Invincible urban management

England will never allow easy retreat!

Because in the case of weak national strength, even a small step of retreat may trigger a chain reaction, leading to the collapse of the entire colonial empire building-this is the dilemma that the British Empire is currently facing on the Far East battlefield.For the latest free chapters of this book, please visit www.

In this era, the United States is still a production-oriented country that works hard on its own, and its dependence on foreign countries is very low. In the United States, foreign trade accounts for only 2% to 3% of its national income. As long as it adjusts its domestic policies, it can break free from the economic crisis.However, European countries have already reaped huge profits through the first-mover advantage of global navigation and colonization, and the proportion of foreign trade income is as high as 20% to 30% of the entire country's income.For the island nation of the United Kingdom, the proportion of overseas trade income is even higher.If the vast international trade market cannot be opened and maintained, the domestic economic recovery will be impossible.

However, in this era of the Great Depression, the world's major powers are beggar-thy-neighbor, blocking markets, and erecting high tariff barriers. Only in their colonies and semi-colonies can major European industrial countries dump goods in large quantities and pass on the economic crisis.For Germany, which has no colonies, there is really no other way out of the "system" other than "cannons not butter" and military expansion at all costs.

Fortunately, the gentlemen of England have the largest colony in the world compared with the poor Germans.

——Britain in this era is known as the empire on which the sun never sets. 14% of the world’s population are subjects of the British Empire, and 15% of the earth’s land area is the territory of the British Empire.Spread from the British Isles to Gambia, Newfoundland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Burma, India, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria, Malta and several islands, the British Empire has 24 time zones on the earth territory.The international order under British hegemony has been dubbed "Pax Britannia," giving a clear idea of ​​the global reach of this vast empire.If we count Britain’s major trading partners, such as Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and Finland in Scandinavia, Portugal, Greece in Southern Europe, Iraq in the Middle East, Egypt in Africa, Asia, and South America, the British Empire has China's market is large in scale, vast in territory, large in population and rich in resources.Both are world firsts, strong enough to take on any of the toughest challenges.

British economist Jevons once described the economic influence of the British Empire triumphantly: "...the plains of North America and Russia are our cornfields, Canada and the Baltic Sea are our lumber fields, and Australia is our land." Peru our silver mines, South Africa and Australia our gold mines. India and China our tea bases, the East Indies our sugar cane, coffee and spices, the American South our cotton plantations... "Even after entering the 20th century, the raw material production bases of various new core strategic resources, such as petroleum, iron, aluminum, lead, zinc, copper, nickel, rubber, etc., were mostly controlled by the British Empire.

so.Only relying on the vast colonial and imperial preferential system, that is, the system of mutual preferential treatment in trade between the British mainland and other members of the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Kingdom can maintain a sufficiently large commodity dumping market, as well as a worldwide use of the British pound, While dumping commodities, they levied seigniorage on hundreds of millions of second-class colonists, thus gradually saving the local economy from the quagmire of the Great Depression.

But therein lies the problem.For the British Empire, the vast colonies all over the world are not only the source of poor wealth, but also the source of all troubles. In the twentieth century, when nationalism was awakening sharply, every corner of the world was filled with increasingly fierce anti-colonial movements . [

And the dumping of goods and intensified exploitation by the suzerain country have also caused serious disasters to colonial and semi-colonial countries-for details, you can refer to the realistic novel "Overcharged by Three or Five Bucks"... This is the case with semi-colonial China that cannot be fully controlled, India, The colonies in Burma, South Africa, and West Africa were expropriated to appalling levels by the British colonists, and various flames of resistance came and went and never went out.

to this end.In the case of a relatively weak national power, the United Kingdom will swell its face even more and use force to suppress any colonial resistance without mercy. It may cause a chain reaction, causing each colony to catch fire and smoke one after another, making the situation unimaginable.And the seemingly huge colonial empire will be annihilated and collapsed in an instant!

The reason why the United Kingdom used its thundering and huge fleet to rush to Shanghai thousands of miles away to severely suppress the provocations of the Chinese red elements was not only to safeguard its own aggressive interests in China.Or to prove to the colonies all over the world that the power of the British Empire is still comparable, and all provocations and rebellions are self-defeating—once the bourgeois revolutionaries in China win a complete victory, it will not only mean the loss of all the interests of the British Empire in China , It will further strengthen the determination of the people in each colony to resist the British colonists, which will lead to the loosening of the foundation of the colonial empire building: "Any victory of an uncivilized country over a civilized country will generally cause serious losses to Europe's overseas interests!"

——For the truly strong, self-confidence and openness are the norm, because they no longer need to deliberately emphasize their strength in front of anyone.On the other hand, blindly boasting and showing off excessive force can only show that this once strong man is becoming weak.

Because, this kind of bravado and conquest is not based on real self-confidence and powerful forces, but because of unexplainable worries and fears—fear that our empire, which relies on violence, will attack us in the face of many challengers. It collapsed in front of it!

To put it bluntly, a dog that can bite does not bark, and the dog that barks the loudest is actually not very good at biting. Wait until this dog can't even bark, or wait until this strong man can't even show off. After the force can't be maintained, then it's time for him to step down from the world hegemony stage.

