With the sharp sell-off of the pound in the international market, the return of the pound to the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth countries that is more than the British can accept, on the one hand, the pound in the international market has depreciated sharply, and on the other hand, the British pound in the domestic market is overissued, and the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth countries will be destined to face an extremely crazy inflation in a short period of time, and the financial system of the British political axe will also completely collapse.

Britain thought that it would be able to maintain its hegemony in the world and maintain its security and stability by having one of the strongest navies in the world, but this was clearly not the case.

The four major political axe trusts in the empire lost a lot of money in the process of selling the pound, but then made a profit on silver and gold futures, and made huge profits by shorting British government bonds and equities.

Financial warfare is like this, striking at the opponent's most vulnerable financial link, dismantling the opponent's entire financial system, and profiting from it, sucking the opponent's blood.

By the end of June, there was already substantial inflation in Britain, the spread of the financial crisis had led to the bankruptcy of dozens of British banks, the price of wheat per kilogram in London had risen more than ten times that of a few months earlier, and in the commercial sphere, Britain's ability to import grain and other resources from overseas had been interrupted.

The Churchill cabinet made every effort to control prices by introducing a stricter system of planned allocations, fearing that the financial crisis would spread to the United States, and the United States agreed to provide aid and support to the United Kingdom, but the support that the United States was willing to provide was far from enough to stabilize the market value of the pound.

China, the only one that can solve this problem, has chosen to sit idly by.

On 7 July, three days before the start of the sanctions set by the Asian League, the newly appointed British Prime Minister Sir Neville Chamberlain personally arrived in Yanjing to hold talks with Prime Minister Gu Weijun, basically accepted the three conditions put forward by the Asian League, and was willing to hold a new round of negotiations with China on the border issue.

War was avoided in the end, but in terms of the long-term losses that the empire would have to endure in this financial crisis, it was better to go to war and fight hard in the prosperity of war, but this is the reality of the world.

War is always the last option.

After China and Britain basically reached an agreement on the colonial question, Emperor Song Biao received British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain at the Central Palace.

This was not the first time they had met, but this one was probably the most unfamiliar and awkward than ever.

After a bitter contest between the world hegemon and the former overlord, as the victorious side, at the suggestion of the Inner Court, Emperor Song Biao received the British Prime Minister with a grand courtesy in accordance with the proposal of the Central Cabinet, demonstrating the grandeur of the national system and the majesty of the imperial monarch.

Rites, national prestige also.

Ethics also.

Similarly, for the second time in his life, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was forced to attend such a grand Chinese imperial ceremony, which in his memory was extraordinarily grand and extravagant, symbolizing the antiquity of the empire, and they even inherited many of the manners and traditions of thousands of years ago, which caused headaches for foreign diplomats.

Especially in the eyes of Europeans, every time they meet the emperor, it is as if they are meeting the pope.

Accompanied by Chen Jiayou, the chief of the Inner Court, and Guo Taiqi, the foreign minister of the empire, Prime Minister Chamberlain met with the Emperor Hua in the morning at the Imperial Palace, and accepted the invitation of the imperial family to attend the imperial banquet at noon.

In order to achieve such state etiquette, Emperor Song Biao had to change his dragon robe three times a day, in the morning was the most solemn and formal bright yellow twelve dragon chapter emperor dress, at luncheon he changed into the vermilion background white brocade dragon pattern imperial dress, after the luncheon when he met Prime Minister Chamberlain, he had to change into a Western-style white background sea blue dragon pattern emperor dress specially designed for receiving foreign prime ministers and special foreign guests.

Every detail is used to attest to the special status of the Emperor in Asia, which is the basis of the ethics of etiquette.

When Song Biao entered the state guest room, Prime Minister Chamberlain also bowed to the Chinese emperor in accordance with imperial etiquette, together with Foreign Minister Sir Halifax and Minister of National Defense Lord Tremeg, together with Chinese Prime Minister Gu Weijun, Foreign Minister Guo Taiqi, Minister of Finance Chen Jin, and Chief of the Inner Court Chen Jiayou.

