Ye Kai asked the Praetorian Guards to stay in the concession, and he returned to the Governor's Office in the Chinese Territory, and officially lived his life in the wilderness. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Although on the surface he handed over the military power to Cheng Dequan, but with Lu Shuangming here, the actual power is still in the hands of Ye Kai, besides, whether Cheng Dequan accepts it or not is another matter, with his temper, I am afraid that he will not take it easily, and Zhang Xiaoguang naturally follows Ye Kai's side anytime and anywhere, passing the news on both sides for him, and he is even more indispensable at this moment.

On the fifth day of the confrontation, the British and French forces still did not dare to step on the thunder pool, but during this time, both sides were trying to collect information about the other side, such as the deployment of troops, the number of personnel, and so on.

In terms of numbers, the Praetorian Guard has 3,000 people, plus Cheng Dequan's miscellaneous army of 1,600 people, more than 2,000 more than the total number of British and French forces, Ye Kai has an absolute advantage here, from the perspective of weapons and equipment, the gap between the two sides is even more obvious, the Praetorian Guards carry all German-made weapons, although they did not bring heavy weapons such as artillery, but the power of the Makqin machine gun is still at the level of a meat grinder, and the number of equipment is far beyond that of the coalition army, and although the foreigners look a little bluffing at first glance, but a closer look reveals that they are not regular troops, The French sent security forces from the Vietnamese colonial government, while the British, in an attempt to save trouble, brought the three brothers and a small number of Nippel cavalry directly from British India to China.

Therefore, it seems that the decision between the strong and the weak in this conflict is high and low.

In telegrams to the mainland, they repeatedly stressed that the military strength of the Chinese was not below them, and even slightly superior, and that a rash conflict could lead to heavy losses, and in general, it was not that they did not want to fight, but that they did not dare to fight.

This is not much different from Ye Kai's judgment.

Although the great powers maintain the same arrogance as ever, they have to admit that the glory of the British Empire has been dimming day by day, not only in terms of economic aggregate by the United States several positions, in the second industrial revolution, they also appeared in a situation of lack of stamina, compared to the United States and Germany, the British almost did nothing, the output of steel and coal mines is only a little higher than that of France, ranking third in the world, in this case, the title of the big brother of British imperialism has become more and more precarious.

At the turn of the century, Kaiser Wilhelm II even arrogantly declared that he was going to step on the heads of the British and build a "world empire".

The great powers are unevenly divided, and a super war that will sweep the world does not seem to be far away.

For Far East China on the other side of the world, perhaps the British really have no spare time.

Of course, there is one thing they are still very interested in, the Central Powers and the Entente Powers, which side China prefers to be, such a large country with resources, sitting on tens of millions of square kilometers of land, plus a population of more than 400 million, and huge market potential, it is very necessary to win over from the books alone.

From a personal point of view, Ye Kai still has a good impression of the Allied camp led by Germany, not only because of the excellent quality and performance of German-made weapons, but also because of the leading position in science and technology. More importantly, the Entente camp and China have too many conflicts of interest, whether it is French Vietnam in the south, Tsarist Russia in the north, Xinjiang in the southwest, or Korea, Ryukyu, and Taiwan under Japanese occupation.

Of course, there is also a lot of risk in joining the Allies, from the perspective of historical development, this side still failed in the end, Germany was also dismembered by Britain and France after the war, and China, as an "accomplice", will inevitably be punished in the most severe way.

However, taking a step back, because of Ye Kai's intervention, whether the final outcome of the war will change fundamentally is unpredictable.

has nothing to do, in the past few days, Ye Kai has been pondering these decisions that seem distant, but are actually related to the fortunes of the country.

It's a way to kill time.

....

Since Ye Kai announced that he would go to the wilderness, there have been more people who have come to visit, including Shanghai tycoons, high-ranking officials of Zhishi, public officials, foreign factions, etc., for these requests, Ye Kai refused all of them, deliberately put on a posture of being idle to the end, and occasionally interviewed by reporters once or twice, he also expressed his frustration with the imperial court.

"Dashuai, someone is coming." Zhang Xiaoguang hurriedly ran outside Ye Kai's room, knocked on the door, and said.

"Didn't you refuse them all?"

Zhang Xiaoguang was a little embarrassed, "This person is from Jiangning, and he said that he would meet the marshal no matter what." ”

"Jiang Ning?" Ye Kai muttered, "Who?" ”

"It's a guy named Zhang Jian."

"Zhang Jian!"

Hearing this name, Ye Kai was taken aback, of course he knew who Zhang Jian was, he was not only a business leader in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, a famous cloth champion in the Qing Dynasty, but also the chairman of the Jiangnan Advisory Bureau, and he had a very high prestige in both the business and the government.

"Why did he come at this time?"

After thinking about it and having no result, Ye Kai smiled at this time, on the way south, he planned to visit Zhang Jian, but he was too busy recently, and the matter has been delayed, but he didn't expect people to come to the door.

"Invite him in, to the main hall, forget it, I'll personally go to greet the guests."

Zhang Xiaoguang ran downstairs in a hurry, Ye Kai was dressed neatly, and went downstairs.

....

"The grandfather is coming, and the mansion is shining."

Ye Kai walked into the middle hall, and what caught his eyes was an old man with a sixtieth birthday, this person was Zhang Jian Zhang Jizhi, although his face was furrows and ravines, and his temples were white, he looked extraordinarily vigorous, and this first impression made Ye Kai a little surprised.

"I have admired the good prince for a long time, Zhang Jian is late for this trip." Zhang Jian sat on the chair, saw Ye Kai coming, stood up and said.

"Gong Jian is a business leader and a constitutional veteran, how dare you say 'Gong' in front of you, Gong Jian dislikes everything, and it is okay to call me a clumsy word 'Chenchen'." Ye Kai smiled and said, "Come here, watch the tea, and sit down." ”

Holding a cup of hot tea in the palm of his hand, Zhang Jian didn't have the kung fu to taste it carefully, as the chairman of the Jiangnan Consultative Bureau, he naturally wanted to speak on behalf of the people of the three provinces, he was anxious in his heart, the British and French troops landed in Shanghai, which has shocked the whole country, and Ye Kai was dismissed by the cabinet on the spot, which made thousands of people panic, you must know that the rear of Shanghai is not the three provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui, if something happens to Shanghai, it will not be their turn to save them next, so Zhang Jian's purpose of this trip is only one: to persuade Ye Kai to come back.

"The foreigners arrived in Shanghai, the southeast was shaken, and there was no horse head in the three provinces at the moment.

Before he finished speaking, Ye Kai interrupted his speech: "What Gong Jian wants to say, Liangbi understands it in his heart. ”

"Then the minister can be restored.."

"Haha"

Ye Kai suddenly smiled, making Zhang Jian confused.

"Father-in-law, there is no need to mention these old words, you can talk to Liangbi about something else when you come this time."

"Something else?" Zhang Jianleng was stunned, and he reacted after a while, "I don't know what the minister wants to say?" ”

"For example. If Jian Gong is an investment businessman, would he be willing to build a factory in Pudong? ”

Ye Kai said with anticipation.

(I'm going out at night........ Came back very late..... Maybe the second one will be eaten by the dog.... (To be continued.) )