Many times, it has to be said that the Spanish system in La Plata is deformed. First of all, economically and politically, the center of La Plata is in Asunción. Far from being the late development of the lower Paraná River, the affluent region of Paraguay is a veritable thriving region with its dense population, fertile land, herds of cattle and sheep, wine and sweet corn. Just a few decades ago, these cities in the lower reaches of the Paraná River, including Buenos Aires, were still at least nominally under the direct jurisdiction of the city of Asunción.

However, with the rise of the people on the east bank, it became clear that the military center of La Plata gradually shifted to the lower Paraná River, and then gradually the political center also shifted there. More and more institutions, including military, economic, religious and political institutions, have moved here, which has led to a significant increase in the city's population. Of course, the lag in the construction of municipal facilities has also made it difficult for the newly moved residents to the city – especially when it's raining and you'll need to be accompanied by spilling and urine.

Álvaro stood in front of the window, looking through the cloudy transparent glass window with a few bubbles out of the cloudy transparent glass window, which was covered with fine rain. There are not many pedestrians on the streets anymore, but there are still some people who are running for life in the rain.

With a "creak", Dominguez pushed the door open and walked in. I saw him take off his soaked raincoat and hand it to the servant behind him, and at the same time take off his wet hat and salute Álvaro: "Good day, sir." Captain Rodrigo's wife, Baroness Sebastian's butler, came to fetch some whale oil soap, which was running out of stock. There is no need for too many people to guard the warehouse. So I removed half of them. Let them go back to the country pastures. It's not been very peaceful there lately. More people need to stay, or the horses in the pasture will be stolen by the damned, despicable gauchos. ”

"Damn the gauchos, they are half barbarian and never know the meaning of the word civilization." Álvaro was still staring motionless out of the window, but his mouth was insulting others in the most vicious language: "Barbarians are savages, and no matter how much they hide them, in the end we can still see the clues in their rude behavior." ”

Dominguez stood aside, expressionless and did not answer.

"Pedro. You have served in the Flanders Legion for many years, what do you think of the combat effectiveness of the army on the East Coast? Álvaro finally turned around at this time, sat down in his chair, and looked at Domingos, a middle-aged mercenary with a face full of vicissitudes.

"Sir, there are no more Flemish legions...... Domingos said bitterly, "I have not seen the armies of the East Coasters fighting or training, so I cannot make a valid judgment of their combat effectiveness. But I have heard that on the East Coast, even the most ordinary militia has several times the number of live-fire training sessions a year that of the Standing Army of the Old Continent. Not to mention that they also have a lot of queue training and tactical coordination training. The same is true for the militia, and the training intensity of the standing army will only increase. The combat effectiveness will only be stronger. ”

"Instead, look at our country." Domingos continued, "Even in the original elite Flemish Legion, many of the recruits recruited were mostly farmers who didn't know anything, or simply beggars and vagabonds, and basically did not have any military qualities. The combat effectiveness that the Flanders legion later possessed, honed entirely in endless battles, is irreproducible. Look at the newly recruited soldiers in the country today, they are not trained to fight the French head-on. Looking at the soldiers of La Plata, although the shadow of the fiasco more than ten years ago has dissipated, the quality of the soldiers is still not optimistic. I've seen General Garcia's training, and the soldiers are of poor quality, the newly recruited Central and Southern Europeans are mixed with the veterans who have survived the last defeat, they have little combat experience, and their morale is low - frankly, they are all fighting for dinner, and I don't think such an army can withstand the attack of the East Coast army. ”

"No one who knows the state of affairs in La Plata wants to be at odds with the East Coast." Álvaro accentuated his voice and said irritably: "Now that trade has stopped, the good times of the gentlemen of La Plata and even the neighboring cities of Charcas and Santiago are over. They no longer have access to cheap East Coast textiles, whale oil soaps and candles, hardwood furniture, fine leather goods, and clocks, the mines have no access to durable East Coast metal tools, the plantations lack proper farm tools, the repairers lack good steel and hardware tools, our wool, furs, and meat cannot be sold, the economy seems to have come to a standstill, the standard of living may have dropped a little, and everyone is dissatisfied, but there is nothing to be done. I could only watch as La Plata slid into the abyss step by step. ”

