"Your Highness, rest assured, since the opportunity has come, we will definitely not let it go." Caprivi said confidently: "It is said that the Qing government is forming a new type of army, numbering about 10,000 people. I have consulted with His Excellency Schlieffen that we can offer to have the German Army as instructors to help them train the army, and the equipment of this army should naturally be fully equipped with our products.

Moreover, after the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing Army lost a huge number of equipment and damaged it, and it also needed to be replenished, and the performance of the Manlixia rifle exported in large quantities by China during the Sino-Japanese War was highly praised. His Excellency Schlieffen meant to continue to sell the Manlixia rifles in our inventory to the Qing Kingdom, reduce the inventory, and the price could be slightly discounted.

However, the domestic gunsmith is about to lose this order, and naturally it also includes your HK company, Your Highness, don't be angry. Caprivi said with a laugh.

"How come, emptying the inventory is of course a good thing, and after emptying the inventory, the army still has to continue to order Gew.86 from major manufacturers, and we actually have nothing to lose." Jochen laughed in response to Caprivi's teasing.

"However, if it is only about nearly 10,000 troops, plus supplementing the losses in the Sino-Japanese War, the total purchase volume will not be too much, but it is originally a thing to suppress inventory, and the profit will not be too high. The main thing is artillery, but the 'Oriental Bismarck' is very respectful of the ordnance of the Krupp company, and completely squeezes out the forces of other countries from the ordnance procurement of the Qing Army. Caprivi gestured towards the center of the reception.

Jochen followed Caprivi's gesture and saw that Li Hongzhang was talking happily with the current helmsman of the Krupp company, Gustav Krupp, the son-in-law of the Krupp family. As Caprivi said, in the area of army artillery, the Germans were completely able to squeeze all their opponents out of the Qing market.

Jochen took a sip of amber white wine, moistened his throat, and said, "Actually, when it comes to firearms, we don't just stare at the things in the warehouse. At that time, there were not a lot of firearms left behind by the Austro-Hungarian army, although a considerable part of the army was handed over to the Kingdom of Hungary and the Kingdom of Croatia-Slovenia, but the surplus was still quite large, and it was unrealistic to rely on the Qing people to help us clear our stocks.

It's better to use the production line of Manlixia M1886 at Steyr to make a fuss. In recent years, the demand for firearms in our army has not been large, and Steyr has not converted all the production lines of the Manlisya M1886 to Gew.86. That production line is also put away, we can ask Qingguo to purchase a certain number of rifles, and then we send a rifle production line, a bullet production line to them.

In this way, with our production line, Qingguo can replace all those miscellaneous goods, and the spot we sell them can just meet the gap between dressing and production.

As for Steyer's side, when the time comes, give them a part of the sales profits, and they will not refuse. ”

"Our instructors, our equipment, and our production lines, so that the Qing Army can be branded with us." Caprivi would love to see that.

"No, it should be the Qing army that uses their own weapons under our guidance, so it sounds new."

"Haha, that's what Your Highness said." The two of them laughed tacitly.

"As for the navy, don't worry, the best warships of the two countries in the Sino-Japanese War were all produced by our country, and the Qing Dynasty is a traditional user of our warships, even if we want to buy warships from other countries to maintain diplomatic relations between them, they are just some small ships, and the orders for their capital ships will inevitably fall into our pockets." Caprivi has plenty of confidence in that.

During the conversation, Li Hongzhang, who was star-studded by the Germans, smiled and apologized to the German entrepreneurs around him, got out of the encirclement, and then walked towards this side with an interpreter. When the others saw that the big money lord walked towards His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and His Excellency the Prime Minister, they were all very interested and did not follow.

"It is my pleasure to meet you, Your Highness the Crown Prince." Li Hongzhang owed slightly, and then greeted.

Although Jochen was able to communicate directly with Li Hongzhang, there was a Caprivi next to him, and in order to take care of him, Jochen still waited for the interpreter to narrate in German before answering in German: "It's a pleasure to meet you, Your Excellency the Governor." ”

Because of Yoheng's presence, the German translator did not make a joke about translating Li Hongzhang's title of governor of Zhili into the vice king of Zhili, so he called Li Hongzhang Your Excellency, not Your Highness.

"Your Excellency has come from afar, I wonder if you are still used to it in Germany? Is it comfortable for you to stay at Caesars Hotel? Yochen asked.

"Thank you Your Highness for your concern, your hospitality is very thoughtful, I am very satisfied, and I am here to express my gratitude to Your Highness and Your Excellency." Li Hongzhang said and owed slightly again.

"Where, the Qing State is a friend of our country, which has always had a close relationship and has a good trade and cooperative relationship. Your Excellency the Governor, we welcome you very much, and naturally we want to give you the best hospitality, and we hope that you will feel at home. Jochen returned the salute and said a polite word.

