Chapter 150 Calm Undercurrent

On the same day, in the German Chancellery, an old man sat at the top of the rectangular table, his eyes slightly open and slightly closed, which was a good look at all beings, except for the iron-blooded Prime Minister Bismarck, there was no one in the German Empire, except for the iron-blooded Prime Minister Bismarck, the Minister of the Navy, Frings and the Admiralty Laurenz, sat on his left side, and a German naval officer in his thirties sat on the right side and was reporting the situation.

If Qin Kai was present at this time, he would definitely be particularly surprised, because the thick pile of materials in the hands of the German ** official were all information related to him, including the Chinese, the German Embassy in the Qing Dynasty, the information channels in the Chinese officialdom, and the German side secretly obtained, and the news at all levels were gathered here.

This German ** officer is Colonel Walker of the Intelligence Department Mén under the War Department, and his report also mentioned the recent training of skilled workers from China, and concluded that the Chinese's desire for technology exceeded the expectations of the German side, and the War Department Intelligence Mén put forward a lot of opinions on this training agreement with the Qing State Mawei Ship Administration, mainly focusing on the problem of technical leakage.

After listening to Colonel Walker's report, the German leader who had been contemplative opened his eyes and looked at Walker, nodded with satisfaction, motioned his hand a few times to signal him to sit down, and then turned his head to look at the two important ministers of the empire, "Frings, you know the interests of this best, you can briefly introduce it to Colonel Walker."

"Okay, Prime Minister" Minister Frings nodded, picked up a bag of papers beside him, took out five or six pieces of paper, looked at them, and then said: "Colonel Walker, any information you have heard today cannot be mentioned in a word, for this, please keep in mind that you are a qualified German intelligence officer, and I don't need to explain it."

"Sir, I understand," Colonel Walker said in the same tone.

"Very good" Frings nodded, "The news obtained by your intelligence department is very good, just with the Qing minister Qin Kai, the empire has obtained immeasurable benefits, just the multi-group catalyst for synthetic ammonia he provided, this project has completely freed the empire from the resource dilemma of saltpeter, which has been verified by military chemical experts from the Imperial University of Berlin, and has been put into production."

For these professional issues, Foreign Minister Frings did not explain much, and said very vaguely, in fact, this is not only the problem of catalysts, but also the entire synthetic ammonia industry, after all, these people are not chemical people, he gave this example just to illustrate a problem, how important this Qin armor is

The South American Saltpeter War three years ago has not yet finally ended, and the German Empire has solved this problem in one fell swoop because of a small catalyst, which is really explosive news, and everyone understands that this obviously laid a strong foundation for the strength of the German military power.

Colonel Walker noticed that the Admiralty Minister Lawrenz obviously did not know this situation, and a trace of surprise flashed on his face, but he quickly regained his calm, this investigation of this Chinese named Qin Kai took a whole year, mobilizing various German news channels, but he never knew anything about this news, and the more he knew, the greater the shock

He knew that the Prime Minister was going to listen to him today, which meant that there might be an important decision, so the information in the report was very well prepared, but in fact, the true face of this high-level German interest figure was still a méng. And what he heard now was even more news that he had never heard of, but out of the intelligence officer's Su zhì, he did not show any special attitude.

Frings was very satisfied with his introduction, he raised a few pieces of paper in his hand and shook them, "This catalyst is just one of the contents of our cooperation with this Qin Kai general, and the minister in the Qing State, Feng? Sir Schleier confirmed they will also have ......"

"Frings, it's good" Bismarck's eyes widened, and he raised his hand to interrupt Frings's introduction, "the Far East, where the empire does not have much interest, but ...... The Empire's rivals, Britain and Lancy, had too many interests, and the members of the cabinet had always believed that the Empire's chances of having a hand in the Far East were almost gone, unless...... Save zài new variables"

"Prime Minister, are you referring to this Chinese general Qin Kai?" Frings on the side asked at this point.

