Expedition to Europe

It is easy to say that it is to maintain effective communication, but it is still difficult to do it.

Lan Fang, whose relationship with Egypt has entered a honeymoon period, has a completely different face when facing Yemen.

This is not Gu Weijun's fault. After the Yemenis panicked and pulled the Americans into the negotiations between Lan Fang and Yemen, the progress of the negotiations was completely beyond the expectations of the Yemenis. The Americans did not hope to become Yemenis, but instead wanted to divide Yemen with Lan Fang. This is really inviting a wolf into the house.

After learning about the Americans' request, Gu Weijun did not reject the Americans, but made a request to the Americans.

Lan Fang can agree to the United States' intervention in Yemen, but this is subject to the prerequisite that the United States repeals the "Chinese Exclusion Act".

The Americans quickly met this request.

In fact, the call for the repeal of the "Chinese Exclusion Act" in the United States is now very high. Repealing the "Chinese Exclusion Act" is simply a matter of course. The day after Gu Weijun made the request, the US government announced the formal repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act that had been in effect for 41 years. The Chinese finally obtained their due social status in the United States.

The Chinese living in the United States are so excited that I won't go into details. After the US government announced the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act, the negotiations between Lan Fang and Yemen finally entered the fast lane.

No, it's not a negotiation between Lan Fang and Yemen, but a negotiation between Lan Fang and the United States. Yemen, as a party concerned, has been excluded from the scope of the negotiations.

How sad!

But this is the reality. Without strong national strength, even the negotiations that determine the fate of one's own country cannot be participated in. Even the Yemeni representative Wahid Badr could not enter the meeting room where Gu Weijun and Charles Hughes negotiated.

In mid-August, Lan Fang and Yemen reached an agreement under the mediation of the Americans. Yemen will cede nearly 30,000 square kilometers of territory, including Little Aden and Perin Island, to Lan Fang as a reward for Lan Fang's help in Yemen's construction of Mukalla Port. The area near Mukalla Port will be used as a concession area and leased by the Americans for 99 years. The Americans will station an army in Mukalla Port to ensure that Lan Fang will not continue to expand in Yemen. At the same time, the United States will pay the Yemeni government $150,000 per year as the lease fee for Mukalla Port.

Fortunately, the lease fee was not set at one dollar per year, otherwise it would be shameless to a new level.

Once the agreement between Lan Fang and Yemen was announced, everyone was shocked. What was shocking was not the strength of the Lan Fang government and the cowardice of the Yemeni government, but the American's skill in getting something for nothing.

Charles Hughes's tenure as Supreme Court Justice a few years ago was not in vain. He was able to talk the dead back to life. He just cut a piece of meat from the Yemeni people and asked the Yemeni people to be grateful.

With the agreement between Lan Fang and Yemen, the Cairo Conference finally came to an end.

Strictly speaking, the Cairo Conference was a successful conference. The participating countries issued a joint statement after the meeting. In this statement, the participating countries "unanimously agreed" to maintain the status quo in the Middle East, determined to resolve future disputes in the form of conferences, and opposed any form of war in the Middle East.

The reason why "unanimous agreement" is in quotation marks is that the British did not sign the agreement. Churchill boarded the cruise ship back to London with a curse, and did not even attend the dinner after the meeting. This is a pity.

The Americans "betrayed and surrendered to the enemy" at the last moment, which made Britain and Italy alone. The Cairo Conference not only failed to achieve the goal of curbing Lan Fang, but also legally confirmed the existence of Lan Fang's Western Province. Britain also lost both the wife and the army.

Churchill must be very angry, because this "pot" should be attributed to Churchill, and someone must be responsible for the failure of the Cairo Conference.

Even if the British did not sign, it would be useless. The unanimous agreement of the United States, France, and Lan Fang has set the tone for the meeting, and whether the British sign or not cannot change this fact.

Qin Zhiyuan must be satisfied with this result. On the evening after the signing of the agreement, Qin Zhiyuan hosted a banquet for William III at the Penglai Island Palace.

That's right, William III came to Lan Fang again. This time, William III came under the banner of visiting William II. This was also William III's third trip to Lan Fang within five years of Lan Fang's founding.

Considering the distance between Lan Fang and Germany, this frequency can definitely be called frequent.

After learning the specific content of the Cairo Declaration, William III smiled a little bitterly: "You are such a lucky guy, look at the current territory of Lan Fang - tsk tsk, if a few decades later, will you unify the world?"

As a king, William III must admit that Qin Zhiyuan is indeed a leader in the profession of "king".

