Since it is impossible to obtain further information for the time being, and it is impossible to find out who is behind Li Yongji in the short term, Li Yongji decided to treat this matter coldly and not make a big fuss about this matter.

The reason is very simple, judging from the investigation methods of this era, if you want to find out the mastermind behind the scenes in the short term, you can only raise a big prison, or play a hard crackdown to implicate you, but this kind of approach, not to mention whether you can really find the guy behind the scenes, even if you can find it, there must be a lot of innocent people implicated, in fact, it is very unnecessary, and it is not worth the loss.

In fact, Li Yongji can think that since people dare to do this, they must have made all kinds of preparations, like this kind of thing that has no actual evidence at all, and relies on one or two people to make a one-line contact, you can't investigate it in detail at all.

Because there is only one person who has contacted those two lobbyists and has shown his face, you have to check, this person is vast, and when the time comes, people only need to find a place to hide, and you can't find it at all, or even a little ruthless, just kill it, and you won't be able to find it.

This kind of guy who hides in the shadows, if the other party doesn't do it and moves blindly, he will only startle the snake and make the other party hide deeper, but he will not be lightly injured. On the contrary, if you stand still and everything is as usual, the other party will find that the plan has not been successful, and they feel that there is no danger, and they will definitely start again.

In other words, Li Yongji's current approach is to send it outside and tighten it inside, so as to respond to all changes without change, if the other party does not move, then it will be enough, if he makes another move, he will be able to catch the other party sooner or later, and there will be no hurry to catch it all at that time.

Since he doesn't plan to make a big move, he can only put it on hold for the time being, compared to this matter, Li Yongji has more things to do.

At present, the most important thing is, of course, with Joseph, the commander-in-chief of the Western Theater of the Allied Army and the commander-in-chief of the Allied side. Johnston held formal talks for further consultations on the withdrawal of troops and the return of Memphis.

Although, theoretically, the Union State had territorial claims to Memphis. It has always insisted that Memphis and other places captured by the Chinese Expeditionary Force belong to the territory of the Allied Powers, and that the Allied Powers have the legal right to own and administer these places.

However, that is only a theoretical situation, in fact, because these places in Memphis are basically fought by the expeditionary force itself, although the Union Army also sent troops to follow, but it is basically a soy sauce role, so although the Chinese representative has never publicly stated the ownership of these places, but in practice. The jurisdiction of these cities is in the hands of the Chinese.

That is to say, including New Orleans, Vicksburg, Memphis, Nashville, Cairo, and Smithland, all of them currently belong to the Chinese representatives, that is, the administrative officials sent by the expeditionary force are responsible for management, and the local policing, tax collection, and judicial powers also belong to the Chinese administrative officials.

For ease of administration, these cities hold administrative positions. Specifically, the whole way of streamlining the administration is to implement a set of chief executive responsibility system.

The so-called chief executive responsibility system means that each city has a chief executive who has an overall view of the overall situation. The Chief Executive has a lot of power, and he is free to appoint the candidates of the Sheriff, the Commissioner of Taxation and other subordinate agencies below.

In other words, the Chief Executive alone represents the judicial, executive and legislative powers. It is not only the number one leader in administration, but also the number one in the judiciary, not only in charge of public order and tax collection. It is also in charge of adjudicating cases, formulating local methods, and so on.

In other words, although the prefix means that the chief executive is only responsible for administration, but in fact, he grasps all kinds of powers, and is the real emperor of the soil, so it can be said that once he becomes the chief executive, in the local area, except for the local garrison of the expeditionary force and the commissioner sent by the central government of the empire, he is the chief executive, and in addition, there is no outsider who can restrain him at all.

However, it seems that he has a lot of power, but because the chief executive is appointed by the empire, he must also accept the leadership of the empire, abide by the basic laws of the empire's overseas colonization, and abide by universal values, and it is impossible to be really unscrupulous.

For example, the chief executive is not allowed to engage in anything like that, and if he does, the local expeditionary force garrison will not agree to it first.

In short, the chief executive seems to have great power, but in fact he is only an auxiliary officer to help the expeditionary force, and the purpose is to assist the garrison of the expeditionary force and stabilize the place, so as to alleviate the disadvantage of the expeditionary force's lack of strength and energy.

