The next day, on the morning of 8 April, Sir Anderson handed Mr. Sun the proposed Chinese and English versions of the agreement, and asked him to look at it to see if it was suitable, and if so, he would send it back to China, and as long as it was approved by Parliament, the United Kingdom would begin to implement it in accordance with the agreement. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info

Mr. Sun carefully considered each clause to see if the British had set a trap.

After reading it twice, I didn't find any mistakes, it was completely in accordance with yesterday's agreement to draw up, the fly in the ointment is to cede Tibet and part of Yunnan, and there is a limit to the area to be occupied, these two points appear in the agreement, so that Mr. Sun hates uncomfortable, if the content of the agreement is leaked, then he will be identified as a traitor, and once again become the object of everyone's shouting; What reassures him is also the limitation of the region, the three eastern provinces outside the Great Wall, Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolia, which happen to be the border special administrative regions, are the sphere of influence of the Xia Empire, and they are not able to provoke themselves, or they dare not provoke the Xia Empire after the founding of the country.

Huang Xing, Liao Zhongkai and others carefully read the agreement, and felt that there was no problem, so they returned the text of the agreement to Sir Anderson.

Mr. Sun said: "Your Excellency, this agreement is very comprehensive and perfect, and I have no disagreement. ”

"Well, I will send it to the country immediately and urge the parliament to give an answer in the shortest possible time. This represents the first step in our cooperation, and we will need to work more closely together in the future. ”

"Our alliance will definitely do its best, and we will certainly live up to the expectations of the British Empire."

Sir Anderson had Daniel personally supervise the telegram and not leak any information.

Due to the time difference, Daniel sent the telegram at 2 o'clock in the morning in London.

As soon as he went to work on April 8, Sir Edward Grey, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs of the British Empire, saw a telegram on his desk, which was sent by the Governor of the Straits Settlements, and first read through it, and felt that it was an agreement to support the League, and felt that the matter was too important for him to decide, and immediately went to the Prime Minister's residence in Downing Street to report to the Prime Minister, Sir Henry Campbell Benenenen.

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister, it's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Hello, Your Excellency the Foreign Secretary, I wonder if something important happened when you came here so early?"

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, this is a telegram from the Straits Settlements, please take a look at it first, and then listen to my report."

"As you wish!" As he spoke, he took the draft of the telegram handed by Edward Gray, put on his reading glasses, and read it carefully.

Fifteen minutes later, the Prime Minister looked up and asked, "What is your view on this issue?" ”

"This agreement is a little different from our original strategy, our plan at that time was to support the Alliance, let them instigate the rebellion of the indigenous people of Nanyang, assassinate the officials of the Xia Empire, and carry out terrorist bombs and other actions against the Xia Empire, and this agreement has no content in this regard at all, is Sir Anderson misunderstood the meaning of the cabinet?"

The Prime Minister pondered for a moment and said, "Sir Anderson didn't understand it wrong, it was just not perfectly executed. Now let's not talk about whether it will be successful to let the alliance engage in these small actions, even if it is successful, it will have no impact on the Xia Empire, besides, it is difficult to say whether the alliance will dare to do this, so Anderson came up with this method. ”

"So what is the purpose of this agreement? Could it be that the Empire really helped the League to gain control of the Great Qing Kingdom? ”

"Your Excellency the Foreign Minister, you have thought too much, it is true to support the Alliance, it is difficult to say whether you can gain control of the Great Qing Kingdom, now that the Xia Empire is supporting the Great Qing Kingdom, and has set up a special border administrative region, if the Alliance will organize armed forces into the Great Qing Dynasty, what do you think will happen?"

Sir Edward Grey pondered for a while and said: "The League will have a deep mass base in the southern part of the Great Qing Kingdom, and if they enter the Great Qing Kingdom, they should be able to gain a firm foothold very quickly, occupy the area south of the Yangtze River, and engage in a north-south confrontation with the Great Qing Kingdom, which relies on the Yangtze River." ”

The prime minister said: "Relying on the Yangtze River natural danger confrontation is not many deaths, we must let the alliance attack to the north of the Yangtze River, or let the officers and soldiers of the Great Qing State kill to the south of the Yangtze River, and form a tug-of-war, as long as there will be a large number of casualties, cause serious damage to industrial and agricultural production, make them lose the normal production order, produce a large number of displaced people, and mobilize the Russian Empire to occupy Xinjiang, and then in Gansu to support the Yi * Lan * forces, divide the localities, form warlords, and confront the Great Qing State, They will become a buffer zone between Russia's Xinjiang region and the Qing Dynasty, and at the same time they will sign an agreement with Russia, we will occupy Tibet, they will occupy Xinjiang, and they will not cross the border with each other, and your Ministry of Foreign Affairs must reach an agreement with Russia as soon as possible, if they do not agree, then the British Empire will send troops from the Kashgar region into Xinjiang, and the Russian Empire will not regret it at that time. “

"Even if there is a natural danger of the Yangtze River, the alliance will not necessarily be able to block the army of the Great Qing Kingdom, so it is not feasible for the alliance to attack the north of the Yangtze River, if the army of the Northern Great Qing Kingdom crosses the Yangtze River, then the alliance will not be able to resist the attack of the northern army at all, and it will soon disappear, and the efforts of the empire will not be in vain?"

"That's why I supported Gansu to support the Yi * Lan * forces, let them divide the localities, form warlords, and contain the forces of the Great Qing State from the rear."

Sir Edward Grey wondered, what was the purpose of this? The empire did not profit from this, and the Yangtze River valley was the sphere of influence of the British Empire, which would disrupt the sale of its own products, as well as the normal production of British Empire merchants in local factories.

