The sun is warm, spring is in full bloom, and the lawn in front of the White House in Washington has become lush and verdant. The white wildflowers rise and fall in the wind, blooming in layers, exuding a crisp and elegant fragrance.

In the spacious and bright presidential office, Wilson, with a clear face, was sitting quietly on his main seat, a pair of blue-brown eyes slowly scanning the cabinet members in front of him. The top members of the government, including Vice President Marshall, Secretary of State Brian, Secretary of War Garrison, Secretary of the Navy Daniels, and others, all sat upright with solemn faces; Such a complete line-up to attend the meeting is an extremely rare occurrence in the work of the government.

On 20 March, the first peace contacts between the Central and Entente powers ended in failure; The Kaiser then issued a warlike declaration, saying that the British and French governments must take full responsibility for the current situation in Europe, otherwise the problems between the two sides can only be solved by the sword. A photograph of the Kaiser dressed in armor, a helmet on his head, and a sword in his hand also spread throughout Europe and the United States, and for a time the Allies cheered, the British and French people gritted their teeth but were sad and weak, and the United States, which had been living in peace since the outbreak of the war and laughing at the cannibalism of the European powers, had some different thoughts for the first time after learning the news.

For the vast majority of Americans, the war across the Atlantic is an after-dinner conversation; As long as the current life of prosperity is not broken, even if the Europeans are all dead, it has nothing to do with them. In a way, they even hope that the war will not end so soon: because as the war drags on, the warring sides will increasingly need resources and industrial products from the United States to fill the void of their own needs. And this will undoubtedly give the US economy a significant boost. And lead the people to embark on a leapfrog development from well-off to affluent. and to this day. The American people have deeply felt the improvement of their lives by the war in Europe: the factories that provided all kinds of materials to the belligerents, and the series of related industrial chains involved in the process, have made the American capitalists and workers who have thrown themselves into it a lot of money, and the American people, whose purses are full of dollars, have given the most lofty praise to the Kaiser who persisted in the war, and sincerely hope that the two sides will continue to fight forever without the slightest peace talks.

However, compared with the simplicity of the people's milk, the financial oligarchs and senior government officials in the United States obviously have other ideas.

Before the Royal Navy was still in charge of the seas. Ships flying the black, white and red iron cross flag are almost extinct in the North Atlantic; Everywhere you look, there are merchant ships of France and Great Britain. These banking oligarchs were able to hold on at first, but after a few months, they began to buy large quantities of government bonds from Britain and France, lured by the golden dollar. The U.S. government not only acquiesced in this situation, but even took part in it shirtlessly: in just six months from June 1913, they ate up nearly $3 billion in Allied debts, a huge sum of more than 600 million pounds that could cause a shocking shock wherever it was placed!

Although from October 1913 onwards, the situation in Europe had deteriorated sharply relative to that of the Allies, and the Americans began to subscribe to German bonds in bulk; But due to Germany's lack of background in the field of international credit. As a result, their share of the total is still much smaller than that of the Entente. You know, Germany has been living almost behind closed doors for decades. Even after Germany broke into the Atlantic, its trade with the United States was dominated by the import of cheap raw materials, and the purchase of lucrative industrial products, weapons and ammunition accounted for only a very small minority. So far, the U.S. government has only purchased about $800 million in German government bonds, and although the people who saw the wind and the rudder have switched to this high-credit rating bond, the overall share after statistics is still only a quarter of that of the Entente countries.

Under these circumstances, the US top brass naturally hoped that Germany would not push Britain and France too hard. If an armistice treaty similar to the Brest style land reparations is created, how will Britain and France, which have been drained of blood, repay their huge loans? For the United States, what they want most is undoubtedly an understanding between Britain, France, and Germany and Austria to end the war on mutually acceptable terms, and then both countries will return all the money they owe. If you continue to fight, once one of the British and French sides completely falls, the money you lend out will become a bad account: although the numbers on the paper are beautiful, they must be in their hands to truly belong to themselves!

