At this stage when the reform of the domestic political system is accelerating and the domestic economy is developing rapidly, no one wants a large-scale war with a foreign country, but Ouyang Geng, who serves as foreign minister, feels more and more that this kind of thing is inevitable.

As the oldest among the children studying abroad, Ouyang Geng is 42 years old.

He was the founder of the Association of Self-Compassion for International Students, served as a consular officer in the United States for ten years, and then served as Minister to the United Kingdom and the United States, and before becoming Foreign Minister, he also served as Consul General and Minister of Foreign Affairs, responsible for the colonies and vassal states of the Qing Empire.

Among this batch of new cabinet members, he is a very special one, like Hu Chuyuan, he also has American citizenship, and he has an American wife, who now works as an internal medicine physician at Yanjing Renji Hospital and also teaches at the Beijing Normal Medical College.

A twenty-year diplomatic career told Ouyang Geng that the Entente were now looking for a reason to go to war, and they had no other plans at all.

This morning, he had just held talks with the Russian minister, Nekov, in an attempt to persuade Russia to abandon its military plan of action, but the conditions put forward by Russia were extremely harsh.

He knew that it was simply impossible for China to accept such conditions.

Immediately after the meeting, he went to the Information Administration Garden.

When Ouyang Geng arrived at the Zizheng Garden, it was noon, and Hu Chuyuan and his family had lunch in Yile Hall...... His life is still the same as before, with two wives and three sons, and the family talks and eats in the restaurant.

Hearing that Ouyang Geng was coming, Hu Chuyuan came out to greet him without finishing lunch.

Walking out of Yile Hall, he saw Ouyang Geng waiting outside the door at a glance, and Hu Chuyuan asked casually, "Young uncle, have you eaten?" ”

Ouyang Geng shook his head and said, "My lord, I have something urgent to discuss with you." ”

Hu Chuyuan snorted, led Ouyang Geng to sit in the flower hall on the west side of Yile Hall, and said, "When the discussion is over, you can stay and eat together!" ”

Ouyang Geng also agreed, but thought in his heart, my lord, I'm afraid that you won't have the heart to eat later.

With the special admiration and gratitude for Hu Chuyuan in his heart, Ouyang Geng cautiously followed behind Hu Chuyuan and entered the flower hall all the way.

Sitting down on a bench covered with white marble slabs and mat cushions, Ouyang Geng hurriedly handed over an official document to Hu Chuyuan, on which the various demands made by the Russians were clearly written only yesterday.

Hu Chuyuan took the official document and read it carefully, but he didn't look angry at all.

Everything was expected by him, the conditions of the Russians were simple and crude.

First, China must cease its military in the northwest, recognize the reading power of the Yarkand Khanate and the protection of the Yarkand Khanate by Tsarist Russia, and make the region, including Urumqi, an eternal and inalienable territory of the Yarkand; Second, China must agree to Russia's construction of the Northeast Railway connecting Manchuria to Vladivostok in the northeast, the railway will be built at Russia's expense, the right to operate it will always belong to Russia, the ownership and management rights of the land within a radius of 10 kilometers along the railway line will belong to the Russian Eastern Railway Company, and Russia will also have the right to station troops along the railway line.

Third, in the new Sino-Russian treaty, Russia must enjoy the same treatment as Britain, and Russia has the right to establish banks and issue currency in the open coastal cities of China, and these currencies have the right to use in China.

Fourth.......

You don't need to look at them one by one later, they all have one meaning...... Either accept all this in humiliation, or wait for the 720,000 troops of Tsarist Russia to enter China and occupy the whole of China.

Hu Chuyuan calmly put this official document together and asked Ouyang Geng, "Why do you think the Russians are so rampant?" ”

Ouyang Geng thought for a while and said, "They have always been a rampant country and nation, and they look down on us Chinese and all Asians from top to bottom. This is real racism, and perhaps, we really need to teach them a good lesson. It is a pity that our country's economic development is starting rapidly, and if we start a large-scale war with the Entente countries at this stage, the impact on the country's economic construction will be too great. ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "It has an impact, but it won't be too big." You continue to talk to the Russians, first, we can temporarily cease fire and put the dispute on hold, and third, we can set up banks, but we can't issue currency. ”

Ouyang Geng hesitated for a moment and asked, "What about the second one?" ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "Let them be...... Strive to talk for about half a year. ”

Ouyang Geng immediately understood that Hu Chuyuan had already decided to start a war, but it only needed half a year of preparation, he nodded and said, "That's okay, I'll try my best to delay with Tsarist Russia." ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "Some unimportant small terms can be agreed to first, the first and third articles are slowly delayed, and the second article is agreed at the critical moment, but don't rush to officially announce it across the country, and continue to delay it for a few months...... Otherwise, there will be a problem with your position as foreign minister. ”

Ouyang Geng understood more and more in his heart that now was to delay time.

He got up to go back to run errands, but Hu Chuyuan left him behind and had a light meal together.

In fact, Hu Chuyuan these days is not leisurely, but he is not busy, all the cabinet ministers are pulled up by him, everyone's ability, Bing surname, he is very clear, what things should be handed over to whom, he knows better.

He has no other ability in this life, nothing more than to make money and use money and know people.

By the time he left Shanghai, he had already handed over the business affairs to Hu Jinyuan and his two cousins, and the domestic cultural and educational undertakings were handled by his younger brother Hu Pinyuan himself.

In the past few days, Hu Chuyuan has been very idle, and he is only doing one thing himself...... Even this matter is actually mainly handled by Ye Tongguang and Tu Renshou.

Not long after Ouyang Geng left, Tu Renshou came.

Hu Chuyuan invited him into the large study of Guangzheng Pavilion and sat down to discuss secretly.

