On Monday, led by more than 20 instructors, 1,500 recruits from the International Business Group who had just finished training stepped into Jiaozhou Park and lined up on the newly built playground a few days ago. Next, they will undergo a two-week reorganization here.

What Li Junhao means is that these 1,500 recruits will be mixed with 393 lone battalion veterans and 22 instructors to form an infantry regiment and a rapid reaction brigade; The latter will be attached to the police and will be under his personal command.

Although there is no way to equip everyone with advanced weapons and equipment, and can only use the old-fashioned rifles replaced by the police department for training, Li Junhao personally compiled a description of the new weapons and the training outline, and handed it to Xie Jinyuan, so that he could organize the personnel to conduct basic training and memorize the content of the outline.

In addition, he specially confessed that through training, he selected the 400 people with the best quality and prepared to form a rapid response brigade.

As for the strange statements that Commander Pan Sen often made, the guards around him and the officers who had already drunk "red wine" with him were already very familiar, and there would be no disagreement or opinion, and they would just resolutely enforce it.

——

On the same day, 200 people from the 2nd Outer Hall of the Shanghai Haili Gang Association, 300 people from the Chinese Textile Association, and 200 people from the Shanghai Overseas Chinese Mutual Aid Association, a total of 700 people, entered the headquarters of the 4th Regiment of the Navy and Land at No. 527 Haiphong Road in the name of the militia joint defense team to receive primary military training from instructors of the police training center.

Except for the old guns used by the police patrol and replacement of the joint defense team, the other two teams are equipped with new guns purchased by Chinese businessmen or expatriates behind the donation, and the unified is the British-made En Leefield bolt-action rifle.

If the joint defense team of these three units is successfully formed and can achieve results in public security patrols, community protection, self-defense and killing of the enemy, he is ready to vigorously promote it within the concession.

With a large number of joint defense units on duty, the public order situation in the concession will certainly improve greatly, and he will be able to mobilize more forces to carry out the next plan......

——

Now, the reliable manpower around Li Junhao is scattered in various places, but fortunately, Jensen, Liu Geqing and those old military commanders have finished the training of the "Police Regulations" and the new military posture and queue, and have returned to work, so that he will not be unavailable.

In the next few days, he spent half a day at the Consulate General or the police station, half a day in Jiaozhou Park, and occasionally went to the police training center, on the one hand, he was concerned about intelligence from Europe, and on the other hand, he was worried about the training of recruits......

——

As September 1 approached, Ayres and the new military attaché, Kelton, were also very concerned about the European side. As the time approached, the two of them began to get confused - from the intelligence point of view, Germany was indeed actively preparing for war, but politically it did not look like a war was about to start!

At this time, we have to talk about a dazzling "star" on the world political stage today - the Foreign Minister of Nazi Germany, Joachim von Ribbentrop. Not to mention its previous rise in the field of diplomacy and the implementation of Hitler's foreign policy, its performance in this month can be said to be amazing!

In order to implement the Führer's strategy of first going west and then east and avoiding a two-front war, Ribbentrop was ordered by Hitler to sabotage the Anglo-French-Soviet negotiations with German-British negotiations on the one hand, and to improve German-Soviet relations on the other.

On August 3, Ribbentrop instructed the German ambassador to Schulenburg that "the German side wishes to improve German-Soviet relations" and that he himself was ready to negotiate with the Soviet Union for this.

The USSR ignored this.

On the 14th, Ribbentrop sent an urgent telegram to Schulenburg, asking him to personally translate the telegram to the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union Molotov, claiming that German-Soviet relations had "faced a historic turning point" and that "there was no actual conflict of interest between Germany and the Soviet Union," and that history showed that "everything is fine when the two countries are friends, but not when the two countries are enemies," and once again expressed his willingness to go to the Soviet Union for negotiations.

The Soviet Union still refused.

On the 17th, Schulenburg was instructed to convey Germany's intention to conclude a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union.

On the 20th, Hitler sent an urgent telegram to Stalin, asking for permission for Ribbentrop to visit the Soviet Union, saying that "Germany is willing to negotiate with the Soviet Union on the current situation" with the aim of signing a non-aggression pact.

The next day, the Soviet Union announced the breakdown of the negotiations between Britain, France and the Soviet Union, and sent a telegram to Hitler, agreeing to Ribbentrop's visit to the Soviet Union.

On the 22nd, Ribbentrop flew to the Soviet Union for negotiations with a carte blanche issued by Hitler.

On the 23rd, the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact was signed, and Ribbentrop's diplomatic activity reached its peak.

——

When Li Junhao saw this information specially transferred through diplomatic channels in Ayers's office, he couldn't help but give a thumbs up and praise, this Ribbentrop is a perfect player in the field of world diplomacy, fully explaining what is the level of a diplomat who is conspiracy! However, he clearly remembered that this guy did not end well, and was sentenced to death at the Nuremberg Trials after the war, and hanged!

When Ayres and Kerton saw the news, they were firm in the idea that the war was about to begin, and the latter even thought that the German offensive should be in these two days!

The reason is simple: Germany has now disarmed the Soviet Union, its greatest threat on the Eastern Front, and is ready to attack on its Western Front at any time. Therefore, Kelton argued, Germany should most want to fight its old enemy, France, not Poland, which was located in its buffer zone with the Soviet Union.

Ayres was almost convinced by Kelleton, and after contacting the embassy in Chongqing, Ambassador Jensen, Military Attaché, Colonel Barrede, and Deputy Military Attache, Colonel Hobbes, all agreed that Kelton's analysis was plausible.

A few people were about to draft an analysis report and send it back to China, but they were stopped by Li Junhao - "Wait, there will be new changes in the next two days......"

Out of the importance of Li Junhao's behavior during this time, Ayers accepted his suggestion and put this report down! ——

Li Junhao remembered a German file of World War II and knew that after signing a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union, Hitler decided to attack Poland on the 26th, but on the 25th, Britain and Poland suddenly signed an "Anglo-Polish Mutual Assistance Agreement", promising Britain to protect Poland militarily.

This made Germany uncomfortable, because Britain promised to provide military protection to Poland, and France would naturally follow, which would be a big risk for the German army, and the risk factor of attacking Poland would be greatly increased! Therefore, Hitler urgently halted the offensive plan and ordered the relevant personnel to quickly find out the true attitude of Britain.

(End of chapter)