In order to achieve this goal, the US Government, which has always held a long-distance attitude toward a major war in Europe, immediately participated in contacts between the two warring parties with unprecedented enthusiasm. In a letter to the country, Wilson tried his best to play the role of peacemaker and mediator, and on more than one occasion he sincerely and earnestly appealed for an immediate truce between the two warring parties, proceeding from the general interest of human peace. Of course, this earned him unprecedented reputation as an ambassador for peace, and he was nominated by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences as a candidate for this year's Nobel Peace Prize. However, the Kaiser, dressed in "glittering armor", was not prepared to accept it. According to the information sent back by the American military correspondents, the German army was massing from Eastern Europe to the Western Front, and the roaring columns continued in the early hours of the morning: the Berlin government had raised its butcher's knife and was ready to bring about a complete end to the two long-cherished enemies.

"Although this series of actions of the Germans was an undeniable decision made by the side that had the advantage on the battlefield, it was undoubtedly a serious damage to the interests of the United States." Seeing that all the participants had arrived, Wilson stopped talking nonsense and went straight to the point, saying, "Although this war is still an Atlantic away from us, its final result is closely related to the United States, and we must ensure that the funds previously lent to Britain and France can be fully recovered, which is the bottom line of our attitude towards this war!" In addition, a Europe dominated by Germany would be a great disadvantage for the United States: we need a European market, and a Europe with many competing powers would be the best stage to achieve this. ”

Hearing Wilson's words, the faces of everyone present were still a pool of dignified stagnant water, and only a few or three people showed unwilling and angry expressions. In the previous foreign affairs, the U.S. government, which pursued the strategy of "warm words in the mouth and big stick in hand", was almost invincible, and countries such as Mexico, Haiti, Cuba, and Panama were all tied down; But when it came to the Germans, the other side still went their own way, and did not pay any attention to Washington, the boss of the Americas. When the annoyed American was about to wave the stick in his hand and shout, he found that the other party was holding a giant hammer in his hand: if you really want to compare, you will be directly killed!

"With all due respect, Mr. President, the present strength of the United States alone cannot prevent the will of the Prussians from being carried out. We have only 100,000 National Guard troops, and they are deployed on the south-western border, in Cuba, and in Panama. And if you want to build an army that is ready to fight in Europe, it will take a year and a half at the earliest. Secretary of War Garrison spoke slowly, his words full of depression and helplessness, "The most important thing is that the people will not allow the government to issue such a policy decree for such a massive military expansion. If this bill is introduced in the Senate and House of Representatives, not only will I be branded mentally ill, but your presidency will not be preserved. ”

Wilson glanced at him dissatisfied, only to find that most of the cabinet members, including Vice President Marshall, agreed with Garrison's remarks. Wilson's lips moved, and he said in a voice that had slowed his tone, "Can we, then, use economic means to bring the Germans to the will of the United States?" Now that they are importing a lot of oil, ore and other goods from us, we may be able to give the Berlin government a hint by raising prices and delaying deliveries. In addition, we can restrict Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank's bond offerings on Wall Street to discourage their fundraising efforts. ”

"Mr. President, this is just as difficult to do. After more than four months of development, there is now also a large number of interests in the United States that rely on German orders and bonds to make money, and if we were to introduce a decree restricting German capital for no reason, we would be met with unimaginable resistance. Secretary of State Brian shook his head and said, "Taking a step back, even if we had done this without hindrance, the impact on the German warplanes would have been quite limited. Now that they have occupied large swaths of Eastern European territory, including Ukraine, their plundered resources have made their demand for raw materials less intense than before; Therefore, not only will we not be able to do what we expected to restrict, but we will anger the flaunting Central European Empire. ”

Hearing Brian's words, Wilson covered his forehead in some pain. At present, the United States has more than $3.5 billion in British and French national debt, and if it is not handled properly, the spearhead of the anger of the people at home will be poked at the United States government that has taken the money out of their hands. Although the current economic strength of the United States is not impossible to deal with this bad debt, the current administration with the Democratic Party as the core will inevitably be attacked by unprecedented accusations; Not only did his dream of re-election come to naught, but even the current House seats are bound to be swept away by Republicans. However, who would have thought that this was originally a profitable business, but now it would evolve to this point? Germany's power was beyond everyone's imagination before the war, and after the fall of the Russian giant, the other two old European powers that once dominated the world also showed signs of holding on! (To be continued......)

PS: Thank you for the monthly ticket support of book friend Ryūjo Koichi, and the reward of Assassin 23~~~