After sending and receiving several telegrams with Richmond and probably understanding what President Davis meant, Alexander. Stephens again asked the Chinese representatives in New Orleans for negotiations, and this time the Eastern Expeditionary Force responded quite quickly and immediately restarted the negotiations.

This negotiation is still only between Gao Junjie and Alexander. Stephens two people, in the process, Alexander. Stephens seems to have lost interest in the confrontation with the other party, and basically agreed to the previous request made by Gao Junjie in full.

In fact, strictly speaking, Gao Junjie's requirements are not excessive.

Like the first requirement, it is a good thing to hope that the government of the Confederate countries of the Southern countries will start armistice negotiations with the government of the north as soon as possible, after all, the government of the federal countries is already weak at this time, and it is impossible to really defeat the North without external support, and no matter how you look at it, it is impossible for China, Britain, and France to support the government of the South in this matter, after all, these three countries want the United States to be divided, and absolutely do not want to see the two divided regimes reunited.

Therefore, it is good that the southern government can maintain the current situation now, and it is a fool's dream to want to counterattack the north, which is purely the wishful thinking of President Davis, or a means to maintain his own prestige.

After all, as mentioned earlier, the government of the Federal Republic of America is a very loose alliance, the power of the local states is very great, and the president of the American Union is more of a mediator elected by everyone, and the actual power is not great, and the constraints are far greater than those of the original United States of America, not to mention the Lincoln administration, which tends to be authoritarian.

However, there is one exception, and that is when the country is at war, especially in the case of a war as a whole, the power of the president is greatly enhanced. This is an inevitable phenomenon, because only by centralizing power can we improve efficiency and effectively serve the war.

So, President Davis doesn't want the war to end too soon, as long as it's still in the middle of the war. His power will increase; But at the same time, Davis didn't want the war to be too intense, after all, it would be too much burden on the government, and the war was inherently uncertain, and if there were a few more big defeats, maybe the Union government would collapse, and there would be nowhere to cry.

In short, Davis is very torn right now, and he doesn't want the war to end too soon. He didn't want to continue, so he was in a hesitation period, so this request made by the Chinese was actually a choice for him, and it was actually a good thing for him.

The reason why I did not agree was because this request was imposed by the Chinese, and the Union government and Davis were a little difficult to pass. But other than that, there's not much else. After all, all in all, the benefits of a truce outweigh the disadvantages.

There is also a second article, which further opens up the scope of free trade between China and the Federal States of the Southern Federation, recognizes the most-favored-nation status of each other, and implements a policy of reciprocal tax exemption for agricultural and industrial products between the two sides.

This condition is not so much a condition as a urging clause.

Because a long time ago. That is, at the beginning of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the governments of the Federal States of the Southern States were already implementing a free trade policy and implementing a duty-free policy for imports and exports, so as to stimulate imports and exports and increase profits for the vast number of farmers.

Obviously. This policy is very beneficial to those large farmers, because it will reduce the trade tax by a large part, which is conducive to the export of agricultural products and the import of foreign industrial products.

However, this policy is quite unfavorable to the country, because this free trade policy makes the country less a large piece of customs tariff, and after the implementation of free trade, the country's market is equivalent to opening up to the outside without protection, and it is easy for countries with stronger industrial capacity to plunder resources, dump industrial products, seize the market, implement the so-called scissors trade, and plunder a lot of wealth from this side.

You must know that the territory of the Federal States of the Southern States mainly refers to the southern region of the former United States of America, where the industrial base is weak, there is basically no heavy industry, only some light industries such as processing industry, so the main position in the national economy is still planting, or agriculture.

In the past, the economic model of the South was mainly to export cotton, corn, wheat and other agricultural products to the outside world and import industrial products from Europe.

Among them, cotton is the main export material, accounting for more than 70% of the annual export turnover, of which the export object is mainly the United Kingdom, followed by France, and then other countries.

The reason for this phenomenon is that the quality of cotton in the United States in the south is good, and the main raw materials of the British textile industry are this American long-staple cotton, and if other cotton is used, the quality will decline, so such an industrial chain has been formed.

However, when Chinese goods began to rise, especially after the high-quality and inexpensive Chinese cloth began to be sold overseas, it had a strong impact on the British cloth market, but because the export volume of Chinese cloth was still relatively small, and it was mainly a high-end route, which led to the British cloth that took the low-end route did not suffer a catastrophic blow, but the profits were reduced a lot.

However, at this time, the American Civil War began to break out, and in the early stage, the navy of the northern government once blocked the coastline, which seriously hit the foreign trade of the Union countries, resulting in the inability to transport cotton and other materials from the south smoothly.

At this time, the overseas export of Chinese cloth and Chinese silk is increasing day by day, and the impact on British textiles has begun to become stronger, coupled with factors such as the shortage of raw materials, many British textile factory owners have changed careers, no longer producing their own cloth, but turning to trade, operating more popular Chinese goods.

