On the coast of German East Africa, in the rain and fog, two Austro-Hungarian warships are sailing into the German naval base in Zanzibar.

It was originally a German colony, and later the British exchanged Helgoland for the Germans. But after the European War, the Germans got it again as one of the conditions for Germany to return its colonial rights to Egypt.

Feeling the post-war exploitation of African minerals, the Germans have built it into its most important naval base in the Indian Ocean. At 10 a.m., the warship slowly approached the pier, where a military band played "God Bless the Emperor" and several German naval and colonial officers greeted the Austro-Hungarian Emperor on the pier. Among the welcoming crowd on the pier were many waving the Austro-Hungarian flag. Germany and Austria formed a common market, and Austro-Hungarian citizens could also have German privileges in the German colonies, so there were also many immigrants from Austria-Hungary in German East Africa.

Germany and Austria have built a trans-African railway, which runs from the port of Cameroon to the port of Dar es Salaam, linking German West Africa, Austrian Congo and Tanganyika, and making the economy of the whole Central Africa develop relatively rapidly. With the development of mining and agricultural plantations, about 150,000 German-Austrian immigrants migrated from Europe.

The Central African region has many important strategic resources that Europe lacks, including copper, aluminum, cobalt, nickel and, of course, gold and diamonds. Relatively speaking, the iron-making resources in Africa are not abundant, and there are some coal and iron mines in German East Africa, but the reserves are not enough to meet local needs, and they are not particularly suitable for the development of large-scale metallurgical and mechanical industries.

The two emperors who dominated European affairs met in East Africa.

The Austro-Hungarian Emperor visited a number of cities and farmsteads in Tanganyika on the Kaiser's private yacht, and then, before the Austro-Hungarian Emperor left, the two countries issued the Declaration of Zanzibar.

The Zanzibar Declaration declares that Germany and Austria will work together to defend world peace and will never tolerate a war of aggression waged by one country against another. Any military action that seeks to undermine world peace will be regarded as a provocation to Germany and Austria, and if necessary, they may even use force to defend world peace.

"Germany and Austria are declaring to the world that they are the rule-makers of this world. The two empires are happy with the status quo and will not tolerate anything that attempts to change it. The Zanzibar Declaration contained no specifics. Their purpose was simply to express concern about the increasingly tense situation in the Far East and to warn the Japanese and Russians not to use force in the Far East. It is clear that these two empires are on the side of the Chinese. This is what the BBC commentators said about the declaration.

In the cabin, Mr. Lee listened to the radio and pondered China's problems.

In the Beiyang Congress, the Kuomintang has always occupied the position of the largest party in the Congress, and the Progressive Party organized by Liang Qichao occupies the second seat in the Congress. However, at this time, the KMT was divided into two major factions, pro-Leno and pro-Duan. The pro-Duan faction and the Progressive Party have merged, and have maintained Duan's majority in Congress.

Li Yuanhong regarded himself as the leader of the Xinhai Revolution, and his subordinates gradually gathered elites from all over the world during the Xinhai Revolution, and received the support of the Foreign Affairs Department of the National Assembly and the Jiangsu-Zhejiang consortium, and his momentum was no less than that of the Duan family.

Xu Shuzheng has been sitting in the position of army chief after the expiration of Duan's term of office in 1927, while Li Fang General Jiang Zuobin has been firmly in the post of chief of staff for many years, and among the 48 divisions of the Central Army system, the Duan department has 20 division commanders, and the Li department has 13 division commanders. However, the navy is inclined to Li Yuanhong, who was born in the Beiyang Navy, and the two sides are almost evenly divided.

The Republic of China Army currently has about 93 divisions, half of which are central and half local. Local provinces generally have 1 to 3 divisions of garrisons, and generally speaking, local divisions are poorly equipped and have a lower combat effectiveness than the central divisions. What is more special is that there are a total of seven divisions in the three northeastern provinces, which were later taken over by Zhang Zuolin.

This is Xu Shuzheng's mistake, Xiao Xu wanted to win over Zhang Zuolin to fight against the Li family, but he didn't expect to raise a tiger in the end, and he couldn't fall off the tail. The "King of the Northeast" used Li Duan to fight, and the left and right sides were together. Eventually become a large ** local faction. The other is Yan Baichuan from Shanxi, who has lived in Shanxi for many years. Taoguang cultivates obscurity, and gradually excludes dissidents. Self-contained, the whole Shanxi has become a "** kingdom". At present, Shanxi has a nearly complete military-industrial system, and also has four divisions of local troops, which are well-equipped and a force that should not be underestimated.

Yan Baichuan started in Xinhai and regarded himself as a veteran of the Kuomintang Party, but he never participated in domestic political struggles.

After the fall of Lu Tingrong, the central government sent three divisions into Liangguang, but the original Chinese Workers Corps had many Gui children from the Baoding Army School, such as Ye Qi, Bai Chongxi, Xia Wei and others, and gradually controlled the military and political affairs of Liangguang, forming a first-class faction, which included three Central Army divisions and five local divisions, which sat on Liangguang and became an important faction in the political arena of the Republic of China.

There is also an important force in the first series of the Central Army is the new Beiyang system left over from the original Beiyang military system, originally headed by Feng Guozhang and Cao Kun, after Feng died and Cao Kun retired, led by Li Chun, Wu Peifu and Chen Guangyuan, with nine Central Army divisions and five local divisions in hand, its strength is enough to compete with the Duan system.

Now that's where China's problem lies.

Zhang Zuolin gradually became the "king of the Northeast" with the support of the Japanese, but Zhang did not want to leave the infamy of being a "traitor", and on the Northeast issue, he had been in constant trouble with the Japanese army who controlled the Manchurian Railway and the Far East, and did not want the Japanese to control the three northeastern provinces too much. As for the "**" supported by the Japanese, he rejected it without hesitation.

Even as the pressure from the Japanese side gradually increased, he began to secretly contact Xu Shuzheng, preparing to accept the peaceful reorganization of Beijing. This touched Japan's fundamental interests, and when the threat was ineffective, the Japanese Kwantung Army orchestrated an assassination operation.

On September 18, 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army planned the "Northeast Incident", when Zhang Zuolin, the "King of the Northeast", went to Shanhaiguan by train, the special train was blown up by the Japanese Manchurian Railway Garrison when it passed through the Dawei River Iron Bridge, and Zhang Zuolin was killed on the spot.

Zhang Zuolin was about to go to Shanhaiguan to sign a "change of banner" agreement with the central government, and Zhang decided to go to Beijing to serve as vice president, preparing to give up the territory and army in the northeast in exchange for the future peace and prosperity of the whole family.

That night, under the pretext of "maintaining law and order," the Japanese army launched an attack on the Northeast Army stationed in Mukden, and Zhang Xueliang, who rushed to the scene of the accident at the Daling River, misjudged that the Japanese were just looking for an excuse to stir up disputes, and issued an order to the garrison troops in Mukden to "not allow resistance," and the Kwantung Army occupied the entire Mukden with only one brigade and two railway garrisons.

After that, the Japanese army began to advance into the northeast in a steady stream, and only spontaneous volunteers in the northeast resisted stubbornly. (To be continued) R640