Perhaps influenced by another time and space, Li Yongji was very concerned about the United States from the beginning, even when he had not yet seized all of China, he began to think about the American Civil War.

The reason is very simple: Li Yongji believes that the United States has too much advantage, and if there is no accident, the United States will eventually rise and become China's biggest enemy in the future to dominate the world.

If it was the middle of the 20 th century, the United States would have been solidified, but now it is different, and there is still a chance to divide the United States, and even to seize the west coast of the United States and turn the Pacific Ocean into its own inland sea.

Because of this, Li Yongji has always maintained restraint and did not show much aggression, and even if Wang Sanwu had not acted privately at that time, he might still be under the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and become a local warlord, instead of spending time and energy to dominate the whole country like now.

In other words, according to Li Yongji's original plan, he hoped not to attack the Manchu Qing Dynasty for the time being, not to establish the country and become the emperor for the time being, at most to kill the Taiping army, and then occupy the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, relying on the most elite Jiangnan region, to become a warlord for a period of time.

The advantage of this is that the territory is small and there are few things, so that you can have more time and energy to fight the war, especially the navy, and then at the beginning of the American Civil War, you will begin to intervene to help the southern United States successfully become independent and divide the United States into at least two countries.

It's a pity that Li Yongji's rise was too fast, and the ideological consciousness of his subordinates was very low, and Li Yongji's communication with his subordinates was not good, so when the troops dispersed, he led Wang Sanwu's private actions, and finally turned his face with the Manchus in advance, and had to attack the Manchus early.

The Manchus were different from the Taiping Army, although the ruling class was Manchu, it was still Chinese orthodoxy, so opposing the Qing Dynasty was tantamount to openly starting to fight for the world, and it was impossible to be a warlord in peace. Therefore, Li Yongji, who understood it, had to spend time and energy to quickly launch the Northern Expedition, to smash the Yellow Dragon, kill the Manchu ruling base, and first establish political power and unify China.

Even if Li Yongji had a great advantage, the overthrow of the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the unification of China also took up a lot of his energy and resources, which also made him have to postpone his trip to the United States again and again.

Not to mention the energy, after the unification of China and becoming the emperor, there were not only many things that he had to deal with personally, but more and more, and Li Yongji could not continue to lead troops with peace of mind. He also had to take the lead in many internal affairs, and it was not until the military and political reforms were carried out and the State Council and the National Defense Force were introduced that Li Yongji could finally take a breath of relief from internal affairs.

In addition to energy, after the unification of China, the consumption of resources on hand of Li Yongji is also very large.

Li Yongji has calculated that ninety percent of the current taxes of the Chinese Empire are collected from the direct jurisdiction of the empire, and these ninety percent of the taxes are paid. Another eighty percent was provided by the Jiangnan area where Li Yongji started.

Originally, when Li Yongji had not rebelled and only owned the Jiangnan area, because of the golden finger of time and space trading, his income was much higher than his expenditure. In other words, the amount of expenditure needed in the Jiangnan area is very small and not large, which can allow Li Yongji to concentrate on development with peace of mind. It also gave Li Yongji the capital to pay taxes lightly.

However, after Li Yongji's rebellion, especially after conquering Shandong, Anhui, northern Jiangsu, Henan, Hebei and other places. These localities did not provide much tax revenue to Li Yongji, but the expenditure was so large that it could not even carry out the compulsory primary education that was originally carried out in the Jiangnan area.

In other words, if Li Yongji still only rules the Jiangnan area plus these rich places in Anhui, then by now, Li Yongji's strength will be stronger, and the economy, science and technology, education, and military will develop better, and Li Yongji will not be dragged down by a large number of poor areas as it is now.

This is also due to the fact that Li Yongji's real direct districts are all rich places in the east, and if other autonomous regions also become direct jurisdictions, then Li Yongji's burden will be even heavier.

Therefore, from this aspect, the governors of the autonomous region who can't let go of their power are actually helping Li Yongji in disguise.

This made Li Yongji very depressed, because he suddenly found that a large territory is not necessarily a good thing, especially after obtaining a poor place, at least in the short term, the investment is far greater than the return.

Originally, this was nothing, because after all, if the territory is larger, there will be more population and resources, and as time goes by, sooner or later it will become a new economic growth point, but the problem is that Li Yongji has no time to slowly develop the economy now, he has to arrange it as soon as possible, and then go to the United States to intervene in the civil war.

