Jujuan had arrived in Chicago and had not entered the city because the city was still in the city. The U.S. forces under Sherman's command were under their control, but they were surrounded by Chinese troops. In charge of the siege was www.biquge.info Marshal Chen Yucheng, commander of the Great Lakes Army Group under the command of the North American Army. Juan and Chen Yucheng were looking at the tall buildings in the distance, amazed at the grandeur of the city, which was no less than Mexico City, and there was no other city in Donghua that could compare with it.

"Those houses are so tall!"

"It was rebuilt after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, and they were all steel skyscrapers, and there are many such houses in Yingtian, Guangzhou and Shanghai."

"It's hard to fight in a city like this, isn't it?"

Jujuan took a breath, what he was most afraid of reading now was the casualty report! The death and injury of one million young men was a trivial matter for his second brother, Zhu Guoxiong -- the Ming Dynasty had a population of 600 million, and if there were no large number of foreign immigrants, it would have increased by several million every year. But how many people are there in Donghua? It's not worth paying hundreds of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dead and wounded for a well-fortified city.

Chen Yucheng smiled bitterly and said: "It's really not easy to fight!" And the further east you go, the more such big cities there are. Detroit, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Toronto are all big cities no less than Chicago, and if you hit New York and Philadelphia, it will be no less than Yingtian and Shanghai. ”

"If Donghua has a population of 60 million, this time the United States will be destroyed!" Jujuan was full of emotion that he had defeated the Americans, and that there was civil strife in the United States. However, because the population of Donghua was too small to withstand too many casualties, the Americans had to be let go. "It's a pity that I missed the opportunity. What a pity! ”

'Don't miss the opportunity, never miss it!' ’

This is the mantra that Jujuan has been on his lips for some time now, and it is also a complaint - the North American war has been fought to this point, in fact, there is already a chance to win the whole of North America! In the past year and a half of war, white North Americans have lost at least 4 million men and are also mired in civil strife.

Juan estimates that the maximum number of white men in the United States (including the five states of France) who can take up arms and fight is 4 million. Just take the lives of the same number of Chinese men. You can let the white men of North America drain their blood! But the problem is that Donghua doesn't have so many men who can go into battle, and Daming has human lives that can be consumed. But in January and February 1877 only 100,000 men were shipped to North America, and in March and April the number of troops was halved......

It is obvious that the Ming Empire, which is thousands of miles away, is no longer ready to fight, even if there is a civil strife in the United States itself. The opportunity to destroy the country is fully ripe!

"Your Majesty, can we unite the forces of Mexico?" Chen Yucheng already knew that Jujuan was going to be the king of Mexico, but he still regarded the half-blood king, who was half his age, as the king of Donghua.

"If I become the king of Mexico, I will have to act for the good of the Mexicans." Jujuan shook his head slightly. Although he could speak the pure Nanjing Mandarin, he could also write large characters with a brush, and even recite the Analects. But his thinking was still Western—the king had to serve his loyal people. When he was the king of Donghua, he naturally had to think about Donghua wholeheartedly.

Once Juan reigns in Mexico City, he will have to act for the Mexicans - after the plan to promote the merger of Mexico and Donghua has never been supported by the Ming, Mathilde and Juan have no choice but to settle for the next best thing.

But this way. The Kingdom of Mexico has its own separate interests and thinking. It is certainly in the interests of the Mexicans to merge with Donghua and share the North American continent. However, if this goal is realized, there will inevitably be a conflict of interest between Mexico and Donghua, and it will be very difficult for Mexico and Donghua to fight side by side. There are too many entanglements of interests involved -- such as the distribution of the spoils of war, the balance of power in the Americas after the war, and so on.

"King, why don't you continue to be the king of Donghua and let a prince go to Mexico?" Chen Yucheng hesitated for a moment and said what he thought, which was also the common idea of all the senior officers in the Donghua Army who knew that Juan was going to abdicate and go to Mexico. "This battle was not fought completely. It will inevitably fight again in thirty years, and then the Donghua Army will still be commanded by you! ”

Jujuan smiled wryly and shook his head. "If I can get Bangyu or Bunge to go to Mexico, do you think I'll go and become the heir to the throne of Mexico myself?"

