Compared to its centuries-old enemies across the Taiwan Strait, Gallic Chicken's current domestic situation is even worse.
The severe blow caused by the Great Depression to the economy has not been fully recovered to this day. Bankrupt companies abound and the unemployment rate remains high.
The difficult current situation has directly led to the intensification of political struggles in France. The left and right factions are fighting endlessly, and radical movements are common.
Under this situation, the French Republic also had to face the military threat of the German society. The strong defense line they spent huge sums of money to build showed their fear of the Germans. Of course, the proud French would never admit this even to death.
The bloody European War twenty years ago directly killed a generation of young people, but in the end they gained very little. Today's French people only hope to maintain the status quo, and if they can do less, they will lose one thing.
What's more, being at odds with the Ming Dynasty is not good for France's interests. The few interests on the Japanese islands are just mosquito legs. Using them as a bargaining chip in exchange for trade restrictions on Germany is very reasonable at the moment.
The final bottom line that the French envoy was told before leaving was actually relatively low. In addition to leaving at least 6 months for French companies to transfer assets, the main condition was to require Ming Dynasty to reduce its rubber and tungsten concentrate trade with Germany. , the bottom lines are 40% and 65% respectively, and the time limit is 10 years.
However, how much can be discussed depends on the ability of the emissary.
At first, the French envoy tentatively proposed a 60% reduction in rubber and 90% tungsten concentrate trade, but the Ming envoy immediately rejected it.
"This request is too urgent and dishonest. At least the existing contract should be fulfilled. The trading income of tungsten concentrate is also of great significance to our country. Cutting it by 90%? This is not much different from a complete cutoff, and neither is acceptable."
"But, sir, who knows whether you signed a long-term contract?"
"Long-term contracts can be voided, but short-term contracts should be fully fulfilled."
"Let's talk about the reduction ratio again, sir."
"There can be a little more rubber, but the tungsten concentrate can be reduced by at least 20%." The Ming envoy said flatly.
"You said 'more', how much specifically?" The French envoy obviously knew this word game. In this case, whoever said it first would be at a disadvantage, so he threw the ball back.
"About sixty-five percent."
Only 5% more rubber is cut, but the tungsten concentrate has to be changed from 90% to 20%? ? ?
"Sir, I am beginning to doubt your sincerity." The French emissary said with some dissatisfaction.
"I think so too." The British emissary on the side took a puff of his cigar and echoed: "Being sincere enough in trade can avoid a diplomatic, economic, and even military conflict. This is very worthwhile for China."
"What a big mistake. How can the security of China's borders be considered with a businessman's mindset? Japan is only 1,200 miles away from our country. It can be called a gateway. Any price is worth it."
"But sir, Kyushu Island has always been a colony of your country." The French emissary retorted.
What he meant was that with Kyushu Island as a buffer in the middle, there was no need to be so exaggerated about what a gateway place was and what safety could be at any cost.
"It is the Xuanwei jurisdiction and the obedient vassal town, not the so-called colony." The Ming envoy corrected this point first, and then said seriously: "Kyuzhou Island seems very small to us. You all have a voyage of more than three thousand miles. After the bomber flies over the Daming Sea, it will be the essence of Susong."
The three-party emissaries are all carefully selected characters, and their verbal skills are not ordinary. The negotiation between you and me continues.
Germany's lack of natural resources has limited its military strength to a great extent. The four resources of oil, copper ore, tungsten ore, and rubber are indispensable for the war machine. Britain and France, together with other European countries, have been strictly restricting Germany, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. The resource imports of other countries can barely meet the needs of peacetime.
Obviously, if you want to fight a war, you must hoard resources, but the main suppliers of these resources have succumbed to the instructions of Britain and France. For example, the Dutch rubber and oil trade with Germany has been at a very low level.
Although the Dutch secretly sold more in order to make more money, the total amount was still too small.
Therefore, the majority of the rubber trade with Germany in these years has been completely taken up by Daming and Annan; in addition, cargo ships loaded with tungsten concentrate, molybdenum concentrate, and nickel concentrate also set sail from Haiphong and Guangzhou in a steady stream. Hamburger.
It is no exaggeration to say that these important rare metals in the metallurgical industry can influence the situation of the war, so the French are eager to suppress the German power from any feasible angle.
Because the Ming Dynasty's emissary acted too tough and confident, the British and French emissaries unanimously chose to suspend negotiations.
