Fox of France

The next step is to transfer technicians to the two countries for basic inspection and factory selection. Of course, this is not a short-term matter. Whether it is Dongluo or Lvluo, the administrative efficiency is not high, especially for the sick man in West Asia. The administrative efficiency is definitely so low that it can kill a sloth.

But these two contracts are a signal, a signal of a European-wide arming escalation. Just after the news that the "Bonaparte Arsenal" signed contracts with Russia and Turkey to transfer some technologies and help them build brand new arsenals, the whole of Europe moved.

Both Joseph and Napoleon originally thought that Austria would be the first to be unable to sit still and move, because in the Balkans, the contradictions among Shinra, Dongluo, and Luluo were so great. Two guys disrupting the balance of power.

However, to their surprise, the first person to come to the door was an American.

In fact, the Americans came to the door not to talk about the factory, but to talk about the "special interests" of the United States in "New Orleans".

The Americans were represented by their Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Robert Livington, who was also the first US Secretary of Foreign Affairs. From this candidate, it can be seen that the Americans value his mission.

New Orleans is on the mouth of the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River is the third largest river in the world in terms of drainage area. Many territories and territories of the United States are located next to this river or its tributaries.

The area where the Mississippi River flows is fertile, making it a good agricultural area. At this time, the industry in the United States had not yet started, and the economy was still mainly an agricultural country. The Mississippi River Valley is the most important agricultural region in the United States.

The agriculture of the United States is different from that of a large eastern country. The purpose of agriculture in a large eastern country has always been to feed itself, but the purpose of American agriculture has been to make money from the very beginning. The fertile and vast land enables the United States to produce far more food than it needs, and the most important use of this food is to export it for money.

In this era when there were no trains, there were no more than two ways to transport goods from the mainland, one was to rely on inland waterway shipping, and the other was to rely on heavy-duty horse-drawn carriages. It's just that the latter is basically only suitable for things with small quantities and high unit prices. The transportation of grain can basically only rely on inland waterway shipping.

The Mississippi River is a very navigable river. Its main stream can be sailed from the mouth to Minneapolis, with a channel length of 3,400 kilometers. In addition to the main stream, there are more than 50 tributary streams that are navigable. Among them, the channel with a water depth of more than 2.7 meters is 9,700 kilometers long. Using the water system of the Mississippi River, in theory, it is very easy and cheap to transport agricultural products to the seaside, load them on sea ships, and sell them to Europe to make money.

However, the Mississippi River was not completely in the hands of the Americans. A fairly long section of the river, as well as the most critical estuary, were in Louisiana. As for the mouth of the sea, it is New Orleans.

During the Spanish rule of Louisiana, the Americans took advantage of Spain's decline and signed the "Pinckney Treaty" with the Spaniards, thus obtaining the right to sail the entire Mississippi River and use the port facilities of New Orleans.

To be honest, the Treaty of Pinckney was not very fair to Spain, because the tolls given by the Americans were purely symbolic, and these rights were obtained almost for nothing.

But now, the "Pinckney Treaty" is about to expire, and the owner of Louisiana has changed to France, the situation is different. The French are much stronger than the Spanish. For example, the Mississippi River waterway and New Orleans are controlled by the French. For the United States, it seems that a certain part has been grasped by others.

At the beginning, the Americans hoped that by provoking and supporting the independence of Santo Domingo, the French would lose a key fulcrum in the Americas, and then find a way to solve this problem.

In the original history, after Napoleon's expeditionary force suffered a decisive defeat in Santo Domingo, Robert Livington came to France and proposed to the French that he hoped to purchase New Orleans. After losing the fulcrum of Santo Domingo, coupled with the tense situation in Europe, a war could happen at any time, Napoleon had to accept the American suggestion, and even sold the entire Louisiana at a low price to the American. (In fact, if New Orleans is sold, Louisiana, which has lost its access to the sea, cannot be maintained at all.)

