Guam was no longer under the rule of the Spaniards at this time, and the news obtained by Gao Hongsheng was that long before the United States declared war with Spain, Spain sold the Mariana Islands and Guam to Germany, and then before Gao Hongsheng set off, the Germans sent people to receive Guam, and at the same time, the Spanish envoy also went to Guam to go through the handover procedures with the Germans.

It was not for him to know exactly how much the Germans had paid to acquire the colony, but now they went to refill the water, replenish some coal, and pick up the Spanish colonial troops who had been stationed on Guam.

Originally, everything went well, and when Gao Hongsheng and they were about to arrive in Guam, the sea off the coast of Apra Harbor was met by Otto. Feng. Rear Admiral Dietrich led the welcome of the German Far East Fleet, the small frigate cruiser Cormorant, and the flagship large cruiser Kaiser. The Augustus, two wooden-hulled protected cruisers Ilena and Princess William, and an old ironclad Caesar, with a total tonnage of 25,000 tons, had 8 heavy guns of more than 200 mm and 59 guns of more than 100 mm caliber, which was basically a few points stronger than Gao Hongsheng's combined fleet with the Spaniards.

This is not the end, when Gao Hongsheng approached the port of Apra under the leadership of the Germans, he looked at the other warships moored at the berth from a distance through the telescope, and Gao Hongsheng's heart couldn't help but sink.

Putting down the telescope in his hand and handing it to a guard beside him who was looking at the pergola like a monkey, Gao Hongsheng couldn't help but complain secretly in his heart.

"Nima, don't bring such a playful person, why did the German Second Fleet led by the younger brother of Wilhelm II of Germany, Prince Heinrich, come to Guam, shouldn't they appear in Jiaozhou Bay in Qingdao and call for the Qing Kingdom with me? How to get involved here. ”

Prince Heinrich is also known as Prince Henry, Henry is the English pronunciation of Heinrich, his mother is the eldest daughter of Queen Victoria, and the German Kaiser Wilhelm II is a brother.

In December 1897, when the Sino-German negotiations on Jiaozhou Bay entered a critical stage, he was appointed commander of the Second Fleet by Kaiser Wilhelm II, and led the cruiser "Empress Auguste", the USS Gaffion, and the Deutsche Panzer to Jiaozhou Bay, with the aim of putting pressure on the Qing Dynasty and deterring the negotiations between the two countries.

At the same time, Wilhelm II personally marched for Prince Heinrich before the fleet left the port, and made an impassioned speech, admonishing the fleet to show the strength of Germany, increase the bargaining chips of "finally capturing Qingdao", and stressed that the Qing Dynasty should be attacked with an iron fist without mercy.

In fact, don't look at Wilhelm II's humming and shouting, it is true that he sent Prince Heinrich to Qingdao for another purpose, that is, to let him run to England, that is, to his maternal grandmother, Queen Victoria, to play the family card, explain the actions of the Germans in the Great Qing Kingdom, in order to gain the understanding and support of the British.

If you want to ask why Gao Hongsheng would recognize it at a glance, there are really three battleships that are too old, although they have all undergone "modern" modifications, but they still can't change the ancient style.

The Deutsches ironclad here is not the dreadnought, the Deutschland-class battleship that began to be built in 1903, but the last German-funded German battleship built in a foreign shipyard, commissioned in 1875, more than 89 meters long and 19 meters wide, with a displacement of 7645 tons, belonging to the Caesar-class armored ship, which was equipped with full sail rigging for a long time from the factory, and from 1894 to 1897, the ship was "modernized". became a slightly modern armored cruiser.

As for the other Gerfion, it was an older converted ironclad ship, while the "Queen August" cruiser was a protective cruiser that was started in 1886 and entered service in May 1888, with a full load displacement of 5,027 tons.

These ships are a little too retro for the steampunk riveted and iron-clad steel battleship monsters that are full of steam age hideousness and weirdness.

Just like those Spanish ships, they are all old ships, but Gao Hongsheng can't help but complain when he appears here, he really can't understand how this damn Prince Henry came here.

In real history, the entire Jiaozhou Bay incident was actually a premeditated and prepared military operation, not a sudden incident as everyone usually thinks.

From 1860 to 1872, the famous German geographer, Ferdinand von Richthofen, visited the Qing Dynasty eight times, and he then proposed the German occupation of Jiaozhou Bay.