Song Biao glanced at it calmly, walked to his place and sat down.

At this time, the British cabinet ministers and imperial cabinet officials got up again, and after Emperor Song Biao gave them seats, they took their places under the arrangement of the chamberlains in the inner court.

In the arrangement of the meeting and discussion, the seat arrangement is in a circular shape, the emperor sits in the most central position, the left side is the top, the courtesy of the distinguished guests, the British delegation sits down, the right side is the Imperial Cabinet and the Inner Court accompanying officials, the first on the left side of the emperor is the British Prime Minister Chamberlain, the first on the right is the Imperial Cabinet Prime Minister Gu Weijun, and the emperor and Chamberlain are each arranged with an interpreter.

This is the courtesy of meeting the emperor, and if it is only a meeting between two prime ministers, then it must be that the two prime ministers are equally separated from the left and right positions in the middle, with the foreign prime minister on the left and the prime minister of the host country on the right.

In addition, the bright yellow sandalwood chair and sofa that the emperor sat on were also significantly different from other seats, and only the emperor would have such a chair, and for foreign diplomats, this was the first thing that must be understood when working in China.

In China, the emperor is supreme, and no one can be equal to the emperor's rank.

In diplomatic work, foreign officials visiting China, no matter what they talk about, take the audience with the Emperor as the highest level, followed by the meeting with the Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet, and in terms of etiquette, usually only foreign prime ministers have the opportunity to meet the Emperor, and there are three types of differences in the time of the meeting, the one who can go to the Emperor's Palace is the highest level, followed by the Central Palace to meet the Emperor, and finally in Zhongnanhai State Guesthouse, Central State Guesthouse and other places, higher than these three levels are invited to participate in the imperial banquet outside the Emperor's Palace, Under normal circumstances, after the audience in the Emperor's Palace, he will still be taken back to the state guest house of the central political axe to participate in the state banquet, instead of the emperor's imperial banquet.

If there is an arrangement to continue the meeting with the emperor, it will be rearranged in the evening, or at the time of afternoon tea, in the State Guest Hall of the Central Palace, or in the Xuanzheng Garden.

In terms of the treatment that foreign prime ministers can enjoy, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain now enjoys the highest standard of the empire to receive foreign guests, and in the past 30 years, only former US President Theodore Chamberlain has enjoyed the highest standard of foreign guests. Roosevelt in 1912 and the current President of the United States, Benjamin Franklin. Roosevelt enjoyed each other in 1937.

Theoretically, this is a supreme honor, but for Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, it is probably a very poignant and supreme courtesy.

Regardless of the bitterness, at this moment, Prime Minister Chamberlain could only knock out his teeth and swallow blood, and after sitting down, he spoke to Emperor Song Biao very humbly: "Today, it is my special and noble honor that my cabinet colleagues and I can be received by His Majesty the Emperor Hua, and I am extremely grateful to Your Majesty for your hospitality. China and Britain are two of the most important and powerful civilizational empires in the world, and the fact that we can avoid the ignorant way of resolving disputes through war in today's situation is enough to show that we are truly civilized countries. Peace is our most precious asset, and we especially cherish it, and I believe that it is also a symbol of modern civilization, and together we have protected the peace of the world. ”

Speaking of which, Emperor Song Biao was actually more uncomfortable with this kind of rigid diplomatic etiquette than Prime Minister Chamberlain, but this was his life and his career. After listening to Prime Minister Chamberlain's speech, Song Biao replied to him: "Yes, I agree with everything you say. I would like to emphasize here that China is an ancient country with a martial history, but we never want to solve problems with war, 2,500 years ago, during the Warring States period of China, there was a very famous military strategist and statesman Sima Sui Tho, he wrote in his military book "Sima Law" that although the country is large, the warlike will perish, and the peace, forget the war will be dangerous. This sentence means that although the country is strong, if it is keen on war, it will surely perish, and if the country is stable and forgets to prepare for war, it will definitely be dangerous. It is for this reason that we have been pursuing a peaceful solution to the problem. With the establishment of the Asian League, and the strong opposition of the member states within the Asian League, especially the member states of Islamic civilization, to the British colonies in Asia, in order to maintain the etiquette of the whole of Asia, to maintain the unity of the Asian League, and to maintain the leadership role of our country in the Asian League, we can only follow the unanimous requirements of the member states and the Council of the Asian League, Consultations were again held with Great Britain on the colonial question. In fact, if we look back at the source of the whole matter, if your country had really paid attention to the collective voice of the Asian Union and Asian countries from the very beginning, and realized that this is the collective consensus of Asian countries, and our country must also fulfill its treaty obligations under the Asian League Security Alliance, I think this matter could have been agreed on a long time ago without such a long delay. ”

