The first day of the Berlin Conference was a very boring procedural content, and the young emperor of Germany, apparently thinking that he still needed to deal with more and more important things, so after giving the opening speech, he walked away, and then left the agenda for the beginning of the meeting to the delegates of various countries, of course, he did not want to participate in such a very noisy and cumbersome meeting, which was not only the idea of Kaiser Wilhelm II, but even the thoughts of many members of the Chinese delegation, each country spoke in turn, and then expressed itself, continued to quarrel, no one could convince the other party, Relying on loud voices is useless, Zeng Jize thought for the first time, "I don't see any use for this kind of meeting." Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ”

At this point in time, it was already eight o'clock in the evening local time in Berlin, and the welcome reception in Wilhelm Palace had just begun, he and An Lan hid in a corner, holding wine glasses and whispering, "The big guy is afraid that there will be no progress except for arguing and adding some senseless anger, because no one can convince anyone." ”

An Lan nodded, "Yes, my lord, but it's not like we can't learn anything here." ”

"Of course you can learn things," Zeng Jize said with a smile, "In the past, Lu Fangweng's poems, kung fu outside of poetry, I didn't know much about what it meant before, but when I got here, I can be regarded as knowing the three flavors, in these meetings, how to talk on the table, it doesn't matter, the most important private contact and negotiation is the most important." ”

Zeng Jize showed a playful smile on his face, his words were not nonsense, but just a moment after adjourning the meeting to prepare for the welcome reception in the evening, Zeng Jize accepted the invitation of many countries to come secretly, inviting the Chinese delegation to "hold a separate bilateral meeting at an appropriate time." ”

What is the purpose of such talks? Everyone knows very well that it is just to find support, Portugal has the support of the British, France has the support of the Germans, Belgium also has the support of Italy and the Netherlands, which means that there will be a faction to communicate and coordinate, for example, Belgium finally gets the support of most of the countries participating in the meeting, so even the United Kingdom will probably not be able to do anything.

"What do you mean, sir?" An Lan said, "Which side are you going to choose?" ”

Zeng Jize thought for a while and shook his head, "For the time being, let's hold our troops and take a look at the intentions of various countries, let's come to this meeting, the meaning of the DPRK, the meaning of Guo Zhongtang, for African affairs, we don't need to interfere excessively, so we naturally don't care about making a position too early, let's see the reaction of various countries first," Zeng Jize lowered his voice, "Let's take a look at what conditions the Germans have first." ”

"The lower officials thought that the Germans would give their military equipment in exchange," An Lan said, "We can also try in this direction, after all, if even if the gold mines over there are distributed to us, I am afraid that we will not be able to go to that place to get gold." ”

"What you say makes sense," Zeng Jize nodded, "Let's go on, first understand all aspects, and see what each country means, but now three countries have declared that they want the Congo River Basin very much, in addition to these three countries, I estimate that the rest of the countries, but I am afraid that most of them are also pregnant with ghosts, even if they don't get to this place, if other places can be occupied by the way, I am afraid that it is also a good thing to hug the grass and beat rabbits, and the two will not be delayed." ”

An Lan nodded, needless to say, naturally all countries have their own little calculations, speaking of which, it seems that China is still coming to Berlin just to observe international conferences, and there are no ideas and topics of their own.

So now they are still very leisurely, talk about this, talk about that, but no one will let a powerful and important China in international affairs watch here, the two of them just talked and laughed a few words, and someone came to harass them, and the first one came was a middle-aged man with red hair and a black dress with a ribbon, followed by three or five followers, he bowed to Zeng Jize and the others, and then stretched out his hand, "The contemptible Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Belgium Del Marin greeted the Minister of the Great Qing State, Zeng, Ambassador An." ”

Delmarin's French was accented with a thick accent, but Zeng Jize still understood, Zeng Jize put the wine glass in his right hand to his left hand, and shook Delmarin's hand, "Thank you for your concern, and I also say hello to you." ”

"Thank you," Delmarin said with a smile, "it is really an honor for all of us in the European countries to come from such a distance, and it is a pity for me personally, that the Empress Dowager of your country did not visit Belgium when she was sent to Europe." ”

"Thank you," Zeng Jize nodded, "Belgium has always been a very friendly country to us, and we are willing to continue bilateral trade and diplomatic exchanges with the Kingdom of Belgium." ”

This is said very generally, and even Zeng Jize is a little insincere, China's current diplomatic principles, for European countries is very powerful, for small countries, simply disdain, will not spend a lot of money into diplomacy, this is of course only for small European countries, for the Asian vassal countries around them, the Chinese are still very kind.

Now the Qing Dynasty believes that there are only a few powerful countries in Europe, and other countries can be ignored, especially in Northern Europe, where Norway, Denmark, and Sweden are few countries in China, and China rarely launches diplomatic activities, in addition to the daily diplomatic construction and establishment of embassies, the main reason for this is that the disparity between the size and power of the country is too large, and now is not the era of the United Nations, the United Nations era has one vote for one country, so it is necessary to win over countries regardless of the size of the country and the strength of the country, and now we only need to grasp the nose of the bull. It is enough to handle the relationship between those big countries, this is the Empress Dowager Cixi knows best, she has long had instructions to the Prime Minister's Yamen, and among the European countries, Britain, the United States, Germany, Austria and Russia are the focus of the Prime Minister's Yamen.

Delmarin obviously didn't take Zeng Jize's words seriously, he smiled and nodded, "I have the same idea as the minister," and then after a lot of nonsense, Delmarin finally said the purpose of coming today, "May I ask Mr. Minister, what do you think about the theme of this meeting, which is the ownership of the Congo River Basin?" ”

Zeng Jize smiled lightly, "My opinion is not very important, as the French Prime Minister His Excellency Baptiste said, the Qing Dynasty has no say in the Congo River, although this is difficult to accept, but he is right." (To be continued.) )