After receiving Jackson's order, Stuart was rather depressed, but he decisively led his troops to retreat.

It is no wonder that Stuart was depressed, because in terms of the results of this expedition, it seems that apart from the slight damage caused to the wall skin of Brydensburg, nothing else has achieved much, which naturally makes Stuart, who is eager to make meritorious contributions, quite dissatisfied.

Originally, Stuart was still counting on the support of the rear, and he could take this Bradensburg with the cooperation of reinforcements, but for now, it seems that Boss Jackson has no intention of continuing to attack Washington, so he can only drink and withdraw his troops.

Stuart's withdrawal completely lost the opportunity to take Washington, because just as Jackson expected, it only took one day and one night for the Potomac Army in the south to transport 50,000 troops to Washington by train, so that Washington had more than 100,000 defenders, and the disadvantage of insufficient troops had been completely compensated.

Originally, Jackson also wanted to seduce the defenders of Philadelphia to come to Baltimore, so as to fight an ambush in Baltimore, but I don't know if the other party is too smart or doesn't care about Washington's safety, the defenders of Philadelphia did not rush out of the city to attack Baltimore, which also made Jackson's previous arrangement completely useless.

As a result, Jackson suddenly found that although they took Baltimore, they did not seem to have much advantage, because although on the surface, the Union Army had grasped the strategic initiative and could fight wherever it wanted, but the lack of strength of the Union Army was a hard wound.

You must know that due to the small population base and poor mobilization ability of the Confederate States, the Union army has only reached about one million people in the current war, of which nearly 300,000 are in the western theater alone, and another 200,000 people are placed in Fredericksburg, that is, at the Robert Line, plus troops in the capital Richmond and other important places. There are also almost 200,000, so in this way, the 300,000 troops in Baltimore are already the main force that the Alliance Army has painstakingly drawn out, and if you want reinforcements, it is basically useless.

But if you look at the Union Army, there are now more than 400,000 troops in Fredericksburg alone, more than 100,000 troops in the direction of Washington, and more than 300,000 troops in the direction of Philadelphia, plus other front armies and mobilized troops. The total number of troops exceeds 1.6 million, and mobilization operations are underway, and the total number of troops continues to increase!

In other words, although Jackson's department, which took Baltimore, had 300,000 troops and had the initiative on the battlefield, no matter where it was going to attack, it could not be easily attacked, but it was the Union Army. The troops are abundant, and the build-up of troops has basically been completed, if you want to shake the Federation Army with a quick attack, at least for now. It's still unrealistic, because the Federacy is being attritional.

What made the Union Army even more distressed was that the Union State had fought until now because of its lack of industrial capacity. In fact, military supplies are all supported by China, Britain, and France, but the so-called material support of these three countries is not gratuitous. Instead, they had to exchange real money, silver, and agricultural products, but now that the war has been fought, the Allied countries have almost exhausted their treasury reserves, and they can no longer afford to continue to use gold and silver to buy ordnance and materials.

The same is true for agricultural products, due to the war, a large number of laborers enlisted in the army, resulting in a sharp drop in the output of agricultural products on farms around the country, but the cost is rising, so that it is impossible to continue to maintain the original low-price export policy, because it is a loss-making business, so slowly, the export of agricultural products in demand in the Allied countries is getting less and less, but more and more imported materials are needed, and it has maintained a high level of importation.

To put it simply, that is, the war has been fought so far, the finances of the Union have reached the verge of bankruptcy, and the capture of Baltimore is already the largest military operation in recent times, and there is really nothing that can be done to carry out a large-scale military operation, because the Union has no money.

Or it needs to be said that the Allied States have not actually experienced many defeats, the war situation has always been relatively good, and they have not experienced too many battles before, why did they run out of money so quickly?

You know, it's only the first half of 1864, according to the history of another time and space, the peak of the Union Army once reached 1.5 million, and it has been fighting with the Northern Army until 1865, a full five years, and there was no financial collapse at that time, why is it only less than four years now, and with the support of China, Britain and France, the finances have dried up so quickly?

The answer is, China has intervened!

As mentioned earlier, in the early stage of the war, the Allied Army purchased a large number of ordnance materials from China, such as the Hua 1 series of muskets and artillery.

Of course, according to the perspective of this period, the weapons and equipment sold by China to the Allied Army are still good goods with high cost performance, after all, whether it is the Hua 1 rifle imitating the Sharps rifle or the Hua 2 gun imitating the 12-pounder Napoleon gun, they are all steel products, and they can have such a cheap price, they are profitable.

But the problem is that the Davis administration was too optimistic at the beginning, blindly buying a large amount of arms from China, and even using tariffs and agricultural products as collateral to borrow from China to buy weapons, which eventually led to the overall performance of the Union Army surpassing that of the Union Army.

Not to mention, as of May 1864, the Allied States had successively purchased more than 500,000 Hua 1 rifles, 200,000 Hua 2 rifles, 800 Hua 1 artillery, and 200 Hua 2 artillery pieces from China, and the related ammunition was even more innumerable.

