Wild North America 1846

Chapter 550 Half Joy

Author: Portuguese toothless

Chapter 550 Half Joy

The intensity of the Prussian army's tidal attack was getting higher and higher. Artillery bombardments and infantry attacks were carried out alternately. The city of Sedan was shaken by the siege of the army, and the shouts of killing were heard throughout the sky.

About 3:00 pm

The French army finally couldn't hold on under the all-out attack of 200,000 enemy troops. They raised the white flag on the Sedan tower and surrendered to the Prussian army in embarrassment.

In this battle, the French army suffered nearly 40,000 casualties and more than 20,000 were captured. Most of the elite troops of the Châlons Army were lost in this battle. The commander of the army, Marshal MacMahon, was also seriously injured. It can be said that the battle was complete.

On the morning of September 2, Napoleon III, as the monarch of the defeated country, met with German Prime Minister Bismarck, formally signed the instrument of surrender, and presented his sword.

After the Battle of Sedan

Napoleon III, the French Marshal and 39 generals below, and 100,000 soldiers were all captured by the Prussian army. 650 cannons were also captured by the Prussian army, and they were completely defeated.

On September 3, Napoleon III sent a message to Paris: "The army has been defeated and all officers and soldiers and myself have become prisoners."

When the entire Prussian army was reveling all night, Prime Minister Bismarck said to William I with concern: "Your Majesty, our victory has come so quickly, and this is not the most ideal situation. I am worried that we will face a chaotic anarchy.

situation."

"You mean Paris?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, I am worried that the Second Reich will cease to exist." After Prime Minister Bismarck finished speaking, his eyes collided with William I.

From the other party's eyes, he could see that William I was also deeply worried about this matter, and he couldn't help but sigh heavily.

What is this thing called?

Napoleon III not only messed up France, but also acted recklessly in launching war, which also added a lot of trouble to the Kingdom of Prussia.

Everyone knows that the foundation of the Second French Empire is extremely unstable. Now that the French Emperor has fallen in the Prussian soldier camp, the Second Empire he founded may collapse.

Sure enough, one day later, after the news of the French Emperor's capture reached Paris, a bloodless revolution broke out, easily overthrowing the Second French Empire and establishing a new French Provisional Government.

in this case

Since the Second French Empire had been overthrown, it was meaningless for the Kingdom of Prussia to continue to detain the French Emperor Napoleon III. He was just a lonely man, all his glory had gone with the wind, and no French people were willing to listen to his orders anymore.

With such a hot potato left on my hands, I really can’t tell if there are any pros and cons.

After discussing with Prime Minister Bismarck, William I allowed Napoleon III to leave the military camp with his closest men and go into exile in England.

at the same time

The army of the Kingdom of Prussia set out again after resting. The main Third Army and Metz's First and Second Army began to march towards Paris, and the next step was to prepare for the siege of Paris.

North America on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean

Chang'an, the imperial capital

Emperor Richard couldn't help laughing as he held the latest military intelligence bulletin from Europe in his hand. He was in a really happy mood. The dramatic turn of the Franco-Prussian War was so interesting.

The surrender of Napoleon III was not the end of the war, but only the beginning...

From the time the French army launched a probing attack on August 2 to September 2, when Napoleon admitted defeat, surrendered his sword, and formally signed the instrument of surrender, France lost the war.

This month has been like a lantern of changes. The French government has fallen twice, the French Second Empire has also collapsed, and a new national salvation government has been established. Violent turmoil has just begun in various parts of France.

The emperor fled to England, and the French Empire lost...

Since the time of the Frankish Kingdom after the Western Roman Empire, there have been constant wars between the Gauls and the Germans, and wars were often fought between the two countries.

There is a war almost every ten years, and the hatred between them is very deep.

After France became the hegemon of Europe under the leadership of Napoleon, the contradiction between the two countries became more prominent. The Prussians continued to expand their military power, hoping to defeat France in one fell swoop one day.

How glorious the Kingdom of Prussia is today, how shameful France is.

Some angry French nationalists vented their anger on the French nobles and the families of soldiers who participated in the war. In a few areas, extreme incidents occurred in which French nobles and their families were dragged out and hanged, hacked to death or bullied to death. Even

Some soldiers and their families could not escape the murderous hands.

The raging national sentiment surged, and the churning French society boiled, as violently as fire cooking oil.

