1914 was an unusual year, as World War I broke out on July 28 of that year. Because the war was only in Europe, it was commonly referred to as the "European War".

The European War (July 28, 1914 ~ November 11, 1918), also referred to as the "First World War", was a world-class war that broke out between the great powers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to re-divide the world and compete for global hegemony.

The war was fought mainly between the Central and Entente powers. The German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria belonged to the Allied bloc, while the British Empire, the French Third Republic, the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, the United States of America, the Kingdom of Serbia, the Kingdom of Belgium, the Kingdom of Romania, and the Kingdom of Greece belonged to the Entente bloc.

The war was one of the most devastating in European history. About 65 million people took part in the fighting, more than 10 million were killed and 20 million wounded.

The economic damage caused is immeasurable.

While the First World War brought great disasters to mankind, it objectively promoted the development of science and technology. In this world war, all kinds of new weapons such as airplanes, poison gas, tanks, and long-range artillery were put into the war one after another, which was an important stage in the history of weapons development.

At that time, the contradictions between the European powers were numerous and complex, but there were three pairs of basic contradictions, namely, the Franco-German contradiction, the Russian-Austrian contradiction, and the Anglo-German contradiction.

The Franco-German contradiction is very acute. France, defeated in the Franco-Prussian War, lost its former hegemony in Western and Central Europe, and all strata of the country unanimously demanded revenge. In order to prevent a resurgence of France, Germany tried its best to expand its armaments.

The Russian-Austrian contradiction manifested itself in the struggle for the Balkans. Over the years, under the banner of Great Slavism, the Russian Empire expanded into the areas inhabited by the southern Slavs on the Balkan Peninsula.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire, located in Central Europe, was also expanding into the northwestern part of the Balkan Peninsula, fearing that the southern Slavs under its rule would become independent from Austria-Hungary.

Proceeding from its traditional foreign policy, Britain sought to maintain a balance of power on the European continent. Neither Germany nor Russia would be too strong in the Balkans. As the conflict over the colonial question intensified, the Anglo-German contradictions began to intensify.

In the seventies and eighties of the nineteenth century, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy established the Triple Alliance against the Russian Empire and France.

In 1879, at the urging of Bismarck, Germany and Austria signed the "Treaty of Alliance", which was clearly anti-Russian.

Later, due to Italy's defeat in the struggle with France for Tunisia, Bismarck took the opportunity to win over Italy and work together against France. In 1882, Germany, Austria, and Italy signed the "Treaty of Alliance," and the Triple Alliance was formally established. Germany became the nucleus of the Triple Alliance.

In order to deal with the "Triple Alliance", in 1892, France and the Russian Empire reached a military agreement. The agreement provided that in the event of an attack by Germany or Germany-backed Italy, Russia would attack Germany with all its military forces. In the same way, in the event that Russia was attacked by Germany or the German-backed Austro-Hungarian Empire, France was to attack Germany with all its military strength.

After the formation of the Russian-French alliance, a confrontation between the two major military blocs began to emerge in Europe.

As the contradictions between Britain and Germany intensified, Britain adjusted its relations with France and Russia in a timely manner.

In 1904 and 1907, the Anglo-French Entente and the Anglo-Russian Entente were signed respectively, and the establishment of the Triple Entente finally formed the two major military blocs in Europe.

On June 28, 1914 (Serbian National Day), the Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary, Archduke Ferdinand and his wife, were shot dead by the Serbian youth Gavrijo Princip while inspecting Sarajevo, which became the fuse of the First World War.

On July 28 of the same year, Austria-Hungary, with the support of Germany, declared war on Serbia under the pretext of the Sarajevo incident. Then Germany, Russia, France, Britain and other countries entered the war one after another, and World War I broke out.

The warring parties were the German Empire and Austria-Hungary of the Central Powers, and the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria that supported them. On the other side were the Entente powers of Great Britain, France, and the Russian Empire, as well as Serbia, Belgium, Italy, and Japan, which supported them.

