The first decade of the 20th century quickly became a dusty era of history. In this speeding time, many things happened that surprised or delighted Qingying.

In March 1911, Qingying's second child came to this world in the spring when the grass grew and the warbler flew. Nicholas II's tragic character of giving birth to four daughters in a row did not appear in him, and the small bean Ding, which was dozens of times smaller than Qingying, officially announced the arrival of the eldest grandson of Emperor Hohenzollern to the 65 million subjects of this empire. When he saw the expected organ of the infant baby, William could not contain the joy in his heart, and bounced it in an extremely heavy way, as if to show off the great achievements of his family's successor. However, the joy and sadness were that the newborn emperor and grandson obviously did not give his grandfather any face, and a pale yellow liquid squirted out of the small bean dice without warning, squirting William who was caught off guard all over his face.

A few months later, the situation in Europe was unexpectedly calm. In the face of the wave of anti-Sudanese and anti-French protests that broke out in Morocco, the French did not send troops to Morocco's major cities to exercise military control, as they have historically done, but opted for a rather low-key diplomatic mediation. Qing Ying understood this situation after a short period of surprise: because Russia in this plane suffered more serious losses in the Far East War, its army combat strength was much inferior to that of the same period in history, and in the case of the relative weakness of the Russian giant, the French, whose own national strength was far inferior to Germany, obviously did not dare to face the German troops alone! Seeing the cautious shrinking appearance of French diplomats on the world stage, William could not help but strengthen his determination to start war as soon as possible; If France and Russia are to recover their strength, Germany will have to act according to the eyes of the other side. Where can we maintain this transcendent position in the European region?

Late 1911. Qingying went to Rome, the capital of Italy. Negotiations and exchanges with the most famous wall-grass country in Europe lasted for half a month. Although Qingying was 10,000 reluctant to visit this country, since the Italian Royal Navy was the most crucial force in determining the direction of the situation in the Mediterranean, and the consequences of falling to the Allies would be unimaginably catastrophic, Qingying could only force himself to suppress his strong contempt for the clumsy performance of the Italians in the war, and to make a false accusation with the most impeccable aristocratic etiquette.

At this time, Italy still adhered to the standard wall-to-wall nature of history: on the one hand, they curried favor with both the Central Powers and the Entente Powers, and on the other hand, they used their own position as a threat to constantly raise their own interests. In the face of the British. Italy was always smiling, but the words hinted that the British needed to export coal to them at a low price and get Britain to pressure France to abandon its colonial occupation of Tunisia. And in these days to welcome Qingying, there is no lack of hearty Italian food and beautiful bed warmers; However, the Italian prime minister privately offered a new price to Qingying, not only to expand their power in the Balkans, but also to include the Ottoman Empire's Libya into their colony!

Faced with the behavior of the Italians, Qingying couldn't help but feel angry in her heart. The two-faced and three-faced nature of this country, and the great appetite but with an unsightly rotten tooth, are far beyond the scope of Qingying's tolerance, and if they continue to be entangled in endless compromise with this scoundrel. God knows what kind of price they will come up with in the end? The mere temptation of carrots in front of this group of extremely greedy Italians only endlessly increases their greed, and it is necessary to make them feel visceral fear with a big stick. so that they did not dare to be enemies of the German and Central Powers.

Under the secret hint of Qingying, the Ottoman Navy's dreadnought, which had just been in service for half a year, sailed out of the Sea of Marmara, accompanied by four destroyers, and went to the military port of Tripoli in North Africa, which was under the control of the Empire, to conduct "inspections" and conduct actual combat exercises on the high seas. The Turkish sailors, who had been trained hard by German officers for half a year, already had a considerable tactical level, and had a commendable performance in both long-distance artillery fire and long-term chase and follow-up. The situation was discovered by Italian spies in Libya and quickly sent to the desk of the Italian Minister of the Navy. Seeing that the Turks actually drove the dreadnought they bought from the Germans to the Tripoli base, the Italian military was shocked to discover that this sick man of Europe, who had been in decline for more than a hundred years, had in his hands the world's first-class imperial immortal soldiers!

