After all, Lincoln was an excellent politician with a strong sense of the overall situation and the ability to make trade-offs, so Mead's persuasion, he was actually related, but he couldn't accept it psychologically for a while.

Unlike many Americans at this time, Lincoln attached great importance to the land in the West from the very beginning, and repeatedly emphasized that the West was the future of the United States, and his theory of the future of the West had been formed long before he became president, and he also won the support of many peasant representatives in the North who lacked land but had great enthusiasm for it.

Therefore, when he first became president, he hoped to enact the Homestead Act, which would allow each American citizen to pay only $10 for a registration fee to acquire 160 acres of land in the West for free, and after five years of continuous cultivation, he would become the rightful owner of the land.

Although the government will not be able to obtain a large number of benefits immediately, it will be able to arouse the enthusiasm of the vast number of poor peasants and speed up the development of the western region, and in the long run, it will definitely bring many benefits.

However, the Democratic Party, which still had the upper hand in parliament at the time, tried its best to block the passage of the bill, refusing to distribute it free of charge, and only agreeing to sell the land at a high price.

It is conceivable that if the land is sold at a high price according to the Democratic Party's practice, then the rich southern farmers will only be cheaper, and the farmers will have more land and greater wealth, while the vast number of poor farmers will not be able to afford it, and they will still not get much land.

Therefore, the Democratic Party's practice is in fact to obstruct the development of the western region for its own selfish purposes, because once the southern peasants are allowed to acquire a large amount of land in the western region, because they are short of manpower, they will inevitably not be too dedicated to the development of the western region, and they will certainly lag behind in terms of development intensity.

On the contrary, if land is distributed free of charge, a large number of landless poor peasants and urban jobless vagrants can be allowed to pour into the western region, which will not only speed up the development of the western region. It can also alleviate the urban unemployment rate and balance the gap between the rich and the poor.

Unfortunately, the Democratic Party was too powerful at that time and occupied absolute power in Parliament, so Lincoln's Homestead Law did not pass until 1862, when the North and South went to war, the Democratic Party was greatly weakened, and Lincoln began to move towards dictatorship. Only then did the "Homestead Law" be forcefully promoted.

However, although the Homestead Law was issued, because of the war, the law could not be effectively enforced, and even if there were people who really planned to go to the west, the west has now fallen into the hands of the Chinese, and it is conceivable that it cannot be done at all.

Contrary to what many people think, the development of the western United States at this time was not really the development of the West Coast of North America. Rather, it refers to the development of Ohio, Tennessee, and Kentucky near the Mississippi River.

You know, before that, the real core states of the United States, that is, the thirteen states of North America. The Mississippi River was still a barren area, but with two westward movements, the United States gradually extended its tentacles to the Mississippi River.

So, at this point, we talk about the concept of the American West. It doesn't refer to the West Coast of San Francisco, California, but to the Mississippi River, including Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee. They also belong to the concept of the western region.

Because of this, at this time, the United States said that the western battlefield, that is, the place where Grant once struggled, will say how Tennessee is how, how Louisiana is, the fundamental reason is that during this period, the Mississippi River is the western region of the United States.

Therefore, some Chinese people in later generations did not know this history, and as a result, they looked at the map of the American Civil War period and felt puzzled, saying that the place where Grant fought was obviously in the eastern United States, how could it be the western battlefield?

This is the reason why I don't understand the real history of the United States, because during the Civil War, the large territory of the western United States in the modern sense, that is, the land that the United States snatched from Mexico, can only be regarded as a colony of the United States, not the core territory of the United States.

But in any case, Lincoln, as an ambitious American, had a strong sense of the overall situation, and from the very beginning he regarded the western territories as his own land, and he also bent on incorporating the vast western territories into the United States of America, so that the country that was originally only on the east coast of North America would become a great empire that spanned the entire North America and bordered the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

In this sense, Lincoln's vision was very advanced, and he had long realized that if a country wants to be strong, the number of core territories is very important, and if a country does not have a vast core territory, then no matter how many colonies there are, it is useless, and it is a tree without roots.

What's more, at this time in the world, except for the barren western part of the Americas, most of the colonies in other places have been carved up by Britain and France and other powerful countries. This is clearly unrealistic, at least for now.

