My Italy

Since you have decided to build a new type of battleship, of course you need to make preliminary preparations. The first step is to check for defects in the drawings, and then the shipyard construction stage.

At present, the new warship is still in the stage of checking for deficiencies and filling them, so it has not yet entered formal construction.

At this time, a major event that shocked the world spread. That is Alexandrina Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Queen of India, who ruled the British Empire for 64 years and led the British Empire to its peak. She died on January 22, 1901.

The news was a shock to the whole world, but also to Italy.

"Then let the Prime Minister lead the team to London."

In the palace, Carlo looked at the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in front of him and stated the specifications of Italy's diplomatic mission this time.

Of course, Carlo will not take this trip to London lightly. In addition to the funeral of Queen Victoria, who is worthy of the British memory, it will also be the coronation ceremony of the new king Edward VII.

This is a time when dignitaries from various countries gather together. As one of the few great powers, Italy certainly cannot be shabby. A high-level diplomatic mission must be sent, at least at the level of the Foreign Secretary, otherwise it will be deliberately contemptuous of the British Empire.

Of course, at a higher level, the Prime Minister can lead the team. If it is more serious, Carlo himself can lead the team.

However, Carlo himself was not interested at all. Firstly, he did not want to stay in the UK for such a long time. Secondly, although dignitaries from various countries gathered, it was not possible to talk about anything. Moreover, the Savoy family is not married to the British royal family, so why rush there in such a hurry. Therefore, the best candidate is the Prime Minister, no one else.

"As you command, Your Majesty."

Prime Minister Antonio had actually expected Carlo's roll call for a long time. It was basically only suitable for him to lead the team. After all, it was indeed inappropriate for his own monarch to go there.

Leading a team to London to attend the funeral of the old king and the enthronement of the new king actually did not have much bearing on Italy.

To be honest, the current relationship between Italy and the United Kingdom is a bit delicate. The rapid development of Italy in recent years has made the relationship between the two countries a bit delicate. The relationship between the two countries was relatively close at the beginning and gradually transformed into a normal relationship. Especially after Italy won the war with the Ottomans, the diplomatic relations between the two countries declined significantly.

You must know that many of Italy's weapons technologies were obtained from the British Empire at the beginning. For example, the 460mm main gun used on the Galio-class battleship was Armstrong's masterpiece. The British helped a lot with subsequent naval guns and even power and other technologies.

However, in recent years, as Italy has become more and more biased towards Germany and Austria, its relationship with Britain has gradually changed from friendly to normal relations. It has become difficult to obtain technology from the British Empire.

Of course, this is also a very normal thing. The substantial increase in Italy's strength certainly made the British Empire feel that its position in the Mediterranean was threatened.

"By the way, what's the situation in the Far East right now?"

At this time Carlo suddenly asked about the Far East.

For him to ask like this, it is natural that there is a new situation in the Far East. This time, all countries jointly taught the empress dowager a lesson, and there was no difficulty at all in combat. The total strength of the intervention forces from various countries is more than 70,000 (this is the actual number of troops participating in the war), which is simply not something it can resist.

The army is invincible in the Far East and cannot be resisted by the old-style armies in the hands of the Empress Dowager. Not to mention that the southern provinces have ambiguous attitudes and actually declared neutrality, which also reveals many problems.

In addition, in this coalition battle, the French army finally used its secret new 75mm rapid-fire gun, with a rate of fire of up to fifteen rounds per minute, which shocked officers from other countries.

The German officer who finally saw France's new 75mm rapid-fire gun quickly informed Berlin of the situation. This allowed the German Army to once again put pressure on Krupp, requiring it to come up with artillery with a rate of fire comparable to its opponents as soon as possible. As for Italy, the Ministry of War also requires major arsenals to come up with designs that are comparable to their opponents. But in addition, the Ministry of War also requires countries to come up with plans for large-caliber long-range artillery.

At present, the issue of France's new artillery is not urgent. After all, there is still time.

At present, in the Far East, the most urgent problem for all countries is the Russian problem.

That's right, the Russians. In this intervention war involving various countries, the Russians were not honest at all.

