"Your Majesty, news from Berlin that Germany has rejected Russia's request for the renewal of the Reinsurance Treaty for six years, and the German-Russian alliance has broken down!"

Xu Rongcun reported this news directly to Zhu Jinglun as the biggest good news. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

"How do you think it will affect us?"

Zhu Jinglun shook his head, as if he didn't care about the news.

Xu Rongcun was very strange: "Germany will not support Germany in the future, once we start a war with Russia, the chances will be even greater!" ”

Zhu Jinglun sighed: "Do you think that Germany will help us when we went to war with Russia in the past?" ”

Xu Rongcun shook his head: "The Three Emperors Alliance and the Reinsurance Treaty are complex and contradictory, but they are mainly aimed at France, not against my Ming Dynasty. So there should be no substantive aid, but there will probably be economic aid. Diplomatically, Germany will also support Russia. ”

Zhu Jinglun waved his hand: "Old Bismarck's alliance system is indeed a little more complicated. stipulating that one of the parties concerned is in a state of war with a third country and that the other party is neutral in good faith; The treaty does not apply if the war against Austria or the war against France is caused by an attack by one of the High Contracting Parties against one of these two States. This provision practically did not allow Germany to attack France and Russia to attack Austria-Hungary. Neutrality applied to the contracting parties only when France attacked Germany and Austria-Hungary attacked Russia. I can guarantee that once we go to war with Russia, Bismarck's old boy will definitely be the happiest in his mouth, and then use all his diplomatic resources to regulate, so that we all rely on Germany, and let Berlin continue to be the center of the world. He would not have wanted them to fight, and only if the contradictions became protracted, would Russia's power be contained in the East for a long time. He did not ally with Russia for the sake of gaining any interests for Russia, but only because he did not want Russia to form an alliance with France. What he sought was not that Russia did not want to fight Germany, but that Russia could not fight Germany, that it did not have the strength to fight Germany, and that it had no opportunity to fight Germany. ”

Xu Rongcun nodded: "What a cunning policy." It's a pity that the Germans don't want it. ”

Zhu Jinglun sighed: "Now Germany is in power with a group of troublesome guys, and these guys are still bold and reckless, and the world is in trouble." ”

Xu Rongcun smiled: "In short, it's not our trouble. ”

Zhu Jinglun said: "Not necessarily. ”

Xu Rongcun said: "I don't know what instructions Your Majesty has?" ”

After Hurd became Shang Shuling, the foreign affairs department became more and more inclined to directly ask Zhu Jinglun for advice, obviously they did not trust the prime minister, especially in the process of dealing with foreigners, they did not trust Hurd's attitude, Hurd in order to avoid suspicion, often supported them to directly bypass him to find the emperor, but in internal affairs, Hurd is strongly in control of everything, if anyone dares to bypass him, he will definitely take measures.

Zhu Jinglun said: "Let's wait and see what happens." Now it is the Germans who challenge the balance, so let's take a look at what they have done. ”

Xu Rongcun said: "I heard that Germany intends to make concessions to Britain, and there are rumors that Germany intends to make any concessions to Britain on the issue of colonies in East Africa. Strengthen relations with Britain to compensate for the losses caused by alienating Russia. ”

Zhu Jinglun sighed: "Why bother. The old Bismarck maneuvered between Russia and France, so that Germany maintained a transcendent position, and all countries had to win over Germany, and once relations between other countries were tense, Germany could always stand in a neutral position and mediate. Now that he had just alienated Russia, he had to turn to Britain for protection. If he is so inautonomous, why bother to change the policy of the old Bismarck? ”

Xu Rongcun said: "Then if Germany and Britain form any alliance, should we also strengthen our ties with Germany?" The alliance of the Ming Dynasty, Britain and Germany will help us against Russia! ”

Zhu Jinglun nodded: "You can give it a try, we have no conflict of interest with Germany, and the principle of long-distance friendship and close attack is still applicable now." ”

Xu Rongcun's attempt to test Germany was unsuccessful, because Germany made a request to the Ming Dynasty to support the establishment of a German colony in Samoa.

They also hoped that the Ming could help Germany gain a foothold in North China, and they fancied Nantong under the Manchu rule, and if they could not get a foothold in North China, they hoped to get Pusan in Korea, and they said that in this way Germany could help the Ming Dynasty better block Russia's southward movement, and they also thought that Britain would also support them in resisting Russia.

Gaining a foothold in Nantong is simply delusional, not that it cannot be obtained, but that they have not thought about the attitude of the British with Shanghai as a forbidden territory, on the one hand they naively want to maintain relations with the British, but on the other hand they think that they put their hands on the British dinner plate and the British will not care.

"Where does this innocence come from?"

Xu Rongcun's report made Zhu Jinglun unbelievable:

"That's what they said?"

Xu Rongcun nodded.

Zhu Jinglun was stunned: "Why do they think that they have stretched out their claws to the ocean, and Britain, which regards itself as the lord of the sea, will support them?" Just because Britain wants to fight Russia, don't these fools know that once they stretch out their claws, Britain will still fight them? ”

Xu Rongcun said: "They intend to recognize British interests in Zanzibar in exchange for a small island off the coast of Germany. They believed that the British had exchanged buttons for whole shirts, so they would have supported their claims in the Far East. ”

Zhu Jinglun sighed: "Even if you give Britain a golden mountain, you don't want Britain to give up the sea." Do the British know about this? ”

Xu Rongcun shook his head.

Zhu Jinglun said: "Convey Germany's request to Britain and ask about Britain's attitude. ”

As soon as Britain discovered that Germany had ambitions to expand overseas, the situation was lively.

