Chapter 128: Tang Mei's Secret Covenant
The world situation suddenly changed in just one year, Britain and France fell one after another, Europe was controlled by the Nazis of Germany and Italy, and the people's lives were miserable, and there was danger of being slaughtered by the Nazis every day.
The fall of Britain has a great impact on the United States. After all, the relationship between Britain and the United States is complicated and has been an ally since World War I, which has made many Americans doubt whether the isolationist policy is right. The calls for opposition to the United States to participate in the war have weakened. The main reason is that the American economic giants have encouraged the public to oppose the United States' participation in the war, because they were worried that once the United States participates in the war, it will limit the export of many materials to the outside world and affect their financial income.
However, with the fall of Britain and France, the United States' materials could no longer be exported to Britain and France to earn foreign exchange. The Soviet Union also ceded to the Tang Empire in the Far East, resulting in the United States' channels for exporting materials to the Soviet Union being intercepted by the Tang army. The Soviet Union instead imported materials from the Tang Empire, making it impossible for American materials to be sold to the Soviet Union.
Germany and Italy were still relatively dependent on the United States' steel and oil supply before the war, but as they formed an alliance with the Tang Empire, strategic materials such as steel and oil were turned into supply from the Tang Empire, the Americans also could not make any money in war.
Originally, the American economic giants planned to make a fortune like in World War I to solve the impact of the economic crisis. However, with the outbreak of World War II, most of the war wealth of hundreds of billions of dollars was made to the Tang Empire, and the American economic giants could only get a share of the pie. With the fall of Britain and the Far East was controlled by the Tang army, it was difficult for Americans to make money anymore.
In this way, the American economic giants who had no money to make money gradually no longer support domestic isolationism, and the American arms giants finally waited for the opportunity. They hope that the American war machines would run so that the arms giants could obtain large-scale government arms orders and make a fortune.
With the support of American arms giants, the US government was asked to stop fascists' attempt to invade the world, eliminate the German Nazis, and rescue the innocent people of Europe, Asia and Africa.
At first, Americans were still very opposed to intervening in the war, but as German troops built large-scale concentration camps in Europe, news of the massacre of millions of Jews was brought back by American journalists, arousing the indignation of Americans. They asked the Hoover administration to interfere in this inhumane killing.
The Hoover administration has been thinking for a long time that it is unwise to let the United States face the Tang, China, Germany and Italy at the same time, and it is unwise to go to war with the four countries at the same time. In particular, the economic strength and military strength of the Tang Empire have skyrocketed, China's population is huge, and the complementary advantages of the Tang and China will be the nightmare for the United States.
Hoover then proposed a slogan to punish fascist executioners. Although the Tang Empire occupied the entire Oceania, it treated the local residents well. And the most important thing was that the residents of Oceania were not too disgusted with the Tang army's occupation because they relied on the Tang Dynasty economically and did not even have guerrilla resistance. The Far East was voluntarily ceded to the Tang Empire by the Soviet Union, and the Tang army was also not subject to any resistance or opposition there.
Therefore, Hoover distinguished the Tang Empire and Germany and Italy. He dominated domestic public opinion and criticized Germany and Italy as Nazi fascists. When facing the Tang Dynasty, he said that Japan was the invaders, and they angered the Tang Empire, and France mistakenly stood on the side of Japan. Therefore, the Tang Empire did not belong to the fascists and should be treated differently.
At the same time, Hoover called on the Tang Empire to stop the alliance with Germany and Italy, and affirmed the efforts made by the Tang Empire to strongly stop the outbreak of China's civil war. As the Kuomintang and the Communist Party reached an agreement on the issue of mixed ownership economy, the Kuomintang-Communist negotiations made great progress, and there was hope for establishing a democratic coalition government. Hoover praised the Tang Empire for its efforts to ensure the safety of hundreds of millions of Chinese people.
Hoover created public opinion, causing Americans to distinguish between the Tang Empire and Germany and Italy. The real purpose was to hope that once the United States declares war on Germany and Italy, the Tang Empire would not intervene.
To this end, Hoover immediately arranged a schedule to visit Chang'an, the capital of the Tang Empire, and held secret negotiations between the United States and the Tang Dynasty with Zhang Meng.
Hoover's little thoughts naturally could not escape Zhang Meng's eyes. Zhang Meng then directly asked the United States to recognize the legal occupation of the existing areas under the actual control of the Tang Empire. In return, the Tang Empire would adopt neutrality. If the United States was willing to transfer the Hawaiian Islands to the Tang Empire, then the Tang Empire would even be willing to form a military alliance with the United States and fight side by side with the US military.
Zhang Meng's proposal was very tempting. After all, Hoover was not sure that he could defeat Germany and Italy. However, once the United States recognizes the current actual control territory of the Tang Empire, it would be equivalent to giving the Tang Empire a protective umbrella for the legitimate invaders.
Hoover hesitated and failed to make a decision on the spot. He hurriedly returned to the United States and convened European governments in exile to discuss countermeasures.
The British protested the most fiercely because the Tang Empire occupied hundreds of colonial strongholds that originally belonged to Britain, especially the Tang Empire occupied the entire Ireland Island, while Northern Ireland was a British territory, which was another matter with overseas colonies. Moreover, the entire British Royal Navy's main fleet was in the Tang Empire, which made the British feel embarrassed and entangled.
