Austria-Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia, the atmosphere of war is getting stronger and stronger, the sense of smell of businessmen is undoubtedly the most sensitive, war is bloodshed and sacrifice for ordinary people, but for some businessmen it is the process of risking gold panning, a surprising number of European and American businessmen ran to China to start purchasing various materials, including himself also acted urgently, this opportunity to make a fortune must not be missed.

However, it is a pity that there seems to be a force that has taken the lead in taking action, controlling all kinds of major strategic materials, and the prices of major materials have risen wildly, far exceeding their expectations, these people have never thought that China, which has always been backward, is much more sensitive to war than them, and it is impossible to pick up cheap now, but even if it is purchased at the current price, there is still a lot of profit, and no one knows how crazy the war will be.

All of this is naturally operated by Sichuan behind the scenes, and although Sichuan's power cannot control the whole country, it can combine with local forces in various places to form an alliance, raise prices, and then make a profit together.

The war was far away in Europe, and it would not have had any impact on China, but unfortunately China's Shandong was the sphere of influence of the Germans, and Qingdao had the German Far East Fleet, which seemed to be a nail, firmly nailed to the Far East, which was becoming a thorn in the side of the Entente, a thorn in the flesh, and must be taken as soon as possible.

At present, Sichuan is the main gathering place of Germans, including more than 500 military personnel, as well as a large number of technicians, engineers, teachers, etc., totaling more than 3,000 people, according to the meaning of the German side, it is hoped that all these personnel will be transferred back to Qingdao.

German Consul General Weiss is also preparing in a hurry, he is very clear about Germany's position in the Far East, although Germany has tried its best to expand its power in Sichuan and other places in recent years, but Britain still has a dog slave in the Far East is called Ben, Germany These forces are simply unable to compete with a country, so Germany can only hope for a quick victory in the European war, and then it will be surrendered without a fight, and now the value of Qingdao and the German fleet is to disperse the forces of the Entente to a greater extent and destroy the logistics line. And Weiss himself was ready to leave China.

"Mr. Consul General, I'm really sorry for disturbing your work!" Qiao Yu invited Wei Si to his handsome mansion at this time, and the two of them sat opposite each other and talked, and now Wei Si didn't seem to have that look, and his eyes were a little red, obviously he had been very busy these days.

"Mr. Inspector, we are very good friends, and Germany has selflessly helped you in your cause, but I know that you seem to want to cooperate with the Entente, and we are disappointed by this betrayal of your friends!"

"Mr. Consul General, don't be angry, Sichuan is only a province of China, there is no way to dominate China's decision-making, and to be honest, China now does not have the ability to control its own destiny, Britain and Russia all have huge forces in China, all of which surpass Germany, and China has no choice at this juncture, just like if Germany wants to rise, it must break the encirclement of the Entente through war!"

Wei Si knew that Qiao Yu was not wrong at all, Sichuan had provided Germany with a considerable amount of strategic materials in the past two years, and the help to Germany was very huge, Wei Si sighed: "Qiao, I firmly believe that Germany can win the war soon, including Britain and France are not Germany's opponents, I hope that the Chinese side can make a prudent choice!" ”

"Well, don't worry, I will do my best to promote the neutrality of our political axe, but out of my good opinion of Germany, I am willing to help Germany in the question of Qingdao!"

When Wei Si heard Qiao Yu say that he was neutral, he thought that this was just a kind word, but as soon as he heard that Qiao Yu actually agreed to help defend Qingdao, Wei Si's eyes lit up suddenly, even if he was ignorant of military affairs, he also knew the difficulty of guarding Qingdao, and it was best for Qiao Yu to be able to help.

"Joe, what are you going to do, are you going to send troops directly?"

"Consul General, you overestimate my ability, I can't do this kind of thing, but I am willing to provide Qingdao with the German weapons hoarded in Sichuan, and we are also transporting 600,000 shells to the German defenders, and the rest of the food, medicine, clothing and other supplies are also appropriately provided to the German defenders!"

Weiss knew that the biggest dilemma of the German [***] team was the problem of supply, the army in the Far East seemed to have no roots, and once the war started, it could not be replenished at all, if Sichuan could really provide these arms and materials, it would indeed be of great help to Germany, so Weiss was very happy in his heart.

"And Mr. Wei Si must know that our Sichuan has captured a large number of bandits in the war against bandits, these years are all years of bandits, excellent marksmanship, and the battle is also very tenacious, I am willing to select five thousand of the most elite personnel from these captives to hand over to the Qingdao defenders, but the German side must keep secrets, these are just volunteers recruited by yourself, and have nothing to do with China!"

