Chapter 235 The Shadow of War

At this stage of accelerating the reform of the domestic political system and the rapid development of the domestic economy, no one wants to have a large-scale war with foreign countries. However, Ouyang Geng, who is the foreign minister, increasingly feels that this kind of thing is inevitable.

As the oldest among the young children studying abroad, Ouyang Geng is 42 years old.

He is the founder of the International Student Self-Love Association. He has served as a consular officer in the United States for ten years, and then successively served as the Minister to the United Kingdom and the United States. Before becoming the Foreign Minister, he also served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and was responsible for governing the colonies and vassal states of the Qing Empire.

Among this group of new cabinet members, he is a very special one. Like Hu Chuyuan, he also has American nationality and an American wife. Now he works as a physician at Yanjing Renji Hospital and teaches at the Beijing Academy of Medical Sciences.

Twenty years of diplomatic career told Ouyang Geng that the Allieths are now looking for reasons to go to war, and they have no other plans at all.

This morning, he just held talks with the Russian minister Nekov, trying to persuade Russia to give up its military action plan, but the conditions proposed by Russia were extremely harsh.

He knows that it is impossible for China to accept such conditions.

After the talks, he immediately went to the senior management park.

When Ouyang Geng arrived at the Capital Garden, he had lunch at noon. Hu Chuyuan and his family had lunch in Yile Hall... His life was still the same as in the past. His two wives, three sons and his family were talking and eating in the restaurant.

Hearing that Ouyang Geng was coming, Hu Chuyuan came out to greet him without finishing lunch.

When he came out of the Yile Hall, he saw Ouyang Geng waiting outside the door. Hu Chuyuan asked, "Young uncle, have you eaten yet?"

Ouyang Geng shook his head and said, "Your Excellency, I have something urgent to discuss with you."

Hu Chuyuan hummed, led Ouyang Geng to the flower hall on the west side of Yile Hall to sit down, and said, "When the conversation is over, you can stay and eat together!"

Ouyang Geng also agreed, but thought to himself, my lord, I'm afraid you won't be in the mood to eat later.

With the special admiration and gratitude for Hu Chuyuan in his heart, Ouyang Geng cautiously followed Hu Chuyuan all the way into the flower hall.

Sitting down on the bench covered with white marble slabs and cushions, Ouyang Geng hurriedly handed over an official document to Hu Chuyuan, which clearly stated the various requirements made by the Russians yesterday.

Hu Chuyuan took the official document and browsed it carefully, but he didn't look angry at all.

Everything was in his expectation, and the conditions of the Russians were very simple and rough.

First, China must stop its troops in the northwest, recognize the reading power of the Yerqiang Khanate and the protection of the Yerqiang Khanate by Russia. Regions, including Urumqi, have become the eternal and indivisible territory of Yerqiang. Second, China must agree that Russia should build a northeast railway connecting Manchuria to Vladivostok in the northeast. The railway is The construction is funded by Russia, and the management right always belongs to Russia. The ownership and management right of land within ten kilometers around the railway line belong to the Russian Eastern Railway Company. At the same time, Russia has the right to station troops along the railway.

Third, the new treaty re-signed between China and Russia, Russia must enjoy the same treatment as the United Kingdom. Russia has the right to establish banks and issue currencies in China's open coastal cities, and these currencies have the right to be used in China.

Fourth,...

There is no need to look at it carefully one by one. It's all a meaning... Either accept all this humiliatingly, or wait for the Russian army of 720,000 to enter China and occupy the whole of China.

Hu Chuyuan calmly put this official document together and asked Ouyang Geng, "Why do you think the Russians are so rampant?"

Ouyang Geng thought for a thought and said, "They have always been a rampant country and a nation, and they look down on us Chinese and all Asians from top to bottom. This is real racial discrimination. Maybe we really need to teach them a good lesson. Unfortunately, our country's economic development is starting rapidly. If there is a large-scale war with the Allies at this stage, it will have a great impact on the country's economic construction.

