Nanyang Storm 1864

The Chu Emperor Zheng Guohui had good reasons to be happy. Although the situation in Australia looked serious, under the strong suppression from Britain and Chu, the possibility of a civil war breaking out was not high.

Britain did not want to see a civil war break out in Australia, and the same was true for Chu.

Without the secret instigation of these two major powers, no matter how violent the disturbance in Australia is, it will only be a noise and no major chaos will occur.

Qian Ende, president of the Da Chu Association in Australia, once secretly petitioned for the arming of the Four States Alliance and requested the dispatch of a group of experienced officers and reinforcement weapons.

This memorial was rejected at the Yuehu official residence and was not presented to the emperor.

essentially

The Yuehu Official Residence obeys the will of His Majesty. Without the will of His Majesty the Emperor, no military or political affairs of the Great Chu Empire can be carried out.

the reason for this

The Great Chu Emperor Zheng Guohui did not want to see the rise of Australia's independent military power, as that would easily get out of control and allow the local Chinese in Australia to become stronger.

This will lead to a situation where warlords are everywhere, which will be difficult to deal with.

Australia will eventually belong to the Great Chu Empire, and Australia's military power will also be firmly controlled by the empire, with the empire's troops from the mainland having the final say, rather than these local tyrants.

The Great Chu Emperor Zheng Guohui has been sitting on the supreme throne for a long time and has become very skilled. He will not tolerate any signs of military separatism and will nip them in the bud.

Why fight an Australian civil war when something can be solved with money?

The less than one million white Australians cannot make any big waves in front of the Chinese empire with a population of billions.

anyway
It is really hard to take advantage of the British Empire. The secret negotiations have been going on for 17 rounds and lasted for about a year. The British envoys insisted on 8500 million pounds and refused to give in, with many additional conditions.

The unanimous consensus among Foreign Ministry officials involved in the secret negotiations was that the British had big appetites, were difficult to deal with, and were extremely cunning.

As a last resort, they secretly pushed for the "Adelaide Incident" to happen, invisibly putting pressure on the British.

The subtext is already obvious

If the negotiations cannot resolve the bilateral differences, then the "Adelaide incident" may break out in Victoria, and may become the "Melbourne incident" or some other accident?
The British will certainly understand the message and will certainly be angry, but they will most likely choose a wise solution rather than clinging to the £8500 million.

It was on this basis that the Crown Prince Chu-Zheng Yuan visited Europe, with the focus being London.

As for how far can we talk about it?
The Great Chu Emperor Zheng Guohui was also unsure. After all, the British were too harsh in their words and kept hitting the Chu in various fields, making the Chu very passive.

For example, on August 8 this year, the UK imposed an additional 6% customs tax on imported crude oil as an excuse for the dumping of crude oil between the UK and Chu, causing Chu to pay millions of pounds in customs fees each year.

The State of Chu was not polite and imposed a 15% tax on British cloth. As a result, the market share of British cloth in Chu dropped from 37.5% to below 20%, causing heavy losses to British cloth merchants.

Chu's textile and weaving mills took the opportunity to expand their production capacity and replace the vacant import market.

By September 9th

The UK also announced tariff increases on canned fruit, canned meat, canned fish and food imported from the Chu State, with tariff increases ranging from 20% to 38%, resulting in a sharp drop in sales of these commodities.

Chu food exporters had to turn their markets to the United States, France, Spain and Germany, using the newly opened European markets to absorb excess export capacity.

The State of Chu then announced that natural rubber had been damaged by a typhoon and production had dropped significantly.

This caused a sharp rise in world natural rubber prices, with prices rising by 36 percent in just over a week, which had a significant impact on British imports.

on the basis of

The State of Chu announced a 32% punitive tariff on British steel equipment, trains and machine tools, which undoubtedly dealt a heavy blow to the British machinery industry. Chu's importers turned to importing from Germany and France.

The two sides have been engaged in a back-and-forth battle for more than half a year.

There will be no real winner in this kind of trade war.

A careful analysis shows that

Britain suffered greater losses in the trade war, especially its cloth and machinery industries, which found it difficult to recover after losing the important southern market.

The light textile industry of the Chu State developed rapidly, and was able to meet two-thirds of the domestic demand, with its technological level close to world-class.

However, when competing with imported British cloth, there is still a certain gap in areas such as pattern variety, high-end fabrics and blended products.

The current trade war between the two sides has created an unprecedentedly relaxed market environment for domestic textile manufacturers. This sudden market demand is like a big cake falling from the sky.

Originally, British imported fabrics were a strong player in the high-end market, but now that tariffs have caused prices to rise, some consumers will turn to consider high-quality domestic fabrics.

It's important to note that a 15% increase in fabric tariffs would significantly increase the capital costs of importers and distributors. This price increase, when passed on to the retail end, could result in an overall price increase of 20% or more, significantly impacting consumer choices.

Let’s talk about the machinery industry affected by the trade war. If we can’t import from the UK, we can turn to Germany and France for imports. The quality is not much different, but it is cheaper.

