In the dense jungle of the Indochina Peninsula, layers of ancient trees cover the entire land of northern Cambodia, and the huge shadows of the trees that shake in the middle of the night are even more eerie under the moonlight, and the howls of wild beasts from time to time are even more terrifying.

This is the Stung Treng region in the north of Cambodia, inhabited mostly by Laotians, Cambodia, a mountainous jungle country with a sparse population, borders, central political axe control and the Central Plains are completely two models.

After Cambodia was completely reduced to a French protectorate, and the French lost interest in this country, the Stung Treng region broke away from the rule of the Cambodian central political axe, and half a year ago, it became the territory of the Lao Mountain Infantry Regiment.

The Mekong River is a strange beauty reflected in the moonlight falling through the gaps in the huge leaves.

On the meadow by the river, three generals and a civilian official are squatting or sitting, circling a map in the moonlight, and the three generals are wearing various military uniforms, including the dark blue military uniform of the Royal Chinese Army, the grass green military uniform of the Lao Political Axe Army, and the camouflage military uniform unique to the Lao Mountain Regiment.

The general, who was in his fifties, wearing a dark blue Royal Chinese Army officer's uniform, led the army with the highest rank, shining silver epaulettes, and on either side of the army emblem with the sword crossed and the moon and stars pattern, there were three silver bars on each side, Major General of the Royal Chinese Army.

He is Feng Zicai, commander of the Sino-Vietnamese Lao Joint Command, and is also the chief adviser of the Lao (Laos) Political Axe Army.

The joint command of the three armed forces of China and Vietnam is located in Hue, and its main task is to coordinate the order of the Indochina Peninsula, and its strength is composed of a Chinese infantry division, a Lao infantry brigade and a Vietnamese infantry division, plus logistics personnel, totaling more than 30,000 people.

In addition to Feng Zicai, the generals who discussed the meeting on the riverside also included Ye Shande, the commander of the mountain regiment, Songshan, the commander of the Laos New Army, and Dang Heng, the special adviser to the king of Laos.

Dang Heng, is the fifth grandson of the old party Chongya Dang Ge in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, a scholarly family, and a foreign background, partial students like to study the Chinese and Southern language family, just over 30 years old, was the deputy envoy of the Lao Embassy, but was valued by the king of Laos, hired as a special adviser, to teach him.

The commander of the Lao Mountain Infantry Regiment made Ye Shande, the Lao Lao Dragon clan, the surname is ruthless, murderous, after joining the Chinese nationality, he was named Shande, and was later given the surname Ye, he was highly favored, and was once summoned by the queen, he asked the Chinese interpreter to copy it, and he painted the scoop according to the gourd, and engraved the word "loyalty" in the heart with a dagger.

It is an inevitable procedure for all officers and men of the Mountain Infantry Regiment to change their Chinese names to Chinese nationality, but in fact, in Laos, the Central Plains language has now become the official language, and the Central Plains script has become the official language.

The three major ethnic groups in Laos, the Lao Song ethnic group in the north is from Hunan, Yunnan and other places that migrated hundreds of years ago, according to the later ethnic divisions are Miao, Yao and other ethnic groups, but in fact, it is difficult to divide some ethnic groups now.

The Lao Song people have always used simple Chinese characters as their own script, while the Lao Long people have been greatly influenced by Myanmar and Thailand and have formed their own unique script.

In present-day Laos, under the intervention of King Tianda, the Central Plains script is fully promoted.

The Lao king Tianda is actually the king of Luang Prabang in northern Laos, also known in China as the king of Nanzhang, who united the divided Lao states with the support of the Chinese.

In fact, if it were not for the arrival of Western colonizers, Vietnam and Thailand would have been competing for hegemony in the Indochina Peninsula for a long time, and the emergence of a unified Lao state very close to the Central Plains in the Indochina Peninsula is also a kind of balance for the future situation in the Indochina Peninsula.

In Ye Zhao's conception of the Southeast Alliance, the entanglement of interests between countries naturally has to be considered, and it is impossible for small countries, especially Southeast Asian countries, to be free of contradictions, and how to balance this contradiction is an art.

As the lord of Luang Prabang, Tianda has unified the whole of Laos today, and it is needless to mention his gratitude to the Chinese, and he has also had some insight, and he has been to the Central Plains, taken the train, and seen the prosperity of the Central Plains and the progress of science, which naturally greatly shocked, and he is also keenly aware that if he can maintain the same language and language with the Central Plains, he can rely on the Central Plains to become a part of the Central Plains economic circle to the greatest extent, and play an incalculable role in the future prosperity of Laos. It was he who soon ordered that the Central Plains script be designated as the only official script of Laos, and in terms of language, to promote the learning of the Central Plains dialect, especially the officials and nobles, should take the lead in learning to speak the Central Plains dialect.

