The Russian minister Kuminschi, the British envoy Zhu Erdian, and the French minister grinded their teeth with Xiao Zhenlei for several hours, and Xiao Zhenlei did not immediately agree to immediately allow the Russian Provisional Government to send officials into Siberia and Kazakhstan to take over power.

Xiao Zhenlei only promised to wait for the situation in Russia and social order to stabilize and allow the legitimate Russian government, which is recognized by the national society, to send officials to Siberia and Kazakhstan to take over power, but now it is not possible, and this has a bearing on the safety of the lives and property of tens of millions of people in Siberia and Kazakhstan in the far east of the Ural Mountains.

Kuminsky and the others went back, and they also knew that since the Chinese people did this, they would not let go easily, and they could not blame the Chinese side for this matter, after all, it was the Russian Revolutionary Party that first organized the local people to seize power, besiege the barracks, and storm the sentry posts, and the Chinese army also suppressed the rebellion when it had developed to the point that the local Tsarist local government could not control it. This matter cannot be solved in a day or two, and Kuminschi is ready to fight for it for a long time.

This was a major shift in the attitude of the United States toward the war in North America, a major shift in diplomatic policy largely because America's core interests were being challenged. The United States has always adopted an isolationist foreign policy, and isolationism does not only refer to neutrality, but also refers specifically to the relationship between the United States and Europe, not to the rest of the world, and at the same time refers specifically to politics and military, but not to the economy and culture.

This has two implications, the first is that the United States is simply not involved in military and political disputes in Europe, and it does not necessarily remain neutral outside Europe, especially in the Americas. The second meaning is to say that isolationism is simply non-involvement militarily and politically. But the economic and cultural demands must be equal opportunities, which means that you European countries have nothing to do with it. I don't care about dividing spheres of influence, but I can't affect my interests. In other words, isolationism has conditions and a bottom line.

All in all, for the United States. Interests are the most important thing, and the starting point for this is the same in all countries. After the outbreak of one sheet, the belligerents filled the pockets of Chinese and American businessmen with a large number of high-level military orders. In August 1914, France shipped large quantities of gold to the Morgan Company of the United States in exchange for a loan of $100 million before Germany occupied all of France. In October 1915, Morgan & Co. lent another $500 million to Britain and France, but the money could only be used to buy American goods, and Britain, France, and Russia spent more money on buying a large number of fighter planes and massive munitions from China. As many as billions of Chinese dollars, Russia also purchased 600 million Chinese dollars in military supplies from the United States and China.

At the beginning of the war, China had not yet joined the Entente, and China and the United States did not refuse trade with Germany and other Allied countries, but Britain's maritime power was too strong, blocking the trade between China and the United States with Germany, infringing on the trade between the two countries, which made Xiao Zhenlei and Wilson very dissatisfied with this, and Xiao Zhenlei often claimed that "my patience has come to an end".

Britain's maritime superiority allowed the United States and China to rapidly evolve into a de facto route of blood to the Allies. As a result, Anglo-American and Sino-British maritime trade became a thorn in the side of the Germans. As a result, the contradictions between China, the United States, and Germany intensified.

China posed a great threat to China because of Japan's accession to the Central Powers, so China joined the Entente and took the lead in attacking Japan, while the United States only had trade with Germany. Temporarily endured the damage caused by German submarine warfare to American merchant ships and personnel.

But when German submarine warfare expanded to unlimited submarine warfare, the Americans could no longer do business. Last year, the U.S. trade surplus rose from $450 million to $2.1 billion. It has increased nearly fourfold, and China's trade surplus has also risen from 330 million Chinese yuan to 1.4 billion Chinese yuan. The rising proportion also caught up with the United States, and the huge war wealth caused the United States and China to accelerate the upgrading of the industrial structure. In particular, the military industry is developing rapidly, and this is particularly obvious in China.

The United States has also won the initiative financially, and both China and the United States have leapt from debtor countries to creditor countries. The United States and the Entente countries are more tightly bound economically, and the capital exported from the United States to Germany accounts for only 2 percent of the total capital exported by the United States, and if the Entente loses the war, then the huge investment of the United States will be all wasted, which is obviously not what the Americans want to see.

