In the era without nuclear weapons, the ultimate big killer, the capital ships of the navy were the nuclear weapons of that time. When the Washington Conference was convened, all countries genuinely wanted to end war, at least the wars between major powers. The World War I that just ended left overly tragic memories for the world. In just four or five years, war plus the flu killed nearly 100 million people in Europe and America. Unless one was a guy determined to destroy the world, no one wanted such a situation to happen again.

Therefore, when Britain and Japan revealed that China had 5.5 million active military personnel, this terrifying number frightened other countries enough. The total population of men, women, old and young in Belgium did not add up to 5.5 million, and the populations of the Netherlands and Portugal were also very limited. As for Britain, France, and Japan, 5.5 million people equaled one-tenth of their population. China's population was five times that of the United States, and the United States also felt afraid from the bottom of its heart hearing the number of China's 5.5 million strong army.

For China, per capita is always a big killer. With a population of 600 million, China's military expenditure and even the proportion of soldiers in the total population were much lower than those of Britain, France, and Japan. Taking France as an example, France had a population of 40 million and an army of 800,000. The proportion of military service was as high as 2%. China's was less than 1%. Moreover, according to Wang Bin, the actual number of China's field army was less than 1.2 million, accounting for 0.2% of China's population. France's military service proportion was 10 times that of China.

The proportion of the army in the population and the proportion of military expenditure in national income of all major industrial countries were much higher than China's. Wang Bin used this data to question other countries about who was truly militaristic. This group mockery was quite big, so much so that countries simply refused to discuss this issue with Wang Bin.

However, Wang Bin was not here to spoil the situation. He concluded gently: "Our country's army is not so much an army as a group of industrial workers with professional skills. China's cultural and educational level is low, so production can only be organized in the mode of an army. Therefore, the armies of various countries are professional armies, while our Chinese army is a militia with conscripts as the main body. Most of the work in the army is labor and study. After retiring and passing through employment guidance, soldiers can become very good ordinary workers. This army exists to defend peace, not to start a war."

Wang Bin spoke with confidence and justice because this was China's reality. But the representatives of various countries listened disapprovingly. In their view, whether the 5.5 million Chinese troops defend peace or start a war, isn't it just an order from the People's Party alone? However, the People's Party's army formation mode explained a doubt of foreign countries: how exactly did China support so many troops? Using the army like "slaves," engaging in production to support themselves when not fighting, and sending them to the battlefield as cannon fodder when fighting. This could indeed save military expenses greatly. As for why Chinese people could be so obedient, representatives of various countries simply attributed it to the "slavish nature" of Chinese people who dared not resist.

In any case, 5.5 million Chinese soldiers were 5.5 million Chinese soldiers after all. It was the Chinese government that supported this army, and it was the Chinese government that provided equipment to this army. Unless declaring war on China, countries really had no way to stop the self-construction of the Chinese Army.

Like all so-called peace conferences in this era, a few major countries decided the direction and topics of the conference. The three naval powers of the Pacific, the United States, Britain, and Japan, held a secret small meeting. Such a scale of the Chinese army made Britain and Japan's demand to maintain the Anglo-Japanese Alliance even stronger. In terms of dissolving the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, the stance of the two countries was unwavering. The United States had no way to persuade Britain and Japan either, and could only finally accept the continued existence of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance.

After all, the number of 5.5 million Chinese army troops was too impactful, and the United States was unwilling to stand on the opposite side of China in a broader multi-national security guarantee way. Everyone was hanging out internationally. Once facing such a scale of Chinese army in a war, all countries hoped that other countries would go to die, while hiding behind to pick peaches (reap benefits).

Japan not only demanded retaining the Anglo-Japanese Alliance relying on the "China threat theory," but also demanded that the naval ratio of Britain, the United States, and Japan be 10:10:7. At the same time, it demanded that China's naval tonnage should not exceed one-third of Japan's.

The US representative was sure that it was absolutely impossible for China to accept this ratio. The fact was just as the United States expected; China demanded to maintain naval capital ship tonnage at least equal to Japan. This time, it wasn't just China raising objections; France and Italy were also extremely dissatisfied with the 2.5 ratio allocated to them. They also demanded to have a ratio equal to Japan.

At this point, Britain and the United States had to make suppressing China the top priority. Wang Bin answered very briskly, "In recent decades, we have suffered so many invasions, and the enemies all came from the sea. We China must be able to defend China's security."

Both Britain and the United States were countries that participated in the Eight-Power Allied Forces 20 years ago, and they felt quite embarrassed about China's request. The US representative asked, "Then what level of security does China pursue exactly?"

"The security of free trade at sea; this is the minimum bottom line." Wang Bin brought out the set of world system advocated by Wilson.