The phonetic alphabet learning method implemented in the Central Plains also makes it easier to promote the Central Plains dialect.

In fact, in the group of southeastern countries, there is a widespread phenomenon of promoting the study of the Central Plains dialect, North Korea does not need to say, the Central Plains script is its official language, and Vietnam is also like this, the Central Plains script has an unshakable position in its official and non-governmental, the king of Vietnam more than 20 years ago, he asked the former Emperor Daoguang to issue the "Kangxi Dictionary" to Vietnam, so that the locals can learn Chinese, Vietnamese envoys, every time they go to Guangzhou, they have to buy several boatloads of Central Plains books for their lords, and even the pornographic books banned in China have become treasures.

It's just the mentality of the Heavenly Empire, and the previous dynasty felt that it was ridiculous and generous to learn Chinese characters from the country, and even endangered the society of the dynasty, so they often disdained it.

Of course, although there is phonetic aid, it is still difficult to learn if the Central Plains script is not the mother tongue, and the illiteracy of the Central Plains dialect is not easy to sweep away, not to mention the cloth clothes of North Korea, Vietnam and other countries, and the Central Plains language school is also facing its upper class and elite.

Laos was the most thorough, written and even linguistic, beginning to be fully centralized.

This is the case of Songshan, the commander of the new army of Laos, whose original name was Chahechai, heard that there are five mountains and Songshan in China, so he took Songshan as his name.

At present, Feng Zicai, Ye Shande, Songshan, and Dang Heng have a map of the Mekong River Basin in their hands, and several of them are discussing the matter of attacking Phnom Penh.

Yesterday, I received a secret telegram from Su Niangniang, saying that "I can help King Norodom of Cambodia expel the French."

Without saying a word, Feng Zicai began to deploy, as the representative of the Chinese military attache in the Indochina Peninsula, he had long been grinding his fists to fight the French.

As for Ye Shande and Songshan, they have never seen the methods of the Europeans, only know that the Central Plains are powerful, and the French have no fear.

The telegraph line in the Shangting area was erected from the Vietnamese port in the east, and there was no way, and the dense forests and mountains in the north made it very difficult to draw the telegraph line from the capital of Yunnan and Laos.

The attack on Phnom Penh was to be completed by the mountain regiment Reading Force, assisted by a battalion of the Lao New Army, and it was claimed to the outside world that the Lao political axe army was invited by the King of Cambodia to do it.

Feng Zicai is explaining military discipline to Ye Shande and Songshan, especially the Laos Mountain Regiment, speaking of which Feng Zicai is quite uneasy, these wild mountain people, in fact, are not much different from the savages, perhaps because of the customs, skinning people alive is not a good thing, ferociousness is cruel, it is inevitable that the wild is excessive, how to maintain its fierceness and make its orders like a mountain, is the problem that Feng Zicai has been solving.

While he was talking, two people walked over in the woods, it was Kensall, the secret envoy of King Norodom of Cambodia, and Liang Chongyue, an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who had been in contact with Konsale and would appear as a special adviser to the King of Cambodia in the future.

Since his appointment as commander of the Indochina Command, Feng Zicai's secret contact with King Norodom has never been interrupted.

Kensal was a swarthy short man, and before he could get closer, he asked in surprise, "Lord Feng, is it true?" You're going to expel those hateful French? ”

Seeing Feng Zicai nodding slightly, Kensal was indescribably excited, clasped his hands together and muttered to the sky.

At this time, rafts and boats were thrown into the water on the riverside, and dark-skinned soldiers wearing camouflage uniforms and carrying rifles jumped onto the rafts and boats one by one, and the pole paddles went south along the current.

Kensal clasped his hands in front of his chest, suppressed his excitement, suddenly realized that something was wrong, turned around and asked, "My lord, why is there no Heavenly Army?" "To be honest, these soldiers in camouflage military uniforms are dark-skinned and short, and there are still some differences between them and the Central Plains, and on more than a dozen rows of rafts, there is a faint [***] officer, who seems to be an instructor.

Feng Zicai looked at the rows of rafts swimming down the river, and said lightly: "They are also imperial soldiers. "The following words are not spoken, this is already overkill.

According to intelligence, the French conquered Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, with only five small gunboats and no more than 200 armed sailors, and the same armed force conquered all the tribes in Cambodia who dared to resist, and now in Phnom Penh, there are about 100 French soldiers.

More than a hundred French soldiers, even if they were armed with merchants, probably more than two hundred armed men, such a force, if half of the Imperial infantry regiment could not be easily handled, wouldn't it become a joke?

This contest is about the follow-up, not the beginning.

…… As the raft loaded with soldiers of the Lao infantry regiment was heading south along the stream, Ye Zhao was having dinner with US President Johnson.

Christina, who was wearing a surname evening dress and was glamorous, sat next to Ye Zhao and played the identity of Ye Zhao's girlfriend, in fact, she hadn't seen Ye Zhao for several days.

