Whether it is Britain, France, the United States, Russia, or even the world's largest exporter of the military industry, they all find it strange and have all kinds of skeptical spirits, but in any case, this is the case.

China's overall industrial scale is only equivalent to 1/7 of the United States, but in the field of military industry and light weapons, China really occupies a certain advantage, China's weapons, ammunition and other military supplies are not only cheap, but also very comprehensive, from rifles, shotguns, pistols, light and heavy machine guns to submachine guns, grenadiers, mortars, China has a very comprehensive product line.

Because it is equipped with various types of firearms and ammunition in the world, as well as the corresponding production capacity, it is a great obstacle and trouble for the construction of China, but it has become an out-and-out advantage when exporting to foreign countries, China can produce Lee Enfield rifles in large quantities for Britain, provide France with improved Kresso rifles based on Shenyang rifles, and supply Mauser Type 88 commission rifles and imitation GEW98 rifles for Greece, Seville, and Italy. Supply of Mosin Nagant rifles and improved models of Shenyang rifles to Russia.

In terms of patented technology, since it is in a war period, China no longer has to abide by the previous contract with Germany, and manufactures a large number of various types of body-barreled artillery guns jointly developed by China and Germany, as well as imported technology from Germany and France, and at the same time, it can prevent the United States from exporting these weapons through the patent rights of Browning light and heavy machine guns it holds.

Even if there is still a certain gap in technology and quality compared with German goods, the price of imitation Krupp 88mm field guns made in China is cheaper, and the output is huge, and the 75mm caliber long-stroke rapid-fire field guns, light field guns, and light cavalry guns are sold in large quantities to the British and French forces and other Allied countries, as well as neutral countries that are not allies, and even Germany has purchased these identical German weapons and ammunition from neutral countries through other channels to supplement the consumption of the German army.

Beginning in the first half of 1916, taking into account China's huge raw material supply capacity and steel, salt, and coal chemical production capacity, as well as the cheapness of labor, weapons and ammunition, Britain and France provided a large amount of technical assistance to China through military-industrial joint ventures to improve the production level and scale of China's industry.

Under the coordination of the Anglo-French Wartime Commission, the largest British military-industrial oligarchy Vickers, Schneider, Renault and the Far East Arms Corporation established a number of joint ventures in the northeast to further expand production capacity and improve production quality, and with the assistance of Vickers, the Golden State Shipyard began construction of China's first dreadnought-class battleship in April 1916, and before that, The largest warship produced by this shipyard was a tortoiseshell lightly armored cruiser with a design displacement of 6,000 tons.

This so-called Aurora-class battleship has a design displacement of 18,500 tons, and the full load displacement is expected to reach 22,500 tons, which is very small in the era of larger-scale post-dreadnoughts, but it is an out-and-out super weapon for the Chinese Navy, and it has a great effect on the entire Chinese shipbuilding industry, because the use of the latest diesel boilers, steam turbines and 8 twin 305mm main guns made in the United Kingdom can theoretically reach 27,500 horsepower. This brings the speed of the ship close to 25 knots.

Armstrong and Jiangnan Heavy Industries have reached a joint venture agreement, and the Huangpu shipyard, which is a joint venture between the two companies, is also preparing to build a number of light armored cruisers with a displacement of 10,000 tons.

Through mutual shareholding and joint ventures, the Far East Arms Corporation, the Far East Chemical Corporation, the British Vickers Company, the French Schneider Company, the Winchester Arms Company of the United States, and the French Chemical Company have established an international cartel of the arms industry to supply arms, weapons, and ammunition to Britain, France, Russia, and other countries in a near-monopoly manner.

In order to ensure the stable development and firm market share of the Chinese industry during the First World War, the Imperial Cabinet took the initiative to propose to sign a "Entente Mutual Insurance Treaty" with Britain, France, Russia and other Entente countries, according to this treaty, during the war, the member countries of the Entente organization restricted each other from converting foreign exchange into gold, so as to ensure the stability of each country's gold reserves and currency exchange rate, and held each other's long-term national bonds, and each member country had the obligation to ensure the stability of the exchange rate of its own currency, if it was necessary to reduce the gold content of the currency, The debts held by the other Entente countries are calculated at the gold price at the time.

