After the Battle of Vicksburg, the whole situation turned out to be less and less favorable to the United States, as Lincoln feared.

On the fourth day after the end of the Battle of Vicksburg, the Mississippi River capital, Jackson, was invaded by the Confederate Joseph Brown. General Johnston and General Pemberton, who had sent troops from Vicksburg, regained it, after which Vicksburg was handed over to the Chinese, and the original defenders of Vicksburg retreated to Jackson.

Only five days after Jackson City was recaptured by the Confederate forces, the Chinese once again went north along the Mississippi River and directly occupied Memphis City, the most important river port city in Tennessee!

Memphis was a river port city founded along the Mississippi River, and it was the largest city along the Mississippi River at this time. The city was not only a famous cotton producer and slave trading market, but also an important transportation hub in the south, and its strategic location was very important.

Suffice it to say, whoever masters Memphis masters the lower reaches of the Mississippi River. If the Confederates have mastered Memphis, they will have a bridgehead to the north, and similarly, if the Union forces have mastered Memphis, they will have a bridgehead to the south.

The main reason why Grant was able to attack Vicksburg without scruples before was that he first took Memphis, a major southern town, but now, the city has been retaken by the Chinese, which is equivalent to saying that the offensive and defensive forces are changing.

After Memphis was taken, the Union forces in the Mississippi River Valley, or the western theater, began to be in an unfavorable situation and had lost the initiative on the battlefield.

However, the matter was not over, on the tenth day of Memphis being captured by the Chinese, the Chinese once again won a heavy victory against the Union Army outside Memphis, known as the Battle of Memphis!

In that battle, William. General Ross Krans led the Cumberland River Corps from Nashville, the capital of Tennessee, to retake Memphis on his own, but ended up thirty kilometers outside of Memphis. An ambush was made by the Chinese, and the entire Cumberland River Army was annihilated.

In this battle, it was another huge fiasco, the entire 50,000 troops of the Cumberland River Army suffered more than 16,000 casualties alone, most of the remaining troops were captured, and less than 2,000 people survived!

The losses were so heavy, especially the casualties, that many people called the battle the Memphis slaughterhouse, and the Union Army called Memphis the City of Sadness.

The reason why such heavy losses were caused was that the ambush tactics caught the opponent off guard was only one aspect. The point is that the Chinese used a lot of machine guns and rapid-fire guns, and they were more skilled than before, and the other side was on the march and did not have suitable cover, so the casualties were so heavy.

That is, after this war, the prestige of the Chinese's machine guns, machine guns and ironclad vehicles was completely promoted, especially those federal soldiers who escaped by chance, and even described the Chinese's weapons as demonic weapons, believing that no one could deal with these weapons of the Chinese head-on. That is, no one can beat the Chinese.

Thankfully, after the Chinese occupied Memphis, they made no further moves, neither eastward to attack Nashville, the capital of Tennessee. Nor did he continue north along the Mississippi River, but used Memphis as a base camp for the Chinese, staying there and never moving again.

By this time, the strategic situation had finally stabilized for the time being. It continued to enter the stalemate phase, but those who were interested soon discovered that the Chinese had completely occupied three cities along the Mississippi River. Memphis, Vicksburg, and New Orleans are the three most important cities in control of the lower Mississippi River.

By occupying these three cities, the Chinese are equivalent to completely protecting the rear of the Alliance Army, but at the same time, it is equivalent to choking the throat of the Alliance Army, which is indeed a very clever move in terms of strategy.

Suffice it to say, as long as the Chinese continue to occupy these three cities, the Allied States can continue to obtain a steady stream of resources from the west to enrich themselves.

At the same time, since the Chinese have mastered the port of New Orleans and the Chinese naval fleet has proven to be very effective, if the Chinese navy is willing to maintain the shipping lane near the port of New Orleans and protect the safety of this section of the shipping lane, then the port of New Orleans can become a safe harbor again, allowing the Confederates to regain a stable foreign trade channel.