The American Civil War has been going on for a year now, although Li Yongji secretly provided support to the South very early on, such as secretly selling arms to the South at a very low price in the name of American Southern merchants in China, which gave the South a huge advantage at the beginning.

However, the strength of the South of the United States is far inferior to that of the North, and by now, the South of the United States has shown a declining trend and has lost more and more battles, while the North of the United States has eased its strength and begun to give full play to its advantages of being strong in numbers and industry, and has formed a stalemate with the Southern Army on the battlefield.

Clear-eyed people can see that if the southern army can't fight a quick battle and continue to hold each other like this, then sooner or later it will be eaten by the north, after all, the longer it is, the more unfavorable it will be to the south.

The South is not unaware of this, but even if they had better commanders, better weapons, and more experienced troops, they still could not make decisive progress.

Therefore, Li Yongji had already decided that in any case, he would start a formal intervention in the American Civil War in 1862, and if it dragged on, it would not be to unite with the Confederate States to fight the United States, but to resist the whole United States independently.

Nation-building can be done slowly, but the opportunity is fleeting, and if it is allowed to reunite the North of the United States, there will be almost no chance of interfering with the United States in the future.

Because of this, Li Yongji made a series of preparations.

Li Yongji thought about it, if he left China to mess around in the United States, the most important point was to maintain the stability of the domestic rear, and to maintain the stability of the country, the most important thing is two factors, one is wealth, the other is soldiers, but in the final analysis, it is still a word of wealth.

Almost all of the troops of the Chinese Empire were brought out by Li Yongji, and the army's loyalty to the emperor could also be guaranteed, so as long as there was no shortage of money, even if he was not in China, he could still maintain stability in the country.

Therefore, Li Yongji made the main preparations. It is to find a way to stabilize the finances of the Dìng Empire.

In terms of finance, if you want to rely on the strength of the empire itself to accumulate little by little, I am afraid that it is still a little owed, so Li Yongji mainly used some unconventional means to accumulate wealth, and this unconventional means is naturally his space-time trading system.

Since three months ago, Li Yongji has greatly reduced the import of daily consumer goods and military supplies from modern society, and instead increased the amount of various industrial equipment and precious metals such as silver and brass.

Among them, large-scale industrial equipment, as well as some technical data and practical consumables. Generally, it relies on Zhang Xinda, while precious metals such as silver and brass mainly rely on Dou Bifeng.

By the way, due to continuous trading, Dou Bifeng's client was upgraded as early as a month ago, and it has reached the same transmission volume as Zhang Xinda, which can reach 100 tons per day, but the trading volume is Li Yongji and Zhang Xinda, and there is still no change.

Needless to say, industrial equipment. Naturally, it is to improve the level of its own domestic industry, so that the country can produce some industrial products within its capacity.

Today, in addition to the most basic weapons, some simple chemicals and some simple detergents and other civilian products. The empire can produce its own products, and when it exports to the outside world, it mainly exports the products that the empire can produce itself, greatly reducing the purchase of modern consumer goods.

As for silver and brass. Needless to say, this was to stabilize the financial affairs of the Dìng Empire so that the Empire's monetary reform would not go wrong.

Although the Chinese Empire also issued banknotes. But in this era, paper money did not establish absolute credit, so within the empire was a situation where coins and paper money were issued together.

In terms of coins, they are mainly self-minted silver and copper coins, which require a large amount of silver and brass as a base.

Since the import of modern precious metals is mainly used as currency, although the value of pure copper is higher, it is more cost-effective to import silver due to tonnage limitations.

Silver and brass in modern society are very cheap, and the output is also very large, so Li Yongji has successively purchased more than 5,000 tons of pure silver with 99.99% silver content and more than 2,000 tons of pure copper with 99.9% copper content from modern society.

Among them, pure copper is mainly used as an industrial product, and generally does not participate in coinage, in other words, the main standard currency of the Chinese Empire is silver coins, and the implementation of the silver standard system is still implemented.

At present, due to the participation of metal currency, and in order to facilitate the use of the old currency, the currency of the Chinese Empire is divided into four levels: yuan, jiao, cent, and cent.

One yuan and ten jiao, one dime ten, one cent and ten cents, of which one cent is equal to one penny in the old system, and one yuan is about equal to one tael of silver in the old system. If it is calculated in this way, it is equal to 1 yuan and 1000 centimeters, which is roughly the same conversion.

