Chapter 508 Silence

In the St. Karlos Palace, which has a history of more than 200 years, there are a large number of Colombian celebrities today. They are not here for politics, but because of today's unique business fair proposed by Ambassador Xinhua.

Following the visiting delegation, the business representatives of the Xinhua Empire worked hard to sell products from Xinhua to Colombian businessmen and celebrities. At the same time, they were also working hard to negotiate huge procurement agreements.

From tobacco to coffee, from wool to gold, to the emeralds unique to Colombia, almost every procurement agreement makes Colombian businessmen red, because these representatives from the Far East are pushing for them a huge market with a population of nearly 500 million, even if not every new Chinese can receive coffee. Yes, but as long as one in ten thousand can drink Colombian coffee, the annual profit to Colombia will be more than one million dollars.

A huge market opened the door in front of them, so almost all businessmen and celebrities came here after receiving the invitation. They are not fools, but know better than anyone how important the population and the market are.

For today's business fair, even President Carlos came to give a speech. The wine in the hall was full of laughter, which made all the delegates feel the kindness from the East.

The relaxed and unique form makes this exchange meeting like a banquet that can be moved freely. Although the specific numbers have not come out, you can guess only by looking at the rosy faces and laughter of the representatives of the two countries.

Talking to Wu Tingfang is Bogota Mayor Jose Concha, who is the strongest contender for the next Colombian president. This kind of figure is a pursuit that no old and spicy diplomat will give up, but his position has been wandering between the United States and Xinhua, and he is unwilling to let go.

However, this is not difficult for Wu Tingfang. She didn't even take the initiative to talk about politics at all, but traveled east and west. This attitude made Jose very confused. Isn't Xinhua optimistic about himself?

Just as the two were testing each other, a rapid sound of footsteps had come from the outside. A large number of Colombian soldiers with live ammunition appeared in the hall. After everyone could react, a general had come to President Carlos, who was talking and laughing with Gu Weijun, and muttered. .

Seeing President Carlos with a sudden change in his face, Gu Weijun exchanged a color with Wu Tingfang in the distance, and both of them saw the smile in each other's eyes.

When President Carlos hurriedly left the venue a few minutes later, an amazing news suddenly exploded in the hall. The U.S. Navy attacked Buenaventura, and a naval battleship was sunk on the spot, killing more than 570 sailors!

April 29 was the busiest day in Colombia. When the news off the coast of Buenaventura exploded in this country, all Colombians were angered by the trudeclared war by the U.S. Navy. The newspapers began to condemn, and the public began to worry. Radical young people surrounded the U.S. Embassy and demanded the surrender of the murderer. And vowed to defend the country with blood!

As the news spread from Bogota to the whole of South America, whether it is Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil and Argentina, or even Chile, which has always been neutral, they are dissatisfied with the irreveted hegemony of the United States.

On May 2, U.S. President Wilson declared a state of emergency. All naval warships must be on standby for 24 hours. At the same time, he also denied that Georgia sank the Medellin, believing that this was a conspiracy of Colombia and the New China Empire, which was their intention. Hostile to the American self-directed and self-acted farce!

But this defense is really a little pale, because the Colombian newspaper published a photo of the Xinhua Royal Navy's Hanshan bravery to rescue Colombian soldiers, and also analyzed the location of the Xinhua warship at that time. No one believed that the Xinhua Emperor [***] ship at least 10,000 meters away at that time could be powerful at such a long distance. From the top to launch the torpedo, and if it was really done by Xinhua, then there was no need for them to leave nearly a hundred witnesses.

Under pressure, the U.S. Navy had to suspend Major Mayo's work, but he was not dismissed, but became the captain of the newly delivered New York-class battleship Wisconsin three months later.

When the war of words became more and more intense, another thing turned saliva into explosives, because the first 2,000 U.S. Army soldiers were stationed in Panama on May 10, and according to this plan of the United States, there will be more than 10,000 troops stationed here in the next month!

If the previous denial by the United States has made many South American countries a little suspicious, then sending more troops to Panama will completely fly away this suspicion. Colombian President Carlos almost signed an order to send more troops to the border between Colombia and Panama.

Everyone knows that Colombia is not an opponent of the United States, even ordinary people in their country, so Colombia must find a strong enough backup!

