Volume 4: Hot! The whole world is a warring state Chapter 648: The Eight Great Kings of the Protectorate
"Huff, huff." Amid the sound of heavy breathing, a long team was moving forward laboriously and quickly along a dangerous ridge line.
"Dances with Wolves, are you okay?"
"Boss, it's okay. I can handle it."
"Don't be so stubborn. This is the Andes Mountains, which is 4,000 meters above sea level. It's not like the Pampas we used to roam on."
"Oh, it's okay, boss. I'm definitely tired, but as long as I think about the fact that we are fighting for our own country, so that we Indians will no longer be subjected to the inhuman torture and cruel exploitation of the Spanish, I don't feel tired at all."
"Hiss~" Hearing the answer from his men who had followed him to rob manors for many years, Zhang Xianzhong's lungs, which had already become like a broken bellows, couldn't help but take another breath of cold air.
If it were in the past, when faced with such a difficult march, these guys under his command, who were called righteous soldiers but were actually horse bandits, would have complained bitterly. But now, although they were walking very hard, they were all trying their best to persevere. Not only that, these eyes that used to shine only for gold, silver and women, now flashed with a light that he could not understand.
Thinking of this, he stopped and let his team pass by him quickly. After a long time, he finally saw Xia Yunyi, the political commissar of the 4th Division of the American Volunteer Army, who was carried on a stretcher by four Indian warriors sent by Zhu Shengmiao, who had lived in the Andes mountain area for a long time.
"What will happen to the Political Commissar now?"
"Still, cough, cough, huh, still having trouble breathing, and feeling weak all over. Sigh, we scholars are weak, and we are embarrassed to be laughed at by the teacher."
"Hahaha, the civil and military divisions of labor, each with their own strengths. Uh..." Zhang Xianzhong rarely hesitated in front of Xia Yunyi: "Well, the political commissar."
"What on earth do you want to say, Master?"
"Well, it feels like the situation of the entire team has changed since the Political Commissar came to my old Zhang's team, no, the Emperor's Fourth Division of the American Volunteer Army."
"Ahem, huh~"
Seeing Xia Yunyi trying to get up from the stretcher, Zhang Xianzhong quickly stretched out his hands and pressed him onto the stretcher: "Political Commissar, you should have a good rest. This is already the top of the mountain, and we will start to go down the mountain later. After we go down the mountain and the political commissar feels better, I, Zhang, will come to ask you some, uh, methods of guiding the soldiers' thoughts."
"Oh, so, ahem, that's it. Well, after we go down the mountain and capture Cromwell's supply point, we can talk about it later."
"It's a deal!"
It was January 1637, summer in the southern hemisphere. The snow on the top of the Andes Mountains had melted a lot, and it was actually quite dangerous to march in the Andes Mountains at this time.
But it was necessary to do so, because after successfully taking Lima, Sun Chuanting single-handedly created the Inca Kingdom with Tia as the queen, and the Ming Dynasty had a banner to call on all American Indians in America, and it also completely ended the guerrilla warfare and set up a fixed target for the other side.
In the 21st century, Lima is the capital of Peru. Peru, with Lima as its core, can be divided into three parts geographically.
On the westernmost side, along the coast near the Pacific Ocean, there are intermittent and narrow coastal plains and hills, which were the main agricultural areas of Peru in later generations. To the east, in the middle part of the country, there are the towering Andes Mountains. Further east is the western edge of the Amazon rainforest.
As we all know, precious metals usually rise from the ground to the surface during crustal orogeny or volcanic eruptions. Therefore, metal mines are often associated with "mountains".
America is said to be rich in gold and silver, but in fact, more than 90% of the production comes from the Andes Mountains. The largest rich mine in the Andes Mountains is in the mountains near Lima. In the 17th century, the mines near Lima were the largest silver and brass producers in the Spanish American colonies. Even in the 21st century, Peru is still the world's largest silver exporter and the second largest copper exporter.
Therefore, Sun Chuanting chose to raise the flag in Lima half a year after arriving in America, and the preliminary work was done extremely carefully.
The reason for choosing Lima is that the agricultural and fishery production here is sufficient to feed many soldiers. The second reason is that the geographical location is excellent. In this era, whether it is crossing the Amazon rainforest or crossing the Andes Mountains, it is a very dangerous thing. It can be said that as long as the sea power is in hand, Lima will not be attacked by the enemy on a large scale: the geographical conditions limit the enemy's logistics and transportation, which naturally limits the scale of the invading enemy. The third reason is, of course, because the output of silver and brass here is large enough, so large that Spain can't afford to lose it! It is so large that Spain knows that it is extremely difficult to control the sea at this time, but it still can't wait to send the main force to attack by land.
In May of last year, Raimondo and Cromwell both felt very distressed after receiving the news of the fall of Lima: as long as their navy did not have the strength to defeat the Ming navy, it would be very painful for the soldiers to walk to Lima by land on foot.
However, no matter how painful it is, we have to concentrate our forces and slowly move over there: As I said before, the silver provided by that place to Spain alone is as high as 150,000 kilograms every year. At least 6 million double columns with a silver content of about 25 grams each are used to cast: this is not simply 6 million yuan in fiscal revenue, it is an increase in volume. After being put into the market, with the scale of the EU economy today, it can at least leverage nearly 100 million in market circulation funds!
Therefore, Lima and its surrounding mines must be taken back as soon as possible!
In June 1636, the two met in Rio de Janeiro and agreed that Raimondo in the north would first advance to Quito (the capital of Ecuador in later generations), and then move southward along the Pacific coastline to Lima. Cromwell's southern army would cross the entire South American continent, then cross the Andes Mountains, and then meet Raimondo near Lima.
