Seeing this, Hirohito's hands couldn't help but start trembling slightly.

It is no secret that the United States supports China's participation in World War I, but he does not know that US assistance to China will reach such a level.

“…… It should also be noted that the supply of tires for cars and individual food varieties to China also played a pivotal role in the course of the war and the economy of China. According to the agreement, the United States provided car tires to China, and the amount provided by the United States accounted for 73.1% of China's own production. At the same time, we should take into account this factor: the United States mainly provides large car tires, which makes the role of these supplies even greater. In addition, Britain also supplied China with a large amount of natural rubber. China also received a large amount of sugar from the United States, which accounted for 46.8 percent of the total amount of sugar provided by the United States under the food aid agreement. The United States also provided a large amount of canned meat to China, which played a great role in the supply of life for the army and the residents. The canned meat provided by the United States alone is about 120 percent of the total canned meat production in China (not all of these cans are canned meat), and the canned meat supplied by the United States to the Chinese accounts for 23.9 of the total meat production in China. ”

"The most important thing for China is the supply of advanced machine tools and industrial equipment. As early as 1916, some officials of the government of China placed orders for imported equipment for the production of artillery weapons. Subsequently, this equipment was mainly supplied to China under orders allocated under the Michi Wartime Assistance Act. During the war, it was precisely this advanced machine tool for the production of artillery weapons that was most urgently needed in China. However, there were big mistakes in these orders. A significant part of the equipment ordered was for the production of purely offensive weapons, such as large-caliber ship artillery and super-heavy army artillery, which were mainly used to destroy German fortifications. The expansion of the China Navy required a large number of ships and artillery, because after the entry of China into the war, the China Navy was an important combat force against Germany. Although the Chinese Army did not need super-heavy army artillery, at the end of the war, when the Chinese Army was dealing with the strong fortifications built by our army on the mainland, these artillery pieces played a great role, and they were much larger than we imagined before the war. ”

"During the war, the United States supplied China with a large number of metal cutting machines, and Britain also supplied a large number of old machine tools and punching machines. Between 1918 and 1920, China produced only a handful of metal-cutting machine tools, and the total amount of machine tools provided by the United States under the relevant laws was 2.6 times that of China itself. In fact, if we measure it in terms of value, then the assistance of Western countries to China is much greater than we think, because the machine tools they provide are much more advanced and expensive than those in China. Although it is impossible to count their number, we estimate that between 1918 and 1920 the total value of machinery and industrial equipment supplied by the United States to China should have reached $300 million. ”

"Summing up, we can conclude that without the assistance of Western countries, China would not only have been unable to participate in the war in Europe and win victory on the battlefield, but would not have been able to withstand even the invasion of Soviet Russia. Without the support of the United States, China could neither produce sufficient weapons and technical equipment, nor guarantee fuel and ammunition for the war. Before the entry into the war, the leaders of the government of China were well aware of this dependence, such as President Wilson's special envoy, Colonel House, in a letter of September 18, 1919, which declared that President China believed that without the help of the people of China, Britain and China would not be able to compete with Germany's great military power, because Germany had all the resources of the European territories it occupied. Wilson announced a decision in October 1918 to allow the military department to provide surplus weapons and equipment, as well as strategic materials and industrial equipment, to countries that could protect the interests of the nation, including China. Before the war, the equipment that China had ordered from the United States was important for the production of weapons and combat equipment, and these would not have been possible without the support of the President of the United States. ”

"The assistance provided by Western countries to China for war preparation was not only the materials provided under the War Assistance Act, but also the war against Britain and the United States forced Germany to build submarines, and spent a lot of metal, equipment and manpower on submarines, and the German Navy invested the main forces against the fleets and merchant ships of the Western countries (including ships that provided material transportation to the Chinese army in Europe under the War Assistance Act), because in the later stages of the war, the China Army and the United States Army attracted the main German army forces, The last year of the war reached a staggering 70. The losses suffered by the German Army before this were already difficult to replenish, so under the attack of such superior forces, Germany's defeat was doomed. ”,

