The intensity of the Prussian army's tidal wave of attacks became higher and higher, and the artillery bombardment and infantry attacks were carried out repeatedly, and the city of Sedan was shaken by the siege of the army, and the shouts of killing were completely resounding.

3:00 p.m

The French army finally could not hold on to the all-out attack of 200,000 enemy troops, raised the white flag at the tower of Sedan and surrendered to the Prussian army in disarray.

In this battle, the French army suffered nearly 40,000 casualties, more than 20,000 were captured, most of the elite troops of the Charon Legion were lost in this battle, and the commander of the legion, Marshal McMahon, was also seriously wounded.

On the morning of September 2, Napoleon III, as the monarch of the defeated country, met with German Chancellor Bismarck, formally signed the instrument of surrender, and presented his sword.

After the Battle of Sedan

Napoleon III, 39 generals of the French marshal and below, and 100,000 soldiers were all taken prisoner by the Prussian army, and 650 cannons were also captured by the Prussian army.

On September 3, Napoleon III sent a telegram to Paris: "The army has been defeated, and all the officers and men, as well as myself, have become prisoners. “

At the moment when the whole Prussian army was reveling all night, Chancellor Bismarck said to Wilhelm I without worry; "Your Majesty, our victory has come so quickly, and this is not the most ideal, and I fear that we will face a situation of scattered anarchy."

"You mean Paris?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, I fear that the Second Empire will cease to exist." After Chancellor Bismarck finished speaking, his eyes collided with Wilhelm I.

From the other party's eyes, he could see that William I was also deeply worried about this matter, and couldn't help but sigh heavily.

What's all this called?

Napoleon III not only fucked France and acted rashly in waging war, but also added a lot of trouble to the Kingdom of Prussia.

Everyone knows that the foundation of the Second French Empire is extremely unstable, and now that the French Emperor has fallen in the Prussian soldiers' camp, the Second Empire he founded is in danger of collapse.

Sure enough, a day later, after the news of the capture of the French emperor reached Paris, a bloodless revolution broke out, easily overthrowing the Second French Empire and establishing a new French provisional government.

In this case

Since the Second French Empire had been overthrown, there was no longer any point in the Kingdom of Prussia continuing to detain the French Emperor Napoleon III. He was only a loner, all his glory had passed with the wind, and no French man was willing to listen to his orders anymore.

Such a hot potato is left in the hand, if there are three long and two short, it is really unclear.

After consulting with Prime Minister Bismarck, Wilhelm I allowed Napoleon III to leave the barracks with his henchmen and go into exile in England.

meanwhile

After resting, the army of the Kingdom of Prussia moved again, and the main 3rd Army Corps and the 1st and 2nd Corps of Metz began to march towards Paris, and the next step was to prepare for the siege of Paris.

The land of North America on the other side of the Atlantic

The imperial capital is Chang'an

Emperor Richard couldn't help but laugh with the latest military intelligence bulletin from Europe in his hand, and his mood was really happy, the dramatic turn of the Franco-Prussian War was too interesting.

The surrender of Napoleon III was not the end of the war, but only the beginning......

From the tentative attack of the French army on August 2 to the time when Napoleon admitted defeat and handed over his sword and formally signed the instrument of surrender on September 2, France lost the war for a full month.

In the same month, the French government had already fallen for two terms, the Second French Empire had collapsed, and a new government of national salvation had been formed, and violent turmoil had only begun in France.

The Emperor fled to England, and the French Empire lost......

Since the time of the Frankish kingdom after the Western Roman Empire, there have been constant wars between the Gauls and the Germanic peoples, and wars have often been fought between the two countries.

There is a war almost every ten years, and the hatred between them is very deep.

After France became the hegemon of Europe under the leadership of Napoleon, the contradictions between the two countries became more prominent, and the Prussians continued to expand their military power, hoping to one day defeat France in one fell swoop.

As glorious the Kingdom of Prussia is today, France is ashamed.

Some angry French nationalists vented their anger on the families of French nobles and soldiers who fought on the front line, and in a few areas there were extreme incidents of French nobles and their families being dragged out and hanged, hacked to death, or bullied to death, and even some soldiers' families could not escape the poison.

The surging national mood was high, and the stirring French society boiled as violently as a fire cooking oil.

