"Whew, strange, why is it so hot this year..."

"yes, isn't it only May? Why is it so hot?! ”

On a newly built new-style street in Yanjing, several vendors with carts and carts are setting up stalls in the stall area.

It's just that the summer is scorching, and although the hawkers have an umbrella on top of their heads, the hot weather still makes these hawkers a little unbearable.

"Forget it, I'll go buy a bottle of ice water and come back later, do you want to drink some too?"

Perhaps he couldn't stand such a hot summer, and after sitting in the stall for a while, a young vendor suddenly stood up and said.

The others nodded when they heard what the vendor said.

"Okay, you can go to the store and bring us some copies..."

Saying that, several vendors took out a few pennies from their pockets, and then handed them over to the young vendors one by one―――――― to be honest, they couldn't stand the weather now.

As for ice water or something, the price of ice water is still very low, and the so-called ice water is just well water with ice cubes, and it doesn't cost a lot of money at all.

But just as the young man was about to go to the store to buy some ice water to cool down, with the dime that his companions had given him, a carriage suddenly sped out of the corner of the street.

Fortunately, the streets were wide, and there were roads for carriages and cars, so when they saw the carriages, the young men quickly hid in the sidewalks and avoided the galloping carriages.

It's just..."This carriage looks like it's from the British Embassy, right?" ”

When the carriage sped past him, he still stood there thinking.

"It's strange, I remember that there should have been a car at the British Embassy, but suddenly it used a horse-drawn carriage. Also, this carriage seems to be for the ambassador, and the direction of travel seems to be from the presidential palace, and this carriage seems to be in a hurry, could it be something big?! ”

Thinking like this, this young man, who was already shorter than ordinary people, suddenly became much sharper.

However, the most important thing at the moment was to buy ice water for his companions, so after a short pause on the sidewalk, the youth turned back to the store.

And on the galloping carriage, Zhu Erdian, who was still serving as the British ambassador to China, was also thinking hard with his eyes closed.

Just as the young "trader" just thought, Zhu Erdian's trip was indeed going to the presidential palace, and he did have important things―――――― as for why he took the carriage instead of the car, it was just because the embassy's car suddenly broke down, so he had to pull the carriage out again, which had been useless for many years.

But not to mention, after getting back into the carriage, looking at the very familiar decoration in the carriage, Zhu Erdian really felt a little nostalgic.

As for the purpose of Zhu Erdian's trip, it is actually very simple, that is, the matter of China sending troops to Europe... It was the middle of May 1915, and although the war in Europe had been going on for almost a year, the war had no intention of stopping, and as the war progressed, the losses of both sides were increasing.

On the Western Front, the earliest Battle of the Marne caused heavy losses to the Anglo-French and German armies, in which the Anglo-French and German armies invested a huge force of 1.5 million men, and after the battle, both sides lost nearly 500,000 men.

After the defeat at the Battle of the Marne, the Germans switched to strategic defense and entrenched themselves on the Anna line, and the battle began to evolve into positional warfare. Then, a campaign to the sea broke out, and the Anglo-French forces were defeated. The Germans succeeded in seizing vast territories in northeastern France, but were never able to cut off the British and French transport lines. The Flemish battle ensued, but neither side achieved significant results, and the battle entered a stalemate.

In the spring of 1915, the Anglo-French forces took advantage of the concentration of the main German forces on the eastern front and launched two offensives at Shambany and Adwa. However, due to the old tactics and the lack of strong firepower, the Germans successfully resisted, and their own side suffered heavy casualties. In April of that year, the Germans counterattacked and used poison gas for the first time, adding to the heavy losses on both sides.

On the Eastern Front, the Russian army took advantage of the fact that the German army was concentrating its forces on the Western Front at the beginning of the war and launched an offensive against the German army on the Eastern Front. In late August, the Russian army entered East Prussia and forced itself into the heart of Germany, and the German army was forced to transfer troops back from the Western Front. German reinforcements moved quickly, soon reaching the Eastern Front and eliminating tens of thousands of Russian troops near the Komsin Forest, bringing the development of the war on the Eastern Front under German control. On September 11, the Russian First Army was defeated again, and the Germans advanced into Russian territory, with a total loss of more than 250,000 Russian troops. On the southern front, the Russians began with repeated defeats of the Austro-Hungarian army in Galicia and Bukovina, but Germany then provided support to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and by mid-December the fighting on the Eastern Front was also in a stalemate.

