Chapter 357: The German Envoy (5)

Heinrich thought about it for a while, but still agreed to the proposition of the traverser, first, the current situation is stronger than people, and the overseas Chinese have the drawings of the three sets of warships in their hands, which is exactly what Germany needs most, but Germany has no real cards to play. Pen fun and pavilion www.biquge.info

In addition, according to the plan of the traverser, there is actually a great possibility of success, because Heinrich knows that among the Eight-Nation Alliance, there are indeed a few countries that do not want to continue this war and advocate a complete end to this war, such as France, the United States, Japan, and two soy sauce countries, Italy and Austria-Hungary, so if Germany takes the lead, and 3-4 countries in Lalong advocate stopping the war together, it is not impossible to even disintegrate the Eight-Nation Alliance.

After the conditions for the delivery of the drawings were settled, and the German demand that Germany must clearly withdraw from the Eight-Nation Alliance, the next natural step was to deal with the prisoners of war with Germany and the German assets in Qingdao. At present, the German prisoners of the traverser have reached more than 8,000 people, accounting for more than half of the total number of prisoners captured by the traverser of the Eight-Nation Alliance, and there are more than 10 general-level officers, and at the same time, the traverser has also captured a large number of German ships, in addition to more than 1,200 German citizens in Qingdao, as well as a large number of German assets.

Now that the traverser and Germany have decided to cooperate, what to do with these personnel, materials, and assets also needs to negotiate a mutually satisfactory result, and of course, there will be a fierce debate.

However, Heinrich also knew that it was unrealistic to want overseas Chinese to unconditionally return personnel, materials, and assets to Germany, after all, the relationship between Germany and overseas Chinese has not been good enough to that extent, and there is no reason for overseas Chinese to spit out the meat they eat in their mouths, so they only want to release the German prisoners unconditionally, and the rest can be ignored. After all, the captives are the big ones, and if, according to European practice, it is Ann who ransomes these prisoners with money after the war, it will be a huge amount of money. And the German citizens of Qingdao, Heinrich believed that the overseas Chinese would not embarrass them, and as for assets and materials, they could only give up3.

However, Qin Zheng clearly rejected Heinrich's request, insisting that Germany must redeem the prisoners with money, and the ships captured by the traverser will not be returned, on the grounds that this is different from the cooperation between the two sides and cannot be confused. However, Qin Zheng also proposed that Germany could not pay cash, but use machinery and equipment, industrial products, and even patented technology to offset the cost of prisoner redemption.

At the same time, Qin Zheng also made some goodwill concessions to Germany:

The first was to unconditionally release all the officers of the rank of general among the German captives, without counting the cost of their ransom;

The second is that none of the German citizens in Tsingtao are taken prisoner, and may voluntarily choose to leave or stay, with the traveler protecting his private property, except, of course, property and land ownership;

The third is to classify the assets of Germany in Qingdao, and the three most important factories of Qingdao Shipyard, Qingdao Arsenal, and Sifang Locomotive Factory, as well as Aidao Academy, are all owned by the crossing group, and among the other assets, the factories belonging to the manufacturing industry are operated by the two parties as joint ventures, with the traverser accounting for 60% and Germany accounting for 40%, while the service and public welfare assets are distributed according to 60% of Germany and 40% of the traverser, and the financial assets, as well as the Prince Heinrich Hotel, A few industries, such as the Sea Soldier Club, were completely returned to Germany and could continue to operate in Qingdao, but they needed to respect the laws of the traverser;

Fourth, the Jiaoji railway project can be completed by a joint venture between the two parties and operated together, but the controlling stake is on the side of the traverser, accounting for 51% of the shares, and the German side only has the right to operate, accounting for 49% of the shares, but the mining rights along the 30-kilometer range on both sides of the Jiaoji railway obtained by Germany have been cancelled.

However, Qin Zheng also put forward two conditions, one is that the factories that have not yet been completed, and the factories that the traverser requires to increase functional equipment, the German side should provide technical support, and the cost should be invested in proportion to the capital control of both sides, of course, it can also be used to offset the ransom of prisoners; second, Germany should help the traverser, repair the captured or salvaged warships, and provide support for technology, equipment, and accessories.

Heinrich thought about it for a long time, and finally agreed to the request of the traverser, according to the conditions proposed by Qin Zheng, it was actually quite beneficial to Germany, although it was still necessary to pay the cost of ransom prisoners, but it could be discounted with machinery and equipment, industrial products, and patented technology, which was good news for German industry and commerce, because machinery and equipment are not a one-shot deal, as well as the assembly, commissioning, personnel training, and daily maintenance of the machine, all require a large amount of costs, as well as later maintenance, Replacement of parts, as well as upgrading, it can be said that the whole life cost of machinery and equipment is a long-term process, not just buy machinery and equipment. Even if Germany spends money now, there is still a good chance of making a profit in the future.

