By with Joseph. In Johnston's first meeting, Lee Yong-gil once again confirmed one thing.

That is the ancients, let's say that the people of the nineteenth century and the sixties are the ancients.

The ancients may not have as high IQ as modern people who have accepted the impact of the big bang of knowledge, but in terms of emotional intelligence, they are not much worse than modern people, and many people are even better than modern people.

Just like the situation just now, Li Yongji always looked down on the other party with a sense of superiority at the beginning, but it was not until the end that he realized that purely from the negotiation process, he was actually being tricked.

That's right, in the beginning, Joseph. Johnston shows a patriotic style of righteous words, and all kinds of seemingly reasonable demands come as soon as they open their mouths, giving people the feeling that this is their final bottom line, and it must not be changed, and even if it is changed, it can only be changed in a small place.

His performance was actually quite successful, and even for a moment, Li Yongji himself believed it, and really thought that the other party was a stunned young man who couldn't be accommodated.

To be honest, just started hearing about Joseph. Johnston's conditions, Li Yongji was really a little ashamed, after all, what Li Yongji did was not much different from a bandit, but who reminded Li Yongji of the United States in another time and space, and he didn't want to be too cheap for the allies, so he categorically refused the other party's request.

Although he refused, Li Yongji's original intention was just to conditionally agree to the other party's conditions, that is, to let the other party mean and give himself some benefits, such as giving some money, and then he could also get off the donkey. Give those occupied cities to the Confederates.

Originally, before the Panama Canal was opened, places like New Orleans. Li Yongji is also unable to develop it for the time being, and a vast territory on the west coast of North America alone is enough for him to be busy.

Therefore, Li Yongji originally planned to hand over those territories to the southern government, so that the southern government could have stronger stamina, so that he could continue to stalemate with the northern government. Continue to play the north-south confrontation.

It's a pity that the negotiation process seems to be crooked. Li Yongji behaved too toughly, and as a result, Joseph. Johnston himself showed his cowardice ahead of time.

Isn't it, at the end of the day, when Joseph. Johnston changed his previous outrage. When you ask for it yourself with an indifferent face. Li Yongji knew that the other party actually knew the gap between them from the beginning, and the harsh conditions at the beginning were just a means to ask for a sky-high price.

What does this mean? It shows that the other party's negotiation skills are much stronger than their own, and their control of emotions is much stronger than their own. Now I understand that I am not easy to fool, or rather. The bottom line is too high, and he will no longer do useless work and continue to adhere to the so-called principles.

Isn't it, if you think about it, Joseph. Johnston is an out-and-out American magnate, and since he was a child, he has been exposed to the filth and exchange between various upper classes, and he is afraid that he is not interested in morality or anything, but he is very kind to power.

Nowadays, as long as people of insight will understand one thing, the United States has been divided, and it is impossible to return to the original, according to the current situation, neither the North nor the South has the strength to quickly defeat the opponent and complete their so-called reunification, so as long as the two governments do not compromise, then the fact of splitting into two countries will continue.

Then, in this situation, neither the northern nor the southern government wants to provoke new strong enemies, especially China, which is a powerful opponent that does not play its cards according to common sense.

Joseph. Johnston made a last-ditch attempt to get more advantage by trickery, but when that failed, he simply gave up what was useless and began to approach the negotiation with a more peaceful attitude.

"Well, for your sake, I'll just make our request." Li Yongji shook his head gently, "Don't worry, it won't be too outrageous." ”

Immediately afterwards, Li Yongji threw out his own conditions.

According to Li Yongji's conditions, first of all, their Chinese expeditionary force promised to completely hand over the jurisdiction of Vicksburg, Memphis and other cities to the other party as soon as possible, but this was not gratuitous, and the Allied States had to use money to redeem it.

As for the price, the four cities of New Orleans, Vicksburg, Memphis, and Nashville are all 10 million Chinese dollars per city, and Cairo and Smithland are 1 million Chinese dollars per city, which adds up to 42 million Chinese dollars.

"Impossible, 42 million Chinese dollars? We definitely can't come up with that much money. "Joseph. Johnston hurriedly refused, "You also know our current situation, we can't do this at all, can you change the conditions?" Otherwise, you'll have to stay in those cities. ”

"You don't have to pay all at once, you can pay in installments." Li Yongji smiled, "You can repay it in thirty years, if you still feel that it can't be done, you can borrow from our bank and use the loan to repay the money, but you must use your customs tax as collateral."

