56 Spanish captives caused a stir at Dingyuan Fort. Xiao Bailang and Lin Youde looked at these dejected Spaniards dumbfounded, not knowing what to say.

On the wall of Dingyuan Fort, Lan Guo, the deputy chief of the second post who rotated the third post to guard here, led a group of people to whistle and coax, and from time to time there were jokes such as "good man", "kind", and "pure man".

Chang Kaisheng took a sip, ignored the heartless hooligan Qiu Ba, and walked straight into the castle.

"What's going on? You robbed the Spaniards? As soon as he entered the city gate, Xiao Bailang rushed over with his agile skills, grabbed Chang Kaisheng's hand and asked. Lin Youde next to him was also puzzled and nervous.

"Phew! It was the Spaniards who robbed the Portuguese, was bumped into by Lao Tzu, and did justice. Chang Kaisheng joked nonchalantly while glancing at the two of them out of the corner of his eye.

Chang Kaisheng also figured it out in the past two days, everything has been done, and he can still do what he can do with himself, so he can't tie up his Chang and send him to Buenos Aires to ask the Spanish men to calm their anger. Besides, this time I was really unlucky, and I bumped into the Spaniards fighting smuggling, and I didn't have time to dodge if I wanted to. In addition, he didn't shoot first, so there's nothing wrong with saying that he broke the sky.

However, having said that, Chang Kaisheng was still a little apprehensive in his heart. He peeked at the facial expressions of Xiao Bailang and the others, and didn't find anything special, so he was relieved.

The news reached the port of Tatartan on the evening of Chang Kaisheng's return.

The conference room on the third floor of the administration building was gloomy. What kind of impact and variables this unexpected armed conflict will bring to everyone's cause is what will be discussed at today's emergency meeting of the Executive Board.

"I inquired yesterday. According to some Portuguese smugglers who came to trade, the Spaniards in Buenos Aires have recently begun to attack the smuggling trade in the area near the mouth of the Río de la Plata, and many hapless Portuguese smugglers and even white natives of La Plata have been arrested. Of course, the process of this capture will not be peaceful, as we have encountered, the Spaniards used force to capture. Many of the smugglers caught were sentenced to death by hanging, and the rest were punished by exile and hard labor. Gaumo reported something he knew.

"The Portuguese have not been engaged in the smuggling trade in La Plata for a year or two, and I estimate that they have no less than twenty secret trading posts on the east coast alone. I've never seen those Spaniards fight so hard before, so what's going on this time? Took the wrong medicine, so hard?! Tang Yuan, a member of the Finance Committee, said angrily that the Ministry of Commerce and Trade under his jurisdiction can make thousands of yuan a month from the smuggling trade, and there may be more in the future, so it is a pity to give up such a large source of wealth in vain.

"It is said that there is a chief inspector from the mainland." "The Inspector General seems to be quite conscientious, and he can't tolerate these smugglers breaking the kingdom's laws, well, maybe he can't tolerate someone else destroying his purse. This Inspector General should have gone to Lima some time ago, and perhaps there he exercised the powers of the Viceroy (1) to instruct the Irregulars side of La Plata to combat the smuggling trade. ”

"The question is how determined are they to fight the smuggling trade? It is clear that they are no longer limited to patrolling the sea, but have begun to use the army to go ashore to clear secret trading depots. It's a red flag, they definitely know about our existence, so what is their attitude towards us? Do you want to clear it by force? Xiao Bailang asked. This time the matter was very important, and he temporarily put aside his work at the end of Dingyuan Fort and rushed back to the meeting.

"It's hard to say." Gao Mo thought for a long time, and only gave an ambiguous answer. "The roots of those Portuguese smugglers are in Brazil, and although Portugal is now under the rule of Spain, it is difficult to cut off their roots directly from the top, judging from the usual cold attitude of the Portuguese towards the Spaniards; And it is not appropriate to use force directly, after all, it is also its own territory in name. We're different, we're outsiders, we're weak, and it's hard to say if they're going to think badly about us. ”

"Is the military strength of the La Plata region strong?" Peng Zhicheng is a soldier, and he only cares about the strength of the opponent he has to face. At noon today, when Chang Kaisheng had not yet arrived at Dingyuan Fort, his subordinate Jiang Zhiqing rode back to Tatangang on horseback and met with Peng Zhicheng privately. Chang Kaisheng's honest deputy gave the matter to Peng Zhicheng one by one, but Peng Zhicheng was the first person among the members of the executive committee to know the details of the matter. He thought about it, there was indeed nothing wrong with Chang Kaisheng in this matter, so he asked Jiang Zhiqing to go back and tell Chang Kaisheng to wait with peace of mind.

"It shouldn't be very strong." "Based on the information we have received, plus some historical records, the regular army near the city of Buenos Aires should not exceed 600; Asunción would have been a little more, probably 1,000, and with some municipalities in between, the total number of Spaniards in La Plata would probably be less than 2,000. ”

"2,000 people," Peng Zhicheng muttered, "that is to say, if they want to send the army to deal with us, we will only need to face 3-4 companies at most, that is, 900-1200 people, and maybe some militia such as volunteers, and the full battle will not exceed 1500 people." ”

"1,500 is a lot." Wang Qinian glanced at Peng Zhicheng and said, "Can your army carry 1,500 people?" I've heard that the Spanish colonial army had a high percentage of musketeers, and many of them were armed with flintlock muskets. ”

"You don't have to worry about the Army. You're still worried about the Spanish fleet, not to mention the Peruvian fleet that might be reinforced, and even a few of their ships in the La Plata area are not something you can deal with, right? Don't go by then, when people advance by land and water, our army won the battle but was suffocated to death at home because your navy didn't have a single sampan, then it was called injustice. Peng Zhicheng sneered. He is really tired of Wang Qinian now, and since the last disarmament incident, the two have been looking at each other indifferently recently.

