"Insatiable bastard!" When Churchill learned of Yang Qiu's conditions, he cursed in his mouth.

Foreign Secretary Halifax stood next to him with Admiral Pound, whispering about these conditions. The defeat of Crete drove Britain to the edge of a precipice. The battleships "New York" and "Texas" of the US Navy have been determined to return home for repairs, the "Malaya" was seriously damaged by four bombs and must return to Cape Town for repairs, and the British Royal Navy has only one battleship "Queen Elizabeth" left in the Eastern Mediterranean, which is far from enough! The air was also precarious, and the British and American aviation forces in the eastern Mediterranean were almost destroyed, and even El Alamein and Egypt could not be satisfied. On the contrary, Germany rejoiced and desperately tried to strengthen the sea and air forces of Crete, while Italy, another important Mediterranean enemy, had already salvaged the "Veneto" and "Litorio" after the heavy damage to Taranto, and could be repaired by the end of October at the latest, and the latter two "Roma" and "Impero" were being built day and night. And because the Soviet Union provided millions of tons of crude oil last year, and Hitler generously gave some of the production from Romanian oil fields to Italy, the fuel crisis that plagued Italy no longer existed, and the Italian navy was greatly strengthened.

Because of the delay in completely destroying the two "Bismarck"-class battleships, the two "Scharnhorst-class" battleships, and the "Zeppelin" aircraft carrier, Britain must continue to maintain pressure in the North Atlantic, and cannot afford to send warships to the eastern Mediterranean. The U.S. Navy is also powerless, because at present they can only fight two "North Carolina" class battleships and one "Colorado" class battleship, and the remaining four "South Dakota" class will not be put into service until the end of the year at the earliest. What's even more dangerous is that MI5 has also received news of the secret Soviet-German negotiations, once Turkey surrenders, the Soviet Black Sea Fleet is drilled out of the strait to cooperate with Germany and Italy, and the consequences will be unimaginable!

"Sumatra's demands must be refused." Marshal Pound stood up and walked up to Churchill: "We can sacrifice Singapore, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands." It is also possible to sell Christmas Island to him, but in no way support the Sumatra scheme, because none of us knows if it will become the next Siberia. "One has to admire the global vision and sensitivity of the British Royal Navy, and Pound underscores the importance of Sumatra in one sentence. The reason is actually very simple, even if Britain and the United States do not agree, Yang Qiu can easily defeat Singapore, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and Yang Qiu can easily defeat them, as for whether they admit it orally or not, it does not matter to Beijing at all, so what Yang Qiu wants is just an acknowledgement. And geographically, all three regions are narrow, lack depth and resources, and are isolated from abroad. So at most, it is to build a naval base to ensure Beijing's long-term interests in the South China Sea, so if there is a war in the future, it may not be impossible to fight back. But Sumatra is different, it is located on the edge of the Indian Ocean, with enough depth and many strategic resources such as oil. Although he only needs Riau Province now, he believes that Yang Qiu has a hundred ways to radiate the whole of Sumatra with Riau Province. Then it slowly becomes an enclave that water can't splash through. At that time, the Chinese Navy will not only be able to realize the strategy of encircling the South China Sea and radiating the Indian Ocean, but will also be able to shorten the distance between it and the Chagos Archipelago, and it will be able to easily cut off the sea lanes from Western Australia to India and Africa in wartime. As for the issues of the Southwest Pacific, the Ryukyus, and Japan's offshore colonies, they had little to do with Britain. The bottom line is that as long as you keep your residence in the Lomon Islands and Australia, it's not the UK that is unlucky anyway.

Churchill squeezed his cigar and narrowed his eyes slightly, not only weighing Yang Qiu's conditions. Also note the hint that "China and Europe will not border". This may sound like an ordinary sentence, but he believes that there is a deep meaning in it, and it could be a super gift package for himself. Because everybody knows. If China does not annex the whole of Siberia, then post-war Central Europe will fundamentally put an end to geopolitical contradictions. It's a good move! It can pull China out of the contradictions of its long land borders and strengthen its maritime interests. For Europe, a prolonged border standoff with China can also be avoided. He understood that after the war, the United States would definitely want to intervene in Europe, but if there was no Soviet ideology and Central Europe did not border, the United States would have no reason to maintain a strong military presence in Europe for a long time, Europe would have the opportunity to regain its independence and revival, and Britain would also have the opportunity to reintegrate Europe little by little. After all, no one wants to be a puppet of the United States, and even if he has a good personal relationship with Roosevelt, the first thing to consider is the national interest. If Europe can be integrated, even if a few countries are stabilized, and major colonies such as India and South Africa are retained, Britain may not be able to recover quickly from the war and slowly squeeze out American influence. Of course, this matter touches on the core interests of Britain and the United States, which is too sensitive and too early, and it needs to be carefully considered how to act. After all, there are still nasty French-stirring sticks in Europe, and the disobedient Russian sticks.

