When the news of the British being beaten by the Boers in South Africa reached the Tang Empire, it was already mid-December, less than 10 days before Christmas 1899.

Emperor Richard and his entourage returned to the imperial capital Chang'an on the royal special train, and when they passed through Chicago, they heard this good news for the Tang Empire.

Well...... This is by no means schadenfreude.

Emperor Richard once emphasized many times;

International affairs never occur in isolation or in a single place, and all have their own inherent historical entanglements and complex geostrategic contests, and they all have the shadow of the great powers behind them.

This was true of European affairs, of the Balkans, of the Near East, of the Far East, of the East Indies, of the Arabian Peninsula and of North Africa, and of the Boer War, which is now at its climax.

Kaiser Wilhelm II sent a warm congratulatory message for the Boer victory, Germany gave the green light to the South African Boers to buy arms, and one German merchant ship after another headed for Portuguese Mozambique.

A large number of goods supporting South Africa were transferred from the seaport to river vessels with a shallow draft, and were able to follow the tributaries of the Zambezi River all the way south to the Transvaal, which was the main transportation route for European material support.

More than 1,700 white German volunteers poured into the two Boer countries, the Transvaal and Orange, bringing with them large quantities of weapons, ammunition and medicine, and fighting alongside the Boers.

Can it be said that there is no shadow of Germany in this?

This cannot be blamed on the general opposition of European countries to the British, mainly because the British were too ugly to eat and bully the weak to launch the Boer War in South Africa, mainly for the huge reserves of glittering gold and diamonds.

On the issue of the Boers in South Africa, almost all of Europe was fighting against the British, including France, the old enemy of centuries of grievances, and Russia all took the opportunity to step on it.

Only the Tang Empire was steadfast in its support for Britain from beginning to end, in the words of Prime Minister Robert Cecil; "The friendship between the two countries has gone through the test of time, and it is even more precious......

The royal patent roared all the way to the west, and in the luxurious box, Emperor Richard was in a very good mood to watch the latest South African war situation.

On the battlefield in South Africa, the British army can be said to have lost their bottoms, and they were swollen by the Boers who "snapped" in the face.

In all major battles from mid-October to the present, the British army was completely defeated.

In particular, in the Battle of Ladysmith, which broke out on October 30, the Boers scored an astonishing battle loss ratio of 162:1, which was simply a one-sided slaughter.

When the news broke, the world was shocked!

Before the Battle of Ladysmith,

At the end of October, 20,000 British troops, led by General Redfuss Buller, commander-in-chief of the British South African Expeditionary Force, successfully arrived in Cape Town and immediately launched a large-scale counteroffensive.

Lieutenant General Mesheuin was responsible for lifting the Boer siege of Kimberley on the Western Front, Lieutenant General French attacking the Orange Free State on the Central Front, and General Buller leading the main force to relieve the siege of Ladysmith on the Eastern Front.

British reinforcements moved quickly, arriving in the war zone only a few days later.

Admiral Buller led the main force to launch a fierce attack on the Boodied troops entrenched there at Colonso, a small station southwest of Ladysmith, in an attempt to force the crossing of the Tuguela River and penetrate into the area of Radius Smith.

Admiral Buller commanded 16,000 men in the 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th British Brigades, as well as four light cavalry regiments and three squadrons of lancers made up of colonial cavalry.

The artillery had 5 artillery batteries and 30 cannons, in addition to 16 naval 12-pounder guns and 4.7-inch guns. Including cavalry and artillery, the total strength is 22,000 people, and the strength occupies an absolute advantage.

The Boer forces involved in the Battle of Colencso included militia groups from eight districts, including Johannesburg, Heidelberg, Krugersdorp, Freyhead, and Utrecht, troops from the Orange Free State, and white police forces from Johannesburg and Eswatini, totaling 3,500 men.

In addition, the Boers had a 120-mm German-made Krupp howitzer, 1 75-mm Krupp field gun, 2 75-mm French-made Schneid-Kruso cannons, and 1 37-mm Maxim rapid-fire gun.

In terms of the size of the British and Burnese armies, it was about 7:1, and the artillery was nine times that of the Boers, and the British army had an undoubted overall advantage.

However, due to the command errors of the British commander, the British army suffered a heavy defeat in this battle, with 1,139 killed, 250 missing, and 10 cannons lost.

The Boer army suffered only 8 killed and 30 wounded.

During the same period at the Battle of Ladysmith, the British army also suffered humiliating defeats at Kimberley on the Western Front and Stormberg on the Central Front, losing more than 2,800 men, in what is known as the "Dark Week" in the history of the British Army.

In this "dark week", the British army suffered a comprehensive defeat on the eastern, central, and western fronts, with a total of more than 4,000 officers and soldiers killed and countless wounded.

Admiral Buller, who had just arrived in South Africa for just over a month, was forced to resign from his post as commander-in-chief of the British Expeditionary Force and return to London in disgrace because of an unprecedented defeat.

It is completely conceivable that Britain is about to usher in an unprecedented storm of public opinion, which is indispensable for all kinds of yin and yang derogatory and mockery, and Kaiser Wilhelm II is afraid that he will not be crazy.

Such a disastrous defeat inevitably shook the position of the British Empire as the world hegemon, and the splendid brilliance surrounding Britain was eclipsed and became no longer fearful.

All of this

It plunged like a sharp knife into the chest of the proud and sensitive British, and while suffering unprecedented humiliation, it provoked the monstrous wrath of the British Empire.

