The Germans have always been rigorous and conscientious in their work, and now that the overseas Chinese have been approaching the city, they cannot be delayed any longer, so after Germany received the news that Weihaiwei was occupied by overseas Chinese, the German Emperor Wilhelm II immediately recruited ministers and convened a cabinet meeting to discuss the matter of defending Qingdao.

At present, only the United States and Japan can win support, so the ministers decided after deliberation that German Chancellor Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst will send a telegram to US President William McKinley in the name of the German Cabinet, and Wilhelm II will send a telegram to Emperor Meiji in his own name。

However, the Germans were in a hurry, but the United States and Japan were not in a hurry, and they waited for three days before US President William 61 McKinley replied to Germany, saying that the Eight-Nation Coalition was a whole, and the United States and Germany should not discuss action in private, so if Germany really needed assistance, it should formally propose it to the Eight-Nation Alliance, and everyone should discuss it together. In fact, it was an elegy that rejected the demands put forward by Germany.

It turned out that at this time, the United States still pursued the Monroe Doctrine, also known as isolationism, that is, the United States only needed to guard its own one-third of an acre of land on the American continent, and the United States did not participate in Europe and Asia, and the United States did not participate in it, but only did business and trade, and made a lot of money in silence.

Although in 1898, the United States and Spain fought a war and seized colonies such as Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines from Spain, the main goal of this war was to drive Spain's power out of the Americas, so that the United States could better control Central America and the Caribbean, which was also in line with the spirit of the Monroe Doctrine, that is, the Americas were the Americas of the Americans, and the Europeans should not be involved. As a matter of fact, the trigger for the Spanish-American War was the explosion of the USS Maine, a warship sent by the United States to Cuba to protect overseas Chinese, in the port of Havana, Cuba.

Although the United States took down the Philippines after the war, it was only because of the trade needs of the United States, because the United States needed to have a foothold in the Asian region to facilitate American trade in Asia.

The United States is worried that if it does not send troops, then its interests in China will be squeezed by other countries, after all, in this era, if you want to do business, you also need to use artillery to open the way, although the United States pursues isolationism, but this truth is still understood.

However, although the United States also sent troops to the war, it did not invest many troops, only about 3,000 troops, and most of them were transferred from the Philippines, and warships also sent the battleship Oregon, the protective cruiser Newark, and the gunboat Challenge. Compared with other countries, it is not outstanding, and after the Eight-Nation Coalition captured Beijing, the Oregon left China and went back to the Philippines.

After the traverser won the battle to defend Tianjin, the United States came up with the idea of negotiating an armistice, because the United States did not have much interest in occupying China's territory and establishing colonies, and only wanted to do business and trade in China. And it is precisely this mentality that allows the United States to judge China's situation from a more objective angle.

Although the origin of this group of overseas Chinese is unknown, their strength must not be underestimated, and the Eight-Nation Coalition itself is a product of interests, but they are intriguing with each other, each with its own evil intentions, and there are many contradictions, and it is still possible to win against the decadent Qing State, but against the overseas Chinese, even if each country sends reinforcements, the victory rate may not exceed 50%. Moreover, everything that the overseas Chinese did after the occupation of Tianjin showed that although they regarded themselves as Chinese, they were by no means different from the Qing State, and they were more civilized, more open, and more understanding of the world than the Qing State.

Since it was more than half a month ago, overseas Chinese attracted investment, and the United States became the biggest winner, which also made many people in the United States think that this group of overseas Chinese should deal better with the Qing country, although they are tougher than the Qing country, but they also understand the international rules of this era better, and at the same time are willing to integrate into this era, so if the war can be ended here, the United States may be able to obtain more commercial benefits from China.

In the previous stage, the United States was in favor of negotiating with the crossers to end the war. Despite the breakdown of negotiations, the United States does not believe that the two sides are really going to war, and this is just a tactic for negotiations. Knowing that the overseas Chinese actually sent troops to capture Weihaiwei, to be honest, it really frightened the United States, and I didn't expect that this group of overseas Chinese would really dare to do it, and it would definitely be impossible for the two sides to negotiate again. However, Weihaiwei has nothing to do with the United States, and although the United States has not mentioned negotiations with overseas Chinese again, it does not advocate expanding the scale of the war, but waits to see how the situation changes.