Napoleon III sent a telegram to Paris on September 3, informing him and the French army of the surrender. On September 4, the Regency Council was overthrown, and Queen Eugenie was forced to leave Paris, which was like a volcanic eruption, and fled overnight to the British Isles.

Prussia, which had won the war, seemed not to have won the war. The newly defeated Emperor of the Second French Empire had collapsed. The government no longer existed and had been replaced by a new provisional government. Only the occupation of Paris was the final solution.

Therefore, the army of the Kingdom of Prussia continued to move westward and occupied the Normandy region in the northwest. Then a large number of merchant ships waiting here docked and began to unload a large amount of goods from the Tang Empire.

inspired by this

The Kingdom of Prussia also increased its dumping of industrial products on the French domestic market, taking advantage of the occupying forces to earn more wealth through economic means and crowding out many local French factories. This is something to be said later.

The Tang Empire's exports of kerosene, diesel, lubricants, toffee, white sugar, canned meat and fruits, grain products and other materials were closely matched with the industrial products dumped by the Kingdom of Prussia. These smuggled goods flooded France in a short period of time.

Market, make a lot of money.

Emperor Richard was so happy that he asked the court musicians to play the song "Eighteen Beats of Hujia", and his mood rose and fell with the music, which was like a steep peak.

There are very few opportunities to see the old imperialist France being defeated, but this is the biggest one.

This Franco-Prussian War

Britain blatantly sided with the Kingdom of Prussia, which deeply damaged the French people's ardent patriotism. It can be said that the old grievances between the two countries have not been resolved, but new ones have been added.

henceforth

Britain has indeed established a strong enemy for France on the European continent, achieving the strategic goal of "rebalancing European power". It has also lost the most powerful accomplice in colonizing the world, and its overseas deterrence has been greatly reduced.

The Anglo-French coalition that appeared frequently during the reign of Napoleon III has since become a swan song.

The Tang Empire could keenly feel this change. The international pressure from Europe was reduced by half, and the burden on Emperor Richard's shoulders was suddenly relieved.

Must admit

The British Royal Navy and the French Army are the strongest combination in the world today. When a British official with such confidence said, "The majesty of the British Empire cannot be challenged," the other party could feel a mountain of pressure coming towards them.

Things are different now. The French are no longer interested, and the Prussians are not interested in affairs outside of Europe.

The isolated British diplomacy is not as strong as before. It may only be able to intimidate small and weak countries, but it will be difficult to have an impact on world powers like the Tang Empire.

You can't have your cake and eat it too!

Emperor Richard walked freely to the large hand-drawn map that was as tall as a person, and looked at the vast bright yellow territory of the empire with satisfaction. After his eyes paused slightly in the Cuba region of Central America, he continued to look at the distribution of power in South America.

on the map

South America presents an obvious three-part world pattern. On the map of South America, which is shaped like an ice cream bucket, the lower part of the ice cream bucket belongs to the Tang Empire and is connected in bright yellow, which is spectacular.

In the wider and fatter upper part of the ice cream barrel, it is close to the Atlantic Ocean and dominated by the Brazilian Empire, which is the second part of the three-thirds of the world.

The country's politics and economy have been deeply penetrated by the Tang Empire, and the pro-Tang political forces are unprecedentedly powerful. The Brazilian Customs is in the hands of the Capital of the Tang Empire and serves as one of the collaterals for huge war compensation.

Through various South American Unified Market Treaties, the Tang Empire has tightly bound the South American Andean Viceroyalty to Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, with limited participation from Chile and Bolivia, forming a smooth South American market.

The upper part of the ice cream barrel is bordered by some countries in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which is the last piece of the puzzle of the three-thirds of the world.

This includes Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, French and British Guiana, Suriname, Cuba and other countries and regions, and is the key area for the Tang Empire to implement its next strategy.

This area is the birthplace and headquarters of the traditional Aztec Empire. It has a large population and a history of civilization development for thousands of years. It has experienced two to three hundred years of Spanish colonization and is deeply rooted. It has always had a relatively hostile and alienated attitude towards the Tang Empire.

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Emperor Richard crossed his arms, and gently rubbed the tough stubble on his chin with his right hand. His eyes lingered on the maps of these South American countries, and a series of thoughts came and went in his mind.

As a very controlling emperor, he doesn't like the emergence of different voices in South America, no matter which country it is, no matter where he comes from?

If you find an opportunity, you should use force to repair one or two thorns.

