This order was called the "Unification Order of the Banks" by the Qing court, and as soon as this edict was issued, all parties in the world immediately realized that the war between the Qing and China was irreversible.

Dafu Bank is an important capital transfer station for Lin Fei to purchase Qingguo ore, and the business of Dafu Bank will be transferred to Daqing Bank, because Dafu Bank is not familiar with the business and the quantity is very small, so Lin Fei's payment for the purchase of ore will be delayed for a long time, and it is conservatively estimated that 80% of the ore will be delayed for more than three months.

Qing ore maintained 70% of the operation of China's factories, and if Qing ore's ore was delayed by three months, it would have an extremely terrifying impact on the economy of the Chinese Empire.

The first is the shutdown of the factory, the factory shutdown workers can not pay wages, workers do not engage in agricultural production, no wages can not survive, although the savings of workers can support a period of time, but this period of time will not be too long, more dangerous is that the delay in the delivery of Qingguo ore is certainly not only three months.

Once the factory is suspended, the downstream enterprises that use industrial products must stop working, at this time China is undergoing urbanization construction, a large number of industrial products need to be used, the factory is suspended, there will be a large number of housing construction plans to stagnation, once these housing construction plans are stalled, it will cause construction workers to lose their jobs, most of the construction workers are Indonesians, once they are unemployed, they will also stir up national contradictions in China.

Don't forget that Lin Fei's Huaxia is a multi-ethnic country dominated by a small number of Chinese, the most populous people are Indonesians, about 24 million, followed by Filipinos, about 7 million, and then Vietnamese, about 5 million, and Chinese, only more than 4 million.

Although there was an influx of Qing Chinese in the early days of the founding of the Chinese People's Republic of China, the Qing State later tightened the population migration policy (if the Qing people ran out, who would be exploited by the Qing court?). ), so that in the later period, the Chinese population stabilized and no longer grew.

If there were national contradictions in Lin Fei's China, then the Chinese Empire would most likely collapse on its own, which was absolutely impossible for Lin Fei to accept.

Therefore, Lin Fei could not allow this chain reaction to occur, and the first step to cut off this chain reaction was to force the Qing Dynasty to abolish the "Unification of Banks".

On 5 January, Lin Fei ordered Nguyen Phuc Bao Jiao to meet with Kang Youwei, the Qing ambassador to China, and handed over a diplomatic note in person, demanding that the Qing government repeal the "unification of banks" and saying that if the Qing government insisted on implementing the "unification of banks," the Chinese empire would have to use some special means to safeguard the interests of the empire.

The first day of the Lunar New Year in 1900 was January 31, and although both the Qing Dynasty and China regarded the Spring Festival as the most important festival, the joy of the festival did not dilute the atmosphere of war at all.

Lin Fei made a strong response the day after the promulgation of the Qing Dynasty's "Decree on the Unification of Banks", which made the Qing court feel a huge shock, but the Qing court still sent a note to Liu Yongfu, the ambassador of the Chinese Empire to the Qing Dynasty, in which he declared: "The unification of the banks is a state affair of the Qing State, and outsiders are not allowed to ignore it." ”

On 6 January, Lin Fei publicly announced that in order to cope with the current tense situation, the number of troops dispatched to Tianjin would be increased from 2,000 to 4,000, and that the new troops would arrive in Tianjin within 10 days.

When the Qing court saw Lin Fei's increase in troops, it felt a huge threat, and on the one hand ordered Yuan Shikai to lead a new army to surround Huaxia Tianjin and send troops, and on the other hand, sent Li Hongzhang to the embassies of various countries to ask for help.

Needless to say, Japan and Russia were fighting in full swing in the northeast of the Qing Dynasty, and the Russian Pacific Fleet was rushing to Port Arthur thousands of miles away, determined to fight to the death with the Japanese fleet.

Britain is also in South Africa and the Middle East with Germany war, can not spare a hand to help the Qing State, the rest of France, Austria-Hungary and Italy, simply do not have the strength to send troops to the Qing State, if Vietnam is still in the hands of France, then France may still send troops, but now not only Vietnam, the entire French Indochina has been taken away by Lin Fei, and France has no base to advance.

Li Hongzhang's only life-saving straw is only the United States, Li Hongzhang walked into the US embassy in a worried mood, the US ambassador was not surprised by Li Hongzhang's arrival, he even guessed Li Hongzhang's intention, but the US ambassador did not say anything, but asked Li Hongzhang with a smile: "Is there anything wrong with Mr. Li Hongzhang?" ”

"Mr. Ambassador, I believe you already know about the dispute between our Qing Dynasty and Huaxia."

"Of course I know that we in the United States of America still want peace for both of you." The U.S. ambassador smiled and said diplomatic rhetoric, Li Hongzhang's brows furrowed slightly, and he said in a deep voice: "Mr. Ambassador, there is no need to detour between us, I came to you just to form an alliance with your country." ”

"Alliance? I wonder what benefits Mr. Li Hongzhang can give us to the United States of America? The American ambassador still had a smile on his face, but behind the smile, he had raised his butcher's knife.

