The setting sun is purple, making the dark red color reflected in the sky far away in the west, as if it was stained with blood. In the wide harbor, several patrol boats floated alone in the berth, and under the illumination of the bloody sun, it made it even more lonely and desolate. On the flat hillside, in front of the pass, more than ten artillery towers and bunkers are being built in a tense manner; a red, white, black and three-color iron cross flag fluttered on the roof of the Chinese attic, full of out-of-equipment abruptness and weirdness.

The whistle sounded long, and the iron anchored into the water. With the crisp sound of the gangway landing on the shore of the dock, several men walked slowly down the cruise ship. There were no flowers or crowds, only a middle-aged officer in the German major uniform stood on the dock with two followers, quietly waiting for Qingying to come. After a greeting, Qingying followed the person to the temporary governor's palace; looking at the elegant and simple atmosphere full of ancient Han meaning, a trace of bitterness spread in his heart.

On November 1, 1897, German priest Neng Francis and Han Ligao stayed overnight at the home of another German priest Xue Tianzi while on his way to the Catholic Church in Yanzhou. But what they did not expect was that the local villagers had long hated Xue Tianzi's behavior of spreading cults and protecting the believers, and were ready to kill Xue Tianzi. That night, Xue Tianzi's house was rushed into by more than 20 black-clad men holding sharp blades. They chopped the Neng and Han into meat paste on the spot, and Xue Tianzi hid behind the door panel to escape by chance. Afterwards, Xue Tianzi reported to the German Ambassador to China Hai Jing, and the news spread throughout every region of Europe in a short time.

Before this, Germany had requested to Queqing to lease Jiaozhou Bay three times between 1895 and 1897, but each time it was rejected by Queqing; and the occurrence of the Juye lesson plan gave William an excellent opportunity to get involved in this place. Under his order, Tirpitz led a fleet of three battleships as the core to set sail from Hong Kong at night and broke straight into Jiaozhou Bay. Due to the strength gap between the two fleets and Germany had reached a spoil sharing agreement with other great powers, and there were also warships worth 2 million pounds built in a German shipyard, Queqing could not do anything, so he could only swallow the bitter fruit silently.

From William's standpoint, it is actually completely understandable to do so. Although Qingying has always disapproved of this in his heart, his attributes as a son of man doomed him to not violate the will of the king. After his advice failed, he could only choose to fully support William's behavior. When he returned to China, Qingying did not want to come to this land; but since Tirpitz served as commander of the Far East Fleet in mid-1896, he had not met him for two years, and there was no reason not to come to visit him. Qingying estimated that in his heart, William should transfer his beloved general back to the country and let him serve as the Minister of the Navy as in history.

After a long period of endless random thoughts, Qingying calmed down and asked the middle-aged officer sitting next to him: "Major, where is General Tirpitz? I remember two months ago, the headquarters of the Imperial Fleet moved here from Kowloon. General Tirpitz should be here, right?" The major officer replied respectfully: "Report to Your Highness, a day ago, General Tirpitz was indeed in this room; but now, he has led the main force of the fleet to sea."

Hearing this reply, Qingying felt a little shocked and said in surprise: "No wonder when I arrived, I only saw a few patrol boats in the port. It turned out that he took the fleet away. But what was he going to do to lead this fleet of more than 50,000 tons? The situation in the Philippines has been settled. Both the indigenous rebels and the Spanish colonial army are powerless to stop the progress of the imperial army's southern advance. In less than a month, we can incorporate the entire Luzon into the territory of the empire. In this case, even if we need to use the navy to do some escort merchant ships and artillery attacks on the other side, we don't have to let all the main forces come out in full swing, right?"

The officer whispered: "Your Highness doesn't know anything. In the days when your Highness visited Japan, an extremely important thing happened in the Philippine waters. The American Pacific Fleet set out from Hong Kong, bypassed Luzon, and then headed south to attack Mindanao, the southernmost part of the Philippines. A day later, the Americans transformed nearly a thousand officers and soldiers from somewhere and carried out landing operations on Mindanao. According to the latest information we have, the Americans have occupied hundreds of square kilometers of land there."