In 1915, because of the defeat of the Battle of the Marne on the Western Front, the German army decided to concentrate its forces to defeat Russia and force Russia to cease the war, so as to end the war on the Eastern Front and avoid continuing to fall into the dilemma of fighting on two fronts, and the Eastern Front became the main battlefield.

And now, that is, in May, the German-Austrian army has attacked the Russian army in two ways with 18 divisions and more than 2,000 artillery pieces, planning to force the Russian army into the "Polish pocket" and annihilate it. Although the battle has only just begun, many can already imagine how heavy the casualties will be in the end.

At the same time, at the beginning of 1915, the British and French forces also launched the Battle of the Dardanelles in the Balkan Theater, intending to open up the Dardanelles Strait closed by the Central Powers―――――― the closure of the Dardanelles Strait, which was actually equivalent to separating Russia from the Entente, and Turkey's entry into the war changed the pattern of the war to some extent.

Russia, already shaken by the defeat of 1914, was now almost completely cut off from the supplies from France and Britain, which were the material basis on which Russia relied for its protracted war.

However, in the Battle of Dardanelles, the Anglo-French forces made many undeserved mistakes, such as when the first troops arrived at Mudros Bay on the island of Lemnos, the British detachment was found to be unloaded, and the artillery and ammunition were not on the same ship. On 25 March, the detachment had to go to Alexandria, Egypt, where it was reloaded for battle, loading men, guns, ammunition, etc., on the same ship. This was delayed for a month, and at the same time, the Turks, fully alert to the impending landing, began to refine their defensive deployments. L. von Zanders of the German army was in charge of the overall command, and he formed a defensive system on the peninsula with about 60,000 defenders.

In the subsequent landing battle, the British and French forces made many mistakes again, and finally when the British and French troops landed, the Turkish army surrounded the small British beachhead with a trench line, and the British found that they were caught in the trench war that had appeared on the Western Front, and in this trench battle, they did not have enough heavy fire support... To this day, although the Battle of Dardanelles is still going on, the defeat of this battle is already predictable... At this point, no one can predict the final outcome of this war, let alone which side will win in the end.

The current Entente and Central Powers, although they have not yet shed their last drop of blood, are also soon. It is precisely because of this that both the Entente and the Central Powers have begun to look for foreign aid for themselves.

And in the search for foreign aid, the Entente clearly achieved greater results than the Allies.

At least in the process of finding foreign aid, the Entente drew Italy, which was originally on the side of the Central Powers, to their side.

In fact, it was only a few days ago that Italy was drawn to the side of the Entente, and although Italy's strength was weak, it could not be compared with such powerful countries as Britain, France, Russia and Germany, but it was also a member of the Triple Alliance and had unpredictable influence.

Moreover, the betrayal of Italy also affected the morale of the Central Powers to some extent.

It's just that although Italy has joined the Entente side, Italy's strength is still weaker after all, and it can't change the current situation of the war, so the Entente side must look for other strong foreign aid.

Originally, Britain, France, and other countries were eyeing the United States and Ben, but the United States is now in a neutral position, reselling all kinds of arms and materials to the warring parties, and has no idea of throwing themselves into the war at all, and now the cruelty on the European battlefield has also frightened the Americans.

As for the book?

Originally, Ben's goal was to capture Shandong, which originally belonged to Germany, and those German islands in the Pacific. As for whether to send troops to reinforce Europe? It depends on how I feel.

It is only because of the crushing defeat in Shandong, that the army and navy have suffered great losses, and that it is difficult to maintain financially and that he himself wants to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, so he is now only willing to send troops to seize those small islands in the Pacific Ocean to make up for the losses he suffered in Shandong.

At this time, he was even stingy, and even Britain was unwilling to send Kongo-class battlecruisers to Europe for support. In the end, they only sent some sailors to Europe, and some of the destroyers provided by the British―――――― obviously recognized the strength of the navy.

――――――――――, because the two foreign aid targeted by Britain and France were unwilling to reinforce, and Bulgaria, which had been co-opted by them, also had a tendency to want to fall to the Allies because of the disadvantage of the Battle of the Dardanelles, and at this time, Britain and France and other countries had to turn their attention to other places.

It was at this time that China came into the eyes of the British and French.

First of all, China had become a member of the Entente six months earlier, albeit only as a non-troop non-troop country, just as China had historically.

However, in the Shandong Campaign, the Chinese Army still showed a certain combat effectiveness, and although this combat effectiveness was not as good as that of the Yue Army, it was much stronger than the colonial troops that Britain and France had now put on the battlefield.

