Chapter 279 London Conference

The problems of the Ottoman Empire and the Baghdad Railway began to enter into a long tug-of-war.

Because of Germany's over-strong response, China adopted a plan to let the Ottoman Empire build its own Baghdad Railway. China provided a long-term treasury bond loan totaling 170 million pounds, including railway construction funds, and promised to sell 3 billion yuan of treasury bonds in Huawei's Ottoman Empire.

On this basis, China and Austria signed a more comprehensive trade agreement - the Istanbul-China-Austrian Trade Treaty, making China the largest most-favoured country in the Ottoman Empire, and nominally opening up Sudan, Egypt, the Middle East, Libya and other markets for China... Sudan and Egypt are basically In the British sphere of influence, the Ottoman Empire still had territorial rights in name.

In the face of the huge benefits obtained by China, Germany and Russia are very angry, and even Britain and France are dissatisfied.

China has got too much.

Even if China basically only requires commercial trade interests and maintains respect for the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire, it is still an unacceptable special interest treaty for all countries.

According to the provisions of the Istanbul Treaty, China's tariff treatment in the Ottoman Empire is much more favorable than that of other countries. Chinese capital can freely intervene in most regions and fields of the Ottoman Empire. CITIC Bank and Standard Bank have obtained the right to issue money in the Ottoman Empire.

Moreover, China and the Ottoman Empire signed a military assistance and cooperation plan at the same time, which will help the Ottoman Empire establish a new army and navy.

If China says that it is not a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire... no one will believe it.

Germany and Russia don't dare to fight. The Ottoman Empire is nothing. China is different. China has got such a big benefit, which is definitely worth of China's war with any country.

If you really fight with China, then your wife...!

There is no one that the great powers don't hate, but for China... everyone has no good way.

The afterglow of the Far East War is still there. At present, no country dares to quarrel with the powerful China.

After the signing of the Treaty of Istanbul, it got such great benefits, and I felt that the reaction of all countries was very strong. China quickly renegotiated with Britain, carried out new coordination on Britain's interests in the Ottoman Empire, and incorporated HSBC, a subsidiary of the Sigu consortium, into the financial system of the Ottoman Empire, and the Ottoman Bank. CITIC Bank and Standard Bank are listed as the four major banknote issuing banks and international trade settlement centers of the Ottoman Empire.

In September, Hu Chuyuan personally left for the United Kingdom to renegotate with Prime Minister Bannerman to coordinate the strategies of the two countries in the Ottoman Empire.

Private friendship can still play a special role in many cases.

With a good international reputation and their personal friendship, although it took some time, Hu Chuyuan persuaded the British Liberal Party cabinet led by Prime Minister Bannerman to readjust Britain's foreign policy towards the Ottoman Empire.

... London, the former Belize residence, now the Imperial Hotel in London.

Under the Sigu Consortium, there are not only Sigu International Shipping, British Agricultural Company, Singue Foreign Bank, Singue International Telecom, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, ABN AMRO, Commerzbank, BHP Mining, Shell Petrochemical, Unilever, Philips, British International News and Newspaper Company, Lipton Food chains... and dozens of other star companies, as well as luxury hotel companies all over the world - Imperial Hotel.

At present, the most famous works of the Imperial Hotel are the Imperial Hotel in London and the Imperial Hotel Manhattan in New York.

Economy determines politics, and politics determines war.

This is a truth.

No one believes that China and Britain will eventually be completely divided because of this matter of the Ottoman Empire. In addition to the factors that the two countries are now in a big sauce jar and can't get rid of each other, the two countries also have the world's largest international consortium - the Taikoo Consortium, which is the Sino-British colonies. The biggest beneficiary of the cooperation strategy has long been found in all the colonies of the two great empires of China and Britain.

In the presidential suite at the top of the 23rd floor of the Imperial Hotel in London, Hu Chuyuan stood calmly on the huge balcony overlooking the whole of London.

Only when he arrives in Europe can he experience the whole of Europe's defense and disgust for China's rapid rise and expansion, and a strong [***] sound wave is spreading throughout Europe.

People demand that the political axe be tougher to protect the interests of the British and take more drastic measures against China.

Looking at China's rapid expansion and development, watching China's textiles, silk, tea and porcelain spreading in the UK, watching China's industrial products continue to expand around the world, watching China even completely surpass the United Kingdom in the field of ship manufacturing and coal mine exports, the British are spreading a strange sadness. Viewivism has produced a stronger [***] emotion.

The British began to accuse British capitalists of lack of patriotism, transferring a large amount of capital to China, producing in China, and giving up employment opportunities to the Chinese.