Although Italy had also started construction of a dreadnought called Dante in the same year that the Ottoman Sea Redding had been ordered, its tonnage, firepower and speed were all above it; However, due to Italy's relatively weak industrial base and the lazy nature of the naval shipbuilders, the ship was built much at a much slower rate than the other powers. To this day, it will take another year for this dreadnought to be completed, and the formation of combat power is far away. Faced with a Turkish battleship equipped with eight 305 mm guns and a speed of 21 knots, all the active ships of Italy would be vulnerable to it, and even escape would become a luxury. Although the Italian navy was sure to pile up the Ottoman dreadnought together, the Turks could have played drag-and-tow tactics with the advantage of speed and fire control instead of going head-on with the Italian fleet. As a result, the Ottoman Navy's dreadnought was almost invincible, while the Italian Navy was at great risk of being sunk!

Just as the Red Star and Moon Banner was flexing its muscles in the central Mediterranean for the first time in decades, Austria-Hungary also began to conduct deterrent exercises against Italy. The 150,000 elite regiments, all Germanic and Hungarian, conducted a large-scale mountain offensive drill, and the Austro-Hungarian army marched like a tidal wave, which made the German generals who came to watch the battle nod their heads and praise; When Italy learned of this, confidence in its defense in the Alps began to run out of confidence. In the eyes of people other than Qing Ying, Austria-Hungary, with a population of 52 million and a mechanical arms industry that surpassed France and Russia, was undoubtedly one of the five giants of Europe. Considering the fighting power of the Italian Army when it was beaten by the local natives in Ethiopia, it was difficult for Italy to feel safe in the majestic and dangerous Alps. At the same time, the Austro-Hungarian Navy also began their routine cruises; The spectacle of two brand-new Radetz-class dreadnoughts sailing on the surface of the sea at a top speed of 20.5 knots also made the Italian Navy, which was struggling with shipbuilding speed, tense its nerves.

After a period of intimidation by force, the attitude of the Italians changed dramatically; Not only is the service of the bed-warming girls more appropriate and comprehensive, but the Italian military and political dignitaries who came to meet with Qingying also have the perfunctory look of smiling meat and meat before. The Italians had realized that if they really provoked Berlin, Germany and Austria could completely clean up Italy with the snap of a finger; Even if Britain and France can pull Italy at sea, they can only be ravaged by the German and Austrian armies on land! Seeing this situation, Qingying couldn't help but feel a bad breath in her heart; In this jungle age where truth only exists within the range of cannons, only the iron fist wrapped in steel armor is the most effective tool for dialogue with these rogue bandits.

After showing the big stick in his hand, Qingying immediately continued to discuss with the Italians with a pleasant and gentle attitude about the issue of interests. After all, his purpose was not to adopt a strategy of conquest against Italy, but only to beat this disobedient little brother and make him obediently do what he had to do in the camp of the Central Powers. In order to appease the wounded hearts of the Italians under the pressure of the big stick, Qingying also made clear to the Italians the attitude of Berlin: Germany would support Italy's legitimate claims in the disputed territory of Italy and Austria, and persuade Vienna to accept capital from the Italian consortium to enter the Balkans to share the cake. In the case of Libya, since Germany had to rely on the Ottoman blockade of the Bosphorus, thus making Russia an isolated island, the Qing and British only supported Rome's economic penetration and financial control of the region, and delayed Italy's claim to the region in a peaceful way.

In this way, the war between Italy and the Ottomans that had broken out in 1912 was avoided under the mediation of the Qing Dynasty. In fact, Qingying's visit has many similarities with Bismarck's wrists; Both of them use the inducement and threat at both ends of the first rat to make both sides of the conflict out of expectation and fear of the third party, so as to calm down the originally imminent intensification situation and delay it. However, unlike Bismarck's decades-long diplomatic mediation and the difficult method of delaying the outbreak of extremely acute conflicts of interest, Qing Ying only needed to delay Italy for a few years to save the Allies' power in the Mediterranean from the tragedy of fratricidal slaughter before the outbreak of World War I. When the war was over and Germany had established itself as the absolute dominant power in Europe, who would care about the grievances between Italy and the Ottomans? By that time, Germany would no longer need the Ottomans to encircle the extremely weak Russia or the Soviet Union, and the East might become a vassal of Germany after the breakdown; And Italy no longer has any capital to bargain with Germany, which dominates Europe, and Berlin can offer it a six-character mantra that loves to play and not to play. How to fight between Italy and Turkey, then it has nothing to do with Germany at all! (To be continued......)

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