It is precisely because Lincoln values the land on the west coast of North America that he has always refused to bow to the Chinese and allowed the war between China and the United States to be fought until now.

You must know that as early as the beginning of the Chinese's declaration of war on the United States, when the army had not yet officially sent troops into the western theater (along the Mississippi River), many people, including the dead vice president, had repeatedly persuaded him to agree to the Chinese's conditions, first temporarily give up the land he had stolen from Mexico, give the barren land to the Chinese, concentrate on dealing with the southern rebels, and take back the southern land that had been divided.

However, at that time, Lincoln resolutely refused, even if he gave up the south and temporarily agreed to the independence of the south, he was also resolutely unwilling to let go of the west, and he was determined to continue the war with the Chinese, refused to negotiate with the Chinese, and ceded the land taken from Mexico to the Chinese.

At that time, many people did not understand and felt that it was very unwise to offend the Chinese for a seemingly vast but actually deserted place, and then give up the core territory of the south, so opposition voices rose one after another.

Lincoln also implemented a tough hand, even at the expense of his Patriotic Association to assassinate him, to curb the trend.

Eventually, under Lincoln's iron fist, this atmosphere of wanting to make peace with the Chinese changed, and the United States withstood the pressure and did not agree to the unreasonable demands of the Chinese. Instead, he chose to be tough to the end.

As a result, the Chinese brazenly sent troops to the western battlefield, and then swept all the way, eating the main western forces of the Americans one after another, not to mention the heavy losses of the United States, and even the Chinese launched a counteroffensive, advancing east along the Ohio River, with a tendency to fight all the way to Pittsburgh.

In order to stop the Chinese, Lincoln refused to give up Nashville, and also sent his own ace legion, the newly formed New Virginia Legion. Coupled with the James River Army, it is hoped to block the Chinese, and then wait for change.

Originally, Lincoln's plan was to block the Allied army and the Chinese in the south and west, and then concentrate the main forces to first break the Anglo-French allied army that had an unstable foothold in the north, and then defeat the Anglo-French allied army, and then return to the Southern army with the momentum of victory.

Once the Anglo-French army and the Southern Army were defeated. The Chinese are difficult to support alone, even if the attack power is strong, but the number of people is too small, and the general trend is under the trend. After all, we still have to retreat. In this way, the crisis of this three-way siege will naturally dissipate, and it may even directly enter Virginia and completely destroy the puppet government in the South.

However. Although Lincoln's plan was good, it could not withstand the Chinese too well, and even two legions with a combined strength of more than half a million people could not stop it. Not to mention that the other side ate a legion of 300,000 people, and frightened the James River Army to retreat again and again, and did not dare to meet the Chinese at all.

If it weren't for a snowstorm that stopped Chinese, I'm afraid Chinese would have arrived in Pittsburgh by now, and if Chinese really took Pittsburgh, it would have really gone over.

The reason why it is said that the general trend has gone is not that Lincoln is afraid of the Chinese, but that Lincoln is now not only an enemy of the Chinese, but also faces the threat of the Anglo-French alliance and the alliance forces at the same time.

The Chinese are not numerous, but their combat effectiveness is sharp, and they have eaten several main army corps of the US army one after another, so that the powerful United States feels that its troops are insufficient.

In today's situation, once the Chinese are left alone, the Chinese can really fight all the way to Pittsburgh and cut off the largest military industrial base in the United States.

Therefore, the cruelty of reality made Lincoln have to accept this reality, that is, as long as he still wants to hold the United States, as long as he still wants to win the final victory, then he must bow to the Chinese.

Lincoln once calculated that there was basically no negotiation with the Southern rebels, and the differences between the two sides were too great, and even if the independence of the South was recognized, judging from the current situation of the Southern Army, I am afraid that they would not agree to strike the army.

After all, the southern rebels now have too much advantage, and it is even possible to swallow up the northern region, and whoever changes it will not agree to continue to maintain the previous demands, as long as they maintain their own independence in the south, in a typical Chinese parlance, this is to gain an inch.

The same is true of the Anglo-French coalition forces, which want New England, which is already a core interest of the United States and cannot be abandoned, and once it is abandoned, the United States will be even weaker, and there is no guarantee that Britain and France will give up interfering in the American civil war.