Napoleon III sent a telegram to Paris on September 3 informing him of the surrender of the French army, and on September 4 the Regency Council was overthrown, and Empress Eugenie was forced to leave the eruption-like Paris and flee to the British Isles overnight.

Prussia, having won the war, did not seem to have won again, the Second Emperor of France, who had just been victorious, had collapsed, the government did not exist and had been replaced by a new provisional government, and the only way to do so was to occupy Paris.

Therefore, the army of the Kingdom of Prussia continued to march westward, and by the way, occupied the Normandy region in the northwest, and then waited for a large number of merchant ships to dock here and began to unload a large number of goods from the Tang Empire.

Be inspired by this

The Kingdom of Prussia also increased the dumping of industrial products in the French market, taking advantage of the convenience of the occupying forces to earn more wealth through economic means, and squeezing many local French factories.

The kerosene, diesel, lubricating oil, toffee, sugar, canned meat and fruits, grain products and other materials exported by the Tang Empire were closely coordinated with the industrial products dumped by the Kingdom of Prussia, and these smuggled goods flooded the French market in a short period of time and made a lot of money.

Emperor Richard was so happy that he asked the courtesans to play a song "Eighteen Beats of Hu Eggplant", and his mood also rose and fell with the piano music like a strange peak.

There are very few opportunities to see the old imperialist France deflated, and this is the biggest melon.

This time the Franco-Prussian War

Britain's blatant siding with the Kingdom of Prussia deeply dealt a blow to the fervent patriotic feelings of the French, and the two countries could be said to have unresolved old grievances and new enmities.

From now on

Britain did set up a strong enemy for France on the European continent, achieved the strategic goal of "rebalancing power in Europe", and also lost its most powerful accomplice in colonizing the whole world, and its deterrent power abroad was greatly reduced.

The Anglo-French alliances, which appeared frequently during the reign of Napoleon III, have since become the swan song.

The Tang Empire was able to keenly feel this change, and the international pressure from Europe was cut by half, and the burden on Emperor Richard's shoulders was suddenly relaxed.

It must be admitted

Britain's Royal Navy and France's Army are the strongest combination in the world today, a British official with such confidence said; "The majesty of the British Empire cannot be challenged" can be felt by the other party.

Now it's different, the French don't play anymore, and the Prussians aren't keen on things outside Europe.

Britain's diplomacy is not as strong as before, and it is estimated that it can only intimidate small and weak countries, and it is difficult to have an impact on world powers such as the Tang Empire.

You can't have it both ways!

Emperor Richard walked to the large hand-drawn map more than one person high, looked at the bright yellow vast territory of the empire with satisfaction, and after a slight pause in the Central American Cuban region, he continued to look at the distribution of power in the countries of South America.

on the map

On the map of South America, which is shaped like an ice cream bucket, the lower part of the ice cream bucket belongs to the Tang Empire, which is bright and yellow, which is magnificent.

In the upper part of the ice cream tub, which is wider and fatter, bordering the Atlantic Ocean and dominated by the Brazilian Empire, it is the second part of the world.

The country's politics and economy have been deeply infiltrated by the Tang Empire, and the pro-Tang political forces are unprecedentedly strong.

Through various South American Unified Market Treaties, the Tang Empire has tightly tied the Andean Viceroyalty of South America with Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil, with the limited participation of Chile and Bolivia, forming a large South American market.

The upper part of the ice cream bucket borders the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, and is the final piece of the puzzle.

This includes Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, French and British Guiana, Suriname, Cuba and other countries and regions, which are the key areas for the Tang Empire to implement the next step of its strategy.

The region belongs to the birthplace and base camp of the traditional Aztec Empire, with a large population and a history of civilization development for thousands of years, and has been deeply rooted in the colonization of the Spanish for two or three hundred years, and has always held a relatively hostile and alienated attitude towards the Tang Empire.

Emperor Richard clasped his hands around him, his right hand gently rubbed the hard stubble on his chin, his eyes lingered on the map of these South American countries, and a series of thoughts in his heart suddenly disappeared and came one after another.

As a very controlling emperor, he doesn't like different voices in South America, no matter what country it is, no matter what his origins are?

If you look for an opportunity, you should use force to repair one or two thorns.