The French also protested, but France was just occupied by the Tang army, so there was no big problem. As for the French main fleet at the hands of the Tang army, the French could only blame themselves for being inferior to others.
There is no problem with other countries, mainly the attitude of the British government in exile.
Hoover said that if the Tang Empire cannot be satisfied, then once the Tang Empire is unhappy and gives up its neutral attitude to join the war, the US military will not be sure to defeat the Tang, Germany and Italy alliance, and even the US mainland is in danger. After all, the US military is not afraid of Germany, because the German navy cannot drive the United States, but it is afraid of the Tang Empire. Because the Tang Empire's navy is now extremely powerful, the number of warships is three times that of the US Navy, and the total tonnage is more than four times that of the US military. The Tang army's warships can directly drive to the US coastline. The US military is not sure to defeat the Tang army.
Due to opposition from the British government in exile, the United States and Tang dynasties were temporarily unable to reach an agreement.
However, Zhang Meng was not worried. He immediately ordered someone to notify Hitler and exposed Hoover's plan to win over the Tang Empire and to send troops to Europe.
Hitler suddenly became anxious and quickly sent a special envoy to visit the Tang Dynasty to consolidate the Tang-German military alliance. On the other hand, Hitler was annoyed by Hoover, and Heinrich ordered German submarines to attack American merchant ships, giving the United States a lesson and threatening the United States not to meddle in other people's business.
A US merchant ship was sunk, killing more than 100 Americans, which is a lesson for the United States.
The Hoover administration did not dare to act rashly because it did not receive the reply from the Tang Empire, so it chose to remain silent. It actively promoted the German attack on American civilian merchant ships, causing more than 100 deaths, and stimulating the Americans' determination to participate in the war.
In the winter of 1940, the Battle of Moscow on the Soviet-German battlefield ended with the Soviet victory. Although the German army attacked Moscow three months earlier than in history, it was still delayed by the Soviet army until winter, making the German army unable to bear the coldness of Moscow. Tanks, tanks, cars, and motorcycles were frozen and unable to play a role, and eventually ended with the loss of 500,000 people and a large number of weapons and equipment.
The Soviet Union won the victory of the Battle of Moscow, and the Soviet army began to counterattack, forcing the German army to retreat more than 300 kilometers. This incident caused a sensation around the world. The Hoover administration believed that the opportunity had come.
He demanded that Britain accept the conditions of the Tang Empire and recognize that Ireland is under the actual control of the Tang Empire, which is equivalent to giving up Northern Ireland. At the same time, the British overseas territories that were actually occupied by the Tang army also gave up sovereignty.
Churchill, the British government-in-exile Prime Minister, was helpless. Now he had no say. He was forced to accept the conditions under the forced force of Hoover. However, France didn't care. The dozens of islands in the Pacific were nothing to the Tang Empire. What Charles de Gaulle sighed was why he had to stare at the dozens of small islands at the beginning. If he had sold the islands to the Tang Empire like the United States at that time, there would be no passive situation like this now. But if he had no regrets, he had to accept the reality.
The other exiled governments had no objection, so Hoover spoke to Zhang Meng again, expressing his willingness to accept the neutral conditions proposed by the Tang Empire.
In February 1941, with the mediation of the United States, the Tang Empire secretly signed the Chang'an Contract with Britain, France, Bibi, Netherlands, Borussia, Noble, and other countries. According to the contract provisions, the Tang Empire and the Allies ended the state of war and stopped supporting the German and Italian fascist groups. The Allies recognized the sovereignty of the Tang Empire's actual control area before the contract took effect. Britain, France and other countries gave up their sovereignty over the Tang army controlled areas, but they had to charge some fees, which was regarded as a peaceful transaction. In return, the Tang Empire would restore the supply of strategic materials to the Allies, including providing weapons and equipment, and some materials supply costs to offset the redemption costs of occupying the British and French colonies.
Since the contract requires the signing and legal procedures of leaders of various countries, the actual effective date will be delayed to March 1.
On February 28, the German submarine sank a US merchant ship again, killing more than 300 Americans. This was because Hitler was worried that the defeat in the Battle of Moscow would make the Americans arrogant. He wanted to suppress the Americans, so that they dared not act rashly, and never wanted to backfire. The original order to capture the American merchant ship eventually turned into sunk.
When the news came back to the United States, the Americans were angry. The Hoover administration immediately declared war on Germany under the slogan of rescuing European comrades.
The next day, Italy declared war on Germany, and the United States also declared war on Italy.
Hitler was waiting for the Tang Empire to declare war on the United States, but the Tang Empire stated that the United States and the Tang Dynasty had always had non-aggression treaties, and the treaty had not expired. The Tang Empire was a country that kept its promises and remained neutral without declaring war.
Hitler was so angry that he almost vomited blood. He guessed that he was sold by the Tang Empire because he also had an intelligence source and knew that the United States and Tang had secretly signed a certain treaty.
The Hoover administration breathed a sigh of relief, and the Tang Empire kept its promises, which immediately made all countries feel at ease.
Chapter completed!