Regardless of what kind of armaments China had, the interest China demanded was actually normal commercial trade. This hit the spot for the US representative.

Looking at the softened expression of the US representative, Wang Bin continued: "The navy issue is fundamentally a trade route protection issue. The Chinese side hopes to solve conflicts among countries within the framework of a Pacific trade agreement. I can tell you clearly that even if we get the same share as Japan, our China doesn't have that much military expenditure to build so many warships. If a peaceful trade system can be established, we can give up the naval ratio equal to Japan that we originally requested."

This was not Wang Bin boasting; the People's Party's attitude on trade was indeed consistent. China was committed to integrating into the world system and the globalized market. On this point, even the British didn't think that the Chinese representative Wang Bin was just perfunctory.

With Wang Bin's diligent lobbying, the naval limitation treaty actually turned into a Pacific trade issue among Britain, the United States, and China. This was also the true essential issue.

Britain dared to brag about anything. After making a pile of meaningless promises to China, Wang Bin finally presented China's bottom line: China accepted a ratio of 4.

"This is absolutely impossible! At most 2!" The British representative immediately rejected China's request as if he had never said any good attitude towards China.

More than a month was spent in various quarrels. Finally, regarding capital ships and aircraft carriers, China made huge concessions. China accepted the condition that the total tonnage of all warships would not exceed 300,000 tons. But Wang Bin stated, "China cannot accept restrictions on ship types. Because China has no experience in building various types of warships at all. For the same warship, other major naval powers may only need three years to build, while we may have to build for ten years. Even if the ships are built, our efficiency in using these warships and our ability to exert the combat level of these warships are far lower than the major naval countries in the world. Therefore, the above request is already the bottom line acceptable to our China. If the above request cannot be accepted, we will not sign this agreement."

"China must accept the agreement." The British representative's attitude was very firm.

Wang Bin continued with a gloomy face: "With our country's current technical level, starting to build ships from now, it will take at least 15 years to manufacture a battleship. Our country does not believe that other countries will transfer battleship technology to our country, so everyone doesn't need to say words that don't mean what they say. All countries are naval powers and definitely know technological development much better than us. Therefore, technical limitations have already strangled our necks, and we cannot accept other more restrictions."

The British and Japanese representatives were certainly unwilling to relax the suppression of China. The Sino-Japanese War and Sino-German military cooperation had proved that if 5.5 million Chinese troops attacked, both Britain and Japan would have to kneel at the places bordering China. If China possessed a powerful navy again, no one in the Western Pacific would be China's opponent.

The United States felt that adding trouble to Britain and Japan was a good thing. Anyway, the United States did not intend to cross the Pacific to fight China's 5.5 million army. Since the Anglo-Japanese Alliance could not be broken up, the United States naturally chose to cause trouble for the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. The United States expressed support for China's request. All countries knew China's shipbuilding level very well. Investing huge R&D and construction costs in the navy was enough to consume China's national defense funds. All countries were breathless from exhaustion in the shipbuilding competition, and the United States knew very well what cost shipbuilding would incur.

Facing the threat of China withdrawing from the Washington Conference, Britain also felt helpless. Containment of China had been proven unrealistic now. At least the United States, this stick stirring shit, would definitely try every means to collude with China. The British were not afraid of China's navy, which started almost from scratch. For this navy to defend China's own long coastline, it would take at least 20 years, while the term of the naval treaty was 15 years. In these 15 years, Britain was not worried about encountering challenges from the Chinese navy. In addition, containment of China would inevitably cause the interruption of Sino-British trade, and Britain still cared quite a bit about the benefits brought to Britain by Western Pacific trade.

Finally, under the mediation of the United States, the British side finally agreed to China's request.

The Japanese side naturally resolutely refused to accept China's request. If possible, Japan hoped China would have no warships at all. Japan's overly explicit performance actually aroused the aversion of other countries. The purpose of the Washington Conference was to limit navies. Even if a country like China with little navy withdrew from the conference, the real impact would be very limited. On the contrary, if Japan, a Western Pacific naval power, made a scene, it would be destruction to the world situation. Japan soon found that "public opinion" was against it, and all countries demanded Japan face the problem with a rational perspective.

Britain couldn't completely ignore Japan's feelings either. It took the lead in guaranteeing Japan that it would not provide warship construction technology to China. France and other countries were actually waiting for Japan to make trouble. The more Japan made trouble, the more excuses France and other countries would have to blackmail Britain. The United States was the host responsible for convening the meeting. If the meeting broke up, it would lose face greatly.

Finally, the United States proposed prohibiting the proliferation of warship construction technology, which was equivalent to agreeing to the British attitude in disguise. Japan had no choice but to accept this resolution.

