"I don't respect you?" After listening to Li Yongji's words, Joseph. Johnston immediately frowned, "Why did I disrespect you first?" ”

"Respect?" Li Yongji shook his head, "It seems that you really don't have the sincerity to talk to us." ”

"Can you make that clear?" Joseph. Johnston continued to frown.

"Okay, since you say so, then let's just open it up, lest you say that I am bullying you." Li Yongji smiled.

"First of all, you have to make one thing clear, although our expeditionary force is a private mercenary army, it is employed by the imperial court of the Chinese Empire, so this time we are sending troops to the United States of America, we are doing things for the Chinese government, and we represent the meaning of the Chinese government, you should agree with this, right?"

"Yes, I agree." Joseph. Johnston nodded, "But that's why ......"

"Don't worry, listen to me first." Li Yongji waved his hand and interrupted him, "It is true that we are sending troops on behalf of the Chinese government this time, so we waited until the Chinese government officially declared war on the United States of America before we began to send troops to the United States, in order to conform to the legal principles and face of the imperial government."

But to be honest, at the time of the 926 incident, the Chinese government had quite different opinions on how to deal with the incident.

As far as I know, when the Chinese imperial court was discussing countermeasures at that time, the mainstream opinion of the ministers on the 926 incident was mainly condemnation, and by the way, it would be enough to ask for compensation, and His Majesty the Emperor also agreed with this opinion, and in the spirit of peace, I would like to talk to your representative in China, and come up with a proper charter on this matter, so as not to hurt the harmony between the two countries.

But who knows, before it was properly discussed, further news soon came that there were royals among the deceased. It seems to be someone from the emperor's mother's family, and then, the slogan left by those robbers after killing people, that is, the words of the Chinese dog, also reached the ears of our majesty, and now, things have completely changed.

Our Emperor of China is furious, and considers this a great humiliation, and vows to punish you Americans.

As you know, our situation is different from yours. The emperor spoke, and no one dared to oppose it at all, so the matter was decided, and the agenda of sending troops to the United States was irrefutable.

However, China is separated from the United States by a Pacific Ocean and is located far away, and we, China, had many problems that had not been properly dealt with at that time, so we rushed to send troops so far away. From a military point of view, it is very inappropriate.

In the end, the Imperial Government decided not to send out the regular army. Instead, in the North American colony, that is, the city of Hollywood, mercenaries were recruited on the spot, and the mercenaries, that is, we came to fight. So. They only need to provide us with an initial batch of ordnance and supplies, but the military expenses for sending troops, that is, labor costs or something. It's not at all, it's money that can only be given after the fact.

In other words, the Chinese government hired us, but did not give us much labor fees, so when we sent troops to the United States this time, the imperial government had already made it clear that we could supplement military expenses by looting, and how to deal with the territory we laid down was also up to us, as long as the territory we laid down did not conflict with the places they demanded, this is the power given to us by the imperial government!

Okay, we obediently sent troops, but what we were targeting at the time was the United States of America, and we had nothing to do with you, that is to say, we were fighting with the United States of America alone, not to fight side by side with you, at least the Chinese Imperial Government, it didn't mean that, it didn't happen before, and it didn't happen since!

In other words, the cooperation with your alliance army is only the intention of our expeditionary force, which is to cooperate with you out of strategic needs, but it has nothing to do with the Chinese imperial government, so in essence, we are not strategic allies, and the joint command at the beginning was just an expedient measure, and it didn't even play a role.

In retrospect, whether we were taking California or landing in New Orleans, we were fighting the United States of America and occupying the territory of the United States of America.

According to the powers given to us by the Chinese Empire, as a member of the war with the United States of America, our expeditionary force has indisputable jurisdiction and possession over the enemy's lands that have been conquered through battle, and what to do with these lands, people, prisoners and weapons is in our hands, not in the hands of anyone else! ”

"Wait a minute!" Hear this, Joseph. Johnston suddenly said, "We don't care if you fight California, but New Orleans, Vicksburg, Memphis, Nashville, Cairo, Smithland, and other places originally belonged to the territory of our Union States, not the territories of the United States.

Therefore, since you are fighting the United States alone, and you are not a formal ally with us, you should return these lands, otherwise, it will be an illegal occupation! ”

"Illegal encroachment? Interesting. Li Yongji sneered slightly.

