In the summer of 1864, the civil war between the North and the South of the United States was still going on, although on the whole the United States of the United States had achieved a strategic advantage, firmly suppressed the Confederate on land, and maintained a blockade at sea.

In the end, although the USS Washington was not directly sunk by the Northern Navy in the naval battle, it was still sunk on the mines laid by the Northern Navy.

All this fully shows that the current situation in the American Civil War is very clear, the defeat of the Southern Union is certain, and the rest is how long the Southern Union can support it.

In the long run, after the reunification of the United States, it will set off a new upsurge in the development of the western region and the construction of railways, and then completely lay the foundation for the industrial revolution, and after a few decades of development, it will be the reserve country of the world's boss, and the rise of the United States will inevitably have a serious conflict with the empire in the Pacific region, which can refer to the conflict between the United States and Japan in later generations.

After the Russo-Japanese War, the United States and Japan entered a hostile relationship completely, and the expansion of the Japanese navy was actually based on the US Navy as an imaginary enemy, and in this era, if Lin Zhe could really lead the empire to rise and industrialize, the empire would replace the historical trajectory of the Japanese himself, and then compete with the United States in the Pacific.

If these things are still too far away, and it is useless to think about them now, then only talk about short-term benefits.

What kind of American Civil War is in the best interest of the Empire for the Empire?

It is in the best interests of the Empire to have a protracted or even never-ending American Civil War, because the United States is currently the largest exporter of Imperial ordnance. Since the outbreak of the American Civil War, the Empire has sold large quantities of arms to both the North and the South. The 1858 Linde rifle, plus front-loading rifled guns and some other war materials, almost filled the American army in the North and South.

Over the past few years. The Empire had sold about half a million 1858 Linde rifles to the American North and South armies, and some of the Mini rifles in the Empire's inventory were also sold quite a lot in the early days of the war, and nearly 500 front-loading rifled guns of various calibers, mainly 12-pounds, were sold, and then ammunition, clothing and other military supplies were innumerable, and then there was an ironclad ship, the USS Washington.

In addition to direct export sales, patents were also granted at the request of the Americans, so that the Americans could produce their own 1858 Linde rifles, front-loading rifled guns, new howitzers, and so on.

You must know that the American Civil War was several years. The armies of both sides combined were more than two million, and in addition to the flintlock muskets in the early days, these armies were mixed with Mini rifles and breech-loading rifles in the middle period, and by 1864, they were all breech-loading rifles, of which the 1858 Linde rifle was the mainstay.

The total number of 1858 Linde rifles equipped by the North and South armies (including the previous equipment but which has been damaged) exceeded 1 million, half of which were imported directly from China and half were produced by the United States under patent authorization.

The profits from export sales, as well as the royalties from the licensing of patents, were almost enough to feed the Reich's defense industry. Not to mention that the Imperial Defense Industry still has huge domestic orders, so the past few years have been a bumper year for the Imperial Defense Industry, and the size of the three major weapons companies has doubled. Not only has the scale expanded, the production is higher, but also has more funds to upgrade the technology. Introduce and train technical personnel.

Today, among the three major weapons companies, except for the Royal Arms Company, which has a complete range of weapons research and development institutions. The Northern Arms Company and the Huguang Arms Company have also established research and development institutions one after another.

This will further enhance the technical level of domestic research and development of various types of weapons.

At the same time, the national defense industry is not a separate closed industry, and the national defense industry is still a part of the heavy industry system. And designed to part of the light industry industry.

The development of the national defense industry will also lead to the development of most heavy industries, especially the steel and chemical industries.

Guns and cannons and warships required a lot of steel, and the demand for steel contributed to the further development of the Empire's steel industry.

Industrial development has always been a ring, and an industrial development can drive the development of many related industries together, and finally form a circular development of an industrial system.

It can be seen from this that the benefits brought about by the development of the national defense industry are not only able to provide more and more advanced weapons for the military, but also can lead to the development of other industries.

And the development of the defense industry is the best benefit that the American Civil War brought to the empire.

It is a pity that now that the situation of the American Civil War has become clear, even if the Southern Union continues to hold on, it is estimated that it will only last until next year, and it will drag on until 1866.

The gap between the North and the South of the United States was not something that the Chinese Empire could do to sell arms to the United States, and the British also sold large-scale arms to the North and the South of the United States in history, but it still did not affect the actual course of the American Civil War.

The huge gap between the North and the South in terms of industrial scale and population has already laid the foundation for both sides.

If the United States loses orders from the United States after the end of the civil war, the three major domestic arms companies will lose their greatest profits, and then they will only be able to produce arms for the domestic military with small profits and quick turnover.

Well, occasionally try to develop some small foreign markets, and although there are few export orders, it is better than nothing, after all, the profit from arms export is very high, and the profit from exporting one rifle is higher than the profit from producing six rifles for the military.

It's just that there are not many export markets, and there is basically no need to count on the European side, people take out one at random, and the industrial base is stronger than that of the empire, and they may not have a complete industrial scale, but they generally have the ability to design and produce breech-loading rifles on their own.

