The Battle of Santiago came to an end, and the shock to the Europeans was enormous. The hillbilly suddenly became more arrogant than himself, which was a little difficult for many European countries that thought they were the center of the world, but except for a few sour words about how these nouveau riche would be beaten in the face of a declining empire, no one was willing to help poor Spain.

In this way, Spain under the strategic contraction will inevitably lose control of the Philippines completely, and this will be a good opportunity for the Germans to completely take over the Philippines.

"Cuba has completely fallen into the hands of the Americans, and the next land war is a question of how many casualties and how much face will be saved by the Spaniards, and the outcome will not change much." After getting the news of the Battle of San Diego, Jochen commented.

"Yes, the Americans could continue to increase their reinforcements to Cuba, while the Spaniards could not count on any help from their homeland, and it was only a matter of time before they were defeated. Moreover, the Spanish Navy was almost completely wiped out, except for the small fleet that was still in the Philippines, and even that small fleet could not return to China at all now, even if we let it go, the Americans would definitely intercept it halfway. Muntz judged it the same way.

"Without a navy, it means losing control of the colonies, and then Spain may have to think carefully about how to deal with those angry people at home, and it is estimated that there is no energy to take care of the Philippines, so take this opportunity to take over completely, so as not to have too many dreams at night." Jochen is still a little worried about the Americans, because there are many affiliated islands around the Philippines, the farthest of which is more than 800 kilometers away from Luzon, and the Americans really want to take root in these islands, although it has nothing to do with the overall situation, but it is always in the throat.

"Your Highness, you have a lot of heart. Even if the Americans were to seize some remote islands under the pretext of being at war with Spain and ignoring China's actual control over the Philippines, the Americans would not be able to make any waves when the main strategic points were under our control, and as long as these places were nominally under the trusteeship of China, then we would still be able to force the Americans to withdraw from these islands. Muntz is confident about this.

It's no wonder that Muntz is so confident. The second ship of the new 8,000-ton heavy cruiser, the Herta, has been commissioned on July 23, the first ship of this class of heavy cruisers named after the famous women of the royal families of the German Empire states in order to win over the relationship with the Austrians, so it was named Elisabeth class after the Austrian Queen Mother Sissi, and the first ship was placed in the STT shipyard in Austria to start construction, but because of the delay in the transportation of equipment and accessories, the construction progress of the first ship was slow, and the completion time was late. It is expected to be delayed until next year.

When all are completed, a total of five ships will be deployed in the Far East, two in Africa. Two ships will be deployed on the mainland, and the Hertha and the No. 3 ship, which is expected to be commissioned in October, will join the German Far East Fleet, which will then form an overwhelming advantage over the US Asian fleet.

Muntz was not worried about the possible armed provocation of the Americans, as for the hot-headed Americans under the great victory, they sent fleets from the Atlantic to confront them, but there was no Panama Canal at this time, and if they wanted to come to the Pacific Ocean, they had to detour through Cape Horn in South America, with a total voyage of more than 20,000 nautical miles, not to mention the shallow water heavy gunboats of the Americans. Even the Royal Navy is an extremely hard job to come over such a long distance, so the probability of this situation is zero.

Therefore, in the eyes of all Germans, the Philippines is already a big meal on the table. As for the possibility that there may be a few flies to affect the appetite, you also need to wave your hand to drive it away.

However, Jochen knew that it was not always a good thing to be at odds with the United States, and perhaps everyone thought that the United States at this time was not a cause for concern, but even if it annexed Austria and consumed Germany, it had already lost the crown of the world's largest industrial capacity. And the GDP is still behind the British.

The United States, the world's largest industrial country and the largest economy, has slowly laid a solid foundation for its huge industrial capacity to catch and destroy whoever in the future. If you have a bad relationship with the United States, even if you are not worried about it militarily, you will obviously suffer a loss if you fight to the death with the Americans economically and tradely.

Both Germany and the United States are now increasing their share of world trade, thanks to the acquisition of Mediterranean ports and the annexation of Austria. In 1898, the German shipping industry accounted for more than 14% of world trade, better than 12% in 1900.

