Fairness and efficiency; each orientation had its own logic. Being forced to make a choice between them often tormented Wu Youping afterwards. regarding the supply of medicines, Wu Youping still leaned towards export.

He originally thought this matter could be put aside for later, but unexpectedly, on the second day of the meeting, Zhao Tianlin sent a letter. The letter was from the Nobel Committee and had already been translated. In this letter, the Nobel Committee asked the Chinese side to provide the name of the discoverer of penicillin.

Wu Youping had some impression of this; the technical route for penicillin R&D seemed to have been provided by He Rui. Before Wu Youping could speak, Zhao Tianlin said: "The Chairman says to let the comrade responsible for this research go to receive the award, which serves nicely to conduct some academic exchanges in Europe."

This arrangement was very reasonable, but it reminded Wu Youping of yesterday's matter, "Premier Zhao, can you give me an explanation? Why is penicillin capacity expansion so slow? Is it due to insufficient investment? Or is there some other reason?"

Zhao Tianlin hesitated for a moment before answering: "Penicillin was a technical route proposed by the Chairman. If the Premier really wants to know the technical secrets within, why not ask the Chairman directly?"

Wu Youping was actually a bit curious. Research papers on penicillin had been published in major medical journals, not only domestic academic journals but also foreign university journals. They all received extremely high evaluations. Wu Youping initially worried that penicillin would be like sulfonamides—once published, it would be copied in large quantities by European and American companies.

However, it was not. Now France was doing a roaring trade as a middleman. "The True Hope for Syphilis Patients!", "The Epoch-making Drug that Thoroughly Ends Bacterial Infections!" Various advertising campaigns were flourishing. Based on Wu Youping's understanding of European and American technology, they should have had similar drugs appear no matter what, yet there were none. This was a bit too weird.

"...Forget it." Wu Youping sighed. Since it was a technical route, Wu Youping felt it was better if he didn't touch it.

Zhao Tianlin came here not only for the matter of He Rui winning the award. Seeing Wu Youping become rational, Zhao Tianlin continued with the purpose of his trip, "We want to build some research centers domestically that accept experts from various countries to participate. We can learn from the model of that German synthetic ammonia research expert and turn it into a model of world technology sharing."

Hearing about sharing again, Wu Youping couldn't help but sigh. Calming himself, Wu Youping lamented: "Premier Zhao, we don't have enough management capability right now. Your suggestion is very good, but I am very worried that some problems will arise. Although I don't know what problems, generally speaking, I think the comrades might feel we are getting the short end of the stick."

Zhao Tianlin smiled: "If looking at it from the angle of getting the short end of the stick, Europe and America definitely feel they are losing out. Many technologies they developed first are being used by us to deal with them."

Wu Youping wanted to tell Zhao Tianlin that he didn't mean that. But if he really said it out loud, it would turn into criticism of certain comrades. Now Wu Youping felt that quite a few comrades in state-owned assets were already very resistant to other assets sharing the market. Moreover, Wu Youping himself felt very uncomfortable about other assets sharing the market.

Seeing Wu Youping say no more, Zhao Tianlin pursued: "If the Premier agrees to this suggestion, I will submit a report."

Wu Youping knew he only had the choice to agree, so he simply asked about something happier, "I wonder when the International Tribunal can finish trying the case."

"The focus now is that the British lawyers hired by the ANZAC Corps have taught them some techniques to counter the trial. Whenever they encounter something, they say they didn't know, didn't see, didn't hear, didn't participate. They want to use this method to drag it out. The domestic view is, since they are willing to drag, we will drag it out with them. At least within a year, we can still use this matter to expand our influence. Premier Wu, have you heard? Recently some educated Black people from the United States went to the front of the International Tribunal to hold up banners, demanding the International Tribunal investigate the U.S. government's persecution of Black people. This is the situation most favorable to us."

Wu Youping couldn't help but smile upon hearing this. This news indeed made Wu Youping feel happy, but not as happy as imagined. China had obtained the blessing of civilization and justice, but to bear these, China also paid a very great effort.

Foreign Minister Yan Huiqing had just discussed the "Sino-French Immigration Agreement" with the head of the French diplomatic delegation. The French head was another member of the de Broglie family. When discussing this matter, he was very serious, "Minister Yan, regarding the reciprocal immigration plan proposed by your country, we cannot accept it."

If Wu Youping heard this, one wonders if he would feel a bit happier. Or perhaps Wu Youping would give birth to displeasure again.

