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I lost half my life in a fight, and I came home tired and hungry to make up for it with the fat and oily meat that I had already hidden, only to find a strong hungry wolf staring at the meat with its eyes. The British Empire, the invincible overlord and the ruler of the seven seas, is now facing such an embarrassing scene. The Whitehall bigwigs, who were in dire need of reinforcements in the European war, used a piece of paper to invite people to fight, but after the Wehrmacht used the European war to sharpen its teeth and claws, it put on a posture of pressing on the traditional colonies of the empire step by step after the war. God didn't invent the medicine of regret, otherwise the Far Eastern diplomats of the British Empire would not have been busy wiping their butts for the idiots who promised China to join the alliance in the first place.

Hey politics.

Bernard sighed in his heart, he is not a diplomat like Zhu Erdian who actively interferes in the Far East, but even if Zhu Erdian comes back, there is not much he can do in the short term. The exhausted people were already so disgusted with the war that the Royal Navy had to sell its capital ships and start downsizing the war with so much attrition that anyone proposed to go to the Far East to fight an unpredictable war would be beaten to pig's head the next day.

Unless, the British Empire's mighty fleet can fly to the interior of Central Asia.

It's just a joke!

Bernard bent down and saluted to maintain his usual aristocratic demeanor, then raised his head slightly, and his gaze formed a standard 30° angle with his target: "Dear President, please allow me to express my heartfelt praise to you on behalf of the British Empire, I am very surprised by the industriousness of China, I can't believe that seven years ago this was a barren artemisia meadow." ”

"Ambassador, you are so complimentary, we can have such achievements because of the support of your country and friendly countries, I am afraid that we are not a fraction of yours." Li Yuanhong also replied with a few words of sycophancy, but this sycophant was a little harsh. Nearly 2 million tons of crude steel per year is actually a lot, you must know that last year's output in Japan was only 350,000 tons, Russia fell to less than 100,000 tons due to the civil war, and even France only had a pitiful 2.1 million tons! Britain's industrial capacity has not been destroyed, but it is only 9 million tons, and only the United States has led the way to an unprecedented 40 million tons. So according to China's steel production this year. It can already be ranked fifth after the United States, Britain, Germany, Italy and France! In just seven years, such an achievement is commendable. Even if the steel output does not directly represent the manufacturing capacity, most of China's steel is still a primary product, and the output is also smashed out by the crowd tactics of a large number of steelmaking equipment, but it does release a signal that it is entering the industrial country! Whoever wants to industrialize. In fact, we must go through the road from rough to sophisticated, from quantity to quality, and the Chinese are now also taking such a road.

Seeing his gaze wandering, Li Yuanhong narrowed his eyes and deliberately gaged: "Don't hide it from Your Excellency the Ambassador, in fact, I also happen to have something to find you, do you think you can sell some equipment to my country?" Everyone is an ally, and we will not let your country suffer at a loss. ”

Ahem, Bernard choked and coughed twice. Deliberately fanned his palm in front of his nose: "I'm very sorry, I don't really like the smell of soot and dust." ”

Yang Du, who was on the side, was about to laugh in his heart, obviously not prepared enough for the proposal to buy machinery and equipment, but he talked about coal ash. Li Yuanhong is also a human spirit, how can he not see such an obvious interruption, so he got off the donkey and said: "The steel is really good, but the coal ash is too choking, and even Nanjing can smell this smell when the wind is strong?" Mr. Ambassador. Why don't we walk and talk? ”

Bernard nodded, side-by-side to divert the subject, and asked, "We heard that your country is preparing to build dozens of warships. Is this true? ”

