"Let us recall the world war of that year, in our most difficult period, the Chinese joined the Entente, became our allies, and immediately sent hundreds of thousands of miles to France to cooperate with us to resist the attack of the Central Powers, and the heroic Chinese fought side by side with us until the final victory"

"Our great France is the center of the European continent, the cradle of civilization, our people love peace, respect and uphold justice in the world, and we will never forget to help our friends, and even more so our allies. Due to some historical problems, and in order to protect China from the aggression of other barbarian countries, we have certain concessions and garrisons in China. But now, China has gradually become stronger, they are fully capable of safeguarding national security, and after the study and decision of the National Assembly, and at the same time respecting the sovereign interests of China's allies, we will, at the request of the Chinese side, cancel the concession and some privileges, and establish a new type of peaceful, equal, and friendly relations."

With a "snap", Baldwin turned off the radio, looked at Churchill and said, "Sir, what do you think?" ”

Churchill smiled bitterly: "The French no longer want to play in this dangerous game, in fact, our goal has been achieved, and the French have compromised before us." China's rise and its military power is so powerful that even Soviet Russia has compromised, and it is their inevitable political demand to achieve independence, which is already an unstoppable thing. ”

Baldwin sneered: "But our current Prime Minister does not think so, he also needs to show the uniqueness of our British Empire. ”

Churchill smiled wryly: "What else can we change?" You have dissolved the Cabinet and given way. ”

Baldwin said angrily, "But it doesn't make any sense for Macdonald to do this. I know very well that his purpose is to keep Hong Kong as a strategic support point for the Far East to contain China. But this is tantamount to attracting China's hatred, and there is no doubt that even if China accepts it temporarily, there is no doubt that all the military pressure of the Chinese will fall on the head of the British Empire. The existence of Hong Kong will always awaken the pain of the Chinese, they will remember the Opium War, remember the invasion of China by the Eight-Nation Alliance, and the Chinese will still regard us as enemies. ”

Churchill reluctantly said: "Even if Hong Kong is abandoned, it will not fundamentally change the situation in the Far East." ”

Baldwin gritted his teeth and said, "Of course. After the return of Hong Kong, at least we in the West have never occupied any Chinese territory again, but the Red Empire in the north still occupies millions of square kilometers of China's territory. Do you understand? Although China and the Soviet Union wanted to sign a non-aggression pact, it was only to be signed, and it has not yet been signed. ”

Churchill smiled and said, "I see what you mean, I'm going to visit the Prime Minister." ”

Churchill took his leave and soon came to the Prime Minister's House in Downing Street. As a core member of the Conservative Party, he knows that although the support of the Conservative Party has dropped a lot, it is an old political party after all, and it has a close relationship with a large number of British consortium capital groups, and its owners have a decisive influence. The Social Workers Party is just a small party, and the reason why it came to power was because the other parties were unwilling to accept this mess, after all, being in power does not mean that everything is good.

When he arrived at the Prime Minister's office, he learned from his secretary that Prime Minister Macdonald was summoning the French diplomatic ambassador.

"Your country is violating the principle of equal action and equal interests."

"I'm sorry, Your Excellency Prime Minister, I think the speech at the press conference of our country's tie has made it very clear that there is no point in holding on, it will only lead the situation to war, and we do not want war. Because the Chinese have an army of five million, not fifty thousand. ”

"Even if your country wants to make such an important decision, it must be discussed with us beforehand."

"Then tell me how to negotiate it? Your country's decision to send the main fleet to the Far East does not make any sense except to increase tension in the situation. Let me tell you a little bit of information in advance, our top brass has decided that we should take the lead in signing a treaty with the Chinese, so that the Chinese will still have their war eyes on the north before the Soviet Russians. ”

“”

Churchill vaguely heard these words, and also understood the mood of the French high-level, the world war French suffered the heaviest losses, and France was also the hardest hit area of the Spanish flu, after this series of events, the French were more afraid of war than anyone else, cherishing life, so at that time he and Baldwin were trying to make the French compromise first, and then Britain could give up its interests in China, they both believed that French politicians could find a reasonable reason, and the form developed as he and Baldwin expected.

Soon, the French ambassador took his leave, and Churchill soon entered the prime minister's office.

Churchill still looked bad at Macdonald's face, but he could understand that once upon a time the world's most powerful prime minister of the British Empire had become a general constraint and challenged at all times, and it was no wonder that he could be happy. I sneered secretly in my heart: If the Prime Minister of the British Empire in this period is so good, will it be your turn?