Yan Huiqing was not unhappy, because the reason proposed by Head de Broglie was serious. China's population was about 12 times that of France's mainland population. If the ratio were reciprocal, the impact of Chinese people on France would be very large. Although he could understand the reasonable concerns of the French side, Yan Huiqing did not give in, "Reciprocal conditions cannot be linked to numbers; this is a matter of principle regarding mutual respect. If your country has concerns, we can regulate it during specific execution. But principles are principles."

Head de Broglie did not answer immediately. After the establishment of Sino-French diplomatic relations, there were a great many affairs to be determined through agreements, among which the most troublesome was the immigration agreement. France and China were located at opposite ends of the World Island respectively. France was not afraid of China in the vast majority of fields. But when population was mentioned, France was truly afraid. So the government side hoped to regulate Sino-French population flow within the agreement.

But Yan Huiqing did not give in an inch, insisting that it must be completely reciprocal in the agreement. Head de Broglie actually wanted to push this agreement back, but at this time the number of Chinese in France was lower than the number of French in China. If the agreement could not be reached, the interests of French people in China could not be guaranteed. This plunged Head de Broglie into a dilemma.

In the end, Head de Broglie decided to drag it out for a while longer. Yan Huiqing did not force it; drag then, who's afraid of whom?

Apart from the immigration agreement, other agreements proceeded quite smoothly. The smoothest was the meeting between the French Peace Envoy and He Rui. He Rui looked serious and said in a stern tone: "Our China is a peace-loving country, but this war was provoked by the British!"

The French envoy listened with a serious expression, but in his heart, he was actually not as serious as he appeared on the outside. Whenever someone started with such a high profile, 99% of the time they would soften down. As long as China held such an attitude, the matter was half done. Sure enough, He Rui continued: "If Britain sincerely wants peace, it must admit its wrongdoings. Apologize for this, and pay reparations to the vast number of harmed Myanmar people!"

At this time in Whitehall, London, the British Foreign Secretary said almost the same words, only the positions of China and Britain were swapped. After fiercely attacking China's aggressive behavior, the British Foreign Secretary stated, "We are also willing to give peace a chance. However, China must withdraw its troops, withdraw from British India."

Being a middleman was not easy. France knew very well that at this time within Britain, especially the British upper class, they felt a bit humiliated. For France to mediate peace, Britain indeed felt a certain humiliation. In the past, it was Britain mediating for France.

With communication tools like the wireless telegraph, the special envoys in China and Britain soon aggregated the news to Paris. As an old-school imperialist country, the French Foreign Ministry quickly reached a consensus: the Chinese side was very steady, while a true turning point had not yet appeared within Britain. Although both sides' attitudes remained tough, the opportunity to bring both sides together for formal negotiations was approaching fast.

Prime Minister Baldwin was good at economics, but that didn't mean he completely misunderstood politics. In the past few days, he had already sent people to have meals or drink beer and eat fish and chips with key personnel of the opposition party. According to the feedback, the main members of the opposition party all mocked that Baldwin's Conservative Party was destined to step down in the next election. Not only was this not bad news, it could even be counted as good news.

Since the opposition believed victory was already in their grasp for the next election, they had no need to ruin the peace talks. Because British voters knew that this war, which consumed British national power in vain, was imposed on Britain by China, and China would not terminate the war before achieving its goals.

Anyone could sing a high tune. If the opposition ruined the peace talks and the Baldwin government stepped down, after the opposition took power, the Conservative Party—to whom the war was imposed—could blow the high tune to the heavens, and the opposition would be tantamount to roasting themselves on the fire. The British people could not forgive the Baldwin government for not winning the war, and they would be even less likely to forgive an opposition party that actively continued the war.

Under many considerations, ending the war during Baldwin's term was the best choice.

Prime Minister Baldwin also had confidence in the opposition's political level. The current situation could barely be counted as 'everything is ready, only the east wind is lacking'. So Prime Minister Baldwin went to the Prime Minister's country villa for a weekend with the Speaker of the House of Lords.

In this small villa, the Prime Minister chatted in a relaxed tone with the Speaker of the House of Lords, who was of noble birth. The House of Lords was basically all nobles. The Speaker said: "Your Excellency, there is no lack of members in the House of Lords demanding an expansion of the war."

Baldwin nodded, "But our main enemy is not China."

The Speaker himself had many assets in India, so he asked: "Does Your Excellency think China will give an inch and take a mile?"

This question made Baldwin smile bitterly. If He Rui were a person who gave an inch and took a mile, things would actually be easier to handle. The British Empire did not fear challenges; any country attempting to fight for India would face Britain's full-force strike. But He Rui stood right on the edge of that line, never crossing this bottom line of Britain. Occasionally sending troops into India to fight had the sole purpose of letting Britain receive a message: if Britain did not agree to China's conditions, Britain shouldn't think of having peace.