If you are willing to take the customs as collateral, then in the meantime, you must win and have our bank send someone to participate in your customs administration to supervise your customs revenue situation so that you can pay your debts as soon as possible. ”

"I can't do this." Joseph. Johnston frowned, "But I can report your request to the president truthfully, and if he agrees, then I don't think there's a problem." ”

"And how likely do you think your president will agree to this condition?"

"If I am really willing to pay it off in thirty years, and I can still get a loan from you, as long as the interest is not too high, I think Mr. President will agree." Joseph. Johnston thought for a moment, "Yes, he will definitely agree, because he is about to leave office, he cares about the present, and as for the rest of the matter, it is not his concern." ”

"It's good, at least on this point, we have a preliminary consensus." Li Yongji smiled, "Then I'll talk about the second request."

The second point is that we are in the Eastern Bloc...... Uh, does the Eastern Bloc know? ”

"Yes." Joseph. Johnston nodded, "It seems to be the big money behind you." It is said to be the East India Company of China. ”

"That's right, that's it." Li Yongji smiled again, "That." As you know, we are mercenaries and serve the Eastern Bloc, so this time we will send troops, in addition to fulfilling the national mission, we must also consider the interests of the Eastern Bloc. Even to a certain extent, the interests of the Eastern Bloc come first, to serve the country. Also in the service of the interests of the Eastern Bloc. ”

"I know this without you explaining." Joseph. Johnston said, "Tell me, what exactly is the requirement?" ”

"Well, since you probably know the situation in the Eastern Bloc. I won't say more. Li Yongji nodded. The order given to me by the group is that if we withdraw from here, in addition to paying money for ransom, you must also implement a double exemption policy for all goods in the name of the Eastern Bloc. ”

"Double exemption policy? What is that? ”

"The so-called double exemption policy means that all goods that come to you, no matter where they come from, as long as they are in the name of the Eastern Bloc. Goods belonging to the Eastern Bloc, then on the territory of your Union States. must be exempt from inspection and taxation, which is the double exemption policy. ”

"Is it exempt from inspection and tax exemption?" Joseph. Johnston nodded, "If it's just your Eastern Bloc's goods that implement this policy, I think it should be fine." ”

"Of course it's our family." Li Yongji smiled, "What, do you want all of our Chinese goods to implement the double exemption policy here?" If that's the case......"

"No, no, no, how is that possible." Joseph. Johnston hurriedly waved his hand, "Although I am a soldier, I also know that if we let Chinese goods fully implement the double exemption policy here, it will be a huge disaster for us, so no matter how stupid the lord in our government is, he will not agree to this condition, if you really want to make that request, everyone will oppose it." ”

"Well, that's what I thought too." Li Yongji smiled and nodded.

Indeed, the reason why Li Yongji only proposed to allow the goods of the Eastern Bloc to be exempted here, rather than asking for the double exemption of Chinese goods, was that it was impossible for the Union government to approve this request, which was fundamentally different from the situation of the federal government in the north.

The reason is that the federal government in the north implements a trade protection policy, that is, they encourage exports, and do not set any taxes on exports, but once goods are imported, most of them will set high protective taxes to protect the country's fragile industries.

In addition to this, the federal government of the North also has the right to card the number and type of goods imported by the owner each year, so although the "Smithland Treaty" was signed and agreed to the comprehensive duty-free policy of Chinese goods in the United States of America, in fact, as long as they control the number of purchases, the threat of Chinese goods to American goods is still not large.

To put it bluntly, that is, the federal government in the north can be completely independent in terms of tariffs, and their control over tariffs is also quite strong, and they are fully capable of controlling the annual import and export situation, which belongs to the strong control of customs.

On the other hand, the government of the Federal Republic of the Southern States has lacked sufficient central cohesion since its establishment, and the central government is only a nominal central government, but its control over the following member states is quite limited, and many powerful states can even ignore the orders of the central government altogether.

It is precisely because the central government of the Union countries has relatively weak control that many of their policies seem to be relatively popular, and when it comes to customs, they simply liberalize completely, and do not levy taxes on imported and exported goods or only charge symbolic taxes, which is called free trade.