Unconsciously

Emperor Richard became more and more accustomed to solving problems by force, and he tasted the sweetness of it, and the speed of the subtle influence of virtue was too slow and the effect was too poor, and it was far less immediate than the war of conquest.

A South American war was fought, recovering Paraguay and Uruguay, and subduing Brazil and Argentina, two more powerful South American countries.

Through the binding of various treaties after the war, it is completely foreseeable that Brazil and Argentina will be persuaded by the military force of the Tang Empire to obediently become part of the unified market of the Americas, just like the North and South of the United States.

The cool feeling of conquest by force is extremely strong, which is the usual way of Emperor Richard, and this is how the great ferocity is played.

The dumping of massive industrial and agricultural products in the Tang Empire in the north and south of the United States, the bankruptcy of the factory owners of the United States of America who suppressed it, and the fact that no decent large-scale industry has been developed for more than 10 years after the war is a clear example.

The germ of industrial development in the Confederate States of America was cut off, and now it is an economic structure dominated by slave plantations, providing raw materials for textile mills in the Tang Empire, and it is also a dumping ground for industrial and agricultural products.

In the future, Brazil and Argentina will be the same, in the environment of a unified market in the Americas, they only need to accept the dumping of massive industrial and agricultural products of the Tang Empire, and they don't need to develop any independent industries, so what do you want to do with that thing?

The Tang Empire's strategic intention to deepen cooperation in South America is very obvious;

It is to build the whole of America into the backyard of the Tang Empire, a dumping ground for industrial and agricultural products, to create a national power group headed by the Tang Empire, to give the most favored nation treatment to American countries, and to impose high tariffs on countries outside the region.

In this way, the American market has become the exclusive backyard of the Tang Empire.

Of course

This backyard cannot refuse the entry of the industrial products of the British Empire, which is the majesty of the world hegemon, but the industrial products of France and other European countries can only say sorry.

Fortunately, the Tang Empire is not afraid of fair competition in British industrial products, and the industrial level of the Tang Empire is not far behind, or even surpasses, seizing a lot of market space.

Compared with the rigid British industry, the industrial field of the Tang Empire pays attention to scientific and technological research and development, pays attention to technological iteration, and a large number of competitive industrial enterprise groups have risen in the fierce domestic market competition, and the development speed is very fast.

Taking the cotton textile industry, a traditional advantageous industry in the United Kingdom, as an example,

In the first half of the 19th century, Britain sold cheap woven fabrics to the world with innovations such as Jenny looms and hydraulic looms, and once accounted for more than 8% of Britain's industrial output.

The cotton trade has also become the largest trade in the world, reaching hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

Better cotton from India, Egypt, the southern United States, enters thousands of cotton textile mills in the UK and is processed into yarn cotton cloth, and then sold well in Europe and the world.

British cheap woven fabrics have a great impact on the world cotton market, and even led to the unemployment of a large number of family textile workers in India and mainland China, the birthplace of cotton, and hand-woven fabrics cannot compete with cheap machine-made fabrics.

In the early 19th century, there were more than 6 million textile workers in India, but by 1850 there were only more than 2.8 million, by 1860 there were only more than 2.3 million, and by 1870 there were less than 2 million, showing a sharp downward trend.

The Manchu Empire in East Asia was better, after all, it was not a complete colony like India, but a large amount of foreign cloth still hit the market, leaving many handmade textile workers in the coastal areas without their only livelihood, and life became more and more difficult.

The cotton textile industry of the Tang Empire is a rising star, growing up in the 50s of the 19th century and rising in the 60s of the 19th century.

The textile industry of the Tang Empire obtained the textile jacquard technology from France through spies, and improved the printing and dyeing technology and electric textile machinery technology with the world's leading chemical industry, producing textile products with new patterns and competitive prices, and sold them back to Europe on a large scale, selling well in Central America and Asia, and robbing a lot of British cotton markets.

In South Cayshire, England, there are still thousands of enterprises in Manchester that use traditional water conservancy textile machinery, and they are not enterprising in technological development, and they have gone bankrupt in the face of the more efficient and lower-cost textile competition of the Tang Empire.

In recent years

The proportion of the textile industry in the UK's industrial output value is rapidly decreasing, and the challenge of the textile industry in the Tang Empire is one of the important reasons.

(End of chapter)