There were no complicated shapes or decorations. Just the crystal clear glass itself made people feel the care of the wine bottle maker. The label on the outside of the bottle was an oil painting of Aphrodite. Unlike the one-armed Venus that was overly artistic, the Aphrodite in the picture was a statue. Her appearance was more realistic and human-like. She was wearing a bikini, and her face was mature and beautiful. Her fluffy long hair was braided into a soft braid that hung from the back of her neck to her chest. The gold-stamped labels read 'Aphrodite', 'Cyprus' and 'Gem Wine'. Cyprus was recognized as Aphrodite's hometown, so the name was very appropriate.
Inside the bottle was a clear and transparent dark green wine. Anise, fennel, wormwood, and basil came from Syria, Sudan, and Iran. The ingredients for the base wine, Erguotou, came from the Black Sea and the Red Sea. The herbs were soaked in the base wine and the extracts were mixed before being filtered out. The finished product was put into the wine cellar.
After uncorking the bottle, Wang Mingshan poured himself a glass. He took a whiff of the rich aroma and took a sip. The taste of the wine was sweet at first and then bitter. The strong herbal fragrance lingered on the tip of the tongue and nose, making it irresistible. The winery that produced the bottle and the cellar in which it was stored was in Cyprus, and the cellar contained tens of thousands of bottles of absinthe. The five-year-old wine had already received top-notch reviews in Europe, and in a few years, the ten-year-old absinthe would become the type that would be shipped on a large scale. Wang Mingshan was very happy. Apart from the Bank of Europe, the Aphrodite brand of absinthe produced in Cyprus was also his other contribution.
Grace, who was sitting across from Wang Mingshan, also took a sip of the dark green liquor. It was obvious that she was still not used to this high alcohol content. She pressed her hand to her chest and took a deep breath. Then, she asked Wang Mingshan, "Dear, why did you retire?"
"You don't want me to retire?" Wang Mingshan asked.
"No, no!" Grace smiled. "After you retire, you'll have more time to be with me. How could I not want to? I just don't understand why you chose to retire at this time. "
"Many people want me to retire, and I think it's time for me to retire. More importantly, the war between Italy and Esserbia forced me to retire. "Wang Mingshan listed out the reasons that he believed to be the reason.
"What does the war between Italy and Ethiopia have to do with you?" Grace did not understand.
"I have some history with Ethiopia, so I don't want people to think that I'm stealing credit. Contributions are no longer useful to me, but they are very useful to many people, "Wang Mingshan replied slowly.
As smart as Grace was, she couldn't understand it at all. After a while, she came to a sudden realization. The reason why Wang Mingshan did not directly say it was because Ethiopia could defeat Italy, and they did not need the special assistance of the Min dynasty. As Wang Mingshan's woman, Grace naturally acknowledged and obeyed Wang Mingshan. However, Grace was, after all, a knowledgeable woman who had obtained an Italian university degree through hard work. Therefore, Wang Mingshan's words strongly stimulated the common sense and patriotism of the Italian Marquess Grace. "Really?" Grace asked in a heavy tone.
Wang Mingshan did not say anything else. He just picked up his glass and took another sip. Grace, the Italian Marquess, looked at Wang Mingshan's expression of 'as long as China is good, even if Italy is flooded'. She got up angrily and wanted to go out for a stroll to vent her anger. When she reached the door, she turned back and went upstairs to fetch her daughter. After saying 'we're eating outside,' she left.
Looking at the closed door, Wang Mingshan could finally sigh freely. Some things could be said, and some things could not. The biggest reason for Wang Mingshan's retirement was that the Osman Empire's operation to suppress the rebellion in Crete had failed. England, France, Russia, and Italy had all sent troops to Crete. Crete was about to become independent immediately. Or, according to European rules, it would first be autonomous within the Osman Empire, and then achieve independence through a referendum with the support of the major powers.
When dealing with Russia, the two great powers, England and the Min dynasty, served the Osman Empire together. When it came to other interests, England and Russia joined forces. This matter did not involve the interests of the Min dynasty, so the Min dynasty naturally ignored it. The desperate Osman Empire made the decision of 'even if I can't protect it, I won't hand it over to you bastards'. They conducted secret diplomacy with the new chairman of the Min dynasty, Ziyang, and asked the Min dynasty to buy Crete.
Wang Mingshan could understand how happy Chairman Ziyang was at this time. Expanding the territory during his term was definitely a great achievement for the Min dynasty's chairman. His emotions could not be seen from Ziyang's actions. The Min dynasty first refused the exorbitant price of the Osman Empire and made it clear that they were not willing to get involved in this mess. The Osman Empire made a very practical request, asking the Min dynasty to give the Osman Empire some old warships to build a navy that could suppress Russia in the Black Sea.
There was not much news about this recently, and Wang Mingshan did not think that this matter was over. The central government issued an order to Cyprus to cooperate with the domestic investigation team. Wang Mingshan was an old brother, and his contributions could not be compared to Ziyang's. Therefore, Wang Mingshan chose to retire. No matter how many contributions he received, it was meaningless to him. Opening up a path for the younger generation would allow him to gain even more goodwill. Wang Mingshan would eventually die, and accumulating goodwill was good for his descendants.
When this was done, he could probably go to Crete for a few days. Because he had no plans to return to China, Wang Mingshan could not help but think about the future travel to Crete. The new chairman in charge of this matter, Ziyang, did not know what the founding brother, Wang Mingshan, was thinking. He was desperately suppressing his inner anxiety and trying to solve the problem step by step. The biggest reason for Yao Bang's downfall was frivolity. No one in the central government dared to use the feudal saying of "not like a human ruler" to evaluate Yao Bang, but this sentence was privately applauded by the comrades in the central government.