Once the Allied Powers regained a safe, stable and easily accessible trading port, the Confederates could export goods such as cotton and tobacco, as well as weapons and equipment, as well as food and other military supplies.

Imagine that foreign goods could be transferred to Vicksburg along the Mississippi River through the port of New Orleans in Guò, and then disembarked from Vicksburg, transferred to Jackson City by the Guò railroad, and then transported all the way to Richmond by railroad, which undoubtedly greatly increased the war potential of the Confederate States.

Therefore, in this strategy of the Chinese, Memphis City has undoubtedly become the front line of confrontation with the Union Army, and the Port of New Orleans and Vicksburg have become important transportation hubs, and if this state of affairs continues, it will be more and more unfavorable for the Union Army.

You must know that the Southern Alliance Army's demand is only independence, so if they can maintain the front of both sides, they will already be victorious, while the Federation Army is to quell the rebellion, so they are the attackers, once the attackers are contained in the offensive momentum, it is undoubtedly a failure from a strategic point of view.

Now, in the Eastern Theater, the Union Army has stopped at Fredericksburg, and has been defeated by Robert Brown. Lee's tactics of relying on the massive trenches and barbed wire fences created by the Potomac River have lost his temper and cannot move forward at all.

In the western theater, the federal army stopped in Memphis City, and it was impossible to effectively cut off the connection between the east and west of the Union State, and even, because the Chinese army was too terrifying, the federal army in the western theater was even in a passive defensive situation, and they did not dare to take the initiative to approach within 60 kilometers around Memphis City.

All in all, thanks to Robert. Li's hard work, coupled with the initiative of the Chinese, the north and the south began to enter a stage of strategic stalemate, and their two most important fronts in the east and west all entered a mode of trench warfare, and no one took the initiative to move forward. It should be said that it was the Federation Army that could no longer attack, and then expanded the results of the war.

This strategic stalemate undoubtedly satisfied the Confederates with their original intention of gaining independence, and now that they were on par with the military of the United States of America, it was a good thing for them.

After all, it is a fact that the Confederates are poorly powered, even their President Davis. I never thought that I could defeat the United States in reverse and reunite the North from the South, because that was simply unrealistic, and even if it could be done militarily, the political side would let Davis step down after the fact, because the main difference between the North and the South is whether to keep slaves or not to keep slaves, which is not only a strict conflict of ideology, but also a strict conflict of the economic system, and it is basically impossible for the two sides to be the same as before. Sitting together calmly and peacefully, can only let one voice become the mainstream.

That is, for both the North and the South, either the east prevails over the west. It will become a slavery system in an all-round way, or the west wind will prevail over the east wind and become a slave collection legality in an all-round way.

When this phase of strategic stalemate between the north and the south stabilized, it was long overdue to see that the British and French had the advantage to take advantage.

August 15, 1863. The Anglo-French forces organized a combined fleet of 18 warships to escort 30,000 Anglo-French troops to and from the port of New Orleans. Join forces with the Chinese army and the troops of the Confederate States of America, who were waiting in advance.

This meeting of the armies of the four countries of the Chinese-British-French alliance marked the first official public appearance of the four-nation alliance, and also marked the beginning of the official participation of Britain and France in the armed intervention against the United States of America.

After the armies of the four countries met, in order to deter the United States, the four countries held a military parade, and the troops of the four countries appeared in the order of China, Britain, France, and the Allied States, and it can be seen from this order that the Chinese side was the dominant party.

This kind of ordering, of course, is not made out of mutual humility, but is evaluated according to strength and contribution, among which China's strength is undoubtedly the strongest, so they take the lead, and although the alliance is not weak, because it is the host, there is no problem at the bottom.

