Wild North America 1846

The news that the British were brutally beaten by the Boers in South Africa reached the Tang Empire in mid-December, less than 12 days before Christmas in 1899.

Emperor Li Cha and his party took the imperial train back to the imperial capital Chang'an, and when they passed through Chicago, they heard this good news for the Tang Empire.

Well... this is by no means gloating.

Emperor Li Cha has repeatedly emphasized;
International affairs have never occurred in isolation and alone. They all have their inherent historical entanglements and complex geostrategic contests, and behind them are the shadows of major powers.

This is true of European affairs, the Balkans, the Near East, the Far East, the East Indies, the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa, as well as the Boer War that is now reaching its climax.

Kaiser Wilhelm II openly sent an ebullient congratulatory message for the victory of the Boers. Germany gave the green light to buy arms for the Boers in South Africa, and one after another German merchant ships went to Portuguese Mozambique.

A large number of goods supporting South Africa were transferred from the seaport here, and they were replaced by inland ships with a shallower draft. They could travel south along the tributaries of the Zambezi River to the Transvaal, which was the main transportation channel for receiving European material support.

More than 1700 German-born white volunteers poured into the two Boer countries of Transvaal and Orange. They brought a large amount of weapons, ammunition and medicine, and fought side by side with the Boers.

In it, can it be said that there is no shadow of Germany?
It can’t be blamed that European countries are generally opposed to Britain. The main reason is that the British eat too ugly and started the Boer War in South Africa by bullying the weak, mainly for the huge reserves of shiny gold and diamonds.

On the issue of the Boers in South Africa, almost the whole of Europe is fighting against Britain, including France, the old enemy that has been entangled with grievances for hundreds of years, and Russia all took the opportunity to step on it.
Only the Tang Empire firmly supported Britain from the beginning to the end. In the words of Prime Minister Robert Cecil; "The friendship between the two countries has gone through the test of time and is even more precious..."

The royal patent whizzed all the way to the west. In the luxurious box, Emperor Li Cha was in a great mood watching the latest South African battle situation.

On the South African battlefield, the British army could be said to have lost their underpants, and their faces were swollen from being "slapped" by the Boers.

In all major battles from mid-October to the present, the British army was completely defeated.

Especially in the Battle of Ladysmith that broke out on October 10, the Boers had an astonishing 30:162 loss ratio, which was a one-sided massacre.

When the news came out, the world was shocked!
Before the Ladysmith battle,

At the end of October, 10 British troops led by General Redvers Buller, commander-in-chief of the British South African Expeditionary Force, arrived in Cape Town smoothly, and then launched a large-scale counterattack.

Lieutenant General Methuen was responsible for lifting the siege of Kimberley Town by the Boers on the western front, Lieutenant General Franky attacked the Orange Free State on the central line, and General Buller led the main force to lift the siege of Ladysmith on the eastern front.

The British reinforcements moved quickly and arrived in the theater after only a few days.

Admiral Buhler led the main force to launch a fierce attack on the cloth army entrenched there at Colenso, a small station southwest of Lady Smith, in an attempt to cross the Tugela River and go straight to the Lady Smith area.

The forces commanded by Admiral Buller included the 16000nd, [-]th, [-]th, and [-]th British Brigades, totaling [-] men, in addition to four regiments of light cavalry, and three squadrons of Lancers composed of colonial cavalry.

The artillery has 5 artillery batteries, 30 cannons, and 16 naval 12-pounders and 4.7-inch guns in addition.Including cavalry and artillery, the total force is 22000, and its strength occupies an absolute advantage.

The Boer army involved in the Battle of Colenso included militias from the eight districts of Johannesburg, Heidelberg, Krugersdorp, Freihead, and Utrecht, troops from the Orange Free State, and Johannesburg and Swaziland's white police force, totaling 3500.

In addition, the Boers also have a 120mm German Krupp howitzer, a 1mm Krupp field gun, two 75mm French Schneider-Crusoe cannons, and a 2mm Maxim rapid-fire gun.

Judging from the size of the British and cloth armies, it is about 7:1, and the artillery is nine times that of the Boers. The British army has an undoubted overall advantage.

However, due to the command errors of the British commander-in-chief, the troops were scattered and the tactics were rigid. The British army suffered a disastrous defeat in this battle. 1139 people were killed, 250 people were missing, and 10 cannons were lost.

The Boer army only killed 8 people and wounded 30 people.

During the same period of the Battle of Ladysmith, the British army also suffered ignominious defeats at Kimberley on the Western Front and Stormberg on the Central Line, with more than 2800 losses. It is called "Dark Week" in the history of the British Army. ".

In this "dark week", the British army suffered a disastrous defeat on the east, middle, and west fronts. The total number of killed officers and soldiers exceeded 4000, and there were countless wounded. After a hasty retreat, a large amount of logistics equipment was discarded.

Admiral Buhler, who had just arrived in South Africa for more than a month, was forced to resign as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force due to an unprecedented fiasco, and sadly returned to London.

It is entirely conceivable that Britain is about to usher in an unprecedented storm of public opinion, and all kinds of eccentric derogation and ridicule are indispensable. Kaiser Wilhelm II may be going crazy with joy.

Such a disastrous failure inevitably shook the British Empire's position as the world's hegemon, and the brilliance surrounding Britain was eclipsed, and it became no longer daunting.

All in all

Like a sharp knife, it pierced deeply into the chest of the proud and sensitive British. While suffering unprecedented humiliation, it aroused the great anger of the British Empire.

OK, great!

