Chapter 308 Ultimatum (First update, please subscribe)
It is October 6, 1869, and it is spring in Buenos Aires.
At ten o'clock in the morning, a messenger hurried to the American Company's office in Buenos Aires and delivered a telegram that seemed to be made up of garbled code to the switchboard.
In fact, this is the most normal secret message.
In this era, all embassies and consulates of various countries were the same, all of which sent and received telegrams through the telegraph office, and of course, all of which were sent and received in cipher. In order to maintain confidentiality, the company's foreign affairs department designed four sets of ciphers. In addition to the commonly used ciphers, there was another cipher that would only be used in extremely special circumstances.
Soon, the secret message was sent to the confidential room. After checking the header of the telegram, the decoder realized that it was a level 3 secret message.
"Something big has happened!"
After a moment, as the code was decoded, the decoder's face changed slightly, and he raised his head and said to the duty officer.
"This, this is an ultimatum!"
Soon, Domingo, the representative in Buenos Aires, received the telegram. After taking a quick look at it, he said.
"Is it really sent by Nanhua?"
"Yes, sir."
"Um!"
Domingo nodded and said.
"Okay, I know. If nothing unexpected happens, they should have known about it. Prepare the carriage. I'm going to the Presidential Palace."
As he said this, Domingo couldn't help but sigh.
Peace is over!
The Presidential Palace is located on the banks of the Rio de la Plata. Its history can be traced back to 1594, but it was just a fortress at that time. Although the castle has been the administrative command center during the Spanish rule, after Argentina's independence, the fortress was rebuilt and eventually the Presidential Palace was built.
In 1850, the then President Domingo Salmondo suggested that the white exterior wall be painted pink. It is said that the pink color was chosen to reconcile the dispute between the two major parties at the time, but the authenticity of this statement is uncertain. However, subsequent governments have continued to use this color, so the Presidential Palace is also called the "Rose Palace".
At this time, in this beautiful "Palazzo Rose", Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Foreign Minister Adams and others gathered in the President's office, and everyone looked very serious.
"Are you sure? Are their accusations true?"
Sarmiento, the president, asked again.
“Yes, Mr. President, we did have soldiers who were attacked by them and died on the other side of the trench!”
"Damn the Chinese, they are simply provoking disputes. They killed our people and occupied our land, and now they are asking us to pay for the losses. Aren't they afraid of provoking the anger of a country?"
As president, Sarmiento was full of hostility towards the America Company and South China, otherwise he would not have delivered that hostile speech when he took office as president last year. He also asked for negotiations with the America Company on the Pampas. The current plan to cross the trench and encroach on the unoccupied areas was also proposed by him.
But now, Nanhua's reaction was completely beyond his expectations.
"Ultimatum!"
Sarmiento looked at the secret message sent by the representative in South China and said.
"This ultimatum is simply a clarion call for war. Do they think we will kneel before them in servility? Do they think we will kneel before them in order to beg for peace, pay them a huge amount of compensation and acknowledge the land they have taken away?"
He said firmly, looking at everyone in the office.
"No! They are dreaming. We will give them a strong answer and tell them that this is wishful thinking!"
After saying this, Sarmiento pondered for a moment and then spoke to Foreign Minister Juan.
"Juan, their representatives will definitely come over to deliver this ultimatum. Just reject them directly and I will go to the British Embassy to meet Ambassador Edward Thornton. I think the British will definitely be happy to stand on our side! After all, they have long been fed up with Nanhua!"
In fact, Sarmiento and the others were also unable to tolerate it anymore!
What is it that they cannot tolerate?
It's not just that the Chinese occupied the Pampas, but more importantly, they turned the grassland into a golden goose that lays golden eggs.
In fact, before this, Argentina had thought about expanding to the Pampas, but it had no motivation. Why was there no motivation? First, the population was sparse and the land was sufficient. Second, it was because even if they took over the grassland, it would be meaningless.
For raising sheep?
The wool market in Europe is close to saturation. What is the use of raising more sheep if the wool cannot be sold? Economic reasons have caused Argentina to have no desire to expand.
Expansion requires costs and economic reasons. However, in the past few decades, the Mapuche people are indeed very brave and good at fighting, while the economics are not worth it, which has led Argentina to "ignore" the Pampas.
Even when South China launched its march into the grasslands and began to bring the Pampas into South China's sphere of influence by building railways on a large scale, the Argentines' reaction was quite tangled. On the one hand, they certainly did not want to see the meat in their bowls being eaten by others, but on the other hand, they also hoped to use South China to restrain the Mapuche and stop the Mapuche from attacking the Argentine settlements.
In the end, the South Chinese side did it, successfully restraining the Mapuche people from crossing the trenches to attack the Argentines. This is also the fundamental reason why Argentina could tolerate expansion.
But this attitude has been changing over the past two years, especially since Nanhua invented the refrigerated ship, everything has changed!
The invention of refrigerated ships made it possible to transport beef to Europe, and allowed European citizens to eat frozen fresh meat from the New World for the first time. The South Chinese, who occupied the Pampas, used the grasslands as pastures to produce millions of tons of cheap and high-quality beef. They supplied meat to the whole of Europe and earned hundreds of millions of pesos every year!
Wealth attracts attention!
Faced with such a huge amount of wealth, how could the Argentines, who had fought in Paraguay for several years and almost exhausted all the funds in the treasury, ignore it?
This is also the reason why Sarmiento gave a speech in Congress and vowed to march to the grasslands - to put it bluntly, it was for money!
"Yes, Mr. President, we need to win the support of the British first. Without their support, it will be difficult for us to carry out this war..."
The Minister of Finance on the side said directly.
"If we want to carry out this war, we need a loan of at least £1 million from the British..."
(End of this chapter)
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