"Thank you, Your Highness, for your kindness, I deeply feel the warmth and friendship of your country, and I hope that the friendship between the two countries will last forever." As he spoke, Li Hongzhang raised his wine glass and signaled.

"May friendship endure." Jochen and Caprivi raised their glasses in the same way.

This scene seems to be really close between Germany and Qingqing, and there is no mustard, neither Germany seized Qing warships, nor demanded the reduction of tariffs, let alone forcibly seized concessions and other contradictions. Jochen sighed that he was becoming more and more shameless. Hawkers, shamelessness is also a necessary skill for a politician, and it is better than offending people by hanging everything on your face.

After handing the empty glass to the waiter, Jochen said, "Your Excellency may not be comfortable with this form of communication, as I know that Qingguo prefers to talk about things at the dinner table, and I think we can sit down and talk while eating someday." ”

"Your Highness really knows our culture very well. Your Highness doesn't have to worry, although the old man is already a handful of years, he has also participated in some drinking parties, so he will not feel uncomfortable. How dare you refuse Your Highness's invitation, the old man is waiting for His Highness's summons at any time. ”

At this kind of cocktail party, Yoheng did not have too in-depth exchanges with Li Hongzhang, and the environment was not suitable, so the two only talked about astronomy and geography, customs and customs, but the guests and hosts were happy and returned happy.

However, Li Hongzhang was not so comfortable in the following days, although the German side did not put forward any very excessive demands when negotiating with the German Foreign Ministry headed by Machar, the main content was still to expand the market, increase commodity trade, and so on, and these were not problems.

However, Li Hongzhang's visit was not for tourism, and although he had been forced to agree to the demands of the five countries to reduce import tariffs and export taxes, the result of this was naturally the shrinkage of the customs revenue of the Qing State. Therefore, an important purpose of Li Hongzhang's mission to Europe was to ask all countries to agree that the customs revenue of the Qing State could be "increased according to the pound." Of course, this request was categorically rejected by Machar.

In addition, the German side also demanded that a trade agreement be signed with the Qing side, and in addition to expanding the export of goods to the Qing country, it also demanded that the Qing country receive preferential treatment when importing raw materials from the Qing country.

And although the German government itself did not encourage its own banking institutions to follow the example of the French and lend aggressively, which would reduce the amount of money available for domestic business development, the situation is different now.

It is not easy for Qingguo, who has a lot of debts, to let them spend money on German soil, so if you want them to spend money, you must first let them have money in their hands. Besides, why not lend money to Qingguo to let them buy German goods, and then the money is actually still in their own pockets, and then they can continue to collect interest?

Therefore, the German side also demanded that the Qing government must lend money to Germany for the purchase of German goods.

In the face of the hard-line attitude of the German side, Li Hongzhang, who had no capital to bargain, could only agree to most of the demands of the German side and signed the "Qing-German Friendship Trade Agreement."

After the signing of the agreement, the attitude of the Germans changed at once, and Foreign Minister Machar immediately took Li Hongzhang to visit all the factories that the Qing Kingdom might be interested in.

Li Hongzhang is not surprised by the change of face of the Germans, these Europeans will do whatever it takes as long as they have interests to be gained, whether they are tough or flattering, it is just their way of fighting for interests. However, they have already signed an agreement with Germany anyway, so it is useless to think about it so much, so it is better to make good use of this opportunity to obtain what the Qing Kingdom needs.

Therefore, with a loan of 100 million marks from a German bank, Li Hongzhang began to purchase ordnance on a large scale in Germany. After the purchase of 100,000 Manlisya M1889 rifles in accordance with German requirements, a complete line of rifles and cartridges was obtained. Later, more than 200 Krupp guns of various types were purchased. In addition, all 150 Maxim machine guns left behind by Austria-Hungary were packed.

The change came as a surprise to Jochen. In fact, the Qing Kingdom came into contact with the early Makqin machine gun quite early, and it was copied in the Jinling Manufacturing Bureau as early as 1888, but the Makqin machine gun that was still using black powder at that time was unstable, so it stopped manufacturing 30 pieces.

After the Chilean Civil War, some were purchased in small quantities, but the overall quantity remained small. Historically, the Qing Dynasty began to attach importance to this weapon only after suffering from machine guns in the Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against China.

Now that the 150 machine guns of Austria-Hungary are taken away at once, on the bright side, with the pitiful amount of machine gun equipment of Japan and Russia in Asia at this time, coupled with the teaching of German instructors, is it possible that the Qing Army will turn over?

Thinking about it again in 1900, if the Qing State really had an elite army worthy of World War I, wouldn't this be making trouble for the Eight-Nation Alliance? It's really shooting yourself in the foot.

However, there are still 4 years to go, and Jochen can't do anything, and he can't tell Caprivi not to sell machine guns, because we are going to fight Qingguo in 4 years.

After finalizing the order for the army's weapons and equipment, Li Hongzhang began to order the navy ships that he valued the most, and at this time, he received an invitation from Jochen to have dinner with him. RS