A lot happened in 1862, starting with the announcement on January 24 that the two vassal states of the Ottoman Empire, Moldova and Wallachia, would be merged and renamed Romania.

1 May-1 November - London International Industry and Art Fair. Britain once again demonstrated its industrial prowess to the world.

On September 22, in war-torn North America, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation to restore the lost hearts and populations of the Chinese North American colony as the North fled to the west due to the disadvantage of the war and the large number of people fleeing to the west. Of course, the most important thing to ignore is the first naval battle between armored ships in the American Civil War, the Battle of Hampton, which ended hastily because it could not inflict fatal damage on the other side as in history.

Of course, Japan was not idle, but the revolutionary army led by Saigo (let's take it that way) launched the largest modern war since the Japanese Civil War, the Battle of Kobe, in Kobe, Honshu. The revolutionary army, which had only 30,000 men, defeated the Choshu and Tosa coalition forces led by Yama Prefecture Aritomo with the help of naval firepower. In addition, the Imperial Cabinet paid more attention to the Tozenji Incident, which had not long been followed by the attack on the British Legation at Tozenji Temple in the second year of Fumihisa, in which two members of the embassy were injured. After the incident, the legations of various countries were relocated to Shinagawa Gotenyama and protested to the Imperial Foreign Office.

What made Lin Hong happiest this year was that the famous mechanical engineering experts and mathematicians Hua Yufang and Xu Shou jointly drew the design drawings of the first steam engine ship in the true sense of China, which was the first ship with the appearance of the ship type from the power system, and the previous ships were built by Lin Hong directly or indirectly with the help of the system, including the current warships of the Navy. Hua Yufang and Xu Shou, two historical ones, cooperated with Fu Lanya, and successively translated "Trigonometry Mathematics", "Algebraic Problem Solution", "Mathematics of Doubt", etc., and also compiled and published "The Ancient Meaning of Prescription", "Instructions for Algorithms", "Solving the Root Technique", "Comparing Techniques", "Learning to Calculate and Write" and other works; Another translated almost all of the chemical terms and the names of most chemical elements, such as sodium, potassium, calcium, nickel, etc., are all new words that he coined from the first syllable of the Western language. In addition, he has also translated a large number of chemistry books, including "Chemical Identification", "Continuation of Chemical Identification", "Supplement to Chemical Identification", "Chemical Quality", "Chemical Calculation", "Objects are Easy to Remember when Exposed to Heat", and "List of Chinese and Western Chemical Materials". Of course, all of this has been translated in its entirety in the books of the Ministry of Education.

However, Lin Hong is most concerned about Prussia in Europe and Central Europe. Bismarck became Prussia's chancellor and officially implemented his iron-blooded policy, and a big drama will be staged on the European continent.

Early morning, Berlin. Sanssouci Palace, an 18th-century German royal palace and garden located on the northern outskirts of what is now Potsdam, Germany, was built by King Frederick II of Prussia in imitation of the Palace of Versailles in France. The name of the palace is taken from the French word for "carefree" or "mochou".

"China Building", this garden pavilion built by Frederick the Great for the ancient oriental country of China, is full of Chinese characteristics, but in the eyes of Hong Renxuan, the special envoy of this visit to Puton, this Chinese building is completely nondescript.

"What do you think? , which was built by Frederick the Great in the last century. ”

"Your Excellency, Honorable Prime Minister, to be honest, although they resemble each other, these statues feel more like Europeans!"

"Huh! Maybe this is the Oriental in the emperor's heart! All right! Sir, let's go inside and talk about it, there is good wine and cigars. ”

"Thank you for your hospitality. I believe that we will have a pleasant cooperation. ”

In 1815, the Napoleonic Wars ended. The feudal victorious powers convened a conference in Vienna. The Congress of Vienna decided to organize the German Confederation to take over the Holy Roman Empire (First German Reich), which had been completely destroyed by France in the war. The Confederacy included the powerful Austrian, Prussian, and other small states, with a total of 34 countries and 4 free cities. But this confederation is not a unified country, and the small countries still have complete sovereignty, their own governments and armies, their own inviolable territories, different tariff policies, and different levels of development. In fact, the so-called confederation is nothing more than the ultimate expression of the feudal empire. Since fragmentation was detrimental to the development of the free economy and thus hindered the development of the capitalist economy, German reunification became a demand of the German bourgeoisie and an inevitable trend of history.

The situation was clearly in favour of the two great powers that had the stronger at the time, Austria and Prussia. Austria wanted to unify Germany with itself (the so-called "Greater Germany") and wanted to include Prussia like other small countries. Bismarck's Prussian-centric unification was different, and he planned to exclude Austria (i.e., "Little Germany") from the unified state.

At the beginning of the 50s, Austria was in a dominant position in the Austro-Prussian hegemony. After the Revolution of 1848, Prussia seized the opportunity to seek reunification. In May 1850, Austria convened an all-German conference in Frankfurt, which demanded the restoration of the All-German Parliament and the rotation of Austria and Pu as its chairman. Prussia refused. Austria united with other countries to threaten Prussia. Prussia finally compromised. Prussia called it the "Olmitz Humiliation". This incident exacerbated the deterioration of Franco-Austrian relations. At the end of the 50s, Prussia developed economic ties with a number of small German states, establishing a "customs union". He also took advantage of the war between France and Italy with Austria in 1859 in an attempt to force the All-German Parliament to relinquish its leadership.

Now Prussia is on the rise in economic and military power under Bismarck's rule, and Bismarck is well aware of the weakness of the bourgeoisie, so in order to more effectively implement the "iron and blood policy", he simply kicked away the parliament, and when the parliament accused the government of "violating the constitution", he was not only not afraid, but openly said: "Conflict is inevitable, and in the most powerful aspect of the conflict, it will win!" At the same time, he knew that as soon as his "iron-blooded policy" won the final victory and the unification of all Germany, then these chattering bourgeois parliamentarians would immediately bow down before him.

In order to ensure and implement his own policy, Bismarck knew that with the current national strength of Prussia, he could not complete the unification of Germany, so after obtaining the permission of Wilhelm I, Bismarck sent a request to the Imperial Cabinet to visit Prussia through Prussian businessmen who traveled to and from China. To this end, the Imperial Cabinet expressed its understanding in a telegram and its willingness to secretly send a mission to Putinia.

So there was this visit by Hong Renxuan.

The content of this secret meeting was insignificant, but the result was satisfactory to both sides: the Chinese Empire would give the Kingdom of Prussia a low-interest loan of 100 million Chinese dollars to help it complete the cause of nation-state reunification, in addition, the Chinese Empire would open up the technology of new dome cruisers and ironclad ships to Prussia, and assist Prussia in building a 10,000-ton shipyard and three large gun and artillery factories In this way the Reich would have a complete North German market. Secondly, Prussia and the later German Empire will form a strategic alliance with the Chinese Empire, in fact, Prussia and even the German Empire will be the spokesperson of China in Europe, speaking for the Empire in Europe, which is also the most important thing, once the European powers have contradictions with the Empire on the colonial issue in the future, Germany will be the most powerful aid to the Empire. Although the cabinet did not make any requests for concessions, it was given some commercial privileges of preferential land purchase and recruitment. In general, the empire paid a lot of material goods, but what it gained was the market of Central Europe and the diplomatic advantage of the future