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Text Chapter 754: Fighting for Iran

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    The marble floor is illuminated, and the crystal ceiling above the head emits a soft yellow light. Reflected by the colorful glazed tiles on the dome, the entire palace is decorated with splendor and brilliance.  The dozens of square meters of pure handmade Persian carpet spread in the center of the hall and the beautiful palace decoration made Gu Yuwen secretly speechless when he came to Persia for the first time.

    As a presidential adviser, he visited Iran with Gu Weijun, along with Ma Kui and Lieutenant General Bai Chongxi, who had served as a military attach¨¦ in Iran.  On the surface, this trip is for the Gulf Oil Company's oil exploration agreement, but as the world situation becomes tense, countries are desperately trying to choose more allies.  Iran is adjacent to Afghanistan and is also one of the most important countries in the Persian Gulf region. Therefore, after gaining Saudi Arabia as an alliance, Yang Qiu began to pay special attention to relations with Iran.

    Helping Saudi Arabia become independent and get rid of its colonial status, providing an oil agreement worth 6 billion yuan, training and establishing Saudi defense in the Persian Gulf region, etc., have deeply affected the Arab world that is bent on getting rid of colonial independence.  Therefore, Reza Khan paid special attention to Gu Weijun's visit. He not only invited famous people in Iran to welcome him, but also personally went to the airport to pick him up at the Rose Palace.

    In order to entertain Gu Weijun and his entourage, Reza Khan bought several Ming and Qing paintings and porcelain furnishings from nowhere and placed them in the palace. He also specially invited Chinese chefs from Saudi Arabia to make the palace and dinner full of Chinese elements.  The dinner was grand. On the long big table, guests were arranged on both sides. In the center, there were golden barbecues, various seafood, fruits, and numerous desserts. They even ignored Islamic customs and specially prepared them for the guests.  Had fruit wine.  "Mr. Minister, are you satisfied with tonight's dishes? Pahlavi, go ask Mr. Minister to try our Caspian Sea caviar." At the dinner table, Reza Khan was particularly enthusiastic.

    After hearing the order, he was seventeen or eighteen years old and handsome.  Pahlavi, who was sitting next to him and was a bit indifferent, immediately stood up and followed his father's instructions to personally spoon the famous Caspian Sea caviar to the guests with a small silver spoon.  The sight of the prince personally acting as a waiter made the Iranian generals and internal affairs officials who attended the dinner look astonished. Even Gu Weijun quickly stood up to thank him, secretly guessing the meaning behind this enthusiasm.

    There is a reason why Reza Khan did this. After the war between China and the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, Iran was the first to bear the brunt. Not only did the Soviet Union strengthen its military deployment on the Soviet-Iranian border, but the United Kingdom also increased its troops stationed in Basra.  A cruiser was also deployed in the Gulf to prevent the war from spreading to Iran.  In this case, Reza Khan was particularly worried about Iran's independence.

    "Thank you, Your Highness." Gu Weijun glanced at Pahlavi a few more times. After thanking him, he saw that he had almost eaten. He wiped his hands with a napkin and talked about the oil agreement: "Your Majesty, the demand for oil in our country and Asia is growing rapidly.  Our country alone needs to consume 280 million barrels of oil a year, and the entire Asia consumes 400 million barrels of oil. Therefore, our country's Gulf Oil Company has been committed to developing oil resources in the Persian Gulf region to make up for the growing oil consumption in our country and Asia.  They recently hope to obtain oil exploration and mining rights in five areas, including the Azadegan region in southern Khuzestan Province of your country"

    280 million barrels is 40 million tons. If the highly confidential Sartu Oil Field is not included, China's current domestic oil production is not enough.  So the whole world knows that China is desperately increasing oil extraction in Sumatra and Saudi Arabia in order to cope with the possible outbreak of war.  Reza Khan certainly wants China to explore and exploit Iranian oil.  Doing so could not only win over China to balance the Anglo-Soviet penetration of Iran, but also increase national fiscal revenue.

