In Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, a man wearing a dark black gentleman's uniform walked out of the palace.
Outside the palace is the lively Imperial Plaza, where whites, blacks, Indians, and various ethnic groups live together on the same land.
The black-smoking steam train arrived from the station on one side of the square, and batches of wounded people came out of the dark train suitcases with bandages on their bodies.
"Sir, would you like a newspaper? The latest issue of Brasilia Morning News."
A newsboy with a whole pack of newspapers hanging from his neck, holding a stack of newspapers in his right hand, handed it to the man and asked.
"Get me one."
"Three reals in total."
The newsboy pulled out a newspaper and handed it into the man's hand.
"Ten pennies, and the rest is a tip for you."
The man reached into his upper body pocket and found that he did not carry any Brazilian currency, so he took out a ten-penny British currency.
"Thank you sir, you are such a generous man."
The internal situation in Brazil is turbulent. The real, the legal currency issued by the government, has depreciated too fast. The real earned by many Brazilians at the bottom of the class after a hard day's devaluation is almost useless. The British Empire, as the world's most powerful
In a large empire, the currency issued by the United Kingdom, pounds and pennies, are generally recognized by Brazilians in Brazil. In daily business and economic life, Brazilians are more willing to accept strong pounds and pennies as currency than the Brazilian currency, which is depreciating rapidly day by day.
currency.
Opening the newspaper, which still smelled of ink, the man was attracted by the big headlines at first glance.
"The rebel forces suffered heavy losses, and the imperial army recaptured El Salvador!"
Read along the title. According to the newspaper, the Battle of Salvador lasted for seven months. On August 11, two days ago, the Brazilian army defeated the rebels with eight heavy artillery pieces purchased from the British Expeditionary Force.
The city wall held by black armed forces allowed the Brazilian army to invade the city of Salvador. The northern counter-insurgency campaign that had been in a stalemate for more than half a year was about to usher in its final victory.
The black rebellion in the six northern states has restrained nearly half of the main force of the Brazilian army, about 60,000 regular troops. Militiamen were dispatched from other local states to fight in the six northern states. Because of the influence of the rebellion in the northern region, the Brazilian government failed to respond to the changes in the situation in Argentina in a timely manner.
In response, after the British Expeditionary Force gave up its armed intervention in Han's annexation of Argentina, the Brazilian army, which was fighting fiercely with the Han army on the southern front, was unable to support a unilateral operation and had to abandon some of the occupied strongholds and defense lines and return to the garrison on the Brazilian side.
, the confrontation between Brazil and Han also returned to the pre-war state.
The timing of the riots in the six northern states was too coincidental. Based on the intelligence collected by all parties, the Brazilian government and the British Expeditionary Force determined with certainty that Han and Paraguay participated in and conspired to plan the riots in the northern region.
Old-fashioned Dresser rifles, obsolete muzzle-loading muskets, and some rare Gatling hand-cranked machine guns (also called machine guns), most of the weapons equipped by the Han army appeared in the hands of the rebel forces.
Inside, and separated by the barrier of the land, the Brazilian army identified more than a hundred active-duty officers belonging to the Paraguayan army from among the captured rebels.
Han provided weapons, and Paraguay provided military officer guidance, smoothing out the collected intelligence. A three-party conspiracy to overthrow the Brazilian Empire was clearly revealed in the eyes of the Brazilian military and political leaders.
The three parties secretly colluded and cooperated, except for the northern rebel forces and the Han Dynasty, which were on the surface. The Brazilian government was most worried about Paraguay joining the war and launching a surprise attack on Brazil.
Some time ago, with the support of the British Expeditionary Force, the Brazilian government dared to open a new battlefield during the counter-insurgency war in the northern region. However, as the war situation changed drastically, the Han Dynasty quickly eliminated the Argentine government troops and completely occupied it.
Argentina, Uruguay, the Brazilian army and the British army lost their best opportunity to attack the Han army. The original plan of Britain, Brazil, and Argentina to cooperate internally and externally to jointly attack the Han army went bankrupt. Not only did they fail to weaken the Han army,
Instead, Brazil was placed in a disadvantageous position with enemies on three sides.
The Brazilian Empire is troubled internally and externally, and the situation is turbulent. Politicians with a little experience can detect the huge crisis facing the Brazilian government. As the controller of Brazil, a huge empire, Pedro II will naturally not fail to notice the fall of the crown.
Risk, in order to save their political reputation, eliminate the adverse effects of liberating black slaves and granting equal status to blacks, remove political concessions, and relax the restrictions on local states for centralization in the early days of the pro-government, in the military
On the one hand, Pedro II ordered the northern counter-rebellion forces to deal with the black armed forces at all costs and regain the lost territory occupied by the rebel forces. On the other hand, he decentralized the control of the army to a certain extent, allowing officers from the noble and big landowner classes to
Occupy mid- to upper-level leadership positions.
