February 3, 1666, early in the morning, Changlu Township, sunny.

A team of horses rushed over from the direction of Luyang Island. Half an hour later, under the leadership of the officers, they rushed out of the countryside of Changlu Township and set foot on the endless Patagonian platform grassland.

After walking south along the direction of the enemy's retreat for more than ten kilometers, the wind on the grassland got angry again, and the horses were neighing. In a desperate situation, everyone could only dismount and led two groups of horses forward on foot. On this lonely grassland, there was no one or animal at this moment, except for this silent cavalry team. This state lasted for about twenty minutes, until the sharp-eyed outpost scout saw something on the other side of the dust-filled skyline.

It was a group of Indians walking on foot, with their bodies red from the sun, and they were holding weapons such as stings, spears and meshes. It seemed that they were in the same group as the enemy that attacked last night. A cavalry platoon leader was ordered by Captain Guo Handong, who was leading the team, called his subordinates a few times, then turned over and galloped over, and circled around the group of Indians from afar.

The Indians did not surrender. They waved their weapons, and also shot at the cavalry on the east coast with bows and muskets. The platoon leader who led the team led them directly to rush towards them. After paying the price of one person being killed in battle and two being injured, they completely defeated the Indian resistance and captured eight of them.

The intelligence staff led two translators to interrogate the prisoners as soon as possible, and found that these people were one of the Indian troops that attacked Changlu Township last night! Last night, after the East Coast people stabilized their positions and pushed the Indians out of the countryside, they gave up their plans to attack the village and attacked the livestock, robbed some cattle and sheep, and the horses ran away. As a result, because they were not running fast, the cattle and sheep were successively dropped on the way, and they only took the horses to turn south. The East Coast people sent a few elite scouts to chase and bit the fleeing Indians, the main force did not move, and they just stayed in the village to avoid being captured by the Indians' plan to lure the tiger away from the mountain, although the possibility was very small.

After a team of horses that came from Luyang Town arrived in the morning, Captain Guo Handong did not hesitate and immediately led the cavalry company south to pursue. Second Lieutenant Pei Dade led his men to guard the village and clean up the mess. Now, after chasing for more than ten kilometers under the guidance of the scout, he finally put on an Indian who seemed to be separated from the main force.

"Can't you ask anything?" After listening to the report of the intelligence staff, Guo Handong said expressionlessly: "Then let's execute them all! Now, we can't take these burdens on the road during the march. We dare to attack our settlements on the East Coast. These inferior Indians should be conscious of losing their lives. Let's do it."

"I understand!" The intelligence consultant gave a greeting and quickly went down to make arrangements. Soon, amid a vicious curse, the eight captured Tverche prisoners were killed on the spot, and their heads were cut off one by one and placed in a saddle bag. They could all be taken back to receive rewards!

After dealing with this stage, everyone continued to move forward in the brutal wind and sand. The scout was not sure where to go at this time, so he could only point a rough direction and then lead everyone to rush forward. The wind was very strong, and the sand was blowing, and no one spoke along the way. In the wind and sand, some llamas, alpacas, three-toed ostrichs, deer or crested wheat chickens were occasionally seen. These small animals that were gnawing under the bushes immediately ran to the distance in a frightened manner after seeing the arduous trekking group, and then disappeared on the blurred horizon.

Wind, sand, more wind. The soldiers held the horses and sometimes looked at each other, but could only use their eyes to signal to each other. The company commander of the cavalry company seemed to want to boost morale, and he just opened his mouth and said, "If you insist on walking a few more kilometers, we can...", and then he quickly shut up because the wind and sand poured into his wide open mouth mercilessly.

An hour later, the scout found a camp and immediately came back to report. The camp was not big, and it looked like a place in the grassland where there were piles of wood. There was a small circle of fences surrounded by many tents made of branches, bark, and llama fur. There was still a lot of wood left beside it, dry branches and several ostrich bones.

"Damn, these poor natives have few trees on the platform grassland, and they even cut them to build camps. It's really a waste of time!" When they first saw this camp built with wood and chopped the wood blocks that were obviously used for fuel, the officers and soldiers on the east bank were very angry. It was a pity that our east bank was in the Ludang River and Baoxing River area, and they were not willing to cut down the local small woods. Instead, they transported building materials from the local area and planned to burn bricks and tiles on the spot. You inferior Indians were even more embarrassed to destroy the ecology and could not bear it!

The well-trained soldiers immediately surrounded the camp and then escorted more than 20 Tverches who were inconvenient to walk out. After inspection by intelligence officials, they found that they were all more or less knife or gunshot wounds on them, obviously they were Indians who participated in the battle last night. After half an hour of cruel interrogation, Guo Handong ordered the execution of these Tverches, and then let everyone continue to move forward. Today, they would not stop chasing those natives who dared to attack Changlu Township!

More than a hundred soldiers had also taken the opportunity to rest for half an hour. At the urging of the officers, they stood up to pack up their gear and then led the horses onto the journey. The violent wind and sand continued until the evening before gradually calming down. The sunlight fell on the west horizon, very dim, but strangely, a scent of mixed grass and wild flowers came from the surrounding air, which made everyone a little excited because there was undoubtedly a land with abundant water and grass nearby.

