Soho has been with Li Yongji for so long and understands Li Yongji's true thoughts very well, so when facing Pu Anchen, he never mentioned anything related to the negotiations, nor did he mention personal issues about Li Yongji, but only talked about the customs and characteristics of China and the United States, eating habits and other issues.

Of course, as the hostess of the house, Soho's hospitality is also quite attentive, and she deliberately made a Western-style meal, although it is not enough for a real French meal, but in terms of exquisite Cheng dù, it is not bad at all, especially many out-of-season fruits, such as watermelon, lychee, grapes, pineapple, mango, etc., which makes the well-informed Pu Anchen also very staggered.

Because he learned Western food etiquette through guò video teaching in advance, although Soho's table is decent and sold, and even a little rigid strictly speaking, in Pu Anchen's eyes, Soho's attitude is not only not stereotyped, but reveals a noble Western aristocratic style.

In fact, the aristocratic etiquette in the West has a long process of formation, and the period when it really forms norms and develops to a climax is from the seventeenth century to the eighteenth century, which is usually called the Baroque period, which is actually similar to the Zhou etiquette in the Spring and Autumn Period.

I won't say much about the specific situation of the Baroque, but the aristocratic etiquette and other issues in Europe were actually really formed and perfected during this period, and even many Western values, such as the Enlightenment, were born and deeply rooted in the hearts of the people during this period.

In short, the aristocratic etiquette of Europe is also one of the prides of European civilization in the nineteenth century, relatively speaking, the United States, as a young country, lacks the excessive monarchy, so it lacks the soil connotation of these etiquettes, so it is much worse in terms of aristocratic etiquette, although their upper class verbally disdains this, and constantly emphasizes how perfect their separation of powers is, but in their hearts, they have a sense of aristocratic etiquette and even the aristocratic class. Still envious, jealous and hateful.

Pu Anchen is such a person, although he looks down on the Western aristocracy on the surface, he is still very concerned about studying and learning aristocratic etiquette, and even he himself constantly uses those aristocratic etiquette to restrain himself.

Therefore, seeing a Chinese woman with the demeanor of a Western lady really made Pu Anchen feel fresh and curious.

Of course, in addition to being curious, Pu Anchen also saw many different things, such as his passage through this meal. I see a lot of problems.

Not to mention, just those fresh salmon, fresh steaks and other food, at least show that the logistics of the Chinese are quite good, otherwise it is impossible to supply such exquisite food.

Second, those fresh out-of-season vegetables and fruits show that the Chinese are advanced in agricultural technology, at least Pu Anchen believes that even if agricultural technology is currently recognized as the world's first. It is said that the British Empire, the country that has mastered the cultivation technology of glass greenhouses, could not produce fresh fruits such as lychees, grapes, and watermelons during this season!

Out-of-season fruits and vegetables may seem simple, but without strong financial and technical support, these things will definitely not be possible. And delivered to the front line in time, if it is not magic, it means that the agricultural technology of the Chinese has come to the forefront of the world, and the transportation technology is also unique. Otherwise, it would be impossible to ship it all the way and keep it in such a fresh state.

In short, just because of this meal. It makes Pu Anchen even more jealous of the Chinese, because he is not thinking about the problem of poverty and luxury that ordinary people can think of, but about technology, and in his opinion, it is a miracle in itself to be able to solve this series of technologies such as production, preservation, transportation, etc., which can be transported thousands of miles or even thousands of miles in the winter, and still maintain considerable freshness.

Sure enough, although he wanted to maintain his demeanor, Pu Anchen couldn't help but be curious, and began to ask questions about those out-of-season vegetables and fruits one by one, and Soho actually began to answer them one by one.

In fact, Soho doesn't know the origin and details of these ingredients, after all, most of these things are actually obtained by Li Yongji from modern society, and many of them are not products of this world at all, but Li Yongji will definitely not say this, but it is just deduced that there is a secret production base, and also briefly explains the production methods and transportation methods of some of these things.

Now, Soho began to learn and sell, and said everything he heard from Li Yongji, including some professional terms.

Of course, Soho speaks in Chinese, so the translator needs to translate it into English, but the problem is that many professional terms do not have special English words in this period, so the translator can only rack his brains and explain in a way that he thinks is reasonable.