"That's true, so the Empire, after fully considering the interests of the two countries, has agreed to send the German ** Officer Teaching Corps to the army of this General Qin Kai, if it can't knock him down, then unite him, not to mention that this is an ally of immeasurable value, which will be the Empire's latest Far East policy",

Bismarck turned to Admiral Lawrenz and said: "In terms of the navy, I think the Far East Fleet needs to be further strengthened, and if China is defeated in Vietnam this time, there may be some opportunities suitable for Germany in the South Asian colony Jiāo Toe China, which is my intuition."

Lorenz nodded, although the German Navy is currently getting stronger and stronger, but it is pressed by Britain and the country, and there has never been a day to come out, and now the situation in the Far East does have some unpredictable variables, and he has long realized that the rise of a new force is bound to have a reshuffling effect on the old world, and there is no doubt that the opinions of the cabinet in this regard are unanimous, and the Far East has long been out of control, and now there are suddenly variables......

Lawrenz nodded to Bismarck, and then said: "Prime Minister, the situation is indeed as you expected, the defeat of the Chinese people in the naval battle is not fatal, the commander of the Jiāo Toe China Navy has a good reputation in the country, and he is not an incompetent figure, but in the current naval battle, the powerful national navy has been hit one after another, I think that this Chinese general Qin Kai should have a secret that our empire does not know"

He thought about the wording, this situation in the Far East Germany did not want to be immediately handed, but in the face of a huge opportunity, there was no reason to give up, "The game of war, only the strong can have the last laugh, at this point, the empire prefers General Qin to be the strong man but, the premise is that Germany must get enough benefits"

The bigwigs present were talking, in fact, the most incomprehensible thing was Colonel Walker, he was recruited to make this report, but now listening to the bigwigs' conversation, they actually hope that this Qin Kai will stir up the situation in the Far East, so that Germany can profit from it, but this doesn't seem to have much to do with him as an intelligence officer?

At this time, Bismarck looked at Colonel Walker, took a thick envelope from the side and handed it over, "Colonel Walker, this time the Imperial Jiāo gave you the task, I hope you can do your best to complete it, this matter, in a sense, is even related to the rise of the German nation, this task is directly authorized by me, and at the same time is only responsible to the Chancellery, even the Army Command has no right to interfere, do you understand?" ”

"Understood" Colonel Walker immediately got up and accepted the unwitting task without hesitation-

After the huge naval fleet was assembled, it slowly sailed into the port of Saigon, and the commander of the Far East Fleet of the country Jiāo Toe China standing on the ironclad ship "Triumph" was a sinky face at this time, and the port of Saigon, which was still the pearl of the country when he left, was full of gloom at this time.

After the renovation, the number of forts in the original port has increased from 4 to 8, and of course the last 4 are under construction, and the commander of the Saigon Defense Army, Major General B. Slip, has raised the defense problem to the highest level, and it is urgent to strengthen it. In the harbor, although more than half a month has passed since that battle, broken hulls and ship planks can still be seen everywhere along the coast.

A large number of sunken merchant ships sank into the port, just salvaging the sunken ships and dredging the port, this is almost a huge project that crushes the indigenous people of Saigon, not to mention that the port destroyed by the war still needs to be rebuilt, relatively speaking, the loss of Saigon City is minimal, but this place has been deeply branded with the shadow of war, and this is no longer the oriental paradise of the Chinese people

In the battle with the Qing Nanyang Naval Division, the total tonnage of warships that the national fleet had lost more than 19,000 tons has already exceeded 19,000 tons, what a terrible number...... He remembered that the total tonnage of warships in the entire Qing State did not exceed 23,000 tons, while the total tonnage of warships in Japan, which was adjacent to the Qing State and was desperately developing its military strength, was only 12,000 tons

The total tonnage of the Far East Navy of the country has been sharply reduced from 57,000 tons to 38,000 tons, which is a result of 30 losses in the war, which really embarrassed him as a national hero......