When he was in Shanghai, Heinrich also knew that overseas Chinese had engaged in a tender for the purchase of machinery and equipment in Tianjin, ordered a large amount of machinery and equipment from France and the United States, and even signed a contract with the United States to build a shipyard. Although other countries have also won some small orders in this tender, it can only be regarded as better than nothing. On the one hand, Heinrich was surprised that overseas Chinese had such business acumen, and on the other hand, he also understood that overseas Chinese did need a large amount of machinery and equipment, and Germany believed that its own country's machinery and equipment and industrial products were much stronger than those of France and the United States, and under the same conditions, it was very competitive. If we can take this opportunity to allow overseas Chinese to use German machinery and equipment and industrial products on a large scale, it will not only promote Germany's economic development, but also allow German products to seize the market in the Far East. Therefore, it is much better to discount machinery and equipment, industrial products, and patented technologies than to pay for the German prisoners directly.

At the same time, Germany can also recover part of the assets of Jindao, so that Germany's investment in Qingdao is not completely lost, and it can be regarded as preserving part of Germany's interests, which also makes Heinrich very satisfied, and his good impression of the traverser is also a little more.

As for the several German warships captured by the traverser, Heinrich and Tirpitz did not have much objection, although the German Far East Fleet was completely wiped out this time, but the actual losses caused to the German Navy were not very large, because the German Far East Fleet was basically some old ships. The composition of old ships, such as the four Saxony-class ironclad ships, are all old warships 25 years ago, which have long been outdated, and have been classified as second-tier warships in the German capital, but now the German Navy has just begun to develop, and the number of cutting-edge warships is not much, so that this type of old warship continues to exert residual heat; and the age of the three Brandenburg-class battleships is less than 10 years, and it is the year of fighting, but its design idea is still stuck in the era of coastal defense ironclads 20 years ago; only the Bismarck armored cruiser is Germany's new warship, but this type of design is not a successful armored cruiser, and Germany only built one。

At present, the five Frederick III-class battleships built in Germany have all been launched and outfitted, and two have been officially put into service; the five Wichelsbach-class battleships of the Type 3 have all been built and two have been launched and outfitted; and the armored cruisers have one Prince Heinrich class and two Prince Albert class battleships, and these warships are the future backbone of the German Navy.

However, Tirpitz also proposed that he hoped to carry out naval technical exchanges and cooperation with the traverser, and asked the traverser to help the design and construction of German warships, and Qin Zheng also agreed very happily.

The last point is that Qin Zheng proposed that the traverser and Germany propose extensive cooperative relations, and after the end of the war, the two sides can set up offices and send diplomatic personnel to each other, which are equivalent to consulates, and can carry out extensive cooperation and exchanges in military, science and technology, economy, and culture. Of course, there is no limit to the way of cooperation between the club, and the two parties will negotiate with the club. Moreover, the traverser also welcomes German enterprises to invest and operate in Qingdao, Tianjin and other places, and promises to give certain preferential policies to German enterprises.

Neither Heinrich nor Tirpitz disagreed with this, because the scope of the agreement was very broad, it was a conceptual agreement, and it would not hurt Germany if taken literally, and Germany would also take the opportunity to expand its commercial interests in China.

Although Germany occupied Qingdao in the past and had absolute domination, Qingdao was an area that had not yet been opened up after all, and Germany needed a lot of infrastructure investment and a large amount of early investment, and now overseas Chinese took over Qingdao, and Germany was a foreign invader after all, and it was very inconvenient to act and do things in Qingdao, such as the construction of the Jiaoji Railway has been destroyed by the Chinese people many times. The local security management is responsible for the overseas Chinese, and the German side is also happy to let go of it, and can set up factories and operate wholeheartedly, which is a good thing from this corner.

In the end, a total of 6 major articles and 14 small articles were drafted, and the two sides carefully checked the words and sentences of each draft article Chinese the German comparison, and it was not until about 3 o'clock in the afternoon that the draft was finalized.

However, this is only a draft, although Qin Zheng and Heinrich have full negotiating powers, but they do not have the final decision, Qin Zheng has to send the draft to Tianjin, confirmed by the Executive Committee, and Heinrich has to send the final draft back to China, and Wilhelm II will make the final decision. Therefore, immediately after the adjournment of the meeting, the two sides joined forces with their own sides.

In contrast, Qin Zheng's contact with Tianjin was much more convenient, because he could communicate with Tianjin directly through the radio station on the Kunming ship, and the content of the draft was basically expected by the traverser, so it only took more than an hour of communication between the two sides for the Tianjin Executive Committee to approve the terms of the draft.

Heinrich was much more troublesome, he could only send the contents of the draft back to China by telegram, and he also had to explain to China the process of the formation of the draft, as well as Heinrich and Tirpitz's interpretation of the draft, which clauses were beneficial to Germany, and which clauses were the other party's refusal to make concessions, and those clauses could be fought for again, the overall interests were weighed, and so on. Because Wilhelm II, after receiving the telegram, would certainly gather the ministers to discuss the interests of the draft, the first-hand knowledge of the on-site negotiations would be an extremely important reference for domestic discussions.

However, as a result, the telegrams sent back to China were extremely long, and it took the telegraph personnel more than three hours to send all the messages.