At this time, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom has been replaced by Lloyd's? George. On December 1 last year, or Lloyd's of the Secretary of War for the Secretary of War? George assigned to the then Prime Minister, Asquistiy, a four-member wartime cabinet, of which the Prime Minister was not included. After being rejected by Asquith, he offered his resignation. Conservative cabinet members agreed that "the government cannot be dragged on as it is". So they united to force Asquith to resign. On December 5, Asquith resigned in desperation. King George V then appointed Lloyd-George to form a cabinet. On December 6, Lloyd's? George becomes Prime Minister.

Lloyd at this time? George's political career was at its peak, but the vast majority of Liberals' cabinet members resigned at the same time as Asquith, and only the Tories were willing to work with him. Therefore, he first established a five-member "wartime cabinet" with the aim of getting rid of the leadership of the ministries so that he could give full guidance to the war, and he changed the previous system of responsibility of the ministries to the cabinet to the prime minister, so as to strengthen the powers of the prime minister.

Even Lloyd's? George became prime minister, and he still insisted on the Eastern Front in military affairs, and his ideas were similar to those of Douglas, who was then commander-in-chief. Field Marshal Haig and Imperial Chief of Staff William? Robert? Field Marshal Robertson disagreed. To achieve his ends, he bypassed the commander-in-chief and the chief of staff and commanded alone.

At the beginning of this year, due to the turmoil in Russia, the military activities of the Russian army on the Eastern Front were basically at a standstill, and the army fighting fell to the extreme, which allowed the German army to transfer a large proportion of the German army from the Eastern Front to the Western Front to prepare for a landing operation on the British mainland. Lloyd-George, despite the crisis on the Western Front, still had to send five divisions to reinforce Italy. to save it from defeat by the Austrians.

In order to cope with this stern crisis, Lloyd's? George decided to take two measures: first, to advocate the unity of command of the coalition forces; Second. He used this meeting of the heads of state of the Entente countries to persuade Chinese President Xiao Zhenlei to immediately send more troops to the European theater.

At this time, Xiao Zhenlei was already on the warship heading to Cairo, Egypt, and since London was much closer to Egypt, Lloyd's? George had not yet left for London, nor had the heads of state of the other Entente powers.

In February 1917, Xiao Zhenlei was still advancing towards Egypt on a warship, and news came from the Russian side that the strike situation was getting more and more intense. Xiao Zhenlei and his entourage received a series of news, and after discussion, they thought that the Tsarist Russian authorities might not be able to support it for long.

February 10th. Xiao Zhenlei and his entourage arrived in Egypt by warship, and the fleet docked directly at the Suez Canal, and then the guards and convoy of the First Regiment of the Chinese Expeditionary Force had been waiting for a long time, and Xiao Zhenlei and others immediately took a car to Cairo, Egypt after getting off the ship.

On the morning of February 11. British Prime Minister Lloyd's? Georges, French Prime Minister Georges? Clemenceau rushed to Cairo. Other Entente countries, such as Tsarist Russia, the Republic of San Marino, the Romanian government-in-exile, the Greek kingdom in exile, the Montenegrin government-in-exile, the Portuguese Republic, and the Kingdom of Italy, also sent high-level government representatives to Cairo first.

Among the Entente member states, only Britain, France, Tsarist Russia, and Italy were still fighting power, and the Portuguese Republic was blocked by Spain, although it was not attacked by Germany, but its own troops were small, and it was too little to protect itself, and there were no extra troops sent out to participate in the war. Portugal also recently declared war on Germany and Austria, probably because it was clear that Germany and Austria had begun to decline.

The rest of the Entente were largely occupied by the Central Powers. Before being occupied by Germany and Austria, the royal families or leaders of these countries fled abroad to form government-in-exile, and countries such as China, Britain, and France also took care of these government-in-exile.

At this time, Egypt was still in the hands of the British army, and in the area of the southern coast of the Mediterranean, it had gathered a large number of British and French troops, and could cross the Mediterranean Sea at any time to launch an attack on Germany and Austria.

On the afternoon of February 11, the convoy of Xiao Zhenlei and his entourage arrived in Cairo under the protection of the guards of the First Legion. George and French Prime Minister Georges? Clemenceau and other high-ranking representatives of the governments of the Entente were greeted at the door of the meeting place. With Hua's current status in the Entente camp and the needs of the war for China, Xiao Zhenlei is fully worthy of these people.

54-year-old British Prime Minister Lloyd's? Georges and 76-year-old French Prime Minister Georges? Clemenceau's hair and beard were gray, and both men wore tall black bowler hats, well-cut tuxedos, and canes in their hands, and they looked like European high-society aristocrats, while the other delegates were also dressed in Western-style clothing.

