The Sino-Japanese negotiations are going on indefinitely. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

The reason why the negotiations were held indefinitely was mainly because the lion of the Chinese empire opened his mouth and made his own harsh demands on Japan, which was difficult for Japan to accept.

Of course, this is only a superficial phenomenon, and Li Weiguo's intention is to delay time, and the moment the Chinese Empire completes its preparations for war and launches the First Sino-Japanese War, he will use this matter as a pretext for war.

Britain, France, the United States, and other Allied member states have sent notes to the Chinese Empire, urging the Chinese Empire not to go too far, to stop in moderation, and not to seek unrealistic conditions.

The negotiating ministers of the Chinese Empire deliberately demanded a sky-high price, let Japan bargain, let the British, French and American allies coordinate from it, and then make a little concession, so that the Japanese could see that there was hope for negotiations, and let Britain, France and the United States feel that their pressure on the Chinese Empire was effective, so that they would relax their vigilance against the Chinese Empire, and would not think that the Chinese Empire would use this as an excuse to finally start a war.

In modern history, in order to prevent the rise of China, the Japanese Empire launched two wars to interrupt the rise of China.

In order to interrupt the rise of the Qing Dynasty in China, the Japanese Empire launched the First Sino-Japanese War, interrupting the Qing Dynasty's Westernization Movement and completely ruining the possibility of the Qing Dynasty's re-rise.

Decades later, the unification of the whole of China by the Republic of China made the Chinese people see the hope of the rise of the nation, and the Japanese Empire was afraid of the rise of China, so it launched a war of aggression against China again, interrupting the hope of China's rise for the second time.

Until the 21st century, seeing the rise of New China, Japan once again provoked trouble, preparing to drag the United States into the water, once again interrupting the hope of China's rise.

This is a typical contradictory relationship between neighbors, and no country will allow the rise of countries around it to threaten its own interests.

Similarly, now for the Chinese Empire, the Japanese Empire is on the rise.

Although the Japanese Empire has compensated the Chinese Empire for a huge amount of war reparations in recent years because of the war, Japan has developed rapidly with the support of the British, French, and American Entente bloc, and can not only repay the war reparations of the Chinese Empire, but also have spare money to develop the economy, and even built a super-crossbow-class battleship (the Japanese version of the super-dreadnought battleship).

Li Weiguo both hated and admired the Japanese, hated the heavy harm caused by the Japanese to the Chinese nation, and admired the Japanese spirit of hard work, which is worth learning from the Chinese people, because after World War II, it took only 20 years for Japan to become the world's second largest economy, surpassing the Soviet Union and second only to the United States.

The Japanese spirit of struggle is worth learning from the Chinese, but it should be more worthy of the Chinese people's vigilance, it is not a good thing for the neighbor to be too strong, admiration is admiration, and little Japan must be cleaned up.

Li Weiguo is such a person, he wants to interrupt the process of Japan's economic take-off and block Japan's rise.

Of course, a mere Japan is not worthy of Li Weiguo's attention, and blocking the rise of the United States is what Li Weiguo really attaches importance to.

The reason why Japan should be moved first is only that Japan is too close to the Chinese Empire, and Japan is the weakest in the Entente camp, and at the same time, it is necessary to add Li Weiguo's historical hatred for Japan, which led Li Weiguo to take Japan first.

The Sino-Japanese negotiations are going on in a marathon, but secretly, the Chinese Empire is rearming itself, sharpening its knives, and preparing to slaughter little Japan.

The clouds of war loomed over Japan, and at the same time over the world.

Li Weiguo decided to withdraw his troops from Europe, and after five years of the Balkan War, a large number of officers and soldiers who had experienced actual combat had been trained for the Chinese Imperial Shence Army, and the Chinese Imperial Military also continuously tested and improved various new weapons and equipment in the war, and made tremendous progress, making the combat effectiveness of the Chinese Imperial Army to a higher level.

The Balkans are the medicine keg of Europe, and Li Weiguo does not want the Chinese Empire's Shence Army to be overly involved, but to let the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire deal with it, after all, Li Weiguo's strategy is to weaken the overall strength of the entire Western world and create contradictions in the Balkans, just to accelerate the intensification of hostility between European countries.

At the same time, Li Weiguo did not want the Chinese Imperial Army to intervene in the European war too early, but hoped that the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Italy would engage in a decisive battle with the Entente powers Britain, France, and Russia.

