At 8:30 a.m. on February 10, 1909, in a conference room in the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Berlin, the capital of Germany, representatives of the Entente countries Britain, France and Russia, the Allied powers of Germany, Italy, Austria and Turkey, as well as the United States and Japan gathered.

At this time, the representatives of these nine countries gathered here to discuss various issues of their nine countries uniting against the Chinese Empire, mainly because the United States and Japan have decided that they will formally declare war on the Chinese Empire in the near future, and each country needs to discuss the situation of each country's military deployment, including the army and navy, for the next big war.

Nine countries attached great importance to this meeting, and the representatives sent were all high-level members of various countries, as the host of Germany, German Chancellor Hohenlohe came forward to preside over this important meeting of the war against the Chinese Empire, Britain sent the chief of the army staff Lambertst to attend this meeting, the representative of France was the French Minister of War Jeannontro, the representative of Russia was the Russian Minister of War Goerrowsky, the representative of Italy was the Italian Minister of War Hannaverde, and the representative of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the Austro-Hungarian Minister of War Muywilly, The Ottoman Empire, for its part, sent the Minister of Defense, Enver Pasha.

As for the United States, which is preparing to join this war, it is even more likely to put Vice President William? Howard? Taft was sent to attend the meeting, and Japan also sent Foreign Minister Yoshimoto Tomobayashi to Berlin.

Looking at the representatives of various countries sitting around a conference table, German Chancellor Hohenlohe, who was sitting at the head of the conference table, stood up and said with a smile: "Today, our allies and the Entente have two new allies to fight side by side with us. Howard? His Excellency Taft. and Mr. Tomobayashi Yoshimoto, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan. ”

Then there was applause in the room, William? Howard? Taft and Yoshimoto Yubayashi both stood up. With a smile on his face, he gestured to the representatives of other countries, William? Howard? Taft said, "The emperor of the Chinese Empire was a greedy man. Under his leadership, that ancient country has become a completely evil country, this time it took the initiative to carry out a shameful aggression against Russia, and now we in the United States of America can join this just war, we feel very honored, and we in the United States of America will do everything in our power to contribute to this war, I believe in this just war. The final victor must belong to our country! ”

Yoshimoto Yubayashi also said with a smile: "Our Japanese Empire has encountered the aggression of the Chinese Empire many times, and if we can participate in this war against the Chinese Empire this time, we will also do our best to win this war together with our allies, so that the evil country of the Chinese Empire will pay a heavy price for its aggression against other countries." ”

The representatives of the Entente and Central Powers in the conference room burst into applause again. The entire Entente and Central Powers welcomed the readiness of the United States and Japan to join the war.

Although the Entente and the Central Powers had been touting a brilliant victory in the Russian theater at the Battle of Ufa, which wiped out more than 2 million troops of the Chinese Empire, the top leaders of the seven countries knew it. What is the so-called victory of the city of Ufa that they claimed?

It is true that the forces of the Chinese Empire did not conquer the city of Ufa, and were driven across the Ural Mountains by the combined forces of the Entente and the Central Powers, but the price paid by the Entente and the Central Powers for this is not enough to describe. More than 3.5 million officers and soldiers of various countries have been killed and hundreds of thousands injured. Tens of thousands of artillery pieces, hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles were destroyed in the fighting.

Such a large loss, in fact, was only exchanged for hundreds of thousands of casualties of the Chinese Imperial Army. In addition, the joint expeditionary fleet of the Entente and the Central Powers had just been defeated by the Imperial Chinese Navy, which made the high-level leaders of the Entente and the Central Powers feel that it was not easy to achieve the final victory in this war, and even the voices of truce appeared in many countries of the Entente and the Central Powers.

At this time, the United States and Japan jumped out on their own, and wanted to join this war against the Chinese Empire, and the high-level leaders of the Entente and the Allied Powers were really happy in their hearts, especially since the United States had a very powerful navy and a million land forces, while Japan had millions of land forces and a naval fleet that was not weak, which was no less than a timely rain for the Entente and the Allied Powers, which suffered very large losses in naval and land battles.