In other words, as the chief executive, you have to pay out of your own pocket to hire police and other administrative officials to maintain law and order in the local area, collect taxes in a timely manner, stabilize local trade exchanges, etc., and the empire will not pay a penny for these administrative expenses.

In this way, to be the chief executive of these cities, you must have your own money, so in order to take care of this, the chief executives of these cities do not implement a dispatch system, but a bidding system.

That is to say, the administrative jurisdiction over cities such as New Orleans and Memphis was no longer sent by the imperial center, but openly recruited from society.

Specifically, as long as you want to be the chief executive, are willing to abide by the laws and rules of the empire, and are willing to pay at least 10,000 yuan as a collateral in advance, and agree to pay all the administrative expenses out of your own pocket, you can participate in the selected activities of the chief executives of these cities.

Candidates are not only limited to Chinese, foreigners can also come to participate in the election, anyway, as long as you are willing to be obedient, willing to pay money, willing to pay out of your own pocket, no matter which nationality, you can come.

Although it is an open campaign, and it is not limited to Chinese, in fact, there can be no real fairness in such activities, especially in important places such as New Orleans and Memphis, which must be in the hands of reliable people, otherwise once something goes wrong, the consequences will still be very serious.

Therefore, in the end, although there was an open election ceremony, on the surface, it was said that the highest bidder would win, but the bidding method was a hidden standard.

In the end, the four most important cities, such as New Orleans, Vicksburg, Memphis, and Cairo, were all given to Chinese merchants, and the merchants of the Confederate states were given only one city, Nashville, and became the chief executive of the city of Nashville.

In fact, it can be seen from this layout that the important cities along the Mississippi River are still all given to the Chinese, and although Nashville is also a good city, it is also a big city at this time, but in terms of strategic layout, it is not so important. After all, Nashville could not blockade the Mississippi River and had no impact on the important communication routes of the expeditionary force.

Moreover, the war-torn city of Nashville, whose population has dropped to less than 10,000, is far less expensive than other cities to take over. Therefore, obtaining the administrative jurisdiction of the city is not so much a bid for the merchants of the Allied States to win, but rather a little sweetness from the Chinese side in order to avoid too bad an impact. Lest everyone say that Chinese eat alone, and do not even give soup to others.

Although this result is a lot more boring, and there is no fairness at all, the people of the Union can not do anything about it.

After all, the Chinese have a big fist, and it was the Chinese who conquered these places and actually occupied them, and the people of the coalition army, as latecomers, did not dare to have any objections until they made up their minds to make a complete break with China.

Joke. Now the allies are still counting on the big brother of China to help destroy the northern government, and now there is a conflict at this time, isn't it looking for a draw, so even if Joseph. Johnston was dissatisfied. I can only swallow this breath first.

In short, the entire Western Theater of Operations, especially along the Mississippi River, was once captured by the Northern Army. Cities that have been beaten down by the Chinese, no matter who the chief executive is, belongs to which nationality. Regardless of how the Allied powers claimed ownership of these places, they actually belonged to China, or to the expeditionary force.

In these cities, especially the major cities along the Mississippi River, there were Chinese garrisons, including the Chinese Expeditionary Force and the security forces hired by the Administrator, who together maintained the jurisdiction of the land.

Although the administrative jurisdiction of these cities was sold to merchants, for the sake of stability, these people who obtained the official position of chief executive were only responsible for maintaining law and order, collecting local taxes, and maintaining trade routes.

As a matter of fact, since Li Yongji did not intend to stay there for a long time from the beginning, he did not have time to engage in any local and methodological discussion activities, and after selling the chief executive, he simply used the state of war as an excuse to implement the strategy of military control over these cities.

In other words, the chief executive took over the city, but he could only maintain law and order, collect taxes from the people, and send troops to protect the trade routes, but he could not make his own laws, and all the local laws and codes of conduct were decided by the expeditionary force and militarized control.

It is difficult for everyone to say anything about this situation, after all, the reasons for military management are very sufficient, and it was indeed fighting very hard with the northern army at that time, and the expeditionary force was desperately working in the front, and it was also very necessary to implement military management in the rear for the sake of supply security.

Not to mention the Chinese outsiders, even when the Northern Army led by Grant captured these cities, didn't they also implement the policy of military management, and did not see any power given to the locals, so everyone was used to it.

Now, now that the Chinese government and the United States of America have formally signed an armistice agreement, and the two sides have announced that they will cease the state of hostilities and change to a state of armistice, it is time for some of the previous policies to change.