Moreover, after a series of reorganizational campaigns, the current Wehrmacht has expanded from more than 60 divisions to more than 110 cavalry, infantry, and artillery divisions, and the entire Wehrmacht Army has now become a huge army with more than 1 million men, and if we count the Navy and Air Force, the entire Wehrmacht is even approaching 1.5 million people... According to the observation of the Entente Observer Mission, among the more than 110 divisions, more than 30 of the original local miscellaneous units were split and reorganized into new units. Therefore, after more than half a year of training, at least 50 infantry divisions in the entire Wehrmacht have reached the second-rate level in Europe, and more than 10 Class A infantry divisions that have experienced the Shandong War have reached the first-class level in Europe.

As for the remaining B infantry divisions, although they are much inferior in combat effectiveness due to the newly built ones, they are still stronger than the newly established units in European countries... Of course, with a huge amount of close to 1.5 million, the annual military expenditure alone is obviously not a small amount. At least in the past year, the military expenditure of more than 300 million yuan is obviously somewhat insufficient, after all, the navy needs more than 100 million silver dollars as military expenses, and the remaining 200 million yuan is already very tight just to pay the officers and men of the army, not to mention the problems of food and housing, and the problem of equipment procurement, which is not inferior to military salaries... More than 300 million yuan, equivalent to half of the annual fiscal revenue, and these are obviously not enough for the nearly 1.5 million national defense forces... Therefore, almost all of the military spending of the Wehrmacht that exceeds each year is supported by Yan Guang... If this year's military spending is calculated, Yan Guang needs to support at least more than 100 million silver dollars to barely settle the extra military spending of the Wehrmacht―――――― but fortunately, in Mexico's oil fields, the United States' patent dividends and domestic factory revenues, can now provide Yan Guang with at least more than 200 million yuan of profits in a year, plus last year and this year, the annual GDP growth rate has exceeded 10%

By next year, the fiscal revenue will exceed 900 million, and there will be absolutely no problem with an increase of more than 100 million... And these can also alleviate a lot of pressure on Yan Guang.

It's just that they maintain an army of nearly 1.5 million and spend at least 500 million silver dollars a year on military spending, even within the political axe, they feel that it is a little too "reckless", not to mention those boring congressmen in Congress, and now they can be said to be looking for trouble with Yan Guang every once in a while, even if Yan Guang has ordered the Ministry of Internal Affairs to find out their stains and clean up a batch with them, but there are still some guys who have no stains will jump out, which really annoys Yan Guang.

(It is said that the fiscal revenue from the first year of Taisho to the second year of Taisho increased by more than 30 million, and from the second year of Taisho to the third year of Taisho, it increased by more than 10 million.) Therefore, even if the fiscal revenue grows too fast, there is no way to jump two or three hundred million at once, and more than 100 million is already the limit within a reasonable range... The Entente obviously couldn't understand Yan Guang's difficulties, for the Entente who were in dire need of effort, such a large army was obviously a good blood supplement―――――― it was true that the Allied high-level leaders were a little distrustful of the Observation Mission's report, but now they were not qualified to pick and choose, not to mention that the most important thing for them now was to have someone to fill in the trenches that seemed to never be filled... Therefore, attracting China to send troops to Europe is the task given to Zhu Erdian by the high-level leaders of the Entente countries in the recent period.

Of course, there is also the Allied side of the same task as Zhu Erdian.

After all, it is these Germans who know the strength of the Wehrmacht best and are inextricably linked to the Wehrmacht. And in the eyes of the Germans, as long as the Wehrmacht was willing to attack the rear of Russia, or the colonies of Britain and France in Southeast Asia, or even on the South Asian continent, it would definitely cause unimaginable problems for the Entente ... As for the question of China being a member of the Entente? Since Italy can switch to the Entente, it is not necessary for China, an Entente country, to switch to the Central Powers, not to mention that the relationship between China and Germany has always been good in the past... For a time, not only did the British ambassador Zhu Erdian and the German minister Marzan frequently visit Yan Guang's presidential palace, but they even sent a lot of people to the military and political terms to play the emotional card, such as the army most influenced by Germany and the navy most influenced by the British... (Needless to say, in the Army, in the Navy, Sa Zhenbing was selected as the first batch of British Navy students sent by China in 1876 to study at the Greenwich Naval Academy in the United Kingdom with the first place in the second phase of the Fuzhou Harbour Master Post-Academy...) Even on Yan Guang's side, the British sent Charlie and Richard, two old acquaintances from many years ago.

It's just that no matter what the British and Germans think, they just can't make Yan Guang relax.

