Ps. Thank you for the reward from Bai Junli's book friends, and I wish you a smooth civil service exam.

Joey's idea for William is not complicated, to put it simply, instead of passively waiting for Sergei to catch up, William and Elizabeth's cousin should appear in front of Sergei's eyes together in a generous manner, which directly broke the crooked thoughts of this Russian gray animal.

This straightforward style is in line with William's temperament.

But Joey, who had a bad taste, still gave William a peek-a-boo idea, suggesting that William go to Sanssouci Palace early tomorrow morning, take Ella to the palace for a while, and let Sergei go to Pozdam to pounce first.

All the means that can trick the rival in love are good means in William's opinion.

But on the question of whether to invite Sergei to the Prince's Dinner or a ball, William and Joey had different opinions.

According to William's competitive character, he should send out invitations through the ball, and let himself humiliate this Russian rival in front of everyone, William is confident that his court dance skills are far superior to this Russian.

But in Joey's opinion, the luxurious character shown by the Russians must have spent a lot of effort on dance learning, Sergei's dancing skills may not necessarily lose to William, in case William misses and doesn't dance well, wouldn't he smash his own brand, so for the sake of safety, it's better to have a dinner.

Sitting together for a formal dinner, can this Russian do anything out of the ordinary?

When the two argued for a long time without results, Joey had no choice but to use the projection effect of psychology and said to himself, "Willy, if it were me and Mary, I wouldn't let my rival's dirty hands touch my Mary." ”

"You know, Willy, as the master of the ball, you can't let Cousin Ella refuse this Russian's invitation to dance. Cousin Ella dancing next to your rival, oh my! Willie, do you want to be in this scene?! ”

"Yes, the Russians must not be allowed to touch Ella!" This sentence finally touched William's heart deeply.

After going through all the details with William, at the end, Joey asked, "Willy, are you wearing your engagement ring?" ”

"Well, the sapphire ring my mother gave me has always been here." William said, patting his jacket pocket vigorously.

"Willy, why don't you let Cousin Ella put it on first?" Joey egged.

"Now?" William immediately shook his head and said, "No, this engagement ring can only be given to Ella at the engagement ceremony, not now." ”

"Oh...."Joey touched his nose, and another crooked idea immediately jumped out, "Willy, you don't need the heirloom ring that your mother gave you, you must go to the best jewelry store in Berlin tomorrow, pick the most beautiful ring for Cousin Ella, and let Cousin Ella bring this beautiful ring." ”

Looking at William, who was a little confused, Joey continued, "The ring you gave is not called an engagement ring, but a promise ring, and it represents your commitment to Ella's cousin, love!" ”

"The promise of love, the promise ring?!" William blinked vigorously and began to think seriously about the meaning of the word.

Joey began to use his previous life, those unscrupulous diamond dealers to fool the young lover's fixed brainwashing routine, to William told William the great meaning of the promise ring, in front of Joey's previous life of those tempered diamond ring stories, William can only be brainwashed with a smile.

"Willy, remember, tell Cousin Ella the story of the promise ring I said, and if Cousin Ella asks about these ideas, tell her that it all stems from your romantic thoughts!" Joey admonished.

"Qiaoqiao, but this is what you think, I can't say it's mine." William shook his head in disagreement.

"Okay, you just say, my story inspires you, that's fine!"

"Hmm!" William finally began to shake his head and tail excitedly.

"Remember, Willie, make sure Ella wears it on her left ring finger!" Joey shouted at William, who was trying to rummage through the back of his private money, "Don't worry about money, it must be the most beautiful!" ”

Leaving William's room excitedly, Joey hurried to his father's study.

When he arrived at his father's study, the tired crown prince did not procrastinate, and directly told Joey about the troubles he had encountered today.

This morning, at a private meeting with General Shuvalov, chairman of the Council of Ministers of Russia, at the Charlottenburg Palace, General Shuvalov made his own request very directly: Russia wants Germany to open its domestic market in addition to importing Russian grain, and to allow Russian industrial products to be exported to Germany.

