readx; On May 8, 1923, China declared war on each other. www.biquge.info The outbreak of the war this time can be said to be the common choice of the top leaders of the two sides, the economies of the two countries stimulated by foreign trade orders during the First World War were deeply affected by the post-war economic crisis, and the nationalism of the two countries after the First World War was unprecedentedly high, coupled with China's continuous tariffs on imported light industrial products in the past two years, especially the textiles that are vital to the economy are too high to 35%.

If the post-war economic crisis planted the seeds of war between the two countries, then China's post-war implementation of trade barriers to protect its own industry and commerce was to water and fertilize the seeds of war. Of course, the deeper reason is the First Sino-Japanese War, which made many Chinese people unforgettable, and the navy directly regarded the shame of the First Sino-Japanese War as the goal of army building.

With all this, and the need for the top leaders of both countries to find a realistic target from the outside to vent their anger on the people, so that the people can vent their anger in their hearts and avoid the people from targeting the political axe, war is a common choice for both sides.

And this is also the reason why neither country sought mediation or intervention from other powers before the outbreak of the war, because they themselves wanted a war to break out, saying, "I wanted to have another glory of the First Sino-Japanese War, to trample China under my feet again, so that China would become a stepping stone for the take-off, and China also needed to defeat the "Ben" to recover Arthur, and by defeating the "Ben" to reinvigorate the prestige of the country and the nation.

One wants revenge, and the other wants to create brilliance again!

When the news of the declaration of war between the two countries spread all over the world through the airwaves, the political axes of various countries issued peace proposals one after another according to the management, and of course they did not expect China to listen to it, it was just diplomatic practice.

Secretly, the new U.S. ambassador to China, Jacob Gould Shulman, had another secret meeting with Chen Jingyun.

"Your Excellency, for the threat of war to your country, our political axe is deeply concerned and sympathetic!" Schulman's opening remarks have clearly conveyed the attitude of American political axe.

Chen Jingyun once again put on his marshal's uniform today, and everyone has been playing politics for many years, and this will tell you the attitude of the United States when you listen to Shulman's words, and the United States has always stood on China's side in any dispute between China and Ben for several years. This is not because China is a friend of the United States, still less because Americans like Chen Jingyun, a talented scholar, but because the relationship between the United States and China is also hostile, and the so-called enemy of the enemy is a friend, so China and the United States can be regarded as friends.

China and the United States are separated from each other in the Pacific Ocean, and there happens to be a place in between, and this geographical relationship and the conflict of interests between China and the United States make China and the United States a natural quasi-ally. Otherwise, in last year's Washington Treaty, the United States would not have strongly supported China in having more capital ships and aircraft carrier tonnage.

Although the two countries did not sign any covenant agreement, the United States has maintained a quasi-ally relationship with China since Xinhai, and the two Chinese battleships they want to purchase are from the United States.

"In order to keep commerce and trade unimpeded, our country is ready to propose with Britain and France the establishment of a southern war-free zone to prevent the war between your country and Ben from spreading to the south of the Yangtze River!" Schulman continued.

When Chen Jingyun heard this, his smile spread, this is the best news he heard today, China said that the two countries are at war, he is not afraid of the northeast, even if he will not win for a while and a half, but he is sure to remain undefeated, even if the entire northeast is lost, it will not shake the country's capital, it is a big deal to continue to mobilize and increase troops to fight back, because now China's main industries are in the Yangtze River basin, especially concentrated in the four provinces of Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang, forming Wuhan Industrial Base, Wuhu Industrial Base, Shanghai Industrial Base: These three industrial bases. Although the Northeast is rich in resources, it is limited by the fact that the army of Ben is on the border of Korea and Lushun, so Chen Jingyun has never deployed the heavy industry base to the Northeast, but concentrated on the Yangtze River Basin, the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway and the Jinpu Line and other railway trunk lines. Therefore, as long as the war does not spread to these areas and is confined to the northeast region, then it will not bring too much loss to China's industry, resources, and population, and China will be able to continuously send a large number of soldiers, weapons and ammunition to the northeast front.

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And this can be seen that the Yangtze River Delta is an important surname for China, in order to avoid saying that it has landed in China's coastal hinterland, especially Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangzhou. In recent years, in addition to vigorously building coastal defense fortresses, Chen Jingyun has been deploying heavy troops in these coastal areas, and in recent months, troops have been transferred from the northwest and southwest regions to the coastal provinces, especially Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces, which have gathered more troops than the northeast, Chen Jingyun has deployed three divisions in Shanghai alone, and there is also a division in Nantong on the north bank of the Yangtze River, and there are many troops in the surrounding areas, in addition to the army, there is also the Wusong Fortress, a coastal defense fortress under the jurisdiction of the navy, in which many large-caliber coastal defense artillery are deployed. There are as many as 16 coastal defense guns with a caliber of more than 12 inches, and there are even more coastal defense guns of 8 and 7 inches, and almost a whole circle of coastal defense guns was deployed along the coastal area of Shanghai, in order to imitate the landing of the Chinese army in Shanghai. So much so that there are more coastal defense guns in the Shanghai area than the Qingdao coastal defense fortress, the main base of the navy.

