A loud military song sounded from a distance, and Mr. Simenez of the Montevideo outpost in Spain leaned gloomily in front of the door, looking at the figure of the group of East Coast soldiers in dark blue military uniforms and flipped fur shoes, and his heart was full of unpleasant feelings. Four years and three months after the establishment of the post in the Kingdom of Spain, it fell to foreign soldiers for the first time in its history.

The wharves, warehouses, outposts, town halls, four fishing boats, and 221 Spanish households in the beautiful harbor bowed their heads under the shining bayonets of the new conquistadors, and both the 24 soldiers in the outposts and the 762 local immigrants from Santander and Bilbao trembled under the coercion of the East Coast, for fear that the infidels would trouble them if they were not happy.

Simenez sighed secretly, turned around and walked back to the room, closed the door, and said to the two dozen or so Spanish children in the room: "Children, don't be distracted, let's start the lesson." Today we continue with the grammar of the Spanish language......"

As a priest and scholar, Simenez from Almeria has been teaching local children on a voluntary basis in the town of Montevideo for two years. An ardent Catholic and a staunch Peninsula man, he was a member of the ranks of General de La Plata, Superintendent and Prosecutor. Garcia was very disappointed, angry at the lack of anticipation of the outbreak of war on the part of La Plata and even on the part of Peru, disgusted by their slow reaction after the outbreak of war, and in short, he had a terrible assessment of the colonial bureaucrats, whom he considered completely incompetent.

As for the question of the competence of Lima officials, it seems that this can be seen from the fact that after the outbreak of the war, the East Bank army occupied several Spanish cities with great strength. Not only did Montevideo fall. The larger military posts set up by the Spaniards east of the Uruguay River fell. For example, the post of Esmeralda (Frey Bentos) on the banks of the Uruguay River, the town of General García (Durasno) on the banks of the River I, and the city of Colonia on the east bank and Spain, etc. And in addition to these places. The ports of Mar del Plata and Puerto Blanca, which the Spaniards had set up in the south of La Plata in recent years, had also fallen, and each of these two places had only a hundred and ten inhabitants, and one of the ships of the people on the east coast had just left the docks of Montevideo for the south, and was supposed to go to conquer them.

What is worse than the military occupation by the East Coast is that the gauchos, who were originally discriminated against in various parts of La Plata, have now taken refuge in the East Coast, and then began to show off their might in various Spanish posts and towns. Although these gauchos call their actions "uprisings" - "uprisings" from the oppression of peninsulars and Creoles (native-born whites), Mr. Simenez scoffs at them, insisting that they are a vulgar bunch of dirty embryos, scum, criminals, and blasphemers. They relied on shameful betrayal to gain a temporary position, but this is despicable, and sooner or later they will be ashamed. But when he thought of this, Simenez shook his head again with self-defeat, the gauchos have no sense of shame, they are half savage, which makes their behavior full of ignorance, violence, and self-contradiction.

There was a sound of horses' hooves outside the door, and Mr. Simenez glanced out of the unclosed crack of the door to see that it was several gauchos with large bags riding by. They laughed wildly, as if they had just returned from a robbery somewhere. There's even a string of smoked sausages hanging from his body.

Several patrolling East Coast Army soldiers immediately stopped them, only to see a non-commissioned officer wearing a large cap and a bright red collar badge pulling the nearest gaucho off his horse. Then he struck him with a sheathed saber and slashed his head and face. The gauchos howled in pain, but did not dare to resist in the slightest. In fact, they were a bunch of cowards, cowards who only dared to show off their might to the Spanish civilians and grovel to the Easterners, and they did not dare to object to any punishment of the Easterners, because the corpses on the gallows outside the town were constantly warning them.

The non-commissioned officer on the east bank who led the team seemed to be tired, so he stopped, and then saw him kick the gaucho lying on the ground with a bloody face, and said something in his mouth, as if they were not allowed to ride their horses in the city, and then led the team to continue the patrol. Several gauchos picked up their companions, and did not dare to linger any longer, and led their horses away in a gloomy manner, leaving only a small pool of glaring blood on the ground.

While Mr. Simenez was teaching his students, with a crisp whistle, a ship laden with cargo slowly docked on the docks, which was part of the supply sent to the 6th Army Company stationed there. And along with these supplies boarded the dock, there was also their new company commander, Anda 15, who had just been transferred from the captain of the Tacheng garrison (the original 1st Squadron of the Advance Team). As for their original company commander, Captain Xiao Baitu, he has now been expelled from the army and sent to Tacheng Port to supervise the safe production of coal mines.

