Chapter 723: The United Allies
"Mr. William?" Aiden shook his head with embarrassment. "This is a very fair negotiation. Do you still want to occupy Oman, a protectorate of the British Empire?"
"No, no, no, Mr. Aiden, you misunderstood me. This is of course a very fair communication. In fact, I have no intention of taking advantage. Christians in the Middle East are a minority. They have a coastline to live on, so they can't ask for too much. The problem is..." Sheffield crossed his fingers and said with some difficulty, "This is about my personal reputation. It is much more important than occupying Oman and giving Christians more land."
Sheffield was, after all, the Pasha of the Ottoman Empire. Although he knew in his heart that he was nothing if he was not a monopoly capitalist, the Ottoman Empire could give him a legal basis.
Legal principles are very important. Just like in China today, although warlords are making their debuts, attacking each other, and seeking independence at every turn, all countries in the world know that these warlords are only making trouble in their own territories. But if a warlord occupies some land in Myanmar or Vietnam, things will be completely different.
From any perspective, a large area of the Middle East was still the legal territory of the Ottoman Empire. The slave owners could have been internationalist royalists, and when the Ottoman Empire became hopeless, they could have declared independence. And there were Arabs all around, so even if the Ottoman Empire became a republic, the two sides could have maintained a good relationship.
I just don’t know what Kemal, a republican, would think of me, a legally declared Pasha of Kuwait.
"Oh, that's a very novel statement!" Aiden looked at the slave owner with a mysterious look. It turned out that he was standing in front of a megalomaniac. It seemed that the lives and lands of Middle Eastern Christians were just a tool to satisfy this megalomaniac. "Of course, it is a great honor to be able to give Middle Eastern Christians equal status and life. Your name will spread all over the world."
"Maybe in the eyes of Christians in the Middle East, but not sure in British India." Sheffield couldn't help but look up to Aiden. In this kind of battle of rhetoric against rhetoric, the person on the other side was definitely a master.
However, the British expected his mercenaries to fight back, which was absolutely impossible. Although personal efforts were important, it was not as safe as following history to suppress others. As for the problem of the Ottoman Empire, Britain could continue to advance northward from Syria. No one had ever dared to go against London.
As for the Ottoman Empire's Eighth Army, it could only remain friendly and neutral. Moreover, the main force of the British Royal Navy has now withdrawn to the vicinity of the mainland, fully escorting the British troops crossing the sea.
"William, you were just like a megalomaniac?" Edith Rockefeller couldn't help asking, except for the Morgan Building. "This is totally different from your usual self, although you are usually a bully."
"Can I take this as a compliment?" Sheffield said with a helpless smile, "But how can I refuse? As the president of the United Company, it's understandable for me to act arrogant. Besides, you also said that you bully the weak, so I'll take it as a compliment."
"In fact, the British can be sure that William himself is not against Britain, but is using this incident to profit." Louis Morgan thought as he said, "Just like the American dream in the eyes of citizens, in fact, they are always thinking about turning all citizens into slaves who think they are citizens. This is just an impression."
"I finally understand why the Rockefeller family far exceeds the Morgan family in terms of family wealth. Your family is indeed more famous." Sheffield put his hands in his pockets and nodded. "Since it happened, there must be a reason. Let's get back to the point. The participating countries still have spare strength. The intensity of the war this year is obviously higher. It is not the time for the country to intervene in such a dangerous war. Not only I, but also the ministers of the federal government are clear about this. So my friendly neutrality is justified!"
This issue was of great concern to both Edith Rockefeller and Louisa Morgan. It was not that the two families would be unable to obtain information just because the Democrats came to power, but how could they be as efficient and accurate as the members of the Democratic National Committee?
"You pinched me so hard that it's swollen. If Louisa hadn't been here, I would have screamed out." Sheffield took off his shirt when he got home, and there was a purple mark on his soft spot. Needless to say, it was Edith Rockefeller who vented her dissatisfaction when he said that the Morgan family was more famous.
"I didn't use any force." Edith Rockefeller felt bad when she saw the marks she had made. She admitted some of her mistakes, "But you can't say that. It's just the two of us here. You have a clear tendency."
"I should have found some ordinary women before, and shouldn't have messed with you ladies." Sheffield let out a long sigh, "Now you know how to feel sorry for a megalomaniac like me?"
"I just said it casually!" Edith Rockefeller whispered, "Now I know you did it on purpose, are you angry?"
"Not really. It mainly depends on what kind of arrogance one has!" Sheffield pondered for a moment, and thought about several emperors who were regarded as ambitious and ostentatious. Emperor Wu of Han, Emperor Wu of Liang, Emperor Yang of Sui, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, and Emperor Qianlong all seemed to be very capable people.