Although they showed a very firm attitude and repeatedly threatened that they would never make any major concessions for the sake of their own country's interests, in fact they were afraid that the talks would collapse.
The result of the collapse of the talks is self-evident. The existing interests of Western countries, or at least Britain and France, in Japan will be wiped out.
The number of values is indeed small, but the negative impact it brings is far greater than the value itself.
First of all, it is impossible for Britain and France to go to war over this, and everyone knows what the concession garrison is. The result is that they will be easily defeated and then leave in despair.
As a result, public opinion will ridicule the government's incompetence, the people will question the country's strength, and ambitious parties will take the opportunity to make noise, which will undoubtedly make the already unstable political situation worse.
This is only the most direct impact. If we also consider the indirect impact on economy and trade, as well as the unpredictable vicious consequences-the Ming Dynasty will not stop doing anything, and will directly attack the Nanyang region...
That's too bad!
Therefore, the British and French emissaries continued to send reports to their own countries from the afternoon until midnight to solicit opinions.
After a day of deliberation, the resumption of negotiations the next day will be much smoother.
Even though the two emissaries were still doing what they did yesterday, the Ming envoy could easily sense that the confidence of these two people was slightly weaker, and he couldn't help but secretly laugh in his heart.
Haha, these Xiyi are really tough guys, but not soft.
However, in order to take care of the self-esteem of these two emissaries, the Ming emissary also saw through it but did not say anything. He did not say anything sarcastic. He just said casually, "It was glorious when it was strong in the past, but it will be miserable when it declines in the future." This already made the sensitive people The two of them were blushing.
The results of the negotiations were quickly drawn up, and the document, tentatively titled "Agreement on the Transfer of Power and Assets in Japan," was quickly sent back to the three countries.
"First, the transfer will begin on March 1, Qiyuan 7938;
Second, various transfer actions by the United Kingdom and France from the Japanese Islands should be completed before June 1 of the same year. If they exceed the deadline, the assets that have not yet been transferred must be abandoned. No physical assets may be destroyed;
Third, Ming Dynasty should cancel its long-term mineral export contract with Germany and short-term contracts of less than 360 days can be fully fulfilled;
Fourth, the export volume of tungsten, molybdenum and nickel concentrate to Germany should be reduced by 35% compared with this year, and the export volume of rubber should be reduced by 50%. This limitation period is 5 years.
Fifth, Ming Dynasty should sign a separate six-year non-aggression treaty with Britain before February 1 and make a public statement. "
The final agreement was much worse than Britain and France expected - for Britain, the non-aggression pact lasted only six years, instead of at least ten years as initially hoped; for France, the reduction in trade with Germany was also greater than hoped. Much less, only five years.
This undoubtedly makes Britain and France deeply unhappy, but for now they can only hold it in.
After all, if Daming lifts the table and stops talking, they will suffer more in the end.
But if you think about it from another perspective, not only did you have time to withdraw most of the assets that were already unsustainable, but you also got a small amount of things that were more beneficial to the country. This seems okay?
Official reports at home by the British and French promoted the incident as a great diplomatic victory, but some pointed out that it could only be regarded as a victory for Pyrrhus at best.
As for the rest, Ming naturally did not have the time to negotiate with the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and other countries one by one, so he chose to negotiate secretly with Britain and France first.
Now, the two leaders of Western civilization have compromised, and the other countries have followed the trend and agreed.
The Russians who are in a mess at home and have too much time to take care of themselves are the most interesting. They don't even have time to remove the assets in the rental area, so they simply sell them at a lower price with a clear price tag.
The weapons and equipment of the garrison were also directly resold to interested vassal towns. Rifles, light machine guns, heavy machine guns, infantry cannons, armored vehicles, etc. were all packaged and sold. After paying the money, they would pick up the goods at their door, no matter how good they were.
On the contrary, Americans have shown the toughest attitude. This is partly because Ming Dynasty went to Britain and France privately instead of calling the United States. This made some politicians with a strong sense of pride extremely dissatisfied. Over the years, in order to become great, we, the United States, After all the hard work, you deliberately ignored it, right?
The other main reason is that the United States still has no intention of completely giving up on the Far East - its ambitions are still there, and even though the benefits from the Philippine colonies and Japanese concessions are very small, it is still persisting.
In the Wenhua Hall, several cabinet ministers also exchanged views on this.
