At the end of the Qing Dynasty, because the capital was in Beijing, foreign countries generally only set up consulates in Nanjing. In the 25th year of Guangxu, Xiaguan was opened as a commercial port, but it was limited to the Jianggan area, not to the city. For the sake of the balance of interests, all countries can set up consulates in Xiaguantong City.

After the liberation of the nation last year, the provisional government established the capital of Nanjing, and some countries that had established diplomatic relations with the provisional government gradually moved their embassies or legations to Nanjing. During this period, some secretly sent autumn waves to the provisional government, some preemptively established diplomatic relations, and some tried to do so step by step. Since the founding of the empire, some countries that have established diplomatic relations with the empire have gradually moved their embassies or legations to Nanjing.

As the early establishment of diplomatic relations with the provisional government of the Western powers, Germany, the embassy was initially located in the old consulate, and then rented land in the building lane, and built a brick, wood and concrete structure of the German two-story building 15 buildings with 432 rooms, 122 kitchens, 120 toilets, 2 bathrooms, a total of 678 rooms, at this time in Nanjing, this is a large embassy.

To a certain extent, the size of the embassy and the "ambition" of the country in the host country are mutually reflected, as a backward country, the privileges enjoyed by Germany in China, except for Qingdao, are mostly obtained by relying on the open door government, but for the German capital community, the development of the Chinese market is directly related to the future of the capital industry, and from the end of the Qing Dynasty to the present, both the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the empire have purchased a large number of ordnance and machinery and equipment from Germany, especially since the provisional government, China has purchased more machinery and equipment from Germany than it has in the past decade.

"The Chinese market is the future of German industry"

Stimulated by huge orders, Germany was the first Western power to recognize Nanjing, and in return, in the past two years, a large number of orders and cooperation contracts have been continuously channeled into German industry, especially after the declaration of war between China and Japan and the delicate Sino-British relations.

At about 9 o'clock in the morning, a car left the German Embassy, turned several corners, turned towards the Guangfu Boulevard, and then drove along the Guangfu Boulevard in the direction of the Imperial Palace, and in Nanking, as any foreign observer knows, it is not their government, nor the Senate, but their emperor who can make the final decision on any question.

Nanjing is the capital of the Chinese Empire, one of the three largest empires in the world, and the imperial palace is the brain of the country.

"Last month, we got an order of 36 million marks from China......"

Sitting in the car, George? Feng? As Hedrisen reported to the ambassador, he looked at the silent von in front of him. Count Lekes, as ambassador to China, in addition to representing German interests in China, one of the most important things was to promote German industrial products in China, and in this respect alone, he was undoubtedly a successful German ambassador to China.

"George, do you remember what I said to you when you first came to China?"

The in-time ambitious Feng? Count Lex looked at the Counsellor sitting next to him, and at the same time he elbowed the car, which was a personal gift from His Majesty the Emperor, and in Nanking only the ambassadors of Britain, the United States, Germany, and France owned such a car, while in Germany only His Majesty the Emperor owned a luxury car of the same type.

"You once said, don't look at everything in this country through the eyes of the past"

George replied truthfully that he had come to the embassy from Germany ten months earlier, and had had the privilege of witnessing the enthronement of His Majesty the Emperor, so to speak, he had completely witnessed the "birth" of this empire.

It's just that when he was in Germany itself, when he was training in diplomacy, his views and ideas were completely influenced by the materials of the old era.

"Two years ago, when I took a warship from Shanghai all the way to Wuchang, except for Hanyang, both sides of the river were primitive landforms, and now, what do you think the two sides of the Yangtze River look like?"

"Factories and chimneys can be seen everywhere on both sides of the strait, as well as factories under construction, according to the Chinese government's planning, they have established an industrial belt along the Yangtze River, the government leads heavy industry, private capital dominates light industry, in the past 18 months, China from Germany, Britain, the United States, France, Austria-Hungary imported 550,000 finished machinery and equipment, 320,000 pieces of machinery and equipment, nearly 4,000 imported technologies, this year, 45 of the world's machinery and equipment exports, are exported to China, from which it can be concluded that under the promotion of the government at no cost, China is rapidly industrializing. ”

George was very skillful in spitting out a series of figures, and these data are all public, which is also the reason why Germany chose China in this war, the Germans are good at analysis, and it is these data analysis that make Germany believe that China can win this war, even if they lose the naval battle, in the end, they will be the winners of this war. ,

"The market in China is huge"

Feng? Count Lex looked out the window at the street and said with great certainty.

"This point, as early as a hundred years ago, the British have seen it, more than half a century ago, for this market, the British bombarded their country with naval guns, but until now, the Chinese market is still not fully developed"

Will this be Feng? Count Lex's eyes flickered.

