"Whether you can continue to be the minister in ten years is not up to me, but up to you. If you feel that working at the grassroots level is a disgrace, no matter how others persuade you. If you think you are just going to work at the grassroots level and accumulate experience. It doesn't matter what others say. All experience doesn't fall from the sky, but is accumulated through work. What kind of work experience do you want to accumulate and what kind of achievements do you want to achieve in the end? It's all up to you. "Vézé was very serious. This seriousness made Zuo Zhidan feel even more embarrassed.
He had been engaged in diplomatic work for years and theoretically had a lot of diplomatic experience. However, there weren't many diplomatic issues in this era. There were only a few big countries and there was no such thing as equality between big and small countries. No matter how much diplomatic experience was accumulated, there was no breakthrough. The domestic policy of iron and blood meant that peace was only a transitional state between two wars. In such a situation, diplomacy was, in a sense, a dispensable sounding board.
Compared to the diplomatic department, the administrative department was a promising industry. However, Zuo Zhidan felt that it was a waste of his talent to start from the grassroots. But Vézé's attitude was very serious, so Zuo Zhidan simply refused Vézé's proposal. After the refusal, Zuo Zhidan felt regret. Vézé never made things difficult for his comrades. Since he made this arrangement, there must be a reason for it. If he gave up this opportunity, would Vézé give Zuo Zhidan another chance in the future?
Zuo Zhidan looked at the sky for a while, then gritted his teeth and left Vézé's office door. He decided to do a good job in the negotiations with the British. Only by making a great contribution could he stabilize his position.
Back at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zuo Zhidan gathered the staff and asked everyone to start sorting out the existing information and straighten out the intelligence of the European countries. The information seemed to be piled up, but there was nothing special after it was really broken down. These were the information of the more famous guys in Europe.
Zuo Zhidan looked at everyone's busy work and was a little disappointed. The complicated succession system in Europe was difficult for China to understand. The European kings were all relatives. Without the narration of insiders, the intricate bloodline relationship was difficult to understand. As for the current European industrial and commercial giants, they were inextricably linked to the royal family, the government, and the nobles. Outsiders had no idea where to start.
Since he couldn't figure out the situation in Europe like the back of his hand, he could only deal with the problem in a simple way. Vézé's Iron and Blood was the simplest option. Zuo Zhidan found that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was not as capable as Vézé, who usually did not care about diplomacy.
"Did I make the wrong choice?" Zuo Zhidan had to consider this question.
Personal reflection is a personal matter. History never stops because of individuals. The British assessment of the situation in the Far East was also under way in London.
"China is mass-producing ironclad warships. This is a challenge to the Far East. We should not believe China's words!" The senator spoke passionately in the parliament, and both the content of the discussion and the direction he pointed out were quite correct.
"If China has no plans to go to war, if China has no plans to resist Britain's dominance in the Western Pacific, then why is China building so many warships?" The senator described a very realistic comparison of power.
According to the intelligence gathered by the British, China did not have any plans to attack the British, but there was a plan to face the British intervention fleet when they went south to take over the Dutch East Indies. The purpose of China's mass production of new ironclad warships was to drive the British out of the South China Sea, which was a fact that the British could not accept.
After the American Civil War, the United States began to sell a large number of war-produced and purchased weapons. Cannons and rifles were sold to Japan, which was in the midst of a civil war, and naval ships were sold to the Spanish. This was the attitude of peace.
China did not have such a movement. Not only did they not sell armaments, but they were also constantly expanding their armaments for ocean warfare. As the world's top naval power, the British knew very well that producing armaments required a lot of money, and maintaining armaments on a daily basis required a lot of investment. The British Royal Navy relied on wars to make money, which was why they maintained such a large fleet. The purpose of China building such a large navy was self-evident.
"If China is willing to limit their naval armaments, then we can believe that the Chinese do indeed have the intention of peace!" The British senator put forward his own request.