Okay, great!

Emperor Richard was quite a little afraid of big things, he smiled and put aside the military intelligence from South Africa, took a sip of the hot tea on the table, and looked at the beautiful scenery outside the car window in a comfortable mood.

In the vast Great Plains of Central North America

In the middle of the rivers, forests and mountains, there are large tracts of farmland and pastures, such as herds of cattle and sheep.

In this fertile black soil, it is the most important agricultural product production base of the Tang Empire, which has begun to widely promote agricultural mechanization operations, but it is at the top level in the world.

The large farm, coupled with the support of agricultural machinery and fertilizer production, has greatly increased agricultural output, and has produced bumper harvests for 17 consecutive years, creating the highest yield in history every year.

No food, no stability, no work, no wealth.

The Tang Empire almost monopolized the vast black soil of North America, and the grain, cotton, meat, oil, sugar, tobacco, natural rubber and other rich categories of agricultural output basically accounted for more than 6 percent of the world's agricultural market, and a few even as high as 8~9 percent.

For example, the Tang Empire has the world's three major producers of traditional cane sugar, Hawaii, Cuba, Luzon Islands and the East Indies, and the related cane sugar production accounts for more than 9% of the world market.

After 10 years of development, the Chicago Agricultural Futures Exchange has become the decisive market that dominates the pricing of agricultural products in the world, and its role is irreplaceable.

There are 4 prices for each category of crops on the Chicago Agricultural Futures Exchange, which are the East Coast New York Harbor delivery price, the West Coast Los Angeles delivery price, the Central American Nicaragua delivery price, and the South American Glory Port delivery price.

The same pound of high-quality beef, the price varies slightly depending on the port of delivery.

As for shipping to major cities in Europe or East Asia, then you have to add shipping costs and tariffs of various countries, basically using an abacus to add it, you can get a more accurate figure.

Hundreds of market-making merchants have been formed around the Chicago Agricultural Futures Exchange alone, all of which are extremely powerful merchants in the international bulk grain trade and dominate the basic pattern of world grain trade.

For example, when the news of the disastrous defeat of the British army in the Boer War in South Africa came, the prices of grain, oil and meat in the Chicago agricultural futures market rose in response to the sound, and the upward momentum was quite strong.

The underlying logic is:

After the British were slapped in the face in South Africa, they were bound to build up their troops again, which immediately brought with them a strong demand for grain, soybeans, meat, eggs and milk, which drove prices up continuously.

It has to be said that the merchants in the world grain trade market have an extremely keen sense of smell and are very accurate in their judgment.

In the original history

After suffering an unprecedented defeat in South Africa, the British Empire immediately sent troops from all the colonies of the world to South Africa, including Australia, Canada, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt and the Near East.

In just a few months, the British army in South Africa grew rapidly from 170,000 to 260,000, and in the remaining year it exceeded 400,000 to reach a peak of 420,000.

The resulting demand for goods is huge enough to affect the volatility of the world food market.

End of the 19th century

The British GIs are known all over the world as an aristocratic army, backed by the powerful British Empire, whose logistics and supplies are the best in the world's armies, and there is no shortage of meat, eggs, toffee, cigarettes and chocolates.

Delicious Scottish sheep and the indispensable Scotch whisky are all shipped from England to South Africa, as well as South American beef, refined flour from North America, soybeans, toffee, all kinds of canned food, coffee, cocoa, and are in great demand.

The British army did not consume it for its own consumption, the key is that in the South African battlefield, the British also played the role of the captain of the transport brigade, and a large amount of logistics supplies were replenished to the Boers.

After the British massively increased their forces in South Africa, the Boers quickly changed their head-to-head tactics to the use of mobile and flexible guerrilla warfare, constantly harassing the British army's logistical lines.

Take a shot, change places.

Every time the British army sent a large force to the battlefield, they saw only the disheveled corpses of British soldiers, whose weapons and provisions had long since disappeared into the endless land with the distant Boer cavalry.

At first, the British generals scoffed at these petty fights and did not pay close attention to them.

Over time

Such raids by the Boer guerrillas became more and more frequent, and the losses were increasing, and the British scout squads, logistical supply units, and wounded soldiers sent to the rear hospitals, these ineffective British units were frequently attacked.

The number of British casualties has also skyrocketed every day, far exceeding the losses on the frontal battlefield.

Several important supply lines of the British army were patronized by the Boer guerrillas almost every day, and the loss of supplies was very heavy, and they played the role of "transport captain" in disguise.

The precious supplies that had been transported from thousands of miles changed hands and became trophies of the Boer guerrillas, greatly enhancing their ability to sustain their operations.

This not only caused a serious financial burden on the British government, but also seriously affected the morale of British officers and soldiers on the front.

Looking at the receding scenery outside the car window, Emperor Richard knew that all this would happen repeatedly, and the losses of the British would be much worse than in the original history.

As a result of the butterfly effect, the number of volunteers traveling from Europe to South Africa has more than doubled.

Many white people who wanted to go to South Africa to fight in the war were sponsored by civil society and happily embarked on the journey.

In several secret material sites in South Africa, when the Boers are running out of ammunition, they are always found just right, which must be of great help.

This will undoubtedly make the British anxious and even more angry with the Dutch or Germans, which is good news for the Tang Empire.

The so-called "chestnut from the fire" is roughly like this.

Thinking of this, it always makes Emperor Richard's heart feel happy, and there is an invisible joy of stealing chickens.