Chapter 205: Conscientious Buyer (3rd update, please subscribe)

The war was still going on, and everything had already begun. Cannons were fired one after another, mortars, rifled cannons, smoothbore cannons, fierce artillery fire continued to hit the heads of the Federal Army, and the continuous exploding shells destroyed the Federal Army's resistance.

Robert Lee, riding on his warhorse, stared at the north. Although his army had lost more than 10,000 people, he still attacked north.

"It's not enough for us to just drive Meade out of Gettysburg, we have to get to Washington!"

Once again, Robert didn't know whether he was convincing others or himself.

"We cannot win the victory just by inflicting heavy damage on Meade's Army of the Potomac. The North has more workers and population. When they exert their full strength, victory will be within their grasp. Now, they have captured Vicksburg. If we cannot capture Washington, then we will surely be defeated. If we work harder, we can force them to retreat..."

"But can we capture Washington? General, we have lost more than 15,000 men. It will take at least a month to recover our strength!"

Amytist's question made Robert shake his head.

"Can we defeat the Union and capture Washington?"

General Robert Lee spoke as if he were talking to himself.

"This is not important at all. What is important is that we have no other choice. The Army of the Potomac led by General Meade is Washington's last strength. Meade's army has suffered a heavy blow. Now there is no one who can guard Washington. Of course, we have also lost a lot of troops. Maybe we can't occupy Washington, but at least..."

Looking north, General Robert E. Lee said.

"We can get our supporters in Maryland on our side by attacking Washington, which will further strengthen our power,"

After thinking for a while, Robert Lee said again.

"More importantly, no American would vote for a President who lost his capital! His term is almost up!"

"No American would vote for a defeated president!"

Robert Lee had no idea that thousands of miles south, someone had made the same judgment.

"My Lord, does this mean that the Southerners really have no hope of winning the war?"

Qian Deshan said with some doubt.

"Then all our hard work has been in vain, hasn't it?"

Qian Deshan said while playing chess with his lord.

"My lord, sometimes I really don't understand these things. Maybe I am too stupid. The United States is so far away from us. Why do you deliberately plot against it and support the South? This is secretly supporting the Kingdom of Heaven. I understand that, but what about the United States? What does it have to do with us?"

"Mu Zhai."

Zhu Xianhai smiled at the persistent black spot.

"The world today is no longer the world our ancestors saw. The Earth is like this chessboard. If you want to have a place on this chessboard, you have to participate in this game. In this game, there is no such thing as distance or friends. There is only interest. Supporting the Confederacy is to slow down the rise of the United States. A strong United States is bound to be detrimental to our development. After all, the United States does not want us to rise. After our rise in South America, we will definitely have conflicts of interest with them. The current layout is for potential conflicts in the future."

The long-term strategic layout between countries is something that the British are better at, and they have been stirring up trouble for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, they still have only a limited understanding of it, not because they understand it, but because they simply do not understand the world.

This is why Zhu Xianhai sent Zuo Zongtang and others to conduct research abroad. He wanted them to have a clear understanding of the world before reusing them. Only in this way would they understand how to play this game in this world.

"We should not allow others to sleep beside our bed. A strong America is not in our interests, so we must seize the opportunity to weaken it. Unfortunately, the South is too weak..."

Zhu Xianhai sighed as he put down the chess piece.

"Even if General Lee won the Battle of Gettysburg, what would it matter? It still did not fundamentally change the power balance between the North and the South. The North had a population of tens of millions and a large number of factories, but what did the South have? Cotton? There was not a single factory that cast cannons in the entire South, nor were there many arsenals. The Confederacy failed because its economy and overall strength were inferior to those of the North, so it was doomed to fail. Even if the Battle of Gettysburg was won, it would only delay the process of failure, but it would still fail in the end."

Listening to the lord's explanation, Qian Deshan said.

"Then after all these efforts, haven't we still failed to change the overall situation?"

"No"

Zhu Xianhai shook his head and said.

"However, sometimes, the variables of war are not due to the war itself, but politics. After Lee won the Battle of Gettysburg, his march into Washington would have dealt an unprecedented blow to the morale of the North. If Washington was lost, the endless war and failure would have further reduced people's confidence in Lincoln and the war. Then Lincoln would definitely not be elected next year. After a new president was elected, the war might have ended in the form of peace talks. The United States is likely to fall into division."

After putting down the chess piece, Zhu Xianhai smiled.

"And this is the purpose of our playing this game in the United States. Not only can we make a lot of money through material smuggling, but we can also divide the United States and further weaken potential opponents or enemies through material support to the South."

When saying this, Zhu Xianhai seemed a little proud. After all, he planned all of this personally. Standing on the shoulders of historical giants, the strategic layout he made was definitely not worse than that troublemaker Britain. It was even far better than Britain. After all, in history, the layout made by the British during the Civil War... ended in complete failure.

Of course, a key factor in Britain’s failure was that Britain failed to take action itself and could only watch the North blockade the South. What about itself?

Not only did they build new "breakthrough ships" specifically for trade with the South, but they also set up corresponding companies to engage in smuggling trade. In a word, they made money and cheated people at the same time!

This is the real master!

"It's a pity that our shipbuilding technology is a little poor. Otherwise, if we support the South with a few more warships, the result might be very different!"

"My lord, we have an ironclad ship when we build it."

Qian Deshan laughed.

"If it doesn't work, just sell them a few!"

In response, Zhu Xianhai shook his head.

"They look down on those ironclad ships. They just sell them to those who have never seen the world to make some money."

He was the only one who could sell a few "fake" ships at such a high price. Of course, this was also because the buyer was good. If there were no good buyers, such ironclad ships would definitely not be sold. At least not at such a high price. No wonder in another world, merchants all over the world are willing to do business with our Qing Dynasty, because such silver is simply delivered to the door.

Unfortunately, there is only one such conscientious buyer in the world.

(End of this chapter)