1890 King of Southeast Asia

"Your Majesty, Sir Cyril is here." Wang Linhai knocked on the door gently.

Liu Yiming rubbed his eyebrows, smiled and nodded to Wang Linhai, who nodded gently and turned to go out.

As the prestige and strength of the South China Empire became higher and higher, foreign ambassadors who wanted to see Liu Yiming all needed to make an appointment.

An appointment is not just about meeting, but also about agreeing on the time and duration of the meeting, as well as what issues to discuss after the meeting - this is the key to whether Liu Yiming will meet.

Only Cyril, who has the title of British ambassador and has a good personal relationship with all the senior officials of South China, can directly inform and see if Liu Yiming will meet.

For example, today, Liu Yiming was supposed to meet the envoy of the King of Thailand, but Cyril came and cut in line.

After all, even an old witch knows how to choose between Thailand and the British Empire. International relations are not about who is good with whom, but about interests and strength.

After a while, Cyril came in, and the envoy of the King of Thailand who came first and made an appointment was still waiting in the reception room.

"Good day, Your Majesty." Cyril saluted Liu Yiming with a smile on his face, and Liu Yiming couldn't stop him... Maybe he didn't want to stop him?

"Good day, Sir." Liu Yiming saw that he couldn't stop him, so he returned the salute, but compared with Cyril's "big move", Liu Yiming just nodded slightly.

The two exchanged pleasantries for a while, and then got to the point.

"Cyril, we are old friends, there is no need to do this, what? What difficult task did London give you again?" Liu Yiming asked in a teasing tone.

"Ha! How could it be? In front of the friendship between you and my two countries, there are no difficult problems." Cyril smiled warmly.

The more he said this, the more confused Liu Yiming was. What does this person want to do? If you don't have anything to do, you are either a traitor or a thief.

"Yes, if it weren't for Britain, my government might not know where to find a source of loans." Liu Yiming responded perfunctorily.

The loans lent to the Ottoman Empire were all borrowed by Nanhua from banks in various countries with debt contracts as collateral.

The Nanhua government endorsed the debt contract to guarantee the Ottomans' ability to repay.

If the Ottoman Empire was unable to pay the loan, the Nanhua government would take over the Ottoman Empire's customs and the Turkish Straits until the Ottoman Empire paid off the loan.

If things were impossible in the end and the debt contract could not be fulfilled, the Nanhua Empire would pay on its behalf.

This kind of loan should have been very popular, but it was not until the contract was thrown out that it was discovered that the two largest capitalist empires, France and the United States, did not welcome it.

Originally, Nanhua was going to borrow money from France at an interest rate of 4%, which was not high, but not very low either. The most important thing was that the risk was low, and some banks should like it.

As a result, France was unwilling to get involved because of the Franco-Russian alliance.

The Americans were the simplest. They hoped that Nanhua would trap its own funds in it. If a large amount of funds were withdrawn in a short period of time, it might cause harm to Nanhua, so they issued a ban.

The 4% profit was not enough to impress the group of capitalists, so the United States did not buy it.

Just when Nanhua was about to take this bond to the Dutch financial market for financing, the British came online, and several banks easily took over the 30 million pounds contract.

It is understandable that before the rise of Germany, the anti-British pioneer was Russia, and the anti-Russian pioneer was Britain, which led to Britain helping out no matter who was targeting Russia.

"No, no, no, we actually wanted to intervene in this unfair war a long time ago, but Britain and Russia... are currently on the same front." Cyril expressed his disgust for Russia without hiding it.

Russia's prestige is too high. Since the victory of the Napoleonic Wars, Russia's influence on Europe has exceeded the limit of the British people's tolerance.

From that time on, Britain has faithfully implemented its anti-Russian policy until Germany rose and vigorously developed its naval power, threatening the national defense security of the British.

"Okay, then you came to London today, has anything changed?" Liu Yiming nodded absent-mindedly.

"Oh! It's about the Qing Empire." Cyril smiled.

"The Qing Empire is over. They lost their capital, their emperor, and almost all their troops and ministers. This government has perished." Liu Yiming added.

"Yes, yes, about... the interim military government, I have news that they are sending troops to the plateau." Cyril's face changed when he said this news, as if the revolutionary army had done something unforgivable.

"Hmm?" Liu Yiming probably guessed what Cyril wanted to say, and nodded indifferently.

"Haven't you found the problem yet? This group of warlords under the banner of revolution are no different from the Qing Empire."

"Like the Qing Empire, they did not consider the ideas of the plateau people, did not give them the rights they deserve, and still used force to try to make them surrender."

"The special envoy of the plateau Lama has sought help from India. London instructed us that we should stop the behavior of the military government authorities and restore justice to the plateau."

When Cyril said this, a compassionate expression appeared on his face, as if he was standing up for the "justice" he mentioned.