You must know that in this situation, even if Britain and France do not send troops, they can still put great pressure on the North by selling weapons to the South, plus they have lost New England, and they will face the threat of Britain at any time.

This is not impossible because according to Aaron. In return from the secret negotiators sent by Pinkerton, Britain and France are now not very willing to have an early truce with the United States, but are very willing to increase their interference, because the United States has lost successive wars, which makes Britain and France feel that the United States is a soft persimmon.

In fact, some intelligence has said that there have been many negotiations between China, Britain, and France, and they even have the intention of increasing military interference in the United States, directly annexing and dividing up the United States, and turning the United States into a colony of the three countries.

According to the newly obtained information, China, Britain, and France had secretly held a secret meeting in New Orleans without the knowledge of the Allied Powers, and the content of the meeting was that the three countries should strengthen cooperation and strive to completely defeat the United States, and then the three countries would divide up the territory of the United States.

Although the specific content of the meeting has not been obtained, it is speculated that in addition to the vast land in the west, China is likely to ask for the city of New Orleans as a concession as a Chinese naval base in North America; As for the United Kingdom, it hopes to get New England, New York, New Jersey and other large states on the east coast of North America; France, for its part, continued to demand Florida to the south, and China, Great Britain, and the new United States to recognize France's legitimate dominance in Mexico.

In short, China, Britain, and France are like three hungry wolves, eyeing the United States and using this war to completely carve up the United States. It was only because the forces of the three parties were not enough for the time being that the controlled south was allowed to continue to acquire a large area of territory in the United States, but once the secret agreement between China, Britain and France was reached, the United States would fall into a catastrophe, and this was something that Lincoln absolutely did not want to see.

Therefore, at this time and that time, even if Lincoln did not want to give up the vast territory on the west coast of North America, it was not worth mentioning that the United States was divided by the great powers and made the United States a semi-colony of the great powers.

If you continue to be tough and do not know how to accept softness and divide and disintegrate, in the end, you will only be left with the scum eaten by others.

In this way, after three days of tossing and turning, the bitter Lincoln sent Anson Pu as his plenipotentiary envoy to Smithland on behalf of the United States to negotiate with Li Yuanzheng, the commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force.

Anson was one of the founders of the Republican Party, a close friend and strong supporter of Lincoln, and a gifted diplomat.

This time, in his capacity as the U.S. negotiator, Anchen will first negotiate with Li Yuanzheng, the commander-in-chief of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, hoping that the two sides will first cease fighting, and then continue to leave for China to conduct further negotiations with the Chinese government.

The reason why he sent Pu Anchen to contact the commander of the Chinese expeditionary force was because Lincoln knew very well that China had an advanced equipment that could transmit sound over thousands of miles, which was more advanced than the telegraph, so the Chinese government could quickly obtain information about what happened in the United States, so it was not easy to use if it wanted to play a delaying tactic.

It is precisely because of this that Lincoln intends to impress the Chinese with sincerity, after all, Lincoln knows quite well that the current situation, if it cannot give China a reassurance, completely sign a legal and effective treaty with China, formally cede the vast territory in the west, and satisfy China's appetite, China's so-called expeditionary force is likely to continue to advance eastward, and then cooperate with the Allied forces and the British and French forces, then the United States of America will have no hope at all.

On the contrary, if the Chinese withdraw their troops, then the most powerful threat to the west will be gone, and Lincoln can draw forces, transfer the James River Corps, and concentrate on defeating the Anglo-French forces first, and then settle the account with the southern rebels!

Lincoln believed that as long as the fierce Chinese withdrew, even if the Anglo-French forces joined forces with the Allied forces, he was seventy percent sure that he would win, at least to maintain the independent status of the North first.

As long as they pass this hurdle, rest and recuperate first, and when the British and French are in a quagmire in Europe, and the Chinese are too busy to take care of themselves, they can send troops to the south again, and at that time, without the help of China, Britain and France, the so-called Union State is definitely not a well-prepared opponent of the United States, and it will inevitably fall in one fell swoop.

"This is just a temporary concession! America doesn't fail all the time! Looking at the back of the carriage carrying Anchen Pu, Lincoln, who was carrying his hands behind his back, muttered, "One day, I will get back all the qiē I lost!" Definitely! (To be continued......)