On October 1, President of the United States of Cuba Sylvester Lopez announced the official establishment of the Republic of Cuba in Havana and set the capital in Havana. The United States became the first country to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba. The founding ceremony of the United States of Cuba attended by US President Ulysses Grant.

Seeing the United States of Cuba's sickle, hammer flag and the United States' star-stripe flag fluttering together, Li Mu almost burst into laughter. This is also one of the few evil things that Li Mu had in this era. Although the United States of Cuba's flag is less than the Soviet flag, this scene is already inconsistent enough.

Except for Li Mu, no one understands where the two flags are laughing, but others do not think that Li Mu is abnormal, because those who are qualified to attend the ceremony are vested interests and everyone is happy.

After more than half a month of consultation, everyone has gained a lot except for the "railway king" Jay Gould who was sadly eliminated. Henry DuPont obtained the mining rights of the Nipe Mountain mine for $15 million. The iron ore reserves on the entire mountain are second only to Li Mu's Barakoa Mountain District.

John Rockefeller obtained the right to exploit the Gulf of Mexico oil, and for this, John Rockefeller paid the United States of Cuba five million dollars in cash.

The Vanderbilt family obtained the right to pave the railway between Havana and San Diego. After the railway was completed, the Vanderbilt family had twenty years of operating rights. After the contract expired, the Vanderbilt family could continue to operate by lease.

Another gain from the Vanderbilt family was to jointly establish San Diego Shipping Company with San Diego Investment Company. San Diego Investment Company accounted for 60% of the shares. The Vanderbilt family injected US$1.5 million into San Diego Shipping Company, accounting for 20% of the shares of San Diego Shipping Company, and the remaining 20% ​​belonged to the United States of Cuba.

The current business project of San Diego Shipping Company is to develop the asphalt lake on Trinidad. The ownership of this asphalt lake now belongs to Li Mu personally. In order to obtain this asphalt lake, Li Mu paid only one million US dollars, and he obtained not only this asphalt lake, but also the entire Trinidad.

Trinidad has an area of ​​4,827 square kilometers and is rich in oil and natural gas, but none of them have been developed yet. The most valuable thing on the island is the plantation cultivated by French immigrants, but the ownership of this island belongs to the British.

Like the Bahamas, it was also forgotten by the world before Li Mu bought Trinidad.

In 1489, Columbus discovered Trinidad, which later became a colony of the Spanish. However, there were no gold or silver mines on Trinidad, so the Spanish chose to ignore Trinidad.

After 1642, Trinidad was frequently invaded by Britain and France. In the 170 years before it was transferred to Britain in 1814, Trinidad changed ownership as many as 31 times, and an average of change of ownership occurred every more than five years.

Five years - Considering the communication situation at that time, it was probably similar to playing houses. No matter who came, he could announce the occupation of Trinidad, and then leave after the announcement. He would not station troops on Trinidad, because Trinidad did not show any economic value.

This situation continued until 1814. After the second anti-French alliance went bankrupt, France and its allies, Spain, and the Republic of Batavia signed the Treaty of Amiens with Britain in Amiens in northern France, and Trinidad was officially confirmed to be classified as Britain.

By the way, the Republic of Batavia was later the Netherlands.

On the current island of Trinidad, there are about a thousand Chinese living. These Chinese are contract workers. They came to Trinidad at least in 1806. They first worked in plantations, and then gradually entered other industries. So far, there are Chinese planters and Chinese businessmen on Trinidad. It is rare to see Chinese people working alone.

Li Mu bought Trinidad and was welcomed by the residents of the island. The total number of people on Trinidad is only about 20,000, more than half of them are Indians and blacks. Indians, like Chinese, were initially contract workers, while blacks were slaves brought by the French.

To be honest, Li Mu doesn't like Indians and black people, so after Li Mu bought Trinidad, he announced the abolition of slavery on the island. The planters on the island have two choices. They can choose to free all the black slaves and send them back to the African continent, or they can choose to resell black slaves to the South American continent.

No one chose the first type, almost all planters chose the second type, and they had three months to deal with the problem of these slaves. Three months later, if someone disobeyed Li Mu's order, Li Mu would forcibly take back the plantations in the hands of those ranchers.

As for the Indian contract workers, Li Mu did not touch them for the time being. These people are not free people. If they lose their jobs, they will all be deported back to India.

