In order to deal with the rise of the Tsarist Russia and increase its troops in the Far East, the Tsar advocated the signing of a treaty on the peaceful settlement of international disputes, in order to let the Tsar abide by the treaty and not start a war without greeting, in order to let the Tsarist first let a neutral country mediate before declaring war on Russia, so as to give the Russian political axe and the army enough time to deploy troops.

Tsarist Russia's strategic purpose was to delay the war under the pretext of the Hague Treaty, but it still preemptively attacked the Russian army, so that the strategic plan painstakingly advocated by Tsarist Russia failed, at least it was ineffective against it.

Although Tang Shaoyi thought of this, he was not sure of his opinion. Wang Chenhao drew on the background of the Russo-Russian War to quickly affirm Tang Shaoyi's views and determined that this was a strategic plan of Tsarist Russia, and the purpose was no longer aimed at the Russo-Russian War, but against China.

"Since your Excellency is so sure, then I will send a telegram to the envoy to The Hague and ask him to find a way to disrupt this meeting and prevent the Russians from getting their wish."

Wang Chenhao waved his hand, disagreeing with Tang Shaoyi's suggestion, and said, "There is no need!" First of all, with our current international influence, it is simply not enough to prevent the passage of this contract. Since the contract will definitely be passed, we must not go against the will of the international community and let the great powers of various countries think that we are unsociable and alienated from us, which will be extremely detrimental to the development of international relations in the future. ”

Tang Shaoyi said: "What the adults said is true. What do you mean? ”

Wang Chenhao then said: "Since the Russians have thought of this method, then we will plan again, ask us to sign a contract, and let the Russians think that the Hague Contract is valid for us, so that we can start a war by surprise, at least give them a surprise blow before the Russians build the Trans-Siberian Railway, so as to gain the strategic initiative." ”

Tang Shaoyi thought for a while and said: "We were more active when we signed the treaty, so that all countries in the world thought that we did not want to war, so as to confuse the Russians, and make the Russians think that we have been on the defensive side and dare not take the initiative to start a war, so that if we attack suddenly, the Russians will definitely be caught off guard." ”

Tang Shaoyi analyzed to the end, and couldn't help but be shocked by Wang Chenhao's strategic thinking, and said: "Your Excellency has strategized, but this time it has made the Russians even more headaches. ”

Wang Chenhao smiled, if it weren't for the experience he gained from the Russo-Russian War, he might not have Tang Shaoyi's insight ability.

Of course, Wang Chenhao can make Tang Shaoyi proud of him, which is the result that Wang Chenhao is happy to see. Wang Chenhao needs to maintain an omnipotent and powerful presence in front of his subordinates, only in this way can his subordinates be absolutely loyal and absolutely obey his orders and will.

Next, Wang Chenhao and Tang Shaoyi discussed some issues related to the Hague Contract. On the whole, Wang Chenhao has no objection to the signing of the Hague Agreement, and joining the international treaty organization and participating in international affairs is the fastest way to enhance China's international influence. But Wang Chenhao has more important things for Tang Shaoyi to deal with, that is, about the total ban on smoking.

Opium has always been one of the biggest cancers that poisoned China, and it was also the most important means of British aggression against China. By 1898, statistics from the Ministry of Health showed that there were 10 million opium addicts in China, and this was because Wang Chenhao rewrote history, otherwise the number would have become 25 million because of the influence of the First Sino-Japanese War.

Every year, Britain used opium to extract more than 80 million dragon coins from China, causing heavy suffering to the Chinese people and causing a huge trade deficit between China and Britain. In order to solve this problem, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has repeatedly sent notes to the representatives of the British political axe, demanding that the import of opium into China be banned.

However, Britain always pushed back and did not respond positively, so that the two sides have been inconclusive on the issue of opium negotiations. And Wang Chenhao didn't want to force the British to be too anxious, which would affect the overall situation.