He even hinted that Crown Prince Frederick hoped that in the context of Russian-German friendship, Germany would give preferential treatment of tax reductions and exemptions to Russian industrial products.

General Shuvalov spoke very bluntly, as the leader of the pro-German faction, he was under great pressure from all sides in Russia, and he hoped that his German friends would support him in doing a good job in the Russian economy.

Crown Prince Frederick and Joy were extremely disgusted by this threatening remark, but they still had to admit that what the Russians said was the truth, and now that Russia's ground military power is so strong that even the British have to pull the French and the Austro-Hungarians together to deal with it, and it is unwise to let the Germans single out the Russians.

A pro-German Russian power is indeed worth cultivating and supporting, but such an arrogant Russian is not a good friend.

But the problem is that Crown Prince Frederick is right to promote Germany's NEP, but the purpose of promoting NEP is to boost Germany's domestic demand, digest excess steel production, improve Germany's industrial structure, and promote Germany's industrial upgrading, accelerate urbanization, and solve the problem of rural wealth, but this has nothing to do with the Russians.

The only thing he needed was cheap Russian grain, and minerals, and as for General Shuvalov's suggestion that the Germans would buy Russian steel products, such as railways, construction steel, and even steam-powered industrial machinery, Crown Prince Frederick did not want anything at all.

These Russian industrial products, which were of inferior quality and high price, did not attract Germany in the slightest.

However, the direct rejection of General Shuvalov would damage the prestige of the pro-German forces in Russia, and would be politically incorrect, because in high-level exchanges between the two countries, sometimes political interests outweigh economic interests.

At present, the greatest political correctness of Germany is Wilhelm I's attitude towards Russia, and in the old emperor's mind, the alliance with Russia has always been the only diplomatic first choice

As a liberal, Frederick did not like this group of conservative, greedy, and tyrannical Russian relatives, but his diplomatic stance towards Russia was similar to that of his father, William I.

It was nothing more than that the old emperor advocated the union with Russia, regarding Russia as the first of all German foreign relations, while Crown Prince Frederick advocated proximity to Russia, maintaining friendship with Russia, and maintaining balance in the Anglo-Russian conflict.

The Emperor and the Crown Prince, father and son, were equally dissatisfied with Chancellor Bismarck's performance at the Berlin Conference last year, and the reason for Wilhelm I's dissatisfaction was that there was no need to abandon the German-Russian friendship in order to support an Austria-Hungary that refused to send troops against France, and the Germans could not afford to be attacked by both Russia and France.

Crown Prince Frederick was dissatisfied that Germany had no interests in the Balkans and in the Ottomans, and that it would be unwise to ruin German-Russian relations for the sake of an unrelated region, and that a tense German-Russian relationship would be completely detrimental to the development of the German economy.

Therefore, in terms of relations with Russia, Crown Prince Frederick, like his father, actively advocated the repair of German-Russian relations, and supporting the pro-German faction in Russia was the most correct political choice.

But the greedy and arrogant Russians seem to have a lot of difficulty in supporting.

Hearing his father's request from the Russians, Joey also had a headache, and he could accept cheap grain from the Russians, but Joey was not interested in these Russian industrial products at all.

"Dad, didn't you say that the Russians just got a loan of 2 billion francs from the French, and now that the money is in hand, it stands to reason that the Russians are not short of money?!" Joey really couldn't figure out that the Russians, who had just received a huge amount of money, were still so greedy.

"General Shuvalov said that the 2 billion francs were the credit of His Majesty Alexander, and that it was his credit for exporting Russian industrial goods to Germany." Thinking of the greedy faces of the Russians in the morning, Crown Prince Frederick shook his head in annoyance.

Looking at his distressed father, Joey also felt that the matter was a bit tricky, and in the face of political correctness, sometimes pure economic interests seemed too pale and powerless.

In the end, Joey didn't come up with any good ideas, so he could only comfort his father and wait to see if there was a more suitable way to expand Russian exports to Germany.