German Prime Minister Shihlingsfister sent a telegram to US President William McKinley 61 asking him to send troops to assist Germany in defending Qingdao, but naturally the United States refused, because after all, Qingdao has nothing to do with the United States? Moreover, perhaps after the overseas Chinese occupy Qingdao, the United States may still be able to find some business opportunities from it. Therefore, President McKinley replied that Prime Minister Chillingsfest rejected Germany's request on the grounds that the Eight-Nation Coalition was a whole.

Wilhelm II didn't understand it at first, and stupidly asked Prime Minister Shillingsfest if he wanted to ask the Eight-Nation Coalition to help Germany defend Qingdao according to the United States. After all, Prime Minister Chillingsfirst has been a long-term sophistication, and of course he is not comparable to a hairy kid like Wilhelm II, and he can see at a glance the intentions of the United States, but he is not good at speaking out, which hurts the emperor's self-esteem, so he only asks the emperor, where is the commander-in-chief of the Eight-Nation Alliance? And where is the headquarters of the Eight-Nation Alliance?

After listening to the old prime minister's question, Wilhelm II came to his senses: Isn't the headquarters of the Eight-Nation Coalition Army in Beijing now? And the commander-in-chief of the Eight-Nation Alliance, Field Marshal Wadesi, is still in Qingdao, and the Eight-Nation Allied Forces are still capable of taking care of Qingdao's affairs. Isn't the United States clearly cheating on Germany?

Although Wilhelm II was angry, he also had nothing to do with the United States, after all, it was still separated by the Atlantic. And the United States cannot be relied on, so it can only count on Japan. And just two days later, Japan's Meiji Emperor also replied to Wilhelm II, very euphemistically saying that Japan is very willing to help Germany, but the stake in sending troops is very important, and he needs to seriously discuss with the minister before he can make a decision, and at the same time describes a large number of Japan's predicaments, such as Russia squeezing Japan's space in northeast China, and Japan's domestic economy is unorganized, the treasury is empty, and so on.

This time, there is no need to be reminded by the old prime minister, Wilhelm II also understands the meaning of little Japan, which is crying to himself for poverty, of course, this is better than the Americans, indicating that the Japanese can still talk about it. So Wilhelm II immediately summoned his ministers to discuss what benefits should be given to the Japanese.

In fact, if you really want to talk about it, Germany and Japan still have a little bit of a small relationship, after the First Sino-Japanese War five years ago, Germany, together with Russia and France, forced Japan to abandon China's Liaodong Peninsula. In Japan at that time, there was an anti-Russian, anti-German, and anti-French turmoil.

In 1898, Japan ordered a large armored cruiser Yakumo from Germany, which was completed in June this year.

In addition, Japan has always been worried that Russian expansion in Northeast China will threaten Japan's interests, which is partly due to Russia's expansionist ambitions, and on the other hand, Germany's instigation is also an important reason.

It turned out that after the alliance between Russia and France was formed, it caused great strategic pressure on Germany, so Germany tried every means to break up the alliance between Russia and France, which was of course the best result, but if it could not achieve this step, it should also try its best to direct Russia's attention to the east in order to reduce the pressure on itself.

However, despite the alliance between Russia and France, Wilhelm II and the Russian Tsar Nicholas II were cousins, and the two emperors had a good friendship when they were young, and the two were called by the nicknames of Winnie and Nick in private, because Wilhelm II was older and had a certain influence on Nicholas II, so Wilhelm II also believed that Germany could play a considerable role in mediating relations between Japan and Russia, and believed that this role was attractive to Japan.

In addition, Germany's science and technology and industrial technology are second to none in this era, and although Japan has gone through more than 30 years of the Meiji Restoration, and won the First Sino-Japanese War, its national strength has made great progress, but after all, the foundation is too weak, the foundation is too thin, and the technical ability is weak, so it is urgent to introduce European technology and shorten its own development speed.

Wilhelm II consulted with his ministers for a long time, and finally summed up six or seven terms of interest that could be exchanged in the book, and Wilhelm II was also very satisfied, believing that these conditions of interest were attractive enough to Japan, as long as three or four of them were selected, it would be enough to impress Japan, and as long as Japan sent troops to reinforce Qingdao, then the probability of holding Qingdao would be much greater.

The next question was how to negotiate with Japan, whether Wilhelm II would have direct contact with Emperor Meiji, or whether the two governments would communicate with each other. But at this moment, the door of the conference room was suddenly pushed open, and a guard hurriedly came in and said, "Your Majesty, I have just received a telegram from the Chinese side that the overseas Chinese have launched an attack on Qingdao. ”

Wilhelm II was stunned for a moment, and immediately said to Prime Minister Chillingsfest: "Quick, contact Japan immediately." ”