Chapter 109 Constructive Decision

"As a member of the Ally countries, China has always shouldered the expectations of the whole Ally countries, but what is disappointing is that China has disappointed people again and again!"

What is it? George

When the world war entered its third year, the ambitious German empire had already fallen into an unprecedented predicament in the two-line battle and the long endless trench confrontation. Men were no longer like "Kaiser Wilhelmsieges" when the war broke out. Marsch" and "preussengloria", the women holding children no longer wave their handkerchiefs like soldiers. The long war turned the king's army into a civilian army, so that the men who were once crazy about the war began to escape military service, and let the women who cheered the soldiers taste life. It's not easy to live.

Not only Germany, but also Britain, France and Russia. They either fell into a sleepy state of war, or began to oppose the war. Luxury goods and consumer goods on the market are becoming more and more expensive, and more rare, even fresh fruits, high-grade wine, coffee, candy, silk clothes and leather. Shoes are also less and less, followed by eggs, white bread, meat products and lard, all of which have become popular.

Of course, life is more difficult for the Germans who have lost their foreign trade. If the British and French have to face high-priced goods, the Germans have to face the disappearance of those goods. When the winter of 1916 came, for the Germans, even potatoes, flour and coal became With rare and in-demand goods, millions of Germans have to start to spend the winter by feeding turnips.

It seems that life is so difficult for every belligerent country, but there is only one exception, and this exception is China, which is far away in the east. As the most important warring country, China's people's lives have hardly been affected in any way. At most, when the war broke out, it increased its exports. After a period of "material shortage", after the full liberalization of private capital and the liberalization of foreign trade controls, especially with the expansion of production, the shortage of material supply will be replaced by unprecedented sufficient material supply.

And for 10 million Chinese urban residents, they have tasted the benefits of the war. First of all, because of the new construction of a large number of factories, skilled workers have become "tight goods". In order to expand production, various factories pay a large amount of overtime pay for three shifts to two shifts, and at the same time, they have increased their work. In order to retain skilled workers, new private enterprises have raised wages to attract more skilled workers. The increase in the income of tens of millions of workers has further made the city's commercial market flourish, and the workers really share the dividends of national development for the first time.

In the countryside, the stable food price system, which has been strictly controlled for many years, has undergone a fundamental change for the first time under the impact of this war. After the outbreak of the war, due to the surge in flour exports and the surge in grain prices in the international market, coupled with the comprehensive liberalization of foreign trade, in order to avoid merchants from a large amount of grain. For the profit of exports, the imperial political axe had to give up the control of grain, making food prices like uncontrolled wild horses, soaring and climbing. In just three years, food prices have tripled. In addition, the rise in the prices of non-staple food such as meat, chickens, eggs and fish have increased the income of farmers several times in three years.

With the surge in farmers' income, in the past decade, villages that have not changed much have begun to change dramatically. With a large number of new houses being built, farmers have begun to consume more industrial consumer goods. The increase in the income of the general surname of the urban class and the peasant class has greatly stimulated China's economic development. While the economy has achieved leapfrog development, the continuous construction of factories has further stimulated China's urbanization. Before the war, China's urbanization level was only 20%. Even so, it was It is regarded as the greatest achievement of ten years of industrialization, but three years after the outbreak of the war, with the end of imperial economic control, the unprecedented activity of private capital has further promoted China's urbanization. Every day, tens of thousands of farmers enter the city to seek a better life. After a large number of farmers enter the city, it follows. It is the extreme tension of housing and urban land. In the past three years, almost every city in China has built a large number of roads, bridges, railways, subways, stations and canals. Many urban appearances have changed in three years, even more than in the past ten years.

Almost every foreigner in China has witnessed the changes in China. They are surprised to see that the war has not brought disaster to this country, but unimaginable wealth to this country.

"At the beginning of the war, there were only 650 million yuan of gold and silver coins in the treasury of the Chinese Empire, but one year after the outbreak of the war, there were 2.45 billion yuan of gold and silver coins in the treasury of the Chinese Empire, and now, when the whole Europe fell into the war of the past and the future. At that time, when gold coins kept flowing out of the treasury of various countries, more than 10 billion yuan of gold and silver coins were gathered in the vaults of the Chinese Empire. The wealth of the world was constantly flowing into the country. When there was even no bread in the ovens of European housewives, Chinese citizens enjoyed Unpredual life..."

As a region that once led the whole world through the Industrial Revolution, Europe, as some people expected when the war broke out - "The lights of Europe will go out from now on!" It can be said without hesitation that the war that involved almost all Europe was involved in it, sounded the clarion call for the decline of Europe.

Indeed, in the face of the huge amount of gold and silver coins accumulated by Europe over hundreds of years with the flow of water in the war, the people are facing the lack of materials in real life. They do have reason to express their dissatisfaction, especially in the face of their own country's near bankruptcy in this war, while other countries have earned huge wealth by war. At that time, there is more reason to express dissatisfaction.

