1937 year.

In the era of the Empire, the empire expelled the Italian army from the East African colonies without much effort, ensured Ethiopia's reading power, and expelled the Soviet-German forces from Spain in the bloody battle, which greatly increased the prestige of the empire in the international world.

From the sudden rise of the Sino-Chinese Xinhai War in 1911, to the emergence of a world power during World War I and the Sino-Soviet War, and then to the East African War in 1937, the world must recognize two things: one is that China has re-emerged as the world's economic power, and the other is that China is also the world's largest military power.

China has the most powerful army and air force in the world, as well as a navy second only to Britain and the United States, and by 1938, the Imperial Central Navy will officially be one of the strongest navies in the world.

Steel production alone, the output data of the Chinese Empire in 1936 is equivalent to the sum of Germany and the United States, the total installed power capacity of the empire is about 1.4 times that of the United States, with the further development of industry, in 1936, the urbanization rate of the empire has reached 52%, under the impetus of the land restriction law, more than 30% of the peasant households have more than 50 acres of arable land, and only less than 7% of the peasant households have less than 10 acres of arable land.

The empire's agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry, and fishing are the largest in the world, and the empire's industrial scale is the largest in the world.

In the face of this vast empire of 19.5 million square kilometers, the world has become even smaller.

The Chinese Empire was already the first empire in the world.

Britain and the United States can not accept it, and they can not admit it, but facts are facts, and facts can never be disputed.

After the end of the East African War in 1937, the political situation in the world changed dramatically, and the contradictions between Britain and the United States, the Soviet Union and Germany, and Germany and France all gave way to the contradictions between China and Europe and the United States.

Britain and the United States cannot accept such a situation, but it is extremely difficult to unite to contain China, and in addition to the camp of evil countries such as Germany, the Soviet Union, and Italy, Britain and the United States must also continue to increase cooperation with China while trying to find ways to restrain China, and use China to contain the Soviet bloc as much as possible.

…… Liu Gengyun's experience in Africa is basically enough to write an autobiography.

Very interesting thing.

As a retired lieutenant general and former dean of the Far East Military Academy, Liu Gungyun took advantage of the opportunity to build a military school for East Africa after the war in East Africa was basically over, and as a tourist, he also went to other places, such as Socotra under British colonial rule.

Located in the waters of the Gulf of Aden, directly opposite the sharp tip of Somalia, at the junction of the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean, this island has a very unique geographical location, it was a very important naval base in the territory of the British Empire, but its status began to decline in these years, because of the lack of suitable port conditions, and with the advent of the era of battleships, the British navy was increasingly stationed in northern Somalia.

Coupled with the rapid decline in the strength of the British Empire, in fact, even in the northern Somalia region, the British Navy only retained a few cruisers.

The reason why Liu Gengyun wants to go to Socotra Island is because there is a fellow businessman from Hunan who deals in medicinal herbs, gums, dates, etc., this businessman is called Liu Pingqiu, and Liu Gengyun belongs to the same clan, and it is through Liu Gengyun's relationship that the dragon blood is offered to the royal family, and this dye is being used in the production of red color in the palace costumes.

Liu Pingqiu is also very interesting, he ran a salt merchant business in his early years, and later heard that Nanyang timber imports made money, so he followed his fellow villagers to Nanyang to import timber, and there was a lot of turnover in the middle, and he went to Socotra Island inexplicably.

Chinese businessmen are like this, there are no Chinese people in this place, then there must be a unique business to speak of.

The population of the island is not large, and there are only more than 40,000 people in total, but in seven or eight years, Liu Pingqiu has been a millionaire here, and he has operated a local port.

Liu Gengyun visited this island for a few days, and soon became very interested, because 70% of the animals and plants on this island are rare species that are not found outside, which is very wonderful, especially the desert rose and dragon's blood tree, which are unique and strange things in the world.

What really makes Liu Gengyun feel strange is the location of this island.

As a senior military commander, he quickly realized that the location of the island was so good that it would be possible to exchange the whole of Ethiopia for it.

The Imperial Navy has two large bases in the Indian Ocean, one is located in the northern part of the island of Madagascar, which accounts for 1/10 of the entire island and belongs to the overseas autonomous provinces of the Empire. The second is the Andaman Islands, in order to compete for this island, from the initial port rights to the final territorial ownership, the empire and Britain tossed back and forth for thirty years, from the time of the First World War began to compete, until today, there are still treaty restrictions between China and Britain, the imperial navy can not station capital ships here, can only maintain a small number of cruisers and destroyers.

Both areas are not many people and indigenous people, especially the Andaman Islands, in the early days there were only some British colonial settlers and a small number of Indian residents, after more than 20 years of continuous development, the Andaman Islands has completely become an overseas province of the empire, with 43,000 permanent Chinese, mainly fishing and port operations.

When he arrived at Socotra, Liu Gengyun realized that if he could station a navy here, the empire would have a triangular naval port base in the Indian Ocean, guarding the entrance to Malacca and the exit of the Red Sea, as well as the passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean.

