After the total population exceeded 100 million at the end of 1875, the Tang Empire was already extraordinary, with a total population exceeding that of Tsarist Russia and about the population of Britain, France and Italy combined.

Also in this year

The Tang Empire's total economic output surpassed that of Britain and ranked first in the world's economy, and finally in 1876, it ranked first in the world in terms of pig iron and steel production, and achieved remarkable economic achievements.

Oddly enough

The European media did not publicize this, and seemed to have forgotten it or simply pretended not to see it. Even the famous British newspaper The Times did not report on the relevant economic achievements, but always liked to label the Tang Empire as an "upstart".

From here, it can be seen that the Europeans have a small amount of energy, and they are neither willing to publicize the brilliant economic achievements of the Tang Dynasty, nor willing to show his strength.

The news media of the Tang Empire, on the other hand, reported on the brilliant achievements of the empire's economic field, building the world's most complete and largest industrial system from scratch, ranking among the world's top in many fields.

This greatly boosted the self-confidence of the people of the empire, won higher prestige for the royal family and government, and won the general support of the people.

In the midst of worldwide turmoil, North America does not appear to be at peace.

The main source of turmoil is the United States (North).

In the first week of February 1877, after the new Chinese president Zhang Zongliang was sworn in, he immediately put forward several political proposals, one of which was the "Act on the Restriction of Italian Expatriates".

Besides

The new government has stepped up the anti-corruption judicial investigation that has been hotly demanded by the public, and has been vigorously pursuing the corruption cases involving outgoing President Benjamin Disraeli, which has become one of the hot spots in North American politics today.

These moves have boosted the prestige of President Chang Jong-liang's integrity and integrity, but they have inevitably damaged the government's prestige, provoked a backlash from the Republican Party, and further contributed to political division.

The tacit understanding of Hello, Hello, Hello has been broken, and former President Benjamin Disraeli may become the first president to go to prison because of his involvement in serious corruption cases.

The so-called thousands of miles of being an official is only for money.

After the early democratic sages of the founding of the People's Republic of China, for more than 100 years, the political arena of the United States (north) has become more and more conservative and corrupt, and the traditional political elite has always been in the small circle of the upper class of England, which is inevitably contaminated with the outdated and conservative political concepts of the original suzerain, and they have tacitly understood each other.

After the new Chinese-American President Zhang Zongliang entered the White House, he immediately set off a new wind of reform to eliminate accumulated defects, introduced the mechanism of the Tang Empire's Anti-Corruption Office, introduced the advanced system of the Tang Empire's inspection officials, and implemented strict exit audits.

This series of combination punches has set off monstrous waves in the American political arena (North), which was originally like a pool of stagnant water, many old and old greed have been found out, and the reputation of some traditional political families has fallen to the bottom, followed by hysterical rage.

Local forces have been vocal about the government of the United States and have pursued local protectionism, as has been the case in Boston, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and even New York.

Some celebrities have jumped out to advocate the establishment of a Republic of Boston, the Republic of Pittsburgh, and even the Republic of New York that would be independent of the United States (north), and local separatist tendencies have become more apparent.

Generally speaking

As long as the government takes measures to crack down on such separatist forces, they will soon disappear.

But the White House clearly has no intention of doing so, taking a tolerant and generous attitude towards local rhetoric and watching local separatist sentiments grow......

Resentment has been felt throughout North America for a long time, and since the defeat of the Third North American War, the rising patriotic sentiment of the United States (Northern) has been greatly dampened, and it is facing the tremendous pressure of the dismemberment of the country and the heavy war debt.

In the past ten years, the United States (Northern) has been implementing a heavy tax policy, whether it is factories, enterprises, commercial banks or individuals have borne a heavy tax burden, and life is extremely difficult.

This has also led to the departure of local governments in the United States (North) from Germany, coupled with the continuous revelation of serious corruption cases, which has further exacerbated the anger and frustration of the people.

At this time, local separatism was like dry wood meeting a raging fire, and under the right environment, it quickly burned brightly......

in Central America

The Cuban uprising that broke out in April 1869 has lasted for eight years, and President Des Pérez has led the Cuban people to revolt against the Spanish colonizers in the jungle for eight years.

