In the room, Zhu Erdian and Feige were just chatting casually, as a minister, China is such a big country, there are a lot of things to consider every day, the beautiful night here is intoxicating, they each took a glass of red wine, purely chatting, but also relaxing.

It is impossible to have a lot of leisure time like this, and after a little relaxation, it is natural to talk about the current situation, and now that the world is divided into three parts, they are also worried about the outbreak of war, because they are dismayed to find that as long as the war breaks out, the revolutionary party and Beiyang in the northwest may soon be eliminated and China will be unified.

A unified China, for Britain, is the expectation that it has always been, a huge population, only in a peaceful country, can play the greatest role, but this unified person is the northwest, not Yuan Shikai is worth considering, the strong northwest, rejected the investment and concession requirements of any powers, although there is no clear announcement to recover the concession and sphere of influence, but for Mongolia, the attitude towards Russia, has been undoubted, as long as his power enters the coast, The thought of these concessions made the two ministers have a bit of a headache, especially Feigue, the French had almost lost all their pants in this European war, and if the Shanghai Concession and other Chinese concessions did not have it, it would have been even worse.

There was a knock on the door, Zhu Erdian apologized to Feige and opened the door, Zhu Erdian's secretary stood at the door with a solemn face, Zhu Erdian was stunned for a moment, and was about to say something, the secretary whispered a few words in his ear, and Zhu Erdian, who was relaxed in his face, listened to it. His face became solemn.

Everyone who can serve as a minister abroad is a human spirit. It is clear that the secretary came to Jurdian on official business. Seeing the way the other party whispered, it was inconvenient for him to continue listening, and he was about to leave, but he didn't expect that he was left by Zhu Erdian, and when he was confused, Zhu Erdian said slightly: "It's related to you, I asked someone to call Han Cimin, you wait!" ”

I heard that the American minister was coming. Figg somewhat understood, it seemed that it was still something related to the Northwest, and then Zhu Erdian's secretary called the American minister, and the three of them discussed the things mentioned by the secretary together.

This matter is very simple, the plenary meeting of the northwest this time is quite huge, and incidentally, it has also made Japan deeply vigilant. Japan itself does not look at the northwest, but the battle situation in Qingdao has given them a blow to the head, which has taken many years. The combined fleet that had been accumulated was completely annihilated in the East China Sea, and two divisions were surrounded. The rest of the divisions have also all set off, basically. Japan wants to fight with all its strength, but through the channels of Britain, France and the United States. There are other sources of information that the strength shown by the Northwest is only the tip of the iceberg.

Even if they know that the other side is strong, Japan has already been difficult to ride a tiger, and has not yet started fighting in Shandong, and more than 15 divisions have entered China and are assembling near Tianjin, even if they know that there are tigers in the mountains, it is impossible to retreat without fighting, and this will deal a huge blow to Japan's morale and national fortunes. This is also the fundamental reason why the Japanese have been arriving for so long and have not yet started a war, and Japan is looking for ways to increase its combat effectiveness. Before the war, no one was sure whether this battle would be won or lost, and it was not the first time that Japan had challenged a strong country, as long as the method was right, maybe it would be able to have another snake swallowing elephant battle, which required the necessary means.

The Northwest refused to allow the Japanese media and diplomats to enter Baotou, and Japan protested on the surface, looking very angry, but in fact, through private channels, they carried out a series of activities, and now they have a certain intention, so they notified Britain, hoping to get help from Britain, and just happened to send the news to Zhu Erdian, and it happened that Fig was also there, and by the way, the American minister was also called.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, the Japanese put forward an idea, that is, to unite with Russia, Beiyang, and the revolutionary party to jointly deal with the northwest, which is equivalent to liaising with all the forces bordering the northwest and jointly attacking the northwest.

This is also a good way, just like the Balkan Union and Turkey, aside from the alliance, no country may be Turkey's opponent, but if they join together, they will fight Turkey and almost lose the country.

Most of the top leaders of the revolutionary party are inclined to attack the northwest with the help of Japan's strength, in order to obtain the huge industrial base and wealth of the northwest, of course, they are not arrogant enough to attack the northwest independently, and those cities and nodes in the south of the northwest are what they want to see, and the huge industry and undefended cities in it are at most one or two regiments of defenders, in their opinion, it is nothing, as long as it is defeated, It's a huge asset.