Although Britain had purchased Socotra from Yemen, it had failed and now occupied it illegally, and the empire was supporting the integration and autonomy of North and South Yemen, which was also a great threat to the British occupation of the island.

Of course, Liu Gengyun did not come here in a public capacity, he came to play in a private capacity for two days, but near the port, he was surprised to see that the only two cruisers of the British Navy here were preparing to evacuate, and the naval camp was also being withdrawn.

Liu Gengyun is very keenly aware that Britain does not want to have too fierce conflicts with the empire here, if the empire insists on reading north and south Yemen, it will be difficult for Britain to stop, and the return of Socotra Island is also something that Britain cannot resist.

Today's Chinese Empire is a very terrible country, even a very terrible country, which only China itself does not feel.

Today, even the most conservative British politicians must admit that the Chinese Empire is indeed too hateful and terrible, and that Britain's strength at the present stage should not have a head-on confrontation with China, and that in terms of China's anti-colonial stance, once the Sino-British conflict is completely out of control, the British Empire will most likely lose India, the diamond in its crown.

What kind of empire is it?

It is a vast empire with 19.5 million square kilometers, it has the world's largest mineral resources, the world's largest population, the largest industry and agriculture, the world's most powerful army and air force, and the world's strongest navy that will soon be equal to Britain and the United States.

Do you think that Britain does not want to maintain absolute naval superiority?

It can't even suppress the United States, where is there a way to suppress China?

After the Great Depression, China's shipbuilding industry has leapt to the throne of the world's first, and with its interests in the Asian League and South America, China not only ranks first in the world in terms of the tonnage of warships manufactured, but also ranks first in the world in terms of the total tonnage of warships exported to foreign countries.

China's total central government revenue is four times that of the United Kingdom, the military spending of the navy is jumping from 75 percent of the United Kingdom to 135 percent, and the military budgets of the army and air force are 3.5 times and three times that of the United Kingdom, respectively.

At the London Naval Conference, Chen Jiliang, chief of staff of the Chinese Navy, said that as long as China is willing, China's naval military budget can be doubled, and it will not have any impact on the national economy and the central government's finances, and there is no obstacle to the Chinese navy in terms of technology, let alone in terms of shipbuilding capacity.

The last sentence, "We don't have such a need at the moment," is a crucial phrase that worries Britain and the United States more than the madness of the book, and can also force Britain and the United States to be more willing to make concessions.

After visiting Socotra, Liu Gengyun became more and more aware that China was likely to seize the island as a naval and air base, which the air force needed more than the navy, and that the 1,500 kilometers around it would be within the patrol range of the air force and naval air force, based on the large patrol aircraft that China particularly prefers.

After returning to Ethiopia from Socotra, Liu Gengyun could not wait to send a telegram to the Central Military Department, proposing to negotiate with Britain, exchange South Somalia with Britain for South Yemen's reading power, and negotiate with South Yemen, no matter what method used, to ensure that he would obtain the right to garrison Socotra, and to immigrate to this island, forcing it to gradually become a special autonomous state - if it could not be bought.

Naturally, the Central Military Department was very interested in this, and immediately consulted with the British, and the British were also very interested.

The fact that Britain is most interested in is not Somalia, but China's statement, which shows that the conflict of interests between the two sides will not become intense, as long as it does not become intense, as long as China does not express its support for India's reading, this is the situation that Britain wants to see the most.

After several negotiations, the two sides finally reached a good agreement, and the two sides made a deal through the League of Nations, with China handing over the trusteeship of South Somalia to the British, and the British merging North and South Somalia, while the British recognized the freedom of reading for the entire kingdom of Yemen.

Subsequently, the Central Cabinet sent a special envoy to negotiate with the Yemeni royal family, after Britain had tried to buy Socotra from Yemen, but was refused, but that was because Britain was simply extortion rather than a real purchase, and China offered a very high price and promised to absorb the Kingdom of Yemen into the Asian League, which will be protected and supported.

At the end of December 1937, China and Yemen continued to reach an agreement, China paid 27 million Chinese dollars to buy the governance of Socotra Island, while the territorial rights still belonged to the Kingdom of Yemen, the Chinese name of Socotra Island was set as Rose Island, and in the Kingdom of Yemen, the status of the island belonged to the Special Self-Governing State.

Therefore, Liu Gengyun's trip to Africa is enough to write an interesting autobiography.

In the vast world of the Indian Ocean, there are many Chinese businessmen who are richer than Liu Pingqiu, the most famous of which is Huang Wanqiao, a Fuzhou businessman who claims to own half of Madagascar, who was originally an engineer at the Fuzhou Shipyard and designed a patented boat with seafood processing machinery on a fishing boat, called the Ocean Fishing Processing Vessel.

It's just that this kind of patent ship has not been well marketed, Huang Wanqiao and his relatives borrowed money to build one, and recruited fishermen to go to the sea to fish, and made a lot of profits for more than ten years, after France resold the ownership of North Madagascar to China, Huang Rongxing, who had a small strength, turned to the Indian Ocean with the support of Fujian merchants, and borrowed more than 6 million yuan to purchase more than 20 processing ships, and became the king of fishing in the Indian Ocean.