This is the restaurant of the Regent, and you can enjoy court dishes such as "roasted bear's paws" and "four treasures" from China.

Ye Zhao raised a full glass of liquid and gently gestured to Johnson, who smiled and raised his glass.

Ye Zhao said: "It's a pity, refrigerated transportation, the taste is less delicious, when Mr. President goes to China, you can taste Oriental food." ”

Johnson smiled: "Thank you Your Majesty for your kindness, but unfortunately, I'm afraid I won't have the opportunity to go to the East." The smile was faintly bitter.

Yes, because he has repeatedly compromised with the South, vetoed ten bills to ban the Ku Klux Klan and give black citizenship, and the radicals in the Republican Party are already preparing to impeach him, even if he can barely pass the test, next year's presidential election, I am afraid that he will not be nominated by the party at all, let alone succeed in the election, it is foreseeable that he will only struggle for a year in the presidency, what else to talk about going to the East?

Thinking of his own fate, and then thinking of the supreme authority of the Eastern Emperor opposite and his lifelong rule over the empire, he is also the supreme head of state, and his status can be described as heaven and earth.

How could Johnson not be emotional?

Ye Zhao smiled slightly and said: "Mr. President, I have always made a clear distinction between personal feelings and politics, and I don't agree with many of your ideas, such as the Ku Klux Klan, I think it must be resolutely banned, but this does not prevent you from becoming my friend, and when you come down from the presidency, I will officially invite you to visit China." ”

Yesterday, the two met for the first time, and Johnson had already learned Ye Zhao's strength, the oriental giant, who was honest and extraordinary, without half a polite cliché, and bluntly criticized his own policies. And invite yourself to say, this is Eastern philosophy, right? Make friends to maintain political relationships, not cold interest politics.

The two chatted, Christina also stopped what she was doing and listened quietly, looking at the confident mountain-like man in front of the president of her country, Christina's heart was drunk, these days, she also gradually heard many things about Ye Zhao, the iron-blooded royal family, led the pro-army to launch an epic unification war, his huge empire, in the East, no one dared to go against it. He is extremely gentle, and at the sound of an order, there will be a rolling torrent of millions of loyal soldiers, crushing all the resistance forces, even if the opponent is a country, it will be wiped out in an instant.

Such a person actually existed in reality, and, sitting next to her, imagining the incomparable demeanor of this man, Christina gradually became fascinated.

After the meal, the waiter brought fruit tea, Ye Zhao took a sip of the teacup, and said: "Mr. President, I am also concerned about the situation in Mexico, and in my opinion, this is a rather difficult issue. ”

Johnson was slightly stunned, and then smiled: "I am very willing to listen to Your Majesty's opinion." ”

In Mexico, when the Civil War broke out in the United States, Napoleon III supported Maximilian, a member of the Habsburg Dynasty of Austria, to become emperor in Mexico and establish the Second Mexican Empire in order to suppress the United States and occupy the Mexican market and silver mines at the same time.

President Monroe of the United States put forward the famous Monroe Doctrine 40 years ago, in a sense, it regarded the Americas as his sphere of influence, of course, because its national strength is not strong, and the political views of domestic parties are always evolving, so this is not a coherent policy.

However, for the Mexican Emperor Massimiliano I, who was supported by the French Emperor Napoleon III and the Queen Isabel of Spain, the United States Federal Political Axe expressed strong dissatisfaction during the Civil War, and immediately began to arm the Mexican Republicans, and at the beginning of this year, sent another 50,000 soldiers to the American-Mexican border to put pressure on France and provide supplies to the Republicans.

Not long ago, the French soldiers withdrew from Mexico, and the Mexican republicans began to attack the royalists with all their might, and the Mexican queen Carlotta went to Europe to ask for assistance, and lobbied all the way to Paris, Vienna, and Rome.

At a time when the republicans and royalists in Mexico were fighting fiercely, it was the most critical moment when the British North American colonies suddenly announced the establishment of the Canadian Federation.

The Confederation of Canada, like the first thirteen states of the United States, was a British colony in North America, but most of the immigrants in upper and lower Canada remained loyal to the British monarch, and the colonies in Canada were also regarded by the British as the most important bulwark of American influence.

The Americans began to march northward with confidence, because the Americans believed that the Canadians were waiting to be liberated by them, and as a result, they were ruthlessly attacked by the Canadian militia, which led to the Anglo-American war more than fifty years ago, which the Americans undoubtedly lost, but at that time Britain was leading the war against Napoleon throughout Europe, and had no time to focus most of their energy on this "small battle" that they considered a "small battle", but despite this, the British Royal Navy conquered Washington and burned down the official residence of the President of the United States.

It was also the only time in U.S. history that the capital was occupied by the Outer [***] team.