"Dozens? Hehe, we can't afford to build that many warships. It's just that the navy is outdated, and a few cruisers are built to replace the old warships. 2 ships of 20,000 tons, 4 ships of 10,000 tons, and the remaining few are small warships. "The shipbuilding plan of the Republic of China Navy did not hide from anyone, and Li Yuanhong was even more generous, but changed the aircraft carrier into a 20,000-ton cruiser. As long as it is not a battleship, Britain can still tolerate China adding a few more cruisers, after all, now all countries have begun to formulate huge shipbuilding plans, even Japan, which is economically nervous, is gritting its teeth to start the Amagi-class battlecruiser program, and the United States is even more eager to build more than a dozen capital ships in one go. It's not bad to have a few cruisers in the Republic of China. Therefore, after only paying attention to the specific configuration of the 20,000-ton cruiser, he expressed his intention for today: "Your Excellency, the British Empire is very concerned about the operation of your ** team in eastern Central Asia, and we want to know how long it will take for this operation to end?" ”

"That's it." Li Yuanhong deliberately pretended to be embarrassed to look at Yang Du, who cleverly walked up and said, "Your Excellency, our Ministry of National Defense has already discussed the war in the northwest. The Northwest is ethnically complex. The activities of the poor party guerrillas are rampant, and it is too early to talk about ending the operation. ”

"yes. It's too hard. Li Yuanhong took over the words, and sighed with a sad face: "The war in the northwest costs too much money and the road is long. Judging from the time taken by the many wars in the northwest during the Qing government, it will take at least three to four years to end. However, please tell Prime Minister Lloyd George that as an ally, our country will completely eradicate the poor party and help General Kolchak to restore the country! No matter how difficult it is, this matter will not be tolerated! ”

Three or four years?!

Bernard almost jumped. The one on the left, the one on the right, made his face a little white, and his beard shook a few times, and finally understood the meaning of the slang phrase "climb up the pole". The European war is over, who is still an ally with you? If it weren't for the temporary weakness of the British Empire, I'm afraid that the invincible fleet of the Royal Navy would have blockaded the southeast coast long ago. He said: "Our country supports your army's fight against the poor party, but we believe that the presence of too many troops in Central Asia will affect stability and the unrest of various ethnic groups, and we should focus on Huairou instead of blindly indiscriminate use of force." ”

Yes, even the indiscriminate use of force has come out. Wang Anlan despises these British guys very much in his heart, and when he can use it, he desperately tries to win over what he wants, and he crosses the river and demolishes the bridge if he doesn't need it! However, Li Yuanhong was prepared and said: "What the ambassador said is right, in fact, we don't want to fight anymore. But when we said that we would unite to fight the poor party, wouldn't it be a waste of our efforts to withdraw our troops? It's not appropriate, it's really inappropriate. In my opinion, more troops should be sent! Since we want to fight, we must solve it once and for all, so as not to resurrect it in the future. ”

Bernard was a little speechless, completely unable to understand China's Tai Chi style of conversation, and simply asked: "Your Excellency, the British Empire wants to know, will your army continue to attack once it has won victory in Andijan?" The next target is there. ”

"Well." Li Yuanhong cleared his throat and saw that Bona's face was not good, and he also pushed it clean and said: "I have carte blanche to solve this matter with the military, but there is one thing that is necessary. That is, we must cooperate with our allies to completely eliminate the forces of the poor party in the northwest and ensure the security of our borders. ”

Bernard's ambiguous rhetoric made Bernard even more concerned that Andijan was the limit of what Britain could tolerate, because it was the dividing line between China and Russia before the Beijing Treaty. Now that all countries have decided to cancel the unequal treaties with China, Britain will certainly not be able to stand alone, especially since Japan has not yet fully recovered, it is unwise to rashly choose to tear up its face with China. But if the Wehrmacht continues to penetrate deep into Uzbekistan and even Turkmenistan, this will inevitably lead to a serious weakening of Russia, and without Russian containment, God knows whether Yang Qiu will continue to wave troops south to threaten the security of Afghanistan and India. Britain could never sit idly by and watch China's expansion in Central Asia, just as Russia would never be allowed to expand southward. But the question is that Japan existed at that time and was able to arm Japan to fight the black hand of Russia, and now who will curb the military actions of the Chinese Defense Forces?

