Of course, for European countries, China's military strength in the Far East is already an indisputable fact, but the Chinese government's expression of compliance with diplomatic agreements has also made countries more eager to use diplomatic channels to ensure their interests in the Far East, and this is obviously the trend that Qin Kai wants to see the most.

On September 20, 1897, less than a month after the implementation of the Sino-French Agreement, German Prime Minister Prince Hornlow took the lead in announcing to the world that the German Empire and Far East China had reached a permanent peace agreement, and the two sides promised to complete a reciprocal agreement on trade tariffs within five years, promised to recognize each other's nationality and identity visas, and gave the nationals of friendly countries the protection provided by law.

Moreover, a new term appeared in this new agreement, and the two sides planned to build an exclusive telegraph communication line for the two heads of state to ensure that the two countries avoid unnecessary conflicts in any interests! This is undoubtedly an extremely expensive idea in an era when wireless telegraphy transmission over long distances is still a secret, but it fully demonstrates the diplomatic position of the two countries.

The Germans very happily announced this new agreement, undoubtedly to exert more diplomatic pressure on European countries, in order to demonstrate the influence of the German Empire in the Far East China, you must know that in Europe in this era, mutual hostility and conflict are the basic norm, the so-called countries have no trust between each other, and completely rely on the diplomatic form of multi-party secret agreement and mutual checks and balances that continued from the Bismarck era.

Kaiser Wilhelm II personally summoned the Chinese ambassador to Berlin, Wang Li, to congratulate him on the friendly posture established between the two countries, and then, on 23 September. This arrogant and ambitious monarch. The Reich's policy report was published in the German mainstream media Deutsche Forward. He unreservedly stated his deep belief in maritime hegemony.

"The German Empire was to become not only the first land power on the European continent, but also a naval power in the Atlantic...... The Trident of the Poseidon must and should be mastered by the mighty German Reich! ”

Qin Kai naturally knew the source of the German emperor's self-confidence, although in 1896 the German Empire's military spending rose sharply, easily exceeding 220 million German marks, about 11 million pounds, but this was actually a completely insignificant expenditure compared to the economic state of the entire German Empire. In 1896, Germany had succeeded in overtaking Britain to become the second largest national economy of the era.

According to the Intelligence Division, the income of the entire German Empire has reached an unprecedented 6 billion German marks, which is a huge wealth of nearly 300 million pounds, although the British Empire has taken out a huge order that surprises the world, but in terms of military spending alone, Wilhelm II has never felt the pressure at all, but the biggest problem of the German Imperial Navy is that the domestic heavy industry reserves in the ability to build ships.

Kaiser Wilhelm II is reenacting the familiar history of Qin armor, and, today, the Imperial German Navy. Showing a far greater power than it has ever been...... After four years of huge military spending, coupled with China's vigorous arms sales to Germany. The German Navy has completely surpassed the scale of history, and has built a huge new fleet including 4 Emperor-class battleships, 4 Kaiser-class battleships, 5 Xuanyuan-class battlecruisers, plus the 4 Brandenburg-class battleships built before, the Kaiser really has enough proud capital...... For the time being, at least, even the British Empire could not lightly challenge Germany's maritime power.

Wilhelm II had completely broken the balance of power in Europe after refusing to allow the Russians to continue to sign the German-Russian reinsurance agreement four years earlier, and in the past four years, the Russian Empire and the French Republic have converged on an unprecedented rate, the only problem is that the Russian Empire represents a lot of power at this time, because a series of powers in the Far East are obviously much weaker.

It is precisely for this reason that the French Republic, which still has the third largest naval tonnage in the world, is hiding its alliance with Russia, and the Russians were completely crushed by the noisy Rurik two years ago because of their comprehensive backwardness in naval armaments.

Now, it is an indisputable fact that the Russian Empire is completely backward in the navy, so it is more dependent on importing warship technology to France, but the funny thing is that the French Navy is still deeply influenced by the Green Water School, coupled with the huge influence of the large-scale use of destroyers in the previous Sino-British Far East War, the French are now gradually abandoning the previous torpedo boat tactics and turning to a combination of medium destroyers and battleships.

Therefore, the Navague and the great Siso, which are now being built with the assistance of France, undoubtedly inherited some of the heavy shortcomings of the French Navy warships, and are more like the export version of the French Martel-class battleships, with a hull of more than 12,000 tonnage, the French gave full play to their imagination and combined with Russian requirements, but the result is an economical ocean-going ship, but in terms of firepower and range, it is far behind Britain and Germany, which have begun to fully equip basic shooting commanders.

However, in September 1897, the world's naval powers once again experienced a storm from the Far East, and the Chinese government suddenly announced that in order to cope with the security of China's expanded overseas territories, and also to ensure peace in the Far East and the Pacific region, according to the Chinese Navy's ten-year plan, it would officially start the 10-year naval construction project.

This time, the Chinese government's naval construction plan is huge, directly beyond the imagination of European countries, the Admiralty threw out a huge plan to build 20 battleships, 6 battlecruisers, and 60 destroyers, and the direct construction cost was naturally not announced to the public, however, according to the previous sale price of 1.2 million pounds sterling for the Xia-class battleships that China sold to Germany, this time the huge Chinese Navy warship construction plan cost nearly 250 million yuan (about 50 million pounds) of huge expenditures.

Of course, as part of the huge naval plan, it is natural not only to build steel warships, but also to protect the vast maritime frontier, and the construction of a large number of overseas military ports is also in this huge plan, and the Chinese government plans to establish a long naval supply line along the northern part of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaya, and South China in the next 10 years, and at the same time, to establish outpost military ports along the Sea of Myanmar and the Sea of Bengal, which are vassal states. East. Build a large naval base in the Allied Kingdom of Hawaii. and the establishment of large military fortresses in Papua, South China.

