Mounted on the back of a stout Turkmen horse, and surrounded by a group of old brothers, Pei Qin carefully inspected the defenses on the perimeter of the Western Advance Station. Located between Córdoba and Santa Fe, near what would become San Francisco, Argentina, the station was not small, and at this time it was already stockpiled with mountains of cans, medicines, food, alcohol, ammunition, guns and other ordnance, enough for a force of 6,000 men to continue fighting for three or four months. And in order to build this military station, it took them about three or four months to transport so many materials to this place at the same time.

The road from Córdoba to Santa Fe is so painful! Forests, swamps, and barren meadows are almost primeval (in fact, almost) virgin land, with no roads, no inhabitants, and no place to resupply. In other words, this vast plain became almost the best barrier for the Spanish defeat in Córdoba. Without such a vast no-man's land, Córdoba would have been completely wiped out by the East Coasters.

From Santa Fe to the Western Arrival Station, and from the Western Arrival Station to Córdoba, the road was littered with damaged vehicles abandoned by the Spaniards, people or livestock that had fallen on the way, and war baggage that had been discarded as a burden. The overturned cart spilled a large amount of wheat on the grass, and under the moisture of rain and sunshine, many wheat grains had taken root in the grass and grown green wheat seedlings; Siege engines, artillery mounts, barrels, etc., were everywhere, and they were already covered with moss or fungus, and occasionally a rat was hiding in the middle of it to probe its brain. It's not bleak.

The people on the East Coast who saw this scene all shook their heads and sighed. How panicked the Spaniards were when they retreated from here! At the same time, they sighed. If there had been a railroad that had allowed the people on the east coast to transport large quantities of war materials to the front in time, perhaps none of the defeated Spanish troops would have escaped. But this was destined to be a beautiful fantasy, and the people on the east coast had neither the railroad nor the money or time to build it, so they could only spend months honestly building a strong forward station and stockpiling supplies here before setting out again to attack the enemy army in the west.

After the rotation of a group of troops, two months ago. The large army under the command of Major Jiang Zhiqing had already crossed the western marching station, and then, led by cavalry, was slaughtered towards the Spanish town of Córdoba. Nowadays, even among the lower sergeants, the news of peace talks with the Kingdom of Spain is not a secret. Everyone doesn't have any special feelings about this, but they just feel a little regretful, Nima, everyone hasn't made enough money, why did they suddenly talk to the Spaniards? How is this possible! How can this be!

Therefore, driven by such a mentality, the nearly 6,000 officers and men of the entire Jiang Zhiqing detachment have a sense of urgency in their hearts. They carried forward the spirit of hardship and hard work, searched and attacked all the way, and successively routed several small Spanish troops that were delayed on the east coast. Then arrive outside Córdoba.

What is the battle situation over there now, Pei Qin, who stayed in the rear, is not very clear. But from the mouths of the wounded soldiers who returned from the front line of Tongguò, it was known that the attack of the army on the east coast there was not very smooth. The main reason was the difficulty of transporting ammunition and supplies, and there was a long interval after each attack to wait for logistics and transportation, but the Spaniards were fighting on the inside at this time, with sufficient supplies and morale bonuses to defend their homeland, so the progress of the East Coast was very slow. So far, only a few enemy strongholds outside Córdoba have been cleared, and at the same time, it has been very difficult to face the possible enemy reinforcements on the flanks.

At the beginning of this month (January 1649), 2,000 officers and soldiers of the newly formed Xiayihe County Militia Brigade and Qingdao County Militia Brigade drove to the Xijin Military Station. After a little resupply, the high-spirited lads sang military songs and headed west, where they would rotate the other two county militia brigades that had been fighting on the front lines for a long time, so that they could go home and collect the grain in the fields, so as not to miss the farming time.

Truth be told, Pei Chin was envious of the well-dressed and high-spirited young soldiers, who were able to follow under the banner of the American Condor, water their own flowers of honor with the blood of the enemy, and by the way, work hard for their own purse. But the hundreds of officers and soldiers who stayed behind in the military station were miserable, and they could only squat in this desolate place all day to cut grass and chop wood, take care of the wounded, organize supplies, and capture barbarians, and at the same time be attacked from time to time by Guaraní people who came south from the northern Paraguayan region, which was really frustrating enough.

