Volume 3: Confrontation! The Run of Civilization Chapter 559: Cromwell Debate
Except for a few weirdos, I guess all time travelers know about the theory of evolution. However, in Zhu Youdong's opinion, his main job is to be an emperor, and he has no time and energy to do any scientific research experiments. Therefore, he cannot directly propose this thing himself, but can only guide and let the people of this era understand it themselves.
Of course, the evolution of nature and the knowledge of human origins are important. But for the emperor, what is more important is to derive social evolution from natural evolution: the competition among nations in the world never stops, and if the Ming Dynasty does not continue to make progress, it will fall behind or even be eliminated. This is the most important significance of evolution to the country.
But that's it. To form a theory, this thing needs a lot of physical evidence to support it, which cannot be done without decades of foundation. Therefore, Zheng Guangyuan and Xu Xiake still have a long way to go.
After a while, when Zhu Shengmiao's fleet returned west again, and Tia led her team to Chile in the south. On December 15, 1626, Raimondo led the 15,000-man Second Guard Division and finally arrived at Caracas, the largest port in the Spanish Governorate of New Granada and the capital of Venezuela in the 21st century.
"Welcome, Colonel. We have been looking forward to seeing you and your army for a long time."
"I'm sorry, Governor General. We had originally planned to support America in July this year. But because our submachine guns have just started mass production, the output has not increased. In order to fully replace the army's equipment, I have to wait nearly three more months."
"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. If you don't come again, I can just leave South America and go to Havana. Although those Indians have very advanced weapons, they are only the army. I am not afraid of their navy."
"Eh?" After looking at the Marquis Spinola, Raimondo did not respond to the other party's words. Instead, he stepped aside and said, "Sir, let me introduce you to someone you may know, the Duke of Bourbon, Henry II. This is Oliver Cromwell, an Englishman, and my chief of staff."
After a brief conversation at the dock, Raimondo declined Spinola's welcome banquet and instead requested to start a war meeting right away. Spinola was not dissatisfied with this request, which was different from the social etiquette of European aristocrats: the Marquis was also very worried about the corruption of the American colonies.
After everyone sat down in the mayor's residence of Caracas, Spinola had someone bring up a huge map of South America.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands were the main colonizers of South America. Portugal and the Netherlands occupied some coastal strongholds in eastern South America because of their small population base. Spain, on the other hand, relied on its large population to occupy all of northern South America and also penetrated into the central and southern parts of South America along the Pacific coastline.
Of course, because of Philip's strength in this dimension, Portugal and the Netherlands have now become direct territories of Spain. Therefore, there is now only one colonial country, Spain, in the entire South America.
"Everyone." After a brief greeting, Spinola raised his baton and pointed at Caracas: "We are here now." Then he slid the baton in his hand toward the southwest: "Our Spanish colonies in the Americas are based on central cities as the main bases, and then radiate and control the surrounding areas. Starting from Caracas, Bogota, Quito (later the capital of Ecuador), Lima (the capital of Peru), La Paz (Bolivia), Santiago (Chile), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Asuncion ( Paraguay), this string of cities are the eight pearls on the bracelet of the South American colonies we control. With these eight bases, we can effectively control the vast South American region and provide wealth to His Majesty the King continuously."
Seeing that the attention of the participants was clearly focused, Spinola nodded and continued: "The rebellion of the Indian natives that began last year first broke out near Quito. After receiving the news, I gathered 3,000 troops in the north to quell the rebellion. But, unfortunately, in the battle that lasted for more than two months, although the enemy may have only a few hundred people, we just couldn't catch the enemy's main force, but were constantly ambushed by the enemy in the dense forest. After more than two months of fighting, we lost more than 700 people, and more than 1,000 people were injured. The soldiers began to shrink in the city of Quito and refused to enter the jungle to search for the enemy.
Of course, during the battle, we also killed many rebels and seized many of their weapons. We were surprised to find that the enemy was equipped with breech-loading rifles, and the guns were engraved with Chinese characters. "
“These despicable Chinese!”
"Next, because we failed to quickly wipe out the rebels, this naturally gave the local natives and even some Indo-European mixed races considerable encouragement. So after the Battle of Quito, the size of this rebel army expanded rapidly.
