Compared with the century-old rivals on the other side of the strait, the current domestic situation of the Gallic chicken is even worse.

The severe economic impact of the Great Depression has not yet been fully resolved, with bankruptcies abound and unemployment remains high.

The difficult situation has led directly to the intensification of political struggles in France, with endless fighting between the left and right factions, and radical movements.

In such a situation, the French Republic had to face the military threat of the German Society, and their fear of the Germans was known only by the strong defensive line that had been built at great expense. Of course, the proud French Kill will not admit it.

Twenty years ago, the bloody European war wiped out a generation of young people, but in the end they gained little, and the French today only hope to maintain the status quo, and to do less for less.

What's more, it is bad or bad for French interests to have a bad relationship with the Ming Dynasty, and the little interest on the Dongying Islands is just a mosquito leg, and it is very reasonable to use it as a bargaining chip in exchange for trade restrictions on Germany.

In addition to setting aside at least six months for French companies to transfer assets, the main condition is to require Daming to cut trade in rubber and tungsten concentrate to Germany, with the bottom line of 40% and 65% respectively and a time limit of 10 years.

However, how much can be talked about depends on the ability of the secret envoy.

At first, the French envoy tentatively proposed to cut the trade volume of rubber by 60% and tungsten concentrate by 90%, but the envoy immediately refused.

"This request is too urgent and dishonest, and at least the existing contract should be fulfilled. The trade income of tungsten concentrate is also of considerable significance to our country, reducing ninety percent? This is not much different from a complete severance, and neither is acceptable. ”

"But, sir, who knows if you have a long-term contract?"

"A long-term contract can be voided, but a short-term contract should be fulfilled completely."

"Let's talk about the cuts, sir."

"There can be a little more rubber, but the tungsten concentrate can be reduced by up to 20%." The Great Ming Secret Envoy said categorically.

"How much do you say 'more'?" The French envoy was clearly aware of this play on words, and whoever spoke first would be at a disadvantage, so he threw the ball back.

"About sixty-five percent."

Only 5% more rubber will be cut, and tungsten concentrate will be changed from 90% to 20%???

"Sir, I'm beginning to doubt your sincerity." The French envoy said with some dissatisfaction.

"I think so too." The British envoy on the side took a puff of his cigar and echoed: "If you are sincere enough in trade, you can avoid a diplomatic, economic, and even military conflict, which is very worthwhile for China." ”

"Big mistake, how can the safety of the Celestial Empire's borders be considered with the thinking of a businessman? Dongying is only 1,200 miles away from the mainland of our country, which can be described as a gateway land, and any price is worth it. ”

"But sir, the island of Kyushu has always been a colony of your country." The French envoy retorted.

The implication of his words is that there is Kyushu Island as a buffer ground sandwiched in the middle, and there is no need to exaggerate what he said.

"It's a domain and a submissive feudal town, not a so-called colony." The envoy of the Great Ming Secret Envoy corrected this first, and then said seriously: "Kyushu Island is very small in our opinion. You all have bombers with a range of more than 3,000 miles, and after flying over the Daming Sea, it is the land of the essence of Susong. ”

The tripartite envoys are all carefully selected characters, and the verbal work is not idle, and the negotiation continues.

Germany's lack of natural resources has limited its military strength to a large extent, and the four resources of oil, copper, tungsten ore, and rubber are indispensable to the war machine, and Britain and France, together with the European countries, have been strictly restricting the import of resources from Germany, Hungary, and the Czech Republic, and can barely meet the use of peacetime.

It was obvious that if war was to be waged, resources had to be hoarded, and the main suppliers of these resources were subservient to the instructions of Britain and France, such as the Dutch trade in rubber and oil with Germany, which had always been at a very low level.

Although the Dutch will secretly sell more in order to make more money, the total amount is still too small.

Therefore, the bulk of the rubber trade with Germany in these years was completely occupied by Daming and Annan; In addition, cargo ships loaded with tungsten concentrate, molybdenum concentrate and nickel concentrate also set sail from Haiphong and Guangzhou to Hamburg.

It is no exaggeration to say that these important rare metals of the metallurgical industry could influence the tide of the war, so the French were eager to suppress the German power from any feasible angle.

Because the envoys of the Ming Dynasty were too tough and fearless, the British and French envoys invariably chose to suspend the talks.

