March 7, 1917

London, Downing Street Prime Minister's Residence

"Damn it...... These abominable North American cowboys, these abominable Orientals, how dare they do this? This is a betrayal of the entire white world, and it must not be forgiven......"

Prime Minister David Lloyd George roared through the residence, and he smashed the lamp and telephone on the table in a fit of rage, panting with a hideous face.

In front of him, the latest news of the Tang Empire coming in October;

The Tang Imperial Parliament is discussing and is about to pass the "Trade Sanctions Act on the Two Sides of the War in Europe", commonly known as the "Peace Act".

The bill aims to impose comprehensive trade-financial and economic sanctions on both sides of the war in Europe, cut off the delivery of supplies that would become an incentive to support the war effort, and avoid funding war maniacs.

Conceptually, this is no problem at all.

But this was an unbearable burden for the Entente bloc led by Britain and France, and Prime Minister George, who had served as the wartime cabinet quartermaster and war minister, was well aware of the Entente's deep-rooted dependence on the materials of the Tang Empire.

The Entente bloc performed remarkably militarily, and the French gritted their teeth and were not afraid to pay to win the Battle of Verdun, holding the front and not being broken by the violent offensive of the Germans.

Although the British were bloodied in the Battle of the Somme and paid a heavy price in casualties, they gritted their teeth and survived to the end.

The Italians, reinforced by the British and French troops, gritted their teeth and finally held on, although they suffered heavy casualties.

Now here's the problem

Once the Tang Empire cut off the channels of material and capital import, all these efforts were in vain, and all the counterattacks that were being planned in 1917 had to be suspended, and there was still a huge Tsarist Russian Empire waiting to be fed.

The current favorable conditions on the battlefield will rapidly deteriorate and become the last straw that crushes the Entente bloc.

This is equivalent to climbing the mountain, and the teammates suddenly cut the rope, allowing the Entente to stumble and fall into the abyss.

How could Prime Minister George not be furious in such a situation?

Oh...... Wait, the Tang Empire doesn't seem to be a teammate?

That's no problem.

The British wartime cabinet ministers in the room whispered that the current situation was very serious, and it was necessary to prevent the Tang Imperial Parliament from passing the "Peace Act" at all costs.

No one sitting here is stupid, they all know what the problem is?

Before the Tang Empire showed great strength, everyone pretended to be deaf and dumb, on the one hand, enjoying the huge benefits of the Tang Empire's material and financial supply, and on the other hand, they were unwilling to give the respect they deserved.

Okay, now that people are flipping the table, then no one should play.

Maybe the economy of the Tang Empire will suffer, but this move really drove the Entente bloc into the abyss, which will really kill people.

The consequence will be the rupture and reorganization of the existing world order, and the defeated countries such as Britain and France will have to accept the new world order dominated by Germany and lose a lot of overseas interests.

"We must issue the strongest condemnation and urge the government of the Tang Empire to immediately change course and not go further and further down the wrong path, which they cannot afford to bear."

"The Foreign Office has done that, Mr. Prime Minister."

"Where is the Royal Navy? It is necessary to demonstrate the absolute power of the Royal Navy's domination of the Seven Seas and issue a real threat of war to the Tang Empire. ”

"We, the Royal Navy, have done this, Your Excellency, but to no avail."

"Tang Guo, this shameless traitor, we should take resolute measures to kick them out of the pound trade circle, and let these Orientals all go to drink the northwest wind."

"In fact, this is impossible, 67.3% of the trade volume of the pound trade circle comes from Tang, which is the world's largest and only irreplaceable exporter of grain and mineral resources, and the largest industrial exporter."

"That's right, without the Tang Kingdom, all of us would have to go hungry, the soldiers would have no bullets, all the artillery would have to be dumbfired, and we would lose the war."

"Compromise, the only goal now is to win the war, and we can't afford to lose the support of the Tang Empire."

"Abandon those meaningless debates, let's raise our hands to vote, and if you agree to compromise, please raise your hands."

A room full of British wartime cabinet ministers raised their hands in unison, and finally Prime Minister George's face was extremely ugly, and his face was stiff and he said, "I reserve my opinion, but I don't object." ”

As a result, the compromise proposal was quickly adopted by the wartime cabinet.

Specifically, the British Foreign Office will carry out the process as quickly as possible, on the one hand, mobilize all forces to prevent the voting process of the Tang Imperial Parliament, and on the other hand, quickly pass the tug-of-war negotiations with the delegation of the Tang Empire.

Although the delegation of the Tang Empire added additional requirements in South Asia and the Middle East in the follow-up negotiations, it is now unable to take care of it.

The British are now typical of pretending to be forced to slap in the face, but in any case, this bitter wine must be swallowed.

As the British Empire, which has dominated the world for nearly two centuries in modern times, its strength declined sharply at the beginning of the 20th century, and its economic aggregate was surpassed by Tang and Germany, and it has become more and more inadequate in many fields.

The glory of the former empire and the pride of the British people made the upper echelons of British political society still cling to the stormy world hegemony.

Reflected in foreign policy and attitude towards the world powers, the British always had a sense of superiority.

The big coercion thrown over by the Tang Empire finally sobered up most of the high-ranking members of the British wartime cabinet.

They originally thought that they could handle the chips of the Tang Empire at will, but in fact they were illusory and unreal, and had no practical significance.

