The nineteenth century was a time of great turmoil and upheaval for the world situation, marked by conflicts and transformations of all kinds.

For China, it was the two successive Opium Wars, the Taiping Rebellion, and then the strong rise of Lin Zhe and the direct national civil war, and finally the unification of China, which brought China the opportunity to finally complete the industrial revolution.

For Europe, Napoleon's challenge to Europe in the early nineteenth century, and then the colonial frenzy of Britain and France to carve up Southeast Asia, and then there were the Franco-Prussian War, the Prussian-Danish War, the Crimean War, the wave of the industrial revolution set off by France after Britain, the completion of the industrial revolution under the leadership of Napoleon III, and the serfdom reform in Russia, all of which illustrate the particularity of the nineteenth century.

This is a time when perestroika and war are the theme!

And now, too, there are reforms and wars in the United States!

The cause of the civil war between the North and the South in the United States was very simple, that is, the direct conflict of interests between industrial and agricultural capital, and the emancipation of black slaves and the like were only the most superficial reasons.

Since the American Revolutionary War, the development of the United States has actually been tepid, although the industrial development of the northern region is relatively rapid, but it is limited by the large number of agricultural estates in the southern region, and it is difficult for the industrial capital in the north to get the conditions for rapid expansion and development they want.

The population of the United States is limited, and the vast majority of the population is confined to plantations in the South.

The population is an important basis of industry, and the industries of the nineteenth century were generally labor-intensive, such as the most representative steel and machinery manufacturing industries, which required a large number of workers. The absenteeism of any mineral is thousands of workers, and any large factory needs hundreds or even thousands of workers.

It's like the industrial development in Shanghai, China. It is based on a large number of foreign population, after so many years. The total population of Shanghai has exceeded one million, and this million people provide sufficient labor force for the industrial city of Shanghai.

Relatively speaking, why is it difficult for the empire to develop in the Liaoning region, which has a large number of important mineral resources, and there is no mention of establishing an industrial zone in Liaoning to develop industries such as coal and steel, because the current population in Liaoning is too large, and the empire must have a large number of industrial workers if it wants to develop industry in Liaoning on a large scale.

This is also the reason why the empire has a large-scale migration to the northeast, especially Liaoning, because there is a population after immigration. Only with the population can there be labor, and only with the labor force can factories be built and industries developed.

This was true of the Empire, and the United States was no exception, with the large plantations of the Southern Union restricting a large number of people, while the industrial areas of the North needed more people to work in the factories.

At the same time, the economic system of the South is dominated by agriculture and the North is dominated by industry, and their attitudes towards some economic policies, especially foreign trade, are completely different.

When the many contradictions add up, it is the beginning of a large-scale division of the American South. In the end, it directly evolved into a full-scale civil war.

After learning that the civil war officially broke out in the United States, Lin Zhe also had to think about whether this American civil war would have an impact on the empire and himself. If there is an impact, for better or for worse.

But after thinking about it for a long time, he realized that he was thinking too long-term. As a man with the soul of posterity, his impression of the United States can be described as very profound. I know more that the United States has become the world's de facto number one economic power before World War I, and after World War II, it completely replaced Britain as the world hegemon.

So when thinking about the American problem. He tends to think of the United States of today as the America of the future, so much so that he ignores a very important reality.

That is, it is only 1861, and there is at least half a century before the rise of the United States, so what about at least a hundred years before the United States becomes a hegemon.

If they are concerned about the American Civil War, it is better to think about how to develop domestic industry, guide the domestic people to restore people's livelihood, and provide living standards.

After putting aside many boring concerns, Lin Zhe just put the matter of the American Civil War down, and only instructed the Foreign Department to pay close attention to the American Civil War, and let the diplomats stationed in the United States take this opportunity to fight for all the benefits that can be won for the empire.

Don't mention political interests or anything, the current empire does not have the capital to directly intervene in the civil war in the United States, and the American civil war can be regarded as a global event, with the global boss Britain staring at it, and France is eyeing it rashly, and it is easy to get burned if you rush up rashly, and with the naval strength of the Chinese Empire, it is extremely difficult to even go to the United States, let alone have the ability to intervene in the American civil war.

So the American Civil War is only a commercial interest for the empire.

This is a civil war that has spread across the United States, and both sides are not weak, and it will take several years to fight, to say the least, if it is done well, it may be able to make a small war fortune in the American Civil War.

In fact, without Lin Zhe's initiative to order, Zhou Suoquan, the minister of the Chinese Empire to the Americas and concurrently the minister to the United States, had already taken action spontaneously.

