On May 18, 1896, Nicholas officially wore the Tsar's crown, and although he had been the de facto ruler of the empire two years earlier, it was only today that he officially became Tsar, namely Nicholas II.

However, the enthronement ceremony of Nicholas II was held in Moscow, and if it was held in the East Palace in St. Petersburg, it would be okay to take a boat by sea and land, but if you want to go to Moscow, Jochen doesn't want to make such a trip, and there is no need to go to Moscow to see a disaster to make yourself unhappy, right?

So when he heard the news from Moscow that the "Horden Disaster" had suffered heavy casualties, and that Nicholas II and the Empress were casually attending the reception held by the French ambassador, Jochen only pouted and complained: "Happy events turn into funerals, which is also a great omen from the perspective of superstition, and you don't care?" Could it be that Nicky saw this as a living sacrifice? ”

However, after complaining and vomiting, Jochen still had to worry about his own affairs, and the Japanese Minister Aoki Shuzo asked Germany to test whether he could order warships.

The Japanese were completely unwarranted to their worries, and the Germans had no chance of refusing an order delivered to their door.

The Japanese were very happy to learn that the Germans were willing to build warships for themselves, not only because they could buy German goods, which now represent the highest technology in the world for armored cruisers, but also because they did not deliberately target themselves because of their relations with Russia.

Therefore, without further ado, Saigo immediately asked Aoki Shuzo to inspect in Germany, choosing the design of a shipyard and ordering two armored cruisers first.

A number of shipyards in Germany were keen to win orders for the two Japanese armored cruisers, but Shuzo Aoki was clearly more interested in the Royal Ship Technical Shipyard, which built the Tsarist super-armored cruisers.

For the fat sheep sent to the door, Jochen naturally had no reason to refuse it, nor did he deliberately come up with any defective goods to fool the Japanese, first with a frightening price of 1.1 million pounds to dispel the idea of the Japanese to buy a cruiser of the same specifications as the Russians, and then came up with a plan to use two twin Škoda 240-mm naval guns in the bow and stern on the basis of the 8,000-ton scheme selected by the German Navy.

The design is basically the same as that of the new cruiser of the German Navy, which has been started at the beginning of the year, in addition to the use of larger caliber naval guns for the main guns, the 210 mm guns on the side of the guns have been canceled, and the original positions have been replaced with 150 mm naval guns, so the number of secondary guns is 4 more than the German version, and the cost of a single ship is 880,000 pounds, but it did not kill the Japanese.

Although it is an 8,000-ton plan, it is actually much stronger than the two 9,700-ton Asama-class armored cruisers built by the British for the Japanese this year.

The Asama class has a huge displacement, not only only 4 8-inch main guns and 14 6-inch secondary guns, but also its waterline armor belt is only a narrow 7-inch armor, which is very unsatisfactory in terms of protection area.

And what Poper took out here is a really good product, don't you Japanese like thick and long? The armored cruiser is equipped with 4 240mm rapid-fire guns, which is very satisfying to your liking, and it is a full circle larger than the gun caliber of the warship next to Maozi.

And our armor plates are also able to block the Russians' 8-inch shells, and the power system does not shrink, and it is 1 knot faster than the Russians. Naturally, this kind of introduction is very appealing to Japanese people.

Of course, the Germans would never tell Aoki Shuzo that although the Russians' shells could not penetrate the armor of this design, in fact, even the shells used by their own 260mm naval guns are also powerless than the 200mm armor of the armored cruisers, and the projection ability of 6 8-inch naval guns is higher than that of your 4 240mm naval guns.

Shuzo Aoki, who was itched by the introduction of the Germans, immediately telegraphed to the country, saying that the Russians' armored cruisers were expensive and the caliber of naval guns was smaller, and the Germans could build cruisers with smaller tonnage, stronger firepower, faster speed, and enough armor to withstand Russian artillery. Its quality and price are far superior to the warships of the Russians.

Saigo, who got the news, immediately made a decision and telegraphed Shuzo Aoki to order two armored cruisers from Germany in advance. Since it was designed by the Royal Ship Technical Shipyard, it was supposed to be built by the Royal Ship Technical Shipyard, but now the problem arises.

Although the shipbuilding technology Royal Ship Technology shipyards are strong, they do not have enough production capacity! There are not enough slipways, it's a sad story. Originally, the Navy wanted to divide the construction of five new armored cruisers to the Crown Prince's shipyard, but because the Argentines and Russians had already ordered the shipyard to accept new orders for large ships, it was abandoned.

Although the Russians were still able to vacate the 10,000-ton dock after the armored cruiser was launched, they could only be more than enough in the face of the Japanese orders for two ships.

In the end, the Japanese had to order one ship from the Royal Shipyards, which would provide the drawings and build another at the nearby Royal Shipyards in Wilhelmshaven, and of course, the Royal Shipyards would have to pay a design fee.