Although Cromwell's route seemed much longer than Raimondo's, in fact, thanks to the well-developed water system in South America, Cromwell's logistical supply line was much easier than Raimondo's: that is, crossing the Andes Mountains was more troublesome.
The combined forces of the two men exceeded 100,000: among them, about 47,000 were from Europe (after Tia started the rebellion in America, Philip sent two batches of reinforcements. The first batch was two divisions of 40,000 mainly composed of former European mercenaries, and the second batch was Spain’s most elite Second Guard Division of 15,000 people. After six or seven years, after many battle losses, these three divisions also lost more than 7,000 people).
In addition, the remaining 50,000 people were the troops that Spain had recruited from the American continent: some were European-Indian hybrids, some were Indians, and some were black slaves. Compared with the previous 40,000 people, although this group of troops had Spanish officers and their equipment was also good, there was no doubt that their combat effectiveness, fighting will, and loyalty were far inferior to those of the troops sent from Europe.
As for Sun Chuanting, originally, the so-called Indians were just a general term used by the Spanish to refer to the indigenous people of North and South America. In fact, the indigenous people of this continent spoke at least 2,000 languages, and they did not consider other tribes as their own.
However, during the more than 100 years of Spanish colonization in America, too many local people were killed and too harshly exploited. As a result, many local indigenous people gradually developed a unified sense of identity! When the Ming Dynasty persisted in guerrilla warfare here for more than ten years, the Indians in Central and South America saw that the Spaniards were not invincible, and their thoughts gradually changed.
Therefore, when the flag of the Inca Kingdom was once again flying, the Indians across the American continent who heard the news had a significant change in their emotions. Then, the transfer of Raimondo and Cromwell could not be concealed from Sun Chuanting at all.
In response to the enemy's strategy of advancing from the east and north, Sun Chuanting's deployment was: Li Zicheng's Third Division relied on the narrow terrain to resist in stages on the northern line. The First Division (Ming regular army) and the Fourth Division of our side concentrated their superior forces and tried to eat up Cromwell's army, and then the main force turned around to eat up Raimondo.
Specifically speaking of the tasks of the two divisions, the First Division led by Sun Chuanting was responsible for confronting Cromwell's main force at various mountain passes in the Andes, while Zhang Xianzhong's Fourth Division was to cross the Andes in the opposite direction and find and destroy Cromwell's logistic supply lines in the Amazon rainforest.
"Hoo, Boss, no, Commander, our scouts ahead encountered the Chawat people in the rain forest. According to them, Cromwell's supply camp is in the leeward part of the mountain less than ten kilometers away from us."
"The Chawat tribe?" Zhang Xianzhong frowned. "I've never met them before. What language do they speak? How do they communicate?"
"Commander, this is a fishing and hunting tribe active on the east side of the Andes Mountains and the west end of the rain forest. Many of their people have previously joined the Second Division directly under Her Majesty Tiya. They use their native language, and we communicate with them through the guide sent to our division by Commander Zhu Shengmiao."
"I see. I feel more relieved now . Then, pass the order and have 'Boulder Thrower' lead a company to go out and investigate. Be careful to observe as closely as possible without disturbing the enemy. If the other side is just a small camp, we will try to wipe it out. If we are not sure of wiping it out, we will bypass it. I don't want to expose the whereabouts of the entire army because of a small fish."
"Okay!"
After about an hour, the scout came back: "Boss, we went to explore the stronghold. The stronghold is very large, and there is a lot of cooking smoke inside. According to the Chawat people, this group of white people came here more than a month ago. At least tens of thousands of people came at that time. But twelve days ago, more than half of the white people left here and went west."
"Well, this is probably the group of people we saw on the opposite ridge a few days ago. Although they saw us that day, we have been carrying out a forced march since that day, risking altitude sickness. So now that we are here, they haven't come back yet?"
"Boss, this is how it should be."
"Okay, in that case, let's do this. Pass the order down, the first and second regiments will guard the rear, and the third to ninth regiments will deploy. As usual, surround the area, conduct reverse reconnaissance to confirm that it is safe, and then attack on all fronts."
"Okay!"
Just as Zhang Xianzhong began to deploy his troops, in the huge camp at the foot of the mountain, Cromwell, who had a big mole on his chin, was sitting leisurely in the main tent of the camp, sipping a glass of wine. In front of him, an old Indian elder was crawling.
"Sir, my warriors have already led the righteous army, no, the rebel army, here as you requested. Please keep your promise and release the elderly, weak, women and children of our tribe."
"Hahaha, respected Chawat tribe leader, please rest assured that my words are always trustworthy. Well, this is the warrant for the release of your people. I'm handing it over to you now. Take this warrant and go to the camp where your tribe used to spend the winter 20 kilometers southeast of here and give it to my officer there."
"Thank you for your kindness."
"Oh, chief, we Europeans are not as vicious as you think. We are reasonable. Please go back to your tribe and tell them not to work for the Chinese from the far west coast of the Pacific Ocean. It is very dangerous. Because according to the new order of Governor Raimondo, if we find anyone working for the Chinese, we will exterminate the entire tribe. On the contrary, if you work for us, the Spaniards, we will give you generous rewards."
"Yes, I will make my people withdraw from the rebel army, no, from the rebellion army."
Or the rebels? It seems that they have failed again. Watching the hunched body of Chief Chawat slowly leaving the main tent, Cromwell shook his head helplessly: The Empire's rule in America is really a bit dangerous.
The red wine in his hand shook slightly, and after drinking the blood-red wine in the glass in one gulp, the corner of his mouth with a big mole smiled coldly again: It doesn't matter, with me, Cromwell, those yellow-skinned monkeys will soon find out that in America, a continent ruled by us white people, they either have to be slaves honestly or die!
