Turkey will join the Allies, most likely forced by the British?

After thinking of the shape of Europe today, such a thought suddenly flashed in Yan Shao's mind. No way, who said that if this is the case, Britain will benefit greatly...

Nothing else, first of all, two battleships, although the battleship 'Agincourt' and the other battleship do not seem to be very high in many evaluations, but in any case they were two battleships, and these two battleships alone were worth around five million pounds.

The seizure of these two battleships would not only increase the number of British battleships by two, but also prevent them from falling into enemy hands.

It is particularly important that if Turkey is really forced into the camp of the Allies, Britain can take this opportunity to carve up Turkey. As mentioned earlier, although Turkey is also a very large empire, it is actually not very strong, considering the title of the sick man of Europe. There are probably few countries in Europe that take Turkey seriously, and so do the proud British.

In the eyes of the British, I am afraid that Turkey is a big cake, and they only need to take a knife and cut it.

Think about it, Ottoman Turkey, such a large empire across Europe and Asia, what a big piece of the pie is. And the internal situation in Turkey is very harsh. The territory is so large that it is nothing, many times it is an advantage, the problem is that Turkey is a multi-ethnic country, and there is no dominant ethnic group in itself, such as the Han Chinese. The internal tendency towards independence is very strict. If something really goes wrong, then in the blink of an eye Turkey will be torn apart, just like the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The most famous 'Armenian Genocide' in history has such a background. The genocide of Armenians in 1915-1917 by the Turkish government against 1.5 million people was one of the most severe genocides in history.

The Turkish government has so far refused to acknowledge that it was an officially premeditated massacre, but Armenia, Russia, and most other Western countries consider it to be a deliberate act of genocide by a government that can be compared to the Holocaust. Pamuk et al.) share the same view.

By the time of Yan Shao's time, more than 20 countries, including Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Greece, Italy, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Russia, and Sweden, officially recognized it as a genocide.

As for the causes of the massacre. In addition to the above racial issues, there are actually certain religious issues.

What Turkey believes in is clear to everyone, the problem is that Armenians are Christian. According to the Zimi system of Islam. Armenians who are Christians enjoy limited freedoms, such as the right to profess their original religion, but are treated like second-class citizens. Christians and Jews are not considered equal to Muslims, and the confessions of the former two against Muslims will not be accepted in court. Christians and Jews were forbidden to carry weapons or ride horses. Their houses and religious buildings should not be higher than those of the Muslims. Green clothing is not allowed, religious activities are subject to Muslim rules, and there are other legal restrictions. Violations of these decrees are punishable by fines and death.

In this case, what happened to the Armenians in Turkey can be imagined.

As long as Turkey can be defeated on the battlefield, given the ethnic and religious contradictions within Turkey, Britain can easily enjoy this piece of cake. At least you can enjoy it with the Russians.

Compare it to. China is very different, on the one hand, China has a large territory. On the one hand, although China is also a multi-ethnic country, the main body is an extremely large number of Han people, and it is also relatively mild in religion, such as Taoism, Buddhism and some other religions, the ethnic contradictions are not intense, and the religious contradictions are even less pitiful, plus it is very far away from Europe, although the European and American powers are very greedy, but they just want to cut the meat.

On the contrary, Turkey has such a big problem, and it is very close to the gang of bandits in Europe, so there was no chance in the past. This time the European forces are reshuffled, and the British will definitely seize this opportunity.

What's more, in Europe, Turkey is also considered a stronger country. At the time of the war between the Entente and the Central Powers, the powerful countries in Europe were basically already in the army. And how could the British put the Turks aside.

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"But what if Turkey doesn't choose to take sides?" After hearing Yan Shao's thoughts, Li Liang and the others felt a little chill in their hearts.

They have never seen this kind of thing in order to cut the flesh and force the other party to join the enemy's gang.

"Yes..."Fu Xiuming also nodded. And the Turks are really that weak? What if you hit your feet..."

Hearing Fu Xiuming say this, everyone else nodded, including Cai Yi and Jiang Baili and others. No way, who told Europe to be so far away from China. If it is only far away, the people present do not know Turkey very well, so it is naturally not clear how weak the Turks are.

"It doesn't matter, even if the Turks gritted their teeth and held back, the British would be able to get two battleships for nothing, even if there is only this gain, it will be good for the British." Saying that, Yan Shao glanced at Sa Zhenbing with a smile, and Sa Zhenbing, who was very old, was actually a little embarrassed.

