At the invitation of the United States of America, the great powers, in order to readjust the balance of naval power and redraw the spheres of influence in the Far East and the Pacific, finally agreed to convene an international conference in Washington, D.C., in the United States. Because the participating countries are the United States, the United Kingdom, China, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Japan, it is also known as the "G9 Meeting" or the "Pacific Meeting", or simply referred to as the G9 meeting by the Chinese media. At the meeting held in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, on November 12 of the first year of the imperial period ~ February 6 of the second year of the imperial period, the members of the Chinese delegation included Minister Lu Zhengxiang of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Gu Weijun, the ambassador to the United States, and the military representatives were Admiral Chu Zhaodong, commander of the Navy, Admiral Wei Lihuang, commander of the Air Force, and Vice Admiral Zhu Yunjie, deputy director of the General Logistics Department.

In essence, the Washington Conference was a continuation of the Paris Peace Conference, because although the Paris Peace Conference temporarily adjusted the relations between the great powers in the Atlantic region, their contradictions in East Asia and the Pacific region were still very acute, and the contradictions between China, Japan, and the United States were particularly intense. The purpose of the Washington Conference was to resolve the balance of naval power and the conflict of interests in the Far East, the Pacific region, especially in the Far East, which had not been resolved by the Treaty of Versailles, and to improve the Paris peace system after World War I. The three major powers that will play a major role at the Washington Conference are the United States, Britain, and China, while Japan plays the role of a spoiler.

Originally, Japan took advantage of the favorable conditions during World War I to actively expand its influence in the region. On the one hand, the United States was dissatisfied with the outcome of the Paris Peace Conference, and on the other hand, it was uneasy about Japan's expansion and was anxious to break up the Anglo-Japanese alliance, which led to the rapid development of the contradictions between the United States and Japan. But the rapid rise of China, which had brought Japan back to its original form in just half a year, made the situation in the Far East confusing. China itself has also undergone great changes, the restoration of the empire (in the eyes of foreigners, Wu Chenxuan's title of emperor is the restoration of the feudal emperor), coupled with the sudden attack that has just defeated the 200,000 Red Russian army, which made the Americans also quite jealous of China's strength, and the situation in the Far East became delicate for a while. Against this background, by US President Warren ?? Gamelil?? Harding initiated the conference with the approval of all countries.

The meeting had two main topics, one on the limitation of naval armaments, and the other on the Far East and the Pacific. To this end, in addition to the congress, which was attended by representatives of the nine countries, the "Arms Reduction Commission" composed of the United States, Britain, China, France, Italy, and Japan and the "Far East and Pacific Affairs Committee" composed of nine countries were also established. In fact, the meeting was conducted under the manipulation of the United States, Britain, and China. During and at the end of the meeting, a series of treaties, agreements and resolutions were signed by the participating countries, including:

The full name of the five-nation treaty is the Treaty on Island Dependencies and Territories in the Pacific Region. It was signed by the United States, Britain, China, Japan, and France on December 13, the first year of Taichu. The treaty stipulates that the five States shall respect each other's rights to insular possessions and possessions in the Pacific region, and that in the event of a dispute between them concerning such rights which cannot be resolved satisfactorily through diplomatic means, a meeting of the States Parties shall be convened in order to consider a settlement; In the event that the above-mentioned rights are threatened by an act of aggression by any State, the States Parties shall consult comprehensively in order to respond to the situation "jointly or individually by the most effective measures"; After the entry into force of the treaty, the Anglo-Japanese alliance agreement of 1911 should be terminated. At the end of the second year of the Taichu Conference, the five countries also signed a supplementary treaty, stipulating that the concepts of "island possessions" and "island territories" applied to China only Sakhalin, the Ogasawara Islands that China had acquired from Japan, and the Ryukyu Islands under Chinese trusteeship.

On November 12, representatives from the United States, Britain, China, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and Japan gathered at the Independence Memorial Hall in Washington, D.C., and held the Washington-Don Conference. In order to create a peaceful atmosphere, the venue was decorated with palm fronds and a "U" shaped conference table covered with a green tablecloth. At 10:30 a.m., after all the delegates from various countries were seated, the host, US President Harding, stepped onto the rostrum and began to make an opening speech: "We hope to establish a good order and restore peace and ......tranquility to the whole world." The main topics of the meeting were arms limitation and the handling of issues related to the Far East and the Pacific. The former is held by the United States, Britain, China, France, Italy, and Japan, which is composed of six countries, and the latter is discussed by the Far East and Pacific Commission, which is composed of nine participating countries.