In other words, Joseph. Johnston was in such a hurry to meet with Li Yongji to discuss the next changes and put forward his new requirements.

Because this meeting was a high-level meeting, there were not many people, just Li Yongji, who came out in the name of Li Yuanzheng, commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, and Joseph, commander-in-chief of the Western Theater of the Allied Army. The private meeting between Johnston and the two men can also be regarded as a prelude to formal negotiations.

Under normal circumstances, what these two people negotiate can determine the basic terms of this negotiation, and the so-called formal negotiation later, that is, each side sends a vote, and everyone formulaically sits opposite to negotiate, which is just a formality, and it is for outsiders to see.

In other words, the real decision is not at all decided by the discussion of the people, but by Li Yongji and Joseph. Johnston these two people.

As the de facto master of Memphis, the expeditionary force provided the venue for this negotiation, and it is not difficult to guess the place, which is the current Governor's Mansion and the original Memphis Mayor's Mansion.

By the way, the term chief executive is the official title in Chinese, and for local Southern Americans, or people in the Union States, this mansion is still called the city hall and the chief executive is the mayor, but this is only a matter of translation, and the meaning is actually similar.

In short, political negotiations in the Chief Executive's Office, or the City Hall, are indeed formal enough and can be regarded as a form of respect.

When Lee Yong-gil and Joseph. After Johnston met again, everyone hadn't said a word, Joseph. Johnston couldn't wait to get straight to the point, and put forward several requirements for the Chinese side, or for the expeditionary force.

The first demand is that on the grounds that China has ended the state of war with the Northern Army, the Chinese are required to completely transfer jurisdiction over New Orleans, Vicksburg, Memphis, Cairo, Smithland and other cities to the government of the Confederate States of America.

After the transfer of jurisdiction, the Chinese side is not allowed to keep any more troops of any nature in these places, and all Chinese administrative officials must also leave immediately, and they must not continue to exercise the right to rule, of course, as compensation, the Allied government promised to give certain economic compensation to these administrative officials who have paid a lot of money.

The second requirement is that the Chinese side needs to hand over all the captured Northern Army prisoners to the coalition army, and the coalition army will be responsible for custody and processing, and as compensation, the alliance army agrees to give the expeditionary force a certain amount of economic compensation, but the amount will not be too much, it is only symbolic.

The third point is that the Chinese side hopes that all the weapons captured by the Northern Army can be handed over to the coalition forces free of charge, and the coalition forces will express their gratitude for this.

Once the Chinese expeditionary force agrees to these three demands and leads the army to withdraw from the Allied Powers, the Allied Forces guarantee that when the Chinese goods are in the territory of the Allied States, the Allied Forces will provide all-round military support for the goods of the Chinese merchants and ensure that the Chinese goods will not be harassed in any way in the territory of the Allied States, and these military guarantees are free of charge and do not require additional money from the Chinese side.

"You're asking too much." After hearing this, Li Yongji shook his head, "I don't see any sincerity, or rather, these requests of yours are not of the slightest benefit to us, why should we agree to you?" ”

"You're already leaving, aren't you?" Joseph. Johnston said in a deep voice, "And these cities were originally the cities of our Confederate States, but they have fallen and been defeated by you. So de jure speaking, these cities have always been ours, and it was only because you were fighting the Federation Army at the time that you were our allies that we tentatively agreed to let you govern these cities to facilitate your operations, but this is only to lend jurisdiction to you temporarily.

However, now that you have a truce with the Federation Army, and we are still fighting against the Northern Army, it is reasonable for you to theoretically no longer fight side by side with us as Allied forces, and in this case, it makes sense for us to demand that the jurisdiction of these cities be taken back.

As for handing over the prisoners and weapons of the Federal Army, seriously, you don't need it, if you hand it over to us, you can still gain our friendship, and besides, we are not taking it for nothing, we will definitely give you some financial compensation, this is actually a good deal, isn't it?

Of course, if you feel that it is not suitable, we can discuss the matter of prisoners and weapons, but the first is non-negotiable, and you must immediately transfer all jurisdiction to us, and you shall not leave any army of any nature without our consent.

This army of any nature, including your government forces, as well as your private mercenaries, is not allowed to stay in these cities unless it is a foreign armed force that our coalition forces have agreed to stay! (To be continued......)