And when the French Emperor and the Minister of State were looking for Guo Songtao, the special envoy of the Chinese Empire to Europe, he was no longer in France, but appeared in Berlin, the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia, in the Palace of Thorns.

Along with Guo Songtao, there was also Zhang Zimu, the consul of the Chinese Empire in Berlin.

Zhang Zimu is Guo Songtao's small hometown in Xiangyin, originally a jinshi in the Xianfeng period, but before he could elect officials, he encountered his father's death and was worried at home, and then he was disrupted by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, until he became a subject of the Chinese Empire. On the recommendation of Guo Songtao, Zhang Zimu was appointed as the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responsible for docking with Prussia, and came to Berlin a year ago to become a diplomat in Prussia to assist Guo Songtao in handling Prussian affairs.

At this moment, in the entire living room, in addition to Guo Songtao and Zhang Zimu, there were also two maids serving tea, but the two didn't care at all and directly communicated in Xiangyin dialect.

Zhang Zimu asked: "Brother Bochen, did you say that the Prussian king and prime minister suddenly wanted to see us, is it because of the disastrous defeat of the British expeditionary force in Bengal, by the way, and the Cossack army of Tsarist Russia attacked the northwest and northern regions of the empire, and also suffered a crushing defeat." Seeing that the Chinese Empire is so strong, it is ready to strengthen relations? ”

Guo Songtao smiled: "Probably so." I heard that the French Emperor and Valevsky have been looking for me these days, and they must have tried to win over me to save relations with the Chinese Empire. And the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth also sent me to invite me to their palaces.

The King of the Netherlands, and the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Cavour, sent me invitations, as well as Denmark, Portugal, Spain, and the Ottoman Turks, Abdul Aziz I, and the Governor of Egypt, Said, all of whom seemed to have sent telegrams to our embassy in Paris, requesting that I be free to visit their palaces. The most ridiculous thing is that Queen Victoria of England openly declared that she wanted to negotiate peace with the Chinese Empire, and asked her assistant to secretly send a telegram to our embassy in Paris, inviting me to visit London! Even the Tsar, who was far away in St. Petersburg, sent telegrams to their ambassadors in Berlin and Paris, asking them to come to me for an interview with me, and to ask me to come back to St. Petersburg and ask for an armistice and peace.

These are the things that have been reported to me by the people of the embassy and the agents of the intelligence station of the secret service department in the past few days.

Haha, I can't imagine that I, the originally inconspicuous special envoy to Europe of an Eastern country, has suddenly become a thorny and important figure in the whole of Europe! And all this is entirely because we defeated the British and Russian armies that invaded our Chinese empire. ”

Zhang Zimu also laughed heartily, and he said in Xiangyin dialect: "These tyrannical foreigners must be more tyrannical than them!" ”

At this time, Prince William walked in quickly, and he and Guo Songtao were old acquaintances. Behind him, several palace guards escorted three tall men and walked in quickly.

Out of politeness, Guo Songtao and Zhang Zimu hurriedly stood up, they understood that the main owner who wanted to see them had finally arrived.

Sure enough, Prince William came over and introduced: "Mr. Special Envoy, Consul Zhang, this is my father, King Wilhelm Frederick Ludwig of Prussia; The one on the left is the king's right-hand man, Mr. Otto von Bismarck, the new prime minister of the kingdom; The one on the right, and the king's right-hand man, the kingdom's Minister of War, Field Marshal Albrecht von Rohn! ”

Guo Songtao hurriedly clasped his hands into fists and saluted.

This King Pu is the oldest, in his sixties, but his body is still very strong, and he walks with a lively appearance, it seems that Prince William wants to inherit the throne, and he will have to wait for a long time. And the War Minister on the right, Field Marshal Ron, is also in his sixties, with a resolute face and a style of slaughter, and it seems that he must be a battle-hardened general. Bismarck, the new prime minister on the left, is the youngest, in his forties, his brows are always furrowed, his heart is very serious, and his eyes are sharp, which is quite in line with the reputation of his iron-blooded prime minister.

When Guo Songtao looked at the three most powerful people in the Prussian Kingdom, the three of them were also looking at him.

After a little greeting, King Pu beckoned everyone to sit down, and went straight to the point: "Mr. Special Envoy, I invite you this time, the first is that I, Prussia, as a brother and ally country of your country, am glad to hear that your country defeated the invading British and Russian invasion armies and achieved a great victory, and I would like to express our congratulations to the Emperor of your country through you, Mr. Special Envoy!"

The second reason is that I want to ask for help from your country, and I hope that Mr. Special Envoy will help your country and agree to our request! Of course, Mr. Minister and your country will not be left busy in vain, and the Kingdom of Prussia will show sincerity. ”

After speaking, King Pu clapped his palms, and the two palace guards carried a heavy box, walked over with difficulty, put it next to Zhang Zimu, opened the lid of the box, and the inside was shining with gold, and it turned out to be a whole box of neat and square gold nuggets.

A guard took out a contract from his arms and handed it to Zhang Zimu, but Zhang Zimu didn't accept it, looking at Guo Songtao. Guo Songtao looked at Prince William and the King of Prussia suspiciously, and Prince William shook his head and said that he didn't know either.

The King of Prussia smiled enthusiastically: "Mr. Envoy, this is a royal estate in the suburbs of Berlin, as well as Oberhofen Castle in Switzerland, and I gave it to Mr. Envoy for leisure time and residence. The gold was used as a travel allowance for Mr. Special Envoy's arduous journey to Berlin. I don't mean anything else, I heard William say that Mr. Envoy and him are very good friends, and in this case, they are also friends of my old William, and I hope that these filths will not affect our friendship. ”

Guo Songtao was surprised by the old way of King Pu, this foreigner was even more sophisticated than the old Manchu Qing officials who were good at human relations, and laughed at the moment: "Your Majesty, what is this doing?" As I said just now, my country and your country are allies and have always been friendly, and we are friends, so let's just say anything about it, it doesn't have to be like this! ”

King Pu smiled and said, "In that case, let my Prime Minister Bismarck." ”

Bismarck nodded expressionlessly, and said to Guo Songtao: "Mr. Special Envoy, you also know that my Kingdom of Prussia has always had a dream, which is to unify the entire German Confederation and restore the former glory of the German nation, the Holy Roman Empire. However, there were many difficulties in front of the Kingdom of Prussia, Denmark, Austria, France, Tsarist Russia, Great Britain, and so on, all of which were obstacles to the unification of Germany in the Kingdom of Prussia.

Over the years, with the help of your country, we in Prussia have accumulated a lot of strength. And the recent defeat of the British Expeditionary Force and the Cossack invasion army of Tsarist Russia in one fell swoop has shaken the whole world, and the situation of the whole Europe and the world has also changed, and we feel with great joy that the opportunity for Prussia to unify Germany has come!

And what we would like to ask for the help of Mr. Special Envoy is to get your country to further support us, mainly in terms of the international political situation and in terms of funding. In return, we can sign a treaty of cooperation, and we can agree to the price that we Prussia will pay, as long as it is not too expensive! ”