The reason why Li Yongji wanted to stay in New Orleans for three more months before returning to China was because of the intentions he told Sun Xiangbing, and there was also a very important personal reason, that is, Soho's health!

As the most important woman by Li Yongji's side at present, Soho has been pregnant for seven months, and during this period, she has repeatedly refused Li Yongji's request to send her back to the rear to have a baby, and has always insisted on following Li Yongji's side.

According to Soho, this is a lonely place full of ill-intentioned outsiders, and what safer and more reliable place could be than by Li Yongji's side?

It was Soho's words that moved Li Yongji, and at that time, Li Yongji was leading troops to be stationed in Smithland for a long time to fight against the Union Army, and he was not running around, and the living environment was quite good, so he agreed to let Soho continue to follow him.

Besides, when Soho told Lee Yongji the news of her pregnancy, it was in the early stages of pregnancy, and as a modern person, he knew that pregnant women were the most dangerous in the early stages, and if they didn't pay attention at this time, they could easily miscarry.

Judging from the situation at that time, due to the freezing of the river, if you insist on sending Soho back to the rear, you can only take the land route, in that case, the bumps on the light road are a big problem, maybe it will be fine, and this delivery will be sent out.

Moreover, Li Yongji led his troops to intervene in the American Civil War, and it seemed that he had won consecutive battles, which was quite unstoppable, but in fact he took a great risk, because his army was a complete outsider, whether it was the Union Army, an enemy on the surface, or the Alliance Army that seemed to be an ally, or the armies of Britain and France, they all had bad intentions towards his troops, and their attitude was quite unpredictable.

The most obvious example is that when the expeditionary force invaded Memphis along the Mississippi River, the Combined Command in New Orleans existed in name only, regardless of the Confederate government. The British, the French, who were still here, were no longer as enthusiastic as they had been at the beginning, and they all began to alienate themselves from the expeditionary force.

You must know that the Chinese Expeditionary Force at that time should be regarded as the strongest foreign reinforcement force of the Allied States. Not only have they achieved the most brilliant results, but they have also played the greatest role, and it is said that the Allied Powers should strengthen their ties with this force, and then strengthen cooperation and dialogue with the Chinese side.

But in fact, since the expeditionary force defeated the Grant Legion and then took the Mississippi River town of Memphis, the Richmond government began to reduce contact with this Chinese mercenary force, and even the Chinese legation in Richmond was from the original hot. It became a doorman.

Yung Hong, the Chinese minister in Richmond, called Li Yongji more than once to tell him how cold the Davis government was to them, and the only few negotiations he had were to ask for jurisdiction over New Orleans, Memphis and other cities, and to ask for material support, in other words, to ask for land, money, and weapons.

In Yung Wing, he made it clear that the Chinese Expeditionary Force was just a private mercenary force serving the Chinese government. The Chinese government does not have the right to directly order this force, which is fighting independently outside China, and it does not have the right to make arbitrary decisions about the territory it has conquered. The Davis government's negotiators looked rather bad.

And when Rong Hong said again, Sino-US trade is a private commercial behavior, and the Chinese imperial court is not easy to forcibly intervene in this regard, and the imperial court is also very short of money now, and it is absolutely impossible to send a large amount of money and materials to the southern government for the sake of the American Civil War. The negotiating envoy of the coalition government did not even have a polite word, just nodded and left.

Since then, there has been a real estrangement between the Davis government and the Chinese government and even the Chinese Expeditionary Force. On the contrary, it was a hot fight with the British and the French.

The Union government did not hide the Chinese Legation in Richmond, nor did it hide it from Rong Hong, so Rong Hong easily heard the news, and it gave people the impression that the other party was deliberately doing this, deliberately letting the Chinese minister know.

In any case, although the Chinese Expeditionary Force had a joint command in New Orleans very early on, it was only a military liaison department, just like the United Nations in later generations, and it was not binding on its members, and it could not even be called an alliance.

Later, with the rapid advance of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, and as the Southern Alliance government bypassed the Chinese Expeditionary Force and turned to strengthen ties with the British and French forces in private, the role of this joint command became even more weak, and even almost became a drag on the Chinese Expeditionary Force.

The reason is very simple, that is, when the Allied government found that it could not smoothly take back New Orleans and Memphis from the hands of the Chinese minister through negotiations, it once thought of using the name of the Joint Command to forcibly restrain the Chinese Expeditionary Force, demanding that the expeditionary force withdraw from these places and return the jurisdiction of these places to the Allied government.

At that time, the Joint Command was a four-party consultation, that is, the Chinese Expeditionary Force, the British Expeditionary Force, the French Expeditionary Force, and the Southern Alliance Army.

