Chapter 705: Enemies and Friends (Part I)

Working on an errand in the presidential palace is not an easy task. Especially in the 'chamber', the work here is not something that anyone can easily do, and the 'chamber' is one of the core institutions of the commander's hall, and it is called the "central head" along with the Governor's Office, and even overshadows the cabinet in terms of power, so you can see the importance of the 'chamber'.

In order to do this errand well, he has been conscientious and has not dared to slack off in the past few years, and he knows better that many people who are more qualified than him to hold this position are looking at him all the time, and the sense of crisis forces him to change some of his previous hobbies, and cultivate his 'sex' to become a qualified politician.

Li Xiehe knows better than anyone else that the reason why he has been serving as the director of the 'attendant' office in the past few years is actually that the president attaches great importance to him, and in terms of ability, there are more people than him who have the ability. In terms of seniority, those who are all over the world from the Commander's Hall can be lined up from the Commander's Hall to the big 'gate' of the Presidential Palace; on the whole, he Li Xiehe is just a middle-aged person, and the president values him not because of his talent or ability, but because of his loyalty and comprehension of the president's will.

In addition, there is another important factor that has to be mentioned, Li Xiehe's diligence is also incomparable to ordinary people, since he became the director of the 'attendant' room, he is probably the second most diligent person in the commander's hall and even the entire presidential palace, the first diligent person is the president, and Li Xiehe is following the president's step, when the president gets off work, he will get off work when he gets off work, when the president works overtime, he will also work overtime, not to mention anything else, just by virtue of this, he Li Xiehe can also throw many colleagues a few streets away.

At noon today, the president got off work late, and Li Xiehe was also late, so by the time he finished lunch, it was already two o'clock in the afternoon, and there was no time for the lunch break, so he wiped his face with cold well water. Li Xiehe hurried to the 'attendant' room again to arrange the afternoon's work.

The work of the 'attendant' room is divided into two sets of civil and military, which are all arranged by Li Xiehe, step by step, and there is no difficulty, sometimes the president temporarily assigns the task, this is the test of Li Xiehe, fortunately, the 'attendant' room hides the dragon and the tiger, and a large number of outstanding talents are assigned by Li Xiehe, but it can also be taken calmly, because of the direct supervision of the cabinet, therefore, whenever the cabinet is presented to official business, it is handled by Li Xiehe and the assigned staff, and then 'handed over' to the president for review, from the perspective of this function,' The chamber is somewhat similar to the military aircraft department in the former Qing Dynasty, and the cabinet has evolved into the ya'men of various ministries.

Unlike the Governor's Office, which supervises local government affairs, the 'chamberlain' is not idle and rotates continuously throughout the year, unless the cabinet is idle. Otherwise, the 'attendant' room will have to be on standby at any time, and if there is a state crisis, it will be even more busy.

Now that the war between China and Japan is in a critical situation, the 'attendant' office is busier than usual, and as soon as Li Xiehe goes to work, he has to deal with a bunch of official documents, and when he assigns official duties, it is already half past two in the afternoon, and at this time, before he can breathe a sigh of relief, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sent someone over again.

The person who came was Foreign Minister Wu Tingfang, and he was accompanied by the British Minister to China, Zhu Erdian, who had come to meet the president, and this was also the work of the 'attendant' room, and the president could directly talk to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the telephone, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could not casually arrange the place and time of the meeting of foreign affairs, and this kind of formal meeting should usually be arranged by the 'attendant' room.

Li Xiehe did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly glanced at the president's work schedule today, the British minister came at the right time, and the president should be in the office now, so he left the 'attendant' room and rushed to the president's office.

When he arrived at the president's office, he saw that the president was indeed handling official documents, Li Xiehe stepped forward and whispered: "Mr. President, Mr. Zhu Erdian, the British Minister to China, asked to meet with the president, and he was personally accompanied by General Wu, saying that he wanted to consult with the president about the current situation in the Far East and the Korean Peninsula issue. ”

"Oh? Zhu Erdian came over so soon? ”

Zhao Bei didn't raise his head. He continued to deal with the official document on the table on military logistics, and only after he finished signing it did he glance at Li Xiehe.

"Let's meet here, there's no need to go to the state guesthouse. On the phone just now, listening to what Chief Wu meant, the British minister seems to be a little unkind this time. ”

The president nodded, Li Xiehe hurriedly withdrew from the office, returned to the 'attendant' room, and led Wu Tingfang and Zhu Erdian to the president's office.

Waiting for Li Xiehe to walk out of the office, Zhao Bei rubbed his hands, asked the British minister to sit down on the sofa in the corner, ordered the guards to serve tea, and then opened the 'door' to see the mountain.

"Mr. Minister, you came here this time, are you here for the affairs of North Korea?"

"Mr. President is right, I came here for the sake of North Korea. Just this morning, in the German Concession in Tianjin, a group of Korean expatriates organized a rally. They proclaimed the establishment of a so-called 'independent state of Goryeo', and elected a president and a cabinet, and the so-called 'president' was the assassin Ahn Shigeun who assassinated the high-ranking Japanese political officials, which was obviously a provocation to Japan, and the Mr. Ito Hirobumi who was assassinated by An Shigegen was not only the soul of the constitutional forces within the Japanese government, but also the vanguard of Japan's enlightenment.

