1890 King of Southeast Asia

"What do you mean?" Lin Anmin looked at Cyril grimly.

"I mean... yes..." Cyril moved his lips twice, looking at Lin Anmin, looking a little at a loss.

He knew that he had said the wrong thing and messed up the matter.

What he just said was tantamount to telling the French to be more tolerant and not to fight with the Germans. At the end, he added that the Germans proclaimed themselves emperors in the Palace of Versailles, ceded Alsace and Lorraine, and paid 5 billion francs in compensation.

I believe that any Frenchman would be broken by these words.

"I think some things are not necessary for the time being." Lin Anmin adjusted his expression, mainly to become expressionless and not let Cyril see the flaw.

"No, no, no! God! Your Excellency, please believe that I don't mean this, this is a misunderstanding!" Cyril stood up and waved his hand.

Seeing that he was still holding on, Lin Anmin stood up and pretended to send him away.

"Your Excellency, what I mean is that we should resolve the past misunderstandings. Maybe we can't eliminate them, but we should reach a consensus and try to eliminate the impact as much as possible."

"Yes, that's right. We can't change what has happened, but we should move in a better direction and try to avoid these misunderstandings."

Cyril gritted his teeth and stamped his feet, saying painfully.

"Eliminate? Avoid? How to eliminate? After all, things have already happened, and even after sixty years, the enthusiasm of the people is still not low, and even getting higher and higher."

"You know, with the growth of the economy and the growth of military power, the self-esteem of the nation will also emerge and flourish."

Lin Anmin still looked at Cyril gloomily.

"Remove the misunderstanding! In the past wars, the British Empire was deceived by those damn opium dealers, so these misunderstandings were caused."

"We should resolve this misunderstanding, and..., the British Empire will return all the cultural relics in the collections belonging to the Huaxia Empire."

"This is a completely free return, and the objects are returned to the original owners. The purpose is to eliminate the misunderstandings between you and my country. It does not involve other things, and I hope it will not affect our friendship."

Cyril said a little decadently.

At this time, the diplomats have great authority. When many things are urgent and they cannot contact the country, the diplomats can sign most of the treaties according to their own judgment.

These treaties are effective, and they only need to be sent to London for reporting. As long as the treaties are not too outrageous, London will generally not refuse.

Of course, the initiative to return the spoils in full is a bit abnormal in London, but Cyril believes that there will not be many people who will stop it.

I believe the king can also understand why he did this.

"This is just to clear up misunderstandings, and it has nothing to do with the choice of the Huaxia Empire." Lin Anmin sat down after getting what he wanted, but his face was still very sour, as if he was going to chase someone away if he disagreed with someone.

"In addition, all the expenses of this battle, including military salaries and allowances, will be paid by Britain, and the Huaxia Empire can provide a certain amount of loans."

"I will give you the list later, don't worry too much, our salaries and allowances are normal, at least not more than the British price, I mean the local army."

"Also, after the war, we need to pick some spoils, Britain must not stop us, we will not take German warships."

"And..."

Lin Anmin counted them one by one, and Cyril's scalp tingled.

Cyril listened to it. If Lin Anmin's clauses were implemented, it would be equivalent to the British paying to hire an army with complete autonomy, and all the spoils of this army would belong to the Huaxia Empire.

Britain doesn't really care about spoils. Now they don't have the energy to care about so much. What they care about is the ability to act independently.

After all, the British's original purpose was to trick the Chinese over, even at a certain price, and let them fill the line.

Why did Cyril visit late at night? Because he had just received an urging telegram from London, and the progress of the Battle of the Somme was very unsuccessful.

As mentioned before, after the German army launched the Battle of Verdun, the British and French coalition forces did the opposite and launched the Battle of the Somme to threaten the German flank.

Even though the German army dispatched a large number of mobile troops to the Verdun battlefield, the two sides fought hard in Verdun. There were only half an army group and four divisions with less than 100,000 German troops in the Somme direction, and the attacking side had 500,000 British and French coalition forces, but the British and French coalition forces failed to make a breakthrough.

Because they had five times the number of troops and sufficient preparations, the British and French coalition forces believed that this battle was already stable, and the purpose of launching the Battle of the Somme was to reduce the pressure in the direction of Verdun.

Therefore, the British and French coalition forces' offensive seemed neither hurried nor slow, and the firepower preparation that lasted for a week arrived as scheduled, highlighting the great power status of the British Empire and the French Third Republic.

However, the subsequent infantry combat was completely unsatisfactory. Millions of artillery shells were consumed, but only less than 10,000 German troops were killed, and the German army was given a seven-day buffer for no reason.

When the first few days of the battle passed, the British and French forces advanced six kilometers, and more than half of the four German divisions were killed or wounded, and the British and French forces suffered more than 50,000 casualties.

The German army set up three lines of defense in the direction of the Somme River, but the total depth was only eight kilometers. The British and French forces had advanced six kilometers. It can be said that the battle goal was about to be achieved.

As long as the last two kilometers are broken through, the flank of the German offensive in Verdun will be threatened and will have to stop, and the strategic goal of the Battle of the Somme will be achieved.

However, seven days of firepower preparation and several days of fighting did not achieve the expected results of the British and French coalition forces, but instead gave the Germans time to mobilize their troops.

