China's future foreign strategy must be open, this is Yang Rui's basic attitude. Although there are many overt and covert obstacles related to taxation, the general direction is to open up to the outside world rather than close the country. Since we have chosen to open up to the outside world, we must clearly understand our role in world politics and the global economy, and find ways to exert more and more influence in international affairs.

Now it is really a question of when and how to go to war, not whether it is necessary to go to war. Qiu Jin's views were very common in the Revival Society and throughout the country, and even Yang Rui thought so before - why bother to shed blood for foreigners, but if you don't participate in the war, you can't participate in the Paris Peace Conference, Germany's reparations are not important, but the distribution of global power after the war is extremely important; What colonial China did not want, but commercial interests could not but want; The status of the victorious country may not be important, but after the war, the League of Nations, the predecessor of the United Nations, it is very important how much influence China has in the League of Nations.

Whether to go to war or not to go to war is not so much a question of trade-offs as a question of stance and viewpoint. If it is not necessary for China to integrate with the world system, and there is no need to exert more and more influence in the world system, then there is no need to enter the war; If it is believed that China should actively integrate into the world system and slowly transform from a supporting role to a leading role, then it should enter the war. In the past, it was the upper kingdom of the Celestial Empire, but now although it has resisted foreign aggression, China is still a small supporting role in the international system, but many people are unaware of this, and political propaganda often advocates the rejuvenation of China, so a large number of people are angry again.

With the revival army resolutely expelling the Russian invaders and recovering the lost territory despite the obstruction of foreign powers, a brain-dead book called "China Can Say No" is selling well at home and abroad. The book sold more than 5 million copies in three months. It can be said to be the first bestseller in China for thousands of years. When I read this book, all the brain cells burned out; Read it twice. The IQ is likely to be negative, and in the end, there will only be 'Weiwei China' left in my heart. Celestial Empire' and other slogan-like words.

Is China really strong? Among the world powers, in Yang Rui's view, China is stronger than Japan, and inferior to Russia before the war -- China is inferior to Russia in terms of economy, steel production, and army size, and China and Russia really want to go to war normally, because of the restrictions of geographical and transportation conditions, and because the scale of the war in the Far East is not large, China will win. But in Central Asia, if it really starts, Russia will win. How can a country that is not as powerful as Russia be called the Celestial Empire? What if you can say no? Except for their own acres and three points of land, if the whole world is operated and rights are distributed, can the Chinese ever have half the right to speak?

Brain-dead people are simply unreasonable. When Yang Rui thought of this, the discussion of the other people had ended, and Du Yaquan asked again: "If you participate in the war in Europe, how many troops do you need to send?" How much does it cost? Is there a plan on the side of the General Staff? ”

Yang Rui was completely in charge of military affairs, and after hearing this, he said: "The General Staff actually has two plans, one is that the military expenditure is small, that is, to transport the Renaissance Army to France with weapons and personnel. Then most of the ammunition supply in wartime was the responsibility of France. This is a plan with many dead people and little money, according to the estimate, it will only cost a billion taels of silver, and all we have to pay is the freight and pension;

The other is American. That is, our side has the full command of the expeditionary force, and its status is equal to that of the Anglo-French forces. The battle plan is not for them to order us, but for everyone to negotiate together. The advantage of this is that there are fewer dead people, and after the war, the status is high, and there are many benefits that can be obtained, but the money is very expensive.

Because this army is completely an expeditionary force, shipping from China to France, docks, transportation lines, military stations, etc., after landing in France, these logistics facilities have to be asked for by France or spend money to build, the ports on the Atlantic side are now occupied by Britain, France and the United States, we send troops from the east, we can only use the three seaports of Marseille, Port of Sète, and Port of Toulon on the Mediterranean side, although these three ports can support the expeditionary force's operations, but from Marseille to the Paris front line is seven or eight hundred kilometers, In the face of the tight transportation of railways, it is difficult for us to transport our supplies to the front line, and the General Logistics Department even has a plan to temporarily build three more regular railways to ensure the logistical supply of the army.

This is only logistics and transportation, and the supply of materials in wartime is also a lot of money. The war had been going on for several years, and France lacked everything, everything was expensive. We are likely to find ourselves in a dilemma: buying supplies locally in Europe, which is not only not available in sufficient quantities, but also expensive, and if we ship them domestically, we will have to occupy merchant tonnage. With 500,000 troops, such a long voyage requires at least two million tons of merchant ships to be responsible for special supply, and we don't count the price of military supplies, even if the losses caused by the expropriation of these merchant ships are very staggering. Therefore, 500,000 troops will go to Europe to participate in the war, and the military expenditure will need at least 5 billion Chinese yuan, which is still ......"

