In the blink of an eye, the time of October has passed in a hurry, and the spring of 1904 has completely penetrated every corner of the European land. Germany's thousands of miles of fertile fields roared with machinery, wheat waves surged, and a scene of vigorous sunrise; This federal empire, which was consolidated more than 30 years ago, is showing the world its vitality and prosperity that surpasses that of the European continent.

Somewhere on the grass in Fort Charlotte Palace, Kaiser Wilhelm was lazily resting in his chair, his face full of joy as the afternoon sun slanted slantingly. Since the start of the war between Japan and Russia, William's mood has become more and more comfortable day by day; When working or deliberating, whenever he thought of the tragic shopping of the Russians in the Far East and Japan, William, who was a little nervous, couldn't help but turn up the corners of his mouth and even laughed out loud. William's reckless behavior caused the generals and ministers under his command to look at each other, not knowing what happened to Lu Dao and what they didn't know about Lu Dao.

Russia's use of troops in the Far East would have too many benefits for Germany. Prior to this, Russia had deployed millions of troops on the borders of Europe, more than Germany and Austria-Hungary combined, which had always made Germany deeply jealous; Now that the war in the Far East has begun, the eastward direction of Russia's military power has undoubtedly greatly alleviated the pressure on Germany on the Eastern Front. Although due to the restrictions that the Trans-Siberian Railway has not yet been completely opened, the Russian army can only send 20,000 troops to the Far East battlefield every month, but this is already an extremely impressive speed. You must know that they could not be alone when they went to fight in the Far East, and they had to go with them a series of equipment such as weapons, grain, baggage, ammunition, mules and horses; The large amount of Russian war supplies consumed in the Far East theater and in the process of transportation to the Far East made William feel indescribably excited when he thought about it. Since the partition of Poland gave Germany and Russia a large area of land bordering, whenever the Russian army was about to leave, the German army on the opposite side would hold a large farewell party with them, and cheer for their Russian counterparts in the majestic Russian march. Now William only hates that the Russian Trans-Siberian Railway has not been completely opened, and if the whole line is completed, it is estimated that a third of the army can be transferred to the Far East in half a year to fight the Japanese!

In addition to the direct military benefits, the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War also set an excellent stage for Germany's diplomatic game. As a result of Russia's all-out eastward advance, they had to adopt a posture of contraction in Europe, while Germany could take advantage of the opportunity to achieve a goal that would be difficult to achieve in normal times at a smaller cost. This time, Austria-Hungary rushed ahead of Germany with surprising speed; When the news of the defeat of the Russian Far East Fleet in naval battles reached Europe, Austria-Hungary, which had been somewhat intimidating Russia, straightened its back almost overnight, began to frequently woo Romania, and opened its sharp teeth against Serbia and Greece. The decision-makers in Vienna knew very well that now was the time when Russia was at its weakest in the Balkans, and if they did not take advantage of this opportunity to attack quickly, what would it be like to be in vain?

In the Allied raids, Wilhelm was most pleased with the construction of the German-led Eastern Railway.

As early as 1888, when Wilhelm II came to the throne, Germany and the Ottoman Empire were in love with each other. With the implementation of Wilhelm's policy, German capital began to go abroad to invest, which just allowed the Ottoman government, which was eager to build railways to revitalize the domestic economy. In the eyes of the Ottoman elite, since the country could not afford to build the artery, it was clearly more advantageous to hand over the railroad to Germany, which was sympathetic to pan-Islamism, than to Britain, which regarded hundreds of millions of Muslims as cattle and horses, France, which controlled millions of Muslims in Algeria and Tunisia, and Russia, which had been at odds for two centuries. Completely different from the hatred, aggression and oppression of the Ottomans by Britain and France, Germany came to the empire with a glorious image of friendship and good-neighborliness, with clean hands, and inherently possessed an image that made the Ottomans close; Their defeat of Russia's attempts at expansion in the Balkans at the Berlin Conference only made Sultan Hamid, who had lost the Russo-Turkish war, look favorably toward Germany. Thanks to the efforts of this tyrannical dictator, the Germans built a railway from Constantinople to Ankara (located in the middle of the peninsula of Asia Minor, now the capital of Turkey), and the direct train from Berlin to the Ottoman hinterland not only deepened the relationship between the two countries, but also boosted the development and prosperity of the bilateral economy. In just four years, Germany's exports of goods to Ottoman increased by 2.5 times, and the total value of Ottoman exports to Germany soared by more than 6 times. In the Greek-Turkish War that broke out in 1897, the Ottomans used the advanced railroad built by the Germans to quickly transport troops and supplies, and used the army equipped with German-style weapons and German instructors to defeat the Greeks in half a month. In 1903, the construction of the railway from Ankara to Basra, near the Persian Gulf, began again with German-led financing. Once the 2,400-kilometer-long railway was completed, the German power would expand in all directions as the backbone of the springwood, eventually achieving a destabilizing control over the Ottomans, both politically and militarily.