Unemployment rate.

The term

began to be born in Britain and is used frequently. Even the most conservative classical economists must admit that involuntary unemployment does exist.

The Conservative Party is gaining more seats in the upper and lower houses of the United Kingdom, and they are likely to form a new cabinet.

Wu Shuzhen had already made a pot of Qimen black tea and put it on the coffee table. She sat down first and filled a cup for Hu Chuyuan. There were pecans in the tea tray that Hu Chuyuan liked very much.

At this time, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannaman also arrived at the hotel.

This gentle financial expert has always been the main promoter of the pro-China policy. His personal relationship with Hu Chuyuan is indeed very good. These days, this is the third time he has come to the hotel to meet with Hu Chuyuan.

Hearing that Prime Minister Bannerman had arrived, Hu Chuyuan personally returned to pick him up and invited him to the balcony together, jumping over the fog of London and overlooking the whole of London.

They have discussed a lot about Britain's new policy towards the Ottoman Empire.

In general, the British political axe will accept Hu Chuyuan's suggestion to maintain the integrity of the Ottoman Empire with China. Britain is stationed in North Africa, China is stationed in the Middle East, and the Ottoman Empire recognizes the autonomy of these regions for the Ottoman territories in non-Turkish regions.

Britain still has the main protection rights in Egypt, Libya and Sudan in North Africa, while China has obtained the main protection rights of the Arabian Peninsula from Britain.

In the Arabian Peninsula, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and other regions are still under the jurisdiction of the Ottoman Empire. The protection rights of Oman, Qatar and Yemen belong to the United Kingdom, and the protection rights of Kuwait, Bahrain and the entire central region of the Arab region belong to China.

China will organize the central region of the Arabian Peninsula into a looser Islamic United Arab Emirates, which is basically equivalent to the later countries of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

Hu Chuyuan persuaded Britain and the Ottoman Empire not to support the Saudi family from a religious perspective. The Wahá'i ideology they advocated was too extreme and was likely to give birth to a new Islamic jihad.

The International London Conference to deal with issues such as the German-French conflict, the Baghdad Railway, the African colonies and the Ottoman Empire is coming. At that time, the prime ministers, prime ministers and foreign ministers of various powerful countries will gather in London to discuss new countermeasures.

Hu Chuyuan is the representative of China.

Regarding the basic tone of the London Conference, China and Britain must also be unified, which is why Hu Chuyuan and Prime Minister Bannerman met in private for the third time.

On September 17, the London Conference was officially held.

On the issue of the German-French conflict, the final solution is to divide Senegal into two parts, north and south. The north belongs to Germany as a concession. Germany recognizes the Ottoman Empire's management of domestic railways.

The issue of African colonies still maintains the results of the Berlin Conference. There must be substantial military garrison and effective management in the occupied overseas provinces and protected areas in Africa. For areas with local power, there must be a legal treaty to become a protectorate.

After a long tug of war and debate, Portugal and Italy finally failed to be recognized by other countries and lost the overseas provinces and colonies they claimed to own, while China became very "legal" in Nepal and Congo (including Gabon, Congo and Ming" in accordance with the new international standards of the London Conference. Cook Congo), Angola, Mozambique, Djibouti, Guinea, the Comoros Islands, and Annobon Island. The regions are all overseas provinces of China. In these regions, China has both stable troops and practical management.

The London Conference actually proved one thing - you can't plan in Africa without a strong navy.

The reason why China and Britain are so strong in Africa is that France can barely keep its interests in Africa. The full withdrawal of Portugal, Belgium and Italy is ultimately a naval problem.

The London Conference not only did not solve any problems, but will intensify the contradictions between existing countries.

Hu Chuyuan knows this clearly.

When he left London for a new round of state visits to the United States, Mexico and Venezuela, Germany, Italy and other countries successively announced new warship construction plans. In retaliation, Britain also accelerated the construction of Duke-class battleships.

With this trend, Hu Chuyuan believes that France and Austria-Hungary will soon be dragged into the arms race by this wave, and even Russia, which pursues the first place in the army, cannot avoid it.

The world is becoming anxious.

With the second largest navy in the world and the first largest army in the world in total, China has sent an army of 157,000 people and an Atlantic fleet with four battleships to Africa in just six years, occupying a colony of up to 6.2 million square kilometers in Africa.

It can also be said that China is a bad example.

It is undeniable that China's management of African colonies is excellent. After the occupation of Guinea and Congo, China's support funds for African colonies are about 50 million yuan every year, focusing on agriculture, infrastructure construction, education and medical care.

