In Yan Shao's presidential palace, the banquet hall on the first floor, which can be called the largest in the world, was opened again after a long time.

In the banquet hall, Yan Shao was accompanied by Katarina, Lu Ying and Kaoru Otsuki, who was already pregnant. Although Elaline had just become pregnant at this time, and her body shape had not changed much, ordinary things were still fine, and even proper sex was no problem.

But after all, this is Yan Shao's first child, for Yan Shao, who is already in his thirties, this is more or less 'old and good', naturally very nervous, even at this important banquet, Yan Shao and several other people are closely by Elano's side...

Because of this, the people who came to congratulate them also congratulated two things, one was naturally the victory of the Somme, and the other was to congratulate the children...

Watching so many people congratulate her, although Elanon's personality is gentle and demure, the vanity in her heart is more or less satisfied, and she has no regrets about her choice to elope with Yan Shao—————— in fact, over the years, especially in the last two years, many people have praised her vision, although Yan Shao was just a more famous novelist at that time...

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"Mr. President, congratulations..."Holding his glass, Zhu Erdian walked in front of Yan Shao and congratulated.

"Where, where..." Yan Shao smiled. It should be the same joy..."

Having lived in China for so many years, Zhu Erdian naturally knows what Tongxi is. In my heart, I also felt that what Yan Shao said was very right. After all, this victory was not only China's own, but also the entire Entente, as the most important country in the Entente. The victory over the Somme was naturally a good thing for Britain, and even for him.

Because after the Somme, Downing Street officially set the date for elevating diplomatic status to the ambassadorial level with China. In a sense, Zhu Erdian can be regarded as a bitter end, and in his old age, he was finally able to live the addiction of an ambassador...

However, this time Zhu Erdian came over not for a question of 'Tongxi', so after smiling at Yan Shao, Zhu Erdian asked softly. "Mr. President, I wonder how much equipment your country still has similar to that found on the battlefield on the Somme. If you can, I hope that your country can invest more of this equipment on the battlefield, so that we can enjoy the joy of victory in advance........." Speaking of this, Zhu Erdian glanced at Yan Shao deeply. Originally, he wanted to say that this was also within the obligations of all the Entente members. However, after so many years, he also knew that Yan Shao's character was soft rather than hard, so he didn't say anything too serious, so as not to make things too bad.

In fact, for the victory of the Somme. Britain was both happy and angry.

Rejoicing, naturally, is because the battle was won. Although it is only a victory in battle, victory is victory after all.

As for the angry...

China obviously already has such equipment, but it has never been announced, and even after it arrived, the existence of these equipment was hidden, and it even made a name of 'tank' to hide people's eyes, which is clearly not trusting them.

And in the first days of the Battle of the Somme, the British could be said to have suffered heavy casualties, after three days of fighting. Most of the casualties were British. So they think that if the Chinese had taken out these equipment earlier, they would have allowed many young people who did not have to die to survive.

And now these young people who didn't have to die. Now it's dead completely...

Zhu Erdian came here this time with only three tasks, one was to congratulate, the other was to find a way to get the Chinese to send more similar equipment to Europe, and the last one was to question the reason.

However, as mentioned above, Zhu Erdian is very clear about Yan Shao's character, and he knows that he is famous for eating soft and not hard, and if he doesn't make trouble, he may even cause a lot of trouble, so although Downing Street asked him to use a questioning tone, in fact, Zhu Erdian used a more euphemistic tone...

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Just like Zhu Erdian thought, Yan Shao is indeed a person who eats soft rather than hard. If someone else gives him a soft one, he may also give the other party some face, and if someone else gives him a hard one............... A few years ago, maybe Yan Shao would have forgiven it, but now, even if it is Zhu Erdian, Yan Shao dares to turn his face directly, because he doesn't feel that he still has the need to wronged himself now.

When people live, they should be chic.

And his forbearance for so many years, isn't it just for now?

However, he still has some friendship with Zhu Erdian after all, not to mention that Zhu Erdian's attitude just now is not bad, so Yan Shao soon said with a smile. "Mr. Minister, you may not know that the cost of this equipment is very staggering, and the total cost of such an armored unit is about the same as that of a super-dreadnought, and even more when you count other expenses such as maintenance and training. Because of the relationship between the European station, our country is already very financially tight, and it is simply not possible to come up with too much money to build this kind of weapon, and the regiment in Europe is already in full number..."

The thing, of course, is not true, and now there is at least one and a half regiments in the country. And the cost is not so expensive, although the cost of this thing is indeed very expensive, but a regiment, all the costs add up to only a super dreadnought, which has already counted the fuel during training, etc...

However, Zhu Erdian didn't know this, and after looking at Yan Shao's expression, he couldn't see the reason.

