Just as China was not invited to the meeting held by the United Kingdom, the meeting held by China on the Black Sea coast did not invite the United Kingdom to participate.

At that time, Britain reasoned that China was not a Balkan country or a European country, so it firmly believed that the Balkan issue had nothing to do with China, and strongly excluded China's involvement in the Balkan issue.

This time, China's reasoning is the same: Britain is neither a Black Sea country nor a Mediterranean country, so it firmly believes that Britain has nothing to do with the strait issue and excludes the British from intervening in the strait issue.

This kind of political and diplomatic game is sometimes boring, but it is necessary.

France, Spain, and Egypt are the representatives of the Mediterranean countries, and Russia, China, and Austria are the representatives of the Black Sea countries.

At the same time, representatives of the control of the straits, the Ottoman Empire, were invited.

The little victim of the Ottoman Empire seems to have her everywhere, and she is abused everywhere.

There was only one reason for asking the Ottomans, to let them accept the resolution of the conference, whatever it was.

British public opinion sneered at this, believing that such a meeting was completely unreasonable, and Britain would never recognize any resolution at the conference.

This is also understandable, because Britain also tried to participate in this conference, but China resolutely rejected it, just as China also tried to participate in the Balkan conference, and Britain resolutely rejected it. It is also reasonable for Britain not to recognize it, because China has not recognized the resolution of the Balkan Conference. But without prejudice to the outcome of this meeting, it has become a fact.

The topic of the meeting was divided into two areas, one was the right of the Mediterranean countries to enter the Black Sea, and the other was the right of the Black Sea countries to enter the Mediterranean.

China is relatively open in its attitude, and it does not oppose the free entry and exit of the Black Sea countries in the Mediterranean, nor does it oppose the free entry and exit of the Mediterranean countries in and out of the Black Sea.

But on specific issues, there are still differences, mainly between France and Austria.

As a Black Sea country and lacking access to the ocean, Austria has a better geographical location than Russia, but its good interests are limited. The Russian-controlled outlet to the sea, whether it is the Baltic Sea or the Black Sea, is a closed sea. The same is true of the Austrian-controlled access to the sea, the Adriatic Sea is a sea within a sea in the Mediterranean, and like the Black Sea, it is a semi-enclosed sea blocked by straits, and even the Mediterranean itself is nothing more than a larger enclosed sea.

Therefore, after becoming a Black Sea country, the Black Sea became an important outlet for Austria, and their urgency to enter and exit the Mediterranean Sea even exceeded that of Russia.

Russia's purpose in entering and exiting the Mediterranean is now more of a commercial interest, and it is actually difficult to enter the Mediterranean to expand, but Britain and France are still squeezing out, and they do not want any threat. Austria's access to the Mediterranean and Black Seas was not only commercially important, but also militarily.

Russia can freely enter and exit the Mediterranean, militarily, but let the Russian Black Sea Fleet extend its control to the Mediterranean, Russia's two naval fleets are still separated, the Baltic Fleet wants to converge with the Black Sea Fleet, and has to cross the entire European coast, in the same way, the Black Sea Fleet wants to converge with the Baltic Fleet, and also faces this problem, so whether it is a war with the European sea power, the Russian Navy must be separated.

But Austria was different, once the straits were opened, the Austrian fleet in the Adriatic could easily merge with the Black Sea Fleet, and the integrity of the Austrian navy could be guaranteed. This is very important for any country, France believes that the biggest reason why the French navy has been suppressed by the British navy in history is that the French navy is divided between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, but the British navy can gather in the strait to put pressure on France, and at the same time, the British also control the Strait of Gibraltar, which connects the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean, so that the French fleet has no hope of converging at all.

Therefore, unless any of his squadrons has the ability to challenge the opponent, it will be difficult for this kind of geographically separated sea power country to grasp the sea power. Just like the United States, it has absolute sea supremacy in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Therefore, on the issue of commercial navigation, all countries supported the opening of the straits, because all countries could benefit from the opening, which was also the status quo that the Ottoman Empire had previously accepted. But on military issues, Austria insisted that it should be open, and France insisted that it should be restricted. Because once the strait is opened, Austria can boldly deploy a fleet in the Black Sea, and realize the convenience of one fleet controlling two sea areas, in other words, after the strait is opened, the two sea areas controlled by Austria will be a whole.

But France did not agree, for France they had only economic benefits in and out of the Black Sea, and had no military significance. On the contrary, Austria, a country with a population of 36 million, has just surpassed France's 35.8 million to become the second most populous country in Europe. Moreover, Austria controlled large swaths of northern Italy and remained unrelenting in the Mediterranean.

Today's Austria has two fleets deployed in the Black Sea and the Adriatic Sea, and neither fleet is enough to compete with the French Mediterranean fleet, but if the channel is opened, Austria's two fleets are actually equivalent to one fleet, and the strategic situation at that time will be that France will use a detachment fleet against the entire Austrian navy.

France was already struggling with Britain in the Mediterranean, and with the addition of Austria, France would be at a disadvantage. So France was firmly against it, and the strait became a zone of military passage.

The British looked at the joke and at the same time supported the French point of view.

This contradicts China, in the Mediterranean direction, France and China are collaborators, but in the Black Sea direction, Austria and China have the same interests, and both hope to link the two fleets.