Chen Yucheng was stunned for a moment, and looked at Zhu Juan steadily. Jujuan explained: "The Kingdom of Mexico is a country in the Catholic circle, and the law of succession to the throne is different from that of the Ming Dynasty and Donghua. I am the legitimate heir of the Queen of Mexico - this is recognized by the Pope and I naturally have the right to inherit. But my child is not legitimate. These things seem trivial to us, but the Catholics in Mexico like to take them seriously. ”

Jujuan had five wives, all of whom were legal wives according to the Tung Wah Marriage Law, and the children they gave birth to were naturally legitimate heirs. But the 15 million Mexicans who practice Catholicism don't see it that way. It would also be difficult for Jujuan to get the Pope to declare his sons legitimate, because Napoleon IV would not agree!

"In the eyes of Mexicans, the legitimacy of the throne comes from God and blood." Jujuan continued, explaining, "I am the first person who meets both of these criteria, if I renounce the succession to the Mexican throne...... My Uncle Joseph. Bonaparte would have the right of inheritance, followed by his son Victor. Bonaparte. If they ascend to the throne, in the next war, the Kingdom of Mexico will probably become the enemy of Donghua! ”

Someone has to be the king of Mexico, and it is always better for Jujuan to be the one than someone else. At least Jujuan will be able to keep Mexico pro-Donghua neutral in the future, and Mexico is no longer the weak country it was more than 20 years ago. If Mexico had been able to divide Florida after the war (in exchange for Tennessee and North Carolina, which Mexico would have received after its invasion of the United States), the country would have 2.1 million square kilometers of land area and a population of more than 16 million (including 6 million whites, and an economically developed economy that controlled the canals connecting the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, and was still attracting immigrants from Europe). In 20 or 30 years, Mexico's national power will be much stronger. Although France is compared with Donghua, Chen Yucheng, who has participated in two North American wars, knows that the third North American war will be a bitter battle, even if it can help a little more, it is good, and there is no reason to push the whole of Mexico out.

Chen Yucheng pondered for a moment, and then asked: "King, since we can no longer use the power of Mexico, we can only negotiate peace with the Americans, will big cities like Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland stop fighting?" ”

"Of course we can't fight anymore...... There are no hundreds of thousands of casualties in the three cities, and they can't take it! How many hundreds of thousands of casualties do we have in Donghua? Zhu Juan nodded first, but then sighed, "It's just that we have hundreds of thousands fewer casualties, and they can have a million more people!" There are fewer deaths now, and there will be more casualties in twenty or thirty years! ”

"Just don't fight, the Americans are willing to give us Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland?" Chen Yucheng looked at the city with high-rise buildings in the distance. Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland are now all semi-surrounded by Chinese forces. The reason for the semi-encirclement was that the Chinese army did not have a fleet in the Great Lakes, and could only allow the American navy to transport supplies from the water into the city. But now that the eastern part of the United States is in chaos and the Second Revolutionary War is in full swing, there is not much left to support the three besieged cities.

"They'll let it out!" Jujuan smiled, "For the United States, the Second Revolutionary War is the most important thing, they must overthrow British rule and take Quebec, Newfoundland and other Canadian territories together." Otherwise...... There is absolutely no way out for them, and the huge debts that the Americans owe before and during the war alone can drag them to death! Only when they throw off their burdens can they travel lightly, and only after twenty or thirty years will they have the strength to fight again! ”

Whether it is the American Empire or Britain-America, the United States and Britain have never been completely integrated, and the main reason for this, apart from the unwillingness of the Americans to give up their country, is that the British are unwilling to share the huge debt of the United States. Although Prince Albert kept saying that America was the future of the British Empire, the United States, which is currently drowning in debt, threatened to drag Britain into a Great Depression! So it is almost the consensus of the American people to get rid of the debt owed to Europe (mainly Britain).

After losing most of the Central Great Plains and the Great Lakes, the living space of the United States has been compressed too much, and if it wants to continue to become a great power and confront the Chinese, it is imperative to seize Quebec, Newfoundland and other British territories.

Therefore, after the victory of the New York Uprising, the American Revolutionary Committee secretly sent representatives to Chicago to liaise with the Donghua side and try to sue for peace. Chen Yucheng immediately reported the news of the American Revolutionary Committee's request for peace to Jujuan. It was for this reason that Juan had come to Chicago from St. Louis, and at the behest of the Imperial Court.

Although Li Hongzhang, the right prime minister of the Ming Dynasty, had already led a delegation to Rome, Zhu Jishi and Zhu Guoxiong still instructed the North American Army to immediately make contact with the American Revolutionary Committee -- as long as the other side was willing to cede territory in the Great Plains of Central North America and the Great Lakes region except Pennsylvania and New York, it could accept the peace negotiations and help the American Revolutionary Committee seize power as much as possible. To be continued) R655