In the early hours of March 29, 1874, the crown prince was woken up in his sleep.

In this case, something must have happened.

Prime Minister Zhou Ying, with six Shangshu, was in charge of the Imperial Court and collectively asked to see the crown prince.

At 10 a.m., the German ambassador formally announced to the Imperial Court that Germany would declare war on Britain at noon tomorrow, demanding that China fulfill its obligations as an alliance and join Germany in declaring war on Britain.

Li Zhangtong first reported the situation to the prime minister, and the prime minister immediately summoned all the ministers to ask to see the crown prince together, this kind of major matter must be discussed by the cabinet, and the right to declare war belongs to the emperor. At present, the crown prince is in charge of the country, and the crown prince may not be able to say that it can be counted, so he discussed with the crown prince, and then made a final decision.

The German ambassador is still waiting for a reply, obviously, they still need China's final confirmation of its attitude, if Li Zhangtong replied that China can no longer fulfill its obligations, the Germans may really adjust their methods, at least they will not be so eager to go to war, waiting for Britain to declare war on Germany, and Germany taking the initiative to declare war on Britain, the political significance is different, and those who declare war first will always bear a charge of provoking war. If Britain had taken the initiative to declare war on Germany, it would have stimulated the unity of the German nation even more.

"Is there anything else to discuss? We are not a country that openly states that we will abide by the obligations of the alliance! ”

When the crown prince heard this, he was quite surprised, there were only twenty-four hours left before the end of the alliance relations between China, and he thought that the Germans would not go to war, but they did not expect to inform them at this time that they had decided to declare war, demanded that China fulfill its obligations, and hoped to receive a clear reply from China on this issue.

The crown prince waited for the news and waited for the news, and his attitude was very clear.

However, the prime minister was still very hesitant: "Your Highness." Now that the time is too late, the Germans seem to be planning to go to war without declaring it. ”

The crown prince snorted: "Whether it is in accordance with diplomatic procedures or not, that is the problem of the Germans, as long as the alliance is there, we will abide by the treaty." ”

Zhou Ying said again: "Do you want to ask Your Majesty for this matter first?" ”

The prime minister is obviously not a person who wants to fight, although Zhou Ying, like Zhou Guanhai, is a princeling family promoted by the crown prince in recent years, but the dignified civil servants are not very willing to fight this kind of unreasonable war.

The crown prince said: "Father must be clear." I'll start playing my father right away. But I don't think my father would allow the betrayal to happen. So it can be replied to the Germans that if Germany declares war on Britain, we will fulfill our allied obligations. ”

Zhou Ying no longer insisted, after all, he was an official promoted by the crown prince, and he would not always go against the crown prince.

So he said: "Then please ask Li Zhangyuan to convey our country's attitude to the German ambassador." I'm afraid there will be some trouble on the council's side, so I'll talk to the speaker after dawn. ”

The crown prince said: "Don't wait for dawn, go to Zhou Guanhai's house now." Zhao Shangshu, the combat strategy you have drawn up may be implemented immediately? ”

The secretary of the military department is Zhao Ren, a son of a powerful person, but it is also a prince, because he grew up with the crown prince since he was a child, and studied in the palace together, although his name is Ren, but he is proficient in martial arts, and Zhao Rang, the son of the powerful man of Ural, is the son of the Zhao family in Chaozhou, and his father is Zhao Wen, the founder of the county.

One of the brothers is called Ren and the other is called Rang, the original intention was to let them have a benevolent heart, but because the brothers are both in the position of Shangshu, and they have both been the secretary of the military department, they have been nicknamed by their names and called them deserved.

Zhao Ren said: "Return to Your Highness." The military strategy can be implemented at any time, and if a war is waged against Britain, it should be mainly based on water warfare, supplemented by land warfare. However, there are three strategies, one of which is that only China will carry out mobilization, the water war will be in the direction of the Mediterranean, and the land war will be in the direction of India and the Americas. Second, China mobilized together with its subject countries, mobilized the Kingdom of the Ural in Europe, mobilized the Kingdom of the Inca in the United States, and invited the Kingdom of South Africa and the Greek Navy to help in the water war; Third, it will go all out to wage war, mobilize troops from its own country, its subject countries, Korea, Vietnam, and Burma, and invite Japan, South Africa, and Greece to send troops to help in the war. ”

The crown prince said: "Choose the second strategy." Concentrate your forces and take British India and North America as soon as possible. ”

The brief cabinet meeting ended quickly, and everyone went into action.

The crown prince took a deep breath, and then asked the study to send a report directly to Wudang Mountain, asking for instructions on his father who was old and immortal and hid in Wudang Mountain as a god.

At the same time, Li Zhangtong submitted an official reply to the German ambassador, saying that he would fulfill his alliance obligations within three days after Germany declared war.

The reason why it was three days, the German ambassador did not ask why, and it also took time to prepare. The reason for this is that the edict of declaration of war requires the emperor's consent and even the emperor's signature.

