Wild North America 1846

Chapter 571 Encroaching on the West

Author: Portuguese toothless

Chapter 571 Encroaching on the West

After the St. Malo Blockade took place, the relevant countries such as Tang, France, and Germany did not publicize the matter, but maintained a tacit understanding of silence, as if it had never happened.

the only change

The German garrison in Saint-Malo has increased to a regiment, and the port guard has also increased to more than a thousand people. It also organizes local French militia training on a daily basis, which is quite similar.

As for smuggling, ahem... that is getting more and more rampant!

Taking advantage of the opportunity of the German garrison, it is obvious that you will not get anything for nothing. Now that you have done it, you don’t have to look forward and backward. If you miss this time, you will never have the opportunity again. The money is so exciting!

This matter should have been buried deep in history and gradually forgotten by the world.

Unexpectedly, in the "The Times" published on June 14, 1871, the Saint-Malo Blockade was reported from beginning to end, and the past and present life of large-scale smuggling and conflicts between several parties were also attached.

The words are explained very clearly.

As expected of you, a British guy who is used to stirring up trouble and can make all the fish in the fish pond fight!

Chang'an, the imperial capital

Daming Palace

With a smile on his lips, Emperor Richard put down the "Summary of World Trends" in his hand. He could not be more clear about the British people's thoughts as if they were on the palm of his hand.

As long as there is the slightest chance, the British will sow a thorn in the relationship between Tang and France.

The purpose is not to create estrangement and suspicion between the two countries now, but to lay the groundwork for when there is an opportunity to take action in the future. This is a very British conspiracy.

It just so happens that the French are very fond of this trick and are often fooled.

France is located in the south-central part of Europe, bordering Italy. It has a romantic, passionate and unrestrained personality. It is obviously no match for the British when it comes to conspiracy.

But in front of Datang, this was child's play.

With thousands of years of history, the Chinese nation has a profound heritage, and there are too many various vertical and horizontal strategies.

Although the Tang Dynasty emerged in North America, it did not cut off the roots of cultural inheritance. Instead, it inherited the profound cultural accumulation and deduced the strategic thinking and international code of conduct unique to the Tang Dynasty empire.

In the foreign policy of the Tang Empire, there was no such thing as "tolerance is paramount". Instead, it pursued the principle of "those who openly offend the Tang Empire will be punished no matter how far they are from thousands of miles away." The foreign policy was overbearing and tyrannical, trying to establish that the empire was dominated by us.

The core principle of putting interests first.

In terms of Americas policy involving core interests, it pursues the policy of "Americas belongs to Americans, American affairs are determined by Americans themselves, and foreign interference is opposed."

When it comes to overseas policies involving outside the Americas, the Tang Empire prioritizes its own interests and is willing to unite allies with similar interests to take action.

This included the strong intervention by Britain, France, the Netherlands and other countries in the Fuso Civil War in East Asia, creating the current situation in which the old forces of the shogunate and the reformists coexist.

When two people with different opinions live under the same roof, do they share the same bed and have different dreams, do their days seem like years, and do they want to strangle each other to death when they get up? That is not something that the Tang Empire needs to consider.

All in all, it looks pretty good and harmonious, and that's enough.

After picking up the jade cup on the table and taking a sip of tea, Emperor Richard picked up the "Summary of World Trends" and continued reading, his brows gradually knitting together.

Over the past 10 years

Tsarist Russia’s policy of eastward expansion became increasingly obvious. After successively conquering several nomadic khanates in Central Asia, the greedy Tsarist Russians unsurprisingly extended their hands into Mongolia, Xinjiang and other regions of the Qing Dynasty, and made substantial

Sexual armed invasion.

The latest step is the armed occupation of Ili and surrounding areas.

As early as the fifth year of Tongzhi (1866), Tsarist Russia reached an informal agreement with the rebellious Agub regime. Both parties agreed not to interfere with each other's actions, gave each other the right to enter the country to pursue fugitives, and cooperated and formed alliances in various aspects such as weapons and supplies.

