I started with the Shinsengumi in Bakumatsu

Chapter 248 Vienna World Expo

The Vienna World Expo will be held on May 1, and there are only three months left. Yagyu Heiyan took the lead in arranging the European trip.

On February 5th, Yagyu Heiyan arranged everything properly, and the items such as lights, bicycles and motorcycles that needed to be displayed were sent to Kizugawa Military Port to board the ship.

On the 6th, Yagyu Kien arrived in Osaka by special train with Emperor Meiji and Queen Mary, and then took a carriage to Kizugawa Military Port to board a warship.

The fleet heading to Europe this time consisted of only one battleship, the Fujisan, and the remaining one cruiser, destroyer, several torpedo boats and gunboats of about 1,000 tons, and more than a dozen transport ships.

With such force, there is no threat except the British Empire's fleet in the Indian Ocean.

For this voyage, Yagyu Heiyan would naturally solve all the hidden dangers first. He had already said hello to Parkale, who immediately sent a message to the Governor-General of India.

On February 10th, the fleet officially set sail.

At the end of March, the Japanese fleet arrived in Hamburg, Germany, and Emperor Meiji took the lead in meeting with the German Emperor Wilhelm I.

Yagyu Heiyan also met with Bismarck to discuss.

Bismarck was the first to say: "As for the naval battle between you and Britain, the strength of your warships has been recognized by many countries.

Great Britain is simply too powerful, and Japan is no match for it. Only by cultivating a rival for Great Britain in Europe can Japan have a chance to develop, just like the United States.

Vienna is located in a basin at the northern foot of the Alps.

There are two terrains in the south. The southeast is a plain impacted by the Danube River, and the southwest is a large forest. The southern area is also a gentle area, so it has become the political, cultural and exchange center of Vienna.

It is bounded by the March River Plain to the east, and therefore is the main residential area to the east.

Because the Danube River runs through Vienna, Vienna is divided into three parts: the inner city, the outer city and the suburbs.

Bismarck's idea was to unite most of the European countries to isolate France and defeat France first.

Ten days later, the group arrived in Vienna.

Without your joint construction plan, we in Germany would never have been at odds with Britain at this time. "

Because of World War I and World War II, Britain and France had their foundations depleted, and the United States eventually surpassed them.

With the help of Britain and France's own heritage, France's rise again is just around the corner.

Yagyu Heiyan exchanged a few words with Bismarck, and then the two sides said goodbye to each other and left.

"We are the most loyal allies, and this is what we should be." Bismarck smiled, "I didn't expect you to be so bold and dare to go to war with Britain.

Moreover, the current new French government knows its shame and is brave. This year it will return all the war reparations it owes to Germany and Japan, and then it will make every effort to develop the domestic economy and military.

Unfortunately, Bismarck's ideas and plans were not favored by subsequent Kaisers.

Therefore, Bismarck suggested that the Kaiser should make good friends with surrounding countries, and he was uniting Tsarist Russia and Austria-Hungary to prepare an alliance to deal with the threat from Britain and France.

Yagyu nodded and said: "Yes, Britain is our common enemy, Mr. Bismarck, thanks to your help before, otherwise, Britain would not be able to negotiate peace with us so easily."

This is Bismarck's truth. Although Germany defeated France, Germany has not yet conquered the entire Europe.

Bismarck said exactly what Yagyu Heiyan thought.

I am very glad that I cooperated with you in the first place. As long as we in Germany have such a fleet, the era of British invincibility will be over. "

In April, Emperor Meiji traveled to Vienna with Kaiser Wilhelm I.

Then build a powerful navy, and then defeat the British. In this way, Germany's hegemony is established.

The northwest, west and southwest are surrounded by the Vienna Woods, which extends into the city. Therefore, the west side is also a major residential area, and there is also a grape growing area.

To the north is the industrial center of Vienna.

In the past, Vienna was only known for its political status. Until three hundred years ago, the Ottoman Empire besieged Vienna for the first time. The Austrians relied on the city walls left over from the medieval period to resist the Turkish attack with difficulty. During the epidemic, With the outbreak of war and the early arrival of winter, the Ottoman army was forced to withdraw.

