The sudden increase of British troops in the Assam region of northwest India made the empire very uncomfortable, and the increase of the empire's troops in the Kachin region of northern Burma also made the British very nervous.

As the deployment of forces in Southwest Asia between the two sides showed a trend of confrontation, the long-standing contradictions between China and Britain gradually became apparent, with Britain maintaining its own glory and interests in the world, and the empire trying to squeeze Britain out of Asia.

The Empire's foreign policy towards Britain is to recognize Britain's interests in the rest of the world, but at the same time to try to contain Britain's interests in Asia, the Empire gradually squeezes Britain out of Asia, and Britain continues to give in with the decline of national power, this process may last for decades, but the two sides will not break out of large-scale war, if Britain is not willing to gradually withdraw from Asia in this run, and even do not hesitate to use military force to stop this time, it will be a very tragic thing.

The empire is fighting on its own soil in Asia, and it is unwise for Britain to travel thousands of miles to Asia to fight a decisive battle with the empire, but is Britain willing to be gradually squeezed out of Asia by the empire?

Apparently unwilling.

After the empire increased its troops in the Kachin region, Britain was very nervous.

The British Empire once famously said among nations, that is, "the supremacy of strength", when they were militarily powerful and invincible, they freely claimed that a powerful empire could get everything they wanted, and when they were weak, they began to claim the importance of mutual respect and peace among nations.

China is genuinely dismissive of this, but on the surface, it also acknowledges the mutual respect of the nation, and at the same time demands that Britain give Asian countries complete freedom of reading as soon as possible.

No matter how much it is tossed, China will always have a way to toss Britain.

After the Empire sent new troops to the Kachin Autonomous Prefecture, the British ambassador to China, Anche Barard. Sir Carr went to the Imperial Foreign Ministry to communicate, confirming that the main responsibility of the British garrison sent to the Assam region was to clear the local anti-British rebel forces, and there was no plan to increase the tension, and at the same time, he also hoped that the Empire would effectively control the Southwest Military Reclamation Bureau, and should not cross the border to reclaim and affect the lives of the locals.

That's taking off your pants and farting.

After the meeting with Sir Carr, Gu Weijun immediately went to the Central Palace to discuss the diplomatic affairs of the two countries with the emperor.

The family members are still staying in Lushan for vacation, the crown prince Yuhua stayed in Lushan to attend the meeting, the central palace of Nuoda seems to be empty as if there is only the emperor alone, Song Biao seems to be particularly quiet in these two days, and he is the only one who eats, sleeps and rests every day.

This made him a little uncomfortable, after all, this is the Central Palace, the central court of the royal family.

The empire seems to be at war everywhere, in Southwest Asia, in Northwest Asia, in Northeast Asia, in the Southeast Pacific...... At the same time, there were serious differences between the empire and the United States at the same time, as if there was no peace, but in Yanjing City, life was still as ordinary as ever, and the war with the United States was gradually entering the final stage, just like the Afghan war was fought in its seventh year.

In the Central Palace.

The luxurious and splendid palace is so colorful and gorgeous in summer, the bamboo forest is quiet, the stream is murmuring, the flowers are blooming, after 30 years of construction, the central palace is enough to be called the world's most luxurious and gorgeous palace, in the life of Emperor Song Biao, this seems to be the only physical object that can be reached and seen.

Song Biao, who spends every year in the Summer Palace and Chengde Summer Resort, suddenly returned to the Central Palace at this time, and felt more and more that the midsummer in the Central Palace was also beautiful and quiet.

At his age, a man is always inseparable from the family he has created, but occasionally away from his family, it is also a different life to stay alone in the Central Palace.

In this way, he strolled through the imperial garden almost without pursuit, enjoying the tranquility of the afternoon, scattering freely in the corridors flanked by bamboo forests, and spending the whole morning squandering his time in the gardens of the Central Palace, calm and tranquil, which allowed him to think more about the meaning of life.

He thought, in this endless universe, looking down on the planets below from the top of the universe, who can see him in this palace as silent as the wilderness?

Everything he strives for is so small in the pannia of the universe.

Prime Minister Gu Weijun came to ask for a meeting, and it was almost time for lunch, so Song Biao did not rush to meet Gu Weijun, but asked Jiang Shoulin to arrange a luncheon and prepare to dine with Prime Minister Gu Weijun at noon.