Now Wang Chenhao has come up with a good method, and then at the Hague Conference, Wang Chenhao hopes to submit the opium issue directly to the international conference, and the international community will jointly put pressure on Britain to solve the problem.

Tang Shaoyi supported Wang Chenhao's decision-making, saying: "Not only is China harmed by opium in the world, but the United States also has nearly four million opium addicts, although there are not as many as ours, but the Americans have money, and their annual trade deficit with Britain in opium is higher than ours, reaching more than $90 million, and the Americans will certainly support us." In addition, European countries have also been plagued by the opium problem for many years, especially the British themselves, and it is not impossible if we can do enough propaganda to force the British to give up opium production. ”

Wang Chenhao agreed with Tang Shaoyi's suggestion, so he made Tang Shaoyi fully responsible for this matter.

In the days that followed, Tang Shaoyi negotiated with the United States, France, Germany, and other powers through diplomatic channels and exchanged views on opium.

The British seemed to have heard the rumors, and repeatedly sent notes to the political axes of China and the United States, trying to prevent China and the United States from proposing the matter at the international conference in The Hague, but they were all refused. Other countries, because the opium attack was not too serious, considering the strength of Britain, so the attitude was ambiguous. With the exception of Germany, France, and Russia, which are willing to support China and the United States in attacking Britain out of strategic interests, other countries are just waiting to see what happens. If China and the United States can force Britain to compromise, then other countries will also participate, after all, smoking bans are good for everyone.

Immediately after the two countries agreed on the bill, they launched a public opinion offensive to strongly criticize the British opium trade and launched a protest in London through the Chinese and American embassies in London.

On London's Downing Street, there are four posters that are very eye-catching, and in one of them, a child is tied up by various drug gangs, unable to move, and surrounded by some scenes of transporting and selling drugs. "This kid is referring to China, which is deeply poisoned." These four posters were posted not only on Downing Street, but also on the streets and alleys of London, and soon aroused a wave of anti-drug thought. This sparked sympathy among the British people, and there were demonstrations by the British people to protest against the opium trade in Britain.

A month later, Tang Shaoyi sent a telegram to the Chinese envoy to The Hague to submit a proposal to ban smoking at the Hague International Conference together with the US envoy after signing the Treaty on the Peaceful Settlement of International Disputes.

Britain has been subjected to diplomatic and public pressure from home and abroad, but the British political axe is still tough, and it will not let go.

In order to cooperate with the diplomatic negotiations, China and the United States took separate actions, and although they could not directly freeze the opium trade exported by Britain to China and the United States, they could control opium smokers and opium parlors.

China and the United States have launched a large-scale anti-smoking campaign, seizing all public places involved in opium use, arresting opium smokers, and forcing drug rehabilitation.

Because of their relations with Britain, Wang Chenhao and his Beiyang political axe could not tear their faces to arrest British opium dealers, but they could cut off British opium dealers' contacts with domestic merchants, cut off opium trade channels, and cut off opium addicts from contact with opium dealers and intermediary merchants, thus preventing the opium trade.

But the British opium dealers had no fear, believing that it was impossible to ban smoking in China, because up to 10 million opium smokers would not last long without opium. The British opium dealers, despite the huge backlog of goods and could not sell them, continued to buy them, waiting for the moment when China's Beiyang political axe announced the failure of the smoking ban.

But to the disappointment of British opium dealers, with the beginning of the ban on smoking, Beiyang Science and Technology Heavy Industries announced that it had successfully developed a drug rehabilitation pill that could cure opium addiction.

Since then, drug rehabilitation centers have been set up in prisons across China to provide compulsory drug rehabilitation for opium addicts who have been arrested. For the Chinese people, most of the opium addicts have already gone bankrupt, and even sold their children, daughters, wives and concubines.

Nowadays, with the advent of detoxification pills, most of those who have just taken opium have successfully recovered from detoxification within half a month, those who have taken opium for a certain period of time have completed detoxification within three months, and those who have been addicted to opium for more than five years can no longer rely on detoxification pills to detoxify drugs.