On the first day of the opening of the meeting, the United States made a preemptive strike and could not wait to throw out a plan for limiting naval armaments in favor of the United States: 1. Stop building capital ships; 2. Demolition of some old warships; 3. The total tonnage of capital ships is used as the criterion to calculate the naval strength and determine the proportion of each country, with the capital ships of the United States and Britain each being 500,000 tons and China 250,000 tons, while Japan and China have the same tonnage, that is, 5:5:2.5:2.5, and auxiliary ships refer to the prescribed ratio of capital ships. The United States wants to use this plan to establish naval superiority over China and share Britain's maritime supremacy.

Unexpectedly, this plan first aroused strong opposition from Japan, which insisted that the ratio of capital ships of the United States, Britain, Japan, and China should be 10:10:7:3.5. So the great powers quarreled and quarreled, and there was a stalemate for a month. In the end, the United States resorted to a trump card, threatening that if Japan persisted, the United States would build four warships for every warship Japan built. Knowing that it was not strong, Japan was forced to agree to the ratio of capital ships proposed by the United States. However, Japan's soft grinding and hard bubble also won heavy concessions from the United States and Britain. The United States and Britain pledged to Japan not to build or strengthen naval bases in the western Pacific Ocean. Of course, it is not that Britain and the United States love peace, they just hope that Japan will do their best to be a keeper dog for them to watch the Oriental dragon without containment.

However, this can only be wishful thinking, because after being beaten to the elite by China, Japan has a new understanding of the direction of naval development, and no longer focuses on the artillery giant ships, but pays more attention to the application of naval aviation and submarines, which do not have a large proportion in the tonnage of the navy, but the combat effectiveness formed cannot be underestimated, so the debate on the details is more intense than the tonnage.

The Chinese side first proposed that it must have the same tonnage as Japan, even if the current Chinese navy does not count the three cement aircraft carriers, it only has a tonnage of 100,000 tons, which is not as good as the combined size of any four battleships of the United States, Britain and Japan. But China promised to abandon the cement aircraft carrier and dismantle and sink it into the sea under international supervision, and agreed that China would not build cement ships of the same type for ten years. This makes the United States, Britain and Japan's fear of China's explosion of cement aircraft carriers in the sea finally disappear, although they also understand that under the erosion of the sea, the survival of this huge cement component and its slow and outrageous speed make this kind of aircraft carrier seem to pose little threat to shipping safety, but once the cement aircraft carrier is approaching the door, it will be a catastrophic consequence, just like a hornet's nest hanging directly in your yard, but your bamboo pole is not long enough, there is not much good way except to be stung.

In the face of strong opposition from Japan, and even the threat of withdrawing from the meeting, Britain and the United States approached a seemingly reasonable Chinese delegation to coordinate. After nearly fifteen days of repeated consultations, China made an astonishing promise that it would not seek to build super-battleships (more than 30,000 tons of displacement and more than 350 mm of main guns) for five years, and at the same time not to build heavy aircraft carriers of more than 50,000 tons. However, China has also insisted that it does not include its submarine forces in the scope of the agreement. The reason is that China wants to ensure that the security of its sea lines of communication will not be cut off by hostile forces, and China must retain the means of counterattack. China's statement has led both the United States and Britain to believe that they are seeking an asymmetric threat, and anyway, the lifelines of the United States and Britain are in the Atlantic, Indian and Eastern Pacific, and it is not enough to threaten these regions with the performance of submarines. As for Japan, does a compromise like this require the opinion of a dog?

As a result, President Harding praised the Chinese navy for making huge concessions to maintain world peace, announced that the United States would also gradually withdraw from military bases in the Philippines, and called on other countries to adopt the same attitude towards naval arms restrictions. Who are the other countries here, everyone knows it, a bunch of dwarves babbling and pretending not to be human, and the tonnage that should not let go of their mouths is still a turtle that insists on the green mountains and does not relax.