To put it simply, if Britain and France need to pay gold to buy military supplies from the United States and other countries, and even if they pay pounds and francs, they are worried that these countries will be converted into gold, and if they buy materials from China and other Allied countries, they can directly use their national bonds to settle the bill, and there is no need to worry about China emptying the gold reserves of Britain and France.

As far as China is concerned, China exports military supplies to Britain and France and other Entente countries, and these materials directly become the national bonds of Britain and France, and China uses these national bonds as a guarantee to issue currency to maintain the normal order of the national economy.

The "Entente Mutual Insurance Treaty" has two functions: one is to link all the Entente countries to bear each other's debt pressure, and strengthen the ability of the entire Entente to persevere in the long-term war of attrition; Second, the exclusive surname guarantees China's status as the largest general rear and exporter.

This treaty allowed China to compete with the United States with inferior but cheap products, and it was also a very favorable clause for the Chinese language, but there was a huge risk that if a country was defeated and withdrew from the Entente, their debt would likely become waste paper.

For example, Russia, Serbia.

Serbia was theoretically part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but it was an autonomous state, and after the outbreak of the war, it joined the Entente, but was wiped out by Austria-Hungary, and only part of the army retreated to Albania to maintain its overseas political axe, which actually spread the war to Albania.

In order to ensure that Serbia could hold on, the Entente forcibly intervened in Greece on the one hand and forced Greece to join the Entente, and the Chinese troops in Europe also transferred to Albania with part of the Italian army, doing their best to ensure that Austria-Hungary would be difficult to capture, at least not completely occupy the whole of Albania.

So, war is in the service of the economy.

Although it was not possible to directly convert the large amounts of British pounds, francs, and other Allied debts into truly reliable gold reserves, the empire continued to increase its central gold reserves by exporting goods to neutral countries, as well as to the Anglo-French-German colonies and Latin and Southeast Asian countries.

Taking advantage of the Great Depression of European industrial products and the complete interruption of German exports, he wantonly exported cheap goods to gain markets, and international capital also poured into China, Japan, and the United States, further stimulating the war prosperity of these foreign countries.

……

In June 1916, with his own experience and intelligence work in Russia, Song Biao could confirm that the conditions for the February Revolution in Russia were basically ripe, and the chaos and [***] in Russia could not be described in words, on this basis, Song Biao further accelerated the work of increasing the number of troops in China, planning to increase the size of the total number of army personnel by 4 million, and expanding the 6th Cavalry Brigade to the 12th Cavalry Brigade to the scale of the integrated cavalry division.

There was no surprise or doubt at home and abroad that the emperor was about to formally enter the European war, and only Germany, worried about it, sent secret envoys to lobby for the empire to continue the current situation.

On the southern front of the European War, the Empire had already proved the combat level of the Chinese Army in the war, and even in the face of the Austro-Hungarian troops, it maintained a certain advantage, and once the Imperial Army of more than two million in size poured into the European theater, it was simply the worst news for the German-Austrian Alliance.

As the emperor and the supreme commander-in-chief of the Imperial Central Defense Force, Song Biao did not want to explain to others, after ordering the navy and army to continue to increase, he very secretly arranged for the first-class staff officer Guo Yuchi to form the Northern Staff Bureau to engage in highly confidential operational investigation and preparation, while he lived an almost isolated life in the Xuanzheng Garden, quietly calculating all the details of the operation.

The Russian Red Army was not very strong in the early days of the city, but it was not bad, and its ability to defeat the White Russian army was mainly due to the fact that the White Army was too scattered and lacked a unified command, and the revolutionary will of the Red Army soldiers was indeed very high.

For CSC, the biggest obstacle to defeating the Russian Red Army was the extremely cold weather, especially the transportation and supply of supplies in such extreme cold weather.

In order to prepare the troops of the Northern Expedition as much as possible at that time, Song Biao established four major training centers in Uriya Sutai, Kulun, Hulunbuir, and Jiamusi, and transferred a number of main forces and 52 newly formed regiments to this area for long-term intensive training, while southern soldiers were transferred to Chahar, Shanxi, and northern Shaanxi for intensive training.

The most important training ground in his plan was obviously Kulen, because the dispatch of troops from here would quickly cut off the Russian Far Eastern Railway and force the Russian Red Army to expedition to Siberia and Baikal to fight a decisive battle with CSKA.

Song Biao never fought uncertain battles, and he planned to personally go to the northernmost region of Mongolia to experience the bitter cold during the coldest season, observe the Buryats and Mongol way of life, and establish a new logistical supply system.

