Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 106 Smart Diplomacy (1)
Guan Xuqing’s visit to Germany was scheduled several years ago. On the 90th birthday of William I in [-], China sent a huge celebration team headed by Prince Gong Yixin. Yixin is not only the uncle of the current emperor, but also a Shangshufang’s Chief Cabinet Minister and Prime Minister’s Yamen Minister is equivalent to the Prime Minister of Europe, and the long list of people listed after Yixin’s name, including Li Hongzhang, Zhang Zhidong, Ding Richang, Liu Kunyi, Ding Baozhen, etc., do not live in the cabinet. The important position of the Ministry is the chief official of a province.This kind of courtesy was given to Queen Victoria of England, known as the "grandmother of Europe", and China had never done this before. This made Germany, whose self-esteem was extremely inflated since the Franco-Prussian War, feel very proud.In addition, the two countries had just signed the "Sino-Germany Commercial and Friendship Treaty", and the relationship was in the honeymoon period, so it was not an accident to invite Guan Xuqing to visit Germany.

It's just that Guan Xuqing has been busy with domestic trivial government affairs in the past few years, so he didn't make the trip.In the past three years, the international situation has generally been relatively calm. Except that Britain is still trapped in the swamp of the Sudan Mahdi uprising, and Germany has occupied Siam with little success, the rest is basically calm.However, despite the external calm, there were waves of waves in the Qing Dynasty.

After two foreign wars and a series of joint vertical and horizontal diplomatic activities, Guan Xuqing, who had established his authority, began to take drastic measures against various domestic maladministrations. reform.The reform of the official system, the sale of government-run enterprises, the encouragement of non-government industries and commerce, and the banning of provincial tax bureaus all affect the nerves of the whole country.Some of these have been fully implemented, and some are still being piloted in one or two provinces, but overall the changes brought to the Chinese people are huge.

In such a seemingly calm but actually turbulent torrent, naturally there are not too few problems that arise.Although the cases of official corruption and dereliction of duty have been greatly reduced after several rounds of bureaucratic purges, officials selected under the old-style imperial examination system are still lacklustre in dealing with the problems that arise during the reform.This made Guan Xuqing almost care about everything.Everything must be taken care of, the lights of the Qianqing Palace will be on almost every night until after the fourth watch, and even the Queen has seen a lot less in recent years.There are fewer than during the Sino-British War, let alone other concubines!And this trip to Germany, Guan Xuqing specially brought the queen with him, on the one hand out of respect for Germany, on the other hand he wanted to make up for her and accompany his wife in this life and future generations.

Although due to my own arrival, this time and space has undergone major changes. It used to take advantage of the contradiction between the British and French colonial forces to barely survive, and later became Thailand, which is thriving in Southeast Asia.Because both the Sino-French and Sino-British wars ended in China's victory, which disturbed the surrounding environment of Thailand, and was eventually annexed by Germany, which was rapidly looking for colonies around the world. Such a butterfly effect must be inevitable.But in the next 30 to [-] years, the mainstream of the international situation will remain unchanged.The emerging imperialist countries that rose later, led by Germany.In order to have more colonies, to obtain sufficient markets and sources of raw materials.It is bound to challenge the old imperialist countries with a large number of colonies, and the old imperialist countries represented by Britain and France are bound to not compromise in order to safeguard their own interests and status. The conflicts between the two sides are not like the past conflicts between Britain and France, France and Germany National conflicts such as conflicts between Britain and Russia, there are no permanent friends or enemies between countries. Under the common interests, soldiers from both sides can still sit in the same trenches, but the old and new imperialist camps The contradiction between the two countries is sharp and irreconcilable, and the solution seems to have no other way but war, and this is also a historical necessity.

Guan Xuqing knew all of this clearly.However, in such a situation where the two camps are facing each other, what kind of position will China be in and what should be done to maximize its benefits? These are what Guan Xuqing has been thinking about for a long time.And if you want to take advantage of that worldwide wave to seek the greatest benefit for China, you must join one of the camps.If you join the camp of the Allied Powers, as in history, it seems that it is easy to win, and you can make a lot of war money without paying too much; but now China seems to be closer to the Allied Powers, and if in the future war Among them, the joining of China on the side of the allies will inevitably greatly involve the power of Russia and Britain in the Far East. After all, Russia cannot give up the Far East and Siberia, and Britain cannot do without India. In this case, as long as Italy does not turn against the water and controls the United States The time of participating in the war, the ending of the First World War may not be impossible to rewrite. Whenever Guan Xuqing thinks of this, his heart beats. What is more fascinating than creating it by himself.

But Guan Xuqing quickly calmed down. This is not a game for one person, but a matter related to the future and destiny of this country and this nation. God gave him a chance to create history.Even if it is painstaking efforts and exhaustion of one's own life, one must make China strong, and no longer suffer the shame of the sick man of East Asia.Therefore, all decisions must be made cautiously, not to mention that China is far from reaching the point where it can control the world situation with the power of one country, and it even has problems with self-protection.The United Kingdom has been making small moves over the years on the issue of India. For a while, it used the excuse of surveying the boundary line with India and privately dispatched armed forces to attack the anti-British chieftain forces.After a while, in the name of developing roads.Dispatch exploration teams to survey and map the topography, biology, and mineral resources of China. On the other hand, the United Kingdom has spared no effort to help develop the navy, not only helping to train naval officers, but also helping to build the three most advanced ships, Yoshino, Naniwa, and Akitsusu. The cruiser's purpose is self-evident, that is to suppress China.Realize their so-called regional balance.China still has a long way to go if it wants to break through such a blockade.

What's more, it's too early to think about World War I.The Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War of [-]-[-] was imminent before Guan Xuqing, but judging from the current situation, both the strength of the navy and the quality of the army were far superior to Qing Dynasty.Whether Xiao still dares to make trouble with the Qing Dynasty on the North Korean issue like history is still non-committal, and he still does not know whether he will fight or not.

Therefore, at this time, China cannot directly stand in front of the United Kingdom. For hundreds of years, anyone who dared to directly confront John Bull fell at their feet, including the First French Empire like Napoleon, Romano Russia across Europe and Asia under the leadership of the Husband Dynasty.And this time I am about to visit the First German Empire, which is now in full swing.The reason why the Burmese war was won was that people with bare feet were not afraid of wearing shoes. With China's national strength at that time, if the British went all out, they might not be able to repeat the outcome of the previous two Opium Wars.But the price to be paid must be very high, because China is an extremely feudal and centralized dictatorship, and China's social economy is still dominated by its own self-sufficient small-scale peasant economy, so as long as the Chinese emperor insists on fighting, it is a challenge for China to collapse. Difficult things.At that time, the domestic economy was in chaos, the colonies were under attack, and there was no external force to borrow.The British still judged the situation and gave up Burma, and took back Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkey.

But it is impossible for China to stay in the society of small peasant economy forever, China needs to develop.It is inevitable to increase the circulation of commodities, change people's living standards, and increase the proportion of foreign trade. Once society develops to that point, the British will have more means to hold China's throat.At that time, if China and Britain go to war again, the British only need to blow up the factories along the coast of China and block the seaports, and the people who have become accustomed to the means of life such as flour, matches, toothpaste, and soap will rebel.

(End of this chapter)