Ziyang did not dare to be negligent. After he came to power, he paid great attention to unity with his comrades. The purchase of Crete was first discussed in the standing committee. Everyone generally thought that not buying Crete would not make Europe more favorable to the Min dynasty, and buying Crete would probably make Europe more afraid of the Min dynasty. However, Europe's respect for the Min dynasty was based on their fear of the Min dynasty's military force. The central government of the Min dynasty, which did not take Europe seriously, decided to buy Crete, which could be used as a first-class military port.
The standing committee reached a consensus, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs gave professional advice on how to carry out diplomatic work. Since the Osman Empire wanted to drag the Min dynasty further into the Mediterranean Sea by selling the island, and divert the pressure from European countries on the Osman Empire. There was no need for the Min dynasty to pay a high price for their comeback. Two old 9,000 ton warships were enough.
The Restoration Party insisted on democracy within the party. Ziyang believed that Yao Bang's failure was because he wanted too much to learn from the Military Governor Of Vaize and completely ignored the democracy within the party that the Military Governor Of Vaize had always insisted on. After going through the democratic process within the party, Ziyang found that this system was really good, especially for this kind of work where it was easy to reach a consensus. All parties took responsibility, and all parties were working together. If this matter was achieved, glory and merit would naturally be rewarded in the future.
On October 4, 1905, all the combatants and non-combatants of the Osman Empire in Crete left Crete. On October 10, the Osman Empire and the Min dynasty announced to the public that the Osman Empire government had completed the documents and procedures to sell Crete to the Min dynasty. European countries immediately went into an uproar. The Min dynasty's lease of Cyprus for a hundred years was considered to have officially entered the Mediterranean Sea. After all, Cyprus was located in the northeast corner of the Mediterranean Sea, more than 40 kilometers away from the Osman Empire. European countries felt that it was still part of the Osman Empire. Crete was located in the south of Greece, and the Mediterranean Sea led to the center. Next to it was the busy shipping route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean.
In the first two days, the newspapers of various countries made European people generally think that China was approaching Greece. The French newspapers were the first to react. The newspapers of various countries immediately published news that tried to reverse the situation. Although the content was not the same, they all wrote a sentence from the French Deputy Chief of Staff. 'The Chinese's lease of Cyprus is like putting a big knife under the crotch of the Osman Empire; the Chinese's purchase of Crete is like putting a big knife under the crotch of Europe.' Such straightforward propaganda made the French readers feel like they had just woken up from a dream. As the news spread, a large number of Europeans began to worry about the invasion of China. Many newspapers began to scold the Osman Empire for inviting a wolf into its territory and calling it a traitor of Europe.
The title of 'traitor of Europe' even made the Osman Empire feel a little flattered. For hundreds of years, Europe had never regarded the Osman Empire as a part of Europe. In the eyes of Europeans, Asia Minor was the 'East' of Europe, the source of the turmoil that threatened Europe. Now that China in the further East had put a knife under the crotch of Europe, in comparison, the 'not Eastern enough' Osman Empire had become one of Europe's own people.
No matter how the outside world was making a fuss, Wang Mingshan who was in Cyprus had entered the retirement channel. The organization had stopped his work and sent someone to conduct a comprehensive audit on him. This seemingly ruthless approach was already a system. Wang Mingshan who voted for this regulation was not worried at all. He finally had the time to care about his son. The scale of his son's fleet included the existing ones, the ones that were being handed over and inspected, and the ones that were being built on the berth. There were a total of eleven 20,000-ton iron ore carriers. Their fleet not only transported iron ore to Italy but also to the Osman Empire.
The Gulf of Saros in the northwest of the Aegean Sea was not far from the capital of the Osman Empire, Constantinople. There was a steel plant near the Merich River that flowed into the Gulf of Saros. The coal mines, limestone, and other raw materials from the Balkan Thrace region converged here with the iron ore. The produced steel was transported north through the railway and transported to all parts of the Osman Empire through the main railway line of the Osman Empire.
The steel plant in this area had already begun to produce steel rails for the construction of the southern route of the 3B railway. It must be said that Chuunibyou was not a fool. The southern route favored by Wilhelm II, through the Balkan Thrace region that was rich in minerals, could also boost the development of the Osman Empire.
In November, the Bulgarian railway that passed through the Balkan Mountains, which was under the responsibility of the Min dynasty, was finally completed. On the 1st of December, a grand opening ceremony was held in Baghdad. A train loaded with oil barrels set off from Baghdad towards Berlin.
It must be said that this train actually could not go directly to Berlin. The Bosphorus Strait Bridge had not been built, and the railway was not smooth. What was more practical was that since June 1905, the Hungarian Slovak People's Republic in the eastern oil-producing region had begun to regularly send special oil trains to Germany. Compared to the high-profile opening ceremony of the 3B railway, the oil transport from Hungary to Berlin was really not noticed.
The situation had changed so abruptly that France at once demanded that the British, Russian, and Italian troops in Crete should not retreat, and that the governments of the four countries should resolutely oppose the dirty territorial bargain that China had made with the Ottoman Empire. Faced with the unyielding attitude of the French, the British withdrew their troops, leaving only a few officers behind. Russia initially wanted to withdraw, but in the end, they heeded the request of the French and stayed on Crete with the French and Italian troops.
When Ziyang received the news, he immediately called for a meeting of the Standing Committee. The comrades of the Military Commission said that they would 'definitely let the Italians understand that they are really, really naive'. The comrades of the other departments had no objections. After the Military Governor Vaize made a speech that 'peace will exist through struggle, peace will perish through compromise', the Standing Committee democratically passed the decision.
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