As soon as he entered the door, Foreign Minister Bakona spoke with a strange expression. "Your Majesty, I want to report something to you."

"What's the matter, my Foreign Secretary."

Seeing the foreign secretary with a constipated look on his face, Carlo was very curious.

"Your Majesty is like this......"

In Bacona's account, he finally knew something. Today the Japanese ambassador Keiichi Tanaka approached Bacona, and after a useless courtesy, he expressed Japan's desire to buy two Venetian Improved class ships from Italy.

At present, Italy's Venice Improved class is very conspicuous in the world warship market, and in addition to Argentina's purchase of four, the navies of many countries are also interested in it.

Among them, the Kingdom of Spain is negotiating with Italy to buy an Venetian Improvement, and the only problem at present is that the Spanish Navy is shy in its pockets, hoping that Italy will lower the price. In addition, Chile, which has been bullied by Argentina with the same outfit, also has the idea of buying. However, their problem was that the British had a lot of influence in the Chilean navy, and there was a lot of resistance to buying ships from Italy.

However, unlike the regular purchase of ships, the Japanese ambassador hopes to be able to obtain two warships of this class at the price purchased by Argentina, and also hopes that Italy can provide a loan of 40% for the purchase of ships, and Japan is willing to give an annual interest of 3.5%, and Japan will repay the principal and interest in five years.

The news brought by Bacona made Carlo have to put down what he was doing and set his sights on the Far East.

"What is the current situation in Japan?"

In response to Carlo's inquiry, His Excellency the Foreign Secretary, it was obvious that he had done his homework before coming, and he saw Bacona speak immediately.

"According to our diplomatic understanding, the current situation in Japan is not good. Due to Japan's apparent ambitions for the Korean Peninsula, the country is rearmament for war, and at present, in addition to the construction of the soon-to-be-completed Sankei ship in France, Japan is also actively seeking to purchase armored cruisers from other countries. As far as I know, at present, in addition to the purchase of two Venetian Improved Class ships from Japan, Japan is also making the above requests to Britain and France, and the conditions are similar to those of China. ”

After hearing the Foreign Secretary's story, Carlo reacted. "Are you saying that the Japanese are testing the attitudes of other countries in many ways?"

In response to Carlo's inquiry, Minister Bacona replied immediately. "It's very likely."

"These cunning Japanese monkeys."

In fact, Carlo wronged the Japanese, and Japan had a high sincerity in the purchase of the two Venetian Improved Class. Due to the influence of Carlo's huge butterfly, the current strength of the cruiser formation of the Beiyang Naval Division has increased greatly.

One more thing to say here is that last year, because of the flag removal incident, Luang Weili left with all the British advisers, which hurt the Beiyang Navy Division a lot. Although Li Zhongtang later appointed the Italian adviser Major General Antonio as the chief adviser in order to prevent the training of the sailors from coming to a halt due to the lack of advisers, and also to let the British know that it was powerful. (Promoted from colonel to rear admiral for reasons such as promoting exchanges between the navies of the two countries)

However, due to the possibility of being stimulated by Luang Weili, Major General Antonio only obtained the position of chief inspector of the Beiyang Naval Division, but did not get the rank of commander of Luang Weili at that time, which also led to the lack of prestige of Major General Antonio in the Beiyang Naval Division, and it was not enough for the Beiyang Naval Division, which began to relax, to get back on track. For this reason, Antonio complained to his friends in China that Li Zhongtang had insufficient knowledge of naval construction in addition to wanting to hold the Beiyang Navy in his hands.

Returning to Japan's purchase of ships, if Japan continues to purchase ships such as Myoko, Sholang, and Yoshino in accordance with history, there will be only one result, and the combined fleet of the Japanese Navy will be hoisted and beaten by the Beiyang Naval Division.

The two 7,000-ton Venice class ships are a problem that it cannot solve. Although the speed of this high-speed cruiser was even one or two knots faster than that of the Zhiyuan (formerly Venice) and Jingyuan (formerly Brescia), the firepower protection was only the life of being hanged.

And if its high-speed cruiser formation cannot entangle the two ships, then the other Japanese warships will be surrounded by the four major warships.

So now the Japanese Navy has reached a consensus that it needs to buy warships capable of suppressing two Venice-class cruisers. If this condition is required, there are not many options available to the Japanese.

