"Britain suffered too much in the world war." Prime Minister Baldwin let out a long sigh, his words filled with endless gloom. All of this is due to the fact that Britain's national power had declined so dramatically during the war that it had lost its economic and financial basis for a new naval challenger. However, it was none other than Britain itself, which before the outbreak of the Great War saw maritime rights as a no-go to be touched by others, and hastily plunged into a preventive war to destroy its competitors. No one would have thought that the war, which was originally expected to last only 3~5 months, ended up lasting 4 years in brutal attrition and confrontation, which directly led to the destruction of the century-old accumulation of the empire on which the sun never sets, and was squeezed out of the altar of world hegemony by the newly rising United States without any suspense.

"Ladies and gentlemen, although this German book is full of blasphemy and denigration of Britain, if we can quietly filter and peel away these phrases, we will also find ideas that are enough to be taken seriously." Austin Chamberlain, the emaciated Foreign Secretary, spoke softly, causing Churchill beside him to change color slightly. Churchill's eyes became a little colder, and he said, "Your Excellency, what do you mean by this?" ”

Chamberlain's expression was as usual, and he said, "The young author named Jonas is right. In the past, we wielded the sharpest sword that we had been tempered against Germany for many years in order to dominate the sea and the colonial market, but when we finally defeated this competitor with great difficulty at the high cost of the sword, we found that two more dangerous competitors appeared in front of us. From us, who were already exhausted, they took away without any effort the cheese that we were still desperately defending, and even several times more than the share that Germany had demanded before! I have no intention of regretting this tragedy that has happened in the past, nor do I want to hold accountable those who were determined to go to war in the first place; But I think Britain has to learn valuable lessons from this expensive effort. If the price of defeating a competitor is to suffer an unbearable weakening and attract more competitors to demand a share of the cheese, then we would rather give the original competitor a share of the cheese than preserve the main interest that exists. ”

Hearing the last sentence, Churchill's eyes, which were already unkind, suddenly bloomed with a fierce and icy light. He stared at the Foreign Secretary beside him with an angry face, and his breathing became slightly heavy; However, in the face of Churchill's fierce beast-like eyes, Chamberlain did not flinch in the slightest, and looked at him with a calm and serious expression. In fact, every powerful cabinet member cannot be discouraged by someone's face, let alone Chamberlain's belief in his own ideas at this moment.

"Lord Austin, do you want to destroy the roots of Britain?" Churchill spoke coldly. The corners of his mouth showed a subtle hint of sarcasm, and he said: "If any country asks for benefits from Britain, and you are ready to satisfy it, then Britain's rights and interests will really be lost in this compromise!" Although the world war that has just passed has cost us a lot of rights and interests, it has also solemnly declared to the world the inviolability of the glory of Great Britain. Although I just advocated reaching an agreement with the United States to limit the number of sub-class ships, it was by no means achieved by compromising along the way. Britain must have a bottom line, which is to build 70 cruisers to maintain our sea lines of communication throughout the world. ”

Seeing this scene, Prime Minister Baldwin was slightly unnatural, he didn't expect that his unintentional words would lead to a political dispute between two cabinet dignitaries; The most important thing is that both sides seem to have a lot of truth on both sides, making it difficult for him to make a final judgment in a short period of time. He coughed slightly, stopped the two from arguing further, and said, "If I were you, I would save this dispute of ideas for later, and focus on the immediate consequences of this highly inflammatory German book." In addition to having a serious negative impact on Britain, the book also set off a new wave of blue water in Germany; The German Navy has started construction of four new cruisers in a row this year, and its 6,000-ton hull is equipped with 8.3-inch guns. What do you think we should do about the uncontrolled outpouring of German maritime fervor that we have managed to suppress by proselytizing and lying? ”

In the face of the Prime Minister's remarks, the unwilling Churchill could only temporarily restrain the conflict with Chamberlain. After all, his position as Chancellor of the Exchequer was given by Baldwin, and if there was no reward from the other party, he was afraid that he would only be able to mix in the House of Commons with the hat of "the loser of the Dardanelles", and he would not be able to enter the cabinet center at all. Churchill was silent for a moment, and then said: "The Peace of Versailles is an important guarantee for the maintenance of peace in Europe, and it will not be altered in the slightest." Although the Germans' current behavior does not go beyond the provisions of the treaty, we should continue to track their warship construction and further emphasize the maximum size of the navy that the treaty would allow Germany to have. If the Germans dared to cross the line, Britain would have to respond resolutely with forceful means, making them pay a heavy price for their recklessness. In any case, we do not want to see a nascent high seas fleet appear on the other side of the North Sea; Especially now that the Royal Navy is not as powerful as it used to be, we need a calm North Sea to relieve ourselves of the oppression from other countries. ”

