Salisbury and Bismarck had a frank conversation (there were great differences and could not communicate), a full exchange of views (the two sides could not reach an agreement, they quarreled a lot), improved understanding between the two sides (the two sides had great differences), and they had reservations about each other's opinions (we refused to agree), and finally ended the first consultation with regret (dissatisfaction). Well, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is really the art of language.

Since no agreement could be reached, everyone went back to their respective homes to change their plans. That evening, Bismarck reported to Frederick III on today's negotiations.

"As His Highness had anticipated, the British did want to exchange Helgoland for Vitu and Zanzibar." Bismarck respectfully told Jochen that he was surprised that Jochen had predicted this at a meeting on the exchange policy of the colonies a few months earlier. In the case of his own willingness to exchange the colony for Helgoland, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince once again sang the opposite tune to himself, believing that the British would definitely exaggerate the value of Helgoland and open their mouths to the German colonial lion. And this time he was right by him, is it the intuition of the so-called "genius"?

"The British must have said things like Gibraltar in the North Sea, and one can imagine how hard they trumpeted the value of the reef in order to get Vitu." Jochen laughed.

"Because Helgoland doesn't mean much to them, do they want to get real value from us?" Frederick III looked at his son appreciatively.

His son, the Crown Prince of the Empire, said in a few months ago at a conference on colonial policy to the chancellor who wanted to give up the colony in exchange for Helgoland, and the admirals who had little support: "Helgoland is useless if we only have a war with France and Russia, and if we have a war with England." Helgoland is a burden to the British, and a chicken rib to us. Our national strength and naval strength are developing rapidly, and if there is a war with Britain, because Helgoland Island is on our doorstep, we will not be able to defend it with only a small number of troops. The need to invest a large number of ships to defend the island forced the Royal Navy to deploy a large fleet large enough to defeat our navy, but Helgoland is less than 1 square kilometre in size, unable to build a large military base and port, and unable to store large resources, so it does not have the capacity to maintain a large fleet here.

The British navy is extremely powerful, and our navy is not capable of confronting it head-on, so the occupation of Helgoland will not help it defeat our navy, but will condemn its precious forces to the death around this small island, and at the same time it is very difficult to maintain, replenish, and mobilize, so it is of no real value to Britain. So it is inevitable to take it out and exchange it.

And for us it doesn't make much difference whether there is Helgoland Island or not, if our navy is strong, even if the British use the island, we can directly fight with them, and if our navy does not have this strength, then even if there is Helgoland Island, it will not be able to defend it. And we also have to face the same situation that the British are facing, we can't station a large fleet on Helgoland Island, and if we only send a small fleet to garrison here, if we are attacked by the British Royal Navy, we will not be able to hold it at all, and if the British fight and run, our main fleet will not be able to rush over. "Jochen is not an unfounded speculation, the historical naval battle of the Gulf of Helgoland, the small fleet of German light cruisers and mine-striking ships was eaten by the British battle patrol formation with hit-and-run tactics, and one was seriously injured. Although the British almost caused a disaster in the actual execution, the operation was undoubtedly a success purely judging by the results.

"So the British decided to give us the piece of chicken ribs in Helgolan in exchange for Vitu and Zanzibar, which were valuable to them. It's just a pity that they didn't expect that we would not be interested in Helgoland. Jochen replied with a smile.

"Although His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has guessed the intentions of the British, I still think that too much energy should not be spent on the colonies." As for the controversy a few months ago, although Bismarck agreed that Jochenhelgoland was a chicken rib - tasteless and a pity to abandon it, this still did not change Bismarck's attitude towards colonial policy. It's just that the British's bid was too low, and they only threw a piece of chicken ribs to Germany and wanted Germany to make concessions, and Bismarck didn't want to suffer this loss. If the British had been more generous, Bismarck would have been happy to make the deal.

"If Your Excellency was worried about a conflict between us and Britain, didn't you agree at the meeting? It's okay to want Vitu and Zanzibar, but Britain wants to come up with something that makes us feel valuable. Are we fools to exchange a kingdom and two big islands for a place like Helgoland, which is not uncommon to them? If they treat us as fools, then don't blame us for treating them for fools, in exchange for Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia. Jochen was dismissive.

"Salisbury won't agree to such a lion's big mouth, so when the time comes, we can take a step back and we can get what we really want."

"What if Salisbury is willing to give us these three areas, but we want to give us more in exchange?" Frederick asked.

"No, because once these three areas are given to us, German East Africa and German South West Africa will be united, and the whole Zambezi River will fall into our hands, and then the whole of Africa will be cut off by us, which is absolutely unacceptable to the British. And if you want us to take out other areas in exchange, we want these three areas just to connect Tanganyika and Namibia, these two areas are naturally impossible to take out, and Cameroon is now developing extremely rapidly, not to mention that we can't give it at all, even if we do take it out, can Britain come up with the same price? Jochen affirmed.

In fact, even if the British were really willing to give Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia to Germany as long as Vitu and Zanzibar, Jochen was not willing to ask for them, these three areas are landlocked, although there is the Zambezi River running through it, but it is still very difficult to fully develop them, these three areas are rich in natural resources, but the initial investment in development will be surprisingly high. Therefore, it is better to concentrate on developing your own coastal areas, so that you can achieve quick results. And if you lose the first battle, there is nothing. If you win, you can say anything.

