Perhaps in the eyes of my relatives and elders, I am a loafer and a scoundrel, in fact I think so myself. In order to live a nourishing life, I had to borrow the relationship of relatives to run to the far east to cheat and eat and drink as a consul and business representative, and I even had such a judgment, maybe this is how I Phillips will be in this life. But God seemed unwilling to abandon me, and he put me in the role of a savior of the Principality of Luxembourg, and I seemed to have been born to save Luxembourg - from Phillips's "The Oriental Legend of a Luxembourger"

In September 1913, in the European principality of Luxembourg, an old man lamented: "Peace in Europe is dying......

The old man who lamented was none other than the distant relative of the little man with the sharp beak of the monkey's cheeks, the greatest prime minister in the history of the Principality of Luxembourg, Paul Brown. Ischen. This bald old man with a gray face and beard had been the Prime Minister of the Principality of Luxembourg for twenty-five years, but he faced the most dangerous moment in the entire history of the Principality of Luxembourg.

Shijie in 1913 was really not peaceful, and the two major military blocs with the Anglo-French Entente and the German-Austrian Allies as the main body began the craziest arms competition. In 1913, the German standing army was expanded from 420,000 to 870,000, France was expanded from 500,000 to 800,000, and Russia was also preparing to increase from 800,000 to 2.3 million. Austria-Hungary's army expanded from 270,000 to 800,000, Italy from 200,000 to 350,000, and Austria and Italy did not have as good an army as Germany and France, and the United States also expanded its army from 34,000 to 160,000 in response to European tensions.

In fact, this is also a normal thing, old colonial powers such as Britain and France have too many colonies, but their national strength does not match. On the contrary, Germany has surpassed Britain and France economically, militarily, but because of the late reunification, it has too few colonies, and the lack of raw materials and markets has affected Germany's further development. When the maintenance of the original shijie order began to weaken, there would inevitably be new liliang who would jump out to challenge the old order, and Germany played the role of such a challenger. Later historians attributed Germany's initiation of World War I to Wilhelm II's personal recklessness and stupidity, but they did not want to support his recklessness and stupidity as a whole of Germany.

Now even the most politically ignorant people know that Europe has become a huge powder keg, but they don't know where the fuse is and when it will be lit?

Paul. As the prime minister of such a small country as the Duchy of Luxembourg, Ischen could not control the situation in the whole of Europe at all, and he could not even control the fate of his own country, Luxembourg was at the crossroads of the entire European continent, sandwiched between Germany and France. No matter who fights whom, Luxembourg is a must-pass place, and although Luxembourg was recognized as a neutral country in 1886, it does not have the unique geographical conditions of Switzerland.

But if you really go to war, the poor population of Luxembourg will not be able to put together an army for a single battle. In Paul Isson's own words, we produced enough steel to conquer Shijie, but there were no soldiers who could use it.

And if you can't make peace, you can't stand in war, where is the future of Luxembourg?

Paul. Ischen thought of his idle, distant nephew, Phillips. Ischen, this guy is in his early thirties, and he hasn't done anything serious for so many years except for the fictitious title of consul in the East who doesn't receive a salary, and his wife is very good at being a man, and his wife likes her very much. Don't talk about this, a year ago, this guy who had achieved nothing for many years suddenly came to him, saying that he had caught up with an Eastern warlord, and then the Albert company that served him got a batch of orders, mainly some machine tools and tower cranes, well, there is also a contract for supporting facilities with an annual output of 1 million tons of steel. However, I later heard that the production capacity there was insufficient, and in the end only 200,000 tons were taken. By the way, at that time, he also persuaded himself to transfer some of his citizens to the East to temporarily escape the danger of the approaching European war, but unfortunately he never waited to see this distant nephew, and the situation at that time was not as grim as it is now, so he didn't take his words too seriously. Now that I think about it, it is indeed necessary to do this, after all, the most reliable thing in Luxembourg is the steel industry, if you move to the United States or go to other countries, iron ore resources, coal resources have long been owned, but the East is said to be an undeveloped wild land, but I don't know what the situation of this warlord is.

With a hint of doubt and expectation, the Prime Minister, who had recently been weakened, immediately asked his secretary to invite this idle nephew, who had been eating at home in Luxembourg for the past six months......