The trend of Chinese goods in Europe began to emerge as early as 1860, but at that time it was mainly some high-end products, such as some exquisite and cheap Chinese jewelry, Chinese stainless steel, Chinese aluminum products, etc., and more things that were liked by dignitaries.

However, with the passage of time, especially after the Chinese Empire gained national power and implemented a more open foreign trade policy, the number and types of Chinese goods exported overseas increased day by day, and gradually showed a momentum that swept the world.

The reason why it is said to be sweeping the world is because most of the Chinese goods are known for their high quality and low prices, especially many things are unique to China, and the demand is still very large.

For example, traditional Chinese medicine is currently very popular in Europe, because the effect of traditional Chinese medicine is significant. Many incurable diseases in Europe, especially those that were incurable in the past, can be treated with traditional Chinese medicine, and the effect is immediate, especially obvious.

Because the effect of traditional Chinese medicine is remarkable, the price is decreasing year by year. Especially can be walked by. Private and other ways to obtain China's cheap domestic drugs, so the European market demand for traditional Chinese medicine is increasing day by day, it is simply a situation that people do not refuse, and even because of the popularity of traditional Chinese medicine, the British also deliberately invented an English word, called ZhongYao, directly copied the Chinese pinyin of traditional Chinese medicine, as the name of traditional Chinese medicine.

Of course, the so-called Chinese medicine here. It is not a traditional Chinese medicine of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but mainly refers to a variety of modern medicines produced by the imperial pharmaceutical factory.

Among them, "Huang'an powder" in sulfonamides is undoubtedly the drug with the largest number of production and exports. As for the reason, in addition to the fact that this drug is a broad-spectrum antibacterial drug that can treat a variety of diseases, the most important thing is that this antibacterial drug has the lowest price. It can be accepted by ordinary Europeans.

However, sulfonamides are known as "Huang'an powder". The number of purchases by ordinary people in Europe is actually not the largest, the largest number of purchases are made by the armies of various countries!

It turns out that Huang'an powder with sulfonamide has obvious bactericidal effect, which can effectively treat wound inflammation such as tetanus, as well as bacterial dysentery, water and soil adaptation and other diseases. Therefore, it has the greatest effect on the officers and soldiers of the army, and it can be called a life-saving medicine.

After discovering the efficacy of this drug, Britain was the first to equip its officers and soldiers with this drug, especially the colonial army, and this kind of thing was standard. As a result, non-combat attrition was significantly reduced.

Soon, the armies of France, Spain, the Netherlands, Austria, Prussia and other countries also purchased this medicine in large quantities to equip their officers and soldiers, and used it as a necessary medicine to save lives on the battlefield.

In addition to European countries, the warring North and South America also favored this drug, not only the Southern Army purchased a large number of drugs, but the restricted Northern Army tried every means to buy this drug, and even did not hesitate to increase the number of opponents. The extent of subsidies for private fleets.

In short, in the case of the overall medicine in Europe and the United States is not yet developed, Huang An Fen, a traditional Chinese medicine with remarkable effect, mature products and relatively low prices, was born, and immediately used its own technology monopoly and immediate effect to start a global money grab, its value is no less than that of oil at the beginning of the 21st century, and Huang An Powder has even become a global hard currency because of short supply and indispensable reasons.

Relatively speaking, there are more advanced antibacterial drugs such as penicillin products such as dropin products, although the effect may be better, but because the price is too high, ordinary people cannot afford to consume, but gradually began to decline, although the annual export sales are still growing, but the growth rate is very slow.

Although the unit profit of more advanced special Chinese medicine is actually higher, but since the 110 Special Economic Zone was able to produce sulfonamide powder by chemical synthesis, the output of Huang'an powder began to skyrocket, and the overall profit of sulfonamide has exceeded that of any kind of drug under the small profit and quick turnover.

So slowly, Huang'an powder began to become the main export force of traditional Chinese medicine, and thus caused a phenomenon and became a new popular product.

The popularity of Huang An Fen, while bringing huge profits to the Chinese Empire, also led to the popularity of other Chinese products, and finally because of its high quality and low price and unique efficacy, Europe became crazy again with Chinese products.

As a result, a large amount of capital in Europe began to be invested in the operation of Chinese goods, and even because of this phenomenon, the shrinkage of the British textile industry became not so obvious, and did not have a relatively large impact on society.

After all, most British factory owners did not passively stop production, but took the initiative to give up the textile industry with smaller profit margins, and switched to operating Chinese goods, or to be a European agent for Chinese goods, or directly invested in China, sold raw materials to China, and then used Britain's ubiquitous colonies around the world and super shipping capacity to make other people's money.

However, it is an indisputable fact that British industry, especially the textile industry, is shrinking sharply, and the consequence is that the demand for cotton, especially high-grade American cotton, has been greatly reduced.

You must know that in the past, the reason why American cotton was in short supply was because American long-staple cotton had a unique quality and could spin very delicate high-grade fabrics, simply put, it was a cloth spun from American long-staple cotton. Thinner, finer and tighter, on the contrary, the cloth spun from other cotton is thicker and coarse, which belongs to the low-grade cloth.

