"This is the stupidest decision I've ever seen in my life."

Privately, Litrich complained to Signoll: "Our fleet is only one-fifth of the opponent's strength, and the army's strength is almost negligible, but it is sent to carry out a mission that is simply a death-sending mission. Even now, IMHO, our strength is far from enough."

"What if we unite with the Russians?" Signol said.

"Oh, you don't know how much Chinese people are defending against the Russians now. Indeed, if we join forces with the Russians, our strength at sea will be greater than that of the Chinese, but what about the British? Once the British intervene, then our strength is still insufficient and we will never be satisfied! Well, even if the British are not considered, how do we occupy the port? Our army will face a hundred times the enemy!"

Signoll shrugged and said disdainfully: "It's just some ignorant and backward peasant army. The German Empire's army is the world's number one, and our soldiers can definitely defeat them one hundred."

"Oh, my God!" Litrich was a little crazy, "God General, have you studied the history of this country? Even the history of these decades is fine. Let me tell you that in 1840, the British used only a few hundred soldiers to force the Qing government to sign an agreement and occupy Hong Kong. More than ten years later, Britain and France used 20,000 soldiers to force their emperor to sign a treaty. More than ten years later, the Qing army forced the Russians to modify the treaty they had signed. Four years ago, the Japanese used hundreds of thousands of troops, but ended in a disastrous defeat. This empire is becoming stronger day by day! My general!"

Signol frowned: "What if we and Russia plus France?"

"Will you believe that the French and Germany are allied?" Litrich opened his eyes wide, as if he was looking at some rare animal.

After a while, Signoll said, "Okay, I will write a letter to the country after I discuss with Mr. Clinder."

Litrich coldly took out a letter from his arms and handed it over: "This is the handwritten letter from the Minister. In the letter, he stated that if the Empire insists on provoking this war without a winner, he will resign from his position as ambassador to China."

February has entered. The Qing government has been investigating German enterprises for two months. In the past two months, a large number of problems such as using inferior products as good ones, tax evasion, forced buying and selling, and exploiting workers have been discovered. Regarding these problems, the Qing government has published them in newspapers and stated that it will impose certain penalties and punishments on these enterprises.

Since the Qing government revealed the issue of Shandong churches, it has been under pressure and influenced by public opinion during this period. Church organizations, enterprises and chambers of commerce in other countries have also restrained some of their illegal behaviors to varying degrees. The social atmosphere in the Qing Dynasty has improved significantly, the prestige of the court and the emperor has been further improved, and national cohesion and self-confidence have been greatly strengthened.

Just when China and Germany were having a hard time due to the Shandong lesson plan, careful people suddenly discovered that another maritime power was quietly added in the Far East.

The US Far East Fleet is here!

In early December 1897, G, the executive chairman of the Monitoring Committee.

Commodore Dewey is Assistant Secretary of the Admiralty.

Roosevelt went to Japan. More than a month later, Dewey boarded the flagship "Olympia" of the Asian squadron in Nagasaki and officially served as the fleet commander.

The original chaotic situation in the Far East, which was originally in conflict between China and Germany, became even more confusing due to the emergence of Americans.

"What do Americans want to do?" This is a question that all the great powers want to know the answer, but they don't know it.

Zai Tian knew. "It seems that Americans want to do it."

In fact, if Zai Tian had just relied on his vague memories, he had no idea whether the United States would launch a war with Spain. At first, he was simply interested in the name Roosevelt. However, as the investigation continued to deepen, more and more information. Combined with the Cuban issue and the rapid development of the US Navy, Zai Tian keenly judged that the Americans were likely to attack Spain.

"But Americans may find that their teeth are not very good this time." Liu Shaoqing smiled.

On the day Dewey arrived in Japan, the Spanish government and the Qing government, who felt that the atmosphere was wrong, urgently signed a warship purchase agreement, and purchased a protective cruiser, a destroyer and two old third-class cruisers from the Qing Dynasty for 750,000 pounds. The four ships will be strengthened to the nearby Philippines to improve the status quo of the Philippine fleet and support the new Governor Boravisha's suppression of the Philippines' national uprising in full swing.