Therefore, after such a rhetoric, many Chinese words were filled into the English vocabulary, such as the Chinese pinyin of the four words "greenhouse technology", which later became an English word in this time and space, becoming a professional term for this technology, and the pinyin of the four words "refrigeration technology" is the same, and it has also become a specific English word in the Western world.

In any case, after Soho's warm reception, although there was no substantial progress in the negotiations, it greatly eased the feelings of both sides, at least the atmosphere became much better, and it no longer seemed as tense as when the first contact was made.

It wasn't until half past eight in the evening that Li Yongji, who was busy with his own affairs, returned to the villa and had a formal meeting with Pu Anchen.

The atmosphere of the meeting was also quite good, although they could not have dinner together, Li Yongji still decisively let Soho perform a Chinese-style kung fu tea, and used kung fu tea to entertain Pu Anchen, so that the atmosphere between them was further harmonious.

After three cups of tea, Pu Anchen finally couldn't help it, and took the initiative to ask about the Chinese's armistice conditions, asking Li Yongji what conditions he needed to withdraw from the armistice and return the American prisoners to them, but he was very smart and did not carry out any war accusations or anything like that.

"Armistice conditions, that's easy to say." Li Yongji smiled and said, "If you are willing to stop the war immediately, then cede California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming and Idaho, and compensate us with 100 million yuan in military spending." (Note: Montana was still Idaho at this time.) ）

"No, this condition is categorically not good!" Pu Anchen immediately refused, "You are obviously a lion's mouth, and you have no sincerity at all!" Let's talk about the more practical conditions. ”

"How can there be no sincerity? We are sincere, and I am talking about the actual conditions. Li Yongji said with a smile, "To be honest." Even these conditions are only valid temporarily, if you still refuse to agree, then we can only continue to fight.

To put it bluntly, it's cold now, and you can catch your breath for a while, and once the weather gets warmer, we'll continue eastward until we reach Pittsburgh, or even Philadelphia. Then our conditions are not like this, but we demand that the Mississippi River be the boundary, the territory of the West will belong to us, and the east will belong to you, and at the same time, we will continue to compensate 100 million Chinese dollars for military expenses! ”

"All the territory west of the Mississippi River?" Hearing Li Yongji's words, Pu Anchen was ready to be blackmailed, and he still exploded at once, "You guys, you want most of the United States." This, this is simply blackmail! I've never seen anything like you! This is a completely impossible condition! ”

"Blackmail? No way? I don't think so. Li Yongji smiled, "Speaking of which, the territories I talked about before. It seems that it wasn't your American before, it seems that you carved it up from Mexico through the guò war.

Earlier, Mexico did not have the right to occupy these lands. They also took the land from the local natives themselves, and then made that land their own without the consent of the locals.

Plainly. When you have the ability to hold the land, it is naturally yours, and when you are not able to hold it, it is not yours, this reason is very simple, isn't it?

As the saying goes, the truth is within the range of the cannon, this is the universal law of the world, so my cannon has a long enough range and wants more land, it doesn't seem too much, right? If you don't want to, that's okay, we can continue to fight until one side completely concedes, what do you think? ”

Seeing Li Yongji talking about the bandit logic with such a smile, Pu Anchen was angry, but he also knew that what he said was actually right, and he also knew that it was impossible to continue to be hard with the other party.

The reason is simple, the United States can no longer fight.

As a congressman, a high-ranking Republican Party member and one of Lincoln's top aides, Anson was well aware of the many situations facing the United States of America at this time, and it was not at all true that he was suffering from internal and external troubles.

In terms of external troubles, the forces of the Confederate States, the Chinese, the British, and the French have united to encircle the United States of America from three directions, and have always held the strategic initiative.

Although Lincoln continued to implement high-pressure rule and use power to suppress this extended feeling, this can only be temporary, and this kind of high-pressure restraint will not last long in the long run.

In other words, because of the successive defeats in the previous wars, especially the successive losses of a large number of elite troops, the United States has been seriously injured, and it cannot be quickly recovered in a short period of time, not to mention, it has also caused a series of problems at home.

At this time, if the external environment continues to oppress and the United States continues to fail, then I am afraid that Lincoln's rule will come to an end, and once Lincoln's rule ends, the United States of America will also be finished, and it is likely to be divided up and face a dispersal end.

To put it bluntly, in the final analysis, it is still a question of war resilience, or war potential.

The United States of America, or the Northern Army, is indeed strong in terms of overall strength, but that means that compared with the pure Southern Confederate States, if you add Britain, France, and China, the situation is completely different.