"Without the assistance of Britain and the United States, it would have been difficult for China to wage war against Germany, and the national economy propagated by China would not have been able to gain anything in the war in Europe. And what the people of Xiangchina preached, that China could defeat Japan independently, is actually nothing more than a myth. Of course, the leaders of the Chinese government and their military advisers did not fully anticipate in advance that the Chinese economy would be able to use Western aid quite effectively and quickly, nor did they expect Britain and the United States to provide the necessary amount of aid in a timely manner. Now our experts are faced with a new issue, that is, how to evaluate how the industrial equipment provided by Western countries to China under the War Assistance Act, together with the supplies provided by Germany for reparations, contributed to the military-industrial system of China, which allowed China to engage in an arms race on an equal footing with Japan......"

Hirohito put the finished report on the table, and the courtiers around him noticed that the face of the "quasi-emperor" was cloudy, and his open nostrils were whirring, and their hearts involuntarily lifted.

"It's clear that Yingmi intends to use China to contain the empire." Hirohito said to himself, a hideous expression appeared on his face, "We must not let Yingmi's conspiracy be punished"

Hirohito took a few deep breaths, easily calming his mind, and he pointed to the table, where one of the courtiers immediately retrieved another report.

The title of this report reads "Report on the Investigation of Resources and Mineral Deposits in Eastern Siberia".

Tangnu Ulianghai, West Sayan Ridge.

"I didn't know until I came here that it was so rich and beautiful." Xu Shuzheng, who was standing on a mountain cliff, looked at the blue sky and white clouds and green mountains in the distance, and couldn't help but sigh, "No wonder whether it is Imperial Russia or Red Russia, they are eager to occupy it forever." ”

"But now they probably don't have that chance." Tangnu Wulianghai Investigator Yan Shichao said to Xu Shuzheng with a smile.

Located in the northwest of Outer Mongolia, the Tangnu-Ulianghai region is surrounded by the East and West Sayan Mountains and the Tangnu Mountains, and the Yenisei River originates in its territory, covering an area of 170,000 square kilometers, roughly the size of Austria and the Czech Republic. There are rich deposits of gold, copper, mica, etc., rich coal seams, and treasures such as gemstones, asbestos, graphite, marble, magnesite, and rock salt. The whole territory of Tangnu Ulianghai is crisscrossed with rivers and lakes, and the water resources are extremely rich, and there are many carbonated mineral springs and sulfur hot springs. Rivers and lakes are rich in fat salmon, salmon, whitefish, burbot, pike and grayling, and forests are rich in fur-bearing animals such as sables, ferrets, otters, lynx, wolverine, snow leopards, bears, foxes, gray squirrels, squirrels, and wild animals such as Kanto red deer, reindeer, white deer, wild horses, musk deer, roe deer, and roe deer.

Surrounded by mountain ranges, the climate and geographical features of Tangnu-Ulianghai are very different from those of neighboring Siberia and Mongolia. The climate here is mild, the mountains are dense, the rainfall is abundant throughout the year, and the soil is mostly fertile black humus, which is suitable for growing a variety of temperate food crops and vegetables. In the eastern part of the Tangnu-Ulianghai area, there is a "large dense forest area" of cedars, firs and spruces, with occasional silvery-white glitters from the dense forest, which are numerous crystal clear lakes and streams. The lower elevations of the dense forest area are deciduous areas of red pine, birch and willow, and as the altitude decreases, the trees gradually thin out to give way to verdant grasslands, dotted with mulch groves of thick shade and covered with moss from wind-blown tree trunks. As far as the eye can see, the sun shines on the golden alpine meadows, and in the distance are the snowless peaks of the mountains, and the scenery is like Switzerland, the land of mountains.

Xu Shuzheng was sighing, a group of Wulianghai people came to the cliff, Xu Shuzheng noticed that these local people of all ages were wearing festive costumes, and couldn't help but be slightly stunned.

The crowd came to the cliff and separated, and a girl from Wulianghai wearing a fur hat and a gorgeous blue national costume similar to Mongolian clothing came to Xu Shuzheng, who was a little stunned, and presented the white Hada in front of him.

