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Five hundred and sixtieth eight chapters on the verge of fire (4)

"Europe has really declared war!"

In the Far East, Beijing, tens of thousands of miles away, has been staring at Europe's people who can almost get the latest information about Europe only half a day later than Europe. "()

The past month has been really hard for Li Han. He has to ask about family affairs and state affairs, and he is so busy that he can't stop even if he is as busy as a top!

The wedding, which was more than half a year late with the girl, was finally completed by the applause of only a few senior government officials and diplomats in Beijing. He let her down too much for the woman, and she waited too long, but she could not get a grand wedding that attracted national attention. On the one hand, the girl was four months pregnant, and on the other hand, he also set an example and did not ask outsiders to find excuses to accuse him of cutting government public expenses. As a result, the whole wedding only cost more than 7,000 yuan. Except for calling a team of honor guards under the Army Department, all the expenses were spent in his personal name. These are very common measures abroad, but it is the first time in China, which has earned him some prestige.

Although the girl was wronged, after he settled down on family affairs, he devoted himself to state affairs and military affairs, and was very busy.

Lu Zhengxiang sat in the seat opposite the president, with a slightly restrained face.

"The President, the British, and the Germans are urging us to express our opinions. What are your attitudes when you think we should do it?"

"What about State Xu's opinions?"

The Presidential Palace has just sent off the Army Chief Duan, who is increasingly angry recently. Because he talked about some topics that made him dissatisfied, the President is obviously in a bad mood now.

His diplomatic chief was a little hesitant and didn't know how to answer his question. Lu Zhengxiang knew the president's pro-Germany position. Even recently, even if the news of a European war could break out a month ago, he still did not change his position. Recently, the government negotiated with Germany to gain Jiaozhou Bay, which he had transferred to him for responsibility. If it weren't for some insignificant relationship between the president and Germany, how could it be said that the Germans would take back Jiaozhou Bay that had been stolen from the Qing Dynasty decades ahead of time?

However, Premier Xu Shichang is an absolute pro-British faction.

But soon he realized that the President could not have known Xu Shichang's tendency and answered honestly, "State Xu is more inclined to move closer to Britain. Recently, he is negotiating with Britain and has plans to join the Allied Power!"

Xu Shichang went over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to directly discuss with the UK, which made Lu Zhengxiang very dissatisfied. Although he had never shown it, his brows frowned when he spoke.

"British! Hoho..."

Lu Zhengxiang seemed to hear the president's sneer, and indeed saw the president stopping his pen and sneered on his face, "British... State Xu is old and confused. Since modern times, the four countries that have caused the greatest losses to China, Britain ranks first, the Russians second, Japan ranks third, and France ranks fourth, all of them all. What are they all? The British support Feng Guozhang in the south, hoping to support a force in the local area to fight against our central government. If Feng Guozhang had not dared to take action so far, the National Defense Force would have taken Nanjing City and asked him to be the head of Feng Guozhang. The British were unwilling to let go of their tariffs, and they were conspiracies and tricks in their backs. Such a country was said to be an ally and an enemy, so it would not be trustworthy!"

He stretched his arms and stood up. He seemed to remember something and drew a circle on a homemade calendar on the 31st day on the wall next to him.

"Zi Xin, how are the negotiations with the Germans about Jiaozhou Bay?"

When he mentioned the 'Jiaozhou Bay', Lu Zhengxiang became excited. He also got up, walked to the president and waited, saying, "It's only the last few have not been agreed yet. I came here today to report the negotiations on Jiaozhou Bay to the President. Europe is really an opportunity for China. Once the Germans panic, Qingdao will lose its ties with Germany, so confidence is already insufficient. It's just that the Germans asked our government to pay part of the cash to compensate for its losses, because the amount is not small, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dare not agree!"

"compensate?"

This is quite in line with the personality of foreigners. He snorted in his heart and the president asked: "How much do Germany want?"

“50 million!”

"absurd..."

