All this was not expected by Deng Shicai, and he knew that Daming could not negotiate with the United States. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

The loss of 500,000 people is obviously not enough to break the will of the United States, and they still need to endure more profound pain before they can sincerely negotiate peace with the Ming Dynasty.

In the last three months of 1872, the Ming Dynasty and the United States were negotiating, and in early 1873, the negotiations broke down, and Deng Shicai immediately decided to launch a new offensive.

After three months of preparation, many of the troubles he encountered were greatly alleviated.

Although the transportation problem has not been completely solved, after the Navy strengthened the escort, more warships were put into service, and the method of refitting armed merchant ships, the problem of maritime transportation in the Ming Dynasty has been basically solved, and the American warships were strangled everywhere by the Navy cruisers, and the so-called submarines can only create panic, and before the diesel engine is not applied, the submarine that uses electricity is like a toy.

After the initial panic, Da Ming solved, or adapted, all kinds of difficulties, and now Deng Shicai can confront the US army for a long time with a million-dollar army even if he does not have to deliberately accumulate, and can launch a long-term offensive for a month, in this case, Deng Shicai believes that the time is ripe to enter the Gulf of Mexico.

Deng Shicai ordered the Ming army of the Pecos River defense line to cross the river and divide the troops into two routes, one way from Pecos, feint to attack Dallas, the cotton trade center of Texas, all the way from the Great Grain City, the main attack on San Antonio, and engage in a general battle with the main force of the American army in Houston, and occupy one or two ports in the Gulf of Mexico through a large-scale battle.

It is believed that when the Ming Dynasty has a port in the Gulf of Mexico, the Americans will know what to do, with this port, the Ming Navy will be able to enter the Caribbean Sea, blockade the Gulf of Mexico, threaten the entire east coast of the United States, and bring a huge threat to the core of the United States before the United States Navy grows up.

If the Americans still don't give up, they will presumably occupy the ports in the Gulf of Mexico and let the Mexicans know what to choose.

That is to say, after this battle, the strategic situation of the Ming Dynasty will be completely improved, and if it continues to fight, it will be very likely to get an ally, obtain a reliable material supply base, and if it is a peace negotiation, it will have already achieved enough advantages.

But the basis of all this is that this battle can be won, and Deng Shicai's advantage is that the US military is beginning to be overstretched.

Americans are patriotic, but patriotism always has a bottom line, especially in this kind of multi-ethnic country, where many immigrants are still previous generations, and most of the national identity is still in the home country of Europe, so it is unrealistic for them to pay for the United States without restrictions.

At the beginning of the war, the Americans were really enthusiastic, and within a year they recruited two million soldiers.

However, after the first battle of the Rio Grande Valley, the recruitment work of the United States fell into a trough, and in just half a year, they only recruited 80,000 soldiers, and the United States Congress greatly overestimated the patriotism of the Americans, and as a result, they fell into trouble. Negotiations began on a bill to change the conscription system to a conscription system.

Comparatively speaking, although the citizens of the Ming Dynasty are not more patriotic than the Americans, the population base of the Ming Dynasty is larger, and it has a standing army and a reserve army before, and it can reach two million people after mobilization, and the strength of the army is not a problem in the Ming Dynasty for the time being.

What is unfavorable to Deng Shicai is the change in international diplomacy.

Before the battle of the Rio Grande, the international community was basically neutral, and Britain, France, Germany and other countries were holding the mentality of watching the excitement, watching the fight between the two emerging forces of Asia and the Americas, the old and the new, and for Europe, the Ming and the United States were their competitors and threats.

But after the first battle of the Rio Grande Valley, the situation began to change, and this battle for the rights and interests of the Chinese, the Ming Dynasty could easily operate the behavior of the yellow race to fight for living space, which was done in Japan, but unfortunately did not lead Japan into the war. Similarly, the United States can easily portray it as public opinion that the United States is fighting for the white race. As a result, in the mainstream public opinion in Europe, an unfavorable situation was formed for the Ming Dynasty.

This situation is also to be expected, if the Ming is defeated, the European countries will only reaffirm the idea of white supremacy, and if the Ming wins, it will make them very uncomfortable.

The diplomatic work that the Ming Dynasty has been doing is not to seek the support of Europe, but only to seek that Europe not intervene. But it is very likely that the public opinion of Europeans will influence the attitude of their governments.

In particular, the attitude of some social elites, most of whom at this time in Europe began to accept social Darwinism, saw colonization and ethnic cleansing as a natural race for elimination, and the sense of morality was declining.

The most passive thing for the Ming Dynasty is not the remarks of one or two elites, but the remarks of some political leaders, the powerful German Emperor, the young Wilhelm II, actually told the newspaper a few months ago, during the negotiations between the Ming and the United States in London, that the United States is fighting for the white race, and the whole of Europe should face up to the threat posed by the yellow race, and he suggested that the leaders of European civilization should not sit idly by, but should unite to aid the United States.

Wilhelm II's remarks made the relationship between the Ming and Germany extremely tense, and the Ming sent a strong protest to the German Foreign Office and questioned Germany's attitude in the war. Officials from the German Foreign Office continued to express their neutrality and hoped that the Ming would continue to support them in defending their rights and interests in Samoa. This turmoil did not develop into a full-scale political confrontation, but it caused an undercurrent, which made the Ming begin to feel the unfriendly attitude of the whole of Europe.

All this also affected Deng Shicai's mentality, making him feel that he could not delay any longer, taking advantage of the Grande Valley War, when the Ming Dynasty had the advantage of military strength in the southern United States, to end the southern campaign as soon as possible, and to make certain breakthroughs in other directions, it was time for the Americans to compromise, before the European countries decided to intervene, to end this war, which in Deng Shicai's view, had little practical benefits.

In charge of the feint attack on Dallas was Lu Yunqi, who led three armies and 60,000 men to attack Dallas.

The main direction of attack was Zhang Kaishan, who sat in the Great Grain City, led ten armies and 200,000 people to set off, and drove directly to San Antonio, 300 kilometers away, determined to fight a big battle with the American army around here, and after annihilating the living force of the American army as much as possible, he would advance into the Gulf of Mexico.

In addition, Ma Youwei still led cavalry and more and more Indian troops to contain the American troops in Denver.

Deng Shicai led the main force, a total of 30 corps and 600,000 people, to sit in El Paso, maintain logistics and supplies, and send reinforcements from all directions at any time.

A battle that would later come to be known as the Battle of Texas began.