When it was time to be on time, Emperor Song Biao came out of the silent imperial garden and feasted the prime minister in the nearby Cizheng Garden.

Gu Weijun waited for half an hour in the stone boat next to the rockery in Cizheng Garden, and then saw the emperor walk in leisurely, Gu Weijun hurriedly got up and bowed, and Emperor Song Biao simply nodded and asked him to sit down and dine together.

The royal banquet has always been very simple, said to be a regular meal, on average each royal family member only arranges four dishes, two soups and a dessert, the amount is not much, today's arrangement is more casual, because only the emperor and the prime minister dine alone, the Imperial Diet Bureau of the Inner Court arranged six dishes, two cold dishes, plus each has a cup of bird's nest.

Also like in the Northeast, Emperor Song Biao has a very good preference for braised lion head, the Imperial Diet Bureau will arrange it every two days, but the taste keeps changing, Sichuan, Cantonese, Luwei, Huaiyang, Zhejiang's roasted knicker's skills are not the same, today is the braised lion's head of Huaiyang, the soup is lighter.

After sitting down, Emperor Song Biao took the initiative to put a lion's head on Gu Weijun with a soup spoon, and said, "You and I will eat today, so we don't pay attention to any rules, just eat enough." ”

Gu Weijun was very moved, not everyone can have such a holy family.

Song Biao remembered something else and continued to ask him, "How is your father-in-law's health?" ”

Gu Weijun replied: "It's okay, it's been tough in the past few years, I got a cold and pneumonia a few days ago, but it's not a big deal." ”

Song Biao bowed slightly, and sighed with a lot of relief: "It's okay if it's okay." ”

There are some things that Song Biao didn't say, and in fact, there is no need to say them too clearly.

Gu Weijun's marriage is basically broken, as we all know, both husband and wife have other people outside, but for political reasons, the two are not divorced.

This may be inevitable, as marriage is inherently difficult to maintain intimacy, and even more difficult to maintain when the parties are no longer intimate.

Because Gu Weijun is still blamed for this matter in general, the relationship between him and Tang Shaoyi is not as close as in previous years, and Tang Shaoyi is the kind of person who is unwilling to retire, so he has made a lot of small moves in the party in the past few years, but fortunately, the two of them have not torn their faces overall, even if they tear their faces, without the support of the Tang family and parliamentarians, Gu Weijun has enough strength to be successfully re-elected.

Song Biao doesn't like to interfere in these private matters, let alone say it explicitly, but when he thinks about it, he still has a lot of emotion.

Compared with Tang Shaoyi, his relationship with his three sons-in-law is still very good.

In fact, many people don't know that Su Bin is his son-in-law.

Song Biao really likes Su Bin very much, to a certain extent, it is also the worship of the past, and Su Bin is indeed very talented, after his yuan mate died of illness, Song Biao introduced his second daughter Princess An Yi to him through Chen Jin as a matchmaker.

Princess An Yi's married life is also very unfortunate, the original husband was a major in the Air Force, because of an accident, Shenwu died in the fourteenth year, and then Princess An Yi has a lover, this lover is a clerk of the Ministry of Finance, very handsome, Song Biao has seen it twice, but Song Biao doesn't like this person very much, because this person is actually married, at least not divorced.

Under Song Biao's instructions, Chen Jin could only be forced to intervene in this matter as a brother-in-law, Princess An Yi initially looked down on Su Bin, and was unwilling to do a continuation, but this matter has been arranged, including Concubine Shu has also intervened in this matter many times, before the start of the Sino-Chinese war, Princess An Yi still agreed to the marriage contract with Su Bin.

This matter has been tossed back and forth for more than five years, and for the royal family, it is more or less not very glorious, so it is also very secretive, and even Fu Zuoyi, who once served as the chief of the inner court, does not know.

Now it seems that it is not a good thing to keep it too secret.

If Fu Zuoyi knew that Su Bin's recent situation was relatively special, he might not have sent Su Bin back to work in the Northeast Defense Army's Operations Staff Department, and if Su Bin had stayed in the Second Army as acting chief of staff, the situation would have been better, and of course he might have made mistakes with Fu Zuoyi, because Su Bin was also very risky to fight with soldiers.

Su Bin is a great talent.