This statement was approved by many in the parliament. The characteristic of the world's hegemon was to have the power to overwhelm all countries at any time. To maintain their dominance in the Far East, the British Navy had to be in an overwhelming position.
The British parliament was a meritocratic system. There were opinions that demanded to suppress China, and there were opinions that disagreed with it.
"China will not give up on building ironclad warships." Another councilor who spoke only used a single sentence to silence the other councilors in the council for a while.
"If we want to use military power to subdue China, then we need to send all the main warships of the British Empire to China, sinking all the Chinese ships along the way. We will bombard China's port cities and completely destroy their naval shipyards. But according to our intelligence, in addition to the shipyards on the coast, China also has a shipyard thousands of miles away from the coast in Wuhu. Such a shipyard can also produce ironclad warships. Are our fleets going to enter China's Yangtze River thousands of miles away to destroy China's shipyards? " This senator had more information about China, so even though his words implied that he did not trust the Royal Navy, even if the other senators did not like it, they could not refute him directly.
"They want us to send our fleets around half the world to wage war on China, and the purpose of the war is to prevent China's possible attack on Britain in the future. If this is our reason, I think we should first destroy these European countries before attacking China. After all, they are a much greater threat to us than China. At least if our fleets are damaged, we can quickly return to the shipyards for repair. "This senator's words made the other senators who had the same opinion laugh.
The senator smiled and bowed slightly to his supporters, then he put away his smile and continued, "We won the war against China 30 years ago, but that kind of victory is unlikely to be repeated. And once this war starts, how long do we have to hold on? Five years or ten years? Or even longer? Can Britain support investing a huge amount of financial expenditure into that bottomless pit every year? In case, I mean in case. In case we lose the war, what kind of situation will the British Empire face? "
This was the end of the senator's speech, and a considerable number of senators agreed with him. Of course, they did not know the situation in history. After the end of Two Ravens, the British finally made a lot of money in China through the tobacco trade. After expanding the market in China and obtaining a large number of metal coins, Britain's economic problems were alleviated to a considerable extent.
Now the rise of the Liberation Army promoted the development of Britain's heavy industry. After the implementation of a stable trade settlement system, the British train industry developed rapidly, and orders from China increased the export of Britain's heavy industrial products. If there was a full-scale war with China, and a long-term war at that, the trade between China and Britain would inevitably be interrupted.
China's tea could be substituted by India and Sri Lanka, but silk imports would have to rely heavily on the China market. No matter how good long-staple cotton was, it could not replace raw silk. An unwinnable war must be avoided for Britain.
Both the hawks and doves had their own reasons, and some senators who were not so hawkish got the chance to speak. "Do you think that China's technology can surpass our Britain's?"
This was actually a very good reason. As a technological pioneer in Europe, Britain had always been in a very leading position in the industry. The British really did not care too much about China. Many senators quite agreed with this. Since China's technology could not catch up to Britain's, there was no reason to be afraid of China.
The next to speak was a senator who was recognized as a dove. He stood on the podium. "Gentlemen, I just heard a saying that China's technology could not catch up to Britain's. I had dinner with a chairman of a steel company. At the dinner table, we talked about the latest open hearth steelmaking technology. I also happened to read some information about China's steel companies, and I discovered one thing. Around 1860, China had already begun to use the open hearth steelmaking method. You may not know about the open hearth steelmaking method, and I will not give a professional explanation in this area. I can only explain one thing, and that is that this technology was only developed in France in 1864. It was only in 1867 that the steel mills in England began to use this technology. "
This comparison was so clear that the British senators were dumbfounded. The senator continued, "China's warships have long been using propeller technology, and we only began to completely eliminate paddle wheel warships not long ago. Gentlemen, I do not support war, but I can understand the thinking of the senators who support war. It is not that China's technology can't catch up to China's. They are not behind us in many aspects of technology. In this situation, I would like to ask you to make a rational decision. Do you feel threatened and take strong action, or do you face the fact and avoid a meaningless war? "
These words were like a heavy bomb, and some of the doves began to waver. Similarly, some of the hawks began to waver.
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