Wild North America 1846

607 Unbalanced

More than ten days after the imperial southward invasion army captured Medellin, the rear corps and supply troops arrived one after another.

The road was rough and difficult, and the baggage troops marching along the wide and smooth asphalt roads in Panama Province at the beginning had suffered enough after entering Colombia.

Although there have been engineers and soldiers repairing the roads, more than 7600 of the 1720 heavy carriages at the time of departure were still damaged, and many supplies were forced to be stranded on the way.

this way
There were [-] to [-] broken shafts, damaged wheels, and tens of thousands of spokes. Some carriages even fell apart in the bumpy big pit, and the carriages carrying heavy loads were broken from it.

Thinking about the bad road conditions makes people feel dizzy. The commander, Lieutenant General Mai Xiaozu, divided his troops according to the plan.

The first army went north, and the first army went south. The supplies were carried by mules and horses as much as possible, and they swept across the coastal areas of Colombia in a swift and violent manner, occupying surrounding towns.

As for the food, grass and concentrates that the war horses lack, they will be given to the enemy, and they will be seized on the spot, and they can make do without black beans and corn.

Corn tortillas are the staple food in these countries in South America, and there is no shortage of corn.

As for the fodder problem solved by war horses, what do the local farming Indian tribes eat? Your Excellency, Commander, seems to have never considered this kind of problem.

Colombia is a country whose geographical features are divided into the western mountain region and the eastern plain region. The border with Panama is 263 kilometers long and is located in the western mountain region with continuous mountains.

Most of its densely populated areas are located not far from the coast, and deep in the hinterland are the continuous Andes Mountains and large tracts of virgin forests, sparsely populated.

Including Medellin, as well as the southwestern city of Cali, are located in the western mountains, and the surrounding roads are rugged and difficult. The entire country is covered by more than 117% of large tracts of virgin forest, with a total area of ​​[-] million square kilometers and a low level of development.

The important city of Medellin is located in a mountainous valley, which is a flat valley with a radius of more than 170 square kilometers, and the rivers originating from the surrounding mountains are criss-cross.

The land in the valley is fertile, and the climate is about 21 degrees. It is a traditional area with a history of farming for thousands of years.

It is precisely because of the self-sufficiency of the small peasant economy that there is no need for large-scale commodity circulation.

Although Medellin is located in a well-connected transportation hub, most of the traffic is mule and horse caravans, and it is difficult for horse-drawn carriages to pass. One can imagine how bad the road conditions are.

Among the roads leading to east, west, north, south, the best is the road to Bogota, which can barely pass horse-drawn carriages, and other roads are not good.

When the army goes out, logistics is the most important thing.

In view of the poor road conditions in Colombia, Lieutenant General Mai Xiaozu, the commander of the Southern Army, simply sent all 2 captives and 3.5 young and strong men who had been put into coolie camps to build roads.

It is necessary to complete the 8-meter-wide flat gravel road from Panama to Medellin within one and a half months, laying a solid foundation for the next step of building the railway.

It is about 287 kilometers from Medellin to the Panama border. Why do 5.5 people need to build roads for such a small distance?

This is because the region has abundant rainfall and numerous rivers. The 300 large and small streams along the way cannot be broken, and there is not even a decent bridge.

Seven to eighty people or even more than 80 people are needed to build a bridge, and more than half of the labor force will be removed for so many rivers.

If you want to build roads, you have to build bridges. To build roads in mountainous areas, you have to open roads across the mountains, build bridges when encountering water, and then cut and straighten some roads. The amount of work can be imagined to be quite huge.

But no matter how difficult it is, roads must be built to ensure the smooth logistics of the army.

Only by building a smooth road can we lay a good foundation for the next step of railway construction.Complete the necessary preparatory work for the continued southward extension of the Pacific Intercontinental Railway.

5.5 laborers were deployed across the board, felling trees, digging ditches, and digging mountains to fill rocks. We must go all out to build this road in just 45 days without delaying the logistics supply of the army.

For this reason, Lieutenant General Mai Xiaozu had to leave a team of tens of thousands of people to urge these convicts to work day and night without slacking off for a moment.

The supply troops in the army are also under great pressure. They have to transport necessary tools and materials such as steel beams, iron nails, steel rivets, hammers, and iron brazes for road construction. They also need to transport some building materials such as cement and steel bars in the later stage. Does not require Panama to reinforce wagons in large numbers.

