I have read the news reports over and over again, and I have gained great benefits from the war at very little cost, and in doing so, I have become a world power, and this is a new China compared to the past.

A gentleman next to me said to me, "Son, you can be proud because we live in a great time." ”

I feel the same way.

We are overjoyed by the increase in China's national strength, and we are living in a great era.

The president, on the other hand, is the leader and protector of this great era.

―――――― NHK Radio Documentary "The Century of Reflections" Part 3 [History of the Chinese League] (1921-1931)

――――――――――

With the passing of Kolchak, the national political axe finally ended the last foreign armed conflict.

The end of the war was a joy for the people of the people, because it meant that their families who served in the military would not be harmed by the war.

As for how Kolchak died and why he died, the general population is not interested in knowing.

With the end of the conflict in Irkutsk, even Lake Baikal was included in China's sphere of influence, and this was the only thing they were interested in.

Of course, the expansion of the sphere of influence to Lake Baikal by the national government axe also made Soviet Russia, Britain and the United States very angry.

However, because Kolchak destroyed the bridges and tunnels of the Trans-Siberian Railway during his march, Soviet Russia was unable to reach into central Siberia and the Far East in a short period of time. As for the Anglo-American? Let the Ministry of Foreign Affairs go and fight with them.

Anyway, what fell into Yan Guang's mouth, even if he used a crowbar to pry, he didn't want to take it out.

However, at the same time as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Britain and the United States, Gu Weijun was also talking with the British about building the Persian Railway. Because of the relationship between the national social axe and the millions worth of ordnance, the Ekazar dynasty, which was bribed by benefits, has agreed to the request of the national social axe to build a railway in Persia―――――― anyway, this kind of thing has long been accustomed to the Persians.

It's just that although Persia is not a British protectorate, there is no doubt that Persia is under the control of the British, so no matter what the national government wants to do, it will eventually have to be discussed with the British.

Although the contradictions between Britain and the national government are very deep because of the Kolchak incident, diplomacy has always been one yard and the same, so even if Britain and China are in conflict in the north, the two sides still sit down and talk.

The British can still understand the reason for building a railway in Persia.

But given China's greed for land, the British still had some reluctance.

After all, even if Central Asia, West Asia or something is concerned, if Iran is also taken by China, then China's border will be bordered by India. The loss of India was something that Britain could never accept―――――― although in 19 years, Afghanistan, the graveyard of empires, had defeated the British colonizers and completely freed Afghanistan from the British covering.

Faced with the doubts of the British, Gu Weijun quickly made it clear that China had no interest in Persia and was willing to sign various treaties with the British as guarantees.

In short, if I can build a railway in Persia to Iraq.

In the face of Gu Weijun's sincere attitude, Britain finally compromised, but at the same time as compromise, Britain also put forward many conditions.

For example, it is not allowed to garrison troops in Persia (Gu Weijun: I didn't think about it. No treaties were to be signed with the Kingdom of Persia, etc., but above all, while maintaining the present scope, the Persian Axe was not allowed to expand further into Russia.

With the continuous expansion of the national social and political axe to the Siberian region, the British Whitehall has begun to worry about whether Chinese will take advantage of the great opportunity of Russia's weakness to completely annex Siberia―――――― if Siberia can be annexed, the border between China and Russia can also be narrowed to the Ural Mountains and the Volga River, which can greatly reduce the pressure on China in the future.

The British did not believe that China had not thought about it in this way, knowing that if the border was pushed to the Urals, China would not have to confront the Russians on the long border.

It is true that the most unhappy thing in Britain now is the Bolshevik Soviet Russia in Russia, but this does not mean that the British like China. What's more, get rid of a Soviet Russia in exchange for a stronger China, as long as you think about the area after China + Upper Siberia, the British are chilled, not to mention that China still has a population of more than 400 million, even if you take Siberia, it can never be called vast and sparsely populated.

Therefore, limiting China's territorial expansion has become the consensus of the British.

So Gu Weijun is coming to the door now, which is more or less giving Britain a chance.

And because it is very clear that after the war, its own deterrence surname has dropped a lot, so in order to ensure the effectiveness ――――――of the treaty, Britain is also ready to pull France and the United States and China to sign a new treaty named the [Tehran Treaty].

