In the second half of 1917, the war on the European battlefield gradually recovered from a dead state. Book mi Group 4∴8065 It has to be said that the United States is really powerful. Even though the Americans did not send troops directly for the time being, the momentum brought by the Allies immediately changed the situation between the two major camps. Not only that, the United States sold a large number of steel, food and arms to the Allies at the so-called alliance price, helping the Allies restore a certain combat effectiveness. This is really a fierce attack for the battlefield in a stalemate.

At the end of October, the British and French forces organized a large-scale counterattack in Paris. This was the first time that the Allies had taken the initiative to counterattack since the stalemate at the beginning of the year. The counterattack pushed the strategy for about ten miles, and the German main force's position on the front line almost collapsed completely.

However, Germany did not withdraw from Paris because of this. They still resisted tenaciously, and eventually stabilized the occupied terrain of the Paris city. However, it was precisely because of this large-scale counterattack that the entire allies had to change their combat strategies and adopt a more conservative approach. In general, the two camps were still trapped in a confrontation.

This kind of confrontation is something China does not want to see. Without war, where can it come from? Without consumption, the overseas trading companies established by China and the United States are like nothing. Not only will the expansion of capitalism fall into a slow state, but the advancement of Washington's plan to enter the city will also become more risky.

This situation is something the United States does not want to see. On the eve of Christmas in 1917, Lai Yinshi, the US ambassador, Washington's plan to contact China and Jackson, the business counselor of the Embassy in China, Washington's plan to be responsible for the operation of goods between China and the United States, visited China again, and secretly met with Song Jiaoren, the main person in charge of China in Washington's plan.

Wu Shaoting took the Washington Plan to Song Jiaoren and set up a secret special operation office in Shanghai, mainly responsible for the coordination of the Washington Plan.

In fact, setting up the Special Operations Office in Shanghai was a difficult decision for Wu Shaoting. Originally, the original intention of recalling Song Jiaoren was to keep Song Jiaoren by his side to prevent those who were interested abroad from using Song Jiaoren to disobey his rule. However, after the recall, Wu Shaoting did the opposite. Not only did he not undermine Song Jiaoren, but he also entrusted important tasks and transferred Song Jiaoren from Nanjing National Civil Affairs. In this way, Song Jiaoren can also boldly coordinate the matters of Washington's plan, without worrying about any changes to Wu Shaoting. Of course, Wu Shaoting did this with his own considerations. Song Jiaoren has always been a democratic guardian. If he stayed by his side, it would inevitably lead to a conflict of opinions between the two, which was something Wu Shaoting didn't want to see.

The main reason for choosing Shanghai is that this is the core of China's economic development. Choosing Shanghai can make good use of the advantages of the Washington Plan to radiate to the economic development of the entire China. The strong demand of the Washington Plan can just spur China's domestic production to expand. For a time, the Chinese economy, which uses agricultural and sideline products, began to gradually shift towards secondary industries such as steel and coal. In addition, Shanghai is the Far East financial center, and its financial influence even exceeds Tokyo. In Shanghai, the coordinated Washington Plan can expand China's influence in the Far East and drive the rapid development of the colonies in the surrounding areas of China. Because China is not worried about how much threat their development will pose to China, they will become "righteous dogs" to protect China.

On this day, the streets of Shanghai were filled with the festive New Year. With the continuous stability of China and the continuous improvement of economic development level, the quality of life of the people has also been improved. It is rare to maintain this strong New Year atmosphere in the midst of dire straits and fierce wars in the world.

There were some fragmented snow floating in the sky, and there were not many pedestrians on the road. A black Shengshi Longteng Company car slowly drove by. Since the military exhibition in Taipei, Shengshi Longteng Company's car has become the ranks of mainstream Chinese cars. Its quality is almost the same as foreign cars, but its price is much cheaper. The car parked steadily at the back of the Lihua Building, No. 13, Xinhuangpu Road, Shanghai Special Operations Office.

Jackson and Lai Yinshi entered the "Washington Project" under the guidance of several bodyguards in black suits, located in the Shanghai Special Operations Office, where Song Jiaoren has been waiting for a long time.

"Mr. Ambassador Lai Yinshi and Mr. Jackson, welcome your arrival. Song is a mistake and please forgive me!" Song Jiaoren is a humble gentleman. Although this meeting was a fight to expand the interests of both sides, Song Jiaoren still showed the unique hospitality of the Chinese.

"Mr. Song, it's a great honor to see you again!" Lai Yinshi came up and gave Song Jiaoren a hug, showing great enthusiasm, but the enthusiasm of Westerners is really just superficial skill. Of course, he also knew that Song Jiaoren served as ambassador to the United States for three years, and this set of Western etiquette should have been adapted to it long ago.

After shaking Jackson's hand briefly, Song Jiaoren signaled the two of them to sit down. The retro hall was without any cover, which also prevented the partition wall from being in sight.

"Mr. Song, I have been in the United States for many years, and this time I can cooperate with Mr. Song in the Washington Project. It seems that Mr. Song has a really indissoluble bond with the United States! The American people like you very much. I hope Mr. Song can also serve as a foreign ambassador in the United States!" Jackson said in Mandarin that he had just learned recently, and Jackson has learned some Mandarin for a long time in China.

