"In addition to material and financial support for the cause of independence of the United States of America, my Government has passed special acts to send fleets and troops to the east coast of North America to fight alongside the Continental Army. Pen ~ Fun ~ Pavilion www.biquge.info" Chu Bai sat at the negotiation table and said this very seriously.

Everyone in the Continental Congress was so surprised by the news that they burst into tears, and Adams even took the lead in a standing ovation to thank the Tang Republic for its kind help, and Chu Bai also stood up politely.

"In addition to the two warships that have arrived in Philadelphia, there are two ships in our naval fleet that are escorting our army's transport ships to the east coast. The scale of our Datang troops this time is more than 3,000 (army and navy combined), led by our country's rear admiral Liu Fangwu, and they will arrive in a few days. ”

Adams was extremely satisfied, and he said excitedly: "The arrival of the three thousand Tang friendly troops will definitely bring a major change to the battle situation, and our goal of complete independence may be just around the corner." ”

Chu Bai looked at these cheering Americans, and couldn't help sneering in his heart, and finally said the most important point: "Due to the long journey of our army, which is militarily threatened by the rest of the British colonies during the voyage, the command of our expeditionary force believes that it is necessary to strike at the British forces on the east coast in an all-round way to ensure the smooth flow of this route. We also need a strategic fulcrum outside the Thirteen Colonies to support our operations against the British. Florida is the southeast corner of the North American continent, and the forces of the British troops stationed here, Major General Liu's first goal is to deal with the British troops stationed in Florida and attack the Bahamas at the same time, which will attract the attention of the British army and make them lose sight of the other, and subsequently. Our land forces will try to merge with the forces led by General Washington. Here we want to create a joint operational command. The Don Army will seek to play a more active role in this war. ”

Chu Bai's words stunned the Americans present before Adams reacted and asked, "You want to attack Florida?" ”

Chu Bai said as a matter of course: "Militarily, this is inevitable, after all, we are fighting across a distance of more than 20,000 kilometers, and if we are all concentrated in the thirteen colonies, it is a very irrational choice, we need an advance base that can facilitate the distribution of materials, and at the same time facilitate sorties and other deployments." And if our rear is pinned down by the British forces, this is likely to have a negative effect on us, Florida and the Bahamas, which we must pull out. ”

Americans can't deny that Chu Bai's statement has some truth, but if that's the case, then Barbados and Jamaica in the Caribbean are also British colonies, so why not move those areas. Naturally, no one said this, after all, strategically speaking, Florida and the Bahamas are extremely important.

But what the hell is it that is afraid of being intercepted by the British? Florida was only taken over by the British more than a decade ago, and there were no British immigrants there at all. At most, the British garrison there was to guard a few important strongholds, and the whole territory could not be taken care of. Will the Tang people be afraid of being intercepted by the British? You just want to occupy this land!

This logic is easy to figure out, although the Tang Army's attack on Florida will indeed deal a blow to the British army, but in the general direction, it will not help much for the battlefield of the Thirteen Colonies, because it is impossible for the British army there to go north to participate in the war.

The people in the Continental Congress talked in a low voice for a while, but it was Adams who picked out the problem clearly, and he said: "Mr. diplomat, may I ask what will happen to Florida and the Bahamas that were captured by the Tang Dynasty after the war?" ”

Chu Bai's face remained unchanged: "Naturally, it is impossible to return it to the British, and our country will continue to exist in the area obtained in the war." ”

Adams's face changed, and he said, "The idea of the Tang Republic from the beginning was to fight for land, right?" ”

But thinking of this, Adams was also a little relieved, Datang really aided the United States regardless of the cost and return, and even traveled thousands of miles to the East Coast to fight side by side with the Continental Army, which is unreasonable. Now I know that the reason why the Tang people supported American independence so face-wrenching, and at the same time did not hesitate to go to war with Britain, was probably not for the comradeship between any immigrant countries or any just cause from the beginning, but to get a fair excuse to go to war with Britain by standing in the same camp of the United States, so as to seize the British colonies.

"What a calculation!" Adams thought clearly about the consequences before and couldn't help but admire. But there are still many things in this, the Tang people ran across the whole of America to the east coast, and there is still Spanish land in between, and it is really quite inconvenient to occupy this part of Florida. And even if it is to seize an area on the east coast, it is okay to do it directly against Britain, why is it so vigorously aiding the United States.

Of course, what made Adams and others a little uneasy was that the Tang Republic also showed a desire for land, so would their thirteen colonies be safe?

