Emperor Song Biao was obviously unwilling to meet with Prime Minister Winston Churchill, but there were many things in this world that he could not choose. When he flew back to Beijing, Prime Minister Churchill had already held meetings with Prime Minister Gu Weijun and Chief of General Staff Jiang Fangzhen.
The bargaining part is the work between the three of them. Emperor Song Biao¡¯s final authority is only to decide the outcome of the negotiation between the three of them.
So on the night when he returned to the Central Palace, Emperor Song Biao had dinner with his family, and after taking the time to talk with his eldest son, Crown Prince Yuhua, about the current situation between China and Britain, he immediately asked Gu Weijun and Jiang Fangzhen to Individuals went to his imperial study to meet him and listen to reports from the Prime Minister and Chief of General Staff.
Gu Weijun and Jiang Fangzhen were well prepared. They quickly arrived at the Central Palace and met with the emperor in the imperial study.
Emperor Song Biao was very special this time. He kept Crown Prince Yuhua by his side to participate in the discussion. In Gu Weijun's memory, this should be the first time, but he didn't think there was anything surprising. After all, As the emperor aged and frail, Crown Prince Yuhua gained more and more experience from his long-term work in the central cabinet, the military, and the National Assembly. This was a moment that would come sooner or later.
Maybe he won¡¯t see it during Gu Weijun¡¯s tenure, but one day, the emperor will retreat behind the scenes, allowing Crown Prince Yuhua to serve as the heir to the emperor and replace his father in hearings. One day, the emperor will even become the real emperor.
Gu Weijun and Jiang Fangzhen were actually very happy to see this day coming. After Crown Prince Yuhua graduated from the Central Imperial University with a master's degree in political science and law, he entered a central institution and began a fifteen-year study journey. They successively served as mentors. Seeing Crown Prince Yuhua's growing maturity and stability, as well as his generally recognized reputation as a "virtuous man", both Gu and Jiang were indeed equally happy for the smooth and gradual succession of the imperial line.
This is a really good thing.
They, two important ministers who have served the emperor for more than thirty years, have developed a deep tacit understanding over the years. At this time, when they looked at each other, they both felt that we two brothers were going to have a drink to celebrate tonight.
Emperor Song Biao had a very general feeling about this matter and did not take it seriously. Because he had been handling the matter step by step, others did not dare to speak and could only watch his arrangements every step of the way.
Crown Prince Yuhua was also not very excited, in fact he was quite nervous. He was also very cautious and stood aside with his head bowed silently. The competition he faced was not as fierce as that between the Manchu and Qing princes in the previous dynasty. Since he was born, his identity as the crown prince has been largely determined. The reason why he was nervous was because the father beside him was indeed a terrible person.
Throughout China¡¯s three thousand years of imperial tradition, there are only a handful of emperors like his father. Except for Emperor Qin, Han Wu and Emperor Taizong of Tang, it is really difficult to compare with others. For example, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty did not have the merit of opening up new territories, but he was still far behind.
The emperor of the empire and the emperor of China are judged by their achievements in opening up new territories, no matter how well you do in other aspects. As long as you lose territory, you can only be considered second-rate or even third-rate.
??Although Han Gaozu was under the control of the Xiongnu when he founded the country, he endured the humiliation and shouldered the burden and allowed his great-grandson to find an opportunity to defeat the Xiongnu and regain the lost territory. He was considered a far-sighted emperor. Several Taizus really couldn't do it.
Crown Prince Yuhua¡¯s mood can indeed be described as walking on thin ice when standing next to his father to listen to politics.
Each of the four people in the imperial study had a different mood. Emperor Song Biao was of course most concerned about the outcome of the negotiations between Churchill and Gu Weijun, because he had to meet with Prime Minister Churchill tomorrow and give the other party a clear answer.
Of course, Emperor Song Biao already knew the British request before returning to Beijing. The British request was also very simple, that is, China was required to participate in the exhibition immediately, because the British could no longer hold on.
As for whether Britain is really at the end of its rope, China will believe it only if Prime Minister Churchill opens his mouth. This requires China¡¯s own intelligence agency to speculate.
After Gu Weijun and Jiang Fangzhen sat down, Emperor Song Biao asked Gu Weijun: "How credible do you think Churchill's words are?"
Gu Weijun thought for a moment and replied: "Reporting to Your Majesty, I don't think his words are very credible, but Britain really can't hold on for too long. One thing he said is right, that is, Britain is not fighting Germany for the sake of itself. Britain is fighting for all other countries. If China and the United States do not join the war and cannot provide more free assistance, Britain would rather lose its dignity and negotiate an armistice agreement with Germany. As he himself said, the British Empire is no longer what it once was. The sun never sets on the Empire. Faced with a Germany that has occupied Soviet France and the entire Eastern Europe, Britain cannot withstand it."