In another time and space history, during the Civil War, the U.S. Northern Army did reach the size of 3 million men, but that refers to the successive emergence of many years.

As far as the losses are concerned, in the entire war in another time and space, the Northern Federation Army has only about 360,000 dead and about 280,000 injured due to various reasons.

However, in this time and space, the US troops consumed by the Chinese alone, including the killed, wounded and prisoners, exceeded 700,000 people, which was already much more than the number of dead and wounded during the entire war in another time and space.

The reason for this is that almost every battle the Chinese have fought against the Americans is a beautiful total annihilation battle, so that after each battle, few of the formed American troops can escape back.

Although most of them became prisoners of the Chinese, and the casualties could not be counted, because they could not return to the United States to participate in the war, these American soldiers who were captured could no longer be counted as combat effectiveness, so they should also be counted as casualties, at least until the Chinese released the prisoners, these people were missing and killed.

The loss of 700,000 people in a short period of time, and almost all of them were excellent main army corps, this was simply a nerve-wracking blow for the US army, and the impact was also very far-reaching, and it was no different from heavy hemorrhage.

What's even more terrifying is that after the Chinese have eaten so many US troops, they basically have no losses, and there are signs of continuing to advance eastward, which makes the Americans even more frightened, to be honest, at least in the US military circles, they are already talking about the change of color of the Chinese.

Just the Chinese, the US military has a headache, but the problem is that they are now not only an enemy of the Chinese, but also a large and equally dangerous Southern Alliance army, and a slightly smaller number, but still strong Anglo-French army!

To put it bluntly, even if the Chinese stop the pace of eastward expansion now, the US military has to deal with the Anglo-French alliance in the north and the alliance army in the south at the same time, which is already quite difficult, if the Chinese continue to fight at this time, especially as Li Yongji said, hit Pittsburgh, then the United States of America may really lose everything, except for unconditional surrender, it seems that there is no other way to go.

At this time, the United States, after all, was different from the superpower of later generations, and it could not be compared with the old powers in the world in terms of population, industrial capacity, and mobilization capacity.

To put it bluntly, in this civil war, even if the Chinese do not intervene, assuming that the British intervene, it will be difficult for the north to win, not to mention that now China, Britain and France are jointly intervening to help the southern army, which makes the originally superior northern army fall into an inexorably dangerous situation.

Just as Lincoln said to him when Pu Anchen left, the United States can no longer afford to fight, if the Chinese continue to fight, the United States really has no hope, even if the British and French retreat, they will not be able to win this war.

In fact, Lincoln did not send people to meet the British and French before, even earlier than the contact with the Chinese, almost the moment the American army defeated the Anglo-French coalition, Lincoln sent negotiators.

But unfortunately, the British and French are not stupid, and they also know that they now have a great advantage, so even if they are slightly defeated in a war, their attitude towards attacking the United States is quite consistent, that is, they will fight to the end until the United States accepts their terms.

Therefore, when the situation reached such a dangerous situation, Lincoln had to send a special envoy for negotiations, Pu Anchen, to ask him to contact the Chinese with the greatest appetite, making it clear that he was soft on the Chinese and agreed to the previous Chinese's territorial claims in disguise.

It's just that although Pu Anchen understands this, he still has to work hard to fight for it, but now it seems that the Chinese not only do not let go of any water, but even their appetite may become greater, and they actually do not meet their original territorial claims, and even want to use the Mississippi River as the boundary and directly claim the land west of the Mississippi River!

Anger is anger, but Pu Anchen also knows that anger is useless, so he can only continue to start grinding his mouth, hoping to use the method of soft grinding and hard bubbles to make the Chinese give in.

"If that's your attitude, I don't think we'd talk about it." After discovering Pu Anchen's attitude, Li Yongji simply sighed, "To put it bluntly, I have no right to make concessions in terms of the requirements for an armistice, after all, I am just a front-line commander, and I will do whatever the above wants me to do."

Frankly speaking, you can either agree to our terms immediately and pay compensation for the land, or if you continue to drag on and expect to delay time, then we can only continue to fight.

When we take Pittsburgh, or annihilate a few of your legions, our advantage will be greater, and even unite with our allies to defeat you completely, then it will not be the original condition, and it will really be bounded by the Mississippi River, so are you sure you still want to continue to fight with me? (To be continued......)