My Italian

The autumn wind blew 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 uninhabited Siberia. It is miserable to know that people who have been sent to Siberia to grow potatoes these years are miserable.

In the past, every few years, prominent nobles in the city were sent to Siberia by the tsar, and every time they cried and cried along the way, it was really sad.

And the grievances and grievances in St. Petersburg have nothing to do with the French ambassador Miguel Rivera, who is rushing to meet with the Russian Foreign Minister Gorchakov.

But this time, instead of riding the carriage with the conspicuous diplomatic logo, he rode a very ordinary carriage.

He did not forget that there were even more Germans in St. Petersburg than they were.

The carriage turned around and came to a house without any signs.

"Your Excellency, here we are."

Simon the coachman and bodyguard reminded him.

"Okay, I know."

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

There was someone at the door, although dressed in ordinary clothes, but judging from the degree of bulging around his waist, he was carrying a weapon and at the same time watching the surroundings vigilantly. But after seeing Rivera coming, he opened the door and let him in.

"Your Excellency, this way please."

After entering the door, led by a waiter dressed as a servant, Rivera came to a room.

"Hello, Lord Rivera."

The person who greeted him was the Russian Foreign Minister Gorchakov.

"Your Excellency, it feels like we are in a secret connection, which is very bad."

As soon as he entered the door, Rivera, the French ambassador, complained.

In the face of Rivera's complaints, Gorchakov, the Russian foreign minister, said apologetically. "Sorry, our country does not want this contact to be known to unrelated people for well-known reasons."

Although Gorchakov was apologetic, Rivera, who had been 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 guys think? It's not a shameful thing for us to discuss this time."

After complaining, Rivera immediately started talking. "Your country knows the amount and interest of the loan this time."

"we all know."

"Then what is your country going to use as collateral?"

"Our country intends to use the livestock tax as collateral."

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

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

This loan is actually quite dramatic. Russia originally planned to raise a sum of money by issuing bonds.

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

It is well known that the interest rate of bonds is lower than that of borrowing, and it is still low-interest borrowing, which makes the Ministry of Finance very happy.

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

To put it more directly, the Russian side is still happy to see it.

You know, although Russia fought with France in the Crimean War, even a tsar died. But this was all 20 years ago. As the saying goes, time dilutes everything. And now the behavior of Russia and the French flirting with each other is a secret. Of course, in view of the relationship of the Three Emperors Alliance, it was concealed.

But some things can be said and done, and some things can be done but cannot be said. Obviously, the behavior of Russia and France is that they can do what they can't say, so the contact between the two is very covert.

Of course, for Russia, although it is allied with Germany and Austria, economically Russia is not closely connected with Germany and Austria.

As we all know, exports to Europe are mainly based on raw materials, minerals and agriculture. The German and Austrian imports to Russia are generally mineral raw materials, and the exports of industrial products such as precision machine lathes are obviously very different from the import and export classification of the two. Russia, on the other hand, exports low-value-added products and imports high-value machinery. Although German products have lower prices in Europe, they also occupy a large number of Russian markets, 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 exacerbated Russia's dissatisfaction.

Although they are now allied with Germany and Austria for the sake of profit, many people of insight in Russia can see that if this situation cannot be changed, then the scene of the two parting ways will not be too far away.

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

Faced with such a situation, the Russians of course also know that there are many ways to have friends. In the face of the goodwill of the French, Russia naturally followed in secret. As for the future, only God knows, and it is important to take care of the present.

Afterwards, the Russian Foreign Minister and the French Ambassador discussed the supervision of payment for goods and the issue of 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 someone they trust to take over the next thing.

It wasn't until it was close to evening that Ambassador Rivera came out, and the waiting carriage was still here.

"Set off."

Rivera, who got in the car, was in a good mood and hummed a little hometown tune, and the carriage immediately began to return.

But what Rivera didn't expect was that a pair of eyes watched all this not far away, from the time of Rivera's arrival to the time of departure, he was seen in his eyes.

After the carriage was far away, these eyes still did not leave, and continued to observe here.

After a while, Gorchakov, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, also boarded the carriage and left.

Only then did the eyes from behind the curtains retract.

After a while, a middle-aged man wearing a trench coat and a sun hat came out. He boarded a public carriage and sat down quietly.

On the way, he changed five carriages. After the trip spared half of St. Petersburg, he finally got off the carriage in the port area.

Strolling in the port area, facing the sea breeze and the smell of fish, he turned around in the alley. After making sure that no one was following him, he plunged into a dilapidated tavern called the Old Sailor.

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

"Have a cup of horseshoe card."

"I don't have Mayila here~www.NovelMTL.com~ Dofoucault's vodka."

"I want Mayila."

"..."

After a while of chatting, the bartender opened a small 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 urgent to report?"

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

"Fox, this is what I discovered today."

The man took out a letter from his pocket and threw it on the table, and with the man's movements, a photo was revealed, which was the photo of Rivera getting out of the carriage. The French ambassador did not expect his actions to be discovered.

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

The man raised the difficulty.

"It doesn't matter, I will arrange someone to assist you, and I can also grant you more money."

"Then let me try it, but I can't guarantee that there will be a 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 to call someone. "Give this letter to the embassy immediately so that it can be sent back to Berlin as a diplomatic letter as soon as possible."

"clear."

The room fell silent again.