Wilson, a university president, was full of idealistic ideas about the future of the world.

So far, the neutral position of the United States has been maintained, but in this attempt to mediate the war between China and Japan, Wilson has duly made clear to the American public his position of helping oppressed countries gain sovereignty and ensure a just peace. This mediation of the Sino-Japanese war can also be seen as a step forward in Wilson's attempt to realize his great plan of "American dominance of world peace."

"I hate it the most than anything else." Wilson's blazing eyes looked at the sea, "It's time for the Japanese to sober up." ”

"I think the British will be the first to act." Lan Xin took a sip of hot tea and nodded thoughtfully, "In the future, we will often drink high-quality tea from China." ”

On August 2, 1916, the British, French, and Russian ambassadors to Japan jointly asked the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs a sternly worded rebuke on the issue of secret contacts between Japan and Germany, which the Japanese Foreign Ministry firmly denied.

On August 3, 1916, Japanese political government sent a telegram to Foreign Minister Takaaki Kato to return to China from Los Angeles, and Kikujiro Ishii and Aima Sato, the ambassador to the United States, presided over the Sino-Japanese negotiations.

On August 15, 1916, the Japanese Cabinet was rejected by the Japanese Cabinet on issues such as the government's policy toward China, Okuma's Shigenobu accepting large amounts of money and bribes from the business community during his election campaign, and the government's secret foreign affairs to Germany.

On September 6, 1916, Japanese Foreign Minister Takaaki Kato resigned, and the post of foreign minister was concurrently held by Shigenobu Okuma.

On September 12, 1916, Japanese Prime Minister Shigenobu Okuma resigned, followed by the resignation of the Japanese Cabinet and the collapse of the Okuma Cabinet.

On September 20, 1916, Terauchi Masayi became the Prime Minister of Japan, and concurrently served as Foreign Minister and Minister of Tibet.

On September 22, 1916, Emperor Taisho of Japan appointed Ichiro Honno as Japan's foreign minister.

September 25, 1916, Beijing, Jurentang, Chūn Lotus Zhai.

"I received a call from Los Angeles yesterday, and the content of the contract with Japan has been largely determined, so you can take a look."

Yuan Shikai looked at the military and political dignitaries gathered together and said, his words revealing indescribable relief.

Last time, it was also here, and Yuan Shikai's tearful appearance is still fresh in the memory of the people here.

Only this time, all the people, like their big president, have all changed their mood.

As the inside story of the secret of Japan and Germany was revealed, which led to the collapse of the Japanese Okuma Shigenobu cabinet (ostensibly due to the discovery of the incident in which Oura Kane-Takeuchi had bribed dozens of parliamentarians to increase the passage of the army bill), the newly appointed Terauchi Masatsuki cabinet instructed the Japanese delegation negotiating in Los Angeles to reach a peace agreement with China as soon as possible in order to get Japan out of the passive situation as soon as possible. Under these circumstances, Japan no longer stubbornly adhered to its original position and made unpleasant concessions to China, and with the mediation of the American side, the two sides had already reached an agreement on the draft of the peace treaty.

The contents of the draft peace treaty are as follows:

(1) China and Japan completely put an end to war and hostilities.

(2) China fully recovers all its rights and interests in Shandong.

3. Japan retains its rights and interests in South Manchuria under the Portsmouth Peace Treaty.

(4) Japan's rights and interests in the Kwantung Prefecture Lease, the Lushun Dalian Concession, the South Manchurian Railway, and the Anbong and Jichang Railways shall remain unchanged, and the period of repayment shall not be extended.

(5) The economic losses caused by Japan to China will be compensated by the "Gengzi Indemnity" given to Japan by China in accordance with the "Xincho Treaty" (which in fact is tantamount to canceling China's indemnity to Japan).

(6) China has abolished Japan's consular jurisdiction in China, and Japanese residents must abide by Chinese laws when they reside in China and engage in industry and commerce.