In March 1895, the German Foreign Minister, Baron Schell, in a confidential letter to the Admiral Almen, proposed that if the Qing Dynasty continued to fail, Germany would be prepared to intervene and claim land from China as one or several coal storage stations and military ports for the Imperial Navy, and asked Armen to list the locations.

On April 7, Almen opened a suitable location for the establishment of a military port in the Qing Dynasty, of which Jiaozhou Bay and Dapeng Bay tied for the second place.

This conspiracy came exactly a week before Germany took part in the intervention in Japan's return of Liao, and the Germans made it clear that the purpose of their participation in the Liaoning incident was to demand land from the Qing Dynasty as appropriate compensation. At the same time, that Wilhelm II also threw out the "**** theory" that was very criticized by later generations.

At the end of 1895, the German minister was ordered to formally propose to Chancellor Yamen the concession of a military port, and Marchar also asked Xu Jingcheng in Berlin to "borrow land to store coal". However, they were all politely rejected by the Qing government.

In June 1896 of the following year, when Li Hongzhang arrived in Berlin, Marchar again asked him to cede a naval base, but he was denied.

And on November 19, Xu Jingcheng, minister of the Great Qing Dynasty, sent the American counselor of the embassy, Jin Kaili, to imply that the German side wanted to gain a consolidated and respected position in China, and the only way to do so was to simply seize a port for its own use, otherwise the Great Qing Kingdom would not be grateful, and this guy said: "The Chinese will never understand this method of thinking, and the concept of moral acquisition is absolutely alien to them." Only force is the only language they understand. If Germany does not simply take what it wants or needs, the Chinese will only take it as a sign of weakness. …… The Russians have mastered the only correct way to deal with the Chinese. …… The Russians said that they could control and handle everything at will, and this impressed Hua. ”

Subsequently, Wilhelm II commented on this report by saying, "Correct! This is precisely the reason why I have been unsuccessful in my two years of persuasion to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and it is also the idea that I have strongly supported for many years. ”

In August 1896, Wilhelm II visited Russia to discuss the question of Jiaozhou Bay, and Emperor Nicholas II of Russia stated that Russia was interested in guaranteeing access to the port until it had obtained a sea mouth further north, which had been decided in his mind. But it is allowed to be used jointly by Germany. At the time of its withdrawal, there was no objection to handing over the port to German occupation [11]. The monarchs of the two countries reached a private understanding on the use of Jiaozhou Bay. On September 21, Germany officially informed Russia that the German fleet intended to spend the winter in Jiaozhou Bay, and on October 1, Haijing informed Premier Yamen of this decision, which was immediately rejected by Premier Yamen. But at this time, the preparations for the German occupation of Jiaozhou Bay were ready, and they only needed to look for an opportunity to take advantage of it.

It wasn't long before the opportunity came. Late at night on November 1, the German missionary Han? Ricario and Noh Francis were killed by members of the local Dadao Society at the Zhangzhuang Church in Juye, Shandong, and the parish priest Xue Tianzi was spared. After the incident, the local officials in Shandong did not report the matter to the Qing government in a timely manner. On the 6th, Wilhelm II instructed the German Foreign Ministry to send a fleet to occupy Jiaozhou Bay and take serious retaliatory measures if the Chinese government did not pay a huge amount of compensation for the Juye case and immediately pursue the murderers. On the same day, an edict was drafted to Admiral Delis, who was stationed at Wusong, to lead all his warships to Jiaozhou, occupy a suitable place, and extort money by any means (this telegram was sent late the next night). On the 7th, Wilhelm II sought the Tsar's opinion on the Jiaozhou Bay Affair. The tsar said that he could neither approve nor disapprove of the German army's entry into Jiaozhou Bay. "For I have only recently learned that the bay belongs to us only in this eight-ninety-five-year one-eighteen-ninety-six.

At the same time, in order to coerce the Qing Kingdom to sign an agreement as soon as possible, Prince Henry was sent to lead the German Second Fleet to the Qing Kingdom in December to carry out military coercion.

Under the pressure of the army, the "Lend-Lease Treaty" between the Qing Dynasty and Germany was successfully signed, and Qingdao became a German colony in the Far East. He arrived in Qingdao on May 6.

But this Prince Henry, who shouldn't have been here, has now run here, what the hell is he doing?