1890 King of Southeast Asia

Although the decision has been made, the British Empire cannot deal with a minister just because of protests from other countries, so the actual handling has also been delayed.

Since September 15, Foreign Minister Balfour has actually stopped working, and all work is temporarily handled by Arnold, the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. George's request is to restore the relationship between Britain and other countries to the level before the misunderstanding.

That is, the impact of this incident on various countries is not small. In addition to affecting the Huaxia Empire, which has a "direct misunderstanding" with Britain, there are also a number of small countries on the side of the Allies.

After all, the Balfour Declaration is a betrayal of the Huaxia Empire's participation in the war treaty. Although the "National House" involved in the declaration sounds like just a civil organization and is not a big deal, judging from the reaction of the Chinese people, there must be something fishy in the middle.

Those small countries will naturally be confused. Although the Huaxia Empire was once backward (part of its legal system came from the Qing Empire), it is at least a big country and has the task of transfusing blood to many countries. It is much more important than those small countries.

Britain can go back on its word compared to stronger and more important countries, what about itself?

You know, Britain has a history of being a troublemaker in Europe, and its most glorious era was the Victorian era that just passed!

1 It was not until the end of September that Balfour resigned from his position as minister because he could not perform his ministerial duties due to physical reasons.

In early October, Prime Minister George Lloyd appointed Conservative MP Stanley Earl Baldwin as Foreign Secretary.

And George's Chancellor of the Exchequer was also Andrew Bonar Law of the Conservative Party. So far, the Liberal Party in George Lloyd's government has been completely suppressed by the Conservative Party and other minority parties.

(I made a mistake. Balfour is also a Conservative Party. His Liberal Party identity can only be regarded as a setting in this book.)

The first thing Stanley did when he came to power was to send a lengthy telegram to Lin Anmin, emphasizing the friendship between the two sides in fighting together and the "insignificant" contradictions, while telling the difficulties of Britain.

What are the difficulties of Britain? It's the French.

After the matter was exposed, especially after the French got the evidence of the conversation, France has been jumping up and down to accuse and ridicule the British.

Although the two sides are currently comrades-in-arms, they have been entangled in love and hate for hundreds of years. Both sides are happy to see each other suffer misfortune, and will have fun when the other side suffers misfortune.

Because the French held the British back, the British reaction became very "slow".

The British can tolerate the government explaining the "misunderstanding" to the Huaxia Empire, but cannot tolerate the government's compromise with the French.

Lin Anmin also "fully carried forward the spirit", "truly realized the difficulties of the British", and "fully considered the traditional friendship between the two sides", and then replied a telegram.

To put it bluntly, it is to drag it out. The British want to drag it out, waiting for public opinion to subside, and see if they can fool this matter. After all, it is the British who made a mistake, and they always have to pay some price.

Lin Anmin also wants to drag it out. Let's not talk about other things. In the past month, Huaxia has traded with the Germans three times, with a total amount of 15 tons of gold.

15 tons of gold, converted into 10 million Huayuan, more than 9.9 million US dollars, which is the cost of two 5,000-ton cruisers, not much.

But this is gold! Golden physical gold, not colorful paper money. With gold as collateral, under financial stability, the issuance of paper money can be ten to twenty times the value of paper money.

Moreover, such transactions are gradually expanding, the trust between the two sides is gradually solidifying, and the trading of expensive rare metals and medicines is gradually spreading.

The longer it drags on, the more China can get. After the war, the British want to open the German treasury to subsidize themselves, but they can only look at the empty warehouse in confusion.

…………

Besides, what’s more, what’s more…

Shh~~

It’s still the familiar formula, and it’s still the train station in the town of Hatay, but the station has changed.

The original waiting hall was demolished, the building materials were used for other purposes, and the land became part of the new freight yard.

On the platforms on both sides of the railway, where are the four cranes, at the end of the train station, there was originally only one track, and a new temporary track was extended.

"You operate the crane to unload the goods. The first two carriages can be parked where they are without unloading. Unlock the locomotive." Zheng Shangqing jumped off the carriage and climbed into the front of the train.

Huang Zhengfang had just gotten off the rear of the train and hurriedly followed.

Besides, besides, besides...

The locomotive drove into the temporary circular track. After closing the gate, the locomotive began to reverse carefully and finally connected with the one carriage left on the temporary track.

Zheng Shangqing and Huang Zhengfang jumped off the locomotive, climbed onto the carriage with German words, opened the door, and a pile of boxes were already there.

"We have a lot to do this time. There should be 8,426 kilograms of gold here. If it is 1 kilogram per piece, we can count it." Huang Zhengfang opened the box, and it was still 1 kilogram per piece of gold bars.

"Here are the standard gold bars of 12.5 kilograms. They seem to be the specifications for strategic reserve gold. Such a large size is not needed in the market. The previous ones should be gold bars that can be used for circulation." Zheng Shangqing opened a box, and there were 4 gold bars inside.

Each one was marked with a weight of 12.5 kilograms. Such a heavy gold bar is very inconvenient to be used for trading and circulation in reality.