After the applause, Lambertst, chief of the General Staff of the British Army, said: "With the participation of the United States and Japan, the final victors in this war must be those of us who represent justice!" Now we have won victories in a number of battles, in the Russian theater we have won a great victory in the Battle of Ufa, driving the Chinese Imperial army back to the area east of the Ural Mountains, and the combined forces of the Russian theater are now attacking the Chinese Imperial Army's defense line in the Ural Mountains. ”

After a pause, Lambertst continued: "In India, our British Empire's army has thwarted the Chinese Empire's attempt to occupy our British Empire's entire Asian colonies, driving the Chinese Empire's army out of India, and now our British Empire's army is facing off against the Chinese Empire's army on the Sino-Indian border, and now that the United States and Japan have joined the war, we can launch an attack on the Chinese Empire's army in the Pacific, and the Chinese Empire's army is still attacking Australia and New Zealand in the British Commonwealth, I think that the navies and armies of the United States and Japan can be committed to Australia and New Zealand, and after defeating the Chinese Empire's armies, they can continue to attack the Chinese Empire's territory in the Pacific. ”

After listening to Lambertst, the representatives of other countries understood what Lambertst meant, which was to let the armies of the United States and Japan help the British to resist the armies of the Chinese Empire in Australia and New Zealand, according to the intelligence of various countries, Australia and New Zealand have now been occupied by the troops of the Chinese Empire, and the situation is very serious, and Britain has no strength to invest in Australia and New Zealand, and now the United States and Japan are going to join the war. The British immediately hoped that the United States and Japan would help them hold on to the two Commonwealth countries.

At this time, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimoto Tomobayashi said: "Our Japanese Empire is very willing to send troops into Australia and New Zealand to fight against the invading armies of the Chinese Empire, but our Japanese Empire is surrounded by the Chinese Empire. In particular, the Chinese Empire had a very powerful navy, and our Great Japanese Empire simply could not transport the army to the land of Australia and New Zealand. After the official declaration of war on the Chinese Empire, our Great Japanese Empire could only temporarily defend itself on Japanese soil. After waiting for the defeat of the Chinese Empire's navy, the millions of land forces of the Great Japanese Empire could be transported out of Japan and put into other battlefields. ”

U.S. Vice President William? Howard? Taft then said: "We in the United States can send troops to join Australia and New Zealand in the war, but I think the most important issue now is that the navies of our countries can unite to defeat the main force of the Chinese Imperial Navy and seize sea supremacy. In this way, we can transport the army to any battlefield, otherwise with the Chinese Imperial Navy, our American army, if we want to transport it to Australia and New Zealand, we face a very big risk. ”

After the representatives of Japan and the United States finished speaking, German Chancellor Hohenlohe said approvingly: "It is indeed necessary for the navies of our countries to unite again and completely defeat the navies of the Chinese Empire!" As long as we can destroy the main force of the Chinese Imperial Navy, the victory of this war is equivalent to holding it in our hands. ”

The Chief of the General Staff of the British Army, Lambertst, opened his mouth. Without saying any more, the situation of Australia and New Zealand was already very serious, but he knew that if the navy of the Chinese Empire could not be completely defeated, the Japanese Army would not dare to go to Australia and New Zealand by boat. Even the United States, which has a powerful navy, does not dare to send a large number of US Army troops to Australia and New Zealand without controlling sea power. As German Chancellor Hohenlohe said, it was time to discuss the complete defeat of the Imperial Chinese Navy. If the main forces of the Chinese Imperial Navy still existed, the reinforcements of various countries to Australia and New Zealand. It is not possible to land on the land of these two Commonwealth countries.