But Europe was overwhelmed at this moment, so Colombia immediately turned its eyes to the Pacific hegemon Xinhua Empire!

On May 12, Wu Tingfang, the special envoy of the Xinhua Empire, delivered a speech in the Korean Parliament, saying that Xinhua was willing to help South American countries build a free and bright South America, and said that Xinhua did not intend to take an inch of South American countries, and certainly did not want other big countries to oppress South American countries by force.

This is an official statement, which has relieved all South American countries, because the rise of Xinhua is almost a history of external expansion. In addition, Xinhua's lightning-like actions in Ecuador a few years ago have made many people afraid of being invaded and dare not get too close, and this time the promise dispelled everyone's worries.

At the same time, he also broke the silence since the conflict between Europe and America on behalf of the Xinhua Empire for the first time in parliament, saying that as a major country on the Pacific coast, Xinhua is willing to maintain the security and stability of the entire Pacific region, and will not allow any force or country to destroy this pattern.

As soon as this statement came out, Colombia immediately seemed to have found a savior. After meeting with Wu Tingfang many times and personally calling Xinhua Prime Minister Tang Shaoyi, President Carlos immediately began to promote a proposal to lease the port of Buenaventura to Xinhua and build it as a common naval base between the two countries.

Although the pro-American forces in Parliament were not satisfied with the bill, in the face of the anger of the people, the legislators passed the bill at a lightning speed. On May 20, the Treaty of Friendship between Xinhua and Colombia was signed in Bogota. According to this treaty, Colombia handed over the port of Buenaventura to the new It is managed by the Royal Chinese Navy, which will serve as the joint residence of the Xinhua and Colombian navies.

At the same time, in order to ensure the security of the base, the Colombian political axe will allow the Xinhua Empire to station no more than 3,000 army soldiers to protect the base.

After handing over Buenaventura and allowing the garrison, Xinhua also assumed the heavy responsibility of ensuring that Colombia is free from foreign aggression and ensuring the integrity of Colombia's territory.

At the same time, in order to help the Colombian navy restore its strength, Xinhua, Chile and Colombia reached an agreement to sell an Arctic star battleship to Colombia, and Xinhua and Colombia will jointly bear half of the funds.

On May 28, when the treaty was exposed by reporters, it immediately aroused strong protests from the United States. The United States even said that it would not hesitate to fight and never allow the Xinhua Army to enter the South American continent!

Such a tough statement naturally caused an uproar.

On June 1, on the same day as the outbreak of the Second Balkan War, the First Fleet of the Royal Xinhua Navy, including four new Hebei-class battleships and two Jilin-class battleships, 15 warships and four large troop carriers, arrived in the Gulf of Panama, taking advantage of the night to break through the blockade of five American battleships in the United States Sea. When the army did not dare to open fire, it forcibly sent 3,000 Marines ashore, leaving two Jilin-class battleships to continue to monitor in the distant sea.

The news came to the United States, and President Wilson immediately held an emergency meeting. He knew that this was a step for Xinhua to counter the big trouble left by Taft, but he could not do anything. According to the latest information, in the past month and a half, Xinhua has sent 60,000 people from three army divisions to Honolulu, that is to say, once At the beginning of the war, these 60,000 people can quickly rush to the west coast of the United States, not including a marine division that has been stationed in Honolulu.

At this time, the U.S. Army was abolished because of a large number of veterans and volunteers after the end of the Cuban War. Although it was also strengthened halfway, the total number was only 150,000. However, by the end of last year, Xinhua had quietly completed the formation of 30 army divisions, plus four marine divisions with a total strength of 680,000.

In the absence of a guarantee of maritime advantage, the U.S. Navy does not dare to easily guarantee whether it can block the landing.

President Wilson faces the biggest test after taking office!

It is not allowed to allow Xinhua's ground forces to enter South America, because the army is not the navy, and it is still the army that will eventually solve the problem in any war. No matter how strong the Xinhua navy is, it will not cause trouble to the east coast of the Atlantic Ocean. If you want to really threaten the United States, there is only the army, so Xinhua quickly sent it to the three thousand seas in Colombia. The military and marines have become a big trouble!

