Time flies, months pass in the blink of an eye. The sun is shining brightly in Europe, and despite the high latitude of Berlin, it is still a little unpleasantly hot. Whenever the waiter brought the frozen ice cubes into the room one by one, Qingying always missed the air conditioner in later generations; However, this kind of thing will not be invented until 1904, and it is still used in machines, and Qingying can only reluctantly accept the reality.

On May 18, 1896, the coronation of Russian Emperor Nicholas II was solemnly held in Moscow. Although the 28-year-old became the supreme ruler of the Russian Empire 2 years ago, it was not until the moment the archbishop placed the crown, a symbol of supreme imperial power, on his head that he truly became the rightful emperor of Tsarist Russia. Since Moscow is landlocked and not directly accessible by boat like St. Petersburg, a round-trip by land takes nearly a month, so Qingying did not attend the ceremony of this grand space, but remained in the Imperial Palace in Berlin. However, his idle days did not last long, and a month later, a special person visited Germany, and he was Li Hongzhang, the number one minister of the Qing Empire.

What the? Why do you think Li Hongzhang will go to Germany?

One and a half years ago, the Russian-led Triple Intervention Alliance forced Japan to abandon its occupation of the Liaodong Peninsula, which made the entire Qing court regard Russia as a great savior, even the famous Bismarck of the East. After analyzing the reasons for the defeat of this war, Mites Qing decided to adjust the current national policy, from "using razing to control razing" to "uniting Russia to control razing", intending to use Russia's hand to resist the threat of Japan. At this time, it coincided with the coronation ceremony of Tsar Nicholas II, and the monarch named him and invited Li Hongzhang, an important minister of the Qing Dynasty, to attend the ceremony; In this case, Li Hongzhang naturally rushed over from Beijing in a hurry. After signing the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty", in order to negotiate with European countries the decree of "raising taxes by the pound", which would increase tariffs, he rushed to the west without stopping, and went to the second stop of global diplomacy in the German Empire.

Historically, even though Mi Qing paid 230 million taels of silver to Japan and suffered a great loss of financial resources, the German business tycoon knew that this Oriental Bismarck still had a large number of arms orders in his hands. In order to kill this fat sheep, the German side still used extremely high etiquette to receive it. Not only did he stay at the Caesar's Hotel, the most luxurious hotel in Berlin, but the hotel did not hesitate to risk angering the Kaiser, and for the first time hung portraits of him and Bismarck side by side in the room where Li Hongzhang lived. Every day, German business giants visit their homes, either to sell arms or to sign trade contracts. And the bankers were not far behind, and told Li Hongzhang that their banks were well funded, so they didn't have to worry about it, and just opened up their loans.

In this plane, due to the butterfly effect caused by Qing Ying, Mite Qing only paid Japan 100 million taels of military expenses in the First Sino-Japanese War; In addition, the core bases such as Lushun, Dalian, and Weihaiwei have not been damaged in any way, and the funds in Mites' wallet are far more abundant than in history. In this case, the German side was particularly enthusiastic about the visit of the financier, and Wilhelm himself led the crowd to welcome him at the Brandenburg Gate. Qingying, as the crown prince, also followed closely behind Wilhelm II. In this realm he had crossed, Qingying finally saw the figure of the paster who had been close to him before.

Li Hongzhang's face is no different from the photos left by later generations: high cheekbones, slightly sunken cheeks, yellow and wrinkled skin, and a decayed body in the last years. However, his eyes are blazing, as vast as a sea of stars, which is difficult to see. The unique experience of holding authority for many years and crisscrossing at home and abroad has made him have a gentle and elegant temperament that is not angry and arrogant, which makes people inexplicably awe-inspired. In the face of the welcome ceremony of the German government, he answered appropriately and coped with it easily, allowing Qingying to appreciate the true demeanor of a diplomat.

watched the mite Qingquan minister being hugged by everyone, like a visiting foreign head of state; The Qing Ying people are behind, but they don't have the good mood of those arms dealers in their hearts. Three months ago, despite his own opposition, William forced a strategy to seize the port of Mites; Although his words made him move his greedy gaze to the Philippines a little, it still did not change his determination to attack the mite. Through the corner of the car window, his cheap dad was hooking up with the old man who was twice as young as him, talking and laughing, like an old friend who had not seen him for decades, and the corners of Qingying's mouth couldn't help but hook up a helpless wry smile. As he grew older, William was also gradually developing towards the goal of being a powerful actor; The kind eyes and hearty smile make people feel like a spring breeze, and if you are a person who doesn't know the inside story, I am afraid that William will think that William is full of sincerity to receive distinguished guests from the Far East. In fact, William didn't really want to see the face of this old man with the name of Bismarck of the East, he did it only to paralyze his opponents and help the domestic arms dealers create orders.