Although they have shown a resolute attitude, repeatedly threatening that they will never make big concessions for the sake of their own national interests, in fact they are afraid that the talks will collapse.

The result of the collapse of the talks is self-evident, and the existing interests of the Western countries, or at least Britain and France, in Japan will be lost.

The amount of value is indeed small, but the negative impact is far greater than the value itself.

First of all, it was impossible for Britain and France to go to war for this, and everyone knew what the concession garrison was, and the result was that it was easily defeated, and then it was disgraced.

As a result, public opinion will ridicule the government's incompetence, the public will question the country's strength, and ambitious parties will take the opportunity to make a big noise, which will undoubtedly exacerbate the already unstable political situation.

This is only the most direct impact, if you consider the indirect impact of economic and trade, as well as the unpredictable vicious consequences - the Ming Dynasty will not do anything, and by the way, it will directly attack the Nanyang region......

That's just too bad!

As a result, the British and French envoys continued to send reports to their countries from the afternoon until midnight to solicit their opinions.

After a day of deliberation, the next day's re-negotiation will be much smoother.

Even if the two secret envoys were still yesterday's style, the Great Ming secret envoy could easily sense that the confidence of these two people was two points weaker, and he couldn't help but sneer in his heart.

Hehe, these Xiyi fruits are really hard and not soft guys, but Erer.

But in order to take care of the self-esteem of these two secret envoys, the Ming secret envoy also saw through it and did not say anything, and did not say anything to ridicule, but just casually said "How brilliant it was when it was strong in the past, and how embarrassed it was when it declined in the future", which already made the sensitive two red-faced.

The results of the negotiations were quickly finalized, and the document, tentatively titled "Agreement on the Transfer of Forces and Assets in Japan," was quickly sent back to the three countries.

"First, the transfer will begin on March 1, 7938;

Secondly, the various transfers of Britain and France from the Japanese archipelago should be completed by 1 June of the same year, and assets that have not yet been transferred must be discarded if they are overdue. not to damage any physical assets;

Third, Daming should cancel the long-term mineral export contract with Germany, and the short-term contract of less than 360 days can be fulfilled;

Fourth, exports of tungsten, molybdenum and nickel concentrates to Germany should be reduced by 35% compared with this year, and rubber exports should be reduced by 50%. This limit is for 5 years.

Fifth, the Ming should sign a separate six-year non-aggression pact with Britain by February 1 and make a public declaration."

The deal that was finalized was much worse than Britain and France had envisioned – for Britain the non-aggression pact was only six years, not at least ten years as originally hoped; In France, the reduction in trade with Germany was much smaller than hoped, and lasted only five years.

This undoubtedly made Britain and France deeply unhappy, but for now they can only hold back.

After all, if Da Ming flips the table and doesn't talk about it, in the end, they will suffer more.

But if you think about it another way, it seems that it is okay not only to have time to withdraw most of the assets that cannot be kept in the first place, but also to exchange a small amount of things that are beneficial to the country?

Official British and French reports back home promoted the event as a big diplomatic victory, but some pointed out that it was at best a victory for Pyrrhus.

As for the rest, Daming naturally did not have the leisure to negotiate with the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and other countries one by one, so he chose to negotiate secretly with Britain and France first.

Now, both Western civilizations have compromised, and the rest of the countries have agreed.

The most interesting thing is the messy, self-absorbed Russians in the country, who don't even have time to withdraw the assets of the leasing world, so they simply sell them at a lower price.

The weapons and equipment of the garrison were also directly sold to interested feudal towns, and rifles, light machine guns, heavy machine guns, infantry guns, armored vehicles, etc. were all packaged and sold.

It is the Americans who are the most tough, and this is partly because the Ming Dynasty went to Britain and France in private, instead of calling the United States, which makes some politicians with a strong sense of pride extremely dissatisfied - over the years, my great America has made so many efforts to become great, and you deliberately ignore it, right?

The main reason for this is that the United States still has no intention of completely abandoning the Far East – its ambitions are still there, even if the Philippine colonies and the Japanese concessions have little to gain.

In the Wenhua Palace, several ministers also exchanged views on this.

