Christmas 1937 was a particularly cold Christmas for British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain.

After losing China in 1936, the British Empire in 1937 received only bad news around the world.

Spain's war of intervention was once again turned into a quagmire war. Relying on negotiations with the Soviet Union and Germany in May, the British Empire finally drove the two republicans behind it out of Spain, and in exchange, Britain, France and Italy agreed not to interfere in the Spanish Civil War.

The people cheered to get out of the Spanish quagmire.

But Chamberlain didn't see it that way.

When did the dignified empire on which the sun never set become weak enough to rely on this means to end the war? When did the "expectations" of the common people of the British Empire fall to such a point?

The Great Depression, which first broke out in the United States in 1929, is still affecting Britain today, and the issue of "deindustrialization" in Britain is very serious. Internally, Chamberlain's first task as prime minister was to reindustrialize the British Empire. Externally, it was to avoid war with a rising Germany.

Chamberlain knew very well that if the British Empire encountered another war similar to the First World War, the British Empire would inevitably fall from the top of the world. In recent years, the international situation of the British Empire has been very bad, except for an unreliable ally France, the Soviet Union, Germany and even the United States are full of hostility towards the British Empire. This was clearly demonstrated in the war of intervention two years ago.

Before the war in June 1935, the United States, the Soviet Union and Germany joined forces to short the British stock market. Then, taking advantage of the "east wind" of China's sudden changes, the three families slaughtered the British Empire. The Soviets and Germans joined forces to supply the Bolsheviks in China with aircraft, and even personally sent a large number of pilots to the war. The Americans seemed to be neutral, but before the war, they sold a lot of oil and chemicals to the CCP.

As a result of the war, the British Empire lost China forever, and in the end could only retain Hong Kong, a former land for itself. In June of this year, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) had entered Guangdong Province, and Chen Jitang announced that he would accept peaceful reorganization. and the People's Liberation Army. But a month later, the whole army was wiped out, and I fled to Hong Kong to announce "going into the wilderness". Yunnan had long been considered a "land for themselves" by the French, but the People's Liberation Army (PLA) still unceremoniously intervened in the area, and the two sides fought symbolically after a few battles. Most of the Dian army was annihilated. A small number fled to the Golden Triangle of Myanmar.

In the process. The British Empire and the French protested against the CCP many times, but they were not heeded at all. Compared with the three provinces of Yunnan, Guangdong, and Guangxi, what really made the British Empire depressed was it. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is now mobilizing troops from the Yunnan-Guizhou region into Western (Crab) Tibet to prepare to solve the West (Crab) Tibet issue.

Tibet has long been regarded by the British as a firewall against India, the crown jewel of the British Empire, and has historically tried in every possible way to separate Tibet from China. In the face of the CCP's "reconquest" behavior, the British Empire was unable to take any practical and effective action other than meaningless protests and intimidation.

In Asia, Japan was the only country that could restrain a rising China, but the disastrous defeat in the 1936 war of aggression was also a great loss for Japan. In order to start this war, the Japanese used up almost all the funds in the treasury, but the harvest was a disastrous defeat. In 1937, post-war Japan was suffering from the aftermath of foreign debt and an economic crisis. In 1937, Japan had four successive cabinet changes, but nothing could be changed. Japan, which has lost the Chinese market, has no sales market for its domestic industrial products. Its silk market in the United States is now being strongly challenged by the "nylon" from Bayer in Germany.

As early as 1929, there was a Chinese named Zhuang Jihua who sold nylon stockings in the U.S. market, and the GDP generated by the nylon stockings he manufactured at that time once accounted for 40% of the total industrial output value of the United States. However, as Zhuang Jihua was shot into a honeycomb by the mercenaries of the American big Toths on the streets of New York, the manufacturing process of nylon stockings was lost. However, after 1934, under Hannah's instructions, the German company Bayer solved the mystery of nylon manufacturing, and then German-made nylon stockings once again occupied the American market, which dealt another devastating blow to the Japanese silk industry.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1937, all Japanese goods were driven out of New China. At present, China's largest trading partner is Germany, followed by the Soviet Union and the United States, and the industrial products of Britain, France, and Japan have been completely driven out of China. Britain still had a huge colonial market to digest its own industrial goods, and Japan had nothing left of China. Although Chamberlain was very keen to support Japan and contain China, the current economic situation of the British Empire, if he ordered the colonial market of the British Empire to be opened to Japan, Chamberlain believed that he would be ousted by the members of Congress tomorrow, and those industrial capitalists in China would eat him alive. During the economic crisis, the British Empire really "had no surplus grain for the landlords", and it was powerless to try to pull the Japanese around.

In 1937, when the domestic economy of the British Empire was in a mess, Germany in Central Europe was in a good economic situation, and Germany was now enjoying the huge "dividends" brought by supporting the Chinese revolution.

