Just as Qingying was preparing to use his means to squeeze the Turks, who were not full of money in the treasury, to order expensive dreadnoughts from German shipyards, there was a sudden unfavorable turn of events in the Ottoman Empire and the Balkans that shook the whole of Germany.

Since the current Ottoman Sultan Abdul? Since Hamid II ascended to the throne in 1878, he has enveloped the entire empire in bleakness and terror with decades of decade-long despotism and brutality. The once dominant Empire of Tang in Europe and Asia became even more dying under his incompetent rule, and its bloody rule against the tide made the Ottoman people resentful. The Turkish Al-Shabaab came into being against this backdrop and grew to the occasion in April 1908 in the prime of spring with a military coup d'état that overthrew the Hamid dictatorship.

Compared with the famous coup d'état in history, this revolutionary wave in Istanbul was three months earlier than Qing Ying's memory, and the final result was even simpler and cruder than in history. Hamid II took the throne directly, and his relatively progressive and enlightened brother Reshid succeeded him as sultan; The "Association for Unity and Progress" came to power, the constitution and parliament were restored, and Turkey entered the era of a second constitutional monarchy. The victory of the Young Turks was warmly welcomed by the peoples of the Ottoman Empire, who had been oppressed by Hamid II for a long time, and words such as freedom, equality, constitution, and nationality, which had disappeared for thirty years, reappeared in the country; A series of new decrees aimed at saving the country were also quickly enacted with the efforts of the ruling authorities.

The victory of the Turkish Al-Shabaab brought about an extremely unfavorable upheaval in the originally close German-Austrian relationship. Most of the elite of the Turkish Al-Shabaab have studied in Britain and France. It is a liberal and democratic education in the West. He was born emotionally close to Britain and France. Besides. Because of their bitter hatred for the brutal dictatorship of their predecessor, Sultan Hamid II, they have a "hateful house" of all things in the era of Hamid's rule; In the eyes of these people, Germany is undoubtedly an odious object of "complicity" with the dictator Hamid. They have not only extended the life of the authoritarian regime, but also the Eastern Railroad they built in the heart of the empire is also siphoning the empire's already worrisome wealth like a parasite through the railway deposit. Given that Britain was the Ottomans' largest trading partner, and that France was a country that lent heavily to the Ottomans, they believed that the Entente was the most worthy of friendship with the Ottomans.

This dramatic turn in Istanbul's foreign relations led London to see the Ottoman Revolution as a godsend to bring back the empire from Germany. At the urging of Kamil, the Ottoman chief state minister who had close ties to the British. Britain supported the new government diplomatically and also provided financial assistance to the new government. Russia also began to follow the British example and win over the new government, and the Young Turks government openly became pro-British, and a serious rift appeared in German-Turkish relations.

While Germany was at a loss for the change of attitude towards Istanbul, Austria-Hungary's next move poured a pot of fuel on the fire. With the deposition of Sultan Hamid II in the revolution and the turbulent vacuum of regime change in Turkey, Austria-Hungary, which had long coveted Bosnia and Herzegovina on its doorstep, decided that the time was ripe and immediately declared its sovereignty over the region in early May. Although the area was still nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, Austro-Hungarian troops had already been stationed in its territory, so Vienna had no trouble doing so. swallowed the land of his dreams.

Since the alliance with Austria-Hungary was the basis of Germany's foreign policy, not to mention that Qing Ying had personally assured in front of Herzendorf, chief of the General Staff of the Austro-Hungarian Army, that Germany would support Austria-Hungary's annexation of Bosnia and Herzegovina; Therefore, Berlin not only did not have the slightest objection to this move in Vienna. Instead, he unconditionally supported the Austro-Hungarian occupation. Germany's attitude towards the Austro-Hungarian annexation of the Ottoman territories undoubtedly further infuriated the nascent Turkish Al-Shabaab against Germany. The Turks protested strongly against this, and a nationwide revolt against Austro-Hungarian goods was launched, and Germany, with which Austria-Hungary had an offensive and defensive alliance, was also unfortunately shot. At the newly formed Ottoman Parliament, members of parliament had begun to openly discuss whether the 1903 railway agreement with Germany should be abolished and nationalized the railroad that had been built by Germany before, and whether to hand over the construction of the Eastern Railway to Britain.

The situation took a turn for the worse and caught the Berlin government off guard. The friendly relations between Germany and the Ottomans that had been established in the previous decades were almost ended with the abdication of Sultan Hamid; Germany's alliance with Austria-Hungary seriously jeopardized Germany's reputation in the Ottoman government, the Young Turks government became openly hostile to Germany, and the subsequent part of the Baghdad Railway was threatened with British takeover.

