ps: I'm embarrassed to say I'm sorry for more than a month, try to keep it constantly changing during the winter vacation, and if you have time, two or three more...... I don't have a word count.

In August 1869, the world situation was relatively calm, but on the South American continent, with two ironclad ships with a displacement of 3,500 tons, they were transferred to the Rio Grande do Sul naval sequence, and new changes took place in the turbulent South American countries.

Before the Paraguayan War, the Brazilian Imperial Navy had five ironclad ships with a displacement of more than 3,000 tons, and during the war, the three ironclad ships fell into the hands of the Chinese troops, leaving only two large ironclad ships to support the façade of the Brazilian Navy, which was strong in the past.

Brazil's land area is close to that of the mainland, with coastal areas exceeding 10,000 miles from north to south, and the area of territorial waters and sea areas under its actual control is about twice that of the mainland's maritime frontiers.

The five or six million square kilometers of sea frontier is obviously not well defended by only two large ironclad ships, and the head of the Brazilian Empire, Pedro II, and many aristocratic bureaucrats naturally noticed this problem, but the negative impact of the defeat of the Paraguayan war was far-reaching, and the Brazilian Empire not only lost the two southern states a year after the war, but also ceded more than 100,000 square kilometers of land to Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru and other countries.

The area bordering the three countries and the Brazilian Empire is a tropical rainforest area, with hot, hot and rainy weather, most of the area is unsuitable for human habitation, and all the land ceded to the three countries was illegally seized by the Brazilian Empire in the past few decades, and after it was returned to the three countries, the price was not small but acceptable. The two southern states occupied by the Principality of Rio Gran do Sul have a superior natural environment, but because of the lack of mineral resources in the local area, they occupy a small proportion of the economy in the overall composition of the Brazilian Empire, and the biggest harm of losing the two states is that it has a blow to the authority of the Brazilian Imperial Government and has limited impact on economic interests.

The white landowning class in Fortaleza, Recife and other places, far from the core of the Brazilian Empire's rule, was dissatisfied with Pedro II's decree to pardon black slaves, and took advantage of the defeat of the Paraguayan War and the weak central rule of the empire to constantly put pressure on Pedro II, first to fight for the economic autonomy of the local states, and then to propose military rights to the local states after their interests were satisfied. The Brazilian Empire was modeled after the Holy Roman Empire in Europe, replacing federalism with a loose confederation.

The words "Confederation" and "Confederation" are simply reversed, but the actual meaning is completely different: the states of the Union are given a certain degree of autonomy in the economic and political fields, and the local residents can choose to elect a parliament representing local interests to implement internal governance, but what about the Confederation?

The states of the Confederation nominally constituted a state, but in fact the state governments had the same powers as ordinary states, and could build up armies and conduct independent foreign policies, while the central government of the Confederate government had no power to interfere with the local states, but could only be a superficial central government.

After the independence of the United States, the loose confederation system was introduced, and then the civil war broke out between the north and the south, and the Holy Roman Empire was divided into hundreds of large and small states, and after the rise of Napoleon, the scattered German regions were broken by the French army, and the Holy Roman Empire came to an end.

Shortly after the end of the American Civil War, the German Confederation, as an important part of Europe, was the focus of Pedro II's understanding, and the harm caused by the confederation of the two countries was clearly manifested, even if Pedro II showed an enlightened and democratic monarchy, he would not allow the Brazilian Empire to be divided in his hands.

After completing the deal with the Chinese National Defense Forces for the transport of immigrants and ransoming the more than 20,000 Brazilian soldiers who had been captured, Pedro II immediately resolutely rejected the demands of the northern forces represented by the white landowners of Recife, and at the same time intensified the encirclement and suppression of local rebel forces in various places to deter local forces that did not submit to the jurisdiction of the central government.

With the return of more than 20,000 soldiers with combat experience, the tension in the Brazilian Empire's military strength was greatly alleviated, and in order to mitigate the adverse effects of the Paraguayan war, Pedro II decided to rebuild his image as a monarch by completely abolishing slavery.

In March 1869, despite the opposition of Duke Frobert and other nobles, Pedro II insisted on issuing a decree abolishing all slaves in the Brazilian Empire.

The decree provided that black slaves in Brazil could be freed from their slave owners for a ransom payment.

