The summer of 1900 was fast approaching, and tensions between the two largest countries in the northern hemisphere, the Chinese Empire and the Tsarist Empire, were rising.

This year, politicians and military experts around the world have focused on the Boer War and the U.S.-Philippine War, and the rest of their attention has shifted to the escalating border friction between China and Russia.

Russia's Trans-Siberian Railway project, which spans the east and west nodes of the Eurasian continent, has long been regarded by European and American powers as a symbol of Russia's expansion into the Far East. In all kinds of lobbying in front of the European and American powers, Tsarist Russia mainly exaggerated the theory of the Yellow Peril and the theory of the China threat, and its purpose was to create the advantage of international public opinion necessary for a war against China.

Although Russia's popularity on the European continent is very poor, all countries on the continent are under the strong deterrent power of Russia's millions of troops, and the white European world does not want to see the rise of the yellow race in the East. Previously, in order to consume Russia's national strength, European countries have been secretly supporting the Ottoman Turkish Empire in its war against Russia, and have used the Ottoman Empire to successfully consume Russia's national strength for centuries. Now, in order to divert Russia's troubles to the east, the countries of the European continent have repeated their old tricks, instigating China and Russia to go to war and taking the opportunity to consume Russia's national strength to reduce Russia's threat to the European continent and deplete China's national strength, so that the European powers can make a comeback and finally bring China back into their colonial market.

It can be said that none of the European powers are well-intentioned.

On 18 June, Russian Tsar Nicholas II visited Paris, and the two sides further signed a series of secret agreements in private, including further strengthening the military alliance with France, extending the Russian-French alliance from Europe to Asia, and maintaining a unified stance on the China issue. and the French political axe agreed to contain the [***] forces of the League on the German-French border and the Austrian-French border to relieve the military pressure of the Central Powers on Russia.

During the Russian Emperor's visit to France, the French government forgave some of Russia's debts due. At the same time, the French government again lent Russia 500 million francs, equivalent to 20 million pounds, and encouraged French nationals to buy Russian government bonds. Some big French capitalists got the news, and the French political axe and the Russian side assured them that investing in Russian government bonds would be profitable. Some speculators, bankers, and a large number of French people who believed that China would lose the Sino-Russian war bought Russian government bonds.

Thus, shortly after Nicholas II's visit to Paris, Russia received a war debt of up to 30 million pounds from the French political axe and the French business community.

Subsequently, Nicholas II visited Berlin, Germany, to meet with his cousin, Kaiser Wilhelm II. The two sides also reached a series of agreements, such as Russia's promise to reduce the number of troops stationed in the border areas with Germany and Austria-Hungary and reduce the deployment of heavy weapons. In its stance on China, Russia demanded that the German colonies in the Far East could supply the Russian navy with coal in wartime.

By this time, Germany had turned its attention to the sea, seeing Britain as a formidable enemy, and thus relations between Germany and Russia had been greatly eased. In particular, Russia promised to reduce its garrison and reduce heavy weapons in the Polish region, which made Germany very happy. Because the Russian army on the Polish border was only 180 miles from Berlin, the main reason why Germany saw Russia as an enemy was because if the Russian army won a battle in East Prussia, it could come straight to Berlin. Now that Russia is on the offensive in the Far East, it is a great thing for Germany's security to reduce its presence in Poland.

To Nicholas II's proposal, Kaiser Wilhelm II agreed. In return, Kaiser Wilhelm II offered the German overseas possessions to supply the Russian navy, and the Reichsbank lent Russia 20 million pounds sterling as Russia's war debt.

Thus, by the time Nicholas II returned to Moscow, he had raised £50 million for Russia in the war effort, strengthened its military alliance with France, and stabilized relations with Germany and the Central Powers. Especially the latter, the Allies pinned down a large number of Russian troops on the Russian border, and after improving relations, the Russian army could send 800,000 elites from Europe to the Far East.