Generally speaking, although the circulation of the old money is not prohibited, and the silver content of the new money is not high, but because the new money has a higher technical content, the system is more exquisite, it is more difficult to imitate, and the government credit is higher, and it is easy to use, so most of the people like to use the new money.

Due to the shortage of copper and the great role of copper, the currency of the Chinese Empire was mainly based on the silver dollar, of which the yuan was silver coins, and the currency of the angular centith was generally copper coins and paper money, but the number of paper money was much larger than that of copper coins.

In other words, the yuan side is dominated by silver dollars, and the secondary currency is dominated by paper money.

A one-dollar silver coin weighs 30 grams and contains 85 percent of silver, that is, 25.5 grams of silver, so that 5,000 tons of sterling silver can create at least 190 million silver dollars, which is about 190 million taels of silver in terms of purchasing power.

What needs to be said is that this is not the deposit silver in the CITIC Bank or the Imperial Bank, but the amount of pure silver that Li Yongji bought from modern society, and the real treasury silver is not this number.

In fact, due to the increasing foreign trade surplus on Li Yongji's territory in the last two years, the silver outside the guide has begun to converge again in the Li Yongji-controlled district, and this return not only includes foreign countries, but also other autonomous regions in China.

In particular, almost all of the core industries of the Chinese Empire are monopolized by imperial enterprises, so almost all of the silver returned to the imperial enterprises has flowed into the imperial enterprises, and these enterprises are directly linked to the genuine royal bank, China CITIC Bank, so almost all of the silver flowing into the pockets of the imperial family.

According to statistics, so far, since the establishment of China CITIC Bank, the silver absorbed one after another has reached a terrifying figure of 13,000 tons of silver, of which only about 4,500 tons have been re-injected into the market. Probably only a little more than a third, and the other 8,000 tons of silver are kept in the coffers of the CITIC Bank as reserves.

In comparison, the reserves in the Imperial Bank are pitifully small, only about 500 tons, and the treasury income of the Chinese Empire is only 300 million yuan, most of which is still obtained by issuing treasury bonds, that is, the Chinese Imperial Government is now actually in deficit finance.

However, because it is a super centralized country, Li Yongji's royal income and treasury income are actually equivalent to the relationship between the left hand and the right hand. If the treasury has no money, it can directly issue treasury bonds and face the society, or take money directly from the central bank, that is, the CITIC Bank.

In other words, relying on Li Yongji's hanging, how much money he has is equivalent to how much money the country has.

There is so much silver to base upon, plus it is currently a period of turmoil and recovery. The economy was doing well, and the prestige of the royal family and the imperial government was growing with the victory in the war, so the country's finances were so far quite sound.

Even if it's not enough to spend. By issuing treasury bonds and printing banknotes, it is possible to issue at least one billion yuan to flow into the market without collapsing, which means that the imperial government has at least one billion yuan. Or a billion taels of silver as the base.

In addition, there was a bumper grain harvest, and the government used a deficit to recruit troops and workers by spending a lot of money. On the one hand, it absorbs a large number of idle and strong laborers in the society, reduces the source of social unrest, and at the same time flows a large amount of money, causing weak inflation in the whole society, coupled with the increasing surplus of foreign trade, which will stimulate the economy of the whole society to move forward faster and better.

In other words, at this point, in fact, even if Li Yongji does not interfere more, relying on the current social environment that has just ended the turmoil and people's minds are determined, there will be no problems in the financial aspect.

There is no shortage of money and food, Prime Minister Shen Shiming is also very reliable, there is radio to contact, and the army is still firmly in his hands, so even if Li Yongji does not return to China for a year and a half, I believe there will be no big problem.

Why didn't Li Yongji rush to the United States? It was in order to first solve the problem of China's central finance and the garrison of troops in various places, and now that these two problems are no longer a big problem, the biggest stone in Li Yongji's heart has been put down.

Of course, there is another problem, that is, waiting for Britain's reply, after all, Li Yongji's own interference in the United States is not impossible, but in the end, he is alone, especially the navy is still relatively weak, and pulling Britain in is more or less a help, at least it can allow the British navy to control the United States, so that he can better transfuse blood to the southern allies of the United States, and make more money by the way.

Before the American Civil War, Li Yongji began to sell arms to the southern part of the United States, and as soon as the Civil War broke out and the northern fleet of the United States began to blockade the east coast everywhere, this kind of arms trade became more and more difficult to do, and in the second half of 1861, because of the large-scale blockade by the United States Navy, this kind of trade in arms for agricultural products in the Union area was almost cut off.