As soon as the figure of 5 billion military spending came out, even Xie Jintai, who was bent on encouraging Yang Rui to participate in the war, was startled, and he said loudly: "Why do you want so much?!" ”

"Many?!" Yang Rui was amused in his heart, according to the historical data he knew, more than one million American troops went to Europe to participate in the war, spending more than 21 billion US dollars. Of course, the reason why it was spent so much was that Pershing was ready to transport two million troops to Europe to fight in the war; Second, the US military was already blank, and if it wanted to expand from less than 200,000 to 2 million, it would have to buy a lot of military supplies, and the price of military materials was already expensive at this time, and after the United States declared war, it skyrocketed; The third is that the U.S. military is a superior person, as long as it is needed at home, even bathtubs, toilets, bookshelves, spittoons, tiles, blinds, and lawn mowers are purchased and transported to the front line in large quantities from the rear; Fourth, the United States' logistical management is in a mess, and the urgently needed materials that have been purchased in the United States cannot be immediately transported to France, forcing the headquarters of the expeditionary force in France to repeat the requisitions on the spot.

Although China is not as extravagant as the Americans, it still needs $2.5 billion a year to send troops, and of course this figure includes the annual freight of 2 million tons of merchant ships.

"Fighting a war, especially this kind of transoceanic warfare, is never cheap." Yang Rui looked at the stunned people: "It will cost 1.5 billion yuan for merchant ships to transport here, and then there will be other military supplies, especially the consumption of artillery shells." That's even more expensive. Thankfully, the money was spent. Eventually, it will flow back into our hands, such as the cost of shipping. After subtracting the consumption of coal and fresh water along the way, most of the expenditure has become the profit of the state-owned company, and more than 3 billion of the five billion will eventually be returned. The only bad thing is that the opportunity to make money is delayed, and what could have earned foreigners' money has become their own money. The biggest loss is the 1.5 billion in shipping.

The losses are small, but one thing is advantageous, and that is that we can spend that silver while the price of silver is high now. Completely switch to the gold standard. Yang Rui suddenly felt that he had said something wrong, and corrected, "To be exact, it should be changed to the gold exchange standard, we don't have much gold in our hands, but before we enter the war, we can ask France and Britain to exchange some gold, and once again enrich the treasury, which is cost-effective, after all, gold is ten thousand times better than paper money."

Let's not talk about gold, but silver. Now there are nearly three billion taels of silver in the country. After changing to the gold exchange standard, how to use these silver is a big problem. China is a big country with silver, and if we all throw silver out, the price of silver in the world will fall sharply. Before the European War. The price of gold and silver was thirty-three, and after the war, Europe and the United States deliberately suppressed the price of silver. The price of silver fell to thirty-nine, but now the price of silver is rebounding. It is expected to rise to 1 to 20 next year. The price of silver is twice as high as it used to be, but the price. As long as it is not military supplies, the price is generally not high, and some are lower than before because no one buys them and there is no ship.

The household department had a plan to take advantage of the high price of silver in recent years to export a large amount of silver, but that plan used too much silver. It is different if there is a war, whether it is in Europe or in the South Seas, as long as it is on this route, merchant ships can use silver to purchase military supplies when they go, and they can also use silver to purchase general supplies when they return. It's not a big deal, but it's better than exporting silver after the war when the price of silver plummets. Therefore, money is really not a problem, especially for the goal we want to achieve, you must know that in normal times, even if you spend twice as much money as this, you may not be able to have this benefit. ”

"What does it cost exactly?" Hearing that the money was spent and then recovered, and the silver was exported on the gold standard, everyone was confused, and at this time they found out that Yu Huizu was not on the Standing Committee, and this meeting was really not easy to open.

"The preliminary estimate is less than 2 billion Chinese dollars." Yang Rui replied, "This is due to the fact that after the war, the price of silver plummeted because of the change of the silver standard. If we exclude the export of silver, then we will lose about 2.5 billion Chinese dollars in revenue. ”

Five billion has become two and five billion, this figure is accepted by everyone, Xu Hua said: "That is to say, from the perspective of practical interests, this money can still be spent, and now what we have to consider is the relationship with Japan?" ”

"That's pretty much it." Yang Rui nodded. Xie Zhangtai said: "After Japan lost to us three years ago, he had to face the reality that the hegemony in East Asia changed hands, and now that the European countries are at war, they have no time to redefine the new order in East Asia, but after the war, the order of East Asia and the order of the whole world will have to be renegotiated." Although Wilson of the United States wants to play a new set of things, the emaciated camel is bigger than the horse, and the world is ultimately dominated by Britain and France, and it is a good thing that we can establish hegemony in the Far East by participating in the war. Otherwise, in the future, there will be even greater entanglement with Japan, and the sooner this matter is settled, the more beneficial it will be to Sino-Japanese relations. ”

"If that's the case, then the Japanese are going to go around frantically smashing the newspaper officers and killing people everywhere and setting fires." Qiu Jin said with a smile, she has spent a lot of time in Japan, and every Japanese she has seen is deeply proud of Japan as a great power, and now that the hegemony of the Far East has changed hands, how can this make those extreme and conceited Japanese people embarrassed.

