"Don't you already have quite a few collectibles, and what are you betting with them for?"

After Fu Xiuming and the others said goodbye and left, with some snacks, Elaline walked to Yan Shao's side and said curiously.

"The more the merrier..."Picking up a piece of dim sum from the plate and throwing it into his mouth, Yan Shao smiled. Don't look at these guys who usually pretend to be poor, in fact, there are still some things in the bag, even if it is not at the level of "Qingming Riverside Picture", I am afraid it may not be much worse, just like Lu Ji's "Pingfu Post"..."

In his opinion, these ancestral inheritances should be thrown away in museums for everyone to see, rather than being locked in the basement by a collector for the rest of their lives. So during this period of time, Yan Shao has been collecting work, and now he has collected thousands of precious cultural relics in his presidential palace alone, and although the cultural relics of the level of "Qingming Riverside Map" are rare, there are as many as twenty or thirty pieces here in Yan Shao, such as "Da Yu Ding", "Da Ke Ding" and "Taibao Ding" of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Zhan Ziqian's "You Chun Tu", Han Yun's "Five Ox Pictures", Wang Ximeng's "Thousands of Miles of Rivers and Mountains", Gu Hongzhong's "Han Xizai's Night Banquet Map"...

In addition, there are "Traveling in the Mountains and Streams", "Early Spring", "Ten Thousand Pine Winds", etc., and even Wang Xizhi's "Orchid Pavilion Preface" and "Sunny Post When the Snow is Fast" are also covered—————— although these two are facsimiles...

The two most important things to collect cultural relics are to recognize the goods, and the other is to have a lot of money.

In the former, Yan Shao is definitely a layman among laymen, and he is usually the kind of layman who watches the excitement. But this does not prevent him from having the top expert team in the country under his hands, and now almost all of the top cultural relics experts in the country are under Yan Shao's hands. To help Yan Shao with the collection work, naturally, the remuneration must be indispensable.

But then again. For this kind of person, the salary given by Yan Shao is not taken into account by them, what really makes them fancy is the opportunity to see those heirloom treasures up close—————— now even the palace is Yan Shao's, and it is estimated that no one in the country has more collections than Yan Shao.

Coupled with Yan Shao's huge investment in collecting all kinds of cultural relics, new cultural relics will be collected by Yan Shao almost every day, and there is no better job for these people than here. Therefore, Yan Shao doesn't have to worry about being deceived by the guy at all.

In addition to that, you want to buy artifacts, especially the ones that are worth a lot of money. The former is undoubtedly very important. And what Yan Shao lacks most is money, which is also one of the reasons why his family can collect thousands of cultural relics. It is also a reason why those experts are willing to work for him.

Listening to Yan Shao's words, Elaline smiled helplessly.

"Forget it, as long as you like it..."Speaking of which, Elaline looked at Yan Shao. Speaking of which. How's going in Shandong? There won't be any problems..."

"Absolutely not..."Yan Shao's face showed a little confidence. I can guarantee it. As long as those Japanese dare to appear in Shandong, Songpa will definitely teach the Japanese a profound lesson, to be honest, now I am actually looking forward to the Japanese coming..."

Just as Yan Shao said this, Caterina suddenly walked over from behind the two.

"Here you go, new telegram...", Caterina walked to Yan Shao's side and stopped, and then handed the telegram to Yan Shao's hand.

After taking the telegram and reading its contents. Yan Shao smiled at Elanon. "Looks like I've won this bet!"

The content of the telegram was very simple, that is, after learning the news that Qingdao had changed hands. Far from stopping, the Japanese accelerated a lot, and it was expected that it would not be long before the Japanese would take military action against Shandong.

"So, you've won this bet..."

Looking at the telegram in Yan Shao's hand, Elaline said with a smile.

"yes..."

The content on the telegram was actually quite simple, that is, the Japanese had already accelerated their actions.

It is precisely because of this that Yan Shao will say that he has won this gamble.

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While Yan Shao and Elano were still talking about the gambling game, everything seemed to be as usual in London, England.

No, it's still more or less different, after all, Britain is now in a state of war. But the atmosphere in London as a whole seemed to be nothing special, except that it was a little heavier than usual, and on the street corners, pedestrians walked as usual.

For them, war may have happened, but it has not affected them very much, at least for now.

The reason is simple, because until now the war has not reached the British mainland, and with an English Channel, London is still a safe city, and the inhabitants of London do not have to be as frightened as the French—————— this view was not reversed until the Germans taught them a lesson in modern warfare by airship.

But while the atmosphere in London is relaxed, in some places it can be a bit heavy, for example......... The world's largest museum, inside the British Museum...

Standing at the door of the museum, the museum director and other museum personnel were watching with a sad and even annoyed gaze as many Asians carried boxes of cultural relics onto several cars with the logo of the Yushi Group on their bodies.

