The sunset sunset plated the grass with a layer of golden color, and the frozen lake was silver-white. Several young men in fiery hunting uniforms passed by the ice like screaming, like a few bonfires flashing with quiet and warm light. The sky was blue as if washing, and a few lonely houses stood among the weeds. An elderly army sat silently in front of the door of the house, with smoke in his mouth, and his mind had floated thousands of miles away.

According to the twenty-four solar terms in the southern hemisphere compiled by the East Coast people, this time (August 4, 1679) is already the so-called "beginning of spring". However, the cold weather tells people that spring is still wandering in the distant Brazil, allowing the whistling northwest wind to sweep across the flat and low land. Only a touch of red bricks and green tiles stand proudly between the wind and the strong grass, declaring to every newcomer that mankind's conquest of this rarely visited land.

Inigo quietly appeared in front of several red brick houses. The old army woke up suddenly and subconsciously picked up the rifle in his arms. When he saw that it was an old acquaintance Inigo, he spat and sat down on the chair again, asking in a weak tone: "Inigo, why are you here? Lauski is in the countryside and just took his family over. Why? Looking for him?"

This is Franco Town, also known as Xinying Township, a small town established in the first half of this year. This town was once breached by the grassland bandit Inigor, "One Dang Three" Wu Yifei and others a year ago. Now it has been recuperating for more than a year and has not fully restored its previous firepower. More than three months ago, the East Coast Immigration Department decided to set up a new settlement here to control this town with a critical geographical location and a must-pass route for trains.

The newly established settlement is imitated by the old example of Mar del Plata, and is built on the outskirts of the old Spanish town, which is called the "new city". However, everyone has seen the current situation of the new city. There are only a few lonely houses used to store some railway equipment, canned food, weapons and ammunition. It may be more similar to a military outpost. Anyway, it doesn't look like a residential settlement site.

In fact, it is almost the same. Currently, there are only a few dozen settled farmers who arrived in advance in Xinying Township. Among them, there is only one person in most of the so-called "households", that is, the bachelors who came here alone. These people are usually second- and third-generation born in the local area. They cannot inherit their family business, so they can only pack their luggage and leave their relatively prosperous hometown and come to this deserted place to cultivate, just like their parents and grandfather's generation that they used to overcome obstacles to build their homes.

"No, I'm here to stand in front of the fight, or to send someone to him." Inigor turned over from his horse, lifted the brim of his hat with a horse whip, and said tiredly: "This place looks pretty good. Where are the children? Why don't you work?"

"The only children from the families who moved to the family are very wild. Besides, what kind of work is there to do in this winter? Dig a canal and build a reservoir? No, look at the big puddle over there, how can dozens of people be enough to repair it? Besides, we only have one cadre here, but we still have no hair on our lips. We are always mingled with the technician on the railway and flattering. I don't think he can count on it." Lao Jun curled his lips, tightened his coat, and continued to swear.

"Really? That's too bad! The railway hasn't left Yancheng County yet, so what's he busy with? The most important job now is not to build railways or agricultural production, but to do a good job in resettlement of new immigrants. If this work is not done well, I think this guy doesn't want to do it anymore, right?" Inigor was used to seeing the big man, and his tone of speaking grew day by day. He pointed to the shed next door woven with reeds by the lake and said, "I remember the last time I came here, it was said to be used as a kitchen and woodshed for newly arrived immigrants. In addition, they will build some additional sheds as temporary residences for immigrants. Why didn't I see it? Where? Don't tell me that it hasn't been built yet. This is a cold and cold season, but no one can afford this responsibility."

"Inigo, you become the commander of the security, your confidence is different." Lao Jun sighed, stood up from the chair, frowned and said, "It may be related to the recent appearance of a horse bandit on the grassland, which involves a large part of our energy. Look, Director Wang and his team set out more than a week ago. Township Chief Chen was busy raising supplies and horses for them, and I'm afraid that some things would not be able to take care of them."

"Mark bandit?" Inigor was stunned when he heard this. If the horse bandits were said, weren't they the biggest "Mark bandits"? A year ago, he and Wu Yifei led the "Mark bandits" to break through the town of Franco under the planning of Sheng Dehong, an official of the State Intelligence Administration, and shocked the entire Buenos Aires. How long has it been since then, why did new horse bandits appear on the grassland? Could it be that the Spanish pretended to be?

The old army seemed to understand Inigo's confusion, and saw him shook his head and said, "I don't know their identity for the time being, but maybe as you suspect, it is the Mestiso people, and there are a few herders who have met them to support this statement. But this is all in the future. They only have dozens of people and dare not stay in one place for too long."

Inigor nodded, and then he walked quickly to the reed shed next door with his left hand and a horse whip in his right hand. He lifted up the thick hair stall hanging at the door. When he looked in, he was disappointed: "I won't talk about the horse bandit for now. But what does this mean? Not only is there a shortage of food, but there is even a lack of fuel, so what's going on? In five days, in just five days, three hundred people will be escorted here to settle down and become residents of Xinying Township. As a result, there is no preparation for greeting here. What is this? This is dereliction of duty! Death of duty!"

When Lao Jun heard this, he scratched his head and saw him leaning against the wall, then gestured with his hands, and said with a little excited: "Oh, don't worry about the problem of food and cooking utensils. Most of them are transported to the warehouses on the planned railway line. But fuel is indeed a big problem. Alas, there is a serious shortage of firewood. People can only use reeds and thatch to burn fire, and use whatever they catch, but it is still serious. But no one sends honeycomb coal over, which is really a headache. Look, I have to collect dry thatch everywhere to soak matte tea in order to boil water, but they will disappear after a while."

