In June 1878, the European powers gathered in Berlin, Germany, to convene the most important and far-reaching conference in the history of modern European international relations.

The Treaty of Berlin was a comprehensive revision of the Treaty of Santo Stefano that limited Russian expansion to the greatest extent. The treaty consisted of 84 articles, providing for the independence of Serbia, Montenegro and Romania from Ottoman rule; drastically reducing the size of the newly formed Bulgaria; The Ottoman Empire ceded the three regions of Ardahan, Kars, and Batumi to Russia and paid an indemnity of 300 million rubles; Austria-Hungary occupies Bosnia and Herzegovina; Ratification of the ......... of British occupation of the island of Cyprus.

"Isn't that ironic?" Yi Zhifen shook the translation of the "Berlin Treaty", with a look of sarcasm, "Britain obtained the island of Cyprus without firing a single shot, and Austria-Hungary obtained Bosnia and Herzegovina. What did Russia, which had paid a heavy price in casualties and a heavy price, and which had achieved great military success, gain?

The Bosphorus is still closed to Russian ships, and attempts to develop naval forces in the direction of the Mediterranean have once again failed. Great Bulgaria became Little Bulgaria, and attempts to expand its territory into the Balkans came to naught, except for a little expansion in areas bordering Russian territory. ”

Zhao Liewen shook his head with a sigh, "The contrast between Russia's great military success and the loss of interests at the negotiating table is too great, and in the final analysis, the strength is still too weak." ”

"That's right, ambition must be proportional to strength." Yi Zhizu said slowly: "Before starting a war, we must have a clear understanding of our own strength, fortunately, there is still 300 million rubles in war reparations, otherwise Russia will still lose this war." ”

After a pause, he continued: "I have always been in disapproval of getting involved in Ottoman Turkey, and it is precisely because of this that we can get involved in the South Sea Islands, Southeast Asia, Central Asia, South Africa, and the Persian Gulf, and for the European powers, this is the competition for overseas colonies, but Ottoman Turkey does not belong to the category of overseas colonial contention.

Once our country invades the Ottomans, it will pose a serious threat to the whole of Europe, in history the Mongolian iron cavalry once swept through Eastern Europe, European countries will not let history repeat itself, will inevitably send troops together, even as an alliance of Russia, will not hesitate to send troops. ”

"That's what my father saw." Yi Zhengxing said convincingly, Britain, France, Germany, Austria and other countries can join forces to curb Russia's expansion to Turkey, how can they not join hands to curb the Qing Dynasty's expansion to Turkey? Russia's heels were not small, but he saw the unscrupulous and capricious nature of the European powers in order to protect their own interests.

"The big shopkeeper." Li Hongzhang said tentatively: "The Berlin Conference has ended, should China's territorial deal with the Ottomans also be decided?" ”

Yi Zhizhi smiled contentedly, for more than two months, Yuan Qi has been bargaining with Ottoman telegrams, after all, Yuan Qi is not in a hurry for this matter, it is Ottoman who is anxious, the signing of the "Berlin Treaty", the Ottoman war reparations against Russia have been put on the agenda, he asked casually: "What price is the Ottoman insisting on now?" ”

"The purchase price is 10 million rubles, and the loan is 100 million, with an interest rate of six cents per year."

Yi Zhishu then asked, "How are you talking with the Russians?" ”

Yuan Qi was currently busy with relief in the nine northern provinces, and it was impossible for him to lend such a large amount of money to the Ottomans, so he had to negotiate with the Russians to postpone the payment for two years or pay in installments, and if it was urgent, it could only be paid in silver.

Li Hongzhang was in charge of negotiating with the Russians, and he hurriedly said: "The Russians agreed to pay half in silver for the time being, and the rest in gold for a period of five years with an annual interest rate of 12 percent." ”

"Not excessive." Yi Zhishu nodded and said, "That's it, in order to avoid a lot of dreams at night, sign a contract." ”

On 18 July, five days after the signing of the Treaty of Berlin, the two countries formally signed the Treaty of Istanbul to purchase all the territories of Basra Oblast and the Persian Gulf south of it at a price of 10 million rubles and a low-interest loan of 100 million rubles.