After a first-class staff officer read out the letter of appointment of the War Department in front of all the platoon commanders of the company, Anda 15 gave a military salute and shook hands with everyone. Anda 15 was also deeply surprised by his appointment to the post of company commander of the main army company, since a few years ago he was transferred to the New China Colony, Anda 15 once thought that he might never be able to return to the mainland. But unexpectedly, when he was approaching his age and was ready to live in the Tacheng Coal Mine for the rest of his life, fate played a joke on him again: he actually received a notice of appointment from the War Department and appointed him as the commander of the 6th Company of the Army.

After receiving the news, he turned out the army uniform that he had treasured for a long time in the closet on the same day, and then looked in front of the mirror for a long time, sighed for a long time, and then put it on his body. His two sons, who were already in elementary school, looked at him in bewilderment, wondering why their father had suddenly shaved his beard, cut his hair, and put on the army uniform that had been neatly folded in his closet again. However, they soon saw in their mother's gloomy face that their father was leaving them to fight in their homeland.

Despite the bonds of family affection, Anda XV still responded to the call of the military department without hesitation, giving up the comfortable immigration ship and returning to the mainland on one of the earliest coal ships. His mind was no longer here, but he had returned to the battlefield of his dreams. Originally, he thought that he had gradually forgotten a lot of military past in his life, forgetting his military identity, just like many retired veterans who ran plantations in Xinhua Port, but a letter sent from the Far East completely awakened some of his memories.

His old friend An Dahai died in battle in the Far East, under the cold arrow of the Qing army, which made him uncomfortable for several days, and the past of life and death on the battlefield came to his heart like a tide. He found that he could no longer live in this small coal mine, and he needed to return to the battlefield, because only there could he find a moment of peace in his mind. The mail from the military department arrived at Tacheng Port with the ship at this time, which made him immediately determined to return to the mainland as soon as possible. Just let yourself die on the battlefield, when he thought of this, he didn't even have a trace of sadness and discomfort in his heart.

While listening to the deputy company commander whispering to him about the trivial situation in the company, Anda Fifteen carefully looked at the soldiers with young faces, they were so young and full of vitality, which made him feel as if he was ten years younger.

"At the moment, there is not enough supplies." The same young deputy company commander took a notebook and reported: "The weapons and ammunition are fine, and there is no shortage for the time being." But the supply of non-staple foods was worse, with the supply of butter, cheese, and refined white flour falling to three-quarters of the pre-war level, wine, liquor, and beer falling to two-thirds, and the supply of shredded tobacco and cane sugar also decreasing. Perhaps the only thing that increased the supply was fresh beef, and there were often steamships from Buenos Aires that crossed the Río de la Plata to bring vegetable cattle to the brethren. ”

"Now that mobilization has been carried out in various localities, a large number of people have been transferred, and it is an indisputable fact that the industrial and agricultural production capacity has declined. It is understandable that this war has just begun, and the hard days are yet to come. Anda Fifteen said casually, and after saying that, he thought about it again, and then added: "But don't be pessimistic and depressed. Now the Spanish navy was so weakened that it was impossible to organize a large army to the New World. And the situation on the battlefield of the Old Continent is not very rosy either, and the army is not at all free, and we can optimistically assume that only the troops of the Viceroyalty of Peru are fighting against us. Maybe there were reinforcements from the Viceroyalty of New Spain, but so what? Aren't we, the soldiers of the East Coast, trained for so long, comparable to those Spanish peasants who were hastily drafted into the army at the time of war? ”

"Everyone must have confidence, victory will be ours in the end!" Anda Fifteen said with a smile on his face, "Look at the will of these Spaniards to fight, I heard that you occupied this place without firing a single shot, so what else is there to be afraid of?" And the gaucho rebels, let them go to the small Spanish villages in the interior to declare the fact that they have been occupied by our army, and to collect taxes from them. By the way, it is strictly forbidden for them to kill local residents at will, and violators will be hanged, we are civilized teachers and cannot leave a bad impression. ”

Military discipline that binds the gaucho insurgents? The young deputy company commander suddenly felt a little numb in his scalp, which was simply impossible. But he's still ready to give it a try, and he can't help but give face to his new boss. (To be continued......)