Qiao Yu threw out another tempting condition, Wei Si can even be described with a heart, Germany is now worried about how to defend Qingdao, if it can get these assistance from China, it will definitely greatly improve the defense capability of the German side.

"Joe, you can give Germany a good help at such a time, and I thank you for your generosity on behalf of the German political axe!"

"Don't be busy, I still have a big gift to give to Germany, Sichuan has hoarded a batch of grain and other materials in Germany, which can also be supplied to Germany at market prices!"

Qiao Yu threw out the bait one after another, Wei Si couldn't sit still, and his joy was overflowing: "Qiao, I know that you are a person who doesn't like to suffer, what conditions do you need, open it, I will try my best to fight for you!" ”

"Haha, then I'll tell you bluntly, I hope that the German side can relocate the German university to Sichuan, and give Sichuan a batch of technology patents for arms metallurgy in exchange!"

Speaking of Dehua University, this is the only science and engineering university established by the great powers in China, officially established in 1909, to the outbreak of World War I, forced to withdraw, the whole school of teachers and students add up to more than 400 people, less than 500 people, although compared to the current Sichuan University is a lot smaller, but Qiao Yu is very clear that although the Sichuan University is good-looking, but it is still facing a serious shortage of teachers, if you can get the Dehua University, or merge into Sichuan University, or build a separate school is a great strengthening of Sichuan engineering.

Wei Si has actually always admired Qiao Yu's vision, he is completely different from the current Chinese, his vision is very broad, even Europeans do not have this kind of deep vision, the great powers are actually very tacit, they do not want China to become strong, so even if they run schools in China, they are willing to run some liberal arts schools, set up some majors such as law, journalism, theology, language, etc., and it is good to be able to add medicine and heaven.

The great powers will not help China cultivate industrialized talents, and there are almost no people in China who can realize these at present, and Qiao Yu has always focused on industrial talents and technology, and his vision is not vicious, Wei Si nodded: "I will try my best to convince my country of political axes!" ”

After Wei Si took his leave, Qiao Yu began to prepare, he was very confident that Germany would agree, the upcoming German-Qingdao War is another serious violation of China's sovereignty, the two countries compete for the interests that originally belonged to China on Chinese soil, but China wants to choose the same shameful neutrality as the Russo-Russian War, which is a shameful shame for any Chinese with a conscience.

However, now that Sichuan is beyond the reach of the whip, and there is not enough strength to prevent the tragedy from happening, what Qiao Yu can do is to try to strengthen the already weak German forces, so that the strength of the two vicious dogs can be as close as possible, so that they can bite more ferociously, and the damage will be greater.

And Qiao Yu also urgently needs to borrow the power of Germany to give himself a head-on blow and contain the power of the company, the First World War is not only an opportunity for the rise of the United States, but also an opportunity for the rise of the United States, it is after the First World War, the third largest naval power after the United States and Britain, and also has a strategic advantage in the Far East, it is undoubtedly very good to be able to let them shed a little more blood.

Of course, the larger the scale of the war, the heavier the losses for the Chinese people, but compared to the huge gains, this is also a last resort!

On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, two days later Russia began a general mobilization to aid Serbia, followed by Germany declared war on Russia on August 1, France also began to carry out a general mobilization, on August 3 Germany and France declared war, on August 4 Germany invaded Belgium, Britain also declared war on Germany at this time, and in less than ten days, the Entente and the Central Powers finally completely tore their faces and began the First World War of unprecedented scale.

Just before the formal declaration of war, Sichuan and Germany had reached an agreement, Germany agreed to move Dehua University to Sichuan, and at the same time handed over all 26 German teachers in Dehua University to Sichuan, and gave Sichuan a batch of metallurgical military patents to ensure that Sichuan's military industry could operate normally after the withdrawal of German technicians, and at the same time, Germany gathered all Germans in Sichuan and marched to Qingdao.

The personnel and equipment aided by Sichuan to Germany also began to be quietly transported to Qingdao, and the 5,000 bandits instantly changed into German military uniforms and became German mercenaries, who held shovels and pickaxes in their hands one moment to build canals and pave roads for Sichuan, but the next moment they held German rifles in their hands, and they wanted to fight for Germany, everything was like a dream.

Also dreaming are the students of Dehua University, who thought that the university would be difficult to maintain as the war approached, and many people heard that they were going to be merged into Tongji University, but unexpectedly a group of people with Sichuan accents brought them to Sichuan along with their German teachers to start a new life.