Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 2135 Another Chess Piece

February 1691, 2, sunny, Berlin.

Han Xi, who was recently appointed as the ambassador of the East Coast Republic of China to Brandenburg-Prussia, was meeting with the gray-haired Dale Flinger in the embassy. He was born as a cavalryman and was the Generalissimo of the Prussian Army with high prestige.

Marshal Dale Flinger is 84 years old this year. Historically, he lived to a full 90 years old. It is said that he was still in good spirits. He died peacefully in his sleep, which shows how strong his body is.What the marshal himself is most proud of is, of course, that at the age of 70, he commanded the Prussian army to break through the Swedish army, which was getting worse every year, and finally forced it to withdraw near the mouth of the Oder and Elbe rivers.

It is worth mentioning that Dale Flinger was Swedish, but had been serving in Prussia for many years, like many of his fellow Swedes serving in Moscow.Serving for foreign monarchs is actually very common in this era, especially in backward countries, they usually can obtain honor and status that cannot be achieved in their own countries.Take Marshal Dale Flinger as an example. He obtained the title of Viscount in Brandenburg-Prussia. Although he was only a court nobleman who earned his income from the king's annuity, he was quite good.

Marshal Dale Flinger has retired from the military and has no government positions at the same time. However, he retains the position of personal advisor to Grand Duke Friedrich III, so he often goes to and from the court to help his monarch deal with some problems. Things that are not so easy to handle, such as the contact with the East Coast Ambassador Han Xi, fall into this category.

Han Xi is in his early thirties this year, and is the grandson of Han Xiangdong, the former director of the Tahiti Management Committee who once served as the Central Executive Committee.His father served as a bureau-level cadre in the Ministry of Materials, and his reputation was not obvious. The family's hopes for politics basically rested on the third generation Han Xi.This person did not go to Bingtuanbao to study like many students from the big courtyard. Instead, he entered the Capital Foreign Affairs University, a school run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After several years of study, he first worked in the Ministry, starting as a clerk.After accumulating a certain amount of credit and rank, he was lucky. He just happened to meet the country and the Principality of Brandenburg-Prussia to establish diplomatic relations, so he took office and came to Berlin as an ambassador. It can be regarded as a leap in his life.

And when it comes to the establishment of ambassadorial relations between the East Bank and Prussia, there is also a behind-the-scenes game.As we all know, because of the relationship with the Dutch, there have been only business contacts between the East Bank and Prussia for many years, and there have been no ambassadors exchanged with France, England, and Spain.This not only has the general capacity of the Prussian market, but also respects the Dutch.However, when the Van Beuningen government came to power and the Dutch government faced a strong threat from France, the power of the people on the east coast began to slowly penetrate into the Baltic Sea Basin.Not only did they improve their relationship with Poland, and their products re-entered the Swedish market (of course, they had to go through a Dutch agent), but they also established diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level with Prussia, which is very unusual.

Some people may ask, why do people on the east coast favor this country?You know, Prussia is only a medium-sized country in Europe, with an area of ​​just over 11 square kilometers and a population of 150 million, which is about the same as the Kingdom of Portugal (only in mainland Europe).But economically, it is far behind Portugal, the pioneer of sailing with a vast colony. Strictly speaking, the status of the two in Europe is still a bit different. One is a decent place to do business comfortably and make money A person, a social person who beats this and that all day long for commission, and betrays this and that, is not from the same world.

Oh well, now for the official answer to why East Coasters favor Prussia so much over Sweden, Poland, Denmark or whatever Baltic states.In fact, the answer is very simple, that is, a certain veteran cadre has appointed to invest diplomatic resources in Prussia as soon as possible, and gradually control its commercial market, which in turn will affect the military and diplomacy, and serve the interests of the East China Republic.

To put it bluntly, an old cadre surnamed Li on the diplomatic front is very optimistic about this country, believing that its development potential is not small, and it can be called an important pawn for the East Coast people to influence Central Europe in the future.He even listed some facts for this to prove that Brandenburg-Prussia is a very aggressive country: when the Hohenzollern family first took over the Brandenburg Mark more than 200 years ago, the territory of this country was only 2.9 square meters After that, almost every generation of monarchs increased the number of territories in various ways. By the end of the reign of the just-deceased Friedrich William, the land area had increased to 110836 square kilometers, which shows the extent of his efforts.

The country is equally impressive militarily.When Friedrich William first came to the throne, the country was in turmoil: Brandenburg was overrun by the Swedes, Kleve was plundered by the Spaniards and the Dutch, Prussia was invaded by multiple parties, He therefore resolved to create a new army.The force started out in the thousands but quickly grew to 1.8 and is now believed to exceed 3.You know, this is a unit composed of long-serving officers and soldiers. For Prussia, which has a population of only 150 million and its industrial and commercial development is not very proud, it is very important, and it can even be said to be militaristic.