Chamberlain wanted to shout: "It's all our order, our money!" ”、

In the past December, Germany's newly built battleship, the Scharnhorst, was announced to be put into service, and once launched, it became the strongest battleship in the world.

Although the Germans claimed that the ship was only a little over 35,000 tons, a discerning person could immediately see that the standard tonnage of the ship was at least 40,000 tons or more, and the three triple 406 mm guns caused a sensation all over the world as soon as it was put into service.

Faced with the pressure of the German Navy's strong rise, the Royal Navy had already made demands on Chamberlain. It was requested that the design of the George V class battleships under construction be changed to the original design of the twelve 14-inch guns.

Originally, the Navy Department was designed to install three triple nine sixteen-inch guns. However, due to the impact of the economic crisis, the British Empire, which had weakened sharply after World War I, was deindustrialized, and the Royal Navy, which was constrained by the loss of financial and technological resources, was unable to develop two new main guns at the same time.

In 1935, the British Navy selected 14-inch guns for the new battleship in order to ensure that the "George V" class could be put into service to the fullest. In order to start the construction of new battleships in early 1937, Churchill and others had to cancel the plan to give priority to the construction of battleships equipped with main guns of more than 15 inches. The 14-inch gun was now built, and it was unlikely that the cash-strapped Royal Navy would abandon the ready-made 14-inch gun and rebuild the more powerful 16-inch gun at this time.

Faced with the threat of a rising Germany, Chamberlain had the only thing he could do. It was to approve the Navy's proposal to turn the ten fourteen-inch guns of the George V-class battleships into twelve. To this end, the military budget was increased by five million dollars per warship. When the bill was introduced in Parliament, it was met with great resistance, but fortunately, the commissioning of the battle column of the Scharnhaus, with nine sixteen-inch guns, stimulated the members of the British Parliament. The bill to increase the military spending of the Navy was passed.

(Note: The original plan for the George V-class battleships was to have three quadruple twelve 14-inch guns.) But historically, because of budget or Washington naval treaty constraints. It had to be changed to ten. This type of battleship is also considered to be the weakest battleship with firepower built in the world before World War II)

As a result, the tonnage of the George V-class battleships increased dramatically, and the tonnage limit of "35,000 tons" existed in name only. The ripple effect is. The U.S. government also took the opportunity to announce that it would raise the tonnage cap for the North Carolina-class battleships in its design.

After the end of World War I, the British Empire, whose national strength was declining, knew that it could not afford to have a naval arms race with the Americans, and they tried their best to avoid any naval arms competition that would stimulate the United States, but when Germany rose strongly under the leadership of Hitler, Chamberlain painfully saw that a war crisis similar to World War I began to loom over Europe.

The commissioning of the battleship Scharnhorst, just a "trifle". What made Chamberlain even more troublesome was that Germany made territorial claims to the Sudetenland region of the Czech Republic before Christmas last year.

In the Czech Sudetenland, near the German-Czech border, there are more than 3 million Germanic people. On the one hand, Hitler took advantage of the fact that the inhabitants of the region were of the same race as the Germans, and set up Nazi party organizations there, and directed them to constantly create trouble and demand "autonomy". in fact, secession from Czechoslovakia and annexation to Germany; On the other hand, Hitler cried out that he could not tolerate the "bullying" of the Germans outside Germany and wanted to "do justice" for them.

Although Germany has not yet launched a military threat against the Czech Republic, seeing their annexation of Austria last year, Chamberlain can imagine that Hitler's attitude towards the Czech Republic this time is also true.

After the First World War, the Czech Republic regained its sovereignty under the protection of Britain and France, and concluded mutual assistance and alliance treaties with Britain and France, and if Germany and the Czech Republic were at war, Britain and France would inevitably be involved in the war according to the treaty, and the war in Western Europe would spread.

Today's British Empire, because of its wounds in the quagmire of China, is even weaker than it was in history. At last year's London talks, the British government negotiated a meeting with the five countries to evacuate Spain at the same time, in order to try to avoid the possibility of a new round of world war because of Spain.

Chamberlain received information that since the beginning of the China question, the Soviets and Germans were now getting closer and closer. Britain and France were able to defeat Germany in World War I because Germany lacked strong allies, but now they are most likely supported by the Soviet Union.

Since support for the Chinese revolution brought great benefits to Germany, even the Junker capitalists now fully supported Hitler's foreign policy. And Germany's "investment" in the CCP is even considered the most successful "investment" of this century. The political situation in Germany today is strange in that it is a country controlled by the Junker capitalists, but it has a very good relationship with their enemies, the socialists. The terrible scene of the red Bolsheviks and the brown Nazis joining forces made Chamberlain sleep even at peace.

Just now, Chamberlain received a telegram from French Prime Minister Daladier, who was also terrified of the Sudetenland crisis in the Czech Republic. Daladier telegraphed to Chamberlain, urging him to go to Hitler and ask him to "achieve the best results possible."

