Brian's brows furrowed, and he turned to Qiao Yu and asked, "What exactly is the further action that the young diplomat of the Patrol Envoy is referring to, is it possible that you want to help the Germans?" ”

"Hehe, Mr. Special Envoy, I am too worried, we are firmly on the side of the Entente, but you also know the situation of our country, especially the southwest has just experienced a war, it can be said that there is a lot of waste to be rebuilt, and the focus of investment will naturally change, but you can rest assured, I will try my best to ensure the supplies provided to the Entente!"

After listening to Qiao Yu's words, Brian immediately scolded in his heart, if he can believe you, it would be strange, this is a typical threat to the Entente with supplies, but now the Entente is eating this set, China's materials are absolutely indispensable to the Entente, and the mud-legged giant Russia also relies on China to transport arms, which makes the Entente more dependent on Qiao Yu's support.

No matter how good a diplomat is, he can't ignore reality, now it is Britain and France begging Qiao Yu, not Qiao Yu begging them, as long as you dare not hand over power, Qiao Yu has enough ways to make Britain and France suffer huge losses, cut off the supply of materials, and recruit back European labor, in short, Qiao Yu has a way to make them sink.

Brian also saw through that if you don't let go on the tariff issue, don't want to get support, this young man in front of him is not those stupid people in Beiyang, so Brian smiled: "Since the southwest insists on asking for the power to irrigate, I think this is negotiable, in order to avoid confusion, I suggest that the method of gradual transfer of power be adopted, and the time will be set at ten years, during this time we will help the southwest to cultivate talents, let you be familiar with the mode of tariff collection, and slowly increase the number of Chinese officials, how about any of you?" ”

Brian shamelessly resorted to delay, not only Qiao Yu didn't believe it, but even Gu Weijun didn't believe it, in another ten years, Europe would have ended long ago, and you would all be able to recover at that time, would you still give in, now is the time to take advantage of your illness and want your life, how can you retreat.

"Mr. Special Envoy, isn't it a bit too much for you to treat your allies with such a prevaricating attitude, and tariffs are a country and power, and there is no such thing as returning this part of the southwest, what we want to discuss is the entire tariff!"

Gu Weijun can be regarded as a lion opening his mouth at this time, directly asking for the country's tariff power, and Zhu Erdian on the side is not willing to let Bai Lian fight alone, so he also interjected: "Mr. Gu, in this war, Qiao Xunyue took the lead in reaching a cooperation intention with the Entente countries, and gave great help to the Entente countries, and it was this contribution that we agreed to talk about the issue of tariffs, as for the whole of China, it is inevitably a little inappropriate!" ”

"Mr. Zhu Erdian, since you are not willing to talk about the problems of the whole country, you can not discuss them, but the ten-year period is too long, the Chinese are not so stupid, one year is enough to train customs talents, this is the basis for our participation in the war, and it must not be changed!"

Qiao Yu knows that China does cultivate customs talents, but ten years is too nonsense, Britain and France are not a good thing, Britain also promised the Indians as long as they help them fight, they will give India the status of reading, but as soon as the war ended, the British immediately threw their promises out of the clouds, so it is best to completely control the tariff power in their own hands during the first war, only in this way can it be safe.

"Your Excellency, the customs personnel are very professional, one year is absolutely not good, I think it will take at least three years, and I hope that you will send 500,000 troops and 1.5 million laborers!"

Qiao Yu immediately shook his head, now the combined army of the three southwestern provinces is just over 100,000, how much energy does it take to recruit 500,000 troops, and it is simply an impossible task to send these people to Europe!

"Mr. Special Envoy, sending troops and laborers is not a casual talk, now the shipping route from the Far East to Europe has been extremely busy, we don't have that much capacity at all, and the army must be well trained, I absolutely do not allow the squadron [***] to be cannon fodder on the battlefield, we have made an estimate, we can send up to 80,000 soldiers, and the total number of laborers cannot exceed one million, and the Entente side does not have such a strong organizational ability!"

Sichuan is now developing rapidly in industry and is in urgent need of labor, although China has a large population, but it can't be sent to Europe casually, Brian was obviously not satisfied with the figures given by Qiao Yu, shrugged his shoulders and said: "Your Excellency, Europe is a big battlefield. A troop of less than 100,000 people is just the consumption of a campaign, and the problem cannot be solved at all, so you should show greater sincerity! ”

"Mr. Special Envoy, please pay attention to your wording, the tariff power is originally China's, we just take back what should belong to us, this is not an exchange, we send troops only based on international morality, only if you recognize your mistake first, we can talk about sending troops!"

Although both sides know that this is a transaction of human life for power, Gu Weijun has played the ability of diplomats to reverse black and white, this is not a transaction, but China's charity after the Entente admitted its mistake, and suddenly changed the surname of the incident, Brian was not willing to back down, but there was no other explanation, and suddenly the scene fell into embarrassment.