In this way, when this round of intervention in China suffered repeated setbacks, even a big defeat, losing the face and prestige of the British Empire, the gentlemen of Whitehall in London immediately fell into a dilemma: with China The Bolsheviks continue to fight endlessly, the future is bleak, the victory is hopeless, and the price is astonishingly painful; but if they compromise and give in... who knows whether the sea and the sky will be brighter after taking a step back?

——Although it may be calm and everything is business as usual, it may also be a collective uprising in British colonies all over the world like a volcanic eruption!

If it is the latter, it will be a devastating doomsday catastrophe for Great Britain, which is struggling to emerge from the economic crisis.

so.Although he was very anxious, in order to maintain the face and prestige of the British Empire, Prime Minister Baldwin decided to set up a battlefield in Hong Kong again-"Before retreating gloriously, at least show the power of England to those damned Bolsheviks!"

As a result, Secretary of the Navy Churchill took the order and started a new round of troop mobilization and build-up on a global scale.

——However, compared with the British Empire, which still has some dry goods in its pocket.The other leader of the intervention in the Far East this time, the French Republic, whose strength is even more weak and the political situation is more chaotic, is almost unable to gather the force that can be used to show off in the Far East...

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Paris, French Prime Minister's Office

Prime Minister Edward Daladier, who was exhausted and dejected, looked up at the calendar from his chair.It seems that I haven't been home for ten days. [

——As Prime Minister, you have to be on call [-]/[-], so you usually have to sleep next to the office like a patrolman on duty.

The days of the French Prime Minister's Office are repeated exhausting days, running around with exhausted bodies, and urgently dealing with various emergencies...compared with the president living in the Elysee Palace.It's the difference between hell and heaven.

In this position, the greatest happiness is to sleep at night, and then you can forget all your troubles.

However, when you wake up again, you have to continue to face all kinds of cold and chaotic realities.

Fortunately, the French Third Republic is a product of compromise, even the Prime Minister is a product of compromise, and the cabinet is always changed frequently like a revolving lantern.Since the end of the Franco-Prussian War.The term of office of most prime ministers of the French Third Republic is sadly short. From 1870 to 1940, the French Third Republic changed a total of 108 cabinets, and the average duration of each cabinet was about 8 months.Among them, the prime ministers with the shortest terms of office simply stayed on the throne for a day or two... Many prime ministers have ups and downs, so generally there is no risk of death from overwork.

However, Prime Minister Daladier still hopes to arrange everything in France properly before stepping down this time.

In fact, in the 30s.Although the French economy was hit by the global economic depression, it should be pretty good compared with Germany and the United States.As early as 1932, the French economic downturn was coming to an end.Then it continued to resume growth and prosperity. Recently, there have been few headaches of unemployment and social unrest. Compared with Germany next door, it is like a paradise...

Therefore, the French Prime Minister does not have any particularly difficult domestic social issues to deal with right now. The main trouble is to deal with the ceaseless attacks of various political parties in the parliament and the movement to overthrow the cabinet-until the tragic news from the Far East washes away all the whitewashing of the peaceful years Exhausted!

At this moment, the Minister of the Navy and Colonial Affairs is holding a report sent from Vietnam: Standing in front of Prime Minister Daladier: "...According to the latest news from Haiphong Port, the entire Far East Task Force has reached 85% Many people died of sudden illness, many ships became ghost ships, and the ground troops who participated in the landing operations were wiped out. So far, the casualties of our army have exceeded 500, and the entire Far East Fleet has been paralyzed. Thousands of [-] people are trapped on Zhoushan Island, in a dilemma. And the battle between us and the Chinese Bolsheviks is not over yet..."

Prime Minister Daladier was absent-mindedly listening to the horrific news, while thinking about what kind of upheaval it would cause in the parliament—although a considerable part of these casualties were just worthless Algerians and Annan natives Infantry, but there are more than 1 pure French boys... This number may not be a big deal in the past, but now it is enough to stir the sensitive nerves of the public.

——No way, in the world war 20 years ago, the French rushed to the battlefield with full of patriotic enthusiasm, thinking that they could win a hearty victory and wash away the shame of the Franco-Prussian War.Unexpectedly, the result was four years of struggling in the cruel meat grinder, paying the tragic price of more than a dozen provinces being burnt to scorched earth, and more than 600 million military and civilian casualties, killing a whole generation of young men.Millions of disabled people were left behind... At the end of the day, they were stabbed in the back by the British at the Paris Peace Conference, which basically brought to naught the European hegemony that was once at their fingertips.

Since then, the entire French society has not only been drained of blood, but has also suffered from "war phobia": since the cost of modern warfare is so painful, but the gains from victory are so meager, why should we fight for the victory of a victor? false name.And willfully shed the blood of millions of young men?

"...Hehe, for a colonial conflict that happened on the other side of the world, tens of thousands of French boys were buried in one go, and half of the French navy was turned into a ship of the dead, and a Verne sci-fi novel was also involved. Atoms of novel content..."

