Chapter 291: Explosion

This is an era that can determine the trajectory and order of the entire earth for hundreds of years in the future. I, from the future, have a religious belief in this view that I have maintained for a long time. I believe that the American leaders on the other side of the Pacific have the same belief. After reaching a tacit understanding with Britain about the distribution of interests in South America, the US envoy traveled through several major European countries without being able to smell the smoke. I have no way of knowing any secret agreement with the British Empire, but the intelligence shared by the Germans showed that even now, the United States has not shown any tendency. This big country with forty percent of the world's food production and thirty percent of the world's industrial output is happily

He is the role of a fisherman. In comparison, China is not as strong as him. The United States' grain output is two-thirds weak, and the population it has to bear is nearly ten times that of the United States. It accounts for more than half of the United States' industrial output, ranking fourth in the world after the United States, Germany and Britain. Although the total economic output exceeds that of Germany and Britain, this war is not about flesh and blood, rice, but steel. So China has to make plans first. Otherwise, when the whole Europe is in a bloody state, if China and the United States enter the final stage together, China will have weak strength. If the Middle East does not intervene in advance, then it will not take long after the war, and the Saudi king will rent two-thirds of their territory to the Americans. In the oil era, how can China rely on to catch up with the United States?

They are also especially good at economic operations. In this era, the United States still owed several major European countries up to 6 billion US dollars in foreign debts. Soon they could add a negative sign in front of this number and turn the number around. This ability is lacking in China. So far, China has borrowed more money from Europe than borrowed from the United States. Every time the issuance of national government bonds is mostly American buyers, and they seem to be interested in China that will definitely join the war and achieve results. Therefore, nearly 70% of the nearly 40 billion silver dollars raised in the past decade are American buyers. This is also an important reason why Americans invest more and more in China.

Similarly, the path they want to take will be the path I want to take. If we cannot achieve great benefits as a bystander in the upcoming war, then when the whole of Europe is rebuilt from the ruins in the future, we will not be able to gain more economic and political benefits there. If we want to achieve my long-term goals and let the empire go to the route I arranged, then we must put the empire in a favorable position before the war in Europe. Although it is impossible to stand shoulder to shoulder with the United States, at least we must follow its footsteps.

Therefore, whether it is the war against Russia, the operation in the Middle East, or the several prior arrangements, they must be under effective and comprehensive control, and I am always the only one in this control process. My officials cannot fully understand my route, and I cannot completely control all my officials. The weak dual state system created by me is also a helpless move. Only by letting the cabinet straighten out domestic affairs of people's livelihood and economy for me can I have enough energy to play this game.

In the words of a wise international relations scholar in later generations, almost every century, there will be a phenomenal country in the world. If it was Britain and Germany before, then the current 20th century may be the United States and China. I hope that at least China can become a country of the same level that follows the United States in this century.

Economic development, overseas expansion, and military conquest are three indispensable parts of building a hegemony. Fortunately, I saw that each of these three pillars of the empire was already strong enough.

Just after the Lunar New Year in 1911, Chen Youren, the new deputy director of the Russian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was sent to Russia to try to reach a compromise agreement with Russia on war matters under the mediation of the United States. I believe Russia will seize this opportunity, because with the rise of Europe's popularity, they urgently need to get rid of the burden of the East, otherwise it would be no different for Russia to be hostile on both sides. Since the Sino-Russian border line is already in a state of more than a dozen ceasefire, the Russians do not have face problems for the time being. With the mediation of the United States and Britain, China and Russia conducted effective consultations on various bilateral conflict issues.

Although Britain and the United States have great discomforts about China's initiative to propose peace under their superiority, without any other evidence, they can only believe that the Chinese diplomat Chen Youren, who cannot speak Chinese, said that China is peaceful and loves peace. His Majesty the Emperor hopes to use his actions to call on the world of war to calm down. When the Sino-Russian issue is not the number one issue in the world, they do not have enough energy to think too much, so they enthusiastically mobilized the Russians and almost coaxed the Russians to the negotiating table.

