Compared with these well-cultivated politicians, Liang Dunyan feels that his face may be thickened, and most of the time since he entered the Prime Minister's Office is Asquith boasting, full of boasting about himself, emphasizing Britain's hegemony, and now he has to question Huaguo, I damn it!

"As far as I know, the war between our country and the United States does not implicate your country's interests in those regions, and the war between the two countries is also because of some irreconcilable contradictions, as if your country declared war on Germany, and there is no clear difference between the two." Liang Dunyan means that everyone is not a good bird, don't laugh at 99 steps in a hundred steps.

"Peace is our common desire, and it is therefore my hope that the interests of the British Empire in Australia, Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, etc., will not be implicated in a war between your country and the United States, and that British merchant ships sailing in the Pacific and Indian Oceans will be protected by the two belligerents." Asquith was clearly prepared to send a signal to China, and in fact Britain had already reacted in early February in response to the war in the Pacific.

When they learned that the Chinese fleet had attacked Yokosuka and annihilated most of the U.S. Pacific Fleet warships, Britain immediately thought that the Chinese would attack Southeast Asia or target the resource-rich Australia. On the one hand, the Far East was ordered to strengthen its vigilance and prepare for war, and on the other hand, a cruiser detachment was dispatched to India with great difficulty to strengthen the naval strength there.

The most crucial move was for Britain to intercept half of the oil lines from the Middle East to China, and to send a signal to China that if you attacked my colonies, you would be in danger of being cut off. Not only oil, but also a large number of merchant ships passing through the Indian Ocean, Malacca, etc., and the supply of ore from Australia will also be cut off by the British - unless there is a full-scale war with the British!

The oil is a little better, the scale of oil exploitation in China is gradually expanding in the country can meet 80 percent of the domestic demand, the newly discovered oil fields in the Philippines are also about to be put into production, once the war breaks out, China can occupy Southeast Asia in a short time, and there are also British oil fields in Malaya that were built in early 1909, which can basically meet the needs of the country and the needs of large-scale war.

However, Australia's ore is difficult for China to discard, and the quality of the iron ore mined in China is too low, the mining is difficult, and the amount of iron ore mined on the Korean Peninsula is also insufficient - mainly due to the terrain conditions. Domestic factories are increasingly demanding iron ore quality, which means lower costs.

At the beginning of 1906, the British mining company discovered a huge reserve of iron ore in Australia, and it was surprising that the iron ore here was of extremely high quality and the production was terrifying. The company, which was founded less than three years ago, became a mining star, but with it was an embarrassing awkwardness – Australia was half a world away from the British mainland, and the cost of transporting ore skyrocketed, at least not as much as it was transported from European ore producing sources such as Norway, South America, South Africa, India, etc., where the ore production was sufficient for the British industry.

The British faced the embarrassment of over-resources, and the local mining tycoons lost interest in the new British mining companies, but fortunately, the mining companies found new buyers, and China needed a lot of iron ore. One party wanted to buy, the other wanted to sell, so China and the United Kingdom immediately reached a cooperation agreement, and a large amount of Australian iron ore began to be shipped to China. To get the share of ore, Huaguo paid the price for this is the engine production technology and technology used in the F01 fighter, so the British immediately surpassed other industrial countries except China in the field of aero engines, and Rolls-Royce Company digested the technology and technology provided by Huaguo with the support of the British government, and the aero engine produced even reached the level of Huaguo's first-generation aero engine.

Therefore, Britain pinched the lifeblood of many Chinese countries, and on the premise of not going to war with Britain, China could not offend this real hegemon.

Liang Dunyan is dissatisfied with this point, since he has torn his face with the United States, why not eat the British colonies in Southeast Asia in one go? Why not annex the immensely rich Australia in one fell swoop? He was a qualified diplomat, but he did not have a far-sighted strategic vision, and of course, Lü Liang did not have such a long-term vision, and it was the idea of his staff not to make enemies with the Entente countries, which was also recognized by the military.

From the overall point of view, it is already at war with the United States, and if it is at war with the Entente, China will face an extremely grim international situation, with the United States as a great enemy in the Pacific direction, the threat of Tsarist Russia in the north, the vicious wolf of Japan on its side that has not been resolved, and the encirclement of Britain in the west, this is a completely encircled situation.

