The sudden increase of British troops in the Assam region of northwest India made the empire very uncomfortable, and the empire's increase of troops in the Kachin region of northern Myanmar also made the British very nervous. Originally, although the empire had been making small moves in the Assam region, it continued to expand. Although the area is under actual control, China and Britain can basically maintain stable and peaceful relations.
As the deployment of forces between the two sides in Southwest Asia shows a trend of confrontation, the long-term contradiction between China and Britain gradually emerges. Britain wants to maintain its glory and interests around the world, while the empire wants to squeeze Britain out of Asia.
The empire's foreign policy toward Britain is to recognize Britain's interests in other parts of the world, but at the same time try to contain Britain's interests in Asia. The empire gradually squeezes Britain out of Asia, and Britain continues to make concessions as its national power declines. This process may last as long as For decades, the two sides did not break out into a large-scale war. If Britain was unwilling to gradually withdraw from Asia amid this squeeze, and even used military force to prevent it, it would be a very tragic event. .
The empire fights on its own in Asia. Britain traveled thousands of miles to Asia to fight the empire. It is an unwise choice no matter how you think about it. But is Britain willing to be gradually squeezed out of Asia by the empire?
?Obviously not willing.
After the empire increased its troops in the Kachin region, Britain was very nervous.
The British Empire once said a famous saying among countries, that is, "the theory of strength first". When their military power is strong and invincible, they freely declare that a powerful empire can get everything they want, but when their strength is weak , they began to declare the importance of mutual respect and peace between nations.
??China is really dismissive of this, but on the surface, China also recognizes the mutual respect between countries, and at the same time requires the United Kingdom to allow Asian countries to have complete political freedom as soon as possible.
No matter how hard it tries, China will always find a way to make trouble for Britain.
After the empire dispatched new troops to the Kachin Autonomous Prefecture, the British Ambassador to China, Sir Anchibalad Carr, went to the Imperial Ministry of Foreign Affairs to communicate and confirmed that the main responsibility of the British garrison in Assam was to eliminate local anti-British forces. The rebel forces have no plans to increase the tension. At the same time, they also hope that the empire will effectively control the Southwest Military Reclamation Bureau and should not cross-border reclamation and affect the lives of local people.
This is taking off your pants and farting.
After meeting with Sir Carl, Gu Weijun immediately went to the Central Palace to report to the emperor on the diplomatic affairs between the two countries.
The family members were still staying in Lushan for vacation, and Crown Prince Yuhua stayed in Lushan to attend a meeting. The Nuo Grand Central Palace was empty as if there was only the emperor alone. Song Biao seemed particularly quiet in the past two days. He was the only one eating, sleeping and sleeping every day. rest.
This made him a little uncomfortable. After all, this was the Central Palace, the central palace of the royal family.
The empire seems to be at war everywhere, in Southwest Asia, Northwest Asia, Northeast Asia, and the Southeast Pacific The empire also has serious differences with Britain, the Soviet Union, Japan, and the United States. It seems that there will never be peace. But in the city of Beijing, Life is as ordinary as ever, and the war with Japan is gradually entering its final stage, just like the war in Afghanistan entering its seventh year. It is painless and painless. Only military expenditures are putting pressure on the central government.
In the Central Palace.
The luxurious and splendid palace is so colorful and gorgeous in the summer, with quiet bamboo groves, gurgling streams, and blooming flowers. After thirty years of construction, the Central Palace can be called the most luxurious and gorgeous palace in the world. During the lifetime of Emperor Song Biao, In business, this seems to be the only tangible thing that is within reach and visible.
Song Biao, who spent every midsummer in the Summer Palace and Chengde Summer Resort, suddenly returned to the Central Palace, and he felt more and more that the midsummer in the Central Palace was also beautiful and quiet.
At his age, a man is always inseparable from the family he has created, but occasionally being away from his family and staying alone in the Central Palace has its own unique experience.
He just strolled through the Imperial Garden with almost no pursuits, enjoying the tranquility of the afternoon. He wandered randomly in the corridors lined with bamboo forests on both sides. Throughout the morning, he squandered his time in the garden of the Central Palace, calm and peaceful. Qing Ning can make him think more about the meaning of life.
He thought, in this endless universe, looking down from the universe to the planet below, who could see him in this palace as silent as a wild field?
Everything he strives for is so small in the nirvana of the universe.
Prime Minister Gu Weijun came to ask for an audience. It was almost lunch time, so Song Biao did not rush to meet Gu Weijun. Instead, he asked Jiang Shoulin to arrange a luncheon and prepare to have a meal with Prime Minister Gu Weijun at noon.