"Secondly, since we are called the 'sick man of Europe', in terms of strength, it is conceivable that we were also called the 'sick man of the East' in the past. How weak we were in the pre-Qing period, I believe that everyone present knows very well that even if the Turks are stronger than us, I am afraid that the strength is limited. Ottoman Turkey was located in the Mediterranean, and the distance from Europe was not very far, so what did the British have to take into account in dealing with a country about the same as the former Qing Dynasty at such a close distance? ”

Speaking of which. Yan Shao shook his head again. "However, the Turkish Army has been trained by the Germans all these years, and I am afraid that the combat effectiveness of the Turks is higher than the British imagined, and as for whether the British will move stones and drop their feet..."

Yan Shao didn't continue. Of course it will, in fact, Yan Shao himself doesn't know much about the Turks. After all, in his time, people usually only knew about World War II and did not have much interest in World War I, and in World War I, they mainly knew about the Western Front and had little interest in the Eastern Front.

But what kind of battlefield is Turkey now? I'm afraid there are very few people who understand. Even in the Hereafter. The only one that is better known is the 'Battle of the Dardanelles'. The reason why it is more well-known is that this battle has a lot to do with the battleship 'Agincourt'.

As a sacred relic of the Multi-Turret Cult, the 'Agincourt' has a very high status in the military arena. Tong Guò he learned that it was not uncommon for Turkey and the Dardanelles to be in battle.

Perhaps before the attack on Turkey, Churchill and the British were really wishful thinking, thinking of 'forcing the Turks to Liangshan' and then taking the opportunity to divide up. But in fact, in Turkey, the British had a bloody encounter, and it was a long battle. The British do not know how many thousand people died. If it weren't for Churchill being removed. The battle is over, and I'm afraid the British will suffer even more casualties there.

However, it should be noted that the British did something stupid during this period, and if it were not for this, the Battle of the Dardanelles might have really succeeded.

During the battle, when the first units arrived in the Bay of Mudros, on the island of Lemnos, the detachment from the British was found to be not loaded according to the regulations, and the artillery and ammunition were not on the same boat. Later the detachment had to go to Alexandria, Egypt, where it was re-loaded for combat loading. Loading people, guns, ammunition, etc. on the same boat. This was delayed for a month, at the same time. The Turkish army, fully alert to the impending landing, began to refine its defensive deployment. L. von Zanders of the German army was in charge of the overall command, and he formed an elastic defense system on the peninsula with about 60,000 defenders.

If it weren't for this, the Germans would not have been able to build a defensive system, and the British would not have failed in the Dardanelles.

Seriously, Churchill was indeed responsible for the battle. After all, if he hadn't detained the Turkish battleships, maybe the Turks would have leaned towards Germany, but they might not really join the Allied camp―――――― yes, the Turkish Army was indeed all trained by the Germans, and even the Battle of the Dardanelles was commanded by German generals, followed by the Battle of Mesopotamia, when the British landed in Iraq, and the Turkish army was under the command of German generals to counterattack the British.

In the entire Battle of the Dardanelles, the Allied forces lost 252,000 men. The losses of the Turkish army were almost 251,000 men, but 21,000 of them died of disease.

In the end, though, the British won, and they did get the lion's share of the pie―――――― almost all of the Ottoman Empire...

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"Will the British agree to our terms?"

Thinking that the British were so cunning, and even Turkey's entry into the Allies was likely to be the result of their calculations, Xu Shichang said with some concern.

"Don't worry." Yan Shao smiled, his smile full of confidence. "The situation will force them to say yes."

After all, the battlefield on the Western Front was too brutal, the Russians on the Eastern Front suffered one defeat after another, and the Black Sea, which was vital to the Russians, was blocked. Originally, if the Russians had fought on the Eastern Front, it would not have been a big deal if the Black Sea had been blocked by the Turks. There may be some impact, but I am afraid it will not be significant. And if the Russians are winning on the Eastern Front, then the blockade of the Black Sea can guarantee that the Russians will not be too fast.

But now that the Russians have been beaten on the Eastern Front, the British have to hastily consider solving this problem. As long as the British meet in the Dardanelles, the brutality on the Eastern and Western Fronts will increase dramatically, and given the casualties on the battlefield on the Western Front, in the end the British and French will definitely invite them to join the Entente camp and even ask them to send an expeditionary force.

A colony or something, as long as Yan Shao can prove his worth, I believe there will not be much of a problem.

