An Yi was a little surprised when he received Soong Meiling's invitation, but considering that it had been almost four months since he left Nanjing, he probably had something that Chiang Kai-shek wanted to tell him face to face.
Nowadays, South China's international status is somewhat special. France, under the threat of Germany's aggressive momentum, has been unable to come up with a plan to deal with the Republic of South China. It insists on sending troops to conquer and advocates that troops should be placed on the French-German border to guard against Germany's southward movement. There are a large number of people who support it. , they debated in newspapers, magazines and on the radio every day, and the quarrel was endless.
The current mentality of the French people is very subtle. On the one hand, due to the independence of South China, they feel that their self-esteem has been greatly hurt. They believe that this behavior must be resolutely and decisively stopped, otherwise the entire French global colonial system will collapse. On the other hand, the French are not willing to shed the blood of French youth for the sake of the colonies.
What's more, many people hold different opinions from morning to night. For example, on the way to work in the morning, they hear the speeches of politicians who insist on sending troops on the radio. They feel passionate and patriotic. They wish they could immediately join the army and go to the front line to fight against the rebellion. The Annan natives fought with the Chinese; and in the afternoon, I heard an explanation from a congressman who advocated a peaceful settlement of the dispute, explaining that the Chinese Navy can dispatch thousands of bombers at a time, in addition to thousands of fighter jets for escort. If this happens More than two thousand fighter planes flew over France. Just the shadow cast by the fighter planes was enough to cover the sky above the entire city of Paris. Questioning how many fleets and soldiers are needed to complete the almost impossible task of recapturing Annan? Listen. At this point, those who had been full of enthusiasm in the morning and prepared to shed their blood for the motherland felt chills in their vests, and quickly changed their views. They felt that there was no need to go all the way to fight in the Far East, a place with no rear support, and that protecting the homeland should be their top priority.
For the French, Nanhua is too far away from them. The loss there will not affect the security of France. However, if the Germans take advantage of France to send troops to Annan and suddenly launch an attack on France, it will be a serious matter of national destruction. .Besides, France still has a large number of prisoners of war in the hands of the South China government. No one can guarantee whether they will use it as a threat at the critical moment. And now the families of these prisoners are in front of the parliament and government gates every day** * Demonstration, demanding that the government rescue their relatives as soon as possible, they are also an important force against armed crusade.
Therefore, after repeatedly weighing the pros and cons, most French people still insist that it is not appropriate to send troops for conquest at this time. It is more appropriate to use political and economic suppression and false threats to force the Nanhua government to make concessions. As for whether Nanhua will surrender, then It's another story.
It is precisely because of the hesitation of the French government and military in the face of opposition from a large number of people and members of parliament to the call for sending troops, as well as its lack of confidence in its own strength, that France's allies and the Commonwealth countries that have signed mutual assistance agreements with France cannot Express any opinions on the founding of South China.
On the other hand, the US dollar system countries, led by the United States, saw the founding of South China and announced that they would gradually implement a multilateral trading system in the next two to three years after the political situation and financial system stabilized, advocating fairness and equal opportunities in international trade. In the field of currency and financial systems, it does not require the abolition of all forms of currency exchange control, but only pursues the convertibility of currencies. In other words, regardless of whether citizens of a country have the right to freely exchange currency, a foreigner should have the right to exchange currency in his or her hands. The right to exchange currency for other currencies.
These political and economic measures greatly catered to the views of U.S. Secretary of State Hull. The U.S. government was eager to find a free-trade sovereign country on the west coast of the Pacific and greatly agreed with South China's proposition. After communicating with Roosevelt, Hull had already made a speech in the House of Representatives
and the Senate proposed a bill to establish diplomatic relations with South China, so that in the context of the economic crisis, American companies can successfully enter South China, which is in desperate need of development, and compete for big cakes such as infrastructure construction.
