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On the coast of Germany's East Africa, rain was misty and two Austro-Hungarian warships were sailing into the German naval base of Zanzibar.

This place was first German colony, and later the British exchanged Helgoland for it from the Germans. But after the European War, as one of the conditions for Germany to return Egypt to colonial rights, the Germans obtained it again.

Feeling the development of African minerals after the war, the Germans have built this place into its most important naval base in the Indian Ocean. At 10 a.m., the warship slowly approached the dock, and a military band played "God Bless My Emperor" on the dock. Several German naval officers and colonial officials welcomed the visit of the Austro-Hungarian Emperor on the dock. Among the welcome crowds on the dock, many people waved the flag of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Germany and Austro-Austria formed a common market, and Austro-Hungarian citizens could also have German privileges in German colonies, so in German East Africa, there were also many immigrants from Austro-Hungarian.

Germany and Austria built a cross-Africa railway, connecting the port of Cameroon to Dar es Salaam, connecting German West Africa, Austria Congo and Tanganyika, which led to a relatively rapid economic development in the entire Central African country. With the continuous development of mining and agricultural plantations, about 150,000 German and Austria immigrants moved here from Europe.

Central Africa has many important strategic resources that Europe lacks, including copper, aluminum, cobalt, nickel, and of course gold and diamonds. Relatively speaking, the iron smelting resources in Africa are not rich. German East Africa has some coal and iron ore, but the storage capacity cannot meet the local needs and is not particularly suitable for the development of large-scale metallurgy and machinery industries.

The two emperors who dominated European affairs met in East Africa.

The Austro-Hungarian Emperor visited some cities and farms in Tanganyika on the German Emperor's private yacht, and then, before the Austro-Hungarian Emperor left, the two countries issued the Zanzibar Declaration.

The Zanzibar Declaration declares that Germany and Austria will make a joint effort to defend world peace and will never tolerate one country launching a war of aggression against another sovereign state. Any military action attempting to undermine world peace will be a provocation against Germany and Austria. If necessary, the two countries may even use force to defend the peace of the world.

"German and Austria are declaring to the whole world that they are the rulemakers in this world. The two empires are satisfied with the status quo and cannot tolerate any attempt to change the status quo. The Zanzibar Declaration has nothing specific. Their purpose is nothing but to express concern about the increasingly tense Far East situation and warns the Japanese and Russians not to use force in the Far East. It is obvious that these two empires are on the side of the Chinese." The BBC commentator commented on the declaration.

Lee Haydn was listening to the radio in the cabin while thinking about China's problems.

The gang of warriors in the Beiyang Army were indeed not materials for political activities. In the Beiyang Congress, the Democratic Party always occupied the position of the largest party in the Congress, and the Progressive Party organized by Liang Qichao was the second seat in the Congress. However, at this time, the Democratic Party divided into two major factions, namely Li and Duan. The Duan faction and the Progressive Party merged, and Duan had always maintained that Duan occupied the majority in the Congress.

Li Yuanhong regarded himself as the leader of the 1911 first, and his subordinates gradually gathered elites from all over the country during the 1911 Revolution, and received support from the Central and Diplomacy Department of the Congress and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Consortium. His momentum was no less than that of the Duan Group.

The two had almost the same military power. Xu Shuzheng had been sitting in the position of the chief of the army after his term of office in 192. Li's general Jiang Zuobin has been firmly in the position of Chief of Staff for many years. Among the 48 divisions of the Central Army system, the Duan system has 20 division commanders and the Li system has 13 division commanders. However, the navy tends to be Li Yuanhong, who comes from the Beiyang Navy, and the two sides are almost equal.

The Army of the Republic of China currently has about 93 divisions, half of the central and half of the local governments. Local provinces generally have garrison troops of one to three divisions. Generally speaking, the local divisions have poor equipment and their combat effectiveness is one-slighter than the central divisions. What is more special is that there are seven divisions in the three northeastern provinces, and they were later taken into the hands of Zhang Zuolin.

This was Xu Shuzheng's mistake. At that time, Xu wanted to win over Zhang Zuolin to fight against the Li clan, but he did not expect that he would raise a tiger to be a disaster in the end, and the "Northeast King" used Li Duan to fight with each other and became a big local faction. The other was Yan Baichuan, Shanxi. This person has been living in Shanxi for many years. He kept his strength and gradually eliminated dissidents. He formed his own unit and built the entire Shanxi into a "kingdom". At present, Shanxi has an almost complete military-industrial system, and also has four divisions of local troops, well-equipped, and is a force that cannot be underestimated.

Yan Baichuan started his career in Xinhai and regarded himself as a veteran of the Democratic Party, but he never participated in domestic political struggles.

Another important force in the local faction is the New Guangxi clan. After Lu Tingrong's fall, the central government sent three divisions to Guangdong and Guangxi. However, this original Chinese Workers' legion had many Guangxi clans from the Baoding Army School, such as Ye Qi, Bai Chongxi, Xia Wei and others. They gradually controlled the military and political affairs of Guangdong and Guangxi, forming a faction. This faction includes three Central Army divisions and 5 local divisions. It owns Guangdong and Guangxi and became an important faction in the political arena of the Republic of China.

Another important force in the CSR Group is the new Beiyang Group left behind by the original Beiyang Army. It was originally led by Feng Guozhang and Cao Kun. After Feng Qushu and Cao Kun retired, Li Chun, Wu Peifu and Chen Guangyuan were led by him. He had nine CSR divisions and 5 local divisions, and his strength was enough to challenge Duan Group.

Now the problem in China is here.

With the support of the Japanese, Zhang Zuolin gradually became the "King of Northeast China", but Zhang did not want to be a "traitor". On the Northeast issue, he had been constantly dirty with the Japanese army that controlled the Manchurian Railway and the Far East, and was unwilling to let the Japanese control the three northeastern provinces. As for the "" supported by the Japanese, he refused without hesitation.

Even as the pressure on Japan gradually increased, he began to contact Xu Shuzheng secretly and prepared to accept the peaceful adaptation of Beijing. This touched Japan's fundamental interests. When the threat was ineffective, the Japanese Kwantung Army carefully planned an assassination operation.

On September 18, 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army planned the "Northeast Incident". When the "Northeast King" Zhang Zuolin took a train to Shanhaiguan, the train was blown up by the Japanese Manchurian Railway Guard when he passed through the Daqing River Iron Bridge. Zhang Zuolin was bombed on the spot.

Zhang Zuolin was about to go to Shanhaiguan to sign a "change flag" agreement with the central government. Lao Zhang judged the situation and decided to serve as vice president in Beijing, preparing to give up the territory and army in the Northeast in exchange for the future safety and wealth of the whole family.

That night, the Japanese army launched an attack on the Northeast Army stationed in Fengtian on the excuse of "maintaining public order". Zhang Xueliang, who rushed to the scene of the Daling River, made a wrong judgment. He believed that the Japanese were just looking for excuses to provoke disputes and issued an order to "not resist" to Fengtian's garrison troops. The Kwantung Army easily occupied the entire Fengtian with only one brigade and two railway garrison troops.

Later, the Japanese army began to move into the Northeast continuously, and only the spontaneous volunteers were stubbornly resisting in the Northeast. (To be continued)
Chapter completed!