Kolchak was too busy to take care of himself, Dutov was afraid that he would not be able to hold out for several months without China's support, and India would never be armed. Do you really have to rely on Gurkha mercenaries to fight against hundreds of thousands of squadrons? If it really provokes them, will there be an exchange of fire in the direction of Tibet? That's a big problem! Moreover, the attitude of the United States and France on this matter has so far been very ambiguous. It was difficult for France to return to the Far East because of the idea of dominating the European continent, and the United States had long been unhappy with the Anglo-Japanese alliance. They may not be willing to meddle in this matter, not to mention that letting them meddle in Northeast Asia is undoubtedly putting in a bigger wolf!

The more Bernard thought about it, the more chaotic it became, and it was simply a mess that could not be solved. said: "So is the ultimate goal of your country to defeat the poor party?" ”

Li Yuanhong was waiting for this sentence. He smiled and said, "Isn't this an agreement between allies!" Of course, Japan does not want to go to war, but I still think that countries should cancel the unequal treaties and live together peacefully. ”

This sentence made Bernard stunned for a moment, and understood. Yang Qiu was still thinking of canceling all unequal treaties, and these places in eastern Central Asia were forcibly ceded by the Beijing Treaty. At the Paris Peace Conference, the British government was reluctant to touch this demand, and kicked the ball on whether Russia would cancel or not to negotiate with the Russians, which seemed to make Yang Qiu and the Chinese government very unhappy, and wanted to forcibly take them back by military means, so as to take de facto control of these areas, perhaps he had prepared a speech to unilaterally announce the reconquest of his homeland. Bernard just wanted to continue talking. On the northwest issue, he was testing the bottom line of the Republic of China, and Cai Yi, who also came to visit the steel plant, came over: "President, good news, good news!" ”

"Oh? What's the good news? ”

Cai Yi deliberately glanced at Bernard and said: "The vice president sent a telegram that three days ago, the forward battalion of our army had cooperated with the Russian volunteers. Defeated the siege of the main forces of the poor party in Chelyabinsk, annihilated tens of thousands of enemies and captured countless baggage. ”

After the translator quickly finished the news, Bernard's brows gradually tightened. He is not surprised about the matter of the Russian Volunteer Army, Yang Qiu used the opportunity of occupying Siberia to reorganize tens of thousands of Russian troops in the region into an intervention army, and the matter is clear to all countries, but it is not trivial for the Chinese Defense Forces to enter Western Siberia again! The eastern part of Central Asia is just around the corner, and if they control the Urals region again, then there will really be no armed force in Central Asia to compete with them, so he said anxiously: "Your Excellency, I think that military operations in Central Asia should be stopped as soon as possible, so as not to cause a greater humanitarian disaster!" My Government is already considering the suspension of those treaties that ended before the end, so I hope that the two sides will be able to negotiate a permanent peace in Central Asia as soon as possible. ”

"That's a good idea." Li Yuanhong nodded in agreement in an official tone, but suddenly frowned and asked: "The northwest can be suspended, but the poor party forces in the northeast have seriously threatened the peace of the north of our country. Recently, they have been supplied with a large amount of arms, which is not negotiable! "It's rare for an honest person to be serious, so Bernard feels embarrassed to refuse. He knew who was supporting him in the Far East, so he nodded: "I will negotiate with the Japanese government as soon as possible and give you an answer." ”

"That's good, that's good." Looking at the back of him leaving, Li Yuanhong muttered a few words to himself and then turned his head to look at Cai Yi: "Songpo, this mess is about to be unraveled, right?" ”

Cai Yi smiled faintly: "Don't worry, the president." After Frunze's defeat in Chelyabinsk, the poor party will have to think about retreating from Andijan! Otherwise, when Kolchak and Dutov gain a firm foothold and turn south, they will be completely surrounded and lose tens of thousands of troops in vain! As for the Northeast, Vice President has already made arrangements. ”

"Doesn't that mean that Congress is going to immediately discuss the division of new provinces?"

"Yes!"

Cai Yi's eyes are clear and shining, and recovering the country is the biggest dream of their generation of soldiers! …… (Your support is my biggest motivation.) )