Although it has gradually declined among traditional great powers, the Russians still maintained their usual arrogance. After suffering several major losses in front of the Chinese, they still had the courage to first propose a basic negotiating position in the negotiations to ask China to retreat its troops to the border before 1909 before they would consider reconsidering the tough stance on the issue of Siberia and Mongols. This almost prevented the negotiations from continuing. Chen Youren did not even have a negotiating representative with the Russian side during the first day of negotiations. A director of equal status said a word. He just smiled and teased a few words with the US observers, and then quickly announced the end of the first day of talks.

"We are here to give alms and peace, not beg for peace. The reason why I came here is the protection of the saints, the mercy of His Majesty the Emperor, not because of fear. If they cannot understand this, the negotiation cannot continue." Chen Youren clearly expressed this to the British and American envoys.

A few days later, it was obvious that the British were doing the work behind the scenes. The Russians finally returned to the negotiating table again and conducted negotiations on stopping armed conflicts and re-boundary reconnaissance for more than ten days. However, Russia still refused to make concessions on the issue of Siberian Mongols, which also made Chen Youren not have enough authority to continue. After the telegram, he received new instructions to demand that Russia ceded part of the land as compensation and proposed high war compensation. The specific demarcation work did not need to be clearly defined, as long as it was proposed to use the actual control line between the two sides as the border line in 1920.

This forced the Russians to make concessions. They finally agreed to take a temporary shelving attitude on the Mongol issue to deal with it coldly. The two sides agreed that Russia had unquestionable sovereignty over Siberia. In Central Asia, Russia also ceded half of the Turkestan Governor's district east of Dushanbe to China. For trade needs, China shared with Russia with Russia's protection country, the Shiva Khanate (Note: Khwarezm.) to the south of the border, until Ashgabat and dozens of border cities bordering Persia and India, respectively.

Rule. China has the right to station no more than four divisions in this co-managed area to protect merchants and brigades from attacks by bandits. China immediately stopped any form of military operations against Russia and withdrew the troops crossing the border on the front line of Kulun. It also tried its best to persuade the Mongols to return from Russian territory. Russia compensated China for military expenditure of 700 million silver dollars, approximately 10 million pounds. The payment method for this compensation was chosen by the Russian side, one was to pay immediately, and the other was to pay 20 million in one ten years later. The United Kingdom and the United States, as joint guarantors, also signed the treaty.

This treaty is a successful example of concessions of secondary interests in exchange for concessions on our main interests. When Russia still believes that the issue of Siberian immigration is one of China's main concerns, it is natural to make concessions that they cannot resist in Central Asia. Although this treaty may arouse some degree of suspicion from the UK, they no longer have the energy to compete with China here. This treaty has also been included in the product of the compulsory school run by various departments of the cabinet that year, and the textbook of the Royal Diplomacy Institute of Beijing.

Before entering the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chen Youren was famous for his eloquence. Strictly speaking, he was a long-lasting remnant. His father once joined the Taiping Army of the Kingdom and later fled to Trinidad. After Yung Wing retired, he met him in the United States and wrote a letter to recommend it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This time he succeeded in his first important task, which was a harvest of diplomatic talents. Not only him, but also his secretary who accompanied him to Russia this time, Gu Weijun, 24, also shined in this negotiation and made outstanding contributions to the empire's achievements.

After returning to China, Chen and Gu were commended respectively. Chen Jin was the director of the West Asia Department, a middle-level Viscount of several departments of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Gu Shang was from the fifth rank and was sent to the United States for further study.

After this end is done, the next step is to operate. It is not enough to rely on soldiers to manage it alone. The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Education, the General Staff’s Military Information Department and other bright and dark control systems have been patted, and the cabinet has also sent additional officials to go there. These steps will take more than ten years to see the results. The earlier you buy, the better.

With this great harvest of robbery, there is another good news in Beijing that also made me a little excited. After the joint operation of Sun Yat-sen and Dr. Claudelow, several remaining shrapnel in Yuan Shikai's body, who had been in a semi-vegetative state, were removed. According to the surgical report, it will take about half a year to a year of cultivation, and Yuan Shikai's health will be enough to support ordinary work. At this time of employment, the recovery of this talent is even happier than eating ten Central Asian cities.

