The city of Araucan (Port Natales) in midsummer is still relatively warm. "Although the latitude here is very high, it is definitely not a poor place with bad waters. Because the land is close to the ocean, the temperature is not very low. Perhaps the only drawback here is that the ocean current flowing through the sea in the west is a cold current, which makes the precipitation in the entire Araucan and surrounding areas not very rich. In other words, there is a bit of arid here. Although the annual precipitation is not as small as that of the Inner Mongolia grassland in China, it is not much stronger. Therefore, to be honest, the conditions here are not very suitable for planting crops, and agriculture still needs to be maintained by animal husbandry.

This is how the residents of Araucan City. The population of this city soared to more than 6,000 in a short period of time, but the farmland with extremely low development outside the city cannot provide a large amount of food needed by the urban population. Therefore, the core stronghold of this Araucan people is not so much a city as a large farm or livestock market.

The Araucan PLA led by Vicente Jr. distributed the ranch in the vast surrounding area to some of the subordinates who were the first to follow him to raise an army, and then these subordinates distributed the land to the soldiers under his command, thus forming a group of feudal military aristocratic groups. This group took the cohesion of resisting the oppression of the Spaniards and continuously strengthened its strength by integrating the Araucan people in Chile.

Unfortunately, the total area of ​​Chile is about 200,000 Arakan people basically live in the north. The southern mountainous areas are sparsely populated and the agricultural conditions are not very good, so the population that can be carried is limited. If the Arakan People's Liberation Army wants to develop, it must expand its influence to the north. If you have the opportunity in the future, it is best to move the stronghold north of Chiloe Island. Otherwise, you can only be a small regime with a separatist nature living in the mountains.

But it is not easy to advance to the north! Not to mention the Spaniards' weapons, equipment and combat capabilities that are beyond their size. Just talking about whether the Araucan people in the north agrees with them is still a question. The so-called Araucan people are just the way of division of the Spanish. In fact, these Chilean indigenous people are not a nation or tribe at all, and the hatred between many tribes is not small. Although everyone is being cruelly exploited by the Spaniards, it is not certain whether the Araucan People's Liberation Army led by Vicente went to the central and northern Chile to develop well. Their mass base there is basically zero.

In fact, this is almost the same. This armed guerrilla team originating from Chiloe Island was only advanced to the area of ​​Port Barrios (Port Monte). The main founder of the guerrilla team, Vicente, even sacrificed his life on that land. In addition to the white Spanish people, there were also a large number of Indians from Peru and northern Chile. These people had become religious and became lackeys of the Spanish. The main component of the Lima Legion was these Indians. Therefore, pushing northward is extremely unrealistic for the Araucan guerrillas now.

Although the East Coast people of the Araucan will also ask about their lives and deaths, they will definitely not care much. For example, Captain Boxer from the Pacific Task Force of the East Coast Republic Navy. His ship "East Coastism" is anchored at the only wooden pier near Araucan City. Some wounded and sick were carefully carried down by sailors and sent to the sanitary center next to the dock - in fact, some wooden houses - to be cultivated or waiting for treatment. Several doctors were sent here to perform some simple operations, and their professional care could also help the wounded and sick recover faster.

This place is located north of Araucan, and in the later Port of Expo Rios, the East Coast people's special docks and warehouses were built here. There are many messy wooden houses on the shore. These were cut down and built by Patagonian servants on the quay nearby. The port and within one kilometer of nearby have been bought by the East Coast people for a hundred cows, regardless of whether the transaction is legal or not. But at least in terms of actual results, the East Coast people's fleet has obtained a foothold and logistics base here - although the area of ​​this base is a little cramped, only a few square kilometers.

Captain Bombian also went ashore with the wounded, and Lieutenant Fabian, the head of the shore logistics base, came up. Lieutenant Fabian was an early East Coast immigrant, and also participated in the military operation attacking Chiloe Island and Valdivia in 1633. After retirement, he served as the deputy minister of the township armed forces in Dingyuan Township, Dongfang County, and was regarded as a local cadre that the East Coast people were working hard to train. When the war broke out, Fabian, who was over 40 years old, was recruited again and came to southern Chile to serve as the director of the logistics supply base.

The director, he only had fifty soldiers, all of whom were Patagonians. Everyone lived in Taoist temples on the docks. Once a ship from the Pacific Task Force came, he would help the top leader to transport supplies and pick up the wounded. Generally speaking, he was quite leisurely, so he no longer had the enthusiasm to be more satisfied with the second Lieutenant Fabian back then.