Why is the American South not as sharp now as it was at the beginning? In addition to the relief of the north, it was also related to the blockade of the coast of the Union by the fleet of the United States, which led to the economic deterioration of the Union State.

Therefore, if Britain could join the alliance that intervened in the American Civil War and send a navy to contain the American Navy, then the trade routes with the Confederate countries could be reopened, and the economy of the Allied countries could be restored.

Originally, there had been no news from the British, and Li Yongji knew that he was going to give up the matter of joining the United Kingdom, but who knew that just before he was about to officially leave for the United States, the British envoy took the initiative to come over and bring news from the British government.

It turned out that Britain agreed in principle to unite with China to interfere with the United States' decision, but would not fire first, and must let the Chinese fire the first shot, and they felt China's sincerity before sending their navy to contain the American navy and vigorously support the southern allies.

In other words, in order for Britain to join the armed intervention against the United States, China must first formally declare war on the United States of America, and not engage in any volunteer army, otherwise Britain would not send troops to the war.

The reason is very simple, it is quite sensitive to send a naval fleet to blockade the coastline of another country, and it is okay to bully a small country, such as China in the past, but it is purely uncomfortable to use force against the interference of a recognized great power country like the United States, and to hide and play the trick of the volunteer army, it is purely uncomfortable, it is to blacken one's face, it is better to interfere in the name of the country in a dignified manner, but there are not so many worries.

So. The meaning of the British is very simple, they agree to interfere with the United States, but since it was the Chinese you proposed it first, then you should express your position first. As long as you declare war on the United States first and use force against the United States, then Britain will also agree to declare war on the United States.

Of course, in order to show their sincerity, the British were willing to sign a secret agreement with China, indicating that China and Britain would form a Sino-British military mutual assistance agreement.

Once this military mutual assistance pact is reached, then either side of China and Britain will be attacked. If the other party does not have a valid reason, he must ask for unconditional help; By the same token, if either side declares war on another country, the other side must follow suit if it has no definite reason.

The treaty stipulates that if one side is attacked or declares war on another country, and the other side does not help in time, the military mutual assistance treaty is automatically nullified.

That is, Britain wants to fight the United States. But did not want to take the initiative to provoke a war, so I figured out that Guò signed this Sino-British military alliance, so that the Chinese would fight the United States first, so that Britain could follow the treaty of the alliance. Also follow the fight against the United States.

In this way, everyone has nothing to say about Britain's entry into the war, after all, not to mention the rest of Europe, and the current isolationism of Britain itself is not small. Most of the people were not willing to send troops directly to intervene in the American Civil War, and they had to find an excuse for the British government.

"What a calculation." After the British envoy left, Li Yongji said to Shen Shiming, who accompanied him. "The British ostensibly wanted to deal with the United States, but I think they were more than that, and more wanted to tie our hands and feet to the agreement and make us turn a blind eye to the British aggression in Tibet and Indochina."

"Tibet and Indochina?" Shen Shiming was stunned, obviously he hadn't thought of this yet.

"That's right." Li Yongji pointed to the location of Thailand on the map, "As far as I know, the British are pressing on Burma and Siam step by step, forcing Siam to sign the Treaty of Pauling a few years ago, and since then they have continued to encroach on Siam, making the King of Siam miserable. Not to mention Burma, where the British army and Burma have just ceased war, but the two sides are still tense and it is very likely that they will fight again. ”

"Oh, I remember." Shen Shiming nodded, "Burma and the envoys of Siam are still here, they came to participate in our New Year's Day celebrations, and asked us to see His Majesty, do they want His Majesty to help them drive away the British?" ”

"That's right." Li Yongji nodded, "The envoys from Burma and Siam have all come to me to cry together, hoping that we can help them drive out the British, and for this, they can pay us tribute." ”

"I see." Shen Shiming continued to nod, "Presumably, the British did this when they heard the rumors."

You see, once we sign this military agreement with them, it will be tantamount to trapping our hands and feet, so that if they invade Burma and Siam, we will not be able to help these two countries, and even according to the agreement, we will have to attack the Burmese and Siam together with the British.