    You must know that after the economic crisis began, oil consumption in all countries in the world dropped sharply, except for China.  The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company in northwest Iran extracted only 4.3 million tons last year, and its profits fell by 36%.  Even more shameless!  They paid only 360,000 pounds in mining fees to the Iranian government, a 76% decrease year-on-year!  So he had already planned this in his mind and was ready to agree to it.  But he is not an ordinary person. He deliberately said: "Mr. Minister, Germany also sent a special envoy last month, hoping to obtain mining rights. You know, we in Iran are a weak country, but Germany is very strong, so  "

    Everyone knows that Germany is accelerating its penetration into Iran and the Persian Gulf. Over the years, Reza Khan has also used China and Germany to continuously balance the power of Britain, France and the Soviet Union. The most obvious example is the two Royal Guards Divisions stationed in Tehran, one with all German weapons.  , and one is all in the machine.  From this detail, we can see Iran's intention to use external forces to ensure the stability of the regime.  However, although Germany has great penetration, it has never heard that they want to exploit oil in Iran.  We must know that with the current relationship between Britain, France and Germany, as long as Germany has the slightest sign of exploiting Persian Gulf oil, it will definitely obstruct it in every possible way.  Gu Weijun couldn't help but glance at Ma Kui, who thought about it and said: "Your Majesty the King, you should know how amazing our company's investment in Saudi Arabia is. We are not only committed to extracting oil, but we are also willing to help the countries that sell oil to develop economy and education.  So???Hope you can give us priority.  "

    Who doesn¡¯t know that China Gulf Oil Company is the current oil overlord of the Persian Gulf?  It has an annual output of 50 million barrels of crude oil and 86 oil tankers of various types. In addition to providing oil to China, it also exports to Europe and the Americas.  So Magui's words immediately made Reza Khan and officials feel itchy.  To be honest, which country and force in the Gulf region today does not envy the Saudi family?  It took less than ten years to go from being a British vassal to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to becoming the richest and most advanced country in the Persian Gulf region.  And the one that has brought about such big changes is China!  Of course, they also knew that the Saudi model could not be copied because China at that time urgently needed to establish a foothold in the Persian Gulf, so it offered a sky-high price of 6 billion yuan.

    Gu Weijun saw that he was a little moved and continued: "Your Majesty, on the way here, I have learned about the situation of our country's Gulf Company in detail. They are willing to invest 200 million yuan to buy the exploration rights. If oil can be discovered, then they are willing to continue  What you do in Saudi Arabia is sign a sixty-year contract and give 40 percent of it to you and the Iranian government."

    When the people around heard this quotation, they almost jumped up.  Two hundred million yuan is equivalent to one hundred million U.S. dollars. This fee is equivalent to making money in vain.  After the oil is discovered, the Iranian government can obtain 40% of the shares without spending a penny. Based on the current price of 3.5 yuan per barrel of oil in the Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Iran will receive 1.4 yuan for each barrel of oil.  , if five million tons (35 million barrels) can be mined every year, it will be 49 million yuan!  This is more than thirteen times the extraction fee paid by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company.

    Even Pahlavi found this offer very attractive.  He stared directly at his father.  But Reza Khan had no expression on his face. On the contrary, he frowned slightly.  Although he really wanted to get this contract, the recent Sino-Soviet war gave him some hesitation, especially now that Iran has become the front line of competition and confrontation between China, the Soviet Union, Britain and Germany. How to ensure Iran's independent status and ensure the country's independence in this competition  Safety from being violated is his biggest concern at the moment.  Thinking of this, he couldn't help but look at Bai Chongxi next to Gu Weijun.

    ?Obviously, he hopes to get a safety guarantee!

    Before the founding of Saudi Arabia, Bai Chongxi served as military attache in T¨¹rkiye and Iran.  Reza Khan also contributed to the establishment of the Pahlavi Dynasty and served as an instructor of the Iranian Royal Guards Division.  When he left office during the Saudi crisis, Reza Khan gave him a golden Koran as a thank you.  So I saw that my old friend was here this time and asked: "General Bai, thank you for taking my general to observe the military operations in Afghanistan. I was very surprised by this war, especially the combat capabilities displayed by your army."  The generals came back and said to me, you used some advanced weapons this time, could you tell me a little bit about it? You know best. Our current situation in Iran is very bad."