In fact, he didn't believe in the situation in China at the beginning. It's just that gradually, there is more news, and he believes it. To be honest, he really didn't expect the Chinese to invent such powerful equipment, which also ignited his worries about China...

For at the moment China is thriving as he fears, and it will not be long before it grows to the point where it threatens British interests in the Far East...

But now is not the time to think about these after all, so Zhu Erdian quickly changed the topic and continued. "Also. The domestic side also wants to know why your country has not told us the information of this weapon, after all, we are allies. Shouldn't we be open to each other..."

This is what Britain is most angry about, after all, Yan Shao has hidden them to death. And if Yan Shao had invested the tank troops at the beginning of the Battle of the Somme, then perhaps Britain would not have had to pay more than 100,000 dead and wounded...

"Allies..."Hearing Zhu Erdian's words, Yan Shao's smile looked very weird. I'm going to ask you about this, and as far as I know, similar schemes are also available in your country. And it is said that as early as last year, a tank named Little Nomad was created, as Mr. Minister said, aren't we allies? Why are we, as allies, not knowing that your country is making such a plan? ”

"This—" Jurdian frowned. He didn't know that. "I wonder where you heard this news, Mr. President Lu Dao?" At the moment, Zhu Erdian is just a minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs after all. At his level, he was not qualified to know such a confidential matter, not to mention that after the Battle of the Somme, after the Chinese Expeditionary Force launched its power, the British raised the level of secrecy of tank-related information. It's even harder for Zhu Erdian to get the inside scoop.

But he didn't dare to deny it rashly. After all, who knows if Lu Dao is true, he doesn't dare to underestimate Yan Shao.

Sure enough, after hearing Zhu Erdian's answer, Yan Shao smiled slightly. "Is this the ......... Naturally, we have our own sources of intelligence, so we know such a news, and it is this information that allows us to understand that when we are in the process of planning, there is actually such a country that is carrying out the same plan as us......... Then I would like to take advantage of what Mr. Minister has just said. Why are we allies, but your country doesn't share this information with us? Or do you feel that we only need to provide information to your country unilaterally? And your country doesn't need to offer us anything at all? ”

A drop of cold sweat flowed from Zhu Erdian's forehead, and he really didn't know how to answer Yan Shao's question.

Originally, his plan was to wait for the above questions to be asked, and then to ask why the expeditionary force would secretly hide the tank troops, and even after arriving in Europe, they would still keep Britain and France secret—————— no matter which point of view, this secrecy seems to be unreasonable, after all, they are allies and not enemies with China.

This is done to allies on the territory of allies, no matter where you look at it

But now that Yan Shao's question is raised, his question seems to be a little unraised, after all, if it is about secrecy, it seems that Britain is still before China...

The most important thing is that he doesn't know about Lu Dao at all, and with the information he has so far, he can't answer Yan Shao's questions...

Looking at Zhu Erdian's dumbfounded appearance, Yan Shao smiled and did not continue to ask to embarrass him, but continued. "Okay, let's ask about this matter when Mr. Minister goes back later, the most important thing now is to celebrate the victory..."As he spoke, Yan Shao raised the wine glass in his hand and nodded with a smile at a few people who were looking at him in the distance.

At this time, for Yan Shao's proposal, Zhu Erdian had no other way than to nod and agree...

At the same time, in the distance, looking at the appearance of Zhu Erdian, Ray? Copa shook his head.

One of the reasons why he didn't go up with him was that he felt that Yan Shao was not so easy to deal with, so it was better to let him go up to test the temptation first, and the other reason was simpler, that is, because the French losses on the Somme were still relatively small. After all, the main force of the Somme is now the British and not the French, and although the French must have suffered more losses than the expeditionary force, they must have been much less than the British.

What's more, the French also have some ideas that want to weaken the British by the hands of the Germans, and the current situation is more in line with their wishes. Copa became calm and relaxed at the reception...

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At the beginning, the wedding of Yan Shao and Eleno and others shocked the world, after all, there were few people with a higher status than Yan Shao at that time, not to mention that the wedding scene was still the largest banquet hall in the world, he married three wives again this time—————— there may have been many people who did this in the past, but there are few who dare to do this in modern times. Especially at this time, if you dare to marry three wives at a time, you must first be mentally prepared to accept scolding...

But in general. In that wedding that shocked the world, the banquet hall itself still played an important role. And this time, Yan Shao held the celebration banquet here, which also made many social orders who had not been here in the past and were invited to come this time dumbfounded...

Although they had seen pictures of the banquet hall in the newspaper in the past, the photos couldn't compare to the ones they were there in...

