The Ottoman Empire has now entered an era of decline, even if Hamid II vigorously advocated the Islamic movement to try to influence the national movements in West Asia, it still had little effect, and the vast territory that once included the Black Sea and most of the Mediterranean, with the intervention of European powers such as the British Empire, Egypt, Tripoli and other African territories, although still nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, have long been controlled by the British.

In this case, as an additional transaction to China, in exchange for actual benefits, it is not a too difficult diplomatic choice, and Qin Kai, who took over this hot potato, naturally understands the troubles, but he obviously has no intention of giving up.

Soon after, the East African Squadron stationed in Maputo received an order from home to send a Marine Corps to receive the new Consulate, which had just been renamed Aden City, and on July 12, the same day that the British announced another election victory for the Conservatives, a second Middle East task force assembled from Canton and set off with more than 15 merchant ships, escorted by two destroyer fleets, to embark on their Middle East journey.

On July 15, Bauer, the British minister to China, brought a telegram from the new prime minister, Sir Belfour, who was born in the Conservative Party, apparently fully accepted the proposal from Salisbury, but the British apparently heard about the recent deal between China and the Ottoman Empire, and Bauer euphemistically expressed Britain's concern that China would abide by the agreement between the two sides and not interfere with the interests of the British Empire in northern Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Red Sea coast.

In this regard, Qin Kai naturally responded with a mouthful, and there was only one thing he cared about most in that territory - oil. The fate of the Ottoman Empire itself will not care. The only problem is. The fall of the Ottoman Empire is a big problem...... Fortunately, in the short term, it seems that there is no need to worry too much.

At the same time, he made his attitude very clear to Minister Bauer: "...... The only reason China has acquired Middle Eastern ports is to ensure commercial interests, so Britain has nothing to worry about, and if necessary, China can provide protection for the British fleet in accordance with the agreement between the two countries! ”

Qin Kai knows far better than anyone what China needs most at the moment -- peace. At least for peace in the short term, China's power is already strong enough to secure its interests in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, which will be an unprecedented opportunity for development for a burgeoning China.

Just as Britain was considering how to deal with China's base in Aden City, the fifteenth global economic crisis that swept across Europe had swept across the Russian Empire, and swept through Europe without mercy, and in the same month, the Russian stock market collapsed across the board, followed by a four-day plunge in the French stock market and the German stock market on August 17, and August 20. London's stock and bond markets have also fallen due to the impact of the overseas economic crash.

On the 24th, Russia announced the collapse of the bond market. In recent years, the Russian bonds due to the construction of the Daxing railway have almost been reduced to waste paper due to the economic collapse, and the European capital with a stake in it has collapsed, and the British bond market has also fallen less than a week later, a large number of bonds have been sold off without anyone taking over, and a large amount of overseas funds have been lost in the European market, and they can only sit back and watch the economy quickly slide to the brink of collapse.

Surprisingly, at the end of the European stock and bond markets in August, the New York stock market, although it had plummeted for several days, quickly stabilized and rose at the end of August, which made European countries hope that the United States could help Europe survive this round of economic depression.

However, a report on China's economy from Far East China, written by Minister Powell to China, was selectively ignored by Europe, and Bauer naturally learned of the news of the economic crisis from Europe, but his subsequent survey of China's economic situation obtained completely different information from the mainland.

China's light industry as a whole is developing rapidly, and although overseas export trade is difficult due to the European economic crisis, the whole domestic trade, as well as South Asia and the Americas, is growing rapidly, and more importantly, the domestic infrastructure construction plan announced by the Chinese government three months ago has become a pillar to support the entire national economy at this critical moment.

China's Guangzhou Stock Exchange and Shanghai Stock Exchange have completed nearly 100 million yuan in infrastructure investment and financing in three months, and the shares of several of China's most prestigious railway construction companies have quadrupled in three months.

Of course, Bauer's view of China's economic development is only a symptom to a large extent, and Qin Kai's very timely launch of the resource industry two years ago has led to the emergence of nearly 200 overseas mining factories and three state-owned resource industries mainly coal, steel, and oil in the past two years, and these emerging industries have become China's strongest backing against the European economic crisis.

In Europe, the sudden economic crisis dramatically demonstrated the rise and fall of the competitive position of Britain and Germany. Because the German steel industry is higher than that of Britain in terms of technology and production concentration, and has adopted a protectionist policy of encouraging exports and restricting imports, when Britain was struggling to cope with financial difficulties, German steel was unexpectedly exported to Britain in large quantities and began to enter overseas markets.

By the end of the year, Germany's net exports of ferrous metals increased by 3.5 times, rapidly from 700,000 tons last year, to 2.209 million tons that year, and China's steel industry also rose rapidly in this round of big waves, with a much cheaper cost than Europe, in the year to the United Kingdom, South America, France, Austria-Hungary to export 1.5 million tons of high-quality steel.

At the end of the year, when the British Balfour cabinet realized that the coal-iron complex that had allowed Britain to rise had become the weakness of the British Empire, and decided to take strong measures to curb powerful economic competitors, the British discovered that although they could impose 100% protective tariffs on German steel, for Chinese steel, according to the free trade regulations signed between the two countries last year, once a 100% protective tariff was imposed, it meant that a large number of colonial agricultural products exported from India to East Asia would also face 100% punitive tariffs.

Soon, the cabinet leaders headed by Chamberlain strongly demanded that Prime Minister Balfour restore protective tariffs and cancel free trade, and in the face of the Far East trade agreement that had just been signed, when the British were at a loss to consider whether they could afford to tear their faces, Chen Bo, the Chinese minister to the United Kingdom, sent news from China again.

Qin Kai made a decent argument to the British that China was willing to accept a tariff increase of less than 10%, and that in compensation, China would also impose a special trade tax of no more than 5% in the Far East, an idea that was immediately endorsed by the Balfour cabinet.

Just when Qin Kai was very proud to give the European powers eye medicine, and when the new era of China's economy was coming, a news that the Intelligence Department had sent back from Fujian in an urgent manner, and he immediately felt incomparably excited. (To be continued......)