10 Downing Street, Westminster, London, United Kingdom, Prime Minister's Residence.

Over 70 years old, British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, who had just returned from Berlin, walked slowly into his spacious office, although he was full of exhaustion, but it was difficult to hide the joy of his heart, and the trip to Berlin, under the coordination of Bismarck, forced Russia to make full concessions to Britain, and spit out most of the results, while Britain did not go through a war, and obtained the island of Cyprus as collateral to defend Russia southward, which made his prestige in the country reach its peak.

The newly appointed Foreign Secretary, Robert Gacecoyne Cecil, quickly caught up with him, and as soon as he entered the office, he handed over a telegram, saying: "Your Excellency, Constantinople has called the Qing and the Ottomans to sign a treaty and conclude a territorial deal, and the Qing State has bought the Ottoman state of Basra for ten million roubles, and at the same time borrowed 100 million roubles from the Ottomans. ”

Qing still has money to lend? Disraeli frowned, the Qing Kingdom was suffering from a rare drought, and it was still possible to come up with huge sums of money to buy territory and lend money? After taking the telegram and glancing at it a few times, he paced to the back of his desk and sat down, muttering, "Now that most of the Persian Gulf has been included in the territory of the Qing Dynasty?" ”

"Yes, Your Excellency." Gascoigne hurriedly said: "In recent years, the Qing State has directly incorporated most of the Persian Gulf coast into the territory of the Qing State through the purchase of territory or military occupation, leaving only Persia to occupy the northeast area, in addition, the Muscat Sultanate in the Gulf of Oman still maintains its independence, but it is also under the protection of the Qing State. ”

Disraeli asked softly as if talking to himself: "Qing attaches so much importance to the Persian Gulf, is it coming for India?" Or is it intended for the two river basins? Or is it against Persia? ”

Why did the Qing attach importance to the Persian Gulf? Gascoigne is also confused about this, it is unlikely to target Persia, the northwest of the Qing country borders Persia and the Czech Republic, it is really aimed at Persia, and there is no way to make a detour to the Persian Gulf, as for India, the Qing State has already formed a flank attack on India from Bangladesh and Afghanistan, and it is not possible to make such a move, and it is most likely to go towards the two river basins.

After a slight groan, he said: "If the Qing State uses Basra as a stronghold and then annexes the two river valleys, it will inevitably seriously affect the interests of the empire in the Mediterranean and the Ottomans, and it will also pose a great threat to Europe, and it must be contained!" ”

Contain? How to curb it? Disraeli glanced at him, the first battle in South Africa, whether it was a land battle or a naval battle, the British Empire was defeated, the defeat was miserable, and the battle loss ratio reached an incredible level!

Especially the navy, the two-hundred-year-old maritime hegemon, the royal navy fleet that the empire is proud of, and the ironclad fleet that considers itself the most advanced and even invincible, was defeated by the Qing fleet, and it was powerless to fight back!

In this case, how to curb the expansion of the Qing state? Unite all the military powers in Europe to contain the Qing and extend its power to the Mediterranean? This is unrealistic, at least Russia will not agree, and Russia, which was forced by various countries to spit out the fruits of victory, will most likely join forces with the Qing State, not to mention that the Qing and Russia are already allies.

Seeing that he was silent, Gascoigne said tentatively: "Vigorously support the Turks and Arabs." ”

Whimsically, Disraeli sneered: "The Turks have been greatly injured by the Russian beating, and even if they vigorously support it, they can't contain the Qing State, which is stronger than Russia, and the Arabs are divided and scattered, which is even more impossible." ”

After a pause, he continued: "Let's wait and see for a while, and then we can figure out the true intentions of the Qing people." ”

After Gascoigne left, Disraeli sighed, the Qing Kingdom and Germany rose rapidly one after another, not only shaking the position of the British Empire's maritime hegemon and European hegemon, but also completely changing the world pattern, as the leader of the Conservative Party, three Chancellors of the Exchequer, twice as prime minister, he is very soberly aware that the British Empire is a big family, and the glory of the empire on which the sun never sets will be gone.

Perhaps it was time to adjust the Empire's policy towards the European continent and towards the East, although the Qing Dynasty had a late start in industry, it followed the path of concentrating funds to give priority to the development of heavy industry and military industry, and was far ahead of the world in weapons research and development and ironclad ships.

Especially in terms of weapon research and development, rifles, machine guns, artillery, and torpedoes are too leading, especially torpedoes, the Admiralty has imitated Yuanqi's research institute model in recent years, and has transferred many professional scientific research and technical personnel, but has never been able to develop torpedoes that can be used in actual combat, and now the Royal Navy warships of the empire are not afraid to go east.