The convoy stopped at the door of the meeting building, at this time the surroundings were already heavily guarded, all the doors of the convoy opened, Xiao Zhenlei and his entourage got out of the car one after another, Xiao Zhenlei was wearing a well-fitting Tang suit, he bypassed the car to open the door on the other side, Wang Yanan came out of the car and held his arm, and the two led the crowd to Lloyd? George and the others walked away.

Wang Yanan was wearing a precious cheongsam, with a string of shining pearl necklaces around her neck, and green jade bracelets on her two wrists.

Lloyd's? George decided to persuade Xiao Zhenlei to send troops to reinforce the European battlefield, so he has been very active in welcoming Xiao Zhenlei, and now he saw Xiao Zhenlei and others get out of the car and hurriedly said to the French Prime Minister Georges next to him? Clemenceau and the others: "Gentlemen, when the guests have arrived, I think we should go down the steps to greet them, and not stand on the high steps and wait for them, which would seem very rude!" After speaking, he took the lead and walked down the steps.

French Prime Minister Georges? Clemenceau couldn't help but feel dissatisfied in his heart, of course you don't care about walking a few more steps when you are young, but pity my old family is over seventy years old, and you have to walk down such a high step to meet a young man, doesn't it make me suffer and lose face? Despite his reluctance, George? Clemenceau had to go down the steps to meet him, and the others followed suit.

"Welcome, Mr. Xiao!" Far away, Lloyd's? George stretched out his hand and smiled.

Xiao Zhenlei and Lloyd? George shook hands and said with a smile: "Thank you for your enthusiasm, Mr. George, this is my wife Wang Yanan!" ”

"Oh, Madame Shaw, you are so beautiful, welcome to Cairo!" Lloyd's? George hurriedly stretched out his hand.

After shaking hands, Wang Yanan smiled and said, "Thank you, Mr. George, you are a typical representative of the British gentleman!" ”

"Thank you very much for the compliment!" Lloyd's? George was also not modest, and after speaking, he introduced the others to the two, first introducing the French Prime Minister, "This is French Prime Minister Georges?" Mr. Lekmonceau".

Xiao Zhenlei looked at Lekmenceau, who had gray hair and looked old, shook hands with him and said: "Sir, it's unimaginable that you still need to come out to work at such an old age, in our place, old people like you have been nursing at home for a long time, I admire your spirit of disregarding your health for the sake of France, I hope you must pay more attention, I wish you good health!" ”

Xiao Zhenlei's words can be understood in a variety of ways, not only can be understood as admiration and sincere blessings, but also can be understood as too old to stand in the way of occupying the pit and not, so as not to block the way of young people. But the old man of Licamonceau apparently only understood one of the meanings, and he said happily: "Oh, thank you! For the freedom of France, no matter how hard and tired I am, I am willing to do it! ”

Next, Xiao Zhenlei got to know the representatives of Tsarist Russia, the senior representatives of the Portuguese government, and some other high-ranking government representatives sent by members of the Entente.

After everyone knows each other, let's go into the venue to chat, now is not the meeting time, tomorrow is the official meeting time, so now everyone is just to get to know each other further, the person in charge of presiding over this meeting at the head of state level introduced to the participants the meeting arrangements and some major schedules during the meeting in the past few days, if the heads of state have any objections, they can raise them on the spot, and the person in charge can make adjustments.

After chatting for two hours, the heads of state and the delegates of various countries left one after another, each went back to rest, and prepared to attend tomorrow's formal meeting. Georges and French Prime Minister Lecmonceau lived in the nearby villa, which was also a neighbor, and was surrounded by troops to keep the conference area safe.

After arriving at the accommodation, the work of tidying up the accommodation and checking the safety of the accommodation was done by the accompanying security personnel and staff, and Xiao Zhenlei gathered the backbone of the entourage to arrange the work that needed to be prepared before the meeting tomorrow.

Xiao Zhenlei first arranged for Yang Shiqi to prepare for him to prepare a speech for tomorrow's meeting, which is very important, and the two most important parts of this speech include the main offensive direction of the future war against the Allied Powers and the punishment of the Allied countries after the war. In addition to this, he also arranged for people to find out the purpose of the representatives of other countries. Cai and other military personnel are responsible for liaising with military representatives from other countries.

After arranging the task, Yang Yongtai walked into Xiao Zhenlei's office and reported: "President, British Prime Minister Mr. George has sent someone to send an invitation, he has prepared a banquet to welcome heads of state and senior government representatives tonight, please go to the banquet at seven o'clock tonight!" ”

"Oh?" Xiao Zhenlei raised his hand and looked at his watch, it was only five o'clock now, and there was still plenty of time, so he nodded and said, "I know, you get ready, and go and inform Madame that you will call me when the time is almost up."

"Okay, President!" (To be continued......)