The autumn wind blew through St. Petersburg, casting a chill in the sky. But for the residents of St. Petersburg, this is nothing. At least St. Petersburg is much better than the deserted Siberia, and the people who have been sent to Siberia to grow potatoes over the years are miserable.

Every few years before, there were prominent nobles in the city who were sent to Siberia by the tsar, and every time they cried and cried along the way, which made people feel sad.

The grievances in St. Petersburg had nothing to do with the French ambassador Miguel Rivera, who was rushing to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Gorchakov.

This time, however, instead of riding in the carriage with its conspicuous diplomatic logo, he rode in a very ordinary carriage.

He did not forget that there were even more Germans in St. Petersburg.

The carriage swerved to a house with no signs.

"Your Excellency, here we are."

Simon, the coachman and bodyguard, reminded him.

"Okay, I got it."

After replying, Rivera pushed the car door with his briefcase and walked down.

There was a man at the door, dressed ordinarily, but his waist was swollen to the extent that he was carrying a weapon, and he was vigilantly observing his surroundings. However, upon seeing Rivera approaching, he opened the door and let him in.

"Your Excellency, please come here."

Upon entering, led by a waiter dressed as a servant, Rivera came to a room.

"Hello, Your Excellency Rivera."

The person who greeted him was none other than Russian Foreign Minister Gorchakov.

"Your Excellency, it feels like we're secretly connecting, which is very bad."

As soon as he entered, Diveira, the French ambassador, complained.

In the face of Rivera's complaints, Gorchakov, who is the Russian Foreign Minister, said slightly apologetically. "I'm sorry, because for well-known reasons, my country doesn't want this contact to be known to unrelated people."

Although Gorchakov was apologetic, Diveira, who had spent a short time in St. Petersburg, knew that his Russian counterpart was not at all easy to deal with.

"I don't know what you guys think, it's not an unpleasant thing for us to discuss this time."

After complaining, Rivera immediately got down to business. "Your country knows the amount and interest of this loan."

"We all know that."

"So what is your country going to use as collateral?"

"Our country intends to use the livestock tax as collateral."

DeRivera, who had known about the Russian tax assault before coming, replied after thinking about it. "In that case, it should satisfy the bank."

True, the two men were talking about a loan, which amounted to 400 million francs.

The loan was actually quite dramatic, and Russia originally intended to raise a sum of money by issuing bonds.

However, I don't know where the French got the news, and several people from the financial circles in Paris approached the Russian Ministry of Finance and said that there was a way to help them find low-interest loans without issuing bonds.

As we all know, the interest rate on bonds is lower than borrowing, and it is also borrowing at a low interest rate, which makes the Ministry of Finance very happy.

And after some contact, the person hiding behind it was revealed, it was the French government. But for Russia, it doesn't matter that the French are standing behind this loan.

To put it more bluntly, the Russian side is still happy to see it.

You know, although Russia fought with France in the Crimean War, even a tsar died. But that was twenty years ago, and as the saying goes, time dilutes everything. And now the behavior of the Russians and the French is a secret. Of course, in view of the relationship between the Three Emperors Alliance, it was done a little more secretly.

But some things can be said and done, and some things can be done but cannot be said. It is clear that Russia and France are acting in a situation that can not be said, so the contact between the two is very hidden.

Of course, for Russia, although it is allied with Germany and Austria, it is not closely linked with Germany and Austria economically.

As we all know, exports to Europe are mainly based on raw materials, minerals, and agriculture. However, Germany and Austria generally import mineral raw materials to Russia, and export precision machinery and lathes and other industrial products, which obviously have a huge difference in import and export classification. Russia, on the other hand, exports low-value-added products and imports high-value machinery. Although the price of German products in Europe is relatively low, it also occupies a large market in Russia, which also leads to a very large gap in Russian trade with Germany.

Faced with such a situation, the Russian government, of course, does not want to see it. In addition, Germany imposed higher tariffs on agricultural products in order to protect Juncker's interests, which further exacerbated Russia's discontent.

Although the alliance with Germany and Austria is now in place for the sake of interests, many far-sighted people in Russia can see that if this situation is not changed in a more fundamental way, then the scene of the two parting ways will not be too far away.

As for Austria-Hungary with Haburg, Russia and its question in the Balkans need not be said more.

Faced with such a situation, the Russians, of course, also know that there are many friends and many paths. In the face of the goodwill of the French, Russia naturally followed secretly. As for the future, only God knows, and it is important to take care of the present.

Subsequently, the Russian Foreign Minister and the French Ambassador discussed the regulation of the payment and the interest rate. Of course, both of them knew that this issue could not be negotiated in one day, and they were more likely to agree on the general direction, and the rest would arrange for someone they trusted to take over the next things.

It was close to evening that Ambassador de Rivera came out, and the waiting carriage was still there.

"Let's go."

DeRivera, who got into the car, was in a good mood and hummed a hometown tune, and the carriage immediately began to return.

But what DeRivera didn't expect was that a pair of eyes watched all this not far away, from DeRivera's arrival to his departure.

When the carriage was far away, the eyes did not leave, and continued to observe the place.

After a while, Gorchakov, who was the foreign minister, also boarded the carriage and left.

Only then did the eyes behind the curtain retract.

After a while, a middle-aged man wearing a trench coat and a sunhat walked out, and he boarded a public carriage and sat down quietly.

On the way, he changed five carriages, and after sparing most of St. Petersburg, he finally got off in the port area.

Wandering through the harbor district, greeted by the sea breeze and the smell of fish, he swerved through the alleys, and after making sure that no one was following him, he plunged headlong into a dilapidated tavern called the Old Mariner.

There was no one in the tavern, and he went to the bar and spoke to the bartender.

"Have a horseshoe card."

"I don't have Mayila here, there is more vodka from Dofoucault."

"I'm going to ask Mayila."

“……”

After a few whispers, the bartender opened a small hidden door and let him in.

After walking through a small patio, he came to a room on the second floor.

"It's Nighthawk, is there anything important to report?"

In the cluttered room, an old man with white hair looked at the visitor and asked.

"Fox, here's what I found out today."

The man took a letter from his pocket and threw it on the table, and with the man's movements, a picture was revealed, which was the picture of Rivera stepping out of the carriage. The French ambassador did not expect that his actions would be discovered.

The old man, named Fox, put on his glasses and looked at the photo in the letter with a serious expression. The photo shows not only the French ambassador, but also Russian Foreign Minister Gorchakov getting on and off the carriage.

"I know about it, and I'll send it back to Berlin as soon as possible, but before we can do that we need to know what the two have talked about."

"It's a bit of a difficult task, and I don't even know if they'll be here next time they meet."

The man raised the difficulty.

"It's okay, I'll arrange someone to assist you, and I can also give you an extra fund."

"Then let me try, but I can't guarantee the result, and you know the difficulty of the task."

The old man smiled. "No problem, I trust Nighthawk's abilities."

The man closed the door and left.

"Ding, ding, ding."

The old man rattled the bell and called for a man. "Give this letter to the embassy immediately so that it can be sent back to Berlin as soon as possible by diplomatic letters."

"Understood."

The room fell silent again.