The sun never sets in America

Chapter 245 European Diplomacy: Prussia

Berlin……

A city with a long history, it was first composed of two villages, Berlin and Korn, in the 13th century. It is said that another meaning of Berlin is a puppy bear, so there is a black bear on the city's coat of arms.

A history of Berlin is almost a history of Prussia and even Germany.

In 1415, the city officially became the capital of the Kingdom of Brandenburg. In 1701, Frederick I moved the capital from Königsberg to Berlin. In this way, Berlin is still the capital of Prussia to this day, even in later generations. in this way.

The current ruler of Prussia is Frederick William IV, a man of great ambition and talent but with great faith. When he was young, he participated in the resistance against Napoleon.

This person loves art, especially garden art. He has his own opinions on garden art and even European architecture. He can be regarded as a monarch of an artistic school.

But in the eyes of many constitutionalists, Frederick William was a proper conservative who resisted constitutional reform. Even two years after he came to power, he only allowed the emergence of a joint committee of the Estates-General and had no real Rights are simply a rubber stamp that can be manipulated however you want.

After the riots in France in February this year, riots also broke out in Berlin in March. Compared with Louis Philippe, who resisted the pressure of those opponents.

Frederick William IV compromised quickly, agreed to various conditions of the constitutionalists one after another, and formed a so-called National Assembly. It seemed that he was very aware of current affairs in this era, but behind the scenes, Frederick Lieutenant William IV was not as easy to talk to as he thought.

He has been planning an activity to subvert the constitutionalists, but because the situation has just stabilized, he dare not go to war, but this does not mean that he is really a pitiful person who can be bullied.

Let me ask, a person who dared to join the army at a young age to resist Napoleon, who was at the height of his power, was really a so-called coward and a so-called benevolent king.

The so-called constitutional government and the so-called reform are just excuses for him to delay the war.

Among them, no one sees this more clearly than Liu Peng on the other side of the ocean. Even in his opinion, if Prussia was not as powerful now as it was later, this forbearing William IV might have dared to attack France. .

.........

"Hello, Your Majesty the Prime Minister!!"

"Hello, Your Excellency Prime Minister!!"

After Yan Jun came to Prussia, he received a warmer welcome than in France and Austria. The current Prime Minister of Prussia, Camphausen, personally greeted him at the Berlin train station.

And when Yan Jun got on the carriage and traveled through the entire city of Berlin, he saw life. Although he experienced the chaos in March, it was just something deliberately created by someone with good intentions and had nothing to do with Prussia itself.

Therefore, the consequences for Berlin were not as great as those in Paris. Judging from the leisurely appearance of the streets, Yan Jun estimated that it must be related to the character of the Prussians. After all, it is said that the character of the Prussians is better than those in romantic or absurd France. People must be strong.

Apart from anything else, these guys are willing to burn anything when they make trouble. It is said that at the craziest time, some people lurked to the Palace of Versailles to burn down this palace that symbolizes France.

In Yan Jun's opinion, this kind of mindless behavior is no different from that of a fool.

Even if you rebel, you can't rebel like this. Alas, this means you have no experience in rebellion and you don't study! !

This was Yan Jun's reaction after learning about the riots in France.

When Yan Jun's motorcade arrived at the Berlin City Palace.

(The palace was the royal palace of Prussia and Germany in two eras, and was later destroyed)

Standing in front of the Berlin City Palace, Yan Jun took a casual look and walked in. After all, he was basically immune to this kind of palace architecture now, and he was even a little tired of aesthetics.

In the palace, he was greeted by King Frederick William IV of the Kingdom of Prussia.

When Frederick saw Yan Jun speak, he asked in English: "How is the king of your country?" (Knowing that Yan Jun only knew English)

Yan Jun just regarded this sentence as ordinary greetings, and then replied:

"His Majesty the King of Han is very kind..."

And Frederick's last sentence confused Yan Jun again: "King Liu, has he received my letter??"

At this time, a big question mark appeared on Yan Jun's head.

Seeing Yan Jun's lack of answer, Frederick said to himself:

"I have been writing to the king of your country since April this year, but I have not received a reply until now. Alas..."

Frederick's expression was full of regret. In his opinion, it was definitely a pity not to communicate with Liu Peng.

After Yan Jun heard this, he was even more confused. Reply, good guy, I am so busy with national affairs, how can I reply to you? Besides, through what channel did you send it?

If it's a formal diplomatic channel, fine, but if it's some wild way, haha! !

Camp Hao, who was next to him, seemed to have discovered something. He said a few words in Frederick's ear, and the king seemed to feel a lot more embarrassed.

Finally, he changed the topic of the previous letter and asked Yan Jun directly:

"Mr. Prime Minister, what do you think of Berlin??"

After saying that, Frederick looked at Yan Jun with unprecedented anticipation and anxiety in his eyes.

After all, when European countries judged him, he only thought that everyone was similar, but the Han State far away in America was different. It was a country established by Napoleon Peng and Liu in the Americas.

