Eight years is destined to be a non-stop year.

This year, the international situation has changed dramatically. The contradictions between the great powers intensified, and fierce competition was launched on the continents of Asia, Africa, Europe and the United States. The emerging United States and Germany challenged the old powers on the colonial issue. Germany was more conservative and only supported the Netherlands against Britain on the Boer question, while the United States was more aggressive and directly launched the Spanish-American War to seize Spanish Cuba and the Philippines.

The Qing Empire also participated in this war to repartition the world's colonies, but it was essentially different from the dog-eat-dog battle between the great powers.

The Qing Empire, as an old empire in a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society, under the careful planning of Wang Chenhao, completely eliminated the power and influence of the Spanish Empire in China through the war with Spain, which was the clarion call for the Qing Empire to take the initiative to sound against imperialist aggression. As the first great power country to be expelled from China, Spain marked that China no longer accepted the yoke imposed on the Chinese people by the great powers, and thus opened the prelude to the anti-foreign aggression movement.

Wang Chenhao carefully planned the war against Spain, but it was only to enhance international influence and show strength to the great powers, so as to reduce the determination of the great powers to invade China.

However, what Wang Chenhao did not expect was that the victory of the war against Spain caused the rebellion movement that was originally limited to the Spaniards to expand rapidly, and the Chinese people who did not understand political affairs were used by some forces with ulterior motives to quickly expand the actions that were originally only against the Spaniards to actions against other foreigners.

Beginning in November of the 23rd year of Guangxu (1897), Jianghu and non-governmental organizations such as the Dadao Society, the Township League, and the Boxing Association in North and East China took the opportunity to propagate their respective doctrines, crowding out the power of churches in China and strengthening themselves.

By the time the New York Treaty was signed, the movement had spread to dozens of countries, including Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Russia, Italy, Austria, Belgium, Portugal, and the Netherlands. These non-governmental organizations attack the power of various powers in China, but they are not fools and know the severity. Among them, small countries in Europe have been hit the hardest, while large countries such as Britain, France and the United States have been hit less.

Despite this, the Qing Empire's prime minister's yamen was still besieged by the great powers, and the diplomatic pressure continued to increase. However, fortunately, the major powers have exercised restraint, and the protests of other small European countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, and Portugal can be ignored for the time being.

In order not to anger all the great powers at the same time, the Qing government had to take urgent measures to stop the anti-foreign movement of the civil forces. However, the Qing political axe was also under tremendous pressure from non-governmental forces and public opinion in both directions, so it was screened on the issue of the anti-foreign movement. The Qing political axe mainly focused on controlling the attacks of civil forces on major powers such as Britain, France, the United States and Germany, and the Qing political axe had a tacit attitude towards other small European countries. As a result, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal and other small European countries have suffered heavy losses in China.

However, despite the concessions made by the Qing political axe, some civil forces still did not give up. Among them, the Dadaohui and the remnants of the White Lotus Sect operating in Shandong were aimed at creating trouble for the Qing government and taking the opportunity to instigate the local people to oppose the Qing Dynasty, so as to achieve their goal of taking advantage of the chaos.

On 8 May, Father Xue Tianzi (Sternz), a German priest at Zhangjiazhuang Church in Juye County, Caozhou, Shandong Province, developed church power in the local area, sheltered believers, oppressed the people, and aroused public indignation. Nine said, the German missionaries Nef. Franciscus and Han? Henlericandus and the others passed through Zhangjiazhuang and stayed overnight in Xue Tianzi's bedroom, where they were immediately killed by the Dadao congregation, while Xue Tianzi survived elsewhere. The people of Jining, Shouzhang, Heze, Shanxian and other prefectures and counties set fire down churches and clergy residences and beat up clergy and parishioners.

This immediately shocked the German political axe, which had always wanted to develop a colonial base in China, and now finally found an excuse.

As early as 1868, when Richthofen, a professor and geologist at the University of Berlin in Prussia, visited the provinces of China to investigate, he attached great importance to the resource-rich Shandong Province. He suggested to the Prussian government: "If you want to develop the power in the Far East, you must occupy Jiaozhou Bay. ”

Due to the weakness of the German navy at that time, Richthofen's conspiracy did not succeed. At the end of the nineteenth century, Germany's power swelled dramatically, and the struggle for world hegemony became a strategic goal of Kaiser Wilhelm II. After the First Sino-Japanese War, Germany acquired Jeju Island in Korea as a naval base, but Korea was occupied by Russia, and Germany gained little benefit. Therefore, after the construction of the Jeju Island naval base, Germany planned to use Jeju Island as a springboard to regain a colonial base in China. To this end, Wei Qian decided to seize a base in China as soon as possible.

As a result, the German Admiralty, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Embassies and Consulates in China, the Catholic Church, and the Germans serving in China were mobilized to scramble over the choice of a base. The eyes of the German political axe swept all over the coastal areas of China, and a large number of lists were put forward, and after screening, they were rejected one by one. In the end, only four targets remained: Xiamen, Sanmen, Zhoushan and Jiaozhou Bay. The German envoy and consul in Shanghai strongly advocated the occupation of Jiaozhou Bay, both as a naval base and for commercial development. However, the Admiralty believed that Jiaozhou Bay was too big, the water was too shallow, the location was far from the north, and it was far away from the trade route, so it did not agree to choose Jiaozhou Bay, and a dispute broke out between the two sides.