This celebratory banquet was relatively successful, at least at the end of the day, both the guests and the host were very happy. But after the banquet is over. Zhu Erdian hurried back to the legation, and then sent the contents of his conversation with Yan Shao back to London by telegram.

After learning that Yan Shao actually knew about similar plans in the UK, and even knew about the existence of the little nomads. The British themselves were taken aback. After all, the Land Cruiser's plan was very inconspicuous at the time, and they never imagined that Yan Shao would actually know such a plan.

But on the other hand, to put it this way. It is equivalent to Britain keeping secrets from the allies first. Especially to keep it secret from China first, although Yan Shao's secrecy from Britain and France is a little unreasonable, it is not unreasonable...

In addition, at this time, Britain also needed China to continue to contribute to the battlefield on the Western Front, so although they were very angry, the British were not willing to make things too big and eventually make trouble out of control.

So the London side quickly gave Zhu Erdian a new task, and the content of this task was very simple, that is, to get more tanks from Yan Shao...

After all, the excellent performance of tanks in the Somme is something that everyone sees. In just one hour, at the cost of more than 3,000 casualties, you can take a position that Britain and France have not been able to take before with a large number of casualties. With such sharp weapons, if there were more of them, wouldn't the coalition forces be able to defeat Germany very easily?

In fact, this is also a helpless move by the British, because the little nomads are not qualified, and the Mark tanks, although some are now shipped, are pitifully small in number...

After thinking about it, it seems that only China's tank force is the most realistic choice at the moment, but Cai Ye also told them very clearly that in the previous battle, the 150 tanks owned by the expeditionary force have basically all been lying on their stomachs, and there are so many tanks, it is not easy to repair them, in other words, it is useless to count on them, even if they can only count on the domestic side...

However, Yan Shao, who had already spoken to Zhu Erdian, gritted his teeth and did not intend to let go at all, after all, his purpose was very simple, that is, to make Europeans bleed. If the war ends before it is exhausted, then Yan Shao's purpose can be regarded as a failure.

But...

Although he could not directly send tank troops, Yan Shao was willing to sell these tanks to Britain and France, and was even willing to grant licenses to the two countries to allow them to build these two tanks on their own.

This is precisely in the hands of Britain and France, because after some investigation, Britain and France found that the tanks being built in China are more advanced in performance and more technically mature than their ongoing plans.

Instead of continuing those half-baked projects, it is better to use the ones you bought...

This is one of Yan Shao's goals, to destroy the tank research and development capabilities of Britain and France. If any country wants to develop a technology on its own, they will export it to the country at a lower price, so that the people of this country will lose the idea of continuing research and development, thus destroying their research and development capabilities...

Of course, Yan Shao knew that he could not completely destroy the R&D capabilities of Britain and France, but as long as he could delay a little, and then let China stand in a higher position than them, Germany, Russia and the United States, it would be enough...

What's more, he only sells licenses and drawings, and some key components may not be made by Britain and France, or if they are made, it will take too long and may not be able to catch up, so they will have to import parts for production from China, which can make Yan Shao make a lot of money, as well as the patent fees.

And through the money earned, Yan Shao can also invest it in the next generation of tanks.

The fact that a new generation of tanks has begun to be developed, but it lacks a strong heart. If you can have such a sum of money in hand, it is definitely good news for the development of the engine...

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Yan Shao wants to destroy the R&D capabilities of Britain and France by exporting to Britain and France, and make a lot of money by the way. As for Britain and France, after weighing the gap between these two tanks and armored vehicles and their own developed vehicles, they also had an idea similar to 'it is better to buy than to build, and it is better to rent than to buy'...

The two sides hit it off, so to speak, and an agreement was reached quickly.

According to the agreement, in the future, China will export a batch of tanks to Britain and France, and provide relevant drawings and parts to be assembled by Britain and France, and Britain and France will provide China with an additional cost at the same time as assembly...

In this way, on the whole, the two sides are quite satisfied with such an agreement.

And with more money, the R&D department can also invest more money in the development of new tanks.

However, at the moment, Yan Shao is not concerned about this, but about whether the investment of tanks will change the contrast between the power of the Entente and the Allied Powers......... No...

Because Britain and France have also built tanks in history, but what about the result...

Due to the limitations of technology, these tanks simply cannot exert the power of those who came after history, and now the Germans are only frightened because they are encountering it for the first time, and when they are familiar with it, they will naturally find a solution.

In the final analysis, the tanks equipped by the expeditionary force are only more reasonable in design than those of Britain and France, and in terms of technology and other aspects, although they are a little unwilling, they actually do not exceed much...

What's more, even if it exceeds some, I'm afraid it doesn't make a difference, after all, in the next ten years of history, most of those tanks are no different. (To be continued......)