On October 18, 1926, the fourth day after the Battle of the Siliguri Corridor had completely ended, the Chinese and British negotiating delegations held another meeting in Saigon. Unlike the previous cursing match, the expressions of the British delegation were truly very serious.

The Head of the Chinese Delegation, Yan Huiqing, looked calm, but in his heart, he was both annoyed and amused.

What was amusing was that the British army was just a paper tiger. The solid field defense line built by hundreds of thousands of Indian laborers over half an year was wiped out in one day. A Chinese Army Division Commander named Yu Cen led his troops in fierce pursuit, routing countless defeated British troops, and even captured the retreating British headquarters in one fell swoop. With such a level of warfare, Yan Huiqing completely couldn't reconcile it with the British army in his impression.

What was annoying was that the British military commanders, worthy of their noble birth, really could compose essays on the spot. Before their headquarters was about to be annihilated, they sent a telegram to the British Indian Army Command, using 'human wave tactics' to describe the Chinese Army's offensive method.

'The Chinese army, several times larger than ours, adopted human wave tactics, braving our fierce artillery fire, and charged into our positions regardless of casualties...'

The telegram was sent in code. In the chaos, the British headquarters failed to dispose of all the codebooks, and the Chinese Army captured two volumes. It was translated afterwards. This also led to a small problem: French diplomatic personnel stated to the Chinese delegation that the British side now began to express doubts about China's will for peace.

According to what the French diplomatic personnel relayed, what the British side said was very implicit, yet also very serious, "The Chinese army dispatched millions of troops to fight in Myanmar; what exactly is their intention?"

Yan Huiqing was a person who knew boundaries. He couldn't say to the British, 'We only dispatched 180,000 men to launch one attack, and your 150,000 men guarding field fortifications collapsed.' If he revealed the bottom line like this, let alone continuing as Foreign Minister, it would be hard to say whether Yan Huiqing himself would be sentenced to prison.

This great victory might cause some unnecessary influence on the negotiations, which made Yan Huiqing feel very uncomfortable. However, Yan Huiqing felt that matters would ultimately return to peace talks, so he prepared to adapt to the situation.

In the negotiation venue, both sides were very cautious and used words carefully. As the negotiations proceeded, Yan Huiqing felt that the British side seemed to have a lot of sincerity. Negotiation sincerity between countries is absolutely not about burning yellow paper, beheading a chicken, and swearing brotherhood, but about carefully figuring out the other party's thoughts. This kind of communication was serious, detailed, and also very tiring.

By the afternoon, both sides felt they should take a break and talk again tomorrow. The French side struck while the iron was hot and organized a garden tour, visiting the garden of a wealthy French merchant's estate in Saigon. Not only were there Chinese, British, and French diplomatic personnel on the tour, but many French merchants also came seeking contact with the Chinese side.

As the most centralized country in Europe, French merchants understood the relationship between government and business under a centralized system very well, which made the communication between French merchants and the economic personnel in the Chinese delegation very relaxed.

The more the two sides talked, the warmer it got, and the topic turned to the issue of 'Franc devaluation'. France lost a huge population in the Great War in Europe, but because it recovered Alsace and Lorraine and could utilize a portion of German coal resources, plus large amounts of German reparations, the French economy developed very well. Especially after the French government devalued the Franc, French industrial products became very competitive in the international market. French merchants already believed that China was a huge market, and after the establishment of Sino-French diplomatic relations, they naturally wanted to obtain more market share.

"Will the gold and silver standard adopted by China change? We hope China will also adopt the gold standard," a representative of French merchants put forward his own view.

A comrade from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce shook his head, "We believe that the gold and silver standard is unfavorable for the economy. The development of industrial products is a process of exponential growth. Gold and silver do indeed grow every year, but the growth rate falls far behind the growth of industrial products. This is where the problem of the gold and silver standard lies. It is too unfavorable for industrial development."

Some among the French merchants were very interested, but the most interested were actually the French diplomatic personnel. Such a statement undoubtedly represented the view of certain people in the Chinese government. Right now it might just be a view, but as the status of people holding this view changed, some views might become reality. So a French diplomat asked: "Then what kind of monetary policy do you think can reverse such a situation?"

The Chinese personnel answered readily: "We believe that if gold and silver are treated as a commodity, a fiat currency detached from the gold standard is more suitable for industrial development than the gold and silver standard."

French merchants were quite cold towards this view full of risk. What commercial behavior cared about most was risk. Under the gold and silver standard, because the price changes of silver were relatively drastic, merchants already faced exchange risks. Although the gold standard had problems, gold production was low and the price was stable, which could avoid risks to the maximum extent.

As for a pure fiat currency, its value would inevitably fluctuate with changes in the economy. Merchants doing international trade would all experience quite long payment periods. Within the payment period, the value of a certain pure fiat currency might experience huge fluctuations. It was very likely that encountering one big fluctuation would bankrupt merchants.

Compared to merchants, French diplomatic personnel were government employees, and their views were more optimistic. If the shackles of low gold and silver production could be thrown off, commercial transactions could become active. If commercial transactions were active, the national economy would naturally be active.

So what was originally a conversation between merchants and Chinese diplomatic personnel gradually turned into a chat between the economic personnel among the diplomats of both sides, making the merchants feel that the guests had usurped the role of the hosts.

Personnel unrelated to the economy were also chatting at this time, but Li Shiguang, Director of the European Department, was ignored by almost everyone. It wasn't that people were ostracizing him; earlier, a few French girls had also come over to talk to Li Shiguang. The smell of perfume on the French girls was indeed a bit seductive, making Li Shiguang feel very vigilant. He just sat in an unmanned corner, sipping the soda in his glass somewhat boredly.

