The Great Depression of the world economy from 1929 to 1932 was a contagional chain reaction, with the spread of bank failures, bankers in Europe and the United States in crisis withdrew their debts in other countries one after another to cope with the risk of a run on their own countries, resulting in a sharp decline in the world economy, which in turn endangered the foreign exports of various countries, resulting in greater unemployment, and at the same time losing foreign markets, the domestic demand of major industrial countries fell collectively, further leading to a global economic depression.

France withdrew its loans from Austria, Germany suspended loans, Britain and France had a debt crisis, suspended debt repayment to the United States, further worsened the US finances, countries fell into a fiscal crisis, reduced government axe spending, and the global economic depression worsened again.

1929 is also the most tragic year in the history of human economy, in this year, the U.S. economy suffered a heavy blow, the data fell by about 10%, the actual situation is much more miserable, domestic and foreign trade is almost at a standstill, but the foundation of the U.S. economy is good, the first year can still hold, the second, third, fourth years are more and more miserable.

The situation in Britain and Germany is roughly the same as that of the United States, while France, because of its relatively strong economy and high tariffs, was less affected in the early days, and did not have much impact until 1931, but after 1932, the French economy also began to suffer a full-scale blow, and it was not until 1935 that it gradually returned to the level before the economic crisis.

It is difficult to say what China is doing now, but theoretically it is also very problematic, because China is currently the world's second largest exporter and surplus country in trade, and China cannot be immune to the decline of the world economy to such an extent.

Therefore, Song Biao's policy decision was to greatly expand domestic demand from the very beginning, maintain the trend of high investment and high growth for nearly seven years, and at the same time raise tariffs and further reduce imports, so that the economy can read internally and maintain an internal closed market with Southeast Asia, West Asia, Latin America, and France.

After the economic crisis spread to Europe, Foreign Minister Gu Weijun, who had just taken office, urgently visited Europe, and First Vice Minister Shi Zhaoji visited Latin America, first reaching a mutual assistance agreement with France, maintaining the original free trade agreement within China and France and the colonial alliance, raising tariffs in a unified manner, and China and France maintained foreign exchange stability by increasing their holdings of francs and the Chinese yuan, and sold US dollars and pounds sterling in exchange for gold reserves to increase the currency reserve ratio of the two countries.

Under such circumstances, it is difficult for Canada, Argentina, and Australia to export cheap wheat, wool, and other agricultural and mineral products to the markets of China and France and the colonies, and China and France have adopted the principle of economic complementarity, and China has further reduced its tariffs on French luxury goods, watches, textiles, and light machinery, and France has reduced its tariffs on China's chemical, electrical, heavy machinery, and metallurgical products.

The Sino-French agreement is a typical harm to the United Kingdom and the United States, but for China and France, at least it has temporarily stabilized the domestic economic order, so as not to cause a major blow to the economy, and the two sides have maintained the stability of the financial exchange rates of the two countries through the strategy of mutual insurance of debt risks.

According to the agreement, the two sides agreed to keep the exchange rate closely pegged to Britain and the United States, and if Britain and the United States reduce it, China and France will lower it, and absolutely will not allow Britain and the United States to pass on the risks and crises to China and France.

On this basis, China agreed to convert all the remaining French debt, which is about 273 million pounds, into a fund for studying in France and investments in France and the colonies, which also greatly reduced the chances of France encountering a debt crisis.

Since then, China has really begun to enter the French market in the form of capital exports, merging in France with enterprises and banks in crisis, investing in the French colonial market on a larger scale, actively developing foreign demand, and at the same time launching a larger infrastructure plan at home, and subcontracting some contracts to newly annexed French enterprises.

Relying on the space of the internal market, China has enough room to save itself, and can even save France, but there is absolutely no way to save Britain, the United States and Germany, and there is no need for China to save them.

Beginning in the second half of 1929, the empire began to successively increase large-scale public infrastructure projects such as the Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge and the Wuhu Yangtze River Bridge, and added more than 600 first-class highway construction plans across the country, greatly reducing real estate taxes and accelerating the process of urbanization.

While maintaining the policy of high interest rates and stabilizing gold reserves, the central bank has also rapidly printed money, increased money supply and injected capital into the state-owned Agricultural Bank of China, the Industrial Bank of China and the four major state-owned capital companies, expanded the construction of projects in the country, abolished the consumption tax on consumer credit, encouraged credit consumption, reduced the share of agricultural tax in the central part of the country, and increased subsidies for agricultural machinery, housing construction, and agricultural electricity subsidies while reducing or reducing agricultural taxes.