This naturally squeezes and encroaches on the market that originally belonged to Britain and France, and if it is now hostile, the two countries will engage in a malicious trade war, not to mention whether they will fight to win, even if they win, it is estimated that they will be cheap British.

So let's give the British a headache for a few more years, and hesitate more in the multiple-choice question of picking a lesson between two nasty guys who are grabbing their own market.

And this so-called German trusteeship Jochen is very worried about whether the Americans will care and grab one or two remote islands to test Germany's bottom line, and when the Germans ignore it, the Americans will dare to gain an inch, and the Germans react violently, so it may lead to the deterioration of relations between the two countries.

After all, next year the Americans will dare to support Venezuela's territorial claim to 62% of the western part of British Guiana to test the bottom line of the British. So the best way is to quickly turn the trusteeship into a takeover, so that the Philippines will nominally and de facto become German territory, so that the Americans will more or less consider whether the temptation will turn into a provocation, and then restrain a little.

And at this time, the Spaniards themselves delivered to the door.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Garcia, and I don't know what I can do for you?" Mashal's attitude was completely different from the previous few times when he received the Spanish minister peacefully, and his cordiality and diligence were simply unbearable.

Although Garcia really doesn't want to see your face if he can, but now Spain has no face and no lining, so he really has no choice.

"Hello, Your Excellency Machar, I have come to my country this time in the hope that I can get help from your country." Garcia whispered.

"It's easy to say, everyone is a European country, and it is right to help each other, I don't know what your country needs help from our country? Is it your country that needs our war loan in order to continue its struggle with the hillbillies in the Americas? That's easy to say. "Mashal pretended to be problematic, and the manner in which you spoke made the Spanish minister's teeth itch in anger.

Isn't this a pot that you don't open and mention? Two weeks had passed since the Battle of Santiago, and news came back from Cuba that Santiago had fallen and that the Spanish defenders had surrendered. Everyone knows that Spain is gone, and what war loan is needed.

At this time, Spain already wanted to ask for peace, but after the peace, how Spain would clean up the mess became a problem, since the Cuban riots, the Spanish government has been consuming a lot of financial funds, and the first war in Santiago has turned itself into a maritime country without a navy.

At this time, it was not only the people in Spain who were angry because of the defeat that needed to be appeased, but also how to relieve the financial pressure and rebuild the navy, so the Spanish government thought of making a fuss about the Philippines, as the Germans wished.

"This ...... That's right, you know, your Excellency, that our navy suffered heavy losses in the Battle of San Diego, so ......" Garcia was really a little difficult to talk about at this time, admitting his defeat in front of these nasty Germans, and asking for help, it is estimated that he will be severely troubled.

"Oh, I understand that my country also deeply regrets what happened to your navy, and the defeat of your navy was entirely due to the huge disparity in strength between the two sides, and we also greatly admire the spirit of the officers and men of your navy in fighting bravely." Machar was speaking obediently over there, but he still pretended to be crazy and stupid and did not touch the topic: "But if your country wants to buy warships from our country, then we really can't help it." We would love to broker this deal, but because your country is still at war, we ......"

Seeing the Germans pretending to be there, Garcia could only swallow his anger and pick out his words more clearly: "That's the case, because our navy is weak now, so we hope that the Far East Fleet in the Philippines can be transferred back to China, and the soldiers in the Philippines are quite tired after a long foreign war, so I hope they can also return safely." ”

"When your ship returns home, maybe those hillbillies won't watch it, and your country's behavior is very risky. It is safer for us to wait for the war to end. Machar continued to pretend to be confused.

Feign! Load! Who doesn't know that you Germans want us to get out of here. However, after understanding this urine nature of the Germans, Garcia made it clear in one breath: "Your Excellency Machar, we should not go around in circles, our country hopes to end the war as much as possible, so that our children can return to China as much as possible, so we hope that your country can help our children withdraw from the Far East." The Philippines is now administered by your country, so we hope that ownership of the Philippines can be transferred to you. ”

"Do you mean to give the Philippines to our country? How embarrassing is that? Mashal said with a shameless smile. (To be continued......)