In the course of this military parade, the Chinese side did not display those assault vehicles, trucks, armored vehicles and other ironclad combat vehicles that are popular in the outside world, but only dispatched ordinary infantry, but the weapons are of course Yishui's Bayi assault rifles and 97 assault rifles, and they are also wearing digital camouflage uniforms, so they are quite eye-catching.

Since the main purpose of this military parade is to promote the strong friendship of the Four-Nation Alliance, there is no need to make it too big, just the meaning, after all, the real highlight is still to come.

The so-called highlight actually refers to the high-level talks between the military of the four countries of the Sino-British-French Union, the purpose of which is nothing other than how to better coordinate and unify in the future war against the United States.

It should be pointed out here that before this, the reason why China, Britain and France sent troops to fight this time was to seek justice for the 926 Incident, and the three countries were not to help the Allied States fight for independence, but to unite China, Britain and France to wage war against the United States of America.

To put it simply, you fight yours, I fight mine, the war between your United States and the Allied States, we don't take a stand, but you United States killed our people in the 926 incident, we can't give up with you, you United States must give us an explanation, otherwise we will fight together.

The reason for this is multifaceted, the main one is that China, Britain and France are not willing to bear the blame for the Allied Powers, after all, the Allied Powers are slavery and morally unpleasant, and China, Britain, and France have come to the United States of America to seek justice as victims, or to ask for benefits, how can they be involved in the bad things between the two countries.

Of course, everyone knows that it is just a superficial sound, but in fact, since there is a war against the United States of America, it will not be able to bypass the Union State in any case, so there is a four-nation alliance and a seat for the Union State.

However, at that time, the four-nation alliance only referred to a kind of mutual assistance alliance in words, not a military alliance in the real sense, and the governments of the four countries did not sign any effective alliance except for China and Britain, which was different from the mainstream military alliance in the world at that time.

In other words, in the past, the Quad Alliance was only a loose alliance, not an alliance in the full sense of the word, and everyone could sit down together to negotiate a solution when needed, but there was no obligation to help each other.

In fact, not to mention the Allied States, even China, Britain and France. On the surface, they also declared war on the United States of America, rather than forming a Triple Alliance of China, Britain and France, and then jointly declaring war on the United States of America in the name of the Triple Alliance.

The difference here is that each of the three countries has a lot of autonomy and can decide for themselves when, where to fight, or when to fight.

Or to put it mildly, didn't China and Britain sign a Sino-British military mutual assistance agreement before, and wasn't it originally intended to be aimed at the United States?

That was true, but the agreement did not specifically refer to the United States at the time. Moreover, the agreement at that time was actually ineffective, after all, Britain itself did not have any sincerity at that time, so the Sino-British agreement was more of a thing for the two sides to jointly ensure the stability of southwest China and Southeast Asia, and it could not be relied on to restrain the British from doing anything.

In short, although the four countries were a military alliance against the United States of America in the past, they all played their own games and had no sincerity, mainly because Britain and France did not want to get involved too much.

But now, it was found that the Chinese had struck. And it seemed that there was a possibility of winning, or at least maintaining a situation of not losing, so Britain and France were tempted and decisively sent troops into the war.

But let's be honest. Their 30,000 soldiers and horses are really not enough, not so much to help, but to show their sense of existence, or to snatch some benefits.

But no matter what. Britain and France have already shown sincerity, and sent 30,000 people, which means to see. I have shown sincerity, and the rest is that everyone has a good talk, and if the talks are good, I can continue to increase the number of troops, and if the talks are not good, then at most this is the case, and maybe, there will be a separate truce with the United States of America.

It is precisely for this reason that the significance of this quadrilateral meeting is very important, because it directly determines the level of support from Britain and France.

Of course, in terms of strategic coordination, it is necessary to negotiate an alliance in advance, even if it is a transitional alliance, at least so that the armies of the four countries can cooperate more effectively in future battles against the United States and avoid unnecessary losses.

After the military parade ended, the representatives of the four countries did not delay any longer, and soon entered the topic and began preliminary contacts.