Chamberlain's capitulation consisted mainly in the fact that he saw the terrible prospect of a Soviet-German alliance. After the outbreak of ethnic (crab) conflict in the Sudetenland last October, the Soviet Union had a very strong attitude towards the Czechs. Because at the same time, similar ethnic conflicts broke out in the three Baltic countries, and the Russians in the three Baltic countries, at the instigation of Soviet agents. They also began to make trouble. It is necessary to fight for the right of national independence and self-government.

Britain and France could not be frightened by the fact that the Soviet Union and Germany were advancing and retreating together on similar issues and acting at the same time.

As in the First World War, join forces with the French. Fight again like a war. A war in which millions of people died? Both in England and France today. I don't have the courage anymore.

In January 1938, shortly after the New Year, Chamberlain hurried away. For the first time in my life, I was on a plane for hours,

First, he flew to France and had a long secret conversation with French Prime Minister Daladier. Chamberlain, who was afraid of being burned by the flames of war, and the French, who were frightened by the heavy casualties of the First World War, came to a consensus on this point: the two countries would never help the Czechs in the war.

On 10 January, after a short stay in Paris for two days, Chamberlain flew to Germany, where he met with the German Führer "Hitler" in the city of Kiel and began discussions and negotiations on the Czech question.

Today's Germany has far more troops and tanks to mobilize than it did in the same period in history, and it is more confident to speak. (Note: Historically, during the Czech crisis, the Germans were far inferior to the Czechs in terms of the number of troops they could mobilize, the number of tanks, and even their performance.) In addition to the betrayal of Britain and France, the reason why the Czech Republic was annexed by Germany without a fight was also due to the lack of will to resist because of its close "kinship" with Germany. ）

In front of Chamberlain, Hitler, played by Linkham's "daughter", began to talk about his "merits" to the German people, to international peace, and to German-British goodwill, as in history. Finally, with a frown, he threatened murderously:

"No matter what method is used, this time we must solve the problem of the 3 million Germanic people in the Czech Republic, and we will not hesitate to fight a world war for this purpose."

Chamberlain, who was deeply afraid of being burned by the flames of war, hurriedly retorted: "If the Führer decides to use force, then what is the need for us to negotiate?" ”

Hitler abruptly asked: "Did Britain agree to cede the Sudetenland?" ”

As in history, the British compromised and agreed to cede the Sudetenland to Germany.

The Germans took the initiative to lower the naval quota, which in Chamberlain's opinion was great news. On 15 January, Chamberlain returned to London and held a cabinet meeting that night, advocating that only the cession of the Sudetenland to Germany could prevent Hitler from invading the entire Czech Republic and triggering a world war.

Soon after, the French Prime Minister Daladier also rushed to London with a sad face. After some secret planning, Britain and France concocted a plan to betray the Czechs: "All the territories of the Sudetenland, where more than 50% of the Germanic population lived, were transferred directly to the German Empire."

By March 1938, the Germans had occupied the Sudetenland without bloodshed.

As a price to appease Britain, Hitler offered Britain a reduction in the proportion of the German naval tonnage quota from 40 percent in 1935 to 35 percent. At the same time, Germany promised that in the next two decades, it would equip only four battleships of more than 30,000 tons at most.

In fact, this is a blank promise, with Germany's current shipbuilding capacity, even if the shipyards continue to work day and night, by 1940, Germany will not be able to meet the 35% quota agreed with the British Navy, and there is no difference between 35% and 40%.

Afterwards, Chamberlain waved a renewed naval agreement with Germany, excitedly saying that he had brought "peace for a generation."

However, the British dream only came true at the end of 1938, and in January 1939, Germany brazenly sent troops to invade and occupy the whole of Czechoslovakia. And in the process, Poland, the foot-wiping cloth of Europe, at this time also foolishly cooperated with the actions of the Germans, sending a large army to invade thousands of square kilometers of Czechoslovakia, that is, the region of Ceschen Silesia. (This is a historical fact)

For the stupid and short-sighted behavior of the Poles, Hannah had long anticipated. When Chairman Li Runshi, who was far away in China, talked about this with Li Huamei, he also shook his head vigorously, and he used the phrase "false way to cut down the enemy, and the lips and teeth will be ruined" to price Poland's approach.

For Poland as a country, no one in China in this plane has a good impression of them. When the Japanese invaded Northeast China, Poland was the first to jump out to support the Japanese and recognize the so-called "Manchukuo". During the Anglo-Japanese intervention war in 1935, the Poles also jumped out and shouted for the declaration of war against the Chinese Communists, which can be called the most deadly country in Europe.

And in February 1939, the Soviet Union also sent a large army into the three Baltic countries, forcing these three countries to join the Soviet Union, and their appearance was definitely no better than that of Germany and Poland.

And when the Soviet Union and Germany each annexed the small countries around them, Britain and France just woke up from a dream, but the big mistake was made, and it was too late.

The horn of war is about to be sounded. (To be continued......)