In early February, Dewey led his fleet to Hong Kong. In Hong Kong, he purchased a coal ship and a supply ship for the fleet. He ordered the warship to be docked, overhauled the mechanical parts, cleaned the underwater parts of the hull, and painted the white ship's side to gray.

In the following time, Comrade General Dewey personally checked all the details and asked the ship staff to practice every day, and all the machines on the ship were ready for combat, and could operate continuously as soon as they received the order. At the same time, in order to clarify the fortifications of the Spanish fleet and the Philippine island, he sent another spy to Manila, and let his adjutant disguised himself as a tourist to spy on the intelligence from tourists arriving in Hong Kong.

On the other hand, in order to prevent the British from taking a neutral position after the outbreak of the war, he set up a temporary anchorage near Dapeng Bay in the Chinese waters to ensure that his fleet had a backup base.

Late at night on the 15th, a loud bang came from the Port of Havana thousands of miles away. The USS Maine, a warship sent by the United States to Cuba to protect overseas Chinese, exploded and sank under unknown reasons, killing more than 260 officers and soldiers on the ship.

After the "Maine" sinks, major American media immediately terminated their coverage of China's issues and instead reported on this serious incident. In the reports of American media, all clues point to another European power, Spain.

The conflict between the United States and Spain quickly heated up, and then the world's eyes were attracted by a small country in Central America called Cuba, except for China and Germany.

The Qing government's investigation of German enterprises and punitive tariffs caused great losses to German enterprises. At the same time, due to the shortage of special steel from China, some shipyards had to suspend the construction of warships, which temporarily lost a large number of workers' economic resources. In Bavaria, due to the shortage of pesticides and fertilizers, grain production reduction has almost become inevitable, which greatly touched the interests of the Junker nobles.

At the end of the month, as a letter from the Minister August von Clinder to German Emperor William II was made public, the Germans' fullness for the emperor was completely ignited.

In the letter, Clinder said: Through my work in China over the years, I learned that this country has a great favor to the German Empire from top to bottom. Their emperor once said in public that without the help of the Germans, there would be no present of this country. And now, because of the evil behavior of a small group of criminals and unscrupulous priests, we are gradually losing the friendship of this Eastern Empire. And the role played by our government in this incident will not only not alleviate this problem.

, on the contrary, it will intensify. Interestingly, some people are planning this contradiction on purpose. They think that perhaps the military power of the empire can make the country surrender. But what I want to say is that even if the country is really likely to surrender to force, the German Empire will pay an extremely heavy price. I think at least half of the navy and two-thirds of the active army will fall on the way to conquer this ancient empire. By then, I want to know what the empire uses to deal with the revenge of the French?

The actions of priests such as An Zhitai in Shandong, China were repeatedly circulated, and even under the secret operation of some media people bribed by the Qing government, the behavior of these priests was artificially exaggerated. Citizens who lost their jobs or business due to China and Germany conflicts began to march and demonstrate in front of government departments and churches. They protested that the government involved the entire Germany in the war because of the barbaric behavior of a few people, and at the same time asked the church to come forward to punish these criminals.

Under social pressure, Archbishop Sheffield announced that he would expel seventeen priests with bad influence, including An Zhitai, from the church, and deprive them of all their titles.

On the other hand, the Bavarian Regent, Grand Duke Baden, King Saxony and other nobles, and several major ministers represented by Prime Minister Hornlock, jointly persuaded William II to end this "funny farce" and "irrational behavior". Even his most trusted naval minister, Alfred von Tirpitz, who was keen on building and developing the German Navy, believed that it would be "irrational" to engage in a war against China at this time and might suffer unbearable losses.

Tirpitz believes that at this time, instead of risking breaking with the UK and joining forces with the Russians to threaten China, it is better to sit down and talk with the Chinese, and seeking benefits in Japan are more cost-effective.

Seeing the attempt to put pressure on the Qing court through force to seize Jiaozhou Bay or obtain other benefits completely failed. William II had to clarify to the world that he was lost due to the bewitching of An Zhitai.

After William II began to give in, Clinder accepted Prime Minister Hornlock's entrustment and began to discuss the aftermath of the German and Chinese conflict with the Chinese government.
Chapter completed!