Wild North America 1846

Chapter 624 Strategic Red Line

Author: Portuguese toothless

In 1874, the situation in East Asia underwent subtle changes. The Fuso Kingdom invaded North Korea's Ganghwa Island. Japanese ships destroyed the forts, landed and massacred North Korean soldiers and civilians, forcing North Korea to conclude the "Ganghwa Treaty" and seizing a series of aggressive rights.

The Tang Empire knew about this from beginning to end, and also acquiesced to the invasion of the Korean Peninsula by the Fusang Kingdom. There was a reason for this...

Originally at this historical stage

Fuso Kingdom entered the "Meiji Restoration" period, started industrialization while comprehensively learning from the West, and actively engaged in foreign colonial expansion. It invaded Taiwan in 1874 and created the "Peony Society Incident".

Also in this year, Fuso invaded the Ryukyu Kingdom on a large scale and forced King Shoutai to stop paying tribute to the Qing court and instead pay tribute to Fuso in preparation for the annexation of the Ryukyu Islands.

Now history has changed

After the Fuso Civil War, as the samurai regime (shogunate) retreated behind the scenes, the first Fuso cabinet government in the modern sense was formed with the reformists who "respected the king and rejected the barbarians". The domestic situation in Fuso has been greatly improved, and it has been several years since

as long as.

Although there were many internal conflicts, Fuso still started the historical process of learning from the Tang Dynasty and Europe and the United States, promoted many innovative measures, and produced positive and positive significance.

On the one hand, this has alleviated domestic conflicts in Fusang, developed the economy and boosted the confidence of industrial and commercial people. On the other hand, it has gained widespread support from the people, and economic development has entered the fast lane.

Fuso Kingdom soon discovered a development bottleneck;

The three elements for the development of industrialization are market, raw materials and funds. The last one can also be solved through loans, but the first two cannot be avoided in any case.

However, Fuso is an island country with scarce resources. In the south, the Amami Island and the Ryukyu Kingdom are all vassals of the Tang Empire. The mainland and Taiwan Island share the same origin as the suzerain country, which basically blocks the path of southward colonial development.

look around

Only the Korean Peninsula has abundant coal and iron resources and a large population, making it a suitable target for colonial development.

If the Korean Peninsula can be colonized, the coal and iron resources that are in short supply for industrial development can be solved, and a rich supply of important minerals such as gold, silver, tungsten, lead, and aluminum can be obtained, solving the shortcomings of industrial development.

With mineral resources and markets, the industrialization process will inevitably be greatly accelerated. This is an inevitable result of the development of Fuso Country's interests.

If Fuso was forced not to go north to colonize the Korean Peninsula, he would certainly not dare to disobey it, but he would definitely feel resentful, leaving a deep gap that would be difficult to bridge.

Emperor Richard of the Tang Dynasty thought over and over again, and finally decided to adopt a tacit attitude and not obstruct the strategic direction of Fusang's northward colonial development, which was in line with the current interests of the empire.

Nowadays, in the north of East Asia, Tsarist Russia's policy of "looking east" for expansion has become very obvious and has achieved huge returns, which further stimulated Tsarist Russia's colonial expansion ambitions.

In just over 20 years, Tsarist Russia used war blackmail and threats to seize 1.54 million square kilometers of land from the Qing Empire without spending a single soldier. It was really fattening.

During this period

Tsarist Russia successively sent troops to Central Asia, annihilating the Kokand Khanate, Bukhara Khanate and Khiva Khanate, and gained nearly 4 million square kilometers of land in one fell swoop, of which more than 2.7 million were in Kazakhstan (Kokand Khanate) alone.

square kilometers.

In addition to the nearly 260,000 square kilometers (part of Xinjiang) occupied by Tsarist Russia when they invaded Ili, the total area before and after is 5.8 million square kilometers. What a vast territory is this?

The successive successes of the "Look East" policy greatly stimulated Tsarist Russia's territorial ambitions. They ambitiously formulated the "Yellow Russia Plan" to fully invade Xinjiang and occupy Manchuria and Mongolia, including the three eastern provinces, in an attempt to dominate East Asia.

Get a warm outlet to the sea.

The target has been set, and that is Dalian, the capital of Yellow Russia in the East.

Faced with the heavy pressure of Tsarist Russia's eastward invasion, the British felt it, and the Tang Dynasty naturally felt it too. Both sides involuntarily placed their hopes of containing Tsarist Russia's power on Fuso State.

Neither the United Kingdom nor the Tang Dynasty was willing to spend a large amount of troops to compete with Tsarist Russia in East Asia. That was an arduous task that consumed national strength.

The confrontation with the Tsarist Empire was not just one war or two wars, but a strategic confrontation that lasted for tens or even hundreds of years, requiring hundreds of thousands of troops to be deployed over a long period of time.

Even with the strong strength of Britain and Tang, it was too much to bear.

Under this strategic need, Fuso State's strength cannot be overly weakened, and there must even be some policy support, such as financial loans, industry, trade and other fields.

The Fuso Kingdom was put on fire and had to face the heavy military pressure from Tsarist Russia heading south. Are they stupid?

actually not

Fuso Kingdom is different from world-class powers like Yingtang. Their influence extends all over the world. Colonizing East Asia is not their core interest and is not of high importance.

If you really can't stand it anymore, you can retreat, or you can bargain with Tsarist Russia and divide your respective spheres of influence. There are many choices.

Since ancient times, there is only one road in Huashan, and Fusang Kingdom has no choice.

If you want the country to develop and reform, if you want to get rid of the current situation of weakness and poverty, and lead the people on the road to prosperity and industrialization, you must colonize the Korean Peninsula. There is no other way.

So why can't we develop the economy based on our own conditions and through hard work?