The United States announced on 3 February that it had severed diplomatic relations with Germany after Germany officially launched its unrestricted submarine warfare today. At the end of February this year, U.S. President Wilson received a secret telegram from Ambassador Pec to the United Kingdom, which contained a top-secret telegram from German Foreign Minister Zimmermann to the German Ambassador to Mexico. The loss of territory in New Mexico and Arizona, the details are arranged by you, and we expect war with the United States, and you should immediately and secretly convey to the President of Mexico that unrestricted submarine warfare will force Britain to make peace within a few months! ”

This telegram not only admitted that Germany was going to fight with the United States, but also extended its black hand to Mexico, the backyard of the United States, and its power was not intended to be explosive, and the British authorities managed to make it make the headlines of the "Times", when the Americans were still hesitating about the authenticity of this telegram, Zimmerman openly admitted that this telegram was sent by him, and said that this was a preventive measure for Germany if the United States entered the war, so the Americans were forced into a corner and had no way to retreat.

On April 4-6, the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to declare war on Germany, and Wilson signed it into effect, and a few minutes later, the news spread throughout the world by telegram.

After the United States announced its participation in the Allied war against Germany, a number of countries rushed to help the fight, including Brazil, Cuba, Liberia, and a dozen other countries in Central and South America.

Xiao Zhenlei was working when he received the news. Secretary Xiao Gao knocked on the door and pushed the door to let Chen Bui walk in, Chen Bui walked to the desk with a telegram and reported: "President, the Americans have announced their entry into the war!" It's telegram! ”

Xiao Zhenlei put down the pen and calmly took the telegram and took a look at it before putting it down, "What is expected, notify the heads of the staff group and the departments under the presidential office to have a meeting with Chief of General Staff Chiang!" ”

"Yes!"

Xiao Zhenlei said again: "By the way, are General Cai Guodong and General Cai Ye in the capital now?" ”

Chen Bui said: "President, you have forgotten that the two generals have already left for Europe with the Fifth and Sixth Army Corps, and they left by plane early this morning!" ”

"It's already gone, and I'm still thinking that if they don't leave now, let them go to the meeting together, okay, now that they're gone, forget it, you go out to arrange the meeting!" Xiao Zhenlei said and waved his hand.

"Yes, President!" Chen Bui agreed and retreated.

In order to contain a large number of German and Austrian troops in the southeastern Europe and the Eastern Front battlefield, China continued to increase its troops to Europe, according to the agreement with Britain and France, China must increase its troops to Europe by 1 million in the past year, and increase its troops by 500,000 in advance, and the General Staff organized these 500,000 troops into the Fifth and Sixth Army Corps, and Cai Ye took the Fifth Army Corps to the Russian southwest defense line to join the Second Army Corps, set up the Eastern European Theater Commander's Department and served as the commander of the Eastern European Theater, and the commander of the Fifth Army Corps was Zhou Chuandong.

Zhou Chuandong worked in the army and navy successively, and later was transferred to the air force as deputy commander, and his qualifications are still very deep; in view of the fact that the commander of the air force, Ma Hanlong, and the deputy commander Zhou Chuandong, used to be sworn brothers, in order to prevent the emergence of gangs and factions and to avoid suspicion, this time Xiao Zhenlei transferred Zhou Chuandong from the air force and appointed him as the commander of the Fifth Army Corps.

Cai Guodong went to Italy with the Sixth Army Corps, he was appointed as the commander of the Southeast European Theater, commanding the First Army Corps and the Sixth Army Corps, and will fight jointly with the British, French and Italian armies in Italy.

An hour later, the meeting was held, and Xiao Zhenlei asked Chen Bui to inform the participants of the news of the United States' declaration of entry into the war, which surprised many of the staff present, and only a few people seemed to have expected it.

Among them, Yang Shiqi said after Chen Bui announced the news: "It is a matter of time before the Americans enter the war, and the telegram from the German Foreign Minister gave the Americans an excuse to join the war. ”

Xiao Zhenlei watched everyone express their opinions, he took out a cigarette and lit it and smoked, and when everyone was almost finished, he quietly said: "Since the Americans have entered the war, then we don't care what caused it now, this is left to the relevant departments to analyze, what we need to do now is to analyze how much the United States' participation in the war has helped the Entente and whether it has any impact on our country's strategy?" If so, how do we respond? Tell me about it! ”

The help of the United States in the war must have been enormous to the Entente, this is clear to everyone, after all, the United States is now a first-class power, and everyone has already predicted that the outcome of this war has been fixed with the accession of the Americans, and there is no surprise in this. The question is when the American army will be able to land on European soil, which is very important, and this is also the issue that Xiao Zhenlei is most concerned about now, and Xiao Zhenlei also believes that the leaders of other Entente countries must also be most concerned about this issue. (To be continued......)