Since Yuan Shikai was shot, there has been no talent to preside over the Southeast Asian affairs. This is why I have been willing to promote a group of young generals in the past two years. Jiang Baili, Cai E and Tang Jiyao combined can always be worth one Yuan Shikai. But now, young people still lack experience and control ability, and their deterrence is not enough. According to my estimate, after a series of military mobilizations in the south, if Yuan Shikai was presided over, the French might even give up Vietnam, instead of relying on the expeditionary forces of the two divisions to hold on in Saigon like now, so that people can fight, and it is not impossible not to fight.

Let the young people go for the time being. No matter how they do it, things will not go awry. As the center of gravity of the whole world moves westward, except for the Malacca Strait, the sky cannot fall due to the strength of China.

At present, the key to the empire is still the control of the newly expanded land in Central Asia and the radiation impact on the surrounding areas. India, the most loyal territory of the British Empire, will not be considered for the time being, and should give in to the British a little bit on the border. After all, it is beneficial to show favor to the UK to a limited extent for future interests at this time. Although in essence, the British Empire can no longer regard China as a friend, they are not able to regard China as an enemy at this time. A neutral China is beneficial to both the UK and China itself.

The armistice against Russia was the first gift to the British, which allowed their allies to maintain some pressure on Germany on the Western Front. For a Russian that was almost independent, Britain hoped that his enemies would only appear in the direction of Europe. Although theoretically, the Turks might pose a threat to Russia's southwest, under the strong pressure of the Mediterranean Fleet and Greece, Turkey's center of gravity must be on their Western Front, Constantinople.

The position of governor of the Western Xinjiang of the Empire was temporarily granted to the military, namely the new army general and second-class earl Wang Shizhen. The governor of the Western Xinjiang includes the newly established Western Xinjiang Province and Xinjiang Province, with a vast territory, that is, the Manchurian Governor in the north can compete with one. As one of the two generals in the Empire, his current command has also been expanded to a regular army unit of 20 divisions of 250,000, and fifteen reserve divisions. Such a large number of people were handed over to him and his troops' general education officers, Yang Du from the Ministry of Education. The near-term task I gave them is to consolidate the chassis. In terms of policies around the control area, there are two basic points, which are ignored for India, and for Persia and the Khanate, they can be taken in or secretly supported, but they must not be exposed on the surface.

With this purpose, I believe that I have been in the army for a lifetime. After I took power, I became a senior general step by step until I was named a marquis and a governor of the border. In his life, in addition to mentioning Ye Zhichao who entered the military, I am simply his reborn parent. I believe that he can deliver a satisfactory answer to me.

After all this, Europe's popularity was almost done. When I gradually began to face the complaints of the Mongolians that I had used to the fullest in the previous stage, the bolt of Europe had already been sounded.

On October 9, 1911, the English Channel. A large cargo ship Ao Guang, a senior official of the Chinese Empire Cabinet and the family of Zhang Jian, the Minister of Construction, was loaded with a capacity of 16,000 tons, full of confidential materials escorted from Shanghai in the East. After a month of sailing, they finally saw the long-awaited destination. The ship was loaded with Shengongbao tanks with a weight of 1.7 tons, and military products of Jiangnan United Heavy Industry Group, with a total of 27 vehicles, which can be equipped with a tank division. Of course, this one

The ship was also loaded with a large amount of other ordinary commercial materials for cover, such as some porcelain, air conditioners, grain and other materials produced in China. It was also these materials that could be produced by Germany or not, which allowed the merchant ship to cross the Strait of Malacca, the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar to come here. It was also the information they sent indirectly that I realized that the British Empire had officially started the blockade of Germany. Perhaps it was because of the coincidence that the ship was rushing to the ship, which made them drive here.

The storm here is getting tighter and tighter. Although it is a Chinese ship, the warships of the Royal Navy of the British Empire are still constantly appearing in sight. The two large ships squirting black smoke sometimes shake their muzzles and aim at the merchant ship. This makes the crew members who have already felt guilty after passing the hurdles and are even more panicked.

