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 composed of garbled characters to the communication room.
In fact, this is the most normal secret code.
In this era, all embassies and consulates in various countries were the same. They all received and received telegrams through the telegraph office, and of course they were all sent and received through passwords. In order to maintain confidentiality, the company's foreign affairs department designed four sets of passwords. In addition to the commonly used passwords, there is also a password
It will only be enabled in extremely special circumstances.
Soon, this secret message was sent to the confidential room. Just by checking the header of the telegram, the decoder realized that it was a third-level secret message.
"Something big happened!"
After a while, as the code was decoded, the decoder's face changed slightly. He raised his head and said to the monitor on duty.
"This, this is an ultimatum!"
Soon Domingo, the representative in Buenos Aires, got the telegram. After looking at it briefly, he said.
"Is it really from Nanhua?"
"Yes, sir."
"Um!"
Domingo nodded and said.
"Okay, I know. If nothing else happens, they should already know about it. Prepare the carriage and I will go to the Presidential Palace."
When he said these words, Domingo couldn't help but let out a long 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 had been an administrative command center during Spanish rule, after Argentina became independent, the fortress was renovated.
After reconstruction, the presidential palace was finally built.
In 1850, based on the suggestion of then President Domingo Salmendo, the white exterior walls were painted pink. It is said that pink was chosen to reconcile the disputes between the two major parties at the time. The authenticity of this statement is uncertain. But then
Each government has continued to use this color, so the Presidential Palace is also called the "Rose Palace".
At this time, in this beautiful "Rose Palace", Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, Foreign Minister Adams and others were gathered in the president's office, and everyone looked very serious.
"Are you sure? Are their accusations true?"
As president, Sarmiento 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, occupied our land, and now they are asking us to compensate for the losses. Aren't they afraid of arousing the anger of a country?"
As president, Sarmiento is full of hostility towards the American Company and South China. Otherwise, when he took office as president last year, he would not have made that hostile speech and demanded that the American Company deal with Pan.
Negotiations on the Pas Prairie were also what he requested, and the current plan to cross the ditch and encroach on the unoccupied areas was also proposed by him.
But now, the reaction from Nanhua was completely beyond his expectation.
"Ultimatum!"
Sarmiento read 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 down to them? Do they think we will kneel down to them in order to pray for peace, pay them huge compensation and acknowledge the land they took?"
"
Looking at everyone in the office, he said firmly.
"No! They are dreaming, and we will give them a strong answer to tell them that this is wishful thinking!"
After saying these words, Sarmiento pondered for a moment, and then said to Foreign Minister Juan.
"Juan, their representatives will definitely come over to deliver this ultimatum in a while. If you reject them outright, I will go to the British Embassy to see Ambassador Edward Thornton. I think the British will be happy to stand on our side! After all,
, they have already had enough patience with Nanhua!"
In fact, Sarmiento and the others were also intolerable!
What is it that they can't stand?
Not only did the Chinese occupy the Pampas, but more importantly, they turned the grassland into a golden goose that lays golden eggs.
In fact, before this, Argentina had not thought about expanding to the Pampas, but there was no motivation. Why was there no motivation? Firstly, the population was sparse and the land was sufficient. Secondly, what was it? Because even if they captured that
A piece of grassland means nothing.
Is it used to raise sheep?
The European wool market is close to saturation. No matter how many sheep are raised, what's the use of sheep wool that cannot be sold? Economic reasons have caused Argentina to have no desire to expand at all.
Expansion requires costs and economic reasons. But in the past few decades, on the one hand, the Mapuche people are indeed brave and capable of fighting, but on the other hand, it is not economical, which has led to Argentina’s
"Ignorance" in Pas Prairie.
Even when Nan China launched its march into the grasslands and began to bring the Pampas into Nan China's sphere of influence through large-scale railway construction, the reaction of the Argentines was quite tangled. Of course, they were not happy to see the bowl.
Their meat was eaten by others, but what about the other side? They also hope to use Nanhua to restrain the Mapuche people and stop the Mapuche attacks on the Argentine immigration settlements.
In the end, Nanhua did it and successfully restrained the Mapuche people from crossing the trenches to attack the Argentines. This was the fundamental reason why the Argentine side was able to tolerate expansion.
But this attitude has been constantly changing in the past two years, especially after Nanhua invented the refrigerated ship, everything has changed!
The invention of the refrigerated ship made it possible to transport beef to Europe, and also allowed European citizens to eat frozen fresh meat from the New World for the first time. Nanhua, which occupies the Pampas prairie, uses the grassland as pasture to produce hundreds of
With tens of thousands of tons of cheap and affordable beef, they supply meat to the entire Europe and earn hundreds of millions of pesos in wealth every year!
Wealth is eye-catching!
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 national treasury, ignore it?
This is 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 Finance Minister on the side said directly.
"If we want to carry out this war, we need at least a loan of 1 million pounds from the British..."