The representatives of various countries have put forward their own goals and demands at the conference, and the goals and demands of various countries are the same, some are completely different, and there are even more bizarre, for example, the Kingdom of Montenegro actually asked to get a German colony in Africa after defeating the Central Powers.

Another example is that the Portuguese representative actually asked China to give it another concession of Macao, Xiao Zhenlei couldn't help but sneer in his heart after listening to this request of the Portuguese representative, Portugal had not yet joined the Entente when he forcibly recovered Macao, and he just took advantage of the fact that Portugal had not yet joined the Entente to forcibly take back Macao, and of course it is impossible to lease it out again, let alone now, and will not lease it out in the future.

Another example is that the Greek representative went so far as to ask China to hand over Cyprus to Greece for control, and Greece is now occupied by the Central Powers, and the Greek government has become a government in exile, without a single soldier in hand, Xiao Zhenlei does not know why the Greek representative has the confidence to make such a request, whether it is abnormal or ignorant and fearless. If you don't have that diamond, don't do porcelain work, okay?

After the delegates of each country have addressed the General Assembly with their respective objectives and requirements, the time has already passed in the morning, and the meeting will be adjourned in the afternoon according to the arrangement of the meeting process, and the heads of state and representatives of the participating countries can make their own arrangements, and the organizer of the meeting, composed of a diplomat sent by each country, will count and classify the goals and demands put forward by each country, and the meeting will be held again tomorrow, that is, at 9 a.m. on February 13, and the next meeting will debate and discuss the goals and demands put forward by the countries.

Back at the villa, everyone finished lunch and took an hour's nap. At two o'clock in the afternoon, Xiao Zhenlei convened a meeting of members of the staff group, the cabinet, and representatives of senior military generals.

In the living room, the staff, officials, and generals sat in a circle on the sofa. There were several ashtrays on the coffee table, Xiao Zhenlei was holding a cigar between the index finger and middle finger of his right hand, and he looked at everyone with a solemn face: "Everyone, you have also seen the situation this morning, the form is not optimistic, except for Britain, France and Russia. Other nations seem to be in a vague alliance, all trying to snatch food from us, some trying to snatch a piece of land from the Arabian Peninsula. Someone wants to snatch a piece of land from the Middle East, and someone wants to snatch an island group in the Pacific Ocean! Although Britain and France did not directly seek to divide the benefits from us, their demands were already unprofitable for us, and they demanded that we withdraw from Europe and Asia Minor and the Middle East after the war was over. All of this is very bad for us! Ladies and gentlemen. How can we solve the situation that is now not in our favor? ”

Liang Qichao said: "Big President, in my opinion, those small countries united to snatch food from our mouths, there must be someone behind the instigation, it is unlikely to be Tsarist Russia, Tsarist Russia is now in internal chaos, it is difficult to protect itself, and it is too late to deal with internal turmoil." It is impossible to have the energy to calculate us, and this country that is behind it is either England or France. My estimation should be that Britain is more likely than France, and now that France has fallen in its entirety, Clemenceau should not have that guts! ”

Xiao Zhenlei smoked a cigar and asked, "Mr. Liang, so Lloyd's?" Why did George do this? He is calculating us at this time, is he not afraid of offending us? You must know that the situation of the British is not very good now, and many people in Britain are now starting to go hungry due to the unrestricted submarine warfare of the Germans! ”

Liang Qichao smiled: "Lloyd? George's purpose in doing this, of course, was to get the president to support his ideas! ”

When Xiao Zhenlei heard this, there was a light in his eyes, and he nodded: "This may be very good, it seems that the British are prepared this time, in fact, we can completely ignore those small countries, most of their territory is occupied by the Allies, one has no money, two has no army, there is only one mouth left, in the case of no one to uphold justice, only one mouth will not work, in the international arena it relies on fists instead of mouths!" What I am worried about now is that Britain, France and Russia are united, and those small countries are controlled by the British, and in such a situation, my country will be completely isolated! ”

Xiao Zhenlei knew very well that the consequences of being completely isolated by other countries were very severe, and once such a situation was formed, then in the future, China's ideas and demands would not be supported and supported, and if other countries unanimously opposed it, it would be difficult for China to do anything, which would not only be reflected in international relations, but also in overseas trade, and would suffer a great blow, unless China had the courage to break with the Entente.

