Of course, the defeat in the Battle of the Taiwan Strait is just a tactical problem. What the British ** valued more was the strategic mistakes of the expeditionary fleet being wiped out. After a group of strategists, the reasons for the two strategic mistakes were finally concluded.

The first is that Britain should not participate in the war in person, but should still command the remote control and maintain Viagra. Because the Far East is too far from the British mainland, it is difficult for Britain to invest too much force in the Far East. Therefore, before the Far East War, Britain fully supported Japan, in order to avoid participating in the war in person and maintain a Viagra behind it. Even after the East China ** participated in the war and defeated Russia, Britain did not change its original intention and tried its best to promote the Puttsmouth negotiations, but still did not want to take action personally.

But at this moment, Britain made a major strategic mistake. In order to prevent the East China National Congress from being in a difficult situation after the war ended, Britain hoped to suppress East China National Congress in the Puttsmouth negotiations and could not get war compensation. As a result, it led to the failure of the Puttsmouth negotiations. The war continued. At the same time, Britain had to come out of the backstage and ended in person, completely deviating from the original strategy of not participating in the war in person, keeping the power behind the scenes. The consequence was that the battle in the Taiwan Strait failed and completely lost the ability to check and balance East China National Congress. It could only watch East China National Congress become the strongest political entity in the Far East.

Now, when we look back, in the Puttsmouth negotiations, in fact, in the war reparations in the Puttsmouth negotiations, Japan demanded only 50 million pounds of war reparations. Even if we paid this reparations, the benefits obtained by Russia and Japan were far smaller than that of the later. In addition to the compensation being less than half, Russia only lost the Vladivostok region, but it could preserve more than 500,000 square kilometers of land in the Ussuri River Basin and Amur River Basin, and still maintain considerable influence in the Far East. Japan's local area will not be attacked by the East China Basin, and it will be able to recover its vitality in at most 2 or 3 years. At the same time, the East China Basin will not be able to obtain Kalimantan Island, and even the Shanghai Concession can be preserved. The advantage is greatly reduced than it is now.

As long as Britain promotes Russia and Japan alliance after the war is over, and with Britain and France behind the back, it is enough to suppress the East China National Congress in the Far East, it will at least form a staggering momentum. In order to compete with the East China National Congress, Russia and Japan must rely on Britain and France. Such a [Four-Country Alliance] will be firmly united by common interests.

In fact, this conclusion is somewhat suspicious of hindsight. When Bi Jing decided to join the war, Britain was full of confidence. He believed that as long as the expeditionary fleet arrived in the Far East, even if it could not completely defeat the East China **, after all, the Expeditionary Force did not have a strong army and could not go ashore to fight, but it was enough to reverse the situation in the Far East, because a powerful navy could completely suppress the naval power of the East China ***. After losing the sea control power, the East China ** had to surrender and give up the claim of war reparations. In this way, Britain's goal was achieved, and this participation in the war would also become a model of success.

Of course, Britain's confidence at that time was not completely unreasonable. The Expeditionary Fleet had a total of 25 battleships and 15 armored cruisers. This lineup was indeed impossible to lose no matter how you look at it before joining the war. But it was incredible and unbelievable, but the Expeditionary Fleet, and it was almost wiped out, lost completely. This shows that Britain did not have enough understanding and understanding of the East China **, and there was a serious misjudgment on the strength of the East China **.

This is the second strategic mistake made by Britain. It can be said that this strategic mistake is more serious than the first one, because if Britain could accurately judge the strength of East China **, it would not easily participate in the war. Therefore, after the end of the Far East War, the British cabinet ordered the establishment of an intelligence collection and analysis agency specifically targeting China in the Ministry of National Security, and listed China's intelligence at the highest level, along with Germany, France, and the United States.

Although Britain's influence in China decreased greatly after the defeat of the Far East War, it had been operating in China for many years and still had considerable influence. Therefore, in just a few months, a large amount of information about the East China ** was collected. After research and analysis by intelligence personnel, the British ** realized that their understanding of the East China ** was indeed very different.