In Africa and Central Asia, there are no independent countries at all, and a few of them have no money.

The influence of the empire in South America is too poor, and the world is not only the empire that has rear-loading rifles, Britain and France have already begun small-scale trials of newly designed small-caliber rear-loading rifles.

And although the Empire has not yet received much information and tested these new rifles, it can be judged that their performance is not much worse than that of the Empire's 1858 Linde rifle. It may even be more advanced.

After all, the 1858 Linde rifle was a product of many years ago, and over the years the Royal Arms Company has upgraded the gun.

However, the improved rifle was no longer the 1858 Linde rifle. The new rifle uses metal bullets and has been redesigned. Specially equipped with a rear-loading rifle bayonet, and more importantly, the rifle is made of new steel provided by Jiangnan Mining Company, which can withstand higher chamber pressure, so it performs better than the old gun in terms of range, and its accuracy is better after using metal bullets.

The air leakage problem has been greatly improved, and there is no need to replace the rubber pads after a battle, as in the past. The gunners don't have to worry too much about their eyes being blinded by aiming.

The only drawback is that the recoil is slightly greater than that of the old Linde rifle, and it is more expensive.

The new Linde rifle is still known as the 1864 Linde rifle, which began small-scale trial service last year and began to be officially installed in series this year.

Naturally, this latest rifle cannot be exported now, and the main force of this export will still be the 1858 Linde rifle.

In this way, it will face international competition from other rear-loading rifles!

Under these circumstances, the only domestic arms export markets in Asia are Japan, Vietnam, Burma, and Thailand.

However, the economic strength of these countries is limited. He simply couldn't afford to buy too many rear-loading rifles, and the biggest customer was Lin Chengting, who had purchased more than 15,000 1858 Linde rifles in recent years to fight the British attack.

And the Vietnamese side. It was also the cumulative purchase of about 8,000 breech-loading rifles to sustain the war with the French.

On the Japanese side, mainly on the shogunate side, 3,000 breech-loading rifles were purchased.

Breech-loading rifles are still more expensive for them. Some inexpensive front-loading rifles are more than happy to accept if they can be used.

However, the world has now entered the era of rear-loading rifles. British troops fighting in Burma, French troops fighting in South Vietnam. All are already universally equipped with breech-loading rifles.

If Lin Chengting or the Vietnamese army continued to use Mini rifles, the end would be very bad.

It is worth noting, however, that after the frequent wars of the previous years, whether in Myanmar or Vietnam, large-scale acts of war have actually ended.

In the direction of Burma, the British army has fought with Lin Chengting many times in recent years, but they have not been able to achieve a relatively decent victory in a large-scale battle, let alone completely destroy Lin Chengting's department.

Although France often won tactical victories in Vietnam, the Nguyen Dynasty refused to surrender to the death, and it had the posture of the Vietnam War in later history, and it had to endure to the death.

The protracted war also made the upper echelons of Britain and France full of suspicion about these battlefields.

The British were already trying to negotiate peace with Lin Chengting, trying to end the war through diplomatic means.

If the French continue, the French will be uncomfortable, but the Vietnamese themselves will be even more uncomfortable, in order to raise the war expenses in recent years, the Nguyen Dynasty basically sold everything that should be bought, and the domestic taxes are very high, the people generally resisted, and there was even a small-scale uprising, trying to overthrow the Nguyen Dynasty.

However, the Chinese Empire insisted on letting the Nguyen Dynasty fight, and if the Nguyen Dynasty dared to negotiate peace with the French alone, it was estimated that the warships of the Chinese Imperial Navy anchored off the coast of Hue would be directly dispatched to Hue, and then support another Vietnamese king to continue the war.

Holding back the French in Vietnam and dissuading them from attempting to colonize Southeast Asia was an established strategy of the empire, a decision that even the Nguyen dynasty could not resist.

As a result, the French and the Nguyen Dynasty were still at war, but the French had stopped continuing to attack northward, and the Nguyen Dynasty was also unable to counterattack, so the two sides could only continue to maintain a military standoff.

That is, no fighting, no harmony!

Although the empire was not very satisfied with this situation, the Ruan Dynasty itself did not want to fight, so naturally it was impossible to force them to fight, so they could only maintain the status quo.

And in the summer of 1864, in addition to the situation in the United States and Southeast Asia, there were also frequent events in Central Asia, which involved part of the energy of the empire, especially the imperial military.

In May 1864, the Russian army launched an offensive from the north, bypassing Chinese-controlled Pishbek and launching a large-scale southward offensive from the Turkistan region. 、

And before the Chinese army reacted, it was to enter Tashkent.

At this time, the loss of the strategic town of Tashkent also means that the Kokand Khanate has completely lost the ability to block the large-scale southward movement of the Russian army.

If the Russian army is allowed to continue to move south, Russia's annexation of the Kokand Khanate will be a foregone conclusion! (To be continued.) )