And this dissatisfaction is the most breakthrough for China's performance. In the world, only two countries rely on war to make a fortune. One is the United States, and the other is China. They all have a relatively complete industrial system and can provide all the materials needed by the allied countries. Because of this, after the outbreak of the war, two The country has earned unimaginable wealth.

And the reason why they finally pointed their dissatisfaction at China is very simple. As the same warring country, the war not only did not affect it, but also made it richer. In addition to the beginning of the war, China used negotiations with Germany to occupy Germany's colonies on the one hand, and on the other hand In this way, they threatened Britain, France and other warring countries to purchase materials from them in a fixed proportion.

"The wealth of the whole Europe flows to this country that is unwilling to take responsibility for its allies!"

Since half a year ago, in the face of the situation that their countries can no longer afford foreign exchange to buy weapons, the political axes of Britain and France have expressed strong dissatisfaction. They have no reason not to express their dissatisfaction. First of all, they may have purchased billions of dollars of materials from the United States, but the United States has provided them with more than one billion dollars. For loans, China has only provided a poor loan of less than 2 billion yuan of munitions and commodities imported from China by the government and private authorities of Britain and France, and these loans are all guaranteed by the investment and overseas assets of various countries in China.

Not only that, the Chinese are not even willing to send their armies to Europe, or even their navies to participate in the war. Of course, if it is not for the European market, they can't even take the initiative to send a fleet to escort the merchant fleet, and it is because they can provide enough merchant ships and escort ships that they can exceed The United States has become Europe's largest trading partner.

In the face of China's "irresponsibility", dissatisfaction is brewing in the political and military circles of Britain and France, and even among the people. As the most direct response, Britain, France and Italy's military supplies to China have plummeted since August 1916. After entering October, Britain has directly cancelled the arms purchase of China. Orders of up to $500 million have been issued to the United States.

In the Nanjing Palace Government Building, cabinet members gathered together again to set the tone for the upcoming cabinet military joint meeting.

In a meeting like this, the host is naturally Chen Moran, who is the emperor.

"Today's meeting will discuss two points, one is to summarize the progress of the previous stage of the war, and the other is to discuss China's positioning and military focus in the next stage of this war. The summary of the military aspect will be done by President Jiang Fangzhen first.

Chen Moran

Straight to the point, pragmatic first, which is the biggest feature of China's imperial meeting. Although the meeting and discussion time of the imperial meeting has lasted for more than ten hours, it is the characteristic of the imperial meeting without delay.

Fang Bai, the Chief of the General Staff of the Supreme Staff, got up and greeted everyone a little. He picked up the speech in front of him, thought about it, put it on the table, and came to the big map opposite your majesty.

"The speech is prepared for the joint meeting, which is ulconvertent. Here I will talk about the general meaning."

With that, he pulled out a teaching whip from under the map and compared it leisurely.

"In the Middle East, the northern front, after launching the Tikrit campaign in December last year, the front fell into a stalemate again. However, on the western front, at present, our army is preparing to launch a battle in Damascus. It is expected that our army will reach the Mediterranean Sea before the Spring Festival on New Year's Day next year. As a result, we will control The richest area in the Rab area..."

After a brief report on the situation in the Arab region, he pointed the whip in the direction of Persia.

"In the Persian side, we have had many frictions with the British army. At present, the local Persian armed forces supported by our army have grown to three brigades. However, in view of our current relationship with the British side, we do not believe that the British will make specific concessions on the Persians issue, so the General Staff is considering further increasing to Persia. Send troops to expand our influence in Persia!"

When Jiang Fangzhen was making a report, Chen Moran just listened quietly. He had already learned about all this from all aspects of the report.

"In Russia, the East Asian Expeditionary Force, with the Japanese army as the main body, has completed the dispatch of 42 divisions, with 935,000 Japanese troops fighting on all fronts in Russia. In addition, the headquarters of the East Asian Expeditionary Force stationed by China is also stationed in Russia with nearly 10,000 people, responsible for coordinating and commanding the military headquarters with the Russian army. Team to ensure the logistics supply of the East Asian Expeditionary Force. In addition, the Coast Guard is preparing to set up the 23rd Escort Fleet and is currently negotiating with Italy to use the port of Italy as the home port of the 23rd Escort Fleet.

At this point, Jiang Fangzhen put down his whip and spread out his hand:

"The above is an overview of all aspects of the war in more than two months."

Then he added.