"Mr. Special Envoy, you have been tired all the way, take a rest for the time being, and then look at the great rivers and mountains of Sichuan, after you have rested, we will talk about this issue again, China has lost its tariff power for decades, I don't care about these few days!"

After Qiao Yu said this, Bai Lian was so angry that he almost vomited blood, you don't care about time, but I care, Europe is playing with its life, how can I afford to drag it out, but Bai Lian also knows that today's negotiations are here for the time being, and he really underestimated Sichuan's determination, and any delay will not work.

Briand really needs to care about time now, another more terrible and bloody war has broken out in the European theater, Britain and France concentrated a huge force of thirty-nine divisions to attack the Somme, this war was launched by Xia Fei, he wanted to attack the Somme line, force Germany to withdraw from the Russian front line and Verdun, relieve the pressure on other sides, and at the same time destroy a large number of German troops and break through the German defense.

After the Battle of Deland, Britain and France were more worried that Germany would once again attack the naval blockade, and it was unknown whether the seriously damaged British home fleet could stop the Germans, so it became the common aspiration of Britain and France to defeat Germany as soon as possible, and in the Battle of the Somme, the British invested more than two-thirds of their troops, which can be said to be a bloody investment.

Beginning on 24 June, Britain and France began to bombard the German defense line fiercely, and Lu Jianzhang and others, who were in Europe, also received the news of the outbreak of war.

Long Jiguang looked at the map and shook his head: "Lao Lu, I see that the British and French commanders are also becoming more and more clever, since they are preparing to break through the opponent's defense line, the most important thing is to surprise and attack them unprepared, they have been bombarding for a week, aren't they telling the Germans that they are going to start attacking!" ”

At first, Lu Jianzhang and others were also frightened by the cruelty of the European war, thousands of artillery pieces at every turn, hundreds of flying frames, and the shells were fired in tens of thousands, and every inch of land on the battlefield was ploughed again, and this momentum was really scary.

However, after seeing a lot, they also discovered the problem of rigid tactics of the British and French armies, which were completely reckless, and Zhang Xiaohuai felt the most deeply, "Two old men, it's no wonder that Britain and France, who let them not read Sun Tzu's Art of War!" ”

While chatting, Li Zongwu ran over in a panic and said breathlessly: "Three, the [***] team is going to be pulled down to the front line!" ”

Hearing the news, Lu Jianzhang and the others were immediately shocked, "Mr. Li, aren't you joking, aren't you going to undergo four months of training to adapt to the surname, it's only been a month, and the soldiers' physical fitness has not been adjusted at all, how can they participate in the war!" ”

Zhang Xiaohuai also said: "Mr. Li, you are not mistaken, now participating in the war is a joke with the lives of the brothers, I am resolutely opposed to it as the chief of staff, Qiao Shuai will never agree to do such a brutal thing!" ”

"Two, don't be in a hurry to refuse, take a look at today's battle report!" Saying this, Li Zongwu handed over a report to Lu Jianzhang's hands, and the big guy took a closer look, and his eyes suddenly widened.

"Mr. Li, this Englishman is a pig, why do more than 80,000 people die in a day?"

Zhang Xiaohuai was more calm, carefully looked at the battle report, and suddenly understood, the original Germans gathered a large number of Makqin machine guns, these machine guns became the reaper of life, the importance of machine guns or Germany learned from Sichuan, after the outbreak of World War I, machine guns are indeed very good weapons, on the battlefield of the Somme Germany concentrated nearly 2,000 heavy machine guns, at the end of the day, swept to more than 80,000 British and French soldiers, and suddenly the British forces were stretched, Now the high command is madly calling troops to the front to participate in the battle, and the strength of these two Chinese divisions has also been remembered by Britain and France.

"Mr. Sogo, this is something that the British can't bear and urgently needs reinforcements, but our military strength is limited and our training is insufficient, so it's really not an opportunity to participate in the war!"

"Commander Lu, I also know this, but the country is now talking about tariffs with Britain and France, at this time, if we can win a battle, how much support should we have for the country, the Chinese [***] team is not a coward, it is a combatable soldier, only in this way can we confidently recover our power."

Lu Jianzhang, Long Jiguang and Zhang Xiaohuai looked at each other, they also knew that this battle was fought for political purposes, but obviously this battle could not be fought, no matter how hard the troops were, as long as they could get back the lost rights and interests, it was enough, after arriving in Europe, they knew more clearly the meaning of the three words Chinese, no matter whether they died in battle, they could not weaken the prestige of China, and let people all over the world know that China is not just the sick man of East Asia!

"Mr. Li, since this is the case, we will prepare immediately, and within seven days, the [***] team will definitely be able to drive to the front line!"

(To be continued)