"We must see that China's total economic volume far exceeds Germany, of course, their industrial economy is very low, their economy mostly relies on agriculture, and now the Chinese are catching up, which means that we, Germany, can use their own advantages to seize this market, if, in the next few years, China still maintains this amount of machinery imports, it is just a year's order, enough for the entire German industry to maintain a high operating rate every day, even so, None of us were able to complete the ...... of orders in China"

"Your Majesty, we must take into account that now China is not only to Germany to purchase machinery and equipment, they are to a number of industrial countries to send intentions, and finally by the low price, and willing to transfer technology patents at the same time enterprises to issue contracts, now they are purchasing machinery from various countries, because their own machinery production is not enough to meet the needs of national industrial development, and with the import of a large number of machinery and equipment, as well as the development of the country's machinery manufacturing industry, especially the transfer of machinery and equipment technology patents in various countries, so that they can mass-produce the same kind of homogeneous machinery, and then the import volume will naturally be reduced"

For this industrial market, George has his own views, now the Chinese government procures equipment and the Manchu Qing Dynasty has a clear difference, they are like the Japanese, Russians, when purchasing equipment, will always talk about the issue of patented technology, compared to simply buying equipment, they are willing to buy together with technology, at the beginning, the French are opportunistic in this regard, get a large number of equipment orders, their offer may be higher than Germany, but randomly transfer patented technology, sell parts, Technicians were sent to China to help them localize machinery and equipment.

French companies have plenty of experience in this area, both Japanese and Russian companies have imported a large number of machinery and equipment and patented technologies from France, while German companies have lagged behind in this regard, until they reacted in the face of China's huge loss of orders.

And listening to George's analysis, von? Count Lex looked at the young man with a smile.

"Perhaps, but how many machine tools do the Chinese need? When will the Chinese have a sufficient number of machine factories? These are all problems, just like their Maanshan Machinery Company, now only manufacturing 10,000 machinery and equipment a year, but in the future, China needs hundreds of thousands, millions of machinery and equipment, do not forget, this country is very large, the population is very large, if the number of machinery and the proportion of population match, in the next 30 years, China needs at least 10 million machinery and equipment, can reach the same level as Germany, but in 30 years, can the Chinese produce such a number of machinery and equipment? So they need to import"

Feng? Count Lex's tone was very affirmative, and then he said in the affirmative.

"Therefore, in this war, we have to show enough goodwill to the Chinese, to make them realize that when they are abandoned by the whole world, only Germany will still be by their side and will still be their friend, which will allow our industry to get more contracts, at least under equal or similar conditions, and their priority will be given to Germany,"

And then von? Count Lex said with regret.

"Two months ago, Bethlehem Steel and Krupp Steel were competing for a contract for the No. 4 steelmaking plant of Maanshan Iron and Steel Company, and our offer was lower than that of Bethlehem Steel, but because we had one less thing than Bethlehem Steel."

"Fifteen-thousand-ton hydraulic press?"

"It's the hydraulic press, which was invented by Bethlehem Iron and Steel Company, and Krupp Company, just completed trial production, when they hesitated, up to two million dollars of the contract, was obtained by Bethlehem Iron and Steel Company, this is a contract of 10 million marks, but if we can get priority, then this contract must belong to Germany, and the subsequent 10,000-ton hydraulic press contract will bring tens of millions of marks in return, sometimes, our enterprises are too hesitant, at this time, It is up to us diplomats to defend Germany's commercial interests".

Thoughts

The difference in the way of thinking, George, who had studied in the United States for a year, said to himself in his heart, compared to the conservatism of German companies, American companies never mind the transfer of patented technology, in the eyes of American companies, those technologies are valuable commodities, even if they are commodities, then there is no problem in selling it, and German companies often regard patents as a guarantee that the company's products are in a leading position, but they just ignore that in this industrial age, any industrial product can be imitated,

Just then the car stopped, and George looked up to see that the car had reached the palace. Looking at this palace, which in no way matches the name of the "Three Great ** Empires", George couldn't help but wonder, could it be that all the silver in China was used by the emperor to buy machinery and technology.

"Count Lex"

When the door of the large living room was pushed open, Chen Moran greeted him with a smile on his face.

"His Majesty the Emperor"

Seeing His Majesty the Emperor in the uniform of the Chinese Navy, Feng? Count Lex hurriedly bent down and bowed, performing a German court etiquette.

"Well, Lex, my friend, today, here, there is no emperor and earl, only two old friends"

After accepting the salute, Chen Moran said with a smile.

Earl Lex only smiled disapprovingly at the occasional plebeian style of the "elected emperor", but he knew that it was precisely because the emperor regarded himself as a friend, which was a good sign.

