In Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, a man in a dark black gentleman's uniform walks out of the palace.

Outside the palace is the bustling Imperial Forum, where whites, blacks, Indians, and all kinds of ethnic groups live together on the same land.

The steam train arrived from the station on the side of the square, and out of the black train suitcases came groups of wounded people with bandages on their bodies.

"Sir, do you want a newspaper? The latest issue of the Brasilia Morning Post. ”

A newsboy with a full bag of newspapers hanging diagonally around his neck, holding a stack of newspapers in his right hand, handed it to the man and asked.

"Get me one."

"Three reais in total."

The newsboy pulled out a piece of newspaper and handed it to the man.

"Ten pence, the rest is a tip for you."

The man reached into his upper pocket, and when he found that he was not carrying Brazilian currency, he pulled out a tenpence denomination of British currency.

"Thank you, sir, you are such a generous person."

The internal situation in Brazil is turbulent, the legal tender real issued by the government is depreciating too fast, and many Brazilian low-level people have earned the real for a day, after the depreciation, it is almost like waste paper, and the British Empire as the most powerful empire in the world, the British currency issued by the British pound sterling, pennies are generally recognized by Brazilians in Brazil, and in daily business and economic life, compared with the Brazilian currency that is depreciating faster and faster day by day, Brazilians are more willing to receive strong pounds and pennies as circulating currency.

When he opened the newspaper, which still smelled of ink, the man was immediately attracted by several large headlines on the newspaper.

"The rebel forces suffered heavy losses, and the imperial army recaptured El Salvador!"

According to the newspaper, the battle of El Salvador lasted for seven months, and on August 11, that is, two days earlier, the Brazilian army destroyed the wall of the rebel black army with eight heavy guns purchased from the British Expeditionary Force, so that the Brazilian army was able to attack the city of Salvador, and the northern counterinsurgency campaign, which had been stalemate for more than half a year, was about to usher in the final victory.

The black rebellion in the six northern states contained nearly half of the main force of the Brazilian army, and about 60,000 regular troops and militias were transferred from other states to fight in the six northern states, because of the impact 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. The confrontation between the two sides of the Han state also returned to the pre-war state.

The timing of the riots in the six northern states was too coincidental, and the Brazilian government and the British Expeditionary Force determined with great certainty that Han and Paraguay had participated in and conspired to plan the riots in the northern region based on the information gathered by various parties.

The old Dresser rifles, obsolete breech muskets, and the rare Gatling hand-cranked machine guns (also known as machine guns) were mostly in the hands of the rebels, and the Brazilian army screened more than 100 active officers belonging to the Paraguayan army from among the captured rebels.

Han provided weapons, Paraguay provided military guidance, and the information collected was smoothed out, and a conspiracy of three parties to subvert the Brazilian Empire was clearly displayed in the eyes of the Brazilian military and political leaders.

The three parties secretly colluded and cooperated, except for the rebel forces in the north and the Han state on the surface, and the Brazilian government was most worried about Paraguay joining the war and launching a surprise attack on Brazil.

Some time ago, because of the British expeditionary force as a battle, the Brazilian government dared to open up a new battlefield when the counterinsurgency war in the northern region was underway, however, with the drastic changes in the war situation, the Han quickly eliminated the Argentine government army and completely occupied Argentina and Uruguay, the Brazilian army and the British army lost the best opportunity to fight the Han army, and the original plan of Britain, Brazil, and Argentina to cooperate inside and outside the country to jointly flank the Han army failed, not only failed to weaken the war strength of the Han state, Instead, it puts Brazil in the unfavorable position of being attacked on three sides.

In order to save his political prestige, eliminate the adverse effects of emancipating black slaves and giving black people equal status, remove political concessions, and let go of the restrictions imposed on local states in the early days of pro-government in order to centralize power, in the military aspect, On the one hand, Pedro II ordered the northern counterinsurgency forces to deal with the black forces at all costs and recover the lost territories occupied by the rebels, and on the other hand, to a certain extent to decentralize the control of the army, allowing officers from the aristocratic and large landowner classes to occupy middle and upper leadership positions.