Among them, each country has its own demands.

The Allied Powers hope that the three countries can provide them with more weapons, equipment, and food free of charge, and at the same time, the three countries will officially and openly recognize the international status of the Allied Powers, instead of only privately and verbally recognizing them as before.

In this regard, the representatives of China, Britain, and France were relatively unanimous, that is, they could not provide free support for the time being, but they could sell them a batch of arms, medicines, and food at a low price, and as for the price, the Allied countries could continue to exchange cotton, tobacco, coffee, and other agricultural products.

Among them, the Chinese are undoubtedly the most eager side of the Alliance to be supported, because the Chinese have mastered many technologically unique anti-inflammatory drugs, and also have a large number of technologically advanced weapons and equipment, especially the Chinese ironclad combat vehicles, machine guns, machine guns and new ironclad warships (that is, China's modern frigates), all of which the Allied States are eager to have.

In fact, not only did the Allied countries want these things, but the British and French representatives also hoped to buy a batch of the same type of weapons from the Chinese, and even hoped to buy relevant production technologies if possible.

However, it is clear that the Chinese delegates do not intend to sell these equipment and technologies, and they only promise to supply a batch of special anti-inflammatory drugs and Hua 1 rifles and Hua 1 artillery guns that have already appeared on the market.

In this regard, although the representatives of Britain, France and the Allied countries were very disappointed, but it was somewhat within their expectations, after all, the kind of weapons that can determine the direction of the war and even create a new military era, no country will flow out lightly, if the Chinese agree so easily, they need to worry about fraud.

The French demanded relatively simple, they wanted to receive a large war reparations from the United States after defeating the United States, and then they demanded that both the Allied and United States adopt MFN status for France and that French products be exempted.

Britain demanded a little more, and in addition to receiving reparations from the United States and the same most-favored-nation status as France, Britain wanted to regain New England that had been illegally occupied by the United States.

The New England region is a large area located in the northeastern corner of the continental United States, bordering the Atlantic Ocean and adjacent to Canada.

In addition to Canada, New England has six states in the United States, from north to south: Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut.

These six states are now the core regions of the United States. Therefore, if Britain insists on these six states to restore the territory of New England, I am afraid that the people of the United States of America will not be able to give up and fight to the end, and then the British will certainly not be able to bear it, or at least the gains will outweigh the losses.

So, in fact, the so-called British claim to New England is just a gimmick, their real purpose. It was Maine, because that area was close to Canada and was not particularly important to the United States today, and it was still possible to agree to cede it.

Relatively speaking, the appetite of the Chinese is somewhat large, and they clearly point out that once the war is won, in addition to war reparations, most-favored-nation treatment. They also want California, Ohio, all of Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Wyoming that belong to the United States of America.

Other words. The area claimed by China is the large territory that the United States forcibly seized from Mexico under the Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty through the Mexican-American War. It's just that this time the Chinese not only claimed this territory as it was, but also asked for an additional Ohio state. And once this condition is met, the entire western United States will become the territory of the Chinese. (Note: Historically, the state of Washington in the United States had not yet been established at this time, so zài did not exist, so it was not within the scope of the claim.) ）

To be honest, this appetite of the Chinese is indeed so big that it calms down the other negotiators, because even they have never thought of asking for so much land.

Of course, in some ways, it is true that these lands did not belong to the United States, but to Mexico, which was forcibly seized from Mexico by the United States. Then, since you were able to rob it back then, it seems that there is no problem with being robbed by others now.

In addition, although this territory is large, it is good to say that the land is vast and sparsely populated, basically most places are barren land, and many places are some worthless deserts, so strictly speaking, except for California, and a few other places, this large area of land is indeed not particularly important to the current United States, so the possibility of success is not impossible, but the premise is that the United States of America must be completely defeated, and he has no power to resist.

