On 1 October, President Sylvester López of the United States of Cuba announced the official establishment of the Republic of Cuba in Havana and set the capital in Havana, making the United States the first country to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Looking at the sickle and hammer flag of the United States of Cuba and the star-striped flag of the United States fluttering together, Li Mu almost burst out of his stomach with laughter, which is also one of the few bad tastes of Li Mu in this era, although the flag of the United States of Cuba has one less five-pointed star than the flag of the Soviet Union, but this scene is enough to violate the harmony.

Except for Li Mu, no one understood where the laughter of the two flags flying together was, but no one else thought that Li Mu's nerves were abnormal, because those who were eligible to participate in the ceremony were all vested interests, and everyone was happy.

After more than half a month of negotiations, everyone except for the disgraced "railway king" Jay Gould, everyone had a gain, and Henry DuPont obtained the mining rights of the Nipe Mountain deposit at a price of 15 million US dollars, and the iron ore reserves on the entire mountain were second only to Li Mu's Balacoa Mountains.

John Rockefeller acquired the right to exploit oil in the Gulf of Mexico, for which John Rockefeller paid the United States of Cuba $5 million in cash.

The Vanderbilt family was granted the right to build the railroad between Havana and San Diego, which the Vanderbilt family had for 20 years and could continue to operate on a lease basis after the contract expired.

Another gain for the Vanderbilt family was the formation of the Santiago Shipping Company with the Santiago Investment Company, in which the Santiago Investment Company held 60 percent of the shares, and the Vanderbilt family injected $1.5 million into the Santiago Shipping Company, occupying 20 percent of the Santiago Shipping Company, with the remaining 20 percent belonging to the United Cuban States.

The current business project owned by the San Diego Shipping Company is to develop the asphalt lake on the island of Trinidad, and the ownership of the asphalt lake now belongs to Li Mu personally, in order to get the asphalt lake, Li Mu paid only a million US dollars, and not only the asphalt lake, but also the entire island of Trinidad.

Trinidad covers an area of 4,827 square kilometres, rich in oil and gas, but neither of them has been developed, and the most valuable of the island is the plantations cultivated by French immigrants, but the ownership of the island belongs to the British.

Like the Bahamas, Trinidad was forgotten before Li Mu bought it.

In 1489, Columbus discovered the island of Trinidad, which then became a Spanish colony, but there were no gold or silver mines on the island, so the Spaniards selectively ignored Trinidad.

After 1642, Trinidad was frequently invaded by Britain and France, and in the 170 years before it was transferred to Britain in 1814, Trinidad changed hands as many as 31 times, an average of more than once every five years.

Five years - Considering the communications at that time, it was probably like a house, whoever came could declare the occupation of Trinidad and then leave after the announcement, and there would be no garrison on Trinidad, because Trinidad did not show any economic value.

This situation lasted until 1814, when France and its allies, Spain and Batavia, signed the Treaty of Amiens in northern France with Great Britain after the collapse of the Second Anti-French Coalition, and the island of Trinidad was officially recognized as part of the United Kingdom.

By the way, the Batavian Republic was the later Netherlands.

In the current island of Trinidad, there are about 1,000 Chinese, these Chinese are indentured laborers, they came to Trinidad at least in 1806, first to work on the plantations, and then gradually involved in other industries, so far, there are Chinese plantation owners and Chinese businessmen on the island of Trinidad, and there are few Chinese who simply work.

Li Mu bought Trinidad and was welcomed by the island's residents, and now the total number of people on Trinidad is only about 20,000, more than half of whom are Indians and blacks, Indians and Chinese were originally indentured laborers, and blacks were slaves brought by the French.

To tell the truth, Li Mu didn't like Indians and blacks, so after Li Mu bought Trinidad, he announced the abolition of slavery on the island, and the plantation owners on the island had two choices, they could choose to release all the black slaves and send them back to the African continent, or they could choose to resell the black slaves to the South American continent.

No one chose the first option, almost all the plantation owners chose the second option, they had three months to deal with the problem of these slaves, and after three months, if anyone disobeyed Li Mu's orders, Li Mu would forcibly take back the plantations in the hands of those ranchers.

As for the indentured laborers in India, Li Mu did not touch them for the time being, these people are not free people, and if they lose their jobs, all of them will be repatriated to India.