Since the tense situation in the United States and the division between the North and the South at the beginning of this year, Zhou Suoquan has been paying close attention to the situation in the United States, and when he learned that both sides in the South were preparing for war, Zhou Suoquan had already begun to sell some of China's war materials to both sides of the American Civil War.

With the exception of rear-loading rifles, which are still classified as top secret by the military, banned technology, and finished exports, all other ordnance or civilian goods are being marketed.

And its fist products are the 1856 Mini rifle, which has been in service for many years in the Empire, as well as front-loading rifled guns, technologically mature grenades and even large-caliber rear-loading naval guns.

Don't think that the Empire came up with the 1856 Linde rifle, the Mini rifle, which is ill-intentioned, in fact, it is not the case, even if the rear-loading rifle has appeared, but in today's armies around the world, in addition to Germany and China, the Mini rifle is still the main rifle in active service.

And in many countries, they are still using smoothbore rifles!

In New York, USA, Zhou Suoquan, who was wearing a Chinese costume and a peony flower badge, walked down from the carriage, and then entered the legation, just now he went to attend a small gathering of diplomats from various countries, and the content of the discussion was naturally the American Civil War in the past few days.

As the envoy of a backward country to the United States, Zhou Suoquan's status in this kind of gathering was naturally not higher there, and most of the time he listened to the conversations of diplomats from Britain, France, and Russia, and occasionally said a polite word, and in this meeting, he reaffirmed the Empire's consistent foreign policy, that is, not to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries and to maintain neutrality in foreign civil wars.

But in this meeting, he got a very important message, that is, the northern government of the United States purchased a large number of ordnance from the British side, and the British side did not have enough Mini rifles, and even took out the inventory of brown bass flintlock pistols to make up the number.

After hearing the news, he couldn't sit still, although he was not a military personnel, but he also knew that the empire was currently in the process of fully replacing the breech-loading rifles, replacing hundreds of thousands of 1851 Linde rifles, 1856 Linde rifles, and in the past, there were tens of thousands of various flintlock pistols and Minnie rifles from Britain and France seized from the British and French forces, the former New Army, Lin Chengting's department, and Agubai's department.

If nothing else, a few of these guns will be supplied to Lin Chengting, but most of them will be sealed!

And now that the civil war has broken out on the part of the United States, the demand for ordnance is almost massive, and the number of needs is not tens of thousands, but hundreds of thousands or even millions.

What a huge market this is, and the British will definitely not be able to eat it!

And the empire doesn't need much, only needs to share a small part of the profits, not only to solve the domestic mothballed Minny rifles, but also to bring a large number of orders to the empire's defense industry.

Maybe an order for 10,000 or 20,000 rifles is nothing for Britain and France, but it is a great boost for the imperial heavy industry, which has a weak industrial base and is in a period of rapid development.

At present, the heavy industry of the empire is mainly concentrated in the defense industry, and the export volume of the defense industry is almost zero, and it can only live on orders from the domestic military, although the number of orders from the military is also very large, for example, the number of orders for the 1858 Linde rifle will definitely exceed 500,000 before and after.

However, the domestic military's orders are too much to suppress prices, and the defense enterprises are basically royal industries, and Lin Zhe does not allow the defense enterprises under his command to raise the price of ordnance, and then affect the reorganization and reform of the military.

This also causes the fact that although the operating rate of defense enterprises such as Linde Machinery Factory and Jinling Arsenal is high because of the military's orders, the actual profits are not high, which will also affect the technological upgrading of national defense enterprises to a certain extent.

But foreign trade orders are different, and now who doesn't know that both the North and the South of the United States are waving checks to purchase war materials all over the world.

They procured everything that could be used in the war, such as guns, artillery, warships, and even soldiers' clothing.

However, it is very tragic that the Americans looked for Britain, the United States, Prussia and most other European countries, but did not come to China.

It is not to blame that the Americans did not come to China to purchase these materials, because everyone knows that China was still a feudal and backward ignorant country a few years ago, although I heard that Lin Zhe has unified China in the past two years and has also begun to reform and develop industry, but when it comes to China's export goods, most people only know raw silk, tea and porcelain.

As for guns and artillery, no kidding, those Chinese can make these things?

However, Zhou Suoquan was not reconciled, maybe the industrial base of the empire is weaker, but it does not mean that China's weapons are poor.

Since the Americans didn't take the initiative to find it, he would find it himself! (To be continued.) )

PS: There's another chapter later