Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 107 Smart Diplomacy (2)
Therefore, when China is not yet fully strong enough not to fear the invasion of foreign enemies, it is necessary to find a country to replace itself to attract the attention of the British.Guan Xuqing chose Russia.In the late 70s, Russia under the leadership of Tsar Alexander II had recovered from the tragic failure in Crimea that led to the suicide of a czar and the sinking of the entire Black Sea Fleet. In the Tenth Russo-Turkish War in 1877, Russia used the national liberation war of the Balkan Slavs to declare war on Turkey under the banner of "liberation".With the cooperation of the Romanian army and the Bulgarian army, the Russian army successively conquered Pleven, Sofia, Adrianople and other important towns stationed by the Turkish army. If the British intervened in time, Russia might have occupied Constantinople and straits.However, this war also allowed Russia to acquire southern Bessarabia in Europe, Batumi, Kars, Ada and other places in Asia, and placed Romania and Bulgaria, two countries mainly composed of Yugoslavs and believing in the Orthodox Church, in under their own "protection".Such high-profile plundering by the Russians has aroused the dissatisfaction of the British. Anti-Russian sentiments in Turkey, Afghanistan and other British colonies are quite high. Guan Xuqing saw the right moment, deceived the Russian minister, and pretended to form an alliance.Use Russia to contain Britain and allow yourself to easily capture Burma.And let the British teach the wolf a lesson for themselves.

In the past three years, the Russians have been squeezed out by Britain and France everywhere, and their economy and military have plummeted.But everything has two sides, when everything goes wrong.The Russians simply developed their navy. The world's top three navies began to revive. From the end of the tenth Russo-Turkish war to the present, in just ten years, Russia has built the Ekaterina II, the Georgian Olki.Pobedonosec, Chesma, Sinop, Alexander II, Nicholas I, Twelve Apostles, Gangut, a total of eight large battleships, plus the built in 1872 With the Peter the Great and the Navarin, which will enter service next year, the number of Russian battleships has suddenly reached double digits. You must know that these are all big guys with more than [-] tons.

Armed with a powerful navy, the Russians began to pursue more persistently their windows to the great seas.On the coast of the Baltic Sea, they annexed the Kingdom of Lithuania and built a large shipyard there; on the coast of the Arctic Ocean, they snatched Finland from Sweden; on the coast of the Pacific Ocean, they leased Jeju Island; During the war they almost opened the way to the Mediterranean.Among the four oceans, they have ports on all three oceans, and the only thing left is the Indian Ocean, and it seems that they are not far from this goal.In Afghanistan and Iran, Russia's peeping is particularly strong, and it has always maintained a considerable force. Perhaps it is still brooding about being defeated by the British last time. When China made no progress, they put all their strength on the gamble in the Middle East.

And doing so has greatly damaged the traditional power turf of the United Kingdom.Especially threatening India, the jewel in the Queen's crown.Such an opponent is an excellent target to attract the attention of the British. When Britain and Russia launch an all-out confrontation, China can just hide behind the Russians and practice internal strength with peace of mind.In that way, after the British have cleaned up the Russians, when they think of China, they will find that China is no longer something he can rub casually.

Adhering to such a foreign policy, Guan Xuqing has maintained a strong attitude towards Britain in recent years, while making appropriate compromises towards Russia.Even though Russia still frequently sent troops to plunder the Northeast, Guan Xuqing just asked the Prime Minister's Office to protest the Russian ambassador with a few calm words and it passed.Sure enough, the Russians attracted most of John Bull's energy. They were busy wooing Turkey and China to draw the power of the Russians and deal with land power countries. Traditionally, they would not go shirtless.As for China, it doesn't matter.That's why China has had a relatively stable development environment in recent years.

However, with the expiration of the re-guarantee treaty between Germany, Austria, and Russia this year, the situation has undergone new changes.Under Bismarck's initiative, the border security treaty signed by the emperors of Germany, Austria, and Russia in person made the three countries reach an understanding on issues related to Poland and the Balkans on the western front, and Russia was able to concentrate on expanding to the east. The Triple Alliance group dominates Europe, completely isolating Germany's old enemy France.This was originally a happy situation for all, but after the assassination of Tsar Alexander II who signed the treaty with one hand.The situation has changed slightly. Before Alexander II, every tsar followed a foreign policy close to Germany. The successive tsars of the Romanov dynasty married nine German princesses in succession, which itself was the foundation of the alliance of three emperors. one.However, Alexander III, who succeeded Alexander II, married a Danish wife.

