Shuzo Aoki didn't dare to think about it anymore.

Now that he has understood that he is destined to die, Aoki Shuzo calmed down instead.

He took pen and paper and began writing letters to his wife, Elizabeth.

This letter is equivalent to his suicide note.

After writing a letter to his wife, Shuzo Aoki wrote a petition to Emperor Meiji. In his petition for guilt, he confessed that he had failed to protect the reputation of the Japanese government and asked the emperor to punish him.

After writing the apology, Aoki Shuzo wrote his resignation again, resigned from the post of Japanese minister to Germany, and put Cheng Cheng and the petition together. Then he called the embassy staff and asked him to send all three letters.

After doing all this, Aoki Shuzo locked himself in his room and quietly waited for death to come.

But a day passed, and nothing happened.

The next day passed, and still nothing happened.

Day 3, Day 4......

Lin Yiqing seems to have forgotten the existence of him, Aoki Shuzang.

Shuzo Aoki saw the news about Lin Yiqing from the newspaper.

After the state banquet held by Emperor Wilhelm I that day, Lin Yiqing also accepted the banquet of the German Junker aristocracy and business tycoons, which can be said to be very popular. Along with the bombing of banquets, there were all kinds of invitations from the German business community to visit, such as the Krupp Company, Volkeng Shipyard, Germania Shipyard, Shichau Shipyard, Brush Kaop Factory, etc., and in order to facilitate Lin Yiqing's actions, Kaiser Wilhelm I actually took out his royal train and yacht for Lin Yiqing to use, which made Aoki Zhou Zang angry.

Lin Yiqing did not refuse to come, and as if he intended to show that Qianguo was far more wealthy than Japan, Lin Yiqing placed a lot of orders one after another, including a large number of 280-mm coastal defense guns and 75-mm operating guns from the Krupp Company, one German "Siegfried"-class coastal defense ironclad ship at the Germania Shipyard, four mine-strike ships at the Shishaw Shipyard, and a large number of "black-headed torpedoes" at the Shuci Kauv Factory...... The German business community was simply boiling over because of his generosity.

As a return for "the friendly and warm hospitality of the German people," Lin Yiqing also held a grand banquet at the Qianguo Legation in Berlin, where nobles, including the Kaiser, his courtiers, and the imperial family, and a large number of bigwigs from the industrial and commercial circles, as well as celebrities from all walks of life. Of course, the ministers of various countries in Berlin were also invited, but the Japanese ministers were not on the invitation list.

Because Aoki's behavior not only ruined his reputation and was regarded as a liar by the Germans, but also greatly damaged the prestige of the Japanese government, it can be said that it had fallen to a historic low, and the German minister in Japan received an order from the Kaiser to publicly note the Japanese government, severely condemning and protesting against Aoki's behavior and demanding that the Japanese government remove Aoki Shuzo, and the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has already expressed its consent. Shuzo Aoki knew that without waiting for his resignation to arrive in Tokyo, the order to remove him would come down by telegram.

Taking advantage of Lin Yiqing's lack of thinking of himself, Aoki Shuzo decided to leave Berlin at this time and return to his wife.

Aoki Shuzo didn't know that during the time he was about to leave, Lin Yiqing had already started his earth-shattering plan, and the political pattern of Europe would change unexpectedly.

On this day, in the garden of the Charlotten Palace, Lin Yiqing once again started a private exchange with Bismarck.

Their topic, of course, is about the general trend in Europe and the world.

For Bismarck, Lin Yiqing still admires it from the bottom of his heart.

Bismarck was fighting. He fought against his political enemies, against the people, against the European powers against German unity, and even against his own monarch, and in this series of struggles he completed the unification of Germany, which had been divided for centuries, and established immortal feats.

Bismarck can be said to be a typical representative of late blooming, until he was thirty years old, he was an idle aristocratic squire, and it was not until the age of thirty-two that he began to enter the official career. He began his diplomatic career, first as Prussia's representative to the Frankfurt Federal Parliament and as ambassador to Vienna and St. Petersburg, and Bismarck's prowess was evident in the diplomatic field. He fought for the greatest interests of Prussia in Vienna and Frankfurt, and in Petersburg he tried his best to unite Russia and isolate Austria, thus establishing a favorable international environment for Prussia's future unification.

Bismarck's most glorious years were the three wars in the process of German unification. In these three wars, Bismarck played with his opponents one by one in applause, and in just seven years, he accomplished what the German people had dreamed of accomplishing since the 13th century by means that made his opponents extremely hated and admired by posterity.

