wThe British can openly laugh at China for still being that ignorant and backward country. Even though they can now produce firearms and ammunition, these firearms are always crudely made and become useless after a few years. They have no other advantages except being cheap.

The coalition government cabinet of the British Empire must consider various issues more pragmatically, because the strength of the Chinese Army is not bad, at least equal to the level of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and it is one of the best-equipped armies in the world, and it is also one of the best in the world.

The army with the greatest potential for military expansion.

According to the data from the first national census conducted by the Chinese Imperial Cabinet Government in 1914, China's actual national population in that year was 43.7 billion. Based on this scale, China can explode an army of 20 million at least within two years.

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Since the blackmailing posture was put on to seek the greatest interests, then don't worry about face anymore. After an unpleasant negotiation between the emperor and Marquis Arthur Balfour, the imperial cabinet was forced to issue the order under the pressure of the Central Military Department.

On September 2, 1916, the Imperial Wartime Control Order was signed, officially

Accelerate the recruitment of new recruits across the country. All veterans who have retired in the past few years have participated in short-term training for sergeants. At the same time, a large number of sergeants have been recruited from the patrol army to expand the number of new regiments to 650. All units of the Central Army have also stepped up their recruitment nationwide.

In the state of war, each army expanded the regiment level to eight companies.

In just one week, the empire mobilized 2.6 million new soldiers and mobilized railway engineering forces across the country to rush to repair a simple railway between Xinjiang and Lanzhou. A temporary railway dedicated to the transportation of military supplies must be built at all costs within half a year.

At this time, the British and French forces had lost nearly 700,000 troops on the Somme front. Although the Germans were on the defensive throughout the battle, a large number of light and heavy machine guns and submachine guns indeed caused extremely horrific casualties to the British and French forces.

As for the entire Allied camp, they felt extremely discouraged.

After realizing that the rigid and conceited posture of the Conservative Party could not get any commitment from the Chinese Empire, British War Secretary Sir Lloyd George also arrived in Beijing on September 17 to start new talks in the name of the war ministries of the two countries.

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The British conditions were to voluntarily return Hong Kong and recognize China's suzerainty and governance rights over Hong Kong, but required China to promise to assume all war responsibilities without a bottom line and fully participate in the war until the Allies were defeated.

Secretary of War Shufangde, who was negotiating on behalf of the Central War Department, satirized British Secretary of War Sir Lloyd George - "You use the price of a beggar to attack China, and you have this beggar give you everything."

Obviously, the United Kingdom in the early 20th century, just like the United States in the 21st century, always believed that the world must revolve around itself. As long as they gave away a little bit of leftovers, other countries should snatch up the food like bitches, and

Be grateful forever.

What China has to do is very simple, that is, continue to pile up troops on the Sino-Russian border, formally send troops into the Tangnu Ulianghai area, rush to repair the Xinjiang railway, establish a full-scale attack on Central Asia, and then move south to liberate India.

For this reason, under the instruction of the central government, Liang Qichao, who serves as the deputy speaker of the National Assembly, publicly published remarks in the "Declaration". He declared that the United Kingdom should allow Indians to liberate themselves and should not continue to enslave India and other Asian countries. This is a symbol of sin.

Even so, the Central Military Headquarters was actually still intensively mobilizing for the attack on the Allies.

China's request is to open a new front in the Middle East, send troops from Iran to attack the Ottoman Empire, force the Ottoman Empire to withdraw from the war first, reduce Russia's military pressure, and allow Russia to concentrate its forces against Germany and Austria-Hungary, while China is also in Greece and Serbia.

Increase troops. Support the battles between Italy and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. After the Middle East front ends, China will transfer its main forces to the Balkans to destroy the Austro-Hungarian Army and force the Austro-Hungarian Empire to withdraw from the war. Finally, it will move its troops north from the southern front to fight with Russia.

France and Britain encircled Germany.

Of course, after defeating the Ottoman Empire, China has the right to continue to station troops in the Middle East and retain the right to supervise the occupied areas. As a concession, China can completely give up its colonial occupation in Africa.

If Britain does not agree to this, even if China will not withdraw from the Sino-French alliance, it will not continue to increase its troops to support the Allies.

In fact, starting in 1915, Song Biao considered the possibility of using Iran controlled by Britain and France as a springboard to attack the Ottoman Empire. In order to test the possibility of this approach, he sent Ma Yugui, the commander of the 25th Division of the Muslims, as a secret envoy to secretly attack the Ottoman Empire at the end of 1915.

After visiting Iran, he sent Deputy Foreign Minister Liang Dunyan to officially visit Iran. A few months ago, he sent Ma Yugui to Iran again for final secret negotiations with the Shah of Iran, Ahmad Shah.