"Are you kidding me? What's more, your territory, these places you mentioned, we have snatched them from the hands of the Federation Army with a knife and a shot! ”

"When we arrived in the port of Cuba, we were going to see where the wind was blowing, and we even wanted to contact you to see if we could work with you, but soon we heard that New Orleans was occupied by the Union Army.

Since New Orleans is occupied by the Union Army, it stands to reason that it is the land that belongs to the Union Army, and it is our enemy, and the territory controlled by the United States has nothing to do with your Union States!

Therefore, we attack New Orleans, defeat the Union Army, and take New Orleans, which is also the land that we have taken from the United States, and it is the territory of the United States that we have robbed, not the territory of your Union States!

If you want to blame it, blame your allies for not being able to hold those places in the first place, and let the federal army occupy them, but you can't lose the place because of your incompetence, and turn back to the hard work we have worked hard to fight down, and you will shout for us to hand it back to you for nothing, right?

We have worked so hard to lay down the territory, and you want to go back without paying any price, how can there be such a good thing in this world? ”

"It's not like we're not paying a price!" Joseph. Johnston immediately said, "Didn't we also let you garrison the army, and agreed to let you govern those places for the time being, and even collect taxes in those places, which is already a price!" ”

"Jokes, we lay down the place. It's our colony, we can do whatever we want, and it has nothing to do with the price you pay? Li Yongji immediately retorted, "Give us the price of what we have already gotten, you really have a good calculation, don't you feel ashamed to think about it yourself?" ”

"You!" Joseph. Johnston subconsciously clenched his fists, took a deep breath, and quietly let go, "Okay, New Orleans won't mention it yet." But what about Vicksburg? Vicksburg was still in our hands at the time, and afterwards you took it and turned Vicksburg into a colony for you, right? ”

"What's wrong?" Li Yongji gave him a blank look, "In the battle of Vicksburg, if we hadn't sent troops in time and defeated Grant in the field battle, do you think you would still be able to hold Vicksburg with the situation at that time?"

Other words. We were the lifesavers of the defenders of Vicksburg, and it was the defenders of Vicksburg who took the initiative to ask us to be stationed afterwards, and we made such a great contribution and helped the defenders of Vicksburg to change their weapons and equipment. So it is also natural to have a small power in Vickersburg and a few autonomous regions, right? ”

For Li Yongji's robber tone, Joseph. Johnston was angry. finally couldn't help yelling: "You are quibbling, completely quibbling!" You, you are robber logic. It's complete banditry!

In short, New Orleans, Vicksburg, Nashville, Memphis, Cairo, and Smithland have always been the inherent territory of our Union States, and we only lent them to you temporarily, but now we don't want to borrow them, so you must withdraw immediately! Otherwise......"

"How else? Go to war? Li Yongji sneered, "That's good, if you want to fight, then fight, whoever cries when you see it laughs!" ”

"You!" It seems that he was choked by Li Yongji's words. Johnston gasped a few times before continuing to roar, "Are you negotiating with me?" It's unreasonable at all! ”

"Where am I being unreasonable?" Li Yongji continued to sneer, "What I'm talking about now is the same set of truths as you white people, isn't it?" Didn't you Westerners say that the truth is only within the range of the cannon, and what point has we done violated your code of conduct?

Hmph, when you were strong, when you invaded other weak and small countries, did you reason with them?

If nothing else, how did you come to be an American country? Not yet a colony of the British? Didn't they invade the native Indians of the Americas and achieve their goals by expelling the native Indians?

Well, let's not mention it far away, let's talk about it closer, some time ago, our Chinese imperial court was corrupt, which led to the weakening of national strength, and as a result, not only the British came to bully us, but the French, Italians, and even you Americans also mixed in the past, and it was a concession and consular jurisdiction, at that time, you Americans reasoned with us Chinese?

Finally, we relied on self-reliance and self-reliance, changed the dynasty, according to your words, a new government, the national strength and military strength began to increase, and we defeated Russia head-on in succession, and at this time, you began to face us squarely, talked about us as equal opponents, and recognized our status.

That is to say, respect is made with fists, not by others, but by oneself, and our China is now strong, so whether you admit it or not, whether you are used to it or not, before you can beat us, you must recognize our strength and our status!

Let's go back to the present, if you in the United States do not die by yourself, if you do not engage in internal strife and separatism, then relying on the overall national strength of the United States, others will probably have no chance to interfere.