To this end, Beiyang Technology has developed an improved morphine. The drugs used in the international drug are morphine to treat opium addiction and heroin to treat morphine addiction.

In response to this situation, the improved morphine of Beiyang Technology added an acetyl group. This morphine is non-addictive, and the addiction is gradually reduced by gradually increasing the interval between morphine injections in order to achieve the ultimate goal of detoxification.

Fortunately, although the number of Chinese people who smoke a large number of people, most of them have no money, cannot afford to buy morphine and heroin, and smoke the most basic opium, which is generally addicted to drugs compared to Americans.

According to the statistics of the National Police Agency and the Ministry of Health, 9 million of the 10 million opium addicts in China are primary opium addicts and can be compulsorily rehabilitated. 800,000 people are on morphine or moderate toxicity and can only be abated in one to five years. About 200,000 people use high-grade heroin, and this part of the population is deeply poisoned and it is difficult to quit, but miracles cannot be ruled out.

Although the huge number of drug addicts and the number of detoxification pills and non-addictive morphine preparations required by the huge group of drug addicts can be produced and supplied by Beiyang Pharmaceutical Company on a large scale, the problem of funding is a difficult point. The Ministry of Finance has allocated 10 million dragon coins for subsidies, but there is still a funding gap of more than 20 million dragon dollars.

In order to teach drug addicts a profound lesson, the National Assembly finally passed a decree punishing drug addicts, stipulating that all drug addicts should be sentenced to criminal imprisonment for more than two years. During the period of incarceration, the political axe provides free drug rehabilitation, but the cost is compensated by the incarcerated drug addict to participate in the compulsory labor situation of the state and society.

This decree not only taught and educated drug addicts, but also solved the financial burden of the state, and most importantly, cracked down on drug dealers and saved China's huge trade deficit with Britain.

China's anti-smoking and drug rehabilitation campaign has impressed all countries in the world, and the United States has learned from China's experience, and the drug rehabilitation pills and non-addictive morphine preparations produced by Beiyang Pharmaceutical Company have received a special grant of 2 million US dollars from the US Congress, allowing Beiyang Pharmaceutical Company to set up a branch in the United States to provide drug rehabilitation drugs and preparations to US drug rehabilitation centers, thus making Beiyang Pharmaceutical Company the first Chinese company to enter the US market, opening the prelude for Chinese companies to go global.

Similarly, Germany, France, the Netherlands and other countries have successively introduced Beiyang Pharmaceutical Company's drug rehabilitation technology and patents, or invited Beiyang Pharmaceutical Company to set up branches in various countries to assist countries in starting anti-drug operations.

Four months after China imposed a ban on smoking and narcotics, the British opium dealers who were stranded in China went completely crazy, and they could not sell the opium in their hands, and there was no hope of waiting for them to continue.

Although the British government refused to ban the opium trade, it did not dare to support the opium trade due to the pressure of public opinion. When the opium trade in China and the United States was blocked by British opium dealers and suffered a great loss, the British political axe began to think about whether to give up the opium trade.

However, many high-ranking officials in the British political axe ate the offerings of opium dealers and had to speak for the opium dealers, and the opposition was still stronger than the support voice.

When China's anti-smoking and anti-drug campaign entered its fifth month, an unexpected event forced the British government to abandon the opium trade and ease international relations.

In April 1899, the Transvaal Parliament finally decided to deny British immigrants the right to vote. This move immediately angered the British political axe. The British, who had been spying on the gold and diamonds of the Transvaal, began to amass troops on the Transvaal border.

At the same time, the Boers of the Transvaal, with the covert support of the German and Dutch axes, began to organize armies to confront the British [***].

In Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal region, the Boer governor Kryuegel was resolute and uncompromising, while in Cape Town, the capital of the Cape regional colony, the colonial ruler Alfred ? Milner, for his part, constantly challenged the Boers and attacked several times. In essence, the British did not accept the nationalism of white South Africans (conservative Dutch settlers). Above all, the aim of the white Afrigerans was to take control of the gold mines.

