Chapter 477: Building momentum
And in this way, you can also see if there are any other hooks, speaking of which, the European battlefield has been fought so far, and the total number of participating countries is nothing more than nine, and three of them have already perished, this number is a little less after all.
Except for Sweden, which has to make money for itself, and Spain, which has to stay together against the United States, so it's better not to get involved in the war, all other countries are okay, especially like the Netherlands...
Well, Emperor Yang found that at this time Europe was still eligible to participate in the war, and the Netherlands was left, and the main participants in the history were the Balkan countries, but now in addition to Greece, other Serbia has participated in the war and perished, Montenegro and Bulgaria let the Ottomans break their legs, Romania joined the Central Powers, and nothing else, as for Greece, their main enemy is Hamid II, and they also suffered heavy losses in the Balkan War, and the war reparations have not been paid yet, Surely wouldn't be stupid enough to run to the Tyrannosaurus Rex dinner again.
In this way, there are still the Netherlands, Portugal, and the Nordic countries in Europe have not been involved in the war, and Northern Europe is dominated by Sweden, and there are also Denmark and Norway, at this time Finland still belongs to the Russian Empire, and the title of Grand Duke of Finland is still worn on Nikolai's head, although Denmark and Germany have old feuds with Schleswig and Holstein, but the problem is that they also have a grudge with the British in the Battle of Copenhagen.
So after doing the math, in addition to Italy, Yang Feng found that there were also Netherlands and Portugal that might be involved in the war, which Portugal could basically ignore, but the strength of the Netherlands was still okay, and if this country joined the Entente bloc. Then the British Army will definitely enter the Netherlands and then attack the heart of Germany directly, so that the Anglo-German naval decisive battle that Yang Feng is most looking forward to at present is likely to be realized.
"Forget it, try it and then talk about it, there is nothing to lose left and right!" Thinking of this, he said to Zhang Quan.
Now that His Majesty the Emperor has agreed, then Zhang Quan began to build momentum for China to join the Entente bloc, first of all, the plane deal that was blocked by the Chinese government some time ago was taken out and hyped up, in short, the outside world, even the people of his own country, feel that His Majesty the Emperor and the Chinese government have now begun to lean towards the Entente bloc, and then the government and Congress will engage in some China, Britain, China and Russia. Friendly exchanges between China and France. For example, some important members of Congress visited these three countries, and even arranged for some people to make some remarks accusing Germany and Austria of being too brutal on the battlefield.
It's easy to find a topic to visit, visit London and see what happened to this beautiful city after the bombing. You can just use it to make a fuss. Then there are the reporters who exaggerate the cruelty of the coagulated qiyou shells used by the Germans on the battlefield. In particular, a few photographs of Russian soldiers burned all over the place were made to denounce the Germans from a humanitarian point of view, even though the raw materials for the manufacture of such weapons were being shipped to Germany from China in a non-stop manner.
In addition, the cultural community can also take action. Now there are a lot of scholars and celebrities in China who are well fed and supported, and let these guys go out and let them express their feelings about the war in Europe.
First brew the love, and then at an appropriate time, arrange a few young people with a sense of justice to throw rotten eggs or shoes at Haijing on the road, so that the world can see what the Chinese people want.
Then there is no need to push it out of the way, Britain, France and Russia will take over like a treasure.
As for how to complete the turning point of God in the future, it is just a trivial matter, and the common people are not easy to fool, just create some accidents, such as the sinking of a Chinese merchant ship by a British submarine or the like, it is easy to turn public opinion around at once, and this kind of trivial matter Emperor Yang has a trick.
Therefore, under the behind-the-scenes manipulation of a group of conspirators, with the famous poet who was visiting Wèn in England, a hereditary member of the House of Lords, and Duke Li Jingshu, who inherited the title of Li Hongzhang, wrote a poem with a condemnation of Germany in London because he saw those British children who were injured in the bombing, Chinese public opinion, which had always held a neutral attitude, began to move towards the Entente bloc obviously.
Although this change is a bit too sudden and even a little unreal, it is undoubtedly a life-saving straw for the Entente group, which is currently in a difficult situation, and the French are the first to react. Because during this period of time, Germany has been holding the Opium War in China, and the issue of burning the Old Summer Palace is smearing Britain and France, so the French government announced that it will return to China more than 10,000 pieces of cultural relics looted by the French army from the Old Summer Palace during the Opium War.