Qingying was shocked and said, "What did you say? The US Pacific Fleet attacked Mindanao in the southern Philippines? There were army personnel responsible for landing operations behind it?" The officer nodded slightly and said affirmatively: "It is. According to General Tirpitz's analysis, the Americans must have hid the army personnel in their merchant ships, so that they could suddenly land without warning and hide it from the eyes of imperial reconnaissance."

Qingying closed his eyes after hearing this. It took him a little time to digest the new news he had learned.

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In another plane, the United States' idea of ​​the Philippines is actually far less eager than later generations imagined. From President McKinley to ordinary people, his eyes were only staring at Cuba at his doorstep, and he lacked interest in this outgrown land thousands of miles away. For a long time, influenced by the isolationist thoughts inherited by the founding father Washington, the United States has never been very concerned about overseas affairs. The reason why it launched a war against Spain was that its original subjective starting point was to avenge the officers and soldiers of the United States who died in the Maine and protect their economic interests in Cuba, rather than taking advantage of the situation to colonize. The reason why the United States embezzled the Philippines was caused by the guy Theodore Roosevelt; after the fleet commanded by Dewey completed the slaughter of the Spanish Philippine Navy, the US military headquarters followed the trend and sent troops from San Francisco to occupy this area.

Since the naval strength deployed by Spain in the Philippines in history was a group of slags, the weak Dewey fleet dared to attack and then succeeded. Therefore, in Qingying's original plan, as long as Germany deployed a sufficiently powerful fleet near the Philippines and expressed its territorial demand for the Philippines, the several American protective cruisers, like fish, would definitely not dare to take any action. Since returning from the first round-the-world trip, Qingying has been moving towards this goal:

Germany won the British default to Germany in the capture of the Philippines at the cost of not opposing Britain's embezzlement of the Rand Gold Mine in South Africa, and then began to prepare for an attack on the Philippines. After nearly a year of material reserves and personnel gathering, Germany had assembled thousands of troops on Luzon Island and had direct support from more than 50,000 tons of naval fleets, and now it has captured most of the Luzon Island. With this momentum, Roosevelt would not dare to make a move in the Philippines, right?

But Qingying was wrong. Theodore Roosevelt's strong ambition to expand territory was completely beyond his imagination. Even when the US Pacific Fleet had only 4 protective cruisers, Roosevelt still asked Dewey to launch an attack on the Philippines! In order to cooperate with the navy's operation, Roosevelt actually prepared army personnel for siege in advance. This was at least half a month higher than the speed of the United States' transfer of troops from San Francisco after Dewey wiped out the Spanish fleet in history!

After thinking for a while, Qingying had already guessed what he thought about this guy. Since the United States had declared war on Spain, it was natural to launch an attack on the colonies under Spain. His plan was to seize a part of the Philippines with lightning speed, directly creating a certain fact. Mindanao is more than 1,000 kilometers away from Luzon, controlled by Germany, and the German military power was beyond the reach; he was gambled, betting that Germany would not use force regardless of morality for this distant land! What surprised Qingying was that when facing the Germans who had been able to eat the Philippines, Roosevelt actually dared to pull his teeth and pick up his chest in the fire!

You should know that although the US Navy is developing rapidly, its overall scale is still in full swing; in the Pacific region far away from the prosperous east coast of the United States, the situation is even more unsatisfactory. The US Pacific Fleet under Dewey is only four protective cruisers including Olympia and Baltimore, with a total tonnage of only 17,000 tons, of which the US Boston is a protective "cruiser" with a speed of only 13 knots; while the German Far East Fleet has 3 battleships and 4 cruisers, with a total tonnage of more than 50,000 tons. The ship "Caesar Frederick III" alone is enough to send all the US fleet to the bottom of the sea!

"Major, did you know this matter? How did the center of the empire react?" Qingying asked.

"Report to your Highness, General Tirpitz immediately sent a message to Berlin after he learned the news. There is no reply from Berlin at present. General Tirpitz felt that he should not wait like this at the port, so he led the main force of the fleet to the Port of Santa Ana in Luzon, Philippines to give the Americans enough deterrence so that they dare not continue to act rashly. If Berlin orders force expulsion, the fleet can also quickly arrive at the front line of Mindanao and launch an attack on the American fleet." The officer replied in a deep voice with a serious expression.
Chapter completed!