In the operation of the eastern coast of Australia, under the attack of 2 divisions of the Chinese Imperial Marine Corps and 2 infantry divisions of the Eighth Field Army, the 30,000 British Army originally in Australia now only had more than 10,000 left, and after emergency expansion, the Australian Army of up to 180,000 suffered even more losses, and now there are less than 80,000 left. The guerrilla warfare adopted by the Anglo-Australian coalition in Australia did not have the effect that the British expected.

At present, the remaining 90,000 or so men of the Anglo-Australian coalition have retreated to central Australia, but with these forces, it is really difficult to block the attack of the Chinese Imperial Army.

The situation was even worse in New Zealand, where the British Army and the New Zealand Army combined had fewer than 30,000 troops left to fight, and most of New Zealand was already under the control of the Chinese Empire's army.

The British can only hope that the navies of various countries will unite to defeat the main force of the Chinese Imperial Navy as soon as possible, otherwise Australia and New Zealand will not be able to keep it.

Immediately, the representatives of the nine countries began to discuss various issues on how to deal with the Imperial Chinese Navy, and they studied until 5 p.m. on February 10, when they reached an agreement.

After the deliberations of the representatives of the nine countries, the navies of the nine countries will attack the navies of the Chinese Empire from two directions, the main direction is that the naval fleets of the three countries of the Entente countries, Britain, France, and Russia, the naval fleets of the four countries of the Allied countries, Germany, Italy, Austria and Turkey, and the main force of the Atlantic Fleet on the east coast of the United States Navy, form the second joint expeditionary fleet, and re-pass the route taken by the first joint expeditionary fleet to launch an attack on the Chinese Empire. In the Indian Ocean, a large-scale naval battle broke out again.

On the other hand, the main force of the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy and the main force of the US Navy in the Pacific Fleet will form a joint fleet of the United States and Japan to fight against the Imperial Chinese Navy in the Pacific Ocean, and the main task of the United States and Japan Joint Fleet is to contain a part of the forces of the Imperial Chinese Navy in the Pacific Ocean, and to respond to the second joint expeditionary fleet formed by the Entente Powers, the Central Powers and the United States. The combined U.S.-Japan fleet also needed to take the initiative to attack, so that the Imperial Chinese Navy could not concentrate all its forces in the Indian Ocean.

Affected by the disastrous defeat of the first joint expeditionary fleet of the Entente and the Central Powers, the second joint expeditionary fleet formed this time was very limited in the strength that some countries could draw.

The Austro-Hungarian Navy has already had 4 dreadnought battleships sunk in naval battles, and now there are only 2 Austrian-class dreadnought battleships left in the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The strength of the naval fleet that Austria-Hungary took out its hand can be said to be extremely weak, not even a single battleship, and the naval fleet that the Ottoman Turkish Empire can send is even inferior to Austria-Hungary.

The Ottoman Turkish Empire originally had a total of 2 Dante-class dreadnought battleships purchased from Italy, but they had all been sunk in the naval battle, and the Ottoman Turkish Empire purchased 2 Dante-class dreadnought battleships from Italy had just started construction in Italian shipyards, so the Minister of Defense of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, Enverpasha, reluctantly told the representatives of other countries that the navy of the Ottoman Turkish Empire could only come up with 1 large fast armored cruiser, 2 fast protection cruisers, 2 destroyers and 4 torpedo boats joined the second joint expeditionary fleet.

The Ottoman Turkish Empire showed such strength, and the representatives of other countries had nothing to say, but the representatives of other countries did not agree with the fact that Austria-Hungary only showed these strengths, especially the representatives of the three Entente countries.

Your Austro-Hungarian navy did lose a lot of money in the naval battle, but our country's naval losses were even greater, like the British Navy in the two large-scale naval battles, the dreadnought battleships have lost 19, and now your Austro-Hungarian Empire still has 2 dreadnought battleships left, this time to form a second joint expeditionary fleet, at least one of them must be sent to join it, the war is fought together, if you want to enjoy the fruits of the war, all countries must show the greatest strength. (To be continued.) )