Wild North America 1846

Chapter 424 Exciting Empire Territory

next day

At the same time that the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty was invited to visit the House of Lords of the British Parliament and delivered an important speech on "policies related to the relationship between the two countries," the Times, published by New Day, was quickly hawked by newsboys in the streets, and the London citizens were quickly shocked.

Sold out like crazy.

"Selling newspapers, selling newspapers, 23 European nobles challenged the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty to a duel, 19 nobles were killed on the spot, and the lives of three people were uncertain. It shocked the whole of Europe."

"His Excellency the Duke knelt down on the spot, and hundreds of years of family glory came to an abrupt end."

"London's upper class collectively witnessed that the Eastern Emperor, who was like a prehistoric beast, brutally killed more than 20 British nobles."

"Article by a special commentator of The Times: In the face of strong power, any act of provoking the sacred kingship is tantamount to suicide."

The breaking news caused a sensation in London, a sensation in England, and almost the whole of Europe. The news blew like a strong wind to every corner of the European continent. It was the first time for many illiterate Europeans to hear about the famous name of "Charlie the Devil".

Such breaking news.

Of the three British nobles who were seriously injured in the duel, one died on the second day, one died on the third day, and another one barely managed to hold on for more than ten days after being seriously injured, but still died in the end.

Therefore, the result of this 1v23 duel was finally fixed at 22 dead and 1 injured. Duke Churchill, whose nose was smashed, suffered a severe concussion. Now he lies in bed spending less time awake and more time in a coma.

By the way, there was also Lord Eaglets-Leitz, the Colonial Secretary who broke his neck. After holding on for several days, he finally breathed his last and died peacefully.

a

Plymouth Port, the base camp of the British Royal Navy's Home Fleet, is 310 kilometers northeast of London. Ships gather in the surrounding bay anchorage, demonstrating the invincible majesty of the Royal Navy of the British Empire.

Most of the bays here are sailing ships with tall masts. There are about 300 ships. A small number of them are wooden steam-powered double-powered sailing ships wrapped in iron armor. The deck design is crowded.

The British Royal Navy is famous for its stubbornness in adhering to tradition. Even though it knows that the technical route of combining sail and steam power is expensive and impractical, the new ships that the shipyard continues to build still have this stacking design, which seems to be a one-way street.

Energetic.

Anyway, if you have money, you can be willful, that's how cunning you are.

Two ironclad cruisers of the Royal Navy of the Tang Empire, the "Storm" and the "Shanfeng", with simple and elegant shapes, were parked in a port on one side, attracting a large number of officers from the British Royal Navy to observe. There were people everywhere on the ship deck.

It's as lively as a festival.

Accompanied by Edward, Prince of Wales, Emperor Richard visited the University of Plymouth and the Royal Plymouth Naval Academy, held discussions with a group of British students, and donated 2,000 pounds and 3,500 pounds respectively to the two schools for the construction of Oriental libraries.

.

These two donations are already substantial. In comparison, Her Majesty the Queen only donated 2,000 pounds during the Great Famine, which lasted for five years and killed millions of Irish people.

It is said that after the great famine broke out in Ireland, Sultan Mecid I of the Ottoman Empire announced that he would donate 10,000 pounds to the victims of the disaster in Ireland. However, the British government stopped him and asked the Sultan to only donate 1,000 pounds to the victims.

No matter what, it cannot overshadow Her Majesty Queen Victoria!

When Emperor Richard of the Tang Dynasty was visiting various places, the diplomatic negotiations between Tang and Britain that had been going on for several years finally came to fruition.

Under the personal intervention of high-level officials from both countries, representatives of the two countries who had been negotiating intensely for several days finally signed a series of memorandums of understanding and contracts, and everyone was happy.

The Tang and British governments signed the "Annex to the Memorandum of Understanding on the Right to Self-determination of the People's Representatives of the British Colonies of Canada (only for the Province of British Columbia and the Yukon Territory)", the "Toronto Canal Tolls Package Solution" and the "Memorandum of Understanding on Issues in Guatemala and Other Regions in Central America".

