Just when Chang Ruiqing dreamed of fishing in troubled waters and mastering the oil resources of the Persian Gulf. In the Venetian Palace in Rome, the Italian leader in military uniform shook hands with British Foreign Secretary Neville Chamberlain, who had come from afar: "Your Excellency, welcome to Italy, and thank you for the help of the British Empire in Italy's economic recovery." ”

(This Chamberlain was not the Neville of the historical appeasement of Hitler. Chamberlain, but his eldest brother Austin. Chamberlain, Neville. Chamberlain is also a member of Baldwin's cabinet and pays homage to the health secretary. ）

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, it is an honour for me to meet you at the Venetian Palace, and thank you and the Kingdom of Italy for your support of the British Empire at this critical time." Although he came to the door to move the rescuers, Chamberlain still had a British reserved expression on his face, and smiled faintly at Mussolini.

The Italian dictator with a rich expression showed an exaggerated smile, and the noodle country has also shown a thriving scene under his wise leadership in the past two years, and all industries have grown rapidly, especially heavy industries such as steel, shipbuilding, machinery, chemicals, and aviation are making rapid progress, and the national strength of the noodle country is also thriving, and it is very promising to become a world power in the near future. However, Italy's achievements in recent years have been overshadowed by the miraculous revival of China, an ancient country in the East. Especially after the Sino-Japanese War, the whole world talked about the rise of China, but no one noticed that the former world hegemon of the Roman Empire began to revive (Mussolini always considered the Spaghetti Country to be the heir to the Roman Empire). So Mussolini was always looking for an opportunity to show the world how strong Italy is. At this time, Chamberlain came to the door on behalf of the British Empire to ask for help, and he really fell into his arms. But Chamberlain kept the appetite of the Italian dictator on the back. It's not on topic. Finally, Mussolini, apparently impatient, glanced at his old friend, the Italian Foreign Minister Count Ciano, who immediately turned the conversation to the Persian question.

"Your Excellency, Chancellor. We have noticed that recently GCISM is expanding into Persia, a country as old as the Roman Empire, which seems to have fallen into the clutches of GCISM, and now the whole of the Middle East is threatened by GCISM, and as the protector of that land, the British Empire will not sit idly by, right? ”

Austin. Chamberlain waited for the Italians to raise the issue first. lest he, the foreign secretary of the British Empire, the overlord of the world, not be able to let go of his body and beg for help. He immediately took out a copy and handed it to Mussolini: "Mr. Leader, this is what Prime Minister Baldwin asked me to pass on to you." ”

Mussolini took the text and smiled with satisfaction after a few cursory glances. It turned out to be an intelligence piece on the military and economic situation in the Persian Republic. Everybody knows. Mussolini was bent on making Italy the second in the Roman Empire. However, Italy's revival was too late, and the weaker countries in the world with more oil and water were all divided up by the first developing powers, leaving only Ethiopia, which had no oil and water, to gnaw the bones for Italy, but the bones did not gnaw down. He also broke a tooth. As a result, it became the laughing stock of European countries.

Now the British have sent Mussolini a text about the inside affairs of Persia, making it clear that they are ready to support Italy in the conquest of Persia! This is a colony with good oil and water!

Seeing Mussolini's satisfied expression, Chamberlain also showed a faint smile and said: "According to some information that our country has. Although the current Persia has achieved a republican revolution, its national strength has not improved much compared with the end of the nineteenth century, and it is still a feudal country with almost zero industry, all weapons and equipment rely on imports, and the number of troops is not large. Although the Soviet Union provided a lot of weapons and equipment and instructors, it is probably not an overnight matter to train and equip a truly combat-ready army. ”

Mussolini swallowed. Italy itself is narrow and overpopulated, and the Italian countryside, like China, has the contradiction of more people and less land. So he has always wanted to expand abroad to relieve the population pressure of his country. But he also knew that it was the Soviet Union that stood behind Persia! The Russians are among the best in the world in terms of combat effectiveness, and their Italian army is probably no match for it.

Seeing that he did not speak, Chamberlain did not show a little impatient expression, but said unhurriedly: "Before I left London, my embassy in China sent a telegram informing us that Marshal Chang Ruiqing, chairman of the Central Committee, had agreed in principle to send troops to the Persian Gulf, and that the scale of China's troops would be quite large!" If your country is also prepared to send troops, then it will be possible to form a three-part alliance of Britain and Italy, which I believe will be sufficient to deal with a possible threat from the Soviet Union. ”

These words made Mussolini ecstatic! The performance of the squadron in the previous Sino-Japanese war is obvious to the whole world, if they join, it should be no difficulty to defeat Persia, even if the Soviet Red Army really intervenes, it should have a seventy or eighty percent chance of winning! But after the ecstasy, Mussolini began to worry again, after all, the Chinese will not help in vain, and when Persia fights, how much share will they have?