The Empire's luck is really good.

The 175 national industrial plans of Tang Shaoyi's cabinet laid a good and comprehensive industrial foundation for the empire, and the 125 industrial and agricultural plans and the 201 project of Ouyang Geng's cabinet further promoted the empire's industrial level to meet European and American standards, and the agricultural level was also greatly improved, basically reaching the level before the First World War between Britain and the United States.

These are the important foundations for the empire to maintain high tariffs in times of economic crisis and stabilize the domestic demand market, even if it does not import machinery and machine tools from the United States, the empire's industry and agriculture can still continue to develop rapidly, and the various raw materials needed by the empire's industry can be supplied by the country, and the shortcomings are obtained from the Sino-French colonial market.

In particular, after taking control of the Middle East and parts of West Asia, China directly imports oil from the Caspian Sea by rail, and imports more than 20 million tons of oil from the Baku oil area, Iran, and Iraq every year, which can fully meet the domestic oil demand.

The Central Asian oil and gas pipeline is also currently being laid in the Uzbek oil area, which is expected to be completed to the Baku oil area within three years and to Iraq within five years, and the Far East Oil Company is becoming the world's largest oil and gas company.

During this period, the company was also severely affected by the world economic crisis, foreign trade suffered a heavy blow, and the large withdrawal of British and American capital caused the financial industry to also suffer a large-scale run, and the unemployment rate of the industrial population soared rapidly.

When the decision was made to reduce the military spending of the navy and the army, the junior officers of the army suddenly launched a serious provocation on the Korean Peninsula in an attempt to cross the demarcation line between China and China, and the war was not large-scale, ending with the loss of two infantry wings and 14 aircraft.

At this time, China has no heart to deal with it, anyway, if you give it a few more darts, you will not dare to continue to provoke China.

It is said that this is a nervous disease, looking for the Chinese Empire at this time to fight for the army, these middle and lower-level officers must have something wrong with their brains, just like when they provoked the Soviet Union and were wiped out two divisions, and they were even more mentally retarded than taking the initiative to provoke the Battle of Normenhan, because the main garrison of the empire in Korea was the air force as the main force, and the reaction speed was extremely fast.

It was around the same time that the navy clashed in Indonesia and declared war on the Netherlands.

The British, American, Chinese, and French navies are not easy to mess with, and in Southeast Asia it is the best bully for the Netherlands, so it goes to the Netherlands for trouble, and the Chinese Navy then increases submarine patrols between the Luzon Strait and the Ryukyu Islands, and the naval detachment on Java Island also increases.

Regardless of whether the Netherlands agrees or not, China will certainly not agree to the expansion of the Netherlands to the outside world, and as soon as the Dutch Legation in China informs the Dutch Legation, the Southern Fleet will directly enter the port of Brunei and strengthen naval patrols and vigilance in the surrounding areas to curb the southward movement of the Dutch Navy.

If the Netherlands did not react and let the middle and junior officers of the navy provoke the matter, the problem would be big, and the cabinet and the navy headquarters must also agree, but China's sudden emergency intervention at this time caught both the government and the Netherlands off guard.

They thought that China and the Netherlands had a secret treaty, although they themselves felt that the advantage over the Chinese navy was very great, and the Chinese navy must still be as weak as before, and they were nervous if they really wanted to fight.

Because China's business cycle in Brunei and Southeast Asia is very long, and there are large-scale air bases in Brunei and Sarawak and other regions, the coverage of the Chinese Air Force's unique large patrol aircraft and bombers can be extended to the entire South Sea waters, and the two large air bases in Kuching and Sabah can cover reconnaissance and bombing in the surrounding area of 1,000 kilometers.

It was under this special tense situation that Foreign Minister Gu Weijun, who was in the final negotiations between France and Germany on the issue of converting debts into the Overseas Study Fund, paid an urgent visit to the Netherlands.

Because of the support of Emperor Song and the son-in-law of Tang Shaoyi, Gu Weijun's career has always been very smooth, especially after becoming the chief of the inner court, he became the foreign minister when he formed the cabinet three times.

In terms of age, Gu Weijun is not young, but being able to become the foreign minister of the Chinese Empire at the age of 41 is a very powerful thing in itself.

