"The seeds of aggression that were conceived in the First War of La Plata broke through the ground and began to take root in the Second War that broke out in 1646. The war monster on the east coast began to devour people. "Within the city of San Vicente, Blanco. Sosa. Morality. Almeida scrutinized a secret letter from the East Coast. The letter was written by Mr. Simenez, a former Spanish teacher who had graduated from the Capital Normal Secondary School on the East Coast and was currently teaching in an elementary school in the port of Qingdao, where he specialized in simple arithmetic and occasionally gave Spanish lessons to the students of the Second Fort of the Corps.

However, during the years of his settlement on the East Bank, Mr. Simenez apparently did not remain idle, and he did not forget his duty as a Catholic, so he wrote this letter to his good friend, Blanco of the Almeida family from Brazil. This letter is very long, and its content is mainly Simeniston Guò's own observations and reflections in the East Coast country, and the first-hand information about the various things in the East Bank Republic is very valuable.

"Since the victory in the last war, the country has embarked on a path of rapid expansion. It has been able to send a large number of troops to win a continental war that lasted more than two years; At the same time, they were able to send a large number of professional naval warships to win in the coastal waters of Spain, which made the entire Old World look up to them. At a time when the major powers are redividing their spheres of influence in Europe and the New World, the emergence of the East Coast as a new power on the world stage is showing its increasingly undisguised expansionist intentions. Every aspect of the country, the qiē system, seems to have been inherently designed for war and expansion. The efficiency of mobilization is far greater than that of the average country. This time it's La Plata. Where will it be next time? Brazil or Chile? ”

There's a lot more to the back of Simenez's letter. Most of them are analysing the details of various aspects of the country on the East Coast, but Blanco has no intention of looking at it anymore for the time being. Some of the sugar tycoons in the north complained about the East Coast's aid to the Dutch West India Company (in the guò form of trade), as it clearly hindered their efforts to defeat the Dutch and unify all of Brazil, which was often related to their ability to dominate the sugar market in order to reap the super-profits from the monopoly.

As the saying goes, cutting off someone's money is like killing one's parents, and although the Portuguese don't have this proverb, they still understand the general meaning. They were now angry at the East Bank's growing commercial ties with the Dutch West India Company, but did not dare to express their displeasure in too drastic terms. Crossing the Gérard Mountains to kill some of the East Coast residents to vent their anger? No kidding. Their army forces must have been ecstatic to see this happen, because then they would have a reason to break free from the chains imposed on them and burst out and hurt people. Although it is embarrassing, it has to be said that if the two sides go head-to-head, the Brazilian army will be defeated by the east coast in a short time.

But doing nothing was not in the style of the Brazilian sugar magnates, who quickly contacted the sympathetic Spaniards, and the two sides were no longer obsessed with the border between the two colonies, for a visibly more vicious adversary jumped up on their tables, munching on the meal they were already enjoying, while also fixing their covetous gaze on the delicacies on the table that had not yet been touched.

The Spaniards intended to train four infantry regiments in La Plata—a gentlemen's regiment (predominantly white), a mestizo regiment (predominantly whites), two Crandi's regiments—and a gaucho cavalry battalion, if at all. Then the balance of war forces between the two sides in the area of La Plata will be greatly improved.

The Spaniards launched such a drastic immigration and expansion program that the Portuguese could not afford to take it lightly. Year 1649. The Portuguese aristocracy, the sugar magnates of northeastern Brazil, and the emerging plantation owners of the south all contributed to the migration of Brazil from the Old Continent, while raising an army to defend against the increasingly aggressive threat of the East Coast.

The West India Company was taken by surprise by the actions of the Portuguese, and after some investigation, they were forced to move large numbers of "boers" from the Netherlands and neighboring Germany to consolidate the territory they had already occupied. At the same time, it is actively preparing for an arms build-up in response to the sudden and irrational military build-up of the Brazilians. It's just that their financial strength is extremely limited, and after a while, they can't do it, and finally they can only send people to Port Oriente to seek more extensive and in-depth cooperation with the people on the east coast, so as to counteract the pressure exerted on them by the Brazilians. After all, they can't compare to the big Portuguese guys.

