco, Mar del Plata, San Lorenzo, etc., whose population has remained in the tens of thousands after years of war, disease, and pioneering, can we retreat? General Owando also put down the knife and fork in his hand, as if he had suddenly lost interest in the food on the table, shook his head and said: "But the cruel reality is also in front of us, there are millions of heretics on the east coast, the force is strong, and the determination is even stronger, but what about us? His Excellency the Governor of Lima, fearing that he would take responsibility, forgot what the title of 'Governor Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary' on his head meant, threw the pot at the court of Madrid. But I would like to ask, at this tense time, does King Carlos have time to attend to the affairs of the New World? ”

"Your fears are perfectly correct, Your Excellency. Years of close business ties with the people of the East Coast have left Lima rotten from top to bottom, and too many people have interests involved in the East Coast. Can you imagine that the merchants of the East Coast were allowed to practice their religion in the port of Callao without any punishment, and it was the Governor who granted immunity, which is simply shameless! There were times when I wanted to form a pure Templar Order and throw them all to Hell for trial. But I know that I can't do it, and neither can you, Your Excellency, and no one can fight the general trend. "Mar del Plata is now largely fallen, and the people of the East Coast live with us, growing in number and behaving more and more aggressively, and almost no longer concealing their ambitions for the land," said Father Ramos, in a somewhat sad tone. But what can we do? Fight with them? That would be unwise, and would have caused us more serious damage to our power and made it even more incapable of restraining the people of the East Coast in the future. ”

What Father Ramos meant was already obvious. Being too tough on the East Coast is not a good strategy, because in the event of a conflict, it will certainly not be the East Coasters who will suffer, and it will further exacerbate the already unbearable situation. It should now be clear to the entire district of the Buenos Aires Court of Prosecution that in the absence of a firm commitment on the part of Madrid and Lima, Buenos Aires alone would only lead to a shameful defeat. Then, before there is a clear statement above, the only thing I should do is to open up this old face, keep cooling the tension between the East Bank and them, ask them to restrain their people, stop harming the Spaniards, and then slowly try to do it.

In short, the purpose is how to make use of the existing resources and the situation to delay the occupation of this land by the people on the east coast and weaken their control over the land through various means and in order to delay the occupation of this land by the people on the east coast and weaken their control over the land in order to delay the change.

In fact, this is also the strategy that General Ovando has been carrying out some time ago, that is, to send representatives to the East Coast together with the ambassador to the East Bank, Count Sebastian, to constantly protest and put pressure on the East Coast people, and at the same time try to deal with such incidents as low-key as possible, and characterize them as law and order incidents attacked by bandits, so as not to seize the opportunity to make a big fuss and push things into an uncontrollable abyss. As for the question repeatedly asked by the people on the east coast about the operation of the area east of the Yanbu Railway, they have repeatedly postponed it, that is, they have not given a positive answer, and they intend to drag the matter over this period of incident.

Now the people of the East Coast seem to be impatient with their endless delays, and after a raid on the town of Franco by a group of horse bandits, another group of bandits from more than one origin also attacked many colonial estates or Indian villages around the city of Resistencia this month, causing great damage. The guy who has been faintly known as "Chaco's Wolf" has disappeared for the time being, but it would be naïve to think that he is gone. The biggest possibility is that this man doesn't know where to hide to rest and resupply, and maybe it won't be long before the fierce bandits under his command will reappear again, depending on whether the local kingdom garrison can catch them and destroy them.

Of course, if things were only to this extent, he might still be able to deal with it, not just pacify the local area and send troops to exterminate the horse bandits. But if the East Coasters continue to increase their costs, invest and create new incidents, they may be beyond the capacity of their tiny Buenos Aires Prosecutorial Court District. After all, they are far from being able to compare with the East Coast infidels with a population of four million, both in terms of population and economy, and once the conflict between the two sides escalates, it will certainly not be the East Coast people who will collapse first, there is no doubt about this.

Father Ramos's worries about him are naturally clear, but he really doesn't have any good solutions, not to mention that he is also opposed to escalating the conflict with the East Coast people and even directly turning his face, because that is too stupid! This time he managed to come to Buenos Aires, in addition to asking General Ovando for a guard for the town of Mar del Plata, but also to warn the general to be cautious. Now it seems that the two of them still have a high degree of the same idea, that is, although they hate the aggressive behavior of the pagans on the East Coast, they both feel that it is not appropriate to turn their faces directly, and the best way is to wait for change, and drag it back to see what happens. Otherwise, it would be difficult to say what the situation would be if it was made big and gave the people on the East Coast an excuse to intervene in full, and they could not afford to take the risk.