Not to mention, with this expression, the holy light almost pretended to be a god.

Anyone who didn't know would think that this was a loyal and honest person.

"Britain is preparing to invade the plateau?" Liu Yiming's words directly tore apart all the disguises of compassion, revealing the bloody reality behind.

"Invasion? No, no, no, it's not an invasion. It's at the request of the leaders of the ethnic groups in the plateau to send troops to maintain their independence." Cyril said quickly.

"Don't worry, London means that the plateau area will not belong to anyone in the future and will exist independently."

"In order to ensure mutual safety, no British soldiers will be deployed within 200 kilometers of the border between India and the plateau. I hope that China will do the same in the future."

"This is also the reason why I came to you. I hope you can persuade the leaders of the military government to agree to this proposal." Cyril said.

"In other words, Britain hopes that a new country will emerge here and a demilitarized zone will be demarcated on the border between this country and other countries?" Liu Yiming didn't understand why the British dared to think so.

Oh! The Qing Empire has just collapsed, and the country is in ruins. The Russians are ready to move in the north. The British are betting that the revolutionary army has no extra energy.

Even the independent plateau is a smokescreen. Maybe the British just want to advance the front line and let them gain some strategic initiative.

Even the British and Indian troops may have entered the plateau.

Based on Liu Yiming's understanding of the British, this possibility is very high!

Thinking of this, Liu Yiming couldn't sit still.

"This is interference in the internal affairs of another country. The South China Empire will not intervene in this matter. In addition, I regret the actions of the British." Liu Yiming said calmly.

Even if he was furious, he could not make too many big moves.

After all, Huaxia and South China have not yet truly integrated, and the true purpose cannot be discovered.

Thanks to the idiots of the Qing Empire, if they had not introduced the Japanese and given South China a reason to send troops, the war would have continued for who knows how long.

"Is that so?" Cyril smacked his lips.

Of course, he did not think that Liu Yiming would agree. After all, South China had expressed its attitude to the British on the plateau issue.

The purpose of his coming here was just to test and test South China's bottom line.

Liu Yiming guessed correctly that the British had already launched the war. Thousands of British and Indian troops had climbed over the mountains and entered the plateau area. Now they are building roads and preparing to expand the fruits of victory.

As for why there was no news? It can only be said that the plateau is too vast and sparsely populated. Thousands of troops entered the plateau and only encountered a few scattered families.

Original text from Ta \u0026 Read Novels ~ \u0026

This added confidentiality to the British and Indian Army's actions, and also made the British and Indian Army's idea of ​​recruiting labor to build roads on the plateau fall through.

At present, the British and Indian Army has penetrated hundreds of miles into the border. Due to lack of logistics, it can only stop and start to capture "workers" from India to prepare to build roads and fortifications.

"Nanhua does not want to participate in the British Empire's actions. Regardless of various reasons, considering the traditional friendship with Nanhua and the British Empire, Nanhua remains neutral in this matter."

"Wait a minute, I have an agreement with the Thai king's envoy. If there is nothing else, I will not keep you."

Liu Yiming "calmly" issued an order to expel guests. Cyril originally wanted to talk about the fight against Russia on the grassland, but he did not say it when he saw this.

It was not in vain to win the verbal neutrality of Nanhua. Britain was unwilling to bring Nanhua in.

How to divide the spoils? What if Nanhua makes other demands? And if Nanhua deploys troops on the plateau, what should they do?

So, Cyril nodded and went out, thinking about how to strengthen Japan as he walked, so as not to let the Chinese power become too strong.

At the same time, he was also going to suggest to London to create some conflicts between the military government and South China, preferably territorial disputes.

"Find an island in the sea, the islands in the northern part of the southern Gulf of Ryukyu are good, although they are of little value, but they can be hyped up..." Cyril murmured softly after leaving the palace and getting in the car.

At this time, there was no recognized territorial waters. The territorial waters of various countries mainly relied on the strength of each country to make strong claims, three nautical miles, five nautical miles, eight nautical miles, twelve nautical miles, and the standards were different.

Offshore oil exploration is still in the shallow area, and the cost of mining is high, and it can't compete with the oil of the United States and Arabia at all.

As for the so-called exclusive economic zone, there is no shadow at this time. Those islands are really ordinary stone islands at this time. Except for the fish, they have no value.

A few fishing boats from the Gulf and Ryukyu will go to these places to fish, and they get along relatively harmoniously without many conflicts.

Judging from these places, it is very difficult for the two to have a conflict because of this, after all, there is no breakthrough.

But in the eyes of the British, this is not a problem. Years of "practical experience" make them seem at ease in dealing with such things.

"No need to go home, go directly to the dock and take the nearest ship. I want to go to Singapore." The plan gradually took shape in his mind, and Cyril couldn't wait to report it to London.

He had to report it. His resources alone were not enough to complete this plan.