readx; July 1914 was destined to be an eventful year, and since the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, Crown Prince of Austria-Hungary at the end of June, the whole world situation has become so chaotic that the slightest carelessness can miss world events. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

Just as Chen Jingyun paid attention to the progress of the situation in Europe, he also watched the progress of the situation in Europe with his eyes wide open, intending to obtain the greatest benefits for the European war when the war in Europe was completely ignited, and made various preparations for this, including advance preparations for industry and commerce, such as the early mobilization of the army.

However, this mobilization was not overt, but quietly prepared, and not on a large scale. After all, I am not 100% sure that a major war will break out in Europe, and if we mobilize on a large scale before this, it will easily arouse the vigilance of other powers, and if we do mobilization, it will not be possible to do it with our mouths open, but it will also require a lot of resources and additional military spending.

Fortunately for the navy, now it is said that "the prime minister of Ben is Yamamoto Guard, and with Yamamoto Guard, he says, "This navy, your son is much more carefree than before, and it is easier to mobilize."

And the reason why Yamamoto Bing Quan can still sit firmly in the position of "Prime Minister, he still has to thank Chen Jingyun!"

Chen Jingyun is not a great historical power, he knows some historical events, but he does not know some small events, and those who can only be memorized by history majors can memorize the specific words and details, but in his previous life, he was quite interested in the navy, especially the navy in the battleship era, and he also specially looked for some information about the battleship, from which he also learned about the big corruption scandal in the history of the development of the navy, that is, the Siemens incident in 1914. When he reached this age and became the largest warlord in China, it was natural for him to consider how to deal with the power of the so-called 'Ben). At that time, Chen Jingyun thought that "if the navy is allowed to take power, then the navy will continue to develop, and if the navy is developed, then naturally the army will not be able to obtain sufficient funds for development."

To a certain extent, the current Chen Jingyun and the "Navy" have the same interests, that is, to weaken the "Army!" After thinking about the Siemens incident, Chen Jingyun decided to help Yamamoto defend the power, and after thinking hard, although he couldn't remember all the events of the Siemens incident, he was still able to remember some key points and key words, so he secretly issued an order to the Military Intelligence Department, asking them to start with the Siemens company's office, and provided a few lives, such as 'Tatsuto Iwasaki, the first director of the Naval Affairs Headquarters of the Ministry of Naval Affairs, collect all aspects' Evidence of kickbacks received by Navy personnel in the process of ordering Kongo-class battlecruisers. At that time, the Military Intelligence Department said that "Ben's intelligence station devoted almost all its strength to this, and soon collected relevant information, and according to Chen Jingyun's instructions, stole the relevant information."

Without these materials, there would naturally be no follow-up to the Siemens incident, and Yamamoto and Matsumoto didn't know that Chen Jingyun had helped them prevent a catastrophe.

Yamamoto Keiquan continued to do the position of prime minister, and Matsumoto Kazuya also took the kickback of up to 400,000 yuan as political funds, ready to compete for the prime minister.

If Yamamoto had not fallen, the power of the navy would continue to swell, suppressing the army, which could barely move. These things were also manifested in the preparations for the declaration of war on Germany, as early as a few days after the assassination of the Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince Ferdinand, it was said that "a secret mobilization order had already been issued, and the navy was quickly in complete combat readiness, the fleet had been concentrated, and the relevant ammunition and supplies had already been completed." However, the army has been forced to do a lot of hard work, and until now it has not completed the planned mobilization of the 18th Division, the main combat force in Qingdao, and the call that the troops that have not completed the mobilization will go to war will certainly not work, saying that "the standing division and regiment of this country will only have more than 10,000 people in a state of peace, and it will only reach the state of having a full establishment of more than 20,000 people after mobilization."

Just when he said, "Before the army finished its preparations, the European war had already broken out, and even if it was, China, which had always been recognized by the great powers as having nothing to do with the European war, actually jumped out two days after the outbreak of the European war and said that it wanted to take back Qingdao."

China's appearance is clearly to take advantage of the European war Germany has no time to recapture Qingdao, although this kind of behavior is a bit like hooliganism, but it is a matter of national interests, all that is involved are naked interests and countless lives, if the hooligan act can be effective, why care about the opinions of other countries.