Xu Shuzheng looked at the girl in front of him, and was shocked by her beauty for a while.

The girl in front of her is very beautiful, her round face and wide eyebrows, her black hair braids hang down to her waist, a pair of wonderful eyes are as clear as the lake, between the expectations, the eye waves flow, with the unique freshness and beauty of the grassland people, like the morning sun. At this time, she stared at Xu Shuzheng for a while, and then stepped forward and respectfully put Hada on Xu Shuzheng's neck.

Xu Shuzheng came back to his senses and silently watched the girl bow deeply and retreated. He looked at the people around him, their faces were full of excitement and excitement, and he couldn't help but sigh secretly in his heart. ,

The people of this land, like the rest of China, are no different.

Now the people of this land are rejoicing in returning to China, but they do not know that the general who rescued them from the clutches of the Russians is now facing a dilemma.

"If the general doesn't look down on the general in the capital, even if the general is stationed here for a long time, guarding the land and the people on this side, it will not be in vain." Yan Shichao seemed to see through Xu Shuzheng's thoughts, and said jokingly.

The Ulianghai people belonged to the Khakassian tribe in ancient times, calling themselves Kyrgyz, who conquered many tribes in the steppe during the Tang Dynasty and later periods, and then gradually declined, until the early 13th century when they reappeared as the vanguard of the Mongols. After the fall of the Mongol Empire, these Kyrgyz people (who had been mixed with the Finno-Ugric, Mongol, and Turkic bloodlines) were subordinate to the Oirat Mongol Khan and the Dzungar Khan, and gradually divided into the Tangnu-Ulianghai and the Altai Ulianghai as the boundary of the mountains where they lived. After the end of the Qing Dynasty's war to quell the Junggar rebellion, some of the Ulianghai people submitted to Russia, while others lived in the territory of the Qing Empire.

In order to strengthen the governance of Tangnu and Ulianghai, the Qing Dynasty imitated the administrative structure of Mongolia and organized the Wulianghai people into banners and leaders. Among them, the five banners of Tangnu Ulianghai are under the jurisdiction of General Uriya Sutai, and the seven banners of Altai Ulianghai and the two banners of Altai Naoer Ulianghai are under the jurisdiction of Counsellor Kobdo, interspersed with the leaders belonging to the Khalkha prince and Jebtsundamba. The Treaty of Beijing in 1860 stipulated that the northwestern border between China and Russia was "from Shabindabaha to Zaisan Lake", and although the specific boundary was not demarcated, the two banners of the Altai Naoer Ulianghai and the ten subordinate commanders of the Tangnu Ulianghai were demarcated outside this line. After the "independence" of Outer Mongolia in 1912, the Russian and Mongolian armies attacked Kobdo and forced the Seven Banners of the Altai Ulianghai to be attached to Outer Mongolia, and then Xinjiang sent troops to aid Khobdo, and was forced to draw an "armistice line" with Outer Mongolia under Russian intervention.

Among the five banners of Tangnu and Ulianghai, the easternmost Kusugul Wulianghai Banner is directly subordinate to General Uriya Sutai, and the other four banners are Tangnu Banner (jurisdiction over 4 Zuo Ling), Tuojin Banner (Tuji Naoer Banner, 4 Zuo Ling), Sarajik Banner (4 Zuo Ling) and Kemuzik Banner (10 Zuo Ling), of which only the Tangnu Banner has the copper seal issued by the Qing government, so the other three banners (which also included Kusugul Banner at first) are subject to its control. During the Guangxu period, the Kemuzik banner also obtained a copper seal and was directly governed by General Uriya Sutai. In addition, the Erut Beizi Banner of the Sanyin Noyan Khan Department has 17 subordinate commanders in the Tangnu-Ulianghai area, and lives in the territory of the Kemuzik Banner; The Durchiwang Banner (Dawang Banner) of the Zasaktu Khan Department has two assistant leaders, and the ** Gong Banner and the Ahai Gong Banner each have one assistant leader, and they live in the territory of the Tangnu Banner respectively. These leaders were awarded by Emperor Qianlong to reward the Outer Mongolian princes who had contributed to the Dzungar War. In addition, there is also the Darhada Shabi Banner to the west of the Kusugul Banner, which is the Shabi subject of the Living Buddha of Jebtsundamba.