With the size of China's colonies in Africa reaching 6.2 million square kilometers, it is expected that China's total investment in African colonies will exceed 200 million yuan in 1907. Under the attraction of Africa's long-term preferential tax rate policy, the investment scale of private capital is also expanding year by year.

Fukang consortium alone has invested 230 million yuan in Africa in the past five years, mainly iron ore, oil, bauxite, manganese ore, copper ore and phosphate, covering wood industry and agricultural investment.

In the actual management, China has basically adopted a Tusi policy similar to that of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It has set up a provincial-level political axe agency in each overseas province. According to the distribution of local tribes, each overseas province will be divided into dozens or even hundreds of autonomous territories, and county-level institutions will be set up in the autonomous areas. Clan autonomy is the main, and county-level administration is mainly auxiliary, transferring knowledge of agriculture, education, medical care and other knowledge to the tribe.

Overseas provinces can also issue public bonds in China through the Governor's Office and raise funds to build infrastructure. The Governor's Office can also negotiate with the tribes to buy more suitable regional land ownership, and attract Chinese to these new colonies to reclaim and operate through short- and medium-term tax-free clauses to build more prosperous towns and cities. Even industrial new cities.

In Africa, the unification of the Chinese garrison will have stable camp farms, adopt the military system on the spot, and hire African indigenous people to form regiments to train troops in various places, and is also good at using indigenous troops to explore deeper areas in Africa... This is why Belgium was forced to give up the Kingdom of the Congo.

However, China is still a bad example.

China's success in Africa is constantly encouraging Germany and Italy to use more radical means to occupy new colonies.

Before China launched a tough military attack on the Kingdom of Apome (Benin, between Togo and Neyalia), Germany launched a tough military attack on the Kingdom of Apome.

Italy also accelerated its attack on Libya, trying to seize the fact that it actually occupied Libya before the British sent troops.

Hu Chuyuan didn't pay much attention to these small problems.

He is more concerned about when the whole big war will break out.

At the end of 1906, November 17.

Hu Chuyuan returned to Shanghai by boat. After returning to China, he secretly held a new meeting and continued to strengthen the development of new weapons through the National Military Commission.

This time, he put Baodu on the plane.

Especially heavy bombers.

To this end, when he returned to China, Hu Chuyuan secretly prepared a new air force system in China. Wang Huaiqing served as the Minister of the Air Force, responsible for organizing the entire air force, and added the 101st, 102nd and 103rd Divisions of the Air Force, the 101st Division as the fighter force, and the 102nd Division as the mixed force of fighter and bombers. The 103rd Division is an airborne division.

Compared with Russia, China's preparations for the air force and the development of heavy bombers have been carried out earlier, and the current progress is also very good.

The fuselage is 23 meters long, the wingspan is 33.54 meters, and the load is 22 tons. The H-5 heavy bomber with four propeller engines has the conditions for test flight.

Hu Chuyuan combed it very carefully. On the basis of H-5, he re-sent two improved models, Y-5 and H-5Z. The former is a transport aircraft, and the latter is an electronic cruise reconnaissance aircraft. A large radio communication and radar system is installed in the fuselage of the H-5Z. It is used to detect opponents in advance, detect enemy movements in the air and on the ground, and command other troops in time.

A new weapon, even if its surname can be stable and reliable, if it does not have quantitative advantages, it is difficult to play a vital role in the emerging stage.

This is the conclusion left by the Far East War for Hu Chuyuan.

So, from now on, once the H5 model has the conditions for stable service, it will produce a large number of units, continuously increase the number of air forces, and secretly place them in relatively hidden areas such as Sichuan, Shanxi, Hanzhong, Shaanxi, Huguang, Shaanxi, Ganning, etc., increase the training of air force pilots and maintenance personnel, and increase aircraft workers. The reserve of scientific and technological personnel in the industry.

Of course, for the mechanized troops that Russia and Germany are accelerating the development and production, China is bound to develop restrained weapons.

Hu Chuyuan's choice is to expand the scale of the mechanized troops, suppress the opponent with quality and quantity, force the opponent to constantly amplify the armored vehicle troops, and finally take out a series of means such as rocket launchers, wheel-longated grenade launchers, cluster bombs, anti-tank sub-mothers and so on.

Through the development of strong strike aircraft, it is specially designed for land armored vehicle units to use aircraft guns to launch 25mm armor-piercing shells, even 30mm... This is obviously a good choice.

In a word, who is the opponent?

Hu Chuyuan hopes that his opponent will regret it completely.

(to be continued)