But now, the French have basically solved the problem through negotiations with Dusan Louverture, and the "Free Trade" showed amazing combat effectiveness in the battle during this period. In two battles, it wiped out the One-third of the U.S. Navy. Therefore, the Americans naturally did not even mention the proposal of buying New Orleans. Now the Americans are really only here to talk about how to continue to let the Americans use the waterway of the Mississippi River and the port of New Orleans.

This kind of thing is not difficult to talk about. Although France has begun to operate immigration activities to North America and has sent some Europeans to North America, it is far from the time to turn against the Americans. North America is an important market for European industrial products, especially French industrial products. It can't get along with anyone, and it can't get along with money.

Conversely, the Americans actually do not want to turn against the French. On the one hand, it is because of the pressure from the United Kingdom, and on the other hand, it is also because, after offending France, it is difficult for American agricultural products to enter the European market again.

Therefore, no matter in the original history or in this time and space, although the U.S. Navy and the French Navy have beaten the dog's brains out in the Caribbean Sea, the two sides have never declared war, and the merchant ships of both sides can still be peaceful. They went to each other's port to do business, and even watched the two navies fight.

In this time and space, even the "Free Trade" destroyed the super cruiser "USA" in the waters near New Orleans. The people in New Orleans, whether they are French, Spaniards, or Americans, have witnessed this with their own eyes. Everything, and then, and then everyone continued to do what they should do, and American merchant ships still entered and exited New Orleans.

Therefore, it is actually not difficult for the Americans to continue to obtain the right to use waterways and ports, but it may be difficult for the Americans to have almost unlimited restrictions like during the Spanish rule. But since the plan in Santo Domingo failed at least temporarily, and the result at sea is not beneficial to the United States. Although the "Free Trade" has left the Americas, the huge shadow she left on the young US Navy is not so easy to dissipate. So we can only talk about the deal honestly.

In addition to the right of navigation on the Mississippi River and the right to use the port of New Orleans, Robert Livington has another task, which is to purchase steel artillery from France.

When the French held the Pakistan Fair, the Americans also saw the steel front-loading rifled guns exhibited by the French. However, because those things are too expensive, and the United States also has its own artillery production companies, if a large number of such artillery is purchased, it will damage the interests of domestic manufacturers, so the Americans did not buy this kind of artillery in large quantities at that time. Similarly, I only purchased a few doors in a small amount, and then shipped them back for testing, and let my arsenal try to see if I can copy them.

However, the most difficult thing in reverse development in the world is generally these two things, one is the craft and the other is the material. In the process of imitating the French steel guns, the British mainly encountered the second problem. The first problem is not a particularly big problem for the British. However, the technical level of the Americans cannot be compared with that of the British. Therefore, the Americans have encountered these two problems, and there is currently no solution to them.

Fortunately, there were no steel cannons in North America before, and everyone had nothing good in their hands. Therefore, the Americans did not feel too much pressure to quickly replace the bronze cannons in their hands with steel cannons. Although various tests have proved that the steel cannon is far superior to the bronze cannon in terms of performance, both in accuracy and power.

But this situation changed quickly. First, the "Free Trade" used steel cannons to hoist the "USS" and "Congress" from a safe distance. For this battle, one of the conclusions drawn by the Americans is that without steel cannons, future naval battles will be similar to having no cannons.

Then the French army in Louisiana also began to equip steel cannons. Of course, this is not the most damning situation. The most damning situation is that even the Canadians have begun to equip steel cannons. In a conflict with the Indians, the Americans also captured a 1.5-inch caliber light steel gun that may have been developed by the British (the French have refused to build weapons of this caliber since they invented the metric unit). This kind of gun can even be pulled by two people, and two horses can pull it to run, but the range and power of the shells it fires far exceed the American 6-pound and 8-pound guns .

So Robert Livington came to France to order more steel artillery from France-although the domestic arsenal was very dissatisfied with this, the situation was pressing.

However, as soon as he arrived in the United States, Robert Livington discovered that the French were willing to sell companies that could produce such artillery. This is really... Robert Leviton thought about it, two major problems, the problem of materials is still unsolvable, but at least the problem of craftsmanship is not a problem!

Of course, this is not the most important thing. The most important thing is that with the introduction of such technology, the domestic arsenal can continue to live, and he can get more support.