"Show me the list you've negotiated." While Churchill was weighing the pros and cons, Yang Qiu, who had made a bid, had temporarily turned his mind to commercial trade.

The Cape Town Conference was not just a meeting of the top leaders of the Allied forces, it was an all-encompassing meeting. There are both military-political and commercial cooperation. According to the pre-arranged 10-day itinerary, there are an average of five to six bilateral or multilateral meetings per day. Therefore, whether it was Roosevelt, who proposed the convening, or Yang Qiu and Churchill, who were petty, they all brought a huge military, political and commercial delegation, hoping to coordinate the resources and industrial complementarity of the three countries, clarify the responsibilities of the war, and sign procurement contracts. These cumbersome matters are mainly the responsibility of Murong Han, Chu Nan, and Foreign Minister Shi Zhaoji, and they are also a big test of their ability.

After 30 years of development, Yang Qiu no longer wants to be a simple raw material exporter, because China's manufacturing industry already has a strong high value-added export capacity. So far, China is the world's only producer and exporter of nylon and polyester, with an annual output of 2.5 million nylon and 550,000 tons of polyester, and has the world's largest output of polystyrene, synthetic ammonia fertilizers, electronic equipment, etc. It is the world's largest light industry producer, the second largest equipment manufacturer, the second largest oil producer, the second largest electronic components manufacturer, the second largest aviation producer, the third shipbuilding country, the fourth largest petrochemical country, etc. And taking advantage of the economic crisis and early cooperation with Germany, it was already possible to manufacture the vast majority of strategic large-scale industrial equipment. However, due to the restrictions of Europe and the United States, the export of high value-added goods such as complete sets of industrial equipment and overall ships and aircraft is still inferior to that of the four major industrial countries of Britain, the United States, France and Germany.

The world war was brutal. But it is also an opportunity for the development of industry and commerce, so Yang Qiu attaches great importance to this business negotiation. In addition, there is another reason that is difficult to say, and that is that military spending is rising. In the past two years, the Ministry of Finance has spent an average of 200 million civilian dollars a day on military spending, and this figure continues to grow. Under the circumstance that it was already difficult to tap the potential in the country, he had to find ways to increase exports and ease the financial pressure.

"You see, oil tankers, merchant ships, aviation aircraft and accessories, army weapons, nylon new materials have exceeded the export value of raw materials, and the United States has also ordered two 15,000-ton integral molding machines at a time. And also. This afternoon, the United States also offered to buy long-range transport planes, and I did not dare to agree to the stock offer. "The person in charge of the business negotiations is Liao Zhongkai. He is the only member of the Kuomintang in the cabinet, and because of his down-to-earth and calm style, when the cabinet was formed, Gu Weijun invited him to be the minister of industry and commerce.

When it comes to the export of large molding machines, Liao Zhongkai is very excited, because this is the first time that China has exported strategic mega industrial equipment. In the parallel world, because of the lack of attention before the war, Britain and the United States did not develop super-large forging machines and integral molding machines as early as Germany. So later, when the B29 bomber was created, it ran into great trouble. In this world, Yang Qiu took advantage of the financial crisis to carry out joint research and development with Germany long ago. It already has the development and manufacturing capacity of a series of large-scale strategic industrial equipment, including extra-large molding machines, and has this "first time".

"Long-range transporters?" Yang Qiu pulled his eyes out of the list.

Chu Nan nodded: "I didn't bring it up before, I was forced by Crete this time." Their current C47 is similar to our Y-6, and they can't bypass Libya to quickly supply Egypt. The latest DC4 transport aircraft is still in test flight, so we want to purchase a batch of spot emergencies from us. Britain also has this plan, and has also proposed to buy 200 Y-8 or Y-9. ”

"Do we have it in stock?" Murong Han asked.