Of course, three of them brought the country to a miserable end, and there was also a trend of instability in the later years of Emperor Wu of Han and Emperor Qianlong, but it was still more than one level higher than the previous ones that led to the destruction of the country or chaos in the world.
Although they are all arrogant, there are differences between them. Considering the prices of the time, Emperor Wu of Han's spending on wars was unprecedented. The second is Qianlong. As for the rest, they are not as good as these two.
Before Qianlong, the Chinese emperor was portrayed on equal footing with religious leaders in the Snow Region in portraits. Starting from Qianlong, the image of the Chinese emperor took center stage.
"As long as I have enough money and strong military force, who says I can't copy Qianlong's method of swallowing up the Snow Region in one gulp? Anyway, Christians in the Middle East are all related to the Orthodox Church, so there's nothing wrong with using my image in a painting." Sheffield thought, it seemed as if Stalin had been canonized. He saved four million Christians in the Middle East, and it was not excessive for him to receive such treatment.
If you think about it carefully, it seems that what they did was similar, but there were too many Indians and the slave owners could not replicate the Junggar-style operation. This is a very regrettable thing. They should have stopped after using the lives of 200,000 soldiers for a small fight.
Sheffield's change of attitude towards Britain was a good start, but it would certainly take time to turn things around and the Allies were clearly impatient to wait.
Verdun was already an isolated city, and the French government had even prepared for its fall, building a reserve defense line south of Verdun. The entire Allied camp knew clearly what would happen if France could not hold on. Imperial Russia was alone in facing the encirclement of the Central Powers, and the British army was useless.
In June, the Russian Empire took the first step. The Russian Southwestern Front, commanded by Brusilov, decided to launch an offensive in advance to support the Western Front. The intention was that the Eighth Army would launch the main attack in the direction of Lutsk on a 21-kilometer-wide front, and the other armies would choose several breakthrough areas to take action, so as to make multiple breakthroughs on the 450-kilometer-wide front, making it difficult for the enemy to determine the main attack direction and unable to send troops to the main attack direction. The battle preparations were extremely thorough and covert.
In early June, the Russian Empire launched a massive offensive, with short but precise artillery barrages directed at the entire Austro-Hungarian defense line. This precise and concise bombardment was the key to the battle, and it was in stark contrast to the usual all-day sustained bombardment. Brusilov's innovative troops had been attacking the weaknesses of the Austro-Hungarian defense line one by one, making it easy for the main Russian army to exploit them and break through.
In just four days, the Russian army won victory after victory and captured more than 200,000 Austro-Hungarian soldiers. The road to Vienna seemed to be open. The French government quickly informed the defenders of Verdun of the Russian breakthrough, hoping to boost morale.
Almost at the same time, Britain recruited 30 divisions of troops from its homeland and quickly sent them to France after the third naval battle. Together with the 200,000 Indian troops who had been waiting in the homeland military camps, they could not wait to launch the Battle of the Somme.
The British and French forces tried to break through the German defenses in order to switch to mobile warfare and relieve the pressure of the German forces on the French forces in the Verdun direction. At that time, the battle line went from south to north and crossed the Somme River more than 50 kilometers east of Amiens. The German army built the so-called "strongest" defense line in the area, including three positions and some intermediate positions. The main positions had tunnel fortifications and multiple layers of barbed wire in front of the positions. The British and Indian forces advanced in dense formations and suffered serious casualties from German machine guns and artillery fire, with nearly 100,000 casualties on the first day.
"So many!" The slave owner wearing a bow tie was a little surprised when he heard it. Wasn't it 60,000? Oh, by the way, Britain's mobilization of India was much higher than in history, and there might be quite a few Indians among them.
"Yes, boss! This is unheard of. This is a hard-to-imagine scenario." Jesra's face was full of disbelief. He even suspected that the wrong unit was used in the telegram. Seeing that his boss had finished tying his tie, he spoke again, "Since the Persian Gulf Campaign, our route to the Persian Gulf has been restored. According to what you said?"
"Friendly neutrality!" Sheffield added, then took out his pocket watch and glanced at it. "As long as things in the Middle East remain peaceful, we should recruit as many soldiers as possible from the less than four million Christians. I think it won't be a problem to expand the Eighth Army to 250,000. Damn it, get the car ready. Tomorrow is a cocktail party for the new Minister of War, and the ladies are going too."
"Uh? How many ladies?" the bodyguard leader asked. "If all of them are going, we might have to take an airship."
"Please don't ask such unprofessional questions anymore in the future. All of them!" Sheffield put on his top hat and put his monocle in his coat pocket. A gold chain was exposed from it. He said with satisfaction, "Just wear it like this."
(End of this chapter)
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