"Memorandum of Understanding on Financial Arrangements between the United States of America", "Memorandum of Understanding on Further Closer Bilateral Economic and Trade Relations between Britain and Tang Dynasty", "Common Action Plan on the German Confederation", "Common Action Plan on the East and Southeast Asia Region between Britain and Tang Dynasty", etc., resolved a series of unresolved issues between the governments.

issues of inter-state cooperation and determined programmatic policies.

besides

The Royal Armstrong Arsenal of the British Empire has reached several contracts related to the introduction of breech-loading artillery technology with the Colt Arms Company, and has reached a contract with the Colt Chemical Company to import 5,000 tons of nitroglycerin high explosives and 200,000 advanced trigger fuzes.

A series of major military-industrial cooperations have achieved results satisfactory to both parties.

Royal Navy Commitment;

No less than 800 sets of Colt advanced breech-loaded artillery in various calibers ranging from 12 to 60 pounds will be imported one after another. The Royal Armstrong Arsenal will obtain a patent license for breech-loaded artillery. For each set of breech-loaded artillery manufactured, a license fee will be paid

Royalties.

The licensing agreement has a 20-year exclusivity. During this period, Colt Arms Company shall not grant advanced artillery technology to other countries. This is a clause that the British representative specifically emphasized and insisted on.

Its purpose was, of course, to maintain the dominance of the Royal Navy of the British Empire and to limit competitors such as the French and Prussian navies.

The needs of the British Royal Navy have always come first.

Being able to get a large artillery order from the British, Colt Arms Company already smiled crookedly and of course agreed wholeheartedly.

As the most wealthy and powerful buyer in the world today, the British Empire's armored warships traveling in all major oceans around the world need to be equipped with tens of thousands of advanced artillery pieces. Importing them alone is definitely not enough. How much will it cost?

Fortunately, the two parties reached a patent licensing agreement, and in order to show their sincerity, the British agreed to import 800 sets of Colt breech-loading guns in stock. This was a hugely profitable order.

The British Royal Navy also played a trick. It just said that the order covered artillery from 12 pounds to 60 pounds, but did not specify the number of each type of artillery?

This leaves a backdoor for British warships to import large quantities of their main 60-pound main naval guns. As long as the budget can keep up, they can really import as much as they want.

There is a huge price difference between the 12-pounder artillery and the 60-pounder artillery. The former only costs more than 680 pounds to purchase, while the latter costs more than 10,000 pounds to purchase one. They are not at the same level at all.

The British Royal Navy likes to accumulate heavy firepower. On the Minotaur-class ironclad battleship "Agincourt", which was launched in 1862 and has a displacement of 10,812 tons, the main armament is: 4 9-inch rifled front-loading guns and 24 7-inch rifled guns.

Front-loading cannon.

This formed a long armored gun row on the "Agincourt", densely packed with thick muzzles, which exuded an icy sheen under the sunlight, making people's scalp numb just looking at it.

Nowadays, the two 10,000-ton ironclad battleships "Minotaur" and "Agincourt" are quietly moored in Plymouth Bay. Their huge hulls dwarf a number of two-masted and three-masted sailing battleships.

, representing the most elite maritime decisive force of the British Royal Navy.

Similarly, the tall masts and chimneys of these two new iron-clad warships are extremely conspicuous and always look uncomfortable.

It is undeniable that despite some hiccups, the state visit of Emperor Richard of the Tang Dynasty was a complete success, which effectively promoted the further development of relations between Tang and Britain and made great progress in many aspects.

The Tang Empire also responded in kind in many ways. His Royal Highness Tang Liyuan, Duke of Hawaii (the eldest prince) will end his study tour in the Kingdom of Italy and transfer to the Royal Naval Academy in Plymouth.

His Royal Highness Don Li Geng, the Duke of Panama, will also end his trip to Paris, enter the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom for further studies, continue his European study tour, and leave France, where the upper class aristocrats live a decadent life, to hide here in peace and quiet.

After Richard personally established his authority by 1-23, the status of the nobles of the Tang Empire in the British Isles skyrocketed, and they were basically treated slightly less favorably than the British nobles, which was already very good.