The fundamental reason why Mexico was willing to cede so much land back then was that Mexico was too weak to defeat the United States, and if it continued to fight, it would be ruined, so it was forced to cede land.

Therefore, if the Chinese want to obtain these lands, I am afraid that they can only fight to the end with the United States of America, and the United States, which does not fight, will completely soften, and this treaty is unlikely to be signed.

The British and the French were just that, and hearing this was nothing more than more wary of the Chinese, but the representatives of the Allied States were quite entangled.

On the plus side, the Chinese have exposed their territorial ambitions this time, and they will definitely go all out to help fight the United States, which is a good thing for the Union State, and the land currently owned by the Union State does not include these places, so purely from the perspective of the "Union State", this is completely generous.

But on the other hand, the Union was divided from the original United States of America, which means that these lands originally belonged to them, but now they are divided......

In short, the representatives of the Union States are quite tired, and they feel that they are not supportive, nor are they not supportive, anyway, their mouths are full of bitterness.

The above appeal is actually a kind of openness and honesty, and it is only a temptation, not necessarily the final result, so although they were shocked by the lion of China's big mouth, but after the shock, many people took it for granted that the Chinese were asking for a price, waiting for the United States to pay back on the spot, and did not take it seriously.

After talking about their respective political demands, the next thing is something more practical, that is, the issue of military mutual assistance.

On this issue, the Chinese initially hoped to establish a joint command and agreed to arrange for the four countries to fight during the war, but although everyone agreed to this arrangement, once they came into contact with the deepest question, that is, who was the supreme commander and who listened to whom, there would be many problems.

In the end, after much discussion, it was found that there was a great deal of ambiguity over the question of who was in command of whom, so the final solution was to set aside the controversy and first set up a joint command, with the representatives of the four countries sending a military representative to form a joint military delegation, and once something happened, the military representatives of the four countries discussed and resolved the problem.

There is no doubt that such an inefficient thing is simply a thing of one and thin mud, and in essence, the troops of the four countries are fighting on their own.

However, there is also an advantage to having this and the muddy thing, that is, it provides a communication platform for everyone, and once the conditions allow, after everyone has negotiated the conditions, the quadripartite armies can temporarily form a joint force to conduct joint operations against the set targets.

In other words, the concession of the Joint Command is actually of little use for small and medium-sized campaigns, but it is of great help to large-scale strategic issues.

In the end, after some bargaining, the representatives of the four countries finally approved the proposal of the four-nation joint command and decided to form a four-nation joint command.

In addition to the decision to form a joint command, the military representatives of the four countries also decided to sign a formal military alliance treaty that did not involve deep politics, and formally formed a four-nation alliance.

According to the requirements, after the signing of the treaty, the armies of the four countries will belong to the coalition forces, and in the case of war against the United States of America, the armies of the four countries will advance and retreat together, and no country shall withdraw from the war against the United States of America without the consent of the military representatives of the other three countries.

There is only one circumstance in which the other countries can automatically withdraw from the war if the other countries do not agree, and that is if the original demand for the United States has been satisfied, that is, the United States of America has agreed to the war demands that they have previously stated to the United States, in which case, it can automatically withdraw from this military alliance specifically against the United States.

However, to say so, but in fact, no one dares to guarantee the sincerity, after all, in addition to the alliance, China, Britain and France are all powerful countries, once someone in the three parties insists on withdrawing halfway, others can't take what they do, they are at most losing a little credit, and the national credit is actually not very valuable in this era.

Although the four-party talks in New Orleans were not perfect, they were a preliminary twist of the military power of the four countries into a rope, and they were no longer fighting separately as before, so from the strategic point of view, a kind of joint encirclement and suppression of the United States of America was formed.

In this way, no matter what the final result is, at least everyone has confidence in their hearts, there are many fewer worries, and the intention of interfering in the United States of America will be heavier.

Obviously, the formal establishment of this four-nation alliance is the beginning of the real test for the United States of America. (To be continued......)