"General Garcia is actually aware of the danger in this regard." Dominguez shook his head and said, "But there's so little he can do." So far, only half of the regiment (600 men) has been formed in La Plata, and the combat concept is very outdated, a considerable number of soldiers still use spears, and the proportion of musketeers is only half. What age was this, since the East Coast army led the trend of all-firearms troops, the development of flintlock pistols and their tactics was rapid with each passing day, and the spearmen were also largely eliminated. But we are still using the ancient Spanish Phalanx, which, with all due respect, will only lead to the humiliation of another defeat. ”

Ever since García, a Navy veteran, became Admiral de La Plata, he has focused on reviving the region's long-neglected local defenses. On the one hand, he rectified the old army, cleared out all the soldiers who could not pass the examination, and then used them to establish a "modern" police system modeled on the East Bank Republic, and vigorously cracked down on all kinds of criminal activities, which made the law and order situation in La Plata improve considerably, and won unanimous praise from the upper class.

Secondly, he recruited a large number of homeless people and the local poor to form a new army, the La Plata Regiment. The unit was based in Santa Fe, between Asunción and Buenos Aires, and in the open grasslands of the region, the La Plata regiment often conducted some military training and sometimes participated in the war against the barbarians in order to gain combat experience. Unfortunately, due to financial reasons, the number of the Rio Plata regiment was just over 600, the training in live ammunition was quite insufficient, and there were only four cannons - all of them were small-caliber. Will such a force be able to defend La Plata? I'm afraid that even Major Anthony, the commander of the La Plata regiment, did not have confidence.

Excluding the La Plata regiment, the Spaniards' local armed forces were only the militia self-defense forces in some towns in the Paraná Valley, which numbered about seven or eight hundred people in total, but they were basically not frontal except for the suppression of the natives, and they were extremely scattered and could not form a joint force.

"Relax, Pedro." Álvaro squeezed out a smile and said to Domingos, "The latest information brought by His Excellency the Inspector General shows that the king has no intention of going to war with the people of the East Bank, but is only angry that the people of the East Bank have done some heinous things, such as persecuting the followers of the Lord. The Viceroyalty of Peru had no intention of going to war with the East Coasters, and the main reason why they appointed the hard-line García, a lowly descendant of the pig herd, as General de La Plata was to reorganize the defense of La Plata and to put pressure on the East Coasters, both political and economic, to abandon some of their anachronistic policies. In fact, Garcia was not authorized to go to war with the Orientals, and the gentlemen of the city agreed that there would be no war in La Plata, and that the Orientals would not be foolish enough to provoke His Majesty Philip IV. So, rest assured, war won't happen! Moreover, trade will still recover in the future. ”

"I'm not worried about us, the most expensive gentleman. My fear is that the East Coasters will misjudge the situation, and that's scary. "It's likely that they've decided we're going to use force against them, so their fleet came to the Río de la Plata, which I think is a dangerous sign." This shows that the people on the East Coast are already angry at some of our policies, so they are issuing a warning. Unfortunately, many of the gentlemen of the City Council did not pay enough attention to this, and the next day they forgot the humiliating fact that Buenos Aires was under the guns of the enemy fleet, and then His Excellency the Inspector General and General García ordered the Chambers of Commerce to withdraw from the Colonia Free Trade City, which was undoubtedly an act of adding fuel to the fire. I doubt that the patience of the people on the east coast has been exhausted, and that they may well misjudge the situation under the influence of various factors such as nervousness, fear, worry, etc., in the face of our repeated actions, and thus openly start a war against La Plata, which is what I fear the most, and there is nothing more worrying to me, really. ”

"I need a newspaper from the East Coast, yes, Pravda! Giving me a way to collect the recently printed Pravda, I think we really need to know what these pagans think. Thank you, Pedro, I'm surprised by your experience, maybe you're right this time, we need to take a good look at what the East Coasters have done recently. This will make the policy-making veterans on our side more cautious, they need to have a clearer understanding of the enemy. Álvaro thought for a moment before he suddenly spoke. (To be continued......)