The news of the victory in Houston reached the Ming Dynasty, and for a time public opinion was once again cheering for the war, mainly for the victory. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In this war, the spirit of the Ming people was tormented and beaten, their mentality was very complicated, and victory was the reward of their patience. Such a brilliant victory was enough for most people to make up for the material losses with spiritual gains, and even the populist newspapers, who had been questioning what the common people would get even if the war were won, began to applaud the war, believing that such an unprecedented victory would definitely bring the war to an end as soon as possible.

At this time, the Ming government also announced that it would accept negotiations with the Americans, and the delegations of the two sides had already arrived in Britain, and the negotiations could begin immediately. The reason why it was impossible to negotiate before was because the tone was not agreed, and at the same time, both sides were waiting for a change that could affect the negotiation into the city.

The change in the defeat of the US military in Houston was enough to bring the two sides to a balance, because the US government, under various pressures, finally agreed to negotiate on the basis of the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese, and agreed to the request that the two sides could only negotiate under the condition that the Chinese enjoyed the same rights and interests of other races.

The Americans agreed to this basic demand, and it can be said that Daming's demands have basically been achieved, and what follows is only some side matters, but it is still difficult to reach an agreement.

Daming put forward three new requirements: first, the demilitarization of the Pacific region of the United States; second, the issue of war reparations and compensation for the Chinese persecuted during the war; Third, the issue of trade and commerce.

The Ming demanded that after the war, the Americans could not deploy naval forces on the west coast of the United States, and demanded that the United States give up its privileges in Hawaii, transfer it to the Ming Dynasty, and allow the Ming to lease San Francisco as a commercial port.

Before the war, although the Ming government carried out evacuation activities in the eastern part of the United States, there were still some overseas Chinese who did not receive the news, or ignored the news after receiving it, and as a result, during the war, many overseas Chinese were affected by the anti-Chinese elements in the United States, not only their property and even their lives were damaged, and the Ming Dynasty demanded compensation for these overseas Chinese.

In the war, the Ming Dynasty paid two billion taels of military spending alone, and the gold content of the Ming taels was 3.125 grams of gold, and the gold content of the dollar was not fixed, and it was linked to silver at the same time, but the average was about 1.6, that is to say, two billion taels were equivalent to four billion dollars. At the same time, the war caused huge commercial losses to the Ming Dynasty, which also needed to be compensated by the United States, and the Ming Dynasty demanded that the United States compensate for the loss of four billion Ming taels and settle it in gold.

Trade and trade issues, mainly focused on the United States to reduce the import tax rate, after the economic crisis, the United States tax rate is getting higher and higher, has exceeded 50 percent, and even individual tariff rates are as high as 70 percent, especially the tax rate of cotton textiles is particularly high, the Ming Dynasty has begun to develop the textile industry urgently needs a huge market, obviously there are not many countries in the world that can provide this market, the United States is the best one. In addition, when discussing the issue of tax rates with the United States, I also hope to get the support of the European powers, because the United States' high tax rates have the greatest impact, in fact, it is the United Kingdom, British textiles before the Civil War, occupy more than 40% of the market in the United States, and now under the high tariffs, it has been reduced to less than 20%.

If the Ming Dynasty can force the United States to lower tariffs, it will be good news for all European industrial powers.

First, they argued that the United States has the right to deploy military forces anywhere on U.S. territory, including the U.S. West Coast; Hawaii can give up, but they absolutely cannot accept the Ming Dynasty's lease of San Francisco territory from the United States.

On the issue of war reparations, the United States proposed that during the war, a large number of Americans in California were also injured by the Chinese, which is also a fact, the local Chinese were often bullied by whites before, and immediately turned over after the uprising to become the master, and there were some ambitious behaviors, so the United States refused to compensate the Chinese; As for the issue of war reparations, the United States believes that in this war, the United States suffered the greatest losses, and that the US military expenditure and the damage to the theater economy are definitely much greater than the losses of the Ming Dynasty, and they refuse to compensate for this.

The Americans absolutely refused to agree to the issue of lowering tariffs, believing that this was a matter within the scope of US sovereignty, and that the Ming Dynasty could not use military victory as a threat to force the United States to revise tariff rates. This point is completely different in the historical memory of the Chinese, especially the old masters of the Manchu Qing Dynasty absolutely cannot agree, is it not that the level of tariffs depends on whose guns are more favorable?

The Ming Dynasty made a request, and the United States refused, this was a negotiation procedure, and the two sides did not have any anger, and then the talks, the Americans rejected these demands, but did not refuse to negotiate on these demands, which means that it can be discussed, and the refusal is just a gesture, not a result.

But the process will definitely not be so smooth.

Both sides debated international regulations, historical realities, and so on, trying to find what was best for them.

But the Americans seem to have overlooked the current situation on the battlefield.

The negotiations lasted for half a month, and by mid-July, the Americans still insisted on territorial and military issues, and only took the concession of Hawaii as the bottom line; on the western coast of the United States, the United States could accept not to deploy an ocean-going fleet, but it would never accept the Ming Dynasty's intervention in any other military deployment of the United States; the United States believed that they had the right to defend their homeland, and they could freely build forts and deploy defensive maritime forces on the western coast of the United States.