Different climatic environments and different regions, military supplies have different characteristics, neither Napoleon nor Hitler fully took this into account, not so much that they lost to Russia and the cold weather, but that they failed in the military logistics of cold regions.

Prior to this, Song Biao dispatched several batches of intelligence officers from the Northern Staff Bureau in advance to go deep into Russia to collect more complete military information and all kinds of information needed, and to investigate the living customs and characteristics of the local people, as well as the local economic situation, population, and map data.

There are many questions that are minor but can destroy a million troops, such as how to move the artillery over large distances after the permafrost melts, whether to make the wheels wider and thicker, or to use larger wooden tires, or to drag them in some other way?

For example, the weather in the months is the most unsuitable for marching and fighting, and when the snow and ice begin to melt, the grasslands will become muddy, which areas can be visited in winter and not in summer, and which areas can be visited in summer and not in winter.

A small oversight can lead to problems that are too serious to solve.

War is like that, as long as you make a mistake, the enemy army has a chance to defeat you, regardless of the difference in strength between the two sides.

When Song Biao was secretly preparing for war against Soviet Russia, Britain and France and other Entente countries were looking forward to China's continued increase in troops in Europe, both sides were at the level of half a catty and eight taels, and no one could defeat the opponent.

At the same time that Germany sent secret envoys to lobby, Britain and France also sent their respective foreign ministers to Yenching in person, hoping to persuade China to immediately send more troops to participate in the European war.

The Marquess of Balfour, the former Prime Minister of the British Conservative Party, arrived in China in mid-August 1916 as the Foreign Secretary of the British Empire, and arrived in Yanjing on the evening of August 27. The Marquis de Balfour was also an insignificant figure in the wartime cabinet, and the Liberal Prime Minister Asquith thought that such an arrangement would be a very clever choice, which would not only give face to a second-rate and ignorant empire like China, but also maintain the supremacist high profile and dignity in the upper echelons of the British Empire.

On the dragon chair of the Chinese Emperor, Song Biao had already dealt with the three prime ministers of the British Empire, and he had already understood this self-righteous and arrogant empire very thoroughly, so he naturally felt the other party's cleverness and the Anglo-Saxon racial superiority complex as always.

At the same time that the Marquis of Balfort arrived in Yanjing, Song Biao continued to stay closed in the Xuanzheng Garden on the pretext of being on leave, and did not meet with the Marquis of Balfort and others, including the Imperial Cabinet Ministers.

He simply enjoyed a period of quiet quiet, and in this tranquility he gathered strength and made all mental preparations for the war in the Far East in 1918.

Until September 1.

Song Biao had just canceled a month-long quiet vacation, and arranged for the Marquis de Belfort to come to the drawing room to meet him that morning.

After breakfast, Song Biao had a rare conversation with Zhang Binglin, the chief of the inner court, about choosing a concubine, and to Zhang Binglin's expectations, Song Biao decided to choose two side concubines of ethnic minorities.

Although Song Biao also considered choosing a Mongolian concubine to settle the four provinces of northern Xinjiang, with his understanding of Mongolian girls, he basically didn't think that there could be a few aesthetics that conformed to the aesthetics of traditional Han men, otherwise Guo Jing would not have given up Princess Huazheng's courtship, and desperately followed Huang Rong, a Zhejiang girl, to escape from marriage.

North Korean girls are not in the scope of consideration, North Koreans always say that their beauties paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty emperor, but looking through the history of the Ming Dynasty, there is really no Korean girl who has been a concubine, basically serving tea and sending water and other roles, or laundry and cooking.

After talking with Zhang Binglin about this issue for half an hour, Song Biao estimated that Zhang Binglin's vision was not reliable, and most of them were selected at the level of Guangxu concubines, and they were all shivering when they saw it, so they asked Zhang Binglin to hand over this matter to Chen Qimei of the Secretariat to be responsible.

After talking about this matter, Song Biao went to the living room.

It was still early, and when he arrived in the meeting room, he asked Zhang Futian to submit the latest intelligence and analysis of the Central Military Intelligence Department on World War I, and let him quietly watch it in the empty hall here for a while.

The central government's financial funds have always been quite tight, but they can still allocate funds to the General Administration of the Inner Court to build a new palace in the Yungang Mountain area of Fangshan County on schedule, and Song Biao himself has raised some funds from the Far Eastern consortium and other royal investments, and slowly builds the royal palace in the Kyoto district in Fangshan.