The French have been fighting with the British for hundreds of years. Today, in the upper-class aristocratic circles in London, the French aristocrats are still the objects of ridicule and exclusion, let alone other small European countries.

The arrogance of the British aristocracy stems from their bloodline genes, and they will show off their sense of superiority from time to time. This really cannot be changed.

The most obvious change around the Duke of Panama is that all the civil and military attachés have been replaced. They have returned to the Empire on the Atlantic flight a few days ago, and it is said that they will be sent to overseas provinces on official business in the future.

It's either Hawaii or South America. Anyway, my career is definitely over.

The Duke of Panama did not know how to give advice and did not know how to silence those French ladies, which caused His Highness the Duke's reputation to be damaged. This is an unforgivable sin in any case.

Changing to an environment like London, with less singing and dancing and more respect and purity, may be a good thing for the growth of the Duke of Panama (the second prince).

June 10 morning

A grand and magnificent farewell ceremony was held at Plymouth Pier. Emperor Richard of the Tang Dynasty ended his 10-day visit to the UK and embarked on a journey to visit the Dutch royal family.

After the 21-gun salute, Emperor Richard led the crowd and waved goodbye to Prince Edward of Wales and many dignitaries of the British nobility who were seeing them off. The farewell scene was quite touching.

Watching the Tang Empire's luxury cruise ship leave the dock, His Highness Edward also let out a long sigh of relief.

In order to receive the royal family of the Tang Dynasty, he had been holding back a lot these days and needed to vent. At the very least, he had to hold an open conference for five days and five nights in a row, otherwise he would feel that he was losing money.

After the two British escort ships left the country as a gift, as soon as the imperial fleet of four visiting ships entered the North Sea, several black spots appeared in the sky, and then fell rapidly.

The five bald eagles that were originally kept in a remote manor in England came back and landed steadily on the beam outside the luxury cabin exclusively reserved for the royal family on the top floor.

In order to avoid unnecessary complications, after the five bald eagles completed their secret mission, they left the group and settled in a remote manor, where they spent more than ten days unknown to anyone.

Hearing the happy chirping of the bald eagle, Richard immediately walked out, took out the sliced ​​meat strips from the large basin held by the royal guard next to him, and threw it into the air, causing the bald eagles to fight for it.

peck.

"You guys don't want to grab it. We already have the meat strips. How can we still starve you precious eggs?" Richard said with a smile, grabbed the meat strips and threw them over, teasing these few.

The bald eagle is full of interest.

This visit to England was very fruitful, and these bald eagles also made a great contribution.

The North American part of the imperial territory that Richard cared about most, after reaching a memorandum of understanding on self-determination for the people of British Columbia and Yukon Territory with the United Kingdom, the above two provinces can also enjoy the cooperation with the Canadian Province, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

The three provinces of Sheffield received the same treatment and could independently decide whether to become independent or join the Tang Empire through democratic voting, without any interference from the British side.

This paved the way for the above two provinces to join the Tang Empire.

Nowadays, the British are pushing for the Canadian provinces, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which are mainly populated by British immigrants, to establish an autonomous dominion named "Canada", which is the earliest autonomous dominion in the United Kingdom.

As for joining the UK, it is absolutely impossible. The British are still a bit selfish in this regard and do not want all cats and dogs to enjoy the glory and wealth of the British Empire.

Canada cannot do it, neither can Australia and New Zealand, and even less can South Africa. The future development direction of these colonies is dominion. This is a new change in British colonial policy.

Canada can only exist as a dominion under British rule, which is the highest form of colony.

The Dominion enjoys the greatest degree of political and democratic self-determination rights and the right to formulate independent tax policies. In fact, it is equivalent to managing itself and not causing trouble to the British Empire.

The Tang Empire was not afraid of trouble. Richard happily calculated the current imperial territory and planned to continue to immigrate to the northern provinces of British Columbia and Yukon in 2 to 3 years, and then join the Tang Empire through democratic self-determination.

As for the time, 1867 is appropriate.