Unconsciously

Emperor Richard became more and more accustomed to using force to solve problems, and he tasted the benefits of it. The speed of subtly influencing the barbarians with virtue was too slow and the effect was too poor. It was far from as immediate as the war of conquest.

A South American war was fought, and Paraguay and Uruguay were recovered, and Brazil and Argentina, two stronger South American countries, were defeated.

Through the binding of various post-war treaties, it is completely foreseeable that Brazil and Argentina will be persuaded by the power of the Tang Empire to become a part of the unified American market, just like the north and south of the United States.

Conquering by force gives a strong sense of satisfaction. It is the method used by Emperor Richard. This is how he achieves his majestic power.

The Tang Empire dumped massive amounts of industrial products and agricultural products in both the North and the South of the United States, and the suppressed factory owners in the United States went bankrupt one after another. For more than 10 years after the war, no decent-scale industry has been developed, which is a clear example.

The buds of industrial development in the Confederate States of America were cut off. Today, the economic structure is dominated by slave plantations, which provide raw materials for the textile factories of the Tang Empire and are also a dumping ground for industrial and agricultural products.

It will be the same for Brazil and Argentina in the future. In the environment of a unified large market in the Americas, they only need to accept the dumping of massive industrial and agricultural products from the Tang Empire. They don't need to develop any independent industry. What are they doing?

The Tang Empire’s strategic intention to deepen cooperation with South America is very obvious;

It was to turn the entire America into the backyard of the Tang Empire, a dumping ground for industrial and agricultural products, create a national power group headed by the Tang Empire, grant most-favored-nation treatment to each other, and impose high tariffs on countries outside the region.

As a result, the American market became the exclusive backyard of the Tang Empire.

Of course

This backyard cannot refuse the entry of the industrial products of the British Empire. This is the majesty of the world hegemon, but the industrial products of France and other European countries can only say sorry.

Fortunately, the Tang Empire was not afraid of fair competition for British industrial products. In the strong areas of British industry such as steam machinery, cotton textiles, steelmaking and shipbuilding, the Industrial level of the Datang Empire was no less than, or even better than, and occupied a lot of market space.

.

Compared with the rigid British industry, the industrial field of the Datang Empire focused on technological research and development and technological iteration. A large number of competitive industrial enterprise groups emerged in the fierce domestic market competition and developed very fast.

Take the cotton textile industry, Britain’s traditional advantageous industry, as an example.

The cotton textile industry is synonymous with British industry. In the first half of the 19th century, Britain relied on innovations such as the Jenny spinning machine and the water-powered spinning machine to sell cheap woven fabrics all over the world. At one time, it accounted for more than 80% of the British industrial output value.

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The cotton trade has also become the largest trade in the world, reaching hundreds of millions of pounds every year.

High-quality cotton from India, Egypt, and the southern United States enters thousands of cotton textile mills in the United Kingdom and is processed into yarn and cotton cloth, which is then sold in Europe and around the world.

British cheap woven fabrics have greatly impacted the world cotton market, even leading to the unemployment of a large number of household textile workers in India and China, the birthplace of cotton. Hand-woven fabrics cannot compete with cheap machine-made fabrics.

In the early 19th century, there were more than 6 million textile workers in India. By 1850, there were only more than 2.8 million workers. By 1860, there were only more than 2.3 million workers. By 1870, there were less than 2 million workers, showing a sharp decrease trend.

The Manchu Empire in East Asia was better. After all, it was not a complete colony like India. However, a large amount of foreign cloth still hit the market, causing many hand-woven textile workers in coastal areas to lose their only livelihood, and their lives became increasingly difficult.

The cotton textile industry of the Tang Empire was a rising star. It grew in the 1850s and emerged in the 1860s. It was especially famous in the world market for its continuous innovation and was able to compete with British cotton in all aspects.

The Textile Industry of the Tang Empire obtained textile jacquard technology from France through spies, and used the world's leading chemical industry to improve printing and dyeing technology and electric textile machinery technology to produce textile products with new varieties, new patterns, and extremely competitive prices on a large scale.

It was sold back to Europe, sold well in Central America and Asia, and grabbed a lot of British cotton market.

In South Cashire and Manchester County, England, there are still thousands of companies using traditional water conservancy spinning machines. They are not enterprising in technological development and have gone bankrupt in the face of the higher efficiency and lower cost textile competition of the Datang Empire.

in recent years

The proportion of the textile industry in the British industrial output value decreased rapidly, and one of the important reasons was the challenge faced by the Tang Empire's textile industry.

(End of chapter)