In the second half of 1916, when the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme on the Western Front were in full swing, the Russian army launched a full-scale offensive on the Eastern Front, breaking through the Southeast Front in one fell swoop and achieving great success.

The Russian army broke through the Austro-Hungarian defense line, killing and wounding more than 137,000 Austrian troops and capturing more than 330,000 people, dealing a heavy blow to the arrogance of the Allied attack.

The German High Command had to urgently transfer 11 German divisions from the Verdun front to fight fires on the southeastern front and help the Austro-Hungarian allies stabilize the front.

At this time

Bordeaux is engaged in a secret negotiation on the future fate of the Entente, that is, in the war in which the Tang Empire joined the Entente.

In fact, since the outbreak of the Great War, both sides of the war between Britain, France and Germany have desperately tried to win over the Tang Empire, trying to incorporate it into their own camp.

Everyone knows that this is a powerful force that can influence the outcome of the war.

Enter the 20th century

The Tang Empire is increasingly recognized by Europeans, but its influence mainly exists in the economic field, and its influence in the political and military fields is small.

This is because across the vast Atlantic, there is a huge gap between the white European society and the Oriental society in the Americas, which makes the ordinary European people know little about the Tang Empire in North America.

The common impression is that the Orientals are nouveau riche from North America, and farmers and plantation owners from South America.

They are rich and powerful, introverted and unapproachable, like to live with Orientals, and have large Chinese communities in major European cities.

The European upper class has a deeper understanding of the strength of the Tang Empire, but that's all, because the obscurity of Eastern culture is very much like a blind man touching an elephant.

As an emerging world colonial power that could stand alongside the British and French colonial powers, the Tang Empire's military power was more used in North America, Central America, South America and the Southwest Pacific region.

The distance from Europe and the traditional arrogance of the European powers led to the use of words such as "cunning oriental merchants", "rich broadmen" and "vulgar North American cowboys" when referring to the Tang Empire.

But no matter what

No one can ignore the world's largest economic power with a population of more than 200 million, especially when the war is becoming increasingly difficult, and the desire for strong foreign aid has become the consensus of Britain and France.

In Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and other countries, under the influence of biased war propaganda, at the beginning of the war, there was a strong sense of blind self-confidence among the public.

As the war entered its third year, the heavy casualties on the front lines silenced everyone, and public opinion shifted from the extreme of blind confidence to the extreme of extreme pessimism, which put tremendous pressure on the governments involved in the war.

On the Verdun front

In the face of a combination of German trenches, barbed wire and heavy machine guns, the French organized counter-assaults often caused a staggering number of casualties, almost amounting to a one-sided massacre.

This caused the fear of the French army to spread among the grassroots troops, and almost formed a grassroots riot, which was finally suppressed.

New weapons such as tanks were also not well used in trench warfare, and in the local counterattack at Verdun and the Battle of the Somme, clumsy British and French tanks came under head-on attack.

Of the more than 720 tanks that were put into the war, less than 60 remained after several rounds of fighting, and the rest were either destroyed or dropped down, making it difficult to have an impact on the overall battlefield situation.

In order to soothe the soldiers, the French and British forces had to abandon several large-scale counterattack plans and only hold on in the trenches.

The confrontation between the two armies was completely formed, and this was the main theme of the European war in 1916.

Both sides of the war had to drive more soldiers into the trenches, quickly consumed by artillery fire and standoffs, trapped in a cycle of filling the mouth and money.

The costs invested by the Allied bloc and the Entente bloc are getting higher and higher, and the sunk costs are getting higher and higher, and no one dares to let the front be breached, and no one can afford to pay such a price.

By the end of 1916, the situation was becoming more and more apparent.

The most important thing in this all-out war that has spread all over the world is population and money, as long as there is a steady stream of people and money to drag the opponent to death, the final victory can be won.

And in this regard, the Tang Empire undoubtedly has the most potential.

The total population of the Tang Empire is the sum of Russia, Germany, and Britain, and the total economic volume is more than that of Britain, Germany, and France.

As the war progressed, its importance became more and more prominent.

All the time

The Tang Imperial government had constant secret communication with the high-level leaders of the warring countries, and the communication under the table never stopped, but on the surface it has always maintained a policy of neutrality.

This is very similar to Romania, and Spain, Portugal and other countries have the same attitude, and they are all watching between the two major military blocs in Europe.

Romania in Europe has maintained a policy of neutrality in order to join the victorious side of the war in order to secure its interests until the war becomes clear.

It was only in August 1916 that Romania officially declared its membership in the Entente bloc to declare war on Germany, seeing the absolute economic and demographic superiority of the Entente bloc.

Immediately, the Romanian army was crushed by the invading German army, and the capital Bucharest and other important cities were occupied one after another, forcing Britain and France and other countries to draw troops to reinforce it, which is another story.

However, the size of the Tang Empire was different from that of Romania, and the benefits it sought were naturally more extensive, all over the world.