To speed up this process, Li Mu ordered Gabriel Cotton to acquire French plantations on Trinidad, so that when the French lost their plantations, they would have little reason to settle on Trinidad.

After the ceremony, Sylvester held a dinner at the Presidential Palace in Havana and thanked Ulysses Grant who came to attend the dinner.

The Presidential Palace was the residence of the former Spanish Governor in Cuba. It was located near the port of Havana. Some time ago, when the artillery of Guantanamo Infantry Regiment bombarded the port of Havana, the Presidential Palace was affected by artillery shells, and the grasslands and sculptures in front of the Presidential Palace were destroyed. The reason why the establishment ceremony of the United States of Cuba has been dragged to the present is to restore the sculptures in front of the Presidential Palace.

Although Sylvester's identity is the president of the United States of Cuba, Li Mu's position has always been by Ulysses Grant, which shows how powerful Li Mu is in Ulysses Grant's heart.

During the break of the banquet, Ulysses Grant and Li Mu raised their glasses to celebrate.

"Reim, you did a great job. Your results exceeded my expectations." Ulysses Grant's face full of appreciation.

It was indeed beyond expectations. Ulysses Grant once imagined that Cubans could drive away the Spaniards, but in Ulysses Grant's view, this process would take at least several years. Now, within half a year, the United States of Cuba has made a beautiful turnaround, which really made Ulysses Grant look at him with admiration.

Although Sylvester is the president of the United States of Cuba, Ulysses Grant knew very well how he came about as a president. If it weren't for Li Mu, the war might have ended again now, but it is unlikely that the Cubans would have won the war.

"This is not my credit alone. Without George and the others, I would not be able to defeat the Spaniards on the battlefield. Arthur from New York also helped me a lot. Of course, the greatest credit belongs to the American instructors in the army. They are the people who are truly fighting on the front line." Li Mu did not take credit, but he had already taken advantage of all the advantages he should have. Now saying a few good words can better demonstrate Li Mu's humility.

"Don't be humble, you are not from the Qing Empire now, but from the Americans." Ulysses Grant joked.

Ulysses Grant is very proud of the fact that America has talents like Li Mu. Look at the achievements Li Mu has made and then look at Li Mu’s age. I really don’t know what kind of achievements Li Mu will achieve in another fifty years.

The only thing that regrets Ulysses Grant is that because Li Mu was not born in the United States, it is impossible for Li Mu to serve as President of the United States.

This may be a good thing. Li Mu, who cannot serve as president, will reduce Li Mu's threat. As long as Li Mu makes enough achievements, the US government will definitely give Li Mu some compensation.

"There is no modesty. In fact, Mr. President, you know, through this war, I have got everything I want, so I hope now to do something for our officers and gentlemen." Li Mu brought the topic to those two hundred officers, which would resonate with Ulysses Grant, who was once a soldier.

"Yes, they deserve more, so, what are you going to do?" Sure enough, Ulysses Grant immediately took the bait.

"I thought about building a foundation for them, but then I realized that this might not solve the problem. Mr. President, you know, they are all excellent officers and noble personalities, so they cannot accept the mercy of others, and others are not qualified to mercy on them, so all I can do is to seek a long-term job for them so that they do not have any worries about unemployment." Li Mu said his purpose and encouraged Ulysses Grant to promote the establishment of a standing army in the US government.

The United States does not have a standing army now. Excellent officers like George Dewey have to work part-time to earn some extra money when there is no war. More people can only choose to retire in disgrace. This is definitely not what Li Mu is willing to see. Li Mu is an arms businessman. Only by promoting the US government to set up a standing army can Li Mu have a stable financial path.

"I have considered the problem you mentioned, but there are too many aspects involved, and this problem is not easy to solve." Ulysses Grant also knows the current dilemma of American soldiers, but this problem is indeed difficult to solve.

Military expenditure is only one aspect. What is certain is that setting up a standing army will dilute the originally small military expenditure, which will cause a strong backlash from the Navy. At the same time, Congress is unlikely to pass such a resolution, because the United States has no enemies in the continental United States, so the United States does not need to set up a standing army.

"What's wrong with solving it? - Mr. President, without an enemy, we can create an enemy-" Li Mu fanned the flames, just finding an enemy, this question is too simple.

"How to do it?" It's not just Ulysses Grant who is interested, but George Dewey, Benjamin, and Mahan are more interested, which is closely related to their vital interests.
Chapter completed!