Historically, the German-led enterprise halted after extending the railway 200 kilometers eastward, as the Ottoman Empire's finances had collapsed in 1881 and was unable to provide the Baghdad Railway Company with a subsidized guarantee for the railroad as agreed. The situation on this plane has changed radically.

As a result of the efforts of the Qing British, Germany was far more aggressive in wooing the Ottoman Empire than it has historically been; In addition, Germany received a large number of low-interest loans from the United States as investment, and the government's already rich purse bag overflowed with gold coins. Under these circumstances, William saw that Russia was mired in the war in the Far East, and launched a plan that shocked the world: Didn't the Ottomans have no money to subsidize the railway lines of the Baghdad Company, and I could help the Ottomans to pay the money to the Baghdad Railway Company, which was financed by Britain, France and Germany; However, the price was that German dominance over the railway would reach a new absolute height, further reducing the percentage of British and French capital in it!

The Ottomans were dead pigs and were not afraid of boiling water. For them, their equity in this railway is only a symbolic fraction anyway, and no matter how much Britain, France and Germany compete, it has nothing to do with them; In contrast to England, which regarded itself as a murderous devil and a lowly man, and France, which controlled the vast majority of its revenues through usurious loans, Germany, which had always been friendly to them, was clearly the absolute controlling power that the Ottomans were happy to see. Now in the eyes of Sultan Hamid, William is simply the messenger sent by Allah to save him; Because once William's plan was passed, the Ottomans would be able to resume the construction of the interrupted railway without spending a penny, which is exactly what they dreamed of!

As soon as this plan was made public, it caused quite a stir in the two countries concerned, Britain and France.

Britain, since it was the largest trading partner of the Ottoman Empire, had huge interests in Asia Minor and Iraq; Once Germany's power penetrates into the Middle East, it will inevitably pose a serious threat to Persia, Afghanistan, and even India further east. In view of this, Britain has always been extremely opposed to the German-led construction of the Eastern Railway, but because it was busy competing with the Boers in South Africa and had no time to touch the mold of Wilhelm II, it made a false promise with the Germans and acquiesced to some enterprises to integrate funds into this melting pot. According to Britain's original idea, it was to first settle the Boer question once and for all, and then turn back and cut off Germany's tentacles reaching out to the Middle East with the threat of a great victory. The British, however, miscalculated. What was supposed to be a military trip turned into a catastrophic nightmare, not only losing £250 million in war costs, but also completely exposing the incompetence of the British Army to the world, and causing Britain's international prestige to fall sharply, while Germany made great progress during this period, overtaking Britain by a decade of early infusion of American loans. Under the advantages of the other, the strength of Britain was already greatly relaxed, and now Russia's eastward advance has become the last straw that breaks the camel's back. In the face of conceiving Germany and the Ottomans, what countermeasures could Britain take?

Putting pressure on Germany? Germany is no longer what it used to be 10 years ago, and if Wilhelm were to support Russia's expansion in the Far East, it would be more than worth the loss for the British, not to mention whether they were capable of inflicting losses on the Germans. Pressure on the Ottomans? This is a soft persimmon, but the deterrent power of the British army has been completely defeated in the Boer War, the navy has to deal with the threat of the French and Russian fleets, and the Ottoman Empire is mainly continental, so it is difficult for the navy to play a role. Economic sanctions against the Ottomans? People said that there was no place to stay here, and the huge untapped German-Austrian market was enough to fill the vacuum left by Britain's departure, and Germany was even more eager for Britain to give up the Ottoman trade dominance. As for co-opting the Ottomans like Germany...... I'm sorry, but in the eyes of the gentlemen of London, that pagan country is murderous, ugly, and barbaric. Synonymous with backwardness, it is better to find a pet dog to win them over!

(This chapter actually has an illegal keyword vocabulary, can anyone tell me what this situation is)