Fortunately, the British only routinely signaled that they needed to check, and sent a small boat to board the ship and simply checked the waybill and customs clearance documents and then signaled to let go. This made the captain Huo Hongzu, who had been tense, breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at the two cruisers parked by the British not far away, he could even recognize these two ships, which were considered large old cruisers, the Abuco and the Krecher. Seeing that the displacement was about ten thousand tons, Huo Hongzu silently said to Dongfang, "Oncestors are blessed, and the sage Confucius is kind." This was the time to prepare a gift to send the officers who came to inspect the ship.

If it weren't for the high freight paid by the Germans this time, wouldn't that the genius would come to the Western Pier at this time.

At this moment, he and his crew witnessed a historic moment together. At 16:38 pm on October 9, 1911, a huge explosion occurred in the Abuco. The Abuco, which was parked in the spot, seemed to have hit a mine. The explosion on the side made the cruiser with a full load displacement of 12,000 tons suddenly tilt, and it seemed that it was about to fail soon. The adjacent ship Krech quickly launched a rescue, but it was too late. The Abuco then exploded again, and the unlucky cruiser sank into the dark sea.

Looking at the shocking scene, the chaos on the sea and the floating debris, Huo Hongzu was a little stunned. He didn't wake up until the sailor next to him reminded him: "Boss, what should we do? Run?"

"Fuck! You want to take the blame!" The shrewd Huo Hongzu praised the little sailor and cursed in his voice: "Run? Before you can run two miles away, you can feed the fish!"

He glared at the sailor with dissatisfaction, and then Huo Hongzu quickly ran to the British who were still stunned there and asked a few questions with his face. The British shook his hands in frustration and signaled that he would not drive the boat, and then left the boat.

Listening to the curses and roars of the soldiers on the British ship as the sea breeze blew over, Huo Hongzu's face turned green, and a one-day extension would be a fine of nearly 5% could he eat it. But looking at the British on the fire, he didn't dare to negotiate now. He had to stand quietly on the deck and look at the Western scenery on the sea.

His choice was really right. The spectacular scene on the sea next made him feel that the trip was worth it. With another huge explosion, the Clexi began to catch fire. Huo Hongzu and the British reacted almost at the same time. This was definitely not a mine. It was not such a coincidence, but looking around, there were no other ships in the entire sea, which was really strange. Huo Hongzu immediately remembered that he had seen the Royal Navy's submarine troops in Jiangning and Shanghai. It was not the navy who sent submarines to protect him. He thought about it for a moment, and then he gave up this ridiculous idea.

"Boss, why don't you run?" The little sailor who had been thrust over with red faces, covered his head with his hands, muttered again. Huo Hongzu realized that if he didn't run, he would be waiting for the British to pull him to Psmouth? In that way, his job would be completely ruined.

"Drive the boat! Run!" Huo Hongzu gave the order. Ao Guang drove at full speed and prepared to stay away from this strange sea area.

Their abnormal movement was soon discovered by the British on the small traffic boat. After two gunshots, the popularity on the boat was cursed in anger, anxious and angry. They also knew that this big Chinese ship was their vitality. If they were allowed to run away, they could only count on themselves to row back to England.

However, they had no chance to return to the UK. The Ao Guang was moving forward almost at full speed, and the steam from the boiler and the black smoke burning coal enveloped the murderous intention.

A black ghost appeared on the sea surface for some time. The character "u-9" was clearly marked on the black hull with white, as if reminding the British that they were waving the sickle of the god of death. The 20mm anti-aircraft machine gun that was originally preparing to deal with the airship and the plane on the submarine was happily spraying the flames in the hands of the laughing Germans, and the British, who had no resistance, soon sank to the bottom of the sea.

Poor that their death will not be known until several days later, and the real cause of death will not be revealed until several years later. On this day, the British Empire's Admiralty only knew that the two cruisers were inspecting a large merchant ship from China to Germany without any offensive weapons before the accident. Then, he sent back a telegram that was attacked by an unknown enemy and disappeared from then on.
Chapter completed!