"The whole world? No, no, no, I am not interested in that. I just want to fight for more living space for the Chinese, nothing else. Look at the Lan Fang territory now. The northern border area was equivalent to an uninhabited area before. It was land occupied by the Russians. I just took it back with good reason. The same is true for Goryeo and Yingzhou. As for Siam and the western provinces, the people there were suffering terribly under the rule of the feudal monarchs. I overthrew the original government in order to rescue them and bring them a happy life. This must be an act worthy of recognition." Qin Zhiyuan is much more shameless than Gu Weijun. He said these words without blushing or beating his heart. His ability to confuse right and wrong is unparalleled.

"Haha, I like your shameless look very much. It's very much like me back then." William III was so happy that he leaned back and forth.

These were the words Qin Zhiyuan used to attack William III, but now they were thrown back intact by William III.

"Don't talk nonsense. There are a thousand Hamlets in the eyes of a thousand people. Your feeling of shamelessness is just your personal feeling. My feeling is noble. Only noble people will not benefit themselves but only benefit others." Qin Zhiyuan was serious.

"Well, you are indeed very noble, so can you please be more noble and pity the poor German people who are struggling in dire straits." William III also said seriously, as if he was joking, he stated the purpose of his trip.

"Are you going to abdicate the throne for me?" Qin Zhiyuan was still unmoved and carefully observed William III's expression.

"I'm serious." William III rolled his eyes.

If you don't say that this person is an aristocrat, even if you roll your eyes, you will do it very gracefully, making people not feel much disgust, but will give rise to the strange thought of "self-blame".

Of course, Qin Zhiyuan didn't feel much self-blame in his heart. After receiving confirmation from William III, Qin Zhiyuan ate slowly, and after a while he slowly said: "I think you should agree with the Dawes Committee. suggestion."

Read the original article in Liu#9@书/吧!

The Dawes Committee, which was actually two committees, was set up specifically to solve the German reparations problem. One of them studied ways to balance the German budget and stabilize German finance, and the other investigated the outflow of German capital and designed ways to bring it back.

The two special committees were chaired by American banker C.G. Dawes, so they were called the Dawes Committee.

Just a month ago, the Dawes Commission finally issued a prescription for restoring the German economy, also known as the "Dawes Plan."

The plan attempted to use the method of restoring the German economy to ensure Germany's repayment of compensation. Its main contents were: the Allied powers supervised the reorganization of the Deutsche Bank, implemented currency reforms, and loaned 800 million gold marks (equivalent to 190 million U.S. dollars) from the Allied powers to stabilize its currency system. In total compensation While the number has not yet been finalized, the annual limit for Germany's reparations will be stipulated, starting from 1 billion gold marks in the first year, that is, 1924 to 1925, and increasing year by year, and will increase by the fifth year, that is, 1928. It will pay 2.5 billion gold marks annually.

Germany's financial resources for paying the compensation come from tariffs, tobacco, alcohol and sugar monopoly taxes, railway revenue and industrial and commercial enterprise taxes. In order to pay the compensation, Germany will issue 11 billion gold marks in railway bonds and 5 billion gold marks in industrial bonds.

After this, Germany's financial foreign exchange, railway operations and tax collection affairs will be subject to international supervision.

"Accept? No, no, no, I absolutely cannot accept it. You should have seen that plan. It is not at all to restore the German economy, but to completely control Germany. If our financial foreign exchange, railway operations, and taxation systems are Accept international supervision, so what secrets does Germany have? What? This is equivalent to stripping off your underwear and letting people visit. I absolutely cannot accept such a plan." After William III finished speaking, he was still a little unfinished. He drank the champagne in front of him in one breath, smashed the heavy glass on the table, and then stood up angrily: "To hell with that damn 'Dawes Plan'!"

It seems that William III has indeed been under great ideological pressure during this period. William III was such a gentle and gentle person in the past, but now he has learned to use foul language. It's really damning.

"Supervise, just supervise. How many secrets do you think Germany has to the international community now? It's just financial and government operations and does not involve the military. This is not unacceptable." Qin Zhiyuan said with a bit of sincerity. For the sake of Germany, Qin Zhiyuan also worried about it.

"You said it very lightly. If someone wanted to supervise Lanfang's financial and tax system, would you agree?" William III wanted Qin Zhiyuan to think from his perspective.

William III did not mention the railway system, because the railway system in Lanfang is really not very developed. Lanfang is a country composed of islands, and shipping is the most developed. Railways are only available in the northern Xinjiang.

"It depends on the situation. If the price paid by that person is high enough, it's not impossible." Qin Zhiyuan thought openly.

It’s no good if you can’t think about it. The situation Germany is facing now is pretty good. After the Eight-Power Allied Forces invaded China, the Qing Empire once experienced “international supervision” that was even more ridiculous than the “Dawes Plan”, and some of it was imposed by Germany.