After a long time on the train, Jiang Yongtao reported to Xu Jichao and Li Sanjie about the attitude of Germany during this time.

After the end of the visit to East China, Germany had a serious discussion on the results of the visit, and finally believed that it was acceptable to accept the partnership proposed by East China to replace the alliance relationship established by Germany and East China, because East China and Germany were indeed too far away to effectively carry out joint actions, and the interests of the other two countries were not completely identical. Although France and Russia also joined the Quadruple Alliance, Germany has always regarded Russia as the weak link of the Quadruple Alliance, and it is an object that can be pulled off, and Russia's clumsy performance in the Far East War has also made Germany cut Russia's weight by half in its heart, and it will not regard Russia as its main opponent.

The situation in East China is just the opposite, the opponents are mainly Japan and Russia, Britain and France are far away from East China, and the actual threat is not great, but now the prisoners and Russia have been crippled by East China, and it is basically difficult to recover within 10 years, and it is even Russia's important place in the Far East, so the strength of Japan and Russia is far less than that of Britain and France, and East China is enough to confront the two countries by relying on its own strength, and there is no need to form an alliance with Germany at all. Therefore, even if the two sides do not force an alliance, the relationship may not be long-lasting, and Italy is also allied with Germany, and now it has long been with Germany.

Although Kaiser Wilhelm II is not a reliable politician, but he is not incompetent, he also understands these truths, although at the beginning, he only thought about the alliance with East China, you can use East China to contain Russia, which is beneficial to Germany, but ignores that once an alliance is formed, the obligation is two-way, once there is a war in East China, Germany must also fulfill the obligations of an ally, just like this Far East war, if Germany and East China ** If you form an alliance, you will inevitably be drawn into a war that has no conflict of interest at all.

In this way, the partner strategy of East China is undoubtedly more suitable for East China Relations with Germany, after the partnership, the two sides enhance mutual trust and cooperation, inform each other before major actions, and support each other in international affairs, but their own decision-making is based on their own interests as the main consideration, such a relationship is also very good, in last year's Algeciras Conference to resolve the Monaco crisis, among the 13 countries that participated, only Austria-Hungary supported Germany, and as a result, Germany touched a gray nose, tossed in vain for a long time, if Germany had a few more supporters at that time, it would not be that result.

In addition, Germany is also very interested in the colonial exchange proposed by East China, Germany's overseas colonies are not many, only about 2.4 million square kilometers, compared with the colonies of Britain, France and Russia that are more than 10 million square kilometers, of course, it is far away, and more than 200 square kilometers of them are in Africa, namely German East Africa, including Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, southern Kenya and northeastern Mozambique; Eastern part of Ghana, German South-West Africa, including Namibia.

Although the area of Germany's colonies in Africa is not small, first, it is scattered, that is, these more than 200 square kilometers are divided into four large areas, of which German West Africa is divided into two regions; second, these areas are not very good, although the resources are also rich, but the environment is harsh, the degree of social development, the vast majority of the areas are basically still primitive landforms, the population is small and extremely scarce.

In this era, the good places in Africa are mainly in the north and south, and the northern Mediterranean coast region includes Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Egypt and other regions have always had close relations with Europe, with a higher degree of social development and more people, because it is an east and a west, controlling the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar, the two entrances to the Mediterranean, which are of great strategic value, but they are divided by Britain, France, Italy and other countries; Although the Boer War was seen as a turning point in British hegemony, after the Boer War, Britain united its colonies in southern Africa and controlled the southernmost Cape of Good Hope in Africa, becoming one of Britain's most important overseas outposts. Moreover, Britain's access to South Africa's gold mines made London fast becoming the center of global finance and gold trading, so the actual gains were huge. Compared with these German colonies in Africa, it is quite tasteless and a pity to abandon them, which can only be regarded as better than nothing.

Germany's colonies in Asia were basically concentrated in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, including German New Guinea, including the northeastern part of Papua New Guinea, New Pomerania, the Bismarck Islands, the northern Solomon Islands, the Carolina Islands, Palau, the Mariana Islands, and the Marshall Islands; German Samoa, including the western part of Samoa, the Caroline Islands, Micronesia, Palau, and the Mariana Islands; and German Sussiwi, including the southern peninsula of Sulawesi, and the island of Madura in the northeastern part of Java. This colony was transferred by the Netherlands after Germany mediated the Far East War, and the Netherlands thanked Germany for making peace.

