Chapter 44: Deep Ocean

The vast ocean, three warships, three coal ships, one merchant ship, and one cruise ship, breaking through the mirror-like blue sea and moving forward slowly. Behind the fleet, several long white lines were brought up.

The warships are the Regent, the Beijing, and the Fengtian. The merchant ships are full of Chinese industrial products. The cruise ships are regular passenger ships from Shanghai to San Francisco. They are one flight a month, carrying passengers and mails, and sometimes cargo.

After the news of this cruise ship being with the Regent, the tickets were sold out immediately. Some domestic Chinese businessmen had no foreign trade business, but they also took this opportunity to buy tickets to travel to the United States.

Commercial ships, cruise ships and coal ships are new types of steamships that use new power, and the three-expansion engine was first used on civilian ships. While building the Regent, the main ironclad ships of the Royal Navy also improved the power system, and the earliest modifications were the Beijing and Fengtian.

Creating a new power system for new ships and modifying the power system for old ships are two concepts. Improving the power system for old ships with a new type of engine may cause many problems for ships. This is also the reason why the British and French navies are slow to respond in the application of new power systems. First, the military's conservative thinking prevails, and second, improving the power system for its huge fleet will be an extremely huge project. It is because the complete steaming of its fleet is a very long process, which basically needs to be achieved by producing new ironclad ships to eliminate old warships.

Of course, at this stage, the three-inflated engine is the first in China, and Europe has not yet obtained the corresponding technology.

When the wind direction is good, the Beijing and Fengtian will also spread their sails to save coal burning.

Standing on the second deck, touching the cold metal railing, looking at the huge ship that never reflects strong light under the dark gray sun, looking at the "Guoyi" and "Guoyi" hanging from the gravity arm behind, and a fast communication ship with a displacement of 11 tons, Ye Zhao felt an unspeakable feeling in his heart. The Regent is the aircraft carrier of this era.

"Master, the wind is strong..." A soft and timid voice came from behind. Holding the marten cloak was a cute and charming little girl with bright eyes, wearing a pure black and white lace maid's skirt, thin knee-length white cotton socks, and small leather shoes like black gems. The dreamy loli maid that can only be seen in the comics, but Ye Zhao was surrounded by piles, which was really ashamed to think about it.

The maid called Misaki, yes, she is a Japanese descent. She was just twelve years old during the New Year. She was inspected by a human trafficker on her way to China by a customs officer seven years ago and was immediately incorporated into the maid group for the orphans adopted by the Regent's government. For her, she spoke Chinese more fluently than Japanese.

The outstanding members of the maid group can theoretically enter the palace to serve at the age of twelve. However, according to the "Regulations on the Protection of Child Labour", they must abide by the choice of child labor working hours and types. Of course, the maid industry does not prohibit the use of child labor, and the lower age limit is very low. This is a fact today. It cannot be abolished by Ye Zhao's words, but it can only be changed slowly by relying on economic development.

The imperial palace generally limits the age of palace maids to over twelve years old. At the same time, palace maids between the ages of twelve and fifteen are in the stage of studying while taking on slight labor.

Misaki is the best in the assessment of palace maids entering the palace this year. Whether it is female pornographic or cultural level, she was ranked first in the exam. Her personality and appearance were also rated as the highest level.

This time Ye Zhao went to the United States, and there was a maid around him. Rong'er handed over this matter to Jinfeng. Jinfeng chose Misaki and personally taught him for half a month.

Misaki also learned from this that the male owner "likes lace ruffled maid outfits", and Concubine Yi, who often goes to the maid group, is really the most terrifying woman in the world in the eyes of these candidate maids.

Ye Zhao naturally didn't know how to pick a maid to serve him, and there would be a lot of people in the harem. However, Misaki was really good, gentle and comfortable, smart and cute. She seemed to know whatever she wanted. Her ability to observe words and expressions was awesome.

The sea breeze blew, and Misaki's little body, which was installed under the maid, had a slight tremor that was not easy to detect. Ye Zhao smiled: "I think you are cold, right?" He took the cloak and draped it on Misaki. His whole body and arms were wrapped tightly. The little loli was obviously startled and said: "This, how about this..."

Ye Zhao had already helped her tie the ribbon on the neckline of her cloak and glared: "Don't move, listen to me."

The sable cloak worth a thousand gold, Misaki's little body immediately became warm, and she whispered: "Thank you, the emperor."

Ye Zhao smiled, let go of his hand, then laughed silently, draped over her little body, her cloak looked extremely wide, and she was even more ridiculous.

