The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 797 Comrade Lincoln, the mercenary service you requested has arrived!

The winter fog in South Kensington filled the area around the Whitesven mansion. Twelve carriages rolled over the icy cobblestone road and stopped on the foggy street less than 200 meters away from the apartment. The members of the General Committee of the International Workingmen's Association wrapped in tweed coats, braved the severe cold, walked through the fog and entered the luxurious house that seemed to have nothing to do with the word "worker".

"Gentlemen, please hang your coats by the fireplace." Bai Siwen, speaking fluent Oxford English, personally leaned his silver-inlaid cane against the Victorian carved cabinet. In the living room of the former Qing ambassador to Britain, rosewood armchairs and Rococo sofas were strangely squeezed together, and on the wall hung a copy of "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" and several original works by famous European painters.

Moore, who was a royal adviser like Bai Siwen and had also been an ambassador to the Heavenly Kingdom in Korea, took off his finely crafted hat and coat and handed it to Bai Siwen's Indian servant. He now also lives in South Kensington - he now has a generous allowance and royalties (from "Eastern Travels"), and does not need Frederick's help or worry about financial problems, and can devote himself to his career.

"Swenson," Moore looked at Bai Siwen's living room, "We'll have the meeting here today. Is there any problem?"

Bai Siwen smiled, took the steaming teapot brought by the servant, poured the freshly brewed tea into twelve teacups, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, the London police will not trouble me, a royal adviser who bought a whole big house in South Kensington."

Bakunin suddenly grabbed the Times on the coffee table, and spoke in a mixture of Russian and French: "Look, London newspapers now call Alexander II the 'revolutionary tsar'! He has become a revolutionary, what are we?" The Russian exile crumpled the newspaper into a ball and threw it into the fireplace. Sparks flew, and the eyes of the Polish representative Zabitsky flashed with fire: "We have fought on the banks of the Vistula River for more than a year, and everything was completely destroyed by this so-called revolutionary tsar! But our failure is only temporary. Now 5,000 Polish soldiers are ready to go to the new battlefield!"

Friedrich tapped his pipe against the crystal ashtray, and the crisp knocking sound instantly silenced the noisy living room. "Comrades, the representative of the Northern Federation of the United States in London visited me yesterday."

He unfolded the yellowed letter: "President Lincoln needs fresh troops who can break through the Memphis Line within three months - not scattered soldiers, but organized international columns."

Ma Baocai, who was wearing an ordinary tweed suit, took off his top hat, revealing a thin East Asian face.

French representative Eugene Dupont nodded and said, "Our soldier Gustave Cruzelier and his volunteer artillery regiment received 54 Napoleon cannons cast by American workers in Boston Harbor last month. This veteran who participated in the Algerian Campaign said that he wanted to make the slave owners' estates full of roses of freedom - watered with flowering shells."

Bai Siwen also took a sip of milk tea to warm himself up: "My freighter Progress has installed 10,000 bundles of barbed wire in Liverpool. This city defense weapon invented by Chinese craftsmen, combined with the Gatling machine gun invented by Americans or the Mitre multi-barreled gun invented by the French, can make the corpses of the American serf owners' soldiers cover the battlefield."

Zabicki, the Pole, asked: "Svensson, how big is your Progress? Is there room for anything else besides 10,000 bundles of barbed wire?"

"The light-load displacement is 5100 tons, and it can carry 2300 tons of cargo," Bai Siwen said. "There's nothing else on top of the wire mesh, so it can carry a lot of cargo or passengers."

"Can you run to Hamburg?" Zabicki asked. "I have 1200 Polish comrades stuck in Hamburg."

The discussion of the General Committee lasted for six hours. When Moore, Friedrich and others signed their names on the "Plan for the Organization of the International Brigade" with quill pens, night had already enveloped the whole of London.

A week later, at the Hamburg Harbor, the 5,000-ton steamship Progress belched out billowing black smoke. Polish exiles sang "Warsaw Song" in their native language as they moved large wooden boxes without any markings into the cargo hold. Each box was filled with a replica of the Mitellius multi-barreled gun that the White Sven trading company had ordered from a Prussian arms dealer.

In January 1865, in the War Department meeting room of the Federal Building in New York, a kerosene lamp cast Lincoln's thin shadow on the map of the Eastern Front. The red and blue markings between the Blue Mountains and the Sahaquinas River were jagged, and the staff drew three concentric circles outside Memphis on the Western Front with pencil arrows-in the previous few months, the Union Army under Grant's command had tried several times but failed to pierce through it.