"Sir, what you asked me to investigate has been clear." Captain Fabian walked to Boxer and whispered: "There are really coal storage points in the mountains in the northeast, and the reserves seem to be very rich. Coal seams appeared when we tried to dig at multiple locations. However, the depth of coal seams is different. Some can be mined open-pit, and some may need to be dug vertical shafts and tunneled. However, the quality of coal is good, much better than the local ones. Most of them can be used as thermal coal. It is not a big problem to supply naval ships after washing and selection. Moreover, according to experts from the Ministry of Geology, some of these coals can also be used for coking, and the sulfur content and ash content are very small, and the industrial value is high, so it is definitely worth mining."

Boxer nodded after hearing this. The place Fabian said was called Rio Toulvio in later generations. It is the largest coal mine in Argentina. It has rich reserves and good coal quality, which provides industrial production needs across the country. The exploration operation here has lasted for a long time, mainly sponsored by the Navy, because the coal mine is on the edge of Patagonia and is only a few dozen kilometers away from the city of Araucan. If it is mined, of course the Navy itself will benefit.

The reason why the Navy is willing to invest in this coal mine is actually because many people in the Navy are still unwilling to give up on a foothold in the Southeast Pacific. They are almost crazy about getting a port here, and for this, they even took the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Transport to their own tanks.

The big cake they painted for the Ministry of Civil Affairs is the South Pacific immigration route, and Araucan is its terminal. This immigration route can only be reached from Australia to South America in just over twenty days, and can be opened to navigation at any time of the year. Immigrants arriving in Araucan City temporarily live here first, and then wait for their superiors to organize them to go east along the Gayegos River, cross the entire Patagonian Plateau, arrive at the Port of Rio Gayegos on the Atlantic coast, and then return to the country by boat. This immigration route is much closer than Western Australia, New China and South Africa, and it is much easier to go. The survival rate of immigrants along the way must be very high, which is still very attractive to the Ministry of Civil Affairs.

Of course, this route itself is also a big cake painted by the Navy for the Ministry of Transportation. Because with a route, there must be ships, sailors, and ports. And when you pass through the Patagonia region, you have to build a road or railway. This is undoubtedly expanding the sphere of influence and influence of the Ministry of Transportation, which is undesirable for them.

Finally, the benefits of the Ministry of Agriculture are of course very obvious, that is, the extremely rich fishery resources in Chile and Peru. You should know that the output here in later generations accounted for more than 20% of the world's total fishery output. It is still Chile and Peruvians who are catching it. If it were replaced by Chinese people, it would be unimaginable how high the output would be. Therefore, this fishery resource is ten times or even dozens of times that of one of the three largest fishery farms in the world near the Port of Blanca. For the Ministry of Agriculture, it is also a fat meat that must be swallowed by the Ministry of Agriculture.

After attracting so many allies, the Navy finally began substantive exploration and demonstration work under the promotion of some officers. This survey of the coal mine in the Rio Turvio area is one of the important tasks. If this coal mine is developed, the Navy will no longer have to transport coal from the local area to Araucan City for storage and backup, but can pull it from the coal mine dozens of kilometers away, which is very convenient.

The only obstacle now is probably that this is the Spanish nominal territory, and they may not allow outsiders to get involved here. But what is this for the Navy? It is something that civil servants need to consider. For the Navy, they need to claim their own interests.

Of course, Lu Ming, the essentially number one figure in the navy, is still very disgusted with this self-talking behavior, so this essentially destroys the overall situation and adds a lot of unnecessary trouble to the government. But unfortunately, this is the collective will of the navy, and even some of his students are vaguely asking for his support. After seeing this situation, Lu Ming suddenly felt very angry: What have Wang Qinian and other birds played the navy over the years? It is no different from the army's soldiers, and they are completely obscene!

Thinking of this, Lu Ming secretly became angry: After the battle is over, I have to communicate with the Executive Committee and tidy up the navy. Some incompetent officers have taken it as soon as possible to avoid becoming a self-talking military group like the army in the future, which is something that Lu Ming, who has a strong overall view, cannot bear.

However, when it comes to the navy's operations, the East Coast Navy, which had been wandering off the sea off Peru for nearly two months, is almost ready to end the battle in Peru, and at least it is also preparing to return to the Araucan area for rest and replenish ammunition. After the Spanish Peru fleet was completely destroyed, they simply pretended to be dead, just guarding the land, and ignored the others. In this case, Lu Ming decided to lead the fleet south to see if the situation was to plow the Chilean area. Because the connection between Chile and Peru has been in fact cut off (the land is either a desert or a mountain), the East Coast people can comfortably send the army to the shore, and then name the Spanish colonial towns in the Chilean region with weak forces one by one.
Chapter completed!