Although the anti-German attitude of the Al-Shabaab government in Turkey was alleviated by the pro-German faction six months after it seized power, and finally won the victory under the impetus of Enver Pasha, it is clear that the Qingying cannot let the current status quo of the Ottoman Empire continue without taking any countermeasures. The situation in this plane has been changed too much by him, and it is difficult to guarantee that the great wheel of history will continue to move along the existing inertia; Once the situation deviated from the expectations of the Qing British, the Ottoman Empire really fell to Britain in the inaction of Germany, and the result was undoubtedly disastrous!

As a traverser, Qingying's importance to Turkey couldn't be clearer. The empire may be decaying, weakened, and devastated, but it has one priceless treasure: its unique geographical location. The Dardanelles Strait, which is 50 miles long and only 3 miles wide at its widest, not only chokes Russia's most important shipping choke point to the outside world, but also locks the powerful Russian Black Sea Fleet in that closed water, making Russia completely lose the competition for the "warm waters" of the Mediterranean. Once Turkey fell to the British-led Entente, British and French transports could travel north along the Asia Minor Peninsula through the Suez Canal, sending a large amount of material resources from the Dardanelles Strait to the Black Sea to transfuse the blood of the Russian giant, thus greatly enhancing Russia's war strength.

During the First World War in history, the reason why Russia was knocked to the ground by Germany with one hand was that in addition to its own decay and disease, lack of weapons, and rigid tactics, the Ottomans joining the side of the Central Powers were definitely the most important factor. With the Black Sea lanes forced to close due to the Ottoman Empire's sword-drawing, Russia has almost become an isolated "island of the world"; Their contact with the outside world can only be carried out by Alhanks, which is closed by freezing for half of the year, and Vladivostok, thousands of miles away. The former's underexplored Arctic route was so windy and rough that it could not bring back much material in a year, which was a drop in the bucket for the astronomical amount of consumption on the frontline battlefield every day. The latter, which is 8,000 kilometers away from the front line of the European war and relies on the Trans-Siberian Railway with limited transportation capacity, cannot play a role in alleviating the crisis on the front line. Under these circumstances, Germany was able to quickly and forcefully land on Russia on the Eastern Front and achieve a brilliant victory. And if the Black Sea shipping lanes had not been closed, Russia, which had received a large amount of weapons, ammunition, food, medicine, and other aid, would certainly not have been easily defeated by Germany; And once the Eastern Front is deadlocked, it will undoubtedly be an extremely unfavorable situation for Germany.

In addition, as the Ottoman Empire moved to the side of the British, it is likely that the restrictions imposed on the Russian navy by the Dardanelles will no longer exist; The Russian Black Sea Fleet would rush directly out of the strait and join forces with the French Navy and the British Mediterranean Fleet to form an absolute superiority over Austria and Italy. At that time, Italy, with no prospect of victory, will most likely fall to the Entente under strong pressure from outside; The Austro-Hungarian navy, which could not support itself, could only retreat into the trieste military port and surrender the sea control of the entire Mediterranean to the Entente powers—this would be a devastating blow to Germany's Mediterranean strategy! At that time, the whole Mediterranean would become an inland lake for the Entente, and supplies from the colonies of Africa and the Far East would be unhindered to every factory in Britain, France, and Russia; The war machine of the Entente is running at full capacity, and its explosion of earth-shattering energy is far from being matched by Germany, which has the highest industrial strength in Europe!

Therefore, for the sake of Germany's future strategic considerations, the Qing and British would never allow any mistakes in Turkey, a key link, and even a pro-German attitude was completely unacceptable. After reviewing the history of this period, Qingying already had a strategy in mind to solve the problem.

The first thing he wanted to do was to take advantage of the strong dissatisfaction of the British people with the signing of the Anglo-German naval agreement to build momentum in Britain and push Churchill to a high position in the decision-making level. Churchill, a nobleman, had always been ashamed of the "tyrannical" Turkish villains, and in history he helped the Germans by pushing the angry Ottoman Empire into the arms of the Allies through jaw-dropping practical actions. In view of this, Qingying believes that Churchill in this plane will definitely be able to live up to his "high expectations" and help him complete the great cause of winning over Turkey. In addition, Qingying will also directly win over the Turkish Al-Shabaab government, support the pro-German forces within the party, and change its current hostile attitude towards Germany. (To be continued......)

PS: Anyway, the author has built a book friend group, the group number is 117843107, welcome everyone to join~~~