Mannerheim's face was cloudy for a moment, which showed how embarrassed he was by someone's words. But embarrassment is embarrassing, even if Mannerheim is angry again, he has to admit that a certain immortal is right - there has never been a free lunch in this world, and accepting the protection of the Entente will inevitably pay a corresponding price!

As someone has said, Finland will henceforth lose its political freedom and will inevitably be drawn into the quagmire of the Entente bloc, a lackey that can be sacrificed at any time.

For Mannerheim, such a price is completely unacceptable, and what he wants is complete independence and autonomy for Finland, free from the domination and enslavement of other countries, and to live in this world like a human being, not like a dog.

Because if you become a dog, the result must not be so wonderful, when the owner of the dog chain, feel that your dog is not so useful, or the interests of the dog conflict with his interests, then it is time to kill the dog and eat meat.

Such examples abound in history, the most famous and the most profound lesson is the Czech Republic before the outbreak of World War II, in order to achieve their own appeasement policy, Britain and France, holding the dog's chain, in order to achieve their own appeasement policy, did not care about the fate of the dog at all, and let Germany do not care about it at all. The same example is the Pingdu Zhenlu Dabobo, the country of the footcloth in Europe did not wait for the support of the two major allies until its demise.

The encounter between these two countries fully illustrates one point: national independence and autonomy can never be relied on by other countries' charity, and if we want to stand tall among the nations of the world, we must constantly strive for self-improvement!

Many politicians in Finland, many ordinary people do not understand this truth, and their political tendency is used to hugging their thighs. There are those who plan to hug the German thighs. There are also those who plan to hug the thighs of the Entente countries. Of course, there was also a part of the pro-Russian, or rather pro-Bolshevik. But Mannerheim understood this, and he never pinned his hopes on his so-called friendly neighbors.

Mannerheim said: "Although I am a soldier, the duty of a soldier is only to defend my country, and I have no interest in joining this senseless world war!" ”

Li Xiaofeng can naturally understand the meaning of this, the first layer is nothing more than the meaning of saying that he did not join the Allied Powers or the Entente bloc, and the second layer of meaning. To dig deeper, it must be noted that the subject of Mannerheim's words is only "I", that is, it is only his personal meaning. And his personal will does not represent the national will of Finland.

In other words, Mannerheim is saying that although I understand you very well and I personally don't want to be a dog minion, I don't represent Finland after all. If the national will of Finland decides that I must be a dog, then I will have to obey that decision.

It can be said that this expression is equivalent to saying nothing, and he is still ready to ride the wall. Speaking of which, Mannerheim is also a big connoisseur of riding walls. From the end of World War I to the outbreak of World War II, he was always riding the wall. He is indeed resolutely resisting against the aggression of the Soviet Union, but once there is a possibility of ceding land and seeking peace, he will not hesitate to act as a "traitor".

Of course, although these actions have an element of necessity, Mannerheim is indeed not as resolute as the "mainstream" patriots, and has the determination to rather break the jade than destroy it. He is more like a politician, under strong pressure, he can compromise without hesitation, but in the process of compromise, he will try his best to show his patriotism.

It can be clearly seen from World War II that although Finland is on the same front as the Germans, he is still wary and wary of cooperation with the Germans. After all, Mannerheim is a man who is very good at singing songs on any mountain, and surviving in the cracks.

Such a person is indeed suitable for politics and a politician, but for the friends of such people, it is not necessarily a good thing. Under strong pressure, he will not hesitate to compromise and succumb to power, and may even sell his teammates. You have to be careful when you cooperate with this kind of person, and God knows when he will switch sides.

Therefore, if you want to cooperate with him for a long time, you must put pressure on him to understand what the price will be paid to turn the gun.

"Is Germany closer to Finland, or is Russia closer to Finland?" Li Xiaofeng suddenly asked.

The answer to this question is self-evident, of course, but Mannerheim understands that what someone is trying to convey is not a question of distance, but a real threat. He was about to retort when a certain immortal continued to ask, "Are England, France, and the United States closer to Finland, or is Russia closer to Finland?" ”

"Are you threatening me?" Mannerheim was annoyed.

