The qiē in the conference room was the same as usual, surrounded by smooth walls, calligraphy and paintings hanging on them, and some other furnishings in the room. Since the completion of the Presidential Palace, there has been almost no change in the area.

And the table where Yan Shao usually discusses business is actually no different from some movies in later generations. It's just a long table, with slightly sleek legs.

Yan Shao's position is in the main seat, while the members of the cabinet sit on either side.

In ordinary meetings, except for the annual summary report, there are few cabinet meetings in attendance. This is probably also related to some of Yan Shao's style, he usually only talks to those who are related to business, and others are busy with what they should be busy with.

Yan Shao knew very well that in fact, there were a lot of things in each department, and he naturally didn't want to bother other departments because of some unnecessary things.

At this time, although the Nationalist Government has been established for more than a year, I am afraid that everyone knows how vast China's territory is, and how many people there are in this land is a well-known thing, plus a lot of messes in the past, although it has been established for more than a year, the whole country is actually still in a state of ruin, and there are still many things that need to be dealt with by the government. In such a big country, there are many things that happen every day, so let the leaders of these departments take a day and a half to hold a meeting that has little to do with them―――――― after this kind of meeting, I am afraid that they will have to work an extra night to make up for the work they need to do.

What's more, some things can't be made up for by working overtime, and some things are even just a second at night. There are some unintended consequences―――――― although this has not happened until now.

In the usual meetings, the atmosphere in the conference room is also very good.

Yan Shao has never been a mean person, and he has always been good to those old brothers who have followed him for many years. For Duan Qirui and Xu Shichang, who were in the hostile camp with him in the past, he did not do anything different, and even Song Jiaoren, a member of the Kuomintang, Yan Shao also let him sit in the position of Minister of Clean Government, and asked him to be a woodpecker for himself to maintain the purity of the government.

It is precisely because of this that both the original Anhui people and the later people are very relieved to follow Yan Shao. Not because of anything else. It's just because they all know very well that Yan Shao is not a mean person, unless he has done something to break the law, even if he offends him in person. As long as you don't do anything wrong, Yan Shao won't do anything to you―――――― of course, if he finds evidence, then you will consider yourself unlucky.

And there is a special bureau of storage zài. Yan Shao didn't need to worry about the evidence at all.

Basically, except for a few people who are really honest and upright to the extreme. There are very few people who can have a good end after offending Yan Shao in person. And even if those people are eventually taken away by the judiciary, people can't say anything, because the evidence provided by the secret service is genuine, and if there is anything to blame, it can only be blamed for why not find some moths and scum to get these moths and scum out of the government...

Today, however, the atmosphere in the conference room was noticeably odd.

That's right, quirky ...

"President..."Gently wiping his beard, Duan Qirui hesitated a little. You mean to say. Do you want to join the Entente..."

"That's right." Yan Shao nodded and confessed directly. "I'm calling everyone this time. Just to illustrate this matter. This war in Europe is an opportunity, and I think that my country should choose one of them to join, and the Entente is the best choice..."

"But the problem is..."frowned, and Xu Shichang on the side also spoke. Why should we get involved in this war, this war has nothing to do with us..."

"Yes, they Europeans beat them, so why should we get involved..."

"That's right, and the war in Europe is extremely fierce, and those battles are often hundreds or thousands of artillery, and we went......... What's the use..."

There are not many voices of opposition, and basically people on the government side are opposed. In their opinion, this war is too far away from them. From an ethnographic point of view, this is a white man's war, why should they be mixed in with a group of yellow people. Geographically, this is a war for Europeans, and there is no reason for them Asians to get involved. And from other perspectives, it is a war between imperialists, a dog-eat-dog between the great powers, so why should they, a semi-colonial country, get involved?

After all, no matter from which point of view, this war is fought by the two camps, the more lively the better, they just need to watch from the sidelines. If it were in the afterlife, someone would even mention yì popcorn and coke or something.

Clearly, there is a great deal of resistance within the government to join the war, let alone get involved.

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There were a lot of opposing voices, and it could even be said that there was hardly any mention of approval, but these had already been expected by Yan Shao, so he didn't feel strange.

Because he knows very well that at present, both in the government and in the country are in the mentality of watching the excitement.

And although China had already defeated the invading Japan in Shandong, it was clear to everyone that Japan was the last among the great powers. Compared to other powers, Japan's gap is still a bit wide. Even if they had already defeated Japan, it did not prove that they could defeat the other powers.

At this time, although the morale of the Chinese people was much stronger than in history, they still had some weakness and inferiority complex in the face of foreign powers. Now that they heard Yan Shao say that they would choose a camp to join and help or something, these people in the cabinet suddenly felt a little weak.

Although these people in the cabinet were all opposed, Yan Shao was not discouraged, but planned to continue to persuade. He could have forced the policy, but if he didn't want to be held back, it would be better to get the support of the majority.