It is estimated that it will be almost completed in another four or five years, and the infrastructure of Kyoto Prefecture will be completed around this time, and the Imperial Palace, the Imperial Cabinet, the Diet, and the Central Military Department will all be relocated to Kyoto Prefecture.

It is obvious that it will not be too long in Zhongnanhai.

Now that I think about it, I have to leave, Song Biao also feels a little memorable, but it is not okay not to go, if the administrative center of the whole country is crowded in the Yanjing City District, it is a huge pressure on the city of Yanjing, and it can't be a large-scale road closure from one to the two sessions or something in the future, right?

After browsing and thinking about the latest information, Song Biao sighed silently, the war in Europe is getting more and more tragic, and it is basically certain that Germany has held the Somme defense line, even if Britain sacrifices the tank as a big killing weapon, it is difficult to have a greater impact on Germany under the limited number of circumstances.

The Battle of the Somme actually formalized one thing, that is, Britain and France did not have the strength to defeat Germany, and it was on this basis that the United States decided to enter the war, because the United States was in debt to Britain and France at that time, and once Britain and France were defeated, the United States could not afford such huge losses.

The situation in this period is a little better, China and the United States hold the debts of Britain and France in a dispersed manner, the United States holds more debts of the United Kingdom, and China mainly holds the debts of France and Italy, especially Italy, which has a large number of arms trade orders this year.

Because the debt is relatively dispersed, the United States can continue to look at China, and in any case, the likelihood of China's participation in the war on a larger scale is much higher than that of the United States, and the reason is more sufficient and inevitable.

Song Biao is actually looking at the United States.

Not long after reading these intelligence materials, Jiang Zuobin entered the living room and told Song Biao that it was Arthur. The Marquis of Belfort had arrived at the Xuanzheng Garden, waiting for the announcement of the Emperor.

Song Biao nodded slightly, motioning for Jiang Zuobin to invite the former prime minister and current foreign secretary of the British Empire in, and he stood up and tidied up his clothes a little.

Autumn and September are a very beautiful season, and what clothes are suitable for you.

Song Biao deliberately wore an emperor's regular dress based on the light and duplex Tang costume today, with a silk satin white background and a purple brocade dragon pattern, a white silk satin base, and a purple and red tuan brocade dragon pattern, which is roughly opposite in color to the vermilion background and white tuan brocade dragon pattern, and it is also one of the six regular clothes most commonly worn by the Chinese emperor.

After waiting for a while, Arthur, a veteran politician of the British Empire, who was nearly seventy years old at this time. The Marquis of Belfort walked in, and after seeing Song Biao, the Marquis of Belfort respectfully took off his hat and bowed.

After the Marquis of Belfort got up, Song Biao shook hands with him very approachingly, and invited him to sit down on the chair next to him, without even preparing two different chairs.

Before coming to China, Arthur. The Marquis of Balfour was already familiar with the etiquette of the imperial court, although he had been a little impatient in the past few days, and felt that the Emperor really did not take him, the former prime minister of the British Empire, seriously, but seeing the preferential treatment of etiquette, his heart seemed to be much more comfortable.

He respectfully presented a letter from King George V of England and India to Song Biao, and before that, he had already sent Prime Minister Herbert . Henry. Asquith's handwritten letter was presented to the Imperial Prime Minister, Tang Shaoyi.

Song Biao was quite cautious in front of Arthur. The Marquis de Belfort opened the letter in front of him, and carefully skimmed through it, and basically did not find any words that were too nutritious, which were much more tarnished than the Prime Minister's letter, and this is a constitutional monarchy.

After reading the letter, Song Biao thought for a moment before talking to Arthur. The Marquis de Balfour replied: "I am a person who likes to get straight to the point, so let's start with the war, because the Sino-British friendship that Emperor George spoke of has basically never really existed, and to this day, the British Empire continues to occupy our territory." ”

Hearing this, Arthur. The Marquis of Balfour couldn't help but feel embarrassed for a while, and said: "Regarding the question of Hong Kong, Your Majesty, I thought it would be better not to talk about it at such a time, when we settled the war with the Allies, we would have more time to deal with this issue." ”

Song Biao sneered.

Arthur. The Marquis of Belfort didn't know what to do.

