After the meeting, Xu Jichao and his party were taken to a lounge and waited for the dinner to begin.

This lounge is more than 50 square meters, and is very elegantly furnished, with dark red wool carpets on the floor, flowing yarn curtains on the walls, colorful paintings on the roof, pillars and corners on the walls, baroque decorative moldings, 4 sets of modular sofas in the four corners of the room, pots and snacks on the coffee table, books and newspapers on the shelves on the walls, as well as playing cards and chess, which can be used to pass the time for resting people.

However, most of the members of the mission could not read German, and they could not play chess, and they could play poker, but on this occasion, it was not suitable to play, so they were divided into groups of 2 or 3, sat down to chat, and Li Sanjie said: "Didn't you say that Wilhelm II was a very arrogant person? ”

Xu Jichao said: "He is polite to us, firstly, because Germany now has a request for us and wants to establish a partnership with us; second, it is because we rely on the confidence of our army on the battlefield, if we do not win the war in the Far East, we see if the Germans will be so polite to us." This is the same as in the old time and space, and it was the Korean War that really made China win the respect of the world. To put it bluntly, whether it is dignity or face, they are all fought on the battlefield. ”

At this time, Jiang Yongtao said: "That is, when I came to Germany as a consul, I could feel that the Germans were only polite to us on the surface, and they still looked down on us in their hearts, but after the end of the Far East War, it was completely different. ”

Xu Jichao nodded and said: "So this sentence is not completely unreasonable, if we hadn't won the war in the Far East, even if Germany had asked us, Wilhelm II would not have been so polite to us." ”

Jiang Yongtao said: "Isn't it! Take Li Hongzhang's visit to Germany mentioned by Wilhelm II just now, at that time, Germany also gave Li Hongzhang a very high-standard reception etiquette, and all the honor guards and military parades were used, and on the surface it seemed that he was very respectful of Li Hongzhang, and of course the purpose was to sell more weapons and arms to the Qing court through Li Hongzhang, but when Li Hongzhang met with Bismarck, he still exposed the Germans' contemptuous attitude towards Li Hongzhang. Bismarck of the East', but Bismarck's answer was that no one called himself 'Li Hongzhang of the West'; Later, Li Hongzhang told Bismarck about his own exploits in front of Bismarck, suppressed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, twisted the army, and so on, but Bismarck replied to him unceremoniously, and the Germans were ashamed of slaughtering their own people and proud of exterminating foreign races. There is no scruple about Li Zhongtang's face at all. What is ridiculous is that in our old time and space, some people still touted the meeting between Li Hongzhang and Bismarck as a dialogue between two great men, but in fact, when Li Hongzhang met Bismarck, he put his posture very low, which was completely an attitude of asking Bismarck for advice, and he was still a little self-aware. ”

Li Sanjie said: "It's a pity that Bismarck is dead, if Bismarck is still here, I really want to visit him, I don't know what kind of attitude he will have when he sees us!"

Xu Jichao said with a smile: "Lao Li, I'm afraid you want to show off in front of Bismarck." ”

While they were talking, an attendant came in and said that it was time for the banquet and invited them to attend. So the group followed the attendant, left the lounge, passed through several corridors, and came to a hall of hundreds of square meters, only to see that this hall was richly decorated, the dome roof painted with colorful murals, and several exquisite crystal palace lamps were hung, and the tassels on the lamps trembled slightly, with the shining floor, and the velvet red curtains hanging low by the window, giving people a sense of trance.

In the left and right corners of the hall, the band played jazz music in different tones, and two stood against the wall with attendants in ceremonial dresses and maids in long skirts; in the middle of the hall, there were more than 10 long dining tables with white tables, silver candlesticks were placed on the table, and high-backed palace chairs were placed on both sides, at this time about half of the seats were already seated, and there were constantly people under the leadership of the attendants to enter the seats, and many people were accompanied by female companions, the men were well-dressed and graceful, the ladies were carefully dressed up, jeweled, and from time to time acquaintances greeted the cold noise, very lively。

The attendants brought Xu Jichao and his party to their seats and sat down, and at this time, there were also people who kept greeting Jiang Yongtao, basically diplomats from various countries in Germany, or officials from Germany. And Jiang Yongtao also introduced Xu Jichao, Li Sanjie and others one by one.

The embassies of various countries in Germany also know about the mission sent by East China to visit Germany, and they are also very concerned, because at the beginning of the year, Germany visited East China, and reached a series of intention agreements with East China at that time. Therefore, now Jiang Yongtao introduced Xu Jichao, Li Sanjie and others to the ambassadors, and of course all the ambassadors greeted them one by one, and some countries even showed great enthusiasm, such as Austria-Hungary, Italy, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, the Ottoman Empire, and other countries.

