Chapter 859: The Confrontation between the Two Empires (Second Update, Please Subscribe)
Montevideo, Uruguay!
Standing at the window of the palace, Emperor Zhu felt that he could even see the city across the river.
On the east bank, Montevideo is on the east bank of the Xin'an River, just over a hundred kilometers away...
"Your Majesty, the Third Army is currently marching towards Uruguay in three directions. It is expected that the vanguard will arrive in Montevideo in two days."
When Sun Hu was reporting the military situation on the front line, Emperor Zhu did not speak, but just stared at the Xin'an River quietly.
"The Brazilians currently have about 20,000 garrisons in Montevideo. As long as we take Montevideo, the entire Uruguay region will belong to the Ming Dynasty."
Nodding, Emperor Zhu said.
"That's true, including in Brazil. 60% of Brazil's population is in the area from Rio de Janeiro to Sao Paulo. In total, almost 90% of the population is concentrated in the southeastern coastal areas including Rio and Sao Paulo. As for the vast inland areas, it is either desolate plateaus or dense rainforests."
Brazil... Brazil in this era is indeed very large, but it is also very empty, with a population of only tens of millions, and four million of them are black slaves in plantations. Not to mention now, even when Brazil moved its capital to Brasilia in history, the population of the vast inland areas was only three or four million. What was the population of Brazil at that time?
Seventy or eighty million!
As for now… in the life when Emperor Zhu simulated a guerrilla fighter, the interior of Brazil is really desolate and sparsely populated. The so-called "city" is actually a small town of a few hundred people.
"In fact, Brazil looks very big, but it is just a long snake formation."
"Your Majesty is right!"
His Majesty's description made Sun Hu smile.
"The two most critical points in this long snake formation are Rio de Janeiro, the capital of Brazil, and Sao Paulo. The population of the two places is as high as 1.3 million. If black slaves are excluded, 15% of the white people in the country live in these two places. As long as these two cities are captured, Brazil's resistance will basically collapse. So my suggestion is the same as before. After taking Montevideo and resolving the threat on the eastern border, we will immediately march to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro by land and sea..."
In fact, in the eyes of the Ming Army General Staff, Brazil has never been a difficult target. The so-called strategic depth, exchanging space for time, is relative to large countries with large populations. For a country like Brazil with a sparse population and vast territory, the so-called strategic depth is a bit interesting, especially since 90% of its population is concentrated in an area no more than 100 kilometers deep along the southeast coast. As for the inland... there is depth, but the problem is that there are no people.
No one!
Not to mention the supply of weapons, even the supply of food is a problem.
Withdrawing to the vast inland, using space to trade time, the question is what will the army eat and use?
When Napoleon invaded Russia, Russia had evacuated Moscow, but there were still tens of millions of people in the rear. When Germany invaded Russia, there were still nearly 100 million people in the rear.
As for China, even if the coastal and part of central China provinces fell, there are still more than 200 million people in the rear. Only with people can there be various other possibilities.
And Brazil’s problem is precisely… there is no one!
Therefore, from the very beginning, the military has blocked Brazil's vital points - Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.
As long as these two places are conquered, Brazil will basically be destroyed. After all, although it seems to have millions of square kilometers of land, the actual developed area is only a few hundred thousand square kilometers.
The emperor was of course very aware of this. After all, in one of his life simulations, he once fought thousands of miles across Brazil. Why did he fail in the end?
It was not that they were defeated by the Brazilian army, but that they were defeated by the uninhabited Brazil. Without people, there is nothing. It is impossible to recruit soldiers and it is impossible to obtain food.
"really,"
Emperor Zhu nodded, turned around and walked to the map, looking at the map of Brazil hanging on the wall and said.
"But we don't just want to defeat Brazil. That's easy. We can use airships to bombard them, or send fleets to bombard them. We have many ways to deal with them, but our goal is to completely occupy that land from the ground up. To a certain extent, the smaller the local population, the more beneficial it is to us and the more conducive it is to our rule. Of course, some actions are definitely not applicable in this era, so what? We have to give them some opportunities, opportunities to resist..."
Emperor Zhu was also helpless. If he had a choice, he would definitely like to solve the Brazilian problem quickly and decisively, but at the moment, delaying the progress of the war appropriately was also an option.
"I understand. Therefore, the speed of our army's attack is currently under control. The Brazilians should have time to mobilize!"
As His Majesty's confidant, Sun Hu certainly knew what His Majesty meant. His Majesty's idea was very simple, which was to kill as many of Brazil's manpower as possible through a few beautiful annihilation battles. Seizing land was secondary, and the most important thing was to kill the enemy... Just like Bai Qi killed 400,000 Zhao prisoners and made Zhao never recover, what the Ming Dynasty needed was to kill hundreds of thousands or millions of Brazilian troops once or several times, and then annex that country.
…
The war broke out!
Faced with the sudden war, Brazil was stunned.
The warships that had drained the national treasury were destroyed and the borders were breached. Faced with such a situation, Brazilian Emperor Pedro II did not compromise. In fact, they would not compromise because they knew very well that the Ming Dynasty was a completely different opponent.
"Your Majesty, although the Ming Empire is located in South America, it has never been a South American country in the traditional sense. In the past, wars between South American countries were mostly territorial disputes. Even the war between us and Paraguay was just an attempt to overthrow its government. But what about the Ming Empire?"
Standing in front of the emperor, Marshal Kaxias, who was nearly seventy years old, said excitedly.
"What they want is destruction! What they want is conquest, to conquer this land and all the people here!"
As soon as the marshal finished speaking, Prince Gaston, the prince who had earned the name "Butcher" in the Paraguayan War, agreed.
"Yes, Your Majesty. For the Ming Empire, the South American countries are just like the Indians back then. They want to conquer us and occupy our land just like we conquered the Indians. According to the intelligence we have obtained so far, the Ming Empire has mobilized more than 700,000 troops. Their goal is definitely to occupy Brazil, not just to force us to negotiate through military victory. Now we must mobilize our army first before they complete the mobilization!"
Faced with the warnings from the marshal and the prince, Pedro II thought for a while and then said.
"Yes, we need to mobilize the army, but do we have so many weapons?"
"We can purchase from the United States and the United Kingdom, Your Majesty. The Ming people are now attacking Uruguay with all their might. They will end the war in Uruguay as early as next year. We still have time to mobilize."
Marshal Kaxias said.
"We can order all the forces there to be mobilized, just like Lopez did, using Uruguay to hold back the Ming army and buy us time! In the end, time will allow us to win this war!"
(End of this chapter)
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