108201908 Far Eastern madman

After the reunification of Germany, Germany's industrial strength increased rapidly, and the steel output of small Germany was 13 million tons, nearly twice that of Britain and four times that of France, and the total tonnage of Germany's merchant fleet reached nearly 3 million tons. The merchant fleet is the second largest in the world, after the United Kingdom. The synthetic dyes produced in Germany account for 90 percent of the world's total output, the export value of German chemical products accounts for 25 percent of the world's total trade in chemical products, and Germany's share in the proportion of the world's total industrial production has reached 15 percent, which is on a par with Britain and ranks second in the world.

Industrial strength represents the national strength of this era, relying on strong national strength, Germany has ambitious to enter the international political stage. Looking around, Germany was surprised to find that there was a force blocking Germany's continued rise, and this force was the "old world order"

The old order of the world, under this old order. The world's colonies have been carved up by Britain, France and other powers, Germany just caught up with the end of this carving-up frenzy, looking at the poor "scraps" Germany is both angry and impulsive, in this era of "might is right", Germany quickly took action to fight for itself "territory under the sun"

Lapse of the German-Russian Reinsurance Treaty. The trade war and tariff barriers between Germany and Russia, the sisterhood between Germany and Britain over the Boer issue in South Africa, the establishment of the Triple Alliance, the forcible occupation of Jiaozhou Bay in China by the German Far East Fleet, the race to build "dreadnoughts" between Britain and Germany, the Moroccan crisis. The Bosnian crisis was a series of major international events that were a direct consequence of Germany's efforts to destroy the "old world order", and it was Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany who formulated these courses of action.

Since ascending to the throne of the emperor in the Year of the Crane, this young and vigorous monarch has set out an ambitious "new line" in order to maintain Germany's hegemony on the European continent, and more importantly, to compete for "territory under the sun", Wilhelm II did not hesitate to offend Russia, resolutely ended the normal relations between the two countries for many years, and kicked Bismarck, the "iron-blooded prime minister" who opposed this policy, out of the political arena, and promoted those cronies who followed the "new line" to many important positions in the government. Admiral Chancellor Tirpitz, Prime Minister Bürlo, Chief of the General Staff Wadsey, and diplomatic expert Holstein were all "loyal dogs" who gathered around the emperor and faithfully carried out the "new line" formulated by Wilhelm II

As a counterattack to the ambitious Wilhelm II, Britain, which has always emphasized the balance of power strategy, did not hesitate to win over France and Russia, and the Triple Entente was established, and the world became more turbulent from then on.

After the Moroccan crisis and the Bosnian crisis, both the Entente and the Central Powers tested each other's resolve and realized an important reality: neither was ready for all-out war.

But the fact that the two military blocs were not ready for war did not mean that they would abandon the war, on the contrary, they both accelerated their preparations for war, and the fact that the world economic depression that began a few years ago was able to ease so quickly in Europe was not unrelated to the arms race between the two sides, and the continuous increase in orders for arms and equipment made the European industrialists very satisfied, but at the same time made the situation in Europe more tense.

While the two military blocs are frantically expanding their armaments, they are also continuing to win over their allies. Britain has set its sights on the United States on the other side of the Atlantic, and Germany is doing the same, and since it has no allies in the Far East, Germany's desire to win over the United States is even more urgent, because the United States is also a Pacific country, and its naval strength is not weak, and it can work with Germany to defend the vested interests of the two countries in the Far East, and jointly fight against Japan, a small emerging power with the same ambitions.

However, to Germany's disappointment, the isolationist sentiment in the United States is very strong, far stronger than the patriotic sentiment of the German Americans, so the United States is unwilling to endorse Germany's interests in the Far East, although the United States is also dissatisfied with Japan's expansion in Northeast Asia, but in contrast, the United States attaches more importance to the European market, it will not offend Britain and France for Germany, and American businessmen are cunning, and they are well aware of the balance of power in Europe.

Therefore, the US government has been reluctant to board the German thief ship for a long time, and American politicians have maintained it

Since the United States could not win over for the time being, the German emperor had to turn his attention to other countries

How many independent countries are there in the Far East and the Pacific today?

Japan is counted as one, but Japan is an ally of Britain and an associate member of the Entente bloc, and it is obviously impossible for such a country to get on the German thief ship. There was no way, the German emperor had to look away, stared at the Far East for a while, and then His Majesty the Emperor painfully found that there are really only a handful of independent countries in the Far East, and there is almost only one pound left worthy of Germany's wooing, China.

China is nominally a sovereign state. But in fact, since the "misanthropic national change" in yo years, the Eight-Nation Coalition has turned this country into a "public colony" with cannons and bayonets and missionaries, is it qualified to board the thief ship of His Majesty the Emperor?

Qualification, and this qualification, can completely defy the whole pound of little Europe, and that qualification is population: this ancient Eastern country now has a population of 400 million.

In fact, Wilhelm II believed that if the Germans were to do the statistics, the population of this ancient oriental country would probably be close to 500 million!

500 million people, what a number. As a European monarch, Wilhelm II had to lament that this was a "miracle of rice, sweet potatoes and potatoes", and to His Majesty's Majesty the Emperor's surprise, the people at the bottom of the country could endure the worst living conditions. This can be seen in the Chinese laborers who worked on the plantations in the Americas.

The German emperor really couldn't understand why such a country was reduced to a "public colony", perhaps the country's history was too long, and too much dross had been accumulated, and the new social forces could not break through this thick layer of dross, so that every progress of the country was premised on heavy social costs.

However, the German emperor quickly ignored the history of China, after all, if the country did not wake up quickly, the long history and culture of the country would probably be over, after all, in addition to Japan's eyeing of the country, the Germans have always coveted the country.