"It is indeed not the time for Germany to break free from the shackles of the Treaty of Versailles." Chamberlain nodded, actually supporting the attitude of Churchill, who was still fighting against him just now. In fact, his actions are completely normal, and his dispute with Churchill is only reflected in the macro strategic level; When it comes to the German issue, it is natural to look at the many related areas. The Treaty of Versailles signed in 1919 was not only related to Britain and Germany, but also inextricably linked with France, Poland, Czechoslovakia and other European countries. From any point of view, the dissolution of the Treaty of Versailles would be a move that would inevitably lead to the legitimate resurrection of the German war machine, a situation that was absolutely unacceptable to the small Entente countries on the European continent, led by France. What's more, the German Navy has only just begun to rebuild, and there is still a long way to go before the upper limit of the small navy stipulated in the peace treaty; In other words, at this moment, Germany is not qualified to extravagant British sea power cheese, and Britain certainly cannot be a cheap boy of fortune.

"However, after the Germans have built 100,000 tons of regular ships and restored a certain economic strength, we cannot consider appropriately amending some of the terms of the peace treaty." Just as Churchill nodded yes, Chamberlain suddenly released such a sentence, which attracted the former's attention to condense. Instead of paying attention to Churchill's eyes, Chamberlain explained directly to Prime Minister Baldwin: "In Europe today, the greatest threat to Britain is neither the defeated and dismembered Germany, nor the dominant France in Western Europe, but the red Bolshevik demon in the East." Although they do not have a naval fleet, they have a weapon even more terrifying than the guns of a strong ship -- the demagogic revolutionary plague, which is a deadly existence that can fundamentally subvert the world of capital! Therefore, in any case, we need to stop the red wave from continuing to spread in Europe. After all, for every point they gain momentum, the volcanoes that lurk beneath the liberal democracies become more active, and this will eventually lead to the catastrophic consequences of dominoes falling because of the tipping point. ”

This time, it was Churchill who agreed with Chamberlain's words. His hostility and hatred of Red Russia were hard to find in the whole of Britain: at the very beginning of the proclamation of the Moscow regime and the war against Germany on the Western Front was still in full swing, Churchill shouted in the House of Commons that the members of the Entente would immediately send intervention troops to Russia to completely eradicate the greatest cancer of the capitalist world. Despite the defeat of the intervention armies in the end, and the Bolsheviks firmly sat on the throne of the former Imperial Russia, Churchill's anti-communist stance remained the same, and when asked about his position towards the Soviet Union, he showed his resolute attitude with a neat "annihilation".

Chamberlain paused, and a hint of smugness appeared on his face: "In the future, the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles will be appropriately relaxed for Germany, precisely to draw Berlin back into the capital world and become the bridgehead of the Eastern Front against the invasion of Europe by the Red Plague." The essential reason why Germany now has close relations with the Soviet Union is undoubtedly because the Treaty of Versailles punished Germany too severely, so that they were abandoned by the West and had to turn to cooperate with the East. If we can improve Germany's living space, we will undoubtedly fundamentally cut off the roots of German-Soviet friendship; And Soviet Russia, which has lost its use value, will naturally become Germany's number one target driven by ideological antagonism. ”

Baldwin's heart was shocked when he heard this. He chewed on Chamberlain's words carefully, and the light in his eyes became brighter and brighter. He vaguely felt that the other side's strategy had a considerable degree of feasibility, after all, Germany and the Soviet Union only shook hands at the Rapallo Conference in 1922, and the element of mutual difficulties undoubtedly played a decisive role. Chamberlain's plan to draw wages from the bottom of the kettle is undoubtedly a clever strategy to drive away the tiger and devour the wolf!

(PS: The author is on a business trip in the imperial capital, and it is still difficult to find time to update, so let's give the author more collections to encourage the author)