With the efforts of Ou Chuer and related financial experts, the Central Bank of South China will be officially established in the middle of next month. An Yi also wants to coordinate the relationship between the Chinese dollar and legal tender, pounds and US dollars (because legal tender is directly linked to pounds sterling, and at the same time
controlled by the U.S. dollar), and also wanted to exchange views with Chiang Kai-shek on the international situation, so he readily agreed and sent a message back to Nanjing in the near future.
...
On March 24, a piece of news that shocked the world came from Bengal, India:
The 17th Indian Infantry Division of the British Army, which was fighting against the rebel forces in eastern India, encountered an ambush by the Indian rebel army in the Gobdui Lake area, more than 80 kilometers northeast of Chittagong. The Indian rebels built a dam on the high mountains.
Blocking the water flow, when the British army entered the valley at the foot of the mountain, the dam suddenly exploded and the rapid torrent instantly disabled the advanced tanks, armored vehicles and artillery owned by the British army. At the same time, a large number of British officers and soldiers were swept away by the torrent.
He was swept away until his swollen body emerged from Lake Gobdoy a few days later.
The 17th British-Indian Division was completely wiped out. More than 6,000 people were drowned on the spot. The remaining 10,000-plus shocked British troops were captured by the swarming rebels.
After that, a horrific scene happened: these more than 10,000 British prisoners were first escorted to the side of the road in the south of the Gobdoy Lake area. Under the threat of gunpoint, they nervously erected tens of thousands of crosses.
The prisoners were shot with machine guns, their legs were broken, their genitals were cut off, and they were all nailed to crosses.
After the news came out, it shocked the whole world.
Prior to this, the British government had realized the mistakes it had made and was conducting consultations and negotiations with the leaders of the Indian National Congress Party who were imprisoned in prison, requiring the Congress Party to fulfill its duties as the "ruling party" as soon as possible and quell the rebellion.
Just when the British and Indian colonial authorities were preparing to release the leader of the Congress Party, such shocking news came. British Prime Minister Chamberlain and Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax could hardly believe that it was true, but soon,
Major newspapers and magazines used living examples and detailed photos to tell the naive Prime Minister and Foreign Minister that something had happened and that the prestige of the British Empire was being brutally trampled on.
It didn't take long before London, Birmingham, Manchester and other cities were quickly filled with violent crowds, especially the British who had lost their loved ones. They were all red-eyed and crazy, wailing and complaining about the government and the army.
Incompetent, they strongly demanded revenge against the barbaric Indians, letting them understand how terrible it is to offend the most powerful country in the world. Some members of Parliament, such as former Admiralty Secretary Winston Churchill, took the opportunity to launch an attack
, questioned the government's reconciliation with the Congress Party, calling it a shameful surrender and a naked insult to the empire on which the sun never sets!
Under this circumstance, Chamberlain quickly severed ties with the Indian National Congress and decided to take extreme measures against India under the strong demands of the people, the army and the House of Representatives.
On March 26, after the British army dispatched four divisions to rescue the bodies of Pao Ze in the Gobdui Lake area, they publicly executed 36,497 people in Chittagong who had been killed in the previous battle.
The heads of the captured rebel soldiers were cut off and piled up into four pyramid-like temples outside Chittagong City. At the same time, 927 Congress Party and religious leaders in the Chittagong area were also killed.
They hung up a cross together and were crucified in the Baluwa area southwest of Gobdui Lake as revenge for the evil deeds of the rebels.
The British Army's revenge was like opening Pandora's box.
In any case, the British are only a minority in India. As a huge colony with 250 million people, the South Asian subcontinent has an absolute population advantage over the British. The "evil deeds" of the British army have spread rapidly with the spread of the people.
In the cities and countryside of India, pictures of piles of Indian heads, Indian corpses hanging on crosses, and pairs of angry eyes that stared at death shocked all Indians.
The British government originally only wanted to intimidate the Indians, but it did not want to trigger a greater wave of resistance. In Maharastra, Karataka, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and other places that had already stabilized,
, the national uprising once again suddenly started a prairie fire like a spark, and colonial governments in various places were overthrown by armed mobs. India was like a broken ship teetering on the wind, once again attracting the attention of the world.