"I can't help it." Xie Jintai also knew that there would be this result, but if he lost, he lost. "We can only hope that the Japanese will recognize the reality. This kind of thing really can't be delayed, and the problems that will arise after it drags on will only get bigger and bigger. Only when Japan fully recognizes the reality will China and Japan become allies rather than enemies. ”

"Recognize the reality......" Yang Rui couldn't help laughing, how could a small Japan with a strong outside and a tendon recognize the reality, "If you want the Japanese to recognize the reality, it is better to teach the sow to go up the tree." Although Japan's economy is more developed than China's, their living standards are not much better than China's in terms of the same social classes. What are these people who endure hardships and stand hard work and go abroad to sell meat, isn't it just for the sake of being the seventh in the world and the first in East Asia? Now that it has suddenly become the second in East Asia, and we have been crushed by us, what will happen in China? I really don't know if they can play that trick of the emperor again.

This time to send troops, it is best for Chong'an to negotiate with Japan. Moreover, it is better for the domestic newspapers not to make a big deal about the dispatch of troops. Especially the Imperial Daily, what is Huang Yuansheng, what is the reason to talk about things so thoroughly. How can we say that it is also the first in East Asia, and the emotions of friendly countries still need to be taken into account. ”

Qiu Jin was about to despise Yang Rui and say that Japanese women 'went abroad to sell meat'. I didn't want to say anything, and a few people next to me laughed again. The Imperial Daily has always been committed to promoting the government to join the Entente and send troops to participate in the war, and has discussed at length what benefits it will bring to China after participating in the war, and the most crucial reason is that the hegemony in East Asia will return to its own hands, and from the defeat of the First Sino-Japanese War to the end of the European War, China has suffered enough in the past 20 years.

Huang Yuansheng's pen not only provokes readers, but everyone here often reads his political articles, and I have to admit that this person still has a very thorough understanding of many issues. But he said it so thoroughly that the Japanese were annoyed. In the eyes of the annoyed and angry Japanese, this is simply a denial of Japan. Now that Yang Rui said this, everyone laughed understandingly.

"Reply to England so early?" Xu Hua said, "A few months ago, didn't Cheng tell Rutte that if Germany chooses to defend, then we will not declare war?" ”

"According to the Intelligence Service, the Germans are preparing to build a tank." Xie Zhangtai said. "The chariot is not a defensive weapon, so it seems that even if Russia withdraws from the war. The Germans will still choose to attack. ”

"Is that so?" After listening to Xie Zhangtai's words, Xu Huafeng finally looked at Yang Rui.

"I don't know what Germany thinks, but I know what Germany's allies think, at least the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Karl doesn't want to fight hard with the Entente. Peace talks have begun. Germany may be able to afford the losses of defense, but Austria-Hungary and other allies cannot afford a war without victory and only peace talks. If Germany does not win in the offensive, it perishes in the offensive! So ......" Yang Rui looked at Xu Huafeng. He said with regret: "What awaits Germany must be a complete defeat." ”

"Hey......" Xu Huafeng always believed in Yang Rui's judgment, and he actually said so. Xu Huafeng also gave up. However, he lamented: "When I went to Germany before, there were many factories, the economy was prosperous, and the country was prosperous. Its products are sold all over the world and have few rivals; The data also says that Germany has the second largest industrial scale in the world and the first in Europe, and he can make the world's hardest steel, the largest caliber cannon, and the best dye....... ”

"No country can be the enemy of the entire world system." Yang Rui also sighed, "Although the German economy is prosperous, it lacks resources and does not have enough strategic depth, but even if Germany is replaced by China and Russia, the result is the same." The side that controls the seas can calmly mobilize the world's resources to compete with you, and may not be able to defeat you in a war, but he can drag you down in decades of cold war. A bigger market necessarily means more technology and more capacity, and a closed and independent small market country, no matter how hard it tries, will eventually fail.

This can be seen by looking at the biological evolution of the Americas and Australia. Why can't Native Americans fight the smallpox virus? It is not because the organisms of the American continent are not as complex and diverse as those of Asia, Europe and Africa, although we are also afraid of smallpox, but at least many people have smallpox antibodies in them. It's different in the Americas, because the ocean is cut off, and the smallpox virus has never appeared in the Americas, and now it suddenly strikes, and the result is genocide.

