Chapter 129: The Shocking Changes in South America (I)

Far away in the southwestern part of South America, there is a magical country - Chile. This may be one www.biquge.info of the most remote countries in the world (excluding Antarctica), and there are insurmountable geographical barriers between it and the centers of civilization. From the map, Chile looks like a slender bamboo pole sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains. It is the longest and most narrow country in the world, with a length of 4,270 kilometers from north to south, while the average width from east to west is only 180 kilometers. It is located in South America, where tropical rainforests are abundant, and it has a long coastline and is also home to the Atacama Desert, which is known as the "dry pole of the world".

The word Chile originally meant "the end of the world" because during the colonial period Chile was confined to the south of the desert and north of the Biobío River, a distant and relatively isolated place for the suzerain, and Chile at that time did not find the rich deposits of precious metals like Mexico and Peru, so it was not taken seriously by the suzerain. In addition, Chile is located in the Pacific Rim Seismic Zone, and natural disasters such as earthquakes occur frequently within the territory.

However, despite its remote location and strange shape, Chile is by no means a poor country, and it is this special geographical structure and historical reasons that have created the Chileans' tenacity, intellectual and inquisitive tradition, strong self-government, and a natural barrier against foreign invaders. Of course, nature also has a unique gift to Chile, rich mineral resources make Chile have a solid economic backbone, its copper ore resources account for a quarter of the world's reserves, it is also the world's largest producer of natural saltpeter; Chile is also rich in forests.

These abundant natural resources have provided a material foundation for Chile's economic development, and have also given Chile, which was once remote and poor, the basic conditions for fighting for hegemony in wars -- as one of the few good warring states in South America, Chile has been recklessly armed and constantly on northern expeditions since its founding, and has repeatedly attacked Bolivia and Peru, winning a series of brilliant naval and land victories, expanding its territory hundreds of kilometers to the north, and is known as the "British of South America."

However, in the face of a giant like the United States, the strength of Chile, a small South American powerhouse, is a bit insufficient. Although at the end of the nineteenth century, Chile had the most powerful naval fleet in the entire Americas, with tonnage and combat strength above the U.S. Navy at the time. However, with the vigorous launch of the shipbuilding competition of the global powers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the Americans organized the "Great White Fleet" to demonstrate around the world, the Chilean Navy, which was once glorious in the past, quickly fell behind and became an inconspicuous minor player due to the lack of industrial strength to build its own warships.

Then, with the implementation of the Monroe Doctrine and the rapid expansion of American power, Chile, like other South American partners, gradually became the backyard and economic colony of the Americans. During World War II, under strong pressure from the United States, Chile also declared war on the German, Italian, and Japanese fascist regimes and joined the Allied camp - originally just to join in the fun and earn the title of victorious country to show off. However, the development of the war situation was far more brutal and bloody than the Chileans imagined, and after fighting Germany and Italy, which were strong in the foreign country, they had to fight the Soviets next.

In the midst of the unprecedented brutality of the war, the ships and sailors of the Chilean Navy were basically forcibly requisitioned by the U.S. Pacific Fleet, and were exhausted in a series of wars in the South Pacific. The more than 200,000 Chilean Army, which followed the United States in the world war, was almost wiped out in a series of overseas wars in the Pacific, Japan, North Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, and only one in 1,000 people could come back alive.

In order to support the cost of this war, Chile has repeatedly raised taxes, which has made the people miserable. Although the United States gave the Chilean government a lot of loans and grants, under the wartime material control, these dollar loans could not buy anything but investment.

Seeing that the United States had entered the world war with the United States, not only would they not enjoy any war dividends, but would have to pay what little money they had, the whole of Chile had already accumulated great dissatisfaction, and the frenzied skyrocketing number of casualties had also made it more and more unbearable for this small country with a limited population -- in the eyes of South Americans, whether it was World War II or World War III, it was "someone else's war," and they were trying to be mercenaries for the Americans for money. But today's dollar is becoming less and less valuable, maybe one day it will become waste paper, and if it continues to fight, it is no longer a life for money, but a loss of money and a loss of life, who is willing to do such a stupid thing?