Especially when they saw one of the boxes of cultural relics, several museum employees couldn't help but take two steps forward, but they still endured it a little later.

There is no way, because this is a normal transaction, and they have no way or qualification to intervene.

Yan Shao would pay for the collection of cultural relics, on the one hand, to send these cultural relics to the museum for people to visit, but on the other hand, there was also a large reason for the desire to properly protect these cultural relics. No one in this world knows better than Yan Shao, who came from later generations, how many of China's precious cultural relics were catastrophically damaged during this period due to lack of proper protection.

Of course, it's not just internal. There are also external ones, such as foreign robbers who have stolen cultural relics from China.

At this time, although the situation in China had gradually stabilized, cultural relics were protected throughout the country. Obviously, it's still an unrealistic thing, and it's even more difficult to prevent the smuggling of cultural relics. So at present, in addition to setting up cultural relics protection institutions all over the country, Yan Shao can only buy them through private means, and grab as much as he can, anyway, for Yan Shao, the so-called money doesn't have much meaning, since that's the case. It's better to take it out and do something meaningful.

However, these are only for the cultural relics unearthed in China or circulating in the market, as for some other cultural relics...

The above-mentioned cultural relics will basically be sent to the museum by Yan Shao in the future. But in addition to these, Yan Shao will also collect some other cultural relics, which are left in his own home for his family or guests to enjoy.

But seriously will. In fact, it is not Yan Shao who collects these cultural relics. Ileno and Caterina are usually from abroad, such as Europe or the Americas, Egypt, India, etc.

In fact, even after living in China for nearly a decade, Elano and Caterina were not interested in Chinese paintings, but were interested in bronzes and porcelain. However, those were basically sent to the museum by Yan Shao for people to visit, so the two had to collect some that would not be sent in by Yan Shao...

As for the collection, there are many ways, such as auctioning off cultural relics in some auction houses, and in example...

British museum...

In fact, the British Museum is not just the museum itself. There are also many artifacts that are stored in the museum by their owners. In other words, the artifacts are simply placed inside the museum. The museum itself does not own the artifacts.

If the owner wants to take these artifacts away or auction them one day, the museum is not in a position to interfere, no matter how reluctant they are...

And Elaline did the same, although the owners of those collections are usually people with good families, but there are not many people in this world who are willing to have a grudge against money. And as I said earlier, it's just usual, because of various accidents, or it's not for nothing that the family falls into the middle of the road.

At this time, Yushi Group already had a branch in the UK, and the scale was not small. With the connections he has made over the past year or so, the management of the branch can easily find out the current situation of some of the owners of the collection, and offer them a price code that they will never refuse—————— Yan Shao is not very opposed to this preference of Ileno and Caterina, although the price of such cultural relics is much higher than the ones Yan Shao collects in China.

There is no way, the antiques of the prosperous era, the gold of the troubled times, although the current political situation in China has been stabilized, but there is obviously still a lot of distance from the prosperous era, and the price code is naturally a little difficult to rise.

However, as a man, he always has to give some support to his wife's hobbies, not to mention that they are not spending money indiscriminately in this regard, after all, the value of cultural relics is difficult to estimate, and it seems to be worthless now, and it is likely to become a priceless treasure in a few years, especially in the prosperous times. No one knows what will happen in the future, maybe in a few hundred years, after Yan Shao and they all go west, the Yushi Group, which can be called the world's largest enterprise, may also be ruined by their children, and at that time, if there are some cultural relics in their hands, at least some capital to make a comeback...

And in the past, China has always been a cultural relics 'export country', to put it simply, it means only to go out and not to enter, if you can take this opportunity to get some precious cultural relics, it seems to be a very cool thing—————— although Yan Shao prefers to use force, just like the British did in the past, but unfortunately with China's current national strength, it is impossible to achieve this level without 2 or 30 years, so now it can only take this way.

At present, the two have collected nearly 100 such artifacts, all of which are placed in a small library in the presidential palace, together with some books, and the most precious artifact is the extremely famous Portland vase.

This artifact is one of the finest surviving Roman gemstone glasswares and was made in the early 1st century AD.

Historically, all Roman gemological glasswork has been made by the last two generations of B.C., specifically from 27 B.C. to 68 A.D., and the main works include vases, large reliefs on walls, and small jewels. With the suicide of Nero, the last emperor of the Claudius dynasty, gemstone glassware disappeared into history. Except in the late 4th century AD, the Roman Empire was once re-popularized for a short period of time, until the 18th century. There is no Roman gemstone glass in Europe. No one knows why these works of art, which are so striking in shape, texture and color, are not appreciated by the world. In the 18th century, when the Greco-Roman antique culture became popular in Europe, many imitations of such works reappeared.

