Over the years, East Coast ships have secretly traveled to this secret intelligence station almost every six months to a year. Since the last time a flute-shaped ship sank in the strait, this mission has been basically completed by passing steamships or even whaling ships, because they can lower sails and sail at low speeds, which reduces the risk by at least half.

Three huge battleships were sailing slowly in the Strait of Magellan at a low speed of 3 knots. The long sailing was careful to pay attention to the direction of the sea to prevent the ship from deviating from the route. As for the strong winds that made people in the sailing era scared, this was no longer an insurmountable mountain for the people of the East Coast. What can bother them in the Strait of Magellan is nothing more than the changing sea water flow and the harsh weather (heavy snow, fog, iceberg).

Fortunately, the weather is good now, and the common ice floes in the strait are gone in winter, and the number of days of fogging is greatly reduced. In addition to the strong winds that have been blowing, the swelling waves have also been greatly reduced due to the tortuous terrain barriers here. In general, sailing in the Strait of Magellan this season - especially when you are still driving a steamboat, is not a problem for experienced navigation personnel. As long as you are careful enough, they can safely pass through this hundreds of kilometers of waterway and enter the Pacific Ocean.

But the East Coast people obviously did not intend to enter the Pacific Ocean. After sailing to the west of the middle section of the strait, they plunged into the narrow waterway between Lesco Island and the Brunswick Peninsula. They sailed carefully between the mountains and ridges for more than half a week before finally entering the open but calm Otway Bay.

Due to the barrier of terrain and mountain ranges, the sea surface in Otway Bay is relatively calm. Compared with the west wind and the turbid waves, the western section of the Magellan Strait is empty, which is almost two worlds. At the same time, it is also a lonely world, a corner forgotten by the world, and there is no trace of civilization on the shore. Wild geese, jackals, foxes, llamas, otters, and seals are the "inhabitants" here. If you are lucky enough, you can occasionally see some Madame Alakalu, who are generally over two meters tall, and Patagonians appear on the shore. In addition, there is only a desolate place here.

After entering Otway Bay, the three ships crossed the second narrow path between Lesco Island and the Brunswick Peninsula in turn, entering another calmer sea area, and then docked near the East Coast Intelligence Station in the later Riobaid area to the right of the water. It was already March 5th.

There are few shallows on the coast, basically in deep water areas, so the ships can be docked very close to the shore to facilitate transportation of supplies and personnel. A simple trestle was built with thick logs on the coast, which could be parked at the same time. Some people in the black uniforms of the Ministry of Internal Affairs secret police ran over, with pistols on their waists. Behind them were several Patagonian entourages who were more than two meters tall.

While waving to the sailors standing on the deck, they skillfully tied the cables thrown from the ship to wooden stakes on the shore, and then waited to start unloading. No ships have arrived in the local area for 8 months. This intelligence station is in urgent need of supplies for supplementary materials: food, weapons, ammunition, spirits, tobacco, sugar, etc., all goods from the local area. The Araucan guerrillas have been here twice in the past year and have taken away a large amount of weapons and ammunition, hemostasis bandages, field food, cold-proof clothing and other supplies. The inventory of the intelligence station warehouse was directly in the bottom of the bottom. They are in urgent need of supplementary materials. Of course, these Araucan people did not give money in vain. They also sent a large amount of high-quality fur to the East Coast people, seized Spanish gold and silver coins, various jewelry and artworks that are difficult to deal with, some horses and other things to offset the payment.

Lu Ming, wearing a navy's spring and autumn uniform, climbed the weeds on the shore. A senior agent in charge of the intelligence station immediately stepped forward and saluted. Just kidding that there was only one official with the rank of Navy Lieutenant Colonel on the east coast today, that is, Lu Ming, the commander of the First Fleet. Such a big man came to this secret intelligence station where birds do not shit, which made the local head Bilas feel unreal.

"Lieutenant Bilas. Thank you for your contribution to the country." Lu Ming shook the hand of the intelligence station's station's station manager and said with a solemn look: "You have been stationed in this lonely and desolate place for more than three years, and are accompanied by danger, cold and loneliness. Although your contribution to the country cannot be made public for various reasons, one day, the people will understand your perseverance and sacrifice, and will understand your dedication. Thank you."

Bilas was the first Swiss French Calvinist immigrants to the east coast. He was originally in the army and later recruited into the State Intelligence Administration. He served in the Bordeaux station for many years. He was transferred back to the local area for 42 years. After a short period of further study, he was awarded the rank of second lieutenant. He then went to Magellan Intelligence Station as the director, replacing another senior agent who had served here for many years. This lord and Bilas were also the first Swiss immigrants, who were deeply trusted by his superiors.

