After exporting a large amount of weapons and equipment and strategic materials to Britain, Japan, Germany, and other allied and Axis countries, Yan Guangle's whole person was almost more than ten years younger. Because these exports not only exchanged for a large amount of hard currency such as gold, but also made a lot of profits.

Of course, none of this is important, the most important thing is ......... Don't forget that almost all of the largest arsenals and other steel mills and other factories in the country were run by Yan Guang, so the more China sells, the more Yan Guang will naturally earn.

Although Yan Guang has now become the richest man in the world, his daily luxury life can be supported by his current family business alone, and he should look at money very lightly, but Yan Guang will still feel very happy when he sees his net worth rising...

However, although Yan Guang is happy now, it may not be the same in other places.

The streets of Hong Kong were filled with tensions brought about by the war, and the flow of people who should have been crowded was much reduced because of the war.

Especially after the outbreak of the war, the Japanese in Indochina and the South Seas Islands were in a state of panic, and the British and Chinese living in Hong Kong were even more in a state of panic.

As the pace of the Japanese grows, more and more people are moving to the mainland.

Putting aside how fucked up the "part" of Hong Kong people in later generations is, at least at this time, Hong Kong people still identify with their identity as Chinese, so the call for returning to the motherland in Hong Kong has always been very high, but the British government has not allowed it.

At this time, seeing that the Japanese army could come at any time, these Hong Kong Chinese, who still considered themselves Chinese, naturally all moved back to the mainland.

Anyway, these Hong Kong people have gone up for three generations, and almost all of their ancestral homes are from the mainland, and now they are only going back to their hometowns. And now the living environment in the interior is also very good, and most importantly, at least in the eyes of the world, China will not be threatened by war in a short time...

Of course, not everyone can go back to their hometown, after all, there are many people whose industries are in Hong Kong. There is no way to put down the industry and go back to the mainland. Moreover, the Japanese at this time were not as cruel to the residents of the occupied territories as they were in history, and even in Indochina, they only forced the local people to exploit resources to exchange equipment with the Chinese.

In addition, the Japanese are also considered to be of the yellow race, and the relationship with the national government has been quite good in recent years. As a result, it is natural that many Hong Kong people have illusions about the Japanese.

However, the most important thing is that most of the Chinese in Hong Kong have no money to return to the mainland...

You must know that moving is not something that can be done by talking, and you need money to do it. How do you settle down if you don't have money?

Without money, it's not impossible for the whole family to starve to death...

However, compared with the Chinese, the most frightened are the British.

In the final analysis, with the relationship between China and Japan, the identity of the same yellow race, and the current national strength of China, after Japan occupied Hong Kong. It will not do anything to the Chinese living in Hong Kong, after all, Hong Kong is under China's nose, and if the Japanese really do something, they are purely provoking the Chinese.

But the British are different, you must know that they are Caucasian, and although they had a good relationship with Japan in the past, that was a few decades ago, plus some of the things they heard about happening in the islands of the South Seas...

If the Japanese really came. The Chinese may be fine. But I'm afraid they'll be miserable for the British...

So the British, who lived in Hong Kong, planned to return to England by boat, or at least to flee to India by boat. So far, at least, India has not been hit by the flames of war, but...

"Damn, have the Thais already captured Singapore!" …,

It's in a restaurant. Looking at the newspaper that had just come out this morning, an Englishman said angrily.

Hearing this Englishman say this, everyone else also turned their eyes sideways.

"How. Could it be that Singapore has fallen? ”

Walking in front of him, a strange Englishman said urgently.

"yes. Could it be that Singapore has already fallen? ”

Another person also hurriedly stepped forward and asked.

No wonder they are in such a hurry, you must know that there are only two ways back to England, one is to go from the Pacific Ocean to the United States, and then through the United Kingdom, the problem is that the route to the Pacific has been blocked by the Japanese. The other is to take the Strait of Malacca, go directly to India and then go back to London via the Suez Canal...

"yes..."

The Englishman with the newspaper said in a bit of a panic.

Singapore has also been captured, so it will not be easy to go home...

"What if we go to Australia first?"

One man proposed.

"No, although the Japanese have not yet attacked Australia, they have already blocked the road to Australia, and doing so is no different from throwing themselves into a net..."

"So..."

In fact, there is another way that everyone does not say, that is, to avoid Chinese mainland, if you have money, you can live in the mainland for a while, or even go to the Caucasus through the Dilan Railway and the Central Asian Railway, and then transfer to Syria to return to Europe by boat...

The problem is that it takes a lot of money to do this, and a few Westerners who go to Asia to pan for gold are rich people...

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The British in Hong Kong had a headache, and Churchill in London had a headache.