(7) Japan has cancelled all espionage activities in China, and has withdrawn Chinese spies to the country within a time limit, and those who fail to do so within the time limit and are discovered by the Chinese police will be severely punished in accordance with Chinese law.

(8) Japan bans the Chinese ** Party in Japan within a time limit.

After seeing that everyone had a basic understanding of the content of the draft peace treaty, Yuan Shikai said: "What other suggestions and ideas do you have about this peace talks? ”

"Japan's right to station troops in our country should also be abolished." Chief of Staff Cai Yi said, "At present, the entire territory of Fengtian is in the hands of our army, so is it impossible to re-give these places to the Japanese army?" ”

"What Matsupa said is very true." Xu Shuzheng expressed support for Cai's opinion, "The territory that has been recovered has no reason to go out again." ”

Hearing Cai Xu's words, some military and political dignitaries also said yes.

"I have also considered abolishing the right to garrison troops, but it is still difficult to implement it." Yuan Shikai sighed and said, "At present, most of the brigades are in the hands of Japan, and the Japanese army will never agree to withdraw, and our army is currently unable to recover, so we can only be flexible in this article." ”,

Hearing Yuan Shikai say this, Cai Ye and Xu Shuzheng both let out a heavy sigh and didn't say anything more.

"The reason why we have not been able to recover the brigade is entirely because of the weak relationship of our navy." Vice Admiral Tang Qianming looked at Cai Yi and Xu Shuzheng, and said calmly, "Without the navy, the army alone would not be able to defeat such a military port fortress." ”

Hearing Tang Qianming's self-exposure of the navy's shortcomings, Liu Guanxiong couldn't help but be slightly stunned.

"This time, the officers and men of the navy bravely resisted the enemy, and the victory of Caofeidian shook the world, so that the whole world knew the prestige of our Chinese navy, but all the huge ships of more than 10,000 tons in our country were in vain, and although the Japanese navy sank four major ships in a row, it still had little impact on its overall strength." Yuan Shikai looked at Liu Guanxiong and Tang Qianming, and said, "This time, we will suffer a loss because the navy has not been able to compete with the Japanese ships. ”

Hearing Yuan Shikai say so intimately, tears oozed from the corners of Liu Guanxiong's eyes.

"The reason why this peace conference cannot fully recover the lost rights is because of this, so we should learn from the pain and punish the former and the future, from today onwards, we should focus on the navy." Yang Du said, "The reason why I hope to reach a collegial agreement as soon as possible is to give the country time to build and develop, and expand the navy and army for the future." ”

"The Admiralty has already proposed a plan for the expansion of the Navy the day before yesterday, which will require at least 30,000 yuan and will take ten years." As if to block the mouths of those who live up to the blame and the navy, Tang Qianming said, "In this way, the navy can have a little scale and fight with the Japanese ships." ”

"Within 10 years, it will not be possible for the Japanese navy to stagnate, and if war breaks out again, our navy will still be weak and strong." Chen Huan suddenly said, "Unless our country can achieve rapid development within these ten years." ”

After listening to Chen Eun's words, Yuan Shikai praised it.

At this time, the discussion in the venue gradually became louder, and Liu Guanxiong listened to everyone's discussion, and suddenly felt unprecedented relief in his heart.

Because he knows that for the development of the Navy, the participants should have already reached a consensus.

Seeing that everyone had nothing more to say, Yuan Shikai got up and made a summary speech: "This peace agreement was reached, so as to avoid the risk of losing the country, there are many lucks. We must not change things and follow the rules. From now on, everyone should hang in their hearts with the words "destroying the country and destroying the species", be vigilant against the Japanese people's hearts and try our courage, then ten years later, our country should be able to reap the lost rights and restore the glory of our great country in China. ”

As soon as Yuan Shikai's words fell, Yang Du was the first to stand up and applauded vigorously.

Soon, the participants stood up one after another, and Yang Du applauded, the applause was protracted and warm, and some people even cheered, at this time Yuan Shikai, full of ambition to accept everyone's applause and cheers, as if returning to the day when he was sworn in as the official president of the Republic of China.

