Stinky virtue, and I still have it!

Emperor Richard did not get used to the intention of the British Queen's envoy, and walked away directly, and also made a haha to the appeal of the British, neither accepting nor refusing.

Anyway, put it aside, and talk about it when it's cold.

At present, public opinion in the world is in the hands of Western countries led by the United Kingdom, and news reports on Datang are full of words such as "nouveau riche", "rough North American cowboy" and "lucky oil tycoon", which inevitably carry some high-minded prejudices.

In particular, the abundant oil resources of the North American continent are a great gift from God.

The world's most lucrative bulk trade is kerosene, lubricants, diesel, and heavy oil, and Texas' flowing oil fields are the money, and it's a real source of money every day.

Texas is a direct royal territory, and the royal family of the Tang Empire is the biggest beneficiary, and now no one says that the royal family's purchase of Texas is a loss-making business.

Since the empire's major oil companies are all owned or controlled by the royal family, and the resources are monopolized, there is no vicious competition between them, and the price of crude oil still maintains the level of 5.5 yuan per barrel.

Compared with the early period between 10 Tang Yuan ~ 12 Tang Yuan per barrel, this price has dropped by more than half.

However, due to the surge in production, the annual output has increased from one or two hundred barrels in the early days to more than 20 million barrels today, and the profit has increased tenfold.

How profitable can oil be?

In the original history

After a period of frantic expansion of Texas crude oil, the price of a barrel of oil fell sharply from a high price of $10 to 9, and it has been less than 10 cents per barrel, resulting in a serious loss of most oil fields.

Note that this is most of the oil field.

Some high-yielding oil fields with high reserves are still profitable, and the oil companies that own them have gradually grown into oil giants by crushing hundreds or thousands of small and medium-sized oil companies that are not strong by virtue of their production.

Spurred on by lucrative oil profits, Houston and Dallas, Texas, and surrounding small and medium-sized towns have grown faster than any other city in the country

Today, Houston has developed into a first-tier city with a total population of 760,000, and Dallas has a total population of more than 500,000.

Back in the harem

Emperor Richard sat on the couch leisurely and tasted the fragrant tea, and in a flash of lightning, he reviewed the current world situation and felt that he had a great grasp.

Taking advantage of the turmoil in the world today, the world powers have no time to take care of anything else and complete the entire long-term strategic plan in one fell swoop. With Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines in mind, now is the best time for strategic opportunities.

The wave of opposition generated is the smallest, and the benefits are the highest.

After more than eight years of civil war, the situation in Cuba has been completely degraded, but both sides are still struggling to hold on.

Years of enormous military spending have dragged down the Spanish government's finances and weakened it.

After the restoration of the Bourbon dynasty in Spain, even the coronation of the king was unusually shabby, reflecting the extreme weakness of this traditional colonial empire.

At its peak, the Cuban rebel army was close to 200,000 men, occupying more than two-thirds of Cuba's provinces.

Today, under the bloody suppression of the Spanish colonizers, the resistance led by President Céspedes is less than 30,000 people, and they are divided into six or seven armed groups, hiding in the jungle and persisting in the fight.

It is said that President de Céspedes is bedridden because of the plague and may not last long.

If he dies, it will be a fatal blow to the now crumbling Cuban uprising, and the remnants may be scattered.

No matter how you look at it, it's a good time to step in.

Emperor Richard had already decided that the war would be fought by the Royal Praetorian Guard, and the Royal Navy would cooperate in the battle, and all war expenses would be paid by the Royal Interior Office, and the imperial treasury would not have to pay a single Tang Yuan.

The battlefield will be divided into two parts, one in Cuba and Puerto Rico in Central America, and the other in Luzon Islands in the western Pacific.

This war will be practiced by two emperors, one is the Duke of the North, His Royal Highness Tang Li Kun, the seventh prince, who is responsible for commanding the Central American battlefield, and his troops will be transferred by the elite of the Royal Elite Guard Army 60,000, plus 30,000 supplementary recruits, a total of 90,000 troops.

With these 30,000 additions, the new recruits have undergone six months of rigorous training at the Salt Lake City military base, and will soon be transported south by troop carriers to the Central Plains Province for three months of tropical combat training.

The elite of 60,000 Royal Janissaries have been dispatched one after another, and will arrive in the Central American provinces to stand by, and conduct 3~4 months of military training in tropical warfare.

Another battlefield was located in the western Pacific, and His Royal Highness Tang Li Xin, the Eleventh Prince and King of Pingxi, had secretly returned from Suez City, Egypt, accompanied only by more than 200 guards and henchmen.

His Royal Highness Tang Li Xin's destination was New Xi'an, a paradise island, where three recruit divisions trained by more than 2,700 officers of the Royal Praetorian Guard, and four field divisions under overseas military districts were already ready, totaling more than 85,000 people.

These seven divisions were all under the jurisdiction of the Royal Praetorian Guard, and were given the mission of conquering the nearby islands of Luzon, driving out the Spaniards and occupying them.

Pre-war preparations are proceeding in an orderly manner, all kinds of war materials are being delivered one after another, officers and men are stepping up training, and the Royal Navy fleet that intends to be engaged in two-front operations has already set off, and everything is steadily advancing.

