No. 103 Rue de la Ministry, is a large courtyard, the courtyard is planted with a large number of evergreen shrubs, at this time most of the evergreen shrubs are covered by snow, there is a brick and wood painting in the courtyard, brick and wood structure, the second floor of the transparent colonnade with a wide terrace, the whole building, full of French architectural style, here is the French Embassy in China.

"Listen to me, Ambassador Kant,"

Fermier began to say firmly.

"You must understand that in this matter, the British have betrayed the interests of France, and with the support of the British, the Chinese are bound to increase the pressure on the issue of Guangzhou Bay, and I do not think that in this special period we have the ability to resist their pressure, although we can ignore them, but, Mr. Ambassador, it is France, not China, that needs help now, perhaps, in the end it is still possible for the Chinese to achieve their goals, after all, for France, The Cabinet preferred to exchange Guangzhou Bay for ten Chinese divisions rather than one leased land in China. That's all I'm going to say. ”

By the time Fermier's voice fell, Kant, the French ambassador to China, had already stood up, but he did not go out, but stood there, his lips trembling with anger, glaring at the British Embassy in China, which could be seen through the window.

These damn British, in the last few hundred years, they have always been sacrificing the interests of other countries for their own interests, and now, what do they say, Britain is fighting for France, but in fact? In fact, Britain is fighting for its own interests, Germany may be invading France, but one of the most direct triggers for this war is the naval arms race between Germany and Britain, whether it is Germany or Britain, they are not willing to continue the arms race, for them, the deadlock is the war, and now the war has broken out as desired, the Germans say they are for Austria-Hungary, and the British say they are for France, but in fact? Only France is really fighting for Russia because of the Treaty of Alliance, but damn it, in this war, the most upright and also the most innocent France, was shamefully betrayed

Looking at Ambassador Kant, who was standing motionless by the window and glaring at the British Embassy, Fermier could certainly feel the anger emanating from him, and everyone would be angry in the face of such a thing, and he even had an impulse at that time, if he was the Prime Minister of France, perhaps, he would make peace with Germany because of this, of course, if the Germans were willing to retreat and return French Alsace and Lorraine, he would not mind making peace now, and then tell those despicable Brits that France would never be played by the British

But now, France had no choice but to continue the war, and he said in a tone of forcible restraint:

"Mr. Ambassador, what do you think is the likelihood that the Cabinet will reject this proposal? France does not have Canton Bay, but it still has the whole Indochina, the role of Canton Bay for France is only the existence of French power in China, in the past, the significance of trade was greater than the military and political significance, and now, China has already opened up their national trade, and they also support free trade, so I personally think that compared to the help brought by hundreds of thousands of Chinese troops, the cabinet will definitely pass this proposal put forward by the British. ”

Fermier said in a very affirmative tone, at the end, he deliberately emphasized the "Englishman", but Kant, who was standing by the window, frowned, he knew that Fermier was telling the truth, he could not be moved by Yuan, and after taking a few deep breaths, he said calmly, as if he was talking about an irrelevant third reserve

"Now it is impossible and no time for us to stop the conspiracy of the British, who always dream of betraying the interests of the British, and we have a verbal agreement with the British, that the leased land in China, whether French or British, will be in agreement, and that if we need to return Canton Bay, then the British must return Kowloon, if possible......"

After a moment of silence, a persistent gaze flashed in his eyes, but then it disappeared. He gently thrust his arm, as if in deep thought for a moment.

"We also want the British to return Kowloon and Hong Kong to China, even if France sacrifices some interests, we have to dig out their flesh from the British, Britain is different from France, France loses Guangzhou Bay, we still have Indochina, but if Britain loses Hong Kong, then they will lose their foothold in East Asia, Britain's closest port to China will suddenly retreat from Hong Kong to Singapore, which is thousands of kilometers, and France, but only a few hundred kilometers back." …,

When he said his physiognomy, Kant did not have any joy on his face, nor did he have the slightest smugness.

"Then, Mr. Ambassador, is it possible that the British will accept this condition?".

"No, they won't accept it, but they have to negotiate with us, and ......"

With a sneer, Kant's brows raised slightly.

"At the same time as the negotiations, we will of course have to negotiate with China, and these two negotiations will delay the time for China to send troops, and then Britain will need to send more troops to France."

"In that case, Chinese......"