He has always wondered why the Qing Dynasty has only been able to make major breakthroughs in weapon research and development for only 40 years, such as semi-automatic rifles, Makqin automatic machine guns, rapid-fire artillery that can eliminate recoil and continuous shelling, torpedoes that can stabilize the direction and have amazing speed and power, and ironclad ships with smooth linear shape and reasonable structure. Could it be that Orientals are really smarter?

In South Africa, the British Empire became a joke in almost all of Europe, and its prestige and status suffered a heavy blow, and he did not want to disgrace the empire during his reign. Without being completely sure, he didn't want to provoke Qing Guo again.

What makes him uneasy is that the Qing country is taking advantage of the opportunity of the great drought in the north to develop industry on a large scale, with the huge population and vast territory of the Qing country and the huge domestic market that is eye-catching, he really doesn't know how far the Qing country will develop in another twenty or thirty years?

The United States, Russia, and Germany are all trying to replace the British Empire as the largest foreign trading country of the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing State is in full swing to build a large railway across Europe and Asia.

He hoped that the Qing State would expand to the two river basins, so that it would be able to unite several major European powers to jointly send troops, even if Russia could not count on it, Germany, Austria, Italy, Turkey and other countries would inevitably agree, this may be the only way to contain the Qing state, but the question is whether the Qing state has expanded to the two river basins in the past two years?

For the Qing State that Zhennan King, Yuan Qi's big shopkeeper Yi Zhi, he has done a special understanding, this person is very good at forbearance, and very good at seizing opportunities, this Russian-Turkish war, the Qing State did not take the opportunity to send troops to the two river basins, it can be seen that there will be no troops in the short term, it should be intended to develop domestic industry first.

Thinking of this, he sighed again, after tolerating the development of the Qing Kingdom for twenty or thirty years, I am afraid that this sea overlord and world hegemon will have to be handed over to the Qing State! When the time comes, the empire is afraid that even India will not be able to keep it!

Instead of sitting idly by and watching the Qing continue to grow and develop, we had to think of a way to provoke a war between Germany and the Qing and weaken the two countries that posed the greatest threat to the British Empire in one fell swoop. Well, that's a brilliant idea! But where did Germany and the Qing meet?

Shanghai, Zhennan Wangfu, Changle Book House.

Yi Zhi stood proudly in front of the large map of West Asia, with the signing of the "Istanbul Treaty", Ottoman Turkey was also kicked out of the Persian Gulf, and now only the Qing Empire and the Persian Empire are left in the Persian Gulf, for Persia, he has no idea, he knows very well that it is impossible to kick Persia out of the Persian Gulf, unless it is to destroy Persia, but he really doesn't dare to have such a big appetite now.

"On the side of the couch, how can you allow others to snore." Zhao Liewen, who was familiar with his thoughts, pointed to the Gulf of Oman and said: "Although the Muscat Sultanate is on the outer side of the Persian Gulf, it is a springboard for peeking into the Persian Gulf. ”

Yi Zhishu glanced at Muscat on the map, and said in a rambling voice: "It's a matter of time before I get it, don't rush at this time." As he spoke, he glanced at Yi Zhengxing, "After the catastrophe, let Xingzhi go to the Gulf of Oman." ”

"Thank you for your father's compassion." Yi Zhengxing said excitedly, this is not only for him to make war merits, but also for him to have more contact with the navy and configure forces in the army.

"The big shopkeeper." Li Hongzhang hurried in, "London called, Glasgow Bank declared bankruptcy and collapsed, with a debt of 12 million pounds ........ ”

After reading the telegram, a smile appeared on the corner of Yi Zhi's mouth, "After five years of delay, the economic crisis in England has finally broken out in full force!" ”

Hearing this, Zhao Liewen said worriedly: "Now that the economies of European countries have not recovered, will the outbreak of the economic crisis in England cause a second wave of impact on the economies of European countries?" ”

"England is the financial center of Europe, as well as the world's industrial hegemon and economic center, and the outbreak of a serious economic crisis will inevitably have an impact on the economies of all countries in the world." Yi Zhishu said slowly: "However, the economic crisis in England has been delayed for too long, and the impact will definitely be there, but it will not be too big, and the biggest effect is to prolong the time of this world economic crisis." ”