Our Phillips Ischen, who was looked down upon by his distant uncle, was indeed eating at home and waiting for death, and after seven or eight years in the Far East, the big deal that Zuihou negotiated was actually Wang Zhenyu's one, the tower crane at the wharf, and the equipment of the Anjiang Iron and Steel Plant. What is even more tragic is that due to the shortage of industrial workers and the shortage of coal and iron ore resources, the production capacity of Anjiang Iron and Steel Plant has shrunk from the initial million tons to 200,000 tons, and this commission has naturally shrunk.

Due to the lack of its own resources, the subsequent construction of the model city of Anjiang was taken away by the Germans, and the railway project went to the damned Belgians, and our poor Phillips had to return to Luxembourg honestly with a commission of less than eight thousand pounds, after all, the family also needs money, so it is better to send back the most money he has earned over the years.

This time, Albert dismissed himself, leaving only Phillips, who was the consul of the Principality of Luxembourg in Hankow, China, to live at home, which lasted for half a year, until he was summoned by Uncle Paul, who was in the position of prime minister......

"No problem, dear Uncle Paul, please believe your nephew, the Chinese warlord Wang Haode and I are like brothers, and he said at that time that he was willing to set aside a piece of land for us to live in and develop until the end of the war, as long as we Luxembourgers were interested in taking refuge there. Can you imagine, dear Uncle Paul? It is perfect that the whole of Europe is in a pot of porridge, and that the subjects of our principality of Luxembourg can continue our happy and peaceful life in a calm Asia, and then continue to produce our steel, and then ship it back to Europe to make a fortune. "Phillips' braggadocio is really top-notch.

But it also depends on the object, bragging in front of his uncle, Prime Minister Paul Ischen, is tantamount to playing with a big axe in front of Luban: "Okay, Phillips, I'm your uncle, I know better than anyone how much you have to do, it's not me who strikes you." These things are not something you can think of, tell me, is this what that Chinese warlord said? ”

"Ahem, dear Uncle Paul, how can you say that about your nephew? It was indeed the damned Chinese warlord Wang, who seemed to be very familiar with and knowledgeable about our situation in Europe, probably a public student of the Qing Empire, and where I met a railway engineer who had returned from studying in Belgium. That ......"

"Alright, alright, dear Phillips, stop, you're talking far, I'm just worried about my country, if our people pass, is there a guarantee of safety? Can you guarantee that this guy won't be greedy? And the place you mentioned, not far from the Shili range of the British, can the British control it? Paul Ischen considered something different, and poor Phillips was dumb on the spot.

Paul Ischen could only sigh, he was old, otherwise it would be better to go by himself this time, no way, he shook the bell on the table, and the secretary immediately bowed in: "Arrange a carriage, I will go to meet our lovely archduchess." ”

Is the current Grand Duke of Luxembourg Mary? Adelaide, she was the first female Grand Duke of Luxembourg and the eldest daughter of the former Grand Duke William IV. After the death of William IV, due to the absence of male heirs (William IV and his wife Princess Mary of Portugal?). Anna gave birth to a total of six daughters), and the Luxembourg royal family was forced to change the old rule that no female heir could inherit the throne. Adelaide succeeded to the throne.

This child is only 19 years old this year, but he has to face an unprecedented complex situation, and what Paul Ischen can do is to think of a way to help this child lead the country out of the crisis as soon as possible.

"Grandpa Paul, are we really going to move?" The young and beautiful Grand Duchess raised her own questions, in fact, she was only nineteen years old and did not even have a specific concept of this country. It was a very bad thing that her father had not had time to teach her how to handle state affairs.

Paul Ischen sighed, he knew better than anyone else that anyone in the whole of Luxembourg could go, only he, the prime minister and the symbol of the country, Her Royal Highness the Grand Duchess, could not go, one was that the Entente led by Britain and France would not allow their comrades on the same front to escape, and the other was that the allies led by Germany and Austria also needed the ruler of Luxembourg to stay in Luxembourg. The fate of this poor child was destined to be a tragedy, and once the war broke out, she would watch the enemy's army drive into Luxembourg City and watch her own land fall......

"Your Highness, I, Paul Ischen, have been in the service of the Principality all my life, please trust my judgment as an old man, war in Europe is inevitable, and what we can do is to find a new place to live, to prevent us from perishing in the war, and more importantly, our industry will continue to grow and develop in the war. As for this homeland, when the war is decided, we can come back and shake hands with the victors. ”

Archduke Mary felt that what Prime Minister Paul's grandfather said seemed to be very reasonable: "Then Grandpa Paul is fully responsible, and Dad also explained this before his death." ”

Paul Ischen let out a long sigh of relief......