At present, the only warships in the whole world that can suppress or compete with the Venice-class patrol are Britain, France and Italy. Among them, the French installation patrol did not satisfy the Japanese, because the installation and patrol ideas of its construction were wrong. The only thing that can be praised is speed, and the firepower and protection are somewhat different from the Venetian class, and its price is much higher than that of the Venetian improved class, and the only advantage is that it carries six torpedo tubes. However, with the current range of torpedoes, let the patrol launch torpedoes close to the body, I don't know what the French think.

As for the British installation patrol, there are currently two models, of which the 10,000-ton installation patrol, after the Japanese asked once, there was no follow-up. It's not that this patrol is not good, but it's very good, both in terms of fire protection and speed, which suppresses the two Venice classes. But its price is too expensive for the Japanese to afford. As for the other 7,000-ton Blake-class cruiser, it can only compete with the Venetian class, and it cannot be suppressed, nor does it meet the needs of Japan. Therefore, the Japanese have very limited options, and the Venice Improvement Class is their best choice.

However, the Japanese government currently has limited financial resources every year, and in addition to the navy, they also need to equip the army, so if they want to get two Venice Improvements, they need to borrow.

That's why the Japanese ambassador Keiichi Tanaka wanted to seek a loan from Italy. If Italy agrees, then the benefits to Japan will not be too much. This is not just a military aspect, but even shows the importance that Italy attaches to the Far East diplomatically.

Don't think that the Japanese are worrying about the sky, here is one statistic that says it all.

At present, in terms of import and export trade of the Qing Dynasty, according to the customs data held by Hurd, the largest trading country of the Qing Dynasty is Italy, accounting for 23.7% of the import and export share, followed by the United Kingdom with 22.9% of the share.

Although the profit margin of trade with the Qing was far from being comparable to that of other powers due to the reason of conquering the market, this was the most important market for Italian industry, and there was no one. As for exports, Italian traders are also the first choice of many Qing merchants by virtue of their image of reporting groups and fair and reasonable bids.

One more thing to say here is that at present, the foreign powers of various countries have learned from Italy's practice in their trade with the Qing Dynasty, and sent equipment maintenance personnel to each major industrial city, and their practice is exactly the same as that of Italy, which is that many manufacturers hire a maintainer to be responsible for the equipment of these manufacturers in the region, which can be regarded as a change brought by Italy. Manufacturers that have not made changes have long been abandoned by Qing buyers.

Although manufacturers in other countries have made changes, Italy has still made its share bigger and stronger by virtue of its first-mover advantage.

The most obvious sign is the declining share of German industrial exports to Italy. Although there was only a contraction of three or four points, it also showed that Italian factories were gradually regaining the market from Germany by taking advantage of the profits from the Qing trade. The process may continue for a long time, but the momentum has reversed.

This also shows the importance of the Qing State to Italy at the moment, and any attempt to change the Qing State may provoke a fierce reaction from Italy.

It is impossible for the Japanese government, which is made up of outstanding political figures, not to see this situation.

Besides, Japan is not France, so how can it bear the consequences of being intervened.

As for what the Japanese thought, Carlo was more or less able to guess partially. Although the Japanese order for the two Venetian Improved Class looked tempting, in the end, Carlo had to choose to give up, considering the relationship with the Qing State and the trade situation.

"Tell the Japanese ambassador that our country can sell warships to him, but he must pay for it in full."

Carlo's words obviously mean rejection. If Japan had been able to come up with the full amount, it would have been a long time since there were so many things.

"Okay, Your Majesty, I'll reply to the Japanese ambassador."

Although Bacona regretted the loss of the Italian order for two warships, the severity was clearly distinguished. At present, Italy cannot afford to lose the Qingguo market, and the Japanese order can only say sorry.

"Wait......"

Just as Bacona was about to leave, Carlo suddenly stopped him again.

"Your Majesty still has something?"

"In this case, you can send a message to our ambassadors in the Qing country, informing them that Japan has ambitions for the Korean Peninsula and does not rule out the ambition of waging war against the Qing country for this purpose."

Although Carlo felt that most of his words were useless, it would be good if that Li Zhongtang could pay a little attention.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The Italian telegram reminding him appeared more than ten days later in the Yamen of the Governor of Zhili in Tianjin. However, for Italy's warning, that Li Zhongtang didn't have time to read it at all. Because his war with Emperor Weng spread everywhere, the Beiyang Naval Division, as an important part of the Huai Army, still did not escape its poisonous hands. On the grounds that the navy was already large and the country's support was difficult, he asked the government to stop purchasing foreign ships on the grounds that the navy was already large and the country was in a difficult position.

This is not good news for Li Zhongtang's Huai army.