However, it is not a way to go on like this, and Jochen decided to expand two more 5,000-ton slipways, two 10,000-ton slipways, and two 30,000-ton docks, and the expansion plan is expected to take two years.

This came as a big surprise to Caprividu, who had taken it upon himself to enlarge the size of the shipyard. Originally, I thought that the scale of the shipyard handed over to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was not too small, and if there was no such thing as a long development period, it was estimated that the existing scale was completely sufficient, but I didn't expect that it could develop rapidly to the point of insufficient production capacity now.

And this qiē is brought about by the shipyard's excellent ship design capabilities. Caprivi can only sigh that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has never looked away in the navy so far,

And on the other side, there is a customer who is also thinking about buying warships from the Germans.

Having almost lost the Liaodong Peninsula in the Sino-Japanese War, the entire Manchu government regarded Japan as a major nuisance. Although it was the intervention and mediation of the five powers, the navy was dispatched for deterrence, the army could be deployed to intervene at any time, and the nearest Tsarist Russia naturally became the savior in the eyes of the Manchu government.

Therefore, the Manchu government decided to hug the thighs of the Russians and "unite Russia to control Japan", and even Li Hongzhang, who was known as the "Bismarck of the East", agreed with this very much, and did not think that he was luring the wolf into the house.

In response to the invitation and persuasion of the Russians, Li Hongzhang went to Russia to attend the enthronement ceremony of Nicholas II, and then held a series of negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Robertov and Finance Minister Witte on the "Qing-Russian Union".

Since Russia had already obtained the right to establish the Trans-Siberian Railway in the Qing Dynasty and turned the entire northeast into its sphere of influence, the Russians asked the Qing to send manpower and material resources to help build the Trans-Siberian Railway.

In the face of Russia's coercion and temptation, and also promised heavy benefits, Li Hongzhang signed the "Treaty of Mutual Assistance to the Enemy", also known as the "Treaty of Defense Alliance", which is often referred to as the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty" in later generations.

After that, Mr. Lee Chung-do, a professional signatory of the unequal treaty, left Russia and arrived in Berlin, the second stop of his European journey.

For the arrival of this "Bismarck of the East", the German business community erupted with great enthusiasm, because Germany had a concession in the Qing Dynasty, as well as Shandong, a nominally not a sphere of influence, plus the reduction of tariffs, to obtain greater benefits from the country became the same theme.

And even if the reparation of 200 million taels of Kuping silver was paid in the Sino-Qing War, in the eyes of Europeans, the Qing Kingdom was still a good place where "there are many fools with money, come quickly". So the praise of Li Hongzhang has not stopped from the moment he set foot on German soil.

However, the people who were most happy about Li Hongzhang's arrival were undoubtedly those German arms dealers. Because even if the Qing market is opened, the sales of goods still depend on the purchasing power of the Qing country itself. However, Li Hongzhang, as the minister of Beiyang, held a large government order for the purchase of ordnance.

In this regard, the German government is also very willing to help the arms giants match, so the German government held a reception for Li Hongzhang, and the German arms manufacturing giants were invited to the reception.

Although he had seen several black-and-white photos of Li Hongzhang on the Internet in his previous life, the most impressive was the group photo of Li Hongzhang when he went to the Frydrislu estate in Omler on June 25 to set up Bismarck.

In the photo, Bismarck, dressed in military uniform, tall and muscular, looks short, haggard and outdated. But now when I see the real person, I find that although the appearance is still the same as in the photo, the bright eyes and gestures can still make people understand that this is not an ordinary little old man.

Looking at the arms giants such as Krupp, Skoda, and Mauser around Li Hongzhang, Joheng did not squeeze over to join in the fun, and watched Li Hongzhang in the center of the crowd from a distance with a wine glass.

"Your Highness, why don't you talk to that 'Bismarck of the East'?" Caprivi asked as he walked over to Jochen.

"If you want to talk to the 'Bismarck of the East', there is an opportunity, and there is no need to rush. Your Excellency, Prime Minister, aren't you in a hurry to talk to him? ”

"Haha, that's right, let's let our entrepreneurs have a good exchange with this important minister of the Qing Dynasty first. We are too far away from the Qing Kingdom, so we can only take more marks from them. Caprivi said with some regret.

"Your Excellency is talking about the secret treaty signed between the Qing Kingdom and Russia?"

"Yes, although the exact situation is not very clear, there is no doubt that the Russians have reaped a lot of benefits from the Qing State, and we have gained nothing."

"Okay, Your Excellency, didn't we get the right to use Jiaozhou Bay from the Qing people, take your time, we need an opportunity, this kind of thing can't be rushed. So what are our plans for taking out the mark from the generous Qingguo pocket? ”RS