However, just when Yan Shao was about to persuade everyone present, Cai Ye, who had been silent, suddenly spoke. "Great President. Why did you choose the Entente? ”

At this time, after the victory of the Shandong War, Cai Ye served as the chief of staff in the General Staff.

In fact, this staff department is similar to the general staff of later generations. It's just that the Chinese General Staff at this time is the General Staff. Yan Shao can only be called according to this habit.

The victory in the Shandong Campaign brought Cai Ye great prestige and merits, which were enough for Cai Ye to get a glorious position in the cabinet.

The Ministry of Defense is Fu Xiuming, and Yan Shao knows very well that Fu Xiuming's ability can only be regarded as middle to upper-class. In terms of ability, it is definitely inferior to Cai Ye and Jiang Baili, and even inferior to Feng Guozhang, and the reason why the war with Beiyang was won at the beginning was still a matter of logistics and equipment in the final analysis.

No way. Who said that the equipment of the National Social Army at that time was too powerful? With extremely excellent equipment, coupled with the fact that the training level of each other's troops is almost the same, those veterans in Beiyang can only admit defeat with hatred in the end.

Yan Shao's ability to deal with Xiuming is still relatively clear. Middle-to-upper or barely at the top level, being a defense minister is very competent. But in terms of ability, it is definitely inferior to Cai Ye and Jiang Baili. The problem is that after all, he has been following Yan Shao since the Anhui period, and he is also one of the leaders of the Anhui family, even if his ability is insufficient. Yan Shao didn't want to treat him badly. That's why he was given the position of Minister of Defense―――――― which was civilian and was mainly responsible for coordinating issues between the Army and the Navy, so it was also a department in the Cabinet.

Nominally, the position of the Minister of Defense is very high, probably similar to that of the Ministry of War, and it is enough to use this position to arrange an old brother who has followed him for many years, no matter how you look at it.

As for why the Ministry of Defense is also in the cabinet............... Toward the end of World War II, the U.S. Department of the Army proposed to Congress the establishment of a defense staff organization headed by a single officer and supervised by a civilian secretary of defense. In this way, the armed forces are unified. In 1947, the United States established the post of "national military agency" and the post of secretary of defense, and the secretary of defense had only a small staff. The rank is equal to that of the ministers of the three services, and they are members of the cabinet department, and they are 'hostages of the three service ministries with one set of personnel each'. The relationship between the various services is still negotiated by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, which does not have a chairman, and each service department has independent command authority, which is the original US Department of Defense.

At this time, the Department of Defense was similar to the original US Department of Defense in history, but it was mainly responsible for the coordination between the two services.

However, compared with the US Department of Defense, Fu Xiuming's secretary of defense is obviously more powerful. After all, in addition to the coordination of the two arms, logistics and equipment are more or less under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of National Defense, and Fu Xiuming can obviously cope with them. Therefore, although there is no direct right to lead troops, this position is not used to enjoy Qingfu.

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In addition to the Ministry of Defense, in the cabinet there are the War Department and the Admiralty.

Nominally, these two departments are also the two departments that are actually in charge of the army and navy, of which the head of the War Department is Feng Guozhang, and the head of the Navy Department is Sa Zhenbing.

In the case of the former, the ability to fight is not mentioned for the time being, but the qualifications are absolutely sufficient. The latter, the Navy probably has no one more suitable for this position than him.

As for why they didn't accept their fate, Cai Ye and Jiang Baili, who had just made great contributions in Shandong...

First, it was mainly a matter of seniority, and second, although the position of the Minister of War was good, he could not move, nor could he lead troops to fight like other people. Moreover, the duties of the Secretary of War are more administrative than uniform. The General Staff Department is different, when necessary, Yan Shao can completely let Cai Yi, the chief of staff (chief of the General Staff), go out to lead the troops and be responsible for commanding the troops to fight.

By the way, Jiang Baili is currently serving as the deputy chief of staff of the General Staff, there is no way, who is called Jiang Baili Although he is famous, he has poor qualifications. If Cai Ye is barely qualified, then Jiang Baili, who can command a division only if he is valued by Yan Shao, cannot serve as a minister even if he has merits in Shandong, and the deputy chief of staff is the most suitable position for him.

In fact, it will be like this, and it has a lot to do with the initial planning of the army.

At the beginning, Yan Shao originally wanted to divide the country into multiple military regions, and the commander of the military region could be responsible for general conflicts or local wars.

In this way, both Feng Guozhang and Cai Yi can be responsible for formulating the battle plan in Beijing, instead of as Yan Shao originally planned. Go to the front line to be a commander, directly responsible for leading the troops.