Prime Minister Daladier smirked self-deprecatingly, "...I can already imagine. What kind of storm will be set off in the parliament tomorrow."

in the French Third Republic.The fall of the cabinet is not a part of political life, but the whole of political life. This weird republic accommodates all French political thoughts, leftists, rightists, conservatives, radicals, royalists, bopanese, republicans …Under the multi-party situation, all the cabinets are coalition cabinets, and the political foundation is extremely fragile, and they can only live one day at a time.It's almost impossible to do anything.And the prime ministers who seem to be in power are just temporary workers who take turns to work. Only God knows how many months or even days they are in office.

Due to the cowardice and incompetence of successive governments, many French people are increasingly disgusted, so that in 1935, a French fascist organization called "Fire Cross" was born. The leader of this organization claimed to learn from Hitler.Carrying out anti-Semitism and dictatorship, but without the ability of the Nazi Party, as a result, apart from adding more turmoil in the French political arena and further paralyzing the government, it hardly brought any good changes.

In such confusion, Prime Minister Daladier led the French Republic into the crater of the colonial war.

Daladier is a standard French man.Romantic, passionate, but his temperament has been worn down by decades of political struggle, and the result after being worn down is that there is almost nothing left but the heart of a French man-he is not weak.But he is not tough, he is not radical enough, but he cannot be said to be conservative either. He is a politician who has been experienced in the political arena of the Third Republic, and he is an opportunist like a grasshopper.

In history, Daladier was a person who was stable and tried his best to avoid any risks. Although his compromise and appeasement policy towards Hitler during his tenure were repeatedly criticized by later historians, it was also a reflection of the various mistakes of France during World War I. Reflection... a little overkill though.

——France has been terrified by the last world war, and never wants to fight a second one. This was the general mentality of the whole society at that time.

Even if you are the prime minister, you can't go against the current, go against the people's fear of war, and force them to catch up with another battlefield.

Therefore, after discovering that the sacrifices on the battlefield in the Far East exceeded the worst expectations before, and that a "routine operation" to suppress the indigenous riots was turned into a meat grinder for a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood, Daladier felt regretful. He even thought it was the worst decision in his political career.

Although he is not unaware that according to the current world situation, the retreat from any colonial battlefield may cause a chain reaction within the entire colonial system, but the world will always be like this. The French Prime Minister must first consider the people of his own country. strongest will.

And the French of this era fear war most, and what they yearn for most is peace—as for Napoleon’s dominance over Europe and the ideals of enlightening the world during the Revolution, they have all been buried in the trenches on the Western Front. The surviving French were forgotten.

Therefore, after a brief hesitation, Prime Minister Daladier still picked up the pen: "...According to the current domestic situation, after suffering such heavy losses, it is impossible for me to send reinforcements that satisfy the front-line commanders. It is impossible to persuade the parliament to continue to invest more resources and military expenditures in the Far East - the congressmen are more willing to spend money to build the Maginot Line on the German-French border... So, let the troops in the Zhoushan Islands withdraw! They only have so much The people who stay under the nose of the red elements can't do anything at all, they can only worry about it all day long..."

"...This is a sensible decision, Mr. Prime Minister. But what about another battlefield?" The Minister of the Navy and Colonial continued to ask.

"...another battlefield? Haven't I already ordered the abandonment of the Guangzhou Concession and the evacuation of the overseas Chinese?" Prime Minister Daladier blinked in confusion, and then suddenly realized, "...Could it be that the Reds are still going to attack Guangzhou Bay? The idea of ​​leased land (Zhanjiang Port)?"

"... Exactly, Mr. Prime Minister," replied the Minister of the Navy and Colonial Affairs, "...the Red Army has just occupied Canton, and it is about [-] kilometers away from our leased area of ​​Canton Bay. But the problem is, we are in Canton The defense force in Guangzhou Bay is extremely weak, there are only about [-] soldiers stationed there, unable to withstand a round of enemy attacks, and the situation in Vietnam is not stable, so it is impossible to spare troops to reinforce Guangzhou Bay..."

This answer made Prime Minister Daladier frown—in order to avoid the so-called bloody sacrifice, he gave up a leased land that was surrounded and difficult to defend, even the most critical member of parliament could not say anything.But abandoning a trade base that is still far away from the flames of war... would be considered cowardly.

"...In this case, transfer the troops stranded in Zhoushan Islands to Guangzhou Bay and use them to strengthen the defense forces there! Then look at the actions of the British in Hong Kong. According to common sense, the first target of the Chinese Bolsheviks Definitely not us..."

Prime Minister Daladier finally made such a decision, "...Of course, if the worst happens and an attack that cannot be resisted is ushered in, I also agree to authorize frontline commanders to make flexible handling, for example, Declare Guangzhou Bay an undefended city..."

——For European and American powers thousands of miles away, this stalemate war has already caused them such a headache.And the Japanese Empire, which has already suffered from four nuclear cores, is about to go crazy: especially after the Chinese Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army put forward their negotiation conditions... (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come Starting point voting, monthly pass, your support is my biggest motivation. Mobile phone users please go to m to read.)

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