In order to solve this problem as soon as possible, Wilhelm II sent two of his most trusted subordinates to serve in China. In April 1896, Rear Admiral Dietrich was appointed commander of the Far East Fleet, and the order was given to him: "to find places along the coast of China where Germany could build military and economic bases." In May, Haijing was appointed minister to China, with the same mission as Dietrich.

In Wilhelmshaven, Kaiser Wilhelm II told Haijing and Dietrich: "You two should make a name for yourself, and don't let me down." ”

When the Spanish-American War broke out, Dietrich led a fleet to China. Because Dietrich was militarily oppressed by the fleets of China and the United States in Manila, he was very angry. So after he came to China, he actively surveyed Xiamen, Sanmen, and Zhoushan on the candidate list, and thought that they were not ideal. In March 1898, Dietrich came to Jiaozhou Bay by warship to investigate, and believed that Jiaozhou Bay was the most ideal target, the only natural port along the coast of China, with a superior geographical location and easy development of commercial trade. From a military point of view, Jiaozhou Bay is wide and deep, and the conditions for building a port are superior, although there is a squadron stationed in Jiaozhou, but the German army may easily seize Jiaozhou Bay.

When Dietrich looked at Jiaozhou Bay, he even forgot that the Qing Empire at this time already had a powerful navy and army, and although the army was not yet able to reach the overall strength of the German army, the navy was stronger than the German navy.

Dietrich didn't care at all, in his eyes, he didn't take the British Navy seriously, let alone the Qing Imperial Navy.

After that, Dietrich sent the report back to Berlin, urging the Kaiser to seize Jiaozhou Bay.

Although Wilhelm II was not as arrogant as he was, he was not as stupid as Dietrich. Wilhelm II found his cousin, Admiral Alfred? Feng? Tirpitz deliberates on countermeasures.

Tirpitz was a pandering man, and his rise to the rank of Admiral was entirely due to the fact that he had pinned Wilhelm II's sycophants. After Wilhelm II ascended the throne, he announced that Germany would carry out a large naval plan, but it was repeatedly opposed by the ministers led by Bismarck. For this reason, Wilhelm II deposed Bismarck, and Tirpitz supported Wilhelm II's grand naval plan and suddenly succeeded, thus becoming the German Minister of the Admiralty, and also pushed Germany to the opposite side of Britain, and since then it has fallen into the abyss of a large-scale naval arms race between Britain and Germany.

After consulting with Tirpitz, Wilhelm II decided that with Germany's existing naval forces, it would not be possible for the Qing Empire to surrender Jiaozhou Bay to Germany. In order for the Qing Empire to be softened, it was necessary to expand the navy.

Marked by the formation of the German Navy's First Fleet in March 1898, Tirpitz unveiled the new plan for the Naval Law that he had organized. The new Naval Act stipulated that the German Navy began in 1898 at a total cost of 600 million marks, and was expected to be completed in 1905, beginning the process of reforming the navy. The First Fleet consisted of two sub-fleets, 17 battleships, 9 large armored cruisers, and 26 small cruisers and other small ships. The construction program of this scale would put the German fleet on a par with the French, initially capable of challenging the British. In order to gain support, he visited Bismarck and the regent of Bavaria, the Grand Duke of Baden, the king of Saxony, etc., for support. Naval associations were also formed in Germany to seek civilian support.

With the Juye case in Shandong, China, the German political axe has an excuse.

Kaiser Wilhelm II first ordered Haijing to make six demands to China for aggression, including the punishment of the governor of Shandong, indemnity, pension, "lease" of Jiaozhou Bay, and the construction of roads and mines in Shandong.

Qing Zheng Axe was worried that the situation would expand, and if it triggered a coalition of other powers, it would be extremely detrimental to Qing Zheng Axe. At the same time, the non-governmental organizations became more and more presumptuous, which was not conducive to the rule of the Qing Zheng Axe, so the Qing Zheng Axe dismissed Li Bingheng, the governor of Shandong, and Xu Tingrui, the magistrate of Juye County, compensated for the loss of the church, built three German churches on behalf of him, arrested and imprisoned nine members of the Dadao Society, two of whom were executed and sentenced to prison, and at the same time ordered the provincial magistrates to effectively protect the churches and priests of the Germans.

However, with regard to Germany's request to "lease" Jiaozhou Bay, Qing Zhengaxe rejected it on the grounds that it was "afraid that it would be difficult for other countries to come to the aid of the license."

Shocked to learn that Germany was interested in leasing Jiaozhou Bay, the Qing court decided to build Jiaozhou Bay into a naval base and let Wang Chenhao transfer warships to Jiaozhou Bay to prevent Germany from following the example of France in seizing Guangzhou Bay and brazenly occupying Jiaozhou Bay.

The German political axe did plan to follow the example of France, but the German naval power in the Far East was not as strong as the French Far East Fleet, and at this moment the Qing Imperial Navy was even stronger, and after the two most advanced battleships in the world were commissioned, they were even more powerful. Moreover, Jiaozhou Bay was too close to Weihaiwei, the naval base of the Qing Empire, and Dietrich, the commander of the German Far East Navy, did not dare to rashly send troops to Jiaozhou Bay.

In fact, Wilhelm II and Tirpitz did not expect Dietrich to seize Jiaozhou Bay now, and their real purpose was to create a false impression among the German people that the German navy was so weak that even the Qing Empire dared to bully the German navy. Therefore, Wilhelm II and Tirbitz took advantage of this incident to strengthen the German fleet in the Far East and defend the German diaspora under the banner of getting the "Navy Act" passed, and won strong support from the German people. Thus, the first major expansion of the German Navy was officially launched.

(To be continued)