"Thank you, Chief Lu for your concern. The brothers are still used to it here, and the salary subsidies are also sent to the family members on time. No one has any worries. The indigenous people around him, Madame Alakalu and Patagonians are still friendly. We have established a certain degree of trade contact with them to consolidate their relationship. At present, the intelligence station has also hired ten Patagonians as mail-offs, who are mainly responsible for transporting goods and raising livestock. These people, together with our people, there are a total of 28 members in the entire intelligence station, all of which are here." Bilas reported carefully to Lu Ming.

"Yeah." Lu Ming nodded, then walked towards the intelligence station that was only more than 20 meters away from the wharf. The houses at the intelligence station were made of local wood. Lu Ming looked at it and found that the house was very simple, basically made of logs, and some of the bark on the wood was not even removed. The roof of the house was covered with a thick layer of thatch, and there were two layers of rain cloth on the thatch to prevent moisture. Sure enough, the conditions here seemed very difficult.

Ten Patagonians stood on the dock and stared blankly at the tall ships parked beside the trestle and the dense gun windows on it. They had lived with the East Coast people for a long time, and naturally knew the power of the guns in the gun windows. Therefore, they were stunned when they saw three such war beasts coming. Over the years, they sold only five or six guns to the Araucan guerrillas, and they were all small-caliber guns. Compared with the nearly two hundred heavy guns on the three ships in the port, they were simply a witch.

"Very tall and strong people." Lu Ming said with praise, "The Patagonians are indeed very tall. In the future, they can be made into heavy infantry or grenadiers. When they go to the battlefield, they will be more than two meters tall and they will not scare people to death."

The heights of Patagonians, Madame Alakalu and some Ona people who live on both sides of the Strait of Magellan are amazing. Especially those Patagonians are generally more than two meters. In 1615, Europeans measured a dead Patagonian skeleton and concluded that they were as tall as 3 meters. In 1790, Forkner met a tribal chief, who was as tall as 2.15 meters.

European sailors who first met Patagonians described: "They had a well-developed chest and forearms, ran faster than horses, could eat a basket of black bread at a time, and drink half a bucket of water in one breath."

As a close relative of Patagonians, it is recorded that men are generally above 1.75 meters tall, while women are above 1.7 meters tall, far exceeding Europeans and Asians at this time.

Before this, Lu Ming was a little unbelievable, but when he saw this, he really believed that these indigenous people living on both sides of the Strait of Magellan and the Southern Patagonia region were so tall and had a very developed muscle, which was incredible. Unfortunately, after the homes of these people were invaded by Europeans in later generations, their population dropped rapidly due to massacre, robbery (Europeans robbed the sheep they grazed) and diseases, and their population eventually melted away.

"The least of these people has been employed for two years, and we are our more reliable helper." Bilas explained. With his words, the ten Patagonians skillfully unloaded boxes of supplies on the dock. Judging from their tall figures and knotty muscles, it seemed that these heavy objects were not a big burden for them.

Lu Ming nodded slowly while listening, and then he suddenly thought of something and asked Bilas: "Are there Arakan people here?"

"No, they usually come to us once every year in late December, and the other time is not fixed. It's hard to say when they will come. Maybe that's the Spanish, because they are fighting with them, not us."

"How is their level of combat? Can they win the battle with the Spaniards?"

"Their level is uneven. Some old guerrillas who have passed through the old Vicente era are very good, but the young people recruited in the past two years are far from that. Their strength is not enough to support them in frontal battles with the Spaniards. Their base camp is located in the city of Araucan (Portugales), not far from here. Our people have been there several times to help them repair artillery and train new recruits. But their main guerrillas are generally not here.

The city of Laucan is on the series of broken islands south of Chiloe and on the land next to it. There are many fugitive slaves who cannot bear the slavery of the Spanish, where they farm and grazing are their natural source of troops. And it is easier to attack the Spanish strongholds there, so Arakacan is just a stronghold for them to resettle their families." Bilas has been deeply involved in many things in the Arakacan guerrillas, so he is very familiar with the various inside stories here.

"Very good. Lieutenant Bilas, now the country has given you an important task, which is to send people to Araucan City, try to contact the guerrillas, and then ask them to increase the frequency and intensity of attacks and strive to eliminate more Spaniards. To this end, we will give them more newer weapons, such as flintlock rifles, large-caliber field artillery, armor, etc. We have brought them all this time. This is related to the country's strategic layout. Are you sure to do it?" Lu Ming looked at Bilas' weather-beaten face and said slowly.
Chapter completed!