Germany is a country, it was still in the world system, and there is no generation gap in technology. But he can't stand it after a few years of blockade, and if a country is isolated from the world system for decades, it will collapse if it doesn't collapse. To put it simply, Germany just believes too much in the invincibility of its army, thinking that the competition between countries and countries is a simple military competition, and it does not consider political, economic, and cultural factors at all. ”

The discussion seemed to have become his own propaganda meeting, although he deliberately wanted to suppress the isolated idea that not participating in the war and participating in the war was to shed blood and die for foreigners, but after saying that, Yang Rui still felt that he had said too much, so he kept silent after he finished speaking, and saw what other people thought. Not surprisingly, it was thought that if they were to go to war, they should be self-contained like the Americans, spending as much as they could, and at least the Baath Army would go to war as an independent army, not as an Anglo-French mercenary.

After the matter is discussed, when and how many troops to send will be the next issue. Since the time of sending troops clearly does not look at Germany's face, it doesn't matter much sooner or later, the key is when it is the most cost-effective and most beneficial to send troops. As for the number of troops, according to the previous plan, it was 500,000, and the current plan is also 500,000, but in order to unite Japan, Yang Rui and Xie Jintai both think that Japan should be drawn, whether he wants to or not, he must always issue an invitation. With the current situation in Japan, even if he sent troops, it would only be symbolic, otherwise, the money he earned would not be enough for his military expenses.

With this in mind, Xie Jintai, who pretended to have been thinking about it for several days, first made an appointment with the British minister, saying that China was willing to send troops, but many details needed to be discussed in detail, and then made an appointment with the Japanese minister to China, Kishigero Bihara, revealing that Britain had invited China to send troops to Europe to participate in the war, and issued an invitation that if China entered the war, he hoped that Japan would also send troops to Europe to participate in the war.

Although he had long known that the Chinese government would eventually turn to the Allies and advance its international standing by entering the war, he was still surprised that Xie had formally met with him to discuss sending troops to Europe. From Japan's standpoint, it is better for China to be hostile to Europe and the United States, and Japan can act as a channel for China to communicate with the rest of the world, and now that China is determined to enter the war, it will be tantamount to completely opening up and integrating into the whole world, and the result will only be that Japan will be marginalized. In the past, when I saw a yellow race, Europeans and Americans would laugh and ask, 'Excuse me, are you Japanese?' If you can see the yellow people later, then they will only ask, 'Excuse me, are you Chinese?' ’

Such an outcome would deprive Japan of the glory on which it is proud. Even though the signing of the Beijing Treaty three years ago was doomed, any Japanese who knows about this trend still hopes that this outcome will come later, but the more they hope that it will come later, the sooner it will come. Kishigero Bihara left the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs with a blank face, and after returning to the embassy with a short sigh, he still sent this content to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a telegram.

Domestically, Foreign Minister Takaaki Kato immediately approached Matsukata after receiving the telegram, and then, like the Chinese Standing Committee, Japan's elders also gathered to discuss China's dispatch of troops and China's invitation to Japan to send troops to Europe.

While everyone was thinking about the pros and cons, the more pragmatic Xiyuan Temple Gongwang said: "Let the Chinese go, we can send the navy." ”

"Yaga!" After the defeat in China, Shan County Youpeng has always been a man with his tail between his legs, but this time he heard Xiyuan Temple say this, and he had to come out to express his opposition. I saw that there was a friend in Shan County who stood up fiercely, his eyes were red, and he was angry: "Are we indifferent to watching China become a strong man in Greater East Asia?" Could it be that the countless loyal souls of the empire who sacrificed themselves on the Erling Mountain got this result? Could it be that the Great Japanese Empire will always have to rely on the snort of that man in the future?? ”

"Sit down!" Shan Shan was so excited, Matsukata had to take care of it, he looked at the excited Shan Shan and asked: "Could it be that if we send troops, we can change the status quo of the balance of strength between China and Japan?" Could it be that if we send a note, we can stop the Chinese from sending troops? Is it necessary to fill in the entire island of Japan in order to suppress China's rise?

Let it go, Shan Shan-kun! We had already tried a few years ago, but we failed. After that defeat, China is no longer something we can stop. It is very natural that the hegemony of Greater East Asia will slip from our hands to China. Before, I thought that day would come in 10 or 20 years, but the world war brought it forward. ”

Masayoshi Matsukata had some strength in the first few rhetorical questions, but the more he said the more he said, the more boring he became, and everyone could feel it, and this time the senators would say that it was a discussion, rather than an announcement, announcing that Japan would lose its hegemony in East Asia from now on and become a vassal of China.

What an irony! After the victory of the First Sino-Japanese War, the whole of Japan hailed that it would break away from Asia and join Europe, and that it would dominate East Asia from now on, but now, 22 years later, this pride and glory have vanished, and the shadow of the majestic continent in the west has covered the whole of Japan after a short period of obscureness. (To be continued......)