In fact, it is indeed just as Britain thought, and after receiving the proposal of the British, France and the United States are indeed very willing to come forward and sign such a treaty with China together with Britain.

For the three countries, a China that has annexed Siberia is really terrible.

However, to the surprise of the four countries, these conditions they put forward were exactly in Gu Weijun's hands, and Gu Weijun even agreed to the four countries' conditions after just pretending to ask Yanjing.

Seriously, it is not that no one has considered the idea of annexing the whole of Siberia within the national social axe, such an idea is quite marketable within the national social axe, after all, the national border between China and Russia is too long, and the best way to reduce the pressure is to shorten the national border.

It's just that this proposal has been artificially suppressed by Yan Guang, so it has never been realized.

As for Iran (let's call it Iran, I've always been too unaccustomed to Persia and Persia) or something...

It may be very simple to take Iran, but the political axe of the country can't even take care of the newly occupied territory, and it is really not so idle to think about the problem of Iran, not to mention that neither the political axe nor the military want to irritate the British too much.

Even without Yan Guang's proposal, the political axe would not have wanted to build any Iranian railway.

This is not to say that Iranian railways are really useless, but that building a railway that would irritate the British would be a disadvantage in the eyes of the military and the political axe, given that Russia could not be a threat in the next decade.

Although Gu Weijun was very distressed when he signed the treaty.

However, the British were still keenly aware that Gu Weijun did not have any frustration because of the [Tehran Treaty].

"Could it be that the Chinese did not have the idea of fighting Siberia and Iran in the first place?"

The British diplomat sitting in front of Gu Weijun thought so, just thinking about the greed that China has shown for other lands in the past few years, and the diplomat shook his head with a wry smile.

"Sure enough, I'm thinking too much..."

In any case, in the end, under the witness of France and the United States, Gu Weijun still signed the [Tehran Treaty] with the British in Tehran, but except for one treaty that allowed China to build railways in Iran, the remaining few articles had almost nothing to do with Iran, and such a treaty is rare in world history.

But it's nothing, after all, China has no desire to covet Iran in the first place, or at least not yet. When the news of the signing of the treaty was transmitted back to China, it did not cause any waves in China.

After all, Iran really had nothing to do with China in the past, and more than 90% of the people in the country did not even know where Iran was.

In any case, since the treaty has been signed, the matter is over.

At the same time that the treaty was signed, the garrisons in Iraq and the Caucasus also sent into Iranian territory millions worth of ordnance, which were intended to be sent to Iran.

The Iranians who got the weapons were very excited, and it is no wonder that although the value of this batch of weapons has been somewhat depreciated because it is second-hand, it is still very valuable to Iran because it is a standard German-style weapon, and the number is enough to arm several divisions.

A little more than a month later, the construction team that built Baghdad in Iraq sent a team into Iranian territory to begin preliminary exploration work.

At the same time, under the escort of a division of the Lanzhou Military Region, more than 1,000 tons of gold seized from Kolchak were successfully sent into the vault owned by the political axe. It's just that considering the problem of gold prices, the current political axe has only taken out part of the gold to ease the financial pressure of the political axe.

But to be honest, when he was on the road, Yan Guang was really afraid that the more than 1,000 tons of gold would be robbed.

After all, the value of more than a thousand tons of gold will definitely make anyone's mouth water.

In the area around Lake Baikal, however, absolutely no force can threaten the IDF.

"Is this Kolchak's gold..."

When the troops escorting the gold arrived at the vault in Yanjing, Yan Guang, who had been waiting in front of the gate of the vault for a long time, looked at the gold unloaded from the truck and asked in a complicated tone.

No one can imagine what Yan Guang's mood was when more than a thousand tons of gold were piled up in front of Yan Guang.

If it weren't for the fact that there were countless Wehrmacht soldiers around, Yan Guang would even have a kind of ** that wanted to throw down the gold and roll around.

Fortunately, Yan Guang was able to restrain his emotions to some extent, so he just forcibly pounced on the **, coughed lightly twice and then spoke.

"Let's get all this gold to the vault..."

