It is also because of the weak national strength that Bismarck, as a diplomat of Prussia, needs to be so careful to find the most powerful opportunity for Prussia, and large empires like Britain and China can create opportunities at any time, not opportunities but opportunities.

Prussia is a small country, like scattered leaves, if you want to go where you want to go, you have to wait patiently for the breeze they want to come, and then try to drift in the wind; And Zhongying is that they themselves are big trees, and the strong wind is caused by them twisting their bodies.

Russia and the Ottoman Empire, now bordering each other again, and with the historical hatred and national contradictions between these two countries, a war will have to start sooner or later.

The ambitious tsar built up a navy in the Black Sea region, and I don't know if it was out of arrogance, China did not show any attitude towards Russia's creation of a navy in the Black Sea.

Any naval power in the Black Sea region will have more or less contradictions with the Ottoman Empire, because of the straits in those two key locations.

China has it, Russia has it, Austria has it.

Moreover, in recent years, China and Austria have repeatedly put pressure on the Ottoman Empire, and the two sides have signed many relevant treaties, although they still have not won the free transit right of the navy, but the free transit right of merchant ships has been obtained, and the Ottoman Empire, with the strong support of Britain, has repeatedly rejected the right of passage of warships proposed by China and Austria.

In Bismarck's view, this was definitely a strategic mistake on the part of the Ottoman Empire, which, as a small state, was in fact defending something beyond their capabilities, and which no longer brought any economic benefits. As a country with a weakened navy, the Ottoman Empire's control of the straits did not give it a sufficient sea advantage. The Straits could only be a tight grip on the heads of the Black Sea states, and there were many naval battles with the Netherlands when Britain announced the implementation of the Straits Act and tried to control the English Channel. The Ottoman Empire had to face China, Austria and Russia, all of which were much more powerful than him.

If Russia alone, the Ottoman insistence was also strategic, because it would at least ensure that the Russian Black Sea Fleet would not pass through the straits to attack the coast of the rest of the Ottoman Empire, let alone Istanbul.

But now they are facing a China that has gained sea supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean on the other side of the Ottoman Empire, and even Britain cannot gain a foothold here, and the Ottoman Empire insists on only Istanbul's psychological comfort. In the event of war, China does not really need to raid their capital directly from the sea. And judging by the current military technology, it is unreasonable to capture the fortified cities from the sea.

If it were Bismarck, he would probably choose to completely open the straits. Then on both sides of the strait, especially on both sides of the Bosphorus, which is less than a river wide, set up a group of well-defended fortresses, which is one of the few places in the world where land power can be used to control sea power.

If the Ottoman Empire was willing to take the risk of offending Britain, then the strategic situation would be more favorable, and they could have declared that the strait would be shared with all the Black Sea countries, so that the Black Sea countries standing behind the strait would support the Ottoman Empire and become a strong backing for the Ottoman Empire to block the Mediterranean regional forces, because at this time, it has become the common interest of the Ottoman Empire and the Black Sea countries to prevent the Mediterranean countries from penetrating into the Black Sea.

If you are unwilling and dare not offend Britain, then simply declare the strait a high sea channel and allow ships of any nature to pass through, so that British and French warships can also be unimpeded here, and the Black Sea countries will enter and exit the Mediterranean Sea from the strait, and at this time, the maritime power that enters the Mediterranean Sea will compete with Britain and France and other Mediterranean hegemons in the Mediterranean, and the center of the conflict will be far away from the Ottoman Empire. And if the Mediterranean countries are strong, the center of the conflict will go to the Black Sea, which also has nothing to do with the Ottoman Empire.

However, the Ottoman Empire's firm lock-up of the strait simply because it feared that the Black Sea countries in and out of the Mediterranean would threaten the security of Istanbul was tantamount to Britain or France covering a lid over the hot pot of the Black Sea. As a weak empire, the Ottoman Empire did not change to holding this explosive lid in its own hands.

Of course, if they are a powerful country, for example, if China controls here, it collects taxes on the strait, and others can only comply, but unfortunately they are a weak country, a weak country that has no right to speak on the sea, but they are not willing to stay on land, but they want to confront the sea power countries on the sea.

In the past, conflicts between Russia and the Ottoman Empire were caused by the control of the straits, and Britain and the United States supported the Ottoman Empire every time.

Unlike in the past, now China has replaced Russia as the largest sea power in the Black Sea region, and the Chinese already have an advantage in the Eastern Mediterranean, they do not even have a strong fleet in the Black Sea, only some small fleets, used to check smuggling, in this case, they have no motive to enter the Mediterranean, but to enter the Black Sea from the Mediterranean.

With the Eastern Mediterranean already a Chinese Sea, the British would not have too strong an incentive to restrict Russia's access to the Mediterranean, and might even deepen the conflict with China by encouraging Russia to enter the Eastern Mediterranean.

In this way, Britain may remain neutral in the war between Russia and the Ottoman Empire, and although China does not have a strategic need to enter the Mediterranean, China has a need for its own Mediterranean fleet to enter the Black Sea, and they briefly maintain the same right of passage through the strait as Russia.

