Chapter 394 Ambitious Brazilians (Second update, please subscribe)

Just after the New Year of 1870, Argentina... no, in reality, Argentina had already perished, whether the Argentines were willing to face it or not.

Argentina as a country no longer exists, and even in the legal sense it never existed.

Since the day of their independence, the conflict between the provinces and Buenos Aires has never ceased, and the so-called Argentine Confederation has been divided most of the time.

Almost immediately after the attack on Buenos Aires Province was completed, the attack on other provinces was launched simultaneously. Compared with the stubborn resistance of Buenos Aires, the resistance of other provinces was almost insignificant. Almost at the same time when the South China Army and Navy were going upstream along the Paraná River, the small Marchisa in Entrerio Province announced its surrender. With the demonstration of the guide party and the betrayal of Sarnto when evacuating Buenos Aires, some other provinces expressed their surrender one after another.

January and February passed one after another. In the provinces of Argentina, there was a gloomy and rainy weather, dark fog and clouds. The demise of the country made people's hearts gloomy.

Unlike other places, in Posadas, in this land occupied by Argentina, people here have always been excited when talking about Argentina's disastrous defeat in the past two months.

This land once belonged to Paraguay, and the people here once fought desperately. After Argentina occupied this land, almost all the women here wore mourning clothes. In the cemetery outside the city, the rows of soldiers' graves buried the women's fathers, husbands, brothers and sons. Of course, they would not cry or feel sad for the demise of the Argentines!

Whenever they read in the newspaper that "invaders" had occupied a city, they would always look forward to the arrival of the "Avengers."

"Thank God, Nanhua punished the damn Argentines!"

In the markets and in churches, hostile women always curse Argentines like this.

Being in a hostile city, Major General Pedro's mind must be heavy. As the occupier of this land, he never thought that Argentina would perish. Like many officers, he had acquired a large amount of land in the province - land snatched from the defeated Paraguayans.

"General, once the South Chinese occupy this area, you will lose everything!"

Sitting in front of Pedro, Colonel Masos said in a relaxed tone.

As an emissary of General Inácio da Fonseca, he knew well what Pedro and the officers in his army were worried about - land.

"General, where did you get your land? From those dead Paraguayans. We occupied this place and got the land here. This is war!"

What is war?

It's plundering, it's robbing wealth!

Everything was naked in the war, the resisters were killed on the battlefield, and the land belonging to the officers became the wealth of the invaders.

Pedro did not deny what Colonel Massos said. How could he not know? A few years ago, he only owned a small piece of land, but in this war, he not only became a high-ranking official, but also the largest landowner in the province. His subordinates also became landowners. Where did these lands come from? They were plundered through war.

"To the victor goes all, General."

Mathos' words made Pedro think for a moment, then he spoke.

"If I surrender, I believe they will allow me to keep my property. Little Marchisa and his men surrendered and kept all their property."

"That's only temporary, General!"

Mathos sneered.

"Perhaps, they will let you keep those lands temporarily, but you must know that the people of Nanhua are from China. They speak a completely different language from us, and their appearance is completely different. After they occupy this place, how can they allow us to continue to own all of this? They will definitely do everything they can to take away our wealth, just like we once took away the wealth of the indigenous people."

As a colonist, or the descendant of a colonist, Pedro certainly knew what had happened on this land. That was why he seemed a little uncertain, but he had never thought of fighting against Nanhua. After all, he had less than 2,000 soldiers under his command.

"We have no power to stop them, Colonel, and that's a well-known fact."

"General, this land once belonged to Paraguay, and even now legally, it still belongs to Paraguay, including the Chaco region. This is not Argentine territory, but Paraguayan territory. We can completely refuse them access to this land!"

Mathos said with a smile.

"Even if Nanhua is the victor, what qualifications do they have to enter this land that we also sacrificed to seize?"

us!

When Masos spoke, he repeatedly emphasized "we". What are we?

Aren't they Brazilian?

They must have their eyes on this piece of land too!

Pedro knew clearly in his heart that they absolutely did not want South China to occupy this land, so Admiral Inacio da Fonseca sent him here.

“Is this what Admiral Inácio da Fonseca meant?”

Pedro asked.

"This is what His Majesty the Emperor meant. Brazil will never allow the land occupied by Brazilian soldiers who shed blood to be occupied by the Nanhua people. We believe that with the demise of Argentina, only Brazil will be able to negotiate with Paraguay in the future. As for Nanhua...it has never participated in this war. What qualifications does it have to negotiate and obtain these lands?"

The emperor that Masos mentioned was the Brazilian Emperor Pedro II. Faced with the demise of Argentina, the Brazilian top leaders made the decision that was most beneficial to Brazil after several discussions - refusing South China to accept the Argentine-occupied areas and excluding them from the peace talks.

In other words, Brazil's goal is very simple, which is to monopolize the fruits of victory. In the past, the existence of Argentina hindered their possibility of monopolizing the fruits of victory, but now it is different.

"And us?"

After knowing that this was the emperor's intention, Pedro finally breathed a sigh of relief. With Brazil as his backer, the problem naturally became much simpler.

"General, you and your men will still be stationed on this land, you will continue to own everything here, in the future, this will become part of Brazil, and you, General, will become an officer of the Brazilian Army,"

It was very easy to convince these Argentine officers to cooperate. All they had to do was give them benefits. Now that Argentina as a country had perished, these Argentines had no choice at all. They could either surrender to South China or submit to Brazil.

For these Argentine officers, surrendering to South China was full of uncertainty. But surrendering to Brazil was different. They could continue to serve as Brazilian officers and lead their troops to be stationed here. They and their families could enjoy the glory and wealth on this land as in the past, and eventually they would become the rulers of this land.

"Colonel, you should know that if those people want to come over, we have no power to stop them."

Pedro knew that he had no better choice, but he would never be a cannon fodder for the Brazilians. Maybe he could surrender to the Brazilians, but he would never die in vain to defend this land.

Pedro's reminder made Masosi smile.

"You don't need to stop them at all. After all, this is Paraguayan land."

"Paraguayan land? Let the Paraguayans stop South China? That's simply impossible. Those people wish that South China's army would rush in and kill us all right now."

Masos said in response to Pedro's rebuttal.

"Don't forget, we are now the protectors of the Paraguayans! Of course we have to fulfill our responsibilities - we must stop Nanhua's invasion of Paraguay."

(End of this chapter)