Li Han was shocked. The Germans' bad intentions scared him. Although he knew that Qingdao was indeed worth this price, the Germans invested huge amounts of money to build after occupying it. The hundreds of heavy artillery guns on the coastal defense alone were worth less than 20 to 30 million marks, not to mention a deep water harbor! But Qingdao is a place in China after all, and when he thinks of this, he feels angry and doesn't want to pay a penny.

"...It's US dollars!" Lu Zhengxiang's voice was much lower, "The Germans suggested that the government only needs to compensate and pay 50 million US dollars, and then handed over Qingdao to our country, including all military fortresses. Moreover, in order to take care of our country's finances, Germany's intentions can borrow it into railway bonds, which can be used for ten years of debt and repay it after ten years!"

"Stop negotiations with the Germans immediately!" The president snorted coldly, "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted the UK as the Republic of China. You go and talk to the British. A fifteen-year unsecured loan of 100 million pounds plus all rights handed over to Jiang Customs. We China give up declaring neutrality and stand on the side of the Allied Powers!"

What is the verbal promise between the Germans? Allies are sold out, and Italy is a good example for China. The reason why they maintain good relations with Germany is to peacefully regain Qingdao and inherit the German privileges in Shandong. It seems that Europe has just begun to declare war, and Germany has obviously not felt the pressure yet, otherwise there would be such conditions to slaughter China.

Lu Zhengxiang was stunned when he heard this, "The British will never accept this condition!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly realized that the President was not really having a stumble with the Germans, but putting pressure on Germany. Otherwise, he would never ask the UK for a fifteen-year unsecured loan of 100 million pounds. Not to mention whether the British could take out such a huge loan. With the British's usual petty care, how could they not take the opportunity to extort more privileges? Moreover, in the eyes of the British, Jiang Customs is a shackle that hinders China. The British can not only influence China's finance and economy by controlling Jiang Customs every year, but also control part of this country in disguise. How can they give up?

"Don't the British agree, just let all countries see our attitude. The neutral country drafted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will first suppress it, and I will notify the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to release it when the situation is clearer. Europe is the business of Europeans. Every good thing in the European powers has been burning, killing and plundering for so many years. The evil that has been done by China is hard to write. It is best to destroy the entire Europe in a big battle, so that China can have a day to stand out..."

"Ahem..." His diplomatic chief coughed and signaled that he would not say anything.

Li Han quickly reacted. Although he didn't have to worry about the walls, as a politician, even if he hated the great powers, the necessary respect should still be on the surface. Who said that he was strong and weak in the Republic of China?

"You don't need to ask about the Xu State. Whether you join the Allies or get close to the Allies, it is not the best choice for our country. On the eastern seas, we still have a bad neighbor who is always eyeing China. Learning that the United States is the foundation of the country is to maintain neutrality!"

"yes!"

Lu Zhengxiang also agreed to abide by neutrality. Although he was not as worried about Japan's covetousness as the president, he still knew that the Republic of China is now in a mess, and what he needed most was peace and time.

After reporting the latest diplomatic trends, Lu Zhengxiang quickly left. Only one person in the house stood for a while before slowly walking back to his desk and sat down.

"After calculating the time, it should be almost the same in Japan..."

The sound of the drawer sounded, and a corner of a document covered with the blood-red four-star secret seal of the Bureau of Investigation was revealed.

On the third day after September, as a tropical zone on the sea of ​​South China increased into a typhoon, and it almost blew northward from the Hangzhou Bay, Zhejiang. Although the typhoon passed through Henan, it was no longer powerful, but the abundant water vapor it brought still caused rain in the Gyeonggi area.

"It's down, this rain is really timely. The drought in the land near Gyeonggi has been alleviated, and the agricultural harvest next year will definitely be slightly better than this year."

Facing the rain, a somewhat stiff moan came from a moving carriage, "I heard that Anhui and Jiangsu have been hit by floods, so that's fine... the one from Beijing is going to have a headache for a while!"