Lu Mei, the governor of Jiāo, was also embarrassed by such a fiasco, and what was even worse was that the British who watched the battle that day quickly transmitted the news of this ugly country back to Europe, and now the politicians in the country have already fought because of the defeat in the Far East!

Prime Minister Matlin was anxious about domestic economic problems some time ago, but he didn't expect that the disaster would not go alone, and the war in Vietnam, which I thought was going well, had such a big turning point, of course, in a military sense, although the national navy lost a large number of small warships, but the main force of the fleet, except for the loss of an old ironclad ship, there was no loss

However, politically speaking, there is not much quantitative concept of victory and defeat, this is just an absolute concept of right or wrong, this time Saigon was attacked by the Qing navy, and more than 100 warships and merchant ships of the Republic of Lanxi in the port were sunk, what is this concept? Even Klebel, the god of war, was stunned when he saw such a result. ,

This defeat is no longer a simple victory or defeat, but a complete shame

Today, the national fleet, which had been chasing the Qing guerrilla fleet in the open sea, had just returned to the port of Saigon after half a month in vain, and when he met with Lu Mei, the governor of Jiāo Toe China, he heard the news of a tragedy again, and after vetoing the last contract with the Qing state, before he had time to take any action, the Matlin cabinet collapsed with a bang because of its ineffective leadership in overseas wars after taking office for less than a year.

Lu Mei read the telegram he had just gotten expressionlessly, but his eyes were fixed on the naval commander Gu Ba opposite, it was obvious that this vice admiral who had a good reputation in the country was the culprit of this cabinet downfall, but the military still maintained absolute trust in Gu Ba, after all, it was difficult for anyone with military common sense to hook the time of this raid with Gu Ba's leadership ability

In other words, anyone who served as commander of the Far East Fleet would suffer the same defeat

Gu Ba suddenly felt a feeling of exhaustion, which he had never felt so clearly in his decades in the army, although the enemy did not look strong, but it was so cunning that it made people feel terrifying, which he had to admit, he thought about it, and still asked: "Your Excellency, the next move, is it still carried out according to the original plan?" ”

Lu Mei stood at the window, looked at the sunny world outside the window, sighed, and said: "I have already sent a telegram to Li Weiye, temporarily stationed in the current defense area, waiting for the news of the formation of a cabinet in China."

After all, at present, although there are losses in this war, there are also gains, but the losses are relatively large, he thought about it and said: "Your Excellency, I think it is necessary to fight a ground war, but there are some problems with the supply of materials and munitions, and now the entire Far Eastern merchant ships have suffered heavy losses."

It will take at least two years to replenish the merchant ships needed in the Far East, and the incompetence of the Vietnamese army on land, and the reinforcements of the Great Qing State are also not high, this is obviously a well-thought-out plan of Guba, and his greatest reliance is that the nearly 30,000 national army stationed in South Vietnam to avoid that nasty navy...... Guba thought to himself.

Lu Mei looked at Gu Ba and frowned, under the current situation, he still wants to annex central and northern Vietnam, obviously it is unrealistic to hope for Deligu, and the Qing people will not give in lightly after winning the battle.

He thought about it for a moment and said: "Minister Toligu is negotiating with Li Zhongtang on the Vietnam issue in Tianjin, Qing State, and it is not suitable to launch an offensive immediately, but you can prepare, if the negotiations reach an impasse or break down, your actions will be enough to increase our negotiation price, logistics, you don't have to worry, I will fully support you"

At this time, the Minister of the State of Lumei, who had high hopes for him, was negotiating with Li Zhongtang, the representative of the Great Qing Dynasty, in the Governor of Zhili.

Li Zhongtang vetoed the attempt of the Chinese people, and he also heard the news of the collapse of the cabinet on the side of the Englishman Hurd, and it was obvious that the current minister of the country could not make the decision on the negotiations, and he had his own thoughts on the Vietnamese issue

And on the same day, Qin Kai finally waited for his long-awaited edict for promotion