At this time, Europe has ended the noise. The beginning of the Second Balkan War made everyone foresee that the war was inevitable, so Europe ended the noise, and all countries began to prepare for war wholeheartedly!

Each conscription plan, one military budget, even a bullet and a rifle have become extremely important, so no one cares about the sudden outbreak of disputes between the United States and Xinhua.

On June 5, President Wilson, who was unwilling to go to war, decided to solve the problem through diplomatic means, rather than war. He sent Secretary of State William Janis Brian as a special envoy to Yanjing. However, while Brian set off, out of concerns about the mainland, he still pushed the parliament to pass the Army Bill. The number of the first 150,000 troops increased to 400,000 to ensure the security of the United States.

For Li Mo, the expansion of the U.S. Army is neither good nor bad news. The United States is not Europe, which has fought a thousand years of ground war, let alone China for thousands of years. The army has a serious lack of background, and hundreds of thousands of people fighting a Cuban guerrilla force will have to lose troops. Mingjin's withdrawal of troops, coupled with the fact that the United States is not a superpower at this moment, and Xinhua was suppressed by Britain before its rise, so it can only be regarded as a regional power. The domestic ethnicity is complex, ethnic conflicts are continuous, and the sense of national honor has not been promoted by Xinhua for years, so the 400,000 army is just like this!

On the other hand, the United States finally moved from the navy to the army, which means that the United States has completely embarked on the road of arms race. After it took Colombia, it is difficult for the United States to even exert its monetary advantage, because its main industries are on the East Coast, and the safety of the Panama Canal cannot be guaranteed. The only way to support the Pacific in wartime is the British Falkland base in the Atlantic Ocean, a remote and time-consuming route!

So this is a perfect action, because it means that in the competition with the United States, Xinhua has completely taken the initiative in the Pacific!

As Brian arrived in Yanjing and got a verbal promise that he would not attack Panama and that the garrison would only guarantee the security of Colombia, the unprepared United States could only swallow the bitter fruit of being too close to Britain.

On September 1, Li Mo, who had spent half a year outside, departed from Luzon and returned to China. At the same time, he did not approve the idea of interfering in the increasingly fierce Mexican crisis put forward by the staff. He only allowed the business of selling 50,000 Type 91 rifles and 5 million bullets to Mexico through a third country, and terminated all foreign affairs. Involved in action.

His telegram means that Xinhua has also entered the stage of strategic contraction like Europe. At the same time, the Senate and the House of Representatives of Xinhua passed the proposal proposed by the Prime Minister's Office on the issuance of 10 billion blue special treasury bonds at the same time.

After years of economic growth, Li Mo's strategy of using the political axe for large-scale investment, first enriching the people finally began to break out after suffering from more than ten years of lack of money. The number of 10 billion special treasury bonds seems to be scary, but in fact, it is less than 20 yuan for everyone, and the economy has increased rapidly for ten consecutive years. Long, it has made the private sector accumulate a large amount of wealth, coupled with the previous method of external subsidies for military spending, so that Xinhua's economy has not been damaged by the [***] competition in the past few years.

And Xinhua has also launched small-scale treasury bonds many times before. The public has seen the rate of return of treasury bonds, so it was subscribed in just one month. Among them, Li Xiufeng, the royal general manager, subscribed for more than 200 million yuan after receiving the hint of Li Mo.

After continuously restoring 10% of the annual military allocation budget, it passed the largest bill in history to issue treasury bonds, which means that Xinhua is ready to meet a big challenge.

The special treasury bond bill did not cause any sensation abroad, because at this time, all countries began to issue a large number of treasury bonds, of which the largest European countries have issued more than 30 billion US dollars, or about 42 billion blue coins of special treasury bonds.

On September 20, the German Austro-Hungarian Empire took the lead in announcing the next year's military budget. The overall budget reached an unprecedented 14 billion marks, about 700 million pounds, accounting for one-fifth of the gross national product of the two countries in that year!

At the same time, Britain and France were also unwilling to show weakness, and also submitted a military budget totaling 540 million pounds!

Two amazing military budgets, which should have become breaking news, sank to the bottom of the sea like blisters, and the whole world fell into an almost breathless silence!

(to be continued)