"Grab it, collect it, collect it! When will I be able to wait for the west! There was a complaint in the ears of the sons, these officers and soldiers from the Shun army went south and north, went to Xiangyang, fought in Kaifeng, fought in Xi'an, and entered Beijing. They are not very interested in fighting tough battles, but they are quite interested in looting the enemy's rich towns when their own side has a clear advantage, so they have always been angry about not being able to "make a fortune" westward this time. In particular, most of them are now married, thanks to the blessing of the imperial court, and they are all married to the white-skinned Greek aunts-in-law, and the weight of the family burden makes them eager to grab more wealth, so they are very dissatisfied with the arrangement of their superiors to stay at the military station, and they have been complaining in private.

"I'm not a master of the imperial court, I was raised by my stepmother, so naturally I can't wait for good things." The sources of the troops brought by Pei Qin and Wang Jiazhong are complex, including soldiers who are veterans of the Shun army, local bandits and bandits who have been recruited in Shandong, and Korean strong men who have been forcibly pulled on Jeju Island, so their combat effectiveness is quite suspicious, and it is understandable that they are not regarded as regular troops on weekdays. However, their treatment, if they were really more serious, was still much better than the few gaucho herdsmen, the Krandi volunteers, and the Tatar mercenaries under Jiang Zhiqing, and it seemed that these people should really complain.

"It's also that the battles of Kecheng (Corrientes) a while ago were too sloppy, otherwise why would the imperial court despise us so much. In the first three battles of Kecheng, almost all of our troops were defeated, Vice General Li was killed in battle, Chen guerrilla formation was killed, and no less than 400 officers and soldiers were killed or wounded. If it weren't for the fact that Shangfeng sent some advisers to guide our troops in battle, I would have seen it unimaginable. At this time, don't fucking talk nonsense, you, Wang Mazi, were so frightened that you dragged the gun and ran back, the military judge didn't see it, but my grandson can see it clearly, with your virtue, can you rest assured that you will go to the front line to fight? A resolute-looking man glanced at someone who was complaining and said disdainfully.

Xu is words were too hurtful, and Wang Mazi, who was born as a bandit, immediately retorted with a red face, and made a fuss for a while, Pei Qin couldn't help but scold a few words loudly before everyone calmed down.

"It's all a bunch of muddy balls!" Pei Qin beat a few people with a horsewhip, and then he barely suppressed his anger: "The battle in front of you is probably over at this time, and you yourself are still making trouble here." With kung fu, it's better to go out twice more to catch some Guarani people back, what did the Yamen of the General Administration of Railways say, catch a native and reward five yuan, and if you catch a thousand, it will be five thousand yuan! The good thing of getting rich in the west is not our turn, and this opportunity to get rich in front of us should also be missed? A bunch of idiots! ”

Everyone was so trained by Pei Qin that they didn't dare to say anything, and they followed Pei Qin silently one by one to continue to inspect the military facilities outside the city. From time to time, a small group of Guarani people sneak over and carry out sneak attacks, ranging from negligence to negligence. If the thousands of military resources accumulated here are destroyed, then they will certainly die and go to prison, but they are afraid that the thousands of troops on the front line will also be dragged down by them and the whole army will collapse, and they cannot afford this responsibility.

After inspecting the various outposts, Pei Qin returned to the command room located inside the military station, still thinking about how to squeeze out a limited number of troops to capture some natives in order to generate some income for everyone. Nowadays, various infrastructure undertakings in China are in the ascendant, especially the General Administration of Railways, which is seriously short of personnel, and has entrusted the War Department to promise them a reward of five yuan for a native slave, and the cash transaction, how much is collected, which makes everyone very excited.

However, there are some practical difficulties. One is that everyone's job is to guard the military station to ensure the endless supply of materials to the front-line combat troops, so they can only draw out about 200 people at most at a time, and the remaining 300 or so people must stay at the military station to guard against possible unexpected factors; The second is that almost all the natives in the vicinity have been caught, and if they want to be caught, they will have to walk a long way to search in some unfamiliar places, which is a great challenge for them. Therefore, on the whole, it is not so easy to catch the natives, don't look at the hundreds of thousands of Cranti people in the entire La Plata, but scattered in such a vast area, you are really hard to find for a while.

Pei Qin shook his head, put the matter behind him for the time being, and then carefully took out a pinch of tobacco from his pocket, put it in his pipe and lit it. And just as he was comfortably swallowing the clouds, his adjutant hurried in from outside and brought him an update on the front: "On January 16, the 106th Company of the Army, led by Captain Anda XV, was the first to break through the Spanish interception and enter the city of Córdoba. Encouraged by Captain Anda, the rest of our army launched a fierce attack on all fronts, and the next day they entered the city one after another, and the fall of Córdoba was imminent, and the 'seizure operation' also entered the end......"

"So fast!" Pei Qin, who heard the news, was stunned at first, and then quickly reacted: I'm afraid the war is about to end completely! (To be continued......)