It turned out that Britain only believed that East China was a political group with strong armed forces and mastered certain modern science and technology, but it was not very different from the Qing court in essence. However, judging from the information collected, East China was pragmatic, and the officials of the East China were all very capable of management. They would make detailed plans and make plans before acting, and they had strong execution ability. Therefore, they would basically succeed, and at the same time they attached great importance to safeguarding national interests. This Far East War started planning and preparation at least 4 or 5 years in advance, which was by no means a temporary decision. And such a style of conduct, coupled with the strong backing of the force of Zhuyou, was the most painful opponent.

Dealing with such opponents, intimidation and deception are useless, and you can only exchange interests honestly. Of course, judging from the information you have obtained, Hua** obviously likes this model. Although the UK has to honestly take out profits for such transactions, it is still better than a country that does not have access to oil and salt. After all, as long as it can be traded, it proves that it can be negotiated, and it only depends on the size of the interests.

At this time, Xu Jichao smiled and said, "I don't deny that the national strength of Britain and France is indeed stronger than that of Germany, but this may not necessarily mean that Britain and France can bring more benefits to us."

Asquis said: "That may not be possible, everything can be discussed. Moreover, we, Britain and France, still have some influence in China, and can give East China some benefits that Germany cannot give. For example, there are two Chinese people now, and sooner or later there will be conflicts or even wars, but it is not impossible for us to remain neutral or help East China. Germany cannot do this."

Xu Jichao sneered in his heart. The British were cunning than France. He wanted to support the unification of East China in exchange for the alienation of Germany. However, he was generous to others. He actually didn't spend a penny. He just thought it well, but it didn't work here. So he said: "We have never placed our hope of national unity on foreign support. Moreover, Britain should also consider clearly that the general trend of the world, those who follow it will prosper, and those who go against it will perish. The demise of the Qing court is the general trend and cannot be restored by any manpower. But is Britain planning to follow the heavens or go against the heavens!"

Asquis laughed dryly and said, "I'm just giving an example, just to show that Britain and France can give some benefits to East China, which is something that Germany cannot give. This is always true. But both sides are those benefits, and we can negotiate slowly, and we must always make it satisfy both sides."

Xu Jichao was silent for a while, nodded, and said, "I have understood what the British side means. After the end of this visit, I will report to the Executive Yuan in China."

Asquith smiled and said, "Very good, I'm waiting for the response from East China*."

Xu Jichao's visit to the UK was 1 week, one more day more than France, and the itinerary for the visit was similar to that of France. In addition to holding talks with some ** officials, he also participated in some social activities and visits. Of course, no activity was arranged for Xu Jichao to give speeches in the House of Representatives.

When Xu Jichao returned to Germany, in addition to the design of warships, other activities were basically over, and Li Sanjie also ended his visit to the Ottoman Empire. So Xu Jichao held the last talks to Germany with German Prime Minister Biluo, mainly to explain the content of the itinerary for visiting Britain and France to Germany. Of course, some content, such as the British side hopes to exchange interests with East China **, so they did not say that this was an agreement between the two sides; on the other hand, it also made Germany feel at ease.

Bi Luo proposed to Xu Jichao that the two sides should establish a fixed mutual visit mechanism, which will be conducted once a year, and both sides will take turns to visit. This year is the East China ** visit Germany, and next year it will be Germany's turn to visit East China **. Germany is not completely relieved. The exchanges between the countries of Bijing are based on interests. Although Germany can bring a lot of benefits to the East China **, Britain and France can do the same. Moreover, the national strength of Britain and France is indeed above Germany. Therefore, if Britain and France really do whatever it takes to win the East China **, Germany is really unable to compete with Britain and France.

Of course, interest exchange is based on mutual trust between countries. A country without trust cannot conduct a large amount of interest exchange. It is necessary to guard against the other party. What if it refuses to accept it? At the level of mutual trust, Germany has been ahead of Britain and France. After all, Germany has always maintained a good relationship with the East China **, and this has little to do with the country's strength. Therefore, Germany believes that it should further strengthen the mutual trust relationship with the East China **, so it is of course a good idea to suggest a fixed mutual visit mechanism.

After communicating with the country, Xu Jichao accepted Germany's suggestions and agreed to establish a fixed mutual visit mechanism with Germany. Germany was also very satisfied and put a successful end to the visit.

So on February 20, a visiting representative from East China ** left Germany and returned by boat.
Chapter completed!