young marshal spring and autumn

The reason why Zhang Hanqing dared to put forward 13 requirements that the British considered very "harsh" was because he had accurately grasped the situation.

Although after the end of World War I, Britain, as the victorious country, gained a large area of ​​mandated territory, and the empire's territory was further expanded.However, due to the huge losses suffered by Britain in the war, 800 million tons of ships were damaged, accounting for more than 70% of merchant ships, and the death toll of the navy reached 27215.After World War I, Britain lost its long-standing maritime hegemony, its economic strength declined, its ruling power over its colonies weakened, and it was unable to maintain its huge colonial system.At the same time, under the influence of the First World War and the Russian October Revolution, the national democratic consciousness in the colonies was further strengthened, and the post-war national liberation movement reached a climax, which greatly impacted the British colonial system.For example, in 1921, the United Kingdom was forced to allow 26 counties in southern Ireland to enjoy autonomy from the rule, and the name of the United Kingdom was changed from "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland" to "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". In 1922, the "Waft" party led Egypt to gain initial independence.Some dominions, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, supported the United Kingdom during World War I and provided a lot of manpower and material support to the United Kingdom.

This war also changed the power comparison between Britain and Japan in the Far East, especially in China. The power of Britain gradually declined, but Japan took advantage of the "gift of God" to develop and expand its power in the Far East, and gained the superior position of monopolizing China.Anglo-Japanese re-established their respective policies towards the Far East and China after the war due to increasing friction from the changing balance of power.At the same time, in China, the national liberation movement was rising day by day, which violently impacted the colonial rights and interests of Britain and Japan in China.Under such circumstances, Britain and Japan launched a tug-of-war of cooperation and competition in China from the perspective of safeguarding their respective colonial rights and suppressing the Chinese revolution.

Before and after the Washington Conference, they began to adjust their policies in the Far East. Britain implemented a policy of containment and appeasement towards Japan, and continued to implement an imperialist policy towards China, but at the same time showed a trend of diplomatic retreat; while Japan launched "coordinated diplomacy" and "Non-intervention" diplomacy toward China is essentially a diplomatic offensive trend.Therefore, in the face of the increasingly powerful Republic of China, Britain, as an old imperialist power, was gradually unable to deal with East Asian issues involving China. This can be seen from their handling of the "May [-]th" tragedy and its aftermath.Even in official history, Britain could only do nothing or even acquiesce to Japan's encroachment on Northeast China in Asia.

After Japan and the United Kingdom jointly created the "May [-]th Massacre", a massive anti-imperialist, especially anti-British, movement was launched across China.By implementing a dual policy, Japan escaped from the anti-imperialist movement earlier and considered how to further carry out economic aggression in China.Britain was extremely dissatisfied with Japan's behavior, but it was forced to consider a limited adjustment of its China policy due to its isolation.

As the People's Party has taken overall control of the Chinese regime, the People's Army has never been stronger militarily (in terms of personnel and equipment), and the Republic of China has shown the potential for rapid economic and industrial development. Zhang Hanqing's unusual toughness made Britain lose half of the benefits in this negotiation.

Zhang Hanqing is very clear about the details of the British.

Between 1924 and 1929, British industrial production grew by only 12%, a far cry from that of the United States.Traditional industries such as coal, iron and steel, and textiles are all in deep trouble.Although the automobile, electrical and chemical industries are also developing rapidly, they are still not as good as the United States.The trade volume of the UK has always been the first in the world, with an annual trade volume of more than 1921 billion US dollars from 1929 to 90, but the proportion of the UK in international trade has dropped from 1913% in 13 to 9 1929%, the share of industrial exports in the world dropped from 10% to 8%, and the trade turned from a surplus to a deficit, with the deficit reaching 26 million pounds in the highest year.The trade deficit is getting higher and higher, and the trade protectionism in the UK is getting stronger and stronger. In 22, the United Kingdom already imposed a 4% ad valorem tax on imported cars, clocks, musical instruments and movies on the grounds of raising war funds.This tariff was not terminated by the Labor government until 1915 (seven years after the end of the war), but it was reintroduced by the Conservative Party government in 33, and the scope was expanded.An important reason for the uncompetitiveness of British industry was the overvalued pound sterling when the gold standard was returned.Even so, the UK's balance of payments is barely balanced due to the repatriation of international investment profits.

With the increase of the military strength of the People's Army, military intimidation alone could no longer restrain the government of the Republic of China from being tough on the British government.In terms of economy, the Republic of China mainly relied on stimulating domestic demand (mainly the construction of transportation, industry, agriculture, etc. by the state monopoly power) rather than the expansion of trade, which made Britain's financial and taxation bargaining chips weaker and weaker.Faced with Zhang Hanqing's toughness, the British Concession authorities had to use another trick.

Before Zhang Hanqing entered Shanghai for 10 days, a serious crisis——inflation was approaching.This is also the scourge of imperialism.Originally, China was a silver-standard country, and silver was the currency in China; however, since Europe and the United States and other countries have already realized the credit currency system, silver is an asset in them.When the international trade is balanced, this kind of harm cannot yet appear, but when a foreign country intends to subvert China's monetary policy, it is extremely beneficial to achieve the other party's purpose through the rise and fall of silver prices in the international market.

When the Chinese government and the UK achieved political goals through economic distance war, the British government took advantage of its financial monopoly or dominant position to ingeniously direct a financial war. On June 6, the price of silver in the London futures market plummeted, and the news spread to Shanghai, causing an uproar in the securities market.Then the value of the silver dollar was seriously undervalued, causing prices to soar.

At the beginning, Zhang Hanqing didn't take it seriously: after all, silver dollars are not banknotes, they are genuine hard currency.At present, when China's dependence on foreign countries is not high, as long as there is no major disaster in China and food prices are stable, the financial foundation will be stable. This is common sense.

However, starting from June 6, the Shanghai market has been filled with a wave of "accumulation" fever.Because the Sino-British war is becoming more and more heated, especially after the British warships on the Huangpu River started shelling, foreign capital led by British capital has transferred assets one after another. As a last resort, some daily necessities have been purchased to meet possible material shortages.The rumors grew stronger and the townspeople joined in the panic buying.Shanghai fell into an economic panic in hoarding food and medicines, and all the people lined up to buy rice, while Miku declared that he would sue Xin, and at the same time hoarded them according to the orders of profiteers in order to earn more profits.

As a result, the market became even more tense, and the prices of rice, cloth, shoes, salt, and cooking oil all rose accordingly. In the end, even the price of civilian coal also soared—even though it is midsummer, basically, except for power plants, The daily consumption of citizens is nearly fixed.

In order to reverse this situation, the People's Government set up Zhang Hanqing in Shanghai and called on citizens to exchange gold and silver for foreign exchange in an attempt to regain their confidence in silver dollars.But because the citizens had suffered enough from the depreciation of the silver dollar, they exchanged silver dollars for rice as soon as the price improved. Rice dealers took the opportunity to make waves to drive up the price.Prices soared, factories were difficult to operate, and a lot of industrial capital was converted into speculative capital, which in turn exacerbated inflation.In this way, within a month, the silver dollars will be driven out of Shanghai, and the People's Party will be unable to stand.