Chapter 83 Reaching an Agreement
"Your Majesty, the Yemeni army can no longer stop the Saudi offensive. Now the British want to take advantage of the situation and force you to sign an unequal treaty to divide your territory. Now, the only one who can help you is the Meihua Company. When those conditions were proposed, the situation was not so critical, and the British were also defeated. They were the world hegemon known as the Empire on which the sun never sets, so they had to add conditions."

As an excellent diplomat, White certainly would not miss this opportunity. In fact, if his boss Zhang Feng had not revealed that Britain would be involved and expressed the need to reach a cooperation with Yahya, he would have planned to give up the mission at this moment.

"Then please renegotiate your conditions, Mr. White. I hope they are not too excessive. Otherwise, I would rather accept the peace talks between Saudi Arabia and Britain." Yahya said with a somewhat grim expression.

"Your Majesty, please rest assured that we are sincere and the original conditions remain unchanged. We will help you drive away the Saudi invasion."

Originally, the conditions proposed last time left room for negotiation, but now there is no way to compromise. White looked at Yahya and continued, "In addition, we can also help you resist the threat from the British Empire, and even help you recover the southern part of the Kingdom of Yemen occupied by the British Empire."

"Is it true? You will help me deal with the threat from the British, defeat the British, and take back the occupied territories?" Yahya was a little excited, but more of it was in disbelief. After all, he knew how powerful the British Empire was, but he didn't expect that there would be people who would take the initiative to go against the British.

"Of course, we can sign an agreement. If we can't do it, all losses will be borne by Meihua Company, and we don't need any benefits."

White said affirmatively.

Zhang Feng had already analyzed with him the strength of the British Empire at that time. In order to prevent British invasion, the Boers of the Transvaal Republic declared war on Britain in 1899. At that time, the Transvaal Republic had basically few regular troops, and the Boer militia took the initiative to attack the British army in southern Africa.

In order to conquer the Boers, who had a population of only a few hundred thousand, the war lasted for more than three years. Britain invested more than 400,000 people and lost more than 22,000 people. In the end, Britain signed a peace treaty with the Boers under the huge losses brought by the war, and the war ended.

This shows how weak the British Empire's army was.

The current British Empire, like France, suffered heavy losses in the First World War. The war caused huge losses to Britain and its debt increased tenfold. The strengthened United States and Japan competed with Britain for overseas markets, which affected Britain's overseas trade and caused its industry and commerce to decline.

The most important thing is that it made many people see the weakness of this giant. The post-war colonial system showed a trend of disintegration, the national liberation movement in British colonies such as India was on the rise, Ireland became a free state, Britain was forced to change its name, and the separatist tendency of the dominions strengthened.

We can get some idea from the current Middle East situation. In 1921, Reza Shah, who held military power, launched a coup. One month after the coup, he announced the abolition of the Anglo-Iranian Agreement. In less than three months, he ousted the pro-British prime minister and appointed himself as prime minister. He held military and political power and became the de facto dictator of Iran. He also pressured Britain to withdraw its troops from Iran.

1922年2月28日，英国宣布埃及为独立国家；1927年5月20日签署的《吉达条约》使得沙特阿拉伯正式脱离英国的统治独立。

All of this shows that the British Empire was already strong on the outside but weak on the inside. Although its navy was very powerful, it was powerless on land facing slightly stronger enemies. Of course, it is also possible that the effort was not proportional to the reward.

Moreover, the economic crisis is at its worst. Once the British Empire falls into the quagmire of war, the huge cost will cause the British Empire to collapse. Politicians will not give up their power for a few colonies. Anyway, the British Empire has many colonies. Just like the British Prime Minister after World War II, in order to win public opinion, he personally dismembered and gave up most of the overseas colonies and invested limited funds in domestic construction.

In view of this, the China-America Company could do whatever it wanted overseas, far away from the colonies of Britain and France. Of course, this still depended on its own strength. The China-America Company did not have a navy at that time, and it was best not to touch their core interests, such as India, the jewel in the crown of the British Empire.

Moreover, the British Empire currently only has troops stationed in Aden in Yemen, and the force is very small. The vast South Yemen region is composed of various sultan protectorates of the British Empire, and their strength is very weak. As long as the Meihua Company does not face the British Royal Navy head-on, it can be said that it is sure to win.

Faced with White's suggestion to recover the southern region, Yahya was still extremely excited. After all, which king does not want to expand the territory under his rule? The temptation is huge and no one can refuse it.

Moreover, the Meihua Company promised that it would not ask for any profits if it failed. Yahya certainly wanted this. Even if he failed, he would not lose anything. Anyway, things would not be worse than they are now.

One day later, the two parties signed a secret agreement, which read as follows:

First, the United States and China Corporation will help the Kingdom of Yemen defeat the Saudi attack and recapture the cities occupied by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, under the following conditions:
1. Meihua Company obtains 50% of the rights and interests of all oil and other mineral resources in the territory of the Kingdom of Yemen;
2. Meihua Company can participate in all industries in the Kingdom of Yemen and receive unconditional most-favored-company treatment. Employees of Meihua Company can also freely enter and exit anywhere in Yemen, and their status is equivalent to that of Yemeni citizens;

3. Meihua Company can hire 1000 mercenaries in Yemen to protect the company's interests.

Second, the American-Chinese Company helped the Kingdom of Yemen resist the threat from the British Empire and maintain its territory in South Yemen.
Sovereignty. After the deal is done, the US-China Company needs to obtain the Mocha Port on the Red Sea and the surrounding areas, totaling 1 square kilometers, with a transaction price of US$50.

Within 10 years, the Sino-American Company will help the Kingdom of Yemen recover all southern regions except Aden. For this purpose, a total of 5 square kilometers of land in the southern region close to the Mannar and Hauf regions of the Sultanate of Oman will belong to the Sino-American Company, and later it will recognize that Socotra Island belongs to the Sino-American Company.

The conditions of the Meihua Company were not high. You must know that if Yahya was forced to sign an unequal treaty with Britain, southern Yemen would officially become independent from the Kingdom of Yemen, which would also mean the permanent loss of this territory. Of course, the unification decades later would have nothing to do with the royal family.

The South Yemen region accounts for two-thirds of the territory of the Kingdom of Yemen. You can imagine how great the loss will be. Now only 1 square kilometers of land are needed to maintain sovereignty, and 5 square kilometers can obtain more than 30 square kilometers of territory. This deal is absolutely worthwhile, and only a fool would disagree.

As for Socotra Island, there is even less of a problem. Socotra Island is now also a British colony. The British use the island as a naval restricted area, and there is also a country on it: the Mahri Sultanate.

So Yahya agreed without hesitation. In his opinion, Socotra Island had nothing to do with the Kingdom of Yemen.

(End of this chapter)