"The shadow behind the fire of Constanza!"
"The relationship between the Chinese and the fire of Constanza!"
"Could it be that the Chinese set fire to Constanza?"
…
After reading the headlines of a Romanian newspaper, the Chinese Ambassador to Romania placed the newspaper on the coffee table in front of the Romanian Foreign Minister. Seven or eight newspapers were placed in front of the Romanian Foreign Minister. The Chinese ambassador was no longer angry. He just asked calmly, "Can we understand it this way? This is the official position of Romania, or at least the official statement …"
The Romanian foreign minister was also very uncomfortable with the content of the newspaper. It had been more than ten days since the fire, and the investigation about the fire had a rough direction. Several burnt corpses were found in the fire, according to the testimonies collected by the police. These unlucky people who were burned to death were working in the pasture warehouse. This time, they put in a lot of effort to move the pasture, which was their salary. With money in hand, they drank to their heart's content in the tavern. When they went out, they stumbled with lanterns. It was very likely that when they returned to the warehouse, they accidentally ignited the hay in the warehouse.
But in this era, this could only be a possibility brought up by the police in the investigation. With such a huge loss in Constanza, no one dared to be so sure that a few drunkards caused the fire.
The Romanian foreign minister could only answer the Chinese ambassador's clear question, "This is just what the newspaper said. Our government has never made such an explanation."
After saying this, the Romanian foreign minister felt a little timid. Instead, he began to blame the Chinese ambassador. "If your ship didn't immediately leave the port in the face of the fire, if your ship's crew put in the fire at this time, I believe in our opinion, it wouldn't be so bad."
This kind of accusation really made people speechless. The Chinese ambassador couldn't immediately find the words to respond. Damn it, there was a fire in Romania. Why should Chinese crew put in the fire? In the dark and windy night, of course, Chinese ships would choose to protect themselves. Romania's argument might have been made when the relationship between China and Romania was very close. Now, the two countries had established diplomatic relations with each other for only four years. There was no friendship between them at all.
The Chinese ambassador finally broke free from his anger and said, "Since you accused China of not participating in the fire fighting, it means that your country doesn't think that this is China's problem."
The Minister could not answer this sharp question. After recovering from the shock brought about by the fire of Constanza, the Romanian Foreign Minister had a more objective view of this matter. He clearly felt that this matter was very complicated.
Mobilizing the Romanian Navy was an order that could only be given by a big shot. At that time, everyone was only thinking about putting out the fire. Who would suddenly think of sending the navy to chase after the ship leaving the port? Moreover, the Chinese ships were expected to leave the port the next day. If the Chinese ships really wanted to escape, they could just slip away after escaping the fire that night. Why wait for the next morning in the sea outside the harbor?
As for the overwhelming statements in the newspapers, such consistent statements … Some of them were definitely following the trend, but the person who stirred up the limelight was definitely not that simple. The reason was simple. Who would pay attention to a foreign merchant ship escaping from a burning port? If this was regarded as a suspect, then what about the ship that escaped from the port? Even if someone deliberately set the fire, there were no fools in a struggle at the national level. If it was really done by the Chinese, they would definitely choose a time to avoid suspicion.
Of course, the Romanian Foreign Minister could understand this, but because he understood, he could only use a seemingly absurd statement to deal with it. Getting involved in this matter without knowing who was behind it would definitely not end well.
The meeting did not come to a conclusion. Both sides said their own opinions, and the meeting ended. The Chinese Ambassador was involved in such a big matter, and he couldn't just accept it. It was hard to say whether the arson was arranged by someone. After all, Romania had suffered such a great loss. Unless there was a deep hatred with China, or at least they were forced to the point of desperation, no one could guarantee that this matter would not be known by outsiders. Once the deliberate arson was exposed, it would be a major diplomatic crisis.
However, there were definitely countries that took advantage of this matter, and it was a big country that had been deliberately looking for opportunities to deal with China for a long time. Only a big country could have such a quick response. This meant that there were some people with strong opinions in the factions within Romania. However, the Chinese Ambassador could not figure out what kind of strong proposition it would be no matter how hard he racked his brains.
On May 19th, Russia newspapers published a piece of news. The Oro Alliance, which existed in 1883, stipulated that if Russia attacked Romania, Oro should help Romania. After that, Germany also participated in this treaty. This later created a contradiction with the renewal of the Three Emperors Alliance.
Russia had always thought that it had a good relationship with Germany. In Russia, the upper class and middle class generally believed that Germany was at least a reliable partner to some extent. They did not expect this reliable partner to think of Russia's expansion in Central Europe and the Balkans in this way.
