After a sip of red wine, Zeng Guofan said: "A country in the New World." "In addition to the colonies of China and Britain in the New World, only the United States has the ability to intervene in Egypt.

"America?!" McMahon said.

"They are too busy to take care of themselves, and they still have the ability to meddle here?" Gladstone asked dismissively. The United States has never been regarded by the British, and in the eyes of the current British Empire, the United States is nothing more than a country of beggars, hooligans and criminals, and has always held a grudge against the **British in the United States. Coupled with the fact that the "Alabama claim" has always revolved between Britain and the United States, Gladstone has no good opinion of the United States.

There is a reason why Gladstone said that the United States is too busy to take care of itself, the American Civil War in this time and space is more tragic than the Civil War in the original time and space, and the South has received various kinds of assistance from Britain and France in addition to imperial support. Since the South is the main supplier of industrial cotton to China, Britain and France, the governments of the three countries fully support the South from the standpoint of weakening the United States and maintaining their own sources of cheap raw materials. The slave-owning clique also boasted of the importance of cotton: "You dare not go to war against our cotton, and no great power in the world dares to go to war against cotton!" Cotton is king". Britain and France only from 1861 ~ 1863 to the south of the more than 400,000 rifles, plus the empire of the North American colonies of the emperor by virtue of the geographical advantage in 1860 ~ 1866 to the south of nearly 50 more than 50 40 type, at that time the emperor even the reserve and militia weapons regardless of the old to the south. It was also this war that contributed to the rapid development of the North American colonies, which exported munitions, munitions, and all the supplies that the South lacked to the South, and the South sent cotton, grain, and important industrial personnel to the colonies. This is still normal, and the cheapest thing is that the merchants under the emperor's command also resell the cotton and grain bought from the south to the north in exchange for industrial machinery and industrial products from the north. Of course, there was a huge disparity in economic power between the two sides, and after the huge industrial potential of the north exploded, the south eventually lost the war, and no matter what the outcome was, the emperor made a lot of money. The United States has not yet come out of the shadow of war, which is why it is said that it is too busy to take care of itself.

"I don't know what those Americans relied on, but at least they're going to make a difference at tomorrow's conference, and I think Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Duke McMahon, at least we have to stand together in maintaining stability and order in Egypt, don't we?" Zeng Guofan has already learned the thoughts of the Americans from the intelligence department of the Egyptian Embassy, and now he needs the three great powers to stand together, and I believe that the Americans will not be so brainless.

"That's for sure." McMahon was the first to respond.

"To guarantee the interests of the British Empire, of course!" Gladstone quickly thought about the outcome of the "Alabama claim" and the interests of the Americans in Egypt, and decided to stand with China and France.

Although the United States lost the West Coast, it had more minds and strength to devote itself to domestic development, and the influx of a large number of European and Chinese capital also made the United States develop rapidly, coupled with the liberal ideas and immigration policies of the United States, the United States entered a high-speed development, by the beginning of 1870, according to the data of the Imperial Central Intelligence Agency, the United States economy has surpassed Russia, ranked fourth after Britain, China and France, here it is said that Russia after the loss of Siberia, it is considered to have completely abandoned the oriental strategy, committed to domestic reform and development, Today's Russia is not the Russia of history, even if it loses the vast land of Siberia, it is still the largest country in Europe, and Russia definitely has the strength to become a real "European steamroller". Therefore, it can be seen that the development of the United States is not unfast. In recent years, the United States has been advocating the so-called "open door" and "free trade", that is, it hopes that its goods will enter the colonial markets of China, Britain, France, and other colonial powers. This alone is unbearable for the three countries and the countries of Europe.

The next day, the venue.

Just ended a fierce quarrel, Zeng Guofan helplessly looked at Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Mazzini and Duke McMahon, there is a contradiction between France and Italy in the Libyan region, Italy has been infiltrating Libya after reunification, and France has regarded Libya as its sphere of influence after occupying Algeria and Tunisia, between France's strength in both continental Europe and North Africa is stronger than Italy, the Italians finally reached an agreement with the French, Libya is bounded by Benghazi, to the east is Italy, and to the west is France. Even if the Chinese Empire, represented by Zeng Guofan, supported Italy, the British would not allow Italy to occupy Libya.

At this time, the U.S. Secretary of State Hamilton Fish stood up and saw him stand up, and Zeng Guofan looked at McMahon and Gladstone. Then Fish talked a lot of nonsense about "free trade", "strengthening economic exchanges in the civilized world", "barrier-free circulation of goods", and finally came a sentence that finally stated the purpose: "The United States will sign a free trade agreement with Egypt to enhance the exchanges between the United States and Egypt, the United States does not want and does not need to have colonies in Africa, we just want an opportunity to trade on an equal footing in Africa." That is why I propose that all the African countries concerned here sign an African Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) to promote Africa's development. ”

As soon as the words fell, the reactions of various countries were mixed, not to mention China, France, and Britain, Austria-Hungary and Russia and other countries were obviously very interested in signing an African free trade treaty, after all, they had no colonies in Africa, and this agreement was equivalent to a free market, and Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal and other countries were also very eager, because they had fewer colonies in Africa, and this agreement was obviously beneficial to them. The Americans want to win over these countries that have no interests in Africa to confront the colonial interests of China, Britain and France in Africa, the so-called colonial interests are well understood, as the suzerains of China, France and Britain in their own colonies in Africa are tariff-free, and the raw materials of the colonies are sold to their own merchants and do not need to be taxed, such as the long-staple cotton produced in Egypt, assuming that a kilogram of long-staple cotton British merchants only need 10 pounds when buying, and Chinese merchants need to pay customs duties and taxes when they buy it, and the cost will be 23 pounds. If countries sign a trade agreement to buy long-staple cotton in Egypt, although it will not be the same as the UK, but at most will not exceed 13 pounds, then it will be difficult for British goods in the world market to maintain their advantages and lose competitiveness, and the final result will be the bankruptcy of businessmen, the closure of factories, the unemployment of workers, and serious social problems.

Therefore, China, France and the United Kingdom will never allow this so-called free trade agreement.

However, European countries such as Germany and Italy are only eager to enter the African market of Britain and France, China and they have a trade agreement in the African colonial empire only charges basic tariffs, while Portugal and the Netherlands and other countries hope to enter China's African market, they and Britain also have their own business agreements, the most eager to sign this trade agreement should belong to Russia, after the Sino-Russian Siberian War, Russia lost all its colonies in North Asia (European countries and Russia itself are colonies in Siberia), At this time, the Russian Tsar Alexander II abolished serfdom in 1861 and began the industrialization of all Russia, coupled with the external factors of the defeat of the Crimean War and the loss of Siberia at home, Russia can be said to be united in construction (peasants and workers are not counted), and now Russia urgently needs Africa's rich and cheap resources, so Russia and the United States reached an agreement before the meeting to facilitate the signing of this agreement