"Today, I invite you to come today, because I want to express my gratitude to you, personally"

Chen Moran said with a smile that yesterday a telegram was sent from the embassy in Germany that the eight major German banks were willing to provide China with a low-interest credit loan of 100 million marks, although everyone knew that this was actually a natural manifestation of the international financial community after the South China Sea naval war, Chen Moran still seized the opportunity to express his gratitude to his "old friend."

"Your Majesty, this is an expression of the confidence of the German financial community in your country"

Lex replied politely, knowing that the credit of the 100 million marks would eventually return to Germany's pocket, and even if the 100 million marks did not need to be remitted to China at all, the procurement personnel sent by the emperor would directly take the check of the 100 million marks and place an order of at least 100 million marks to the German industry, and if it was not bad, they would add orders in order to show their gratitude.

"In any case, I have been deeply touched by the friendship of my old friends, and I have decreed that the Technical Committee will place orders of no less than 1,300,000,000,000 marks for your enterprises, which I think is a good gesture of gratitude to Germany by me and the Chinese Empire."

really

Feng? Count Lex was secretly happy in his heart, this is the advantage of dealing with the Chinese, the Chinese know when and in what way to express their gratitude, those bankers who write checks, have already calculated all this, this huge amount of money is just they handed over from the left hand to the right hand, and in the process, they not only get interest, but also help the industry get more orders.

"This war has exposed a lot of problems"

Then, Chen Moran said solemnly.

"Sometimes, both individuals and countries have to face the reality that they can be betrayed by their former friends at any time, and this war has fully exposed this problem."

As soon as the words turned, Chen Moran looked solemn on the surface, but his eyes were staring directly at Feng? Count Lex, who invited him to-day, did not want to tell him that the 1.3 billion marks were as simple as that, but to send him a signal, a signal that Germany could read, but not too direct, not too subtle.

In another time and space, there was a person who wanted to use a photo of the city tower to convey a signal, but the Americans couldn't read it, and Westerners are not good at guessing the obscure expressions of the East, and many times they even misunderstand.

"Of course, His Majesty the Emperor, both as an individual and as a nation"

In expressing his approval, von? Earl Lex began to think in his heart about the meaning of His Majesty's words, and it was obvious that he was very dissatisfied with the performance of Britain in this war, and perhaps even with the United States, and the intervention and mediation of the United States and Britain made China now face a very embarrassing situation.

"However, His Majesty the Emperor, in the same way, whether it is an individual or a country, in the face of any situation, there will always be friends by his side, who will never leave"

Feng? The Count of Lex did not forget to show Germany's position in this war at the right time, so as to prove that Germany was China's true friend compared to other countries. ,

"Of course, for example, your country"

Nodding affirmatively, Chen Moran smiled slightly.

"This war has made me and this country realize many problems, and I believe that the friendship between China and Germany will deepen with time, and I ...... for this."

As soon as his hand was stretched out, the attendant behind him took out a document, and Chen Moran took it directly, looking at Feng Mo with a smile on his face. Count Lex, speaking when he was a little confused.

"I think maybe Germany deserves something in return for friendship"

After handing over the document to the attendant, the attendant directly handed the document to Feng? Count Lex, after receiving the papers, von? Count Lex unfolded the document and looked at it, his eyes suddenly opened, he carefully flipped through a few pages, and after seeing the genus name behind the document, the name was very familiar, it was a German name, obviously this report was true, close the document in his hand, von? Earl Lex looked up at His Majesty with a smile on his face, and pressed the excitement in his heart.

"Your Majesty the Emperor, I don't know ...... Your Majesty"

Don't wait for Feng? After Count Lex finished speaking, Chen Moran interrupted him with a smile.

"As I said, Germany deserves and deserves to be reciprocated in return for its friendship, and that this report will be made public, and the authenticity of the report is beyond doubt, so I think that if Germany wants to, Germany should be China's preferred partner."

The smile on his face was sincere, but in his heart, Chen Moran knew that this was just a bait, and now it was up to the Germans to choose whether to choose this bait and swallow this bait that they couldn't refuse, and this report could finally play his role at the right time.

And to play his role to a large extent, only in this way, all this is worth it, and this is not only a bait, but also a stepping stone, it will help itself to open the door to Germany, so that the Germans take the initiative to put forward the requirements they need, and China can get the technology and capital they need from it.

"Your Majesty the Emperor, I think,"

After a moment of silence, he glanced at the report again, Feng? Count Lex replied truthfully.

"I need to report this to Berlin, and I personally hope that His Majesty the Emperor will postpone the publication of this report on the basis of the friendship between Germany and China."

(The book was released, the title of the book: Anno 1912, and I hope everyone can continue to support Speechless, it will be a very wonderful story thank you) ......

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