The whole report involves China's military expenditure of about 730 million yuan, and according to the calculation of the financial revenue of the Great Chinese Government in 1896 of about 440 million yuan, the future annual naval expenditure will account for an astonishing 18 percent.

The Ministry of Military Affairs apparently also wanted to cooperate with the Cabinet in promulgating the military expenditure bill, and after the Rim Asia Military Liaison Conference held in Guangzhou, China, on 3 October, diplomats and military attaches from Britain, Germany, France, and the United States were invited to visit the battlecruiser Tianluo, which sailed into the Huangpu Military Port in Guangzhou on the same day. For this super monster with a displacement of up to 17,000 tons and a huge 13.5-inch main gun installed with twin and three seats, it suddenly made the military attaches of various countries that day feel a little panicked.

The Chinese quietly raised the caliber of the main gun from the previous 12 inches to a large caliber of 13.5 inches, which means that compared with the 10-inch main gun of the Xuanyuan battleship of the same class, the firepower projection capability of this new type of battleship has undergone a qualitative change, although the Chinese admiral did not directly introduce the combat effectiveness of this type of battleship, but on the same day the British military attache in China Powell sent a secret telegram to the country, reporting the content of the Chinese Navy's replacement of main guns to the country as a top priority.

In the report he wrote, he naturally analyzed at length the information he had learned from various sources, even at the cost of bribes, and in the analysis of sea power. This veteran naval expert, who had worked with Sir Fisher on the battleship Infleczeba, made his warning very clear.

"The combat effectiveness of the Chinese Navy. Because of the improvement in the main gun technology, there has been a qualitative change, in terms of the ability of the navy to project firepower, 20 battleships equipped with 10-inch main guns, if all of them are equipped with 13.5-inch main guns, theoretically speaking, the tonnage of projected firepower per unit time will be increased by three times...... For a naval power in the Far East, which is about to build 20 new battleships and 6 battlecruisers, this means at least 100% increase in combat power...... The British Empire in the Far East will lose all its influence......"

Three days later, the German Minister to China, Schleier, took him to visit Qin Kai in person, and Qin Kai only guessed one of the intentions of this person......

"Dear Qin, I have brought important information from Berlin, His Majesty Wilhelm is very shocked by your heavy measures in sea power, and the construction of the Imperial German Navy still needs the strong support of your country...... Although His Majesty the Emperor has vigorously increased the expenditure on naval military expenditures, there are still bottlenecks in the construction of the navy due to the heavy industrial strength of the German Empire, and we are eager to sign an agreement with your country on the exchange of naval technology! Schleier said his first intention very sincerely and urgently.

The dividends obtained by the German Empire from the Franco-Prussian War allowed this powerful country to complete the modern process of industrialization in the past 26 years, but today's German capitalism is still largely influenced by the conservative Junker aristocracy at home.

With the emergence of new industries, some of the Junker aristocrats who devoted themselves to the industry tended to tariff protection and the production of circulating goods, which directly led to the lack of investment in the early production capacity of heavy industry in the German Empire.

In the era of Bismarck's alliance of the Three Emperors of Europe, this production strategy did provide the German Empire with the most sophisticated weapons, but with the rapid expansion of Wilhelm II's desire for sea power, German heavy industry has presented a problem that cannot support the military expansion of the entire empire...... The British Empire, on the other hand, was now lagging behind the German Empire in terms of national economy, but it had great strength in heavy industry, especially shipbuilding.

Now Germany needs heavy industry support from overseas, and China's economy under its own leadership is rapidly shifting to the establishment of an integrated industrial system and commercial system, rather than the industrial model dominated by the Nanyang system earlier......

The purpose of the Germans' visit was obviously to hope that China would join the arms race between Britain and Germany...... But to this day, Qin Kai did not make up his mind at all, and he immediately made his attitude very clear, "Dear Schleier, we have provided the greatest technical help to your country, but we have already signed a neutrality agreement with Britain, so we must maintain a neutral position for the time being, so I can't agree to sign this kind of heavy agreement in the military sense!" ”

Qin Kai's refusal, Schleier did not show much disappointment, in fact, this matter, a large extent, obviously on the whim of Kaiser Wilhelm II, the German Navy proposed a huge naval force for the record, the country's financial resources are not too many problems, the problem lies in the country's heavy industry base and the accumulation of technology in the naval shipbuilding industry...... So when the German emperor heard about the huge shipbuilding plan of the Chinese, he immediately thought that Far Eastern China might be accumulated by the industry he needed!

Before Schleier arrived, it was clear that he had carefully considered the possibility of such a proposal, because Germany would have to offer conditions that would be sufficient to give up Chinese interests in the British market, but for the time being, Germany clearly could not offer such conditions...... Far Eastern China is not the weak country it was 20 years ago, but an incomparably strong country in the Far East.

Just when he was a little disappointed, but had to accept it, Qin Kai suddenly changed his words, "Dear Schleier, as you know, my country is also building a large number of warships for the navy, and the military factories are also facing production capacity problems when they are running at full capacity, but if it is a domestic non-military factory to undertake your country's orders, it will only be a trade issue, and it will not involve a diplomatic agreement!" ”

…… On the one hand, the Prime Minister Qin was unwilling to sign an agreement with Germany that directly involved military matters, but on the other hand, he expressed his willingness to export large arms sales to Germany without any scruples!

Schleier's mind sprang rapidly, and he pondered carefully for half a minute, and then he was sure that his judgment should be fine, and he immediately followed the topic of Premier Qin, "Dear Premier Qin, thank you so much for your friendship with Germany...... Germany is willing to maintain cooperation with China in all aspects, including trade with private factories in your country...... If this agreement can be reached, it will be the best report card for me to return to my home country! (To be continued......)