Following the UNION withdrawal from China in March 1871 the UNION armies returned to their bases leaving only a couple of cavalry brigades on the border. These brigades commenced regular long range sweeps into China to ensure the Chinese made no attempts to rebuild or reoccupy the border regions. The Chinese started a long period of self analysis to try to understand why their armies had been so comprehensively defeated, how the army could be rebuilt and reequipped, how they could reclaim their southern territories and in particular, how to gain revenge on the hated UNION.
In the UNION after the celebrations had ended, the army sought to learn the lessons of the war. One of the first was that heavy artillery should be concentrated into separate brigades. It was decided to form artillery brigades within each army. These brigades would have the existing four heavy battalions supplemented by four new field battalions together with the necessary supporting services.
Another area for improvement was in QM transport capacity. During the preparations for the battle of Harbin, the existing QM transport companies had been hard pressed to stockpile artillery ammunition while continuing to maintain the armies. It was decided to create QM transport battalions on the basis of one for each army. These units would be under the direct control of the army commander and would enable abnormal supply activities to be carried out without jeopardisng day to day supply operations. Work started on all these reorganisations during the summer of 1871. It was also decided to increase the number of infantry platoons from two per company to three. These substantial increases in manpower would take some time to complete. Recruitment into the army was increased immediately.
With such an increase in the size of the army together with the clear national realisation that the UNION was surrounded by enemies caused an enhancement in the movement of the UNION and its people towards a militaristic society. Much emphasis was still put on to the civil development of the country and industry and commerce increased substantially, but service in the army became even more a moral duty amongst young men. The existence of the Army Support Service provided continuity of employment for ex soldiers making the choice of a military career even more attractive.
In Mexico the terrorist threat had diminished substantially as UNION search and destroy missions continued unabated. Although there seemed no end in sight to anti terror operations, the army viewed such activities as a good training opportunity and the Mexican government remained very happy with a continuing UNION army presence in their country. Mexico continued to pay for UNION support by the export of raw materials and the UNION gave a number of small contracts to Mexican business for various minor articles that could be made more cheaply than in the UNION while always preserving such manufacturing capabilities in the UNION. All transactions were paid for in gold as UNION currency had no value outside the UNION and the UNION had no means to earn foreign currency.
In mid 1872 the British approached the UNION via Mexico seeking port facilities in the far south of the UNION . This area was about half way between Britain and its colony of Australia. For a long time the British had sought such facilities but the UNION had always previously rejected these approaches. On this occasion the UNION government wondered if in fact such an arrangement might now be beneficial. The UNION was not a sea going nation and the only port as such on the south coast was the small fishing village of Miami. Clearly the existing facilities of Miami would be insufficient for the British but maybe a deal could be done whereby the British would pay for the necessary development. It was also recognised that although Mexico provided a good link to the rest of Tian, other nations knew full well that Mexico was a UNION ally and therefore Mexico had limited access to international strategic thinking. It was thought that development of a relationship with Britain may be useful in this regard on the world stage and in particular in securing access to foreign currency.
Contact was made with Britain and they were invited to send a delegation to the UNION via Mexico. The British delegation arrived in Mexico City on 1st October 1872.
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