Just reached an agreement with France on the study abroad fund and the French financial injection, Gu Weijun was originally going to visit Germany, and at this time he could only temporarily fly to the Netherlands to meet Dutch Prime Minister Charles. Belenblauk meeting.

Gu Weijun, who received the central telegram, felt a headache, because this Charles. Prime Minister Berenblauk is a newly appointed gentleman, who served as the prime minister of the Netherlands for six years before and after World War I, and has a high reputation in European political circles.

Gu Weijun couldn't say clearly.

He had dealt with the anti-Chinese controversy with Indonesia, and at that time he did force the Netherlands to make big concessions, such as the current naval garrison of the Imperial Navy in Semarang, Indonesia, which he had fought for.

Even so, the Dutch gave him the impression of being unusually ambiguous, arrogant and tough, as if the Dutch were still the sea coachman, and China was still as cowardly and incompetent as the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

At the same time, he knew that this arrogance of the Dutch was a symptom, and that the Netherlands would be helpless if the empire took a tough stance.

He was well aware of the contradictions, on the one hand, emotional discrimination against China and contempt for Asians, and on the other hand, a genuine intellectual fear of the military might of the Empire.

This is more or less the case in the international world, and the situation is relatively better on the French side.

Gu Weijun arrived in The Hague on a FD-5 foreign affairs transfer flight from Fudao Company. Accompanied by Moorhorn, they rode in a carriage arranged by the Dutch political axe to the location of the political axe.

In the open-top carriage, Gu Weijun consciously looked at some local Dutch buildings, admiring the beauty of the Netherlands, as well as the beggars who could be seen everywhere on the streets, as well as the workers who had lost their jobs.

Along the way, Gu Weijun also communicated and discussed with Moore Horn in English about the current world economic crisis, and the two of them felt roughly the same, basically felt that the problem was on the gold standard, and the gap between the gold reserves of various countries was too large, but Moore Horn thought that this method was unfair to the Netherlands and needed to be changed, while Gu Weijun also thought it was unfair and unreasonable, but under the premise that the situation was most favorable to China, he did not think there was a reason for change.

China is the world's second-largest gold producer, after South Africa, and has become the world's largest trade surplus even as world trade has been hit hard, so it is in China's best interest to maintain the gold standard.

Regardless of how the currencies of Britain, France, China and the United States depreciate each other, it is an indisputable and immutable fact that China holds more than 5,000 tons of gold reserves, and there is no reason why China's gold reserves will be reduced if the trade surplus is maintained for a long time.

Arriving at the parliament building where the Dutch political axe is located, Prime Minister Berenblauk personally came out to greet him, and received Foreign Minister Gu Weijun very warmly, and after a brief exchange of words, the two entered the conference hall together.

Gu Weijun came in a hurry, almost alone, accompanied by a Dutch translator.

After sitting down in the conference hall, Prime Minister Berenblauk entertained Gu Weijun with Qimen black tea from China, and enthusiastically praised China's great assistance in this provocation crisis.

Although Prime Minister Berenblauk knows that China is not a fuel-efficient lamp now, and he may have to make new demands with the Netherlands, it is much better than letting the Netherlands be beaten by the navy.

Gu Weijun is the kind of person who is very quiet and steady, and can always grasp the key point at a critical moment and burst out suddenly, this intellectual, who seems to be calm and handsome and elegant, is very powerful when he speaks, if he wants to be sharp, if he wants to be forbearing, if he wants to be kind, he is kind, and his mind is sharp and flexible.

He had been listening carefully to the other party's praise, nodding his head in acknowledgment of the other party's words with a faint smile, and analyzing the characteristics of Belenbrock's character in his heart.

This is clearly a veteran politician of high moral standing in European politics, and it is precisely because of this that the Dutch people will re-elect him and the Roman Catholic National Party to the cabinet in such a time of crisis, despite his old age.

Tough, decisive, cunning, and pro-German and Italian.

This is the Prime Minister of Belenbrocker that Gu Weijun has heard of, and he seems to be roughly the same at this time, at least he is indeed very cunning.