Song Biao has a lot to say, he continued: "Of course, these are all things of the past, and there are two things we need to do now, one is to continue to negotiate the details of the agreement between the two parties to ensure that this agreement can be effectively and reliably implemented under the premise of mutual respect; The second is to do everything possible to restore the British financial order, stabilize the pound sterling, stabilize the world economy, and avoid the expansion of the British financial crisis and its spread to other countries and regions in the world. ”

Prime Minister Chamberlain can't wait for this sentence, although everyone knows that behind this round of financial crisis in Britain is China's ruthless hand, a financial punch to beat Britain directly into hell, unspeakably miserable, but this matter is not as well-founded as a military war, Britain can only suffer this loss, and now only China can help Britain tide over the difficulties.

Prime Minister Chamberlain immediately replied: "Your Majesty, our country must now re-guarantee the circulation of the pound sterling, maintain the stability of its currency value, before our country temporarily lacks sufficient gold reserves, urgently need a sufficient foreign exchange loan to maintain the stability of international exchange, as far as the current international environment is concerned, the only country that can help our country to ensure currency stability is China, so we hope to reach an agreement on this as soon as possible." ”

Although this shot was fired by China, if you want to borrow money from China to heal your wounds and stop the bleeding, you still have to continue to pay the price, and it has never been easy to borrow money from country to country, and now even if you don't look for China, the United States, and France, you will be severely extorted.

Emperor Song Biao was not involved in the issue of business surname, he only promised that China was willing to help Britain tide over the difficulties, as for the amount of interest and benefits that Britain would pay, then it will be discussed separately, which is also a matter between the Chinese and British prime ministers and the chancellor of the exchequer.

Emperor Song Biao is now sitting down with Prime Minister Chamberlain for a face-to-face interview, which is to talk clearly about many things in the past, present and future, to settle old accounts, to explain clearly the situation at that time and the reasons behind every decision.

Having said that, Britain is still gritting its teeth and hating China, and that is just asking for trouble and humiliation.

China itself is not at the same level, China still leads the Asian League, and with the huge foundation of the Asian League, once the two sides fight, Britain will suffer a serious loss.

Times are different.

At this moment, the British Empire and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain may have the deepest experience.

Perhaps, there are still many people in the British Empire who are unwilling to admit that China is the world hegemon, such as the ousted Winston. Prime Minister Winston Churchill, but even Winston. Churchill must also admit that Britain was certainly not the world hegemon that it used to be.

At this meeting, Emperor Song Biao and Prime Minister Chamberlain talked a lot.

At this time, Emperor Song Biao could tell Prime Minister Chamberlain that the reason why the empire has dragged out the problem until now and has not taken military action is essentially to consider the threat of Nazi Germany and the ultra-right fascist ideology to Europe and the world.

If China and Britain go to war, the biggest beneficiary will be Nazi Germany.

During this period of Sino-British hostility, Germany had officially ended the Soviet-German war and signed a secret agreement with China to divide the Soviet occupation zone, and Germany's new alliance with Italy and Poland was also formed during this period.

USSR.

This once-glorious Soviet empire has finally become a page in history, disappearing from human view, with the Volga River as the boundary, China and Germany occupying the east and west sides of the vast territory of the Soviet Union, and Poland occupying the disputed northern regions of Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine.

Germany is following the model of Nazi Germany, establishing a new First Russian Republic in Russia, striving to integrate Russia and Ukraine into the entire German system and turn them into Germany's strategic rear.