This was the current situation of international politics in the second half of the 19th century. How could colonial expansion (robbery and plunder) come faster than a little accumulation?

The Tang Empire's rapid rise in North America and the world is the most vivid example. Its history of colonial expansion is a history of plunder and cruel oppression. Every page is stained with the blood and tears of the colonized.

Without the large-scale colonization of North American whites, Indians, Mexicans, South American Incas and Mapuche Indians, wanton plundering of wealth and land, enslaving local indigenous people, and occupying resource-rich mines and fertile pastures, where would the Tang Empire come from?

Today's prosperous and glorious scene?

If you develop step by step and accumulate wealth, will you get the Year of the Monkey and the Month of the Horse?

In the international situation in the 19th century, the naked forest law of the jungle prevailed. The first-class powers such as Britain, France, Tang, Russia, and Germany, which controlled the world order and the right to speak, all pursued large-scale colonial expansion policies and spared no effort in comprehensive expansion.

How did the British Empire achieve its glory during the Victorian period?

In 1837, when Queen Victoria ascended the throne, the British Empire covered an area of ​​21.015 million square kilometers and had a population of approximately 96 million.

At its peak in 1874, the British Empire covered an area of ​​31.226 million square kilometers (note; it did not reach the maximum of 34.87 million square kilometers), and had a population of approximately 330 million.

In other words, in the 37 years since Queen Victoria's reign, the territory of the British Empire has increased by 10 million square kilometers, and the population has increased by nearly 235 million, thus achieving the great miracle of the "Empire on which the Sun Never Sets".

While the Tang Empire was expanding its colonial operations, none of the world's great powers were idle. They were all engaged in frantic colonial expansion, and were racing to enclose land all over the world.

The world's top powers all do this, so it's not surprising that Fuso Kingdom will follow suit.

If the Fuso Kingdom goes north to invade the Korean Peninsula, it will inevitably create an irresolvable sharp conflict with the Qing Dynasty, the suzerain state of Korea. There is nothing we can do about it.

Today's Manchu and Qing court cannot afford to support Adou. Only one or two mainstays like Zuo Zongtang are left to support the facade. In fact, the inside is already rotten.

History has long proven that the weak combat effectiveness of the Qing army could not stop Tsarist Russia from moving south.

Fuso is still Tsarist Russia, whichever is the lesser of two evils.

Don’t think that if Fuso doesn’t invade the Korean Peninsula or Manchuria and Mongolia, these places will escape disaster. This is a complete fantasy.

nowadays

Tsarist Russia already has a lot of white immigrants in the three eastern provinces, and its ambition to move southward has never been eliminated, but the conditions are just not met.

The Trans-Siberian Railway is still on the drawing board. The tens of thousands of kilometers of ice wilderness from Moscow to Vladivostok is a huge geographical obstacle that is difficult to overcome.

Trapped by this, Tsarist Russia was unable to mobilize a large amount of manpower and material resources into the outer northeast. The development of this region has been lagging behind for a long time, and it was unable to support the logistics of the army.

It is precisely because of this that Tsarist Russia tried to break through from Xinjiang, gradually encroaching on large tracts of land in the northwest, and realize the ultimate dream of "Yellow Russia".

It didn't take long for Zuo Zongtang to lead his army to regain Xinjiang and completely cut off the strategic planning route of Tsarist Russia's invasion from the northwest.

It was precisely with the support of the fanatical ideal of southern invasion that Tsarist Russia, after repeated deliberation, mobilized the country to build the Trans-Siberian Railway and extended its tentacles to the warm east.

Otherwise, why spend huge sums of money to build the Trans-Siberian Railway?

To develop those small cities in the ice wilderness?

History is a majestic trend, and if there is a cause, there must be an effect.

In the clear international vision of Emperor Richard of the Tang Dynasty, he would rather let Fusang gain power temporarily than let Tsarist Russia gain power.

When did the vast tracts of land swallowed by Tsarist Russia ever be spit out?

If the Tang Empire intervened without authorization, causing history to change, and the weak Qing government once again signed a treaty to cede large areas of Manchu and Mongolian land, then he would be a sinner of the Chinese nation.

Emperor Richard had already understood that the Qing Dynasty could not defend the Manchu and Mongolian areas at all, and there must be a history of occupation, either by Russian occupation or Japanese occupation, unless the Tang Empire directly sent troops to occupy the Manchu and Mongolian areas.

But doing so is tantamount to directing all the firepower on yourself.

Tsarist Russia is dissatisfied, Fuso is dissatisfied, the Qing court is dissatisfied, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Austria are all dissatisfied, which is equivalent to the Tang Empire placing itself on the opposite side of the world. What is the trouble?

Isn't this crazy?

Just think about it, a powerful empire with a population of hundreds of millions in North America joins forces with 350 million compatriots from the East Asian continent who have the same ancestry and origin, and want people and money. What a terrifying prospect this is?

This will definitely subvert the entire world order, subvert the era when Europeans dominated the world, subvert all existing international structures, and subvert everything.

The result will inevitably be that all countries in the world will form a coalition, including the Qing court, to jointly attack the Tang Empire.

The first world war in human history will break out, and the Tang Empire will independently deal with the gang fights from all over the world...

The Tang Empire has not taken many actions in East Asia because there is a strategic red line.

This is a strategic red line that the British and French powers are paying close attention to. That is, the Tang Empire must not get involved in East Asia. This has exceeded the limit of tolerance.

(This chapter is a response to those readers who have always wanted to clear up the Qing Dynasty. Many readers are indeed enthusiastic, but they are really cheating. After all, this book has written more than two million words, so it can’t be blocked, right? There is another one in the evening

Chapter, currently coding.)