From a military point of view, the Chinese navy did not have the strength to enter the Indian Ocean, and even if it defeated the British and French navies, it would be difficult to hold the long transportation routes. Lu Hai's suggestion was to wait for the fifth and sixth aircraft carriers to be launched and form a third carrier group before going to war with the British, or even at best, to wait for the fourth carrier group to enter service before going to war. In addition, the Chinese Army is also expanding, and the negative impact of the major rearmament has not been eliminated, the factories need time to provide the troops with new equipment, they also need minerals from overseas to meet the demand for machinery, and the recruits need to be trained -- according to the training level of the Chinese Army soldiers, the recruits need two months of training before leaving the recruit camp, and each person consumes at least 4,000 rounds of ammunition -- this is a huge test for training and industry.

The most critical point is logistics, a large number of transport ships are needed to transport materials on the ocean, and endless railways and roads are needed on land to transport, and the number of trucks, trains, locomotives, and transport ships does not meet the requirements of the military. According to the calculations of the computers on the steel base, to meet the logistical needs of 5 million people, China still lacks 30 percent of its transportation capacity and materials, and if it meets the combat needs of 10 million people, China's current reserves can only be said to have just begun.

The war can't wait until it's completely ready to start, and Lv Liang doesn't have so much time to wait for the factory to produce slowly, even if there are high-level genetic people to integrate the domestic industrial forces, even if there are countless factories expanding their scale, but the reality of a weak foundation cannot be changed, time, what Lv Liang lacks most is time. Delay will only allow the United States to burst out with all its industrial strength, spread aircraft carriers and planes in every corner of the earth, and help the Entente support the Entente for a hundred years with materials! (Xiaobaijun likes to exaggerate, don't blame)

Therefore, Lü Liang could only use the exchange of interests to keep Britain and China at temporary peace, perhaps both sides knew that war was bound to break out in the Far East, but both sides were delaying the outbreak of war. Europe's drag has kept Britain from focusing on the Far East, and it needs its own shipyards to build enough battleships, and engineers to design aircraft carriers for shipyards to build.

"Your country and my country have had great differences, and we have turned our contradictions into violence, but the facts have shown that we can seek common ground while reserving differences and use interests to closely unite the two countries. On behalf of Hua Guo and President Lu Liang, I promise to the Prime Minister that British interests in the Far East and the Indian Ocean will be guaranteed, and that China has no intention of entering Australia, the Indian Ocean, and Southeast Asia, and does not have and will not be. ”

Asquith, who received Liang Dunyan's reply, happily sent him out of the door, of course he would not believe Liang Dunyan's promise, and even if a paper agreement was signed between countries, it would be easily torn up, let alone a verbal promise. Asquith's purpose is only to find out China's plans and buy time for Britain, when the British navy is strong again and withdraws from Europe, Britain will completely solve this big problem without China sending troops!

By contrast, the troubles of Belgium, a small Western European country on the southern shore of the English Channel, are just beginning, and in Brussels, the German minister Bello is satisfying his nicotine needs with a cigarette on a jasper cigarette holder.

The tall, straight, bearded Germanic man loved the smell of cigarettes, not only the cigarette holder in his hand, but also the silver ashtray on his desk, which had a bullet hole, and he laughed out loud whenever a visitor asked about the origin of the hole: "I am an ominous bird, I am stationed in Turkey, and there is a revolution in Turkey; When I went to China, I ran into the Boxer Rebellion again. The hole was one of their bullets flying in through the window. ”

On the morning of 29 February, Belgian Foreign Minister Davignon was awakened at 6 a.m. by news of the German invasion of Luxembourg, and he immediately summoned the German minister, Bello, to ask him for an explanation.

Bello was relieved: "Belgium has nothing to fear from Germany!" Your neighbor's roof may catch fire, but your own house will be safe and sound. ”

Both Davignon and ordinary Belgians were inclined to believe the German minister's words, because Belgium was a neutral country. The country's independence has been guaranteed by the countries concerned for more than 70 years, and they have enjoyed the longest period of peace in history. Few countries in the history of Europe have enjoyed such a long period of peace.

But King Albert I of Belgium and Prime Minister S. or Rattle were both skeptical of the Germans' promises, and it was no wonder that they would resist the German invasion with their own strength. Belgium has 10 divisions of the army, which is not half a star worse than that of Germany, and the obligation of neutrality and the belief in neutrality also make Belgium unable to formulate a battle plan and defend itself against foreign invasion.

The Belgian Prime Minister therefore demanded that the German Minister Belo make a commitment that Germany would never invade Belgium, and until the afternoon of 30 February, Bello had been silent for 24 hours in response to Sholart's request. King Albert decided to make a final appeal to Kaiser Wilhelm I in his personal capacity. (To be continued.) )