Now Germany has solved a very important flaw, that is, Germany's strategic resources, Germany will have endless iron, manganese, aluminum, nickel, copper, oil and grain to squander, with the heavy industry base left by the Soviet Union, as long as these are integrated, the new Nazi Germany will be the second military power in the world after the Chinese Empire.

If China does not enter the war and Germany annexes France and Spain, even if Britain and the United States unite at the first time, they will not necessarily be Germany's opponents, at least they will not be able to defeat Germany, if Italy does not add chaos to Germany, and Poland continues to attack the Soviet Union as bravely as before, the complete Nazification of Europe will only be a matter of three or four years, and no Western country will be able to compete with Germany.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Emperor Song Biao also tried to ease some of the contradictions with the British.

China can now tell Britain that the most important goal of our original attack on the Soviet Union was to prevent Germany from annexing the entire Soviet Union, in that case, once Germany has integrated the national strength of the entire Soviet Union, even if China, Britain, the United States, and France are united, they may not have much confidence in defeating the fascist camp.

In fact, what worries China the most is Germany is Germany, and the various problems that have occurred with Britain in the past six months are actually not China's willingness to do so, but in the Asian Alliance treaty, under the collective demand of the Asian League member states, China can only do so.

In addition, so far, Emperor Song Biao also suspected that some of the members of the Asian League may have been privately encouraged by German spies and diplomats to deliberately exacerbate the contradictions and use China's power to expand their influence and practical interests, while Germany wanted China and Britain to go to war.

Because Germany had already ended the Soviet-German war ahead of schedule, Emperor Song Biao knew very well that once China decided to take military action against Britain, Germany would probably take advantage of this excellent plan to unify the European continent.

Britain actually has this concern, so in many things, Britain is also very restrained.

This restraint on both sides, as well as China's sudden adoption of a financial war strategy, ultimately allowed both sides to preserve each other's military strength and avoid war.

In particular, Britain, in addition to borrowing money from China to deal with the domestic financial crisis, hoped that China's subordinates would show mercy and give a certain amount of room for maneuver in subsequent negotiations, Britain also hoped to reach a new agreement to use China to contain Germany and prevent Germany from further annexing the European continent.

This meeting is very important for both sides.

Because there was a state banquet in the evening of the central cabinet, and Emperor Song Biao could not attend the state banquet as the guest of honor to continue to entertain Prime Minister Chamberlain - if this was the case, Chamberlain would really be too dignified and make an unprecedented exception for him, so he would talk about ending on time at four o'clock in the afternoon.

The follow-up questions are between the prime minister and the prime minister, and Emperor Song Biao will not ask any more questions.

After Prime Minister Chamberlain and his entourage returned to the Zhongnanhai State Guesthouse, Emperor Song Biao also breathed a sigh of relief, and there was nothing else to do in the afternoon, he was about to go for a walk in the imperial garden.

There are many emergency telegrams very common, on average there are two or three emergency telegrams a week, but the degree of urgency is also different, if General Zhang Jun, director of the Central Military Intelligence Department, personally handed it over, it is the really most urgent situation.

Song Biao was surprised, he had just dealt with a major event here, how could there be a new special event?

It is said that Ben has accepted the final unconditional surrender in accordance with the requirements of the Empire, and now it is only a gritted negotiation on the final armistice treaty, and Britain is also silently surrendering, neither of which is possible to cause another incident?

Emperor Song Biao didn't guess anymore, and went to the imperial study to meet General Zhang Jun of the Military Intelligence Department.

When he sat down in the imperial study and changed a cup of green tea, before the teacup was served, Zhang Jun hurriedly walked in, bowed and saluted with a serious expression, and then handed a top-secret telegram to the emperor.

Emperor Song Biao took out this telegram and looked at it, and the whole person was also very surprised, it turned out that it was new information from the intelligence organization in Berlin that was being further confirmed -- Lin Yiyuan, the first chief of intelligence of the intelligence group in Germany and the head of the technical exchange department of the Imperial Embassy in Germany, judged that Germany might launch a blitzkrieg offensive against Belgium and France within 20 days.

