The aftermath of the Boer War was initially only a drag on the British Empire's finances, with nearly 40 million military expenditures plus huge expenditures for the reconstruction of the South African colonies reaching 40% of the entire empire's fiscal revenue in 1902, which is already an extremely outrageous number.

What's worse is that, except for a few colonies such as India and South Africa, which continue to have a crazy colonial economy, the output of other colonies is almost the same as the expenditure on maintaining local rule, and even many colonies are completely consuming imperial money, that is, most of the colonies have no substantial interest in the national economic benefits of the United Kingdom, which has also led to a great change in London's attitude towards the colonies.

However, the British Empire, whose military strength was in full swing, clearly did not feel the danger of the sunset, and the continuation of the Boer War not only severely depleted London's ability to compete with the arms race and economy, but also made it more difficult for London to break up its economic ties with the Americas and East Asia.

In July, the first round of the British general election of the new century will be ushered in, Qin Kai immediately realized that this is the moment when he must make a move, and soon, less than a week after Prime Minister Salisbury and US President Roosevelt reached a series of tacit understandings between the two countries in June, the sudden visit of Chen Bo, the Chinese ambassador to the United Kingdom, finally made another important decision after a week-long consultation.

The Boer War and now the stalemate with France over Africa have made the Conservative Party's overseas policy controversial, and he must and will have to make a final effort. Or rather, struggle. In a series of polls conducted by the British newspaper media. Liberal Henry? Sir Bannerman is already a few percentage points ahead of the Conservatives.

On June 28, London announced in a high-profile manner that China and Britain had reached a "Provisional Agreement on Asian Trade" on ensuring the economies of South Asia and Indian colonies, and Chen Bo, China's minister to the United Kingdom, later told the British media that China would increase trade with Britain's overseas colonies, which is estimated to increase tens of millions of dollars a year for India, which has now surpassed South Africa to become Britain's biggest benefit.

The reason for the rapid conclusion of the tariff and trade agreement, which was difficult to negotiate in the past, naturally lies in Qin Kai's special authorization, and the time limit of this provisional agreement proposed by Minister Chen Bo is only 10 years. Rather than the permanent agreement that States had hoped for, and that is what Salisbury's cabinet needs most in the run-up to the elections.

After the news was announced, the Conservative-controlled Times conducted a poll two days later, and the immediate effect was immediate, and the House of Lords and the House of Commons received a great deal for the Salisbury Cabinet to quickly come up with a solution to the financial crisis, and the polls also showed that the Conservative Party had clearly pulled back an important part at a critical moment, at least, in terms of popular support. It was a miraculous reversal.

Beijing, when Chen Bo's news of the trade agreement between the two countries reached the prime minister's office. Qin Kai was holding friendly talks with Hamed, the Ottoman minister to China, and he didn't really expect much from the Ottoman Empire, whose intermittent reforms eventually returned to the path of monarchy and would continue for several years, eventually leading the country to secession.

However, the huge territory of the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East region that they were controlling, Qin Kai was very interested, he did not plan to colonize the Middle East, as a latecomer, the land controlled by Islam was obviously not something he was willing to interfere in, the only thing that could let him interfere - it was only interests.

In fact, the connection with the Ottoman Empire was originally facilitated by the German Schleier, and as a participant in the Berlin Conference, the Ottomans were obviously envious of Germany's development, and the Ottoman Empire, although it traded a lot with the British, was more inclined to be a wall-to-wall, and at the same time trade and close relations with Germany.

Abdul Hamid II announced the plan to establish a strong military force, but his own industrial capacity was limited, and his neighbors Austria-Hungary and Italy were not good, and the British Empire, which had always given the Ottomans some help, was a villain to put it bluntly, and every time he helped, he needed the Ottoman to cut a piece of meat, so Hamid II finally took advantage of the opportunity of Germany's preparation to meddle in the Baghdad railway, and proposed the conditions of armament and industry to Germany.

However, now that the German Empire is speeding at full speed on the road of full arming, how can it be bothered to heed the Ottoman Empire's request to free up production capacity to help the Ottoman Empire, which is not something that Wilhelm II was willing to do, so Schleier, who was in charge of diplomacy, had an idea to introduce this business to China.

The Ottoman Empire's minister to China, Hamed, was originally just a depressed figure in the empire, but in a blink of an eye, he was given a heavy responsibility, and he naturally knew a lot about the rise of China in the Far East, which he had served as a minister for ten years, but after visiting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with information from Germany, he originally thought that he had little hope, but he was unexpectedly received with a high standard.

After a series of negotiations, Qin Kai signed a large order to export 1 Han-class battleship, 2 Yuheng-class cruisers, and 6 Kunlun-class destroyers to the Ottoman Empire today, and agreed to help the Ottoman Empire build a modern shipyard in Antalya...... Of course, a qiē help is quoted!

The news reached Istanbul, which undoubtedly surprised the aging empire that was facing a threat from Europe, the Ottoman Empire was constantly being squeezed by Austria-Hungary, Italy, and the Russian Empire, and in the just-concluded Bulgarian crisis, European countries also saw the weakness of the Ottoman Empire, and were eager to remove more benefits from this old empire.

Now it has unexpectedly received the support of China, the number one military power in Asia, even if the nominal support is already very rare and valuable, not to mention, China has very generously agreed to a series of arms sales, and more importantly, it has also agreed to transfer naval shipbuilding technology to the Ottoman Empire, which is unimaginable in any case.

Of course, as the dictator who ruled the Ottoman Empire for more than 20 years, Hamid II naturally understood that there would never be unexplained friendship in this world, and Qin Kai's request made him completely relieved!

Qin Kai generously proposed that China would contribute 1 million pounds, while the Ottomans only needed to sell 1,000 kilometers of wasteland on the Red Sea coast from Mecca to Salalah.

Nowadays, the exploitation of crude oil in the Middle East has long been a secret, but in fact, the Ottoman rule over the local area is not strong, and the great powers of various countries have intervened, especially Britain plundered a large part of the interests, the Ottomans have almost nothing to gain, I heard that China is willing to get involved, and give half of the empire's share, it almost took a few days to think about it, Hamid II thought clearly.

Rather than allowing Britain to plunder its own interests in the Middle East under its rule, it is better to introduce a third party that can give itself more benefits, so that the Chinese and the British can compete with each other locally, at least the imperial royal family can get half of the benefits, and if the British can be suppressed, they may get more benefits.

On July 4, just as the British election was in full swing, a flotilla of two cruisers, two destroyers and four cargo ships departed from Penang, Malaya, on the same day that the Sino-Austrian cooperative exploration agreement was signed.

On the same day, Qin Kai received another news that surprised him - Hamid II was very generous to say that in order to promote trade between the two countries, a fishing port at the mouth of the Gulf of Aden would be leased to China, and Wu Tingfang, who was in charge of the negotiations, immediately realized that it was unusual, and after communicating with Minister Hamad, he learned that the Ottoman Empire was in fact unable to manage this land far from the mainland, so it would be very casual to throw it to China as a good place.

Therefore, Wu Tingfang immediately proposed to buy this barren land near the Gulf of Aden, with an area of less than 100 square kilometers and by the sea at a price of 200,000 pounds, and this proposal was unexpectedly agreed by the Ottoman Empire! (To be continued......)