Entering the palace with heavy palaces, Lieutenant General Duan Qirui removed the command knife and gun, followed the path of Gu Kai, the chief secretary of the imperial secretariat, and walked forward, passing through the main hall, and came to the east side hall.

In the middle of the magnificent palace hangs a gilt plaque, on which the three big characters of "Qinzheng Palace" are written.

Gu Kaizhi stopped, turned around, and said with a solemn face; "General Duan, this is the place where Your Majesty deals with government affairs on a daily basis, and I have explained the relevant etiquette to you clearly, so you must not lose your manners in front of you.

Your Majesty has always been a man of kindness and gentleness, and he must not be arrogant because of this, but must be careful to abide by the duties of a courtier, and remember the virtue of humility of knights.

If Your Majesty is done asking the right questions, you will begin to work on the other movements.

I will give you a gesture, and you will just quietly withdraw after you have bowed, and you must not disturb Your Majesty, and you must remember it carefully. ”

"Thank you for the reminder, I wrote it down." Lieutenant General Duan Qirui replied solemnly, and he couldn't help but feel excited and a little nervous.

The palace here is the center of the empire, where His Majesty wields Fang Xuan, commands the territory thousands of miles away, controls the vast empire, and establishes the great cause of the world.

His Majesty is the idol of almost all iron-blooded soldiers, and Duan Qirui is naturally no exception.

He solemnly sorted out his military uniform, raised his hand to signal Gu Kai to lead the way, and entered the hall with reverence.

"Your Majesty, Lieutenant General Duan Qirui, deputy commander of the Imperial Praetorian Guard, has been summoned outside the palace, is there a summons for an audience?"

"Oh, let him in."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Gu Kaizhi walked out of the inner hall and beckoned, and Lieutenant General Duan Qirui hurriedly followed in, saluting respectfully to the monarch sitting behind the desk.

Although he had only seen it two days ago, Li Fushou still looked at it carefully, and then said with a warm expression;

"General Duan has been in Africa for more than a year, but it has been a lot darker, it can be seen that it is very hard, sit down and talk."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

Duan Qirui carefully sat on the brocade stool with half of his buttocks, his upper body straight, and his hands were placed on his knees like elementary school students, waiting for His Majesty to ask.

Li Fushou threw the piece in his hand on the imperial case and asked with interest; "I know you're from the Eagle School, why did you want to join the army at that time?"

"Back to Your Majesty's words, Weichen has always had great ambitions since he was a child, and hopes to get ahead one day, be able to live this life vigorously, glorify his ancestors, seal his wife and children, and live up to his life in the world."

"Well, you are also an aspiring person, how can you think of fighting for equal rights and interests for Chinese workers in South Africa?"

"Back to His Majesty's words, Weichen felt that wherever the soldiers went, they represented the dignity of the country, even if they were in a foreign land, they couldn't look at the compatriots who were connected to our blood and clearly were bullied. This is not only a matter for diplomats, but also for all military personnel and officials of the Empire, who must be treated with dignity as long as they are citizens of the Empire. ”

"It makes sense that no citizen of the empire can be wronged abroad. Otherwise...... Isn't the prestige of my ocean empire an ornament? Li Fushou's bland words revealed domineering, and the majesty of the hero of the world disappeared in a flash, and only a little bit of what was revealed was already making people's blood surging and heartbroken.

He paused and continued; "General Duan, how do you see the general situation of the world today from a military perspective?"

This question is a big proposition, and it is a forward-looking strategic vision, and Li Fushou has his own standard answer in his belly, so he sacrifices this killer feature, and he is invincible

Duan Qirui thought about it with a solemn expression and replied seriously;

"Your Majesty;

The main contradiction is the confrontation between the German, Austrian, and Italian alliances in Europe against the Franco-Russian alliance, and the secondary contradiction is the confrontation between Fuso and Tsarist Russia in the Far East.

The key point is who the British Empire prefers?

Judging from the evolution of the current world situation, Germany has wantonly built a high seas fleet to challenge the British Royal Navy's maritime supremacy, and Anglo-German relations have deteriorated sharply in the recent past, and the main contradictions in the world have gradually become clear.

Maritime hegemony is forbidden by the British Empire and will never be challenged.

So Wechen thinks;

Considering that Kaiser Wilhelm II has made enemies everywhere and has deeply touched the bottom line of the British Empire, the possibility of an alliance between Britain and Germany is very small.

On the contrary, France is trying its best to ease relations with Britain, and it can be seen from the movements of the army and navy that France is trying its best to win over Britain, and even has some self-restraint in order to win the favor of London, and the possibility of an alliance between the two sides is becoming more and more likely.

First of all, the military example of the navy is manifested in the development of submarines.

France is a pioneer country in the research and development of submarines in the world today, and has been developing for more than 40 years.

The French Navy proposed to develop a 1,500-ton ocean-going submarine plan, but the French government took into account the relationship with Britain, and the two sides were only separated by a narrow strait, and the development of large submarines would inevitably touch the maritime supremacy of the British Royal Navy, which was disliked by the other side.

Therefore, the navy's ocean-going submarine development plan was denied, and only the 200~300-ton offshore submarine development plan was approved, which was an initiative to show goodwill to Britain.