The Prime Minister ignored Sir Edward Grey and continued: "Our aim is to plunge the Qing Empire into a civil war, as long as there is a war between the north and the south, the empire must act immediately to support greater and larger forces in the Qing Dynasty, and it is better to form a national division and warlord melee, so that a lot of energy of the Xia Empire will be restrained, and it will not be able to develop the economy with peace of mind, and it will not be able to wage war against other places; Because it was a civil war, it was not easy for the Xia Empire to take action in person, even if it was to take action in person, it was impossible to kill like a foreign war, if he dared to do so, he would mobilize public opinion, let them fall into a state of isolation and helplessness in the Great Qing Kingdom, and let them become the public enemies of the people of the Great Qing Kingdom; And as long as the Xia Empire personally takes action, it will also mobilize public opinion and create contradictions between them and the Great Qing State; Anyway, it is to make the Qing Dynasty chaotic, and the more chaotic the better; In this way, it will buy enough time for the empire to develop, and in another 2 to 3 years, the battleships of the imperial navy will be launched one after another, and then buy a few more battleships from the Xia Empire, and then the empire's naval strength will far exceed that of the Xia Empire's navy, and strive to launch a surprise attack on them while they are dealing with the civil war, completely destroy the Xia Empire's navy, and even completely wipe out the Xia Empire. “

"Then what is the purpose of ceding Xinjiang to Russia?"

"The Russian Empire is now afraid of the Xia Empire's army, if they don't have enough bargaining chips, the Russian Empire won't be fooled, if they don't make a difference, how can they contain the army in the north of the Great Qing Kingdom? And if you don't occupy Xinjiang, how can you support Gansu and support the I*Lan* forces? “

Sir Edward Grey pondered for a moment and asked, "Your Excellency, can the Empire support the Russian Empire and let them support the Mongols for independence?" In the Great Qing Dynasty, the territory occupied by the Mongols was not small, and the Mongols were born to live on horseback, as long as they had good weapons, they could immediately become excellent warriors, reproduce the power of the whip of God, relay the glory of their ancestors, and become the nightmare of the Great Qing Kingdom. ”

As soon as the prime minister heard this suggestion, he immediately said: "Haha, yes, this is a really good idea, if this is the case, then we can't want the Tibet region, we want Yunnan Province, let the Tibet region become independent, organize the Tibetan army, occupy Xining, and threaten Xi'an, then the effect will be better." At the same time, in Yunnan, support the ethnic groups of Guangxi Province and Guizhou Province, and help them organize armed forces and fight for independence, so that the entire frontier of the Great Qing State will become a mess, and even the Xia Empire will have nowhere to start. ”

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, this is indeed a good idea, in that case do we need to support the Alliance? They are asking for too much assistance. ”

The prime minister said: "This price is not high, you know, the alliance is the key, only when they muddy the waters, we can fish in troubled waters, and all localities can engage in independence and warlord secession." Moreover, the battlefield of the League is in the south, which is the most important place of finance and taxation of the Qing Dynasty, if the economic order there is destroyed, then the Great Qing Kingdom will have no funds to engage in war, and the army of the Alliance will be able to fight on the move, and the cost will be much lower than that of the Great Qing Dynasty, and the more chaotic it is, the easier it will be for the Alliance to recruit cannon fodder, and the more cruel the war will be. ”

The prime minister laughed happily when he said this, and he admired his own wisdom, and he felt that he had become smarter to come up with such a good idea.

Sir Edward Grey, however, was not pleased, and said to the Prime Minister: "Your Excellency, if you cede the province of Provinces, the League will certainly not be able to agree to it. ”

"The agreement does not need to be amended, when the time comes, we will directly send troops to occupy it, and if we achieve de facto occupation, the alliance will definitely not have the energy to take care of us at that time, we want these places, just as a springboard for the war leader Yunnan; After their internal war, we will send troops into Tibet, let their lamas declare independence, and the British Empire will be their protectorate, and then help them form an army to occupy Xining, and connect with the Yisi*Lan forces in Gansu and the Mongol forces in the north, threatening the security of the Central Plains of the Qing Dynasty; The armed forces in these three places are mainly cavalry, and they can adopt harassment tactics, run when they hit, and run away when they rob, not about how many enemies they kill, but on the principle of destroying the normal production order of the Qing Dynasty and creating chaos; In other places, in order to resist harassment, local military forces will definitely be formed, so that there will be signs of warlords, and then we will choose to support different forces, and eventually local warlords of all sizes will be formed; Constant harassment will destroy their normal industrial and agricultural production order, the Qing Kingdom will have no tax revenue, and will produce a large number of displaced people, which will become a huge burden on them, making them unable to fight, and the Qing Kingdom will completely fall into the warlord melee. ”

Sir Edward Grey was stunned by the scene described by the Prime Minister, and after a while he came to his senses, and then asked: "Your Excellency, what is to be done with this agreement?" ”

"This agreement is to be kept strictly confidential and cannot be discussed in Parliament, anyway, for three years, more than £1 million a year in aid, £1 million a year will be paid from the Prime Minister's special funds, and the rest will be paid by the Straits Settlements; You inform Sir Anderson that the agreement has been approved, and ask his governor's palace and the Allies to keep it strictly confidential and not to divulge anything about it. At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should actively act to negotiate with the Russian Empire and achieve the requirements we have just mentioned. In addition, France should also be brought in, either with money or with effort, and Guangxi Province should be ceded to France at that time. ”

"Yes, Your Excellency, Prime Minister!" (To be continued.) )