I am deeply concerned about this, because in my opinion. If the Japanese government were to make a desperate gamble because of the 'independent state of Korea,' it would cause even more serious damage to the situation in the entire Far East, and it would also lead to another defeat of the Leninist stoppage, and if China were to fall into a protracted war with Japan as a result, I would think it would be very unfavorable for China, and I hope that Mr. President will also see this and take strong measures to reverse the current stalemate. In addition, I have come here to ask Mr. President whether the colonial interests of the great powers in certain parts of Asia are still recognized in your foreign policy. ”

Zhu Erdian knew Zhao Bei's 'sexual' character, so he didn't beat around the bush and directly said his intentions.

Zhao Bei was a little surprised, he didn't expect Zhu Erdian to say so 'revealingly' and jump directly from the "Independent State of Korea" to the issue of Britain's colonial interests in Asia, which can also be seen that the British are already a little worried about the current Asian colonial order.

The current world order is the colonial order, and the European powers rely on ruling the colonies to maintain their own economies, so no matter which power it is, this colonial issue is very sensitive, and the reason why Germany wants to do everything possible to break this "old international order" is to redistribute the colonies, and Britain is quite disgusted by this, and it is precisely because of this that the Allies and the Entente are moving towards military confrontation, and they have now reached the 'door' threshold of war.

As a traveler through history, Zhao Bei also wants to break the current "old international order", but his policy is not completely consistent with the policy of the German government, the purpose of Germany to break the old order is to seize the British colony, and Zhao Bei is not so greedy, he only wants to maintain China's territorial integrity and sovereign independence from the collapse of this old order, as for the seizure of the colony, with the current China's national strength and the comparison of international forces, it seems to be unattainable, so. Zhao Bei's current policy is very simple, that is, to 'touch' the fish in the soul water, which can not make the European powers stabilize their Asian colonies, but at the same time, it cannot arouse the disgust of the European powers because of the colonial issue.

The establishment of the "Independent State of Goryeo" was indeed planned by Zhao Bei personally, and the reason why he granted amnesty to An Chonggen was precisely for this purpose, which can be regarded as his flank attack on Japan, and at the same time an important chess piece in his next international strategy.

However, Zhao Bei did not expect that the British would be so sensitive, and from the Korean issue to the problem of the entire Asian colonies, they actually came to inquire about Zhao Bei's position on this issue.

How to answer the question of the British minister? Zhao Bei hesitated for a while.

The British colonies in Asia have a long history if you count them from the East India Company, India, Burma, Malaya, Borneo, ...... These colonies are not only vast in area, but also rich in resources, it is by relying on these colonies that Britain will become an empire on which the sun never sets, in the policy towards these colonies, the British political attitude is completely different from that towards Australia and South Africa, and the treatment of Australia and South Africa is a policy of softness, and in the treatment of Asian colonies, Britain has basically adopted a high-pressure policy, which is not only related to racial issues, but also related to economic policy, and the British policy towards Asian colonies is to plunder resources, Ignoring the interests of the local indigenous population led directly to the revolt, and although the colonial revolt was weak for now, the British government did not dare to take it lightly.

Zhao Bei knew very well that the British colonial empire would eventually collapse, but it seemed that it would not be until after World War II, when the international balance of power changed drastically, and Britain could not afford to maintain the rule of the colonies, but now, Britain's power is still strong, and the independence of the colonies seems to be far away.

"Mr. Minister, on the issue of the Korean Peninsula, my position is very clear, that is, as a victim of the struggle of international interests, Korea is not a natural colony of Japan, and now, the Korean diaspora has declared the establishment of an independent country, which is the result of the awakening of the national consciousness of the Korean people, and Japan's colonial rule over Korea is very cruel, and I do not need to repeat this, in the Korean anti-Japanese uprising two years ago, the journalists have exposed the crimes of the Japanese colonial army to the world, so, In every respect, Korea had a reason to become independent from Japanese colonial rule.

With regard to the last question posed by Mr. Minister, does China recognize the colonial interests of the Great Powers in certain parts of Asia? This is an interesting question, for it seems to me that the current strength of China, with its national power, does not seem to be able to affect the control of the Asian colonies by the great powers, and it seems a bit abrupt for Mr. Minister to ask this question, although I have not consulted the Cabinet or discussed the subject with the Cabinet, but since Mr. Minister has asked, I may give my opinion.

It seems to me that there are only two countries that can threaten Britain's Asian interests now, one is Germany, and I will not dwell on this reason, but Mr. Minister himself knows that as for the other country that can threaten Britain's colonial interests in Asia, it seems to be Japan, because only Japan has an ocean-going fleet sufficient to threaten Britain's interests in Asia, so it seems to me that Mr. Minister should not come and ask me if I recognize the colonial interests of the European powers in Asia, Instead, it is necessary to ask whether the Japanese government recognizes the colonial interests of the European powers in Asia.

Of course, if Japan threatens Britain's colonial interests in Asia, it means that the Japanese government has indeed lost its mind, or Europe has fallen into a 'chaos' and has no time to take care of Asian interests. ”

These words were even eliminated, and the British minister was immediately stunned.