In 1889, Britain and Germany were in serious opposition for the Samoan Islands, and the fleets of both countries were assembled in the port of Apia, the capital of the Samoan Islands, and war was imminent. At this time, a huge storm struck, damaging the ships of the two countries, and as a result, no fight broke out. Later, Britain, the United States and Germany reached a tripartite agreement, and the native chieftains ruled for another 10 years under the supervision of the Europeans.

Germany, which controlled trade in the Samoan Islands, was apparently eager to annex the islands, but Britain did not want to see German power near New Zealand and Australia.

So Germany wants the support of the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Jinglun felt that it was not necessarily a bad thing to deepen the contradictions between Britain and Germany.

"We can accede to Germany's demands and support their claims to power in Samoa."

The biggest international problem was that the Kaiser forced Bismarck out, and the biggest domestic problem was the economic crisis.

However, the Ming government has many experiences in dealing with economic crises, and does not appear to be flustered, and at the same time, under the policy of Hurd to increase fiscal revenue, tariffs have been greatly raised, and the Ming has finally entered the era of trade protection.

With the rise of protectionist Germany and the United States, the theory of free trade instilled by Britain around the world became increasingly untenable.

On the contrary, they themselves began to suffer from it, when they began to open their markets, they had their own confidence, because they were the first to complete the industrial revolution, even if they adopted free trade, they would not be affected by foreign products, but could reduce the price of raw materials imported from abroad, so that domestic industrial enterprises can profit.

Under the deception of Britain, Denmark, Sweden and other small countries in northwest Europe began to engage in free trade, and France was also fooled by Britain, joining the ranks of free trade and drastically reducing customs duties.

However, under the advocacy of economists such as Liszt, Germany adheres to trade protectionism and excludes foreign industrial products. On the contrary, they can enjoy the open market of the United Kingdom, and during the economic crisis, British products cannot enter Germany, and German steel can be dumped in the United Kingdom.

There is an even more terrible situation, Britain has turned India into a colonial economy dependent on Britain, and Germany is also turning Britain into a German colonial economy to a certain extent, because Germany's rising chemical industry, the largest raw material coal tar, etc., are imported from Britain, Britain first treated these chemical products as waste, and then sold them to Germany as primary processing products, and gradually became the source of raw materials for Germany, and their own chemical enterprises can only produce raw materials for German chemical enterprises, and want to develop to a higher level. It was strongly impacted by German products.

As a result, Britain was still a big textile country, and Germany imported their coal chemical raw materials, processed them into chemical dyes, and exported them to Britain in large quantities, and even hit the British indigo cultivation industry in India, chemical dyes made vegetable dyes expensive, and the colonial economy was affected by Germany.

It's not that the British can't see this disadvantage, but they have already gone south, insisting on free trade for half a century, and they believe it in their foolishness. In terms of public opinion, the British still believe that it is free trade that has created the glory of Britain, but in reality, it is the interest groups of free trade that have pressed the industrial interest groups.

Britain is the most mature capitalist system, with a mature modern political structure, and the biggest feature of modern politics is that interest groups are organized, and various interest groups have organizations that serve themselves, from chambers of commerce, trade unions, to political parties, all of which form organizations with different interests.

With the industrialization of the United States and Germany, Britain has had a long-term deficit in foreign trade in the past ten years, but if they want to raise tariffs, they will definitely encounter strong resistance, because their deficit can be made up by the shipping industry and the financial industry that serve free trade, their trade deficit is about 100 million pounds, but shipping and financial and insurance services can get a surplus of 150 million, so the British still think that free trade is beneficial to them.

Reflected in politics, it is the financial and shipping interest groups, which have pressed the industrial interest groups, and the financial, shipping, and textile industries have become the three major interest groups of the British Empire, monopolizing British politics and enjoying certain privileges.

In addition to making up for these three major industries, Britain achieved balance by squeezing its colonies and passing on deficits to other backward countries. On the one hand, there was a greater degree of oppression in India, and on the other hand, more privileges were seized from an old empire like the Qing Dynasty, and even opium was sold.

The Ming Dynasty is not India, nor is it the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and with the rise of industrialists in recent years, they have begun to create public opinion calling on the government to raise tariffs and protect domestic enterprises, and they use the American theory to oppose the British theory of free trade.

However, Hurd has never raised the tariffs on several British goods such as textiles, so the people have become more and more dissatisfied with him, and there are many voices that even call him a traitor.

Hurd believes that raising tariffs on textiles and other goods will not help maintain diplomatic relations between Ming and Britain, and the people believe that because Hurd is a British, he infringes on the interests of the Ming Dynasty and takes care of Britain, which is a traitorous act.

He was able to hold on before, but after the economic crisis came, Hurd knew that he would be under more pressure and took the initiative to ask for higher tariffs on British products to prove his position of serving the Ming Dynasty.

However, he did not intend to damage the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and the British, so he asked Zhu Jinglun to negotiate with the British.

Zhu Jinglun agreed.

In the end, Hurd reached an agreement with the United Kingdom, and Daming had maintained a 15% tax rate on British textiles, which was actually a low tax rate, far less than the 50% tax rate in the United States, which could not stop the import of British goods at all.

The most important Qing textiles of the Ming Dynasty were cotton yarn and coarse cloth, and cotton yarn was also the most important export commodity of the United Kingdom, and with the connection of the Indian railway network to the Ming Dynasty, the Indian cotton yarn industry began to rise.

After negotiations between Hurd and the United Kingdom, the British agreed to raise the tariff on finished cloth to 30%, but refused to agree to the Ming to increase the tariff on cotton yarn.