In the original history

The Cuban rebels fought the Spanish colonizers for 10 years without friendly forces or foreign aid, causing more than 200,000 casualties to the Spanish colonial army and suffering huge losses themselves.

In the absence of hope of victory, he was finally forced to surrender.

Now history is different, the Cuban rebels have received assistance from the Tang Dynasty and South American countries one after another, gritted their teeth and fought to the end with the Spanish colonial army, preferring to die rather than surrender.

This has directly led to the current Cuban Civil War becoming more brutal, bloodier, and more costly, with the population more than halved from 1.51 million at the beginning of the civil war to just over 700,000.

South America

In June 1877, large-scale armed uprisings of indigenous Indians broke out in Cartagena and Bogotá in the north of Colombia's neo-colonial region, and the bloody oppression of the Tang Empire was the main factor contributing to the civil war.

The Tang Empire immediately reinforced, and resolutely suppressed the rioted areas, and all aboriginal villages and towns were cleared without leaving any hidden dangers.

These Native American villages were important supply points for bandits hiding in the rainforest, and as long as they existed, the rebels in the jungle could hold out.

The Southern Army adopted a strategy of total emptiness, with women and children loaded onto trains and taken away, and the resisting men were killed on the spot, and the rest were thrown into forced labor camps.

This ruthless repression quickly emptied many towns in the south-central and cut off the rebels' only hope of survival.

In these cleared south-central regions, as long as there are local bet Indians or native whites, then they must be rebels, and there is no second possibility.

At the same time as the large-scale suppression of the area, the Southern Army deliberately blocked the news, blocked the roads, stationed troops in the villages and towns along the route for a long time, and strictly prohibited all daily necessities from flowing into the area.

As a result, the rebels hid in the jungle and drank dirty water and gnawed on tree bark, and many died tragically from tropical malaria, cholera, diarrhoea or plague, with severe losses in strength.

In desperation, the rest of the men could only attack the village camp held by the army in vain, and died tragically under the dense gunfire.

The Colombian Civil War is very inconspicuous in the midst of wars all over the world, and not many countries pay attention to it, so quietly drowned in history.

As a matter of fact

The emperor of the Tang Empire spoke very highly of the Colombian Civil War, believing that it was a successful war of law and order in the new colonial area. This led to the completion of the demographic change in the region 10 years ahead of schedule, reducing its own losses while achieving major colonial strategic goals.

The Colombian Civil War, which lasted for a whole year and a half, was not much written in the history of the imperial army, not much reported by the news media, and did not have any particularly major and glorious battles, but consisted of hundreds of small and medium-sized battles.

There are not many descriptions of this period in history, most of them are hastily brushed aside, there is no accurate data and historical data, and most of the later generations have speculated about this period of history.

With the advancement of railways and highways, the Tang Empire really mastered the residential areas of New Columbia after the Civil War, when Chinese immigrants entered the central and northern regions in large numbers, and their rule penetrated deep into every village and town.

After the Colombian Civil War, the commander of the Southern Military Region, Marshal Mai Hsiao-cho, returned to the center of the empire as chief of staff of the army, surpassing several veteran deputy chiefs of staff, and it is said that the real reason for the outstanding performance in the civil war was the special favor of His Majesty the Emperor.

Of course, this is all gossip and is completely unsubstantiated.

Some local celebrities angrily called Marshal Mak Hyo-zu a "Colombian butcher", "an executioner with blood on his hands", and an "Andean devil", believing that he was the main culprit for the drastic decline of Colombia's indigenous population.

These are all folk sayings, and even some radical claims have led to some honorary lawsuits, which will be a later story.

From the perspective of the colonial methods of various countries in the world, as an emerging colonial power in the world, the colonial policy of the Tang Empire was similar to that of France and Russia, and tended to adopt a direct management policy with reference to the mainland.

The most obvious example of France is the colony of Algeria in North Africa, which served as a French territory north of the Mediterranean Sea and was very close to the French mainland.

French Algeria also had a high status in the French government, much higher than that of ordinary colonies, and its policy treatment was only slightly lower than that of the native provinces.

France has invested heavily in the construction of railways, roads, bridges, docks, farmland and water conservancy facilities and towns, and has migrated to the region in large numbers, giving various policy facilitation conditions to support its economic development.