"President Yuan Shikai has ratified the peace treaty with Japan."

In the British Embassy in China in East Jiāo Minxiang, Counsellor Michael told British Minister Zhu Erdian, "President Yuan Shikai has hardly changed the content of the draft treaty. ”

"So he's pretty happy with the content of the treaty." Zhu Erdian smiled and said, "It's time for him to fulfill his promise." ”

"President Yuan Shikai said again yesterday that China is willing to join the Entente and participate in the war against Germany," Michael said, "but he also said that China's army lacks the necessary weapons and equipment, and its navy is also very short of ships, and he hopes that China will lift the arms embargo on China." ”

"It is a fact that the Chinese navy lacks ships," Zhu Erdian nodded, "but the equipment of their army does not seem to be much worse than that of the Japanese army, and some local troops are even better equipped than the Japanese army." Otherwise, how did they lay Qingdao? ”

"When President Yuan Shikai said this, he actually wanted to get financial and weapons assistance from us."

"Whitehall is already considering lifting the arms embargo on China, and we don't have a shortage of weapons right now, what we lack is soldiers to fight." Zhu Erdian sighed, "Britain has the most powerful navy in the world, but the strength of the army is not comparable to our enemies. ”

"Yes, the army is the shells of the navy." Michael sighed too.

After the Battle of the Marne and the Battle of Verdun, the Allies suffered unprecedented casualties, and the ongoing Battle of the Somme showed the same situation, in the face of the danger of insufficient troops, Britain, France and Russia had always hoped that Japan would contribute their own strength, but the Japanese were only willing to send their navy and refused to send their land forces to fight in Europe. ,

The British government was very disappointed with the performance of the Japanese, and the success of China in defeating the Japanese invasion gave hope to the ministers and generals of Whitehall.

At this moment, a confidential secretary of the embassy walked in briskly and gave Zhu Erdian a telegram.

Jurdian took the telegram, glanced at it quickly, and handed it to Michael.

"Whitehall has agreed to lift the arms embargo on China and help China train an army fit to fight in Europe." Zhu Erdian said.

"We need to sign an agreement with the Chinese, right?" Michael asked.

Zhu Erdian nodded and said, "Let's start preparing."

On October 1, 1916, the Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty of Los Angeles was signed.

"This agreement is very unfair to Japan, and I believe that the Chinese will not be happy for too long."

After completing the signing ceremony, in a xiǎo conference room, Kikujiro Ishii said to Lan Xin with a sèyīn face.

Lan Xin heard the threat implied in Kikujiro's words, smiled slightly, and said, "That's why we have to sign another supplementary agreement. ”

On the same day that China and Japan formally signed the agreement, after many days of debate, Lansing and Ishii Kikujiro also signed an agreement as an understanding between the United States and Japan on the Far East issue.

This agreement was the understanding agreement that came to be known as the Lansing-Ishii Agreement.

In this agreement, the United States and Japan stated that "the United States and the Japanese government denies any purpose that in any way violates the independence and integrity of China, and further states that the two countries have always adhered to the doctrine of 'open households' or equal opportunity in the conduct of industry and commerce in China," while asserting that "the Japanese government has repeatedly assured...... Although Japan has 'special interests' due to the territorial proximity of the two countries, Japan has no intention of discriminating against other countries' trade or the commercial benefits that China has so far granted to other powers in the treaty. ”

In addition, there is a secret clause in the Lansing-Ishii Agreement, which states that "the two countries shall not seek to deprive the peoples or subjects of other 'friendly countries' of their 'special interests' in China."

The Lansing-Ishii Agreement is the product of "limited coordination" between the United States and Japan in the absence of either side to dominate China, and it can also be said to be one of the most ambiguous foreign documents in the history of foreign countries. In this agreement, both the United States and Japan made nominal concessions to the other's demands, and the ambiguous language concealed their own ambitions and hopes for China. In exchange for Japan's recognition of Japan's "open-door policy," the United States has received the United States' recognition of the "special interests" brought to Japan by the proximity of China and Japan's territory, but the two countries have completely different understandings of how to specifically explain and make use of this special interest, and this has laid the groundwork for a new round of quarrel between the United States and Japan on the issue of the Far East and the Pacific region in the future.

