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After a strenuous voyage, the Chinese Navy finally arrived in Paris in early December 1918. The Paris Peace Conference is still a month away. The entire Western order has not yet fully settled, and the ruins of war can be seen almost everywhere in France, commerce is extremely withered, and the once prosperous industrial center of the world has been in ruins after a few years of war.

The Paris government, as the organizer, naturally took on the issue of the lives of the delegates from all countries. To the surprise of the French, the Chinese delegation of more than 200 people arrived in the telegram, but only about 20 people actually came to Paris, and the other 100 people disappeared without a trace. The French government did not pay too much attention to it, after all, at the Paris Peace Conference, a country like China was destined to be just a foil green leaf, and China was not a European country, if it did not occupy the title of the victorious country of the Entente, I am afraid that it would not be qualified to come to the West at all.

There are many issues in the preparations for the Paris Peace Conference, and many issues that have not been determined before need to be negotiated. Of course, on the issue of core interests, only Britain, France, the United States, and Italy participated in the discussion, and later, with the dissatisfaction of Britain, France and the United States with Italy, Italy was gradually excluded from the core decision-making level. The three giants of the Entente met incessantly and secretly decided one thing at a time. As for the other countries, they are powerless to resist the decisions of the three powers. It was simply impossible for the weak and small countries to unite to resist the three powers.

In Paris, in addition to the big three countries of Britain, France and the United States, where they often meet, the two major Asian powers, China and Japan, are also extremely active. The two sides constantly visit the leaders of other countries in order to establish friendly relations between countries. As an independent Far Eastern power, China's ability to defeat the Japanese Army on land, and the news that it was already able to develop battleships, made the participating countries dare not ignore China too much. What's more, Western countries have many interests in the Far East, and China, a newly formed Far Eastern power, is notoriously tough. With China's current national strength, there is not the slightest problem in deciding to deal with the power of a small European country in the Far East.

Of course, the mission of the Chinese delegation is not to promote national prestige, but to establish ties with Western countries and to integrate China into the world as much as possible. Now the world's industrial center is still in the West, and the destruction of World War I will be restored as soon as possible, if China wants to shake off poverty and rise to the real future, it must learn as much as possible from the advanced technology of the West and carry out the industrialization process in depth. In addition to exploring its own development, China's purchase of advanced technology from the West is also a shortcut. Although these small Western countries are not the most advanced in science and technology, they are after all Western industrial countries, and their scientific and technological level is not comparable to China's, and accumulating more contacts can also help China obtain more benefits in this trip to the West.

The behavior of the Japanese prime minister was different from that of China, and Terauchi Masatsuki came to the West on behalf of the Japanese government, in addition to swearing the strength of the Japanese Empire, and also shouldered the plan to connect with Western countries and isolate China. The most crucial of these is Britain, France and the United States. All three countries have huge interests in China's neighborhood. British-controlled India and Burma border China, and French-controlled Vietnam is also close to China. Americans also have a lot of interests associated with China. As long as Japan can form an alliance with these countries, isolating China will be a very simple matter. But things are not as simple as Terauchi imagined. Britain, France, and the United States are not fools, although they have interests in Asia, but their greatest interests are still in Europe, Britain and France may be afraid of China's rise, but they also cannot tolerate Japan's domination of Asia. In the vision of Britain, France, and the United States, the best scenario in Asia is for China and Japan to fight to the death, and at the same time weaken their forces and ensure the hegemony of Western countries in Asia. Of course, Japan is already a world-class power, and for them, Britain, France and the United States do not want to offend too much, and naturally the conditions put forward by the Japanese prime minister are euphemistic refusals. At the same time, Britain, France, and the United States also treated Chinese Vice President Feng Delin the same as the Japanese prime minister, and did not deliberately get close. The attitude of the three giants was confusing, and it was impossible to guess the reason, and the focus of the Paris Peace Conference was to divide the interests of the Allies, so Britain, France and the United States naturally put aside the affairs of the Far East.

At the same time, Chinese talents in various fields appeared in Germany and on the territory of the original Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had fallen, and several internal forces were entrenched on one side. If it weren't for the Allied armies, I'm afraid this place would immediately become a place of war. In this turbulent land, the members of the Chinese delegation, in the name of the Chinese government, made deals with several forces and purchased a large number of machinery and equipment and scientific and technological drawings. And an open recruitment of a large number of suitable talents.

On the territory of Germany, the activities of the Chinese staff were not so smooth. All parts of Germany were occupied by the Entente, and all industrial and mining enterprises were mothballed by the army. Members of the Chinese delegation would find it difficult to obtain such equipment even if they had the money. Soon, however, China began to shift its tactics and set its sights on the unemployed German engineers. On behalf of the Chinese government, they offered favorable terms to make these engineers more entrated.

