My Italy

The autumn wind blows through St. Petersburg, leaving a chill in the sky. But this is nothing to the residents of St. Petersburg. At least St. Petersburg is much better than desolate Siberia. It’s miserable for those who were sent to Siberia to grow potatoes over the years.

In the past, every few years, prominent nobles in the city would be sent to Siberia by the tsar, and each time they would cry and cry along the way, which was very sad.

The grievances in St. Petersburg have nothing to do with French Ambassador Miguel de Rivera, who is rushing to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Gorchakov.

But this time he did not ride in the carriage with the eye-catching diplomatic logo, but in a very ordinary carriage.

He had not forgotten that there were even more Germans in St. Petersburg than they were.

The carriage zigzagged and came to a house without any sign.

"Your Excellency, we have arrived."

Simon, the coachman and bodyguard, reminded him.

"Okay, I know."

After replying, Rivera took his briefcase, opened the car door and walked out.

There was someone at the door. Although he was wearing ordinary clothes, judging from the bulge in his waist, he was carrying a weapon and was watching his surroundings vigilantly. But after seeing Rivera coming, he opened the door and let him in.

"Your Excellency, please come this way."

After entering, Rivera was led to a room by a waiter dressed as a servant.

"Hello, Mr. Rivera."

The person who greeted him was none other than Russian Foreign Minister Gorchakov.

"Sir, it feels like we are meeting in secret, which is very bad."

Once inside, de Rivera, who is the French ambassador, complained.

Faced with Rivera's complaint, Gorchakov, the Russian Foreign Minister, spoke apologetically. "I'm sorry, because for well-known reasons, our country does not want this contact to be known to irrelevant people."

Although Gorchakov was apologetic, Rivera, who had stayed in St. Petersburg for a long time, knew that this Russian colleague was not easy to deal with at all.

"Do you know what you think? Our discussion this time is not something shameful."

After complaining, Rivera immediately got down to business. "Do you know the amount and interest of this loan?"

"it is known."

"So what is your country prepared to put as collateral?"

“Our country intends to use livestock taxes as collateral.”

Rivera, who had learned about the Russian tax raids before coming, replied after thinking about it. "In this case, the bank should be satisfied."

Yes, the two were discussing a loan. The loan amount was not small, reaching a loan limit of 400 million francs.

The loan was actually quite dramatic. Russia originally planned to raise funds by issuing bonds.

It's just that I don't know where the French got the news. Several people from the Paris financial community approached the Russian Ministry of Finance and said that there was a way to help them find low-interest loans without issuing bonds.

As we all know, bond interest rates are lower than borrowings, and they are still low-interest borrowings, which makes the Ministry of Finance very happy.

After some contact, the person hiding behind it was revealed to be the French government. But for Russia, it doesn't matter that the French are behind this loan.

To put it more directly, Russia is still happy to see results.

You know, although Russia fought France in the Crimean War and even lost a czar. But this was all twenty years ago. As the saying goes, time dilutes everything. But the current flirting behavior between the Russians and the French was a secret. Of course, in view of the relationship between the Three Emperors Alliance, it was done more covertly.

But some things can be said and done, and some things can be done but cannot be said. It is obvious that the behavior of Russia and France is that what they can do cannot be said, so the contact between the two is very hidden.

Of course, for Russia, although it is allied with Germany and Austria, its economic ties with Germany and Austria are not close.

As we all know, exports to Europe are mainly based on raw materials, minerals and agriculture. Germany and Austria generally import mineral raw materials from Russia and export precision machine lathes and other industrial products. There is obviously a huge difference in the import and export classifications between the two. Russia exports low value-added products and imports high-value machinery. Although German products have lower prices in Europe, they occupy a large share of the Russian market, which also leads to a very large trade gap between Russia and Germany.

Faced with such a situation, the Russian government certainly does not want to see it. In addition, in order to protect Juncker's interests, Germany imposed higher tariffs on agricultural products, which further aggravated Russia's dissatisfaction.

Although it is now allied with Germany and Austria for profit, many knowledgeable people in Russia can see that if this situation is not fundamentally changed, then the scene of the two going their separate ways will not be too far away.

As for the problems with Austria-Hungary and Russia in the Balkans, there is no need to say more.

Now that they are faced with such a situation, the Russians certainly know that many friends lead to many paths. Faced with the goodwill of the French, Russia naturally followed secretly. As for the future, only God knows. Taking care of the present is the most important thing.

Then the Russian Foreign Minister and the French Ambassador discussed the supervision of loan payments and interest rates. Of course, both of them knew that this issue could not be settled in one day. They mostly agreed on the general direction, and the rest would arrange for people they trusted to take over the next steps.

It was almost evening before Ambassador Rivera came out, but the waiting carriage was still here.

"Set off."

Rivera got on the bus and was in a good mood, humming a hometown tune, and the carriage immediately began to return.

But what Rivera didn't expect was that a pair of eyes not far away were watching all this, from the time Rivera arrived until he left.

After the carriage went away, these eyes still did not leave and continued to observe this place.

After a while, Gorchakov, the foreign minister, also boarded the carriage and left.

Only then did the eyes behind the curtain retract.

After a while, a middle-aged man wearing a windbreaker and a sunhat came out. He got on a public carriage and sat down quietly.

He changed five carriages on the way, and after the journey covered most of St. Petersburg, he finally got off the carriage in the port area.

Walking in the port area facing the sea breeze and the smell of fish, he twisted and turned in the alleys. After making sure that no one was following him, he plunged into a shabby tavern called the Old Sailor.

There was no one in the pub, so he came to the bar and spoke to the bartender.

"Have a cup of water chestnuts."

"I don't have Maira here, there's Foucault's vodka."

"I want Mayila."

"..."

After a while of whispering, the bartender opened a hidden door and let him in.

After passing through a small patio, he came to a room on the second floor.

"It's Nighthawk. Is there anything important you need to report?"

In the messy room, an old man with white hair looked at the visitor and asked.

"Fox, this is what I discovered today."

The man took out a letter from his pocket and threw it on the table. As the man moved, a photo was revealed. It was the photo of Rivera stepping out of the carriage. The French ambassador did not expect that his actions would be discovered.

The old man named Fox put on his glasses and looked at the photos in the letter with a serious expression. The photo shows not only the French ambassador, but also Russian Foreign Minister Gorchakov getting on and off the carriage.

"I know about this, and I will send the news back to Berlin as soon as possible, but before that we need to know what the two talked about."

"This task is a bit difficult. I don't know if they will still be here next time we meet."

The man presented the difficulty.

"It doesn't matter, I will arrange for someone to assist you, and I can also give you an additional grant of funds."

"Then let me try, but I can't guarantee the result. You also know the difficulty of the task."

The old man smiled. "No problem, I believe in Nighthawk's abilities."

The man closed the door and left.

"Ding ding ding."

The old man rang the bell and called someone. "Send this letter to the embassy immediately and have it sent back to Berlin via diplomatic letter as soon as possible."

"clear."

The room fell silent again.