    Before coming, the General Staff had guessed that Reza Khan would take advantage of the oil contract to demand military guarantees and support. After all, he had always wanted to truly get rid of the interference of Britain and the Soviet Union, so he would actively approach China.  He also held Germany back in an attempt to achieve his goal.  A year ago, Bai Chongxi would not have dared to speak out loud, but as the world situation suddenly changed and Su De approached, Yang Qiu had already made a proactive strategy to deal with it.  Even the plan to garrison the Persian Gulf was brought to the General Staff.  So after taking a look at Gu Weijun, he said: "His Majesty the King can rest assured that you and Iran are our country's most important partners. We will not let anyone threaten your country's independent policy! The current world situation is very complicated, but I might as well  Let me tell you, the Soviets have secretly contacted Germany many times, and it may not take long before you can see a large number of German weapons appearing in Afghanistan and even in the northwest of our country"

    "The Soviet Union and Germany have formed an alliance?!" Motolov's arrival in Berlin is not a secret to big countries like China and Britain, but to a country like Iran that cannot even leave the Persian Gulf, it is a bolt from the blue!  Soviet-German alliance?  What is this concept?  The Soviets have always been eyeing Iran and have long wanted to expel British forces and use Iran as a bridgehead for exporting gcism.  If Reza Khan hadn't been clever in his early years and took advantage of the internal strife in the Soviet Union to sign the "Soviet-Iran Peace Treaty" when it was unable to communicate with the outside world, perhaps Iran would have been destroyed long ago!  Therefore, he still dares not to officially fall out with the United Kingdom, nor does he dare to offend the Soviet Union. He deliberately woos Germany when China already exists, just to maintain a balance.

    But the news of the Soviet-German alliance overturned everything!  So far, there are more than 5,000 German personnel of various types in Iran!  Going deep into various industries in Iran, if the Soviet Union and Germany formed an alliance, wouldn't Iran be equivalent to wearing the emperor's new clothes in front of the Soviet Union?

    Reza Khan suddenly broke into a cold sweat.

    But he still didn¡¯t believe it. How could the Soviet Union form an alliance with Germany?  Didn't they quarrel fiercely before?  Bai Chongxi knew that it was impossible to convince Reza Khan with just two sentences, but he only knew the basics of this matter and didn't know how to answer it for a while.  Gu Weijun knew the inside story relatively well, and also knew that Germany's arms sales were a foregone conclusion. He took over the conversation and began to explain.Ming Ming looked calm and calm: "Your Majesty the King, I can't explain too much. It's better to wait until the German planes appear in the hands of the Soviet army in Afghanistan, and you will make the same decision."

    joke!  If German planes appear in the hands of the Soviets in Afghanistan, it will be too late to make a decision!  Even if Reza Khan didn't believe it, he wouldn't bet on it.  What's more, the officials and generals around were also whispered by this big news, including many of the officers who had previously clamored for Liande.  Seeing that the time was ripe, Gu Weijun put down his cup and promised: "Mr. President knows that you have always been committed to the policy of neutrality, so he does not want to interfere with your governance. However, the current security situation in Iran is very bad, so he said that if you are willing to sign  Oil agreement, we will immediately and unconditionally sell you 200 tanks and 86 fighter jets at half priceall of which are new equipment that has been tested in Afghanistan, and we will build a railway from Tehran to Kashgar in our country at the appropriate time. In addition, our country  The "Qingdao Agreement" signed with the United Kingdom stipulates that our country has free economic rights in the Persian Gulf and other Arab regions, and also has the right to protect oil security! If our country's oil investment in the Persian Gulf region faces threats, the British government cannot provide protection  Under such circumstances, our country will automatically have the right to use all diplomatic and armed forces to protect oil security!"

    Reza Khan¡¯s eyes suddenly lit up.  Gu Weijun's meaning is obvious. Although China will not intervene in the Persian Gulf at present, if the United Kingdom cannot fulfill the "Qingdao Treaty" to protect China's oil security in the Arab world, the Chinese National Defense Force will send troops to the Persian Gulf!

    But the problem is that China is too far away from the Persian Gulf. Although the Chinese National Defense Forces are only one step away from the important town of Herat on the border of Afghanistan and Iran, the terrain of Afghanistan limits the speed and scale of military operations.

    In the Rose Palace, his breathing suddenly became rapid, and Reza Khan's expression became solemn for the first time.

    Will he agree?

    Gu Weijun, Bai Chongxi and others were all sweating. Iran is so important!

    (To be continued.)
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