Thus, after the pro-American President Alexandri, in order to maintain the shaky regime and suppress the anti-war movement, announced the dissolution of Congress, the suspension of elections, and the national martial law, the pro-Communist left-wing coalition party "Popular Front" immediately launched a military coup under the banner of "upholding the Constitution" -- after six hours of scuffle, President Alexandria and 1,500 of his relatives and cronies died in the streets of the capital Santiago, and the newly established Chilean government continued to suppress the opposition elements throughout the country. On the one hand, he announced that he would tear up the military alliance agreement with the United States and withdraw from the war.

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At the same time, the Argentine government, which has always flaunted the banner of "anti-American" and has always been half-hearted and extremely reluctant to enter the war, has also officially announced its rebellion. The Perón government, which came to power last year, began to cool and dilute its alliance after consolidating its internal relations, first gradually ceasing military cooperation with the US government, and then trying to recall the Argentine troops that had been sent overseas to help in the war - a task that was forced to end as soon as it began, because all the Argentine troops involved in the war were soon wiped out, either to God or to prisoner of war camps.

However, the United States could not tolerate Argentina jumping off the chariot so easily. Although the intensity of the war between the two camps has rapidly decreased since the spring of '47, in order to cope with the inevitable brutal war of attrition, the Pentagon needs to recruit more soldiers from South America to serve as cannon fodder and salvage more resources to keep the huge war machine running, so it must tighten its grip on South American countries rather than loosen it.

In order to suppress the anti-American forces in Argentina, the United States did not forget to increase its troops to Brazil while coping with the domestic disaster, and at the same time sent a fleet to patrol the mouth of the La Plata River to deter Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, which is located on the south bank of the estuary of the La Plata River...... However, in the face of the U.S. government's brutal demands on the Argentines for large-scale forced conscription, the purchase of large quantities of grain and meat at low prices, and the imposition of huge war debts, all these military intimidation measures have not been able to suppress the anger of the Argentines. Pressed Argentines have said that they would rather fight the Yankees and die at home than be scavenged for the last copper coin and buried in some unknown wilderness across the ocean.

The Peron government, which was originally extremely anti-American in its political stance and was extremely Nazi, continued to add fuel to the fire, and soon succeeded in purging the weak pro-American forces in the country with the help of public opinion and the general trend, and officially turned against the United States -- although as Nazi remnants, they also hated the Soviets, but after all, the Soviets were far away from the ocean, and the Americans had already put their dirty hands into Argentina.

Then, under the pressure of the successive defeats of the US military, the political situation in Peru also underwent drastic changes...... The left-wing parties that advocated leaving the war came to power through a coup d'état, but the old pro-American regime rallied its troops and began to fight back. Just when the two sides were inseparable, foreign aid came......

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The northern border of Chile, in the Atacama Desert, Puerto Antofagasta

The new flagship of the Soviet Union's Red Banner Pacific Fleet, the nuclear-powered battleship Lenin, is anchoring outside this desert port.

Wang Qiu stood by the railing on the side of the ship, looking curiously at the yellow-brown coastline and bare mountains on the opposite side—although this land is close to the sea, the cold Peruvian current has brought cold sea water near Antarctica, causing the air near the Atacama Desert to be cold and warm, a situation called "inversion layer" in meteorology, which is very unfavorable for the condensation of raindrops; At the same time, the Andes Mountains act as a tall and impenetrable barrier to the moist air masses blowing from the Amazon basin. By all accounts, the Atacama Desert does not meet any of the meteorological conditions that allow for rain, so it is the driest place in the world, despite its perennially foggy and sometimes 70% relative humidity in the air.

How arid is the Atacama Desert? The average annual precipitation is less than 50 mm in the whole desert and less than 10 mm in the northern region, with an average of two to three rains per century. Some parts of the desert have been dry for almost 400 years since the Spaniards began to record their weather here in the late 16th century, which means it's hard to say whether there are any living people there who have seen the last rain.

The Atacama Desert is so dry that it is extremely uninhabitable to human habitation, and the only soil is also very acidic and extremely barren, so it is the only place in the world where there are no signs of life except for a few settlements. So much so that NASA's Mars rover is conducting experiments here -- scientists believe that this is the most Mars-like place on Earth, and maybe the conditions are not as good as Mars!