After Prime Minister Belenbrock's long speech, Gu Weijun avoided the judgment that the other party identified Zhong Shu as a mortal enemy, and said: "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, I must correct one of your views, China is said to be two countries with a long history of exchanges, although there are indeed some festivals between the emperor of our country and the emperor, but His Majesty the emperor also has a lot of friends and connections in the book. China is said to be a culturally similar country, we know each other what they want and what they don't want, and the reason why we block the Dutch navy is not good for the Netherlands is the most important reason: one is that our country has more interests in Dutch Indonesia, and we will not sit idly by and watch Indonesia's ownership change until these interests are not guaranteed in this country; Second, there have been some small-scale conflicts between China and Japan in the DPRK recently. These are the two most critical points, and the other reasons are not important, at least not to the point where it is necessary for us to send a fleet and an air force. Of course, we are in the process of negotiating with the Army, who has apologized for the Army's provocation, and as far as our country is concerned, this is a time of economic tension and difficulty, and we have no intention of going to war with any country at this time, especially the one that is close at hand. Therefore, I want to tell you these things on this trip, hoping that the Netherlands will deploy its fleet and other troops to Indonesia as soon as possible before our country reaches an agreement with Indonesia, and our country will delay it for a period of time, about three months, and this is all we can do for the Netherlands, if a war breaks out between the Netherlands and the Netherlands over Indonesia's colonial rights, we regret it, but we hope that no matter how things change, the fact that China has the right to invest and garrison Indonesia will not change. ”

"So?"

Prime Minister Berenblauk did not seem surprised, nor did he believe that the foreign minister of the other side was telling the truth, this is impossible, even the children of the Netherlands know that the Anglo-Chinese alliance and the Sino-French alliance have been almost mortal enemies in the past ten years, and the intensity of the Sino-German naval competition is almost the same as that of Britain and Germany during the First World War.

He believed that war would break out between China and that the Netherlands would be able to maintain Indonesia's suzerainty without spending any force as long as they promised to support China, which was sure to win.

What a great thing that is.

He thought about it for a while and said to Gu Weijun: "It seems that we can only ask Britain to come forward to coordinate!" ”

Gu Weijun said: "The same is true of the proposal of our country and His Majesty the Emperor of China, in short, under the current circumstances, it is impossible for our country to go to war with Yuben for an unnecessary reason, but in the near term, it is also very angry at the large-scale withdrawal of British capital that has led to the financial bankruptcy of Yuben, and in the negotiations with China, Yuben has indeed shown a crazy momentum of expanding the colonies at all costs, and they firmly believe that the current economic crisis in Yuben is mainly caused by the lack of colonies. Therefore, no matter what kind of countermeasures your country takes, military preparations are still necessary, and military is the basis of diplomacy, and in this situation, Britain's containment power against Indonesia is already very low, because even if Britain defeats you and occupies Indonesia, it will have no impact on Britain itself, and Britain lacks the means to intervene militarily, diplomatically, and economically. ”

After a pause, he continued: "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, it is better to be prepared for war, if your country needs our help, our country will give some support within the appropriate scope, but this support is limited, first of all, we must not provoke our country, so that we can tear up the agreement with our country, let alone drag our country into war...... If the Netherlands decided to fight a decisive battle with the Ben navy in order to defend Indonesia. I think that's all I have to say about it. The main foreign exchange reserves of the Netherlands are the pound sterling, but our country hopes to take the Chinese yuan as the currency of the reciprocal trade between the two countries in the near future, which is mainly due to the serious decline in the reserve rate of the pound, in order to avoid the depreciation of the pound, China has greatly reduced the British pound and the US dollar, and now the only large amount of foreign exchange is the franc. If your country does not agree to adopt the Chinese Dollar as a foreign trade currency, you may also choose the Franc. ”

The two problems mentioned by Gu Weijun are the most troublesome things for Prime Minister Berenblauk, the trade volume between China and the Netherlands is not large on the surface, but the trade volume between China and Dutch Indonesia is very large, and it almost monopolizes industrial exports to Dutch Indonesia, and the local economy is basically controlled by the Chinese.

Prime Minister Berenblauk has absolutely nothing to do about this, China is too big, and it would be humiliating for the Netherlands, thousands of miles away, to break out a military conflict with China over Indonesia's economic interests.

Even Britain will not risk offending China to help the Netherlands.

It's simply impossible.

China is too big.

Every European country thinks so, how can there be such a huge empire, Chancellor Berenblauk many times cannot understand?