Italy, which was formerly part of the Central Powers, joined the Allied side of the war in consideration of the stakes.

At that time, the Chinese people did not have much contact with the outside world, and their knowledge of the European war was limited. Even those who know have an attitude that they don't care about themselves. What everyone didn't expect, their own country was quickly involved.

Yuan Shikai received the official document declaring war from various countries, and immediately summoned Li Yuanhong, Xu Shichang, Liang Shiyi, Sun Baoqi and others to discuss the coping strategy. The decision was made quickly, the old rule, as in the Russo-Japanese War, to take a neutral position.

Liang Shiyi, Sun Baoqi, Liang Dunyan, and Li Shengduo were assigned on the spot to draft the neutrality regulations.

On 6 August, the "Regulations on Neutrality for Outsiders" were promulgated, on 11 August, a neutral office was established, and on 12 August, all countries recognized China's neutrality.

At the same time, Liang Shiyi, Sun Baoqi and others drafted a number of neutral rules and submitted them to Yuan Shikai for approval, roughly as follows:

(1) The Neutral Office shall be dispatched by three persons from the Political Affairs Hall, two from each of the Army, Navy, and Communications Departments, one from each of the Command Office, the General Affairs Office, and the General Staff Headquarters, and three directors from the Confidential Bureau shall be stationed on a permanent basis as daily service personnel.

(2) To establish a neutral inspection office, which, in accordance with Article 24 of the Neutrality Regulations, shall be inspected in detail after the proclamation of martial law, and shall be inspected in detail for articles imported and transported by various countries, and shall be detained if they are prohibited in time of war. The Ministry of Communications and the Taxation Department shall set up neutral inspection sub-offices at all major railway stations and coastal customs offices to carry out this duty.

(3) Pay attention to coastal defense, divide the governors of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Feng, and Shandong, and Britain, Germany, and Russia have declared martial law in Qingdao, Weihaiwei, and other places.

(4) The naval fleet was reconfigured and the fleet under the Admiralty was divided into three teams: the first team of 15 ships, including Haiqi and Hairong, and Xiamen, Makou, Shanghai, and Yantai were assigned as coastal defenses. The second team of 23 ships, including Jian'an and Jianwei, was assigned to Pukou, Wuchang, Shanghai, Jiujiang, Fuzhou, Xindi, Wuhu, Yueyang, Jiangyin, Changsha, Yichang, Taipingfu and other places for river defense. The third team is the practice fleet of Zhaohe, Yingrui and others to defend Majiang and Huangpu. Guangdong is responsible for the coastal defense of the Guangdong Strait.

(5) To train the envoys stationed abroad, and to consult with the overseas Chinese in various countries and regions at any time to properly protect them. Since Japan has declared its neutrality in this war, the embassies and consulates should speak out in a calm and silent manner, and should not comment lightly. In particular, international statutes should be scrupulously observed. News about the war, daily telegram reports. When China sends personnel to watch the war in the future, it should be announced to each country in advance.

(6) Prohibiting coded telegrams and checking correspondence from outsiders.

(7) Suspend the issuance of travel passports.

(8) The 10th Division of the Sixth Army was transferred to Shandong.

At the same time, in the name of the president, Yuan telegraphed to the United States ** to convey to all countries participating in the war not to engage in acts of war on Chinese territory. The United States did not have a definite reply to this, and the Japanese chargé d'affaires in China, Kohata, protested that China should not make such a request to the United States, and the German chargé d'affaires in China Marr, referring to the Chinese Foreign Ministry, wanted to prohibit the passage of soldiers from the belligerent countries through Chinese territory.

Since the Opium War, China has suffered from the bullying of the great powers, and the great powers have to gain an inch of strength. Although Li Hongzhang's method of using razing to control razing cannot be satisfactory, a weak country has no diplomacy, and using razing to control razing is still a means.

After the outbreak of the war in Europe, it was a great opportunity for China to take advantage of the great powers to take care of themselves and expel the great powers from China.