Fortunately, Panama Province started with land and sea transportation, and it lacks everything else, except that there is no shortage of carts, mules, horses and livestock.

With one order, thousands of heavy-duty carriages were quickly assembled to support the front line.

At this time, it can be seen that the Tang Empire has a strong background. With the power of Panama Province, it can support the huge logistics and transportation tasks of the southern invasion army, and there is no need to mobilize from other provinces.

The mules, horses, and carts used for transportation are different from war horses. Panama Province started from land-sea combined transportation. The transportation industry is also a pillar industry in the province, with more than 30 employees.

The two major cities of Panama and Cologne have as many as 2.37 horse-drawn carriages. It is really effortless to temporarily deploy thousands of horse-drawn carriages to support the war.

The flames of war that spread to the whole of Colombia broke out. Both the troops going north and south were frequently attacked by Indian tribes. The imperial conquest army raised the butcher knife without hesitation, and adopted a policy of bloody suppression of the villages and towns along the way. , head rolling...

europe berlin
The Chinese Building of Sanssouci Palace

In the whole of Europe, in terms of which country is most concerned about the Tang Empire, apart from Britain, it is Germany, which has unified the entire German nation.

In the resplendent hall, German Emperor Wilhelm I and his favored chancellor and close friend Bismarck walked and chatted, stopping from time to time to appreciate the silk, antiques and various oriental art works in the Chinese building, and the topics were also related to it.

"My dear Chancellor, have you heard? The Emperor of the East has embarked on a new adventure of his own, this time targeting the unfortunate Colombia. God, this is enviable!"

Beside Kaiser Wilhelm I was a huge white tiger, which was extremely large and strong, standing up and walking on all fours was half the height of a human being.

This is a ferocious beast from the Tang Empire that contains a trace of divine beast blood. It was given to the Kingdom of Prussia as a national gift, and it was exceptionally smart.

Compared with the IQ of ordinary tigers, the IQ of this pet animal named "Augustus" is equivalent to that of a 7-year-old human child. Except that he can't speak, he can understand almost everything else.

When he came to the German court, the cub was only more than three months old at that time, and he was always by the side of Kaiser Wilhelm I, sleeping on the side of the bed at night.

For more than 10 years now, William I has treated "Augustus" as he treated the crown prince, if not more intimate.

When William I talked about the "Emperor of the East", "Augustus" lifted himself up from his laziness and obviously pricked up his ears.

Its owner William I did not notice the abnormality, but continued in an envious tone;

"You know, it is a good place with an area of ​​115 million square kilometers, a pleasant climate, the birthplace of the northern end of the Andes Mountains, and the southern end of the beautiful Caribbean Sea.

While we were once in the great glory and happiness of a united Germany, His Majesty the Emperor of North America was not idle.

It took down Yunzhong Province (Eritrea) and Suez City, established a solid sphere of influence along the Red Sea, and expanded its colonial empire to Northeast Africa.

Now it has invaded Colombia on a large scale, almost controlling the entire America.

Whenever I think about it, it drives me crazy with envy.

In my dream, wherever the sun shines in this world, there should be German colonies, not second-class citizens in North America. "

Prime Minister Bismarck replied;

"Your Majesty;

As a member of the Junker nobility, I am privileged to have the same strong desires as you.

There is no trace of hypocrisy in this, and I sincerely hope that the German nation has extensive colonies all over the world, across the seven seas, and can proudly spread the glory of Germany.

But reason tells me that now is not the time.

The German Empire, which is at the center of the world stage, is both honored and unavoidably regretful. Fortunately, we have noble and pure Anglo-Saxon blood flowing through us, and we are destined to be the masters of the world.

It is a pity that our strategic environment is very bad and complicated. We have to face Tsarist Russia, which is staring at the east, Britain, which has ulterior motives across the English Channel, and France, which is rearmed and powerful, and we have no spare energy to invest in global colonization for the time being.

It is a pity that we do not have the unique and superior strategic geographical location like the Tang Empire, and we have the advantages of both oceans.In-depth control of the political situation and economic life of the North and the South in the United States can almost act recklessly in the Americas.

In the monster room of Europe, the German Empire is facing all the top opponents in the world, so we cannot be distracted! "

"Dear Mr. Prime Minister, it is precisely because of this that I am particularly melancholy."

"Your Majesty, things will not always be like this. The German Empire is rapidly becoming stronger." Prime Minister Bismarck said confidently.