Li Weiguo knew that in the Pacific theater, the German Empire could not actually help the Chinese Empire, and even had the same idea, hoping that the Chinese Empire, the Japanese Empire, and the United States of America would fight to the death, so that the national interests of the German Empire would also be in line with the German Empire.

The two sides tacitly agreed that the news of Li Weiguo's withdrawal from the Balkans reached Berlin, and the newly succeeded Kaiser Wilhelm II only symbolically retained the Chinese Empire and affirmed the great role of the Chinese Empire in the Balkan War.

The German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire all wanted to control the Balkans, so it was natural that the Chinese Empire would withdraw from the Balkans and transfer to them Greece, Serbia and other places previously occupied by the Chinese Empire.

This is exactly what Li Weiguo wanted, the Chinese Imperial Army trained in the Balkans, and the region has been turned into a scorched earth, creating countless ethnic bloodsheds, especially against the Slavs, the most cruel, wanting to passionate the hatred of the Tsarist Empire.

At this moment, Li Weiguo is about to throw away the mess of the Balkans and hand it over to the German Empire, Austria-Hungary and the Turkish Empire, so that they will attract the hatred of the Tsarist Russian Empire, once the Chinese Empire starts a war against Japan and the United States in the Pacific theater, the Balkans will inevitably detonate the European war, and then Germany will not be able to participate even if it does not want to participate in the war.

However, Li Weiguo is not a fuel-efficient lamp, even if he has to hand over the Balkans to Germany and Austria and other countries, he must reap some benefits.

Li Weiguo returned Greece to the Ottoman Empire in exchange for Kuwait, one of the richest oil-producing areas in the Middle East, and although there is no sign of large-scale exploitation yet, Li Weiguo will not let it go.

However, Kuwait was currently under the de facto occupation of the British, but the suzerainty was still in the hands of the Ottoman Empire, so the Ottoman Empire's transfer of Kuwait to the Chinese Empire was in fact only a legitimate reason for the Chinese Empire to take back Kuwait.

This is enough, Li Weiguo needs such a legitimate reason.

At present, the Entente bloc still has no determination to start a war with the Central Powers, and the British Empire still pursues a policy of avoidance all over the world, and if it encounters a military invasion by the Chinese Empire, as long as it is not related to its core interests, some remote and worthless colonies will issue a policy of non-resistance, and take the initiative to withdraw from these places to avoid direct military conflict with the Chinese Empire.

Now, Li Weiguo exchanged Greece and the Ottoman Empire for the legal occupation of Kuwait, and the British suddenly mourned.

At the time of the election, he used the coalition government of William and Saul to pursue a policy of non-resistance as an excuse to incite the people of the British Empire to oppose William's government, resulting in William and Saul being unable to be re-elected as prime minister, and finally the position of prime minister was won by Roth.

However, now that the Ottoman Empire had transferred suzerainty of Kuwait to the Chinese Empire, the Rus' government was immediately very ugly.

The Chinese Empire would use this as a pretext to demand that the British Empire withdraw from Kuwait.

However, Kuwait was very important to the British Empire, and its strategic location was a strategic location in the Persian Gulf, where the British Empire Navy was located.

Previously, the Entente bloc had many war games, the most important part of which was to attack the world railway jointly built by China and Germany, Kuwait was one of the starting points, and the British and French forces would arrive in Kuwait by sea, and then send troops to Baghdad to cut off the world railway and cut off the land communication channel between the Chinese Empire and Europe.

If the Chinese Empire had taken control of Kuwait, it would have affected the Allies' attacks on the world's railways during the war.

Of course, there is not only Kuwait that has attacked the world's railways, but also three others, of which the Siberian front is the eastern front, and the British Empire cannot intervene, so it can only be completed independently by the Tsarist Empire, which is too difficult for the Tsarist Empire, so the Tsarist Empire requires Britain, France and the United States to cooperate on other fronts.

The remaining two fronts were the Indian front and the Caucasian front, of which the Caucasian front was basically dominated by the Russian Empire, and the British Empire had limited cooperation. On the Indian front, the British Empire was the main attack, with the Russian Empire cooperating.

If Rus abandons the Kuwait front, then on the Indian front, the British Empire will have to face the powerful military force of the Chinese Empire alone, and the French Empire may not send troops to India to help the British army fight, not to mention the United States and Japan, which may be pinned down by the Chinese Empire and cannot be reinforced at all.

Regardless of the strategic location, Ross also knew that the Persian Gulf was surrounded by the world's largest oil-producing area (easy to exploit), and that the Chinese Empire, as the world's largest oil consumer, also produced a large amount of crude oil in the Dutch East Indies (renamed the Southern Ocean Islands after the occupation of the Chinese Empire), but the production capacity was limited, and only 80% of the crude oil consumption could be supplied, and the other 20% of the crude oil was still shipped from the Persian Gulf.