But people don't care!People just want to build a huge army to realize their ambitions!

Of course, compared with the military and territorial achievements, the achievements of the Prussians in the political system may not be noticed by outsiders, but in the eyes of the people on the east coast, it is really like the palm of the hand, showing every detail.The reason is not complicated, that is, both are highly centralized systems, so they are naturally very "friendly".

After the Thirty Years War, Central Europe was almost a blank slate.Especially in the North German region, which was repeatedly contested, the losses were even more severe. Almost half of the men died in the war or fled abroad, and the place was barren.In such a situation, the successor Friedrich William established a very thorough centralized absolute monarchy in Brandenburg.The development of such a political system up to now has made the public office have extremely high prestige and power, the army is in their hands, the Junkers and the nobles have been dealt with badly, many privileges have been deprived, and the strength of the principality has developed to a new stage. .

The National Intelligence Agency on the east coast has been collecting information from European countries for many years, including Brandenburg-Prussia, of course. In fact, those intelligence analysts still have a high evaluation of this country.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs accepted their evaluation, and under Li Qing's strong push, it is not surprising that the relationship between the East Bank and this country has developed rapidly.

Marshal Dale Flinger came to the newly completed East Coast Embassy today, in fact, to discuss a series of business cooperation issues.First of all, the first cooperation is naturally related to the military. To be more precise, it is related to hiring army officers from the east coast to help teach modern army technical and tactical knowledge, and to train a certain number of officers, so as to improve the strength of the Prussian army as soon as possible; Secondly, the Prussians also want to import some machines for producing military equipment to improve their independent military production capacity; finally, the Prussians also want to send some noble Junker children to study on the east bank, with a tentative number of 30 people to increase their knowledge. Learn about the various affairs of world-class countries.

In return, the Prussians will sign a series of commercial agreements with the people on the east coast to fully open their domestic market, allowing the people on the east coast to sell a large number of industrial products and tropical commodities.In addition, because they had some money on hand (the "hands-on commission" they got from the Dutch), they decided to expand the two most important cities in the country, Berlin and Potsdam, and entrusted a considerable part of their business to the people on the east coast, That sounds like a big deal.

Han Xi listened carefully to Marshal Dale Flinger's introduction to the expansion plan of the two cities, and learned that it included two brand new palaces, a castle, a large church, a summer resort, a large private garden, and a complex of villas , a bodhi tree-lined avenue and a military fortress with 13 bastions.In addition, they also plan to renovate the water and sewage facilities in the old Berlin city, because Europeans are relatively backward in this area, so they plan to ask the people on the east coast to be responsible for the design and construction of water plants, water pipelines, and sewage pipelines.

In general, all of these add up to a great infrastructure business, even though the people on the east coast can only be responsible for the design and supervision part, or provide some metal building materials, arts and crafts and important components because they are thousands of miles away. , That can also ensure the profit of nearly one million yuan, which is really very good, which shows the sincerity of the Prussians.

Business has always been the lubricant of personal opinion, corporate opinion and even national opinion.Seeing that the Prussians are so good, they gave this a big gift package as soon as they came up (almost squandering all the hard work money they got from the Dutch, and even paid a lot of money back), he was also a little happy, so he repeatedly said goodbye to him. Marshal Dale Flingle expressed his gratitude and appreciation for his confidence in the East Coast Republic.He also said that the East China Republic is a civilized and advanced country, and they are willing to maintain a healthy and positive relationship with new and old friends including Brandenburg-Prussia, to seek common development and create a new future.

Marshal Dale Flinger was also quite satisfied.As the East Coasters continued to demonstrate their strength in Europe, especially their huge influence over the old power United Provinces, the "fascination" of the Brandenburg-Prussian monarch and ministers for this New World country reached a new level.They and the Principality of Courland belong to the descendants of the Teutonic Knights, and they have a lot of contacts with each other, and they have a relatively close relationship. Therefore, their understanding of the east coast may be much stronger than that of ordinary European countries.

To be honest, they are quite excited about getting the opportunity to cooperate with Dong'an this time. Even if the people from Dong'an only see them as pawns, it doesn't matter.In today's world, it is not bad to be a valuable pawn.Their Brandenburg-Prussia has been used as a pawn for the Poles, the Swedes, the Dutch, the Austrians, and the French. What's the embarrassment?At least, the east coast is now the most powerful country in the world, isn't it?

As a result, the cooperation between East and Pudong was almost discussed in such a friendly atmosphere.After seeing off Marshal Dale Flinger, Han Xi excitedly returned to his office, made a cup of yerba mate tea, and started writing furiously.Presumably at this moment, whether it is Special Envoy Cai in Cadiz or the local Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they will be very interested in this news, right?

(End of this chapter)