The story of this vase, 24 cm, with a circumference of about 56 cm, is no longer known before 1601 AD, and the earliest record of the vase is in 1601, when it was in the collection of the Archbishop of Monte, Italy. After the death of the bishop, the vase fell into the hands of the Barberini family. In 1778, Hamilton, then British ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples, bought the vase, and after returning to England, he sold it to the then second Duchess of Portland in 1778, hence the name of the Portland vase. Year 1810. The 4th Duke deposited the vase in the British Museum, and Elaline and Caterina found the 6th Duke of Portland and bought it from him through the head of the Rainstone Group in the UK.

It should be clarified. After buying the vase, the British Museum was reluctant to take out the vase, but unfortunately this vase was only stored in the museum after all, and the museum couldn't get more money than Yan Shao, so the last one had to helplessly watch this priceless treasure being moved out of the museum...

(1810.) The 4th Duke deposited the vase after the British Museum. Between 1929 and 1932, the vase briefly left the British Museum for auction, but was not sold. In 1945, the British Museum acquired the vase from the 7th Duke. Incidentally, this vase has been broken in the past, and in 1845, a drunken young man broke into the museum, picked up another artifact next to the vase, and smashed the glass cover of the vase with the vase. It is no longer known why he chose this vase for his purpose, and he was sentenced to prison for it. Interestingly, however, he was convicted not for breaking a vase, but for breaking the glass cover, as English law at the time did not criminalize the destruction of valuable works of art. ）

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Although Qingdao was no longer a German colony at this time, Japan had no intention of stopping its actions, and not only that, but accelerated its actions a little.

In fact, for Japan, the seizure of German interests in Shandong was no longer its main goal, but intended for the development process of China.

As for the British and French, they were also very angry because they had been played, so they acquiesced in other things except for asking Japan not to take military action outside of Shandong.

And after this, the Japanese began to be even more unscrupulous.

It didn't take long for China to withdraw from the Qingdao fortress and let the Allies take over it, and wait until the end of the war to decide on the ownership of the fortress and Jiaozhou Bay.

Of course, Yan Shao could not agree to such a thing, so as soon as the Japanese statement was announced, the Kuomintang government had already categorically rejected it.

After the Kuomintang government refused, Japan also used this as a reason to announce that it would launch military operations against Qingdao and Jiaozhou Bay.

People from all walks of life in China were extremely indignant at this, and protests broke out in many areas one after another, but this time the Japanese were determined to do so.

Soon, the Japanese had already selected the lineup to send troops, and the army was mainly based on the 18th Division, in addition to some other divisions, brigades, artillery and other troops, the number of which was about 100,000, and the commander of the 18th Division, Lieutenant General Mitsutomi Kamio, was in charge of command.

As for the navy, the First Fleet and the Second Fleet were all dispatched.

Among them, the first fleet is the four ships of the 1st Sentai Settsu, Hanoi, Yasu, and Satsuma. The 3rd Sentai has four ships: Kurama, Tsukuba, Kongo, and Hiei. The 5th Sentai has three ships: Mikasa, Hizen, and Shikishima. In addition, there are the 1st Mine Squadron Otowa Squadron, the 1st Squadron Squadron, the 2nd Squadron Squadron, the 16th Squadron Squadron, and the 17th Squadron.

The second fleet consisted of the 2nd Sentai Sentai Division, such as Shubo, Iwami, Tango, Okishima, and Mijima. Iwate, Yakumo, and Tsukiwa of Sentai of the 4th Sentai team. The 6th Sentai Chitose, Akitsu, and Chiyoda. Mine Squadron No. 2, Mine Squadron No. 9, Squad 12, Squadron 13. Attached Takachiho, Matsue, Wakanomiya Maru, Kanto Maru, Hachiman Maru, 2 sea sweeping teams, and surveying squads.

In terms of lineup, the lineup of the Japanese Navy this time can be said to be unprecedentedly large. Among them, there were 10 battleships including Settsu, Kawachi, Yasui, Satsuma, Mikasa, Hizen, Shikishima, Shubo, Iwami, and Tango, as well as armored cruisers including Kurama and Tsukuba, and two of the latest battle cruisers, Kongo and Hiei.

In addition, there were a large number of ordinary cruisers, destroyers and other ships, although the Chinese Navy at this time had three dreadnoughts and a large number of other ships, but if it really clashed with the Japanese, it would definitely be an egg and a stone. Moreover, in the Japanese fleet, there are two battle cruisers that are by no means inferior to the 'Kiyoyo' ship, and there are two 'Hanoi'-class quasi-dreadnoughts.

But then again, although those ten battleships look very strong, they are actually very old, and many of them were captured from the Russians during the Russo-Japanese War, and although they still have some combat effectiveness, they are still behind the times, which is probably one of the reasons why the Japanese are in a hurry to build the 'Fuso' class. (To be continued......)