When the Nian Army's female leader, Wen Yuewei, came to Nanjing to ask for cooperation with the Liberation Army, Vézé was exchanging information with Zuo Zhidan. There was no radio these days, and the submarine cable to Asia had not been built. Communication between China and the United States could only be done by ship.
Zuo Zhidan had no confidence in Vézé's proposal. It was beyond his imagination to discuss the sale of land with the Americans thousands of miles away. However, since Vézé had given the order, the Liberation Army discussed the matter with the American ambassador and prepared ships and diplomats to go to the United States to discuss the matter with the American government.
"Commander-in-chief, can two or three million taels of silver buy such a large piece of land?" Zuo Zhidan had done some homework and roughly knew how big Alaska was.
Vézé smiled and said, "It's day half the year there and night half the year there. It's so cold. Do you really think anyone likes that kind of life? There's no money in the world. "
In this era, although Vézé could not accept foreign invasions of China, he became more and more aware of the reasons for foreign invasions of China. A considerable part of the world's hard currency was in China. Decades after the end of the Qing Dynasty, China lost 1.3 billion taels of silver with interest. When Vézé transmigrated, the population of China was only a little more than 1.3 billion. One gram of silver was four yuan. One tael of silver was equivalent to 50 grams. With how powerful China was in the 21st century, everyone would have to pay 200 yuan.
This was an astronomical sum of money in the 19th century. Without such a large amount of money, the economic development of European and American countries would encounter a great bottleneck. With the "universal values" of this era, it would be incredible if they did not come to China to plunder.
As the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zuo Zhidan also knew the level of the world's countries through the embassies and consulates in Europe and the United States. China had a large population, a huge market, and a foundation in agriculture. The new China's industrial development was extremely fast. The policy adopted the socialist system, and the state presided over the basic departments of the people's livelihood. In terms of living standards alone, China's meritorious officials and officials could not compare to the aristocrats and capitalists in Europe and America, but the lives of ordinary people were not necessarily worse than those in Europe and America.
Therefore, Zuo Zhidan advised, "Commander-in-Chief, there's nothing wrong with buying Alaska, but can we defend it?"
Vézé didn't want to tell the truth, but the Restoration Party had internal democracy after all. Vézé didn't get his current position by lying. It was because Vézé never hid the truth that his comrades trusted Vézé. Vézé weighed the pros and cons of Alaska. If he lied to Zuo Zhidan and Alaska was taken away, Vézé's credibility would suffer a great loss. Compared to that kind of loss, the price of telling the truth to Zuo Zhidan was spending some effort to convince her.
After all, the purchase of Alaska was a business matter. From a business point of view, the benefits of telling the truth were far greater than lying. Thinking of this, Vézé simply made his judgment clear.
To Vézé's surprise, after listening to Vézé's explanation, Zuo Zhidan actually agreed with Vézé's view. Zuo Zhidan replied excitedly, "Commander-in-Chief, if you had told me earlier, I wouldn't have had any problems."
This attitude surprised Vézé. He asked, "Aren't you worried about war?"
Zuo Zhidan looked at Vézé in surprise. After a while, he said, "Commander-in-Chief, now all the units are looking forward to war. We've gained so much in Luzon this time. What's wrong with fighting more of this kind of war? As far as I know, from the government to the army, all the departments are eager to fight. "
In the past few years, Vézé's main focus had been on how to solve the domestic production problems. He originally thought that the domestic units were pressured by the domestic problems, but now, the huge pressure made everyone think that domestic problems could be solved abroad.
Plundering colonies was indeed a good way to solve the problem. Compared to China, Europe was already sparsely populated, and the United States was even more so. But Europe and the United States were frantically plundering colonies, and the United States was carrying out the westward movement. Both of them adopted expansionist policies. For them, expansionist policies could indeed solve the problem. For China, which had a population of 500 million, the effect of expansionist policies to relieve the domestic pressure was even more immediate.
There was a simple and straightforward solution, but they abandoned this method and adopted a more difficult solution. This was not in line with human nature.
Looking at the foreign minister who was happy because there was a war to fight, Vézé lamented in his heart, "What the f * ck did I release!"
Now, the total population of Europe and the United States was about 200 million, and they had already turned the world into a sea of corpses. And with the addition of China, a huge country with a population of 500 million … Vézé suddenly had a strong suspicion that in what direction would the world go?
Would it develop in a better direction? Or would it develop by leaps and bounds in a worse direction?
But this feeling of compassion only lasted for a few seconds, and Vézé soon threw these thoughts to the back of his mind. History had made Vézé believe that socialism was indeed more suitable for China than any other system. But whether he believed in socialism or democracy, Vézé was first and foremost a Chinese. Vézé was willing to accept the interests of China above Vézé's personal interests, and he could also accept the liberation of the Chinese people above the private interests of China's government. But Vézé would never become an internationalist.
If the people of the world's major industrial countries had finally awakened in the 21st century, and the national boundaries between countries were eliminated, and the major industrial countries finally became equal countries, Vézé might have been able to accept it. But Vézé would never accept sacrificing China's interests for the interests of foreign nobles and capitalists.
After confirming his position, Vézé's heart was once again as hard as stone. If the world turned into a sea of blood for the sake of China's interests, Vézé didn't care if he dirtied his hands.
Returning to his office with a somewhat martyr's mood, Vézé read the telegram about the female leader of the Nian Army, Wen Yuewei. He calmly gave instructions in his mind. "Tell the Nian Army that if they want to enfeoff their territory and make themselves king, the Liberation Army will never accept such conditions. The Liberation Army will never accept such conditions. If the Nian Army really wants to join the ranks of the liberation of China and go home to live a good life after the war, then the Liberation Army welcomes such progressive forces to join our ranks. Let the Nianjun decide for himself what to do! "
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