When the time was right, Emperor Song Biao walked out of the quiet Imperial Garden and hosted a banquet for the Prime Minister in the nearby Cizheng Garden.
??Gu Weijun is in the stone boat next to the rockery in Cizheng Garden.After waiting for half an hour, he saw the emperor walking in leisurely. Gu Weijun stood up in a hurry and bowed. Emperor Song Biao simply nodded and asked him to sit down and dine together.
In fact, the royal banquet has always been very simple. For daily meals, on average, each royal member only arranges four dishes, two soups and one dessert. The portions are not large. Today's arrangement is more casual, because there are only two people, the emperor and the prime minister. For a separate meal, the Inner Imperial Culinary Bureau arranged six dishes, two cold dishes, and a cup of bird's nest each.
Just like when he was in the Northeast, Emperor Song Biao had a very good preference for braised lion heads. The Imperial Food Bureau would arrange it every two days, but the tastes kept changing, including Sichuan, Cantonese, Shandong, and Huaiyang. The cooking techniques of the Zhejiang and Zhejiang cuisines are different. Today is the Huaiyang style braised lion head, with a lighter soup.
After sitting down, Emperor Song Biao took the initiative to serve Gu Weijun with a lion's head with a spoon and said: "Today it's just you and me eating, so we don't have to pay attention to any rules. Just eat enough."
Gu Weijun was very moved. Not everyone can have such a holy relative.
Song Biao thought of other things and continued to ask him: "How is your father-in-law's health?"
Gu Weijun replied: "It's okay. I've been pretty strong in the past few years. I caught a cold and pneumonia a few days ago, but it's not a serious problem."
Song Biao nodded slightly and sighed with relief: "It's fine that it's nothing serious."
There are some things that Song Biao didn¡¯t say, and there was actually no need to say them clearly.
Gu Weijun¡¯s marriage is basically broken. As we all know, the couple has other people outside. However, due to political reasons, the two have not divorced.
This situation may be considered inevitable. Marriage is an intimate relationship that is difficult to maintain. When both parties are no longer intimate, it will be even more difficult to maintain.
Because this matter is generally Gu Weijun's fault, the relationship between him and Tang Shaoyi is not as close as it was in previous years. Tang Shaoyi is the kind of person who is unwilling to retire, so in the past few years, he has made troubles within the party There were a lot of small moves, but fortunately, the two of them didn't break up on the whole. Even if they did, Gu Weijun would still have enough strength to be re-elected without the support of the Tang family's connections and parliamentarians.
Song Biao doesn¡¯t like to interfere in these private matters, and he won¡¯t say it explicitly. He just feels quite emotional when he thinks about it.
Compared with Tang Shaoyi, his relationship with his three sons-in-law is still very good.
In fact, many people don¡¯t know that Su Bin is his son-in-law.
Song Biao really liked Su Bin very much, to some extent it was his admiration in the past, and Su Bin was indeed very talented. After his first wife died of illness, Song Biao used Chen Jin as a matchmaker to marry his second daughter, Princess An Yi. Introduce it to him.
Princess An Yi's married life was also very unfortunate. Her original husband was a major in the Air Force. Due to an accident, he died in the 14th year of Shenwu. After that, Princess An Yi had a lover, who was a financial officer. A staff member of the department was very handsome. Song Biao met him twice, but Song Biao disliked this person very much because he was actually married, at least not divorced.
Under Song Biao's instruction, Chen Jin was forced to intervene in the matter as her brother-in-law. Princess An Yi initially looked down on Su Bin and was unwilling to continue the relationship, but the matter was still being arranged. Including Concubine Shu, she also intervened in the matter many times. Before the Sino-Japanese War began, Princess An Yi agreed to the engagement with Su Bin.
This matter has been going on for more than five years. For the royal family, it is more or less not very glorious, so it is also very confidential. Even people like Fu Zuoyi who once served as the chief minister of the inner court don't know about it.
Now it seems that keeping it secret too well is not a good thing.
If Fu Zuoyi had known that Su Bin's current situation was special, he might not have brought Su Bin back to the Northeast Defense Forces Operations Staff Department. If Su Bin had stayed in the Second Army as acting chief of staff, the situation would have been better. Of course, it was possible. He made a mistake with Fu Zuoyi, because Su Bin is also very risky in using troops to fight.
Su Bin is a great talent.
Emperor Song Biao would definitely not let him idle. Shortly after Su Bin returned to the staff headquarters, he reassigned him to Chen Wu and served as division commander of the Fourth Army. Later, he was promoted to commander of the 14th Army. The Korean War happened to be a In a very special stage, the empire used to be very close to the German and American army systems. There was no army-level establishment in peacetime. During the Sino-Japanese War, the disadvantages of this problem became very obvious.