As for the others, it is said that they disappeared during the German occupation, and this part was rushed out at the beginning, and the French government sincerely apologized to the Chinese people for the burning of the Old Summer Palace.
"It's shameless, and let the Germans rob it, and the Germans didn't let the Germans rob it at the Fontainebleau Palace, why didn't they send it back as well?" Emperor Yang was very contemptuous of the French's petty family, but since they were so cooperative, of course they had to cooperate in the same way.
As a result, the Chinese newspapers immediately began to hype up the friendship of the French people, and then followed France, and Britain also announced that it would return some cultural relics to China, and also apologized. However, there are also a lot of different voices, for example, some newspapers pointed out that the number of Chinese cultural relics in the Louvre is not large, and the cultural relics stolen by the French from the Old Summer Palace were mainly in the Palace of Fontainebleau, and the Palace of Fontainebleau was not occupied by the German army, why did the French not return the cultural relics of the Palace of Fontainebleau?
It can be seen that the French are just deceiving the kindness of the Chinese people, there is no sincerity at all, or the Germans, they have never invaded China, but Britain, France and Russia are all in China, especially France, from the Opium War to the Vietnam War, China's main enemy is always France, the kind Chinese people, don't be deceived by their little tricks.
This kind of argument has indeed poured cold water on Sino-French relations, which are gradually warming up, and for a time there has been more public opinion hostile to France, and some newspapers have even openly publicized that they should join the Allies and then snatch back all the good things that Britain and France stole from China in those years.
In this case, the French government had to explain again, not that it did not want to return the Chinese cultural relics of the Palace of Fontainebleau, but that some time ago because the battlefield was too close to Fontainebleau, so the French government transferred all the cultural relics there, and now it is in the process of re-inventory, once the inventory is completed, all the cultural relics of the Old Summer Palace will be returned to China, and after the war, France will provide funds to help China rebuild this beautiful garden.
At this time, even the Chinese Parliament was ready to organize a delegation to visit the United Kingdom, and it did make them see the hope of China joining the Entente, isn't it just some jars and jars, the British are not short of this thing, so then the British government also announced that all the cultural relics of the Old Summer Palace that they moved from the British Museum because of the German bombing will also be returned to China, and they also promised to fund the reconstruction of the Old Summer Palace after the war.
Now the Chinese people finally really feel the friendship between the British and French peoples, and the tone of Sino-British, Sino-French friendship has begun to heat up in a straight line, with some criticism of Germany's brutality in the war, and even the voice that China should join the Entente to uphold justice has appeared, especially many celebrities, operas, movie stars have begun to come out to criticize the Germans, and even the House of Commons has members of the House of Commons who have made remarks that China should join the Entente.
After the first batch of returned Old Summer Palace relics were loaded into London and Marseille respectively, this argument quickly increased, and even developed to the House of Lords There were also members of the House of Lords who supported joining the Entente, which made Britain and France even more excited, and the newspapers of these two countries were almost full of cheers, as if China had really joined the Entente, so that the gloom in the British and French skies was swept away in an instant.
In fact, the politicians of Britain and France are not stupid, after this toss, in the end, whether China really joins the Entente or not, there is no harm to them, because what Yang Feng thinks, they can also think. So they also have to use this to promote this desperately, and it is better to convince the whole of Europe that China will definitely join the Entente in the end, so that they can boost the morale of the people internally, and win over other neutral countries, especially Italy, externally.
The British Foreign Secretary, who was operating in Italy, never broke the smile on his face as public opinion about China's accession to the Entente continued to heat up, and he became more and more indifferent in his negotiations with the Italians, and even his words already showed that it did not matter whether Italy joined the Entente or not.
This made the Italians, who were waiting for the British to offer a higher price, begin to become anxious, and they certainly knew what it would mean for the war once China joined the Entente, and it can be said that the defeat of Germany and Austria was a foregone conclusion at that time, and Italy had no meaning at all for the Entente bloc, and it did not care whether Italy entered the war with Britain and France at that time. Even if China does not need to send troops, simply Europe's participation in the war against Germany with Yang Feng's Spain, the Ottoman Empire, and Sweden can change the tide of the war in an instant, and even if Italy falls to the Allies, it will not change the outcome of the Allies' defeat. At that time, they didn't want to say that they wanted African colonies anymore, even what was promised to them now was not to be counted on, places like Dalmatia and Trieste were originally Ottoman Empire, and Hamid II would definitely want to go back.
So the Italians have to make a choice. (To be continued......)