(Liu Peng is known as Little Napoleon in Europe, but with the support of the masterpiece "On the Territory", even in the eyes of fans like Frederick, he is comparable to Napoleon when he was alive. Don't be surprised. Although Frederick resisted when he was young More than Napoleon, but as the saying goes, those who respect you the most are often your enemies, not those so-called praisers)

In Frederick's view, Liu Peng's experience of saving the world was his lifelong pursuit.

Defeating Mexico, establishing the Han Dynasty, fighting the United States, and attacking Brazil at the beginning of this year. If this were transferred to Frederick, it would be defeating Austria, unifying Germany, defeating France, and attacking Tsarist Russia.

Although there are huge differences between these countries, they still deeply shocked Frederick, a former passionate young man.

This is something that Frederick never dreamed of. Someone actually did it at such a young age. What do you think of Frederick, who was young and ambitious?

When Yan Jun heard Frederick asked about Berlin, he wanted to be perfunctory, but thinking about Frederick's letter to Liu Peng just now, it was really difficult to perfunctory. Finally, after thinking for a while, he gave a perfunctory answer. answer:

"Strict, quiet, majestic!!"

As soon as these words came out, not only Frederick himself was stunned, but even Camphausen was a little stunned.

Although they had heard countless good and even bad things said about Berlin, there was never a word that penetrated their hearts like Yan Jun did.

It took a long time before Frederick came back to his senses and looked at Yan Jun and said: "Your Excellency Prime Minister, this is the best comment I have ever heard!!"

These words were Frederick's true words.

Then Frederick stayed with Yan Jun to have dinner with him at the palace.

Looking at the sausages made of pork, the huge pork knuckles, and some Prussian desserts on the table, Yan Jun was actually a little strange. After all, in his impression, the palace's diet should be very delicate. Why? Now? ?

And Frederick seemed to see what Yan Jun was thinking, and explained:

"When I was young, I was on the battlefield. At that time, because I resisted the French army, I sometimes couldn't eat. Sometimes I would go to farmers' houses to eat. At that time, the food they had was not as good as this. If one day the Prussians can Our country will be really strong if we eat food like mine..."

When Yan Jun heard this, he looked at Frederick's expression carefully and saw that he didn't seem to be telling lies, but he actually had a little respect for the Prussian king.

And Frederick continued:

"We were fighting against the French army at that time. The French at that time were really good at fighting. Each of them was a warrior. At that time, all of us in Europe were afraid of Napoleon and afraid that he would take away our crown. Then we united to hold the Anti-French alliances again and again, until that guy failed for the first time and was driven to a small island..."    "In the end, he actually came back. When we learned about the restoration of the Napoleonic dynasty, I still remember the anxious look of the British minister. expression, in the end, he failed, he finally failed, Waterloo, a place where heroes lose their courage!!"

"And then, this is the story now!!"

Frederick and Yan Jun talked about Napoleon for a long time, and it was obvious that he really admired Napoleon.

Yan Jun listened very carefully. Although he knew all these stories, there was nothing better than being told by a witness or a king.

At the end of the sentence, Frederick took a sip of the beer produced in Berlin, and then continued:

"The king of your country is the closest person I have ever seen to Napoleon. He built a huge kingdom from nothing and established his own throne. In my opinion, this is greater than Napoleon. After all, Napoleon inherited a powerful France, not something else. A small town..." (In European eyes, Liujiabao was a small town at that time)

"And in the subsequent wars, your country's contribution to the world's military was definitely no less than that of Napoleon. In my opinion, it even exceeded it!!"

This sentence is the truth of Frederick. In fact, no country in Europe knows the records of the Sino-American War better than Prussia. During the war, Prussian military observers even went so far as to obtain first-hand information on the war. I have been to the trenches where the shelling was the most intense, to the battlefields where bayonets were fought, and even during the war, Prussian military observer Hintenberg wrote this sentence in his domestic information:

"From a purely military perspective, the Sino-American War was the greatest war after the Napoleonic War. It opened the door to a new era. I am sure that this war will become a model for future wars, even if it is a hundred It will be the same in the next year!!”

In the Han-Pakistan War, the Han State's use of wired telegraphs directly led Prussia to imitate the Han State in setting up telegraph battalions in each army division to be responsible for the transmission of battlefield information.

Because of this information, coupled with Frederick's personal heroic tendency, he had a beautiful filter towards Han.

This can be seen from the fact that Frederick included Chinese in the language learning subjects of the royal family.

After talking about Liu Peng's glorious achievements for a while, Frederick changed his tone and asked:

"Many international students our country sent to your country in the past few years are full of praise for your country's weapons. However, the price of your country's authorized production is too expensive. Can you reduce some of it..."

If you praise me enough, there will naturally be some benefits.

Yan Jun seemed to have known for a long time that the issue of weapons would be discussed, and immediately replied: "This needs to be discussed with Raytheon Group. I think they will not refuse a big customer like Prussia."

Yan Jun's words are not a compliment, but true. Since the end of the Sino-American War, Prussia has obtained the production authorization for the Chinese Lightning Rifle and the Storm Artillery. The Lightning Rifle became the 1846-type rifle, while the Storm Artillery was Became a new generation of Krupp rifled guns.