Because British Canada is currently wrangling, the originally independent provinces have different opinions on the establishment of the Dominion, especially the most vocal French white residents of Quebec, who mostly disagree.

Nowadays, the autonomous provinces in Canada are directly loyal to the British Empire and have no affiliation with each other. They are all accustomed to freedom. Many provinces do not want to have a weakened version of their leader. So what is the point?

in the original history

By suppressing opposition voices and excluding Quebec, the British finally merged the provinces of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in 1867 to form the so-called "Canada".

This gave birth to Britain's earliest dominion.

Canada subsequently absorbed other provinces one after another, and the last province of Alberta did not join Canada until 1949, forming the Canadian territory of later generations. This was 82 years after 1867.

The Tang Empire took advantage of this opportunity to acquire British Columbia and the Yukon Territory, thus forming the ultimate territory from the Alaska Province in the Arctic Circle all the way south along the Pacific Ocean, and finally to the Strait Provinces and Zhennan Provinces in the south.

After a few years of civil war and chaos in the three Central American countries, the land of these three countries was gradually settled and firmly became the possession of the Tang Empire.

By then

The territory of the Tang Empire could extend all the way to Panama in Central America. What an exciting and glorious moment that would be?

When he thought of this, Richard couldn't help but smile with joy. It was so worth it. He had gained so much from his visit to England. How could he not smile?

To say that the British Empire in this era was really awesome, with leaks on the fingers and plenty of food and clothing behind the butt, is not the slightest lie.

Moreover, the British have always taken good care of their own people, so the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the second stop of Richard's upcoming visit, will be the beneficiary.

If it weren't for the British who defeated Emperor Napoleon in 1814 and lost the East Indies to the Kingdom of the Netherlands in order to repay their merits, how could the East Indies now have anything to do with the Netherlands?

At that time, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands were both major players in the East Indies, but the British were having a hard time running the Straits Settlements, mainly in Malaysia, Singapore, Johor and Penang, and they simply could not manage more places.

The British occupied too much territory and could not develop it at all, so they simply let those around them take advantage.

This advantage of the Dutch royal family is huge. The huge profits squeezed from the East Indies colonies and the exclusive spice trade every year account for almost more than half of the income of the Dutch royal family, maintaining the Netherlands' status as a third-rate country in Europe.

As long as the British are not willing to do so, they can simply impose a card on the Straits Settlements, or the Governor-General of India deliberately makes it difficult, and the spiced coffee on the Dutch merchant ships will be completely destroyed, and no matter how long the hair is stored, it will not be shipped out.

Maintaining a close alliance with the British and repairing the rift between the two countries, whether in Central and South America or future colonial expansion in Asia, was of very important strategic significance to the Tang Empire.

As long as the British turn a blind eye, the Tang Empire can completely ignore the great powers such as France, Germany, Russia, and the Austrian Empire. With the cover of the big brother, it will be much easier to do things.

Some people say that the Tang Empire was so powerful, why should it depend on others?

This issue needs to be viewed from two aspects. When the power expands to a certain level, it is indeed necessary to implement an independent foreign policy and set up a mountain to be the king. Isn’t it beautiful that the nose is bubbling?

The Tang Empire was only as strong as its army, and it was a regional power.

There is no certainty of victory in a confrontation with the European powers. These European powers have advanced weapons and equipment, a large population, and can find many allies to make friends. They have relatively strong economic and military strength.

Therefore, the strength of the Tang Kingdom can only be limited to North America. If it is exhausted, it will spread to South America, and it will not be able to spread to Europe.

If you want to expand outwards, such as the Far East and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa, you must ask Britain, the world hegemon, if you agree?

In addition, you need to ask France for his opinion, otherwise they will beat you up in minutes.

There are many friends but few enemies. This is an unbreakable truth whether in social conduct or in international politics.

As long as the British are recognized as big brothers, many things will be implemented much more smoothly, and the French will not dare to interfere unscrupulously. This is the reason why it is easy to enjoy the shade under a big tree.

Until the Tang Empire's economic strength has not surpassed that of Britain and it has not established a powerful Royal Navy, it is the right thing to continue dormant.

(End of chapter)