The Ottoman siege exposed the weakness of Vienna's defenses, so Vienna decided to transform it into a fortress consisting of eleven fortresses and a trench.

More than a hundred years after the first siege, the Ottoman Empire besieged Vienna for the second time. The renovated fortress defended Vienna for two months, until King Jan Sobieski of Poland sent troops to help and lifted the second Vienna siege. The siege also led to the decline of the Ottoman Empire.

After experiencing two sieges by the Ottoman Empire, Vienna began a glorious era of construction. During the reconstruction process, it continued to display the Baroque art style. Nobles built gardens and palaces within the city walls, the most famous of which was Prince Eugen's. Belvedere Palace.

With the rapid development of architecture in the city, Vienna soon became one of the most important cultural centers in Europe.

However, this kind of Vienna is not the Vienna of today.

This goes back to the Napoleonic period.

During the Napoleonic period, Vienna was occupied twice by French troops.

The first time occurred in 1805, when the French army entered Vienna without any resistance, and the citizens of Vienna even welcomed them with curiosity.

The cause of this war was that Franz II wore the Austrian crown in 1804 in response to Napoleon's proclaimed emperor and became the first emperor of Austria, starting the history of the Austrian Empire.

Napoleon not only captured Vienna in 1805, but also disbanded the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. Francis II had to take off the crown of the Holy Roman Empire and became the last emperor of the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1809, Napoleon occupied Vienna for the second time, but this time he encountered stubborn resistance. Shortly after capturing Vienna, he was defeated for the first time at the Battle of Aspern.

After the war, Vienna ushered in new prosperity after the Congress of Vienna. More and more people came to Vienna, causing Vienna to become congested.

So in 1850, Vienna was expanded again.

It was not until 1867 that the waltz "The Blue Danube" composed by the famous musician Johann Strauss pushed Vienna to the top.

Emperor Meiji and Queen Mary also saw Vienna for the first time, and they couldn't help but marvel at the beautiful scenery of Vienna.

The artistic atmosphere of Vienna was fatal to Emperor Meiji and Queen Mary.

Emperor Meiji stared at the exquisite buildings he could see along the way.

Especially outside the palace, the mansions and courtyards of noble families are even more exquisite, and the portraits carved outside are enough to attract people's attention. "Is this the city of art? It's so beautiful."

Emperor Meiji exclaimed.

Queen Mary explained: “It can be considered the capital of art, but Paris in France is the most famous.

But I have never been to Paris, and just looking at Vienna surprised me. "

Emperor Meiji suddenly became ambitious and said, "I want to make Kyoto like this too!"

Queen Mary glanced at the calm Yagyu Heiyan and reminded: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid it will cost a lot of money."

Only then did Emperor Meiji remember the most important point, money!

He looked at Yagyu Shengxiyan and asked, "Xiangfu, what do you think?"

Yagyu thought for a while and smiled: "Since His Majesty likes it, I will naturally find a way. We can try to apply for the World Expo. If our country wants to host the World Expo, Kyoto will naturally need to be greatly renovated."

"good idea!"

Emperor Meiji was very excited, the idea was great.

At that time, all respectable countries will come to Kyoto. The quality of Kyoto will represent the quality of Japan. It is related to the country. No one will rush to make trouble on this matter. This is a matter of justice. Anyone who violates justice will die.

This righteousness may seem illusory, but righteousness gives your enemies a legitimate excuse.

"During this time, I have to meet the architect here. I want to design a building myself!"

Queen Mary immediately followed suit and gave advice, and the two had a great time chatting.

Yagyu Heiyan is considering how many benefits the World Expo can bring to Japan.

Emperor Meiji and the Kaiser entered the palace together and met with Emperor Franz Joseph I of the Austrian Empire and Queen Elisabeth, known as Princess Sissi.

After Princess Sissi learned that Queen Mary was her relative, the two parties started chatting, and the three emperors walked to the other side to chat.

Yagyu Kien followed Bismarck to contact aristocratic officials in the Austrian Empire and officials from other countries.

Many emperors and kings came to the Vienna World Expo.

These include Carol I of Romania, Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, Tsar Alexander II, Queen Isabel II of Spain, Queen Olga of Greece, the King and Queen of the Netherlands, and many more.