Emperor Song Biao also admitted it, saying: ¡°The colonial crisis and the pound crisis have been two major issues in the past two years.The damage done to Britain during the war was severe. If Britain wants to continue fighting, it can still get a lot of support from Canada and Australia, and China and the United States will continue to provide more support. The key is that it will give up this kind of fighting. If Britain and Germany reach an agreement and the two sides temporarily cease the war, Germany will not continue to attack Britain and its colonies, especially those colonies that Britain still retains in Africa. Four or five years later, Germany will formally digest France and its colonies, plus the original With regard to the resources and industrial systems of the Soviet-occupied areas and Eastern Europe, Germany will continue to launch a larger-scale war against Britain until the entire British African colonies are under German control. I think Prime Minister Churchill understands this very well. Therefore, the possibility that Britain will unilaterally cease war with Germany is extremely low. In addition to Germany, there are three most powerful countries in the world today, namely China, the United States and Britain. Among these three countries, the conflict between Germany and the United States is the lowest. Fighting a naval war with the United States is definitely not what Germany is good at. If Germany wants to go to war with China, occupy the entire Central and Western Asia, and take away China's Soviet-occupied areas and northern areas, it will still need to prepare for many years. Therefore, for Germany's expansionism, its best development aspect is the past Brilliant, but its overall strength is no longer what it used to be. It is also the weakest link among the three strongest countries in the world. With Germany's current industrial resources, as long as it produces aircraft carriers and other ships at all shipyards, it will be able to have the strength to engage in a decisive ocean battle with Britain in three years, and five years will be enough for it to easily destroy the British navy. . "
At this point, Emperor Song Biao paused for a while, and finally concluded: "So, Britain will definitely fight to the end. Britain still understands such a simple truth, and Prime Minister Churchill understands it very well. Speaking behind closed doors . We will definitely join the war because the United States will settle this score. Now Germany's most threatening opponent is the United Kingdom, followed by China. Finally, they are the United States. We have a saying that goes well, the emperor is not in a hurry, what is the hurry for the eunuch? ? The United States has no reason to join the war. Even if the sky falls, we, China, will hold it up."
Jiang Fangzhen nodded in agreement. This is also the consensus among several senior officials of their Central Defense Commission. The war between China and Germany will happen sooner or later. The only question now is when to start the war and for which appropriate reason.
He said to Emperor Song Biao: "I think it is better to fight this war early than to fight it late. Although the war will eventually end with special means, before that, we can definitely use appropriate war means to take advantage of the opportunity to expand our presence in Africa." and control in Eastern Europe.¡±
Emperor Song Biao nodded silently and asked with Gu Weijun and Jiang Fangzhen: "What is your current attitude?"
Gu Weijun remained silent.
Jiang Fangzhen said: "Completely resolve the issues of Papua and Myanmar, as well as the sale of some islands in the Indian Ocean to our country, especially the Myanmar issue. Without Myanmar, our navy would have to go far to obtain sufficient supplies. Once the Myanmar issue is resolved, we will By establishing a naval base in Myanmar, large-scale naval supplies can be carried out directly from the Kunming-Myanmar Railway."
Song Biao asked: "Have we talked about it?"
Jiang Fangzhen said: "We haven't discussed it yet. Our current public attitude is to veto participation in the war and maintain the original agreed conditions. Unless Germany attacks Spain and Sweden and seriously threatens our country's maritime rights of passage, our country will not consider declaring war on Germany. "
Song Biao nodded and approved this negotiation principle. He still wanted to raise the price and force Britain to accept higher conditions. He would rather appear short-sighted and stupid in international politics than actually get more benefits.
After careful weighing, Emperor Song Biao said to Jiang Fangzhen: "I will carefully continue to express the empire's determination to safeguard its interests in the world, but I will not easily agree to Britain's declaration of war. To say the least, even if Britain withdraws from the war, We still have ways to solve the problem, which means we have enough negotiating capital. Of course, if we ultimately fail to reach a satisfactory new agreement with the UK, we should still give the UK more practical resources, and Congress can push for a new agreement. The Lend-Lease Act allowed us to lease surplus military supplies to Britain to support British operations."
Jiang Fangzhen and Gu Weijun agreed together.
The views of the three people are basically the same. It is a matter of time to join the war. The key is to maximize benefits. From a financial perspective, Gu Weijun hopes to declare war later, while Jiang Fangzhen is worried about the success of Germany's nuclear weapons program and hopes to join the war early and solve the problem early.
Jiang Fangzhen considered more factors, because both Germany and the United States were developing nuclear weapons. Germany was advancing faster and using more national resources. Germany now has such a huge support from the Soviet-occupied area, plus France , the Czech Republic, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and other European occupying powers, it is likely that it will take two or three years for them to develop nuclear weapons.