Although Germany's Asian colonies are not small, nearly 400,000 square kilometers, and the geographical location is also good, and they are very close to the main shipping routes in the Pacific Ocean, but these colonies are scattered on various islands, only German New Guinea and German Sussivius are a little larger, that is, about tens of thousands of square kilometers, and the others are only a few hundred. Small islands of several thousand square kilometers, but these two larger areas are far apart, almost 3,000 kilometers, and the location of New Guinea is relatively remote, only the southern peninsula of Sulawesi is a good place, bordering Borneo to the west, Java to the south, and the Philippines to the north, which is a very good strategic place.

But the problem is that this one piece of land can't become a big climate, if you can carve out tens of thousands of square kilometers on Borneo Island to Germany according to the suggestion of East China, in exchange for some of Germany's colonies in Africa, so that you can form a region with the southern peninsula of Sulawesi, both in terms of economic value and military value, it is quite large.

Others, such as military cooperation, strengthening and deepening economic and trade relations, etc., the German side is very much in agreement, this Far East War, East China ** defeated the British, French, Japanese and Russian armies, of which Britain, France and Russia are Germany's opponents, by its East China ** defeated the Russian army on land, defeated the British fleet at sea, but this war has just ended, most of the details have not been announced, although Germany is like East China ** A military observer mission was dispatched, but the information was not comprehensive, so the German military was eager to learn the details of the war, learn from it, and understand the weaknesses of the adversary. In order to facilitate the targeted arrangement in Germany.

Germany is now the world's largest industrial power and the second economic power, but due to the lack of overseas colonies, the local market is also limited, although Germany is the largest country in Europe in addition to Russia, but the territory is only 540,000 square kilometers, the population is only 65 million, so it is urgent to expand its overseas market, East China** Now it has 3.5 million square kilometers of land, a population of nearly 100 million, and behind it is a super-large country with more than 10 million square kilometers and a population of 400 million.

Generally speaking, the current social environment in Germany is very favorable to East China, not only at the first level to hope to cooperate with East China, but also the public opinion is more friendly to East China, and there are more books on the market to introduce Chinese history and culture, and the content is objective and rational, and there are not too many preset positions, of course, this is also the result of Germany's deliberate guidance, Bi Jing wants to deepen cooperation with East China, and the support of public opinion is also very important.

After listening to Jiang Yongtao's report, Xu Jichao and Li Sanjie also have a bottom in their hearts, and it seems that this visit should be a very smooth experience.

The train arrived at Berlin Railway Station at more than 5 o'clock that night, and then the German side also arranged to meet the personnel and horses at the railway station, and sent a total of 8 cars and 20 carriages, because I knew that there were many people from East China this time, and that's it, it also needed to be divided into two times to pick everyone up, after all, in addition to personnel, there were a lot of luggage and other things.

At the same time, the German consulates in Germany and East China have also arranged the residence of the visiting mission, which is a six-storey apartment with a total of 66 rooms, the first floor is an office, and the second floor to the sixth floor are dormitories, each dormitory can accommodate 8 people.

It turned out that the consulate in Germany in East China on the one hand considered the large number of people in the mission, and most of them are students in Germany, when the mission returns, they will still stay in Germany, and these students in Germany in a short period of time, it is impossible for them to immediately arrange schools to study, and need a longer period of residence, so after negotiating with Germany, a special apartment building was rented for the visiting mission to live, and after the delegation returned to Germany, it will be used as a centralized dormitory for students studying in Germany. Later German students live here before they are assigned to the school, so that on the one hand, they can adapt to life in Germany, and on the other hand, it is convenient for the consulate to centrally manage these students in Germany.

Xu Jichao and Li Sanjie were also very satisfied with this arrangement, so after getting off the train, they moved into this apartment building en masse, and German Foreign Minister Van der Vaart sent them to the apartment all the time, and told Xu Jichao that tomorrow Prime Minister Bilow will meet with the members of the mission, and have a meeting, the day after tomorrow on the traditional Christmas in European countries, according to the custom, the German Imperial Palace will hold a grand Christmas banquet tomorrow night, and also invite the members of the mission to participate.