Although Britain has colonies all over the world, the three cities with the largest British population in the Far East are Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore. Of course, Shanghai is no problem, even if the Japanese are so bold, they don't dare to come to the door to find abuse, of course, if they are allowed to occupy Nanyang and Australia and develop for more than ten or twenty years, it will be a different matter.

Singapore fell after being besieged by the Thais for more than half a month, but fortunately, the Thais' methods were not as tyrannical as the Japanese, so there was no big problem.

Hong Kong alone...

Hong Kong can be said to be one of the most important colonies of the British in Asia, and there are naturally many British people in Hong Kong, thinking of some of the atrocities that the Japanese have committed in Indochina and the South Sea Islands...

Churchill also thought of getting the Chinese to come forward and persuade the Japanese not to attack Hong Kong, after all, although Hong Kong was a British colony, the vast majority of people living on it were Chinese.

But not long after Churchill had such an idea, bad news came from MI6...

"The Chinese are preparing to pass a resolution that will bring all Chinese living in Hong Kong to China and make proper arrangements by the local government..."

Historically, Hong Kong's population was more than 600,000 in 1920 and more than 1.7 million in 1940, a more than threefold increase in just 20 years. Of course it was possible, because China at that time was at war. In the face of the Japanese invasion, there were naturally many Chinese people who went south to avoid trouble, not to mention that in the early years China was in a chaotic state of warlord chaos, and the population of Hong Kong in this situation is easy to understand.

However, China at this time was not the China of history. Without the Chinese who avoided the disaster, the total population of Hong Kong at this time was only 780,000.

Although seven or eight hundred thousand is not a small number, after excluding the British, French, Americans, Sange, Vietnamese, and so on, this number can be reduced a lot.

In this case. Accommodating refugees from Hong Kong is no problem at all.

Of course, this is also because the Chinese in Hong Kong are still "Chinese" Yan Guang will do this, if they are all the yellow-skinned and white-hearted banana people of later generations, Yan Guang will not bother to care about their life and death. ..., you must know that in later generations, those Chinese are more ruthless to China than foreigners...

However, Yan Guang never thought of really moving the Chinese back to the mainland, Yan Guang did it just as a means. A means of persecution of the British...

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Churchill was not clear about Yan Guang's thoughts, and in his opinion, the Chinese were only moved back to the mainland because Chinese did not want to care about Hong Kong's affairs.

"If that's the case, what about the expatriates trapped in Hong Kong..."

Thinking of this, Churchill had a headache, and some cabinet members once proposed that the British government provide funds and ask the Nationalist government to properly settle the British in Hong Kong in China.

It's just that if you do this, it will definitely cost a lot of money, and what little money Britain has left has been used to buy Chinese and American arms...

What Churchill didn't know, however, was. He had a headache. The Japanese have more headaches than him.

You must know that Hong Kong and Macao are under the noses of the Japanese, and the farther Indochina and Nanyang have been attacked, so why did they not move Hong Kong and Macao?

Because the Chinese...

Although Hong Kong and Macau were colonies of the British and Portuguese, don't forget that they were not sold to the British, and the vast majority of the people living on them were Chinese.

Japan has always been a small country. It's just that these two places are too sensitive, so the Japanese have to weigh what to do...

What's more, these two places will definitely be returned to others in the future. Therefore, the Japanese were somewhat uninterested, but they just had a colony of the British under their noses. The Japanese will certainly be unhappy too.

However, just when the Japanese and the British were having a headache, Yan Guang's envoy found the Japanese, because he hoped that the Japanese could do him a small favor...

A very small little favor...

It's really just a tiny, tiny little favor...

Yan Guang just hoped that the Japanese would send a few warships to the waters off Hong Kong...

After all, Yan Guang did not want the Japanese to occupy Hong Kong, even if it would be returned later, so he planned to take Hong Kong back from the British first. It's just that unlike the original order of 10 million pounds in exchange for Jiaozhou Bay, Yan Guang now doesn't need to do this...

So Yan Guang planned to use the power of the Japanese to force the British to return Hong Kong...

Of course, if the British were only threatened by the Japanese, the British might not be willing to return Hong Kong, so Yan Guang also needed to use other means...

For example...

"Exchange Act..."

Of course, if you change the name, you might be more familiar with it...

"Lend-Lease Act..."

Historically, the Lend-Lease Program was a bill passed by the U.S. Congress at the beginning of World War II to provide war materials to the Allies while the United States was not involved in the war, because Lend-Lease made the United States an "arsenal of democracies." (There is a version in the heart of Iron Ambition that is this o!) ）

Act No. 1776, which came into effect on March 11, 1941, authorizes the President of the United States to "sell, transfer, exchange, lease, lend, or deliver any defense materiel to the Government of a State which the President of the United States deems vital to the defense of the United States." Lend-Lease changed the practice of cash transactions for military supplies and the meaning of a "neutral country." The bill initially authorized the president to lend up to $1.3 billion in supplies. President Roosevelt provided more than $1 billion in aid to Britain in October 1941, and the United States had already provided destroyers to Britain and Canada in 1940 through a base lease agreement with Britain in exchange for the use of British bases in the Western Hemisphere.

