Chapter 83 Ministers

It has been almost 40 years since Shanghai was designated as one of the five treaty ports after the signing of the Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing. In the past 40 years, Shanghai has rapidly developed from a small coastal city under the jurisdiction of Songjiang Prefecture in Jiangsu Province to the largest city in the Far East, known as the "Paris of the East" and "Ten Mile Ocean Field" because of its superior geographical location!

And because of its developed economy, it has become an important window for foreign exchanges in the Qing Dynasty and an important base for Western powers to dump goods into China and exert their influence!

At this time, Edison's newly invented bamboo silk light bulb had only succeeded for less than two years, and the alternating current was still in the laboratory! Therefore, Shanghai now is not the bright and green Oriental magic capital that came later! However, for the British colonists who owned the whole world, it was the most important thing to enjoy the convenience and comfort brought by the new technology, and as for the high costs in the eyes of others, the British would never consider it!

As British Minister Plenipotentiary to China, Sir Wittoma has been in China for more than 40 years! He has witnessed the development of Shanghai for more than 40 years, and has an indescribable affection for this country and city that can be his second home!

Under the torrent of history, he has also changed from a young man to an old man with white hair! Today he specially placed the Order of St. Michael and St. George and the Order of Bath, which the Queen had given him, on his chest! Then, after tidying up his appearance, he walked out of the room!

In the spacious banquet hall, almost all the envoys from various countries came!

Although the sky outside was completely dark, the whole hall was still brightly lit by twenty new electric lights and hundreds of candles!

"Sir Wittoma wishes you a happy life!" After seeing the British minister, who was already sixty-three years old and had a high position in the entire Far East, came out, the surrounding guests gathered around one after another, showed their most sincere smiles, and sent their best wishes! As a diplomatic envoy of the world's largest power, his status here is undoubtedly the highest! Therefore, almost every guest who came here wanted to come forward and send his blessings to this old man who held supreme authority!

"Thank you, thank you, welcome to my birthday banquet!"

With a half-full glass of precious Bordeaux wine, Wittoma raised a glass to every guest with a smile on his face!

After three rounds of wine and five flavors of food! Crowds of people in twos and threes got together and took the opportunity to contact and enhance their feelings! Of course, ministers from various countries were no exception!

"Why didn't you see those two guys from Worm and Torres coming over today?" He Tianjue, who had just become the US minister to China, looked around and couldn't help but ask with some confusion.

"Hehe, they're still in the mood to come here! After the East Indies colony is lost, I'm afraid they won't even be able to sleep well!" said the French minister to China, Bao Hai, with a mocking face.

After listening to his words, the faces of the ministers of most European countries in China were a little gloating! The Netherlands and Portugal had already lost their faces! Not only were their colonial troops beaten by a group of natives and lost their armor and suffered a great defeat! Moreover, the Dutch colonies in the East Indies had lost more than half of their colonies, and the only remaining Portuguese East Timor had long since become the possession of the Huo family's army!

Hearing his words, He Tianjue smiled and nodded, although the core interests of the United States are in the Americas! However, it is no secret that this news has spread all over Europe!

"Why have I never heard of the country that occupied the East Indies and defeated the Dutch?" asked the German Minister Schleier, with a frown. He hadn't been in the Far East for long, so he wasn't too familiar with the situation here! Moreover, Germany's limited colonies were all in Africa, and they lacked bases and had little interest in the distant Asia and the Pacific!

"Speaking of which, it's really strange, until now, we haven't figured out where these people came from, they seem to have appeared on all the islands of the East Indies overnight!" said the Russian Imperial Minister to China, who had been in the Far East for three years, with a puzzled expression.

"Sir, you've lived in China the longest, don't you know where they come from?" He Tianjue turned his head to look at the protagonist of today's banquet!

"I don't know, I once communicated with Sir Walton, the Governor of the Imperial Straits Settlements, about this matter, and he doesn't know too well, but it is certain that they are Chinese, but they must have nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty!"

Listening to his affirmative conclusion, Schleier smiled and asked, "Didn't the Dutch say that they were native?

"Natives? Do natives have well-trained armies armed with rifles and artillery? Moreover, our Far East Fleet saw their patrol ships off the coast of Borneo some time ago! France is not like Britain, they hate the Netherlands, the dogleg of Britain on the European continent, and the damn continental policy has made France lose the opportunity to dominate Europe again and again!

Hearing his harsh words, Wittoma frowned secretly, but he didn't say anything, not to mention that the Frenchman didn't say anything! The occupants of the East Indies were indeed not native! But he didn't want to delve further into this issue! Moreover, the British Empire already had its own plans for the East Indies!

"All right, gentlemen, all of you are ministers of various countries to China, let us talk about the affairs of the Qing Kingdom! As for the East Indies, I believe that the Netherlands and Portugal, which have sent troops and warships to the Far East, will settle their own affairs!" said Wittoma, raising his glass in his hand, and said with a smile.

Hearing his words, everyone couldn't help frowning, knowing in their hearts that Britain, which was closest to the East Indies and was powerful, would definitely not be willing to be lonely, and wanted to take advantage of this rare opportunity to get a piece of the pie!

However, although the interests of the South Seas are indeed very attractive! However, Austria-Hungary, Italy, and Spain are either not strong enough or are too far away, so they can only watch and drool! Russia is far to the north, and it is blocked by the British-backed Rioben, and the navy deployed in the Pacific Ocean is not good! Therefore, the greedy polar bears do not care too much about it! The United States is also powerless across the vast Pacific Ocean! The French wanted to, and their Vietnamese colonies were close, but compared to the East Indies, which had to compete with three countries, Indochina was obviously more tempting! And they could also quickly expand their colonies in Indochina while Britain was drawn to the East Indies!

After the victory in the Franco-Prussian War, Germany's domestic industry developed at a high speed and its national strength increased rapidly, and it not only needed colonies to provide industrial raw materials, but also huge industrial products needed to be digested by a vast market. Therefore, the East Indies, with its abundant and populous population, is clearly the perfect place to be!

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have recently heard from many businessmen in our country that there is a very large industrial zone in the Taiwan region of the Qing Dynasty, I wonder if you know the news?"

"Sir, I have heard recently that it seems that the owner of these factories is a family surnamed Huo, and they once won the right to build railways in Taiwan!" Schleier said with a smile, the Huo family ordered a lot of machinery and equipment in Germany, so many German monopolies, including Krupp and Rheinmetall, have set up offices in Taiwan!

Perhaps, in the eyes of these yellow-skinned monkeys, an enterprise like the Jiangnan Shipbuilding Bureau is already a big industry!" Baohai had been to Taiwan three years ago, and in his impression, no matter how much Taiwan developed without any industrial base in three years, it would be impossible for Taiwan to establish a heavy industry that was related to the lifeblood of the country's economy!

After all, they are all diplomats from industrial countries, and they have a deep understanding of the difficulty of the development of heavy industry! In addition, the ignorant and backward image of the Qing Dynasty has been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people for a long time, so not many people believe that there will be any big industry here! Seeing the appearance of the crowd, Wei Tuma did not say anything, and he threw out this topic more to draw everyone's attention away from the East Indies! As for the rest, he was not concerned with anything else! Hearing these words, the German minister Schleier was even more happy to pretend to be stupid, in his heart, it was better for Germany to occupy that rich market alone!

The evening passed quickly, and after a few hours of feasting, everyone took their leave!

Unlike the others, as soon as he returned to the embassy, Schleier made a detailed report on the situation in the East Indies to China through constant telegrams!