"The Chinese are the only winners"

Kant said with some helplessness, if he had a choice, he also did not want China to benefit from it, but now, he had no other better choice, it was Britain who betrayed France first, so France must "reciprocate" Britain's concern.

"I hope the Chinese will be equally grateful to France"

When praying in his heart, Kant only felt in his heart that all this was really a bit tragic, that Europe, once upon a time, could run the whole world, now had to rely on the help of a group of colored people, not economically, but militarily, and the military help still came from a country that had been defeated by European countries countless times.

But no one can deny that China now has a powerful army, and even Britain is eager for China to send their navy, and their navy has repeatedly demonstrated its combat effectiveness.

navy

Suddenly Kant realized that France needed the Chinese army to enter the battlefield in order to relieve the pressure on France, and in the same way, Britain did not need the Chinese navy, and now the British did not have full confidence in winning the naval battle against Germany, but if the Chinese fleet was also involved, then everything would change, perhaps the Chinese naval power was far less than that of Germany, or even that of France, but if their fleet arrived in England, then the British navy could form an overwhelming advantage over the German navy.

Win naval battles

Not only in favor of Britain, but also in favor of France, and possibly even the whole situation of the war

However, let the British spit out Hong Kong, the difficulties in which Kant naturally could not understand it anymore, he clearly knew that for Britain, the importance of Hong Kong, especially Hong Kong is also an important bargaining chip for Britain to clamp down on China, Japan's weakening and defeat of the war, so that the balance in Asia has long been broken, and Britain's Far East foreign policy is the art of balance, and now this balance, he has to pin his trust on Britain itself, therefore, Hong Kong is directly related to the core of Britain's Far East diplomacy.

I've got to figure out a way

In addition, the most worrying part of this troublesome matter is whether there will be an extraneous episode, and the key to the problem is how to keep the British from holding a grudge against France, after all, for France, France needs a British expeditionary force.

After the somewhat irritated Ambassador Kant hastily signed a contract for a commodity loan with the China Foreign Trade Corporation, his whole body fell into a state of mind again.

In a world where there is no intrigues, this pact is perfect. But after he personally read this paper contract, he immediately found a "flaw", unless the other party who signed the contract is extraordinarily kind and reasonable, there will definitely be trouble in the future.

In fact, the "flaw" in this contract is very simple, nothing more than agreeing on the way of repayment, although Kant is not a businessman, but as a diplomat, after signing countless contracts, he can be said to know the contract well, and the "flaw" of this contract is obviously left by the Chinese in order to protect their own interests.

"Benefits"

Suddenly, Kant's eyes lit up, and he realized that the Chinese were undoubtedly easier to deal with than with the British, and for China, they valued more substantial interests, although sometimes there were unintentional tricks, but they were not like the British, who saw the kind of interests that could not be seen, the Chinese valued what was in front of them and what they could get directly, and as for other nihilistic and strategic things, they did not value them, just like they allied with Germany.

For this reason, they offended Britain and even the United States, but the Chinese got a lot, why China declared war on Germany, in the final analysis, it was not for real substantive interests, in the negotiations between China, Britain, France, and Russia, Britain, France, and Russia all agreed to their demands - after the war, the countries recognized China's confiscation of German capital on Chinese territory. …,

The purpose of their participation in this war is to refuse to repay the direct benefits of the loan, which means that they only need enough benefits to buy China, buy the Chinese, and as a backward country, they must want more

more

Suddenly Kant's eyes lit up, and he realized that perhaps, in this negotiation, it is completely possible to use the Chinese's thirst for interests, as for France, well, friendly neutrality, France's demand, does not need to be put forward through France, it can be put forward with the help of Chinese officials, which means that negotiations must be carried out first, and then at the appropriate time, the content of the negotiations can be leaked, so that China can be used to serve the interests of France.

If Britain had changed its attitude by then, then France might still be able to keep Canton Bay, and in this negotiation, France would have to play the role of an innocent, and as for China, it would be a greedy one, the British...... Naturally, they play that self-righteous role

British self-righteousness

In the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Lu Zhengxiang smiled at the document transferred by the British Embassy, the content of the document is very simple, the British government hopes that China will send troops to Europe through official channels, and the troops sent include the army and the main fleet.

In Lu Zhengxiang's view, the British's request was not a British self-righteousness, and the British thought that if they supported China's claim to Guangzhou Bay, they could get China to agree to send an army and navy to fight for them?

"Your Excellency, how do you think we should reply to the British?"

