Texas is the largest state in the continental United States, and in later generations it was also the most economically powerful state except for California, and it was also the stronghold of the Republican Party in later generations, and it was regarded as the base of conservative forces in the United States. Of course, these are not the reasons why Sheffield chose to be there, the center of political power in the south was Richmond and Atlanta before the fire, and the economic center was in New Orleans, but these cities were either too close to the front line or threatened by the navy, and were completely unqualified to become war bases.

On the contrary, Texas has many advantages, first of all, it is large enough, except for a part of the arid zone near Mexico, it can be said that no inch of land is useless, the grasslands in the northwest can support strong animal husbandry, the great plains and the southeast can grow cotton, and the southwest near Mexico is mountainous with minerals, and along the Gulf of Mexico there are areas with oil. Suffice it to say that Texas has concentrated all the conditions for a logistics base.

Probably the only fly in the ointment that made Sheffield feel was that Texas did not have the two minerals that were most closely related to the military industry, iron ore and copper in his impression! If these two minerals are also distributed, Sheffield can resist the north as long as there are enough people.

The United States does not lack iron ore, on the contrary, the iron ore reserves in the United States are enough for most countries to envy, and there are reserves and reserves to have quality, but these iron ores are all around Wudalianhu, in other words, they are all in the core area of Yankeyo. This is also the reason why the northern industry is so much stronger than the south, but it is similar to the distribution of minerals in China, and it is also a place where there are more minerals in the north and less in the south, and there are many minerals in the west, but it is not the main population concentration.

What makes Sheffield even more maddened is that there are iron and copper mines not far from Texas, but they have already crossed the Rio Grande and are under Mexican jurisdiction, "why don't you push the border a little south, even if only a little, when negotiating?" Sheffield was frustrated by this unattainable situation.

"The only place that can take care of all aspects of Texas, and can raise livestock and grow, is the capital city of Austin! As for chemical plants and some industries that could support the war, they should be built around the Rio Grande in the southwest. Sheffield eventually compared several cities in Texas and eventually landed the Sheffield family in the capital city of Austin.

In terms of convenience, it is undoubtedly better for a city like Houston, but it is very unfortunate that Houston is also a coastal city, and after the Civil War began, it may end up with New Orleans and be directly blocked by the superior navy in the North.

Sheffield, who had been talking on paper for a long time, marked several locations on the map of Texas, and Sheffield estimated that the current Texas should have a population of about 500,000, which can be called vast and sparsely populated, and it still needs to be filled with immigrants to play a role in the war.

He is not afraid of the industry of the North, the current United States is still in the era of queuing up to be shot, the shadow of the theory of total warfare in the whole world has not appeared, both sides are fighting with rifles, the difference between the South and the North is only that the soldiers of the South have ten bullets on their bodies, while the soldiers of the North may have a hundred, and the industry of the North will not play to the extent of such a perversion as World War II, and it will not even reach the level of World War I.

It can be said that the current era has limited the advantages of northern industries, which cannot but be said to be a good thing for Sheffield, which stands on the position of the south. Compared with industry, in fact, the most desperate gap between the north and the south is the population. If you don't find a way to break up the North's four-fold population advantage, even if the South wins every battle, it will still win the surrender in the end. The North can be lost all the way to the South, and all the people who can join the army will be consumed.

"As soon as the cotton harvest is complete, it's time to start moving!" Sheffield put away the map of Texas and said to himself, giving him ten years, Texas must be very different, and there will be no recreation of the history of soy sauce in the course of the Civil War.

In the cotton harvest season, the most troublesome thing for slave owners is rain, the area of the plantation is often thousands of acres, it is no longer a rush to harvest to avoid losses, the gray weather on his head, Sheffield, holding a black umbrella, stared at a pair of dead fish eyes, his neck rose forty-five degrees and looked at God without showing weakness, and whispered, "I said God, don't you know that taking people's money is equivalent to killing your parents?" Do you know how much I lost in this rain? ”

The climate of Louisiana is the same as many places in the southern United States, very unstable, the cold air from Canada goes all the way south, and it will rain when it encounters the warm air of the Gulf of Mexico during the southward journey.

Sheffield, who was poured cold in his heart, finally took a step back in this contest, put the umbrella on his head again, let God go, and looked at the black slaves who were being harvested in the fields, and the black slaves were wearing a canvas as a tool to protect them from the rain, but this only played a better role than nothing.

"Master, all the black slaves are in the ground, don't worry! Do you want to call the child out too? Martin had just called everything out to work when he began to take off his shirt and get ready to go to the field.

"Kid? No more! Sheffield removed his umbrella and glanced at the thick clouds in the sky, as if estimating how long the rain would last, and ordered, "Go to Sheffield Town, and call all the blacks in the town to come and go down to the fields to harvest cotton, and if the cotton is soaked in water for a day, you don't know how much it will rot!" I couldn't afford to lose, so I told them that if they didn't come to help the plantation harvest the cotton, they would just get out of Sheffield, and I didn't care about the rent......"

"I'm going to find someone right now!" Looking at Martin's back, Sheffield shouted again, "Get all the overseers too, all the people who make money from me must go to the ground today, or they all get out of my ......"

The rain lasted for three days, and Sheffield had no mercy during these days, and completely returned to the essence of the slave owner, standing in the field with boots on all day watching the black slaves harvest cotton, and urging the black slaves to continue working in the fields during meals. Together with the plantation overseers, the freedmen of Sheffield were able to keep the damage within acceptable conditions.

It can be said that the plantations in Sheffield have suffered the least damage in the range of this rainfall, and by this time, the other plantations remembered that the small town of Sheffield still had a group of black freedmen to hire. However, when they got there, they found that the Sheffield plantation had already taken away all the black freedmen who could go to the land, and it was only then that they realized how clever Sheffield was in controlling the black community with his house, which could be used as a supplement to the black slaves.

Sheffield, where the rain had stopped, was relieved and allowed men and women to stagger the rest day. What displeased Sheffield the most was that none of the black slaves who worked in the fields were sick, and the white overseers were directly sick. He knew that blacks were in good health, but the contrast was too sad.

On the fourth day, when the weather cleared, Sheffield packed up and prepared to go back to the city to see his father, and the surface work still had to be done. But before he left here, he bumped into Annabelle directly, Sheffield took the girl's hand directly with a stunned face and said, "I really don't have time now, or you go back to the attic with me!" Let's walk and say, okay? ”

"The attic? Want to see Uncle Sheffield? It's a bit embarrassing...... "Annabelle showed a rare twist, but still approved of Sheffield's move.