Chapter 213 The status of the country is played out!
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.
.
…
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.
.
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?
It is best to arrange it this way now. He is just a shield for the emperor. It is better to say that the emperor serves him as a staff officer, rather than that he serves as the emperor's deputy. If the emperor loses, he will have to take the blame for the time being, and there will always be another one in the future.
When it is activated or even reused, if the emperor wins, he will wait for further promotion.
With everyone here, Song Biao, Duan Qirui, Jiang Fangzhen and others discussed various details of sending troops to Iran. They said that it would take one thousand to ten thousand. In the final analysis, it was necessary to establish a shipping force sufficient to ensure transportation capabilities. In addition to
In addition to domestic merchant ships and cargo ships, merchant ships should be leased from abroad as much as possible, especially from the United States and the United Kingdom.
Basically, in order to win this war, the empire must at least ensure a shipping fleet size of 600,000 tons, almost 20 10,000-ton cargo ships, nearly a hundred ordinary cargo ships of about 5,000 tons, and many more.
A large cruise ship was converted into a troop transport ship. The empire has four troop transport ships, all of which were converted from cruise ships leased from France. They are currently used in the European battlefield.
In addition, it is necessary to effectively defend the Ottoman Empire's navy. The problem of submarines is not big, because it is difficult for German submarines to enter the Mediterranean, and it is even impossible to cross the Suez Canal and enter the Indian Ocean. Song Biao chose to concentrate China's main forces on the Middle East line.
One of the most important factors was to avoid the German submarine force.
In the second half of 1916, the empire adopted a wall-mounted foreign policy of interest. It assumed that I was ready to send out large-scale troops for a long time. Now it depends on which of you gives me more benefits. This posture is actually
It is very disgusting and hateful to the international world.
As we all know, the Chinese Empire has the fourth-lowest troop contribution among the Allied Powers so far. It is only higher than Portugal and New Zealand. However, the benefits it gained during the war are much higher than any other country among the Allied Powers. Not only did it occupy Germany's territories in Asia and East Africa
A major colony, it also became the largest creditor of Britain and France from the arms trade of the Allied Powers.
In the words of Prime Minister Henry Asquith, We neither know what this new empire will need nor what they will fight for. But without justice, they may get nothing!
Everyone will use their own way to subtly threaten their opponents. Prime Minister Asquith hopes to make a subtle statement in the media, warning China that if it really joins the German-Austrian camp, it will lose everything.
But in any case, German emissaries have been operating within the new empire. In the cartoons drawn by the British with a discriminatory mood, Europeans wearing German Empire hats are holding gold coins marked with gold marks.
Bao Bao was walking under the Forbidden City, surrounded by Manchu officials in the style of the Qing Empire.
This shows that the vast majority of British people, or almost all Europeans, do not understand what kind of changes China has undergone and what changes have taken place.
In their minds, China is a concentration camp for poor lepers, a poor, backward, ignorant, thin, ignorant, and barbaric country. It is not worthy of respect at all. Even if such a country joins the Allies, it will be a shame for the glorious British Empire and France.
To put it bluntly, even those MPs don’t know what China actually means. Even when Prime Minister Asquith continues to emphasize the importance of China in Parliament, there will be a burst of noise in the seats as if he is talking about a talk show.
of laughter.
Even though the Chinese Army defeated the Japanese Army in 1911, it only used 200,000 troops to contain the attack of 35 Austro-Hungarian Army Infantry Divisions. It not only has a huge population and war potential, but it is also the most important armament of the Allied Powers.
Industrial supplier countries.
Among the firearms used by the Allied Forces, 1/4 were rifles, 1/3 were machine guns and submachine guns, 1/5 were rifles and grenades, 1/3 were artillery shells, and 1/10 were artillery and mortars.
More than 1/2 of the rubber products, gas masks, tents, and helmets came from China. The cheap materials made the Allied Powers' military expenditure 30% lower than expected.
Even in 1916, China's total industrial scale was only about 1/7 of that of the United States. However, in the military industry and related basic mining fields, with the support of the "Allied Mutual Insurance Treaty", China was actually larger than the United States.
There are more advantages. Currently, in the world's military industry, the United States, Britain and France sell machinery and equipment to China. Africa, South America, Southeast Asia and other countries and China itself supply a large amount of raw materials, which are produced and processed in China into weapons, ammunition and other products.
Military supplies.