In order to speed up the process, Li Mu ordered Gabriel Cottonn to buy the French plantations on the island of Trinidad, so that when the French lost their plantations, they would have little reason to settle on the island of Trinidad.

After the ceremony, Sylvester held a dinner at the presidential palace in Havana to thank Ulysses Grant, who had come to the dinner.

The presidential palace is the residence of the former Spanish governor in Cuba, located near the port of Havana, some time ago when the artillery of the Guantanamo Infantry Regiment bombarded the port of Havana, the presidential palace was affected by shells, the grass and sculptures in front of the presidential palace were destroyed, and the reason why the founding ceremony of the United Cuban States has been delayed until now is to restore the sculpture in front of the presidential palace.

Although Sylvestre's identity is the president of the United States of Cuba, Li Mu's position has always been by Ulysses Grant's side, which shows the weight of Li Mu in Ulysses Grant's heart.

On the sidelines of the banquet, Ulysses Grant and Li Mu toasted together.

"Reem, that's a good job, your results have exceeded my expectations." Ulysses Grant was full of admiration.

It was indeed beyond expectations, Ulysses Grant had imagined that the Cubans would be able to drive out the Spaniards, but this process seemed to Ulysses Grant to take at least several years, and now within half a year, the United States of Cuba had made a beautiful turnaround, which really impressed Ulysses Grant.

Although Sylvester is the president of the United States of Cuba, Ulysses Grant knows very well how he came to be president, and if it were not for Li Mu, perhaps the war would have subsided now, but it is unlikely that the Cubans would have won the war.

"It's not my credit alone, I wouldn't have been able to defeat the Spaniards on the battlefield without George, and Arthur in New York, who also helped me a lot, and of course the biggest credit goes to the American instructors in the army, who are the ones who really fight on the front line." Li Mu doesn't take credit, anyway, he has already taken advantage of it, and now saying a few good and obedient words can show Li Mu's humility.

"Don't be modest, you are not from the Qing Empire now, but from the United States." Ulysses Grant quipped.

Ulysses Grant is very proud that the United States can have a talent like Li Mu, look at Li Mu's achievements, and then look at Li Mu's age, I really don't know what kind of achievements Li Mu can achieve in another fifty years.

The only regret for Ulysses Grant is that because Li Mu was not born in the United States, Li Mu could not be the president of the United States.

This may be a good thing, it is impossible for Li Mu to be president, Li Mu will reduce Li Mu's threat, and as long as Li Mu makes enough achievements, then the US government will definitely give Li Mu some compensation.

"And not modest, in fact, Mr. President, you know, through this war, I have gotten everything I want, so I would love to do something for our officers and gentlemen now." Li Mu led the topic to the two hundred officers, which would resonate with Ulysses Grant, after all, Ulysses Grant was also a soldier.

"Yes, they deserve more, so what are you going to do?" Sure enough, Ulysses Grant took the bait right away.

"I thought about setting up a foundation for them, but then I realized that it probably wouldn't solve the problem, Mr. President, you know, they're all good military officers and have noble personalities, so they can't accept the pity of others, and other people are not qualified to pity them, so all I can do is to find a long-term job for them, so that they don't have to worry about losing their jobs." Li Mu stated his purpose and encouraged Ulysses Grant to push the U.S. government to set up a standing army.

The United States now does not have a standing army, like George Dewey such an excellent officer, when there is no war, he also has to work part-time to earn some extra money or something, more people can only choose to retire in disgrace, this is certainly not what Li Mu wants to see, Li Mu is an arms dealer, only by pushing the US government to set up a standing army, Li Mu can have a stable financial route.

"It's not like I haven't considered the problem you mentioned, but there are too many aspects involved, and this problem is not easy to solve." Ulysses Grant was aware of the current plight of the American military, but it was a difficult problem to solve.

Military spending is only one aspect, and it is certain that the establishment of a standing army will dilute the already small military expenditure, which will cause a strong backlash from the navy, and it is unlikely that Congress will pass such a resolution, because the United States has no enemies in the American continent, so there is no need for the United States to set up a standing army.

"What's not easy to solve--Mr. President, there is no enemy, we can create an enemy-" Li Mu fanned the flames, isn't it just to find an enemy, this problem is too simple.

"How?" Not only Ulysses Grant was interested, but also George Dewey, Benjamin, and Mahan were even more interested, and this was closely related to their vital interests.