I didn't understand Yan Guang's inner struggle, at this time, the officers and soldiers of the Wehrmacht escorting the gold were all looking at Yan Guang with a look of adoration, and after hearing Yan Guang's order, the officers and soldiers all replied in their loudest voices.

"Understood!"

Just as the officers and soldiers were moving, an accountant in charge of statistics also walked in front of Yan Guang.

"President, the amount of gold has been counted."

"Oh? How much? ”

The accountant replied after looking at the form in his hand.

"That's 1135 tons, or 320 million pounds..."

"Thirty billion?"

"That's right..."

The accountant nodded.

"That's 1.2 billion more than last year's fiscal revenue..."

"In that case, it's a bumper harvest..."

Saying that, Yan Guang also followed the team into the vault.

This huge vault, which is enough to hold more than 1,000 tons of gold, began to be built after Yan Guang stared at Kolchak's more than 1,000 tons of gold, and the entire vault was built of reinforced concrete.

It's just that when it was first designed, this vault could hold all 1,600 tons of gold, but now it has only more than 1,100 tons, making this vault seem much empty.

"But it can't be helped, forget it, it's good to be able to get so much."

In addition, the more than 500 tons of gold that were spent were also taken out by Kolchak to buy weapons and other materials, and Yan Guang's heart was somewhat more comfortable when he thought about it.

Yan Guang stood in the vault for several hours, and waited until all the gold had been sent into the vault before Yan Guang walked out of the vault.

Of course, before leaving, Yan Guang still took out a gold bar from the stacked gold to show comfort, although the weight of this gold bar has not been carefully weighed, but it is about 20 kilograms.

And although many people saw Yan Guang's move, in the end, all of these people looked like they didn't see anything.

Although a 20-kilogram gold bar is definitely worth a lot, for everyone, what does it mean for Yan Guang to take a gold bar when he leaves?

When Yan Guang and his party left the vault, the door of the vault was slammed shut by the guarded soldiers. From now on, the number of troops guarding the vault and its surroundings will reach more than 2,000 men per regiment, and the level of guard will be the same as that of a national museum.

And in order to prevent the gold in the vault from being stolen by some people like Yan Guang, from the moment the door of the vault was closed, all doors opened required Yan Guang's edict.

――――――――――

After the Kolchak and Iranian railways were settled, the year 1921 was quickly rolled on.

A lot has happened in the past year.

The Kolchak affair is one and the same as the Iranian Railway, and the territory occupied during the European war has also been declared to be the legitimate territory of China. That is, the kind that is not going to be returned.

At the same time, because the land area has changed too much, two military regions have also been set up on the basis of the original seven military regions. The Kazakh Military District, which governs the whole of Central Asia, and the Caucasus, which governs the southern Volga River, the Caucasus and Mesopotamia, respectively.

The original 121 divisions of the army have also undergone great changes, and after the mobilization of troops has been abolished, 44 new cavalry, infantry, and artillery divisions have been established, bringing the total strength of the army to 165 divisions and nearly 2 million troops.

Of course, after counting the number of the navy and the air force, the entire national defense force still easily exceeded 2.5 million, after all, the navy is more or less a very large branch of the army, not to mention that the current air force is also booming.

With the addition of four armies, the current Wehrmacht is now the world's largest in terms of numbers. It's just that the huge number of people has also brought considerable pressure on military spending, especially after almost ten years, many equipment surnames have begun to fall behind, and it has also reached a new round of redressing period...

The combination of various reasons has also put a lot of pressure on the finances of the political axe.

Moreover, in the newly occupied areas, there were often sporadic revolts, although because the newly occupied areas were all large and sparsely populated, so the revolts did not become large-scale, but they still brought unnecessary financial pressure.

Fortunately, with more than 1,000 tons of gold contributed by Kolchak, the financial situation of the political axe is quite good.

However, although the end of the war brought a large amount of land to China, because of the end of the war, China could not make war profits as it did in the past.

How to say it, although the war ended at the end of 18 years, China's war money has been paid until 20 years, no way, who said that there was such a big wronged person as Kolchak at that time.

However, by the time the major conflicts around the world had ended, the profits of domestic companies and factories, which had been making their fortune from the war, began to decline sharply.