If converted into paper money, one gold brick costs 8,333 yuan, and the total weight is only 2 taels, which can be put into a pocket, while gold bricks must be packed in a sturdy box and carried by people or cars.

This is an important reason why paper money replaces physical currency. The physical metals involved in commodity trading are too heavy and inconvenient to transport.

"Count how many there are!" Huang Zhengfang looked at the gold bricks and nodded with satisfaction.

They can't judge whether the gold bricks are counterfeit, and there is no need to judge these. After they are transported back, someone will cut and melt them for identification.

As for whether the Germans will counterfeit? They will definitely do so one day in the future, and they will also rob each other. The positions of both parties have determined from the beginning that this kind of business will not last long.

But at present, Germany still has enough gold reserves, as well as the gold of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and they will not cut off this source of materials.

"The things we transported this time should not be ordinary, right? There are only 30-odd carriages in a train, half of which are used to transport people and the other half are used to transport goods, and they are worth so much."

"The Germans are stronger than the British and French in combat effectiveness, but the lack of supplies limits their combat effectiveness. Will our actions change the situation?"

Zheng Shangqing counted the boxes one by one. The opened boxes were all 4 10.25 kg gold bars per box of reserve gold, which was very convenient to calculate.

The only problem was that the boxes were stacked, and it was inevitable to have some backache after moving them dozens of times in a row.

"The higher-ups should have considered these, and even if the situation changed, it didn't matter to us. At most, the Germans would defeat the British and French coalition forces and the two sides would negotiate."

"In the current situation, how much can the Germans change the situation even if they get these supplies? We gave the British far more than this." Huang Zhengfang counted the gold bars one by one.

After fully witnessing the war, Huang Zhengfang didn't think that the Germans could change the overall situation of the war with these few wagons of supplies. It might happen in the future as the trading volume increases, but not now.

It can only be said that Huang Zhengfang understands industry and war, but not the British...

…………

Western Front.

"Hey, Steve, I'm here again." Lucas came over with a cloth bag on his back.

"Why are you the only one here? Where is the supply team 5 that transports supplies?" Steve looked and saw that Lucas was alone.

"Here is your food for the next week, 20 pounds of potatoes, two pounds of fresh meat, 3 canned meat, 6 canned beans, and some vegetables and lemons." Lucas put down the bag on his back.

"What? That's all? There are 3 of us, and why there is no black bread, only potatoes." Steve looked at Lucas with wide eyes.

Half a month ago, Steve's machine gun team finally added a third person, but he was a pure recruit who had only been trained for 4 weeks and could do nothing except shooting.

But at least someone was added. If you don't know anything, just be an ammunition handler and learn slowly. Heavy machine guns cannot be operated smoothly by two people. Sergeant Steve is skilled, otherwise the machine gun would have been gone long ago.

"I heard that there was a problem with the supply ship. I don't know the specific situation."

"It's good to have these. I sent you the fresh meat with great difficulty. Others don't have it. Don't tell anyone." After all, he is his cousin, and Lucas still hopes that he will live a better life.

"Lucas, do you believe it? Just one ship is enough for the people and animals of the whole division to eat for a week, and what about the food stored before?" Steve was a little angry.

There are more than 30 pounds of food here, including the weight of the vegetables, not counting lemons.

1 pound is 454 grams, almost 9 taels, which adds up to about 30 kilograms of food. Three people can eat for 7 days, which is more than enough for ordinary people.

But they are soldiers, and three people have to undertake the work of a heavy machine gun group. The labor intensity is not low, and this amount of food can barely sustain at most.

However, most of them are potatoes, and there is not a piece of bread, which makes people feel uncomfortable. Even if the British love potatoes, they can't eat like this.

And from what Lucas said, not everyone has the two pounds of fresh meat, which means that other people have less food.

"Who knows? Steve, what do you think about what I told you before? I still have some money and can lend it to you." Lucas is talking about bribing the company commander or battalion commander in exchange for a safe position.

He knew that most of Steve's money was sent home, and he sent it by hand, so he was going to lend some money to his cousin.

He has seen too many life and death, so he doesn't want his cousin to die on the battlefield, otherwise how can he go back to see his aunt?

"Wait a little longer, I'm almost getting enough money." Steve shook his head. In the recent small-scale harassment war, he touched a lot of things and sold them on the black market for a lot of money.

Gold and silver jewelry, watches and pocket watches, good-quality leather belts and shoes, pistols, badges, etc. can all be sold for a good price, but they are rare.

The common rifles are also priced well, but the risk of selling large items is not small.

"Okay, I heard that Belfort is no longer in good condition. The new foreign minister is negotiating with the Chinese to send our supplies directly from southern France. It will be fine after a while."

"As for this period of time, we can only eat whatever we can..."

Lucas looked around and saw Daniel was taking the new recruits to maintain the machine gun. He whispered to Steve,

"If you really can't hold on, there's food on the black market. Don't wear your military uniform when you go to buy it."

"Is there no one in charge?" Steve was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head.

"Maybe?" Lucas said...

(