Austria-Hungary is Germany's most hardcore ally, and there is no conflict of interest with East China, so Germany and East China are good, Austria-Hungary will naturally not lag behind; and although Italy is also an ally of Germany and Austria-Hungary, it has long had two hearts, but the surface article still has to be enough, not to mention that Italy and East China are not in conflict of interest, and a good relationship can also expand Italy's market in the Far East, of course, there is no need to be unhappy with East China; Spain and other countries, which are now third-rate countries, basically maintain a neutral attitude in international relations, and no one wants to offend easily, and naturally they will not offend East China, which has just won the war in the Far East.

Only the Ottoman Empire is somewhat special, the Ottoman Empire is later Turkey, although from the perspective of geographical division, the Ottoman Empire spans the two continents of Asia and Europe, but Europe regards him as an Asian country, and Asia regards him as a European country, and neither end of the country is pleased. Of course, in history, the Ottoman Empire was once strong, spanning three continents of Asia, Africa and Europe, with a land area of nearly 6 million square kilometers in its heyday, reaching the Strait of Gibraltar in the west, the Caspian Sea and the Persian Gulf in the east, Austria and Slovenia in the north, and Sudan and Yemen in the south.

However, since entering modern times, the Ottoman Empire has gradually weakened, and has been bullied by European powers in turn, since it is part of the territory of Europe and Africa, most of which have been lost, and Europe has been maintained in the Balkan Peninsula, and in Africa has retreated to Egypt and Sudan, but the core area of the Ottoman Empire is still there, and it is still a crossroads connecting Europe and Asia.

In the early 19th century, Russia rose and frequently occupied the territory of the Ottoman Empire in Asia, launching a total of 10 Russo-Turkish wars, the Ottoman Empire lost more and won less, and successively lost Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, the Caucasus and other places, and Russia has been expanding to the Black Sea coast. However, Russia's expansion also aroused the vigilance of European countries, and at this time, the Ottoman Empire also learned a lot and knew how to play some hands to raze and raze, so in the ninth and tenth Russo-Turkish wars, Britain, France, Germany and other countries supported Turkey either explicitly or implicitly, and it was in the 9th Russo-Turkish War that Britain and France even personally participated in the war, so that although the Ottoman Empire also paid some costs, it still avoided holding the Bosphorus and blocking Russia's exit into the Mediterranean.

But now Britain and France in order to confront Germany, and Russia alliance, although on the Bosphorus issue did not like Russia to relax, but also made the Ottoman Empire deeply uneasy, maybe that opened by Britain and France to sell, so the Ottoman Empire continued to maintain relations with Britain and France, and actively developed relations with Germany, in case of accidents, and Germany in order to balance the relationship between Britain and France and Russia, and expand its influence in the Balkans and the Middle East, also responded positively to the Ottoman Empire, so the relationship between the two sides rose rapidly。

At the same time, the Ottoman Empire was also striving to carry out military, political, economic and other reforms in order to change its backwardness and being beaten. However, in the past 1 or 2 years, Britain's attitude towards the Ottoman Empire has been significantly negative, and the naval construction of the Ottoman Empire has also been perfunctory.

At this time, East China ** hit Russia heavily in the Far East War, and completely annihilated the expeditionary fleet dominated by British warships, which suddenly made the Ottoman Empire see new hope, the enemy of the enemy is his friend, East China ** is thousands of miles away from the Ottoman Empire, of course, it will not be interested in the territory of the Ottoman Empire, and East China ** borders Russia, so as long as they are willing to help the Ottoman Empire, they can stop the Russian attack on the Ottoman Empire.

In addition, East China defeated the expeditionary fleet with British warships as the main ship, indicating that the navy of East China is also unique, perhaps it can replace Britain and help the Ottoman Empire build a navy, at least it can also leave a backup hand for itself, in case Britain really sells the Ottoman Empire to Russia, there is also a reserve, so the Ottoman Empire also decided to try to develop relations with East China.

It's just that the Ottoman Empire and the Qing court did not establish diplomatic relations, and for a while could not find the opportunity to contact East China**, just at this time East China ** sent a mission to visit Germany, and at this time the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and Germany also progressed to a very close level, and I heard that the relationship between Germany and East China ** was good, so the current Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II instructed the ambassador to Germany Ildilai Ackerman to contact the envoys of East China ** to test East China ** At the same time, if necessary, you can turn to Germany for help. So at this Christmas dinner, Ambassador Ackerman actively approached Xu Jichao, Li Sanjie and others on the grounds of greeting.