Qin Mo said slowly: "I think such conditions are very difficult to accept in China, because these benefits you put forward can also be obtained by us and other countries to form an alliance and recapture Qingdao." ”

Li Sanjie said with a smile: "But in the matter of war, who has the absolute certainty of victory, if the war is lost, then your country will get nothing." And our cooperation with your country does not stop there, in addition, in the military field, we still have a lot of room for cooperation with your country, we have a gift to the emperor of your country, I believe that the emperor of your country will be interested. ”

Qin Mo said, "I don't know what kind of gift it is?"

Li Sanjie said: "We can provide your country with a full set of design drawings for the three types of warships: the British Majesty-class battleship, the old man-class battleship, and the Cressie-class armored cruiser. ”

Qin Mo was stunned for a moment, although he was not a soldier and was not familiar with warships, and he did not know the performance characteristics of these types of warships, but he also knew that battleships were the main ships of a country's navy, and armored cruisers were important auxiliary warships of the navy. Now Germany is building a navy that can compete with the Royal Navy and compete with Britain for control of the seas. Since it was to compete with the British, then if it was possible to get the drawings of British battleships and armored cruisers and understand the performance of British warships, of course, it would be of great help to the construction of the German Navy.

However, the drawings of any type of warship are extremely confidential documents in every country, not to mention such important types as battleships and armored cruisers, so how did these overseas Chinese get the blueprints of British warships? Could it be that they are lying to themselves, so Qin Mo said: "How did you get these drawings?"

Li Sanjie smiled: " We naturally have our channels, but we can't disclose to Mr. Consul, Mr. Consul will send back the contents of our talks today without visiting, to see the attitude of your emperor and your government, if your country is interested in these cooperation that we have proposed, then we can further negotiate, and if you have any doubts about these drawings, you can let professionals appraise them, now Marshal Wadsey of your country, and several senior officers are in Qingdao, including naval officers, we can hand over these drawings to them for review, and then let them make a professional evaluation。 ”

Qin Mo listened to it, although he felt a little gloomy, because the high-ranking officers mentioned by Li Sanjie were actually prisoners of overseas Chinese, which was of course not a glorious thing. However, Li Sanjie's suggestion is very reasonable, after all, let professionals do professional things. Moreover, if you send the contents of today's talks back to China, you will not have any loss to yourself, and it is up to China to decide how to decide. If the country is unwilling to cooperate with overseas Chinese, then forget it, and the country is interested in the cooperation projects proposed by overseas Chinese, then it is considered that you have made a contribution.

Although there are oral agreements between countries that prohibit countries from contacting and negotiating with overseas Chinese alone during the time of the negotiation and organization of a multinational coalition, Qin Moman knows in his heart that only a fool will take this kind of agreement as a matter of time, as long as it is beneficial to his own country, not to mention a verbal agreement, it is an agreement signed on paper, and the value is not much greater than that of hand paper.

So Qin Moman got up to say goodbye to Li Sanjie, and after returning to the consulate, he immediately sorted out the content of the meeting between himself and Li Sanjie just now into a document in detail, and then sent it back to China. Moreover, because of the length of the message, it took an afternoon to send it.

Two days later, Qin Moman received a reply in the name of the German Cabinet, asking Qin Moman to immediately negotiate with overseas Chinese and ask the German officers captured in Qingdao to appraise the drawings of these three types of warships as soon as possible. The telegram was accompanied by an order sent by the German General Staff to Field Marshal Waldsee, asking him to immediately organize the captured naval officers to appraise the drawings, and to write a detailed appraisal report and send it back to China for discussion at the General Staff.

After receiving the callback, Qin Moman was also a little surprised, because he didn't expect that the country would reply so quickly, and he actually sent a call back and forth in the name of the cabinet. Originally, he thought that it would take four or five days to do anything, and at most the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would call back, and the level of reply would be raised, indicating that the country attached great importance to the content of the telegram he sent. It seems that he did the right thing by reporting to China the content of the talks with Li Sanjie.

Judging from the content of the callback, it is obvious that they are interested in the drawings of warships provided by overseas Chinese, and they do not mention other economic cooperation, which shows that China still mainly attaches importance to military aspects.

Since the country showed interest, Qin Moman naturally did not dare to slack off, and immediately came to the Tianjin New Area Government Administration Building, asked to see Li Sanjie, and expressed to Li Sanjie the request of the German government, hoping that the traveler would arrange personnel to rush to Qingdao with him with the drawings as soon as possible, so that the German officers could identify the authenticity of the drawings.