Li Guangyuan stroked his white beard, "This is interesting, but the Americans are not happy. When the time comes...will we fight?"
"There is no military problem." Lin Xi actually didn't care much about this and said nonsense casually.
"I think I can keep it. Now the other countries will take the initiative to leave and withdraw their influence, and then only the United States will be left." Yu Shenhua said unhurriedly: "There will be a lot of variables in the future. If you keep it, it can be used as an excuse for any disputes, which is quite convenient."
"I think it's pretty good," Li Guangyuan nodded and said thoughtfully, "It's just that public opinion needs to be guided a little bit. If all the countries are gone and one family is left alone, it's easy for people to make false claims."
"Well, just keep it. Anyway, I haven't decided yet. It can be solved at any time depending on the situation." Lin Xi did not object.
The days pass by, and the remaining time flies by.
The thirty-seventh year of Zhichang was full of absurdity and turmoil. This was a turning year, turning from the peaceful plains to the unknown abyss.
Shortly after New Year's Day, the Daming Sun and Moon Society announced the "Sino-British Non-Aggression Pact", which caused an uproar for a while and became a must-have topic for people from all over the country.
In contrast, the reduction in trade volume with Germany has been ignored.
January 20th is the hour.
A train from Wuhan Prefecture slowly entered Jiangbei Railway Station. A group of young couples stepped off one of the second-class carriages, then looked at the street signs and followed the crowd to the place where they left the station.
Zhou Changfeng has been waiting here for less than half an hour. His eyes quickly jumped among the crowds of people, but he never found his target.
Suddenly, a sound of "long wind" came from the front right, which made him startled. He turned his head and saw a woman in a light-colored coat and skirt walking slowly towards her with her husband.
Petite in stature, with eyebrows as sharp as willow leaves, that's her!
After not seeing each other for two years, Zhou Changfeng felt that the sister in front of her had not changed much from her memory. On the contrary, she felt that Zhou's demeanor was a bit older than before.
"Sophisticated? That's not true, is it?" Zhou Changfeng pointed at himself and asked doubtfully.
Zhou Roujia, who looked serious, looked at him carefully again and said firmly: "There must be something different."
The tall man next to her is Li Shuye, a native of Jizhou, who now works as a manager at a private food company in Hankou County.
He cupped his hands and said, "The train was delayed while refueling coal water in Luzhou Prefecture. It was two-quarters of an hour late, which kept my brother-in-law waiting for a long time."
"It's okay, let's go."
It only took Zhou Changfeng about half a year from initially being concerned about the private use of military vehicles to now almost accepting it. Although this is the norm nowadays, he is still a little disgusted.
From this point of view, Xia Xiaoshi's idea of purchasing a car is very necessary.
I drove across the river by ferry, and after a while of twists and turns, I arrived at the small house purchased by Zhou. In a few days, this will be his and Xia Xiaoshi's new home.
"This location is excellent. It will be very convenient for my brother-in-law and his sister-in-law to go back and forth in the future." Li Shuye looked at the surrounding furnishings and praised: "The decoration is also quite elegant."
"The location is indeed important." Zhou Changfeng shrugged and said casually: "I don't care about the decoration. Xiao Shi is more particular about it, so let her leave it to her."
Zhou Roujia naturally had to attend his wedding, and since she was here, her husband had to come with her anyway.
This is basic etiquette. Besides, for ordinary people, Zhou Changfeng is definitely considered prosperous now. How can he not support him?
Mr. Zhou also had his own thoughts, and he had specifically confirmed whether his brother-in-law would come.
"I'll make tea."
"Sister, it's a long journey, I'll be fine."
After some shirk, Zhou Roujia still took over the job of making tea.
Feeling helpless, Zhou Changfeng sat back on the Grand Master's chair, and then said with a smile: "Brother-in-law, I have a good thing here, are you happy with it?"
Then, he briefly stated his investment in Hengguang Company.
"...I can't have anything to do with the business, so you, my brother-in-law, have to take over as the shareholder."
Zhou Changfeng had his own reasons for choosing Li Shuye. Firstly, he was related by family ties, and secondly, this brother-in-law was very generous and generous in dealing with people, and he responded to all requests.
Such a husband may not be a good thing for a small family living a stable life, but Zhou Changfeng took a fancy to this and believed that he was completely trustworthy.
(End of chapter)