The three of them discussed this issue for nearly two hours and finallyAfter analyzing various problems that could be encountered, I finally felt that the best time to declare war should be before September next year. If it is later, the size and overall strength of the German army will reach a very high level through the integration of the entire Europe. The level of horror.
Generally speaking, the sooner you declare war, the better.
The truth is this, but tomorrow¡¯s negotiations with Prime Minister Churchill are another matter.
After the secret talk that night, Gu Weijun returned to the Prime Minister's Office late at night and made some new arrangements for the emperor's meeting with Prime Minister Churchill tomorrow afternoon.
On the afternoon of the next day, Emperor Song Biao met with Prime Minister Churchill in the State Guest Room of the Central Palace. In order not to arouse suspicion in Germany, the meeting was not very grand in terms of etiquette. It was basically the same as a normal Prime Minister's visit. Even the meeting The time is only scheduled for one hour, and in principle, the two sides will not issue any joint statement or announcement.
Just like Prime Minister Gu Weijun¡¯s visit to the King of England, it seems to be just a matter of etiquette.
This was actually the first time Emperor Song Biao met with Prime Minister Churchill. Emperor Song Biao also made a small experiment with Prime Minister Churchill, introducing Crown Prince Yuhua to Prime Minister Churchill, and began to gradually push his successor into world politics. stage.
In front of Crown Prince Yuhua, Emperor Song Biao fully demonstrated his sympathy for the British Empire and his short-sightedness towards international politics, which was completely opposite to his attitude in the secret conversation last night.
The Emperor of Song Dynasty used his own personal example. Tell Crown Prince Yuhua the most basic truth that national interests are the most important. Many times, it is short-sighted. Only trivial calculations can win more benefits for the empire, and the so-called friendship between countries is purely empty talk.
Prime Minister Churchill will be visiting China for seven days this time. In fact, he wants to have a good negotiation with China. He also understands that China will definitely send troops. The key is that Britain must pay a high price to allow China to participate in the war.
This is a very ridiculous thing for the UK, because even if China participates in the war, it is fighting for itself, but the reality is always so disgusting.
In the next four days. Prime Minister Churchill held two more talks with Prime Minister Gu Weijun and Chief of General Staff Jiang Fangzhen, and the issue of the empire's strategic support to Britain was settled. Britain did not continue to offer a higher price, and the empire did not agree to declare war on Germany.
It is impossible for the empire to reveal its true plans and ideas during this period, because it is likely to be unilaterally used by the British, such as deliberately leaking intelligence and negotiation results to Germany.
The real negotiations have not started yet, and now we can only say that we are maintaining the status quo. The empire will provide money and effort to support Britain in fighting for a while to see the effect. At the same time, the empire will continue to accelerate the pace of war preparations and prepare for the final battle with Nazi Germany.
After reaching an agreement with the UK. The empire began to consider strengthening military deployment in three directions in Germany. In addition to increasing military assistance to Britain and the size of the garrison in Spain, it also strengthened military training and comprehensive operations on the east bank of the Volga River without expanding the military scale. deployment, and the increase in strategic material reserves.
In order to prevent Germany from taking the initiative to intensify the conflict, the empire also adopted a clearer policy at the diplomatic level that would not anger Germany. It sent Foreign Minister Guo Taiqi to visit the United States and asked European countries to stop the war as soon as possible through joint prestige to avoid further damage to the world. .
The mediation conditions proposed by China and the United States are that Germany withdraws from France, resumes peace talks, and after the problem is resolved through negotiations, Germany further withdraws from Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway. The United Kingdom can accept this condition, but Germany is absolutely impossible to accept it. In fact, China and the United States It has never really considered giving Germany an acceptable peace negotiation condition. The so-called mediation is just a symbolic indication that China and the United States are unlikely to directly intervene in the war.
It is an indisputable fact that Britain's overall strength has been severely depleted in the collision with China. However, across the English Channel, with the superior strength of its air force and navy, Britain can still resist Germany's invasion plan.
China and the United States also played an important role in this process. They successively passed the Lend-Lease Act, leasing naval ships and aircraft to the United Kingdom, and selling more destroyers and combat aircraft to the United Kingdom to help the United Kingdom resist German military attacks.
Since Britain lags far behind Germany in the development of ballistic missiles and cruise missiles, the Empire has also sold early models of short-range missiles to Britain on a large scale to help Britain counterattack Germany's missile offensive.
Shortly after Prime Minister Winston Churchill left the United Kingdom, the Straits Settlements of Singapore held a referendum and passed a resolution to merge into the Chinese Empire with a high vote rate of nearly 90%. Before the referendum, Crown Prince Yuhua personally arrived in Singapore to promote the vote and promised to give The status of the Zhili Prefecture in Singapore.