In Eastern Europe and Western Asia, the greatest enemy of the Tsarist political axe was the Ottoman Turkish Empire. However, in 1896, the Ottoman Empire broke out a massacre against the Armenians, and after being isolated by the world, the Ottoman Empire fell into an international silver crisis and could not extricate itself. Hamid II read the movement of the reign of Abdul? Hamid II successively deposed the prime minister, dissolved parliament, suppressed public opinion, and caused trouble within the empire. Under these circumstances, the Ottoman Empire was not capable of threatening Russia, so the Russian War Ministry believed that 200,000 elite troops could be transferred from Western Asia to the Far East.

In this way, after a series of plans, the Tsarist War Department could eventually send 1 million troops from Europe and West Asia to the Far East, plus 500,000 troops in the Far East and 300,000 troops in Central Asia, Tsarist Russia could mobilize 1.8 million troops to participate in the war against China.

The wartime plan of the Tsarist War Department was quickly approved by Nicholas II, and the Minister of Finance and Communications, Vitvet, was ordered to use the war treasury of 50 million pounds to step up the production of ordnance and munitions, and to reserve ammunition, food, medicine and other strategic materials.

Through a series of actions, the Tsarist Empire successively solved the sensitive issues of diplomacy, finance, and military mobilization that it was afraid of waging war, and actively prepared for the completion of the Trans-Siberian Railway.

Don't fight unprepared battles, this is also the established national policy that Wang Chenhao has always pursued.

In the face of the frequent actions of the Tsarist Russian Empire, Tang Shaoyi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Empire, visited Britain, France, Germany, and the United States at the behest of Wang Chenhao, and made a heavy diplomatic blow in response to the diplomatic offensive of Tsarist Russia.

In view of the military alliance between Tsarist Russia and France, Tang Shaoyi's first purpose in visiting Britain was to promote a military alliance between the Chinese Empire and Britain in order to contain the Franco-Russian alliance.

After Tang Shaoyi arrived in London, he successively met with the British Foreign Minister, the 5th Marquess of Lansdowne, the Secretary of the Admiralty, and the Admiral Frederick? William? Sir Richards and other key British officials met to discuss and negotiate a feasible name for a military alliance between China and Britain.

The British political axe believes that the Russian-French military alliance treaty is likely to have a chain effect in future Sino-Russian military conflicts and wars, and France may intervene in the Sino-Russian war. For the strategic purpose of confronting France and Russia, Landsdoorn, as British Foreign Secretary, agreed in principle to the question of the Chinese Empire's desire to establish a Sino-British military alliance.

Subsequently, the British Admiralty, Marshal Frederick, who had been newly promoted to the rank of Admiral, after talking with Tang Shaoyi, believed that the naval strength of the Chinese Empire was insufficient to deal with the threat of the union of the Imperial Russian Navy and the French Navy. In his reports to the Naval Committee and the House of Lords, he said that Britain's greatest enemies at present are still France and Russia, and that it is in line with Britain's current national policy and national strategy to unite and support the Chinese Empire to jointly deal with the Russian-French Entente.

More than half of the members of the House of Lords were persuaded to support a military alliance between China and Britain to use China against Russia and France in the Far East.

However, some members of the British House of Lords have different views on the issue of the Sino-British alliance. Some members of parliament still pursued the traditional policy of glorious isolation, and Britain should not be involved in the war of the Allies. Others believe that China is developing too fast, and that once China and Britain form an alliance, it will be China that will benefit, and Britain will thus cultivate a future powerful enemy similar to the United States.

As a result, there were different opinions in the British Parliament, and the question of the alliance was postponed again and again. In the subsequent talks with British Prime Minister Salisbury, Tang Shaoyi gave many examples to prove that the Chinese Empire would not become an enemy of Britain, but would be a good helper of Britain. For example, the Chinese Empire could block and weaken the expansion of Tsarist Russia in the Far East, and pinch Russia with Britain on the issue of Afghanistan in Central Asia. In Southeast Asia, he worked with Britain to suppress French colonial expansion. On the South African issue, the Chinese Empire could provide the British Empire with much-needed food, medicine, and international public opinion support, and could even send naval hospital ships to help the British treat the sick and wounded.

After a series of promises, Tang Shaoyi pointed out that the Russian-French military alliance posed a great threat to the Chinese Empire, and that if Russia and France attacked simultaneously from the north, south, east and west, the existing military and financial resources of the Chinese Empire would not be enough to resist their attack.

