Outside Cairo. (Full text reading, all in. (.i. Want. Wen. Learning Network)

A restaurant full of Islamic style in the ancient city of Fatimede has been completely emptied, looking at the soldiers who have surrounded the hotel, wearing sunglasses and holding submachine guns, the boss and his men are sitting in the kitchen with nervous expressions, and they can't understand what kind of big man is coming today, and there will be such a strange soldier to protect them.

On the seats in the corner of the restaurant, Tang Shaoyi and Bateman, who represent the two cores of the alliance group, sat opposite each other, and the translators and secretaries beside them sometimes answered each other, and sometimes recorded quickly.

Tang Shaoyi picked up the teacup, looked at German Prime Minister Batemann Holberg, who was sitting opposite him with a big beard, and smiled: "Your Majesty Bateman, please forgive me, I don't think we need to pay attention to the voice of the Italians at all now. ”，

"No, I think it's necessary." ，

Bateman shook his head, as a traditional German nobleman, he was conservative by nature and disagreed with this war fight, but since His Majesty the Emperor and the High Command had made a decision, he had no choice but to try his best to maintain the stability of the country and the stability of the people's lives, but as the war deepened, he felt more and more powerless, and the contradictions between him and Wilhelm II tended to be public.

Fortunately, the war was moving in favor of Germany, and a steady stream of aid from the Far East had kept the country stable.

After the Peace of Blex, Germany received war dividends for the first time, which further stimulated those fanatical war scorers, thinking that it was completely possible to continue the war and gain more, and at every turn put the phrase "fight for a place in the sun" in the mouth of His Majesty Wilhelm, but did not realize that this sentence was slowly deteriorating.

But no one expected that since the war began, Li Mo used the unparalleled sea and air superiority to help them get rid of Germany at once, and obtained eye-catching benefits, and their fleet is still like locusts between the United States and the Far East, and the wealth they brought back made the high command and His Majesty Wilhelm grit their teeth.

So, there we have this meeting.

It is not the first time that he and Tang Shaoyi have met, the two had a confrontation in the last small-scale Istanbul meeting, and I know that this Tang Lord is sharp-tongued, "but I didn't expect that at the beginning of the negotiations, I and I had serious differences on the Italian issue."

Before coming to Cairo, "the German General Staff and Wilhelm II reached a consensus that he wanted to use this meeting to bring Italy into the arms of Germany, and at the same time to limit China's hands and feet, and fight for Germany, but the problem is that the German Navy is really not competitive, and Germany is currently unable to solve Italy's troubles by its own strength, especially on the grain issue, Germany has little room for bargaining.

As a veteran politician, he is well aware that most of the real consultations and topics of each meeting are reached in individual meetings, "so I asked Tang Shaoyi out today, and I also hope to resolve the current dispute over the Italian issue and enter the important post-war interests and other issues as soon as possible." 【 I want: super fast update 】

"Why?" Tang Shaoyi looked at Bateman with a smile, looking very curious, in fact, he already knew that Germany was iron-minded on this issue, but as a politician, it is obviously a good negotiation skill to properly dwell on small things.

"Italy was once our ally, and His Majesty Emanuele III has been punished" and he is under the door, he has already arrested the war criminals for trial, and I think that it is far better to have one more ally than one more enemy when the war is not over. Bateman said sternly: "I remember that there is an old proverb in your country that says, one more friend has many roads, isn't it? ”，

"Your Majesty, you are so knowledgeable, but what do you think Italy can do to end the war?" ，

"Absolutely." ，

Seeing that Tang Shaoyi seemed to be a little relieved, Bateman hurriedly said: "Italy is a Mediterranean country, if they can return to the alliance, I think our combined fleet can get supplies nearby" And Italy has enough soldiers, and Monaco can attack Marseille, France from the flank, so that we can flank France and end the war as soon as possible. ”，

"But with all due respect, Bateman, I am very concerned about the combat capability of the Italian army, although France is at the end of its power, it may be difficult to rely on Italy, and the important thing is that His Majesty Emanuele III can still raise enough military funds? I think it is entirely possible for our country to send marines to land on the Mediterranean coast of France and deal them a heavy blow. ”，

"No, no." Bateman shook his hand in fright when he heard this suggestion.

Let the Chinese Marines land in Europe" God, now that the High Command and His Majesty Wilhelm regard you as a plague god, Malta feels extremely glaring, if you put it in France, what else can Germany gain after the war? So he hurriedly said: "The Italian army has enough capacity, and His Majesty Emanuele III has promised us that it will take Marseille within ten weeks." ”，

"Okay." ，

Tang Shaoyi picked up the teacup, but before Bateman could happily achieve his mission, as if he suddenly remembered something, the teacup stopped beside his lips: "By the way, Bateman, can you tell me how many troops Italy is ready to send?" ”，

"Three hundred thousand!" Bateman said with great certainty: "His Majesty Emanuele III has decided to send all the troops that are facing off against Austria-Hungary to the west. ”，

"Three hundred thousand, that's enough." Tang Shaoyi nodded pretendedly, but before Bateman could breathe a sigh of relief, he suddenly calculated to himself: "300,000 people, based on the consumption of two kilograms of food per episode, will need 600 tons per day."

