Li Zhangtong said: "Your Highness Mingjian." Wechen has been trying to suppress Britain, and Wechen understands that the only way to bring Britain, a recalcitrant country, to its knees, is war. Therefore, Wechen has been trying to strive for the most favorable time, and it is this time to form an alliance with Germany. Once we can ally with Germany this time against Britain and its allies, it will be the time in fifty years when we and our allies will have the greatest power gap between Britain and their allies. ”

Li Zhangtong is talking about the fact that China and Britain have already fought two wars.

The first was after the Crimean War, when China mediated by force and formed an alliance with Russia, while Britain allied itself with the Ottoman Empire and Prussia. At that time, Russia had been jointly attacked by Austria, France, Britain, Prussia, Ottomans and other countries because of the Crimean War, so that time, Britain's allies were far stronger than China's allies. In the final war, China was almost independent against Britain and the Ottoman Empire, Russia basically did not play a role, they fought with Prussia on the northern front, and only the Manchu Qing, which was not yet weakened, played a certain role in striking the Ottoman Empire.

The second war was the Colorado Gold Mine War, which was provoked by Britain and the United States and Spain, which was deeply impressed and humiliated by the crown prince, and finally Russia joined the British side in the war. In this war, China had almost no allies, and only at the last moment did the Manchus join, but the Manchus had already begun to decline and could not play a role. In the end, it was still China that fought alone against Britain and her allies, and it took four years to decide the winner and almost dismember Russia.

Although China won both wars, it also paid a heavy price, paying hundreds of thousands of soldiers' lives.

And this time, if China enters the war, it will be the first time, and China's allies are stronger than those of Great Britain, which is the most advantageous.

If Li Zhangtong really has such a purpose, then it is very much in line with the crown prince's proposition.

As for what Li Zhangtong said, because the situation was unclear before, he did not dare to report rashly, and the crown prince did not pursue it, and waved his hand to let him retire.

When Li Zhangtong walked out of the palace, he found that he had almost collapsed, and his back was cold.

He is not afraid of the crown prince, he is afraid of his future.

He is a diplomat, and a diplomat who has done it to the extreme, and Li Zhangtong is also quite famous all over the world, and is considered a diplomatic figure who can match Bismarck.

But in fact, Li Zhangtong's position is very embarrassing. China is different from Western countries, there are a large number of Western countries, they are a region with a relative balance of various forces, and it is impossible for any powerful country to leave its allies to win a war, and it is impossible for any strong country to leave its allies to protect their interests. Even France in the time of Louis XIV and France in the time of Napoleon was not exempt from vulgarity. In this context, diplomacy becomes an important political activity, and the position of foreign secretary is second to none in the cabinets of European countries. The foreign ministry is also considered to be the number one ministry by default, and almost below the prime minister is the foreign secretary. In many countries, even the prime minister directly holds foreign power, such as Bismarck, and after the foreign secretary of many countries, the next prime minister, many British prime ministers start as foreign secretary.

However, China is an empire that unifies the entire land, and after the unification of the Qin and Han dynasties, a pattern of great unification has been formed. In China's periphery, it often revolves around China. China's sphere of influence is a political pattern in which China has 10 points in the world and China accounts for 9 points. China is often everything, and China's internal affairs are far more important than foreign affairs. Therefore, diplomacy in China has always been a dispensable affair. In the past, it was just a small department under the Ministry of Rites, and even a leisure department for the elderly. The meaning of diplomatic existence is often to decorate the emperor's façade, and there is no need for anything.

Even if the emperor reformed diplomacy and the Imperial Court was independent and directly responsible to the Emperor, and when dealing with foreign affairs, the Imperial Court was also able to attend cabinet meetings, but in fact, the Imperial Ministers were not regular cabinet members, and their status was always lower than that of the Six Books, let alone the status of the Prime Minister as in Europe.

Li Zhangtong is an excellent diplomat, the reason why the emperor promoted him is because he has a very strong logical ability to peel back the cocoon and sort out the clues in a chaotic situation, in the struggle for the Black Sea Strait, it was precisely because of his suggestion that the establishment of the Straits Commission was used as a cover, so that China actually got the right of passage through the strait, and also made other countries unable to check and balance each other in the strait. If it weren't for Li Zhangtong's suggestion, the emperor would have had to fight a big battle for the strait with Britain and France and other powers.

After that, Li Zhangtong worked in the Straits Commission for nearly 10 years, and constantly strengthened the fact that China has the exclusive right of passage through the Straits by improving the convention on cross-strait passage again and again. After that, he was transferred to the Imperial Academy, and he became the head of the Academy.