Misaki shrank his hand in the cloak, carefully pulled up the cloak, took two steps, and said, "Master, I heard from the guards that I have arrived in Hawaii in front."

Ye Zhao nodded slightly, "Yes, Hawaii..." He looked at the vague black dots in the distance.

"Master, the world outside is so big. Will the master's fleet conquer them?" Misaki's tone was full of pride.

Obviously, Misaki, who came to China since childhood, has a very different mental state than Iori.

"People who want to conquer the whole world are madmen." Ye Zhao smiled.

Misaki said in a very certain tone: "Master will definitely be able to do it."

Ye Zhao smiled but said nothing.

When I passed by Midway Island a few days ago, I had already erected a monument to declare sovereignty. What can I do if I didn’t come to the Pacific Ocean in person, I wouldn’t be able to do many temporary things.

After the United States is unified, its tentacles inevitably extend into the Pacific Ocean. If it does not take the lead, it will lose its initiative. For example, Midway Island will be declared as territorial sovereignty by the United States within a year or two.

If you take the lead, even if you share the spoils and give them to the Americans in the future, you will also make him grateful and exchange them for some benefits.

...

Hawaii was discovered by British navigators ninety years ago. More than fifty years ago, small tribes on the islands of the archipelago established the unified Kingdom of Hawaii after bloody wars. More than thirty years ago, European and American missionaries entered Hawaii. More than 20 years ago, the United States recognized the independence of the Kingdom of Hawaii. More than ten years ago, the French government claimed to occupy Hawaii and possess part of the sovereignty of Hawaii. However, this claim was not recognized by the residents of Hawaii, but instead aroused the dissatisfaction of most residents. During the American Civil War, Hawaii was forced to sell land to grow coffee for the Northern Army.

The king of Hawaii is Kamiha V, and the Polynesian natives on the island are the main residents. In addition, there are immigrants from many countries such as Americans, French, ***, Chinese, etc.

Honolulu, the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii, is the only deep-water port in the archipelago today and a natural deep-water port.

Honolulu is known as Honolulu in China. Since the end of the last century, Chinese people have settled in Honolulu. In 1797, the native Hawaiian chief also traveled to China by boat and stayed in Guangzhou for three months.

Since then, the number of people who sell sandalwood to Guangzhou has increased day by day. At this point, Hawaii has been called Honolulu.

There are more than 3,000 Chinese in Honolulu today, and there are also sugar owners who have joined the local citizenship, such as the Zhang family and the Tang family. They were the first Chinese family to come to Honolulu to operate a cane garden more than 30 years ago.

Thirty years ago, Chinese Zhang Kuan, Tang Xu, Huang Zhu, Wu Feng and others opened sugar-squeezing in the sugar garden. They brought six Chinese masters Liu Zhang, Deng Qiu, Deng Shan, Du Zuo, Zeng Mei and Zeng Cheng to serve as sugar-cooking masters and carpenters respectively, which set the forefront of the development of the sugar sugar industry in Honolulu. The cultivation of sugarcane and pineapple also followed. Planting rice and sugarcane is the mainstay of the people in the Pearl River Delta. If you have less investment in these two crops, you can get high profits, so Chinese people are happy to do this.

With the arrival of the Chinese fleet, Hawaii King Kamiha V invited Zhang Yinheng, the head of the Zhang family, to attend the welcome banquet.

At that time, Zhang Kuan, who had pioneered the history of Chinese struggle, had passed away. Zhang Yinheng was his eldest son and was nearly 60 years old.

The chief representative of the Chinese mission who visited the United States was Zou Kaizhi, Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should actually be called the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Commerce. In this year's era, communication with the outside world was actually more about trade and commerce, and there was relatively less exchange in the purely political and military fields.

At the banquet welcoming Chinese guests, Zou Kaizhi and Royal Rear Admiral Li Chengmou attended the event as the leading figures on the Chinese side.

Ye Zhao mingled among the merchants and watched the strange world coldly.

The Hawaiian Royal Palace is a two-story building. It is the simplest of the palaces Ye Zhao has ever seen. It is even worse than the hotels in the Central Plains city.

The little maid Misaki was also full of disappointment and secretly said, "Master, the natives are ugly, and the palace is even uglier." Now I understand a little why the master doesn't conquer the whole world.

Ye Zhao laughed and said, "Tell you something fun. Didn't their king be called Kamihamiha? It was a name that was later changed. The original name translated into indigenous words, which means hard-shelled crab."

Misaki was surprised and opened her mouth big and could not speak for a long time.

On the grassland next to the palace, the natives performed a hula dance. Ye Zhao sat far away on the wooden chair, and beside him were all merchants, including cruise passengers and family members of the Royal Guard Task Force, both men, women, and young and old.