Ultimately, the Washington Naval Treaty stipulated that the five countries of Britain, the United States, Japan, France, and Italy would build capital ships in a ratio of 10:10:7:3.5:3.5. Britain and the United States each received a quota of 500,000 tons. In addition, in the construction of aircraft carriers, the United States and Britain received a quota of 135,000 tons. Japan received a quota of 91,000 tons.

China received a quota of 300,000 tons for the total tonnage of all warships. If China wanted to build large warships, it must abide by the limitations of the Washington Treaty on capital ships. However, China could choose the types of ships to build according to its own needs, not limited by the specific number of ships.

The treaty was for 15 years and would expire in 1936.

As soon as the capital ship issue was resolved, the submarine issue was brought to the table. The British suffered from German submarines, so they firmly demanded restrictions on submarine development. The French immediately expressed opposition. Without even needing China to fan the flames in between, Britain and France launched a fierce quarrel.

The British representative said aggressively: "Britain can never allow France, which possesses an army of 800,000, to possess a first-class submarine fleet again!" The French representative countered: "If Britain is willing to cancel capital ships, then we will immediately cancel submarines."

The British representative immediately fought back: "If France, with bases all over the place, possesses a large number of submarines again, the threat to Britain may be many times greater than the threat of Germany to Britain."

The French representative retorted sarcastically: "Britain builds capital ships presumably to catch sardines? Then, why not let poor France also build a few submarines to study seabed plants?"

The Americans wanted to smooth things over, but the British and French didn't buy it at all. After a good quarrel, this matter was simply shelved completely.

After the naval treaty was signed, the Chinese representative immediately raised the issue of Lushun (Port Arthur) Port. Demanding Japan to withdraw from Lushun Port immediately. Now the Japanese representative almost wanted to lie on the ground and roll around making a scene.

Looking at the bear-like appearance of the Japanese representative, Gu Weijun just wanted to tell the Japanese representative, "Roll as far as you can!" This was what Zhang Yu said jokingly before the Chinese delegation departed. Gu Weijun always felt that he was a very passionate person, especially on diplomatic occasions; he always had a tragic generous impulse. Now this young man increasingly found that his elegance seemed to be constantly shrinking, while the impulse to curse grew day by day.

As a Doctor of Law, Gu Weijun studied various international laws intensively. However, after working with these "old revolutionaries" of the People's Party with science and engineering backgrounds for such a period, Gu Weijun realized that the essence of international law is strength. With strength, one can make laws and interpret laws from an angle beneficial to one's own side. In an era where China's strength was simply insufficient to protect itself, apart from verbal justice, China had nothing to rely on.

On the Lushun issue, the United States immediately began to fan the flames, "This is China's internal affair; we will not interfere."

The Japanese representative immediately expressed strong protest against the United States' gloating statement, "This is an international agreement; China is absolutely not allowed to undermine it unilaterally!"

Gu Weijun immediately stated, "China's sovereignty allows no violation. As a member of the Entente Powers, Japan has no reason to station troops in China. This is the essence of international agreements. If so, what is the meaning of fighting together in the same trench? The Japanese side is destroying international conventions, and China has no reason to accept such an agreement."

The quarrel lasted for several days. Japan refused to give in, and China was equally firm in its attitude. And the Washington Conference had already been held for four months, reaching March 1922. Looking at the posture of China and Japan, there were signs of declaring war on each other at the Washington Conference. The United States couldn't let such a result happen anyway. Finally, before things got out of hand, the United States smartly announced the end of the meeting, stating that any issues between two countries could be solved by negotiation between the two countries themselves.

The Washington Conference basically limited the arms race worldwide. It roughly established the dominance of the Versailles system over the entire world. The United States leaped to become a major power capable of contending with Britain, but China also rose as a force not to be ignored in the world.

Several other things also happened in 1922. After the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army marched into Tibet and approached Lhasa, the local "government" finally clearly expressed obedience to the central government. Then the People's Republic of China was formally founded and provided a new map of China to the whole world. Northern Vladivostok and the Kuril Islands occupied by Japan formally appeared in China's territory.

Under Trotsky's command, the Russian Red Army completely solved Kolchak's troops and finally recaptured about 270 tons of gold. Except for a part of the gold hidden and temporarily unfindable, about 160 tons of gold flowed into China's pockets before and after. But Trotsky was not a petty guy after all. If China had not curbed its greed, heaven knows how much of the 500 tons of gold would be left.

On December 30, 1922, the Soviet Union was formally founded. The eastern end of the World Island was completely composed of socialist countries. Such a variable overwhelmed many "international observers." No one knew where this change would lead the world.