Without the emperor's discernment, it would be impossible for Li Zhangtong to grow rapidly from an ordinary scribe to the position of the head of the Imperial Court. Therefore, he has always been considered an official of the emperor's faction.

But he doesn't really have a faction, his only purpose is to be an official. This is the biggest difference between him and Bismarck's diplomat, he is a diplomat, not a diplomat, the difference is one word, but the center is different. Like Bismarck, he has the ability to control complex situations, and unlike Bismarck, Bismarck actively used diplomatic means to realize his ideas, while Li Zhangtong used diplomatic means to become an official.

Li Zhangtong was first an official, and then a diplomat.

As a Chinese scholar, he is also grateful for the emperor's kindness, but he will not be foolish to the emperor, nor does he have a strong diplomatic concept, and he will not be like Bismarck, who would rather resign after the failure of his diplomatic concept. He prefers to give up his ideas and submit to his superiors in order to retain his position.

Therefore, Li Zhangtong immediately expressed his attitude of supporting war to the crown prince this time, but this is by no means his real attitude, his real attitude and concept are actually the same as Bismarck, that is, if he can use diplomatic means to fight for the interests of his country, then he does not use the means of war.

But this is not the philosophy of the crown prince, who is more keen to achieve his goals through war, because that is the quickest.

Li Zhangtong has always promoted the realization of his ideas without offending the crown prince.

Like this incident, according to Li Zhangtong's concept, he would never have participated in the war. Even if Germany loses in the war with Britain and France, it will not be a loss for China for him. On the contrary, a Germany that dominates Europe may not be beneficial to China.

Britain wants to crack down, Germany also has to guard against it, and on the issue of preventing the rise of a third country, Li Zhangtong believes that China and Britain have the same interests. The two countries can confront each other, but they can also cooperate. If the Jin State rose back then, the Song Dynasty did not choose to cooperate with the Jin State out of long-term hatred for the Liao State, but fully supported the Liao State to suppress the Jurchens, and perhaps could continue to maintain the situation of separating the two powers from the Liao State on the East Asian continent. Later, he made the same mistake and chose to ally with the Mongols to attack the Jin State when the Mongols were rising. In the end, both powers were wiped out by the Mongols, whose rise was out of control.

But the crown prince's obsession with Britain has reached the point where he cannot think rationally. At this point, the crown prince is far from the emperor. The Emperor is a man who can negotiate in the face of anger.

At that time, the emperor could give up the annexation of the British colonies after obviously suppressing the British, and chose to leave most of India to the British, even though he knew that India was the cornerstone of Britain's strength. In the process of Sino-British hegemony, it is also possible to cooperate with the UK, such as accepting some international conferences led by the UK. None of this is acceptable to the crown prince.

Li Zhangtong would never stand on the opposite side of the crown prince and a future emperor, but the reason why he insisted on telling the crown prince until now was that he had always supported the war, the reason was very simple, he found that if he did not express his position, he would lose the trust of the crown prince. He is an official, he has done diplomacy to the limit, he has never lost the ambition to go further, standing at the top of the civil ministers, to see the ambition of the scenery, his ability is outstanding, there is no doubt about this, the emperor is optimistic about his ability, has explained everything, if he can win the trust of the crown prince, there is no doubt that he can go further, the next step is to become a scholar, enter the cabinet, and then the next step, win the power of the prime minister, become the prime minister. Climb to the pinnacle that a literati can climb.

The reason why he has survived until now is that he has to save the crown prince's trust in him, in addition to the fact that he also hopes to realize his political ideas, but also because he is waiting for the emperor's attitude. As an official promoted by the emperor, he has always been regarded by the anti-princeling forces as an ally that can be united, so he knows about the actions of the old-school bureaucrats to meet the emperor this time. He didn't know the emperor's attitude, so he kept waiting.

But the emperor on Wudang Mountain has not expressed his position, and at first he met with those old ministers, but he did not express his attitude, only said that he was old and did not go far from asking about political affairs, and then he simply stopped meeting these old ministers.

The emperor has not expressed his position, and in Li Zhangtong's opinion, this is the emperor's attitude. The emperor may not have liked war, but the emperor supported the crown prince.

At this time, Li Zhangtong knew that he would either obey the crown prince, give up his political opinions, and then win the throne; Either they choose to disobey the prince, stick to their political ideals, and then be abandoned. Among these two choices, Li Zhangtong will not have any hesitation in choosing the right position, because he regards diplomatic work as a method of becoming an official, rather than as a way to realize his diplomatic ideas.

But what he said to the crown prince is logically true, Germany starting a war within three days is indeed the best for Germany, and Germany has no choice. But it may not become a reality, and if the Germans have no choice but to take the initiative to wage war against Britain, Li Zhangtong knows that he will have to push it.