After Gonbei Yamamoto became Japan's prime minister, he continued Ito Hirobumi's policy of holding the government, recuperating and recovering internally, and actively developing relations with the United States and Germany externally to balance the sanctions imposed by Britain, France, and Russia.

And after signing the first phase of the trade agreement with East China, it did bring certain economic benefits to Japan, although the sanctions of Britain, France and Russia made it impossible for Japan to import mineral resources and raw materials from the British and French colonies in Asia, but East China opened up the export of resources to Japan, successfully made up for this lack, and East China was closer to Japan, so the cost was reduced some, and Japan exported a number of steel, seafood and handicrafts to East China, which was also a harvest.

In addition, there has also been considerable progress in the relations between Japan and the United States, the United States has opened up its colony in Asia to Japan, the Philippines, to export mineral resources to Japan, to produce raw materials, and to import light industrial products from Japan, while Germany has also opened up the export of machinery and equipment to Japan, so the actual impact of the sanctions imposed on Japan by Britain, France, and Russia has been negligible.

However, Japan still hopes to open the market of East China and export its own light industrial products to East China, because the market of East China is much larger than that of the Philippines. As a result, Japan proposed to East China to open the second phase of trade negotiations to solve the problem of Japan's export of light industrial products to East China.

At the same time, Japan and the United States have also negotiated, the United States round the world fleet will stop in Tokyo, Nagasaki and other places in Japan to visit, and in order to further exert pressure on Britain, France, and Russia, in the second stage of trade negotiations with East China, formally proposed to East China, hoping that after the US round-the-world fleet visits Japan, East China will also send a fleet to visit Japan, and then Japan will also send troops to visit East China, so as to establish a system of mutual visits between the fleets of the two sides.

After some arduous negotiations, East China and Japan finally signed a phase II trade agreement to implement a tiered tax rate on light industrial products exported from Japan to East China. In this way, some of Japan's light industrial products exported to East China can enter the Chinese market at a lower tax rate, but after a certain amount, it will be taxed at a higher tax rate, so it will not have a big impact on East China's own industry, and some of Japan's light industrial products exported to East China can be taxed low, and it can also play a catfish effect, prompting East China's own industry to improve its technical level, enhance the lack of competition, and cannot always rely on the protection of trade barriers. At the same time, East China has also accepted the formulation of a system of mutual visits between the fleets of the two sides, and of course the details of the exchange of visits still need to be further negotiated.

Just after East China and Japan signed the second phase of the trade agreement, and the Japanese negotiating delegation had not yet returned to Japan, Britain** sent a diplomatic letter to Japan, proposing to restart negotiations on Japan's tariff rights.

This news made Japan ** up and down are extremely excited, after many months of gambling, for Japan is actually not good so once again gambling on the national fortune, and now finally see the dawn of victory, Prime Minister Yamamoto Gonbei is also excited, if he can take back Japan's tariff rights in his own office, will undoubtedly be recorded in history, become a hero of Japan.

And Ito Hirobumi at this time, although he no longer holds any ** position, only hanging the honorary title of a veteran, but after learning the news, he was also very excited, and even cried, although now Japan's public opinion has calmed down, but Ito Hirobumi is still under tremendous pressure, although no one dares to come to his mansion to make trouble, but every day he receives at least a dozen letters, the content is basically swearing, and there is no lack of blades in the envelope, Ropes and other items, and family members often hear people yelling at them when they go out into the street, even throwing stones, eggs, etc.

If you can endure the troubles of daily life, but Ito Hirobumi's influence in Japan is also declining, even in the political friendship association, I also heard many voices questioning Ito Hirobumi, fortunately it is the senior personnel of the political friendship association, Saionji Gongwang, Inukai and others understood the reason, so they all supported Ito Hirobumi, which suppressed the voices questioning Ito Hirobumi, but this led many young people to feel disappointed and quit the political friends association in protest, which is certainly not a good phenomenon for Ito Hirobumi, who is committed to promoting party politics in Japan. Therefore, Ito Hirobumi also considered resigning as president of the Politics Friends Association, but was prevented by the main members of the Politics Friends Association.

Now that he has finally waited for a turning point, how can Ito Hirobumi not be excited, although he is no longer in office, but everyone knows that the whole thing is led by himself, so once Japan takes back the tariff power, he is undoubtedly the first hero, not only can restore his reputation, but also regain the ability to influence the political situation in Japan.