Tang Shaoyi deliberately showed weakness militarily, saying that the Chinese Empire was still a poor agricultural country, and supporting the existing million troops was already the limit, and it was reluctant to deal with the Tsarist Russian Empire, and once France entered the war, the Chinese Emperor [***] team might hold out for less than three months, and then Britain's interests in China would not be guaranteed, and the division of China between Russia and France would not give Britain benefits.

Tang Shaoyi's show of weakness made Salisbury feel at ease with China, and at the same time understood that if France and Russia went to war against China at the same time, then the chances of the Chinese empire winning were very low. Since both France and Russia were enemies of Britain, Salisbury understood that if France and Russia were victorious, then the interests in China would be monopolized by France and Russia.

Eventually, Salisbury was persuaded by Tang Shaoyi, and over the next three days, Salisbury persuaded other opposition members of the British Parliament to finally agree to form a military alliance with the Chinese Empire.

Although the British Parliament reluctantly agreed to an alliance with the Chinese Empire, the British political axe was still very wary of the Chinese Empire. At that time, Wang Chenhao's Beiyang political axe abolished most of the unequal treaties, and even dealt a severe blow to Britain on the opium issue, causing great damage to British interests in China, and this influence caused British political axe to be very unhappy. Many British hawks hoped that after the defeat of the Chinese Empire and Russia, British influence would return to China and reintegrate China into the British colonial market system.

As a result, the British political axe made a compromise decision. That is, it promised to form a military alliance with the Chinese Empire, but for the sake of Britain's own interests, the alliance lasted only two years.

The British political axe made this decision mainly to judge that a war between China and Russia would break out in the next two years, and Britain only needed to prevent France from intervening in the war, so that both China and Russia could lose the war. The British political axe believes that the war between China and Russia will not last long, and two years is enough.

Tang Shaoyi felt a little disappointed with this result, but when Wang Chenhao learned about it, he was overjoyed. Wang Chenhao knew that in order to help Yueben fight against Russia and prevent France from intervening in the war, Britain only formed a five-year alliance with Yueben. At that time, Britain also did not want to give too much support to the capital to prevent it from becoming bigger. It was precisely because there was only a two-year alliance that after fighting with Russia for more than a year, when Britain won a great military victory, Britain did not renew the treaty, which caused him to fear that if he continued to fight beyond the alliance period, France would probably enter the war after losing the British alliance. Therefore, Ben accepted mediation to end the war.

At that time, the British used a five-year alliance to restrain the capital, prevent Russia from being excessively weakened, and make the capital bigger, and this British policy successfully prevented Russia's eastward expansion and expansion.

Now, it is only natural that the British will adopt this strategy towards China. However, the Chinese Empire was far more powerful than the original one, so the British were afraid that five years would be too long to control China, so they limited it to two years. Of course, if there is no war between China and Russia in two years, then Britain will extend it for another two years, and so on.

Wang Chenhao then telegraphed to Tang Shaoyi that the two-year military alliance was already a great victory, and he made great contributions, which made Tang Shaoyi feel better.

After receiving Wang Chenhao's will, Tang Shaoyi, on behalf of the Chinese Empire, and Lansdowne, on behalf of the British Axe, signed the "Treaty of Alliance between the Chinese Empire and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and India" in London, England, which stipulates that the two contracting parties recognize each other's rights to protect their respective interests in the world. When one of the High Contracting Parties fights against a third State in order to protect its own interests, the other Party shall observe strict neutrality; In the event that one of the High Contracting Parties is attacked by two or more States, the other Party shall provide military assistance and fight together. The treaty is valid for 2 years.

The secret clause also stipulates that the navies of the two countries should cooperate in their actions to maintain superiority in the waters of the Far East. The Sino-British alliance was a military offensive and defensive alliance against Russia.