According to Chen Wu's proposal, the current Northeastern National Defense Force has begun to organize at the corps level. The specific organizational reforms are responsible for Chen Wu and Liu Gengyun. The current situation is that each group army has two to three corps. After the war, The corps-level establishment will continue to be abolished, and the military region commander will continue to command each division and brigade.A basic command unit at level ??.
Su Bin happened to take this opportunity to become the commander of the 14th Army, and then came under the command of Xue Yue. His performance was certainly eye-catching, but Emperor Song Biao knew very well that General Su was a handsome man, not a first-rate general.
The relationship between Song Biao and Su Bin must be very good, and the relationship between him and Chen Jin should be said to be very good too. After all, they have been together for so many years. Princess An Xian¡¯s husband is not as famous as the first two. He is just from the Central Institute of Technology He is an associate professor of general surgery, but this consort has the best relationship with the emperor, because he is not busy and can often accompany Princess An Xian back to the palace to stay for a few days.
Thinking about the relationship between Tang Shaoyi and his son-in-law, and then thinking about himself, in comparison, Emperor Song Biao felt that his life was still very good, his children were good, his son-in-law and daughter-in-law were also good, at least there was no asshole.
A family is like this, the environment is very important.
Emperor Song Biao and Prime Minister Gu Weijun had dinner together. Neither of them was eager to talk about British issues. They only talked about some not very important things, mostly related to the Lushan Conference.
After the luncheon was over and tea was served again, Song Biao took a sip of green tea to clear his mouth. Then he asked Gu Weijun: "How was your meeting with the British Ambassador?"
Gu Weijun hurriedly replied: "It is precisely to report this matter to Bixia. Ambassador Carr explained to our country the motivation for Britain to send troops to the Assam region. In principle, there is no plan to have a military conflict with our country, so we hope that our country will exercise restraint. At the same time, we are also required to explain the goal of sending troops south, especially the navy to the South China Sea."
Song Biao said simply, and asked Gu Weijun: "What do you think about this matter?"
Gu Weijun said: "Reporting to Your Majesty, I believe that the Sino-British matter is not because our country is the main one. The Asian League member states have a firm anti-British stance. Our country should retreat behind the scenes and use the stance of protecting allies to push the Asian League countries to become enemies of the United Kingdom. , and unify the opinions within the Asian League to unanimously confront the British, especially encouraging Islamic and Southeast Asian countries to confront the British. This is the best policy. As for our country and the British, such an obvious confrontation is not necessarily necessary. As long as China and the British do not conflict directly, On the surface, my country gives the UK the highest respect, but secretly gradually encroaches on the actual scope of control in the southwest, and then supports other countries to confront the UK, making it difficult for the UK to take into account the overall situation and concentrate on entangled with my country in the southwest and Taiwan. This is the best policy."
Song Biao nodded slightly, but said: "I'm afraid that other countries are not so easy to control, and things will be more likely to intensify."
Gu Weijun said: "That should be a matter for the Asian League, not for our country."
Song Biao agreed: "Your idea is quite good. The number of members of the Asian Alliance is increasing day by day, and each country has its own plans, but one thing is unified, and that is the anti-British and anti-colonial stance."
Gu Weijun said: "Among the Asian League, the only country that is truly capable of sharing our worries at this stage is Iran, and Iran is the result of support over the past two decades. Although Saudi Arabia and other countries are getting richer, they are still insufficient in terms of strength. We I think that the empire should give more support to its allies and encourage the development of all countries, especially the development of Southeast Asia. This is the foundation for a long-term foothold in the world. As for the current situation, it encourages Middle Eastern countries to expand conflicts with the United Kingdom, and our country uses military strength to suppress the United Kingdom behind the scenes. The best policy is to promote further decolonization in Asia."
Song Biao sighed.
Politicians have politicians¡¯ ideas after all, but Gu Weijun¡¯s method is indeed better.
If it were the thoughts of an ordinary person, Song Biao would definitely hope that the Imperial Navy would have a decisive battle with the British Navy and there would be an alternation between the old and the new. But in reality, operating such a thing requires very high skills and finesse.
After thinking deeply, Song Biao and Gu Weijun ordered: "Handle this matter according to your ideas. You don't have to rush to intensify the conflict for the time being, but I want to remind you that the empire's current naval superiority can be maintained for about five years. If It is determined that we still have to fight a decisive battle with the British Navy, and we need to seize the time, the sooner the better."
