Beijing's Daqianmen, once a bustling railway station, has now quieted down. There was only one voice echoing nearby, and it was a public speech by Zhao Bei, the president of the Republic of China, which could also be seen as a speech, using the electric horns installed near the train station, a high-end gadget made by the same electronics factory in Wuhan that has now been purchased in large quantities by the government for official cable broadcasting.

“…… As the head of state of this republic, it is my duty and my job to perform my duties and defend the interests of the country and the people, and as president, I rely on the powers conferred on me by the Constitution to exercise my duties and abide by the Constitution.

Looking back on the past two years, the situation of the country has basically remained stable, the industrial and commercial economy has developed rapidly, and the people's living standards are gradually improving. Then the central government is like water without a source, a tree without roots, and there is no reason for long-term peace and stability.

During this visit to Qingdao, the central delegation has reached a number of key agreements with the German government, and in the future, the relations between China and Germany will only become closer, and the commercial exchanges between the two countries will also be closer, and the next two years will be a critical period for China's economic development, the "four-year industrial development plan" will be completed as scheduled, and the people's living standards will continue to improve, which depends on the unity between the center and the localities, and even more depends on the hard work of the people.

If China wants to get rid of the backward appearance, it must take the common struggle of all the people as the only premise, and the country will prosper if it has the help of the people, and the center will decline if it loses the help of the people. ……”

The president's speech was sprinkled with thousands of words, neither long nor short, without many flowery rhetoric and not many sensational words. The content is simple and unpretentious, but in this simple language, the key directions of the central government's work in the next two years are outlined.

To put it simply, in the next two years, the main policies of the central government will focus on two aspects: first, continue to strengthen the authority of the central government, weaken the centrifugal tendencies of the local government, further consolidate the central power, firmly implement the local autonomy movement with the county as the basic unit, and continue to adhere to the new cultural movement; Second, it is necessary to ensure the completion of the "four-year industrial development plan" by all means, strive to establish China's own basic industrial system at an early date, and at the same time, continue to promote commercial 'exchanges' between China and friendly countries, strive to improve the country's external environment, and do its best to safeguard world peace.

For the Chinese, as long as there is no war, everything is easy to say, as long as there is no war, the day will be better day by day, and for foreigners, this key direction of work can also reassure foreigners. As long as China does not ally with Germany now, there will be no war in the Far East for the time being.

As the British minister to China, Zhu Erdian was quite satisfied with this speech by Mr. President, although the president also said that Germany suggested that China and Germany sign a military alliance treaty, but at the same time, the president also kicked the ball to the Congress, as long as the Congress vetoed, then Germany's attempt would be frustrated.

Zhu Erdian is still confident in the Congress, not only because the National League, the largest opposition in the Congress, has close ties with Britain and France, but also because even if it is the majority of the United Front in Congress, there are a large number of pro-British people, Li Yuanhong, Tang Hualong, Huang Xing, Ju Zheng, and Yang Wangpeng, all of whom are friendly to Britain, and even Mr. Zhang Jian, vice president of the Republic of China, is also a pro-British faction. Preventing China from forming an alliance with Germany through Congress is a more realistic option, which may also show the wisdom of the "mad president", who may be a madman, but he is not a madman, and he is very cautious in his strategic choices.

At this point, Zhu Erdian's mood has improved, and he is in the mood to say a few irrelevant words to others, now. He stood on the northwest corner of the stage and whispered with Liang Shiyi, who was standing beside him.

Liang Shiyi is now not only an adviser to the Ministry of Finance, but also the general office of the Salt Industry Bank, managing this large official bank that is nominally a "central bank", and he can be regarded as a hot figure in the Chinese political arena, but the reason why he appeared next to Zhu Erdian was not the invitation of the other party, but he took the initiative to come over, and also hinted that Mr. Zhu Erdian took the excuse to go aside and avoid the Japanese minister in China, which was obviously a confidential matter to discuss with Zhu Erdian.

In fact, Liang Shiyi was ordered to speak to Zhu Erdian, and the person who gave him the order was none other than the president who was giving a speech on the stage of the ceremony.

"Mr. Minister, you must have seen the air show performed by our air force unit here just now, I wonder what you think?" Liang Shiyi asked.

Zhu Erdian nodded with a smile and said very politely: "Very 'great' performance!" Especially the formation and pulling cigarettes, it is really eye-opening, and I believe that those who have seen the performance today, whether Chinese or foreigners, will be impressed, and. There will also be a very intuitive and clear concept of the development of your country's air force. ”

Liang Shiyi also smiled, with a little confidence, and said: "In fact, the development of China's military strength is not only manifested in air power, the army and navy have also achieved surprising results in the past two years, especially the army strength, and now China's army department can easily mobilize a field force of one million people. ”

Zhu Erdian did not immediately pick up the conversation. He was pondering the true purpose of Liang Shiyi's words.

Liang Shiyi is a civilian official, and is in charge of finance, it is said that military affairs should not be the focus of his attention, if he talks to Zhu Erdian about customs duties and salt taxes, then there is nothing surprising, but now, he actually talked to Zhu Erdian about military topics, which is a bit intriguing.