After General Ovando had dinner with Father Moss the Elder, the two sides discussed the situation in Mar del Plata, and finally Ovando said bitterly that he would send a hundred cavalry over to protect the surrounding farmland, manors, orchards, and pastures, and of course to be wary of the people on the east bank of the new city next door.

Father Ramos was pleased with this and left in a hurry the next day. The clergyman, who was already very young, had been thinking about Mar del Plata's situation for a long time, and even risked his life to ride across the savannah to Buenos Aires for help. And this, in fact, is the most direct reason why General Ovando is willing to squeeze out a part of the limited force for him to take away, he likes to work with people who are determined to resist - of course, this is also related to another thing, that is, the Lima side has officially issued an appointment letter, that is, the appointment of Father Ramos as the deacon of the entire Diocese of Buenos Aires, and will henceforth become the supreme religious leader of the whole region, this appointment is still on the way, General Ovando knew in advance through some channels, This was also clearly an important factor in his goodwill towards Father Ramos.

After the departure of Father Ramos, General Ovando pushed off the request for a meeting with several officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the East Coast (apparently they were again discussing the question of the Pampa Plain), and left the city of Buenos Aires with a group of escort cavalry, and went north along the Paraná River, inspecting the colonial towns of Zarate, Rosario, San Lorenzo, Santa Fe, etc., and consulting with local officials on the issue of security.

Since the so-called vicious law and order incidents in Franco and Resistencia and other places, cities such as Santa Fe and Rosario have also become tense recently, and local officials have been sending cavalry to gallop around to check the situation and consolidate law and order. In particular, these colonial cities across the river from the counties in the Transriver region under the jurisdiction of the East Bank Republic are even more nervous, such as the city of Santa Fe, with the consent of General Ovando, has sent envoys to the west to the area of Córdoba, an important city in the west, to ask the local area to send part of the army to the east to help them consolidate their security and defense.

However, Owando was very satisfied with this, and this kind of response was indeed more in line with his wishes, that is, it not only strengthened his own forces, increased the cost of the attack by the East Coasters, but also did not worsen the situation to the point of being difficult to control, which was indeed the response strategy that Ovando had always advocated, so he praised it. He believed that the people on the east coast were not iron-clad, and after their own side strengthened their deployment and targeted measures, their horse bandits would be severely knocked a few times if they did not do well. At that time, would they dare to think of being so unscrupulous now? I'm afraid not really.

And just after Constantin de Ovando went to the north to inspect the Paraná River valley in order to avoid the people on the east bank, on the Pampa plain in the south, something happened that everyone did not expect-

On August 8, 1678, Father Ramos, who had just finished his tour of a chapel outside the city, and some of his entourage, were riding back to the old town of Mar del Plata when they clashed with a group of men from the East Bank who looked a little vicious because of a scramble for the road. Because of his long-term patience and a lot of anger, one of the Spanish cavalry officers who was guarding Father Ramos stepped forward to reason with the East Coast people, and also yelled, but was directly dragged off his horse by an East Coast rider, and was immediately trampled by the hooves of the other two East Coast riders who rushed over.

This behaviour of the people on the east coast naturally aroused great indignation on the part of the Spaniards, and almost all of them, either actively or passively, got involved in the fight, leaving the respected Father Ramos alone. The priest himself was a little helpless, and even more worried, fearing that there would be something wrong with the timing of the sudden battle, which would lead to the fall into the hands of the Orientals and further worsen the situation, so he instinctively wanted to persuade everyone not to fight again.

However, the priest himself was concerned about the future of the Spaniards in the Pampa and neglected his own safety. I saw an East Coast rider slowly retreat from the crowd, and then rushed to Father Ramos, who was dressed in black, took out a pistol with good ammunition from his arms, aimed it at the priest's chest, and whispered to the priest with a hideous face: "Greetings to the commander of the gendarmerie!" ”

With that, he pulled the trigger sharply, and a large ball of blood bloomed on Father Ramos's chest, and he fell off his horse before he could say anything. The rider who had completed the assassination threw away his pistol, slammed his legs around the horse's belly, and ran away, leaving behind a mess on the ground.