It is with the strong support of the central political axe to the Indian Ocean and African Chinese businessmen that Wanda Fung Marine Fishery Company has become the bridgehead of the empire's deep-sea interests, and has always had the strong support of the Far Eastern Bank and the Bank of China to fund its expansion of deep-sea fishing in the Indian Ocean, and expanded its business scope to the South Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean, supplying 3 million tons of dried seafood every year to produce fishmeal, seafood powder, fish gelatin nearly one million tons.

It took only 16 years for Huang Wanqiao to buy his first processing vessel to become the king of China's deep-sea fishing industry, and his Wanda Fenghai Fishing Company's annual output is almost equal to that of Norway and Beneans, two major marine fishing countries combined.

Drink water and don't forget to dig wells.

Huang Wanqiao, who developed and succeeded under the support of the empire, did play the role of the leader of the Chinese businessmen in the Indian Ocean to a large extent, and some soft developments of the empire's interests in East Africa, South Africa and India were also based on Huang Wanqiao and Liu Pingqiu, who invested more than 4 million yuan in North Madagascar to build Huacheng, build a fishing port, recruit fellow villagers, and advocate for the establishment of schools and land for the children of Chinese who emigrated to North Malaysia.

Wanda Fung in North Malaysia Overseas Autonomous Province is like a reading kingdom, there are tens of thousands of local employees, generally in the fishery processing, from South Africa, East Africa import African sandalwood, processing and then sell back to the country, North Malaysia as a transit port, from the domestic import of machinery, electronics, electrical, chemical and other products, and then sell to Africa to make a difference, Hong Kong also has some basic industries to produce graphite products, as well as shipbuilding and maintenance.

Huang Wanqiao was, of course, a very important Chinese businessman, like a pearl in the empire.

While the central government was still negotiating with the Italian envoy over the final war reparations, Song Biao was preparing to meet Huang Wanqiao in the name of the royal family to thank Wanda Fenghai Fishing Company for providing seafood exclusively to the royal family for the past three years.

The Imperial Offering is one of the most competitive areas of Chinese business, and basically, suppliers are losing money and making money, but as long as they obtain this qualification, they are allowed to advertise in the name of the Imperial Supply, and capitalists in various industries are naturally eager to do so.

After the Far East Consortium withdrew from the fishery, the qualification competition between the Imperial Family and the Central Political Axe Fishery Company has been fiercely competing between the Nanyang Fishery Corporation, the Taiwan Fishery Company, and the Wanda Feng Sea Fishing Company, and finally out of a special support mentality, the royal family chose Wanda Feng Sea Fishing Company, while the Central Political Axe chose the South Sea Fishery Company, and the Far East Fishery Corporation under the Far East Consortium was basically sold to Wanda Feng Company by share exchange agreement, making Wanda Feng the world's largest marine fishery company. The Far Eastern consortium holds about one-third of Wandafeng's shares.

In other words, Wanda Fung is also a branch of the Far Eastern consortium.

Since becoming the royal family fishing company, Huang Wanqiao has done a lot of hard work to increase the variety of seafood provided by the royal family to more than 60 species, in fact, it is of little significance, because the seafood purchased by the royal family every year is mainly used for meetings and royal banquets held in the name of the royal family, especially the Lushan Conference and the newly handled Hong Kong World Economic Forum, even so, the royal family will not purchase more than 2,000 tons per year.

Of course, as a representative of the royal family, the emperor should still summon Huang Wanqiao to show his gratitude, after all, Mr. Huang has also thought of many ways in recent years, and even personally opened fishing ports in Peru and Mexico to catch the best seafood for the royal family.

That afternoon, before summoning Mr. Huang Wanqiao to express his gratitude and personally conferring on him the title of Lord of the Empire, Song Biao also took the time to look at the report on the Sino-Italian negotiations submitted by the Foreign Affairs Department of the Cabinet.

China and Italy have signed an armistice agreement under the mediation of Britain and the League of Nations, but the more than 200,000 Chinese prisoners held in Ethiopia have not yet been released, and China will not release them until Italy agrees to pay a large amount of compensation.

The reason for the compensation proposed by China is very simple: in addition to the losses caused by the Italian invasion of Ethiopia and the expenses of China and Egypt, there are also the expenses of more than 200,000 prisoners of the Italian army, and since these prisoners are still in the prisoner camps in Ethiopia, China has already transported 100,000 tons of grain and other materials to ensure their living needs.

Italy is also a very strange country, it doesn't care about other things, it sent diplomats to China very early on, hoping that the Central [***] Ministry will treat the prisoners well, and if necessary, they are willing to provide all the living materials and food that these prisoners need, and when they make a list to prepare to transport supplies, that list really startles the people in the Central Military Department, because there are hundreds of tons of seafood, as well as red wine, olive oil, and steak.

What kind of army is this?

Jiang Fangzhen, chief of the general staff of the Central Military Department, was almost stunned by the Italians.

However, the technique of drying vegetables, developed by the Italian military to meet the needs of military personnel abroad, was very practical, and the Reich took the opportunity to introduce this technology, which was also used for its own logistics.

(To be continued)