Inside the German Empire, there are also two opinions: internal development and external colonial expansion. Prime Minister Bismarck is the representative of the former, and his policies firmly limit the pace of Germans entering the world.

And this

It aroused strong dissatisfaction among German nationalists, and they slammed Prime Minister Bismarck's conservative policies on various occasions, which put him under a lot of pressure.

But Bismarck stubbornly adhered to the existing policy, and received the full support of Kaiser Wilhelm I.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Bismarck, after successive victories in the Pudan War, the Austro-Prussian War and the Franco-Prussian War, his personal prestige reached its peak and he became the "iron-blooded Prime Minister Bismarck" known throughout Europe. many.

Every time the world powers such as Britain, France, and Tang Dynasty successfully expanded and colonized, they strongly stimulated the rising national enthusiasm of Germany, making them envious and coveted, dreaming that Germany can do the same.

The strong desire comes from strength. Since Prime Minister Bismarck came to power, he started the industrialization process of the German Empire, and the German economy has developed rapidly.

从1867年至1873年，德国建成了近100座炼铁炉，炼焦设备也由920个增加到1720个。

据统计，德国的生铁产量从1866年的100万吨，增加到1873年的200万吨。钢产量从1866年的10万吨，增加到1874年的160万吨。

With the victory of the Franco-Prussian War, the German Empire captured the important industrial and mining areas of France, Alsace and Lorraine, and received a huge war indemnity of 50 billion francs, which greatly enhanced the economic foundation of the German Empire and set off a new round of in-depth industrialization. .

Germany's industrialization developed extremely rapidly, and it introduced a large number of world-class machinery and equipment from Tang, Britain and other countries to set up factories, almost rushing to enter the industrialized country, and it looked more and more like the Tang Empire from the perspective of the national system.

The two countries have a lot in common;

Both are autocratic monarchy systems, with parliaments and cabinets, and the separation of powers in the courts, but the so-called parliaments and cabinets are just the emperor's new clothes, a false democratic system that's all.

The real power is still in the hands of the dictatorship. This is a state-imperialist system. In the hands of a strong and correct controller, the national economy can achieve transcendental rapid development.

But if power is in the hands of careerists, it will lead to unpredictable and huge disasters (note; specifically referring to William II).

Prime Minister Bismarck once served as a diplomatic ambassador to the Tang Dynasty. He studied the political, economic and military systems of this emerging empire in depth, and was shocked and fascinated by it, and was slowly led astray.

This situation
Not only in Germany, but also in many countries such as Fusang, Ryukyu, and Lanfang, which are affiliated countries of the Tang Empire, similar signs have appeared.

After taking power in Germany, Prime Minister Bismarck implemented drastic political and economic reforms, reduced mutual internal friction, reduced the obstruction of trade unions and vested interests, promoted the decision-making system and strengthened market economic competition, and achieved extremely significant results.

And all of this left traces of imitation everywhere.

London newspapers ridiculed Prime Minister Bismarck as a "poor imitator", "perhaps a white-skinned and yellow-hearted egg man", and "transatlantic intimacy is Mr. Bismarck's best gift to the Emperor of Tang".

No matter how ridiculed and criticized, successful people should not be blamed.

The rapidly expanding economic strength of the German Empire has given Prime Minister Bismarck unprecedented unanimous and enthusiastic support. Various policies can be implemented smoothly, and the country's development is thriving.

It was under this fundamental situation that the voices of German nationalists who advocated outward expansion and colonization rose again.

why?
If you have money in your pocket, you won the battle against the French, and your back is even tougher. You are not convinced by France's rapid turn to foreign colonial expansion, and you always think that the Germans will also colonize all over the world...

It's like a neighbor next door, who is far inferior to me in terms of talent, education, level, and degree of attention in the unit.But always gaining huge wealth in the stock market, of course, makes people feel unbalanced.

This time the global economic crisis has little impact on Germany, because it was originally a traditional importer of grain and agricultural products. Today, when international trade has been hit hard, it does not feel the tight cold snaps.

The export scale of its industrial products is not large, and the rapidly increasing steel production capacity is quickly digested by the booming domestic demand.

In addition, the industrial categories are incomplete and the scale is limited. After the tariff protection is imposed, they can live very well.

The Datang Empire is different. It is the largest participant in international trade in the world today. It has a complete range of industrial and agricultural categories, a huge export trade volume, a wide range of points, and a large scale.

In the cold wave experienced by international trade, the losses suffered are naturally the greatest.

(End of this chapter)