In the Danish War, Bismarck intervened with Austria, taking advantage of the Duke of Augustenburg's right to inherit Schleswig-Holstein and the German nationalists' demand for the annexation of the two countries to Greater Germany. In order to neutralize the French Emperor Napoleon III, who was opposed to the matter at the time, Bismarck stated that Prussia would not oppose if Napoleon III seized Luxembourg and the Rhine region. Napoleon III did not want to come into direct conflict with Prussia, and was greedy, and was soon subjugated by the cunning Bismarck. Russia and Britain, who were very opposed to this at the time, were unable to intervene because they suffered heavy losses in the Crimean War, and the other gave up because they could not find a suitable excuse to oppose it. In the end, the Prussian and Austrian forces easily defeated Denmark, ending with the capture of Schleswig by Prussia and the capture of Holstey by Austria.

But in Bismarck's plans, Austria was always a major obstacle to the unification of Germany. Because of the existence of the Austrian Empire, which had a complex national composition, and the European powers that were eyeing each other, it was impossible to unify according to the plan of Greater Germany. Therefore, the only way out for the Kingdom of Prussia was to exclude Austria and achieve the unification of Little Germany. The terrible thing about Bismarck is that he never thinks about the immediate when he does something, but always thinks about the long-term effects. The United Austrian attack on Dan was just one move he had made on a unified chessboard, and then it was time to remove the Austrian piece. Austria had always been dissatisfied with the distribution of the fruits of the war, and Holstein and Lauenburg were very small and surrounded by Prussian territory. Under Bismarck's coaxing efforts, Austria sold Lauenburg to Prussia at a low price, which made Austria lose face. Annoyed, Austria demanded that Prussia cede its most industrially developed region of Silesia to Austria in exchange. Bismarck's long-awaited pretext for war finally arrived, and Austria declared war on Prussia.

Bismarck's diplomatic genius was best demonstrated in the war he waged, and Russia, which had a grudge against Austria for its defeat in the Crimean War, refused to intervene in the war, and even hoped that Prussia would teach Austria a hard lesson. France, which at that time had already proclaimed itself the hegemon of Europe, was once again deceived by Bismarck's tricks. The French Emperor Napoleon III never wanted to see the emergence of a strong and unified Germany led by Prussia, but Bismarck once again used his genius to tell the French ambassador, Count Benedetto, that if France annexed Belgium, then Prussia would definitely support France, and under his rhetoric, he even induced Benedetto to write a document about France's annexation of Belgium, which eventually became a dagger to stab France in the Franco-Prussian War and make the French people rebel.

During the Austro-Prussian War, the well-trained and well-equipped Prussian army, under the command of General Moltke, chief of the General Staff, took advantage of the developed railway system in Prussia and fully displayed its mobility capabilities. The Austrians were defeated, and the Prussian army planned to attack the Austrian capital Vienna. Bismarck, under pressure from his victorious generals and King Wilhelm I, abandoned his plans to attack Vienna and pressed for a very tolerant and dignified treaty with Austria. "We need to keep the possibility of turning our current enemies into friends," he said. In the treaty, Austria almost achieved the hope of not ceding land and not paying reparations, except for the loss of Venice and the permanent withdrawal from the German Confederation.

After Austria was excluded from Germany, the North German Confederation was established with Prussia as the leader, and the constitution of the Confederation was promulgated, and the unification of Germany was just around the corner. The wishful thinking of the French Emperor Napoleon III failed, and he wanted to wait for Austria to defeat Prussia and reap the benefits, but he did not expect that Prussia would win, and win so quickly. He understood that he had been deceived by Bismarck, and he made up his mind that he would never allow any further step forward in the unification of Germany. Before the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, the French National Assembly had been arguing about the unification of Germany, even more fervent than the Germans, and the common conclusion of France was that a united Germany would be a great threat to France, and therefore Germany could not be unified in any case. However, from the beginning of the United Austrian attack on Denmark, the national consciousness and national enthusiasm of the German people were mobilized by the victories of the two wars and became unprecedentedly high. The people are almost unanimous in their support for unity, even at the cost of war.