Anyway, the south is the territory of the revolutionary party, and the Japanese can't get into it, and the revolutionary party has several million troops, which may not be the opponent of the same number of Northwest Army, but if it is one-third, one-quarter, or even one-tenth, it can always be dealt with, which is tantamount to lightening Japan's burden to a certain extent.

Under this premise, the rest will be as flickering as possible, what is more attractive than interests, not to mention the wealth of the northwest, is well known, entering the northwest Forte attack, maybe the revolutionary party can not do it, but to capture node cities, railways, and even some factories, warehouses, and ports in the southwest of the northwest, this is okay, these are on the list of the Japanese, anyway, as long as the revolutionary party can think of it, or can't think of it, take it out, and use real funds to express it. It's all like this, which makes the revolutionary party very happy, it turns out that it is just looking at the wealth of those node cities, but Japan's calculation method is completely different from theirs, the value is greater, in addition to this there are more, railways, storage ports, and even a large number of goods that have been successfully produced, these Japan have promised that they will be recycled at a reasonable price, just in a dozen or so ports, it may be as high as 1 billion northwest dollars, this money is enough for the Kuomintang to bear more than 5 years of military spending, this is a temptation that is difficult to refuse, the revolutionary party is not short of money, But after solving the problem of the northwest, isn't there still Beiyang, and the top level of the revolutionary party has basically begun to dream of reunifying China.

After the revolutionary party, it was Beiyang, Japan thought that relying on the previous influence, to persuade Beiyang, it would not be a problem, but a little contact only to know, in fact it was not the case, this tentative contact, in Beiyang development is not good, among the high-level officers except for Xu Shichang more recognized, the others did not spit out, but below, some of the control and co-unification and the like, under their large sums of money, expressed some goodwill, but the number is less than 30% of Beiyang, some old-fashioned, influential senior officers, still quite cautious.

These did not make the Japanese vigilant, they are used to arrogance, feel that these are enough, in the eyes of Japan, the contradiction between the northwest and the Beiyang is irreconcilable, there is such a big Buddha erected on the top of the head, who will be comfortable, only by knocking down such a big Buddha, next, they can be free, so not spit is just for more interests, after having the revolutionary party, part of the support of Beiyang, has made his waist straight, dare to open his mouth to the British.

In Japan's view, Beiyang and the Revolutionary Party, at best, are just a snake, so that he can integrate into China, find an opportunity to defeat the Northwest, and really help, it should still be in Russia, the title of European steamroller is still useful, the whole world can mobilize tens of millions of troops, that is, four or five countries, the simplest of which should be Russia, which has won over Russia, but tens of millions of troops and powerful military power, this force plus Japan, plus Beiyang and the Revolutionary Party, even if the northwest is strong, it is also pushed by everyone......

The Japanese did not arrive in Baotou, with the help of diplomatic envoys, through some means, this matter was passed to Zhu Erdian, which is also the reason for the secret words of the secretary just now, when the situation in Europe was complicated, Russia took out troops to participate in the eastern operation and jointly besieged the northwest, which requires the approval of the British, how can Russia say, it is also a member of the Entente, and Britain has a huge influence on him.

Zhu Erdian was a little moved, and the first feeling when he heard this proposal was that he wanted to make a decision, and his intuition told him that this was not suitable, Russia was also an important force in the eastern part of Europe, responsible for containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and even suppressing Turkey's important role, if the army was mobilized to the Far East, would it affect the war situation in Europe.

However, after thinking about it carefully, I can't refuse, not to mention that in the European war situation, Russia's role is almost minimal, and it is impossible to effectively contain Germany, so that Germany can mobilize a large army in a grand manner, and easily suppress Britain and France on the Western Front.

The northwest is getting stronger and stronger, more or less, but they are still very vigilant, if it is not suppressed at the right time, what should China do if it really has the strength of the United States, the contradictions between the United States and Britain can be reconciled, but how to reconcile between Britain and China.

The relationship between the Northwest and Germany is too close, it can be said that the strength of the whole Germany is only with the support of the Northwest to have such great influence and strength, if the United States joins the Entente in the future, the strength of the Entente can overwhelm the Central Powers, if the Northwest joins, it will be a different way, weakening it, it is equivalent to reducing the factors of instability and ensuring the dominance of the Entente system after defeating the Central Powers.

The rise of a United States is nothing, it is an accident, if there is another rise of China, it will be painful, and even the center of gravity of the world will shift, which is unacceptable to Britain. (To be continued......)