Emperor Song Biao would definitely not let him be idle, and soon after Su Bin returned to the General Staff, he was reassigned to Chen Wu, to the Fourth Army as a division commander, and then promoted to the commander of the 14th Army, the Korean War happened to be a very special stage, the empire was very close to the German and American army system before, and there was no army-level establishment in peace, and during the Sino-Chinese War, the disadvantages of this problem became very obvious.

According to Chen Wu's proposal, the current Northeast National Defense Force has already begun to carry out the establishment at the army level, and Chen Wu and Liu Gengyun are responsible for the specific reform of the establishment; the current situation is that each group army will be organized into two or three corps, and after the war, the establishment at the army level will continue to be abolished, and the commander of the military region will continue to command the basic command units at the division and brigade levels.

Su Bin just took this opportunity to become the commander of the 14th Army, and since then he has been under the command of Xue Yue, and his performance is of course very eye-catching, but Emperor Song Biao knows very well that General Su is a handsome talent, not a first-class general.

The relationship between Song Biao and Su Bin must be very good, and the relationship between him and Chen Jin should be said to be very good, after all, after so many years of getting along, Princess An Xian's husband is not as famous as the first two, just an associate professor of general surgery at the Central University of Science and Technology, but this concubine has the best relationship with the emperor, because he is not busy, and he can often accompany Princess An Xian back to the palace to live for a few days.

Thinking of the relationship between Tang Shaoyi and his son-in-law, and then thinking about himself, in contrast, Emperor Song Biao felt that his life was still very good, his children were good, his son-in-law and daughter-in-law were also good, at least there were no bastard things.

A family is like that, and the environment is important.

Emperor Song Biao and Prime Minister Gu Weijun dined together, and neither of them was in a hurry to talk about British issues, but only talked about some things that were not very important, which were generally related to the Lushan Conference.

After the luncheon was over and the tea was served again, Song Biao took a sip of green tea and cleared his mouth, and then asked Gu Weijun, "How is your meeting with the British ambassador?" ”

Gu Weijun hurriedly replied: "It is precisely to report this matter to His Majesty, Ambassador Carr and our country explained the British motive for sending troops to the Assam region, and in principle there is no plan for a military conflict with our country, so I hope that our country will refrain from it, and at the same time ask us to explain the goal of sending troops south, especially sending the navy to the waters of the South Seas." ”

Song Biao said simply, and asked Gu Weijun, "What do you think about this matter?" ”

Gu Weijun said: "Returning to Your Majesty, the minister thinks that the matter between China and Britain is not because China is the mainstay, and the members of the Asian League have a firm anti-British position, and our country should retreat into the background, and promote the Asian Union countries to be enemies of Britain from the position of protecting allies, and unify the internal opinions of the Asian Union, and unanimously oppose the United Kingdom, especially to encourage Islamic and Southeast Asian countries to confront and oppose the United Kingdom, which is the best policy." As for the confrontation between China and Britain, there is not necessarily a need for such an obvious confrontation, as long as China and Britain do not directly clash with each other, China ostensibly respects Britain the most, secretly and gradually encroaches on the actual control of the southwest, and then supports other countries to confront Britain, making it difficult for Britain to take into account the overall situation and to concentrate on entanglement with China in the southwest and Tibetan provinces. ”

Song Biao nodded slightly, but said: "I'm afraid that other countries are not so easy to control, and things are more likely to intensify." ”

Gu Weijun said: "That should also be a matter of the Asian League, not a matter of my country." ”

Song Biao agreed: "Your idea is quite wonderful. The number of members of the Asian League is increasing, and each country has its own calculations, but there is one thing that is unified, and that is the anti-British and other anti-colonial positions. ”

Gu Weijun said: "Among the Asian League, there is only one country that is really capable of sharing our worries at this stage, and Iran is also the result of support in the past 20 years. Although Saudi Arabia and other countries are saying that they are getting richer, they still lack strength in terms of strength, but I think that the empire should give more support to its allies and encourage the development of all countries, especially Southeast Asia, so as to gain a long-term foothold in the world. As for the current situation, it is the best policy to encourage Middle Eastern countries to expand their contradictions with the United Kingdom, and to suppress the United Kingdom behind the scenes with military strength and promote the further decolonization of Asia. ”

Song Biao sighed.

After all, politicians have the ideas of politicians, but Gu Weijun's methods are indeed better.