What made the Russians particularly unhappy was Romania's position. Romania was able to be completely independent not because of their own ability, but because of the tenth Russo-Turkish War. Russia paid the price of more than 200,000 people, and the Bulgarian militia suffered nearly 100,000 casualties. Because of the failure to attack Priwen Fortress, the final goal of the war was not achieved. The only country that benefited from this was Romania. This country stepped on the mountains of Russia and Bulgaria's corpses and passed the difficulty of complete independence. Just a few years after Romania's independence, they returned to Russia by defecting to the Austrians and drawing up a secret treaty against Russia.
Russia had been competing with Austria for Central Europe, so the Austrian attitude was not unusual. Russia's anger was directed at the Germans. On May 20th, the Russian ambassador to Germany asked to see Bismarck and asked Bismarck to explain this.
Bismarck looked at the emotional ambassador of Russia and said casually, "Your Excellency, do you think Germany has enough troops to assist Romania?"
This answer was so direct to the core, and the tone was so calm. The Russian ambassador was a little confused. Because he really believed these words.
The ambassador did not ask more. In this era, if every secret treaty was to be fulfilled, then almost every European country was likely to go to war with all other countries in Europe "under certain conditions." And in turn, they had to participate in the war alliance of all the major European countries. This was the current situation in Europe. There were too many conflicts of interest and too many kinds of cooperation. In this complicated relationship, everyone hoped to find a real core standard to determine who was a friend and who was an enemy. However, the sad thing was that the core standard that everyone knew was that there was no core standard. Different interests at different times, different conflicts in different regions, so all kinds of treaties must have very clear time limits. In other words, one second's friend would be the next second's enemy.
Russia's newspapers also published many opinions within Russia. They questioned "is Germany a real reliable ally?" Under such considerations, many intellectuals in Russia proposed the idea of an alliance between Russia and France. France has been the biggest pillar of Russia's financial community. The French contributed greatly to the bonds and investment in Russia. Compared to the enthusiasm and efforts of the French, what Bismarck did was to prohibit German banks from pledging Russia's valuable bonds.
When this news reached China, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately made their own judgment. Li Xin's report to Vézé focused on "Europe's alliance".
Getting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to properly solve the Romanian problem was beyond their ability for the time being. But the Ministry of Foreign Affairs could find similar cases based on China's long history. This was not a problem for them.
During China's Warring States Period, there was an alliance, and there was even a special term, "School of Vertical and Horizontal". In the Warring States Period, Qin was in the west and Qi was in the east. Once these two countries made an alliance, they could attack the countries between them. And once Yan, Han, Wei, Zhao, and Chu made an alliance, they could concentrate their forces to attack Qin and Qi. Whether it was Young Master Wei, Prince Xinling, or Prince Xinling who broke the siege of Handan and attacked Hangu Pass. Or the fact that the Yan Kingdom had almost completely occupied the Qi Kingdom was a classic example of an agreement.
Applying this to Europe, once France and Russia formed an alliance, it was an alliance. The two countries, one in the south and one in the north, could exert great pressure on Central Europe in the middle. And no matter what Germany's attitude towards Russia was, they were obviously in an alliance. Once Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Central Europe united, they could have a great impact on the situation in Europe.
Not to mention, once Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Romania formed an alliance to stop Russia from moving south. Russia had no way to attack the Osman Empire from Europe. The reason Russia could do this was that Romania used to be a vassal of the Osman Empire, so Romania opened up its territory and allowed Russia to move south through Romania.
If the situation in Europe was viewed from this perspective, many things would be completely different. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Romania helped the Osman Empire greatly in the Russo-Turkish war. There was no need to worry that Russia would attack the Osman Empire through Romania. The Osman Empire only needed to deploy its main forces in the Asian part of the border with Russia.
Now the Osman Empire's navy was stronger than Russia's Black Sea Fleet, at least on paper. If the Osman Empire only needed to defend the Caucasus region, the power of the Osman Empire would be enough to protect itself.
This analysis of the general situation was reliable. When facing Russia, Austria-Hungary and the Osman Empire, who were also fighting for Central Europe and the Balkans, had very similar interests.
The Russians, however, were greatly provoked this time, and some unofficial information began to leak out. One of the leaked information was like this: It was said that in the Three Emperors Alliance, Austria reserved the right to annex the two provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina at any time. Germany and Russia both acknowledged this.
The complex internal struggle in Europe gradually began to reveal itself in this dispute. Especially in Central Europe and the Balkans, the complexity of the struggle was far greater than previously estimated.
"It seems that the British really want to maintain stability in Central Europe and the Balkans," Vézé said after seeing the document from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Regardless of the original intention of the British, there was no doubt that the Osman Empire's rule over Central Europe and the Balkans was a safety valve in this gunpowder keg. Everyone could fiercely criticize the Osman Empire's various evil deeds, but the Osman Empire had made a nominal owner of the Balkans through these evil deeds, which was considered a great contribution to the peace of Europe. If the Osman Empire's rule in Central Europe and the Balkans collapsed, in order to fight for these areas, all the major countries in Europe would fight for these areas.
