Chapter 10: Lighthouse mud pond

The Caribbean Sea, this country full of plantations, once again became the focus of the world.

Three years ago, Lighthouse Country, in order to find an overseas market for its domestic market, coupled with the incitement of the East Continent Empire, launched a war against Spain due to multiple factors.

What was originally thought to be an easy war turned out to be unsatisfactory due to the East Continent Empire selling warships and the resistance movement.

If the naval battle caused Lighthouse to suffer heavy losses, at least it defeated the enemy, which could be considered a victory.

Then the military actions on land became a quagmire, a quagmire that tightly bound Lighthouse.

More importantly, Spain's colonies in the Pacific region had already been occupied by the East Continent Empire in advance.

A costly and labor-intensive war only resulted in colonies currently engulfed in conflict.

With great difficulty, and with the help of internal collaborators, Lighthouse Country paid a huge price to eliminate Jose Marti, the leader.

Unexpectedly, a man named Maceo appeared, who opposed Lighthouse Country even more than his predecessor, Jose Marti.

Currently, Lighthouse Country has over a hundred thousand troops in Cuba, but they still haven't been able to capture this Maceo.

This leader of the uprising, who learned guerrilla warfare from East Continent, has caused the deaths of thousands of Lighthouse soldiers in the past one or two years with his remaining soldiers.

More importantly, because Cuba has been unable to stabilize for a long time, this country, which accounts for half of the world's sugar production, has now become a nightmare for those Europa plantation owners.

They have been selling off their plantations on the market, but no one dares to take them over; everyone knows that this place is now a land of death.

That Maceo would lead his soldiers to burn down plantations and kill a few plantation owners every now and then.

Finally, a mysterious force appeared and acquired these plantations at an incredibly low price.

Thus, under Fang Mingzhou's arrangement, the world's two major sugar-producing regions were brought under his control, and this alone could bring in over fifty million blue coins annually for East Continent.

Not only did Lighthouse fail to completely conquer this place, but the two years of war also led to high war-weariness at home.

Over fifty thousand people lost their lives in this land, and President McKinley also bore immense pressure.

This is also why he wanted to cater to grassroots voters by legislating to restrict those Trusts.

At this moment, at the Presidential Palace, McKinley was holding a cabinet meeting.

The reception held earlier, where the Secretary of State was sent to probe the opinions of these big capitalists, yielded unfavorable results.

“Mr. President, with all due respect, it is impossible for these people to give up their current monopoly position,” Secretary of State Olney said earnestly.

Not only at the reception, but he had also privately contacted several spokesmen from major families, and once the topic came up, these people would start to evade the subject.

“Currently, in the entire country, perhaps only Mr. Burgess is indifferent; those major families are all sucking the blood of our country through monopolies,” Lyman Jimlet also said.

McKinley broke the tradition of previous administrations where the Secretary of the Treasury always came from a major family; Lyman Jimlet was a minister who truly rose from the bottom.

“Russell, I want to know, are we still unable to completely take over the colony?”

McKinley's voice was full of helplessness; who would have known that the world's number one industrial power, dealing with a small colonial country, would be unable to completely occupy it.

Secretary of War Russell secretly cursed the army's incompetence and could only brace himself and say, “Mr. President, we have already reached an agreement with one of their current leaders, Máximo Gómez.”

“They will sign a peace agreement with us within three months.”

“This is very good news.”

McKinley said with a smile, finally there was some good news; he was tired of those people blocking the Presidential Palace every now and then, protesting the war and demanding the withdrawal of troops with unreasonable requests.

“Is that Maceo still insisting on fighting us to the end? Can't we completely eliminate them?”

“He is not God!”

“Mr. President, Maceo has been following Jose Marti from the beginning and is an out-and-out nationalist; it is very difficult for us to persuade him to lay down his arms.”

“Furthermore, there has been a hidden force continuously supporting Maceo; otherwise, without backup, they would have long been short of clothes and ammunition.”

“Do you know what force it is?”

McKinley was startled; he knew that, besides himself, many countries opposed his acquisition of colonies.

But McKinley knew that he had to take this step; only then could the country expand outwards instead of being confined to this continent.

Michael Hawke, as Secretary of the Interior, was in charge of Lighthouse’s official intelligence.

Clearly, the East Continent Empire's covert support was very well hidden; besides Jose Marti and a few trusted aides, almost no one knew, and deliveries were always made to designated locations.

And now that Jose Marti is gone, to prevent leaks, only Maceo and a few others currently know.

Looking at the troubled Hawke, McKinley also sighed.

“Gentlemen, the general election is in just over half a year, and I hope to completely stabilize this situation before then.”

“Otherwise, it will be very difficult for us to win against Brian; I believe none of you want to lose the election, do you?”

“I trust you will resolve it, won't you, Mr. Russell?”

James Russell swore that when he returned, he would definitely make the generals intensify their efforts against Maceo, otherwise his political career would probably be over.

If the colonies were a minor concern, then the monopolistic financial magnates of Lighthouse Country were the true grave concern.

“In the past two years, our economy has developed rapidly, completely surpassing John Bull; currently, our pig iron production has reached ten million tons, exported to many countries.”

“We have completely emerged from the last economic crisis.”

“However…” Secretary of the Treasury Lyman Jimlet said helplessly, “Our economy is currently lacking funds, which has severely restricted factory expansion and enterprise development.”

“Ultimately, it's still because of that gold crisis back then; now, every year we have to repay over sixty tons of gold.”

“The amount of gold we obtain through trade surplus each year is also within this range, which means that during this term, or the next term,”

“We will all face the problem of gold shortage.”

McKinley had no solution to this problem; gold, as a hard currency, was scarce worldwide.

Didn't you see John Bull making a big fuss in Boer, fighting for three years? In the end, it was all for gold.

And he couldn't criticize the previous Cleveland cabinet; in that situation, if he had been in charge, this outcome would already have been the best.

“Have you found out why Burgess held so much gold in the first place?”

Five hundred tons of gold is no small sum; even the top twenty economies in the world might not be able to produce it.

This time, Secretary of the Interior Michael Hawke immediately replied, “During that century auction, Burgess Mining brought out four or five gold mines, big and small.”

“There's no reason for him not to keep some for himself; we estimate that in Maple Leaf Country, this mining tycoon privately owns at least two giant gold mines.”