Gu Weijun couldn't help but think about it for a moment and replied: "I will make appropriate arrangements."
Song Biao did not doubt this. People who can become the Prime Minister of the Empire always have extraordinary talents, and Gu Weijun's most outstanding talents are his diplomatic skills and international vision.
Gu Weijun¡¯s idea is clearly revealed. After all, he will still use Iran and other Islamic countries to fight against Britain. In this way, Britain will be afraid of China¡¯s strength and cannot carry out military operations. It will gradually retreat in the expansion of the entire Asian League until it loses its influence and colonies in Asia.
Although Song Biao doubted the effectiveness of this method and the possibility of avoiding war in the end, he was still willing to support Prime Minister Gu Weijun to govern according to his own ideas.
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Because of its military strengthThere was a large gap. Even though Britain was angry about the empire's expansionism in the southwestern frontier, Britain was still willing to resolve the dispute through negotiation. In early August, Prime Minister Chamberlain sent Foreign Secretary Sir Halifax to visit Beijing. It is hoped that a peace agreement will be reached on the Assam issue and the two sides will redraw the border.
Based on the authorization of Prime Minister Chamberlain, Sir Halifax proposed to draw a bilateral boundary in Dinsukiya, which was equivalent to recognizing the 27,000 square kilometers of area that the empire had illegally occupied for fourteen years before, and in principle allowed Residents of Kachin State have the right to vote to decide the future status of the state. They can choose to secede or merge with China and stay in Myanmar.
Because in principle, the British side has no objection to the Chinese living in Kachin State participating in the vote, which is tantamount to a disguised recognition of the annexation of Kachin State to the territory of the Chinese Empire.
Chamberlain, as the leader of the Conservative Party, made so many concessions and was severely criticized by the liberal parties and the Labor Party at home, but he did not meet China's needs.
Gu Weijun accepted Chamberlain's proposal. He held two bilateral talks with Lord Halifax in Beijing, and finally reached conditions acceptable to both parties. On the basis of Britain's concessions, both parties promised not to maintain military operations in the southwest. Confrontation on.
Gu Weijun had good personal relationships with Chamberlain and Sir Halifax. Prime Minister Chamberlain also had good contacts with Emperor Song Biao during his visit to China in 1937.
Personal relations between national leaders do help solve problems between the two countries, but they can never solve the fundamental problem, and the fundamental problem is that Britain no longer deserves to have so many colonies, and the empire deserves to rule the new century.
China and Britain were not idle either. In order to maintain domestic support, Prime Minister Chamberlain agreed to the proposal of Lord of the Admiralty and Liberal Party leader Winston Churchill to increase the size of the navy in the Indian Ocean and pass a new budget in the future. Within four years, we will build six more aircraft carriers and eliminate six older battleships.
The occurrence of the Assam incident actually only clearly exposed the contradiction between China and Britain. As the strength of the British Empire further declines, the strength of the Chinese Empire continues to grow rapidly, and the conflicts of interests between the two sides in Asia and the Eurasian continent will It will become more and more intensified. This cannot be solved by the Sino-British Kachin Autonomy Agreement, let alone resolve the conflict of interests between the two sides by this agreement.
The British hoped that the Empire would reduce the size of the South Pacific Fleet in Bandar Seri Begawan to avoid conflicts between the two sides, and wrote this commitment into the "Sino-British Kachin Autonomy Agreement", but the Empire refused on the grounds of non-interference. This proposal still maintains the large scale of the South Pacific Fleet with four aircraft carriers. As the British decided to strengthen its naval garrison in the Indian Ocean, the empire also officially opened Qatif Military Port in the Persian Gulf and dispatched two aircraft carrier fleets to station.
The two sides have temporarily calmed down their competition in the southwest region, but in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, a new round of competition between China and Britain has begun to become more intense. But from this period on, the empire and Britain will adopt more secret war policies. .
Emperor Song Biao once had a very good personal relationship with George V, and Chief Gu Weijun also had a good relationship with Prime Minister Chamberlain. However, national interests are national interests, and there is nothing to be vague about this. Just as the United States in the 21st century has secretly Just like supporting Japan and the Philippines in provoking China, we must not only attack our opponents, but also avoid a complete breakdown of bilateral relations. The best way is to support allies in provoking the United Kingdom, rather than directly acting on our own.
China has the strength to win more national interests, but the British Empire does not have the strength to protect the interests it occupies. This is the fundamental contradiction between the two sides. This contradiction cannot be reconciled by any personal relationship, whether it is a secret war or an open war. , whether it is provocation or containment, strength always comes first. (To be continued. Please search Piaotian Literature, the novels will be better and updated faster!)