"As a summary, I would like to briefly say a few points: First, the Guards Army has deployed 414 divisions, with an unprecedented total strength of 10 million people. In terms of the size of the army alone, the Guards Army has become an army armed force second only to the Russian army. Second, now after a long period of training, the quality of the Guards Army is far from comparable to that of short-term training soldiers from other countries. Judging from the armed equipment of each division, the infantry divisions of the Guards Army have reached the standard of the army standing division set three years ago, and each division is full of personnel. It has the ability to launch a large-scale campaign, and the number of tanks owned by the army's armored forces exceeded 3,000 for the first time. According to the results of the exercise, it is proved that if it is used with the air force of the Army Air Force, it can play a key role in defeating the enemy unexpectedly on the battlefield.

Now after three years of expansion and training, because the army has never suffered any losses, Jiang Fangzhen has great trust in the combat effectiveness of the army, which comes more from strength.

In the past three years, although China's arsenal has undertaken a large number of export tasks, it has never relaxed its replenishment to its own army. In fact, in the first year, China often exported weapons from the army's active equipment after renovation, and most of the new weapons produced by arsenals are Direct delivery to the army.

After three years of large-scale production, the Chinese army has not only been expanded several times in scale, but also far surpassed its European counterparts in terms of weapons. Whether in terms of divisional firepower or group firepower, it can form an overwhelming advantage over European counterparts.

Jiang Fangzhen paused here, strode back to the seat, and pressed his hand on the back of the seat. Xu Ran said:

"In fact, I want to say that the advantage of our army now is only when it is used on the battlefield, and the staff believes that after entering the battlefield, our army can gain a comprehensive advantage, which should be the main theme of today's meeting."

Participate in the war!

Real participation in the war! Now this is the most important issue for the country and the army.

"That's right."

With a shout, Chen Moran took the lead in slap, and there was a wave of applause in the not-spacious conference room.

When the applause was slightly calm, Chen Moran nodded and motioned Jiang Fangzhen to take his seat, looked around at the cabinet members, and finally fell on Foreign Minister Gu Weijun, and then he took the initiative to say.

"Actually, everyone understands the purpose of today's meeting, and they all understand why this meeting is held--"

With a pause, Chen Moran sighed in his heart. Sometimes the war money is not easy to make!

"As a warring country with a strong military force without entering the battlefield, it is inevitable that some people will think that we are ulverted and think that we don't try our best. Well, recently, the British, French and Italians have all expressed their dissatisfaction, so..."

After a moment of silence, Chen Moran just said.

"I received a bit of labor recently? Emergency letter from Prime Minister George. The Prime Minister revealed in his letter that Britain's financial resources are about to dry up. He claimed: "The time is coming when we can no longer pay for freight and buy other supplies with cash." According to the provisions of China's other legislation, warring countries must buy weapons with cash, and Britain's funds for cash and self-portation have been exhausted. The Prime Minister did not make a request to solve the financial problem, so they sent an order to the United States, because the U.S. Congress agreed to issue a $5 billion credit guarantee to the United Kingdom six months ago... Of course.

Chen Moran raised his voice slightly, and then said.

"I think this is just an excuse for the British, but whether it's an excuse or a reason, the fact is that in the second half of this year, what we have lost and the military orders of up to 2 billion yuan from Britain that will be lost are the most realistic losses! And the price is that our military enterprises will suffer unprecedented losses! Considering the reduction of orders and various losses from other countries, we will lose more than 10 billion yuan in the coming year!"

At this point, Chen Moran suddenly stopped talking. He just looked at the crowd and seemed to ask them what we should do.

"Your Majesty, the cabinet believes that China can provide loans of no more than 9 billion yuan to the Allies and a credit guarantee of 3 billion yuan at the same time to ensure that the orders of the Allies will not be lost!"

After Guan Mingtang answered like this, Chen Moran turned his eyes to Jiang Fangzhen again, and then asked him directly.

"Hundred miles, if the Guards Army invests 100 divisions on the Western Front and all the armored forces of chariots, how long will it take to end the war?"

"Your Majesty, you can force Germany to take the initiative to propose peace negotiations in about a year!"

Jiang Fangzhen replied confidently that in the military chess deduction of the staff headquarters, they had made many deductions. Although they lowered the deduction results "appropriately" because they were not confident, and at the same time increased their own losses, all the results still proved that the guards of 100 divisions The army has invested in Europe and is fully capable of ending the war within a year. Of course, Germany can stop the war in a decent way.

"Oh, in that case..."

With a slight smile, Chen Moran said after thinking for a moment.

"It is obviously irrational to continue to expand the production of munitions. In the face of competition from the United States, it is also appropriate for us to adjust our industrial production capacity. One hundred and twenty-two billion... It's too much. It should be appropriate to reduce it by two-thirds."

"However, Your Majesty, we must take into account the current dissatisfaction between Britain and France, and..."

interrupted Guan Mingtang's words, but Chen Moran said.

"Tell the British and the French that we will make a real decision with a construction surname after they agree to our terms!"

When he was speaking, the corners of his lips were raised, and a figure appeared in his mind. She was coming back soon!

(to be continued)