The Empire¡¯s plans for this area of ??Singapore??This is already a long-term matter. Previously, on the grounds of safeguarding the interests of the Chinese, they had repeatedly communicated and negotiated with the British, forcing the British to establish the independent Temasek State in 1931, with the Johor Strait as the boundary, with a total area of ??4,600 kilometers.
These places plus the Bintan, Batam Islands, Riau Islands, New and Lingga Islands that the empire divided during the Dutch partition of Indonesia will be the empire's new Singapore Zhili Prefecture, with a total area of ??12,000 square kilometers, and Chinese people account for 10% of the area. 8%, because of its port, geographical and local financial advantages, it will occupy an absolutely important and special position in Southeast Asia.
With the annexation of Singapore, the empire's overall layout strategy in Southeast Asia was completely complete. After the British gradually withdrew from Southeast Asia, the empire successfully weakened Malaya and Indonesia into smaller countries, and the empire owned Singapore in Southeast Asia. and the Autonomous Provinces of Kalimantan and Sulawesi, which have exerted an extremely strong restraint on the entire Southeast Asia.
In the subsequent Southeast Asia policy, the empire will formally promote the independence of Indonesia, Malaya, and Papua. Similarly, the empire will also allow Ambon and East Timor to invade. On every issue, the empire will focus on its own interests and There was a long-standing need to carve out divisions that would ensure the empire's highest prerogatives throughout Southeast Asia and limit the opportunities for these states to challenge the empire's authority in the future.
For example, in the division between the Republic of East Leste and Indonesia, the empire established a dividing line in the Tual Strait on the southeast side of the Banda Sea, so that neither country could control this strait, which meant that the empire had the highest actual power in the Banda Sea. The empire not only has naval fleet garrison and base here, but also has free access to the two entrances and exits of the Banda Sea.
The empire incorporated West Papua into the entire Republic of Papua, so that Indonesia's actual territory was basically limited to Sumatra and Java. For the new Republic of Papua, the empire divided the New Britain Islands and re-adopted the rule of virtue in this area. The name was changed to the Pomeranian Islands, and it was also the third largest autonomous province of the empire in Southeast Asia.
Strength is undisputed power.
Whether the empire is domineering or hypocritical, its strength ensures that the empire has enough power to divide Southeast Asia in its favor, giving the empire absolute control over the entire East Asia region.
At the same time, the empire also formulated new plans to assist Southeast Asian countries in developing their economies, signed free trade agreements, assisted them in building infrastructure, built roads and ports, encouraged corporate investment, and continued to import resources and export industrial products from these countries.
In the development plan of the entire Southeast Asia, the Chinese are still the most important driving force. In the next twenty years, the empire will still maintain an immigration rate of 1,001.5 million per year, using the Chinese as the economic and political main body, and re-establish a new order in Southeast Asian countries. .
Under the imperial foreign immigration policy, the proportion of Chinese in Thailand has exceeded 50% in the past thirty years, and the proportion of Chinese in Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaya has exceeded 30%. In the local economy, the Chinese Chinese businessmen also occupy a dominant position.
As this policy has been implemented for thirty years, with the exception of Japan, Chinese businessmen have occupied an absolute dominant position among capitalists in the entire East Asia region. More than half of the Chinese in Southeast Asia still hold imperial passports and dual nationality. Under the empire's deterrence, all East Asian countries except Japan were forced to recognize dual nationality, which brought the empire's demographic expansionism to an unprecedented peak around 1940.
In this kind of population expansionism, the Chinese have not only brought modern culture, capital, labor, and industry to Southeast Asian countries, but also brought about population exchange and mixing. Chinese and people with Chinese ancestry will gradually occupy the majority of the entire Southeast Asia. status.
In this process, the total number of Chinese in the mainland has actually not increased significantly in the past thirty years. The total population of the entire empire in 1941 was 580 million, while the local resident population was about 450 million. In the entire Southeast Asia There are more than 100 million Chinese and citizens holding Imperial passports living in the region. In fact, Thais, Malays, and Burmese have obtained Imperial passports through marriage relationships, and a large number of them have become Imperial citizens. Although the vast majority of them They did not return to native life, but in the empire's demographics, this was still a part of the calculation that had to be included.
This has actually become a more troublesome issue between the empire and Southeast Asian countries. For example, Thailand, about a quarter of its population holds Chinese passports. If the current constitution of the empire is followed, there are still about 15 million people who are eligible. Apply for Chinese citizenship.
The main problem with Thailand is that it is too closely connected with the empire in terms of economy and human flow. Thailand's major financial institutions and large and medium-sized enterprises, even more than 70% of small and medium-sized enterprises and more than 1/2 of the land resources are concentrated in Thailand. In the hands of the Chinese, this is also a very embarrassing problem for Thailand.
In the long run, this is going to be a very complicated and long-term one.? problems may even threaten the security and stability of Asia as a whole, but at this stage, Southeast Asia is indeed the fastest growing and relatively most stable region in the world.