In front of the British and Germans, Yan Guang's attitude was the same as that of the president of the United States, who wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to sell more resources to Europe and develop domestic industrial strength... The fact is that after more than half a year of development, China's industrial strength has developed by a blowout. Not only Tianjin, Northeast and other places of the arsenal has been completed, even the Ma'anshan Iron Works is about to be completed, so far although only partially completed, but also able to produce nearly 500,000 tons of steel per year, counting Qijiang Iron Works and Daye Iron Works, the country's annual steel output has approached one million tons... Such steel production, compared with France, which has only 1.1 million tons of steel production left, makes Britain and Germany even more eye-catching... It's just that even if Zhu Erdian has promised that as long as China is willing to enter the war, Britain is willing to provide China with a military loan of at least 10 million pounds a year, and it is an indefinite kind―――――― 10 million pounds is almost equivalent to 100 million silver dollars, and it is an indefinite loan, which is basically no different from giving it for nothing.

(One of the reasons for Turkey's entry into the war was because Germany was willing to provide a loan of 100 million francs...) To this day, in Zhu Erdian's opinion, Yan Guang is actually similar to the United States. When he wanted to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, and watch Europe enter its own demise, Yan Guang called Zhu Erdian to the presidential palace with a phone call, and seemed to mention the matter of participating in the war..."Participate in the war..."

If in the past, Zhu Erdian looked down on the Chinese army at all, then after the imminent defeat of the Battle of Dardanelles and the German army launched a new campaign on the Western Front, this Chinese campaign was already Zhu Erdian's dream... In fact, after the bureaucrats in Whitehall asked Jurdian to agitate China into the war, Jurdian had already launched a certain investigation into the Wehrmacht's military strength. In Zhu Erdian's view, the current Chinese navy is still quite immature, and the most powerful at present is only the 10,000-ton first-class cruiser "Chaofeng Ship" that has just been launched.

However, if it is an army, the Wehrmacht, which has a total of more than one million, is definitely a good supplement to the European theater, not to mention that some of its units are indeed very combative.

This is also why Zhu Erdian hurriedly came in a carriage after finding out that the embassy car was broken, and now it is time for Zhu Erdian to ask for help...―――――――――― Zhu Erdian's carriage is still very fast, and it has been driving to the gate of the presidential palace in a short time.

On the way here, many political axe officials who had already learned that China was about to enter the war looked at the two galloping carriages and showed tacit smiles.

"Mr. Ambassador, please come with me, Mr. President has been waiting for you inside for a long time..."

Not long after Zhu Erdian walked into the embassy, a very good-looking female surname had already walked out, and introduced Zhu Erdian into Yan Guang's office quite politely―――――― this is a secretary that Yan Guang just recruited a few months ago, specifically responsible for Yan Guang's daily life, after all, Yue Chang's words alone are really a bit rough, and it doesn't matter too much, but if you take care of people, it's really a little... Zhu Erdian was the female secretary who didn't have time to observe Yan Guang, and after following the female secretary into Yan Guang's office, Zhu Erdian had already spoken.

"Mr. President..."

"Mr. Zhu Erdian, please take a seat first..."

Zhu Erdian nodded, and then sat in front of Yan Guang, but just after sitting down, Zhu Erdian couldn't wait.

"Mr. President, your adjutant seems to have mentioned going to war when I was on the phone just now?!"

Originally, as a veteran diplomat and a rigid Englishman, Zhu Erdian should not have been like this. It's just that thousands of Britons are now falling almost every day on the Balkan battlefield, and the offensive just launched by the German-Austrian forces on the Western Front has caused heavy losses to the British and French forces.

In this case, Zhu Erdian just wants to put on a noble posture, and he can't be noble. You must know that in recent times, Zhu Erdian's face has been ugly almost every day... Fortunately, Yan Guang called Zhu Erdian this time, and he didn't want to see Zhu Erdian's embarrassment. Therefore, seeing that Zhu Erdian is so direct, Yan Guang does not beat around the bush.

"That's right, this time I really invited you to talk about going to war..."

"That..."

Just when Zhu Erdian showed a rare expression of excitement, Yan Guang continued to speak: "I have called you this time to inform you that China is about to join the camp of the Allies and declare war on Britain, France and Russia, and it will be announced that the 100,000 troops of the Sichuan Military Region will invade Burma..."

“！！！”

Hearing Yan Guang say this with a serious face, Zhu Erdian only felt that the world was spinning.

Just when Zhu Erdian was almost made to lie down by Yan Guang's words, Yan Guang suddenly showed a smiling face.

"Kidding !!"

(To be continued)