Wilson, a university president, was full of idealistic views on the future of the world.

So far, the neutral position of the United States has been maintained, but in this mediation operation, Wilson has duly made clear to the American public his position of helping oppressed countries gain sovereignty and ensure a just peace. The war in this mediation can also be seen as an attempt by Wilson to realize his great plan of "American dominance of world peace."

"I hate this kind of sneaky secret diplomacy the most." Wilson's blazing eyes looked at the sea, "It's time for me 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 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs jointly raised a sternly rebuked question to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the issue of secret contacts between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Germany, which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs resolutely denied.

On August 3, 1916, Masamu Moto ordered Foreign Minister Takaaki Kato to return to China from Los Angeles, and Kikujiro Ishii and Ambassador to the United States Aima Sato presided over the Sino-Japanese negotiations.

On August 15, 1916, the Okuma Cabinet was rejected by the Okuma Friends Association on issues such as the political axe's policy toward China, Okuma's large amount of money and bribes from the business community during his election campaign, and the political axe's secret diplomacy with Germany.

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

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

On September 20, 1916, Terauchi Masashi became the prime minister, and concurrently served as the foreign minister and the Tibetan minister.

On September 22, 1916, Emperor Taisho appointed Ichiro Honno as Minister of Foreign Affairs.

On September 25, 1916, Yanjing, Jurentang, Spring Lotus Zhai.

"I received a call from Los Angeles yesterday, and the content of the contract 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 diplomacy between Oura and Germany was revealed, which led to the collapse of the Okuma Shigenobu Cabinet (ostensibly due to the discovery of the incident in which Minister Oura and Takeuchi had bribed dozens of members of parliament in order to increase the passage of the army bill), the newly appointed Terauchi Masatsuki cabinet instructed the Oura delegation, which was negotiating in Los Angeles, to reach a peace agreement with China as soon as possible in order to get rid of the passive situation as soon as possible. Under these circumstances, the two sides no longer stubbornly adhered to their original position and made considerable concessions to China, and with the mediation of the United States, the two sides reached an agreement on the draft peace treaty.

The contents of the draft peace treaty are as follows:

(1) China and Ben completely end the state of war and hostilities.

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

(3) The Treaty of Portsmouth retains its rights and interests in South Manchuria.

(4) The rights and interests of the Benben in the leased land in Kwantung Prefecture, the Lushun Dalian concession, the South Manchurian Railway, and the Anfeng and Jichang Railway shall remain unchanged, and the period for return shall not be extended.

(5) The economic losses caused to China by the Covenant will be compensated by the "Gengzi Indemnity" given by China to the Treaty of Xincho (in fact, it is tantamount to canceling the indemnity paid by China to the Covenant).

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

(7) It is said that all espionage activities in China will be cancelled, and the spies in China will be withdrawn to China within a time limit, and those who fail to do so will be severely punished in accordance with Chinese law.

(8) The Chinese Revolutionary Party shall be banned within a specified period of time.

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? ”

"It is said that the right to garrison 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 do you want to hand over these places back to the army?" ”

"What Matsupa said is very true." Xu Shuzheng expressed support for Cai's opinion, "There is no reason to hand over the territory that has been recovered." ”

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 Yueben, and the Yue army will never agree to withdraw, and our army is currently unable to recover, so in this article, we can only be flexible." ”

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 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 big 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 collect the lost rights is because of this, so we should learn from the pain, punish the former and the future, and from now on, we should focus on the great governance of 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 for construction and development, and to expand the navy and army for the future." ”

"The Admiralty said that it has submitted a plan for the expansion of the Navy, which will require at least 30,000 yuan and will take ten years." As if to stop the mouths of those irresponsible and irresponsible accusations of the navy officers, Tang Qianming said, "In this way, the navy can have a little scale and fight with the ships." ”

"Within 10 years, it is impossible for the 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." ”

Listening to Chen Eun's words, Yuan Shikai showed a look of approval.

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 say that the words "destroy the country and destroy the species" are hanging in their hearts, be vigilant and say that people will die in our hearts, and we will be able to regain the glory of our great country in China after ten years. ”

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

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 the same party."

At the British Embassy in China in Dongjiaomin Lane, 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 army, and some local troops are even better equipped than the army." Otherwise, how did they lay Qingdao? ”

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

"Whitehall is already considering lifting the arms embargo on China, because we are not short 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 artillery shells fired by the navy. Michael sighed as well.

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.

The British were very disappointed with his own performance, and the Chinese succeeded in defeating the invasion of Sayben, giving hope to the ministers and generals of Whitehall.

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

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 Los Angeles Peace Treaty was officially signed.

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

After completing the signing ceremony, in a small conference room, Kikujiro Ishii said to Lansing with a gloomy 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 China formally signed the agreement, after many years 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 the agreement, the United States stated that "the United States and the United States deny any purpose that in any way infringes upon China's ability and integrity, and further state that the two countries have always adhered to the doctrine of 'open doors' or equal opportunity in China's business and industry," while asserting that "the United States has repeatedly pledged to ...... Although the proximity of the two countries to their territory has brought about 'special benefits,' it has no intention of discriminating against the trade of other countries or the commercial benefits that China has so far accorded to other powers in the treaty, and the United States Government Axe has full confidence in this assurance. ”

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 the United States under the condition that neither side is capable of dominating China alone, and it can also be said to be one of the most ambiguous diplomatic documents in the history of world diplomacy. In this agreement, the United States said that both sides made nominal concessions to the demands of the other side, and that the ambiguous language concealed its ambitions and hopes for China. In exchange for the United States' recognition of the "open door policy," the United States has exchanged for the United States' recognition of the "special interests" brought to China and the two countries because of their territorial proximity, 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 the Pacific region in the Far East and the Pacific region in the future.

At this time, Kikujiro Ishii would not have thought that the nightmare of the book had started from now on, but he and many people did not realize it.

"Coming?" Yang Shuoming, who had just attended the signing ceremony in a straight 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' anymore." 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 handed 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, you can play big, and you can't let me 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 Suibo and I have been working on axes in the class gate 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 10. The power system uses 4 American-made GE steam turbines (the Americans have not trusted GE's special steam turbines before the "North Carolina" class battleships, but have always used the "Westinghouse" type steam turbines with less 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, the maximum speed is 31 knots (7,300 tons of deadweight oil, Endurance of 18 knots at 12,000 knots) In addition to 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 deck armor 90 mm thick, with a thickness of 460 mm in the frontal armor of the turret and 420 mm in the armor of the conning tower.

"As long as there is light here, there is no fear that there will be no good things to come out." Yang Shuoming pointed to his head and said solemnly, "Creativity has no limits, the key is to see if you can turn creativity into reality." ”

(To be continued)