Supporting Austria will affect the long-term cooperative relationship established with France, and supporting France will affect China's westward expansion strategy.

There are no permanent friends, only permanent interests.

Because of Greece's retreat, China had to go into battle shirtless, and as a result, it pushed itself to the front line of contradictions, so there was no buffer, it had to face all contradictions, it had to express its position, and there was no room for maneuver, which is why the great empires like to support agents.

Faced with this dilemma, Chinese diplomats are extremely troubled.

At the conference, China increasingly favored a complete opening of the strait, alongside Russia and Austria, while France and the Ottoman Empire were adamantly opposed to opening the strait.

Because there have already been too many wars breaking out over the strait issue, it would not be surprising if wars broke out again this time.

Once war breaks out, each country has its own confidence.

If the British and French navies were united, they would be able to suppress China's foreign naval divisions in the Mediterranean, while the Russian navy and the Austrian navy were immature and could not play a role, so the consequence of a war might be that China would lose its sea supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean.

Who would have thought that China would still not be able to occupy the upper hand in the maritime power of the industrial era.

Of course, China has an absolute advantage in land power, but the problem is that China is separated from many neighboring countries across the strait, unless it can fight around the Black Sea from the Manchu Empire, or along the Black Sea from the direction of the Danube.

But even if they occupy the land by land, they are still separated by neighboring countries, and unless China can control these lands, it will still not be able to control the straits directly by land, which is the biggest dilemma of the Russians in history. Russia also has many Slavic countries in the Balkans as its backing, and China has no foundation in the Balkans, so it can only look at the Black Sea and sigh.

It can only be through the sea, gather all the navies, assemble to the Mediterranean, and engage in a large-scale naval battle with Britain and France in the ironclad era. But will Britain and France give this opportunity, I am afraid that they will strike at the Chinese Mediterranean fleet before China transfers its home fleet.

If he retracts at this time, Zhou Lang doesn't even know if he will see the day when China breaks through the Black Sea, and if it does not break through the Black Sea, it will not really enter Europe.

At this time, a special plan was presented by the Imperial Court.

There was a young diplomat who put forward a novel idea.

The Imperial Court thought that the opinion was very unique, but the ministers of the Imperial Court did not agree on it, and hoped that the emperor would consider it.

Zhou Lang took this plan and saw it, it was indeed very unique, but he still didn't think it could solve the problem.

"The establishment of a strait commission is only to cover up the problem, not to solve the problem."

The minister of the Imperial Court explained a few words, and Zhou Lang had some insights when he heard it.

"You bring this person to me, and I'll listen to his opinion in person."

The young man is called Li Zhangtong, his ancestral home is Hefei, he is twenty-eight years old, he works as a scribe in the Li Fan Yuan, the article is very well written, logical, and powerful, and he is a seedling of imperial history in the Qing Dynasty, because the lethality of writing impeachment articles is amazing, and the same is true in the field of diplomacy.

The young man was still a little nervous at the first moment when he saw the emperor, but after saying a few words, he relaxed, and when he talked about his diplomatic strategy, he was even more eloquent.

"Your Majesty. We don't really need to be an enemy of France, and we don't need an alliance with Austria. We don't have the same interests as theirs. ”

Zhou Lang nodded and encouraged him to continue.

"Your Majesty, our aim is to transfer the fleet from the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, not from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean, and in this respect there is no contradiction with France, which restricts mainly Austria. Britain wanted to prevent our Mediterranean fleet from gaining access to the industrial resources of the Black Sea, and France did not limit it. ”

Zhou Lang was puzzled: "Your analysis of these contradictions is very subtle, but if we don't open the strait and enter and exit the two seas freely, our fleet will not be able to connect, which is the same as the predicament of Austria." Although we have no conflict with France, we have common interests with Austria. You said that the formation of a Straits Commission to control the passage of the Straits with the supervision of all parties will not solve the problem. ”

Li Zhangtong shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, you will definitely be able to solve the problem." We are not in contradiction with France, that is certain, and we are not entirely in agreement with Austria's interests, and that is also certain. Then there would be no reason for us to be in a head-on confrontation with France, and there would be no reason to advance or retreat with Austria. There must be a way to satisfy our interests without harming others. After the establishment of the Straits Commission, which excludes Britain, which is in direct conflict with us, then neither France nor Austria will restrict us, and we will have a channel that does not affect both countries, but also satisfies our own interests! ”

Few people can make Zhou Lang stunned on diplomatic issues, but Zhou Lang admitted that he was stunned this time, but he felt that what this young man said was very reasonable and logical.

There is no absolute contradiction between China and France, there should be no head-on conflict, and the interests of Austria are not absolutely consistent, there is no reason to form an alliance, this is logical, but the reality is here, and now the meeting is in conflict with France, and it is close to Austria.

"Can you elaborate on how this Straits Commission will work and explain the procedures for how we will ensure passage through the Straits Commission?"

Zhou Lang directly asked the technical problems at the operational level, if the other party can really say it, it means that the other party has indeed peeled off the cocoon from the most subtle points and found the answer to the problem, if the other party can't say it, it is a scholar who can only talk about big truths, and it is not worth using much.