The former Luqin Regiment was divided, and the infantry team was reorganized and expanded into the most elite heavy infantry guard brigade of the Royal Army.

The spy team members who are good at applying makeup to perform various tasks also ended their historical mission gloriously with the end of the civil war. Some of them were transferred to the Secret Services Bureau of the Department of the Interior, while the rest were transferred to the Royal Interior Guards Department and organized into a task force, which usually carried out guard tasks for the royal family's domestic patrols and overseas visits.

The brown-skinned natives shaking their belly around their waists with weeds rhythmically. Ye Zhao smiled and said, "It's a different style. Isn't it different in different cultural circles?"

In the main seat behind the long wooden table, Zou Kaizhi was whispering to Kamihamiha V, and the Chinese translator who had come to Honolulu in his early years was translating.

Not planning to stay in the Hawaiian Islands for too long, Zou Kaizhi hopes to sign the treaty within three days. The most important one is naturally to rent a natural port (Pearl Harbor) on Oahu, and to build a ship repair factory, dry dock, fuel supply station, dock and other facilities on it.

In this way, the Chinese and civilian ships have continuous supply stations throughout the Pacific Ocean, and their significance is self-evident.

Before the evening banquet, Kamiha Miha V was invited to take the Regent and inspected various formations of the Chinese Royal Navy accompanied by Major General Li Chengmou of the Chinese Navy. This move left a profound impression on Kamiha Miha V. The Chinese Navy in blue and white uniforms, even if it is a technical army, was like a ruler, and was filled with an inviolable iron-blooded aura, just like a beast that put away its fangs. If you accidentally offend it, you will definitely encounter the most terrifying revenge.

The precise rapid-fire cannon smashed the reefs on the sea through continuous shooting, which made Kamiha Miha V unable to stop talking for a long time.

In recent years, more and more Chinese merchant ships have passed through Hawaii Island. The merchants who occupied the monopoly in their early years have disappeared. Kamihamiha V already knew that the country had been included in the scope of the protectorate by the huge empire in the East, and the countries in the East have re-entered the era of order dominated by China.

Before seeing the Chinese fleet, Kamiha V knew that the Chinese would come sooner or later. France and Spain had made territorial demands for the Kingdom of Hawaii, and the Americans were also accelerating the pace of influencing the kingdom. It was only a matter of time before the most powerful countries in the East could reach the depths of the Pacific.

Fortunately, the Chinese only proposed to rent land to build a port, and agreed to deploy only a small amount of security forces to protect the safety of the port, and would not station troops on Oahu.

Just as Kamihamiha V bowed his head and pondered, Zou Kaizhi said again: "Your Highness, whether you agree or not to sign a friendly concession agreement with our country, our country will recognize your country's sovereignty and power all over the world. The fate and future of the Kingdom of Hawaii will be dominated by the Polynesians. Any country's intention to annex the Kingdom of Hawaii will be regarded as a challenge to China's policy of equality and freedom in the East."

Kamihamiha V's eyes lit up and said, "As you know, any treaty in the kingdom needs to be ratified by the parliament." Although it is an indigenous country, it has become a parliamentary system more than a decade ago under the guns of the French.

Zou Kaizhi smiled slightly: "Yes, I understand completely." He raised his glass and gently touched the glass with Kamihamiha V.

While tasting the tea, Ye Zhao turned his head and saw Misaki Masaki lollipop. He was stunned and said, "Do you like lollipop?" The new generation of maids are no longer mechanically rigid as before, full of fear and fear. The master's cough can be scared to death. To be precise, the current palace maids are gradually becoming like living people.

Misaki did it, and she dared to chat with her master. Just now Ye Zhao asked her to move freely and sit down. Although she still paid attention to her every move, she also took out her favorite candy to eat.

After hearing Ye Zhao's question, Misaki hurriedly wrapped the lollipop in plain paper and said, "Master Yi has given me a lot, it's very sweet. Master, do you want it?"

Ye Zhao was helpless immediately. This Jinfeng was so messy that he couldn't tell her some words. But Xiao Misaki just likes lollipops, so what's the solution?

He coughed dryly, waved his hand and said, "You eat yours."

As he was talking, he saw a Chinese businessman greeting guests from each table and gradually approaching.

It was Zhang Yinheng, the king of sugar industry who had entered the local native country, who was full of excitement and greeted the people from his hometown who had come from thousands of miles away to fulfill his friendship as a landlord.

Zhang Yinheng drank a little high today. Even if he reached the first business that made a profit of more than 1,000 taels a few years ago, he would not be in a happy mood at this moment.