Fortunately, although the external demand began to decrease at this time, after nearly a decade of development, the domestic demand has increased significantly, and the political axe has been investing heavily in infrastructure (not real estate, but roads, railways, drainage systems and other aspects, etc.), so the domestic GDP growth rate has been maintained at about 10%, which also makes Britain and France and other countries jealous of the heavy losses caused by the war.

That is, in the midst of the jealousy of Britain, France, and the United States, the Washington Naval Treaty on the limitation of naval armaments was held in Washington, D.C., the United States.

The reason for this meeting was that during World War I, the naval powers designed battleships of greater size and firepower, with the caliber of the main guns rising to 16 to 18 inches. Due to the extremely high cost of construction and maintenance of battleships, this costly arms race obviously became a heavy financial burden after the end of the war, plus the lessons of the European war, etc...

Unlike history, the only major countries that signed the [Washington Naval Treaty] in history were Britain, France, the United States, and Italy, so in history the [Washington Naval Treaty] was also known as the "Five Powers on the Limitation of Naval Armaments Treaty", but this time, due to China's participation, the participating countries of the treaty changed from five countries to six countries...

Because this treaty is related to world peace in the next ten years, although the preparatory work for the treaty has been carried out in 21 years, it was not until the end of 21 years that the Chinese delegation arrived in Washington.

"This is America..."

Unlike Yan Guang, who was dizzy as soon as he took the boat, Xu Shichang, who was nearly seventy years old, only did stretching exercises after getting off the boat, and the whole person still looked very energetic.

Since the other five countries of the Washington Treaty did not send their principal leaders to participate as they did during the Versailles Treaty, the delegation that negotiated and signed the Washington Treaty was mainly led by Xu Shichang, who was the premier of the State Council, and Gu Weijun, the foreign minister, was the deputy leader to assist Xu Shichang in his work in Washington.

Although Xu Shichang is almost seventy years old, Yan Guang still trusts him very much, not to mention that Gu Weijun is in charge of assisting on the side, so Yan Guang is very relieved about this lineup.

Just when Xu Shichang and other delegates who had never been to the United States were looking at the surrounding scenery very curiously at the port, a group of American officials had already walked over, and one of the officials who took the lead walked in front of Xu Shichang and held his hand.

"Mr. Xu, welcome to the United States..."

"Where..."

Naturally, these Americans were in charge of greeting the delegations of the other five countries, but because of the distance, the delegations of the other four countries had already arrived in Washington one after another, and only the Chinese delegation was the last to arrive in Washington because it was the farthest away.

(Britain, France, and Italy only need to cross the Atlantic, while Ben and China need to cross the Indian Ocean and then cross the Panama Canal...) ）

After getting into a Ford Model T with Gu Weijun, Xu Shichang found that the eyes of the American people around him seemed to be looking at his group with a curious gaze.

It is no wonder that although China has now become one of the world's great powers, discrimination against China in the United States is still deep-rooted because of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

After all, it has only been three years since the Chinese Exclusion Act was lifted, and three years have not been able to make people forget many things, and it will take at least a generation for the United States or other white countries to remove discrimination against China.

"Is it a generation?" Xu Shichang shook his head. Maybe I can't wait for that day..."

After all, Xu Shichang is almost seventy years old, and it will take at least ten years for a generation.

Although a person of Xu Shichang's status can be called pampered in ordinary times, the average life expectancy of people in this era is not as good as that of future generations, not to mention that there are so many [terminal diseases] in this era, so Xu Shichang does not dare to think that he can live to be 90 years old no matter what...

However, in fact, Xu Shichang lived until 39 years...

Although I didn't live to be 90 years old, I was in my 80s...

――――――――――

Since the Washington Treaty will set the world for the next decade or so, the six participating countries will have to carefully consider the content of the treaty. It is also for this reason that the six countries arrived in Washington early, in order to conduct detailed discussions before the treaty was signed, so as to arrive at a treaty that satisfies all parties.

After all, Britain and France are tired of the arms race or something, and wars like the European war are actively avoided by all countries in the world.

Therefore, after Xu Shichang arrived in Washington, except for a few banquets in the first few days, the rest of the time the six countries began endless talks.

And this was the beginning of the treaty...

(To be continued)