Everyone in Japan believes that Britain's submission is the result of Japan's real pressure, but although it cannot be said that it has nothing to do with it, it really has little to do with it, and the main reason is that Britain was forced to change its attitude toward Japan because of the results of East China's visit to Germany.

On December 22, 1907, the passenger ship of the East China ** delegation to Germany arrived at the port of Hamburg, Germany, and was warmly welcomed by Germany.

At this time, Christmas is coming, so Germany is also a lantern festival, celebrate Christmas, but also to the delegation to add a lot of festive atmosphere, in addition to East China and Germany has been in contact for 5 or 6 years, German public opinion is also more friendly to East China, so the German people to visit the delegation to Germany is also quite goodwill.

The delegation stayed in Hamburg for only one night, and the next day they took a train to Berlin, the capital of Germany, while the two warships escorting the ship sailed through the Kiel Canal into the Kiel military port and anchored, leaving only the steamer to stop in the port of Hamburg.

Although the delegation only stayed in Hamburg for one night, and did not even visit the city in a formal way, just passing through the port-hotel-railway station, and was able to get a glimpse of some of the faces of Germany's largest port city, most of the members of the delegation, including the veterans, were going abroad for the first time, of course, the veterans were shocked by the scale of modern urban architecture, street equipment, and commercial atmosphere of this era displayed by the city of Hamburg.

In fact, if you only look at the coastal part of Qingdao, along the Huangpu River in the original concession of Shanghai, and Hamburg City is not much different, but the scale is too small, if it is a sightseeing experience, it can go to the end in less than 1 hour, and Hamburg is a standard modern city, in addition to the port, railway station these facilities, in Qingdao, Shanghai, and it seems that the scale is not small, but compared with the port and railway station of Hamburg, although the facilities are almost the same, but there is still a great distance in the scale.

For example, in the port of Hamburg, almost all of them are large modern steamers, and there are a few steamers of less than 10,000 tons, and there are basically no wooden sailing ships, even if they are fishing boats, they are all mechanically powered ships, and in East China** Wooden sailing ships still account for about 20 percent, because they are civilian fishing boats, basically wooden sailing ships, only a small number of wooden sailing boats, and Hamburg railway station, there are a total of 12 platforms, and the trains that stop in the railway station are basically about 10 at the same time, compared to Qingdao railway station only 6 platforms, at most 4 or 5 trains.

Most of the patriarchs had the experience of going abroad in the old time and space, even if they had not gone abroad, but at the time of travel, China's urban scale and construction were already at the world's leading level, so although Hamburg was a first-class modern city in this era, in the eyes of the patriarchs, it could only be regarded as commonplace. What shocked the elders was not the level of modernization of Hamburg, but also the gap between East China and the world's first-class developed countries. The level of modernization of the city also represents the level of modernization of the country.

East China has been established for 8 years, Qingdao, Shanghai, Tianjin basically have the appearance of modern cities, but Shanghai, Tianjin is the foundation of the concessions of various countries, to nothing, but Qingdao is indeed built brick by brick in East China, which also condenses the efforts of many veterans. The patriarchs were also very satisfied with their results, and since they were related to other cities in China, they were completely like two eras, so many of them were also very proud, and even had some complacency.

But after seeing the scale and appearance of Hamburg, the elders knew that there is still a considerable gap between East China and the world's first-class developed countries, not to mention that although Hamburg is a first-class city in Europe, it is not the top level, more developed than Hamburg, and the prosperous city is more than in Europe, so East China is ** There is still a long way to go to catch up with and surpass the world's advanced level in this era and to build China into a modern power in this era, and more efforts are still needed, and now is not the time for complacency.

Hamburg is about 270 kilometers from Berlin, and it takes about 10 hours by train, and the delegation gets on the train at 7 a.m. and arrives in Berlin at about 5 p.m., and because of the large number of people in the delegation, a total of four carriages were chartered. Although it is very boring to take the train for a long time, most of the members of the delegation visiting Germany do not have many opportunities to take the train, and many people are taking the train for the first time, and now they are very fresh, and the German cities and villages along the train are also exotic scenes, which are very different from China, and the whole carriage is also full of their own people, you can chat and laugh casually, so it is not boring to talk and laugh and see the scenery along the way.