At the critical moment, Prince Carl must support these Chinese people, not only because of the personal friendship between him and Xiao Letian and the kindness of reminding him of throat diseases, but also because of the profound governance strategy in the future.
Carl will ascend to the throne sooner or later. Although the battle for the throne in Europe is not as cruel as in the East, it is not easy to be a good king.
In this era where the power of kings is increasingly weakened, any European king needs to find ways to improve his own strength and make allies.
China is a huge market that Prussia likes very much, but how to open this market is very demanding, because the size of this ancient civilization is so huge that even Britain and France cannot conquer it absolutely. What do scholars say? ? Semi-colony, yes, yes, it is a semi-colony.
The Chinese government still has the ability to execute, their army is still fighting, and their people are still loyal to the backward court, while Europeans can only get some commercial interests and special political treatment in China.
Want to rule China like you rule Africa or India? That's a joke. Anyway, the European politicians at the end of the 19th century were not that ambitious. They only wanted to make money for everyone in China!
Prussia did not have a powerful navy, so their victorious army was of no use. It was simply impossible to colonize China. Not only is it impossible for China, in fact, looking at it, there is no valuable area left in the entire world for German colonization.
So when Karl ascended to the throne and Prussia unified Germany, how should such a huge empire develop overseas interests? This is an important strategic issue that Karl must take precautions against.
In Karl's conception, Xiao Letian is not only his friend, but also an ally of German forces in Asia. The huge East Asia has huge commercial interests. Once it can get rid of the semi-colonial model created by Britain and France, it can develop a new model of making money. , then the entire Prussian economy would be revitalized.
Although this strategy is not yet very mature, it is already an issue that Carl is seriously considering. At this critical moment, he must support these Chinese students, which is also supporting Xiao Letian.
Karl, who had made up his mind, smiled and said, "Dear Prime Minister, I know that the Qatar incident has caused a lot of trouble to Prussia, but we should also see the shining point in it. It is because of this battle that we can Get all the actual combat data of this new ironclad ship without exposing the No. 2 ship!"
"Think about it, with the full force of the British and French interceptions, our No. 2 ship will not be able to conduct live-fire exercises at all, let alone have the opportunity for actual combat. Aren't you always worried about whether this warship is a failed investment? ?”
"Now the facts have spoken. The design idea provided by Xiao Letian is completely correct. This is a bold and very effective new weapon. Every mark you spend is absolutely valuable."
Karl's tall hat made Bismarck look much better. "Well, of course I know that this battleship does have excellent performance, but the conflict it caused this time is really too great, and it has caused too much trouble for Prussia."
"Who has evidence?" Karl asked rhetorically, "Three hours ago, our intelligence ship in the Atlantic returned to the Cape Verde Islands, a Portuguese territory, and came with the latest encrypted intelligence. You should have seen it."
"These Chinese people did a very good job. A night attack was as perfect as a textbook. At the same time, it also exposed the fact that France is powerful outside the country. During the whole battle, the Zhiyuan strictly implemented the light control. No one had seen this ship. Overall view of the battleship"
"In addition, the soldiers who boarded the 6th also painted their faces with oil paint, took away all the corpses, and rescued the prisoners.
It can be said that France has absolutely no evidence to accuse us, so what else is there to fear? Let’s continue with diplomatic negotiations.”
"Prussia is no longer the weak kingdom it was during the time of Napoleon I. If you want to accuse us of any crime you want to inflict, don't even think about it!"
Karl still poured himself a glass of wine. Seeing that Bismarck had no intention of stopping him, he added a few pieces of ice and took a big sip. "In general, although this conflict shocked Europe, it was clouded and could not be revealed. The truth, so France’s anger can only be anger, and it’s very simple to get over it.”
"Oh! You seem to have paid attention?" Bismarck asked, staring into Karl's eyes.
"Actually, it's very simple. Continue to split the rift between the Emperor and the cabinet. The restoration of Napoleon III was originally very reluctant. Those French people who don't know how to obey have always complained. Since both of them have grievances, they should be able to take advantage of it!"
Hahaha Karl smiled like a little fox. "What is Charles-Louis Bonaparte afraid of? Aren't he afraid of those republicans trying to restore the republic? Then let's add some spice to him."
"What are the cabinet and capital elites afraid of? Isn't it just that Napoleon III will become more and more centralized and eventually form an absolute imperial state?"
"We can spread rumors from both ends and use rumors to make the whole of Paris even more confused. On the one hand, we spread rumors among the people, saying that the emperor will raise national debt of billions of gold francs and increase special taxes because the emperor's team will be fully upgraded."
"At the same time, let some opposition politicians and even exiled hostile elements attack the French army in newspapers, and let the people think that the failure in Dakar was purely the result of the army's incompetence. They proposed impeachment and asked the emperor to first carry out major reforms in the army. Then we can discuss the national debt and tax increases.”
"Hahaha, with the French bureaucrats' prevarication skills, this dispute will definitely be protracted. The emperor will think that the cabinet is trying to put pressure on him through military reforms, and the bureaucracy will think that the emperor is trying to centralize power and amass money!"
Bismarck smiled, "Yes, at this time, we should show more weakness, and even beg the UK to be the peacemaker and ask for peaceful negotiations to resolve the crisis. We have to become very, very aggrieved. Hahaha, we must let the entire French people have a sense of security!”
The two clinked glasses at the same time and said in unison, "Yes! Cut off their feelings, but we must also give them a false sense of security. We must not let the forces of France from top to bottom gather together, and we must not let them use their country's strength to prepare for war!"
"Let them spend two more Christmases in a false sense of security!"