On the Army side, this was mainly manifested in the "Fashoda Incident" last year, when the French government repeatedly backed down and forbeared, not hesitating to give up the colonial interests it had acquired, and was unwilling to deteriorate Anglo-French relations because of this.

In the wave of African colonization, Britain occupied Egypt in the north of Africa and South Africa in the south, hoping to open up the connection between the north and the south of Africa, establish a railway across the north and south of Africa, and complete the vertical occupation of Africa.

France, on the other hand, occupies Morocco in western Africa and Eritrea in eastern Africa, hoping to open up the link between the east and west of Africa and complete the horizontal occupation of Africa.

As a result of this horizontal and vertical approach, the British and French expansionist policies towards Africa will inevitably have an intersection in Africa, and the two sides will inevitably have a conflict.

Wechen's expectation was good, and sure enough, in 1898, the Fashoda incident broke out.

In 1897, under the unified deployment of the French Colonial Department, the French Major General Jane Bapdiste Marchand led a colonial army of 150 people from French West Africa to the interior of Africa.

At the same time, another French colonial army, led by Christian de Bonxiang, set out from French Eritrea and advanced into the interior of Africa, hoping to meet at the Nile River and complete the horizontal French occupation of Africa.

July 1898

Marchand led his army to Fashoda on the banks of the Nile, where he raised the flag and turned it into a French reserve.

Bangxiang was hampered in Ethiopia and was unable to reach Fashoda to join Marchand.

In September, a British fleet led by Herbert Kitchener, the governor of the British Sultan, who had just won the conquest of Sudan, arrived at Fashoda up the Nile.

When the king met with the king, the British and French each erected their national flags on the other side of the Nile, confronted each other across the river, and both demanded that the other side withdraw from Fashoda, but when they refused, they refused to give in to each other, and immediately reported to their respective governments.

After the "Fashoda conflict" spread to Europe, both Britain and France accused each other of imperialist expansion and aggression, and both sides began to mobilize for war, and Britain and France faced the risk of war.

Soon the French relented and ordered Marchand to secretly evacuate Fashoda, and the Fashoda crisis ended.

Marchand was ordered to secretly evacuate Fashoda, and the Fashoda crisis ended.

The French newspaper Paris Saint-Germain once published a cartoon for this purpose, which satirized France's humble plea for peace with Britain, looking like a soft bone.

From an objective point of view;

In view of the strength of the Royal Navy of the British Empire, in the event of a conflict, the French army would not receive any support in the African colonies, and defeat was a high probability.

The opinion of the French Foreign Minister, Théofil Delcasser, is very representative;

He believed that the most threatening enemy of France was Germany, to which all policy must be compromised, and that the friendship of England would help France against Germany.

In 1899, Britain and France signed an agreement to demarcate their colonial border with Sudan in central Africa.

The Congo River became the sphere of influence of France, and the Nile became the sphere of influence of the British.

Britain and France moved from conflict to cooperation, and France embarked on a pro-British path, which gave Britain and France a basis for an alliance, after all, Britain also hated the man who called the shots in Berlin, and the two countries were likely to join forces against Germany.

In the past few years, Britain and France have been in constant conflict because of colonies, but by the signing of the agreement between Britain and France to divide the African colonies last year, these contradictions no longer existed.

The rapid rise of Germany made France very frightened, and the shame of the Franco-Prussian War made France full of resentment towards Germany, in order to deal with Germany, France needed the help of Britain, and the two sides had the basis to move from confrontation to reconciliation.

Therefore, Wechen believes that the main contradiction in the world has gradually become clear.

It remains to be seen whether Britain will be in favour of a Franco-Russian alliance or an open alliance in policy, but it is undeniable that it will ......

Britain had apparently made a decision to hammer Germany.

Britain's mentality towards the Franco-Russian alliance is complicated: on the one hand, it needs the Franco-Russian alliance in Europe to be at the forefront of the confrontation with Germany, and on the other hand, in the Far East, Britain is extremely unwilling to see the greed of Tsarist Russia, and has already begun to let dogs bite people.

Tsarist Russia's 170,000-strong army invaded the three northeastern provinces on a large scale, such a move simply made the whole country of Fusang crazy, the military and government continued to shout and kill, the situation was more dangerous than Europe, the contradictions were more acute, and it was almost irreconcilable.

The country of Fuso is undergoing large-scale arming, and attempts to prepare for war can no longer be disguised.

Now the only question is, when will the contradictions erupt and when will the fight begin?

According to Wechen's analysis;

The Russo-Japanese war should have occurred before the Trans-Siberian Railway, that is, before 1905.

Tsarist Russia attaches great importance to the Trans-Siberian Railway and has recruited hundreds of thousands of Chinese laborers to participate in its construction.

They know;

Once the railway is built, Tsarist Russia may continue to transport large armies and material resources from Europe into the Far East, and at that time, the Manchu and Mongolian ambitions of the Fuso people will be completely wiped out, and the opportunity to win the war will be lost.

Therefore, the Russo-Japanese War was bound to break out before 1905.

The British saw this, the Fuso people saw this, and we saw this, but Tsarist Russia, in the midst of greed for a large-scale invasion of the three northeastern provinces, did not realize this.

The above is Wei Chen's understanding of the main contradictions and minor contradictions in the world today, please criticize and correct Your Majesty. ”