Starting in the waters off Rio, the wind is sometimes north and south. It can advance 140 nautical miles a day in a north wind and just over 30 nautical miles in a south wind. The entire voyage averaged less than 100 nautical miles per day. In the more free hours of the voyage, the sailors and marines of the fleet were training in artillery and small arms.

Chen Shouxu was able to calculate longitude with relative accuracy, and he came up with a magnetic declination of about 8 degrees and 30 minutes in this area. With the correction of the compass course by the magnetic declination, Chen Shouxu can take some more time-saving routes. It doesn't have to be close to the coast.

It took the fleet 12 days to sail into the huge trumpet-shaped estuary of the Río de la Plata.

The Río de la Plata is not a river, it is an estuary of the drainage system of the Grand Paraná River. The name La Plata refers to the vast area that stretches from the mouth of the river to the towering Andes Mountains, including what later became Argentine, Uruguay, and Paraguay. The La Plata region is on the outskirts of the Viceroyalty of Peru, far from the Viceroyalty of Peru in Lima. Most of the area was far from the territory of the Inca Empire, there was no unified Indian political center, no concentrated Indian population that could provide a large number of slaves, and no precious metal deposits. The Spanish officials and big businessmen of Lima were simply indifferent to it.

Pedro. Morality. Mendoza led 1,600 men and 16 sailing ships to capture the mouth of the Río de la Plata at the same time as Pizarro conquered the Incas, and their first settlement was called Buenos Aires, which means fresh air. Spain's conquest of La Plata was extremely slow, unlike New Spain and Peru, which were able to quickly occupy vast territories and rule over subjugated tribes by destroying a unified Indian empire. In La Plata, the Spaniards were going to nibble away at the Indian tribes little by little with a small and pitiful population. For 100 years, the Spaniards established only a few settlements along the Río de la Plata, such as Asunción, Córdoba, Corrientes, Santa Fe and Puerto Buenos Aires. Among them, such an important port as Puerto Buenos Aires was abandoned for a long time.

The Creoles and Mestizos of the La Plata region were resentful of the Spanish officials in Lima, whose ancestors had founded a colony from Spain directly on the orders of the king. This is rare in South America, where most of the colonies were occupied by the Viceroyalty of Lima or by people sent by the Viceroyalty of Lima. Early Spanish settlers found many silver ornaments along the estuary of the Rio de la Plata, which they called the River of Silver. These Spanish adventurers, with the support of their local Indian allies, abandoned the harbor and traveled up the Great River to establish the first solid colonial point in Asunción in Paraguay. They then expanded to the north and northwest on the basis of Asunción, but Pizarro conquered the Incas early and Lima established the vice-royal court of Peru. The poor La Plata conquerors found nothing, so they turned around and conquered further south, retaking Cordoba and Buenos Aires. The current region of La Plata is only a existence of the province of Córdoba under the vice-president of Peru, located in the third administrative district below the viceroyalty and the viceroyalty.

Without silver, the Spanish conquistadors had to dig into the dirt. They turned their Indian allies into serfs, cultivated yerba mate, tobacco, grain, and developed handicrafts for leather and woollen fabrics, and the port of Buenos Aires grew through trade in these necessities. The mighty River de la Plata has a very long navigable mileage, and the people of La Plata take advantage of the logistics offered by inland waterway shipping to radiate to the surroundings. The river is one of the most navigable in South America, with a moderate climate and fertile land within its basin.

However, to the extreme dissatisfaction of the people of La Plata, the merchants of the Viceroyalty of Lima colluded with the Spanish royal court and ordered that the entire Spanish South American colony could only trade with Lima, and that the goods produced by the people of La Plata must be exploited by the merchants of Lima and transported to Panama to become commodities in the international market.

Even though the Rio de la Plata, a powerful river with great radiation capacity, and a good port like the port of Buenos Aires, they had to cross the Andes and the Bolivian highlands on pack horses to transport goods to Peru, enduring raids by Indian tribes who had learned to ride horses. The people of La Plata are literally going to blow up.