Deal with the Qing Dynasty.

shortly thereafter

Tsarist Russia took the opportunity to invade the two Karen lands west of the Horgos River and controlled the Tekes Valley in the upper reaches of the Ili River. It continued to carry out armed provocations, killed and injured many border residents, and openly robbed cattle, sheep and fields with great arrogance.

Arrogant.

In July of the ninth year of Tongzhi, hundreds of Tsarist Russian troops occupied the Muzart Mountains, blocking Ili's throat to southern Xinjiang and laying the foundation for the next invasion.

Tsarist Russia was a habitual offender, and was very familiar with invasion and expansion.

In the genes of the East Slavs, Mongolia's strong expansion genes are deeply embedded. This is also an important reason why Tsarist Russia has always been unpopular with Europeans. It is too greedy and excessive.

In early May of the 10th year of Tongzhi (1871), that is, more than a month ago.

Agubai invaded Xinjiang on a large scale, occupied Urumqi, and marched eastward to Turpan, where he fought successive battles with the Qing garrison. The situation in Xinjiang suddenly became tense.

Taking advantage of the emptiness in the hinterland of the Agub Khanate, Tsarist Russia used the pretext of stabilizing border order and sent Gorpakovsky to lead his troops to march straight in and invade Ili on a large scale.

On May 17, the Russian army captured the nine cities of Ili and nearby areas, and immediately set up official divisions, settled immigrants, and carried out colonial rule in the Ili area. This was tantamount to blatantly staying here and treating it as the territory of Tsarist Russia.

.

At the same time, the Russian army sent troops to expand everywhere, controlling the western area of ​​the Junggar Basin from Tacheng and Emin River in the north to Jinghe (now Jinghe) and Kurkara Wusu (now Wusu) in the south, and moved towards

Large-scale infiltration from other places has made the situation in Xinjiang even more chaotic.

"Hey! What is supposed to come will still come."

Yan Juan sighed. Emperor Richard had no intention of reading any more. The more he looked, the worse his mood would become.

He stood up, walked to the window on the side of the hall with his hands behind his back, and looked out;

It was the sunny summer day of June. Flowers were in full bloom outside the window, tall trees were covered with lush greenery, and palaces with double eaves and brackets were stacked up as far as the eye could see, demonstrating the grandeur of the royal family.

Regarding the current situation in Xinjiang, the Tang Empire had deployed backup plans a few years ago.

Zuo Zongtang, who is now the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, has a strong army and a strong artillery team equipped with more than 160 Napoleon field guns. After completely wiping out the Nian Army rebellion, his reputation grew and he became a pillar minister in the Tongzhi Zhongxing period.

Nowadays, Zuo Zongtang is suppressing the rebellion. He still has a ruthless "Zuo Shatou" style and has won the trust of the court.

During the five-year suppression of the rebellion, Zuo Zongtang, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu at the time, always believed that "the Hui people were prone to chaos and were different in nature" and must be "painfully suppressed", so his army often bloodbathed the areas inhabited by the Hui people.

He "killed countless people" and earned the nickname "Zuo Shatou".

Zuo Zongtang was also an important member of the Qing court's "warrior faction", and he disagreed with Li Hongzhang, the Governor-General of Zhili. Li Hongzhang believed that it was "difficult to balance the two forces" and advocated "abandoning fortification defenses and using the money from withdrawals as money for coastal defense."

."

Zuo Zongtang, on the other hand, argued against all opinions and pointed out that in the northwest, "If we withdraw the fence, we will retreat even an inch and the invaders will advance." The imperial court's repeated acts of weakness will lead to large-scale infiltration by the British, Russian and other powers.

With such a humeral minister supporting the overall situation, Xinjiang has no worries!

stand by the window

Richard let out a long breath. Even in this dark period when the Chinese nation has been in decline for hundreds of years, there are still many talented people who stand up to safeguard national interests and maintain the unified pattern of China's territory. This is gratifying.

As a famous official in the late Qing Dynasty, although Li Hongzhang made considerable contributions to stabilizing the structure of the late Qing Dynasty, in the eyes of Emperor Richard, he was far from being compared with Zuo Zongtang because this person was more selfish and would ignore the interests of the nation.