Hu Chuyuan said, "It has an impact, but it won't be too big. You continue to talk to the Russians. First, we can temporarily cease fire and put the dispute on hold. Third, we can establish banks, but we can't issue currency.

Ouyang Geng hesitated a little and asked, "What about the second one?"

Hu Chuyuan said, "Whatever they want... Try to talk about it for about half a year."

Ouyang Geng immediately understood that Hu Chuyuan was determined to go to war, but it took half a year to prepare. He nodded and said, "Well, I will try my best to delay with Russia."

Hu Chuyuan said: "Some unimportant small clauses can be agreed first. The first and third articles are slowly delayed, and the second article is agreed at the critical moment, but don't be in a hurry to officially announce it in the whole country and continue to delay for a few months... Otherwise, there will be a problem with your position as the foreign minister."

Ouyang Geng understands more and more that he needs to delay time at the moment.

He got up and wanted to go back to do something, but Hu Chuyuan left him behind and had a casual meal together.

In fact, Hu Chuyuan is not leisurely these days, but he is not busy. All the cabinet ministers are pulled up by him. Everyone's ability and surname are very clear. He knows better what should be handled by whom.

He has no other skills in his life. It's nothing more than making money and using money to know people.

When he left Shanghai, he had roughly handed over the business matters to Hu Zhuoyuan and his two cousins, and the domestic cultural and educational career was personally handled by his younger brother Hu Pinyuan.

In the past few days, Hu Chuyuan seems to be very idle and only does one thing in person... Even this matter is actually mainly handled by Ye Tongguang and Tu Renshou.

Not long after Ouyang Geng left, Tu Renshou came.

Hu Chuyuan invited him to the big study of Guangzheng Pavilion and sat down to discuss it secretly.

Tu Renshou came in with a thick pile of materials and spread out to Hu Chuyuan. When Hu Chuyuan looked at it for a moment, he couldn't wait to say, "Your Excellency, we can kill the French with such a move."

Hu Chuyuan continued to look at the data and said after a while, "It's a little difficult!"

Unlike the United Kingdom, France implements a variant system based on the classical gold standard system, that is, the limited exchange gold standard system. The current fixed exchange rate of the franc is 0.2984 grams of gold per franc, and the limited exchange unit is 300 ounces of gold.

To be precise, the minimum exchange unit is 28,501 francs. Without so much money, you can't exchange gold with the French Gold Reserve Bank.

For Hu Chuyuan and Qing Zheng Axe, this is certainly not a problem. Because the franc is the four major foreign exchange recognized by Qing Zheng Axe, in 20 years of foreign trade, Zheng Axe has accumulated about 2.75 billion French public bonds and francs, which can be exchanged for 820.6 tons of gold.

At present, France's total national gold reserves are about 3,500 tons.

Even with Hu Chuyuan's personal financial resources, it is very difficult to shake France's status as the world's second largest gold reserve. With a basic exchange price of 25 francs per pound, as long as he can gamble 500 million pounds, he can completely defeat France's national gold reserves.

Hu Chuyuan thought in his heart and always felt that the risk was too great. Instead of this, it was better to go to war directly.

Of course, the sudden sale of 2.75 billion francs of bonds for gold at the most critical moment is still likely to pull the French economy to hell. As long as the French economy begins to collapse, French capital will withdraw from Russia and Japan, and the economy of Russia and Japan will collapse.

He calculated in his heart that it was expected that... under conservative circumstances, he should first gradually weaken France's gold reserves, compress this number to about 2,000 tons, and then attack French gold reserves through market panic by selling French government bonds on a large scale.

The war is going to be fought, and 500 million pounds will be prepared. In any case, he will squeeze out France's gold reserves.

After Tu Renshou left, Hu Chuyuan continued to sort out the new information provided by the State Intelligence Administration in the big study, and compared the data one by one to confirm the current preparations of the Allied countries.