Bismarck was well aware that France was the stumbling block he had to move away from in order to realize his dream. He was convinced of the truth that the mourning soldiers would win, and in every war, he would always find an excuse to put the enemy at the mercy of the first, and even preferred to let the enemy humiliate himself first and provoke the war first, because he wanted to silence the European powers, and to make the powers and his own people think that he Bismarck was only fighting for the sake of the dignity and justice of the motherland, so that no one could have any excuse to interfere with what he wanted to do. Soon he found a reason for war.

At that time, the Spanish throne was vacant, and the Spanish government invited Prince Leopold of the Hohenzollern royal house to be King of Spain. France did not want Prussian power to get involved in Spain and avoid fighting on two fronts, so it strongly objected, and instructed the ambassador to France, Benedetto, to meet with the Prussian king and ask the Prussian king to give a written reply, promising never to allow the Hohenzollerns to inherit the Spanish throne and never harm the interests of France. The French outrageous and unreasonable approach annoyed King Wilhelm I, but Wilhelm I reluctantly agreed and sent a telegram to Bismarck on the matter. When Bismarck received the king's telegram, he made some changes and published it to the public, which became known as the "Ames telegram". The telegram became an insult to the French Queen, and Napoleon III, enraged, rashly declared war on Prussia and contemptuously declared that "this is only a walk to the Rhine." ”

Compared to the stupid Napoleon III, Prussia was ready for war long ago. The French army took the lead in attacking Prussia, and was soon defeated by the Prussian army, and retreated to the mainland, the Prussian army took advantage of the heat to attack France, which shocked the world for a while, but the French army turned to the defense in time after the counteroffensive was unfavorable, relying on the strong defense points such as the Charon fortress to block the Prussian army's attack, in a series of offensive and defensive battles both sides suffered heavy losses, the French army's struggle won valuable time for the French navy, the French navy then attacked the port of Kiel and landed on the German mainland, Bismarck saw that the situation was not good, and transferred to the peace talks in time, and the two armies each returned to the mainland, Prussia narrowly won the war in exchange for France's recognition of German unity.

Bismarck, as in the previous war, signed a relatively lenient treaty with France, and neither side ceded land to pay reparations, because Bismarck knew that if it damaged France's interests too much, France would become Germany's greatest enemy. If a revolution breaks out in France, the revolutionary plague will spread to Germany, and it will be even more disastrous for Germany.

After the reunification of Germany, Bismarck continued to be in power, and in the ten years he was in power, Bismarck pursued a **** policy internally, tried his best to suppress the Social Democratic Party, promulgated laws restricting the Social Democratic Party, and dissolved the Reichstag many times, and even planned to suppress the workers' strikes by force. On the other hand, Bismarck set out to formulate a series of laws on labor pensions and pensions, to safeguard the rights and interests of laborers, and to establish a sound social security system. Bismarck was just because he didn't want revolution and turmoil, he didn't trust the people, his conceit made him rely too much on his genius, and all he did was to hope that the empire he had built would develop and grow steadily.

In foreign policy, Bismarck regarded the maintenance of German peace as his most important mission, because for the new Germany, it was most important to ensure and digest the fruits of victory in the process of the war of unification. He feared French revenge, and Germany's geographical location made him afraid of being attacked on all sides, so Bismarck tried to win allies in Europe in the hope of isolating France. He formed the Triple Alliance with Austria and Italy, and made every effort to form an alliance with Great Britain, for which he gave up the large-scale development of overseas colonies in order to win over Britain and ensure the security of Germany itself. In Bismarck's struggles, he attached great importance to relations with Russia, because he was well aware that Russia's war potential could affect the future fate of Germany, and for this reason he did not hesitate to go behind Austria's back and secretly tried to sign an alliance with Russia.

Lin Yiqing knew that the purpose of giving him such a high-level reception and asking the newly formed Deutsche Bank group to give Lin Yiqing a loan was to win over France's most important ally in the East, the Daqian Empire, and to isolate France's old enemy France to the greatest extent.

"Your Excellency, it is very wise that you have chosen to buy an ironclad ship in Germany this time." Bismarck did not forget to stab the French twice in the back during his casual conversation with Lin Yiqing, "As far as I know, for a warship like the 'Dingyuan', the lowest price of a French shipyard is still 200,000 pounds higher than that of a German shipyard." ”

"That's right." Of course, Lin Yiqing understood why Bismarck said this, and nodded with a smile, "So after coming to Germany, I did not hesitate to choose to place an order in a German shipyard, but I was not just greedy for the cheap quotation of German shipyards, another important reason is to value the technology and product quality of German factories." ”

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