Lend-Lease had a direct impact on the Allied victory in World War II. In particular, before the United States entered the war in December 1941, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other allies were at a disadvantage in the production of strategic materials. And after the official entry of the United States into the war. Lend-Lease continued to provide supplies to the Allies until 1944. Countries receiving Lend-Lease assistance include Commonwealth countries (about 60 per cent, adjusted for about 58 per cent). Among them, the United Kingdom (about 45%, adjusted about 40%), the Soviet Union (about 22%, adjusted including the Commonwealth countries transferred about 32% of the total), Free France, the Republic of China, etc., a total of 38 countries. The total value is 50 billion US dollars (1940 currency). …,

Of course, Yan Guang's exchange bill is a real exchange, not just a loan.

At this time, it was only the end of 1940, and the Lend-Lease Act of the United States had not even been proposed. In this case, Britain will have to deal with China and the United States only in cash...

Cash Transactions...

You must know that several major countries are now implementing the gold standard, of course, the gold bar standard and the gold exchange standard are still a little different, but they are both a kind of gold standard.

Therefore, the so-called cash transaction is more like a cash "gold" transaction, especially in China, under Yan Guang's request, he will not let go of the money...

Britain was already deeply devastated by the First World War, because of China's sudden rise and preemptive interests, and its economic recovery was not as good as it was in history. In this case, what little money the British government had was used to buy arms. However, if it goes on like this...

The British can't make unlimited money through "cheats"...

However, although the British have no money, as the former empire on which the sun never sets, the British colonies are well-known, so Yan Guang plans to exchange weapons and equipment for "exchange" from the British through the "Exchange Act" to "exchange" some colonies back...

Of course, he is not ready to exchange things for Hong Kong, after all, it is China's territory in the first place. There's no reason to trade things for them. However, Yan Guang can use the "Exchange Act" as a stepping stone to force the British to willingly return Hong Kong...

If it's usual. Naturally, that's not possible, but now...

Seeing the defeat of France. Hitler had already begun to prepare a landing plan on the British mainland, and when Churchill was in dire need of weapons to arm the mainland and could not afford to divide his forces to protect Hong Kong, he just didn't want to do it...

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"Exchange Bill..."

In the shelter under Whitehall, Churchill smiled wryly.

These days, the Germans either sent planes over for air battles or bombers for bombing. Whitehall had been razed to the ground, and even Buckingham Palace had been bombed to rubble, leaving King George VI and Churchill in shelters when the Luftwaffe arrived.

"When did the British Empire fall to this point..."

The fall in Churchill's mouth, in addition to being avoided by the Germans can only hide in shelters, there is also an exchange bill proposed by the national government...

In Churchill's view, this was all an act of taking advantage of the fire, however...

"I can't help but say yes..."

Chancellor of the Exchequer Kingsley? Sir Wood and Lord Beverbrooke, the Minister of Munitions, shook their heads.

"Although the RAF has fought hard these days, the numerical superiority of the Germans is too great, and so far the RAF has suffered heavy losses in both fighters and pilots...

And although the airfield has been producing at full capacity these days, the number of aircraft produced is simply not comparable to the number lost..."

At this time Chancellor of the Exchequer Kingsley? Wood spoke.

"In addition, a considerable part of the missing aircraft in the Air Force are made up by planes purchased from China, and weapons including anti-aircraft guns are also the same in addition to aircraft, but now there is not much money left in the treasury, so..."

So what Churchill certainly knew ...

"So if we can't find new sources of funding, or new ways of trading, I'm afraid we won't be able to buy weapons from China and the United States..."

Churchill understood what they were saying, and at the same time understood that Britain could only rely on outsourcing to arm itself against Germany when domestic production could not be effectively replenished.

The problem is to use the colony as a bargaining chip for an exchange ...

For the first time in the history of the UK, this is definitely the first time...

"I'll go talk to Your Majesty..."

sighed, although he is the prime minister, but in the end, this matter still depends on George VI's decision...

While Churchill and George VI were talking about the matter, more than a dozen Japanese cruisers and cruisers also sailed into the waters near Hong Kong.

Although the Japanese were only far away on the sea, the appearance of the Japanese fleet still caused panic among the people of Hong Kong.

While Churchill and George VI were still exchanging views with each other, the news reached the two men. Although both Churchill and George VI found this incident strange, they could not gamble with the expatriates in Hong Kong...

So in the end, Churchill and George VI decided to agree to the Chinese's terms.

At this time, Yan Guang had already begun to hold the region, thinking about which colony to ask the British for... (To be continued......)