Song Biao said: "Marquis, allow me to say a word on behalf of the collective voice of all Chinese, if it were not for the fact that the Sino-French alliance is more important than everything else at this stage, we are glad that Britain was defeated by Germany, and it was completely defeated without dignity, until it was shattered into coal slag." You can take my words back to the Emperor of the British Empire, to Chancellor Herbert, to all the Britons, and to the whole world. When you pride yourself as the noble king of the world and the best people, but you dump opium like us, and when our country and people decide to refuse, you attack us by force and force our country to destroy opium, while you sit on the Atlantic Ocean and enjoy the silver that has been exchanged for crushing the bone marrow of the Chinese. Regardless of the outcome of this war, as long as the empire is not completely wiped out by the British Empire, in the textbooks of each of our children, we will take the evil and ugliness of the British in the 19th century as the most important subject, and pass it on from generation to generation until the entire human race disappears. ”

Song Biao said very indifferently, and finally cut back to the topic: "So, before you formally apologize and compensate for this, don't expect us to help you defeat Germany, the defeat of Germany can only depend on you, only when the ally France can't even hold the mainland, we will take the real action and force the Germans back." Of course, if you refuse to apologize, and Germany ends up bringing down the invincible British Empire in this war of attrition, that is simply the outcome we want to see. ”

Arthur. The Marquis de Belfort was completely speechless, although Sir Jurdian had warned him before this trip that Emperor Hua was an extremely annoying and powerful emperor, and that his national pride was very high, but he really did not expect it to be so high.

In the eyes of the British Empire, it was a small matter, and it was not worth apologizing for a glorious country like the British Empire.

Song Biao doesn't care about Arthur. The expression and psychology of the Marquis of Belfort, he has always been a straightforward person, which is very similar to Kaiser Wilhelm II, so he often offends people, but he can hold the size and will not say stupid words without boundaries.

What he said was true.

After Song Biao said this, he was silent for a while before picking up the teacup from the coffee table, and silently drank the Qimen black tea in the cup, because he added some honey, the taste was sweeter, and the color was also very strange, but he has always been a very strange person, and he likes to break through the shackles of convention.

Arthur. The Marquis of Belfort pondered bitterly for a long time and didn't know how to answer, and finally could only confess to Song Biao: "Regarding the sale of opium to your country, I apologize to you and your country on behalf of all the fair British, and I respect His Majesty the Emperor Hua, but these are some things that are not suitable to talk about at this time, as an Allied country, our soldiers are dying on the battlefield to defend the interests of the entire Entente, and in July, we died 50,000 young soldiers in a few days, all of them are peace-loving young people, so, On behalf of the Prime Minister, I implore the Chinese Empire to send troops into the war, to fight hand in hand with glorious Britain, and to fight for the victory that will ultimately belong to our Entente. ”

"50,000 people, that's a lot!"

Song Biao ridiculed sarcastically and unexpectedly, and asked rhetorically: "What should be done when the British Empire forced China to accept the legal surname of the opium trade, and used this dirtiest and evil trade in human history to plunder silver from China, which led to the collapse of the economy of the former dynasty and the displacement of the common people?" If you really want to count, in order to make your British life richer, China has at least a few million more deaths, or even tens of millions, this account, to whom do we Chinese count? Your Excellency the Marquis, please understand a basic human axiom before you arrive in China, you cannot say that only you British are human, and we Chinese are beasts compared to you, or even inferior to animals. ”

Arthur. The Marquis de Balfort did not know how to continue the negotiations, and he really could not understand why His Majesty the Emperor Hua was so rude to discuss these matters, if it were not for the fact that China did have some strength now, as the former Prime Minister and current Foreign Secretary of the British Empire, he would have been sternly reprimanded a long time ago.

China, he thought, would regret it, and it was a terrible thing to have such a reckless emperor.