At this time, Kikujiro Ishii would not have thought that Japan's nightmare had begun from now, but he and many Japanese people did not realize it.

"Coming?" Yang Shuoming, who had just attended the signing ceremony in a military uniform, looked at Lin Yuqing, who had rushed to Los Angeles, and patted him on the shoulder with a smile.

"Why didn't you bring your wife and children?" Yang Shuoming noticed that Lin Yuqing came alone, and asked with concern.

"She and the child are behind, and they will be there in a few days." Lin Yuqing replied, although he looked haggard at this time, his eyes couldn't suppress the excitement, "I'm afraid you're in a hurry, so I'll come first." ”

"Afraid I'm in a hurry?" Yang Shuoming listened to his answer and asked with some amusement, "Do you know what I asked you to do?" ”

"Of course, it's for the sake of building ships." Lin Yuqing said, and couldn't wait to say, "Have you read the letter I gave you?" It's about the 'Yellow River' class ......"

"Don't mention the 'Yellow River' level." Yang Shuoming knew that he was still entangled in his own design to hide people's eyes, and couldn't help but smile, "I want you to come this time, there is a more important task." ”

"What's more important?" Lin Yuqing asked.

Yang Shuoming waved his hand, a secretary took his folder, Yang Shuoming took out a drawing from it, and Jiāo gave it to Lin Yuqing.

"That's your job." Yang Shuoming said with a smile, "Your task is to turn it into reality. ”

Hearing Yang Shuoming's last words, Lin Yuqing's body trembled as if he had been electrocuted. ,

What is depicted on the drawings is a line drawing of a huge battleship.

"'Republic'-class fast battleship......" Lin Yuqing's eyes widened for a while, "It turned out to be a 40,000-ton giant ship......"

"If you want to play this time, let's play big, and we can't let the Japanese look down on us." A vicious expression suddenly appeared on Yang Shuoming's face.

"You have such a good design," Lin Yuqing said with some chagrin, "Didn't Shi Sui Bō and I have been working on the ménnòng axe before?" ”

Listening to Lin Yuqing's words, Yang Shuoming just smiled and didn't have an interface.

Of course, he couldn't tell Lin Yuqing that this design scheme was just one of the best solutions designed by his "supercomputer eye" according to his requirements.

The "Republic" class fast battleship designed by Yang Shuoming has a standard displacement of 43,300 tons, a full load displacement of 49,200 tons, a total length of 238 meters, a waterline of 231 meters, a width of 33 meters, and a draft of 11 meters, and is armed with three 406 mm 45 times the diameter triple main gun (because China does not have the ability to manufacture such a giant artillery, Yang Shuoming decided to use the American-made MK5 naval gun), and the American-made MK15 twin 127 mm 51 times the diameter of the high-level dual-purpose gun 10mén. The power system uses 4 American-made GE steam turbines (the Americans have always distrusted GE's special steam turbines before the "North Carolina" class battleships, but have always used the "Westinghouse" type steam turbines with more horsepower, in fact, GE's steam turbines are more compact, more powerful, and easy to maintain) and 8 "Wilcox" heavy oil boilers, the main engine power can reach 208,000 horsepower, and the maximum speed is 31 knots (7,300 tons of deadweight oil, Endurance of 12,000 nautical miles at 18 knots)

In addition to the powerful firepower, the armor protection of the "Republican" class battleships was extremely strong, with a main armor belt of 350 mm and a camber of 19 degrees, horizontal protective armor 180 mm thick, and another 90 mm thick deck armor, with a frontal turret armor thickness of up to 460 mm and a conning tower armor thickness of 420 mm.

"As long as there is light here, I am not afraid that there will be no good things coming out." Yang Shuoming pointed to his brain and said solemnly, "Creativity is limitless, the key is to see if you can turn creativity into reality." ”