In fact, in the three countries of the Allies, France has no real plan to start a war. It just wants to take the opportunity to blackmail. Seeing that there is no chance, it just wants to accept it. The key is to get some benefits. After all, there is still a strong [***] emotion in China, and it always has to give some explanation to the people.

Russia is the country that can't see the situation clearly and the most bastard. It is arrogant and outrageous, but it may not really want to go to war.

Its attitude is very simple. As long as China makes the concession it requires, it will not hit China, at least for the time being, and this is only valid for a few years at most, or even only a few months.

In the final analysis, the Russian tsar's aristocracy and domestic politicians are not clear-headed and blindly believe in their own force. They only see that China has only 430,000 new armies, while Russia has 1.12 million, which is so rampant.

The Russians have no credit at all.

It is true that they really want to go to war with China in an all-round way, because they know the current situation best. Now that they go to war, the odds of the Allies are 100%, but if we wait until 1905, it's hard to say.

I also believe that the rules of the world are the law of the jungle. If you don't defeat China, you will eventually be eliminated.

In fact, if you can't buy cheap resources from China and its colonies, and then sell industrial products to China and its colonies, there is indeed no future.

Because bilateral relations and trade relations have not been able to return to normal, under the control of Hu Chuyuan, Japan has been unable to carry out normal investment and trade in China and colonial and vassal regions, which has a great impact on Japan.

The shadow of war is getting closer and closer.

In the evening, Hu Chuyuan held new discussions with Lu Guangzheng on the issue of partial preparation. At present, the new army has urgently expanded to 42 divisions, 8 divisions of the Huguang Corps, 7 divisions of the Jianghuai Corps, 5 divisions of the Qingxu Corps, 4 divisions each in Zhili, Shaanxi, Ganning and Northeast China, 3 divisions in Fujian, Zhejiang, Southwest and Liangguang, and Xinjiang Province. The establishment of a teacher is still maintained.

Due to the adoption of the wartime expansion policy, the main divisions are basically about 30,000 people. Except for those divisions that are still highly confidential, in the semi-public data, the total strength of the new army has expanded to 580,000, and the reserve divisions in each source are fully dispersed to organize reserve battalions in various counties to recruit new soldiers on the spot. Three-month assault training.

The domestic armed police force is also expanding rapidly. Due to the insufficient inventory of new Jiangnan rifles and Browning rifles, many old Jiangnan rifles, even Winchester rifles and Mauser 84/71 rifles, have been rearranged.

The navy has launched an emergency filing. This year, the warship contract for pre-sale has been completely cancelled. All the warships in construction are used for domestic loading. At the same time, two Salz-class battleships, that is, the domestic Liangzhou-class battleships, have been urgently purchased from Germany.

Salz-class battleships are jointly developed by the two sides. At present, Germany has a total of four, two are under construction, and China has six and four are under construction.

As the real main warship of the domestic navy, the number of this class will play a key role in the naval decisive battle.

The existing six Ningyuan-class battleships in China are also undergoing major repairs and implementing the steam turbine transformation plan. At present, two have completed major changes. Because to adapt to the cabin structure, the steam turbine scheme has to be customized separately, and the modification cost is actually relatively high.

The Ningyuan class and the Liangzhou class are basically sister battleships. The tonnage of the two sides is roughly the same, the caliber and quantity of the main gun are roughly the same. The improved Ningyuan class is not much different from that of the Liangzhou class in terms of speed.

Once the whole improvement plan is successful, plus two ships temporarily purchased from Germany, a main joint fleet of 14 12,000-ton battleships can be formed in China, which can increase to 18 next year, and 25 by the end of next year.

Yes, an unprecedented real Far East war is about to break out, and the final number of participating countries is likely to increase to more than a dozen countries, sweeping the whole East Asian region.

(to be continued)