Song Biao was angry in his heart, but he kept a calm mockery all the time. The Marquis de Balfour really didn't know how to talk about it, so he said: "Thinking about it in another way, if Germany forces Britain to legalize the opium trade at the same time with its strong strength, imports a large amount of high-priced opium to you, so that you British people have the opportunity to smoke opium from the beginning of your childhood, and prohibits the opium trade with your political axe, how will you British reflect on it, do you think that Germany is the most evil and shameless country in the world?" Obviously, that's the same thing. The past will never pass, and we will remember that we certainly do not blame foreign countries for the suffering of our nations, and that is not right, if we ourselves were a strong nation, we would not have suffered these unfair evil and dirty treatments, nor would we have been exploited by evil and dirty races. ”

Arthur. The Marquis of Balfort couldn't contain the anger in his heart, and asked angrily: "Your Majesty, is the British Empire such a country in your heart?" ”

Song Biao replied simply: "Not in my heart, but in the hearts of 400 million Chinese." The reason why I say this to you is to remind you not to treat you as a noble guest, and not to speak to me with the mentality that the British Empire is supreme and that other countries should serve you like a cheap dog. It seems to me that no country that pursues might is justice is really good, and that there should be equality between nations, big and small, just as all people, whether rich or rich, should be equal. Returning to the issue of China and Britain, if we want to achieve real and lasting peace and friendship and conclude a military alliance in the true sense of the word, Britain should first of all not attack China's idea, should not continue to vainly attempt to split and exploit China, and should take the initiative to return the territory it occupies in a friendly manner, still less should it vainly try to use those self-righteous ideas on the issue of Tibetan Province. I am very unceremonious to say that China will absolutely not allow Britain to get involved in the Tibetan Province issue now, and it is impossible for you to drive warships into Tibet Province, and from today onwards, I will surround and annihilate you with three times the number of troops you send, and kill all of them without leaving one, if you have the ability, you will send 10 million troops to the Asian continent to fight a decisive battle with us. ”

Speaking of which, Song Biao finally warned Arthur. The Marquis of Balfour said: "I am an emperor who can do what he says, so if you want to be angry with me, it is best to think about the consequences." ”

Arthur. The Marquis of Balfour had no choice but to forbear, but deep down in his heart, he wanted to immediately let the British Empire and Germany cease war, and send all the fleets and land forces of the British Empire to China to teach this arrogant and ignorant Chinese emperor a good lesson.

Song Biao didn't care about Arthur at all. The attitude of the Marquis of Balfour continued to leave no room for answering: "I don't want to clarify the question of Hong Kong and Tibetan Province, do you want to wait until after the war to continue to dominate the territory of China as a victorious power?" You can go back and convey my words to Prime Minister Asquith, now is the best time for us to solve this problem, under the hope of all the British people who want to end the war in Europe as a victor and defeat Germany, the problem of Hong Kong and Tibet can be easily solved, not too many people will raise objections, if it must be delayed until after the war, you Britain will be in a quarrel, and all the problems can only continue to drag on until the next political axe, or even to the extent that they are forced to start a war between China and Britain. Don't think that if you have a fleet, it's great, we don't have a fleet, but we have an army, and we can go all the way down Burma and India, and fight a war of attrition with Britain in India and Central Asia that will collapse your finances for a decade. For both countries, why bother? ”

Arthur. The Marquis of Balfour couldn't help but ask: "Your Majesty, are you going to challenge the British Empire for this trivial matter?" ”

Song Biao asked rhetorically, "Why not?" Do you think Britain is still the same as it was 20 years ago? Do you think China is still the same China during the Opium War 35 years ago? ”

Arthur. The Marquis de Balfour had nothing to say, he just really realized that the question of Hong Kong and Tibet had to be solved, and that it would be terrible for China to join the German-Austrian camp if it came into direct conflict with China on this issue.

Song Biao waited silently without speaking.

After a long time, Arthur. The Marquis de Belfort replied, "As Your Majesty has said, it may be time for us to solve these problems, and it is not very difficult to solve them now. ”

Song Biao replied: "Yes, as long as Britain decides to really live in peace with China, does not continue to hold this mentality of reaping interests in China, and can negotiate peacefully in everything and take a step back, China and Britain can truly cooperate." On the other hand, if Britain continues to bite the bullet for the sake of such a small benefit, China will not have no reason to abandon the Sino-French military alliance, and this is why I have resolutely kept my troops in the Apennine Peninsula and the Balkans, if I think that cooperation with Britain is the most stupid and cowardly decision, and the terms of the German-Austrian alliance remain the same, I will make a decision that is more favorable to China, and when that time comes, the target I want should be India, not Hong Kong and Tibet. In fact, the terms of the German-Austrian alliance are much better than you might expect, and as the emperor of China, I just don't want to be an emperor who doesn't keep his word, and I don't want China to become a country that doesn't keep its promises and alliances. I am not blackmailing you with the terms of the German-Austrian alliance, otherwise I would have told you a long time ago, instead of waiting until you came. Of course, you can also understand that I am a very insidious emperor, and I have been waiting for a situation that is more favorable to my country, for example, I have been using British and French funds and equipment to expand the production capacity of the military industry, expand the exploitation of resources, use this gap to clear the hidden dangers in the northwest and return to the army, and open a road to Central Asia, for example, we will gather more than two million main forces on the Sino-Russian border in the north, as long as we decide to join the alliance, we can force Russia to withdraw from the war within half a year, The Far Eastern Railway was used to move troops into Germany on a large scale, and to use Russian resources to bolster Germany's armaments. ”