Tu Renshou came in with a thick stack of materials, spread it out for Hu Chuyuan to see, and when Hu Chuyuan read it a little, he couldn't wait to say: "My lord, we can kill the French with just such a move." ”

Hu Chuyuan continued to look at the data, and after a while, he said, "It's a little difficult!" ”

Unlike the United Kingdom, France has a variant of the classical gold standard, known as the limited exchange gold standard, which currently has a fixed exchange rate of 0.2984 grams of gold for one franc and a limit of 300 ounces of gold.

To be exact, the minimum unit of exchange is 28,501 francs, and it is impossible to exchange gold with the French Gold Reserve Bank without so much money.

For Hu Chuyuan and Qing Zhengaxe, this is certainly not a problem, because the franc is the four major foreign exchange recognized by Qing Zhengaxe, in the twenty-year foreign trade, Zhengaxe has accumulated about 2.75 billion French public bonds and francs, which can be exchanged for 820.6 tons of gold.

At present, France's national gold reserves are around 3,500 tonnes.

Even with Hu Chuyuan's personal financial resources, it is very difficult to shake France's status as the world's second largest gold reserve, and with the basic exchange rate of 1 pound to 25 francs, as long as he can gamble 500 million pounds, France's national gold reserves can be completely defeated.

Hu Chuyuan thought in his heart, he always felt that the risk was too great, and it was better to go to war directly.

Of course, a sudden sell-off of 2.75 billion francs of bonds for gold at the most critical moment could still plunge the French economy into hell. As long as the French economy begins to collapse, and French capital is withdrawn from Tsarist Russia and the Zoden, the economy of the Tsarist Russia and the Legion will also collapse.

He calculated in his mind, expecting ...... In a conservative scenario, he should gradually weaken France's gold reserves, reducing this figure to around 2,000 tons, and then attack French gold reserves through market panic through a massive sell-off of French government bonds.

War has to be fought, 500 million pounds has to be prepared, and in any case, he will crush the French gold reserves.

After Tu Renshou left, Hu Chuyuan continued to sort out the new information provided by the State Intelligence Administration in the big study alone, comparing various data one by one, and confirming the current preparations of the Entente countries.

In fact, in the Allies of the three countries, France does not really have a plan to start a war, it just wants to take the opportunity to blackmail, seeing that there is no chance, it just wants to see the good and take it, the key is to get some benefits, after all, there is still a strong [***] mood in the country, and it must always give the people a little explanation.

Russia is the most insightful and the most bastard, arrogant and outrageous, but it does not necessarily want to go to war.

Its attitude is simple: as long as China makes the concessions it demands, it will not fight China, at least not for the time being, and this temporary period will only be valid for a few years, or even only a few months, at most.

In the final analysis, the heads of the Russian tsarist aristocracy and domestic politicians were not sober and blindly believed in their own force. They only look at China's 430,000 new army and Russia's 1.12 million, and they are rampant to the point of no return.

The Russians also have no credit at all.

They were really desperate to start an all-out war with China, because they knew the current situation best, and if they started a war now, the Allies would have a 100% chance of winning, but if they waited until 1905, it would be really hard to say.

He himself is convinced that the rule of this world is that the law of the jungle is that the law of the jungle is the strong, and if China is not defeated, it will eventually be eliminated.

In fact, if we cannot buy cheap resources from China and its colonies, and then sell industrial products to China and its colonies, there is indeed no future for this.

Since bilateral relations and trade relations have not been able to return to normal, under the control of Hu Chuyuan, Yue Ben has not been able to carry out normal investment and trade in China, colonies, and feudal states, which has had too great an impact on Yu Ben.

The shadow of war is getting closer.

At present, the new army has been urgently expanded to 42 divisions, eight divisions of the Huguang Corps, seven divisions of the Jianghuai Corps, five divisions of the Qingxu Corps, four divisions each in Zhili, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningbo, and Northeast China, and three divisions each in Fujian, Zhejiang, Southwest, and Guangzhou.

As a result of the wartime expansion policy, the main divisions were basically about 30,000 men in size, and excluding those divisions and regiments that were still kept in a high degree of secrecy, the total strength of the new army had expanded to 580,000 in semi-public data.

The country's armed police force is also expanding rapidly, because of the lack of stocks of new Jiangnan rifles and Browning rifles, many old Jiangnan rifles, even Winchester rifles and Mauser 84/71 rifles, have been re-installed.

The navy has launched an emergency filing, and the pre-sale warship contracts for foreign countries this year have been completely cancelled, and all warships under construction are used for domestic installation, and at the same time, two Salz-class battleships have been urgently purchased from Germany, that is, the domestic Liangzhou-class battleships.

The Salz-class battleships are jointly developed by the two sides, and Germany currently has a total of four, with two more under construction, and China has six, with four under construction.

As the real main warship of the domestic navy, the number of this class will play a crucial role in the decisive naval battle.

The existing six Ningyuan-class battleships in China are also being overhauled and implemented the steam turbine transformation program, and two have completed the overhaul, because to adapt to the cabin structure, the steam turbine program has to be customized separately, and the modification cost is actually relatively high.

The Ningyuan-class and the Liangzhou-class are basically sister types of battleships, the tonnage of the two sides is roughly the same, the caliber and number of main guns are roughly the same, and the improved Ningyuan-class is not much different from the Liangzhou-class in terms of speed.

Once the entire improvement plan is successful, plus the two ships temporarily purchased from Germany, the country can form a main combined fleet with 14 12,000-ton battleships, and it can be increased to 18 ships next year, and 25 ships by the end of next year.

Yes, a real Far Eastern war is about to break out, and it is entirely possible that the final number of participating countries will increase to more than a dozen countries, engulfing the entire East Asian region.

(To be continued)