"I'm helping you understand the geopolitical environment in Finland!" Li Xiaofeng replied with a sneer, "As a close neighbor of Russia, if Finland adopts an attitude of exclusion and hostility towards Russia, it will be difficult to say the consequences!" ”

Mannerheim puffed up and said: "We Finns are definitely not short of determination to defend our independence!" ”

Li Xiaofeng still replied lightly: "We Russians do not lack the same determination, do you think that if you start now, whether it is the Germans, the British, the French and the Americans, how much support can we give you?" ”

Mannerheim suddenly stopped talking, if there really was a war, in terms of war potential, ten Finland would not be the opponent of a polar bear, and the two sides would not be an order of magnitude opponent at all. But he was not so easy to succumb, and immediately said angrily: "Do you think this can give us what you want? ”

"Are we asking too much?" Li Xiaofeng asked contemptuously, "Our request is very simple, it is very easy to do, in order for our two countries to coexist in peace and friendship for a long time, the two sides promise not to join the military and political blocs against each other, is this request very excessive?" ”

Mannerheim suddenly stopped talking, because this requirement is really not high, but it is really difficult to do, "Finland is only a small and newly independent country, and its strength is very weak, and we are powerless to resist the coercion of those big countries!" ”

"It's not that you can't resist!" Li Xiaofeng immediately exposed this lie, "I am afraid that you are pushing the boat with the current, and some extreme nationalists in your country have always been hostile to Russia. Even if we have made you independent. They still wanted revenge. This trend of thought is very popular in Finland today. They thought that Russia was mired in war and weakened, and that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to dig a big piece of fat into Russia! ”

Mannerheim was immediately embarrassed, Finland is indeed not a few people who have this idea, in fact, there are people who have just broken free from the Russian Empire, such as the Poles, have this idea (and even the Poles put it into action). The war between Poland and the Soviet Union was entirely provoked by Poland. As a result, the big wave was repaired badly at first, and almost lost the capital, and if it weren't for the timely support of France and England, the country of the footcloth would probably be destroyed again).

"I must warn you that this kind of thinking is very dangerous!" Li Xiaofeng sternly warned, "Maybe you can get a little benefit for a while, but in the long run, it will only make the relationship between our two countries very tense." Although Russia is weak now, it will be ten or twenty years later. The situation will be completely different. At that time, you will have to spit out all the little advantage you have taken, and even more! ”

Li Xiaofeng is not wrong at all. The sorrow of a small country is here, and the pressure to be a neighbor with a behemoth like Russia will be very great. It is possible to steal chickens from chubby polar bears for a while, and once the polar bears are re-established, retaliation is unusually swift.

In 1920, with the support of Britain and France, the Poles repelled the Soviet Union and took advantage of the peace negotiations that followed, but only 19 years later, even the profits were returned, and the cost was dearly.

Speaking of which, it must be mentioned that the Poles are really the wonders of Europe, the top-stirring sticks. Although World War II, especially the Katyn tragedy, brought a lot of tears to Da Bobo, but to tell the truth, he deserved it. In today's fashionable words, if a person wants to die, heaven can't stop it!

Historically, Poland was once strong, and hundreds of years earlier, as a great power in Europe, the Poles had drawn hatred everywhere, found fault with the Prussians, found trouble with Austria, did not deal with the Danes and Swedes, and even invaded Tsarist Russia. The final result was that Prussia, Austria and Tsarist Russia united to burst the chrysanthemum, and divided it three times in a row until the country was destroyed.

Anyway, the urine of this nation is really not good, sometimes it looks pitiful, but this thing likes to learn to bite people, a typical bullying of the soft and afraid of the hard, anyway, even the British say that they are the same as a footcloth.

And now there are two choices in front of the Finns, choose revenge, in fact, there is no hatred, Finland has never existed independently in history, it was first protected by Sweden, of course, this protection is in quotation marks, to put it bluntly, it is a vassal of the Swedes. When Peter the Great overthrew Sweden and turned this first-class Nordic power into a second-rate country, Finland was "protected" by Tsarist Russia.

However, Finland still had a certain degree of autonomy at that time, it was more like a special administrative region of the Russian Empire, with an independent parliament and constitution, and only respected the Tsar as the head of state (a bit like the British Commonwealth, but the Tsar has always sought to completely annex Finland, and this is the main contradiction between the Finns and the Russians). To tell the truth, the contradictions between the Finns and Russia are far smaller and easier to resolve than those between Poland and Russia.

Of course, in the 30s of the 20th century, the contradictions between Russia and Finland tended to expand, and the main responsibility was, of course, on the Russian side.

In fact, there is no need, because Finland's land is really not very good, and even if it is won, it will not change the geopolitical environment of Russia, but will make the Nordic countries deeply wary of Russia, and drive them to the side of Britain and France, who tend to be neutral.

In any case, Li Xiaofeng has little interest in Finnish territory, and for him Finland's only use value is to serve as a bridge between Russia and the outside world. For more than a decade after the end of World War I, the Soviet Union was blockaded very badly, otherwise with Soviet resources, it would have been possible to recover from the wounds of World War I more quickly.

So, after sternly warning Mannerheim against those unrealistic thoughts, he immediately added: "We Bolsheviks respect the independence of Finland and are willing to live in peace with you for a long time." But the premise is that respect is mutual, and if you are friendly to Russia, then we will naturally repay the favor, and if you want war, then we will repay the favor! The choice is yours! Personally, I sincerely hope that you will remain neutral. You really can't afford to participate in this world war. The current chaos in Russia is the best lesson for you! ”

Mannerheim agreed with a certain immortal. As a soldier who participated in this tragic world war, he deeply knew how destructive this war was. With Finnish little arms and legs, I really can't get involved.