Although these words were not asked, Chamberlain knew them perfectly, and he smiled faintly and said to Mussolini: "Mr. Leader, the purpose of my visit is to determine a general principle, that is, whether Italy is ready to participate in the war of conquest of Persia. As for the scale of the troops to be sent and the distribution of benefits after the war, they can be discussed and determined by Britain, Italy, and China in the following negotiations. However, Britain will not seek to acquire any special interests in Persia, and will fully support Italy in obtaining additional benefits. ”

His remarks finally contributed to the determination of the Italian leaders to embark on a military adventure!

Chamberlain's trip to Rome, though short, opened the impasse facing the British Empire in the Middle East and South Asia. The day after Chamberlain's visit to Rome, he signed the Anglo-Italian-Rome Agreement with Count Ciano, the Italian Foreign Minister. Under the agreement, the UK will immediately provide Italy with an interest-free loan of £50 million and transfer a series of key technologies in steel, shipbuilding, machinery, electronics and other fields to Italy in the coming years. The Italian government pledged to send an expeditionary force within three months to take part in the British-led war against the Persian Republic. and put the Italian Expeditionary Force under the unified command of the British Middle East theater.

After a hugely successful trip to Rome, Austin. Instead of returning to London, Chamberlain flew to Nanjing, the capital of the Republic of China, to discuss the issue of sending troops to Persia with the Chinese ruler Chang Ruiqing. He was accompanied by Count Ciano, the Elder of Italy.

……

“…… Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Ziano, since they have been able to come to China from thousands of miles to discuss with me the question of sending troops to Persia, I think they would like to listen to some of my opinions. I will call a spade, and the proposal of Britain and Italy to send troops to Persia is clearly contemptuous of the enemy. China and Italy each sent 100,000 troops, and Britain sent 30,000 troops. The total is only 230,000...... The scale of such a troop is still somewhat insufficient. According to the information we have, the army of the Persian Republic has expanded to 20 divisions with nearly 250,000 troops and soldiers. They were commanded by nearly 10,000 Soviet-provided military advisers. Moreover, the Persian Republic has a population of more than 25 million, of which more than 1.5 million young and middle-aged men can be mobilized! This ensured that the Persian army had a strong reserve before the Persian army could run out of reserves, as long as the Soviet Union could continue to provide weapons and military advisers. You can keep resisting. That's why I'm still going to expand the scale of my troops. At least half a million coalition troops need to be invested in the early stages of the war!

In addition, our country has no ambitions for the territory of Persia and does not intend to turn Persia into a colony. Persia is already an independent and free republic, and if we pursue a policy of colonialism in Persia, we will force the entire Persian nation to Reza. Khan and the BJP side, this is quite a dangerous policy. Of course, our dispatch to the Persian Gulf this time also needs a certain amount of return. All we want is the right to protection for the Emirate of Kuwait. ”

In the spacious conference room of Nanjing's Tangshan Mansion, Chang Ruiqing, who was in a straight military uniform, was talking. Negotiations with Chamberlain and Count Ziano lasted almost a week. During this period. The 50,000 Anglo-Indian troops and the 10,000 British troops finally began to march on Calcutta, which was under the control of the Provisional Government of India. However, progress was slowed by desperate resistance from the Indian National Army (SNA), and at the same time, the Muslims of northwestern India organized a large-scale uprising, and it is said that internationalist fighters sent by the Soviet Union were directly involved in the planning and command of the uprising. Therefore, London sent telegrams urging Chamberlain to reach an agreement with China to send troops to Persia.

To this end, Chamberlain threw out a whole lot of cakes of economic and military cooperation. China is willing to transfer a series of key technologies that China is eager to acquire, including submarines, sonar, military short-wave radios, aero engines, and large diesel engines, and has also promised to bear the cost of 100,000 Chinese expeditionary forces. Even agreed to "transfer" Kuwait, the British protectorate, to China! But China's demands to increase the size of the coalition to 500,000 troops and not to colonize Persia have stalled the talks. Because Britain did not want China and Italy to maintain too strong military presence in the Middle East, nor did they want to bear the cost of 500,000 troops, and it was also a condition for Italy to send troops to turn Persia into a colony.

Chamberlain said with a look of embarrassment: "Your Excellency, your country's request to protect Kuwait can be agreed to by the Empire. But the coalition army was increased to 500,000 men...... It was too large for the empire and the Kingdom of Italy to mobilize so many land forces in the short term, and the transportation and logistics of 500,000 troops were not easy to solve. Maybe we can get the 230,000 coalition troops in place first, and then increase the number of troops further depending on the situation? ”

"Increasing troops depending on the situation?" Chang Ruiqing's fingers tapped lightly on the armrest of the sofa, if it was Stalin who ruled the Soviet Union now, and the 230,000 allied troops were set up in Iraq, the Soviet Union would probably retreat back to socialism in one country. But it is really difficult to predict how Trotsky will play his cards, this is a revolutionary madman who advocates a world revolution and continues the revolution! Moreover, recently there was news in the Soviet Union that Lenin had "semi-retired", which meant that Trotsky had completely seized military and political power. If he really wants to fight in the Persian Gulf and the British Empire, the 230,000 coalition troops may not be enough, and 100,000 of them are the "Noodle Army" sent by Mussolini, and 30,000 are British colonial troops whose combat effectiveness is also questionable.