"Speaking of the blockade, I think it's time for us to increase the import of some strategic materials recently?" Shao Shude, a member of the material committee, reminded, "For example, medicine, linen, cotton cloth, gunpowder, copper, pig iron, lead, coal and even livestock. We must be prepared for a long blockade, in which gunpowder, copper, iron, and lead are not very scarce, coal is relatively scarce, and medicines, linen, cotton cloth, and livestock are very scarce. ”

"It's right to increase imports, but it will take at least half a year for people to ship goods, is it too late?" Xiao Mingli asked.

"Don't overestimate the efficiency of the Spaniards." "If the Spaniards really attack our idea, they will investigate intelligence, prepare supplies, and assemble troops, and the more people there are, the longer the delay. Coupled with the inconvenience of transportation and the huge amount of time it takes to transmit messages and orders, this battle really cannot be fought in a year and a half. ”

Ma Ganzu had been watching everyone discussing before, and he didn't interject. At this time, seeing that everyone was almost discussed, he felt that the time was ripe, so he came out and said: "Comrades, whether the Spaniards will come to attack us or not, we must be prepared with both hands." On the military front, the militia training that we have always insisted on cannot be stopped, and it must be strictly trained. In the event of war, the army should be expanded, and these militias should be able to quickly replenish and form combat effectiveness; As for the navy, this year's enrollment in the navigation school began two months ahead of schedule, and the number of places was appropriately expanded, with 90 students enrolled. If you study and train at the same time, these people will be the seeds of the navy in the future. ”

Ma Ganzu said for a while, drank a few sips of water, took the opportunity to observe the expressions of the rest of the people, and then continued: "In terms of civil affairs, I have summarized these points. First, from now on, we must speed up the hoarding of materials, especially the materials that we urgently need that we cannot produce in the short term. From today onwards, place an order with every ship that comes to trade, and the price is negotiable, and whoever ships more and the faster we will give the higher the price. Second, the speed of immigration should be accelerated, and now with the slaves, our total population is less than 6,200 people. Although a city with a population of a few thousand is not small in South America, we are facing a kingdom of Spain with a population of 4 million, and the colony of La Plata alone has a population of tens of thousands, so we are still far behind. Third, now the stalls in the Dingyuanbao reclamation area are not small, and 15 production teams have been placed alone. When the time comes, these scattered villages may be used by the enemy, this is not good! Lao Xiao, give me a good word, if there is a war, can the personnel from the villages and factories outside retreat to the fort? ”

"Definitely not!" Xiao Bailang replied: "There are 15 villages, 2 brick kiln factories, 1 cement factory, and 1 livestock farm outside, and there are more than 2,000 people alone, as well as hundreds of livestock. Dingyuan Fort City is only 600 meters around, and there is still a factory and a school in it, and there is definitely no place to place it. Even if it is reluctantly settled, the infrastructure cannot keep up, and the existing housing, sanitation, drinking water and other facilities are built according to the standard of 300 residents, which is too far behind. ”

"Then expand!" Ma Qianzu turned his head to Shao Shude and said, "Is the task of the construction team heavy in the near future?" ”

Shao Shude flipped through his notebook, and then said: "At present, the construction team has more than 600 people, and the projects under construction include the residential housing project of the 14th and 15th production teams of the Hope Brigade in the Dingyuanbao Reclamation Area, the No. 1 Highway (Tatangang - Dingyuan Fort) project, the capital city wall expansion project, and the No. 4 port fort construction project. ”

"There are priorities." Ma Ganzu waved his hand and said: "The 14th and 15th production teams have a quarter of the manpower left, and it doesn't matter if this project is completed later; Highway 1 is not in a hurry, and the construction will be suspended first; The manpower saved by these two projects was transferred to Dingyuan Fort to build the city, and there was not enough manpower to find a way. Those European prisoners of war in the mining area, as well as the Charuas captured in the past year, can be transferred to build the city, and I will send you a batch of immigrants who come in the future, so as to ensure that you have enough manpower. You can't give me a sloppy look, this time the enemy is not as weak as the St. Christopher company last time. If the city can't be built in time, and something happens then, I just ask! ”

"There's one more thing at the end of the day, I almost forgot." Ma Ganzu added, "At present, most of our grain is hoarded in the reserve grain depots built by the various production teams themselves. At that time, it was built for the convenience of the proximity, and I didn't think about it so much, but now I think about it, it's very dangerous. When the capital and Dingyuanbao were expanded, several large grain reserves should be built, and in the future, except for a small part of the grain harvested in the local area, the rest would be sent to the nearest city. ”

Ma Ganzu's suggestions are quite pertinent, so everyone has no opinions, and the next step is to implement these resolutions. At present, the system of crossing the crowd is relatively efficient, and once the decision-making level makes a decision, the whole machine will run at a very high speed.

(1) The Inspector-General shall be sent by the royal family from time to time, and upon arrival in the colony, he may immediately exercise the authority of the Governor-General and interrogate officials at will, in short, just like the plenipotentiary Qincha in ancient China, and the power is overwhelming.