However, what he did not understand was that if someone wanted to say this to him, and if someone's intention was to warn the Finnish government not to take risks, then he should warn the Interim Prime Minister of Finland that he Mannerheim really did not have that much influence and could not influence the direction of Finland!

Take what Mannerheim knows about someone. This kid never does useless work, and since he says this to him, it must have a purpose, but what is the purpose?

"I think you should go into politics!" Li Xiaofeng smiled and said, "As a politician, you have a better future than as a soldier!" ”

Mannerheim asked angrily, "According to your meaning, I am not qualified as a soldier?" ”

"I didn't say that!" Li Xiaofeng waved his hand, "You are a qualified soldier, but you are definitely not a military genius, not a figure like Hannibal and Napoleon." And your political talent far exceeds military prowess! ”

"I barely think you're complimenting me!" Mannerheim still didn't look good, "But for the time being I'm still a soldier." I am only a soldier, and my duty is to preserve the independence of the motherland! ”

"If you still want to preserve Finland's independence. Then something must be done now! Li Xiaofeng unceremoniously pushed back, "If the current political atmosphere in Finland continues to develop, Finland will soon not be able to talk about independence!" ”

Mannerheim was speechless about this, but if he didn't speak, it didn't mean that Li Xiaofeng wouldn't press forward step by step: "I must remind you that we Bolsheviks are very concerned about the political trend of Finland, and if Finland chooses to be hostile to Russia, we will certainly not be inactive!" ”

"Huh, scare me?" Mannerheim snorted contemptuously, "What can you do with us now that you're too busy to take care of yourself?" ”

Li Xiaofeng only said casually: "Finland also has a working class, Finland also has a Bolsheviks, we can take power through a revolution, and the working class in Finland is not impossible!" ”

This sentence directly made Mannerheim break out in a cold sweat, and in the past month, the workers in Finland have indeed not stopped, and they have raised their voices to demand the imitation of the Russian revolution and the establishment of a socialist Finland.

Mannerheim did not dare to underestimate the strength of the working class, and through the Russian revolution he had seen how much energy an angry worker could explode. Now the Bolsheviks in Russia have not yet made a move to agitate the workers of Finland, and if they do so, I am afraid that they will ......

Mannerheim didn't dare to think about it, as someone said, Finland was too close to Russia, and once the workers in Finland began to seize power, the Russian Bolsheviks could continue to support them, and it was not impossible to even send troops to intervene under the pretext of direct pretext. At that time, Finland will inevitably be in chaos.

And this kind of chaos is by no means what Mannerheim wants to see, so he can only sigh: "I will convey your meaning to the people involved, and I am sure they will consider the whole thing." ”

Li Xiaofeng nodded, he also knew that there was only so much that Mannerheim could do, but he still had considerable influence in Finnish politics, otherwise he would not soon become the chairman and commander-in-chief of the Finnish Military Commission.

"And what about the problems of Ambrera and NORINCO?" Someone just got back on the subject.

"You don't want to make an inch, okay!" Mannerheim was speechless.

"I'm not trying to make an inch, but these two companies are very important and will be of great significance to Russia and Finland in the future!"

Mannerheim puffed up and said, "I don't see any point!" ”

Li Xiaofeng shook his head: "These two companies will become one of the channels for Russia's foreign contacts, and Finland will definitely win Russia's friendship by retaining such channels for Russia!" ”

"Then we will offend Germany, England, France and the Americans, which do you think is more important!" Mannerheim asked angrily.

"Of course Russia is more important!" Li Xiaofeng stopped Mannerheim from interjecting, "Now even if you offend those countries a little, they won't do anything to you, you can completely put the blame on our country, just say it's forced!" ”

Mannerheim thought about it and agreed with this statement, it is understandable that the weak Finland was forced to do something against his will in the face of the behemoth polar bear in order to protect himself, at least he could fully explain to those countries. Even if those jackals, tigers and leopards do not accept this excuse, Finland can cry and pretend to be pitiful, and there is really no big problem.

"And it's good for you!" Li Xiaofeng continued to intensify his flickering, "Now Russia is facing a blockade, and the channels for foreign trade have basically been blocked. And if you agree to borrow it, you will also gain a lot from doing entrepot trade, right? Don't tell me you don't see the financial benefits! ”

As a major exporter of resources, if Russia's exports have to transit through Finland, it will not be possible to take any taxes, not to mention that Finland can do far more than just taxes!

Immediately, Mannerheim made up his mind: "I will soon give feedback to the cabinet of your proposals, and I believe that we have a full basis for cooperation!" (To be continued......)