Li Guangyuan stroked his white beard, "This is interesting, the Americans are not happy, when the time comes... To fight or not to fight? ”

"Militarily there are no problems." Lin Xi didn't really care much about this, and casually said nonsense.

"I think it's okay to stay, and now the rest of the countries will take the initiative to leave and withdraw their forces, and then only the United States will be left." Yu Shenhua said unhurriedly: "There are bound to be a lot of variables in the future, and it is quite convenient to keep them and use any disputes as an excuse." ”

"The old man thinks it's pretty good," Li Guangyuan nodded, and muttered: "It's that the public opinion has to be guided." Other countries are all left alone, and it is easy for people with intentions to take advantage of this to talk falsely. ”

"Well, keep it, just keep it, anyway, I don't have the determination now, and I can solve it at any time depending on the situation in the future." Lin Xi did not object.

The days passed, and the remaining time was fleeting.

The thirty-seventh year of Zhichang was full of absurdity and turmoil, and it was a turning point in the year from the peaceful plains to the unknown abyss.

Shortly after New Year's Day, the Daming Sun and Moon Society announced the "Sino-British Non-Aggression Pact", which caused an uproar for a while and became a must-talk topic for people in the north and south of the country after tea and dinner.

In contrast, the reduction in trade with Germany has been overlooked.

January 20 is the right hour.

A train from Wuhan slowly drove into Jiangbei Railway Station, and a group of young couples stepped out of one of the second-class carriages, then looked at the street signs and followed the crowd to the place where they left the station.

Zhou Changfeng had been waiting here for half an hour, his eyes jumping rapidly in the crowd, but he had never found his target.

Suddenly, a "long wind" came from the front right, which made him excited, and he turned his head to look, only to see a woman in a light-colored jacket and skirt walking slowly with her husband.

Petite, with eyebrows as sharp as willow leaves, that's her!

I haven't seen her for two years, and Zhou Changfeng feels that the sister in front of her has not changed from her memory, but she feels that Zhou's temperament is older than before.

"Old Cheng? Not really, right? Zhou Changfeng pointed at himself and wondered.

Zhou Roujia, who looked serious, looked at him carefully again, and said firmly: "There must be something different." ”

The tall man next to her was Li Shuye, a native of Jizhou who now works as a manager of a private food company in Hankou County.

He arched his hand and said: "The train was delayed when filling coal and water in Luzhou Mansion before, and it was two quarters of an hour late, which made my brother-in-law wait for a long time. ”

"Out of the way, let's go."

From the beginning of minding the private use of military vehicles to now almost accepting, Zhou Changfeng only took about half a year, although this is the norm today, he is actually still a little disgusted.

From this point of view, Xia Xiaoshi's idea of buying a car is very necessary.

drove a ferry across the river, and then twisted and turned for a while, and it didn't take long to come to the small mansion that Zhou had purchased. In a few days, this will be his and Xia Xiaoshi's new home.

"This location is excellent, and it will be very convenient for my brother-in-law and younger siblings to go back and forth in the future." Li Shuye looked at the surrounding furnishings and said approvingly: "The decoration is also quite elegant." ”

"Location does matter." Zhou Changfeng shrugged his shoulders and said casually: "Decoration, I don't care, she is more particular about the poems, let her be." ”

Zhou Roujia naturally got his wedding, and since she came, no matter what her husband said, she had to come together.

This is the basic etiquette, besides, for ordinary people, Zhou Changfeng is definitely developed now, how can he not be popular?

And Zhou also had his thoughts, and he had specially confirmed whether his brother-in-law would come.

"I'll go make tea."

"Sister, it's a long time to travel, I'll just come."

After some shirk, the job of making tea was still robbed by Zhou Roujia.

Zhou Changfeng, who was a little helpless, sat back on the Taishi chair, and then said with a smile: "Brother-in-law, I have a good thing here, are you happy?" ”

Then, he concisely stated the matter of investing in Hengguang Company.

“…… I can't have anything to do with business, so you, brother-in-law, have to take over the shareholder. ”

Zhou Changfeng chose Li Shuye for his own reasons, firstly, he was close to his relatives, and secondly, this brother-in-law was very righteous and bold in his life, and he responded to all requests.

Such a husband may not be a good thing for a small family to live a stable life, but Zhou Changfeng takes a fancy to this and thinks that he is completely trustworthy.

(End of chapter)