The Third Reich: The Return of the King

Chapter 1068

These opinions forced Zhaohe Tianhuang and the ministers present to seriously consider a question: Is it necessary to continue the alliance with the British Empire?

“When we first opened our doors, the British Empire, as an old Western power, provided us with tremendous help when we were carrying out reforms, whether it was the cutting-edge warships provided to us during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, or the large amounts of war supplies and war aid provided to us during the Russo-Japanese War, all of which brought us huge benefits!”

Some of the ministers are elderly people who have lived through that period decades ago, so they are very grateful for the help of the British Empire!

It can be said that if there had not been the help of the British Empire, Jiaoben would never have such a national status now.

Apart from anything else, just look at the Celestial Empire next to them. The Westernization Movement of the Celestial Empire was not slower than theirs at all, and it was even ahead of them.

But what was the result?

The Westernization Movement ended in failure.

During this period, the Celestial Empire was invaded several times by Western powers led by the British Empire.

In the end, the reform failed, the Qing Dynasty perished, and the Republic of China was established.

The Celestial Empire immediately fell into an endless melee until the invasion of Jiaoben a few years ago.

This allowed the warlords in the Celestial Empire to abandon their previous differences and unite to fight against the Japanese army!

Jiaoben was much weaker than the Celestial Empire at the time. If they were invaded by foreign enemies like the Celestial Empire during their reforms, the result would definitely be that they would suffer a disastrous defeat. In that case, there is no need to consider it. Their reforms will definitely fail!

And once their reforms fail, the foot basin will never be able to turn over in their lifetime!

It can be said that during the weakest period of the foot basin reform, the support and protection of the British provided them with the most urgently needed safe development environment.

Moreover, the reason why the foot basin navy can come to this point today is entirely because of the British help.

From accepting the foot basin’s warship orders at the beginning and building warships for them, to helping them design warships, and then transferring technology to help them build their own shipyards, so that they have the ability to build warships in their own country.

Although the navy of the sun has not been good in recent years, before that, the navy of the sun was the world’s well-deserved first strong army. Their navy is even stronger than the second and third place combined. Learning how to build a navy from such an experienced maritime overlord is a great benefit for the foot basin with a blank navy!

These favors are still remembered very clearly by the older generation of foot basin people!

“Humph, there is no eternal friendship between countries, only eternal interests. This was said by the people on whom the sun never sets themselves!”

The old ministers remembered the kindness of the British Empire and the help they had provided, and they couldn’t bear to add insult to injury now.

The younger generation, however, had no such concerns at all. The warships of the Foot Basin were fully capable of being designed and built by themselves during the First World War. It has been nearly twenty years since then, so the young people today saw warships designed and built by the Foot Basin themselves when they were young!

They have no interest in understanding what happened before, they only believe in what they see, so they are extremely proud of their country, and will not remember the kindness of the British Empire who had helped them, after all, they didn’t see it with their own eyes!

Moreover, the British Empire didn’t help them for free, but for a purpose!

After the Foot Basin began its reforms, the British Empire took away their customs taxation power, and kept it under control until the First World War before returning it to them.

Moreover, during the Russo-Japanese War, the reason why the British Empire supported the Foot Basin was entirely because before that, the Russian Bear posed a huge threat to their interests in the Far East, so the British Empire hoped that someone could help them stop it. The Russian bear, if they are not allowed to expand indefinitely, it is very likely to threaten their interests in the Far East.

Looking at the countries in the Far East, the Celestial Empire is in a hopeless situation, and it is definitely not possible to expect them to fight against the Russian bear. The British Empire is in Europe, which is too far away from the Far East, so they have no power at all.

Therefore, they can only choose to win over the Russians and let the Russians act as their agents to help them fight this war.

So, during the Russo-Japanese War, although the Russians received a lot of aid and war loans from the British Empire, this war was in a sense , in fact, it was the Foot Basin people who fought for the British.

The young and vigorous faction was very clear about this.

And it was precisely because of this that they had no good feelings towards the British. After all, during the Russo-Japanese War, the Foot Basin people suffered heavy casualties. When attacking the Brigade Fortress, the Foot Basin paid the price of tens of thousands of deaths, and countless Japanese soldiers died under Russian artillery fire and machine gun fire.

When the British did not want their own people to go to the battlefield to bleed and die, but pushed the Foot Basin people to go up and die, it was strange that these hot-blooded young and vigorous factions had a good impression of the British!

“That’s right, it’s nothing more than an exchange of interests.

They sold us warships and made a lot of money from us.

They also occupied our customs tax collection power for decades and ordered us to do this and that.

We led the Eight-Nation Alliance to invade China, sent troops to Jiaodong to drive out the German army, participated in World War I, participated in the Mediterranean escort, participated in the Russo-Japanese War, and participated in the military operations against the Russian bear in the Far East.

These are the tasks assigned to us by the British.

Let me ask, if we don’t help them do these dirty work, will they still be willing to help us?”

The question is obvious. Countries only talk about interests. Without interests, others will naturally not help you for no reason!

“So, why should we remember each other’s kindness and be grateful to each other? It’s just that each of us takes what we need!”

The young and vigorous faction said firmly!

Zhaohe Tianhuang was somewhat moved, because in his heart, he also agreed with the words of these young and vigorous factions!

Zhaohe Tianhuang was not his grandfather Mingzhi Tianhuang, and had not experienced the most difficult early period of reform, so he did not have a deep understanding of the help of the British.

When he succeeded to the throne, the national strength of the foot basin was already very strong.

Although it was not as good as the old powers such as the British, the Eagle Sauce and the Hans, it was also one of the top powers in the world!

In this case, the foot basin naturally did not have to endure humiliation and beg others for anything. Their dependence on foreign countries became weaker and weaker, and their own spirit became higher and higher!