After a pause, he added: "Therefore, I would like to ask the glorious British Empire for forgiveness, it is precisely because you like to exploit our interests in China, occupy our land, launch one or two opium wars at every turn, and burn the Old Summer Palace at every turn, and Germany at least did not do such a lack of morality, that we will maintain an unfavorable military deployment to Britain at this moment." Actually, you can tell Chancellor Asquith and Emperor Georges that an alliance with France was the most stupid decision of my life, and that if Germany had agreed to return the Jiaoao lease to China, the current international situation would have been completely different, and it is clear that the Kaiser was more upset about this matter than I was. ”

That's all that said, Arthur. What else can the Marquis of Belfort say?

Think about it for a long time, Arthur. The Marquis of Balfour could only admit: "Yes, as you said, China is indeed inherently supposed to belong to the camp of the German-Austrian alliance, but the relationship between Russia and France restricts China from cooperating with Britain." ”

Song Biao said: "World politics is like this, we sometimes cannot choose not only enemies, but also allies, of course, the friendship between France and Russia and the empire is deep-rooted, and we cannot tolerate German aggression against France for our own interests." Even if this war is over, we will still maintain a long-term alliance with France and Russia, and I really don't want to say anything about Britain, unless China and Britain can settle all the old scores, and we will not blame foreign countries for the suffering of the nation, otherwise, China and France will not conclude a real alliance, what Britain really needs to do is to recognize Tibet Province as the inherent territory of the empire, and take the initiative to return Hong Kong to China in advance with the consideration of the long-term friendship between China and Britain and the people, and this is enough. Therefore, we should try our best to improve bilateral relations under the condition of acknowledging the reality, there are no eternal friends in world politics, but there are no eternal enemies, Britain is the world's largest exporter of capital, but also the most prosperous trading country, and China is a country in urgent need of development, as long as Britain does not continue to be so greedy, and China does not blame foreign countries too much for its national responsibility, then it is completely normal, even very friendly cooperation. ”

Song Biao's words were both true and false, because China's industry was not enough to support an alliance with Germany and Austria in 1912, and if the First World War could be delayed until the outbreak of 1920, the situation might be better, but China still lacked a navy to confront the Japanese, and the coastal industry was likely to be wiped out by the British, Chinese, and Australian forces.

If China's industrial level is a little better and its naval strength is stronger, then it can really form an alliance with Germany and Austria and unite to attack Russia first, and then sweep through Asia and solve Europe.

Song Biao's choice to form an alliance with France against his will can only be said to pin his hopes on World War II, hoping that China at that time would have enough strength to freely choose its allies, kill the Yueben Navy in the most favorable way, and seize Central Asia and West Asia as the resources of the empire.

It was undoubtedly a rather unruly method for him to negotiate with Britain by first being ruthless and then relenting, and then maintaining a posture of extortion and extortion, because even if he could solve the problems of Hong Kong and Tibetan Province, and even if he could achieve more fruitful gains during this period, after the end of World War I, China and Britain would engage in a long-term confrontation.

It's just that if it is not so, it is impossible to force the British Empire, which is conceited and arrogant, to make major concessions to China, and if you only hope to recover Hong Kong from Britain through normal negotiations and solve the Tibetan problem, that is basically the most stupid idea, Churchill said that the country, without war, do not want to take anything from the British Empire.

Yes, then through the threat of war.

Considering that Britain adjusted its posture after World War I and re-implemented its policy of suppression and balance against France, there would certainly be a reason for China and France to form a long-term alliance against Britain, and Song Biao was actually not worried that the post-war order would be controlled by Britain, so that both China and France were severely suppressed by Britain.

(To be continued)