"For Germany, it is impractical to carve up China, Germany's power in the Far East is really insignificant compared to Britain and Japan, and it is better to find a way to tie this country with a population of 500 million to the German chariot than to be hostile to the Chinese people because of its participation in the partition.

While Britain and Japan have not yet moved. It is better to pull this declining country on its own thief ship as soon as possible, so that those 500 million people can provide a market for Germany and some power for German tanks.

At the urging of the emperor, the German government quickly took action, and contacted the Qing court through the minister in China, advocating that China, the United States, and Germany form an alliance against Japan. Tang Shaoyi led a diplomatic delegation to the United States to prepare for consultations with the US government on the issue of the alliance between the three countries.

However, the United States still refused to board the German thief ship, and the US Government cleverly took advantage of the public opinion of the "Sino-US-German Triple Alliance" to force the Japanese Government to sit back at the negotiating table and sign the "Rotuo Gaoping Agreement" with the United States, in exchange for the Japanese Government's promise to "open the door" and not to attack the Philippines.

Against this backdrop, Germany can only put all its hopes on China, which is its only hope of maintaining a vested interest in the Far East Pacific, even if the country itself is not in the same direction

Evening.

But without waiting for Germany's wishful thinking. Revolution broke out in this ancient Eastern country. The Shen Revolution.

Then, the Manchu court was overthrown by the powerful factions of the north and the south, and the country nominally transitioned from a monarchy to a republic.

This simply excites the German emperor, because earlier that year, the Ottoman Empire, the "sick man of West Asia", also broke out a revolution, and the military junta that came to power after the revolution was very pro-German, and they strongly demanded that Germany help them modernize their military, and now. The "sick man of East Asia" China also broke out in the revolution, so will the new government after the revolution also need the "help" of Germany?

Although he was disgusted with the republican system, this did not affect Wilhelm II's interest in republican China. At the level of the threat of the Entente, Germany's "new line" must be pursued, and China must also be wooed.

At the beginning, the object of Germany's wooing was Yuan Shikai, but the Germans soon discovered that Britain's influence on Yuan Shikai was very strong, far from being comparable to Germany, and because Germany's power in the Far East was really limited, Yuan Shikai was unlikely to abandon Britain and enter the arms of Germany, so that Germany's Far East strategy was more threatened, if China could not be pulled on the German thief ship, then once the European conflict broke out, Germany would have to withdraw most of its forces from the Far East, Then Japan will have absolute superiority in the Far East, and the United States will not take advantage of Germany's fire. Then, Japan's surplus naval forces could be transferred to Europe and blockade Germany from the sea together with Britain.

Just as Wilhelm II was in the midst of depression, a powerful figure in southern China awakened the German imagination with his own voice. That person was called Zhao Bei, and he rose in the "Wushen Revolution." "It was a general of the Southern Revolutionary Army, and because the Japanese fleet was engaged in an armed conflict with his troops in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, this Chinese general actually took a very tough posture and almost pushed China and Japan to the brink of war.

This Chinese military strongman caught the attention of Wilhelm II, who had all the intelligence and information he could find, and then was surprised to find it. This general, Zhao Bei, was not only anti-Japanese, but also had strong anti-British sentiments, which can be seen from the anti-British telegrams he took after the occupation of Jiujiang City, and it was for this reason that foreign journalists gave him the nickname: Far Eastern Maniac.

It is noteworthy that this is evidently a Chinese general with a strong national and nationalist position, and that he has not shown a dislike for Germany while being anti-British and anti-Japanese, and that the Germans may have taken advantage of it and supported his cause, so that he has enough power to aspire to the supreme power of China, in which case he must have a better opinion of Germany, and perhaps to the "new line" of the German emperor.

However, before giving full support to this Far Eastern military strongman, it is necessary to examine his true strength, for the Germans, though generous, are also shrewd, and Germany will never support a vulnerable maniac.

So, with the support of rifles, ammunition, artillery, and ships provided by German merchants, as well as the turbulent political situation in the country after the intensification of various contradictions since modern times, a north-south conflict inevitably broke out. And so the war broke out.

The small war in southern Henan, which lasted only a few days, ended in a complete victory for General Zhao Bei. The powerful faction in the south defeated Yuan Shikai's Beiyang group, and the German emperor was finally relieved.

Facts have proved that His Majesty's choice was correct, those opposition in the cabinet basically disappeared, and now Germany needs a Far East helper too much, and that General Zhao Bei is obviously a good investment object, although his current strength is still very weak, but as long as Germany is willing to lend a hand, he is fully capable of becoming the master of China in a short period of time.

Of course, if it is possible to obtain sufficient commercial benefits from China while supporting General Zhao Bei. This is clearly what the German business community would like to see. If the German business community had benefited from China in business and industry, they would have supported the imperialist parliamentarians in the parliamentary elections, and in that way they would have been able to completely suppress the increasingly powerful left-wing social forces.

Against this backdrop, the German Emperor personally exerted influence on the Foreign Affairs Department, ordering the German Minister in China to take "more active action" to win over and influence the General Zhao Bei.

So, Colonel Hannagan went to Wushengguan with a telegram from the German minister, to the headquarters of the revolutionary armed forces of the United Front.

This was not only the choice of the German emperor, but also the choice of Germany.

After meeting the commander-in-chief, Hannagan had an hour-long secret meeting with Zhao Bei alone in the conference room, and then the meeting ended, except for a very few people, the content of this meeting was a desperate secret, just like the original "Huangzhou Conspiracy", and it also became a historical mystery that caused headaches for later historians.