At this time, the contradiction will become very complicated, because if China goes to war with the Ottoman Empire, Britain will support the Ottoman Empire, China will go to war with Russia, Britain will support Russia, and in the context of the total annihilation competition between China and Britain, Britain will definitely support China's enemies, but if Russia goes to war with the Ottoman Empire, Britain will be in the position of maintaining an alliance with these two powers, but can only remain neutral.

Then if China forms an alliance with Russia and jointly attacks the Ottoman Empire, Britain's choice is also to start a war with China and Russia, because Britain's purpose is to blockade the Black Sea, and Russia can be allowed to blockade, but it is better to blockade China, and it must be blockaded against China. Otherwise, it would be even more dangerous for China to build a permanent fleet in the Black Sea and unite with the Mediterranean fleet. The establishment of a fleet is not so simple, a fleet needs a huge logistical support, especially the logistics guarantee in the era of steam ironclads, but also needs the support of a complete set of industrial systems, this condition restricts China's deployment in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Black Sea coast is already Chinese territory, and an industrial system to maintain steam warships has been created here, so once China enters the Black Sea, it is more dangerous than Russia's entry into the Mediterranean.

However, Bismarck believed that the possibility of China uniting with Russia was very small, because Russia and China had not signed a peace agreement at present, theoretically they were still at war, and it was impossible for them to sign an open alliance treaty until this legal issue was resolved, and the contradictions between China and Russia were also very large, making it unlikely that they would form an alliance with Russia.

In this way, the scale of the war would be small, and the war between Russia and the Ottomans would probably exclude both powers.

Austria's choice at this time was crucial, Austria also had the need for channel passage, so they could ally with Russia against the Ottoman Empire, and Austria could also use this opportunity to expand into the Balkans. At the same time, Austria also had the possibility of forming an alliance with the Ottoman Empire against Russia. Because Austria could not accept the result of the Russian seizure of Austrian Poland such as Galicia and Lviv, they have been conducting anti-Russian diplomatic actions.

If done correctly, this could be a war in which Austro-Prussia united with the Ottoman Empire to attack Russia, while at the same time excluding the two great powers, China and Britain. With the national strength of Prussia and Austria, the probability of winning a joint confrontation against Russia is extremely high.

As for the two great powers of China and Britain, at this time, Prussia needs to try its best to win them over, and strive to make them support Prussia without participating in the war, because Bismarck judged that even after winning the battlefield, according to the international diplomatic relations formed in modern times, even if the major powers do not participate in the war, they will eventually intervene through diplomacy, and it is impossible for China and Britain not to participate, and if they can support them, it will be easier for Prussia to ensure its own interests in the post-war negotiations.

The last of these obstacles was France, and it was not something that France was willing to accept if France directly supported Prussia's expansion in Poland, or even for France to accept Prussia's unification of North Germany, and France was certainly an opponent, and it was necessary to win over Britain and form an alliance with Austria on a common position against Russia in order to force France to accept this result.

At this point in the strategic plan, Bismarck felt that the idea was ripe, and he decided to start acting.

His basic idea of winning over China already has been found.

What China wants is to weaken Russia, to the greatest extent possible, and this is consistent with Prussia's interests.

However, Britain's interest is always to maintain the balance of the continent, and it is impossible to accept that Russia has been weakened too much, and how to play a role in weakening Russia without letting Britain deal with it, or how to convince China that supporting Prussia can help them weaken Russia, has become the key to whether or not they can win over China.

After returning to the Chinese capital, Bismarck began to make contact with the Chinese diplomatic establishment, first discussing the Russian question with the head of the Chinese Imperial Court in an informal manner, on the one hand, to test China's attitude, and on the other hand, to establish the basis for a future alliance.

In the informal discussion, Bismarck hypothesized a variety of scenarios, he asked if Prussia and Russia broke out in the war, whether China would enter the war, the head of the court said that it was unlikely, Bismarck asked Russia and the Ottoman Empire to break out of war, whether China would enter the war, who would support the war, the head of the court hesitated, thinking that it might remain neutral, which was consistent with Bismarck's judgment, because China's relations with the Ottomans and Russia are very complicated, and the more complex the matter, the more difficult it is to make a decision immediately.

Bismarck then asked what position he wanted Prussia to stand in the event of a war between China and Russia. But Chinese diplomats declined to answer the question, saying that China is a peace-loving country and does not want war with any country. At the same time, in wars between other countries, they will try to remain neutral.

China did not need the help of Prussia, which was quite a blow to Bismarck, but he understood that this was a reality, but instead strengthened his belief in the unity of Germany, and only a unified German nation could be qualified to sit on an equal footing with these superpowers.

Still, Chinese diplomats were enthusiastic about building closer ties with Prussia, including the construction of more railways, bringing the two countries closer together, and cooperating with each other to ensure safety as it crossed Central and Eastern Europe.

Bismarck knew very well that China's strategic direction was Britain, and Britain was trying to pull in helpers everywhere to fight against China, so why didn't China establish partners around Britain to restrain Britain, and the biggest reason why China maintained close relations with France was to confront Britain, and also hoped to strengthen its influence on Prussia, or to limit Britain's influence on the European continent.

Bismarck knew that establishing a close cooperative relationship with China was the greatest value of Prussia to China.

Based on this, he began to plan.