Emperor Li Cha had the mentality of watching the excitement and not being afraid of big things. He put aside the military information from South Africa with a smile, took a sip of the hot tea on the table, and looked at the beautiful scenery that was constantly receding outside the car window in a happy mood. .

On the vast Great Plains of central North America
There are many beautiful villages and towns, with criss-crossing paths. In the middle of rivers, forests and mountains, there are large tracts of farmland and pastures, like clouds of cattle and sheep.

On this piece of fertile black land, it is the most important production base of agricultural products in the Tang Empire. It has begun to widely promote agricultural mechanization operations, but it is at the top level in the world.

Large farms, coupled with the support of agricultural machinery and fertilizer production, have greatly increased agricultural output, with high yields for 17 consecutive years, creating the highest output in history every year.

No food is unstable, no work is not rich.

The Tang Empire almost monopolized the vast black land in North America. The agricultural output of grain, cotton, meat, oil, sugar, tobacco, natural rubber and other rich categories basically accounted for more than 6% of the world's agricultural market, and a few even as high as 8~ 9%.

For example, sucrose, the Tang Empire owns Hawaii, Cuba, the Luzon Islands and the East Indies, three of the world's traditional sucrose producing areas, and the related sucrose production accounts for more than 9% of the world market.

After decades of development, the Chicago Agricultural Futures Exchange has become a decisive market that dominates the pricing of agricultural products in the world, and its role is irreplaceable.

There are four prices for each category of crops on the Chicago Agricultural Futures Exchange, namely, the delivery price in New York Harbor on the east coast, the delivery price in Los Angeles on the west coast, the delivery price in Nicaragua in Central America, and the delivery price in Port of Glory in South America.

The price of the same pound of high-quality beef varies slightly depending on the port of delivery.

As for shipping to major cities in Europe or East Asia, sea freight and tariffs of various countries must be added. Basically, you can get a more accurate figure by adding it with an abacus.

Around the Chicago Agricultural Futures Exchange alone, there are hundreds of thousands of market-making merchants. These merchants are extremely powerful in the international bulk grain trade and dominate the basic pattern of world grain trade.

For example, when the news of the disastrous defeat of the British army in the Boer War in South Africa came out, the prices of grain, oil and meat in the Chicago agricultural futures market rose due to the news, and the upward momentum was quite strong.

Its internal logic is

After the British were slapped in the face in South Africa, they will inevitably increase their troops again, which will immediately bring a strong demand for grain, soybeans, meat, eggs and milk, driving prices to continue to rise.

It has to be said that the merchants in the world grain trade market have an extremely keen sense of smell and very accurate judgments.

in the original history
After the British Empire suffered an unprecedented fiasco in South Africa, it immediately sent a large number of troops to South Africa from its colonies around the world. Australia, Canada, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt and the Near East drew in a steady stream of troops like a confluence of rivers.

In just a few months, the British army in South Africa grew rapidly from 17 to 26, and broke through 40 in the remaining year, reaching a peak of 42.

The resulting huge demand for materials is enough to affect the fluctuations in the world grain market.

End of 19 century

The British soldiers are an aristocratic army known all over the world. Backed by the powerful British Empire, its logistical support and supplies are the best among the armies of all countries in the world. There is no shortage of meat, eggs, toffee, cigarettes and chocolates.

The delicious Scottish sheep and the essential Scotch whiskey are all transported from the UK to South Africa, as well as South American beef, North American refined flour, soybeans, toffee, various cans and coffee, and cocoa, which are in great demand .

It’s fine for the British army to spend on their own. The key is that on the South African battlefield, the British also acted as the captain of the transport brigade, and a large amount of logistical supplies were supplied to the Boers.

After the British massively increased its troops in South Africa, the Boers quickly changed their style of confrontation and turned to mobile and flexible guerrilla warfare, constantly harassing the British army's logistics line.

Take a shot and change places.

Whenever the British army sent large troops to the battlefield, they only saw the corpses of British soldiers in a mess. As for their weapons and supplies, they had long since disappeared into the vast expanse of land along with the departing Boer cavalry. superior.

At the beginning, the British generals sneered at these small fights and did not pay much attention to them.

over time
The Boer guerrilla raids became more and more frequent, and the losses were greater and greater. British scout squads, logistical supply units, and wounded soldiers sent to the rear hospital, these British units with low combat effectiveness were frequently attacked. attack.

The number of casualties of the British army is also rising in a straight line every day, which has already far exceeded the losses on the frontal battlefield.

Several important supply lines of the British army were visited by the Boer guerrillas almost every day, and the loss of supplies was very heavy, and they played the role of "transport captain" in disguise.

The precious materials transported thousands of miles away just changed hands and became the spoils of the Boer guerrillas, which greatly enhanced their ability to continue fighting.

This not only caused a serious financial burden to the British government, but also seriously affected the morale of British officers and soldiers on the front line.

Looking at the constantly receding scenery outside the car window, Emperor Richard knew that all of this would happen again, and the loss of the British would be much more serious than in the original history.

Because of the butterfly effect, the number of volunteers traveling from Europe to South Africa has more than doubled in history.

Many white people who wanted to go to South Africa to fight in the war happily embarked on the journey with the support of non-governmental organizations.

When the Boers are in the predicament of running out of ammunition and food in several secret material storage places in South Africa, they will always be discovered just right, which will definitely bring great help.

This will undoubtedly make the British feel bad, and vent their anger on the Dutch or Germans even more, which is good news for the Tang Empire.

The so-called "taking chestnuts from the fire" is roughly like this.

Thinking of these always makes Emperor Li Cha feel happy, and there is an invisible joy of stealing chickens.