Heavy footsteps sounded. Li Shiguang turned his head to look and saw Churchill, who acted as a hardline spokesman just like him, walking over with a cocktail. Although the two didn't speak or look at each other, Churchill sat on a chair next to Li Shiguang. The two hardliners sat side by side with a distance of a little over a meter between them, their eyes looking forward.

Li Shiguang indeed wanted to say something first, he just hadn't thought of what to say. Churchill's profile flashed through his mind; this guy's academic qualifications were very average, his grades were bad, but as a noble, he went to famous schools. After graduating from military academy, he worked as a reporter and did quite well. So starting with Churchill's school was probably meaningless. If starting with the weather that the British were most accustomed to, Churchill had spent a considerable amount of time overseas in his life, and he didn't know if this guy had the habit of ordinary British people talking about the weather.

Just as he was thinking, Li Shiguang heard Churchill say: "I wonder what the weather is like in the Chinese Capital right now?"

Since Churchill had opened his mouth, Li Shiguang said: "The autumn air is crisp and clear. Drying clothes inside a glass balcony, they dry thoroughly in a few hours."

"Oh? I saw on the map that China's New Capital is by the Yellow River; why would it be so dry?"

"Maybe because the Capital is located on a plain and is far from the sea, so the air circulates relatively well," Li Shiguang gave his own view.

Hearing this, Churchill felt that Li Shiguang should have received a very good education. However, the schools Li Shiguang attended were all built after He Rui arrived in the Northeast, completely lacking historical heritage, so there was no way to evaluate them.

Drinking another glass of wine, Churchill asked: "Would Chinese people like the climate of India?"

Besides knowing Churchill's academic qualifications, Li Shiguang had also seen the evaluation of Churchill: 'A stubborn imperialist who firmly believes Britain should remain in the Victorian era forever'. The nature of imperialists is insatiable greed and giving an inch to take a mile. Hearing Churchill want to implicitly ask whether China wanted to seize India again, Li Shiguang was even more certain that the Foreign Ministry's evaluation of Churchill was not wrong.

"We Chinese people like India because famous monks and travelers in Chinese history have been to India. At that time, India still had a glorious Buddhist civilization, and we brought back scriptures from India. Unfortunately, now India's history and Buddhist culture can only be seen in China."

Hearing Li Shiguang speak like this, Churchill had no way to refute. Although ancient Indian culture had once existed in the India region, the history of the India region was vague and unclear. Trying to explore Indian history through Indian mythology was not far in difficulty from studying ancient Greek history relying on the *Homeric Epics*.

The most important figure in the field of Indian archaeology and the process of historical reconstruction was Alexander Cunningham of the British Raj period. As a Briton, he was fascinated by Indian history and thus served as the first Director of the Archaeological Survey of India. In the 1830s, Cunningham conducted archaeological excavations in India but never had any major gains until he obtained the English translation of the *Great Tang Records on the Western Regions*; only then was the history of ancient India uncovered bit by bit.

After obtaining the *Great Tang Records on the Western Regions*, Cunningham read it countless times. In the following twenty-five years, based on Xuanzang's records, he successively excavated the place where the Buddha first attained enlightenment—Sarnath; Bodh Gaya where Shakyamuni became a Buddha; the site of the Buddhist holy land Nalanda Temple, and other important historical relics of ancient India. He wrote in his diary: "Every night before sleeping, I read the Chinese people's *Great Tang Records on the Western Regions*. Xuanzang's records of that famous Bodhi tree and the surrounding Buddha statues and temples are very detailed. We soon found a large number of ruins; the descriptions in the book match the discovery results very well."

Just as Li Shiguang spoke confidently, although the *Great Tang Records on the Western Regions* was a Chinese document, it was the most reliable research material for Indian history. Added with the documents of other Chinese monks and travelers, only then was Indian history illuminated. And Indian history detached from these Chinese documents remained silent in darkness, preventing people from seeing its true face clearly.

And this was also a realistic proof that China recently always stood on the height of civilization to criticize Europe and America.

But Churchill did not care about this. He asked in a teasing tone: "Then do present-day Chinese people have an interest in writing Indian history?"

Li Shiguang turned his head, "Mr. Churchill. Every country has its own hardliners; this is inevitable and beyond reproach. I believe that hardliners just have a more intense love for their country. If intensity exceeds the limit, it turns into paranoia. Paranoia will make conflicts continue more violently, causing more tragedies. What do you think?"

Churchill had given birth to uneasiness after the Battle of Siliguri. He suspected that China very likely wanted to seize more land while taking advantage of the peace talks, in order to get more chips. Of course, Churchill was also a bit worried that since China had committed nearly a million troops in the Battle of Siliguri, they would very likely want more. If China really did this, Churchill could only choose to firmly fight China to the end.

Now hearing Li Shiguang's answer, Churchill felt Li Shiguang was using the advantage China had now obtained to ask for a price, wanting Britain to make peace as soon as possible. Seeing such an attitude of peace made Churchill feel a kind of humiliation. The chief culprit causing this humiliation was the British Army, especially the British Indian Army.

Back then, Britain did not really plan to conquer the entire Myanmar region; it was entirely because the fighting went too smoothly, and victory was obtained easily. They just went with the flow and possessed the entire Myanmar.

If a war similar to the Battle of Siliguri broke out between China and Britain several times in the future, presumably the 'Chinese hardliners' Li Shiguang spoke of would also be itching for action, wanting more.