Gao Hongsheng is not an inkblot person, so Ferdinand found one of his subordinates, and directly summoned the German minister to Austria-Hungary, and as soon as he said this, the German minister's eyes lit up.

This is a blessed person who does not have to be busy! Although he was a German minister stationed in Austria-Hungary, the distance between Vienna and Berlin was too close, and major matters could be directly discussed with the domestic rights department, and small things and small things did not bother him! With the kung fu of his communication, he could do it directly by taking the train for a day or two, so he, the German minister to Austria-Hungary, was quite leisurely, and the leisurely ones were a little moldy.

But now he, a dispensable figure, is here to discuss with the Spanish minister, how much does Germany need to pay to get an overseas colony from Spain, an overseas colony! Think about the colony that Germany just grabbed from the Great Qing Kingdom in the East not long ago, how much effort and effort it took, and now I only need to negotiate the price with this Spanish minister to buy an overseas colony from Spain, this is the merit! Regardless of whether this thing is successful or not, as long as he transmits the news back to China, those who once ridiculed him for being useless in eating souls and drinking will be impressed by him.

And the Spanish minister wished that Germany would hurry up and lease Guam and that, God knows the Mariana Islands there, and now the Americans have sailed their warships to the port of Havana in Cuba, and if a conflict really breaks out with the Americans, the British and French will not help Spain at all, and it would be good if they did not take the opportunity to fall into the ground.

Lend the empire that birds don't to Germany, then not only can you get a much-needed fund from the Germans, but also can have good relations with the Germans, at least when a war breaks out between Spain and the Americans, Germany will not be on the side of the Americans, and the Chinese Mr. Gao just said that as long as he can do this, he will get a commission, think about the generous Chinese last time to give the activity funds, think this time will not be less.

In this way, Gao Hongsheng just built a bridge, promising to give the Spanish minister 200,000 pounds for the activity if it was done, and the two ministers were as busy as clockwork.

In less than a week, thanks to the hard work of these two ministers, Germany leased Guam and the Mariana Islands from Spain for 100 years.

However, Gao Hongsheng didn't care too much, how much did the Germans pay to lease these two colonies from Spain, as long as the Germans leased it, anyway, his goal was achieved, and he could be neighbors with the Germans.

As for how the Americans would feel when they wanted to occupy Guam, a transit station, during the Spanish-American War, and found that it had become the territory of the Germans, it had nothing to do with him, but it was a pity that there was no way to occupy Honolulu, and if they occupied it, would the Americans cry, without the Hawaiian Islands, a transit point connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Americans would not dare to put their hands into the Pacific Ocean at all, and the distance across the two oceans was really a bit far.

However, Gao Hongsheng really didn't have time to care about these things, he not only had to do those parts, but also had to be busy with Hong Jincai and their preparations before returning to China, and he was already busy, and he still had to worry about Germany and Spain.

It was not until Ferdinand, together with the Spanish minister, rushed to him with a telegram to inform him of the important news that the USS Maine, a warship sent by the United States to Cuba to protect overseas Chinese, had exploded in the port of Havana, that he hastily ended his work and turned his attention to the problems of the Americans.

And in this almost half a month, he obtained the South Philippines and Sabah regions from Austria-Hungary, and he obtained the status of the only overseas colony governor of Austria-Hungary, which was of course also secret.

At the same time, the arms and ammunition that had already been shipped to strengthen the armament of the Spanish colonies of Cuba and the Philippines under the agreement signed between Austria-Hungary and Spain were sent to the Philippines and Cuba in two separate routes.

A shipload of weapons and ammunition sent to Cuba arrived at the port of Havana only three days before the explosion of the "Maine," and when the "Maine" exploded, the cargo ship was in the process of nervously unloading cargo at another berth not far away.

At the same time, another ship of munitions that was also shipped to the Philippines is still floating at sea, and it will take at least 10 days and a half months to reach the port of Manila.

Regardless of whether the "Maine" exploded or not, the American military operation to invade Cuba and the Philippines would have begun, but the Navy needed a high-sounding reason to convince the American Congress.

Because as early as the beginning of December 1897, George Dewey, commander-in-chief of the US Asian Fleet, who was personally selected by the Navy Secretary Theodore Roosevelt, who believed in "sea power" (the Secretary of the Navy had long been ill and ignored business, and President McKinley was not interested in the Navy, so Roosevelt had monopolized power), urgently asked the Admiralty to send him ammunition as soon as possible when he left for Japan.

At that time, the United States had no actual conflict of interest in Asia, and no one threatened it from any country, so there was no need to stock up on ammunition, so there was only one possibility, the Americans would take the initiative to make a move in the Pacific region, and their target was confirmed in later operations, the Spanish colony of the Philippines.

The explosion of the "Maine" was like a clarion call for the Americans to fight against Spain, and at the same time, it also sounded the clarion call for Gao Hongsheng to harm the Americans, and his deployment must be completed by 30 April.

Looking at the worried Spanish minister, and Ferdinand, who was also a little worried, Gao Hongsheng thought about it and made up his mind: "Mr. Minister, war is inevitable, fortunately, the arms we shipped to Cuba have arrived in Hong Kong and are being unloaded, and the other ship is on its way to the port of Manila in the Philippines, now I ask you to tell the regent Queen Mother, Queen Mother, that the Americans will soon declare war on you, and you still have less than two months to prepare, it depends on the military deployment of the Americans, As soon as they are deployed, it means the beginning of war. ”

The historical situation is March 27. In order to avoid war with the United States, Spain compromised and declared a truce on 9 April, but the United States Congress issued a resolution recognizing Cuba's independence, demanding that Spain withdraw from Cuba, and at the same time granting the President the right to use force, and declaring that the United States had no intention of annexing Cuba. On 22 April 1898 the United States blockaded its Cuban ports and detained a Spanish merchant ship, and on 24 April 1898 Spain was forced to declare war on the United States, and the next day the United States declared war, and the American Asian Fleet departed 36 hours later for the port of Manila in the Philippines, targeting the Spanish Asian Fleet.

Therefore, Gao Hongsheng can inform the Spanish minister in a very positive tone to let them prepare for the country as soon as possible, and not to fantasize about a peaceful settlement. But seeing that the Spanish minister and Ferdinand still looked at him with doubts, he said sternly: "There are two battlefields in this war, one is in Cuba, and the other is the Philippines, I am now sending reinforcements to reinforce the strength of the Spanish Asian fleet, and at the same time immediately replace the governors of Cuba and the Philippines, if they can't be replaced, then ask them not to dictate the actions of the navy's fleet, and leave the affairs of the war to the soldiers to solve, I propose that you set up two theater commanders commanded by the soldiers, He was in charge of the war between the two places, and the governors of the two places were only responsible for the logistics of the army, and did not have the right to mobilize the army. And to urge them to distribute our new weapons into the hands of the soldiers, and to have the officers read in detail the tactical manual that we shipped with the weapons, so that they could immediately train according to the tactical manual, and clearly tell them that even though the Americans are very powerful, in the face of our cross-era weapons, those cowboys are like a flock of lambs to the slaughter. Don't let us down, because there are very few Austro-Hungarian troops equipped with the latest weapons. ”