The Ming gave up their claim to lease San Francisco, but received the legal rights of the United States to protect the Ming merchants in San Francisco, who could operate here like any white merchant and was protected by American law.

On the issue of war reparations, the Americans are not unwilling to pay a penny, they only oppose such a name. The Americans are a nation willing to spend money to buy peace, but war reparations are too easily reminiscent of the fact of defeat. So they are more willing to accept other names to pay the money, such as ransom for prisoners of war.

But they could not accept the Ming Dynasty's claim for compensation of up to 4 billion Ming taels, that is, 8 billion US dollars. They could pay a ransom of up to $1,000 per captive, which was not very high, because during the war, the average monthly salary of each soldier in the United States reached fifty dollars, which was six hundred dollars a year, which was less than two years' salary for each soldier, so it was not very high.

It's just that the Ming army captured too many American troops, as high as more than 2 million before and after, and the total ransom will exceed 2 billion US dollars. But Daming still couldn't accept it, this was too far from the amount of compensation requested.

U.S. tariffs must be reduced, and Daming requires at least the average tariff on Daming goods to be reduced to less than 30 percent, because the U.S. high tariff policy has greatly affected Daming's exports to the United States and brought great harm to trade.

At most, the United States can accept that some goods that the United States cannot produce, such as tea and raw silk from the Ming Dynasty, will reduce tariffs, but these goods are guaranteed by the special tax rates negotiated by the two sides, and the United States will not make concessions on the cotton textiles that the Ming Dynasty insists on the most.

Just when the two sides could not hold on, a political incident occurred in the occupied area of the Ming Dynasty, which caused a strong protest in the United States and cast a heavy shadow on the negotiations, because just a month after the Ming army captured Houston, the state governments of the three southwestern states of the United States jointly announced in Houston that they would jointly form a new independent government, that is, the Second Confederate State of the United States.

Apparently these Americans were much higher than the Paris Commune, and the first thing these governments of political and legal elites did was not to return the tools of the artisans to the banks, but to seek international recognition.

The US negotiators lodged a strong protest against this, holding that the Ming army was illegally organizing a puppet government in the area they occupied, and that this was an act of separatism against the US territory, and that they could not accept it, and that the Ming Dynasty had no sincerity in negotiating at all, and not only immediately broke off the talks, but also demanded sanctions and intervention from the international community.

Obviously, this incident was a great stimulus to the US government, and the American Civil War left a deep historical memory on them, and they absolutely did not want to fight a long civil war that lasted for several years after fighting the Ming army for several years.

The Ming negotiators believe that these are completely independent acts of local political forces in the United States, and are not intended to be promoted by the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming government has not decided to recognize this new country at present, and still recognizes the United States Federation as the only legitimate government of the United States, otherwise the Ming Dynasty would not have to negotiate.

International public opinion has also criticized the establishment of the Second Confederate State of the United States, and most of them believe that this is a political means to split the United States under the manipulation of the Ming Dynasty, and that the government should not recognize it, but should resolutely resist and oppose it.

Therefore, the credentials submitted by this government to other countries were not accepted, and the United States won strong sympathy from the international community.

But none of this can change the fact that the Ming occupation forces continued to promote the state-building of the Second Union State.

With the support of the Ming army, the captured soldiers from Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico were immediately released, their guns and ammunition returned, and they became the Second Confederate army.

Because these three states bore the brunt of the war, the enthusiasm of the local people to join the army before the war was extremely high, and among the more than 2 million troops captured, there were more than 200,000 soldiers from the three continents, accounting for one-tenth, which made the second Confederate state of the United States soon able to form a large army as soon as it was founded.

At the same time, the Ming army also released a large number of blacks, these blacks mainly came from the southern states of the United States, and there were some volunteers who were grateful for the abolition of their slavery status by the United States, although their lives were not necessarily better than those in the slave era, but they had freedom, this kind of thing is an extremely powerful spiritual force, so that blacks can charge into battle like whites and fight for the American Federation.

However, after the Ming army did ideological work for them, many blacks were also willing to return to their hometowns to fight for their legitimate interests, and one by one black squads were formed to infiltrate the neighboring states of Mississippi and Louisiana on a large scale.

As a result of these actions, the movement to fight against local tyrants and divide the land was widespread in the southern states of the United States, and the US Army had to confront the Ming army on the front line on the one hand, and on the other hand, it had to suppress the increasingly agitated black movement, and the situation of overstretched troops became more and more serious.

In this case.

They had to return to the negotiating table again, but they demanded that the Ming army give up their support for the American separatist forces, and for this they were willing to further raise the ransom for American prisoners, and their bottom line was two thousand dollars each, and the total amount should not exceed three billion dollars.

They do not think that the chaos in the United States is caused by the Ming occupation army, but the accusations are all because of the racial discrimination policy in the United States, and the resistance caused by the oppression of other nations by the US government, this is a revolution, and it is the just demand of the American people for their legitimate rights and interests, and the Ming government does not support their demands, but there is no reason to suppress their reasonable behavior to fight for their rights.

The U.S. delegates were so angry that they threatened to break up the talks, and Ming responded by launching a new offensive.