After learning that Han had carried out a 2.0 version of the reform on the two weapons, it once again proposed the technology sale.

For this popular weapon, Han had to be generous and transferred its manufacturing technology and part of its production line to Prussia for three million yuan.

But what follows is patent authorization. According to Han's requirements, for every lightning rifle authorized to be produced overseas, a patent fee of no less than five Chinese yuan will be paid to Han.

The storm artillery is more expensive, requiring a patent fee of no less than 50 Chinese dollars.

And because the military industry is very dependent on national strength, a powerful country, due to the diplomatic relations and commercial relations between countries, everyone must abide by some rules to each other, and give as much as you give.

And those small countries, sorry, their industrial strength is not worthy.

The only way to go is to be an arms dumping ground for big countries.

Prussia is just in a good match. It was fine in the past few years, but this year it was messed up by the constitutionalists, and there were more or less financial problems. So now Frederick personally requested to reduce the authorization fee. .

When Frederick heard Yan Jun's words, he knew there was something serious about it, and he frequently clinked glasses with Yan Jun.

On the next day, Prussia and Han signed a cooperation agreement, also known as the Han-Prussia Agreement.

The treaty stipulates that Han and Prussia agreed to reduce tariffs to one-third of the current level, which is about four percent. (originally 12%)

Han State sold shipbuilding machinery, as well as high-end machine tools, high-precision chambering machines, and two latest model Storm artillery production lines to Prussia.

At the same time, it provided military telegraph machines and military-grade communication cables to Prussia, and sent telegraph office engineers to Prussia to help establish Prussia's own telegraph system. (At this time, Prussia’s national telegraph had not yet been fully rolled out and was limited to big cities such as Berlin. Because there was no experience in establishing a national telegraph, Prussia hoped to apply for assistance from Han)

The Han State opened up some purchasing rights to rubber raw materials to Prussian businessmen and helped Prussia set up rubber processing plants, but the raw materials and machinery were provided by the Han State.

And Han provided Prussia with so many things that were crucial to them, and Prussia's return to Han was the entire market of Little Germany. (The German Customs Union except Austria, dominated by Prussia)

By entering the German market where Prussia was located, Han's commercial tentacles also extended to the entire Central Europe and even down to the southern European market.

Although it can’t be seen yet, it is just like what was written on the last page of the volume in the 30th year of Longwu and the 8th year of Longwu:

"The second half of the eighth year of Longwu was even crazier than the first half. The cooperation with Prussia could only occupy less than 300 words..."

As for the treaty between Han and Prussia, it is no surprise that it has received intensive attention. After all, a commercial treaty involving military matters cannot be paid too much attention.

Yan Jun didn't care about these. At this time, he was on his way to the factory.

At that time Frederick asked him where he wanted to go.

Yan Jun answered without hesitation that he was going to the factory in the Ruhr area.

…………

Blah blah blah...blah blah blah...

The summer rain washed away the heat in the Ruhr area and brought a bit of coolness to the steel workers who were working in hot flash factories.

When the breeze blows, everyone feels comfortable.

bang bang bang...

The press operated by the steam engine continuously compresses the iron blocks. When these iron blocks are pressed, the workers who have been prepared add them to the mold again for secondary processing.

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, this is our coal washing plant, which can clean more than three hundred tons of coal every day."

"This is our most advanced assembly line production method..."

The person in charge, Felix, was introducing to Yan Jun the production line technology they introduced from Han. Of course, this so-called technology had been localized by the Prussians, as evidenced by the German writing on it.

Yan Jun leaned against the production line and looked at the coal that was constantly coming down from the rubber conveyor belt, with a serious expression. For this Han prime minister who often inspected factories, he needed to know the benefits of assembly lines and conveyor belts to a country's industry.

The assembly line needs to be standardized, and standardization requires a large number of engineers and matching manufacturing machinery. This illustrates the Prussian industrial capabilities, especially the strong mechanical manufacturing capabilities, and even a lot of industrial talents. At least it is second only to the Prussians in Europe. Britain and France may even be higher than Austria, not to mention Tsarist Russia.

The conveyor belt also means that the Prussians have become very mature in their use of rubber. If you add in the rubber protective clothing and gas masks worn by workers working next to the stove, Yan Jun has already seen the Prussians' follow-up to the latest production methods. Enter. (Han's latest industrial standard, harmless production)

Even when Yan Jun raised his head, he could even see fire extinguishers similar to those in Han Dynasty. Although there were not many, what did this mean? It showed that the Prussian understanding of industry was at the forefront of Europe, at least in France. Yan Jun could not see such a scene in the dirty and evil factory.

It took a long time for Yan Jun to wake up from the industrial equipment and production standards that resembled those of Han Dynasty, and finally said something to Felix next to him that he would remember for the rest of his life:

"From this factory and your rigorous spirit, I believe that you will definitely build Germany. The future of Germany is in your hands, right in this factory, right in the Ruhr area!!"

　Please give me a reward, please give me a monthly ticket

　　

　

(End of this chapter)