The "peace bill" brewed by the Tang Congress was like a sharp knife on the back of the Entente bloc, and it was inserted forcefully to divide life and death.

The British did not dare to bet, and neither did the French, because the sunk costs were too high.

They never expected that the mild-mannered Oriental would flip the table, and at such a fatal time, they were suddenly caught off guard.

In the face of a life-and-death situation, they had to compromise.

It didn't take long

The Tang Empire reached the Treaty of Bordeaux with the Entente bloc dominated by Britain and France, which stipulated that the Tang Empire would join the Entente bloc and become a part of it.

The Tang Empire will immediately take action, and will send troops to Europe to participate in the war at least the end of June, with a total of no less than 600,000 troops joining the southern and western battlefields in Europe.

The Tang Empire will export various wartime materials to the Entente bloc at the price of the allies, and implement measures such as the embargo on materials against the Allied bloc.

The Royal Navy of the Tang Empire will cooperate with the British and French navies to carry out the blockade of the North Atlantic and the escort of merchant ships, and obtain the right to use the ports of the British, French and Italian allies in European countries.

The Tang Empire will continue to provide financial and material support, provide Chinese immigrant labor support, and fight to the end to defeat the reactionary military bloc led by the German Empire.

The Tang Empire will fulfill all its allied obligations until the war is won.

All these conditions, except for the army, are actually what the Tang Empire has been doing before, but it has not been clarified and formalized through international treaties.

Now that a formal alliance treaty has been signed, Britain, France and other countries have finally put their hearts in their stomachs.

The Treaty of Bordeaux also provides that;

The Entente bloc includes Britain, France, Russia, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, China, Japan, Romania, Serbia and other countries, from now on, officially recognize the existing package of power territories and spheres of influence of the Tang Empire, with a total area of 28.09 million square kilometers.

Among them, the territory of Brazil divided by the six South American countries has been internationally recognized, and the Tang Empire accounts for the most fertile part and the biggest beneficiary.

In addition, it includes six provinces of the Arabian Peninsula, and in addition to the five provinces, the province of Jordan is added, and the province of Yunzhong on the coast of the Ethiopian plateau is added to the seven provinces of the Red Sea coast.

The inclusion of the Don Mozambique and Don Malawi regions in Africa, as well as the northern part of the island of Kalimantan in South Asia, that is, the Malay region, is a substantial concession by the British.

In addition, the treaty provides:

The territorial integrity and inviolability of the Kingdom of Thailand, the Kingdom of the Ryukyus, the Kingdom of Amami, the Kingdom of Lanfang and other vassal states claimed by the Tang Empire's sphere of influence will also be respected by the Allied countries.

The formal signing of the Treaty of Bordeaux meant a major change in the political map of the world, and the Entente group added another heavyweight world power, which would inevitably lead to a war in favor of the Entente bloc.

By signing the Treaty of Bordeaux, the Tang Empire firmly tied itself to the Entente bloc, protecting its own economic interests and protecting the interests of the empire.

The overseas colonies that had been seized by various means had been unanimously recognized by the international community, which was tantamount to a complete whitewash, and there was no further trouble.

Except for the aborigines, who have the ability to speak out internationally, other countries can no longer question the validity and legitimacy of the territory of the Tang Empire, and have truly swallowed this big fat meat into their stomachs.

Although the Tang Empire's move to flip the table disgusted Britain, France and other countries, it gained practical benefits.

The policy of the Tang State was; If you don't see a rabbit, you don't scatter an eagle.

I don't care how you arrange the post-war international order and how your interests are divided, but first put the benefits in your pocket.

The six provinces of the Arabian Peninsula, including Jordan, were now nominally part of the Ottoman Empire.

That's it

It is equivalent to the Entente bloc openly dividing up the land of the Ottoman Empire in the Arabian Peninsula and privately granting it to the Tang Empire without soliciting any opinion from the original suzerain.

From the point of view of its procedures and international practice, it is undoubtedly an illegal and dangerous move.

When a few world powers get together, they can divide up the territory of a certain great power, which is unjustifiable in terms of justice and international practice, and opens a dangerous precedent.

It is a pity that in this world of the jungle, no one can administer justice, and the angry denunciations of the Ottoman Empire have not really been responded to, and have been completely ignored.

In order to win over the allies of the Tang Empire, Britain and France really made a heavy bet and made an exception to give the benefits first.

You must know that in order to win over Italy and Romania, Britain, France and other leaders of the Entente promised post-war benefits and divided part of the territory of the Ottoman Empire to the above two countries to induce them to join the Entente bloc to fight against Germany.

For the Tang Empire, it is a different situation, giving the benefits first, which can be described as a great concession.

Considering the difficulties of transoceanic operations, Britain, France and other countries put forward the condition that the Tang Empire's army should send a total of no more than 600,000 troops, mainly to join the southern and western fronts of Europe.

This is not a high demand, and both Britain and France have far exceeded this number of casualties in a single battle.

Even Romania now has a total of more than 1.16 million troops, and the Romanian army has suffered more than 200,000 casualties.

The size of the 600,000 troops is not even visible on the European battlefield, and it is almost the same as adding a 0 to the back.

The Entente bloc experienced the co-optation of the Tang Empire, not because of its military strength, but because of its huge economic and financial potential, which could become a continuous production base and granary for the Allied military bloc.