After a moment of thought, Prime Minister Berenblauk replied: "On the first question, I would like you to convey the expectations of my country, and I hope that your country will intervene in the mediation of China on the basis of the long-standing friendship and cooperation between China and the Netherlands. With regard to the second question, I fully agree with the principle of using the national currencies of both sides in trade between the two countries, taking into account the fact that our foreign exchange reserves and exchange rates are mainly aimed at the British pound, and if your country has doubts about this, it is appropriate to use the Chinese yuan as the main trade currency for the time being, but our country lacks foreign exchange reserves in the Chinese yuan, and our country is facing a very serious financial crisis, if possible, I hope that your country will increase its holdings of its political axe bonds. ”

Gu Weijun replied: "Theoretically, there is no big problem, the key is the amount of the amount, including the issue of return on investment, my country has agreed to reduce the French debt, the national treasury has a certain loss, if on this basis continue to increase the Dutch bonds, itself is not suitable, and the financial pressure is also greater." This is a very high-risk and extraordinary time, so I hope that Your Excellency the Prime Minister will understand the difficulties of our country. ”

"Yes!"

Prime Minister Berenblauk nodded silently and admitted that he actually understood in his heart that the amount of bonds that the Dutch political axe wanted to issue was basically only a very small part of China, and the difference in fiscal revenue between the two sides was more than ten times larger, and China's gold reserves were said to be the largest in the world.

After thinking about it for a while, Prime Minister Berenblauk felt that the only way for the Netherlands to do so was to sell the pound and buy the Chinese yuan and Chinese government bonds, so as to maintain the stability of the Dutch foreign exchange reserves, after all, the Chinese yuan is already the strongest currency in the world.

If the Chinese dollar has to depreciate, then the dollar and the pound will not know how much.

It's just that this question is also a small matter for Prime Minister Belenblauk, and the biggest headache for him is Ben.

He really didn't understand why Ben wanted to attack a European country like the Netherlands, he must be crazy, but what could he do? The Dutch navy is simply no match for China, Britain and the United States, which are major naval powers, and the only way to deal with them is to rely on China, and whether it is to ask China to come forward to coordinate or directly invite China to jointly confront China militarily, it must reach an agreement with China.

Without China's assistance, it would have been difficult for Britain alone to solve the problem.

Prime Minister Berenblauk was a very sophisticated politician, and he knew very well that the relationship between Britain and the League had reached a certain stage of difficulty in maintaining it, and that the two sides were only making peace with each other, and that they were not seeking an alliance with Britain as in the past, which determined that Britain could have done some crazy things, and Britain had to tolerate them.

In fact, he has already sent someone to negotiate with Britain, and judging from the information so far, Britain is also angry, but it is considering leaving the matter to the League of Nations to settle the matter.

This is just nonsense.

After thinking about it, Prime Minister Berenblauk still felt that China had the possibility of further interfering in the situation, so he asked Gu Weijun: "Under what circumstances is your country willing to directly solve the problem of Indonesia and Ben?" ”

Gu Weijun thought briefly for a while, and replied directly: "Unless our country directly has the suzerainty of Indonesia, or a high degree of actual management and protection rights, there is no need for our country to have a large-scale military war with Indonesia during this period. Of course, if the Netherlands needs money to solve its domestic problems, we can also provide some necessary help. ”

Prime Minister Berenblauk replied firmly: "This is impossible, China's interests in Indonesia are already too large, and there is a limit to our tolerance." ”

Gu Weijun gently persuaded: "Your Excellency Prime Minister, if you think that my suggestion is too presumptuous and abrupt, which is not conducive to the friendship between China and the Netherlands, you can also say that I have not said such unreasonable words, and there is no need to be angry about it, because any country will have such an idea at this time, and we just said it." If the Netherlands refuses to change the status quo, we would rather lose our special rights in Indonesia than offend a friend like the Netherlands. ”

His words are very good, at least they sound like that, but if you understand them carefully, you will find that they are still threatened, especially the last sentence, which is very beautiful to say, but the real meaning is that it would rather let Yuben occupy Indonesia, and China would not rashly engage in a decisive naval battle with Yuben for the sake of this little interest in Indonesia at present.

Of course, a veteran politician like Prime Minister Berenbrock understood what Foreign Minister Gu Weijun was talking about, and he blushed and did not answer a word, although he had expected that China was not a friend before, but he did not expect that the other party would take advantage of the fire so directly.

(To be continued)