In the past few months, it has been said that although we also know that the Nationalist Army has moved frequently, China has been in a period of civil war in recent years, and the Nationalist Army is almost always in a state of war, and it is normal for frequent transfers to be frequent, after all, no one will think that China will fall into peace after the Nationalist Army defeats the Beiyang Army. It was even said that the group of people had already decided that a war would break out again in China in a short period of time, and the target of the war should be the Nationalist Army and the warlords in the southwest: Tang Jirao, Lu Rongting, Duan Zhigui and others, so the large-scale transfer of the Nationalist Army some time ago was because the Nationalist Army was preparing for the next stage of the domestic war.

However, they did not expect that the Nationalist Army finally concentrated its troops around Shandong, which clearly showed that it was going to war with Germany, and what made them even more worried was that the Nationalist Army not only deployed heavy troops in Shandong, but also deployed heavy troops in the northeast region, Zhili and the Yangtze River Delta region.

Immediately after that, when the Nationalist Army of Shandong came to the city of Qingdao, it was a great surprise to say, "At the same time, I also felt that things were getting tricky.

He said, "Ben's declaration of war on Germany is certain, and now what we are waiting for is to complete the mobilization at home, and there are also negotiations with Britain to strive for more benefits, but in this case, the Nationalist Army is preparing to attack Qingdao first, which makes the early plan of Ben ruined, if the Nationalist Army is allowed to capture Qingdao first, it will have to start a war with China." Although China's strength is not worth mentioning in the eyes of "Ben", but the hundreds of thousands of troops under Chen Jingyun are not waste, if you really want to fight Chen Jingyun, there should not be much problem with victory, the key is to say, "How much does Ben need to pay for this?"

And if it is said, 'If China is attacked on a large scale, what will the United States and Britain think about this war?' The U.S. side will certainly vigorously oppose it, although it will not start a war with Ben for this reason, but Chen Jingyun is sure that a large amount of material aid will be given, and when the time comes, Ben will leave more blood on the land of China. In addition, Britain is now focusing on Europe, and they are demanding stability in the Far East as always, and if they say, 'If this side attacks China without authorization, then Britain will also oppose it, and the British are playing a balanced policy, saying, 'Ben is already strong enough in the Asian region, and if it greatly annexes China's territory and expands its interests, it will not be acceptable to the British.'"

This dilemma made Ben extremely passive, on the one hand, he stepped up mobilization and preparations for war, and on the other hand, he also actively launched diplomacy, preparing to declare war on Germany in a short time.

After formally proposing to the Germans to redeem Qingdao, Tianjin, and Wuhan concessions, Chen Jingyun summoned the British Minister to China, Zhu Erdian, to inquire about Britain's views on the Qingdao issue.

As the opponent of the Germans, the British would naturally like to see if China could fight with Germany, but in the affairs of Qingdao, the British also had to consider their own attitude, because the British knew that they wanted to enter the war.

As a matter of fact, the British maintained an objection to the declaration of war on Germany, at least in the early stage, and the most fundamental reason was that they hoped to acquire many German colonies in Asia after declaring war on Germany, and the British were naturally very dissatisfied with the demands of the British and did not want to continue to expand their power. However, now Britain is devoting all its energy to the war in Europe, but it has no extra energy to deal with German forces in Asia, especially Qingdao, which is occupied by Germany, which has tens of thousands of German troops, and the British army does not have the energy to send tens of thousands of troops to storm Qingdao. Vice Admiral Pest's Far East Fleet was also a great threat to Britain's Asian maritime trade routes, and encircling and suppressing this fleet would also contain a large number of British naval forces.

But now the Chinese quietly blocked Jiaozhou Bay on the first day of the outbreak of the European war, and Vice Admiral Pace's German Far East Fleet was dead blocked in Jiaozhou Bay and could not move, and at the same time tens of thousands of Chinese troops had already advanced into Qingdao.

From the point of view of the British, if the Chinese can solve Vice Admiral Pest's German Far East Fleet, let the British Asian route avoid the trouble of German attack ships. If the Chinese can resolve the tens of thousands of German troops in Qingdao so that the British do not have to mobilize troops from thousands of miles away to attack, then the British will definitely raise their hands in agreement.

Moreover, the Chinese are not as greedy as themselves to claim the interests of all German colonies in Asia, and to some extent in the case of Tsingtao, Ben's role has been replaced by China.

Therefore, after consulting the country, Zhu Erdian quickly gave Chen Jingyun an official reply: "Britain hopes that the Far East will maintain peace, stability and development, and severely condemns Germany's malicious sabotage of peace in the Far East!" ”