Among them, the visit of King Nasser al-Din of Persia was a joke among the royal courts during the Expo.

It turned out that before Nasser al-Din set out, he sent three princes to the front station to find out whether the cholera outbreak in Vienna still posed a danger. Then, he and his huge entourage of one hundred and twenty arrived in Vienna with an exotic style.

In fact, Yagyu Heiyan also made the same preparations to prevent cholera, but not like Naser al-Din.

As the time approached the opening ceremony in Vienna, Yagyu Heiyan began to be busy with the Expo.

On May 1st, the Vienna World Expo officially opened.

On the opening day, the venue was crowded with people. Yagyu Heiyan and others were inside the venue. They had separate boxes and could see most of the scenes in the venue.

The central square in the complex runs east-west, and in the center of the rotunda is a beautiful decorative fountain gifted by the Ottoman Empire.

The venue is surrounded by corridors, displaying exhibits from various countries.

In order to make the classification of exhibits more reasonable, the Vienna World Expo divided the exhibits into 26 categories and increased the number of classifications to 162. Its purpose is to "adapt creation, invention, and industrial production to the development of human education, taste of life, and quality of life."

The layout of the 16 exhibition halls is designed according to the location of the country. The exhibits of each country are close to its geographical neighbors. Therefore, as long as you view the exhibits of different countries, you can learn basic world geography knowledge.

One of the new themes at this World Expo is the "History of Human Prices" display, which collects prices from various historical periods into groups, accompanied by exhibit descriptions, showing the selling prices of different products from the oldest era to the present.

Among the Austrian exhibits, the most impressive ones are an ivory chess piece depicting the image of a politician in the Franco-Prussian War and a giant cannonball weighing 8 tons and 50 feet long placed in a pool of mercury, which reminds people of the 1866 war. Austro-Prussian War.

Egypt displayed a model of the Suez Canal project that attracted worldwide attention, and the Egyptian government entrusted the task of designing the exhibition area to a group of well-known German Egyptian history research experts.

In their design, they cleverly combined the construction that started four years ago with the Egyptian scenery and customs, perfectly showing the relationship between Egypt's geography, history and social process to the audience.

Sweden provides a model school education showcase, from classroom desk design to student textbook series and school planning, allowing the audience to understand the importance of public education.

The Qing Dynasty also sent representatives to this World Expo.

At first, the Qing Dynasty believed that the World Expo was just "showing off treasures and wonders" and therefore refused to participate. However, with the persistence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire's warm invitations, the Qing government had to agree.

The Prime Minister's Yamen authorized China Customs to be responsible for the preparations for participating in the exhibition. After receiving the order from the General Customs and Taxation Department, local customs began to collect exhibits.

Coal, cloves, smilax, scales, pedicure furniture, flutes, loess, cars, various clay figurines...these seemingly incompatible items are actually exhibits collected by Tianjin Customs to participate in the Vienna World Expo.

At this World Expo, Tianjin Customs selected and presented a total of 225 exhibits. The names, classifications, etc. of these exhibits are recorded in the customs files of the year preserved by the Tianjin Municipal Archives.

Representing the Qing Dynasty was an Englishman named Bao La.

This situation naturally aroused people's discussion.

You must know that the exhibits at the World Expo are also a symbol of national strength. Many countries are trying their best to display the best of their countries and improve their international status.

However, due to the one-sided understanding of the Qing Dynasty's senior officials, the country was embarrassed on such an important occasion.

Bismarck was communicating with Yagyu Heiyan. He pointed to the booth in the direction of the Qing Dynasty and said: "The Qing Dynasty is right next to you, Japan. Look, what a stupid country. I heard that this country is very rich, just like a fat pig. Sheep, how can you hold back and not take a bite?"

Yagyu Heiyan explained: “Yes, we in Japan have been neighbors with this country for a long time. In our history, we have taken the initiative to attack twice, but both times we were defeated.

Although this country has temporarily declined, it does not mean that it will continue to decline. I do not want to offend a powerful neighbor.

Moreover, it is too wealthy there, and we have offended Britain, France, and the United States. They definitely don’t want to see us meddling in that wealthy place.

After thinking about it, that's all I can do. "

(End of this chapter)