Song Biao promised that as long as Iran ensures the material supplies of the Chinese Expeditionary Force in Central Asia and cooperates with China in fighting, China will conclude a military alliance agreement with Iran after victory in the war to support Iran's political independence and no longer be easily controlled by Britain and Russia.

While negotiating with Britain on opening a new Middle East front, no matter what Britain thought, Song Biao had already decided to go ahead and sent Fu Liangzuo, Zhang Liangyuan, Ma Yugui, Han Chunlin and others to form the Middle East Staff Bureau, which was officially responsible for preparing for the war.

It's just that Song Biao has never found a suitable answer to the question of who should be appointed as the commander of the Middle East Front.

After much deliberation, he decided to go out in person, but nominally continued to use Duan Qirui, who had been in the northwest for many years and was already familiar with Islamic issues, as commander.

Because it was not clear whether Duan Qirui agreed, Song Biao recruited Duan Qirui from the northwest.

The population of Gansu and Shaanxi experienced a large-scale decrease in the ten years before 1883. The population of Gansu Province plummeted from 15 million to more than 6 million. Shaanxi, Ningxia and other provinces suffered from repeated fighting and killing each other.

, the population decrease is also very severe.

For the empire at this time, it was easier to manage than in the middle and late Qing Dynasties. After implementing some appeasement policies, the northwest had become increasingly stable during this period, and there were not many things going on. Duan Qirui did not have much work.

After receiving the edict, Duan Qirui immediately took the train and rushed back to the capital. At this time, he really had no idea what bizarre things would happen next.

When Duan Qirui returned to Beijing, it was already late September, and the Middle East Staff Bureau had been established. All work was being carried out intensively.

Since 1911, the empire has been doing its best to support the expansion of the four major shipping companies: the Far East Shipping Company, the Shanghai Steamship Merchants Company, the Nanyang Shipping Company and Yu Qiaqing's Jiangnan Shipping Company. While purchasing a large number of ships from the United States, it also built a large number of its own ships.

, can’t wait to develop the industrial chain of self-built merchant ships of 10,000 tons. Even so, the empire’s shipping strength is still not enough to support the empire’s large-scale military deployment overseas.

The war is going on at the Iran-Iraq border thousands of miles away from home, and the empire's shipping strength is very limited. The best solution is to try to purchase supplies in Iran and India to reduce the pressure on ocean shipping.

That afternoon, Song Biao summoned Shu Fangxin, Jiang Fangzhen, Fu Liangzuo and others to the Imperial Study Room to discuss the supply issue with them.

In the past two years, Xinhua Company took advantage of the Sino-British confiscation of assets in China and negotiated with Germany through special channels. It also bought out and operated the assets of the German Zenchen Matheson Company in Europe, and then cooperated with British Jewish businessmen in Shanghai to consolidate Zen.

Chen & Company was registered as a Sino-British joint venture in Singapore and used it as a shell to carry out arms trading business in Europe.

Since last year, Zenchen & Co. has expanded its trade scope in Iran and India to prevent various unexpected situations, including the possibility of an eventual war between Iran and Iraq.

Song Biao, Jiang Fangzhen, Shu Fangxin and others calculated that if the number of troops sent to Iran is 600,000, during the entire war, an average of 300,000 tons of supplies must be transported every month. The Far East Shipping Company and

The capabilities of the Shanghai Steamship Merchants Bureau can be met, but how can the supplies of the African Expeditionary Force and the European Expeditionary Force be guaranteed? The final question is if the four major companies are deployed to ensure the transportation of military supplies, what will happen to the domestic shipping industry?

Business shutdown?

Therefore, except for firearms and ammunition, it is best to purchase other materials that can be purchased locally.

While several people were discussing, Duan Qirui had already arrived at Xuanzheng Garden. I heard that he had arrived a day early. Song Biao was also very happy and asked him to come in directly to have an audience.

After a while, Duan Qirui entered the imperial study, bowed to Song Biao and said, "Your Majesty, Duan Qirui, has met the Emperor."

Song Biao smiled and said: "You came just in time, I have to talk to you about some important things!"

Duan Qirui was naturally happy when he heard this. What big deal can a soldier talk about? Especially in such a situation, he would still be sent out to lead the troops in the war. Although he himself felt that his ability was limited and could not compare with the new young people.

But as long as he is from the same imperialist faction, he can at least pay attention to his qualifications.

He immediately replied: "As long as the emperor gives the order, my subordinates must be loyal and fulfill their duties, even if they die."

Song Biao and Jiang Fangzhen laughed out loud together and said, "Commander Duan is so serious. Sit down. No matter what it is, you have to sit down and talk slowly!"

After saying these words, Song Biao asked Han Linchun to move a chair to Duan Qirui. When Duan Qirui sat down again, he said: "Commander Duan, this time I want you to go to the Middle East battlefield to be a commander.