Cao Weiran looked at the new foreign minister and asked, although he has the full support of the previous foreign minister, but after Guan Mingtang formed a cabinet, he did not become a foreign minister, although he was once a son of heaven and a courtier, but his position was not affected in any way, he was still the vice minister of foreign affairs, and the new foreign minister Lu Zhengxiang also admired him.

In fact, for him, in his opinion, instead of being the foreign minister, it is better to be the post of foreign minister who can influence most foreign policy decisions.

Although he studied in England, he did not have any good feelings for Britain, for this country, for the government of this country, especially for the Far East policy of this country, it can be said that if according to his ideas, he would rather support Germany to attack Britain, but also to beat Britain to pieces, this country is different from any Western power, he enjoys too many interests in Asia, and because of this, in his opinion, even if the conflict between China and Britain has been avoided in this war, the contradictions between the two countries will only become more and more intense. He even affirmed in the private salon of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials that one of the triggers of the next war was the Sino-British war caused by the Sino-British conflict.

The reason is very simple, Britain's Far East strategy is to preserve its vested interests. The British Empire is an empire on which the sun never sets, the largest colonizer in the world, and has always claimed that it was established for the benefit of its overlord, not for the benefit of its colonies. Safeguarding vested interests is the main goal of its global strategy, and at this point, China and Britain have irreconcilable contradictions, in the South Seas, in India, in the whole of Asia, China and Britain have all kinds of direct and inevitable war inducements, so he hopes that Britain will run out of vitality in this war, only in this way, in the face of China's challenge in the future, Britain will rationally choose to avoid, of course, more importantly, if Britain runs out of vitality in this war, then in the next war, At least China will win easily.

However, he also knew that it was his hostility to Britain that had caused him to miss out on the post of Foreign Secretary, and that China, as an ally of Britain, now had to make some symbolic moves, and it was obviously hostile to appoint an official who was hostile to Britain as Foreign Secretary, and he understood this very well.

"What the British now hope is that we will take the initiative to propose to France our claim to Canton Bay, and make this a basic precondition for sending troops to Europe, but ......"...,

After pondering for a moment, Lu Zhengxiang said helplessly.

"The role played by Britain in this diplomatic battlefield is extremely dishonorable, and the British are trying to exploit the Canton Bay issue to seek hostility between China and France for the next decade or more, or at least a latent distrust between the two sides, which is sometimes ......fatal diplomatically."

"Your Excellency, this is inevitable"

Cao Weiran emphasized that compared with the older generation of diplomats, as a new generation of diplomats of the empire, his diplomatic style is a little less tactful and a little more tough, in fact, this toughness was originally due to the need for diplomatic negotiations, and now, it is more out of confidence in national strength.

"There is already a potential conflict between China and France over the ownership of the French Indochina Peninsula, so I do not think that there will be potential reciprocity with France in the future, and as China becomes stronger, we have no trust with France, England, the Netherlands, and even the United States, and any of the countries that have colonies in Asia, and they also understand this, and our country is bound to seek suzerainty, or at least leadership, over Asia in the future, and on this point, we have diplomatic confrontation with the Western countries. Even a military confrontation is inevitable"

Glancing at Cao Weiran, although he agrees with his opinion to a certain extent, Lu Zhengxiang still has to admire these young people, these young people who entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after the empire, their attitude towards the outside world is more tough, but in the toughness, they are also tactful, but they are still a little too young, too radical, and future conflicts do not mean that they cannot cooperate now.

"The British want to sacrifice the interests of France, and France prays that the British will get their wish?"

Thinking of the British self-righteousness, Lu Zhengxiang smiled, and then said thoughtfully.

"If I am not mistaken, now that France has obtained the secret agreement between us and the British, they will certainly make appropriate countermeasures, if the expectations are good, the French will not go all out to prevent us from getting Canton Bay, but they will drag the British down in the interests of various countries in China, and on this point, the interests of the French and ours are identical, and likewise, on Canton Bay, the interests of Britain and ours are also identical."

"It is not easy to get caught in the heat of two countries, and it is likely to delay the negotiations?"

Cao Wei looked up at Lu Zhengxiang who was sitting there, and seemed to understand something.

"Your Majesty means to delay this negotiation, right?"

"It is not in our interest to send troops to Europe for at least next year, so it is undoubtedly appropriate to involve both Britain and France, and it will also be beneficial for our future military operations."

"Military operations? Isn't ...... "......,