Pedro II's actions only superficially eased the contradictions between the various classes within Brazil, but in reality, the republicans blamed Pedro II for the two foreign wars and the introduction of British capital, and the democrats were more convinced that the monarchy had failed and that the Bragança family was unfit to continue to rule Brazil.

The large landowners and aristocrats were so angry with Pedro II's reforms to abolish black slavery and redivide the land that they chose to pledge allegiance to Princess Isabella and put their hopes of restoring their interests on the next monarch, or they were completely disillusioned and turned a blind eye to the rivalry between the various forces within Brazil.

In the maelstrom of the Brazilian Empire, everyone is actively or passively affected by the political changes in Brazil, and as the head of the British expeditionary fleet, Gordon's political future is also unwittingly mixed with the political situation in Brazil.

With the honor of the Qing Empire's imperial yellow coat and the first admiral of the Qing Empire to become the first governor of the Sultan, Gordon was appointed by the London government as the commander of the expeditionary fleet before he could show his skills, 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 troops relied on the Chinese at the bottom to start, coupled with religious incitement, and bewitched the people at the bottom to serve them, if they were hit by the modern weapons of the Western army, those backward armies composed of laborers and peasants would be defeated in one blow, holding this inherent preconception, Gordon ordered the landing force under his command to drive straight into attack the other side, but the result was a heavy defeat, several months of land fighting, The British troops suffered more than 2,600 casualties, and 1,500 were reduced by disease and other causes, making a total of less than 15,000 for the expeditionary force, which lost 4,000 men.

The loss of 4,000 people could not shake the foundation of the British army, and the time went back more than 30 years, in 1841, an uprising broke out in Kabul, Afghanistan, including 4,500 garrison troops and 12,000 family members, a total of more than 16,000 people were wiped out on the way to Jalalabad, and only one military doctor ran back to the stronghold to report the battle to the British army.

In 1855, Britain and France jointly launched the Crimean War against Tsarist Russia, and the British army suffered more than 20,000 casualties.

The British Empire, with its strong family background, was not afraid of losses in the colonial war for hegemony, but the British government's lords were reluctant to participate in wars with low rates of return and outweighed losses.

British Conservative Prime Minister Disraeli, who was obsessed with overseas expansion, was ousted by the Liberal Party because of his aggressive colonial policy, which led to high fiscal spending, and the Conservative MPs who left the opposition used the Argentine War as an opportunity to encourage the government to send an expeditionary force to intervene in the Argentine War, but they were defeated again. In the House of Commons of Buckingham Palace in London, the parliamentarians have just reached a consensus on giving up saving Argentina, and the current strategic goal of Gordon's expeditionary force has changed from defeating the Han army to deterring the expansion momentum of the Han State and stabilizing the domestic situation in Brazil, so as to prevent further damage to British interests.

The order given to Gordon by the London government was to remain neutral in the competition between the various forces in Brazil, and that the British Expeditionary Force forces stranded in Brazil, including Gordon, were to obey the orders of Sir Auston, Minister to Brazil.

From the sternly worded orders issued to him by the government, Gordon could sense that Pedro II was gradually being snubbed by the London government, and the British minister, Sir Auston, in addition to openly expressing his support for Pedro II's defense policy, was frequently accepting requests from Brazilian republicans and democrats in private.

The British minister's meeting with the republicans was unknown, and they always kept Gordon out of the conversation, and Gordon guessed that his frequent contacts with Pedro II and his acceptance of the title of Baron Piratininka of Brazil aroused the suspicion of the minister, who feared that his personal relationship with Pedro II would reveal the true attitude of the London government towards the political situation in Brazil.

Brazil, Han, Paraguay, Chile, Peru, and Bolivia were in a scuffle, and Gordon was limited by the orders of the London government, so he could only become a spectator of history, clenching his fists unwillingly, and then crumpling the newspaper he had read in a hurry, Gordon looked back at the solemn Brazilian Palace, and secretly prayed for Pedro II in his heart, "I hope that the military progress in the northern region can bring a little help to Your Majesty." ”