In order to increase the pressure on the government of the United States of the North, it was advertised that it was a four-nation alliance of China, Britain, France, and the Allied States, but in fact it was not the case at all, not only did the Chinese government not recognize it, but even the British government and the French government would not recognize this so-called four-nation alliance, after all, it was only a small alliance initiated by foreign troops for the convenience of movement, and it did not involve the government system.

But in any case, this military alliance exists, and the purpose of the beginning is very high, and the best thing about this is that it is a negotiation of the minority obeying the majority, that is, as long as the three parties join forces, the other side has to listen.

Therefore, the Union government united the British Expeditionary Force and the French Expeditionary Force on this side, and with an absolute majority, demanded that the Chinese Expeditionary Force, one of the Alliance's alliances, comply with the orders of the Joint Command and surrender the jurisdiction of the three cities of New Orleans, Vicksburg, and Memphis.

But it's a pity that Li Yongji just smiled at the request of this joint command, and then he didn't pay attention to it anymore, no matter what you say, how you say, no matter what your reasoning is, I just don't listen, and put on a posture of love.

At that time, because the troops of the Chinese Expeditionary Force firmly controlled the three cities of Memphis, Vicksburg and New Orleans, and the task force also controlled the Mississippi River, it can be said that the three points and the line were all in the hands of the Chinese Expeditionary Force. Although he is an outsider, he is a real powerful faction because of his strong force.

On the other hand, the Confederate Army was beaten by the Northern Army in the north and south, not only did the North lose a large number of troops and territory, but the area around New Orleans in the South was also occupied by the Navy and Marines of the Northern Army. Only Vicksburg was left to survive, but even that important hub was crumbling.

It can be said that before the Chinese Expeditionary Force intervened, the Union Army had already lost its strength in the entire Mississippi River area, not to mention that it existed in name only, but it was not much worse.

Although later the Chinese Expeditionary Force attacked strongly, took New Orleans, and defeated the main force of the Grant Army at Vicksburg. Saved the only remaining Mississippi River Army (the commander at that time was General Pemberton stationed in Vicksburg), but at that time, the Mississippi River Army had long been ravaged by the Northern Army, and there was only one skeleton left, and it was too difficult to even hold Vicksburg, and it was impossible to confront the expeditionary force.

It stands to reason that although the Western Theater of the Union Army suffered heavy losses in the battle with the Northern Army and had already suffered losses, it was still a local. As long as you take a breath of relief, it is still easy to recover.

But here's the thing. There was no other way to restore the size of the Western Theater of Operations by recruiting new troops on the spot or sending troops from Richmond.

At that time, Richmond's Eastern Theater was facing a serious threat from the Northern Army. Lee's Northern Virginia Regiment was victorious. But overall, there is a defensive posture.

In other words, the Richmond government at that time was still disgusted with the lack of troops near the capital, so how could it spare troops to send troops to the west?

Therefore, recruiting troops on the spot is the only way to restore the strength of the Western Theater.

But recruiting soldiers on the spot requires money, and even more so weapons. In this regard, the coalition government is powerless, and can only rely on the local people to solve the problem, but the important towns along the Mississippi River, only New Orleans and Memphis, the only few cities in the southern control area, still have some oil and water, but these cities are controlled by the Chinese expeditionary force.

Although the total strength of the Chinese Expeditionary Force at that time was not much, but the combat effectiveness of the people was strong, a company can destroy you a regiment, plus the Chinese Expeditionary Force also has an invincible task force, which can travel quickly with the help of the Mississippi River, plus their unique radio communication capabilities in the world, so even if the number of troops is small, with the help of strong combat effectiveness and excellent transportation and communication capabilities, it is more than enough to control these places.

Because the Chinese Expeditionary Force was too strong, the Union government had no money, and there was a common and powerful enemy, the Northern Army, so the Union government temporarily tolerated what the Chinese Expeditionary Force did, and tacitly accepted that they controlled those cities, but only through continuous infiltration, in order to settle accounts later.

However, what they did not expect was that after that, the Chinese Expeditionary Force did not play cards according to common sense at all, and it seemed that there was no so-called logistical pressure at all, not to mention continuing to attack and expand the chassis, and constantly sending new Chinese from the rear.

Not only that, but they also openly auctioned off the administrative jurisdiction of the city, nominally anyone can do it, but in fact they sold all the administrative jurisdiction of important places to the Chinese, and only some economically underdeveloped or difficult to control places were handed over to them.

This situation greatly touched the nerves of the Union government, after all, this kind of practice of the Chinese has a long-term posture of not leaving, and it is clear that they want to learn from the British East India Company and treat those cities as India.

However, although he was angry, President Davis was also a veteran politician and knew that the overall situation was important, so he endured it until the threat of the Northern Army was eliminated, and there was no actual action against these actions of the Chinese except for some verbal protests such as strong condemnation.

However, while there was no actual action on the surface, in private, they strengthened their association with Pemberton, who controlled Jackson City.

