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Chapter 1076: Turning Enemies into Friends (5)

Under the bright noon sun, on a wide platform in front of the hay field by the creek, British diplomats such as Gardgan and British prisoners of war gathered together to talk enthusiastically, and happy laughter rang out from time to time. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The temporary wooden long table is full of all kinds of bread, ***, ham and fresh vegetables, Munich beer produced by the Germans in Syria, champagne produced by the Russians who settled in southern Sichuan, and high-quality Wuliangye liquor produced in Syria.

The food and drinks were brought back by Xu Boqian, the director of the liaison office, and the five western restaurants in the city made positive contributions to this. Xu Boqian, who has outstanding communication skills and slick means, understood An Yi's meaning very well: the arrival of the British envoys and the imminent release of the prisoners of war, making a big meal as a farewell trip, even if it costs a little more money, it is nothing, which is more helpful for the next step of negotiations.

The British were very satisfied with An Yi's arrangement, and the two-and-a-half-hour gathering at noon made all the British present spend an extremely unforgettable time, and the prisoners of war gathered together with officials from the motherland in the forage field built by themselves, feeling very proud and comfortable, but the prisoners of war missed their hometown and relatives more intensely.

As he was leaving, General Gilbert asked Gardgan in a low voice: When will the prisoners of war return? Although Jia Degan is full of confidence in this trip to Syria, he does not know when An Yi will release him for a while, after all, the negotiations have not yet begun.

Looking at Gilbert's worried eyes full of disappointment, and then looking at the hundreds of prisoners of war who were still laughing and laughing just now, but now they were forcibly sending them away politely, Jia Degan finally gritted his teeth and made a reckless move that a senior diplomat should not have, he strode off the platform and came to An Yi, who was chatting easily with Jiang Yunshan, Yang Bin and other military and political officials, paused for a while, and asked in a low voice:

"General, although very presumptuous and procedural, I sincerely hope to receive a generous reply from the General, and to know exactly when my compatriots will be released, they ...... They were very, very sad, very helpless......"

An Yi smiled at each other with Jiang Yunshan and the others, turned to Jia Degan, and said kindly: "We can all understand Mr. Ambassador's feelings, if you have no opinion, you can send someone to the prison office tomorrow morning to go through the relevant handover procedures, after signing, all prisoners of war can leave, and the families and relatives and friends of the prisoners of war living in the city of Syria can also come, and we can notify the family of every prisoner of war through the church." ”

Gardgan was very excited, nodded gratefully, turned around without saying a word, returned to the platform, hugged Brigadier General Gilbert vigorously, and loudly announced to the captives:

"Children, just now the respected General An told me that you can leave here tomorrow morning, ***, my children ......"

Cheers, howls, and applause rang out, and the emotional Brits hugged and yelled loudly, and many people shed tears of excitement. It has been nearly a year since they were captured, and the mental torment of more than 300 days and nights has finally come to an end, how can they not be so excited?

The gendarmes guarding were very nervous, and at the signal of the captain, they quietly stood around the prisoners of war, guarding from a distance.

Brigadier General Gilbert, who was agitated, saw all this sensitively, shook his head and loudly issued the assembly order, and more than 500 prisoners of war quickly lined up after being surprised, one by one, their chests rose and fell, and their breathing was short, but they stood there neatly with their heads held high, waiting for the commander to give an order.

Gilbert walked over to Gardgan and the others, shook hands one by one and thanked them, and Gardgan and the others looked at the prisoners of war with mixed feelings and waved goodbye.

Before a group of diplomats stepped off the platform, Gilbert's stern command came from behind them: "Salute—"

Jia Degan and the others stopped and turned around, bowed slightly to the neatly saluted prisoners of war in return, and An Yi, who walked forward with a long sigh, expressed their gratitude to An Yi one after another, and sincerely thanked An Jiajun for the kindness and care given to the British prisoners of war.

An Yi waved his hand and humbly said that it was nothing, this is based on a humanitarian position, and it is also a thousand-year-old tradition in China, and it will not embarrass any opponent who lays down his arms.

After greeting each other, they walked to the convoy that had stopped outside the prison gate, and before they took a few steps, General Gilbert's voice suddenly came from behind: "General An Yi——"

An Yi stopped in surprise and turned around slowly, but Gilbert on the platform no longer spoke, but stepped forward and solemnly saluted, and the more than 500 prisoners of war behind him also raised their hands and saluted at the same time, looking at An Yi in the distance with a complicated expression.

An Yi straightened up, straightened his military hat, gave Gilbert and his more than 500 subordinates a military salute in a formal manner, put down his hand and turned to leave with a smile.

Jia Degan and the others were extremely emotional, they knew that this salute by Gilbert and the British officers and soldiers was not only a kind of courtesy thanks, but also contained respect and admiration for their opponents, and even a trace of gratitude, because this young Chinese general had done too well, not only had superb military genius, but was also reasonable and impeccable.

At 9 o'clock in the morning of the next day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Nanjing Government suddenly held a press conference to solemnly announce the release of all British prisoners of war by the Chinese Government and army.

All countries in Europe and the United States commented on this important news with a positive attitude, praised the wise and generous decision of the Chinese Government, and were optimistic about the rapid improvement and development of Sino-British relations.

The Soviet Russian government did not comment on this, and the government and the army were even more straightforward, without even mentioning it, and the newspapers, magazines, and news broadcasts in the country and under the control of the Kwantung Army stationed in the puppet Manchukuo were all strictly forbidden to broadcast this news, and it seemed that nothing had ever happened. However, the Cabinet and the military immediately convened an emergency meeting to reassess Sino-British relations and discuss countermeasures.