At this time, Yang Shiqi said: "President, if things are really controlled by the British behind the scenes, as Mr. Liang speculated, then if we want not to be isolated, we must find a way to win over France and Tsarist Russia, although the whole territory of France has fallen, but it has a lot of troops withdrawn, and there are still many colonial troops overseas, which have a certain right to speak, although the Tsarist Russia is now very chaotic, but its use of the Germans on the Eastern Front is beyond doubt, I have also listened to the claims and requirements of France and Tsarist Russia, I think it's still possible for us to win over these two countries! ”

Cai Ye said: "If we win over Tsarist Russia, I believe that the possibility of success is still very great, after all, if it were not for the 800,000 troops of our Second Army to help them block the southwest direction, the Tsarist side would definitely not be able to resist, this role is very great, it is impossible for the Tsarist side not to see, without our help, can they withstand the German attack now?" So if we ask for it, Tsarist Russia should give face, but for the co-optation of France, I don't think there is much hope, now that the French government-in-exile is staying in London, the French have to act according to the face of the British, and Clemenceau will take the risk of offending the British on our side? ”

Yang Shiqi shook his head and said: "There is no impossible thing, whether the French will stand on our side depends on how much we can help the French. ”

What do the French want to do most? The crowd reacted quickly, and one cabinet official was the first to say: "Of course, what the French want to do now is to regain their homeland!" ”

"Yes!" Yang Shiqi slapped his thigh, "It is to recover the territory occupied by the Germans, and how can we do this?" Clemenceau had one of his ideas to open a new battlefield on the west coast of France, and in fact only by opening a new battlefield in France could France recover in the shortest possible time. George's idea of putting the main energy and forces on the Eastern Front is the opposite, and we feel that we can make a fuss about this, and the highest interests of the country are involved, and I don't think the French will even ignore this and look at the faces of the British, right? ”

After listening to Yang Shiqi's analysis, everyone unanimously agreed that unless Clemenceau was a traitor, he would never look at the face of the British on this issue.

Xiao Zhenlei thought for a while, and immediately nodded: "Okay, our next work will be done in this direction, and after tomorrow's meeting is over, we will divide the labor, and tomorrow we will see the situation of the meeting and make specific arrangements!" ”

On the morning of 13 February, the meeting continued.

Artems, a Dutch diplomat elected by diplomats from various countries, came to the stage as the moderator of the meeting, he put a stack of papers on the table, glanced at all the participants and said: "Gentlemen, after yesterday's meeting, our working group of the General Assembly sorted out and categorized the ideas and demands of the representatives of various countries yesterday afternoon and last evening. A large-scale offensive on the eastern front of the Central Powers, and the formation of a Supreme Command of the Entente armies, which would provide unified command over all the armies of the Entente powers, were advocated by the British, Greek, Serbian, Italian, Romanian, and Montenegrin kingdoms. Second, France, China, Portugal, and Belgium advocated the opening of a second battlefield in France, placing the main direction of attack on the western front, and letting the Allied armies on the eastern front play a role in containment. Thirdly, to completely crush the Austro-Hungarian naval forces in the Mediterranean, destroy all the Austro-Hungarian naval bases and ports on the Adriatic coast, and at the same time intensify the offensive against the forces of the Central Powers in Southeastern Europe, supported by the Kingdom of Montenegro, Greece, Serbia, and Romania. Fourth, it is necessary to increase the anti-submarine measures against German submarines, find more effective anti-submarine measures, and break through the mine measures laid by the German Navy on various routes. This claim was supported by Great Britain, Portugal, France, Belgium, and even other neutral countries, because Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare had encroached on the overseas trade interests of all countries. Fifth, it is necessary to strengthen the air force of our allies as a whole, and in this regard, I hope that China will be able to provide more advanced fighter manufacturing technology! These are the strategic propositions put forward by various countries, and let us refute them one by one, and ask each representative to explain his reasons, and now I invite the representative of Britain to come to power."

As soon as the words of the moderator of the meeting, Artems, fell, he saw Lloyd? George got up from his seat and walked onto the stage, and Artems stepped aside to make way for it.

Lloyd's? George coughed twice and said: "Gentlemen, the reason why I advocate attacking from the Eastern Front is for several reasons: first, on the Eastern Front, there are several of our Entente countries, such as Romania, Serbia, Greece, and the Kingdom of Montenegro, which are now occupied by German and Austrian troops, and the people there are living in misery and misery, and rescuing them as soon as possible is our top priority; Second, strengthening the military strength of our allies on the eastern front and attacking Germany and Austria can relieve the pressure on Britain and France on the western front. As we all know, Britain and France are the two main powers against the Central Powers, and relieving the pressure on our two countries will allow us to organize more troops and produce more weapons and equipment to fight against the German and Austrian armies; Third, the formation of a coalition supreme command to command all the Allied armies in a unified manner can better hit the ??????? of military power." (To be continued......)