"Well...... this" Li Hongzhang felt a chill down his spine, we are in the Qing Dynasty, and we are going to compromise again, "I don't know what interests American friends want?" ”

The American ambassador happily took out a map, spread it out on the table, picked up a pencil, drew a dozen circles on it at random, and said with a smile: "We are going to draw a lease boundary in these places." ”

Li Hongzhang's heart trembled when he looked at the circles drawn by the US ambassador, because those dozen or so circles included almost all the important cities of the Qing Dynasty and the capitals of almost every province.

Li Hongzhang smiled and said, "Mr. Ambassador, is there too much concession?" Many provinces are inaccessible, and it is difficult for caravans in your country to pass. Years of diplomatic experience have made Li Hongzhang understand that Europeans and Americans want to do business, and Russians want land, and if they tell Americans that caravans can't get in, they don't want to go.

However, the U.S. ambassador shook his head and said with a smile: "Mr. Li Hongzhang, we don't want to do business in your country, we want to open up mining deposits in your country, and all the mineral deposits in the Qing country can be explored and mined by the United States of America, and the mines we have explored belong to our United States of America, what do you think?" ”

It's too much of a bully! The mineral deposits on the land where the Chinese nation has lived for generations have been discovered by the Americans, and they are about to be owned by the Americans.

Li Hongzhang didn't dare to agree, he knew that once he agreed to this condition, there would be endless troubles, but now Lin Fei was aggressive, and Li Hongzhang had no choice, so he had to push back and ask for instructions, came out of the US Embassy, and went back to report the American ambassador's request to the Guangxu Emperor and the Empress Dowager Cixi, and the Guangxu Emperor and the Empress Dowager Cixi's replies were unprecedentedly unanimous: "I'd rather be with foreign thieves than with domestic slaves, my inheritance of the Qing Dynasty, never allow thieves to steal, promise the Americans." ”

Li Hongzhang then returned to the US embassy and agreed to the US ambassador's conditions, and the US ambassador and Li Hongzhang immediately signed the "Qing-US Mutual Assistance Agreement," which stipulated that any infringement by a third party on either side of the United States would be regarded as an infringement on both the two sides.

On January 8, Lin Fei received the news that the Qing State and the United States had signed the "Qing-US Mutual Assistance Agreement", Lin Fei was shocked and angry, and he was planning to drag Britain, Germany, Japan and Russia into the war, so that they had no time to take care of Huaxia and the Qing court.

Lin Fei saw that the American ambassador was unceremonious, and directly reproached: "Your country has actually formed an alliance with the Qing State, which is a huge provocation to our Chinese Empire. ”

The U.S. ambassador did not back down and responded directly and proudly: "Your Majesty the Flying Emperor, which country our United States of America is allied with is our own country's own business, and no other country is allowed to interfere. ”

"Mr. Ambassador, please don't forget that your country also imports a large amount of gasoline from China every year, and if your country insists on forming an alliance with the Qing State, then I will have to cut the oil quota exported to the United States."

The U.S. ambassador was not afraid, and said with a straight face: "Mr. Lin Fei, please stop trying to control us with gasoline, at this time, our Standard Oil Company has developed a new gasoline refining technology, and the output has doubled compared with the original, so to speak, even if you completely stop exporting gasoline to us, we are not afraid." ”

"Are you really not afraid?" Lin Fei laughed mysteriously, three years ago, when Lin Fei attacked Sulawesi, in exchange for the support of the Americans, Lin Fei sold leaded gasoline technology to the American Standard Oil Company, and later this company's leaded oil dominated the market.

Leaded gasoline is toxic, long-term inhalation will cause irreversible damage to intelligence, especially the intelligence of young children, Lin Fei sold leaded gasoline to the Americans, just waiting for a day to make the truth about leaded gasoline public, so that the American gasoline companies completely collapsed, so that Huaxia gasoline completely occupied the American market.

It seems that now is the time to use this trick.

Lin Fei's question confused the American ambassador, he raised his head and said confidently: "Of course we are not afraid, we have nothing to fear." ”

"Since you're not afraid, it's great, Mr. Ambassador, let's see, come and see off." After Lin Fei finished speaking, he asked the American ambassador to be sent out.

On 11 January, the US Government announced that at the invitation of the Qing Government, the US Pacific Fleet would pay an official visit to the port of Tianjin, and the fleet was expected to arrive at the port of Tianjin in early February.

The U.S. government also announced that the Pacific Fleet would be led by Admiral George Brown. Dewey led, George? Dewey was extremely famous in the era of Lin Fei, he commanded the naval battles in the Spanish-American War, and was awarded the title of "special general" after the war. Dewey was the only admiral.