, in fact, I am also going, just like when I was in the northwest, I will be your chief of staff."

After hearing this, Duan Qirui smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty, how dare I do this? It's just that the Emperor said it very well when he was in the northwest, and I also thought that I would have to do something good. I rolled up my sleeves and realized that I didn't have to do anything. It's really...

...It’s really a bit disappointing. After all, I have been waiting in the northwest for many years. The emperor has solved the problem so easily, which makes me sigh with joy."

Jiang Fangzhen corrected him: "Commander Duan, this is enough to show that the emperor is a sage and wise king today. He can lift things as easily as he can, and he can solve big problems easily, as easily as the palm of his hand."

Duan Qirui also hurriedly changed his words: "The emperor is indeed a sage, bright and benevolent king."

Song Biao said: "We won't talk about what happened in that matter. Now we will only talk about the Middle East front. The ancients said that although a country is strong and warlike, it will perish. We don't have to fight, but we

It is generally said that economics determines politics, and politics determines military affairs. The new data from the current empire statistics prove that the empire is ready for development

The effective cultivated land in China is about 2 billion acres, and the maximum may reach 2.2 billion acres. Agricultural mechanization is a major trend in world development. You can clearly detect this by looking at the United States and Germany. If our country has so much cultivated land that is continuously mechanized,

The amount of oil resources consumed is very alarming. In recent years, we have

The exploration results show that China, like Europe, is a country that lacks oil resources. It is estimated that the Middle East may have more oil resources than the United States. In short, China's agriculture must develop. The country must be prosperous and strong, and agricultural mechanization is

The inevitable path, which means that the empire must have stable oil resources

, we have to send troops to the Ottoman Empire thousands of miles away, just for oil, so no matter what price the British can give, this battle must be fought. The general must first not fight an uncertain battle, and secondly, not fight an unprepared battle, what?

When the time comes to send troops to go to war, it will be a matter of the future, and the top priority is to make good preparations."

After hearing these words, everyone nodded silently, whether it was Shu Fangxin, Jiang Fangzhen or Duan Qirui.

Since only by continuing to send troops to attack the Allied Powers can Britain return Hong Kong and the empire stabilize its southwestern border, it is better to attack a place where the empire must fight.

Duan Qirui felt a little uneasy. After all, the distance to send troops was too far, so they could only rely on ocean transportation for supplies, and the supplies were limited. He said: "The only problem is that it is too far. Once defeated, it will be very difficult to withdraw the troops."

Song Biao said: "As long as we are fully prepared, the probability of defeat is still very low. The key lies in whether we can be fully prepared. The Ottoman Empire still has relatively strong control over the Persian Gulf Straits, which further determines our

Provisioning for the war was very difficult. I mean as much as

Logistics work should be adjusted accordingly. Materials that can be purchased in Iran and India are purchased locally, such as tents for soldiers, military rations, blankets, cold-weather clothing, etc. Those that are difficult to purchase can be transported in advance, using foreign banks and companies.

Use cover. Let’s transport it over there first.”

Shu Fangxin said: "Reporting to the emperor, the company can probably allocate two million pounds of funds to purchase military supplies in India and Iran."

Song Biao still nodded with satisfaction. The expenditure of two million pounds is not a lot, but it is basically enough to meet some of the initial expenses. The weapons and ammunition still have to be transported with the soldiers. "

Jiang Fangzhen warned carefully in Russia: "Your Majesty, you have to go directly to command the three armies far away. Isn't it too dangerous?"

Duan Qirui also felt that this was very risky, but he didn't know how to put it. After all, he was dispatching millions of troops thousands of miles away. Not to mention that Duan Qirui didn't have such ability at all. Even if he did, as the emperor, he wouldn't worry.

Looking at the country, everyone knows that if this war is really going to be fought, the emperor will have to fight it personally.

Song Biao said: "It doesn't matter, I've thought about it. Duan Qirui used to be the commander and frontline commander, and Fu Liangzuo, Zhang Liangyuan and others served him as chief of staff. That's what he said. I arranged a staff officer under another pseudonym."

As for my position, my identity will not be disclosed or explained to the outside world for the time being. I will wait until the war is over."

After hearing what he said, everyone felt more at ease.

It wouldn't be a big problem if we just went to the northwest to conquer in person. However, when we got to Iran, everyone was worried that there might be some wolves and rats in the country who would take the opportunity to cause trouble. After all, the stability of the empire now actually relies on the emperor's prestige.

Duan Qirui had no objection. He knew very well what he was capable of. If he really wanted to lead millions of troops to fight in the Middle East, what if he lost the battle? How could he bear such a huge responsibility and risk?
To be continued...