If these materials are purchased from the United States, the Allied countries, including Britain and France, will have to pay for the precarious gold reserves of each country, not the national debt. Although there are still many problems in the quality of China's products, it is true that in addition to production capacity and low price
There are no advantages at all, but in this rapid consumption stage during war, production capacity and low cost are the most important key issues.
The Battle of the Somme inflicted heavy losses on the British and French coalition forces, and a general sense of war weariness in Europe was spreading. The situation forced the British and French war cabinets to delay the problem for a long time.
In October 1916, French Prime Minister Briand arrived in Beijing and held talks with Tang Shaoyi, the Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet. Together with Sir Lloyd George, the British Secretary of War, they signed the "Secret Treaty of the Middle East" on behalf of Britain, France and the Empire, that is, Britain and France supported China's sending troops to attack Iran.
Os
In order to share the pressure of Russia in the two-front war, the Empire continued to move to the Balkans after forcing the Ottoman Empire to withdraw, and joined forces with Italy and other Allied Powers to attack the Austro-Hungarian Army, forcing the Austro-Hungarian Empire to withdraw from the war and achieve a three-sided encirclement.
German strategy.
According to this secret agreement, Britain and France recognized that the Chinese Empire had the right to continue to station troops and protect the occupied territories in the Middle East. Britain would return Hong Kong to Hong Kong before the end of the war and recognized the empire's territorial sovereignty over Japan.
However, in this agreement, the United Kingdom did not agree to the demarcation line agreement between China, India, and China proposed by the empire, nor did it recognize that the Riau Islands were owned by China. This actually meant that the post-war Sino-British relations would never be the same.
Very smoothly, the disputes between the two countries are far greater than the cooperation.
Different from the British Empire's usual arrogance and arrogance, France pays more attention to the continuation and stability of the Sino-French alliance. In addition to signing the "Secret Treaty between China, Britain and France on the Middle East", it continued to sign the "Indochina Peace Agreement" with the Chinese Empire, which included Laos.
and Cambodia's protective rights were returned to the Chinese Empire, while the Empire recognized France's "permanent protective rights" over Vietnam and promised to transfer German colonies in West Africa to French protection "peacefully and friendly" after the war.
Of course, France is also a cheat. It assigned the protection rights of Laos and Cambodia to the Chinese Empire, which further intensified the competition between the Chinese Empire and Britain in Indochina. But even if it is a French trap, China must eat it.
In fact, both China and France knew very well at this time that France had suffered too much damage in the war. Not to mention that it had not yet seen the victory of the war, even after the victory it would be a tragic victory. France would have decades of recovery.
In this period, Britain will become the only powerful player in Europe and continue to maintain control over Asia and Africa.
This means that whether it is between wars or after the war, China and France must maintain closer cooperation. As for if everyone is defeated, then just drink cold water and sit back and watch Germany occupy Europe, Asia and Africa, China
If we don't continue to send troops, we may be able to form an alliance with Germany in the future. Once we continue to increase troops, we can only fight to the death.
Although Song Biao did not think that the "Secret Treaty in the Middle East" was meaningful based on the credibility of the British, especially with reference to the example of Britain playing with Italy, he was still willing to implement a new plan based on it and officially dispatched troops to Iran.
troops, embarking on larger-scale military mobilization and war preparations, striving to launch a large-scale military operation against the Ottoman Empire before March next year.
In fact, China is still in a difficult situation at this time. Politically and diplomatically, it does not have the status of a big country at all, nor does it have such a status militarily. Except for France, which has no choice but to unite with China, other countries, including Russia, do not recognize how big a country China is.
The strength is so great that even Japan looks down on China.
In the final analysis, it is still an issue of the navy and long-term historical discrimination. It is true that this kind of discrimination was not really broken until the period of resisting U.S. aggression and aiding Korea. This is not a true breakthrough. It can only be said to have allowed other countries to recognize that China has stood up.
, as for China standing up and still being a 15-meter little man on the basketball court, that is another matter.
This is not only the European and American world's discrimination against China, but also the Anglo-Saxon race's discrimination against the entire Pan-Asian race. If Hitler hadn't made the world realize how terrible this kind of racial discrimination is, so that Europe and the United States would reflect on it, this kind of
Discrimination will continue for at least several hundred years.
If you want to break this inertia, it is very simple. Just like the People's Liberation Army challenging the US military, find a fight with a world-recognized powerful country. Even if your whole body bleeds, you will stand and die.
Might makes right.
The status of a country is always forged. Welcome to come and your support is my biggest motivation.m
{Piaotian Literature www.piaotian.net thanks all book friends for their support, your support is our greatest motivation}