Chu Nan smiled: "Yes." That's a lot. The Y-11 has been finalized, but we cannot afford to build three large transport aircraft at the same time, and we have to discontinue the production of one. Now I have 813 Y-8 and 877 Y-9 in my hands, the performance of the two aircraft is similar, but the Y-9 is good to maintain and faster, so it is basically certain that the Y-8 will be discontinued. In this way, the Meteor Company can be shipped with the Northern Company.11 After the Navy program is curtailed, domestic shipyards can free up some production capacity, which allows them to subcontract some large parts, 40 aircraft per month. The Central Asian railway line is gradually complete, after opening up Malacca, the pressure of long-distance air transport will be much smaller, according to our calculations, Yun 9 fleet plus 40 aircraft per month Yun 11, can meet the needs of transportation. ”

"In addition to the transport plane, the United States also took a fancy to our "Heavenway" airborne navigation system and LT180 walkie-talkie, and wanted to buy imitation patents. Liao Zhongkai looked at Yang Qiu, and the two things he said were the products of the domestic electronics giants Global Tong and Lenovo. Everyone knows the relationship between these two companies and Yang Qiu, and it also involves some sensitive technologies of the military.

Yang Qiu didn't care, because the "Tianlu" navigator was originally developed in accordance with the 1943 "Taika" navigator of the United States in the parallel world. As for the LT180 walkie-talkie, it was also produced six years ago using the drawings of the Motorola SCR300 FM walkie-talkie. There have been new products in China for a long time, but they can still be used now, and the country has no money and no time for large-scale redressing. Since the United States wants it, he is also happy to crack down on Motorola and some related large American companies, who let them slow down the development speed, and the American GIs are red-eyed again. However, this incident also reminded him, saying: "There is no problem with exporting, but there will definitely be more and more such things in the future, and there can be no restrictions." In this case, let's discuss that the military should take the lead and cooperate with domestic scientific research departments to set up a high-tech export control and examination department under the Ministry of National Defense, and in the future, everything involving sensitive technology must be approved by this department before being exported, so as to avoid any mistakes and others spying on our intelligence. ”

Everyone thought this suggestion was very good, and Liao Zhongkai was also relieved, he was afraid that Yang Qiu would deny the business on the grounds of technical sensitivity. You must know that of the 6,000 aircraft produced in the United States every month, 2,000 need this kind of navigator, and after selling imitation patents, the United States will have to pay $320 in patent fees for each set produced. Although the state takes corporate taxes, it is also a relatively large number. As for the 800 second-hand transport planes, based on the unit price of 300,000 US dollars after depreciation, it is 240 million US dollars (about 480 million people's dollars), which can be fully invested in the military expenditure later.

Just when everyone was discussing how to set up a high-tech export audit department and system as soon as possible, Shi Zhaoji rushed in sweating: "President." Churchill has replied! ”

"Oh, how do you say?"

Making money is not as important as the future, so Yang Qiu suddenly rose up after hearing the news, and even other people surrounded him. "After the meeting just now, Halifax asked me to talk privately, except for Sumatra, Britain can agree to all the other conditions, and also promised to persuade the United States to be right, Zhong Kai. Britain wants to increase the sale of 2 battleships and 2 escort carriers, you will see it later. Shi Zhaoji grabbed Liao Zhongkai. Tell him that he has received another big order.

"Don't promise Sumatra?" Yang Qiu was a little disappointed.

Singapore is important, but far less important than Sumatra, which not only protects the Straits of Malacca and Sunda Strait, but also serves as a general logistics supply depot for bases in the Indian Ocean, such as Chagos. "On the issue of Sumatra, the rhetoric is very tough. Halifax said they are now most concerned about holding the eastern Mediterranean, which has no time to think about Sumatra because it is not only about Egypt and North Africa, but also about the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. Shi Zhaoji repeated Halifax's words.

Those present were experts in diplomacy and international politics. This kind of remark is clearly a warning to Yang Qiu that if he makes too many excessive demands, it will be a big deal for Britain to fully withdraw from the Eastern Mediterranean and let China and the United States play on their own. As for India. Churchill was not at all worried that unless he killed all Indians, he would still be able to exert enough influence after the war with his deep colonial roots.

After understanding the bottom line of the UK. The three leaders have finally begun the fourth round of consultations.