However, the so-called Chinese cloth exported from China. It is also a kind of high-grade cotton cloth, which is not only more delicate and soft, but also has more advanced dyeing technology, resulting in a more vivid color of Chinese cloth, higher color fastness, and it is difficult to fade, which is not a little stronger than the so-called high-grade cloth produced in the United Kingdom.

The quality of Chinese cotton cloth is better, but the price is not much more expensive than British high-end cotton cloth, so British high-end cloth has suffered a great blow. Many manufacturers of high-grade British cloth have changed their production, either into the production of low-end fabrics, or directly changed careers to start acting as an agent for Chinese cotton fabrics.

This means that the demand for long-staple cotton in the United States has been greatly reduced, and coupled with the factor of war, the Southern Union countries have been unable to obtain huge foreign exchange by exporting long-staple cotton.

In the face of a shortage of foreign exchange, the demand for money and materials for the war is increasing day by day. As a result, the Federal States of the South are increasingly short of money, so fiscal reform is urgent.

The real ruling class in the Confederate States of America was the big farmers. It turns out that when their exports are unimpeded, they naturally vigorously support free trade, after all, free trade will lead to zero tariffs and reduce tax expenditures.

However, when the export of cotton and other materials has shrunk sharply, and it is no longer possible to make huge profits through exports, the support for free trade is not so obvious.

Especially when it's because of the war factor. As a result, grain prices rose sharply, and grain from countries such as France and Spain began to pour in large quantities, and they competed with the farmers who produced grain in the Union countries, causing considerable losses, so it was no longer difficult to implement trade protection policies.

That's it. In order to protect their own interests, these large farmers banded together to pass the trade protection law proposed by President Davis in the name of increasing taxes and protecting their own economy, and decided to impose heavy taxes on all foreign trade goods, so as to alleviate the crisis of insufficient funds of the Union government.

But in this way, the interests of Chinese products are harmed, because among the best-selling Chinese products in the Union countries, except for Huang An Fen, which is still zero tariff, all other products have begun to be taxed, but nominally not customs duties, but transaction taxes!

In other words, the government of the Union State has raised the transaction tax on various foreign products, and any foreign product that wants to trade normally in the Union must pay more taxes, so even if there is no customs duty, it is actually the same as the relevant tax.

Obviously, this will seriously restrict the influx of foreign capital, especially in this case, the lack of foreign capital is not a good thing for the Union Powers, so the abolition of the trade tax on Chinese goods, that is, the so-called cumbersome transaction taxes, is actually a good thing, because it will promote the entry of Chinese businessmen, bring in more Chinese capital, and thus ease the current economy of the Union States.

All in all, the two conditions put forward by Gao Junjie are actually good things for the Allied States, but because they are clearly stated, they cause the Allied governments to resist.

As for the last Eastern Bloc's additional condition, that is, to treat Joseph well. Johnston's conditions would not have been agreed, but in the current situation, Davis could only agree to it.

Therefore, the conditions put forward by China are not unacceptable, and because of the Pemberton Regimental rebellion, after the defeat of the whole army, the Davis government of the Allied States is experiencing a rather embarrassing political crisis, and urgently needs a new thing to alleviate, so it is so simply and fully agreed to the Chinese's conditions.

Of course, in response, Alexander. After fully agreeing to the Chinese's conditions, Stephens also put forward his opinion, that is, to demand that New Orleans be taken back.

In this regard, Gao Junjie proposed that the city of New Orleans could be transferred to the government of the Union State, but the government of the Union State must pay for the purchase, the price is not expensive, 300,000 Chinese dollars, you can pay in installments, and you can also borrow from Chinese banks, and the policy is very favorable.

However, the city of New Orleans can give, but the main port area of the Port of New Orleans cannot be given, and it will still be used as an overseas military base of the Eastern Bloc, but considering the importance of the Port of New Orleans, after all, this is the mouth of the Mississippi River, so the two sides can sign an agreement to recognize each other's right of way, and the preferential policy of tax reduction and exemption for ships passing through the Union countries.

Although not very satisfied, but also knew that this is the bottom line of the Chinese, and finally bargained again, and found that it could not be changed, Alexander . Stephens finally agreed, and held a public signing ceremony with Gao Junjie, signing a formal agreement of intent.

So far, the two sides have reached a preliminary agreement, which can be said to be a great joy.

After the agreement was signed, at a celebratory reception later, Gao Junjie, the plenipotentiary negotiator of the Eastern Expeditionary Force, immediately made a public statement, saying that he hoped that the Allied government would fulfill the contents of the agreement of intent as soon as possible and not delay too much.

Special Envoy Gao Junjie said that as long as the Allied Government shows enough sincerity to formally start armistice negotiations with the Northern Army and cancel all kinds of trade taxes on Chinese goods, the Eastern Expeditionary Force will immediately officially hand over New Orleans City without delay, so I hope that the Allied Government can face up to this treaty, maintain the hard-won friendship between them, and at the same time make a due contribution to world peace! (To be continued......)