Several major figures of the Continental Congress discussed in a whisper, and Hancock said: "The intentions of the Tang people have been clear, the key is that now the Tang Republic is our only ally, the only country that recognizes us, and their support and help to us are also real, and we cannot leave the support of the Tang people when this struggle has not yet been completed." ”

Jefferson also nodded in agreement: "That's right, the French are only giving some painless help now, but once the elite Tang Army joins the battlefield, our situation will quickly become clear, and victory is in sight." ”

Almost all the members of the Continental Congress blindly trusted the combat effectiveness of the Tang Army, which was based on the miracle of Jiao Qiang's previous single-handedly taking on a dozen British Royal Navy warships with one warship, and also on the fact that the Tang Military Advisory Group led the Continental Army out of the trough of the Battle of Long Island, and continued to achieve a series of small military victories.

Adams was a little worried, and said: "However, it seems that the powerful Datang is not satisfied with the Jiazhou they occupy, and is expanding outward, and it is also Florida, which is very far away from them and very close to us, which is not good news for us." ”

Hancock said, "Even without the Dons, we wouldn't be able to occupy Florida, would we, gentlemen." After the end of this Revolutionary War, if the United States can really be established, then we still have the British in the south, so that Canada on the back and Florida on the south, the British will form a flanking situation for us, which is very unfavorable to us. But Datang is our friend, and if they appear in our south, it will at least reduce part of our pressure. ”

Adams said: "But the friendship between the two countries is not eternal, and who knows if the Tang people will covet the land of our thirteen colonies and thus launch an invasion against us?" ”

"I don't think that's possible," Randolph said, "because according to Mr. Jensen's testimony, the Tang Dynasty, though a powerful country, is a small and powerful country to be exact, and their population is less than one-tenth of that of the Thirteen Colonies, and their limited population makes their ability to digest the land limited." I would venture to assert that the Tang people had great ambitions but not necessarily good appetites, and that after they swallowed Florida, it would be difficult for them to make any substantial development of the region, just as they had been confined to a limited area under British rule. And it is obviously unrealistic to fight for land against us, and the investment will be extremely huge. Florida has only a few thousand European immigrants, plus a few Indians, who can slowly occupy it by immigration, but the Thirteen Colonies have a population of millions, and it is difficult for them to rule here. ”

Hancock nodded, "That's right, that's what happened. In fact, we have no way to attack Florida by the Tangs, the soldiers and warships are theirs, we can't control it, and we need their support for us. However, in order to protect the interests of the United States of America as much as possible in the future, I believe that we should demarcate the border with the Tang people in advance, so as to avoid the future breakdown of relations between the two countries because of the border issue. ”

As a result, the talks began again, and Adams, on behalf of the Continental Congress, proposed to demarcate the border with the Tang Republic, and Chu Bai knew that it seemed that the Americans had recognized the existence of the Tang Dynasty in their south.

Chu Bai didn't come without preparation, in fact, he already had a map finalized by the cabinet in a pile of documents, and after pretending to prepare, Chu Bai officially submitted the map of the boundary survey to the Continental Conference, even though there was not a Tang person in the land there yet.

Hancock, chairman of the Continental Congress, couldn't help but be shocked by the ambitions of the Tang people when he looked at the map submitted by the Tang people, this boundary survey map is indeed according to the Tang people, Florida and the Bahamas are owned by the Tang Dynasty, and the boundary survey map only demarcates the southern boundary, as for other places, it is obvious that the Tang people have no right to decide.

Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi became the territory of the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang people did not like to use latitude and longitude to divide the border like the British, but preferred to use natural demarcation lines, and the boundary started from the St. Marys River in the east, and then entered the territory of Georgia, and then selected several rivers to cut off a large piece of land belonging to the west side of Georgia in the other plane. The border extends from the Charterhooch River, which originally separates Alabama and Georgia, to the end of the Appalachian Mountains, where it runs west along the Tennessee River and north to the confluence of the Tennessee and Ohio rivers. In addition, the part that has nothing to do with the United States, the Ohio River to the Mississippi River, is the boundary between the Tang Dynasty and the Spanish Louisiana.

Let's briefly summarize the areas involved in this map of the Tang people. This land included all of what would become Florida, the western side of Georgia occupied nearly half of the state, all of Alabama except the north side of the Tennessee River, all of Mississippi, Louisiana on the east bank of the Mississippi River, western Tennessee half of the state, and the southwestern corner of Kentucky.

Excluding the Bahamas, the mainland alone has a total area of about 440,000 square kilometers, which is beyond the total area of California and roughly equivalent to the size of Gansu Province or Heilongjiang Province in China. (To be continued.) )