However, since it is an exchange, Germany naturally has to pay something. In fact, there are not many areas that can be exchanged on the German side, Tanganyika in German East Africa has now found a large number of mineral resources that cannot be exchanged, Cameroon is now a key development area, although the total reserves are not very high, but the types of resources are very rich, in the short term, it is more suitable for Germany than those areas with rich resource reserves but scarce types, and the climate is pleasant, suitable for the development of agriculture and animal husbandry, and it is also the most suitable area for rubber planting in the world. Namibia's main focus is now on the development of Cameroon, and the development of Namibia is relatively slow. However, Namibia's copper reserves, known as the "strategic metal reserve", are abundant, and uranium ore is not needed now, but it is possible that it will be used in the future. Namibia is also rich in diamond mines, although South Africa produces some of the world's most famous diamonds. However, the overall reserves are still not as good as those of Namibia. Perhaps because of Germany's vigorous development of Cameroon and neglect of Namibia, the news of the discovery of Namibian diamonds in 1887 has not yet come out. But with more development efforts, Namibia could soon generate profits for the empire. So these places are "not for sale" to Jochen, and all other African regions can be exchanged.

At that meeting, therefore, Jochen had several requirements for the area to be exchanged: first, it must be connected to the existing colonies, which was to facilitate the defense of the army, so that it would be very advantageous to support each other and mobilize and concentrate forces; second, it must be a coastal area, so that it is convenient for naval mobilization and intervention; Thirdly, it must be West Africa, where the climate is more suitable for the development of crop farming, which is to meet the needs of the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Trade. Fourth, we should not suffer too much in terms of area. Otherwise, you will become a wronged person. As long as these four conditions can be met, the German African colonies can be exchanged.

Regardless of the fact that Jochen gave four requirements, there was actually only one region that could meet this requirement - British Nigeria. That's Jochen's only goal. In order to get here, Jochen was indeed willing to give enough chips in exchange.

"Is it worth exchanging so many regions for Nigeria's sake?" At that meeting, Holstein asked, and that's what many people think.

South Somalia is Ethiopia in the west, and Ethiopia is now an independent country, so it is also an important area for Germany to expand, in fact, it is not wrong to think so, the expansion of the Italians in Ethiopia can be completely ignored, just next year's Italian-Egyptian war, the Italians will be shocked to see the European powers suffer defeat against the African natives. So it was not difficult for Germany to invade Ethiopia. The abandonment of southern Somalia is effectively tantamount to the abandonment of Ethiopia's 1.1 million square kilometres of land. Don't complain that this land is not yours yet, say anything about giving up and not giving up. Please, everyone is an imperialist colonial aggressor, and what you fancy is your own. As for what the Ethiopians and Italians think, is that something that the Germans need to think about?

Jochen responded: "British Nigeria covers an area of more than 700,000 square kilometers, and although the main focus is on the coastal areas, and the actual control area is not too large, after all, it is the traditional sphere of influence of the British, and if you want to obtain it, you must come up with enough weight. Although it seems that southern Somalia can move westward into Ethiopia, on the one hand, it will face Italian expansion here, and on the other hand, the kingdom of Ethiopia is not weak, and it may take a lot of effort to force its way into the empire. Therefore, the input and output are extremely uneconomical in the short term. Togoland is small, resource-scarce, not worth developing and is not connected to other regions, so it has no value. Vitu is located in the heart of British Kenya, and although it is small, it is stuck like a fishbone in Kenya's body, so the British are bound to get it here. And for us it is not interesting to fall out with the British for such a small place. Zanzibar is only two islands with few resources, and if you just need a port, it is better to build a new port directly on the coast of Tanganyika. So there is nothing to lose by taking out all these areas. In addition, Rwanda, Burundi and the Tanganyika and Congo border areas can be handed over to the British, don't they want to build a longitudinal railway through Africa, so that they don't have to go through Belgium and our colonies, I think the British should be interested As for Samoa, where the geographical location is indeed extremely important, but it is too remote for our country to develop, and the port conditions there are not very good, in the storm that swept through Apia in March, the Americans lost 3 warships, and the British lost 1, We also lost the Victoria, which killed 32 crew members. Samoa is dispensable to us, but for Britain it is the only way to get from Australia to the North Pacific, so it would be more beneficial for us to abandon German Samoa and concentrate on running German New Guinea well, and if we can, to take control of the whole of New Guinea. ”

On March 16, 1889, a storm swept through German Western Samoa as scheduled, and five warships docked in the port of Apia, the German Far East Fleet Victoria, the U.S. Navy Trenton, the Daria, and the Nipsek, and the British Navy Caprio capsized. Fortunately, the construction of the Corolla-class light cruiser was delayed by Jochen for 3 years, and from 1883 the German Navy stopped building small gunboats, so the losses were much smaller than in history, in which the Corolla-class light cruiser No. 2 ship Olga ran aground, the 884-ton gunboat Eagle built in 1883 and the 760-ton gunboat Elbe built in 1887 capsized. A total of 93 German sailors were killed. And this time the Germans lost nothing more than a 1,800-ton wooden light cruiser Victoria, built in 1863, which was originally an old ship that was about to be decommissioned, and it was not distressing to sink Jochen, and more importantly, the loss of valuable personnel was much smaller. However, it is enough to use this excuse to get the Navy to abandon this place where there are no good conditions for stationing.