They are right to say that they are trying to maintain the plantation economy under the banner of free trade, but the more practical situation is that the central government has no control over the customs imports of the following states, or they simply cannot pass a protective tax policy, because when this policy is proposed, it will not be passed by the parliament, and the representatives of the parliament are all agents of the following states.

But, on the other hand, since the parliament is the agent of the following states, once the parliament passes a proposal, it means that all the states agree, so that the bill can be implemented smoothly throughout the Union.

Therefore, the difficulty in issuing a new policy in the Union is how to convince the parliament that, once a certain policy is adopted, the efficiency of this policy in the administration of the Union is still good, and it is not much worse than that of the government in the North.

Therefore, once the parliament of the Allied States adopts the policy of double exemption of goods from the Eastern Bloc in the territory of the Allied States, the efficiency of implementation is still very guaranteed.

Why didn't Li Yongji ask for double exemption for Chinese goods within the territory of the Union State, wouldn't that be more beneficial?

The reason is that the Union has almost no industry, and the domestic economy depends on planting, that is, agriculture, and such a country, if all the markets for Chinese goods are opened, then the economy of the Union will be completely swallowed up by Chinese goods, and from the standpoint of the Union countries, they will not allow this kind of thing to happen.

Let's put it this way, the de facto rulers of the Confederate Powers, the big financiers and the big farmers behind them, they will not agree to the proliferation of Chinese goods in the Union and take advantage of the poor quality of industrial products to reap the economy of the Allied Countries.

However, as mentioned earlier, because of the different circumstances of the Allied countries, their customs are completely full of holes, and it is unrealistic to expect to use the method of customs control to control imported goods, and the only way to crack down on illegal smuggling is through the inspection of local governments.

Therefore, even if the central government of the Union State agrees to the so-called policy of duty-free Chinese goods, the actual implementation may not be much better, because the respective state governments will set up their own checkpoints or set other local taxes to make up for the losses.

For example, they will engage in road tax, bridge tax, etc., to scrape oil and water on the so-called duty-free Chinese goods, so that the effect of tax exemption will be greatly reduced.

On the contrary, if you don't talk about Chinese products and only target one company, then everyone will be easy to talk about, after all, in the eyes of various consortia of the southern government, it is still okay to give a company a green light, and it should not infringe on their interests too much.

This is what Li Yongji wants, because the market of the Federal States of the Southern States is very sensitive, and it is impossible for him to demand that they completely duty-free Chinese goods at this time, which would cause a boycott.

However, if it is only a non-state group company, everyone's resistance will be reduced, and as long as the high-level leaders of the allied countries do not boycott together, their Eastern Bloc will be able to join forces here and break each other, and by the time the other side reacts, the Eastern Bloc has become the largest monopoly group here, and can actually control the entire country's economy.

Not only the southern government, but even the northern government, Li Yongji intends to use the same means, but the method is definitely a little different from that in the Southern Union countries.

How can I put it in the simplest terms, these things are to put aside China, a shell full of hatred between the North and the South, and create a new "private group" with a low degree of hatred, to infiltrate the financial markets of the North and the South of the United States, and to control the economies of the two countries by boiling frogs in warm water, so as to completely control the two countries, so that the two countries can deepen the rift between each other, and can no longer become one country, so as to reduce the threat to themselves.

Yes, threatened!

In the view of Li Yongji, who has experienced in his previous life, whether it is the British Empire, which now claims to be the hegemon on which the sun never sets, or the greedy and huge Russian neighbors, their threats are not as great as those from the young United States.

Although Britain is now prosperous, but the foundation is insufficient, recession is inevitable, even if he is ignored, Britain will sooner or later be dragged down by itself by the vast colonies, not to mention, in the near future, he will definitely have to compete with Britain for those colonies!

Not to mention Russia, which is huge, but the system is backward and the finances are scarce, it is to rely on barbarism and ferocity to scare people, and once it can't scare others, its internal contradictions alone can kill him.

Moreover, China and Russia are neighbors, and it is easy to mobilize the strength of the entire country to confront it, as long as the development goes well, Russia will sooner or later be a big fat meat for China to expand its territory and obtain resources.

Only the United States, this is a strange country full of luck, and it must be nipped in the bud, otherwise, after this country grows smoothly, it will be the only challenger to China's world hegemony.

This is absolutely not allowed by Li Yongji, so no matter how difficult it is, he will first dismember the United States so that they will never be able to turn over! (To be continued......)