And this is only the army, according to the current logistics guarantee calculation, on average, every 3 soldiers need a logistics personnel, and they also need food consumption, so the calculation is 800

Ton!

Ten weeks to take Marseille is two and a half months, which means that at least 56,000 tons of grain need to be consumed. I wonder if His Majesty Emanuele III will be able to raise this batch of food?" Could it be that your country has had a bumper harvest this year? The corners of Bateman's mouth, which had just been slightly cracked, suddenly hardened, and it was obvious that the Chinese prime minister stabbed himself in the heart with a sword!

It seems to be a casual calculation, but it speaks to the big problems of the current war.

It has been more than three years since the war in Europe, and several countries have invested millions of troops and tens of millions of logistics personnel, which are counted in the number of troops, and none of them can produce, and they need to be fed by the state.

The three-year war has hollowed out Europe, and the German treasury has not even been able to take out a single surplus grain, and at present, China is a major source of food for several countries in allied Europe, if Italy joins in again, according to the meaning of Tang Shaoyi's words, it obviously does not want to provide support for Italy, which is in the midst of famine and is in urgent need of food.

Bateman had a headache.

The rich European Great Plains have been tortured half to death today, and Britain and France have provided it from the United States, a major producer, but after the Battle of Bermuda, the Atlantic shipping lanes were basically interrupted, and only some daring boats dared to come and go, but how much could they bring by the boats? Sooner or later, the pressure of tens of millions of mouths will bring Britain and France to their knees.

But the problem is that Germany is no better.

Too many laborers were sent to the front, and Germany's grain was no longer self-sufficient, and the mechanized production that had sprouted at the beginning of the war also came to a standstill or even regressed because of the needs of the war.

At this time, the only thing that still had grain reserves was Hua, whose land had not been slaughtered by war and had sufficient labor resources, and since 1908, Li Mo forcibly ordered that grain exports were not allowed, thus establishing huge reserves in the country.

What to do?

Looking at Tang Shaoyi, who was frowning and seemed to be still calculating the consumption, Bateman even had the urge to punch a few hard punches in that face, but this is the use of all available means by politics to obtain benefits.

"Don, I think we might as well go straight." As a banker, he knew this very well, so he called his name directly, hoping to shorten the distance between the two sides, and said in a relaxed friend's words: "What do you have to pay to bring Italy back to the alliance?" ”

Tang Shaoyi regained his seriousness and accentuated his tone: "Prime Minister Bateman, although the culprit has been arrested, his stupidity before this has caused great harm to our country and our allies, we can accept a frontal attack, but we can't easily let go of the betrayer!" ”，

"But...... Old",

Bateman was just about to speak, but was stopped by Tang Shaoyi and continued: "I can understand the feelings of His Majesty William and your country to end the war as soon as possible, in fact, this is also our idea, for the sake of the alliance, we are willing to conditionally accept the return of Italy." ”，

Hearing that Tang Shaoyi finally relented, Bateman also suddenly breathed a sigh of relief, Italy is too important to Germany, as long as there is Italy, then even if Germany has a firm foothold in the Mediterranean in the future, at least it will not be pulled away by China here.

"Tell me, what do you need?" Bateman took a \\1 breath and pricked up his ears.

"In the interests of the United States after the war, we will pledge not to occupy any land except Alaska and the return of the occupied land of the Mexican government! But we will not allow the United States to become hostile to us, so we demand that we receive reparations from the United States, and that several free trade zones be established, that some necessary seaports and lands be concessioned, and that the safety of those who are willing to secede from the United States federal government be ensured.

His Majesty William should accept this condition, right? For us, maintaining a weak America is our bottom line! And that's obviously not bad for everyone, right? ”，

Bateman nodded, this is already better than he expected, Hua took 6 percent of the U.S. reparations, and other countries took away the part, and Germany could get at least 2 percent, and Germany's original eyes were on the reparations of France and Britain, as for the ......United States, the gold of the federal reserves was all served in one pot, what else could be earned? So it's acceptable.

In Bateman's nod, Tang Shaoyi had already continued: "We don't want to interfere in the interests of Africa, in addition to the areas we currently control, the interests of Djibouti, Egypt, the Suez Canal, the Seychelles, the Reunion Islands, and the island of Madagascar on the Indian Ocean side belong to China, while Somalia and Ethiopia, which were previously part of Italy, France and Britain, are shared by China and Japan and North Korea." ”

Madagascar is a good place, but Hua's current troops have pointed over there, and there is no hope!

As for Somalia and Ethiopia, they are just a corner of East Africa, most of them are wild lands, and they only occupy one-twentieth compared with the vast Africa.

"Food is not unlimited, so we have to get some compensation, but now His Majesty Emanuele III doesn't have the funds to buy it, right? Then we might as well barter, and we can use machinery and factories to pay off our debts.

In addition to this, the Italian government also needs to pay us 15 billion blue coins in war reparations after the war! ”，

"15 Billion ?!!!!" ，@。