Under China's concessions, Japan could not afford to impose high punitive tariffs on Japan's exports in the name of Japan's efforts to strengthen its naval armaments and trigger an arms race in the name of Japan's efforts to strengthen its naval armaments, and to impose high export taxes on Japan's large machinery, complete sets of equipment, and steel and other resource commodities under China's construction. Not daring to risk the guilt of economic collapse, the Kato cabinet had to threaten the general resignation to force the Satsuma feudal lord of the navy to give in and accept the ratio of naval tonnage of the United States, Britain, China and Japan of 5:5:3:3. Seventy percent of Japan's dreams were shattered, but in a few years' time, the Japanese will be glad that what seemed to be a compromise was made, and although the fate of defeat did not change, at least their belts were relaxed a little in the meantime.

As soon as the proportion of capital ships of the United States, Britain, China, and Japan was determined, France and Italy demanded that they have 350,000 tons of capital ships. The United States and Britain were willing to agree, and after some bargaining, they gave them a discount: 175,000 tons.

After leveling the capital ships, the six countries quarreled again over the issue of restricting submarines. Britain was most jealous of other people's submarines, because during the First World War, the elusive German submarines made British ships and merchant ships suffer enough, and became an unforgettable memory for Britain. So Britain advocated a complete ban on submarines. France took a-for-tat approach and put forward a completely different approach, claiming that if a weak naval country was not allowed to use submarines, it would be tantamount to handing them over to the naval powers to be slaughtered at will, and therefore there should be no restrictions on submarines at all. The Chinese side has been very detached, promising to keep the current number of submarines (64) unchanged and to guarantee that it will not build long-range submarines with a displacement of more than 3,000 tons (although China does not say whether it has a water or underwater displacement). Other countries are not in a position to worry about these issues when China has already made heavy concessions on the conditions for building aircraft carriers and capital ships.

As a result, the British and French allies, who had once overthrown William's beard side by side, began a quarrel like a sword. The British representative said in a menacing manner: "Britain must not allow France, which has an army of 800,000 troops, to have a first-class submarine fleet!" The representative of France said to the general of the army: "If Britain is willing to cancel the capital ships, then we will immediately cancel the submarines." ”

The British representative immediately shot back: "France, with its bases all over the place, if it had a large number of submarines, would be many times more threatening to Britain than Germany was to Britain." The representative of France ridiculed him: "Britain must have built capital ships to salvage sardines? So why not let poor France also build a few submarines to study the plants of the seabed?" Seeing that the "submarine warfare" between Britain and France had reached a stalemate, the United States hastened to come out to play a round, but because everyone had too many differences, no agreement was reached on the issue of restricting submarines, so it had no choice but to settle the matter.

After nearly three months of open and secret fighting, the conclusion of the Washington Conference was announced on February 6 of the second year of the Taichu Dynasty. On this day, the United States, Britain, China, Japan, France, and Italy signed the "Treaty on the Limitation of Naval Armaments of the United States, Britain, China, Japan, France, and Italy," commonly known as the "Six-Power Naval Treaty." The treaty stipulates that the ratio of the total tonnage of capital ships of the United States, Britain, China, Japan, France, and Italy is 5:5:3:3:1.75:1.75. Article 7 stipulates that the ratio of the total tonnage of aircraft carriers of the United States, Britain, China, Japan, France, and Italy is 13.5:13.5:8.1:8.1:6.6:6.6, and the treaty shall be valid until 15 years later. This is another victory for the United States in its policy of equilibrium in the world. Japan originally demanded a ratio of 10:10:7, and had to give in under pressure from the United States. Britain was forced to recognize the equal status of the United States with British naval power. China, on the other hand, has voluntarily lowered its naval expectations and forsaken the opportunity to challenge the United States in terms of capital ships. Of course, in order to achieve the goal of limiting Japan's naval strength and diverting water from the west, the United States and Britain have also made some concessions to China and Japan, stipulating that the United States, Britain, China, and Japan should maintain the status quo of naval bases in the western Pacific region. That is, Britain and the United States are not allowed to build new naval bases in this area.

Although China has made huge concessions, for the first time, as the leading country in the summit forum of the world's military power, China's status as a world military power has been recognized by the old and new powers, and no one dares to ignore China's military strength. In the Far East and the Western Pacific, China has become a major player, and this is the most important result of China's achievement at the Washington Conference, in which the Democratic Empire of China has secured its position as one of the world's six great powers, especially with the footnotes of Japan and Red Russia, which impressed all the participating countries.