It's a pity that at this time, Yuan Shikai suppressed the Kuomintang, which greatly damaged the vitality of the nascent Republic of China.

For a long time, every time Yuan Shikai discussed things with everyone, everyone was used to looking at him. As soon as he gave his opinion, he echoed it.

Yes, people want their opinions to be valued and like to be self-centered. However, Yuan Shikai sometimes wants to hear different opinions. For this reason, he is often in no hurry to express his opinion. But at this time, everyone seemed to be trying to figure out what he thought. Yuan Shikai was very dissatisfied with this, but when he proposed that he couldn't do a word hall and everyone had to use their brains, the next thing was to echo it. It is said that he is right, especially right, but he has not published an independent opinion.

Yuan Shikai felt that Liang Shiyi had a unique view of the problem, so he asked him to talk at night on this day. Yuan Shikai and Liang Shiyi said that they wanted to hear his thoughts. There are only two people, and Liang Shiyi is very open.

Here's what they had to say:

Yuan asked: "The disaster of the war in Europe and the Far East, where should the most urgent thing at present begin?" ”

Liang replied: "There are two urgent tasks, one is to relieve the finance; Second, it is necessary to guard against Japanese aggression. ”

Yuan said, "Please elaborate."

Liang replied: "In the foreword, the treasury borrowed 25 million pounds last year, and there is not much left, the treasury has not yet been sorted out, and the treasury is extremely empty.

"After the outbreak of the European war, foreign debts can no longer be borrowed, so it is necessary to open up financial routes first, otherwise after two or three months, where will the military and government expenses come from? Therefore, at present, taking advantage of the outbreak of the European war, the rise and fall of the pound price, and the difficulty of exchange, we should suspend the payment of indemnities to various countries in advance, and deposit all customs duties and salt taxes in the banks of China.

"Since our country has declared its neutrality, and its words are strict, no country is like me. At the same time, it will immediately issue domestic government bonds. If these two can be paralleled, then there will be no shortage of money in one or two years.

In recent years, we have met with British envoy Zhu Erdian, Russian envoy Kupensky, Japanese envoy Rizhiyi, and French envoy Kang Yi. Zhu Erdian once told that the Anglo-Japanese alliance had been successful, that Japan would certainly help Britain attack Qingdao, which belonged to Germany, and that if China did not take advantage of this opportunity to obtain it, someone would certainly seize it.

"What Zhu Erdian refers to is naturally Japan, it is better to take advantage of the fact that before Japan has moved troops, we will first discuss with the British, and the British will threaten to seize Qingdao, so I will consult with the German envoy and ask Germany to return Qingdao to our country, and at the same time secretly send troops to surround Qingdao, and if the negotiation fails, that is, to seize it by force, strike first to be strong, so that Japan is at a loss, if Qingdao has been captured, Japan will have nothing to borrow.

"This is not a special defense against Japanese aggression, but it can also prevent future troubles."

Yuan said: "Yansun, your opinion is very correct, as for the financial plan, the suspension of the payment of compensation and the transfer of Guan Yan can be implemented immediately. As for the domestic public debt, it has failed in the past, and if you see any good plan to improve it, please plan it in detail and handle it with full authority.

"As for the first move to recapture Qingdao, it is feasible in all circumstances, but since our country has declared neutrality, it has suddenly overturned the previous proposal and sent troops against Germany, although it is said to take back Qingdao, but it seems to be a bit difficult to say that it is difficult to say in terms of neutrality, and if we do so, we are afraid that it will increase diplomatic difficulties and disputes, and I am afraid that it will increase the sharp relationship with Japan, I think this is feasible and not feasible."

Liang said: "Germany and Austria have a small enemy and a big enemy, and the outcome of the war will be difficult to win, so it is better to find an appropriate time to declare war on Germany to break off diplomatic relations, so that in the future they can gain a position in the peace talks and stand in an advantageous position." ”

Yuan said: "Let me think about this layer in detail. ”