The Spanish court explained the order to the fact that the port of Buenos Aires, facing the Atlantic, was inadequately defended and could be easily conquered by either the Dutch or the Portuguese.

After the merger of Spain and Portugal, the situation of the port of Buenos Aires improved. Brazilian merchants from Portugal entered the port of Buenos to buy specialties from the La Plata region. When the Portuguese were involved, the King of Spain did not dare to refuse categorically. The king patched up his previous order and allowed the Líoñatas to trade with Portuguese Brazil, but only in kind. The people of La Plata were forbidden to buy goods from the Portuguese with silver, and the king stressed that all silver in South America would still have to be traded with Portovello in Catanach through the Viceroy of Lima.

But just like the prevailing rule in the world, as long as there is profit, there will be businessmen who take risks. Moreover, in the whole region of La Plata, from the provincial governor to the ordinary Creole squires, all took the king's orders as farts. The silver mines of Potosi were transported by huge caravans of mules, horses and camels to the upper reaches of the Río de la Plata, where they were transported by inland waterway to the port of Potosi. Portuguese merchants exchanged slaves, European industrial products for silver and agricultural products with the La Platans.

At the commanders' meeting, the captains looked at this battle briefing and sighed.

"Because of the La Plata River, the Port of Buenos Aires is the export port for most of South America's cargo." It was illogical for Spain to put Potosí's silver for export in Lima. ”

"Lima is the political center of South America, and the big businessmen near Lima are much more powerful than these La Platans. Everywhere in the world, trade is linked to politics. ”

Roberts' fingers drew a curve along the Río de la Plata, "Asunción, Corrientes, Santa Fe, three river ports".

Then he pointed to Potosí, "Potosí silver mines, Tucumán, Córdoba, Santa Fe, a pack horse avenue." ”

Then there's Chile, "Santiago, Mendoza, Córdoba, another packhorse avenue." ”

"Finally Santa Fe to the port of Buenos Aires. The silver of Potosi and the leather of the Río de la Plata region, the agricultural products come together here. ”

"Although I don't make exact statistics," Chen Shouxu tapped lightly on the table, "but I feel that the port of Buenos Aires should be the largest smuggling port in the world at this time." Official smuggling. If you look at the briefing, even the Jesuits of Córdoba, which is very powerful in the La Plata region, are one of the largest smugglers. ”

Marmont looked at Chen Shouxu, "This is also very understandable. Spanish colonial officials were poorly paid, and if the governor of Córdoba wanted to buy a cup, he would have to pay a tax to the governor of Lima, as well as overland freight from Potosi to Córdoba. The same was true for local merchants who wished to attend the Governor's banquet. This kind of corrupt and inefficient policy cannot be implemented by anyone. ”

Collingwood said, "It's not easy. There are too many stakeholders involved. It was the only port where the European powers had direct access to South American silver, and it was also an important channel for the colonies with poor natural conditions to obtain food. When we plundered Buenos Aires, we were tantamount to lifting the table, and we would offend many people. ”

Chen Shouxu agreed, "So I brought everyone together to discuss these issues. There is only one Holy Trinity Fort in Puerto Port, which is easy to capture. What needs to be considered is, what are we going to do after we occupy the port of Buenos? ”

"The fleet needs half a month to rest, and the ships need to be repaired. The 1,000 men in the fleet are calculated at two to three sets of winter clothing per capita, and I fear that Buenos Airport may not be able to get them together for a while. ”

Sterling added, "There is also food and ammunition, and we need to replenish some as well." ”

Chen Shouxu stood up and walked to the window with his hands behind his back, he looked at the vast and fertile Pampas grassland on the right bank of the Río de la Plata in the distance, "Gentlemen, it seems that we all have the same concerns. Because of the position of the port and the needs of the fleet, we cannot resort to the same violent plundering methods as before. We have to do it differently. ”

"There are so many aspects involved in the port that it was simply ordered that no smuggling ships should be raided by any country." ”

Chen Shouxu nodded, "That's one thing. There were also the Spaniards against Puerto Buenos. Philip, what's your idea? ”