Of course, the Americans also won many local battles on land, and in the end the two sides hastily signed a peace treaty, which the British Army regarded as a skirmish, and did not study its own defeat in depth. These defeats were overshadowed by the Duke of Wellington's unprecedented victory over Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.

The colonies around Canada remained unchanged after the war, and Canadians became more loyal to the British Empire and more hostile to the Americans.

Therefore, the southern and northern borders of the United States are not at peace, and the British have an ambiguous attitude towards the Mexican royal family, and if they also recognize the legitimate surname of Massimiliano I, it will be a major setback for the United States to implement the Monroe Doctrine.

It was Ye Zhao who talked about the situation in Mexico, and President Johnson was in high spirits and said with great interest that he listened to Ye Zhao's views.

Johnson didn't know that the emperor of the East had always been a game-breaker.

Tasting tea at this time, Ye Zhao smiled and said, "The name of the Republican leader in Mexico is Juarez, right?" In elementary and junior high school history textbooks, Huarez is promoted as a famous hero, a hero against colonial rule. But now, I feel that I just see him as a chess piece, and the contrast cannot but make people feel emotional.

Johnson bowed slightly, and said, "Yes, Mr. Juarez is a revolutionary with noble feelings. ”

Ye Zhao said: "I hope that after the end of my visit to San Francisco, I will go to Mexico to reconcile the war between the two sides, urge the two sides to settle the dispute peacefully, and persuade Mr. Massimiliano to give up the illegitimate throne and leave Mexico." ”

Mexico is free from colonial rule, Ye Zhao is of course happy to see it, who would not dare to be interested in its silver mines and resources? This is also the reason why the United States began to encourage the colonial reading power one after another after after becoming strong, because it was ruled by the colonial powers, and the trade was completely monopolized by its suzerain, and the newly industrialized countries could not intervene at all.

For the whole of the Americas, especially for North America, because the Panama Canal has not been dug through, it is because although its eastern trading ports are full of European merchant ships, but the western ports are another world, and the western part of the Americas to carry out trade, is the farthest place that the Chinese caravans can reach, the waters of Malacca are completely controlled by the British, even if it is a merchant ship, it is extremely inconvenient, not to mention that west of Malacca, there is no shadow of the Chinese navy, and the safety of merchant ships is really not guaranteed.

Now, taking advantage of the stalemate of the civil war, the establishment of good relations with the Mexican republican government is a prerequisite for future trade with Mexico.

A thought flashed through the corner of Johnson's eyes, as the heir of the Monroe Doctrine, he naturally did not want the emerging Eastern empire to come to the Americas to expand its influence, although it was only mediation, but it was not difficult to imagine what it meant. But now the situation of the Mexican civil war is extremely uncertain, and the longer it drags on, the more likely it is that the British will intervene, and with the mediation of the Chinese, if Massimiliano I is willing to give up imperial power and leave Mexico, it will naturally be the best outcome.

Johnson also did not believe that the Chinese could successfully mediate, and the royalists in Mexico would surrender for no reason?

After thinking for a while, Johnson smiled and said, "I am glad to see His Majesty's support for the Mexican Republicans, and I will also arrange for diplomats to meet with Mr. Juarez as soon as possible to create the best mediation conditions for you." "Of course, it is a delaying tactic, and the think tanks will evaluate the pros and cons of everything, and then make a decision, and if they want to refuse the intervention of the Chinese, they only need to refuse on the grounds that there are no conditions for reconciliation."

Ye Zhao bowed slightly, the development of the Americans, Ye Zhao didn't want to make it more comfortable, but this point is naturally obscure, obscure, at least, it can't be allowed to dominate the North and South American continents.

In the long run, there are many European powers, and the struggle for European hegemony will be very busy, and the unique geographical conditions of the United States make it entirely possible for it to grow into a power that can compete with China in the Pacific, so it is inevitable to weaken it, intentionally or unintentionally.

Of course, at present, China is fighting for the opportunity of free trade in the Americas, and the Americans will inevitably understand it this way, and the Chinese also show great respect for the wishes of the Americans, after all, Mexico is not a colony of the United States, and the Chinese emperor is willing to mediate or even support which side, there is no need to inform it in advance.

Although the Americans put forward the Monroe Doctrine, their national strength was limited, and in fact, even Spain, a declining European aristocracy, never thought of abiding by the rules of the game set by the Americans.

On the other hand, the Chinese, whose foreign minister Zou Kaizhi, has clearly expressed support for the interests of the Americans in the Americas, and is also the most friendly country to the United States among the world powers.

Therefore, when President Johnson said goodbye, he could not help but express a few words of gratitude to Ye Zhao, and said that he would seriously reconsider the bill on banning the Ku Klux Klan and listing the Ku Klux Klan as an illegal organization.

Ye Zhao smiled silently.

(To be continued)