v3 Chapter 264： Ministry of Foreign Affairs meeting

On August 15, 1866, French Prime Minister Olivier, Italian Prime Minister Marco Mingetti, Spanish Prime Minister Ramon Narvaez and Portuguese Prime Minister Barreto jointly visited Constantinople.

The sky over Constantinople appeared to be cloudy.

France, Italy, Spain, and Portugal expressed their thoughts on Prussia and the Netherlands buying Constantinople's territory on the Arabian Peninsula.

And the targets all point to the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.

These are okay, the Ottoman Empire has not said anything yet, but far across the English Channel is the United Kingdom.

Even the British hurried, the new Prime Minister Clayston immediately sent Foreign Secretary Russell, launched the battleship from London to bring Minister Russell to Constantinople, and also issued the idea of ​​​​purchasing Constantinople, and the ambition was even greater. , joined the ranks of these four countries, seeking to buy the territory of the Arabian Peninsula of the Ottoman Empire.

To this end, the thoughts of Constantinople at this moment are: I am too hard!

Some regret that they had agreed to the deal between the Netherlands and Prussia.

Eventually, under the combined pressure of these countries, Constantinople compromised, albeit reluctantly.

However, the money still needs to be collected.

Three points from Oman, from Salalah to Mazraq, sold to Portugal for £500,000.

Mazlak to Zuwo Island and the city of Gabay to the north - Fehud were sold to Spain for the same 500,000 pounds, and the rest to the east to the Gulf of Oman were bought by the French Empire for 1.6 million, after all, it is close to The Indian Ocean is also close to the Persian Gulf. The strategic position is too important. The two sides face the sea, and the value is naturally different. Originally, the Ottoman Empire wanted 2 million, but France has already suppressed it by 200,000 pounds.

Italy, on the other hand, bought Yemen from the west of the border with Oman to Atag City. Although there are many deserts, Italy still wants to take this huge territory, so it paid 1 million pounds.

The United Kingdom won the area from the west to the Red Sea. Obviously, because the United Kingdom controls the Suez Canal, it does not want to be controlled by other countries on the side of entering the Indian Ocean. Therefore, winning this place will allow them to occupy the south side with Prussia, who occupies Somalia. Confrontation, the two countries formed a confrontation pattern in the Gulf of Aden.

In short, the harvest of Constantinople this time is not bad, but the territory paid has also completely driven Constantinople out of the stage in the direction of the Indian Ocean.

This is not a question of willingness or not, but forced by the situation, not to mention that everyone saw the opportunity, the deadlock between the Ottoman Empire and the Tsarist Russia Empire is the best time to take advantage of it, and Constantinople dare not easily offend Because of these countries, he has been restrained by most of the energy and military strength of the Russian Empire.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands.

Heisbert Fung is conducting an internal meeting of the Dutch Foreign Ministry with three of his deputies.

They are First Deputy Minister Venus, Second Deputy Foreign Minister Jerry Hunter, and Third Deputy Minister Nicholas Pearson.

"The reason why we went so well this time, in addition to the fair price we offered, the most important thing is that the war between the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire made Constantinople unsustainable to persist, and the breakup with the United Kingdom was even more so. Let the Ottoman Empire be horrified by seeing the great powers"

Nicholas Pearson summed up his trip to the Near East, he also said: "But the most important thing is that the people of the Ottoman Empire are not living well, and the upper echelons of Constantinople are feeling the pressure, so I am ready to use this as an opportunity to put aside Britain has always had influence over the Ottoman Empire and is ready to accept the influence of other countries to counteract the UK.

For the Ottoman Empire to negotiate peace with the Russian Empire on a more equal footing. I think this should be what the Ottoman Empire’s ruling class needs most and most urgently, and it’s easy to understand why the Ottoman Empire would agree to almost all the territorial purchase requests of European countries.”

Hesbert Feng heard the words, paused, looked up at Pearson, and asked, "Will the truce between the Ottoman Empire and the Russian Empire be completed soon?"

Nicholas Pearson: "Recently, Alexander II has been threatened by a huge public opinion in the country. The publication of the book "Crime and Punishment" has detonated the anti-Alexander II trend in the Tsarist Russian Empire, so the Tsarist Russia seems to be interested in colluding with the Ottoman Empire. Let’s stop there. After we have taken Romania, we’ll leave when we see it. But”

Heisbert Von: "But what?"

Nicholas Pearson: "But the Tsarist Empire seems to have recently moved its troops in the Balkans frequently, either intentionally or unintentionally. Let's talk about retreating, but I don't want to, because the army hasn't changed much, it seems to be in rotation, but now the Tsarist Empire and Austria-Hungary The overall stability of the empire, is there any contradiction with Prussia? This rotation seems unreasonable."

Haysbert Feng also pondered, and the First Deputy Minister Venus and the Second Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Jerry Hunter frowned.

Venus asked, "How did you know, Pearson?"

Nicholas Pearson: "When I was in Prussia before, many military figures there often expressed various military opinions, and I learned about them because of this."

Heisbert Von asked, "What do you mean?"

Nicholas Pearson: "So I guess, Alexander II of the Tsarist Empire doesn't seem to give up, and even has the idea of ​​training troops with the Ottoman Empire"

what! Training!

Haysbert Feng, Venus and Jerry Hunt all looked at Nicholas Pearson in disbelief.

......

Sand River Empire, St. Petersburg.

Under the strong suppression of Alexander II, the recent chaos caused by "Crime and Punishment" in the Tsarist Russian Empire was finally suppressed and finally stopped recently.

Not taking the opportunity, he unplugged the internal cooperation between the European countries including the United Kingdom and the Tsarist Russian Empire, which made Alexander II feel bad.

What happened in the Ottoman Empire in the south made Alexander II jealous. If it wasn't for the Russian Empire's efforts to contain most of the Ottoman Empire on the Balkan Peninsula, how could these countries take the opportunity to take those important territories.

However, dissatisfaction in my heart is dissatisfaction, but we still need to face the reality.

On the Balkan Peninsula, although the Tsarist Russian Empire began to increase its troops to the Balkan Peninsula because of the pacification of the domestic situation But at present, it seems that these countries have reached an agreement with the Ottoman Empire in order to obtain the territory of the Ottoman Empire. Among the many agreements, the most common one was reached with the Ottoman Empire. On the Balkans, the anti-virus side that supported the Ottoman Empire was the invasion of the Tsarist Russia.

This is why the Ottoman Empire is willing to sell those territories this time, because this is the guarantee of the seven European powers of Britain, France, Prussia, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, and Portugal. Is there a stronger commitment than this?

Although the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Tsarist Russian Empire expressed dissatisfaction with it afterwards, these countries were nothing but muddy with the Tsarist Russia Empire, and obviously would not make concessions. This time, even the Netherlands made a helpless "diplomatic etiquette" gesture towards the Tsarist Russia Empire.

What else can St. Petersburg say about this.

However, it is definitely not acceptable for Alexander II to easily suffer a loss, hunting for himself while others eat hunting meat for free.

So recently, after discussing with Gorchakov, Milyutin and others, he came to a conclusion that the war on the Balkans should be stopped at this point, because the Tsarist Russian Empire currently does not have the capital to turn all the seven countries into evil, although it is unwilling, But the reality is this.

However, the Balkans can’t do it, but it can be done elsewhere.