After the Entente took over Germany, the German big business was basically controlled, and the Entente countries almost paralyzed the German industrial system under the pretext of preventing technology leakage. A lot of advanced technical information was collected and transferred away by the first party of the agreement as soon as possible. German engineers were also forced to go home.

Now is arguably the most turbulent time for the whole German mind. Experts and engineers are also human beings, and they also have to eat, and they also have to feed their wives and children. It has been almost two months since Germany surrendered. However, these Entente teams did not have the slightest intention of evacuating, and if they did not evacuate, it would mean that the factories would not be able to open, and the expert engineers and workers would have no food. There were also rumors that Germany would pay a huge amount of war reparations, and the new German government would not be able to pay the war reparations at all, and eventually the Allies would auction off some of the German industrial equipment to make money. The news made the whole German society boil. Many people immediately became dissatisfied with the Entente, and this feeling was turning to hatred.

China has set out recruitment conditions at this time, which will naturally get twice the result with half the effort. Soon, a large number of Germany's top engineers embarked on merchant ships bound for China. They will be the cornerstone of China's industrial construction.

On January 5, 1919, the Paris Peace Conference was held at the Palace of Versailles in Paris, the capital of France. It was a meeting at which the victors unilaterally decided the terms of the peace treaty, and the defeated did not have the opportunity to bargain. More than 1,000 delegates attended the Paris Peace Conference, including 70 plenipotentiaries representing 27 victorious nations. In addition to the official representatives, the delegations also have a large number of scholars, experts and consultants. Due to the large size of the organization, it is naturally difficult to operate effectively, so this kind of meeting of 1,000 people is not held very often.

In order to study relevant special issues (such as reparations, territorial issues, disarmament issues, etc.), the General Assembly has set up more than 50 committees to prepare detailed drafts for selection. The actual powers of the congress were vested in the Supreme Council, which evolved from the Supreme International Joint Operations Council in wartime. The Supreme Council set up 10 members, composed of two representatives from each of the five factions of Britain, France, the United States, Italy, and Japan, also referred to as the "Committee of Ten"; after Japan expressed its lack of interest in European issues, Italian Prime Minister Orlando had a verbal conflict with Wilson over the Fum dispute, so he left the meeting in anger, and the original Committee of Ten was transformed into a situation dominated by Britain, France, and the United States.

While other countries have made their voices heard at the Paris Peace Conference, small countries have little to gain under the control of the Big Three. As a result, the Paris Peace Conference became more and more divisive, and the duration of the meeting was extended indefinitely. ..., representatives of various countries quarrel every day for the sake of interests, and all kinds of ugly faces are disgusting. Compared with the torn faces of Western countries, the Chinese delegation is very calm. After exchanges with Britain, France, and the United States, the three countries have agreed to sell part of German industrial industry in China. Of course, the most cutting-edge high-tech China is hard to come by. But China is already very satisfied, too high-tech things China can't digest, the most useful for China at the moment is basic industrial equipment. Moreover, this also proves that Britain, France and the United States do not have a completely suppressive attitude towards China.

The Japanese wanted to make gains in the Far Eastern colonies on several occasions, but in addition to Qingdao, China, there were only a few islands occupied by Japan left in Germany's colonies in the Far East, which naturally made Japan very dissatisfied. As for the Qingdao issue, Japan has not yet put forward the issue of the Qingdao issue, because when we talk about the Qingdao issue, we will inevitably be unable to avoid the issue of Sino-Japanese conflict. China was also the victor of the Entente, and even if it did not contribute much to the war, it could not cede the land of the people as spoils of war. Not to mention that China cannot be bullied at will, even if it is the original rotten Republic of China, as long as it has the ability to recover Qingdao, the Entente will be willing to be a favor. It's a pity that China under the control of Beiyang is too weak.

At a time when the West was arguing for the interests of the war, China's first battleship was finally fully completed and launched, and the first sea trials were launched. For this battleship, China had high hopes. In order to obtain steel that was up to the standards of a battleship, all the steel that the battleship learned was imported from Spain by Chinese merchant ships. And the technical aspect also refers to the information of the battleships of other countries. This surprised the Spanish engineers responsible for the construction of the super-battleship, after all, Spain was once an old maritime power, and the decline of the navy in recent years was mainly due to a shortage of funds. Many good designs could not be realized because they were not funded, and by cooperating with China, the Spanish shipbuilding industry was given an opportunity to surprise both governments with enthusiasm. Moreover, the Spanish engineers did not expect that backward China would be able to obtain classified information on some battleships from Western countries. These materials may be like waste paper to China, but in the eyes of knowledgeable warship engineers, they are hard-to-find treasures. The combination of the two has created China's first battleship to reach the world's advanced level. Feng Yong didn't expect that at that time, in order to accumulate technology, he would be able to get such an advanced thing by sending spies everywhere.

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