Although the genius had just passed three o'clock in the afternoon and it was almost dark, the sky was full of clouds and clouds, and the sight was blurred in the rain, and the vehicles driving on the road had to slow down.

A four-wheeled carriage with diplomatic emblem was racing in the fields in the southern suburbs of Beijing. Even though his vision was not good, the speed of the carriage had not slowed down. The driver in the driver's seat waved his whip in the rain from time to time, urging the tall horses that looked like they were not ordinary people to speed up and continue to move northward.

In modern times, the decline of the country under our feet has made the central government and the regime unable to spend much money to build roads. Even if it is just near the Gyeonggi, there are only a few official roads that will be slightly flatter. This place is obviously just a dirt road in the country. Once it rains, the road will become muddy. Maybe when the carriage will be stuck in the mud and unable to move. After understanding this, we will understand why the driver is so anxious. No one wants to brave the downpour that has not decreased a little since noon in this weather. Therefore, while the rain has not washed away all the sand and gravel on the ground and become very muddy, he should hurry to his destination.

Needless to ask, the destination of this carriage seems to be Beijing, and judging from the plaster flag inserted behind the carriage, the carriage obviously belongs to the Japanese Embassy in China. As for whether it belongs to the Beijing Embassy or the Tianjin Consulate, it is not easy to tell whether it belongs to the Embassy in Beijing or the Consulate in Tianjin. However, one thing is certain, the carriage is obviously rushed to Beijing.

There was only one passenger in the carriage named Suichi Teraenai. He did come from Tianjin. As for why he didn't take the train, it was mainly to hurry up. Because the heavy rain the day before yesterday washed out several sections of roadbed along the way, the train from Tianjin to Beijing has been out of service for two days. In order not to delay official duties, Suichi Teraenai finally chose the diplomatic carriage from the Tianjin Consulate and hurried to Beijing.

Speaking of Soichi Shinai, he himself is not simple. He was born in a very famous and powerful family of hereditary aristocratic family in Japan. His father Masato Tetsuki was the governor of North Korea. Under his power, the three generations of Soichi Shinai were promoted to major three years ago after experiencing the "Russian War" gilding. In 1913, Soichi Shinai got the opportunity to go to Germany under the arrangement of the family, and then served as deputy military officer of the Japanese Army in Vienna. In July, after the situation in Europe suddenly changed, Masato Tetsuki, as a staunch pro-war faction in Japan, believed that another opportunity for the empire to expand was coming, so he moved to him to find a position in the General Staff Headquarters and recalled him directly to North Korea via the Siberian Railway.

Before Shiichi Deanuchi had time to return to China, because he was now carrying heavy responsibilities. His father Masato Taanuchi had contact with several army power factions in China, and directly obtained a domestic appointment and order through telegram and sent him to Beijing.

Teraunuchi had already seen the domestic order, mainly because the empire asked the Japanese envoys to put pressure on China and the government to prevent China from continuing to contact with Germany and discussing the recovery of Jiaozhou Bay. Obviously, Japan has obtained information from China and the government is in contact with Germany. However, Japan's intelligence organizations in China have suffered heavy losses in the past six months. The new government has its own intelligence and anti-interventional institutions. In the past few months, a large number of businessmen and government officials who provided intelligence to Japan have been executed. Many of them even found out that they were in a hurry to trial and were directly executed without waiting for Japan to react. Under the bloody means of the new president, China is currently

There are few Chinese people in China who dare to take the initiative to provide intelligence to Japan. Even if there are occasionally one or two people who express their willingness to "take risks", the Japanese side should be careful. A month ago, the Japanese Heilong Huitou Yamaman, who had close contact with the Japanese government, was found to be poisoned by someone in the Japanese concession in Fuzhou. It is said that it was caused by a killer of a Chinese intelligence organization disguised as a "traitor". The death of this Japanese civil intelligence giant has shocked the whole country of Japan. The domestic worry that the embassy of Beijing and Tianjin will be under surveillance, so he would rather delay for a few more days than hope that he would personally give several domestic telegrams to Hibishi.