In the following two months, the German political axe successively sent military advisory groups to the Transvaal and provided weapons and equipment, which made the Transvaal political axe full of confidence.

On June 18, the governor of Kryuger sent a letter to Alfred? Milner issued a final warning, tensioning the confrontation between the two sides. Milner did not accept the ultimatum, and war broke out the following day.

With the help of the German advisers and the replenishment of a number of advanced weapons, the Boers gathered a force of 40,000 men and went on the offensive. At this time, the British colonial army was backward in equipment, and did not believe that the Boers dared to take the initiative to attack, and lagged behind the other party in terms of the number of troops, so at the beginning of the war, the Boers quickly defeated the British 20,000 troops and led the Leddy Smith, Kimberley and Muffer.

The defeat of the British in South Africa made the British political axe quite faceless, and the British political axe immediately decided to fight back. Queen Victoria put two experienced colonial commanders in charge of the expeditionary force: Lord Roberts as commander and Lord Kitchener as chief of staff. At the same time, 60,000 reinforcements from Egypt and India were mobilized to South Africa, and were assembled in Cape Town, Elizabeth, and East London.

Immediately after the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War, Britain was isolated internationally, Germany rallied the Allied bloc, and the Netherlands, together with France and Russia, formed a political coalition in Europe to condemn Britain, and at the same time formed a volunteer army to help the Boers fight.

The British suddenly found out that his personnel were no better than the Russians, and had to look for political support. Therefore, in order to gain the political support of China and the United States, the British political axe had to vomit blood and sacrifice the opium trade, and signed a treaty with China and the United States on the prohibition of the opium trade, prohibiting the export of opium, morphine, heroin, and other drugs to China and the United States.

At the same time, other European countries also wanted to sign agreements with Britain to ban the import of opium, so the British government signed agreements with European countries to prohibit the opium trade, and in exchange, European countries gave up forming volunteer armies to participate in the Anglo-Boer War, but Germany and the Netherlands reserved their opposition to the Anglo-Boer War.

Germany was Britain's direct rival in South Africa, and the Netherlands was the home country of the Boers, and the two countries' reservations about the Anglo-Boer war were agreed by all countries, and Britain had no choice.

Although Germany had the ambition to challenge Britain's traditional hegemony, it was not fully prepared to deal with the powerful power from the British Empire for the time being, so Germany only played the role of a behind-the-scenes commander in the Anglo-Boer War, rather than confronting Britain head-on.

The British Army had not fought a war for a long time, so in the early days of the Anglo-Boer War, the British [***] team was defeated again and again, and was deeply mired in the quagmire of war.

At the same time, the rest of the world is not stopping. The Kingdom of Italy launched a war of aggression against Abyssinia, but was defeated by the Abyssinian army, with 3,000 African expeditionary forces killed and more than 10,000 wounded, becoming the worst among the great powers that invaded Africa.

Similarly, the United States is bogged down in the US-Philippine war. Although China and the United States have signed relevant agreements on the Philippine issue, some Chinese [***] industrial enterprises secretly continue to sell weapons and ammunition to the Philippine Revolutionary Army in order to make a lot of war money.

China's private arms companies, represented by the Jiangnan Arsenal, the Huangpu Arsenal, and the Wuchang Arsenal, continue to produce all kinds of weapons and ammunition, which were imported from abroad by China before the establishment of the Beiyang Army.

However, these private arsenals have not given up production, but have further expanded, because their customers have been transferred overseas, such as the Korean rebel army that resisted the rule of Tsarist Russia, the political axe army of the Republic of the Philippines that opposed the invasion of the United States, Lan Fangfu, who has been secretly operating against Dutch rule, and even arms were sold to Africa to supply third world countries to resist European colonial aggression. For them, these weapons are not only not outdated, but they are still advanced weapons, and their sales prices are even higher than the new weapons sold by Beiyang Ordnance Heavy Industry to China, and the profits are even greater.

(To be continued)