It only sent one division of troops to participate in the coalition (more than 13,000 people), ranking fourth in terms of the number of troops sent by various countries. (Germany sent more than 24,000 troops because of the Philippines, followed by Japan with 18,000 troops, Italy with 14,000 troops, Britain with 12,000 troops, and France with 3,500 troops. people; 800 people in the United States, 400 people in the Austro-Hungarian Empire).

However, compared with only sending 13,000 troops to participate in the coalition, Russia sent more than 100,000 troops into the northeastern region of the Qing Dynasty. In the name of punishing the Manchus, these Russian troops not only occupied various cities in the Northeast, but also wiped out all local government household registrations, acres, minerals and other information. In addition, the Russian army claimed that in order to facilitate the maintenance of local security, it also tried to dispatch officials to the local area in the name of managing the local Russian army and its own people.

We are all old foxes for thousands of years, and no one knows who is who. Such an obvious move by the Russians made all countries very dissatisfied. By co-authoring our intervention in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, are we working for you, the Russians?

Faced with the actions of the Russians in the Northeast, various countries unanimously stated that the Russian troops in the Northeast must be included in the coalition forces.

It is obvious that this is intended to restrain the Russian troops in the Northeast. When various countries withdraw their troops, these Russian troops in the Northeast will also withdraw together.

As for the unanimous attitude of various countries, Russia strongly opposed it, claiming that the troops in the Northeast could not be included in the coalition.

Countries are currently negotiating with the Russians, and this is what Carlo asked about.

"Your Majesty, the Russians in the Far East have a very ambiguous attitude, but they still do not agree with the integration of the troops in the Northeast into the coalition. For this reason, the attitudes of the various countries are inconsistent."

The inconsistent attitudes Bacona mentioned mainly come from Germany and France, who are unwilling to express a tough attitude towards Russia.

Not to mention France, France and Russia are allies and are unwilling to offend Russia on issues in the Far East. As for the same situation in Germany, there is only one word to describe it.

Looking at Germany's attitude towards Russia's eastward expansion, it is basically encouraging it. This is to reduce the pressure on its east.

"We don't care about other countries, but on the issue of the Far East, our country must insist on ensuring the territorial unity of the Far East, and we can also let our ministers in the Far East publicly express our position. Our country resolutely resists the move to split the Qing Dynasty."

"As ordered, Your Majesty, I will send electricity to Minister Jia Liwen as soon as I get back."

Carlo's attitude is easy to understand, because in addition to satisfying the feelings of his previous life, this matter is also good for Italy. The joint intervention of various countries in the Qing Dynasty this time will definitely affect the Qing people's perception of Italy. At this time, publicly declaring that they want to protect the territorial integrity of the Qing Dynasty is a show of goodwill.

Although I got involved in this intervention war this time, I was just forced to do so. In fact, I still wanted to have good relations with the Qing Dynasty in my heart. Of course, the underlying reason is that Italy does not want to fall out with its largest overseas market. This is all due to economic interests. Although the Qing Dynasty will face the largest compensation situation in the future, the market in the Far East will not decrease at all, but will accelerate the country's industrial development.

Thinking of the compensation, Carlo couldn't help but ask. "How are the talks about Qing's reparations going?"

"At present, the total amount of compensation has been negotiated by various countries. Calculated as one tael of silver for each Qing citizen, the Qing Dynasty will compensate 450 million taels of silver."

This is consistent with history. This high compensation is also a humiliation. Everyone lost one tael of silver. At present, the Qing Dynasty's annual fiscal revenue is only less than 100 million taels, which directly requires four and a half years of fiscal revenue to compensate. This has far exceeded the losses of various countries and the cost of sending troops. It is a vivid display of the law of the jungle and the strong.

However, Bacona then continued to speak. "At present, all countries have reached a consensus on reparations, that is, if Russia announces its withdrawal from Northeast China, it can receive the first share of the reparations."

When Bacona said this, Carlo understood immediately. This is spending money from the Qing people to allow the Russians to evacuate.

This abacus is a good one, but unfortunately Maozi is a man who only cares about fighting but not eating. I'm afraid it will be difficult to satisfy St. Petersburg. It may be like history, announcing the withdrawal of troops and getting the first share of the compensation, but the result is delay. , just don’t withdraw. In the end, the British Empire sent thugs to Japan, and it took some education to get the Russians to retract their claws.