Moreover, the leader of this rebel army was quite cunning. Just when I thought they were going to attack Quito, they turned south and attacked Lima. After I received the news that Lima was under siege, I had to recruit all the strong men from the Viceroyalty of New Spain and formed an army of 5,000 people to follow the enemy southward. As a result..."
After rubbing his face in pain, Spinola said with a gloomy face: "After more than three months of confrontation with the enemy in Lima, the enemy took the initiative to attack us. During the attack, the enemy even took out machine guns!
...Soon after our army was defeated and retreated, Lima fell. According to people who escaped from the city afterwards, the rebels even had a 75mm heavy artillery...
After they entered Lima, they released all the Indians and black slaves from nearby plantations and mines and armed them. And, and…”
"And what? Your Excellency the Governor?"
"They also summoned these lowly slaves and held a public trial in the city's central square, where they tried the mayor of Lima, nobles, and even some merchants and hanged them!"
"Maldita Sea!" After hammering the table hard, Raimondo stood up and apologized to Spinola: "I'm sorry to interrupt you. Please continue, sir."
Waving his hands to show that he didn't care, Spinola smiled bitterly and said, "Next, the scale of the rebels will naturally be larger. Then they will continue to move south, and it is said that they have now reached Santiago. Although I have sent messengers to the governors and mayors in the south to inform them to prepare for the battle, the huge gap in equipment is like our ancestors facing the natives of the Aztec Empire and the Inca Empire. I can't be optimistic about the upcoming war."
After a moment of silence, Cromwell spoke first: "Governor, how many rebels are there now?"
"After the fall of Lima, the enemy's army swelled to nearly 30,000 people. But in recent months, after entering the vicinity of Santiago, they have recruited workers from nearby copper and saltpeter mines into the army. It is estimated that the number has now swelled to more than 40,000 people."
"Haha." Cromwell was very handsome when he was young, especially those two moles, which were very conspicuous when he smiled: "Commander, if you allow me, I would like to express my opinion."
"Of course, you are my chief of staff and I very much need your advice."
Twenty-seven-year-old Cromwell stood up and said, "There is no doubt that our counter-insurgency operation has not been going smoothly due to the gap in weapons. However, although the size of the rebels is getting bigger and bigger, they are not marching northwards, but are instead continuing to move southwards. As we all know, in our American colonies, the northern part has a larger population and a more developed economy. The southern part has just been developed, and many places are wilderness... So the question is, why do the rebel leaders keep going south? What are they going there for?"
"Hmm..." After hesitating for a while, Raimondo looked at Henry II.
The old man smiled and stood up: "Mr. Spinola, are there any pure Indian tribes in the south?"
"Ah? Yes, yes. The Laucans are a large tribe, with about 10,000 people. Their weapons are very backward, and we have too few soldiers around Buenos Aires. So, in recent years, the two sides have been fighting on the Pampas."
"That's it. It seems that the other party wants to build a base there."
After Henry pointed this out to everyone, the atmosphere in the meeting hall suddenly changed from gloomy to bright: Don’t be afraid of you having a base. If you have a base, you must defend it, otherwise you will kill yourself!
"Pa pa." A round of clapping quieted the somewhat heated atmosphere in the meeting room, and Raimondo gestured to Cromwell to continue.
"Everyone, once you have determined the opponent's next move, the next things will be easy." Cromwell also placed the baton on Caracas: "Since receiving the appointment from His Majesty Philip, I have been carefully studying the relevant situation in South America. In my opinion, due to the barrier of the Amazon rainforest, we cannot go directly south to Buenos Aires. And advancing along the Pacific coastal cities such as Bogota, Quito, and Lima will not only take too long, but our logistics supply lines will also be infinitely stretched, which will easily cause problems. Therefore, I suggest that our Second Guards Division, after proper rest, take a ship to the south along the west coast of the Atlantic Ocean and land directly in Buenos Aires. Then fight the enemy on the Pampas!
At the same time, our fleet will pass through the Strait of Magellan and enter the Pacific Ocean. It can be imagined that the Chinese support for these rebels must come from the Pacific Ocean. Our fleet must find the enemy's port and destroy it, completely cutting off the rebels' source of weapons. In this way, we will continue to press on land and cut off their supply routes. We will eventually completely wipe out this rebel army at the southern tip of South America!"
