The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 839: Fight first, then talk

Luo Yaoguo put down his wine glass and glanced at the four people present - Xianfeng lowered his eyes and tapped the table lightly with his fingers; Hong Daquan frowned, as if thinking about something; Xu Yuegui quietly sipped red wine, but glanced at Hong Tiangui from time to time; only the young Hong Tiangui straightened his back, with excitement flashing in his eyes.

"Prince Consort of Nanyi," Luo Yaoguo said in a steady and firm voice, "Among the twelve states in the west, the seven states in the south must immediately begin a general mobilization."

Xianfeng raised his head and frowned: "Your Highness, what do you mean..."

"Snapped!"

Luo Yaoguo slammed his palm on the dining table, shaking the flame on the candlestick violently. His voice was extremely gloomy: "Everyone, you haven't made up your mind to go to war with the white people on the East Coast, right?"

"Your Highness," Xianfeng's voice tightened, "After all, the North now has the support of Britain and Germany."

"So you must abandon illusions and focus on fighting!" Luo Yaoguo tapped the table with his fingers. "Eight years of civil war have dragged down the United States. Both the North and the South are exhausted. Now Britain and Germany have just stepped in - this is when they are the weakest! Only by fighting a good battle now can you win ten to fifteen years of peace to prepare for a new war!"

Hong Tiangui suddenly stood up, waving his fist, his young face full of vigor: "King Wu is right! Those white guys have been killing people in the East for eight years, and they are already exhausted! I will go and gather the California militia now!"

"Sit down!" Luo Yaoguo smiled and waved to the "grandson of the Heavenly Father". He turned to Xianfeng and said, "Prince Consort of Nanyi, how many troops can the seven states in the west belonging to the South mobilize?"

Xianfeng's throat rolled. "Including the First Black Division, the Second Black Division, the Black Knight Brigade, the First American Cavalry Brigade, the Second American Cavalry Brigade, and the regular troops of the Southern Army and the militias of various states, a maximum of 150,000 can be mobilized. But the equipment..."

"They have already been shipped to San Francisco." Luo Yaoguo took out a list from his pocket. "One hundred thousand Tianli 17-year rifles, two hundred Gatling guns, and one hundred breech-loading rifled cannons are now being unloaded at the Port of San Francisco." He narrowed his eyes. "I want you to organize an army of within thirty days."

Xu Yuegui took a deep breath and said, "Thirty days and 150,000 men. Are they going to start a full-scale war?"

"No." Luo Yaoguo waved his hands. "This is to tell all white Americans." His voice suddenly rose. "The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's promise to the twelve western states is more solid and reliable than the promises made by Britain and Germany to them!"

Hong Daquan wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "Your Highness, if the North mobilizes its main forces to advance westward..."

"That's even better." Luo Yaoguo sneered, "The Southern Army will take the opportunity to counterattack Vicksburg. Lincoln can only take care of the beginning and not the end! As for Britain and Germany, I want to see how many troops they are prepared to send to fight us!"

Xianfeng already understood what the Prime Minister of Heavenly Kingdom who came from afar wanted to do - he calculated that Britain and Germany only wanted to take advantage of the United States and did not want to fight for the United States, so they came all the way here and personally took charge of western North America, taking advantage of the fact that the American Civil War was not over yet to start a fight!
If Britain and Germany were unwilling to help, and instead used "military aid" to support the United States as cannon fodder, then the American westward expedition would certainly not be fought. As long as the American westward expedition failed, Lincoln would have to pinch his nose and admit that the seven states of the western United States that belonged to the South joined the Northern Confederation in order to step down with dignity, and even had to let the dying southern states "submit to the central government" - this situation is equivalent to the most common situation when the Tang Dynasty attacked the vassal states. After fighting and fighting, they could not win, and finally had to admit the separatist rule of the vassal states in exchange for superficial unification.

For the United States, if the Civil War ended with all fourteen states belonging to the Southern Confederacy (including seven new states in the West) rejoining the Union in the form of amnesty, then this Civil War would be a huge loss, a complete loss!

Because the United States is a "maritime law system" that relies on precedents! If a civil war, independence, or coup d'état ends with joining the federal government, it means that "states' rights supremacy" has won.

Who will take the American central bank seriously in the future?
In peacetime, the central United States does not have much military. Once the states stop obeying, the federation will become a confederation!

What's even worse is that the Lincoln administration invited two jackals, Germany and Britain, into the United States.

It is easy to ask God, but it is difficult to send God away!

In the future, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Korea, and Japan will be stationed in the western United States, and the British and German troops will be stationed in the eastern United States. What kind of situation is this? It is not that the chess player becomes the chess piece, but that the chess player becomes the chessboard.