"Mr. President, the disastrous defeat at Vicksburg has caused us to lose control of the Mississippi River." Secretary of War Stanton tapped the position of Memphis with a pointer. "Now, we are in a tug of war with the Southerners in the Memphis area, but the initiative is back in our hands!"

Lincoln turned his attention to the vast western United States. Secretary of State Seward said: "Hong Daquan's 'True Covenant Militia' has invaded Nevada. I'm afraid it will become the fourth Chinese state. However, California, Oregon, Washington, and Nevada all fly our northern flag."

Lincoln remained silent. The reason why he was re-elected was that Hong Daquan's North American True Contractists also contributed to it - all the electoral votes in California, Oregon, and Washington State were cast for him! All the senators, representatives, governors, state judges, and even members of the Senate and House of Representatives at the state level in these three states were all Republicans - they belonged to the "red states" that could not be redder. Of course, it goes without saying that these elected people were all True Contractists, and one-third of them were Chinese!
"Where is Zhao Si? What has he been doing recently?" Lincoln asked his old enemy through gritted teeth. "He is busy distributing land to blacks, pastures to Indians, gold mines to whites, and the business district of Denver to yellow people," said Secretary of War Stanton.

"Damn it," Lincoln cursed through gritted teeth.

Navy Secretary Wells quickly changed the subject and said, "Admiral Porter has rebuilt the Mississippi Fleet. Eight inland ironclad ships have been commissioned and will be ready to attack Memphis in the spring!"

Suddenly, a presidential secretary walked into the conference room and handed Secretary of State Seward two telegrams.

Seward then shouted excitedly: "President, 30,000 mercenaries from the Kingdom of Korea have already passed Panama, and 5,000 Poles from the European International Brigade will land in Boston next week! These are 35,000 veterans who have fought in Asia and Europe for a long time!"

Lincoln grabbed the telegram and leaned close to the kerosene lamp, looking at the telegram in Seward's hand: "How much does Yang Xiuqing want?"

"Fourteen tons of wheat per person per year, and twenty-four tons of wheat for the dead," Seward whispered. "It's not cheap, but they don't need to distribute American land. They can go back after the war, and they won't turn the East Coast yellow."

"Great, that's exactly what I want!" Lincoln turned to Blair, the Polish Postmaster General. "Where are the Poles?"

"The Tsar hanged their comrades on the Vistula Bridge. These Polish guys heard that there are many Russians in the Southern Army and are holding their breath!" Blair unfolded a roll of names. "I guarantee that this is a unit that can fight tough battles!"

Treasury Secretary Chase suddenly asked, "What do the Poles want? They don't want wheat, do they?"

Blair said, "Give them land—there's plenty of wasteland in the Midwest anyway!"

Lincoln nodded: "That's it. The Poles are white, and America welcomes them!"

A few days later, in the early morning of Boston Harbor, the steamship Progress slowly approached the shore. When the first batch of about 1200 of the Polish volunteers lined up neatly to land on the land of America, the Irish foreman at the dock held up a sign to welcome them: "God bless America! The International Column from Europe is here to help us fight the niggers!"

Gustave Cruzel, wrapped in a half-worn military coat, couldn't help frowning as he listened to the Irish slogans - the South had already implemented "progressive" serfdom, while the workers in the North were eager to ship these black-skinned "competitors" back to Africa - of course, after "liberating" them.

At the same time, at the terminus of the Panama Railway, 30,000 Korean mercenaries were lining up in a tropical rainstorm. The leader, Satsuma samurai Saigo Takamori, wiped the rain off his face and shouted to a Northern Federation liaison officer: "Let your president rest assured! Japanese samurai are no worse than the Taiping Army of Korea. We have received the best training, have the strictest discipline, and no one is afraid of death!"

On the night of January 1865, 1, Lincoln published a letter to the International Brigades at the Federal Building in New York: "When the Polish freedom fighters smash the allies of the despotic empire on the banks of the Mississippi River, and when the sword of freedom in Korea pierces the fortress of slavery, the whole world will see that the divided America will be reunited under the banner of freedom!"

After the speech, Seward reported another secret report to the president in his office: "Hong Daquan sent people with a large amount of arms and food across the Rocky Mountains to Colorado to supply Zhao Si's army. This shows that the three states on the west coast and Zhao Si are in the same group!"

Lincoln threw the secret letter into the fireplace and watched the flames engulf the words on it: "Don't let more people know about this. At present, we have only one enemy, and that is the Southern Federal Government in Washington!"

(End of this chapter)