In fact, it was almost the same. After searching for ten minutes, we soon discovered a small pool. After distinguishing it, the pool water was actually fresh water. It was a little bitter, but it could still be drunk. The pool was covered with large areas of reeds, grasslands and a rare small forest. There are some overflowing rivers on the east side of the pool. Perhaps when the water level rises in autumn, the pool water will overflow east like many water-crossing lakes in Patagonia and then disappear on the arid terrace grasslands. This is probably the biggest reason why this small pool has not been salinized.

The soldiers camped by the pool. They weaved simple sheds with reeds and arranged the posts carefully. Then they sat by the pool, setting up a pot to cook soup (the beef jerky I carried with them was harder than stones and had to be cooked before they could be eaten), and took out fried oil cakes to eat to replenish their energy. Some qualified non-commissioned officers even gathered together to cook matte tea, which seemed very leisurely. These were all old people who were used to fighting wars, and they could be calm at any time.

"The Indian attacks are endless. Should we ask the Regional Administration and the local Army Department to carry out the "Desert Conquest" operation? I think it's time to teach these Tverche barbarians a lesson that will never be forgotten. Moreover, this is also a very good way to deal with the white-shirt disarmament move, right?" The speaker was Guo Handong's combat staff, Lieutenant Lie Ziqian, who was also a second-generation dressmaker. He married a Russian Ocean Markarenina. He had briefly worked as a tactical teacher at the Corps Fort, and later he found a way to transfer to the army. Obviously, he didn't want to spend time in the Corps Fort.

What he said just now is actually meaningful, that is, after the new government came to power in 1665, the voices of disarmament by the civil service system began to rampant again. The officials of the Ministry of Finance waved their account books and slapped the tables at the joint meeting, saying that the total number of army exceeding 16,000 (including eight mixed battalions and independent cavalry units, field artillery units, engineering units, baggage units, and staff from various headquarters) could not afford to support it and must be severely reduced, otherwise the finances would probably "collapse".

The model they proposed was to lay off 5,800 people from four mixed battalions, and then lay off some staff and staff. If possible, it is best to lay off some of the independent cavalry, artillery, workers, and baggage units. The "evil intelligence agency" military police must also cut "at least one-third" of the personnel to control the total army's strength to 8,000-9,000 people. They believe that this move can save at least one million yuan in military spending every year, and this part of the funds can be used to other places, such as promotion education, scientific research investment, local construction, etc., which is much better than giving the military workers a free time.

The Army Department is naturally extremely opposed to such a disarmament proposal, but they are also very clear that the scale of the army troops that rapidly expanded in the Eastern Portuguese War is indeed quite eye-catching now, and the pressure of being laid off is extremely great. According to the previous "routines", basically, the civil servants and military generals have been tug-of-war. After the negotiations, both sides took a step back and forth. Although the army did not lay off seven or eight thousand people, four mixed battalions were laid off into slaughter battalions, and some of the troops directly under the Army Department and staff members were laid off. The total army's strength was controlled within 12,000 people, which was also inevitable.

The so-called "military shrinkage plan" naturally cannot satisfy the Army Department. Therefore, they recently launched a "wrong way", namely, implementing the so-called "desert conquest" plan formulated before, launching a large-scale attack along the Ludang River, Baoxing River and the overflow lake area in the south, expelling and eliminating the local Indian forces, so that they can no longer become a threat to the pioneers of the East Coast, and expanding the territory and expanding the area of ​​the actual control area. In the end, the civil servant system cannot find any strong reasons for disarmament, and strive to denie the huge (the navy and civil servants collude with each other) army disarmament proposal.

At present, this plan is said to have entered the actual implementation stage. The Army Department has begun to recruit various mixed battalions into the Northern Patagonia region, and has begun to hoard materials in the local area to improve transportation, laying a solid foundation for future large-scale military operations. As several major military officers in the Northern Patagonia region, although the ranks of Guo Handong, Pei Dade, Li Zhixin, Li Ziqian and others are not too high, they are qualified to know about this matter, so the conversation between the two just now.

Guo Handong's father Guo Zili is the Minister of the Navy and the Chief of Staff of the Joint Staff. He himself has a wide range of friendships in the army, so he knows these things very well. He heard from the combat staff asking about it, and after pondering for a while, he whispered: "The desert conquest operation is already underway. The Army Department means to dispatch all the second, third, sixth, and eighty mixed battalions, all the local cavalry battalions, all the engineering battalions, the first and second companies of the independent field artillery, one of the baggage battalions, and the four cavalry companies on our side to come to the Patagonia platform to suppress bandits and launch a fatal blow to the Indians. If this is the case, the total force we dispatched is estimated to be more than 8,000.

The people are there, and the remaining people still have to guard all the important local areas, so the white shirts will find it difficult to find a reason for disarmament for a while. As for what to do after this matter is over, who knows, it can be delayed for a while. Maybe what will happen again at that time? You know, the French are now offering an ultimatum to the Spaniards, demanding that the South Netherlands, Francheconte, Lorraine, Strasbourg and other places be cedeed to France, otherwise the war will be launched again. Once the fight begins, our government may also intervene. At this time, no one dares to say that there must be nothing left of our army. So let it go first, wait for change, and strive to slowly eliminate the call for disarmament invisible."

"I understand." Li Ziqian nodded slightly, signaling that he had understood, and then went down to arrange the camp.

After camping on the small pool for a night, the pursuit force set off again the next day and began a purposeless pursuit operation. Because the wind and sand covered the traces of the enemy's activities in the brigade, the pursuit was destined to be more difficult. Guo Handong and others were helpless about this. The dog luck of these Tverche people is very good!
Chapter completed!