"Your Majesty, which party do we look for to have real influence on Romania?" Li Xin raised a question.
"What do you think?" Vézé asked Li Xin.
"On the surface, it seems like it will be more effective if we look for the Austrians," Li Xin said.
It was obvious. Since the relationship between Austria and Romania had reached the point of a military alliance, China's matter was nothing in the eyes of Austria. A letter was more than enough to solve this problem.
"But it might be better if we look for the Russians, right?" Li Xin suggested a more long-term approach. Using Russia was actually an unconventional approach. At least Russia could put a lot of pressure on the countries that had a lot of conflicts with China. More importantly, Russia didn't seem to be against it.
But after Li Xin finished speaking, he added his own opinion, "Of course, I still suggest contacting the Austro-Hungarian Empire for now. They can help us solve the problem immediately. No matter what, let's get the people back first. "
"In the long run, I don't recommend supporting Russia," Vézé said. This was the experience he had learned from history. In history, Russia was an unreliable country no matter how he looked at it. There was no need to consider commercial credibility. For hundreds of years, Russia was probably the only country that had some commercial credibility when the Iron Man was still around. That was also thanks to the Great Depression, Russia mined a lot of gold from the Asian part of Russia, and Russia desperately squeezed the farmers to export food.
In terms of strategy, during World War I, Russia was ravaged by Germany on the Eastern Front with a much smaller force. That was a special characteristic of the era when Russia lacked industrial strength. During World War II, when industrial power was very strong, Russia first wanted to work with Britain and France to contain fascist Germany. Seeing that Britain and France were trying to divert the trouble, Iron Man immediately turned around and cooperated with Little Mustache to divide up Poland and stood by while Germany dealt with France.
However, the Iron Man also formulated a thunderstorm plan, hoping to stab Little Mustache in the back when Britain and Britain were exhausted.
This was work that politicians had to do, but Vézé didn't like Russia's attitude. After World War II and before the end of the Cold War, there was a wonderful saying, "All those who came into contact with the Soviet Union because they fell in love with the Soviet Union ended up on the hostile side of the Soviet Union." This was enough to explain Russia's behavior.
When China and the United States were in a very fierce confrontation, as long as the two sides solved the strategic problem, even in a situation of great strategic opposition, they could still maintain a state of mutual cooperation as much as possible without shedding all pretense of cordiality. This was not necessarily determined by China's diplomatic ability, but by China's strategic considerations.
Therefore, Vézé said, "Cooperating with Russia doesn't seem reliable no matter how I look at it."
"We don't want to cooperate with Russia, we want to use Russia more," Li Xin said.
Hearing this, Vézé laughed. "Who is more stupid than who in this world? Director Li, don't even mention the so-called use. If we want to use Russia, the most likely scenario is that we will be used by Russia. In this world, what really works is not a conspiracy, but an overt conspiracy. "
"What do you mean by an overt conspiracy?" Li Xin didn't quite understand.
"A conspiracy is to dig a hole for people to jump into." Vézé explained, "Our Liberation Army doesn't like to do this. It's better to have the time and strength to dig a hole and kill our way in. This is an overt conspiracy, a way to decide based on strength and need. It can fight against an overt conspiracy, but there is no way to eliminate it. Because these are all very materialistic things. "
Li Xin could be considered a smart person, so he had some understanding of this. "Commander-in-chief, do you mean to cooperate with Austria-Hungary?"
"The purpose of cooperating with Austria-Hungary is to get the people back. We might as well tell Austria-Hungary directly. Then, we will see what they will offer in exchange. Personally, I think I'm just guessing. Our trade operations in the Mediterranean Sea and the Black Sea are hated by many. We made money, but they can't make money from us. Even if they don't say anything, when it's time to kick us when we're down, they will be very happy. "Vézé couldn't help but sneer when he said this. Originally, he was also affected by the evil fire, but time was the best medicine. After a period of time, Vézé's mood also recovered. He was calmer when considering problems, and even had a hint of evil humor.
"But this involves our commercial interests. If we withdraw from the business operations in the Black Sea region, I'm afraid the situation will get out of hand." Li Xin was very concerned about this. China was now trying to expand into the international market and earn a large surplus. After converting it into pounds, they would exchange it for gold from British banks.
In any case, the British held a position of free trade and adopted the pound as the gold standard. China gave so much gold to the British, it was impossible to say that it didn't feel bad. At this time, China was making a lot of money in Europe, so everyone was very willing to use the British's insistence to get gold back.
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