Taking the cheapest Hua 1 rifle as an example, the import price of the Allied countries is 25 Chinese dollars, which is equivalent to 50 US dollars a piece, so that just 500,000 Hua 1 rifles will cost the Allied countries 25 million US dollars!

The current era is different from the 21st century, and the purchasing power of the US dollar is quite large, 25 million US dollars, which is already a considerable amount for the Union Powers.

You must know that the economy of the Union is mainly agricultural, and its economic strength cannot be compared with that of the industrially powerful Northern Federal Government, while the slave farm economy is quite weak in its resistance to long-term war, and it is fine for the first year or two, but after a long time, it will cause a Great Depression.

This is because the farm needs a lot of labor, and the war draws a lot of labor from the farm, which causes a shortage of labor, which in turn affects the farmer's economy, and slowly the industry is depressed, and the supply of products is getting less and less.

And at this time, the Allied government needed a lot of money in order to meet the war expenses. When funds were insufficient, paper banknotes began to be printed.

The consequence of this is that on the one hand, there are fewer and fewer goods, and on the other hand, there is more and more money in circulation, which inevitably leads to a large amount of inflation, which in turn leads to worse consequences.

That is, by 1864, because of hyperinflation. The paper money of the Union countries no longer has any credit to speak of, and the common people do not like to use the paper money issued by the Union countries, but are only willing to use Spanish silver coins and currencies such as Chinese dollars, pounds sterling, and francs, which further aggravates the fiscal deficit of the federal governments.

To put it bluntly, before the weapons did not have an overwhelming advantage, the weapons of the Hua 1 and Hua 2 series could provide you with a better tactical advantage at most, but in the final analysis, such a confrontation as the Civil War. It still depends on the comprehensive strength to speak.

If the Confederates could have ended the war in 1864, it would have been worth spending a lot of money on weapons before, but unfortunately they didn't give it a good deal and fought until now. Obviously, he didn't fight many bad battles, but as a result, his financial problems became worse and worse.

Suppose, of course, that the Union Army has not been so smooth lately, as it has been in history. Being pressed and beaten by the Federal Army, maybe the situation will not be so bad, because once it is pressed and beaten by the Federal Army. The common people within the Allied Powers will become more resistant to the poor living conditions, can endure worse lives, and continue to support the continuation of the war with enthusiasm such as the so-called defense of the homeland.

Just like the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in China in another time and space, the Nationalist Government at that time, if it was viewed from the point of view of peacetime, the government would have gone bankrupt long ago, and it was impossible to fight like the Japanese, but because of the National War of Resistance, the people's hatred of the Japanese was overwhelming, and they could endure all kinds of injustice and suffering.

However, if the war has little to do with them, then they will demand better living conditions, more living materials, and do not want to lower their own living standards to support the so-called war of unification.

In short, the excessively homogeneous economic situation and the imperfection of the financial order led to the financial problems of the Union government, which was not conspicuous at first, but as the war continued, as time passed, these problems finally broke out, leaving the Union government into a serious deficit crisis, and it was no longer able to continue to support high-intensity large-scale operations.

When it came to the front, Jackson's 300,000-strong army could not get sufficient supplies, so he had to start using local materials, raising funds and food by plundering the local wealthy, and using the stolen funds to directly do business with the British and French, and buy grain and grass from the British and French.

However, looting alone cannot last, and this kind of looting has also aroused the disgust of the locals.

But the problem now is that Jackson wants to continue fighting, but first, his own military supplies are insufficient, second, he can't get the cooperation of others, and third, the Federation Army has strong troops in every direction and cannot be taken in the short term.

After having no choice, Jackson had no choice but to give his old superior, Robert Brown. General Lee sent a telegram asking Robert to send a telegram requesting that Robert . Lee gave him a way.

As everyone knows, Robert. Lee was more worried than him, because of Robert. Lee is now the commander-in-chief of the Union Army, and he has long wanted to fight a quick victory, taking advantage of the opportunity to take the initiative in his hands, fight several large-scale battles, and eat one or two main army corps of the Union Army, so as to make the war situation develop in a direction more favorable to the Alliance, end the war as soon as possible, and re-complete the reunification of the North and the South.

But the problem is that his troops are also facing the dilemma of insufficient military supplies, let alone sending supplies to Jackson, and his own Northern Virginia Legion is not enough, especially ammunition, which is seriously insufficient.

In fact, the Allied States also had arsenals, but their production capacity was very limited, and because of technical problems, they could only produce the simplest black-fire-powder weapons, and some firearms were repaired.

However, most of the weapons used by the main forces of the coalition army are Hua 1 rifles purchased from China, which belong to rear-loading guns and need to be loaded from the rear, which also determines that the ammunition of this firearm can only be fixed!

Although the fixed ammunition of the Hua 1 rifle is a paper shell fixed ammunition, which looks simple, the level of craftsmanship is modern, so the mute rate is very low, and the shooting effect is quite good.