Although he feels that something is likely to go wrong in this Persian Gulf war, Chang Ruiqing is still unwilling to give up this opportunity to lay a nail in the Middle East. And it is also in China's interest to maintain the British Empire for the time being, if there are no Chinese troops. Relying on the British's own army and the Italian "noodle army", they were driven to Africa by the Red Army. How will it end? Could it be that Germany united to start a world war to save the situation? Now China is not ready, even if it can win the world war. It must also be exhausted, and the last fruit to pick must be the United States!

Thinking of this, Chang Ruiqing sighed slightly and said: "Mr. Chamberlain, since both your country and Italy believe that it is impossible to mobilize 500,000 coalition troops in a short period of time, then we agree to increase the strength of troops one by one according to the situation, and the scale of our first phase of dispatch will be an infantry corps with four divisions and a cavalry corps. Three months after the first armies were dispatched, an additional cavalry corps was dispatched, bringing the total number of troops to 100,000. ”

……

Trotsky's complexion in the Kremlin also became solemn, and the urgent telegram from London from the British GCD was placed on the desk. Skryansky, Vatsettis, Yue Fei and Chicherin stood nearby, their foreheads sweating slightly. The news that Britain had joined forces with China and Italy to cobble together more than 200,000 troops in an attempt to interfere with the Persian revolution took Moscow, feeling good, by surprise.

"What do you guys think?" Trotsky handed the telegram to Vatsettis. Vachetis was the People's Commissar of Labour and Defence, and Trotsky's move was a clear indication that he had made up his mind to fight the Anglo-Italian-Chinese war. But the current situation in the USSR. Can it withstand a full-scale war?

Although Vasetis was the "Red Commander" of the Soviet Union. But the current situation was not a simple military issue, but also involved complex foreign affairs, so he subconsciously glanced at Chicherin. The latter, although not a central figure of the Trotskyists, was a diplomat of the first rank and knew international affairs like the back of his hand. Therefore, Chicherin did not shirk either, so he first opened his mouth to answer: "Comrade Trotsky, the Soviet Union is not ready to launch a world revolution at present, but Britain, France, Germany, Italy and other five imperialist countries. Also not ready for a world war! Britain, plagued by a series of internal and external troubles, barely managed to maintain world hegemony. There is simply no ability to continue to expand. France, on the other hand, did not recover from the last world war, where they shed so much blood that they lost the courage to suffer huge casualties.

As for China and Germany, although they are both willing to fight, they both have their own difficulties. China's problem is that it is populated and has a weak industrial base. The large number of people in China shows that China has great potential for development, so it will inevitably be suspicious of other powers, especially the United States, and once they show excessive ambition and strength, they may become the target of joint containment by the great powers. The weak industrial base shows that China is not able to turn its potential into combat power very quickly. According to a report by the intelligence department, by the end of last year, China had only 1 million tons of steel production capacity, just over 40 million tons of coal, less than 500,000 tons of crude oil, only 20,000 tons of refined copper, only a few billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, only a few tens of thousands of machine tools owned by the country, all of which were imported from abroad, only a few thousand automobiles, and less than 400,000 tons of total shipbuilding tonnage...... On the whole, China's output of major heavy industry products is less than one-fifth of that of the Soviet Union, and it is slightly worse than that of Japan, where the national economy has begun to recover. As a result, China is currently unable to convert its huge population and abundant resources into real military strength, so it cannot sustain long-term warfare on its own. Taking 10,000 steps back, even if China, together with Germany, Britain, Italy, and other countries, defeated us and Japan, they would not have the strength to reap the fruits of victory. Therefore, China's priority now is to build the country, not to fight a world war that is destined to have little to gain.

Germany's problem is the opposite of China's, they have a strong heavy industry capacity, with the exception of oil, which is two to three times more than ours. However, there were no resources to sustain the long war, and with the exception of coal, Germany had to import almost all of its important resources from the British and French colonies, the United States, and China, but Germany did not have a strong navy to defend its overseas trade routes. Therefore, the current Germany is a vicious dog bred by Britain and France, and the resources and overseas trade routes are the chains around Germany's neck! And with the pride of the German nation, they certainly do not want to be reduced to the watchdogs of Britain and France forever! And Britain and France will never be at ease with the vicious dog of Germany, and the cooperation between Britain, France and Germany is only forced, and there is no trust between them. If we are willing to make certain concessions, perhaps ......"

"No, no, don't think about it yet." Trotsky glanced at Checherin a few times, nodded slightly, and then continued with Chicherin's words: "In other words, we can consider a war with China, Britain and Italy in Persia, and in case we do not win, we also have a way out!" ”

Skryansky, who was on the side, did not seem to approve of such an analysis, shook his head, and whispered: "But Britain cannot afford to lose India and the Middle East, and they are afraid that they will fight us to the end......"

Trotsky sneered, waved his hand, and said: "Comrade Skryansky, rest assured, our Soviet state will never fight a war that we do not know how to end!" (To be continued.) )