Churchill was clearly angry with Roosevelt, so Roosevelt took the initiative to make concessions when the differences were still very large. In Yang Qiu promised to guarantee the integrity of the Philippines. After not annexing Singapore, Sumatra, and East Borneo into their national territory, Britain and the United States finally agreed to annex the Anambas Islands to China's Natuna Islands, and promised to cede the Linga Islands to Singapore, and to be entrusted by China until the establishment of the state. Agreed to merge West Borneo, Central Borneo and East Borneo, and to include Kuching in West Borneo as an independent state. They promised to hand over the Andaman and Nicobaya Islands to Chinese trusteeship, promised to sell Christmas Island, promised to transfer all the islands in the southwest Pacific currently controlled by China and Japan's colonies in the Pacific to Chinese trusteeship, promised China to establish a naval base in Eritrea under the "Djibouti" model, but the two also left their tails, that is, to ask Yang Qiu to promise to reserve the right to self-determination in these areas in the future.

As for Guam and Wake Island, Roosevelt still refused any public recognition.

On the Siberian issue, Britain and the United States also made a compromise and promised to recognize the validity of the referendum after signing the declaration. However, taking into account the ideas of the allies, they did not make any statements about the merger of territories. Roosevelt also promised that the United States would immediately strengthen its deployment in the Eastern Mediterranean, and that the First Marine Division, which was to be transferred to Spain, and ten other divisions to Egypt and Cyprus, and that the United States would immediately declare war on the Soviet Union as soon as the Soviet-German alliance agreement was signed.

The division of responsibilities for the war was also once again clear, and it was agreed that China and the Asian allies would assume all the remaining war against Japan and the Southwest Pacific, but that the United States would have to send some troops to attack the Philippines. It was also responsible for the main wars in Asia, the Persian Gulf and the Caucasus part of the Soviet Union, and participated in the wars in the Middle East and the European region of the Soviet Union, as appropriate. As a condition, the U.S. government will continue to provide China with $2 billion a year in loans and industrial aid, including much-needed trucks and machinery, in accordance with the Lend-Lease Act, until the end of the war.

The Indian Ocean Theater will continue to be led by the British, and the Chinese side is willing to obey the command of the British army, and will not station troops in India after the war. In exchange, Britain immediately and completely abrogated the unequal treaty of the Sino-British Conference on Tibet-India and recognized the international declaration that Sikkim, East Kashmir, and the northeastern states of Assam, Nagaland, and Manipur belonged to China.

The Atlantic and Mediterranean theaters of operations, with the United Kingdom, the United States and their European allies taking on the main battles.

For the first time, arrangements were also made in the Middle East theater (excluding the Persian Gulf), and the three parties unanimously agreed that no matter who invaded Turkey and the Middle East first by the Soviet Union and Germany, the US military would automatically have the command of the theater. This was the first theater command that the US military obtained, and it was also deliberately avoided by China and Britain. Because for Churchill, he hoped for a future conflict between China and the United States in the Middle East, while for Yang Qiu, divided Muslims are the best Muslims, not to mention the Palestinian question, which he did not want to touch.

The trio also reached an agreement to co-opt Turkey and Finland into joining the Allied forces in the anti-fascist war. Finally, there was a joint decision not to restrict the free market. Strengthen the business complementarity of the three countries during the war, and begin to prepare for the establishment of a joint organization to study all matters related to the establishment of the United Nations after the war.

After the political and military negotiations were reached, Churchill immediately purchased from China two battleships "Dinghai" and "Ninghai" with 330-mm naval guns for $500 million and Christmas Island, as well as two general-class escort aircraft carriers, 120 dive bombers, 200 Y-8 long-range transport planes, 10,000 Soviet-made army guns, 4,500 Chinese 85-mm antiaircraft guns, and a large number of other commodities, which China was responsible for transporting to Egypt and the British Virgin Islands, and the British and American Atlantic fleets were transferred to Europe and North Africa. Originally, he also wanted to buy "Tianquan" fighters and 36 main battle tanks. But they were all rejected by Yang Qiu on the grounds of insufficient production capacity. In order to make up for the loss of Atlantic merchant ships, he finally spent $100 million to buy 30 second-hand 10,000-ton ships, and also cooperated with the United States to place an order for 60 ships in one go.

As an unconditional support for his allies, Yang Qiu also promised to send 280 Type 31 tanks, 370 repaired Soviet-made T34 tanks, and 500 U-series armored vehicles to Egypt to the British army free of charge.

The U.S. Navy is very interested in this big business, but it really can't get it in stock. After the "New York" and "Texas" were injured, the only battleships that the United States could use were the "North Carolina", the "Washington" and a few old ships, and the four "South Dakota" could not be delivered one after another until the end of the year. The escort aircraft carrier has started a lot of work, but shipbuilding is not building aircraft. It takes four to five months to convert a merchant ship into an aircraft carrier, so it is far from the historical peak of delivering one ship in January. As for army weapons, the United States itself has to buy patents from China.