Therefore, Rus knew very well that once the war began, the blockade of the Persian Gulf and the attack on the crude oil routes of the Chinese Empire could also have a good effect.

However, all this was broken when the Ottoman Empire transferred Kuwait's suzerainty to the Chinese Empire.

It was difficult for Rus to make a decision, if Kuwait was resolutely not given, then the Chinese Empire would not attack. What will be the result if there is a war in the first place.

"Damn the Chinese Empire, it always gives me problems!"

Ross walked around the office, but he couldn't think of a good solution.

At this time, Fisher, the First Sea Minister, came and asked to see him.

For the time being, Ross did not go to Kuwait and concentrated on meeting with Fisher.

Although Ross is very unhappy with Fisher's arrogance, but people are arrogant and arrogant, and the equipment system of the Royal Navy of the British Empire is inseparable from Fisher's hard work.

Therefore, knowing that Fisher had a very good relationship with William Solo and others, Rose had to greet him with a smile.

"Mr. Fisher, may I ask you what you are anxious to see me?"

Fisher glanced at Ross, who had not been very good at Ross before, because Ross ousted William and Saul from power, and for Fisher, William and Ross were very supportive of him and won Fisher's favor.

But a year later, Fisher found that Rose's attitude towards him was similar to that of William and Saul before, and all the requirements were basically met, which made Fisher's dissatisfaction much lighter.

"Your Excellency, Prime Minister, it is my pleasure to inform you that we have made a major breakthrough in steam turbine technology, with a single turbine power exceeding 12,000 shaft horsepower!"

Ross grinned and said, "Can we be more blunt?" I don't know how much axle horsepower you say, so you just tell me how fast you can make a 40,000-ton battleship run! ”

Fisher still wanted to show off, and was a little unhappy when he heard this, but he still said: "Our George IV-class battleship can theoretically reach a speed of 23.5 knots!" ”

Rose shook his head and said, "It's still not very direct, you tell me, the most powerful Fury-class battleship in the Chinese Empire, how big is the gap between our two sides, I just want to know this, because I can only understand such a comparison!" ”

Fisher said: "I'm afraid it's not easy to compare! After all, the Fury-class battleships of the Chinese Empire have a large tonnage, a large caliber of main guns, and a thickness of armor that we do not know, so although their speed is claimed to be 25 knots, the thrust-to-weight ratio is unclear, so it is difficult to judge! ”

Rosston bared his teeth and wanted to kick Fisher away.

"Well, tell me, can our George IV-class battleships beat the Fury-class battleships?"

Fisher said: "This, I think there should be no problem!" We have made a large number of modern modifications of the George IV-class battleships, adding ......"

"That's it! Needless to say! I know the good news you reported, and you can leave now! Ross stopped Fisher from continuing, because Ross was not interested in this aspect at all, and he was now suffering from the Kuwait problem.

Fisher hurriedly said, "That...... I have other things that I would like Your Excellency Prime Minister to approve of! ”

Rose said helplessly: "Then you can say quickly, I'm not in a very good mood right now, you should see it!" ”

Fisher smiled wryly, he really hadn't noticed, but now he did.

"Well, then I'll make a long story short, we recently conducted artillery tests on Lion-class battlecruisers and found a serious problem, the firing deviation of the triple main gun at medium and close ranges is acceptable, but after more than 10 kilometers, the impact points interfere with each other seriously, and the error in the hit rate is too large."

Ross suddenly frowned and asked rhetorically, "Why wasn't this incident reported before?" ”

Fisher said embarrassedly: "In the past, our naval guns had a limited range, rarely more than 10 kilometers away, but in recent years, we have also made every effort to develop a formula for the drug, and successfully developed picric ammunition, which has a lot more power and range than before." ”

Rose nodded and said, "Then how do you solve this problem?" ”

"There is no better solution, only two temporary solutions," Fisher said. One is to abolish the triple main gun and change it to a twin main gun, which has the disadvantage that the triple gun will be changed to a double gun, and the main gun of a capital ship will be reduced from the existing 12 to 8, and the firepower will be greatly reduced. The second scheme is to prohibit the salvo of the main gun, and only the single main gun can be fired sequentially, which has the disadvantage that the shooting efficiency is too low, and after each shot, the second main gun has to re-correct the elements, in fact, the firepower is still weakened. (To be continued.) )