The all-out war entered 1916

In order to break the British Royal Navy's blockade of the North Atlantic, the German High Seas Fleet ventured to surprise the British Royal Navy blockade fleet on May 31, opening the prelude to the Battle of Jutland.

The duel of large ships and heavy artillery was fought in the rough waters of the North Atlantic, and although the German High Seas Fleet dealt a heavy blow to the British Royal Fleet, its strategic plans to defeat were also shattered.

After this battle, the German High Seas Fleet no longer dared to challenge the naval supremacy of the British Royal Navy until the end of the war.

But the British did not have a good time, and the Germans launched an "unrestricted submarine war", frantically attacking any cargo ship on the North Atlantic route, and the highest month of sinking freighters reached 1.3 million tons.

As a result, huge quantities of cargo sank to the icy seabed, the fleet, dominated by British and French freighters, suffered a major blow, and the price of imported goods soared, while imports fell sharply.

In order to avoid the risk of war, the exporters of the Tang Empire basically adopted the trade method of offshore settlement.

All goods leaving the North American port must be settled, otherwise they shall not be released and will not be delivered.

The Datang Empire freighter that dares to carry out the North Atlantic route, the transportation price is simply sky-high, basically two voyages are enough to buy a new ship.

All these factors led to a sharp increase in the war expenses of Britain, France and other countries, and by the end of 1916 they had already incurred huge debts, and the total number of Entente countries exceeded 20 billion Tang Yuan.

Britain, the old world hegemon, had already gone downhill in the Boer War, and after the outbreak of World War I, its twilight posture became more and more obvious.

Unrestricted submarine warfare cost Britain's merchant fleet up to 70% of its merchant fleet, and it had to rely on the Tang Empire's freighters to replenish its capacity, paying a high price for it.

All the steel mills and shipyards in the Tang Empire have entered a crazy state of three shifts 24 hours without rest, and huge orders are pressed on each shipyard, making them painful and happy at the same time.

War was when Britain's weaknesses as an old imperialist began to be revealed. Britain's ports were heavily blockaded by German submarines, resulting in a shortage of raw materials for British industry, which was heavily dependent on foreign countries, and a sharp contraction in export trade.

British industry fell by 17.2 per cent during the war, and consumer goods production fell by 26.3 per cent, even if the war did not affect Britain itself.

A severe "commodity famine" sparked a fierce rush to buy. The long queues of shoppers on the streets from morning to night have become a major sight on the streets of London and Paris, and prices have skyrocketed.

It is even worse in France, where the total volume of industry is only 57% of the pre-war level, agricultural production has fallen by nearly half, and the huge gap needs to be filled by imports.

More than ninety percent of these European jobs have been transferred to North American countries on the other side of the Atlantic, especially the Tang Empire.

This contributed to the rapid development of the industrial and agricultural economy of the Tang Empire during the war, and on the basis of the 22.1% growth of the national economy in 1915, it continued to maintain double-digit rapid growth in the first, second and third quarters of 1916.

Inside and outside, the gap comes out.

By the end of November 1916

Britain owed a huge debt of 6.3 billion Tang dollars to the Tang Empire, France owed a total of 5.68 billion Tang dollars to the Tang Empire, and the two countries owed a total of 11.98 billion Tang dollars.

In addition, there were Italy, Belgium, Russia (note, French guarantee), Greece, Romania, and the Allied bloc of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, etc., with a total war debt of more than 20 billion Tang dollars.

Economically

The British pound and the franc have lost their original dominance and were quickly replaced by the Tang Yuan, which became the strongest currency in the world and the most popular in both the pound and franc zones.

This is due to the fact that the purchasing power of the British pound is 2/3 lower than before the war, the purchasing power of the franc is 4/5 lower than before the war, and the purchasing power of the Tang Yuan is only half lower.

There is no worst, only worse.

The consequences of the frenzied printing of money were serious, and the purchasing power of the Russian gold rupee was not even worth 1/10 of the pre-war period, and it was still depreciating rapidly.

Looking back in this way, only the Tang Yuan issued by the Tang Empire was the most trustworthy, so the emperors of the Tang Dynasty printed on the banknotes became the loveliest people.

France is now on the operating table, England is dying, and the Germans are not much better off than the first two, but at least with their heads held high.

All these circumstances led to formal contacts in Bordeaux in southern France, and Britain, France, and other high-level leaders of the Entente bloc tried their best to win over the representatives of the Tang Empire and made substantial concessions on many interests.

However, due to the wide range of issues involved and the sensitivity of the situation, it is difficult to reach a real covenant for a while.

The representatives of the Tang Empire government were not in a hurry at all, on the one hand, they listened to the arrangements of the empire itself, and on the other hand, they received the guidance of the Holy Emperor Taizu nearby.

The location of the negotiations was also arranged in Bordeaux to facilitate the secret visit of His Majesty the Holy Emperor Taizu to inquire at any time.

In terms of such a major policy, no one in the entire Tang Empire has made a more decisive decision than the Holy Emperor Taizu.

(End of chapter)