The amount of ransom for black slaves is converted into about fifty taels of silver, which is the annual salary of ordinary soldiers of the Wehrmacht, the Principality of Rio Gran do Sul is fertile, and the price of grain is about half of that of the Central Plains, plus there is no bad habit of deducting soldiers' salaries in the Wehrmacht, fifty taels of silver is enough for Chinese soldiers to live above the food and clothing line, and fifty taels of silver is a large amount for penniless black slaves, who need to work for three or four years to earn a ransom in exchange for freedom.

Pedro II wanted to abolish slavery for a long time, in 1850 he announced a ban on the continued trade of slaves from Africa into Brazil, and the abolition decree promulgated in March was based on the abolition of serfdom in Tsarist Russia, and made some changes to adapt to the local situation in Brazil, such as in order to take care of the interests of white slave owners and prevent most white slave owners from being forced to the opposite side, the decree stipulated that slave owners could give priority to recruiting slaves who originally belonged to them to work, and the wages of slaves could be appropriately reduced according to the situationOn the other hand, except for blacks who joined the army, blacks who were ordinary slaves remained slaves until the ransom was paid, and slave owners still had control over slaves during this period......

Tsarist Russia's decree on the abolition of serfdom itself had huge loopholes and shortcomings, and in Russia, a large number of serfs became cheap laborers of capitalists due to lack of money in exchange for freedom, and the living conditions of many serfs not only did not improve, but became more difficult.

The weather in Russia was very cold, and the serfs were hard-working and able to endure a hard life, while the blacks living in the tropics could not work efficiently for a long time because of the environmental impact, and the ransom of fifty taels of silver could become a difficult expense for the black slaves to repay.

Despite the many provisions of the abolitionist law to accommodate the interests of slave owners, the white slave owners, who were concerned about their own practical interests, regarded Pedro II's actions as a betrayal of them, some of them openly opposed the abolition of slaves, and most of them were secretly observing, ready to respond to the changes in the domestic situation in Brazil.

The abolition decree continued to be enforced in the face of opposition from white slave owners and hacienda owners, and hundreds of small rebel forces against abolition were suppressed by the army, and the first batch of 30,000 black slaves entered the army, increasing the military strength of Pedro II.

More than five months passed in the rebellion and repression, the abolition law was ostensibly implemented in Brazil, and Pedro II's reputation spread again in Europe and the United States, led by the British state, which first advocated the abolition of the slave trade, European monarchs praised Pedro II as a powerful reformer alongside Tsar Alexander II of Russia, a model monarch of a civilized country, and the United States on the other side of the continent praised Pedro II as a benevolent and enlightened monarch.

The fame brought by the abolitionist laws superficially suppressed the effects of the defeat in the Paraguayan war, and the comprador bourgeoisie in the country made a profit by hiring cheap black slaves to compensate for the losses suffered in the war, so that the newspapers of opinion controlled by the comprador bourgeoisie drowned out the opposition of the white slave owners, which led Pedro II to misjudge that the situation in Brazil was stabilizing after the abolition of slaves and the enactment of reform decrees, At this time, military force should be developed to curb the development of Paraguayan and Chinese forces.

After a year of recovery, the Brazilian regular army was restored to more than 100,000 men, and Pedro II had planned to recruit 50,000 black slaves again at low military expenses to form a black army under the orders of his trusted generals, but the passing of two ironclad ships built by the British for the Chinese off the coast of Brazil forced him to change his plans.

With the addition of two new ironclad ships, the number of main ironclad ships of the Rio Gran do Sul Navy has reached five, and the Wehrmacht Navy has surpassed the Brazilian Navy in terms of the number and tonnage of its main warships.

Brazil's major cities are distributed along the Atlantic coast in turn, and Brazil, which does not have enough naval protection, is a girl in open clothes in front of the Chinese navy, and will be randomly attacked by the Chinese navy during the war, which will affect the course of the entire war.

The size of the Wehrmacht's naval fleet exceeded Pedro II's bottom line, and after learning the news, he did not summon Duke Ott and Garcia, who were at odds with the abolitionist decree, and privately sent someone to contact the British minister in Brazil, preparing to purchase larger tonnage ironclads from Britain in order to maintain superiority over the Wehrmacht navy.