"Mr. Counselor, I am just working in the United States. Now I cooperate with the United States for work. For my country, there are 40 million Chinese NVs. As for the kindness of the American people, I appreciate it. Let's talk about serious business!" Song Jiaoren tactfully rejected Jackson's so-called kindness, and also expressed his attitude very straightforwardly, and went straight to the point.

"Okay, since Mr. Song said that, I'm just talking bluntly. Why don't you China abide by the prior agreement? Not only do you dump arms to the allies, but also sell a large number of daily necessities!" Lai Yinshi's many years of experience in foreign affairs, of course, he knew to take the initiative. He attacked Song Jiaoren as soon as he came up and put his big hat on China's head first. If Song Jiaoren explained, the next thing would become Lai Yinshi and Jackson condemning the China represented by Song Jiaoren together.

According to the core content of the Washington Plan at the beginning, China only assisted the United States in capital sales to Europe, but what happened during this period was obviously far from Americans' expectations. The local capitalism that emerged in China took over the agency work of American hot merchants and carried out distribution activities to Europe. On the other hand, it was still accumulating local capital power and doing its own business. What is even more unbearable is that Chinese investors still use the sales channels that the United States has worked hard to sell their products. Isn't this too much?

"Mr. Ambassador, please pay attention to your words. I don't know which agreement we have violated. Instead, you adjusted your strategic plan without authorization, brought the entire European battlefield into a stalemate again, affected the arms we agreed on in advance, and caused a large decrease in the amount of our arms. It even increased the cost of our arms for a while, causing our overseas trading companies to be greatly damaged!" Song Jiaoren served as an ambassador for many years, and was also arguing with the United States. Of course, he was familiar with the usual style of the Americans and kicked the ball back to the United States very strongly, and used a stern attitude to reflect that China was actually the victim.

"Adjusting the strategic plan is our internal affairs, and you cannot interfere. However, you use the channels we provide to sell your own daily necessities and did not discuss with us in advance. That is, you have violated the agreement of the Washington Plan. I hope your country will give a reasonable explanation!" Lai Yinshi sternly rejected Song Jiaoren's statement and strongly proposed the purpose of this visit, which is to let Song Jiaoren make a reasonable explanation to them on behalf of China. However, it is more important to say that it is not the explanation itself, but the consequences after the explanation.

"Mr. Ambassador, if you say that what our overseas trading company sells is our internal affairs and does not require your hands!" Song Jiaoren cleverly seized a handle of Lai Yinshi, and used his own way to return it to the other side, and also transferred the problem, because China did dump its daily necessities to the allies when the overseas trading company was established.

When the overseas trading company was first established, China sent intelligence personnel to conduct overseas investigations. It was originally planned to investigate where overseas trading companies could ensure the relative safety of the materials, but the investigators found unexpected gains. The long-term war has caused the extremely scarcity of daily necessities in Europe, and even higher officials in some places can only supply daily food in quantity. At this time, they hold a large amount of hard currency - gold, but gold cannot be eaten. Prices in Europe also soar with the continuous progress of the war. In this way, the risks of daily necessities are actually lower and profits are higher than those of arms trade.

And more importantly, Song Jiaoren and Wu Shaoting studied together that if they simply sell arms, the United States might use this to threaten China, because if other countries find that China withdraws from its allies and establishes overseas trading companies to sell arms, then China's ambition to make a fortune in the war will be obvious, which will arouse hatred from countries around the world, and in that case, China is likely to suffer a new round of scorching.

Before this, the United States was very clever to escape and joined the Allies. Although it had little force, it effectively avoided the danger of being discovered by making a fortune in war. Even if it was discovered, they had good excuses. Due to the strength of the United States, countries around the world had to believe their excuses, so that all the responsibilities fell on China.

So Song Jiaoren and Wu Shaoting discussed with him to sell different goods in a timely manner according to the situation. Now the two sides are in a stalemate again, but China's overseas trading companies are still busy. The situation of the war has eased slightly, and European countries are busy resting and restoring their strength as soon as possible in order to cope with a new round of war.

At this time, the demand for daily necessities was even greater. In the European market, Chinese manufacturing had already flown all over the sky and even became the capital for the powerful and powerful at that time. Because it was not possible to buy it with only money. Because the demand in the European market was too large, domestic productivity was still insufficient even with the colonies, and overseas trading companies were limited in volume. Therefore, buying Chinese-made goods required a strong relationship.

Since withdrawing from the Allies, China has always maintained its neutral status. In order to obtain sufficient logistics supply from China, European countries, whether allies or allies, have taken the initiative to show goodwill to China, to reduce tariffs, provide free venues, foreign exemptions and other conditions to attract Chinese overseas trading companies to trade in their countries. Even Germany, which was angry at the beginning, abandoned itself, took the initiative to get in love with China.

After a long war, Germany's national strength was already quite empty. At this time, this proud hunting dog had to choose to deal with international relations in a low-key foreign attitude.

For a time, although European countries continued to fight with each other, they had a new understanding of China, at least not the kind of look down on them before! This is something the United States did not want to see, and the plans and roads they came up with, and later most of the benefits were allowed to be achieved by China. How could the United States be willing to do so?

This is also an important reason why Lai Yinshi and Jackson rushed to Mén for questioning this time.

"Mr. Ambassador, I think we should calm down and consider this issue carefully and carefully!" Song Jiaoren looked at the faces of the two Americans and looked ugly. The conversation was deadlocked for a while, which was something he didn't want to see. After all, it was not time to tear apart with the United States.


Chapter completed!