This is a very surprising judgment, because the Reich has been paying close attention to the movements of the German army, and at present, the main force of the German army is basically still on the Eastern Front, and there is no large-scale mobilization.

Lin Yiyuan's judgment was that he was convinced that the German Sixth Army had secretly withdrawn to Germany in the name of the 24th Army by revoking the number, and the 24th Army had been deployed in Hesse before the war, and if the Sixth Panzer Army withdrew to Hesse in the name of the 24th Army, relying on the local railway system, it would be able to cross into the Netherlands and Belgium in three hours, repeating the old route of World War I.

Emperor Song Biao was well aware of Adolf. The essence of Hitler and Nazi Germany, so when he saw this telegram, he was basically convinced that Germany was going to take advantage of this financial crisis to attack France and achieve the hegemony of unifying the European continent.

The darkest page in human history has finally arrived.

At this moment, Song Biao was extremely glad that the empire had temporarily avoided the war with Britain, although China and Britain had torn their faces, but they would not be as completely antagonistic as the Soviet Union and Britain.

Of course, it doesn't matter if Britain really wants to step aside, as long as the Imperial Army can take down Kyiv, Ukraine, the range of the Imperial ICBMs will cover the whole of Germany.

If China and Britain were in a state of war at this time, and when the Sino-British war ended, Germany would probably have integrated the strength of the entire European continent, and Britain was likely to choose to unite with Germany, then it would be called a real trouble.

After a moment of silence, Song Biao put down the telegram and asked Zhang Jun, "What do you think is the probability of fighting France?" ”

Zhang Jun's intelligence career is almost equivalent to the intelligence history of the empire, he has experienced too many such things, and naturally he has a keen sense of smell that others do not have, he can only regret to reply to the emperor: "Back to Your Majesty, I think I am afraid that the probability is very high." ”

"Yes, the most troublesome and worrying thing for us is going to happen after all!"

Emperor Song Biao was very emotional, got up and paced in the imperial study, silently thinking about countermeasures.

The best option would definitely be to send troops to the Reich as soon as Germany sends troops, to strangle Germany to death before Germany can completely digest the war resources and industrial strength of the entire Soviet Union, but this is impossible.

War needs a reason.

For today's China and the vast majority of Chinese nationals, Germany has always been a very good strategic partner, and France is roughly the same, and it is impossible to say that because Germany attacked France, China must immediately enter the war and assist France in defeating Germany.

That's impossible.

The people could not understand this.

This is not a matter of an emperor having the final say, this is not the same as the empire resolutely fighting the Soviet Union, both wars have enough national sentiment, no need for mobilization, and no need to do too much explanation.

What to do?

What now?

Emperor Song Biao carefully thought about various possible countermeasures, and after a long silence, he and Zhang Jun instructed: "Convene a regular meeting of the National Defense Committee and discuss it together." ”

Zhang Jun nodded silently and asked, "Now that the problem with Britain has been basically resolved, do you want to withdraw the South Asian Alliance Army and transfer the troops back to the north?" ”

Emperor Song Biao waved his hand and said, "For the time being, it is enough to notify the French side first, and other matters must be solved gradually one by one, and then we will talk about it when the British problem is completely negotiated." If the troops are transferred too soon, it is entirely possible that Britain will use this opportunity to blackmail us into backing down. As for the German side, the First Army could be transferred back to the Novosibirsk Military District to stand by. ”

Minister Zhang Jun nodded again, then turned around and left the imperial study, and summoned other national defense commissioners to attend the regular meeting overnight.

After Zhang Jun left, Song Biao continued to stay in the study and silently pondered countermeasures, he felt that he should have thought that Germany would not be satisfied with the existing interests, and that revenge on France, completely breaking the shackles of World War I and unifying Europe was the result they wanted.

It was undoubtedly the best option for the Reich to enter the war from the outset, especially to stop German expansion before France was defeated, but the Reich needed a good reason to convince its citizens to agree to the war.

The empire also needs to convince the other members of the Asian League.

(To be continued)