1850 American Gold Tycoon.

Chapter 653 It's not that the West cannot leave us, but we cannot leave the West

"Your worries are unnecessary." Lincoln had a bitter smile on his face. "It's only a matter of time before this plan is sent to Liang Yao and Davis' desks."

Hundreds of congressmen have read the Anaconda plan, so leaks are inevitable.

But Lincoln was powerless to do anything about it. Although Lincoln was disgusted with the Citizens Party led by Liang Yao and Fremont, who had a one-man show in California, sometimes Lincoln also envied Liang Yao. He believed that with Liang Yao's character, if the West wanted to pass a strategic plan, Liang Yao would at most review it in his cabinet and would not send it to their parliament for voting and discussion, so there was no need to worry about leaks.

"What should we do with the arrested envoys sent to Europe by the South?" Nickel asked Lincoln.

"Take them into custody," Lincoln said after gathering his thoughts.

“Let our people in Europe step up their propaganda efforts. European countries, led by Britain and France, especially Britain, have always liked to stand on the dry shore and criticize our barbaric slavery system in the United States, demanding that we abolish this inhumane system and embrace the embrace of the civilized world.

Now we really have to sweep slavery into the dustbin of history. If they are really the civilized world they claim to be, they should stand on our side, the civilized side, instead of flirting with the slave owners in the South. "

Although the United States has not yet officially enacted a bill to completely abolish slavery, the abolition of slavery is a foregone conclusion after it has completely broken off relations with the southern slave states.

Since its founding, the United States has been criticized by European civilized countries, led by Britain, for retaining slavery. Now those European civilization merchants are flirting with the South and even showing signs of providing assistance to the South. This made Lincoln feel extremely uncomfortable.

Lincoln was well aware that the reason why Britain and other rising European countries were so concerned about the issue of slavery in America across the ocean had nothing to do with humanity or civilization, but was based on political stance.

Take Britain as an example. The atrocities committed by the British against the people of South Asia and other colonies were even worse than those committed by the slave owners in the South. When a great famine occurred in South Asia, killing tens of millions of people, Lincoln did not see the well-dressed and civilized gentlemen in the Palace of Westminster accusing the officials of the British Indian authorities of inaction. Instead, they wantonly pulled out grain from Bengal and sold it.

"This move can only be targeted at the South. There is no slavery in the West." Hearing the conversation between Lincoln and Nicholas, Secretary of State Seward, who was smoking in the corridor, came up.

Seward wanted to sever the West's ties with European countries and did not want the West to gain support from European countries.

"Liang Yao has a good personal relationship with Napoleon III. Napoleon III is currently leading an expedition in Mexico. I have received accurate information that the West is providing assistance to Napoleon III's expedition. I am very worried that the West will get too close to France. Napoleon III is an ambitious monarch who intends to expand the influence of the French Empire in the Americas."

More than eighty years ago, a French emperor helped them win the difficult war of independence. But there is no guarantee that eighty years later, this French emperor will also support a new country in North America.

"Everything has priorities, and right now the South has a higher priority than the West," Lincoln said.

"Liang Yao seems to have realized that we have no sincerity in peace talks. According to intelligence, he has already set off for North Platte." Seward looked up at Lincoln.

"The second batch of mobilized soldiers has not yet formed combat effectiveness, and they are not yet a match for the Western Army." Lincoln pondered for a moment and said helplessly. He had been to the West and observed Liang Yao's Western Army up close. He was deeply impressed by the Western Army's strict appearance, strict discipline, and excellent weapons.

These conscripts, hastily mobilized by the federal government, had not completed their reorganization and training, so even though they had a numerical advantage over the Western Army, it would be difficult for them to defeat it.

"More than 40 senators and congressmen, led by Aspinwall, jointly demanded that we must take tough measures in the West." When Seward mentioned Aspinwall and others, a look of disgust appeared on his face.

"They asked us to take military action against the West as soon as possible. Even if we cannot mobilize soldiers to fight immediately, we should at least take economic actions to put pressure on the West, such as confiscating the Crystal Palace Shopping Mall, a representative asset of the West in New York."

"Nonsense! Is the Crystal Palace a purely Western asset? Vandazer and the eldest son of the Vanderbilt family, William, also hold a large portion of the shares of the Crystal Palace!" Lincoln said angrily, "Everyone knows that the Astor family and the Western financial group and those Dutch people in New York have been holding grudges for a long time. They are just trying to settle personal grudges."

Lincoln was naturally aware of the little tricks of Aspinwall and others. It was common knowledge among Americans that the Astor family was squeezed out of California by Liang Yao and the Dutch upstarts in New York in their early years and failed to get a share of the gold rush in the West.

Lincoln was not stupid enough to be used as a gun by Aspinwall and others.

During his tenure, his predecessor Buchanan was coerced by the old money in the Northeast to impose economic sanctions on the West, incite anti-Chinese movement, and try to obtain the sales rights of Western chemical products, mainly kerosene, in the East.

But what was the result? Didn’t the sanctions end in a dismal defeat in the East?

  Western products have penetrated into every aspect of life in the East. If the economic connection with the West is completely severed, the lower class will have no cheap and good kerosene to use, middle-class families will not be able to buy reliable and reasonably priced Butterfly sewing machines and Puma bicycles, the Western locomotives purchased by the railway company and the subsequent maintenance services will become a problem, and various factories will have to use more expensive animal ointments to lubricate machinery, etc.

"If they can produce similar products of the same quality as those in the West, or even of slightly inferior quality, why would we be economically controlled by the West?" Seward said, with a look of disappointment. "Successive governments have protected these people too well. Now they can't compete with their European counterparts, and they can't even compete with the West."

In his early years, Seward worked as a legal adviser to Lincoln at the Atlantic Railroad Company. He was well aware that once economic ties with the West were cut off, the entire federation's national economy and people's livelihood would be affected.

Ten years ago, the West could not do without the East. Times have changed, and now the situation is just the opposite. The East can no longer do without the West.

Lincoln's judgment was correct. Before the Python Project was passed, Liang Yao, who had just arrived in North Platte, had already received the text information of the Python Project.

These text materials were translated overnight by the staff of the Telegraph Office after receiving the telegram. Despite the lack of image data, the staff of the General Staff worked hard to draw relevant maps of the Python Plan.

"Scott is so handsome and talented. If Scott was 20 or 30 years younger, he would be an extremely tough opponent for us." After carefully reading the Python Project, Liang Yao gave his evaluation without hesitation.

(End of this chapter)