To put it bluntly, the British deliberately came up with this thing because they saw that we were resolute in fighting the United States, hoping to make us admit the fait accompli of their aggression against Siam. ”

"That's right, that's what the British think, but it's not necessarily that the British heard the news, and the British couldn't react so quickly, so I think it should be prevented in advance." Li Yongji smiled and said, "Of course, the British really want to interfere in the American Civil War, after all, as long as they are not fools, they all know that it is beneficial for the United States to split into two countries, especially for the British." ”

"Then since Your Majesty knows their intentions, will we still sign this agreement?"

"Sign, of course." Li Yongji smiled, "You have to understand this, this thing is mutual. Let's not say that it would be better to fight the United States with the help of the British, let's talk about Indochina, the British fight Siam, and we can also justifiably fight Burma and Siam. Hehe, we are closer, there are more soldiers, and when the time comes, when it comes to grabbing territory, the British can't compare to us. ”

"陛xià." Shen Shiming frowned, "Burma and Siam originally meant to surrender to us, and we united with Britain to fight them, which seems to be untenable in terms of morality." ”

"Morality is a fart, this year is the era of great powers, whoever has the big fist will have morality!" Li Yongji said, "Besides, what about Burma and Siam surrendering to us? It's nothing more than wanting to make the same cheap as before, and that little benefit on face, is it okay to directly send troops to occupy the territory?

Hmph, the Indochina Peninsula is a good place, not only rich in resources, but also has a very important strategic position, if these places are not taken down, sooner or later it will be a big disaster. However, now the British and the French have stepped in, and it is just right that they will unite with the British first, fight Burma and Siam together, and then occupy the territory first.

Especially in Myanmar, where jade is produced, Lao Tzu has been thinking about that place for a long time...... Ahem, in short, the British turned out to be guests, and the troops were insufficient, and we united the British to fight Burma and Siam, we were closer, and we were also similar in culture, and it was easier to swallow them. On the contrary, it will be difficult for the British to master them all, and we can also cause trouble for their dominion, and sooner or later the place they will take will be ours.

Therefore, whether it is for the sake of interfering with the United States, or for the sake of Indochina in the future, or even for the sake of commercial and trade exchanges, we should now cooperate with the British.

Anyway, the agreement is such a thing, everyone can abide by it if it is good, and if the conflict is too big, can it be torn up at any time, and it is not a big deal. ”

"Tear it off at any time? Isn't that a breach of promise? ”

"No, no, no." Li Yongji shook his head, "Old Shen, you have to make it clear that the way of the world has changed now, only interests are talked about between countries, and everything else is false, and the so-called morality is just a fig leaf to beautify interests." Besides, this thing stipulates how there is no reasonable reason...... Listen, people will give themselves steps first, reasonable reasons, you can find a lot of them at any time, okay, that's it! ”

"So, we're going to sign this deal with the British?"

"Yes, the sooner the better." Li Yongji smiled, "And after signing, you must inadvertently reveal it, so that the whole world knows it, do you understand what I mean?" ”

"Oh, it's a secret agreement that everyone knows?"

"That's right!"

"I see, Your Majesty." Shen Shiming bowed.

In this way, after receiving Li Yongji's signal, Shen Shiming quickly began negotiations with the British, and quickly signed an agreement in Nanjing, the full name of which is the "Comprehensive Joint Mutual Assistance Convention between the Chinese Empire and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Military Matters", referred to as the "Sino-British Joint Military Mutual Assistance Convention".

The statement stipulates that since the signing date of the convention, China and Britain will practice all-round military mutual assistance, and that if either side declares war on a certain country, the other side must unconditionally declare war on a certain country, and the two sides will achieve joint military operations, and once one side declares war on a certain country and the other side does not follow up, the agreement will be immediately nullified.

Under the conditions that both China and Britain desired, this convention was signed as quickly as possible.

Originally, this was a secret agreement, but unfortunately, a civil servant of the Chinese Empire accidentally leaked the news, and the whole world knew about it.

At this moment, the British had to pinch their noses and explain everywhere, fortunately, China is far to the east, and this Sino-British joint convention is only military cooperation, which does not involve economic aspects, and does not have much impact on European countries, so except for France, other European countries have not paid much attention to it after a while.

Only a few people saw that there was something wrong with this, but most of them did not expect to jointly intervene in the American Civil War, and only thought that they were going to jointly intervene in Indochina and put pressure on the French.

In short, after the signing of this convention, the final preparations for intervention in the American Civil War were completed. (To be continued......)