"But I've been in this world for so long, and I don't know if the British will have the accident of the battle of Daozhì that dragged on for a month. If there is no such accident. If the Turks did not find out about the actions of the British, perhaps the British could really open the Dardanelles and affect the development of the entire war. If that's the case. Leaving aside the fact that the Russians will collapse as they have historically, I'm afraid that Britain and France will win a little earlier, which will be a little detrimental to my plans..."

Thinking of this, Yan Shao also figured out many questions, and was even thinking about whether to send someone to inform the Turks.

At present, the special bureau has begun to develop in Europe, but it is mainly limited to major countries such as Britain, France, Germany and Russia, and second- and third-rate countries such as Austria-Hungary and Turkey. The power is not particularly great.

But...

"As long as the Germans know the news, I believe it is equivalent to the Turks knowing..."

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"Actually, we don't necessarily need to rush to send an expeditionary force now, Iraq is there. We can't run away, as long as we can end up in our hands, not to mention that the later we join the European battlefield, the smaller our losses will be. It's okay to drag on. As long as you join around 1916...", Yan Shao thought about it and continued. "And if we want to join the European battlefield, we can't rely on our current strength alone, after all, our current strength is still limited to the current 33 infantry divisions, more than 600,000 people, even if all the reorganization is completed, it will only be more than 700,000."

"More than 700,000 seems like a lot, but what is the number of troops in Europe, the Entente and the Central Powers now? A single battle of the Marne. The number of losses on both sides is around 500,000, not to mention that in East Asia, we need to be wary of the actions of the Japanese. We can't send too many troops to Europe, and if we only send tens of thousands or more than 100,000 people, it will not be good for our security, and it will not have much impact on Europe..."

"Indeed..."Jiang Baili nodded in agreement. In Asia, maybe tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people are already a big battle, but judging from the situation in Europe, such a few people have no way to affect anything, and especially the most important point is that if we send fewer troops, it may seem that our losses will be smaller, but things may not be as easy as we think, a small number of people means a low status, and it is even very likely to be used as cannon fodder by Britain and France..."

"Although, according to the president's intentions, we joined the Entente this time and even sent troops to get oil in Iraq, for which we can also bear some losses, but we must not let our soldiers become cannon fodder, so we must improve the status of our troops, and the best way is to use the expeditionary force as a force on an equal footing with Britain and France, otherwise..."

Having said that, everyone present already understood what he meant.

"That's right." Yan Shao nodded. "That's what I mean, we want Iraq, because there is oil there, if we can get there, not only can we boost the morale of the people and get rid of the current inferiority complex, but also the oil there can also improve the country's economy, after the oil is nationalized, most of the profits will be given to the state, the country's finances will be greatly improved, the current deficit can also be reduced, and it can continue to reduce various domestic taxes, and even reduce some unnecessary taxes..."

Speaking of this, Yan Shao sighed. "In the former Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, the common people have suffered for many years, and our task is to let them live a good life. If we can get the oil fields, then the government can no longer rely on tax revenues, lower tax rates, and reduce the burden on the people, which is also a fulfillment of one of my wishes. ”

When Yan Shao ran an industry in Anhui, he experienced many things. is like Ran Jinyu back then, in order to earn a few cents a day, even if he is about to give birth, he has to work in the factory.

Yan Shao had already made it clear that since he had crossed over and returned once, he had to do a good job. His cause is to make the people live a good life and make the country strong, not to be a capitalist who exploits the people.

At present, the country's strength has gradually become stronger, but it is still insufficient. Although the burden on the common people has been reduced, there is still a big gap between them and foreign countries.

That's why he focused his attention on Iraq.

Iraq and Kuwait, these two places are places where oil is produced in later generations, how much impact will it have on the whole world, Yan Shao is very clear, as long as these two places are taken, hundreds of millions of Chinese dollars a year? I'm afraid it's billions of dollars a year...

After all, Yan Shao now earns tens of millions of dollars from Tampico alone, and Mexico may have been a major oil exporter during this period. But Yan Shao doesn't think Iraq and Kuwait have as much oil reserves as Mexico.

In a short period of time, there may not be any results, but after a long time...

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Everyone present is a human spirit, so it is natural to see that Yan Shao's words are sincere, not a show. So everyone was a little moved in their hearts, but only some.

After all, there are few people like Yan Shao who can sit in this position now.

After thinking about it, Cai Yi spoke. "If you want to send troops to Europe and get independent status, you need at least 300,000 people, or even more, but this number not only accounts for half of the domestic garrison, but also ......... Can the government financially support it? ”

This, too, is also a big problem and trouble... (To be continued......)