After dozens of days of turbulence at sea, Guan Xuqing's fleet finally saw the German coastline along the way, and they could say that they were terrified, and in India, Oman, Djibouti, Suez, Malta, Gibraltar, and the English Channel, the British fleet flying the "m" flag was stationed everywhere, and the Chinese naval officers and men who were newborn calves once again experienced first-hand what kind of strength the world's No. 1 navy is

The "bipolar principle" put forward by the British, that is, the British Navy must have the strength to defeat the world's second and third navies at the same time, is by no means just talking, although in the second industrial revolution, Britain's development lags behind the United States, Germany and other capitalist powers, but the sun never sets, the empire has dominated the world for more than 300 years, and has accumulated countless wealth through colonial plunder, product dumping, etc., and these riches have even been blessed until World War II when Germany launched the "Sea Lion Project" to bomb the British mainland. Few factories in Britain can work normally, a large amount of food, munitions, and medicines need to be imported from foreign countries, what Britain did was to open the treasury and send boxes and boxes of gold to foreign countries, and more than half of these imported goods were buried under the wolf kiss of German submarines, but even so, they failed to empty the British treasury After the war, the pound is still the strongest currency in the world, which shows how rich the John Bulls are

And in this era, the confrontation between Britain and Russia, which is in an extremely rising period, is undoubtedly the world's landlord theme, in this case, let Germany and Russia compromise with each other, and sign a border security treaty, which undoubtedly makes Germany politically stand on the opposite side of Britain, although Wilhelm II has gradually taken control of the country, but Bismarck's influence on Germany is still huge, before he stepped down, he insisted on excluding Britain from European politics, insisting that Germany lead Europe's foreign policy will not change, to put it simply, That is, Germany must first establish its hegemonic position in Europe except for Britain, and then compete with Britain for hegemony through the strength of the whole of Europe

The concrete implementation of such a foreign policy is to avoid Britain's naval superiority, compromise with Britain in the competition for world colonies, and use Germany's world's first land force to concentrate on establishing Germany's absolute superiority on the European continent, and then use this advantage to influence and clamp down on other European powers, such as obedient, such as Italy and Austria-Hungary, and sign alliances; Like the disobedient, such as France, completely isolate it and defeat it in the end

It may take a long time for this plan to be implemented, perhaps decades or even hundreds of years, but if the Germans really carry out Bismarck's plan, decades later, unless Britain is lucky enough to win another Trafalgar-style naval victory, it is afraid that it will inevitably surrender the throne of world hegemony

However, if the world situation develops in this way, it will undoubtedly be quite unfavorable for China, and only by taking advantage of the fierce contradictions between the great powers can China reap the benefits of developing from the cracks, and moreover, the compromise between Germany and Britain and the limitation of their vision to Europe will inevitably lead to the loss of the protective umbrella on China's head and the enormous pressure of British colonialism, which will lead to the difficulty of China's development

At this time, although Wilhelm II, the ruler of the Second German Empire and above had great ambitions, he was still living under the huge shadow of Bismarck, and he had been nurtured by his mother, Princess Victoria, since he was a child, and he had always had the image of the empire that never set on the power and invincibility of the empire, and even after he ascended the throne, he repeatedly said in public that he could not imagine the result of Germany standing on the opposite side of Britain

In this context, the outcome of this trip to Germany is really worrying

Zhenyuan, Dingyuan, Chengfeng, and Breaking the Waves formed a queue of four steel giant feet to slowly move slowly, and the pilot lighthouse of Wilhelmshaven in Germany could already be seen in front of them, flashing in the fog of the early morning in the North Sea, guiding the direction of the fleet

Journalists from major German media on the shore, Chinese students, and officers from the Army Academy were all anxiously waiting

Journalists from all over Germany were surprised to find that these yellow students, who they habitually neglected on a daily basis, seemed to be crowded here holding all kinds of banners and cheering at the fleets from their homeland, all of them wearing neatly ironed uniforms, including the Technical University of Munich, the University of Freiburg, the Humboldt-Universität of Berlin, the University of Conzstanz, the University of Heidelberg, and the University of Dresden...... Later, some newspapers with ulterior motives investigated the admission routes and academic performance of these Chinese students in the hope of finding out what they thought were "behind-the-scenes" deals, and it turned out that these Chinese students were far higher than their local students in Germany in terms of admission scores and usual test scores, which made them amazed. There is nothing to say either