Whether the British agreed or not, war was on the horizon and had to be fought.

But the realities of today's world dictate that nothing can bypass the British Empire.

He is like a veteran village chief who has been a veteran for more than 200 years, and everyone in the village has to take care of their food, clothing, housing and transportation.

Which family's baby is developed, which family goes out in the morning to pick up a bag of cow dung, which family wants to open up barren fields, and which family is bullied by neighbors, you can always see the figure of the old village chief.

Some things cannot be avoided, and it is better to obtain acquiescence or even understanding with prior notice than to keep in trouble afterwards.

The international situation faced by Datang is like this, after all, the old village chief has a high prestige, and he responds to every call in the village, even if he doesn't gather to call the door, even if the water and electricity are cut off, he can't bear it.

You have to live a good life, and it's not good to be in the same village, and the relationship is too isolated.

What's more, with such an exchange of interests, Datang will not suffer a loss.

The British needed a large amount of goods to buy with money, and even if they didn't have money, they were on credit, and borrowed money from the bank to repay it.

Things are not given for nothing, just to expand the volume of export trade, why not?

The British are typical masters who can only take advantage and cannot suffer.

Seeing that the current war situation in the Ottoman Empire is extremely bad, and several important battlefields have been defeated, the Tsarist Russian army has attacked very fiercely and has won a lot.

Even if the British Expeditionary Force and the Tang Expeditionary Force are filled in, they may not be able to reverse the situation on the battlefield.

It is estimated that the British must have retreated in their hearts.

In the original history

The 10th Russo-Turkish War lasted for 11 months, and the Tsarist and Russian forces occupied large areas of the Ottoman Empire, and the British did not send out a single infantry, which was very different from the performance in the Crimean War.

What a chicken thief the British!

As soon as the Tsarist Empire struck, there were 48 divisions, a total of 720,000 troops, organized into 19 armies, plus Serbia, Montenegro, Romania, Bulgaria, and Negro, a group of Balkan younger brothers, with a total strength of at least 860,000 troops.

On the other hand, the Ottoman army had only 406,000 men, including just over 280,000 in the European zone, and the two sides of the war were 3:1 inferior in strength, and the gap was too great.

Therefore, now that the war has been going on for nearly five months, the Balkans are already full of flames, and the British Expeditionary Force has not seen a shadow.

This time, it can hurt the Ottoman Empire.

The British were also anxious, so looking for helpers all over the world just gave the Tang Empire a good opportunity to raise the Cuban issue.

Emperor Richard was more sure that there would be no mistakes in his heart, and his mood became better.

He was ready to leave the British in the air for a while, and then act after receiving a satisfactory answer.

The dispatch of the expeditionary force of the Tang Empire can be described as a lot of work, and the personnel and materials of the army have several destinations:

One is the Port of New York in the East, the Port of Chicago in the north, the Port of Houston in the Gulf of Mexico in the South, and the twin ports of Altamira or Tempira in the province of Mexico.

Regardless of the port, it takes a lot of time to mobilize troops, from more than a month or two to three or four months.

It takes more than 10 days to transport across the ocean, and it takes 2~3 weeks to reach the Ottoman Empire, and it takes at least 1~2 months of adaptive training to arrive in the Ottoman Empire.

By then, the war would probably be over.

Is it necessary to send troops in such a laborious and costly manner?

Objectively speaking, it is very necessary.

The successive arrival of the expeditionary forces of the Tang Empire in the Ottoman territories, coupled with the bluff of the British expeditionary force, will form a huge psychological pressure on Tsar Alexander II, which is extremely conducive to the next step of war blackmail negotiations.

The British are a good player, no cards in the hand can play the effect, one or two points can play the effect of 10 points, and it is an expert in conspiracy.

Tsarist Russia's little deeds are not enough in front of the British, and they will definitely spit out most of the fruits of the war that they swallowed.

In this way, the highest level of victory without a fight is reached.

Among them, it must be indispensable to the Tang Empire's efforts to wave the flag and shout, and it will naturally be able to share some benefits.

For example; The Ottoman Empire tacitly assumed that the south-central Arabian Peninsula belonged to the Tang Empire, which would include Najd, the UAE, and the Persian Gulf coast.

The northern part of the Arabian Peninsula is not to be thought of, Britain has traditional spheres of influence in Jordan, Sinai, Lebanon and Syria, and the French and Germans are also competing to penetrate.

Especially in the Iraqi region and the Kingdom of Iran, the European powers have become more active one by one, and there have been tacit colonizations by the white world.

Only the barren and barren south-central part of the Arabian Peninsula has received little attention.

The Ottoman Empire had acquiesced in the presence of the Tang Empire in Yemen, and the officials stationed there worked closely with the imperial military to brutally oppress the Arab population.

It can be said that the eldest brother does not talk about the second brother, and he is really embarrassed.

pressing matter

It is to convey the news of Tsarist Russia's all-out participation in the European war to Zuo Zongtang, I believe that this battle-hardened veteran should know what to do, this is a rare opportunity to change history!

(End of chapter)