During the meeting with the German ambassador, Li Zhangtong still had some doubts: "If your country does not make an ultimatum, will it directly declare war on Britain like this?" ”

The German ambassador smiled bitterly: "Isn't an ultimatum a procedure?" Who respects the diplomatic process today? ”

Li Zhangtong sighed: "It's just that this will put Germany in an unfavorable public opinion situation." ”

The German ambassador said: "In an era when the wicked have the right to speak, no matter what we do, we will fall into unfavorable public opinion. Britain is not at war with our country, but it is imposing a de facto blockade on our country, but the international public opinion promoted by Britain has been condemning our country. Where is the British taking the lead in hostile acts, what reason do we have to respect the so-called procedure? ”

Li Zhangtong said: "I still hope that your country can properly handle this kind of problem, if there is a Belgian incident, it will be very troublesome." ”

The German ambassador shook his head and did not say anything.

Originally, China did not pay much attention to diplomatic procedures, and there was only a set of Confucian etiquette with a false head and a brain. The main reason is that after the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, China did not have any meaningful diplomatic relations. Even diplomatic relations are rare, and a rigorous modern diplomatic procedure cannot be born.

But as China has grown stronger over the years, coupled with a tradition of etiquette, it has begun to reshape diplomatic etiquette. Although there are some differences with the West, it is still very secretive about such things as undeclared war. A literati who want to face always have to pay attention to a proper name, which is why it is so difficult for the crown prince to promote the war, because he can't find a suitable name.

Germany's approach in Belgium was too much, although it achieved some short-term military advantages, but did not declare war, but only disappeared half before the war, informing Belgium to transit, in the West, the British portrayed Germany as a Germanic barbarian, and in China, public opinion has always denounced Germany as a bully and unrighteous act.

If Germany is playing the Belgian plan once, and China stands with Germany again, it is difficult to ensure that some morally upright literati will not criticize the imperial court, which is a problem that Li Zhangtong is worried about.

Perhaps it was because of the unreasonable handling of the Belgian question, or perhaps to save face for Britain, Germany made some preparations before declaring war on Britain. At 9 o'clock in the morning of the 29th, the German ambassador to Britain made a request to the British government, demanding that they immediately lift the blockade of Germany and not block the entry and exit of German merchant ships and other merchant ships of neutral countries into and out of German ports, otherwise Germany would regard it as an act of war.

The German ambassador asked Britain to give a reply within three hours.

The Germans' claim is much more interesting, making it clear that Britain has already committed an act of war against Germany, so Germany declares war at any time, it is self-defense, and there is no procedural problem.

At 12 o'clock, the British Zheng refused the request of the German ambassador, and at 1 o'clock in the afternoon, the German ambassador sent a note to the United Kingdom, announcing that because of Britain's refusal to cease hostilities against Germany, Germany had severed diplomatic relations with Britain and had automatically entered a state of war.

It had only been four hours since the German ambassador had sent a note to Britain.

At the level of communications of this era, the British were not yet able to convey the attitude of Germany to the fleet carrying out blockade tasks at sea.

As a result, the German fleet made an advance sortie and, after the declaration of war, quickly attacked several British cruisers cruising in the North Sea, and sank one of them.

In the past few years, the naval competition has allowed the Germans to equip 80 ironclad ships, which has surpassed the capital ships of the French Navy, but it is still far from the British, because the British have 200 ironclad ships of the same class.

So the sortie of the German Navy, tactically, did not make much sense. I didn't even dare to enter the English Channel, because it was easy to get in, but it was difficult to get out. In the event that it was blocked in the channel by the British Navy, it was possible that the entire army would be annihilated.

But the German navy had to attack, and this was at the request of China, and even if there were no results, Germany had to show their presence in the North Sea, so that Britain had to place a large number of fleets on its own soil, which would help the Chinese navy defeat the British navy in other seas and gain sea supremacy. This is not only about helping China, whether the Chinese naval division can defeat the British Navy, but also whether Germany can achieve the final victory in this war.

The Germans were not worried about the battle between the land and the French, but they had nothing to do with the British, who had maritime superiority. The Chinese must be relied upon, as long as China destroys, at least suppresses the British Navy, British support for France will be unsustainable. Not only was Britain unable to calmly send troops to France, but even Britain itself was unable to obtain supplies from overseas. This is fatal for Britain, which is now dependent on imports even for food.

After Germany declared war on Britain, the news broke that the German Navy had attacked British warships before Britain had even declared war on Germany. At this time, the British Cabinet, which was slow and complicated, was still going through the process of declaring war. The summoning document has just been drafted through the Cabinet and handed over to Queen Victoria.

Before receiving the document, the Queen received information about the German Navy's attack on a British warship, and not only signed it immediately, but also appealed to the people to support the war to defend the great Motherland.

After that, Britain officially declared a state of war with Germany, but their navy did not fight back against the German navy, because the British navy knew very well that the German navy was not to worry, and it was the Chinese navy that needed to be worried about the war. Britain has developed numerous naval combat plans over the years, more than half of which are specifically aimed at China.

It's just that China has not yet declared war, so Britain has not yet been able to implement its plan.