To a certain extent, the British and French goals were also achieved. The German army drew eight divisions from Verdun and rushed over urgently, which was equivalent to drawing out the strength of an army group. The German offensive in the direction of Verdun was weakened at once.

The pressure on the British and French coalition forces in the direction of Verdun was reduced, but it was not in the direction of the Somme.

On a narrow strip of land of about 400 square kilometers (a piece of land about 50 kilometers long and about 8 kilometers wide, which is the width of the original German position.) A total of about 500,000 British, French and German troops were concentrated.

Half of the British and French coalition forces were still on the other side of the Somme and had not come over.

A week of firepower preparation and several days of continuous fighting caused the British and French coalition forces to be in short supply, especially the shells of medium and large caliber army artillery, which consumed a lot.

The German army arranged seven or eight barbed wire fences and various machine gun bunkers. Ordinary machine gun bunkers were okay, and any shell could knock them down, but concrete permanent fortifications and barbed wire fences must be destroyed by large caliber shells.

Especially the barbed wire fences, which are elastic in circles. Unless you are very lucky, small and medium caliber shells will have limited damage to the barbed wire.

Only large caliber shells can tear the barbed wire apart when hitting it, and blow it aside to open the way for the infantry.

Therefore, in the firepower preparation and initial offensive stage, the British and French coalition forces consumed 70% of the large caliber shells. When the German support arrived, the British and French coalition forces were embarrassed to find that their artillery could not beat the German artillery.

This is 500,000 people against less than 300,000 people! And according to the numbers, the British army dispatched three armies, the French army dispatched one, and the German army dispatched one and a half.

The army, army, and division level have their own separate artillery configurations, four to one and a half. Even if the German army has a larger organization and more artillery, the British and French coalition forces should have an absolute advantage in heavy firepower.

Unfortunately, they did not have enough shells, and the battle was stalemate for two days. Then the British and French coalition forces received new shells and the German army received support.

In a very short period of time, the German army mobilized another army of 200,000 people. The German army began to balance its forces with the British and French coalition forces, and then the German army launched an attack.

Because the new shells were not delivered to the position in the first time, the firepower support of the British and French coalition forces was not enough in the early stage of the German counterattack, and the Germans pushed back two kilometers.

Just when the British comforted themselves that they had forced the Germans to mobilize troops and lifted the siege of Verdun, the German tank troops appeared in the Somme River and drove the British and French back to their positions before the battle at the cost of eleven tanks breaking down.

If the tanks had not been blocked by the river, the German army might have made a breakthrough from the Somme River and bypassed Verdun.

The German army was really prepared to do this.

After the German General Staff reviewed the battle, they found that the British and French forces in the Somme River were very weak in combat effectiveness, poor in coordination, and slow in reaction. They guessed that there were mostly new recruits here.

Then, the German army began to increase its troops and try to break through.

Just yesterday, the Germans launched an attack. The attack in one day and one night caused more than 40,000 casualties in the British and French forces. This casualty is shocking, because the British and French forces were on defense!

There was no way, the battle had already begun, and the British had to send the reserve troops to resist the Germans.

Then, because the casualties of the troops in the early attack exceeded 30%, they had to withdraw to rest, and the Allies failed to achieve a force advantage.

In order to deal with the German reinforcements, the British brought in a lot of Indians to fill the line.

Now, the only infantry the British can use is the Marine Corps, and the French are not much better. As for the Russians, they have a lot of people, but they can't attack.

It's not a problem of combat effectiveness, but still a problem of transportation. Without sufficient transportation capacity, it is impossible to guarantee the logistical supply of the attacking army.

As for the Allied Powers, the Bulgarian army has joined the ranks of attacking the Tsar, and the Ottoman Empire is the same. The Tsar is becoming more and more difficult to resist, and the German army on the Eastern Front is liberated.

Now, Britain urgently needs fresh troops to join, and this fresh force should preferably be a large army. Anyway, at least there should be a lot of people.

There are many people who meet the conditions, but it seems that not many can be put into combat in the short term?

"That's about it." After Lin Anmin finished speaking, he took a sip of boiled water. After saying so much, he was a little thirsty.

"E... There are too many conditions, and it can't be negotiated in a short time." Cyril shook his head.

"Let's talk slowly, right? Anyway, the most important ones should be passed first. Otherwise, maybe the Ministry of Civil Affairs will dismantle the towed boat and use it to make a hoe... or a kitchen knife?" Lin Anmin smiled.

Cyril still shook his head, picked up the black tea and took a big sip to calm down.

"Well, thank you for the hospitality, I won't bother you anymore." Cyril stood up.

After Lin Anmin sent Cyril away, his wife came out.

"Didn't the negotiation come to an agreement again? These British people are really something, they want people to work hard, but they don't pay for it." His wife came up muttering.

Lin Anmin was woken up, which caused her to be woken up as well. She was a little resentful in her heart, against Cyril... and the British.

"The deal was done. Cyril didn't refuse, which means he had acquiesced to most of the terms."

"The British will not give up the opportunity to drag us into the war. The intensity of the war has exceeded the expectations of the proud British Empire."

Lin Anmin shook his head, feeling a little emotional.

With this, China has entered the countdown to joining the war. At the latest, it will have to join the war next year.