This tactic was the same as Britain's strategy in the First Opium War: capturing Zhenjiang and cutting off the Qing dynasty's grain transport. The economic operations of the Qing government, which initially wanted to drag it out, were disrupted, and they had to sign the Treaty of Nanking with Britain.

Fortunately, the Speaker of the House of Lords was a sensible person, and because of the safety of his assets in India, he hoped for peace. Prime Minister Baldwin answered: "If there is no security for India, there is no peace between China and Britain."

Hearing this, the Speaker lifted his sherry and sipped slowly. After pondering for a while, the Speaker asked: "What kind of treatment does China hope to receive?"

"In my view, we can only give him the level of Italy or Japan."

The Speaker nodded slightly. If the war ended in such a way, it was within the acceptable range. Putting down his wine glass, the Speaker asked: "Then is there anything I can do?"

On the second day after meeting with the Speaker, reports on the war in British newspapers began to change direction. At this time, the British army in British India was 'launching attacks'. The reports sent back to the country by reporters, regardless of whether they wrote them themselves, focused on the heroic British army in the rainy season of Myanmar, braving pouring rain, marching with difficulty in knee-deep mud and waist-deep floods, launching heroic and fearless attacks on the high ground held by the Chinese army.

Those British families with family members fighting on the front lines felt their hearts break when they saw such reports. Because the news described in sensational text: '...The Chinese army occupying the high ground deployed dense machine gun positions, with firepower comparable to the Western Front. British soldiers constantly fell into the water. On the battlefield, the sound of thunder, rain, and the roar of machine guns were interwoven. Wherever one looked, there were water currents dyed red with blood. For His Majesty the King, the heroic Royal Army launched wave after wave of charges...'

After several days of playing this up, newspapers began to publish the names of officers and soldiers killed or missing in action on full pages. Although these British officers and soldiers were basically those killed or missing in the previous war, the readers did not know.

For a time, Britain fell into a mood of grief. Except for the few major British newspapers targeting die-hard conservative audiences, all began to recount the differences between Myanmar and India, and how Britain had acquired Myanmar.

After half a month of media offensive, the front-page headlines of various British newspapers all published a piece of news: 'Prime Minister Baldwin, ordered by His Majesty the respected King George V, went to Buckingham Palace to have an audience with His Majesty'. Seeing this news, those British people who had been tormented for half a month felt there was hope.

Britain had mobilized about 500,000 troops from the British homeland to arrive in India this time. The families of these officers and soldiers believed there was no reason for their husbands and sons to fight on with China for a Myanmar.

Prime Minister Baldwin was afraid of trouble. Three days after having an audience with George V, he obtained the content of a large number of letters from various newspaper offices. According to internal statistics from the newspaper offices, the majority of the British masses who wrote in opposed continuing the war.

With public support, Prime Minister Baldwin announced to Parliament that Britain was willing to accept French mediation. Hearing this news, the opposition MPs in the House of Commons immediately issued mocking boos. Several hardliners immediately jumped up to speak, expressing strong contempt for this 'capitulationist action'.

There were those who despised it, and there were also those who believed Britain should conscript on a larger scale and conduct a higher intensity war. But there were no MPs who explicitly opposed starting negotiations with China.

It couldn't be said that there were no muddled eggs in the British Parliament, but the whips of both parties exerted their power and constrained the speeches of their parties' MPs.

On September 2, 1926, when China began its autumn harvest, the French side sent a telegram, "Our country suggests holding negotiations in Paris."

On the same day, Britain immediately stated, "Negotiations must be held in London!" Since France had already gained huge prestige through coordination, there was no reason to let the French get more diplomatic benefits.

The Chinese government also immediately stated, "We demand negotiations be held in Beiping."

Now the French government had to rack its brains again to try to find a suitable negotiation venue. On September 6, after a series of consultations, the French government stated, 'China and Britain will hold negotiations in Saigon.'

Receiving this news, other countries in the world knew that the end of the Sino-British war had finally begun.

Some countries looked forward to peace, some countries felt disappointed, while the Japanese government felt despair. The British government formally informed the Japanese government of this matter, and the wording of the document was full of respect for Japan. However, for such a big matter as peace talks, the British government had not consulted the Japanese government's attitude beforehand.

Although this war was indeed a war between China and Britain, and Japan's dispatch of an expeditionary force was only a collateral result of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, Britain's attitude was enough to make everyone in Japan determine that what the British government cared about was only the security of India. At this time, Japan's value in Britain's eyes was far lower than India.