Japan is not cautious, and domestic top leaders have reached a consensus to take advantage of the east wind of the European war to attack Germany first and conspire to seize Jiaozhou Bay and Shandong by declaring war on Germany. As for Manchuria and Mongolia, they are waiting for an opportunity. If the European war does not end in a short period of time, Japan will also send troops to the three northeastern provinces in order to split or even annex the three provinces. This is the Japanese government's strategy, but this strategy seems to have been noticed by China. In the past month, the president has mobilized four reorganized troops from the country to temporarily stationed in Zhili, and used Rehe to replace defense with Chahar Province, and stationed the two provinces.

The number of troops increased to four reorganized divisions. Today, in the three northeastern provinces and several provinces near Gyeonggi, China has concentrated and stationed 17 divisions, with a total force of nearly 250,000. Especially the truckload of supplies, which are constantly concentrated from all over the country to the vicinity of Zhili. Although they look down on the combat effectiveness of the China ** team, there is no worry in Japan, because China has more than half of the military forces stationed near the Japanese army near the areas they are about to plan. Once the war in Shandong begins, China can even mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops to enter Shandong through railways, and the northeast is only a little later.

This undoubtedly threatens Japan's strategy of annexing Shandong and the three northeastern provinces, and arouses the vigilance of the top military and political leaders in Japan. Now the Japanese government has drafted a letter of declaration of war against Germany, waiting for China and the government to respond to the next combat plan so that the Japanese military headquarters can draw elite divisions from the country to North Korea, Kanto Prefecture, or deal with the war in Shandong. According to the "Imperial National Defense Policy" formulated by the Japanese government in previous years, the Japanese Army should form 25 standing divisions and deploy more than one of them at home, but due to financial problems, the Japanese Army should form 25 standing divisions and deploy more than one of them at home.

It is impossible for the Japanese Navy and the Army to complete the military expansion plan formulated by the national defense policy at the same time. In the past few years, Japan considered that Japan was an island country, and the strength of the navy was directly related to Japan's survival. Faced with the challenges of the increasingly powerful US Navy, and the Shanghai Army gained support among the elders, the Japanese government finally decided to tilt military expenditure towards the navy. As a result, the Japanese Army has not completed the military expansion plan so far, and the Japanese Army has only formed twenty standing divisions, which is still far from the goal of the twenty-five standing divisions.

It is unrealistic to draw a large number of elite divisions from China to "Kanto Prefecture" and "North Korea", and Japan cannot draw too many troops to declare war on Germany. After all, Japan also needs to garrison troops in China. This is not only to guard against attacks from hostile countries, but also to guard against violence and movements of Japanese civilians. Since the end of the Russo-Japanese War, Japan's domestic economy has been in a low state due to failure to receive a ruble of war compensation. In addition, the government has continuously squeezed and encouraged the people to donate money to help the construction of the navy and army and heavy industry.

The lives of civilians are becoming increasingly difficult. Medium wages, harsh working environment, and the exploitation of the cruel factory owners and landlords have spread in Japan today. Since the revolution broke out in the neighboring country in 1911, it has in turn influenced and encouraged Japan. Many revolutionaries in Japan have demanded to follow China and carry out violent revolution, and the number of rice chaos in Japan has increased year by year. If a large number of troops were transferred from the country, it is difficult to ensure that there will be no revolutionaries and poor people in Japan.

Japan's domestic mind is undoubtedly contradictory. The poor finance and domestic economy make Japan unable to squeeze out more military spending and draw more troops. However, Japan, which has always been frantically promoting foreign aggression, was very enthusiastic about the annexation of Shandong and the annexation of the three northeastern provinces. However, at this time, the Chinese National Defense Forces began to gather around the Gyeonggi in a high-profile manner and announced what would happen. Once Japan declares war on Germany at this time, it is likely to fight a tough battle with China. This is undoubtedly something that the Japanese government, which wants to make no money and gain benefits in vain.

