young marshal spring and autumn

Although the European and American imperialists improved their relations with China in some respects because they were worried that the excessively tough China policy would lead to the risk of the Republic of China government falling to the socialist Soviet Union, but their plundering and aggressive nature would not change.The main body of its trade with China is still plundering raw materials, dumping commodities, and continuing to squeeze the living space of China's national bourgeoisie and state-owned capital.Its approach, on the one hand, is to continue to maintain restrictions on China's industrial capacity, especially the development of heavy industry - the blockade of advanced technology; And buy low and sell high to earn monopoly profits.They have already made a lot of money in China, but they still want to continue to control China.Among them, the United Kingdom occupies a major position in foreign capital, the United States has a tendency to catch up from behind, and Japan has strengthened its economic control in the Northeast and gradually penetrated into North China.

Also in order to limit China's military power, in the summer of 1924, the United States, Britain and Japan unanimously adopted the policy of an arms embargo against China.In this way, even if Zhang Zuolin's government eventually unified China, it would not have enough power to change the current situation of being strong outside the country but weak in the middle.This is also another important reason for Zhang Hanqing's visit to the Soviet Union - to obtain military assistance from the Soviet Union in order to continue his sword development.

Although the Soviet Union has become an important economic partner and trading partner of China, and has received a lot of military support from it, Zhang Hanqing does not think it is a good thing to continue this situation: his national strategy and foreign policy of balancing the North and the West are important. After careful consideration, it is very unwise to throw one-sidedly into the arms of the Soviet Union even under the current state of wariness of Britain, the United States and other powers against China. The severely unfavorable international environment surrounded by communism.Whether he can take advantage of the contradictions among the imperialist countries and break them down one by one, so as to maximize China's interests will test the young marshal.You must know that Zhang Zuolin's government's foreign policy has now completely followed Zhang Hanqing's suggestion.

In modern times, there are not many big countries that can influence the world structure.As a veteran imperialist country, Britain first wiped out Spain's "Invincible Fleet" in 1588, then defeated the Netherlands, known as the "Sea Coachman", and finally defeated France in the Seven Years War in the late 18th century, and became the world's largest. The overlord has been around for a hundred years.The United States, on the other hand, has accumulated a lot of money and used its powerful industrial power to make the big powers dare not underestimate it, although it is mainly implementing a conservative line at this stage.Needless to say, Japan, while France focused its energy on becoming the number one army power in Europe after World War I, and had less influence in China.

Only Germany can play an active role in China's foreign exchanges, and the relationship between Germany and China has always been good in official history.The important thing is that Germany at this time is in a painful period of political suppression, economic constraints, and extreme military restrictions.Because of its status as a defeated country, Germany has also been isolated from the world political stage for a long time.Its initiator and main promoter is France.

In order to understand the origin of the dispute between Germany and France, we must first explain the relationship between Germany and France in terms of geographical location.France and Germany are neighboring countries. France borders the Mediterranean Sea on the inside and the Atlantic Ocean on the outside.Germany is basically a landlocked country, and there are no ports with suitable geographical locations. The Germans’ demand for ports can be seen from the “satisfaction” of Jiaozhou Bay; The well-known mineral resources in forests and other places are also one of the reasons for the constant competition between the two countries geographically; third, after the 15th and 16th centuries, France and Germany were two major countries with evenly matched overall strength on the European continent (not counting Tsarist Russia). Both are thorns in the side and thorns in each other's domination of the European continent, and competition in the small land of the European continent and the Western European continent is inevitable.From the beginning of Napoleon's sweep of Europe, the two countries formed a bridge, and the Germans became stronger and provoked the French battle of Sedan. The French shamelessly cut off Alsace and Lorraine and paid money to settle the matter.The two countries officially forged a feud.

After more than ten or twenty years, Germany experienced the second industrial revolution, and its strength increased greatly, second only to the United States.As a result, the Germans' ambitions increased, and of course they started from France.So there was the First World War (20-1914) between the Allied Powers (Britain, France, Russia) and the Allied Powers (Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary). The Allies were defeated, and France regained all the territories before the Battle of Sedan. He also wanted to slap the Germans forever through the Versailles system, but he failed in the end.

So this time it was the turn of the Germans to hold grudges, and national revanchism took root in Germany, providing the soil for the establishment of the Nazis.On the issue of international political balance, for its own benefit, that is, for the struggle for world hegemony, France at that time advocated that it would be best to weaken Germany, or even let Germany slump, so as to strengthen its own strength and compete with Britain for European hegemony.In order to prevent France from overinflating its power, the United Kingdom insisted on its long-standing strategy of balancing power and did not advocate excessively weakening Germany in order to contain France.The attempt of the United States is basically similar to that of the United Kingdom. They do not want France to dominate the European continent, so they secretly acquiesce in the rise of Germany.

The strategic wrestling between countries saved Germany from bankruptcy: at that time, the reparations were calculated using the German gold mark, but since 1920, the German mark has depreciated wildly, and even if the reparations are fully repaid, their actual value is not much.

Of course, the United Kingdom and the United States also took some countermeasures to prevent the rise of Germany, and France spared no effort to obstruct it, so that although Germany produced an outstanding diplomat and strategist Streismann, it was not allowed to join the League of Nations until 1926. In order to officially return to the center of the international stage.It was also at this point that Germany could not only finally sit on an equal footing with Britain and France, but more importantly, it gained the right to speak and vote on European issues, thus shaking the foundation of the Versailles system.

Zhang Hanqing is well aware of this relationship, and has full determination and confidence to reach the highest level of all-round exchanges with Germany with complete mutual trust, so that China can free itself from the technological and military blockade created by the United States, Britain and Japan, and stand on the ground as soon as possible. Rise up, thereby changing military, political, economic, and diplomatic weakness.Of course, as the scale of this kind of communication expands, it is impossible not to attract the attention of the big powers—the vested interests in China will naturally do everything possible to obstruct this process, and China's policy will be as dangerous as dancing on a tightrope.But when Zhang Hanqing talked about this decision, he said firmly: "No matter whether there is an abyss or a minefield ahead, I will go straight forward and never look back."