Li Sanjie naturally agreed, and agreed with Qin Moman that he could arrange personnel to set off with Qin Moman tonight, rest on the ship at night, and arrive in Qingdao early tomorrow morning. Qin Moman was also very satisfied, and asked to send electricity to Qingdao, first give Qingdao a breath, and then leave and go back to the consulate to prepare for departure.

After Qin Moman left, Li Sanjie immediately reported to Xia Bohai and Xu Jichao, who were staying in Tianjin.

After listening to Li Sanjie's report, Xia Bohai also nodded and said, "Minister Li, you handled it very well, I will arrange personnel immediately, and set off for Qingdao with Qin Moman in the evening."

Li Sanjie said: "Commander, Germany is really interested in those warships." ”

Xia Bohai said with a smile: "Of course, German Emperor Wilhelm II dreamed of building a navy that could compete with Britain to compete for maritime supremacy with Britain, and these warships are currently Britain's main warships, so Germany will never give up the opportunity to get the drawings of these warships, which is also one of our trump cards, and the warship drawings we have on hand are these ships, otherwise how can we use Germany as a breakthrough to divide the Eight-Nation Alliance?"

Xu Jichao said: "So we can use the drawings of these warships to make Germany withdraw from the Eight-Nation Alliance." ”

Xia Bohai said: "It can only be said that the opportunity is very great, but now it is not an absolute thing, we still need further efforts, this time let the German officers identify the drawings, it is a very important part, because in Germany, the army has a great say, if the officer's report is interested in the drawings of these warships, of course, there is a political commissar there, I can also rest assured." In this regard, the commissar is stronger than me. ”

After discussing the affairs of Germany, everyone was busy with their own work, after all, there are more and more affairs in Tianjin now, and only Xia Bohai and Xu Jichao are in charge of the overall situation, so they are almost busy.

Xia Bohai is still in charge of the affairs of the Military Commission, so after leaving the office of the Executive Committee, Xia Bohai immediately came to the office of the Military Commission, and at this time, Wang Hailong, the captain of the Yueyang ship, the captain of the Huaihua ship, Lu Kai, the captain of the Changbaishan ship, and Xie Teng, the captain of the Taihu ship who stayed in Tianjin, were waiting for him. Now the other battalion commanders of the crossing army are all in Qingdao, and the affairs of the Military Commission are mainly responsible for these five people.

Seeing Xia Bohai come back, everyone immediately got up and saluted Xia Bohai, and after Xia Bohai returned the salute, he said, "Everyone has been waiting for a long time, everyone should sit." ”

Wang Hailong hurriedly said: "Commander, it doesn't take much time. ”

Xia Bohai said: "Time is pressing, I won't be polite, this time to recruit everyone, mainly two things, one is that we received information yesterday that Russia transferred eight warships from Vladivostok to form a fleet and prepare to enter Port Arthur." ”

Wang Hailong immediately smiled and said, "This is a deal sent to the door, you can't help but do it, commander, you won't let go of these warships." ”

Xia Bohai said: "Of course we can't let it go, this is just another opportunity for us to stand up, although our focus is now on diplomacy, but the military force can not be ignored, both hands must be hard, as long as we are stronger in the military, the more advantageous we are in the diplomatic field." Captain Wang, you will go to sea tomorrow to patrol the area around the Bohai Sea, and once you discover the whereabouts of the Russian fleet, report it immediately, and in two days the Military Commission will transfer the Kunming and Xiangyang ships back to prepare for this battle. ”

Everyone took Xia Bohai and handed over the tablet and looked through the information.

Said: "An old battleship, two large armored cruisers, two large protective cruisers, this strength is much weaker than the German fleet, and dare to sail to Lushun, is it difficult for the Russians to think that their navy is stronger than the German fleet?"

Xie Teng said with a smile: "They are not here to fight us, they are just to strengthen the defense of Port Arthur, in this era, if there is not enough intelligence support, it is difficult to block a fleet." ”

Said: "That's too." ”

Wang Hailong said: "Just these few warships, it is enough to use only the Yueyang ship and the Huaihua ship, and there is no need to transfer the Kunming ship and the Xiangyang ship back." ”

Lu Kai said: "Don't eat alone, and give some to other warships." ”

Xia Bohai said: "Now that the war in Qingdao is over, only one warship needs to be left over there, so it is a normal procedure to transfer the Kunming ship and the Xiangyang ship back, and it is not specifically for this battle." After a pause, Xia Bohai said: "The second thing is the matter of conscription, now that the area we occupy has expanded, the scale of the People's Army must be further expanded......

Before he finished his words, he heard the voice of the guard at the door: "Report." ”

Xia Bohai turned his head and said, "What's the matter?"

The guard said: "Commander, Director Xu asked you to hurry over, something happened in Qingdao." ”