Now Britain, France, and the United States have come to a southeastern war-free zone, and if it is said that "it is good if it can really be listened to, if it can't be listened to, then Britain, France and the United States have been slapped in the face, and this is also a good thing for China."

"Mr. Shulman, now that our country has declared war with the Lord, many of our ships have been seized by the Chamber, which has had a major impact on our foreign trade!" Chen Jingyun paused for a moment and continued: "I wonder if you can invite some of your country's oil tankers to undertake part of the trade transportation?" ”

"Oil tankers?" Schulman did not answer immediately after hearing this, this is ostensibly talking about oil tankers, but what are oil tankers loading? That's oil, and what is oil? It is a strategic material, in the First World War, oil has become an important strategic material, and according to reason, Britain, France and the United States have expressed neutrality in the Sino-Chinese war, since they are neutral, ordinary civilian trade can be carried out, but some military materials and oil These strategic materials are not easy to sell to China openly. But if China really needs oil, then the United States has to buy it if it doesn't sell it, unless it wants to see China lose like that. Before meddling in these matters, Shulman asked: "Your Excellency, as far as I know, your country has also discovered oil fields in the Han River, Yumen and other places, and the production is also quite a lot, right?" Isn't that enough? ”

Hearing this, Chen Jingyun was also a little depressed, he supported the oil industry is not a matter of one or two years, but before the reunification, he had built an oil refinery with an annual refining capacity of 500,000 tons, and in the following years, he also discovered oil fields in Hanjiang and Yumen and other places and invested heavily in oil production, but the speed of development is still limited.

"Although my country's oil production is also there, it is still unable to meet my country's huge oil demand!"

In 1922, China's three major oil refineries produced a total of 1.3 million tons of refined oil, but less than half of China's crude oil was produced in China, accounting for only 500,000 tons, and the remaining 800,000 tons were all imported from the South Seas. This oil production sounds like a lot, but China's oil consumption has been increasing in recent years, especially the military's demand for oil.

The warships in the navy are already all fuel-powered, and they need a huge amount of heavy oil every year, and the two battleships go out for training at will, and the fuel consumed is calculated in 1,000 tons. The seven or eight hundred planes of the Navy and the Air Force are also very fuel-intensive, and then the two armored divisions and the two motorized infantry divisions on the army side need a large supply of gasoline, and even the infantry divisions are now starting to equip a large number of trucks because of the implementation of the plan to pull artillery instead of horses, which are all big fuel guzzlers.

The military needs a lot of oil, and the civilian demand is also a lot, although the total number of cars in China is not too much, but in recent years it has developed rapidly, there are already a lot of cars in major cities, even small counties and towns have traces of cars, in addition to the lighting kerosene required by the civilian is also a big number.

Combined, especially the huge demand of the military, China's own oil production of less than 500,000 tons cannot meet the demand at all, and it needs to import a large amount of crude oil every year, and in addition to crude oil, it also imports a large amount of finished gasoline and kerosene.

Although the military has a lot of reserves in recent years, the navy itself has reserves of nearly 1.5 million tons of heavy oil, and the army and air force also have reserves, but a period of loss of imported oil, civilian oil will be difficult to guarantee, in addition, if the war lasts too long, and the production of domestic oil can not be increased, then the military oil will not be able to guarantee at that time, so Chen Jingyun has to take precautions, no matter what happens in the future, first import a large number of reserves, and now China said that the two countries have declared war, said' The navy has already begun blockading Chinese merchant ships off the coast of China, and in the past two days, a number of oil tankers of the Pacific Shipping have been seized. As a result, Chen Jingyun had to ask the Americans for help and let the American ships carry out the transportation.

He only dared to check Chinese ships, but he could not block the passage of merchant ships from Britain, France, and the United States.

Shulman pondered for a while and said, "I can help your country contact a few shipping companies, but you still need to talk about the specifics!" ”

Chen Jingyun nodded with satisfaction after hearing this, and then the two discussed other aspects of their affairs, China said that the two countries were at war, not only China's own affairs, but also the Americans' affairs, and there were more things that the two countries needed to discuss secretly.

Just when the upper echelons were talking about the layout, on the banks of the Yalu River, the soldiers of the two countries were already fighting each other with machine gun bullets and artillery shells.