In contrast, Chu's export products were unique. Whether it was oil, natural rubber, canned goods or food, the international market had very few options.

British consumers can only pay for the price increases, which has led to growing social discontent. This is because kerosene, canned goods or food are imported materials related to people's livelihood and are indispensable in daily life.

Chu's trade counterattack was still very restrained and never affected the supply of materials to the South African battlefield.

In bilateral consultations
Chu's diplomatic officials made it clear that if the British side is willing to continue the bilateral trade war, then Chu has enough options and is willing to fight to the end.

This includes tropical products that have an absolute advantage and are irreplaceable in the world market.

When Britain issued the threat of force, the Great Chu Empire immediately announced that it would respond by building eight new "Zhen"-class battleships.

The size of the Royal Navy will be greatly expanded in the next two years, and 110 new 305mm 42-caliber coastal guns will be ordered to strengthen coastal defense fortresses in various places.

The British had just announced the dispatch of four main battleships to strengthen the Third Battleship Fleet stationed in India, and the Chu State announced the dispatch of two main battleships to join the Red Sea Fleet to enhance its military presence in the Red Sea.

The two sides showed off their muscles to each other from a distance and cooperated with diplomats at the negotiating table to put pressure on each other, staging a wonderful contest of national strength.

Today
The British were exhausted from being dragged along, and their usually tough tone finally softened. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince of Great Chu also set off for London to work towards a final resolution of the dispute between the two countries.

Regardless of the level and status of the delegation, the British were given enough face.

During this period, the Emperor Zheng Guohui of the Great Chu was also suffering, and most of the overt and covert competitions with Britain were also at his behest.

Emperor Zheng Guohui of Great Chu personally wrote a letter to Her Majesty Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, the key point of which was "cooperation is beneficial to both sides, while conflict is detrimental to both sides." It seems that the British side accepted this point of view.

Therefore, he no longer insisted on the bottom line of 40 to 50 million pounds, and he could relax it appropriately, just to reach a compensation agreement as soon as possible.

Australia, the Australia that I have always longed for, can be brought into the arms of the Great Chu Empire in this way, which is a win-win no matter how you look at it.

The current period
The war in South Africa did not end. During the Winter War from April to September, the Boer cavalry, under the command of Botha and De Wet, broke through the barbed wire and bunker defenses and fought for thousands of miles.

They launched large-scale surprise attacks on British troops in Transvaal and Orange, blowing up bunkers, breaking barbed wire, and attacking railways and British logistics bases. They fought successfully and often succeeded.

The Boer cavalry captured a large amount of arms, supplies and artillery, burned more than a dozen British logistics bases, and continued to cause damage to the British army, with casualties reaching as many as 6,000 to 7,000 people.

At this point in the war, the British Expeditionary Force was finding it difficult to continue.

First of all, the British finances could no longer bear it. The 40 British expeditionary soldiers had to suffer losses, and the combat supplies cost tens of millions of pounds every month.

The number of overdue loans to Chu suppliers is increasing, and coupled with the current turbulent relations between the two countries, the supply of materials to the front line has been greatly affected.

Specifically in the army, the delicious lamb chops and steaks that British officers and soldiers used to have three times a week were gone, replaced by frozen chicken and bean soup.

Every month, the supply of coffee and chocolate is greatly reduced, cigarettes are no longer available, and even the quality of bread has dropped to a lower level.

It was no longer the high-quality refined flour supplied by the State of Chu, but the coarse flour from Egypt. The bread baked from it was neither soft nor chewy, but hard like chewing wood.

The previously sufficient supply of mules and horses was no longer available, which greatly affected the army's operations and further affected the morale and combat effectiveness of the British Expeditionary Force.

The supplies that were originally transported on mule and horse carts now had to be carried separately by the British soldiers. The soldiers complained bitterly about having to carry backpacks weighing thirty-seven or thirty-eight pounds while marching and fighting.

Admiral Kitchener, Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, expressed his inner anxiety in a telegram sent to London. He said:
“The troops of the Queen’s Government fought desperately against the enemy in South Africa, but they could not guarantee enough food to replenish their physical strength and could not guarantee important supplies to continue fighting. This had a great impact on the morale of the troops.

It looked like a joke as the soldiers walked dozens of miles like donkeys carrying heavy backpacks, chasing the fast-moving Boer cavalry.

Gentlemen, I don't care whether the supplies come from the UK mainland 1.3 kilometers away or Mingyue Lake City a few hundred kilometers away.

Either please ship up those damn supplies, or end this war and don't let these young guys sacrifice their precious lives in vain.

For God's sake, a decision needs to be made."

The letter had a huge impact on the London cabinet, forcing them to reflect seriously and make a painful decision.

South Africa or Australia?

Such a choice does not seem difficult to make. Compared with South Africa, which is rich in gold and diamonds, the barren Australian continent can only be used for grazing cattle and sheep, and the Chinese already occupy the vast majority of the population.

I can't keep her anymore, so now I'm thinking about how to break up gracefully. (End of this chapter)