In front of a luxurious house in Lima, Thomas dismounted, handed his horse to the guards in front of the door, took two steps towards the gate, paused and ordered: "Go and bring Minister José Balta and General Francisco Diez Canseco, I will discuss important matters with them." ”

José Balta is Peru's finance minister and one of the main leaders of the opposition to Pedro, who has historically forced Pedro to step down in one fell swoop by providing money and troops from Tomás and Francesco.

Now the three of them have colluded.

At seven o'clock in the evening, shortly after dark, Balta and Francisco arrived at Thomas's lodgings.

"General Thomas, the Chinese rebels are very strong, and it is unlikely that the existing 80,000 troops alone will want to quell the rebellion."

At the wine table, Balta combined with the day's meeting and spoke.

"Tripa's use of economic pressure as an excuse could not stop Pedro from expanding.

Once Pedro spreads the news of the annihilation of the defenders in southern Peru and hypes up the threat of Chinese rebels, the big businessmen with huge interests in the mines of the south will surely force politicians like Tripa to support the expansion.

When the time comes, Pedro has the will to recover the land in his hands, and the big businessmen provide financial support to expand the army, and the situation will be very unfavorable for us. ”

Francisco was also in no mood to drink and frowned.

"All my main forces were lost in the south, and now we are not as strong as Pedro, so I brought you here to discuss countermeasures."

"It's not easy to do, I think it's better to make peace with him before you have completely offended Pedro, and hand over all the troops in your hands to him, maybe he will let you go when he is happy." Balta took a glass of wine and said slowly.

"Balta, what kind of cool words did you say, we are grasshoppers on a rope, we were beaten down by Pedro, can you still be better?"

Francisco snorted.

"I'm different from you, as long as you give Pedro a sum of money, he won't dare to do anything to me."

Baltazu is a descendant of Spanish colonizers and has a lot of power in Peru, and if Pedro wants to sit on the presidency, he can't offend these big businessmen to death.

"Balta, just say what you have to say, don't use the real and the real to make the spear."

The reason why Balta said this is just to raise his asking price, and Thomas has been mixed in the political and military circles for twenty years, and this vision is still there.

"Hehe, it's still General Thomas who is sensible and thorough." Balta laughed, ignoring Francisco's disgruntled gaze and slowly speaking his thoughts.

"Pedro took advantage of the eagerness of the big businessmen to regain the south and pushed his subordinates to expand the army, and we can also take advantage of the urgency of those businessmen to pressure Pedro to send troops as soon as possible."

"We are now soft-spoken and rashly come forward to force Pedro to send troops, I am afraid that he will be used as cannon fodder to destroy us by the hands of the Chinese rebels."

Thomas was not optimistic about his approach.

"Of course, we can't force Pedro to give in alone, so we have to unite all the opponents and put pressure on him."

"In addition to us, the only people who are dissatisfied with Pedro have the strength to have Tripa's faction, do you mean to cooperate with them?"

Thomas was unsure.

"Yes, it's Tripa, he has the support of the British behind him, as long as our two factions are united, Pedro will have to bow his head."

"Balta, I thought you would come up with a good solution, but I didn't expect you to let us cooperate with Tripa, a traitor,

Will Tripa be able to work together? Before the Chinese rebelled, he relied on the support of the British to occupy our mines.

If we cooperate with him, even if we force Pedro to send troops in advance and consume his strength, we will not have much interest left in the south, so I am not in favor of working with Tripa. Francisco said.

What Francisco said was exactly what Thomas was thinking, he didn't want to retreat from the wolf and enter the tiger, drive away the wolf Pedro, but recruit the British tiger.

The British have been jealous of Peru's minerals for a long time, and in order to monopolize Peru's mineral development, they have constantly forced the Peruvian government to sign unequal economic treaties.

Because of the refusal of several Peruvian presidents, the British encouraged Peruvian proxies to cause problems for the Peruvian government, and also encouraged the Chileans to attack Bolivia and Peru to seize the saltpeter sources on the Pacific coast of both countries.

Thomas was wary of the British and was not optimistic about Balta's advice.

"You don't understand what I mean." Seeing that the situation was about to froze, Balta explained, "Didn't the British want the minerals of the south? I can sign an agreement with them first and agree to fulfill the contract when I come to power. ”

"Isn't that the same as handing over the mines to the British?" Francisco interrupted.

"It's different," Balta shook his head, and continued, "When Pedro falls, we can push a puppet to power, so that we can't come to power, and the agreement signed will naturally be null and void." ”

Balta's method was flawed, but Thomas couldn't think of a better way, so he agreed with Balta.

"Sir, this is a letter from General Thomas." Trippa sat in his room as the layman of the house handed over a letter.

After opening the letter, reading it for more than ten minutes, and thinking seriously for half an hour, Tripa's brows gradually relaxed, and he sneered, "I thought that a paper agreement could bind me, it was too underestimating me." ”

Trippa didn't care about the trap that Balta had designed in the agreement, because all the British wanted was an excuse,

As long as Pedro is overthrown, regardless of Thomas and others being the president of Peru, they can hold the agreement to demand that the Peruvian government fulfill the contract.

If they don't agree, the British don't have to do it themselves, and the younger brother of the British can teach them how to be human beings in minutes.

"In reply to Thomas, I agree to his request." ……

It was destined to be an unquiet night, and while Trippa and Thomas were scheming with each other, a guest came to Pedro's house.

"Lustuat, aren't you one of Thomas's men? How did you become a lobbyist for the rebels? Pedro said lightly after reading Li Mingyuan's letter to him.

"The president forgives me, the humble post is only to help the Chinese troops deliver letters, and there is absolutely no intention of defecting to the Chinese." Lustuatt hurriedly explained.

Thomas and others were in the weakest period, Pedro was in the palm of his hand, although Li Mingyuan gave generous conditions, he was still unmoved, Pedro flashed a fierce light in his eyes, and he was murderous to Lustuat.

"President, there is urgent information." Just as Pedro was about to take action on Lustuat, a hurried voice interrupted his thoughts.

The letter handed by the servant was sent by a spy lurking in Tripa's house, and after reading the content of the letter, Pedro's murderous intent towards Lustuart disappeared, but the expression on his face was very exciting, and he thought that he could stabilize his position immediately, but secretly Thomas and others joined forces to make a mess for themselves.

"Tell them that I agree to their request, but I ask them to cooperate with me in a good show." After Pedro said this, he went on to tell Lustuat about his plan.

Rustuatu nodded, got up and left through the back door.