Philip, who has not spoken. When Edward saw Chen Shouxu's roll call, he said, "We need the Spaniards in Pornaya Buenos Aires to bring us the supplies we need." Then it would be inappropriate for us to plunder extensively. In the East Indies, we often resorted to rational trade to open the situation, not with cannons. ”

"Yes," Chen Shouxu said, "we will only take away the taxes that belong to the government of Buenos Aires." Do not loot personal belongings and money. The same is true for merchant ships in the port, and if the ships that have already paid taxes to the government of the port of Buenos Aires can be left alone, those ships that have not paid taxes will be handed over to us. ”

"Time is tight, we only have half a month to collect supplies in the port of Buenos, so if necessary, we need to buy silver from local merchants. Even if you pay a certain premium. ”

Seeing that many of the officers and sailors' representatives of the second platoon showed pity and dissatisfaction, Chen Shouxu patiently explained to them, "Gentlemen, our goal is the Pacific Ocean. The Spaniards saw the Pacific Ocean as a Spanish lake, with Potosi, Acapulco, Chile and New Spain, and a lot of defenses there. We don't need to waste time in Buenos Aires because of this small profit. ”

This is the first time that Chen Shouxu has publicly disclosed the goal of sailing to the Pacific Ocean to people outside the senior management of the fleet. Although the gossip was flying all over the sky before, there was no confirmation from the commander.

The junior officers and sailors' representatives were thrilled when they heard this, they may have fantasized about the opulence of the Pacific Ocean, but the people who could get there were legendary navigators like Magellan, Drake, and Le Maire.

Magellan and Drake are very old, and they are of little reference significance to Chen Shouxu's voyage. In 1616, William Swanten and Jacob Le Maire rounded South America and arrived in the Pacific, and Chen Shouxu had a copy of their logbook that he had bought from Morgan, which was the greatest reliance on his determination to carry out the Pacific plan.

Chen Shouxu looked around at everyone, "Please do a good job of pacifying the sailors after the officers and sailors' representatives go back, our temporary forbearance in Buenos Aires is to buy time so that we can obtain greater benefits in the future." Therefore, it is necessary to warn everyone that military discipline must be observed, and that it is forbidden to plunder at will. We only have half a month. ”

After the adjournment of the meeting, the fleet restarted. Chen Shouxu walked up to the stern, and to his left was the famous Pampas grassland. With a soil layer up to 50 feet thick, it is one of the best natural pastures in the world. Comfortable climate, away from the rainforests of South America. If the distribution range of Plasmodium falciparum is drawn a line, then the border of this line in North America is roughly the boundary between slave states and industrial states, and in South America is roughly the border between Argentina and Brazil. The tiny Plasmodium parasite profoundly changed the demographics of the Americas, and in the malaria-infested regions, European colonists had to rely on slaves from Africa for production. Outside of the areas where Plasmodium falciparum can survive, there are areas where whites dominate the population.

The natural conditions in Brazil are much worse than in Argentina. Despite its size, many areas of Brazil are tropical rainforests that are not suitable for human habitation. Nor does Brazil have a large river like the Río de la Plata that radiates far inland. Not to mention the rainforest areas of the Amazon.

Brazil also lacks large plains, with small coastal plains followed by the rapidly rising Brazilian plateaus, where the land links between the colonies are fragmented by mountains, and logistics costs are enormous.

Argentina is truly a natural choice, the best natural conditions on earth. Ironically, the Spanish government, which controls this chosen land, has artificially limited its development due to various reasons such as corruption and collusion between officials and businessmen. Buenos Aires has grown from a small village to the largest port in South America, thanks to 200 years of smuggling.

It is also the region in South America with the strongest centrifugal force against the Spanish royal court.

In the vast Pampas, Europeans brought muskets, horses, cattle and sheep. Livestock multiplied extremely quickly in the pampas, and the Europeans could not occupy the depths of the interior, and the Indians similarly tamed war horses and bison. Adequate nutrition makes them physically strong, and warhorses greatly improve their combat effectiveness and range of movement. The Spanish army had no control over the area sixty miles south of the port of Buenos Aires, and they could even threaten the Spanish colonial cities.