These students are gifted children in the eyes of professors at various universities, and they can often grasp things that others can only understand in a short period of time, but they study diligently every day like crazy, do all kinds of experiments, and the library and laboratory are the places they haunt the most, and if you see them in the wine, there is no doubt that they must be there to work

For a long time, Chinese students were the most welcome students in various universities, and they even proposed various preferential conditions, hoping that they would stay and teach, but without exception, they refused and chose to return to that poor, backward country, you know, those universities promised to provide them with full housing, separate laboratories, and absolutely good salaries, which they refused

At this moment, in a foreign country, the motherland's fleet was ushered in, and many German students paid out of their own pockets and even took leave to come here to welcome the arrival of the motherland's fleet and the arrival of the little emperor who was called the "Holy Ancestor".

Guan Xuqing had tears in his eyes, and he looked at the Chinese students on the shore on the deck, and he took off his hat and saluted deeply, which was his deep respect for these students

When the flotilla arrived at the Wilhelmshaven docks, a welcoming ceremony organized by the local mayor and several MPs now felt completely redundant, because Guan Xuqing was surrounded by enthusiastic Chinese students the moment he stepped off the bridge

This time, the responsibility of escorting is still the overthrow of Cixi twelve years ago, Dong Liang single-handedly formed the Imperial Forest Army is now in the age of establishment, out of trust in them, Guan Xuqing has always taken them with him At this time, groups of foreign students poured towards Guan Xuqing, and were blocked by more than 200 Royal Forest Army five meters away

Dressed in a bright yellow military uniform, straight riding boots, a saber with a sharkskin sleeve pinned to his waist, from the chest to the shoulders, the badge and epaulettes with spike flowers shining Since the body has grown up, in addition to the court meeting, Guan Xuqing almost every time he appears in front of outsiders is this military image, which has caused a lot of criticism from the DPRK and China, but Guan Xuqing, who usually listens to the minister's opinions, is obstinately in this matter, and all the excerpts on this matter are left in the middle, in his words: "The whole army is economical and military, and the trend of reform should start from the beginning of me"

At this time, Guan Xuqing waved to the students, which immediately attracted big cheers

Several student leaders-like figures organized students to bow to Guan Xuqing, Guan Xuqing shook his hand: "This is a foreign country, let's follow the customs, everyone is exempt"

Then two young and beautiful female students came forward to offer flowers, and the accompanying Imperial Forest Army soldiers hurriedly stopped them Guan Xuqing glanced at Zhang Yu next to him, Zhang Yu made a move that he did not find, Guan Xuqing stepped forward to separate a few Royal Forest Army soldiers, smiled and took the flowers in the hands of the female students Guan Xuqing also asked them enthusiastically about their situation, after all, although the domestic atmosphere is gradually opening, but the idea of male superiority and female inferiority can not be changed all at once, there are female students studying abroad, It's really a rare thing, even Guan Xuqing's queen didn't get off the boat with Guan Xuqing, at that time, the traditional concept of China always felt that it was a shame for a girl to show her head, not to mention that she was the mother of a country, and the emperor's wife was not something that everyone could see

After answering Guan Xuqing's question, the two female students ran away with a blushing face, and the cheers around Guan Xuqing pressed down with both hands, made a quiet gesture, and the surroundings quickly quieted down

"Ladies and gentlemen, I know that most of you have come here from out of town, some of you have stayed on the streets for a few nights, and some have changed trains for four or five times...... That's why we can get together today, I'm very happy, this proves that you always have your motherland in your heart, everyone knows that the Qing Dynasty fought with the French and the British a few years ago, and owed a lot of money, and now the treasury is so poor that you can run mice...... "The students who surrounded Guan Xuqing like stars holding the moon suddenly burst into laughter

"But this battle can't be fought, if we don't fight, we will only make foreigners look down on us, and we will only ride on our heads arbitrarily, then our country will never be peaceful, and we can't talk about peace, but in this way, it will suffer you, the number of places for the imperial court to study abroad every year is only a little bit, some of you are not international students sent by the imperial court, all living expenses and tuition fees have to be earned by yourself, and you have to do several hours of work every day in addition to studying, I want to say to you, you have worked hard, I owe you, I will definitely double it back to you one day in the future" As he spoke, Guan Xuqing's waist bent deeply