However, these munitions are expensive, and if you don't want to import Chinese munitions, you can barely make them yourself. But firstly, the price is not cheaper, secondly, the quality is too poor, not to mention, the shooting effect is not comparable with imported ammunition at all, and the accuracy is so poor that people want to cry.

What is even more outrageous is that after entering 1864, China suddenly increased the export price of ammunition, that is, if it imports ammunition from China in the future, it will cost half the price of the past!

This made the government of the Union quite uncomfortable. In the end, they simply stopped importing Chinese ammunition and used their own low-quality ammunition from the arsenal.

As a result, the front-line soldiers were in dire need of ammunition, but the reserves in the rear were already insufficient, and they could only give one-fifth of the original number, which could only be used for defensive battles at most, and it was wishful thinking to play a large-scale offensive.

At least Robert. Lee came to see that he took the initiative to attack when he was running out of ammunition. It was organized murder, a soldier's life at risk, and he would never do such a thing.

However, Robert. Lee also understood. If this opportunity is given up and a large-scale attack cannot be organized in the short term, it will give the Federation Army a chance to breathe, which is equivalent to giving up the advantage of a roundabout surprise attack.

Plus. It's already in May, and the weather is getting hotter and hotter, so if you keep waiting. And if you can't start the battle as soon as possible, it will be even more difficult to fight again when you enter June or July.

"What? Do you want to mobilize another 100,000 people to Baltimore? "Robert. Lee's right-hand man Gu Bo. Erley's face was full of surprise, "Are you serious?" Robert? ”

"Of course." Robert. Lee nodded, "I want to mobilize half of our supplies, plus 100,000 people, and take a boat to Baltimore under the command of Jackson." In this way, Jackson has 400,000 men in his hands, and after that, let them divide half of the army and use 200,000 men to fight Washington again, as long as they can take Washington, it will not only deal a great morale blow to the Union army, but also cut off the rear route of the Potomac Army, which will greatly benefit our next move. When the time comes, if we cooperate a little more, we may be able to eat the Potomac Army. ”

"I have to warn you." Gu Bo. Erli shook his head, "Once you transfer 100,000 people, the Northern Virginia Legion will be in danger, because there will be a serious shortage of troops, what if the other side notices and directly presses over to fight?" Even if Robert's defense is impregnable, he needs someone to defend, right?

Also, on Jackson's side, if 200,000 are divided into 200,000 to fight Washington, then Baltimore will only have 200,000, can it stop the 300,000 soldiers and horses in Philadelphia? Even if you can block it, what if you get into a stalemate?

Don't forget, we don't have enough supplies, it's okay to attack quickly, if we fall into a stalemate, our lack of ammunition will be exposed, and when the time comes, as long as the Yankees continue to wear it up with us, we will face an even greater crisis. ”

"But if that's not the case, then do you want me to just watch like this and continue to fight?" Robert. Li glared.

"We still have allies!" Gu Bo. Erli said, "At this time, it is time for the allies to fulfill the following obligations, and they can't just watch us fight." ”

"It's useless." Robert. Li shook his head, "Don't you know?" The Chinese have already gotten in agreement with the Yankees, have unilaterally ceased war, and will not continue to fight with us.

It's easy to guess what they think, they just want us to keep the North and the South divided, or else...... Hum! ”

"Yes, the Chinese have ill intentions, but there are also the British and the French." Gu Bo. "The British and the French may not be happy to see us continue to divide up, and we should ask them for their help and at least provide us with some military supplies." ”

"No, the British and the French are the same as the Chinese, they all want us to continue to divide, they will not help." Robert. Lee shook his head.

"How do you know if you don't give it a try?" Gu Bo. "At this time and that time, the British and the French fought very poorly this time, and apart from continuing to occupy Boston, there was not much tangible results at all. If we were willing to offer higher terms, such as agreeing to them that when we defeated the Yankees, we would give New England to the British, do you think they would be able to refuse? ”

"Assign New England to the British? Isn't this selling land, how can we do it? "Robert. Li said angrily.

"That's just it." Gu Bo. "Once we defeat the Yankees and reunite, we don't have to be afraid of the British, and then we will regret it, and it will only be a loss of personal reputation." ”

"That's right......" Robert . Lee frowned, seeming to be lost in thought.

"Robert, don't hesitate." Gu Bo. Erli said, "No matter what, it's okay to give it a try, as long as I can defeat the Yankees as soon as possible, unify the north and the south as soon as possible, and end the war, this villain who tears up the agreement and goes back on his word, let me do it." ”

"No, how can you do such a thing, even if you are willing to make a promise, the British will not believe it, because you are not weighty." Robert. Lee sighed, "Let me come, and you can negotiate with the British in the name of me, the commander-in-chief of the Confederate forces."

I said, as long as we have enough ordnance and supplies, I can sign an agreement with them, promising to give New England to the British when the North and South are reunited. But be quick, if it's more than a month, it's all in vain! (To be continued......)