Li Hongzhang believed that Xinjiang was not important. The most important areas for the Qing Dynasty were the Central Plains and coastal areas. It was a waste of money to send troops to regain the border areas. Whether it was fighting or defending, the gains outweighed the losses. It was better to strengthen coastal defense.

A very important reason is that the Beiyang Navy controlled by the Huai Army also needs huge capital investment.

It cannot be said that it is completely unreasonable. This is because in history, Zuo Zongtang spent 58 million taels of silver in six years to regain Xinjiang, of which more than 30 million vehicles were used in the hard battle to defeat the Agube rebels. 28 million taels of silver were used in the subsequent

Military spending to expel Tsarist Russia and defend Xinjiang.

The Beiyang Navy spent a total of more than 25 million taels of silver. A war to quell the rebellion in Xinjiang cost more than two Beiyang Navy.

If this money is used to build the navy, then the Sino-Japanese War of Sino-Japanese War...

no if

The Sino-Japanese War of Sino-Japanese War was not lost due to ship equipment, but due to the upper-level thinking of "avoiding war and preserving ships". What's the use of not daring to fight even if we have better naval equipment?

Did the Qing Dynasty have no money?

After Li Hongzhang died, his inheritance amounted to more than 30 million taels of silver, as well as countless houses and fields. The confiscation of his family property was enough to build two Beiyang navies.

Li Lianying, the eunuch favored by the Empress Dowager Cixi, had accumulated three million taels of silver. How could she be said to have no money?

These big and small greedies have left the Qing Dynasty riddled with holes. The national treasury is empty, and they all enrich the pockets of private eunuchs. They can't even come up with military expenditures to regain the country. This is the real tragedy!

After thinking about it for a while, Richard

I think we should support Zuo Zongtang, a famous official in the late Qing Dynasty who advocated the recovery of lost territory. The method is also very simple.

We can export profits through the multinational oil giant companies exporting to the Qing Dynasty, and license the white-glove Hu Xueyan under Zuo Zongtang to act as an agent for the exclusive supply of kerosene in several provinces, including Shaanxi-Gansu and Hunan and Hubei provinces. If necessary, we can also add the Guangdong and Guangxi regions.

.

In this way, the income can be increased by about two million taels of silver every year.

The cumulative sum accumulated over several years is not a small amount, which can greatly ease the tense situation of military expenditure and help the recovery of Xinjiang.

Don’t worry about Zuo Zongtang’s pattern. A mere millions of taels of silver will not make him lose his true nature. This can be seen from the incident of “carrying a coffin into Xinjiang”;

In order to regain Xinjiang, Zuo Zongtang even gave up his life and property, so why would he need a mere amount of money?

The kerosene franchise is a hot commodity. Everyone knows that if you can get it, you can make a lot of money, provided you can keep it.

Considering Zuo Zongtang's status as the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu with military power, and his prestigious reputation as "Zuo Shatou", there were not many people in the Qing Dynasty who could make plans for him.

According to the "Compendium of World Events" compiled by the Royal Secretariat;

Tsarist Russia captured Yili and further intended to "recover" Urumqi on its behalf, which aroused the Qing court's high vigilance. "Jing Lian, Cheng Lu and other generals were ordered to lead their troops to try to recover Urumqi and other places as soon as possible" and "Liu Mingchuan was ordered to lead the Huai army out of the customs."

Zuo Zongtang was also ordered to "take all aspects into consideration".

From the perspective of the situation in Shaanxi and Gansu

Zuo Zongtang originally planned to pacify Hehuang, Mazhan'ao and other tribes first, and then "point to the west", but the emergency situation in Yili and Urumqi made him determined to open the road to Xinjiang in advance.

We should act promptly now, and taking precautions is the best policy.

If the empire had been able to give it a gentle push from behind, perhaps history would have been completely different.

Why should we let Lao Maozi let go of that large area of ​​land west of Alashankou?

(End of chapter)