In the whole of Chile, there are 19 saltpeter mines and 6 copper mines under the standard of the former military overseers of the East, with nearly 10,000 miners and nearly 50,000 people living around mining.

The miners work hard, mining 3.53 million catties of saltpeter per month, but including manpower, all forces are so unreliable in the desert, there are no good roads and fixed water sources to boil nitrate on a large scale, even if the nitrate that is transported out of the desert is still limited, and the finished nitrate that can really be transported to the port of Kopiapo in the south is only 50,000 or 60,000 catties per month.

In the view of the Oriental Military Government, Chile's annual transportation of nitrate soil has leaped from 200,000 catties to 600,000 catties, which is undoubtedly a huge technological progress.

But in reality, the amount of nitrate that Chile can produce is only related to metaphysics, or luck.

Daming's nitrate industry is mature, and the technology of leaching, consideration, evaporation and recrystallization is also impeccable, and the saltpeter mine in Chile is not special to the Ming people, it is ordinary salt nitrate, which is the same as the northwest, but it is more refined.

There are water sources, but the distances are long and the transportation costs are extremely high, in other words, the real limitation of production is capacity.

When the former military overseer Shao Tingda left the desert, he issued a reward to the various tribes, hoping that the aborigines could lead the flag army to find a suitable water source, and only by finding a water source could the flag army and miners survive, and the scale could be expanded There will be more nitrate.

In the desert there are not only saltpeter mines, but also silver mines and copper mines, but these minerals can only be left alone, which is very uncomfortable.

It's like in a famine, why doesn't anyone go hunting and eating? Because the physical strength and calories consumed by hunting have far exceeded the energy replenished by successful hunting, even if the prey is running around in front of them, people who are dying of hunger will not hunt.

Lie quietly and die slowly.

But Shao Tingda is working hard, they are busy building roads into the desert, and when the road surface is smooth, they can transport the wooden rails of the port to the mountain passes into the desert, and build the wooden rails of the carriages, and more people and more tools can be transported into the desert.

It can be regarded as good and bad, at least in the desert, whether it is a wooden track or a railway track, there is no need to worry about human theft, and you can also have less worries when building roads; But the bad thing is that the flag army in the desert can't build the wooden track even if they want to, because they may not be able to find a tree for several days.

Even in the vicinity of the oasis, there are dry thorn grasses all over the ground, and it is difficult to find decent wood.

However, in the process of searching for water, the Banner Army discovered several open-pit copper mines, and one of them appeared to be very large, not far north of the No. 17 Nitrate Mine, which is almost next to the border with Peru.

But at this time, Shao Tingda was not at the No. 17 Nitrate Mine, or even in the nearest Copiapo, but he went to the valley floor on the south bank of the Biobío River, farther south than the former Santiago is now Lear, and the tribe of the Mapuche people.

There was a large camp of the Ming army called the Lautaro Battalion, and the guerrilla general Lin Xiao was the chief officer of the barracks, and trained hundreds of Mapuche warriors to become excellent soldiers.

When Shao Tingda's majestic black war horse stood in front of the gate of the Lautaro camp, he was satisfied with the soldiers who were training in this barracks.

Unlike the languished and sturdy natives of northern Chile who live in the deserts, mountains, lakes and volcanoes, the Mapuche people who were born at the valley floor looked a little more robust and taller, which made them look no different from the Ming soldiers when they wore cotton uniforms, except for the dark skin brought by the wind and sun.

The soldiers wore brown uniforms woven especially for them, cotton robes and mid-jersey trousers with canvas patches on their shoulders, knees, and elbows, and the habit of not wearing shoes was changed by the wrapping of cloth shoes.

But Shao Tingda could still tell at a glance who was the Ming army and who was a Mapuche person.

They had one or two feathers in their turbans, some wore sleeveless alpaca-skin waistcoats over their robes, their spears were tied with feathers, their wooden trays were drilled into round holes, and the feathers were hung with ropes.

"General, the guerrillas of the Lautaro battalion are ready to go to the battlefield, and there is no support for them who are skilled in the use of knives, spears, clubs, bows and crossbows in formation or skirmishers, and when they have support, they are good at using birds, laying mines, handling artillery, and quickly making wooden cannons into battle."

Lin Xiao had already received the news that Shao Tingda had arrived at the Lautaro camp from Kuaimatong, which made his heart suddenly burst out for no reason, and his first reaction was that something had happened.

The battle in Colombia was not bad, and Lautaro drove the guerrillas to ambush all the necessary routes for a year, assassinating and attacking, which severely weakened the power of the Western army in northern Colombia, and now the poorly armed natives even dared to attack the strongholds during the day.

The long period of raids and sieges has brought the war to the last step, uprooting.

At this time, even if Lautaro and the Western Army fought against each other, not to mention whose combat skills were higher, just talking about armaments, maybe Lautaro was better than the Western Army.

Compared with the huge number of civilians it mobilized, the Oriental military government did not give Lautaro many armaments, but they captured a lot of weapons and armor, and the equipment of a Western legion soldier was enough for Lautaro to arm five or six soldiers.

That's all Lin Xiao knows about the situation in Colombia.

Chile has also entered a critical moment, with 19 saltpeter mines opening kilns, as well as three silver mines, six copper mines, and recently traces of large copper mines and small iron deposits in the north.

The Spaniards were keen on gold and silver minerals, and the Ming at this stage was the opposite.

At the official level, they are about to lose interest in silver, with high-quality goods, the military government can earn more than half of the output of the Potosi silver mine from Spain every year, and the imperial court has also passed the time of silver shortage, and the huge amount of silver circulating in the market has also brought a small amount of inflation to the country, from the emperor, Chen Mu, Yin Zhengmao, and Chen Lan from top to bottom, the imperial court and the military government pay more attention to coal, iron, copper, and nitrate.

They are the future.

Makino is the future, and so is Chile.

It was close to the beginning of the year when Chang Sheng handed over the nitrate, Shao Tingda, who was supposed to receive the nitrate goods from all over the country in Liercheng and transport and report to the military government, appeared at this moment in the Lautaro camp in the south.

Lin Xiao naturally had an ominous premonition in his heart, he was worried that it was his uncle Lin Manjue who was guerrilla, but this was not Shao Tingda's intention.

"General Lin, Shao Moulai to convey the bad news to the Lautaro battalion, twenty days ago, General Lautaro led his army to attack Cali, a large city in western Colombia, and attacked the Western Army on the banks of the Cali River, unfortunately became the target of artillery, and was hit by a Franco cannon that fired a scattered son, and his injuries continued to deteriorate and he was unable to take charge of the army."

"Since the general's son is still serving His Majesty in the Jingshi Guozi Prison, General Lautaro asks the military government to take over his unfinished business in the name of Lautaro - to expel Xiyi from the hot land of South Asia."

Lin Xiao's mind was confused.