The various measures taken by Pedro II only superficially alleviated the conflicts among various classes in Brazil. In fact, the Republicans completely attributed the responsibility for the two foreign wars and the introduction of British capital to Pedro II.
The democrats are even more convinced that the monarchy has failed and the Braganza family is unfit to continue to rule Brazil.
The big landowners and nobles were resentful of Pedro II's reform of abolishing black slaves and redistributing land. They either chose to be loyal to Princess Isabella and put their hope of restoring their interests in the next monarch, or they were completely disappointed and ignored
Brazil has watched the competition between various forces within Brazil with a cold eye, staying out of the overt and covert struggles.
In the maelstrom of the Brazilian Empire, everyone is actively or passively affected by the changes in the Brazilian political situation. As the head of the British Expeditionary Fleet, Gordon's political future is also unknowingly mixed with the Brazilian political situation.
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With the yellow mantle bestowed by the Qing Empire and the honor of first-class admiral, Gordon became the first Governor-General of the Sudan. Before Gordon had time to show off his talents, he was appointed by the London government as the commander of the expeditionary fleet, responsible for blocking the Han attack on the Argentine government.
Before contacting the Han army, Gordon believed that there was no essential difference between the Han National Defense Force and the Taiping Army. Both armies relied on the lower class Chinese, coupled with religious incitement to lure the lower class people to serve for them. If they were attacked by Western armies
Under the attack of modern weapons, those backward armies composed of laborers and farmers would be defeated in one blow. With this inherent prejudice, Gordon ordered his landing troops to march straight into the opponent's attack. As a result, they suffered a disastrous defeat. After several months of land war,
In the battle, the British troops suffered more than 2,600 casualties, and 1,500 were reduced due to disease and other reasons. The expeditionary force, which had a total of less than 15,000 men, suffered losses of 4,000.
The loss of only 4,000 people could not shake the foundation of the British army. Going back more than 30 years, an uprising broke out in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 1841. Including 4,500 garrison troops and 12,000 family members accompanying the army, a total of more than 16,000 people attacked Jala.
During the retreat, Labade's entire army was wiped out. Only one military doctor ran back to the stronghold and reported the battle to the British army.
In 1855, Britain and France jointly launched the Crimean War against Tsarist Russia. The number of British casualties exceeded 20,000.
The wealthy British Empire was not afraid of losses in colonial hegemony wars, but the British government officials were reluctant to participate in wars with low return rates and high losses.
The British Conservative Prime Minister Disraeli, who was obsessed with overseas expansion, was ousted by the Liberal Party because of his excessive colonial policies, which resulted in high fiscal expenditures. After leaving office, the Conservative MPs used the Argentine War as an opportunity to encourage the government to dispatch an expeditionary force.
The intervention in the Argentine War failed again. The British political arena was at a stalemate due to the Argentine War, the situation in Afghanistan was tense again, and other overseas colonial crises, triggering partisan conflicts and confrontations. After losing the prime ministership, the old Conservative Party gradually fell into a disadvantage. Buckingham Palace in London
In the House of Lords and the Lower House, the congressmen have just reached a consensus to give up saving Argentina. The current strategic goal of Gordon's expeditionary force has been changed from defeating the Han army to deterring the expansion of the Han army and stabilizing the domestic situation in Brazil to prevent British interests from being harmed.
further damage.
The order given by the London government to Gordon was to remain neutral in the competition between the various factions in Brazil. The British Expeditionary Force troops stranded in Brazil, including Gordon, were to obey the orders of the Minister in Brazil, Sir Alston.
From the harshly worded orders issued to him by the government, Gordon could feel that Pedro II was gradually being ignored by the London government. In addition to his explicit support for Pedro II's defense policy, British Minister Sir Auston
In private, he frequently accepted requests from Brazilian republicans and democrats.
The content of the talks between the British minister and the republicans was unknown. They always isolated Gordon from the conversation. Gordon guessed that he had frequent contacts with Pedro II and his acceptance of Baron Piratininka of Brazil.
The behavior of the knight aroused the suspicion of the minister, who was worried that because of his personal relationship with Pedro II, he would reveal the true attitude of the London government towards the political situation in Brazil.
The six countries of Brazil, China, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia were fighting. Due to the orders of the London government, Gordon could only be reduced to a spectator of history. He clenched his fists unwillingly, and then crumpled the newspaper he had read in a hurry.
, Gordon looked back at the solemn Brazilian Royal Palace, and secretly prayed for Pedro II in his heart, "I hope the military progress in the northern region can bring some help to His Majesty."