"How did the Spaniards live nearby?" Inigo asked.

"They plant wheat, corn, and straw, and corn poles that can be burned. People who pay attention to collecting some thatch and reeds will definitely be fine. And, have you seen that forest? Spanish people have been growing for some years, and it is a good source of firewood. They don't need coal, they don't need at all." Lao Jun said.

"That's good, that's good." Inigor shook the sword in his hand and said, "If there is no, ask them to borrow, borrow food, and borrow firewood. Anyway, it's just borrowing. Isn't there a working team in Franco Town? Let them imagine ways, those guys are good at verbal work anyway."

Inigo's tone was a bit sarcastic, and the old army could hear it. But personally, he actually had no objection to those working teams, and even expressed his understanding of their hard work. Those teams were basically composed of grassroots civil servants from diplomatic, intelligence, and propaganda departments and some corps and fortress trainees. The name was "Pro-East Working Group". They specialized in the Pampa Plain east of the Yanbu Railway, and carried out propaganda offensives in some towns, villages, manors or military outposts where there were not many Spaniards, and promoted remarks such as "East and East countries work hand in hand to build La Plata together", focusing on how positive the East Coast people had had on the lives of the local Spaniards after they settled in the Pampa Plain, such as the production of food such as flour, salted fish, fruits, vegetables, wine, etc., and the prices of daily necessities and labor tools were also cheaper.

These things are actually facts, but the working group speaks more skillful and artistically, and exaggerates, especially when they frame them with words such as "kindness", "hands hand in hand", "cooperation", etc., the persuasiveness will obviously be stronger. This is no wonder some people in China say that their working groups are not engaged in "propaganda" work, but "propaganda and support" work. This is indeed the case.

Of course, the Spanish are not fools, and it is impossible to watch you keep busy and stay indifferent. Especially those priests who can be seen everywhere are even more savages among the human spirits. They have long been spreading negative news about the East Coast people among Spain and the Indians who were naturalized by them. For example, they are "evil" and "deception", and those who dare to cooperate with them are "traitors", and their souls cannot rest after death, etc. In short, it has caused considerable obstacles to the East Coast people's publicity and support work, and they have even suffered a lot of hostile gaze from the Spanish.

However, the Spaniards resisted the erosion of the East Coast people from the ideological field, and the East Coast people will certainly use their own ways to do it. For example, last month, the Local Religious Affairs Office selected more than a dozen Catholic priests with strong business capabilities and good at doing things nationwide. They took a boat to the Pampa Plain, intending to join the so-called "pro-East Working Groups" distributed in places including Mar del Plata, Franco, Buenos Aires, Nancun Port, etc. to carry out publicity and reconciliation work.

It is worth mentioning that these priests have carefully selected them, read the scriptures well, have a good appearance, and have a good temper. They usually have a kind-hearted image, which has a natural plus for influencing believers. Moreover, after years of East Coast education, they inexplicably feel that they are carrying the "civilization mission" of liberating the backward people in the Spanish ruling region. They have great enthusiasm in their work, and are extremely interested in snatching the lamb from the hostile church organizations. I believe that after these people join the working group and officially take effect, the current stagnant propaganda and support work should improve to a certain extent.

Although Inigo is Hispanic, he also fought against the Spaniards for many years on the East Coast people. He knew very deeply about the distrust of aliens and pagans, so he did not have confidence in the effectiveness of the propaganda work, because this has been proven in history. He always believed that the best way to deal with the Spaniards was to constantly immigrate here in large quantities, dilute them, flood them with an absolute advantageous population, and finally assimilate them. This was the right way.

For example, this time, the East Coast Immigration Department has closely implemented the spirit of the Central Executive Committee and has established several new settlements on the Pampa Plain in recent months - Wanji Township, Wanji Township, near the town of Cachari, Niutun Township, near the town of Raucci, Liugu Township, near the village of Caplins, Sanyi Township, near the town of Maipu, Beita Township, near the town of Castelli, Sita Township, near the town of Pila, and Gaoyuan Township, near the town of Belgrano, and if Xinying Township is included, there are a total of eight settlements. The initial plan is to arrange more than 10,000 immigrants, which is what Inigo believes to be the right way, rather than doing some publicity and support work when he is full, it is completely putting the cart before the horse.

Oh, by the way, I forgot to explain something. Since Inigo successfully completed several actions planned by the State Intelligence Administration and the Gendarmerie, he was appointed as one of the three full-time deputy commanders of the Yanbu Railway Guard Area, focusing on public security issues near the southern bank of the La Plata River. His main task is to ensure the security and defense work of the naturalized Yanbu Railway towns and railway affiliated areas. His position is not very high, but his power is very heavy. It can be regarded as a real reward, and it can be regarded as a compensation for his life and death over the years.

Therefore, as one of the few middle and senior officials sent by the East Coast government on the Pampa Plain, Inigo's mood suddenly became bad after hearing that the conditions for receiving immigrants were lacking and there were even horse bandits nearby. Therefore, he did not have a good temper when he was fighting on Huaiyuan Island (who had been Inigo's boss, after he was discharged from the army due to injury, he simply took the resettlement fee to the Pampa Plain to start his life again). He only checked the material reserves in the warehouse again, and then he breathed a little slower and said, "Fortunately, there is still some food. Otherwise, he might have to borrow it from the Spanish, which may cause some disputes and troublesome to deal with it. But if it really reaches that point, there is nothing I can do. Anyway, I snatched them once last year, so what if I snatched them again this year!"
Chapter completed!