MacDonald said unceremoniously: "Sir, please hurry up and tell me what you have to do, I'm busy." ”

Churchill smiled: "Of course the Prime Minister of the British Empire is very busy, and it is of course important to disturb you. But I think someone has already explained it to you before me, and I think the French are right when they say that our plan to 'divert the water from the north' is not completely out of chance. ”

MacDonald scoffed, "Do you think there's really a chance?" The French were already frightened by the pressure of the Chinese. ”

Churchill said lightly: "This is a political means, as long as we sign a new peace treaty with the Chinese before Soviet Russia, everything can happen." ”

MacDonald gritted his teeth and said, "I really can't understand why you are so soft to the Chinese, why?" ”

Churchill said lightly: "Because your Social Workers Party has never been in contact with the top, and you know too little about the world. The millions of Chinese troops are indeed very strong, but this is not enough to make us afraid of a comprehensive compromise. ”

MacDonald was amazed and puzzled, "What's the reason for that?" ”

Churchill thought for a moment and said, "Do you remember the 'American flu'?" Oh, and Americans have always called it the 'Spanish flu'. ”

Spanish influenza is the deadliest infectious disease in human history, which caused about 1 billion infections and 25 million to 40 million deaths in 1918~1919 (the world's population was about 1.7 billion at that time); Its global average fatality rate is about 2.5%-5%, which is deadly compared to the 0.1% of influenza in general. The origin of its name is not due to the outbreak of the flu from Spain; It was called Spanish influenza because about 8 million people in Spain were infected with the disease at that time, and even the king of Spain was infected with the disease. Of course, the best evidence is that the flu originated in the United States.

Such a terrifying time, how could MacDonald not remember, thinking of this disaster, his face couldn't help but turn pale, that scene was really terrible, countless flu, the contagion ability was even more terrible than the plague, and there were countless deaths. The world situation at that time simply filled everyone with despair.

"Why all of a sudden?"

Churchill said lightly: "Don't you think this flu is very strange? It is mainly targeted at young people between the ages of 20 and 35 and has a very high mortality rate. However, according to our normal logic and medical analysis, this is extremely unscientific, because young adults have the best physical fitness, and their immunity should be the highest. ”

A suspicion rose in MacDonald's heart, and he couldn't help but say, "What do you mean?" ”

Churchill said lightly: "Our top brass thinks that this is most likely man-made, and we suspect that it is a bacteriological weapon." It's so terrible that it can almost destroy the world, and it's almost a world war, and the epicenter of the outbreak is Europe, and we suspect that someone wants to destroy Europe. ”

MacDonald suddenly sneered: "If you're telling a story, I think you've got the wrong time and place"

Churchill said, "Of course it's not telling a story. Isn't it strange that after the world war, the United States, as one of the belligerent countries, should have been able to share the European interests left behind by the defeat of the Allies, but the Reich and France joined forces to keep the United States out, and the United States did not seem to react too much? ”

MacDonald's face changed drastically, and he said in shock: "What you said is true?" Do you suspect that it is the United States? ”

Churchill sighed and said: "It's not me, it's us, it's the top of the entire Western Entente." Don't you think the United States is not worth questioning? Looking at MacDonald and sneering, "The United States has long become the world's largest economic power, they have always been in urgent need of a market, in the world war, they not only exported materials to both sides to make war windfalls, their purpose is to make Europe into ruins, and they quickly deterred Latin America and South America in the middle, so that the whole of America has become their backyard." That's not all, they are still frantically building a navy, the size of its main navy once exceeded the empire, and they did not hesitate to provoke a new round of naval arms race, and their intention to become the world hegemon has been very obvious. ”

MacDonald's face was ugly, and he said in a deep voice: "So the empire united with France and many other countries to exclude the United States from the center of European interests?" ”

Churchill said: "Yes, I even questioned the United States on this basis at that time, but unfortunately there is no obvious evidence that the United States did it. However, in the face of pressure from many countries, the United States was also forced to withdraw from Europe. A series of disasters have left us dead and wounded, we need to recover, and we are more afraid that the same events will happen in war. We must preserve our strength, we must be recuperated, and we must ensure that we cannot be replaced by others in our international position. ”

MacDonald's face was extremely ugly, if the Spanish flu was really a conspiratorial man-made, it was not impossible to create another such disaster, but the result was terrible. But his thoughts quickly recovered, and he couldn't help but say: "The strategic layout of the Far East is that we are ready to compromise with the Chinese, is it just one Hong Kong that will affect the overall situation?" ”

Churchill said: "We hope that there will be no accidents, let alone that Hong Kong will attract the hatred of the Chinese, and that the plan of 'bringing disaster to the north' will be foolproof, at least not to let the 'yellow scourge go south'." Do you understand? ”

MacDonald frowned and said, "Isn't there still a war going to break out in the 'Woe to the North'?" If there really is a 'biobacteriological weapon', it will still be a disaster. ”

Churchill said, "But the outbreak should also be in Northeast Asia, or in the whole of East Asia." Does it matter how many Russians and Chinese die? ”

“”

ps: Thank you for the reminder, I knew about the Spanish flu incident, but I really ignored it when I wrote the book. Thank you