"I'm afraid that domestic worries are likely to come true!"

Thinking of this, Soichi Tegui sighed. He reached out and touched the black briefcase next to him, which contained several top-secret documents, which were the arrangements he received from his father about the domestic arrangement. There was a smell of gasoline in the carriage, and a small bucket of gasoline was placed at his feet. If something unexpected happened on the road, he was ordered to ensure that the top-secret documents could not fall into anyone's hands. If the situation was not good, he would immediately spill the gasoline on the documents, then ignite them, and turn them into ashes.

Such caution shows that the Japanese government's caution with these documents and its fear of intelligence organizations that are increasingly threatening to Japan.

The carriage continued to move forward, and the bumpy country road was no longer so difficult to walk, and the speed gradually increased. It was bumpy for several hours, until the sound of rain outside finally stopped. The carriage finally arrived in Beijing before dark, entered the city from Nancheng, and passed by Daqianmen, Soichi Tezuo ordered the coachman to stop the car and get off the car and go to the train station to buy a few latest newspapers. When he opened it, he saw that the headlines on the front page were exactly the same.

"The Battle of Liege is lost, and the entire territory of Belgium is falling!"

Shinui Soichi was shocked. He was shocked when he saw that Germany had captured the Liege Fortress in Belgium two days ago. This shocked him. Shinui Soichi Satoshi personally visited the fortress in Europe. The fortress was located at the confluence of the Meuse River and the Ult River, adjacent to the Dutch border in the north and the Arden forest in the south. It was the throat of the German army to attack France through Belgium. There were 12 forts around the fortress, with a circumference of more than 50 kilometers. The turrets were separated by 3 to 6 kilometers. There were 400 artillery pieces of various types. Each fortress was built with reinforced concrete permanent fortifications with a thickness of 2.5 to 3 meters.

After Germany declared war on France, the German vanguard on the Western Front had more than 100,000 people carrying 200 cannons. Under the command of Commander Amych, he quickly rushed to the Liege Fortress in Belgium. Starting from the afternoon of the 24th, the German army bombarded the Liege Fortress, and bombarded the Liege Fortress for three days, not to mention the capture of Liege, and even the slow progress was very difficult. Until at noon on the 28th, after mobilizing a batch of more than 40 bombing aircraft from the country, the German air armed forces showed the world its hideousness for the first time, and a large number of German-produced high-explosive bombs

It fell on top of the fortress, and in just two days it completely silenced the Liege Fortress. Although the Belgians insisted on resisting for another day, in the early morning of September 1st, the German Meuse River Legion had already captured the Liege Fortress. In order to paralyze Britain and France, one German army gathered at the Liege Fortress, and the other was slowing down before advancing to the entire Belgium. When the news of the fall of Brussels reached Paris, France, the German army had already arrived at the German-French border, and Lille, an important town in northern France, was the first to be attacked by the German team.

The German army's rapid advance in Europe made him feel a little uneasy, because the letter of national declaration of war on Germany had been formulated in China, and it was about to take place when China was ready. At this time, he was more willing to hear news about the unfavorable situation in Europe.

"Airplane, is the power of an aircraft really that great?"

Teraunuchi Suichi has not seen planes in Europe. He has visited the French flight exhibition, but he is not very interested in the planes because it has no effect except performance and show off. It is obvious that Germany invented a new and amazing aircraft. They can actually get the planes to throw bombs from the sky. No matter how good the military fortress is, it cannot be stopped! The aircraft made by the Germans also have equipment according to intelligence, and it seems that China has introduced factories and production lines from Germany. The aircraft is still in its infancy in Japan. Not to mention the planes, there are few people who understand this. He began to worry about whether China and Japan would pose a threat to the military operations of the empire when they fight in Shandong?

With a little irritability and anxiety, Soichi Tetanuchi quickly returned to the carriage and ordered the coachman to rush to the embassy area of ​​Dongjiaominxiang to convey relevant instructions from the country to the Japanese ambassador to China.
Chapter completed!
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