After the Sino-British alliance was concluded, it immediately aroused strong reactions from Europe and the United States. First and foremost are Russia and France. Russia's naval power in the Far East was inferior to that of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and if the British Navy intervened, the Russian Navy's strategic plan to maintain a draw would face failure. For France, the purpose of the Sino-British alliance was to prevent France from intervening in the Sino-Russian war. Originally, the French political axe also planned to quietly take a piece of the pie in southern China during the Sino-Russian war, or coerce China to sign some treaties to cede profits to France in exchange for France not to enter the war. But now that the Sino-British alliance has been established, China is not afraid of the French military threat.

The Russian side was so annoyed that the French political axe suddenly ceased to explicitly intervene in the war during the subsequent Franco-Russian dialogue, and Nichol II was furious about it, vowing to let the nosy English eat in the future.

In the following week, Tang Shaoyi visited France and Germany one after another, and held dialogues and negotiations with Germany and France. Tang Shaoyi's purpose is nothing more than to keep these two European powers neutral in the future Sino-Russian conflict. Due to the conclusion of the Sino-British alliance, France will naturally no longer clamoring for intervention. However, Germany did not buy it, at this time Germany and Britain were very unhappy on the South African issue, and after seeing the alliance between China and Britain, Germany was very unhappy, so for Tang Shaoyi's request, the German political axe still said that it would provide help to the Russian Navy within its ability. However, the German political axe has denied intervening in the Sino-Russian conflict, because Germany is also afraid of Britain's strong maritime power.

After a visit to Europe, Tang Shaoyi then came to the United States. Although the US political axe and the Chinese empire had a very unpleasant quarrel over the Panama issue, the two countries still maintained close cooperation on the Philippine issue. More than 200,000 U.S. troops fought in the Philippines and needed to rely on the support of the Chinese Empire's industrial base in the Pearl River Delta. The US military's ammunition, food, medicine, coal, and other supplies imported from China can save one-third of the cost than those shipped from the mainland, and the total cost savings are as high as $200 million, and the US-Philippine war has been fought for almost three years and has not yet wiped out the Philippine army, so the US Department of Defense still has to rely on China on the premise that it is not sure when the US-Philippine war will end.

Of course, Wang Chenhao did not think that the United States would support Russia, and he asked Tang Shaoyi to visit the United States just by the way. Because Wang Chenhao hoped that Tang Shaoyi would go to the United States to transport back the gold from the Bank of America's reserves, Wang Chenhao was ready to move the headquarters of the Bank of America to Shanghai.

Wang Chenhao's Bank of America had 6,000 tons of gold reserves, of which 3,400 tons were in Tianjin, most of which were the gold of the Imperial Bank, that is, the national gold reserves of the Chinese Empire. After Wang Chenhao became emperor, he decided to separate his personal assets from those of the state, so most of Tianjin's gold reserves were shipped back to the Yanjing Imperial Bank. Wang Chenhao's gold reserves in New York reached 2,400 tons, and Wang Chenhao felt unsafe in the United States, so he shipped the gold back to China for storage.

In addition, Tang Shaoyi has another task, that is, to continue to enclose land in the United States.

Since Wang Chenhao last sold oil in East Texas, the Americans have frantically broken into Texas and searched for oil everywhere. The price of Wang Chenhao's oil shares in the Rockefeller consortium has risen to $200 million, and considering that the Rockefeller consortium is about to face the antitrust law sanctions imposed by the US political axe, the Rockefeller trust will be broken up and the stock price will plummet, so Wang Chenhao ordered Tang Shaoyi to sell the shares he holds first, and then buy them back when the shares of the Rockefeller consortium fall to the bottom a few years later, so that Wang Chenhao can make tens of millions of dollars more from it.

After Tang Shaoyi arrived in the United States, he quickly held talks with Rockefeller Jr. and sold the $200 million in shares held by Wang Chenhao. At this time, Rockefeller oil stocks were still rising, and no one knew that Rockefeller oil stocks would fall sharply, including Rockefeller Jr.

Rockefeller Jr. asked Tang Shaoyi why Wang Chenhao wanted to sell the stocks, and Tang Shaoyi said that the Chinese Empire was facing the threat of war from Russia, so as the emperor, Wang Chenhao needed money. Rockefeller Jr. felt justified, so he paid $200 million to buy Wang Chenhao's shares.

(To be continued)