In the middle of the 18th century, after the Dzungar Department was completely incorporated into the territory of the Qing Empire, the Russian Cossacks gradually built a series of small fortresses and outposts in the Sayan Mountains, thus forming a "Bagan Line", which became the de facto Sino-Russian border. Since then, Russian peasants belonging to the "secessionist sect" persecuted by the official church have been secretly settling in the territory of Tangnu-Ulianghai in search of a "paradise". From the end of the XIX century, Russian immigrants massively moved into the Yenisei Province and the Minusinsk Territory, and subsequently into the territory of the Tangnu-Ulianghai region. Local Russian merchants used usury to defraud a large amount of land, herds and forests from the local princes, and built a number of trading stations, manors and settlements, which became outposts of Russian colonial policy, many Russian immigrants engaged in hunting fur animals, gold panning, fishing, logging and other industries, and many Russian merchants established large estates with thousands of horses. At the confluence of the Yenisei and Bemuk rivers, in 1914 the Russian colonizers established a colonial center called Beloshalsk (the White Tsar Imperial City).

After the demarcation of the border between China and Russia, the Qing Dynasty general Uriya Sutai set up eight patrol Obo (i.e., boundary monuments, stone piles below, and wooden plaques on the northern boundary of the Tangnu and Uliang Seas), which were patrolled by 3 officers and 30 guards to inspect and engrave the names of the patrol people on the wooden plaques. In 1910, the Russian side secretly burned the Qabu Qiyale Daba Monument (No. 4 Monument), intending to seize the territory under the jurisdiction of the Kmuzik Banner and advance the border to the Tangnu Mountains in the south, which was discovered by the Qing Dynasty and failed to do so. After the Russo-Japanese War, officials of the Russian provinces of Irkutsk and Yenisei and officers of the 7th Siberian Infantry Division demanded the occupation of the Tangnu-Ulianghai region as compensation for the loss of South Sakhalin. ,

In 1911, Outer Mongolia declared "independence", the Kusugul banner was merged into the Tushetu Khan's department, and the other four banners were on the sidelines, while Russian Prime Minister Kokovtsov asked the Siberian garrison to be ready to send troops to "Soyotulia" (i.e., Tangnu Ulianghai, Russia called the people of Ulianghai Soyots) at any time and prepare to annex it to Russia. At the beginning of 1912, riots broke out in Wulianghai, the local Chinese merchants were plundered, and in July and August, the Russian and Mongolian troops attacked Kobdo, and the Irkutsk Governor's Office took the opportunity to send troops into Tangnu Ulianghai in the name of "protecting the overseas Chinese", and forced the governor of the Tangnu Banner, Gombu Dorzi, to issue a document of surrender to Russia and pay tribute to Russia. Soon after, the Governor of the Kremuzik Banner also submitted a "petition" to the Irkutsk Governor's Palace, demanding that the people of the banner be "placed under the patronage of the White Tsar."

In June 1914, the Irkutsk Governor's Office announced that Russia was "protecting" the Tangnu-Ulianghai region, and immediately announced this decision to the commanders-in-chief. Russia's policy was to separate Outer Mongolia from China, and at the same time to separate Tangnu-Ulianghai from Outer Mongolia and turn it into "Russia south of the Sayan Mountains." During the Russian occupation, the Mongols and Chinese were forbidden to enter the Tangnu Ulianghai area, and the seals issued by the Qing government to the commanders of the banners were confiscated, and the Russian commissioners exercised supreme rule, and the pro-Mongolian governors and assistants were driven to Outer Mongolia. This man was hated by the Ulianghai people, who did not want to be enslaved, and in the first month of 1915 he went to the temple of the Tangnu Lama to worship the gods, and although he was escorted by three officials and five Cossack cavalrymen, he was ambushed and killed by the Ulianghai people.

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