Compared with the British, the US military, which is a big rich man, spends money without blinking. It purchased 600 Yun-8 stock planes at a unit price of $300,000, 20,000 sets of "Tianlu" navigation system and imitation patents at $80 million, 30,000 LT180 FM radio stations and imitation patents at $35 million, and also purchased some weapons imitation patents, including 155mm howitzers. In the end, a procurement contract worth up to $2 billion was signed. It is used to purchase nylon, polyester, tungsten, tungsten oil and other commodities urgently needed by the US military. But on the key uranium mine, although Roosevelt offered a sky-high price, Yang Qiu still resolutely refused. Finally until May 1942. It was only in Canada that the United States discovered an associated uranium mine suitable for mining, which delayed the Manhattan Project for half a year.

A large contract totaling $3 billion, as well as $2 billion in annual aid from the United States, greatly eased Yang Qiu's financial pressure. China is not the United States in the end, and if it were not for the advance in weaponry, military thinking, and tactics, it would not have been possible to achieve the current results.

In the end, he struck a deal with French representatives to provide $20 million in military aid, including 300 Type 31 tanks, in exchange for trusteeship of the Crozet Islands, near Antarctica. Although it was ludicrous for de Gaulle to request that the "no military use" clause be included in the trusteeship transfer contract, Yang Qiu agreed for the sake of a future Antarctic research station, and soon after, added the archipelago to the list of unformed overseas territories.

Because Cunningham was under too much pressure, he did not wait for the final signing of the contract, and the domestic Bingwen immediately asked the two general-class escort aircraft carriers that had just been delivered to be painted with the names of "Cape Town" and "Gibraltar". In order to save time, the two ships joined up with the four Anhai-class battleships resting in Cam Ranh Bay, and took the Dunkirk and Strasbourg and four French heavy cruisers that had returned to the Pacific during the southern expedition to the Marshalls, and headed straight for the Sunda Strait. The latter warships will go to Chagos to participate in the offensive against Burma and the Andaman after entering the Indian Ocean.

Now the South China Sea is like a fence leaking everywhere, Inoue Narumi is no longer able to intercept such a large fleet, and the Japanese air force in Batavia has also been bombed many times, so in the end he can only watch the fleet fly through the strait.

At 11 p.m. on September 15, Cape Town time, all the disputes, conflicts, insults and accusations disappeared in front of the reporters. In front of hundreds of journalists and delegates from all over the world, the three leaders formally issued the Cape Town Declaration, which laid the foundation for the future of the world.

This declaration is the second important international declaration after the Cairo Declaration between China and the United Kingdom. The declaration not only reaffirmed the alliance between China, the United States, and Britain, but also called on all countries and nations in the world to join the anti-fascist camp, promising not to seek territorial expansion, protecting the territorial integrity of all nation-states, and allowing them to choose their own regimes and governments independently. The Declaration also pledged economic and cultural equality to all countries of the world.

At the final question-and-answer session, both Churchill and Roosevelt respectively recognized the fairness and validity of the high-profile Siberian referendum in accordance with the agreement, and said that Britain and the United States would abide by the provisions of the "Cairo Declaration" that "allow the people to choose their own regime and government independently" and respect the choice of the people in Siberia. After expressing his gratitude to the two men, Yang Qiu officially publicly promised not to continue to seek territorial referendums on the mainland, but to help those self-determined nations and countries to establish their own regimes. He pledged that as soon as possible, all Asian countries and all countries concerned will work together to establish their own borders, promote national independence in Asia, and help Tatar and other Soviet minorities establish independent states and autonomous regions in the Urals and other regions.

In the eyes of the reporters, the "Cape Town Declaration" is undoubtedly a just declaration of justice against the fascist dictatorship that loves peace, advocates national equality and unity, and advocates fair trade and exchanges, strengthens the world anti-fascist alliance, and lays the foundation for the future world pattern.

But in Yang's eyes, it is just a political art of compromise between all parties, and contests still pervade all spheres of diplomacy, military, economics, and culture. But it is this kind of compromise that he needs, although Sumatra did not achieve its goal, and the Philippines needs to continue to play with the United States, but it still clarifies the territorial boundaries and completes the future strategic framework of the southwest Pacific and the two oceans...... (To be continued......)