Crown Prince Frederick was also distressed by this for a day, and seeing that his son had no better way, he could only put aside the problem for the time being and continued to talk about the second trouble.

After a luncheon banquet for the Russian guests, the old emperor summoned the crown prince into Whitehall and asked the crown prince for German economic assistance to Peru, hoping to come up with a plan as soon as possible.

Peru, its own emperor grandfather asked for financial aid to Peru? Joey curiously asked about the whole thing.

Crown Prince Frederick recounted to Joy the situation of the ongoing war in the South Pacific, and the Peruvian president's visit to Germany and the promise of German economic aid, which Peru was willing to pay.

It was only after learning that this was a thread drawn by a high-ranking person in the Imperial Foreign Office, through a bridge built by Count Junkercleister of Pomerania, that the request of Peruvian President Prado was submitted to William I.

Joey alertly reminded his father, "Dad, does the old prime minister know about this matter?" ”

"This afternoon, when I met with the old prime minister and the Chilean envoy in the office of the Ministry of Economy, I told him what the emperor had asked me for." Crown Prince Frederick understood what Joey was worried about, and replied directly, and finally added, "What the Prime Minister said to me seems to have been prepared for a long time. ”

"Oh, that's good." Joey nodded, knowing in his heart how much Bismarck in history cared about the power in his hands, and any cabinet minister who passed him to meet the emperor alone and report to his work would be a challenge to his power.

Thinking of this, Joey suddenly remembered that in his father's words just now, he had met the old prime minister and the Chilean envoy this afternoon.

After checking with his father again, Joey was amazed and asked his father about the Chilean envoy.

When he learned that in the afternoon of the Ministry of Economy, the Chilean envoy brought by the old prime minister went to Germany to ask for help as a Prussian compatriot and friend for the Southern Taiping War.

It turned out that the unknown high-ranking foreign ministry had managed to get through the path of the old emperor and gain the emperor's support for Peru, and was fighting with the old prime minister who supported Chile.

This powerful man in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dared to privately challenge the authority of the old prime minister, and burned the war to his father's Ministry of Economy.

Only then did Joey understand why his father was so tired today, it turned out that he had to entertain greedy Russian guests as the prince, and was called by the emperor's grandfather to discuss the Peruvian issue, and finally was dragged by the old prime minister to the door with the Chilean envoy.

Everything, it looks bad, not a single thing is good for Germany, all of them are reaching out for money.

"The Russians want to export industrial goods to Germany, they want nothing more than German gold marks, oh, I hate the current gold standard monetary settlement system, if it is paper money, maybe I can still pinch my nose and recognize it. However, according to the gold standard, the amount of currency that Germany can issue is determined by its own gold reserves, which is really unappetizing. Joey scratched her head in annoyance.

"The Peruvians offered very generous and tempting terms, but first the Germans were asked to pay for the war between him and Bolivia, in exchange for providing German guano and saltpeter. Although Germany has found a way to chemically synthesize potash and phosphate fertilizers, it has not yet found a way to synthesize nitrogen fertilizers. Guano and saltpeter, which are still the most direct raw materials for nitrogen fertilizer, cannot be given up for the sake of German agriculture. ”

Based on the research of Professors Wühler and Hoffmann, Joy knew that sooner or later Germany would obtain a chemical synthesis method for nitrogen fertilizers. However, before the chemical synthesis method came out, there was still a huge gap in the resources of guano and saltpeter in Germany.

"But Chile is not as poor as this Chilean envoy said, this is a country with the most copper mines in the world, how can it be possible to equip 5,000 people on credit?" Joey recalled that in his previous life, Chile, a famous copper resource country, he couldn't help but have doubts about this South American powerhouse that had already gotten rid of the "Dutch disease" and entered a moderately developed country in his previous life.

"Don't Chileans know how rich they are?!" An idea popped into Joey's eyes.

"If the Chileans don't know how rich they are, what position should I take in this Peruvian-Chilean war in favor of Germany?" Joey touched his chin and thought nervously.

"Or, should I think about this war first, who won in the end? War, naturally, you have to bet to win, not to lose! ”