The people on the east coast were naturally very pleased with the olive branch extended by the Dutch West India Company, because they had recently approved the large-scale smuggling trade on the Pacific coast, so they felt sorry for the Dutch West India Company, which had a certain interest here, and was hesitating not knowing how to appease the Dutch people.

It's easy to do now, and the two sides can coordinate their interests. In this way, the Southern Railway Company, which organized the smuggling trade on behalf of the East Coast Republic of China, quickly launched several rounds of negotiations with the Dutch West India Company at the Oriental Port, and the two sides adjusted the scope of their interests. The Dutch accepted the offer of the Coasters to act as agents of goods on the Coast, and acquiesced in the dumping trade of the Southern Railroad Company into the Viceroyalty of Peru, on the condition that the Coasters increase their assistance to them in all aspects (including diplomatic and munitions) so that they could keep as much territory as possible in the northeast of Brazil.

The division of interests between the two sides has been done entirely in the past two months, and it can be described as extremely fast and efficient. However, the Portuguese are not bad, and they reached a cooperation agreement with the Spaniards much earlier. At this point, two confrontational blocs were faintly formed on the South American continent, namely: the alliance of colonial countries formed by Portugal and the Kingdom of Spain, which was also a Catholic alliance; The other group was the East Coast Republic of China, which accounted for more than 50% of the country's military expenditure, and the Dutch West India Company, which was passively involved in the struggle. Of course, if you include the Kingdom of Araucania, a protectorate of the East Coast, which has not yet been formally formed, it is fine.

At present, these five powers control the political, economic, and military affairs of the entire Viceroyalty of Peru. The more than 10 million living beings living in this land are groveling under the rule of these two groups, driven by their will and fighting for their interests. Of course, the current confrontation between the two blocs is only a subtle confrontation, and has not yet escalated to a full-scale military and political confrontation, at least the current commercial and trade exchanges between the two blocs are still very frequent.

In Blanco's view, the future policy direction of Portugal and Spain can be guessed, and it is mainly conservative. The Dutch West India Company was also on the wane, and the only thing to worry about was the East Coast Republic. Once this country has any strong and radical measures, it means that the existing fragile balance will be completely broken, and the confrontation between the two blocs will officially come to the fore from under the table, and if this development continues, the outbreak of a full-scale war in a short period of time will be a high probability event.

Blanco's Almeida family, the emerging plantation owners in southern Brazil (mainly cotton, tobacco, and grain, but also designed to mine), and a major agent of East Coast goods in Brazil, were the last to see a hot war between the two major military and political economic blocs, even though the war between the Dutch West India Company and Brazil had been going on on intermittently. However, as a native white elite family in Brazil, they were also extremely wary of every step of the eastern-coast pagan territorial expansion, especially after they had made a claim to the Gérard Mountains. He feared that his plantation would be taken away by the East Coast Republic, and that his family's decades of struggle in Brazil would be ruined. Because of this, business is business, and the Almeida family is still very wary of the people on the east coast in politics, as can be seen from the fact that the family has been trying to send spies to infiltrate the east coast.

"The people of the East Coast are very talented in what they call 'science and technology,' and they apply a wide range of science and technology, so that they have created a capacity for the production of commodities that is far from commensurate with their land and population. If you are serious about reading my letter, turn to the last page, in which I have drawn a sketch of a device called the 'steam engine' on the east coast. I have to say that this is a great epoch-making invention, and I have a deep feeling that it will dramatically change the way we live our production, and I have come to feel this on the East Coast. The sketch of the steam engine was based on a few words I had collected in my daily life, and I had never actually seen it with my own eyes, but I believe it was how it worked. It's a huge and extremely elaborate machine, and I don't know if anyone in Lisbon, Madrid, Paris, London or Amsterdam can replicate it perfectly, but I think it's always better to try it than to do nothing. If you still have the slightest fear of God, please bring this picture to the world of God, and fund them to make the perfect steam engine for the people of the Lord to rival the pagans on the East Coast......" Blanco read each page carefully, and then sat down at his desk.

After a long time, he grabbed a quill pen at hand, dipped it in ink, and began to write letters. When he was done, he held the letter for a moment, then stuffed it into an envelope along with the steam engine drawings. After doing this, he called his butler and instructed him to take the letter properly to Lisbon. (To be continued......)