If it was an ordinary person's idea, Song Biao would definitely hope that the Imperial Navy would have a decisive battle with the British Navy and have a replacement of the old and the new, but in reality, doing this kind of thing requires very high skill and skill.

After pondering for a while, Song Biao and Gu Weijun instructed: "Handle this matter according to your ideas, you can not rush to intensify the contradiction for the time being, but I want to remind you that the current naval superiority of the empire can be maintained for about five years, and if it is determined that it will still have a decisive battle with the British navy, you need to hurry up, the sooner the better." ”

Gu Weijun couldn't help but think about it for a moment, and replied, "The ministers will have appropriate arrangements." ”

Song Biao does not doubt this, people who can become the prime minister of the empire always have extraordinary talents, and Gu Weijun's most outstanding talent is his diplomatic skills and international vision.

Gu Weijun's idea is fully revealed, after all, it is still necessary to use Iran and other Islamic countries to confront Britain, so Britain is afraid of China's strength and cannot carry out military action, and gradually retreats in the expansion of the entire Asian League, until it loses its influence and colonies in Asia.

Although Song Biao doubted the validity of this method and the possible surname that would inevitably avoid war in the end, he was still willing to support Prime Minister Gu Weijun to govern according to his own ideas.

…… In early August, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sent Foreign Secretary Sir Halifax to Yenching in the hope of reaching a peace treaty on the Assam issue and redrawing the border.

Under Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's mandate, Sir Halifax's proposal to demarcate bilateral boundaries at Dinsukgia is tantamount to recognising the 27,000 square kilometres of land that the empire had illegally occupied for the previous 14 years ago, and in principle allowing the inhabitants of Kachin State to vote on the future status of the state, either by choosing to read or to annex to China and remain in Burma.

In principle, the British side did not object to the participation of Chinese living in Kachin State in voting, which was tantamount to a disguised recognition of the annexation of Kachin State to the territory of the Chinese Empire.

Chamberlain, who made so many concessions as leader of the Conservative Party, was severely criticized at home by the Liberals and the Labour Party, but did not meet China's needs.

Gu Weijun accepted Chamberlain's proposal, and he held two bilateral talks with Sir Halifax in Yenching, which eventually reached mutually acceptable terms, and on the basis of British concessions, the two sides promised not to maintain a military confrontation in the southwest.

Gu Weijun had good personal relations with Neville Chamberlain and Sir Halifax, and Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain also had good contacts with Emperor Song Biao during his visit to China in 1937.

Personal relations between national leaders do help solve problems between the two countries, but they can never solve the fundamental problem, which is that Britain no longer deserves so many colonies, and the empire deserves to rule the new century.

In order to maintain their domestic support, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain agreed to the Secretary of the Admiralty, the leader of the Liberal Party, Winston. Churchill's proposal to increase the size of the Navy in the Indian Ocean and to adopt a new budget for the construction of six additional aircraft carriers and the reduction of six older types of battleships over the next four years.

The occurrence of the Assam incident has actually only exposed the contradictions between China and Britain, and as the strength of the British Empire further declines and the strength of the Chinese Empire continues to grow rapidly, the conflict of interests between the two sides in Asia and the Eurasian continent will become more and more intense.

Britain wanted the Empire to reduce the size of the South Pacific Fleet in the port of Bandar Seri Begawan to avoid conflict between the two sides, and this commitment was written into the Sino-British Kachin Autonomy Agreement, but the Empire rejected this proposal on the grounds of non-interference, and still maintained the large size of the South Pacific Fleet with four aircraft carriers.

The two sides temporarily subsided the competition in the southwest, but in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, a new round of competition between China and Britain began to heat up again, and it was only from this period that the Empire and Britain would adopt more of a policy of secret war.

Emperor Song Biao once had a very good personal relationship with George V, and Gu Weijun also had a good relationship with Prime Minister Chamberlain, but the national interest is the national interest, and there is nothing to be ambiguous about, just as the United States in the 21st century provoked China by secretly supporting the Philippines, it is necessary to strike at the opponent and avoid a complete rupture of bilateral relations, and the best way is to support the allies to provoke Britain, rather than directly intervening itself.

China has the strength to win more national interests, while the British Empire does not have the strength to protect the interests it occupies, this is the fundamental contradiction between the two sides, this contradiction is not any private relationship can be reconciled, whether it is a secret war, or an open war, whether it is provocation or containment, strength will always be supreme.

(To be continued)