However, despite the harsh natural conditions, there are a million people living in this desert! The port of Antofagasta in front of them is the second largest port and the fifth largest city in Chile - there is no surface water source, so they took advantage of the foggy weather to set up hundreds of "fog nets" to collect the water in the fog, so that the dense fog condenses into water droplets on the surface of the nets. It is said that when you are lucky, each net can collect 170 litres of water per day. In addition, long pipes were laid from the Andes to bring snow water to make ends meet.

-- The reason why so many Chileans live in this desert where they don't even have water to drink is not because they like to ask for their own hardships, but because this desert produces a lot of struvite, natural saltpeter and copper ore, all of which can be sold for a good price. And Chile, which is far away from the prosperous areas of the civilized world, is also relying on the trade income of these minerals to be able to afford to play the big navy that burns money...... Although the current Chilean Navy was tossed by the Yankees because of its participation in the world war, there is not much left. However, in the port of Antofagasta, near the northern border, a number of military port facilities were left behind, which are now directly occupied by the Soviet Red Navy, which crossed the Pacific Ocean for the first time, as an advance base for replenishment and rest.

At this moment, the entire harbor of Antofagasta was filled with ocean-going ships of the Soviet Navy flying red flags. The Combined Fleet of the Japanese Navy, which had arrived earlier off the coast of South America, had already left for Peru ahead of schedule to cooperate with the new regime in smashing the counterattack of the pro-American reactionaries in the country.

“…… What is the situation on the Peruvian side? Has the latest information been sent? Did the Japanese Marines make it to the capital, Lima? ”

Turning back to the chart room of the battleship "Lenin", Wang Qiu asked casually while looking at the messy map on the unfolding table.

“…… The progress is relatively smooth, the Russian military port of Kaya outside Lima has been destroyed by shelling, and there are no signs of shore-based aviation taking off to bomb. A part of the intelligence and political workers have already gone ashore to launch an armed uprising of the local Japanese expatriates and cooperate with the new government to encircle and suppress the remnants of the pro-American army......"

Political Commissar Guo used the ship's telephone to keep in touch with the radio room, and at the same time wrote something on the map and notebook with a pencil, "...... The offensive of the pro-American rebels in the capital Lima has been thwarted by the intensive bombardment of the Japanese naval aviation, and a counterattack is now beginning on all fronts......"

“…… Sounds like it's going pretty well...... And what about the Americans? How are they reacting to the changes in South America? ”

Wang Qiu nodded with satisfaction, and then continued to ask, "...... This time they have pried away such a large corner of the wall, and it is in such a deadly vital part, and it may trigger a chain reaction of reshuffling throughout Latin America...... The White House must have gone crazy at this point, right? ”

“…… It's useless even if they're crazy? The main force of the US Navy's Pacific Fleet has been deceived by the previous feints of the Japanese Navy's combined fleet to move westward into the Indian Ocean, and is still staying in the Hawaiian Islands to prepare for war, and it will not be able to catch up with South America for a while. ”

Professor Guo pointed to the Hawaiian Islands on the map with a pencil and replied, "...... Moreover, even if they hurriedly attacked from the Hawaiian Islands, not to mention how long it would take, they would not be able to withstand the joint efforts of half of the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy and the entire Pacific Fleet of the Soviet Red Navy -- the Yamato-class battleships alone would have a full twelve ships in this South American operation! The aircraft carrier mobile fleet is even more ......"

Regarding Professor Guo's above views, Wang Qiu also nodded in agreement.

Although the United States has regarded the whole of Latin America as its own backyard and its sole sphere of influence since the Monroe Doctrine was introduced, the main means of this are economic and political infiltration. As for the troops stationed directly in South American countries, there are really not many -- before World War II, the small size of the US Army was not even a sound when it was spread overseas. After the outbreak of the Pacific War, the US Navy and Army died one after another in the rapid expansion, and there was a shortage of domestic human resources.

Therefore, in the face of the sudden and rapid defection of the South American allies, the Americans in the far north seem to be unable to react at all. (To be continued.) )