All this is no different from the colonial measures of the Tang Empire.

The number of French immigrants to North America was very small, with only a little over 27,000 in the decade between 1860 and 1870, or an average of 2,700 per year.

This is because a large number of white French immigrants went to French Algeria nearby, where they enjoyed the super-national treatment of the superior and enjoyed the service of black slaves.

If you have a colony to go to, why should you go to someone else's territory to be a second-class citizen?

No, the French can also emigrate to other French African colonies, Syria and Lebanon in the Near East, Indochina or Brazil, French Guiana, etc.

There are many destinations for French immigrants, and immigrating to North America is a relatively late choice, so French immigrants do not even have a fraction of the number of Britain, Germany, and Italy.

After the first restriction of Italian immigration in the United States (North), it caused the incompetence of the Kingdom of Italy to rage, and the rhetoric fiercely vowed to retaliate.

Later, the Kingdom of Italy found that the influence was not so great.

North America could not go, and many Italian immigrants chose to go to Brazil and Argentina, as well as South American countries such as Venezuela and Chile, and some of them flowed into the southern United States.

It's time to go, but it's a different place.

This gave a certain degree of solace to the badly wounded hearts of the Italians, and the tone of denunciation of the United States of America was not so high.

My family knows my own affairs, and Italy is slightly inferior to the United States (North) in terms of strength.

At the end of 1876, Italy had a population of more than 3,570,000 and a total national economy of about $1.26 billion, which was at the bottom of the second-rate level among European powers.

During the same period, the United States of America had a population of 26 million and a total national economy of about $1.72 billion, which was basically the same as 20 years ago, that is, before the civil war between the north and the south of the United States (note, the territory has shrunk significantly).

The Kingdom of Italy had an army and navy, and its strength on paper was considerable, but transatlantic operations were far beyond its capabilities and were too much to bear.

There is no army or navy, only the National Guard and the Coast Guard, and its national security is guaranteed by the garrison of the Tang Empire, which is an obligation under the post-war treaty.

Of course, the United States needs to provide military bases and all logistical conveniences, and bear half of the cost of garrisoning.

Therefore, once the army of the Kingdom of Italy is dizzy and crosses the long Atlantic Ocean to North America for an expedition, they will be surprised to find that they have to face the army of the Tang Empire, which is armed to the teeth, and the strength of the two is not at the same level at all.

Although European countries are reluctant to recognize the excellence of the Tang Empire and belittle the economic strength of the Tang Dynasty everywhere, the powerful military power of the empire that rose in the flames of war is generally respected by the international community.

In this world where strength is respected, there is no more convincing fact than the muzzle of a black hole.

By August 1877

The "Zhenyang", "Zhenhai" and "Zhenjiang" of the Royal Navy of the Tang Empire have all been completed and put into service, and the three ships of the extended range "Zhendong", "Zhennan" and "Zhenbei" have been completed and put into service, and the "Zhenxi" is being launched and outfitted and will also be completed and put into service before the end of the year.

The 11,000-ton "Duke" class ironclad ship with enhanced firepower has been completed and put into service the "Duke of Hawaii", "Duke of Panama", and "Duke of Alaska", a total of three powerful first-class ironclad ships.

The "Duke of Costa Rica" has been launched and outfitted, the construction progress of the "Duke of California" has reached 60%, and the construction of the "Duke of Colorado" has begun in the dockyard, and everything is progressing according to plan.

Particularly important

After nearly nine years of arduous construction, the Nicaragua Canal has basically completed its huge double-line three-level locks, which are in the stage of installation and commissioning, and are expected to be able to be opened to navigation on a trial basis by mid to late next year.

The completion of this grand cross-century project will greatly enhance the Royal Navy's ability to mobilize the main fleet on the east and west coasts, enhance its ability to engage in decisive battles at sea, vigorously promote economic exchanges between the east and west coasts, and further enhance the strength of the Tang Empire.

As a powerful empire across North and South America, the completion of the Nicaragua Canal was of great significance to the Tang Empire.

Whether it is political, military, or economic influence, it will be magnified exponentially, establishing its unshakable hegemony over the entire Americas.

When the five fingers of the iron fist can be tightly clenched together, it is naturally extremely powerful, and it can't stand it on anyone's body.

(End of chapter)