In all fairness, if there was a port in the land of Mites, and it was inhabited entirely by mites, Qingying would not mind letting William send troops to forcibly occupy this area, enslave, trample, or even exterminate all these mites. However, the coastline of Mites Qing was originally all the land of the Han family, and the mites accounted for a pitiful share of it, and the last to be ruled were still the local Han people. Although Qingying has traveled to this era for nearly 3 years, and his identity is no longer a young man of the Celestial Empire before the time travel, if he wants to accept that his country reproduces the historical scene and forcibly rents Jiaozhou Bay, his heart is still like being pressed on a boulder, and it is difficult to speak.

"Your Highness, what's wrong with you, why is the expression on your face so solemn?" In the back seat of the car, Prime Minister Chillings Pfister, who was sitting side by side with him, noticed Qingying's abnormality, and asked with some doubts, "Qingguo was originally our big customer in the arms field, and he had close contacts with us; This visit of their prime minister to the empire will also bring at least 50 million marks in arms orders. Coupled with all kinds of business investment and bank loans, this is very good news for my Germany! ”

Qingying retracted her mind and turned her head, no longer seeing a trace of sadness on her face. He smiled and said, "Mr. Prime Minister, I don't have any worries. Just now I was just thinking about how I could squeeze more money out of the pocket of this Qing prime minister. Although they lost the war against Japan and paid more than 300 million marks in reparations, the country has a population of more than 400 million, and as long as they implement the method of apportioning the national debt, they can still amass an untold amount of wealth. It would be a waste of money if it didn't get into my hands in Germany. ”

Chillingsfist bowed his head and said, "What His Highness said is extremely true. It is precisely for this reason that His Majesty received Prime Minister Lee with such a high standard, and stuffed several of us into the welcoming crowd. According to a secret report received by the empire a few days ago, this Li signed a secret treaty with Russia during the time he attended the Tsar's coronation in Moscow, and received a large honorarium. Although we do not know the exact contents of the treaty, it is certain that the Russians must have cut a piece of the cake on top of the Qing state. Therefore, we must redouble our efforts to pour out all the gold coins in this Lee's pocket, and must not leave a single drop for the French and the British! ”

Qingying knew in her heart that the secret treaty that Chillingsfister was talking about should be the "Sino-Russian Secret Treaty" signed in Moscow on June 3 in history. The treaty consisted of six articles, the main content of which was that during the war with Japan, all Chinese ports were opened to Russian warships, and the Sino-Russian Daosheng Bank was allowed to build a railway from Heilongjiang and Jilin to Vladivostok. In wartime and peacetime, Russia had the right to use the railway to transport troops, food, and ordnance. After listening to Chillingsfest's story, he nodded and said, "Then Mr. Prime Minister, do you have any plans?" ”

"As far as I know, the Qing State is currently organizing a new army next to their imperial capital, with a large number of people, about 50,000, and there is a huge demand for weapons and ammunition. With the strength of our German arms dealers, and the Krupp plot of the Qing Prime Minister, it is almost impossible for other countries to participate in this market for arms and ammunition. In terms of loans, although we in Germany do not advocate taking our own domestic money to foreign countries for investment, let them compete with our own German industry for funds; But in order not to cheapen the French, it is still necessary to issue them a usurious loan in exchange for their supply of our German raw materials, and the export of relations to them. As for naval arms sales, we basically don't have to worry about it. In that first naval encounter in the age of steam in human history, the warships built by our Germany performed perfectly; In comparison, the warships built by the two old naval powers, Britain and France, are overshadowed and are far from being compared with the battleships built by our Germans! Even if they want to maintain relations with Britain and France, they will only order some small miscellaneous fish from them, and the real capital warships will have to be selected from our side of the design. Chillingsfist said confidently.

"But isn't my father going to seize a port in the Qing Kingdom? If warships were to be sold to them, wouldn't it make the operation more difficult? Qingying asked with some confusion.

Chillingsfister smiled gloomily and said, "It's because we want to seize the ports of the Qing Kingdom, so we have to help them build warships, and they have to build them in large quantities!" Since the construction cycle of warships is 2 years at the earliest, and the construction cycle of large warships is even 3 years, there is a time difference here. And we made a request for the lease of the port to the Qing State during this time period. If the Qing State dares not to lease the port to us, they will not want any of the battleships they built on our slipway! ”

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