However, you yourself are not angry, for the sake of something to abolish slavery and not to abolish slavery, you played the Civil War, your own people fought so miserably, and you still played the slaughter of the city at every turn, and as a result, you made yourself so embarrassed, so that outsiders have a chance to take advantage of it, so who can blame it?

To put it mildly, in your situation at that time, even if we did not send troops to China, did you think that we would be able to escape the robbery of others?

Look at the British, they have been paying attention to you all the time, and it was the British who first helped you southerners, so even if we Chinese do not take the opportunity to send troops, the British will send troops to intervene.

As for the current result, it can only be said that the British tried their best. However, the actual combat ability is too poor, and the troops sent to intervene are too unable to fight, but we all rely on real strength to fight little by little!

Not to mention, after we sent our troops, we have annihilated more than 700,000 Federation troops, which is more than the number of all the battles before and after your alliance forces combined.

It is also because of us that your Western Theater of Operations has survived, otherwise. Judging from the situation at that time, the Federation Army will inevitably win a complete victory in the western theater, completely control the Mississippi River, and cut off the connection between your east and west, and at that time, your allied government will not be able to drag on for long, and the Northern Army will also consume you to death!

That's right, this war has been fought until now, and it's all up to us! It was we who saved your coalition forces. Save your allies and make the war work in your favor!

Without us, you would have failed a long time ago, so why talk about us asking for this and that?

So. We are your great saviors, our saviors, what are you doing to us now? I really thought that now that you have the upper hand in the battle with the Northern Army, you will not look down on us. Want to cross the river and tear down the bridge?

Tell you, where we lay down, it's ours. If you want to take it without paying a little price, don't even think about it!

If you just said it casually, then I shouldn't have heard it, but if you insist that we give up those territories for nothing, it is to rob us of our core interests, to snatch the fruits of our victory, and at that time, we will have no choice but to go to war with you! ”

"Is this a threat?" Joseph. Johnston said coldly.

"Yes, I'm threatening!" Li Yongji's face was hideous, "War or peace, it depends on what you mean." ”

"Okay, I get what you mean." Joseph. Although Johnston's face was pale, he seemed to have expected all this, and was not shaken by Li Yongji's tirade.

"So." Joseph. Johnston calmly said to Li Yongji, "Since you don't agree with my conditions, then tell me your conditions."

But before that, what I want to say is, put aside the useless ones, let's just talk about you, after all, you are outsiders, and the number is small, and you can be said to have no foundation here.

Now, your big backer, the Chinese government, has announced a truce with the United States, which means that support for you is quite limited.

In other words, you yourself know that you can't hold this place, you can't hold those territories, and even if you do, your soldiers won't, and they don't necessarily like to stay here.

So, you're going to leave after all, and looking at the way you are now, you won't be able to stay long, so you're just unwilling to want a good price.

In that case, let's make an offer, but what I'm saying is that if you offer too much and we can't afford it, then the matter will fall apart.

Yes, we can't beat you now, and we don't want to fight you, but we can evacuate the people of those cities, and you still can't stop this.

Once those people are gone, who will pay you taxes? Who's still doing business with you? Where do you make your money?

When the time comes, you will only defend a few bare cities, and you will have to divide your troops to guard them, and you will have nothing but dry money and food, so what's the point? You can't immigrate here, can you? In that case, not to mention our government, even the British and French would not agree.

Therefore, you are definitely leaving, and since you are leaving, why not say a realistic, mutually acceptable price, so as not to make it difficult for everyone? ”

"That's what you're talking about now." Li Yongji smiled, "It's the respect you said, but since you have this heart, why did you put forward such harsh conditions before?" ”

"Negotiate, try everything." Joseph. Johnston said lightly, "Bluffing is also a means, maybe it will be." Here, the rumors that you Chinese fooled around are also quite famous, but it's a pity that ......"

"It's a pity that you met me, so you weren't deceived." Li Yongji nodded, "The price is sky-high, and it is reasonable to pay back the money on the spot, but the IQ is not enough, and you deserve to be deceived." ”

"Don't talk about that." Joseph. Johnston sighed, "What is it that makes you willing to give us those cities?"

Say it, whatever you say, no matter what the conditions, as long as I can accept it, I will definitely promise you, and immediately, immediately, absolutely not dragging the mud and water, so that everyone can get together and disperse.

From my point of view, although you are the bandits who invaded us, you are indeed powerful enough to deserve our respect, so even if I can't be friends with you, I don't want to be enemies!

So, let's let this negotiation continue, and it's time for all of this to come to an end, right? (To be continued......)