If the next world war does not regard the United States as the main battlefield, then it would be an overestimation of the character of these imperialists!
How good would it be to fight a world war in the United States? No matter what, it would not destroy its own homeland.
At dawn the next day, the alarm bells in Denver were ringing. In the city square, Hong Tiangui was using a tin loudspeaker to shout in English to the assembled militia:

"People of the American Heavenly Kingdom! The slave owners in the White House are colluding with European powers to drive us back to the Pacific Ocean!" He drew his saber and pointed it to the east. "But I want to tell Lincoln that the four Chinese states on the West Coast will stand with the seven black and American states! We will fight the slave owners on the East Coast to the end. Long live freedom! State rights are supreme!"

The crowd roared wildly.

The Chinese militiamen in blue uniforms and the black soldiers in gray uniforms formed square formations. The bayonets in their rifles formed a steel jungle under the morning sun. What was even more frightening was the front of the team - Gatling machine guns produced by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom were connected in a row. The firepower was much stronger than that of the Southern Alliance army! In the corner of the square, Luo Yaoguo said to Hong Daquan and Xu Yuegui: "It seems that this young king has been trained. His speech skills are no worse than Zhao Si's!"

Hong Daquan smiled and said, "That's right. The young king is determined to go into politics. Joining the militia is just the beginning of his political career. In the future, he will run for the U.S. House of Representatives, the U.S. Senate, and the governor. Maybe he can even run for the U.S. president!"

"The President of the United States?" Luo Yaoguo laughed. "He has great ambitions! Good, good, he is worthy of being the son of King Hong!"

Xianfeng came up and whispered, "Your Highness, will the British ironclad ships blockade San Francisco Bay?"

"There are 16 ironclad ships in San Francisco Bay. How many can the British deploy to blockade it?" Luo Yaoguo said confidently. "Let's talk about it later." He suddenly sneered, "Do you really think Britain will go to war with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom for the United States?"

A messenger came running in: "Report! A telegram from the Richmond Embassy!"

Luo Yaoguo unfolded the telegram and sneered, "Very good. The Southern Confederacy was about to surrender, but now it hears that we have sent troops to the western United States, and is now cheering up again. It is seeking to secede from the Union and organize the Confederacy of America. Prince Consort, when can your black, red and yellow army be dispatched? Can you poke in the direction of Nebraska and Kansas?"

"Five days later." Xianfeng thought for a moment, "It's impossible to mobilize all of them, but the three cavalry brigades can be mobilized first!"

"Okay!" Luo Yaoguo nodded with satisfaction. "Work hard and try to catch Lincoln off guard. After we get in, we must defend the city and clear the countryside, so that the army from the east coast can fight us with their long supply lines!"

Torrential rain in Washington pounded the dome of the White House. Lincoln stared at the urgent telegram from the West, his fingers shaking uncontrollably - Zhao Si's "Black, Red and Yellow" Army had received a lot of assistance from the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and was advancing towards Kansas.

"Gentlemen," his hoarse voice echoed in the conference room, "this is a declaration of war."

Secretary of War Stanton slammed his fist on the conference table: "It's time to drive these yellow perils into the sea! The British fleet has blockaded Charleston, and the German expeditionary force will land in New York next month."

"And then?" Vice President Johnson suddenly interrupted, "Let the Europeans keep their boots on American soil forever?" He spread out a copy of the New York Tribune, the headline of which was "Britain asks the federal government to lower tariffs." "Do you remember why we fought this war?"

Secretary of the Navy Gideon Wells coughed: "We can first appease the South. General Robert E. Lee recently gave a speech in Richmond, expressing his willingness to consider 'federal reorganization.'"

"Yes, we can stabilize them first!" Lincoln suddenly slammed the table and stood up, a sickly blush on his haggard face. "Send a message to Davis through an intermediary and tell him that I am willing to negotiate with him and that we can stop the war first and then negotiate. We are all Americans, there is nothing we can't talk about. Besides, Britain and Germany now support us in the North!"

Seven cabinet members sat around an oak conference table in the Richmond presidential palace. President Davis pushed the secret telegram to the center of the table: "Lincoln's terms - an armistice, but the South must rejoin the Union."

Secretary of War Breckenridge sneered: "Join the Union? And then wait to be hanged?"

Finance Minister Mei Mingjie tapped his pipe and said: "We can stop the war and take a breather. We can wait until Lincoln and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom are both defeated."

"No!" Davis slammed the table, "Only if the seven southern states become independent!" He unfolded the map, "Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina - these are the real South!"

Secretary of State Benjamin frowned: "Mr. President, the ambassador of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom proposed a joint operation."

"Union? Now is not the time!" Davis' eyes flashed, "Tell Lincoln - either recognize the independence of the South, or wait for the Taiping Army to cross the Mississippi River!"

The Minister of the Army stood up and said: "Our army can still gather 100,000 people now, if we cooperate with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to attack from the east and west."

"No, we don't have much money left." Davis shook his head, "Let the Taiping Army consume the Northern Army first. We will conserve our strength and take action when both sides are defeated."

(End of this chapter)