"I must admit that your country has indeed made remarkable achievements in building up its military strength, but with all due respect, as a country that is not rich, why should your country invest so heavily in the military? Mr. Liang is in charge of finance, and he is the steward of the Salt Industry Bank, and you know the details of this much better than I do. Moreover, it is clear that your country's military build-up is a cause for concern among some of its neighbours, which could lead to an arms race in the Far East. ”

Zhu Erdian really couldn't 'touch' the other party's intentions, so he had to test it to see what Liang Shiyi wanted to do.

Seeing Zhu Erdian knocking on the side, Liang Shiyi also sighed in his heart, as the boss of the Salt Industry Bank, of course he knew what the Central Government fǔ regarded the Salt Industry Bank as, in the eyes of the Central Government, the Salt Industry Bank was the army's ATM, and the tariffs and salt taxes in the Salt Industry Bank were all 'fat' and 'meat' in the eyes of the military. Quite 'machine guns, these things can't be used if they don't fight, and the army stores them in the barracks and warehouses, so naturally they won't feel distressed, but as the boss of the Salt Industry Bank, Liang Shiyi's heart is like a knife, in his opinion, Zhu Erdian said it well. In the past two years, the center has indeed become a bit "reckless".

However, after all, the central government was the top boss of the Salt Industry Bank, and Liang Shiyi did not dare to disobey the orders of the Central Bank, so although Liang Shiyi was not convinced by the center's practice of treating the Salt Industry Bank as an army ATM instead of a real "central bank", he did not dare to 'revve' it.

"Mr. Minister, I have no right to dictate the decision of the center, perhaps in your opinion, China's strengthening of armament building is indeed excessive, but as a Chinese, I personally believe that in the current situation, China must have sufficient military strength to deal with a possible military invasion, such as Japan."

Speaking of this, Liang Shiyi looked up at the Japanese minister to China who was standing more than ten steps away, and saw that the other party was also looking this way, and the expression on his face was also somewhat strange, as if he was speculating about what Liang Shiyi was talking to Zhu Erdian about.

Zhu Erdian glanced at the Japanese minister from the corner of his eye, and then said to Liang Shiyi: "Mr. Liang, I can understand your feelings, and I can also understand your misgivings about Japan, but in my opinion, as long as Britain does not agree, Japan should not adopt a tough policy toward China." ”

"Is this just your personal opinion, or is it the decision of the British government? As far as I know, due to the growing tensions in Europe, the British government is in great need of an ally in the Far East, and Britain's current ally is Japan, so if Britain is involved in a European conflict, then perhaps the British government will turn a blind eye to Japan's hardline policy toward China. Liang Shiyi said worriedly.

Hearing this, Zhu Erdian suddenly woke up, he seemed to have guessed the real purpose of Liang Shiyi's words to him, and he also understood why the Chinese Air Force flew in such a high-profile formation at today's presidential welcome ceremony, which seemed to be seen as a demonstration to the great powers of China's military power in order to win over possible allies.

But now, since the German government has expressed its sincerity in forming an alliance with China, why do the Chinese still show their military strength to the foreign powers so deliberately? There is probably only one explanation for this.

"Mr. Liang, in your opinion, is Japan a good ally for Britain?" Zhu Erdian asked tentatively.

Liang Shiyi shook his head and said: "Japan has a small territory, poor resources, if it wants to rise, it must expand externally, which can be seen from Japan's Korean policy, such a country, sooner or later will become a major threat to peace in the Far East, Japan is not a good ally, but it is definitely a country with strong aggressive ambitions, is a potential threat to world peace, Britain really should not regard Japan as its reliable ally." ”

"Is this your own opinion, or is this the opinion of the central government of your country?" Zhu Erdian asked.

"This is the view of all Chinese. Compared with Japan, China is rich in resources, and it can ensure the development of the country without external expansion, but now, Japan is 'forced' us step by step onto the road of strengthening its military strength, and the reason why China's center is expanding its military strength is precisely to guard against Japan, and this is by no means aimed at other countries. Of course, if the British government can form a military alliance with our government, I think that Japan's ambitions will be curbed and peace in the Far East can be guaranteed. ”

Liang Shiyi's words basically confirmed Zhu Erdian's guess just now, yes, the reason why this Liang General Office came over and said so many things to Zhu Erdian has only one purpose, that is, through Zhu Erdian's euphemistic proposal to the British government to form a military alliance, as long as China and Britain form an alliance, then China will be an associate member of the Entente bloc, and it will be able to sit on an equal footing with Japan at once, and there will be no need for Japan to use the Entente bloc to pressure China in the future.

But is international politics really changing so quickly? Zhu Erdian didn't think so.

Last time, Zhu Erdian clearly remembered that when he went to Mr. Zhao Bei, the president of the Republic of China, to discuss Qinghai-Tibet affairs, Mr. President had personally 'revealed' his desire to form an alliance with the British, and after that, Zhu Erdian also quickly fed back this information to China, but the British government replied to Zhu Erdian "no".

"No", this is just an instruction from the British government to Zhu Erdian, but when you say it to the Chinese, you can't be so direct, it is very rude, and it will 'provoke' the Chinese.

In Zhu Erdian's view, whether it is Mr. President or Mr. Liang Shiyi, their words show the fact that in the eyes of the Chinese, Britain is the first choice for China's alliance, so they are constantly testing the bottom line of British political policy in the Far East.

If it can't form an alliance with Britain, what will China do?

How to respond to Liang Shiyi's suggestion is related to the entire Far East strategy, and Zhu Erdian has to be cautious.