Under the influence of his wife from Denmark (Denmark was defeated in the Pudan War and was forced to cede the Schleswig Holstein area), he became disgusted with Bismarck and William I's Germany.In addition, the two Mediterranean conferences secretly held by Germany, Austria, and Italy fundamentally violated Russia's interests in the division of power in the Balkans, Asia Minor, and North Africa, causing cracks in the originally stable alliance.finally.Russia refused to sign a re-guarantee treaty.But France, which was isolated and desperate, won over.If history really develops in this way, Russia will most likely change its current expansion direction.Putting the main energy into the competition for the Balkans, this will inevitably make Britain breathe a sigh of relief, and because of China's relationship, Britain and France have no conflicts in the Indochina Peninsula, and the two countries have come together ahead of schedule. Carve up China in two directions, just as they secretly planned in history, the Yangtze River valley belongs to Britain, and the north of the Great Wall belongs to Russia.

Such a thing is naturally very detrimental to China, and one of the main purposes of Guan Xuqing's visit to Germany is to think of some solutions on this matter.It is not suitable for others to go, but he himself understands the key points and speaks with enough weight.

At this time, Guan Xuqing was wearing a dragon robe, standing alone on the bridge of the "Zhenyuan", letting the sea breeze make the corners of his clothes rattle.Although it was already the largest warship in the Beiyang Fleet, it was still bumping violently in front of the manic sea. Not to mention the empress and some officials who accompanied Guan Xuqing on the visit, even the newly graduated naval officers from the Beiyang Naval Academy also vomited violently.But Guan Xuqing acted as if nothing had happened, and everyone from Deng Shichang on the Zhenyuan Ship admired him a lot. That's what makes a generation of sages superior.

Guan Xuqing took the train from the capital to Tanggu to board the ship.Now the Manchurian Railway (from Beijing to Qiqihar), the South Manchurian Railway (from Fengtian to Lushun), the Beijing-Puzhou Railway, the Beijing-Han Railway, the Longhai Railway, and the Shanghai-Hangzhou Railway have all been completed. Under the design of the German engineer Bao Ning, China’s The first bridge built on the Yangtze River is also the first road-rail dual-purpose bridge in China, the Jiangning Yangtze River Bridge, plus some regional railways that have not yet been incorporated into the large railway network, such as: Hengyue Railway (Guangzhou to Hengyang) , Southern Guangdong Railway (from Guangzhou to Chaozhou), Western Sichuan Railway (from Chengdu to Mianzhu), etc., the actual total railway mileage of the Qing Dynasty has surpassed China and India, ranking first in Asia.

In addition to these, the planned Guangdong-Han Railway from Guangzhou to Hengzhou in Hunan will also be opened to traffic within two or three years. At that time, not only will the first Yangtze River Bridge designed by the Chinese be built between Wuchang and Hankou, China It will also have the first railway artery running from north to south.The Hunan-Myanmar Railway (from Changsha to Yangon) running through the four southwestern provinces and the Southern Xinjiang Railway (from Changsha to Saigon) passing through Guangxi and entering Annan have also broken ground.Needless to say, the significance of the construction of these two railways is that both Vietnam and Myanmar are newly recovered lands.Because historically, the two areas also belonged to the frontier areas of disobedience to the king, and in addition, they have hardly been controlled by the central government for nearly 200 years, so the local separatist forces here are still very large.

Therefore, Guan Xuqing took a lot of stabilization and assimilation measures. In addition to establishing provinces in Vietnam and Vietnam, and setting up ministers in Myanmar in Myanmar, he enforced the popularization of Chinese and Chinese characters in the two places, and migrated a large number of people to change the population structure of the two places. .This naturally touched the inherent interests of local forces such as the old Annan royal family and chieftains of various ethnic groups in Myanmar.Conflicts between the two places have occurred from time to time in recent years. Vietnam also broke out a rebellion led by the former Annan Prince Ruan Shien. Fortunately, Liu Yongfu dealt with it in time and borrowed the strength of the navy stationed in Da Nang to wipe out the bandit leader in one fell swoop, so that no catastrophe occurred.Looking at it this way, there is no doubt that the social turmoil in the two places is a powerful army.It is undoubtedly the best way to subdue such rebellious emotions in a short period of time.However, China has a vast territory and many ethnic groups. If it needs heavy troops to garrison everywhere, even 1000 million troops will not be enough. Now that the country is vigorously developing its economy and catching up with European and American powers, it is undoubtedly unrealistic to raise so many troops.Therefore, a railway line that could mobilize a large number of troops at any time became the solution.

(End of this chapter)