On 7 March, the Sino-British special group concluded its three-day talks, and Gyadgan and his entourage did not make any remarks to the Chinese and foreign reporters gathered in Syria, and quietly flew back to Nanjing on an An Jiajun's transport plane. On the An Yi side, Yang Bin, chief of staff of the Syrian camp, and Jiang Yunshan, secretary general of the camp, held a brief press briefing, explaining to the reporters the date of the departure of all British prisoners of war from the Syrian government, announcing that this important issue between China and Britain had been satisfactorily resolved, and that the reporters were invited to inquire about other matters to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Central Government in Nanjing.

As a result, there are many suspicions in the outside world, and there are generally doubts about the contradictions between China and Britain other than the prisoner of war issue, believing that the sensitive and acute Sino-Burmese border dispute is still the biggest problem that cannot be resolved at present, and that Sino-British relations will be slightly better than before, but should not return to the pre-war level in the short term.

However, what happened next was very subtle and intriguing, and what the whole world saw was that the British Government issued a proclamation on 10 March, strongly condemning the unilateral military action of the British army in North China, which has seriously threatened and damaged British interests in China, and that the British Government, in order to protect the lives and property of its own nationals, and in order to maintain the authority of the League of Nations, will mobilize a battalion of troops from Hong Kong to the Tianjin Concession within a week, so as to strengthen the protection of British nationals and British interests.

On 11 March, the US Government announced that, in accordance with the agreement reached between China and the United States in the second half of last year, the United States would lend $50 million to the Chinese Government for China's economic recovery plan, infrastructure construction plan, and cultural development plan.

On March 13, the German government announced that it would increase economic and trade cooperation and cultural exchanges with the Chinese government. The Federation of German Industries and Commerce then announced that based on the Chinese government's success in driving out a number of industrial and commercial provinces and cities occupied by the Chinese army, Germany's major industrial enterprises, commercial and financial investment institutions in China will carry out all-round investment and production cooperation with major Chinese enterprises on the basis of ensuring security. On March 14, Renault announced that it had successfully signed a cooperation agreement with China's Luzhou Heavy Machinery Factory to jointly produce various types of tractors, engineering trucks and mining equipment by means of technology transfer, complete sets of equipment and trade in main product parts.

After the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that it did not approve of the loans provided to China by European and American countries, Wang Jingwei made a public statement, denying that China had requested loans from Britain and the United States, but welcomed the government's announcement that "if China is willing to coexist and prosper with China, it will provide all possible financial and economic assistance", which immediately attracted a wave of opposition and angry scolding in China; Finance Minister Kong Xiangxi made a public statement the next day, saying that the Ministry of Finance would do its best to help Shanghai's financial community tide over the difficulties, but denied that China was about to carry out monetary reform.

The day after Kong Xiangxi's speech, Zhou Chong'an, the economic helmsman of the Anyi Group, held a press conference in Shanghai, solemnly announcing more than 30 import and export trade agreements reached by the Jiangnan Group and the South Sichuan Industrial and Commercial Group with the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and other countries, as well as plans for bidding for the construction of railway bridges and cooperation with industrial enterprises.

The world's major media suddenly became boiling, the situation in China became more and more confusing and dazzling, and the game of interests of the great powers in China gradually moved towards **.

On 15 March, the British government confirmed in writing that it would follow the last survey with the Qing Dynasty government to resolve the border conflict between southern Yunnan and Burma, reopen trade on the western Yunnan border, and finally leave the border between the two countries to be formally formed by the Chinese and British governments to jointly survey and gradually resolve the border between the two countries. The 26th Army of the Anjia Army, which soon acquired all the Banlao territory and the Lufang Silver Mining Area, withdrew from the area on the east bank of the Rolling River, which had occupied the area for nearly a year, and returned to the north side of the traditional border line to station, leaving only one garrison regiment in the Lufang Silver Mining Area to assist the local people in expanding mining.

On March 16, Wan Town, an important customs clearance port in western Yunnan, was lifted and full customs clearance resumed, the Bamo to Nankan Highway was reopened to traffic, and Wan Town and Ruili Customs under the Yunnan Provincial Government resumed customs clearance business; On 18 March, all Burmese prisoners of war were repatriated to Burma through Wan Town; On March 19, the Yunnan Foundation of the United States generously donated US$500,000 to the newly established "Poverty Alleviation and Child Relief" project of the Yunnan Provincial Government. On the same day, Mr. Ou Yao Ting, a wealthy patriotic businessman with dual British and American nationality who has been heavily involved in the rubber industry and processing industry in Myanmar, donated a one-time donation of US$3 million to the Yunnan Provincial Government for road construction and agricultural development projects in western Yunnan.

At this point, efforts to peacefully resolve the border crisis between China and Britain were successfully achieved, trade and personnel exchanges between China and Burma were once again resumed, the Dian army and the Yunnan provincial government received the desired war compensation, and the British government saved face and won the expected "great diplomatic victory".

An Yi acquired silver mines throughout the Panlao region, as well as an agreement with the British colonial government in Burma to jointly expand the border trade road from Lashio to Gengma in southern Yunnan via Lam Lane, and set up a border customs port called "Nanting Pass". The disputed areas around Mengla and Cuogang, occupied by the southern Yunnan garrison, will be resolved when the two governments jointly send professionals to survey the border.