Pemberton was previously the commander of the Mississippi River Legion, and was once stationed in Vicksburg, but because of Johnston's orders not to abandon Vicksburg, he was besieged by Grant with various breaking tactics.

If it weren't for the timely arrival of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, Pemberton and his Mississippi River Legion who were trapped in the lonely city would have surrendered long ago, and it can be said that the timely help of the Chinese Expeditionary Force saved Pemberton's reputation and turned him from a fool facing defeat to a hero who was not afraid of danger, but it was Joseph who was determined and wise. Johnston. At the time, it became a scapegoat and a synonym for stupidity.

However, General Pemberton had a great opinion of Davis after the Battle of Vicksburg, after all, strictly speaking, the order to resolutely defend Vicksburg was given by Davis. It was Davis who did not want to give up the important strategic hub of Vicksburg, and concealed it from Joseph, the commander-in-chief of the Western Theater at the time. Johnston gave orders to General Pemberton and made him promises, which made Pemberton move to defend Vicksburg instead of obeying Joseph. On Johnston's orders, he abandoned Vicksburg and went to Jackson City to join Joseph.

In other words, Pemberton was almost finished because of a poor decision. In Johnston's mouth, he was a complete idiot, but how could he really be stupid if he could be the captain of the legion?

Therefore, Pemberton was not unaware at the time to abandon Vicksburg and took the initiative to work with Joseph. Johnston's advantage in joining forces was only because of President Davis's orders, and because he trusted his own defense too much, he looked down on Grant. Thinking that the other party is alone, it is impossible to really achieve the goal of each defeat. I didn't listen to Joseph. Johnston's words.

But the fact is that he was besieged, and he was tortured by Grant a lot, and several times he wanted to give up and directly ordered surrender, thanks to the last moment when the Chinese came, so that he saved his reputation.

Since then, though. He was full of resentment towards Davis, so he simply used the help of the Chinese to pull the pole to develop his power.

At that time, Li Yongji had just arrived, and he also felt that his troops were insufficient. So he showed goodwill to Pemberton, supported him with a batch of weapons, and started trading with him, and also ceded Jackson City to him as his development base.

As for Vicksburg, it is still nominally Pemberton, but at an important strategic hub, it is all Chinese soldiers.

It was true that Pemberton had drifted away from the Davis government, but when Davis made new terms, promising that he would persuade others to recommend him as the next president of the Union and at worst a vice president, he was not calm.

First, he really valued power, and second, he was not used to the Chinese occupying important places along the Mississippi River, and there were many contradictions with the expeditionary force, so he came and went back and forth and reconnected with the Davis government.

For example, this time, the new commander-in-chief of the Western Theater of Operations, John Brown. Bel. Hood's visit was Davis's order, and if Pemberton hadn't colluded with Davis's government, Hood would not have come to him first.

In any case, because Li Yongji's horizontal rod was like a butterfly setting off a hurricane, it strongly affected the trend of the American Civil War, so that the development of the situation became more and more chaotic later, and it was long beyond Li Yongji's speculation.

However, no matter how chaotic it is, in the end, strength determines everything, although Li Yongji and his Chinese Expeditionary Force are outsiders, but because of their strong strength, as long as they are cautious and know how to concentrate their forces, there is still no big problem in terms of security.

Therefore, Li Yongji was relieved to let Soho stay by his side, after all, in this complex North America, only in the expeditionary force is the safest.

Now it is the same, although Soho has been pregnant for seven months, for the mother, compared to the first four months is relatively safe, but after all, it is pregnant, in the absence of a safe plane, if you want to return to China, you can only take a boat to the Atlantic, bypass Cape Horn into the Pacific Ocean, and then go back after crossing the Pacific Ocean.

Even if it is a warship, taking the sea route in this situation is not generally high for pregnant women, so Li Yongji thought about staying in New Orleans for three more months, at least waiting for Soho to give birth before leaving.

"Hey, hey." Li Yongji touched Soho's belly and smiled at the happy Soho, "Then, you say, if our child is born here, he will become an American, I don't know how many people envy it." ”

"Nonsense again!" Soho pursed his lips slightly, and said lightly angrily, "What do American foreign devils have to envy?" Our children, the orthodox Yanhuang bloodline, how can they be foreign devils? This kind of dictionary forgets the words of your ancestors, not to mention that you are still the emperor of China, you have to pay attention to every word and deed! ”

"Yes, yes, yes, it's Chinese, serious Chinese royalty, not Americans, definitely not Americans!" Li Yongji immediately smiled and nodded, "What's so good about the Americans, haha, I have already been crippled, and in the future, it can only be a second-class, no, third-class country!" Well, so, even if he was born here, no, it should be that no matter where he was born, he must be Chinese, he must be Chinese! Hmph, you wait, sooner or later I will turn China into a sun that never sets, see who dares to look down on us Chinese! (To be continued......)