The Celestial Fleet finally arrived in Honolulu. Moreover, the giant steel ship carried awe-inspiring power and stood on the dock pontoon bridge, just like an ants looking up at the giant elephant, a feeling of rising from the mountain came to light.

In fact, in recent years, the motherland has become stronger and stronger, these overseas wanderers have felt the deepest, especially those with some status and status, who are most touched.

Like Zhang Yinheng, although he earned a good fortune, he had never received real respect in his early years. The French, Spanish and Americans on the island, even if they were paupers and scoundrels in their hometown, turned a blind eye to him and were very proud. But in recent years, he has clearly felt the change in the attitude of the Westerners towards him, and more invitations were invited to attend various dance parties, and it is obvious that he is regarded as one of the civilized gentlemen.

But he didn't like this kind of dance or gathering, because these top "civilized people" always talked about the indigenous people in a very contemptuous tone, just like talking about livestock and wild animals.

But if you don’t like it, it is unquestionable that the strength of the motherland has greatly improved the status of overseas Chinese, especially those who can live a decent life.

Today, Zhang Yinheng was unhappy when the motherland fleet was visiting. Although he was nearly sixty years old, today he was like a happy child, and he was so excited that he would say anything to drink. If he didn't drink it, he would even raise his hand to drink the wine. It was as rude as if he had returned to his youth.

Zhang Yinheng's eldest son supported his staggered father, and he was helpless and did not dare to persuade him. On weekdays, he was afraid that his father would be very good. Even if he was not speaking properly, he would be severely scolded by his father. But when he saw his father who was drunk now, the eldest son chanted Buddha's name in his heart. The old man woke up tomorrow and thought that he was so disobedient today, he would not blame me again.

There were guards guarding Ye Zhao and the task force members who escorted Ye Zhao at each table had a drink with Zhang Yinheng. Then, Zhang Yinheng moved to Ye Zhao's table.

On this table, Ye Zhao, Misaki, several male and female guards and Zheng Aqiao were seated. The deputy general manager of the Great Inner Guard, who is a feminine but is a seven-foot man with a magical shooting skills.

When going out for a tour and fighting, Ye Zhao likes to bring Ulden and the guards who are skilled and brave and good at fighting. When going out for a tour, he is Zheng Aqiao led the gun master and the guards of the national martial arts master. Such as the sharpshooter Zhao Kaishan, Ren Qian, the Northern Quan royal family member, Dong Haichuan, the Bagua Zhang, Yang Banhou of Tai Chi, etc., these people were all present at this time.

Needless to say, Ren Qian has a deep relationship with Matchmaker and the most low-key master. Dong Haichuan, the Bagua Zhang, was a ray of Yuliang when he was a Tai Chi Yang Luchan. Dong Haichuan accidentally injured someone's life in his early years and became a eunuch. He was invisible and worked in the royal palace in anonymous manner. Later, he fought with Yang Luchan and became famous in the capital. Since then, he has become known to the world.

At that time, Yang Luchan was ordered to compete with boxers in the Su Palace, and won consecutive victories. Finally, he threw a puncher on the garden net. At that time, Dong Haichuan held the dish with his hand and immediately flew onto the net to rescue the boxer. Dong Haichuan then fought with Yang Luchan, and the two heroes confronted each other, and the winner was difficult to distinguish. From then on, Tai Chi and Baguazhang each set up their own doors, and the peach and plum trees were everywhere, and it was passed down to later generations.

The character Tong Lin and Tong Haichuan in the old martial arts novels originated from their admiration for Dong Haichuan.

Yang Banhou was the second son of Yang Luchan. He inherited his father's mantra and searched for famous teachers since he was a child. He had outstanding martial arts skills. He was already famous in Beijing at the age of 20 and was known as "Yang Wudi".

The New Dynasty abolished the Eight Banners system, and these famous boxers were able to enter the guards and become the guards of the Forbidden Palace. Perhaps, this is also the ultimate goal of all the martial artists in the Central Plains today. It represents that their boxing skills are truly entering the house and are recognized by the royal family.

Zhang Yinheng arrived at Ye Zhao's table and was so drunk that he raised his glass and said something unscrupulously. "Come on, come on, I wish you a cup of the elders, remote areas, let you make you laugh and laugh! I, I miss home!" As he spoke, the old man suddenly burst into tears.

Master Zhang said helplessly: "I'm sorry, everyone, Jia Yan drank a few more drinks, but I'm sorry to you all." He said to the old man, "Father, why are you crying for this happy life?"
To be continued...