The problem is that when the national government was first established, the local government was still very unstable. Yan Shao's Kuomintang although after defeating Beiyang. It has become the largest 'warlord' in the country, but the territory of other forces is not small, and if you really do it, it will take too long to delay, and you may not even be able to solve all the local warlords until the outbreak of World War I.

In the end, there was no way, and Yan Shao could only take some compromise measures.

Let's say, an infantry division in each province or something ...

There is no way to make such a decision. Yan Shao must appease the local powerful factions and not force them to a dead end, otherwise the happiest will definitely be the great powers.

In addition, the folk customs at this time were very xenophobic. It is too unlikely that the soldiers from all over the world will be mixed up and reorganized like the future generations. Therefore, the only way to reorganize the local troops is to use the method of one province and one division.

As a result, although the local government has stabilized, the problems of the military region have disappeared in a short period of time.

This was also the time of the war in Shandong. One reason why Yan Shao would accept Cai Ye and Jiang Baili to command.

Lucky. Although there were some concessions at the beginning, but in the case of reorganization and the anti-Japanese resistance of the whole people, those troops were very obedient to orders. Not a single unit was disgraced during the Shandong Campaign.

But even so, Yan Shao still plans to divide the military region in the country.

In this way, it is not necessary to have a general assigned to lead the army in the war, as is the case now. If there is really something, the commander of the military district in the military region can solve it, or even direct the operation.

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After listening to Cai Yi's words, everyone else looked at it. Obviously, it is also a little strange why Yan Shao just said that he wanted to join the Entente and not the Central Powers.

Some of them thought of Elano's French identity. I even thought of the pillow wind or something. However, even those who thought of it probably wouldn't take this seriously, after all, they knew Yan Shao very well, and knew very well that he might be favoritistic in some things, such as the appointment of his cronies, but he was never ambiguous in this kind of matter.

So they wondered why Yan Shao chose the Entente instead of the Allies.

Yes, the Entente does seem to be powerful now, but the Allies are also very good, especially Germany, and the Russians who beat them on the Eastern Front have lost their armor. On the battlefield of the Western Front, it is also not lagging behind.

This is also one of the reasons why everyone present is reluctant to get involved in this war, although it seems that the Allies have a better chance of winning, but no one dares to guarantee that the Allies will not win―――――― if that is the case, the Germans and Austria-Hungary will not be able to go to war with the Allies, and it is even more unlikely that Ottoman Turkey will join the Allies after the outbreak of war.

Battleship? That was indeed a reason, but if it were only that, the Turks, who had long been fond of the insulted, would obviously not be on the side of the Allies on such a big issue.

It can only be said that the Allies do have a chance of winning, and even if they are not as big as the Entente, they must not be small.

And judging from the current battlefield shape, this is not impossible...

If it was the Entente that won in the end, everyone would be happy, but if it was the Allies who won in the end, then they would have to face the Allies in retaliation.

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After glancing at Cai Ye and then at Jiang Baili, and finding that the two people he valued the most were looking at him seriously, Yan Shao said slowly.

"I would mention that I have my idea of choosing a faction, first of all, if we can become a belligerent in this war, we will definitely get some benefits. For example, if we declare war on the Central Powers, then we can directly forgive our foreign debts to the Central Powers in the past, and we can directly recover the German concessions in China, and this is a matter of course, and no other power can find a reason for us except the Central Powers..."

"The second point, at the moment we are talking to the British about the issue of Weihaiwei..." Speaking of this, Yan Shao glanced at Gu Weijun, and the negotiation with the British was led by Gu Weijun.

"Although the British had promised that as long as Lushun's concession period expired, they would return Weihaiwei, but until now they have been delaying, if we join the Entente camp at this time and support the so-called cause of the Entente in Europe, then Britain must come up with some benefits in return, and the problem of Weihaiwei is one of them..."

When he said this, Yan Shao's tone was tinged with a hint of annoyance.

Originally, according to the original agreement, as long as Lushun expired, the British should return Weihaiwei, because they had seized the land to deal with the expanding Russians. But now that Lushun has returned to China, and the British should fulfill their promises, these so-called 'gentlemen' have begun to regret it again, although they have not explicitly said that they will not return it, but they have been delaying, which makes Yan Shao very angry.

"There is a third point, we all know that as a victorious country, we can ask the defeated country to come up with a reparation, in the past we were all defeated countries, and we have always been the party that received the reparations. And on the scale of this war, if the Allies were to lose, I believe that the Entente would have stabbed the Germans and Austrians hard, and if we had sided with the victors at this time, perhaps we would have received a lot of reparations, which would have been good for the industrial construction of the country and the current deficit of the government..."

Although Yan Shao came up with at least three reasons, in fact, even Yan Shao himself felt that these three requirements were a bit reluctant.

Even he felt reluctant, let alone the other people who were seated, so after thinking about it, Yan Shao decided to reveal some true thoughts...

Or rather, the purpose... (To be continued......)