Although these Chinese workers are very hardworking, working almost twelve hours a day, eating and living on the construction site, most of them have just disembarked from the ship, their bodies have not yet been adjusted to the best condition, and they have not received relevant technical training.

Of course, the "domestic in the United States" here refers specifically to Chinese workers in the United States, and the Chinese have a natural advantage over other people in this regard.

George Dewey's office is on the top of a small hill in Pearl Harbor, and it is also a wood-paneled house, but as the fleet commander's office, even the wood-paneled room must be the most decorated and well-equipped kind, which is completely different from the ordinary "wood-paneled room".

It was already getting hot in Hawaii in June, and when he returned indoors, George Dewey immediately took off his coat and tie, unbuttoned the top two openings of his shirt, and then leaned back in his chair and let out a sigh.

"Our friend has brought us the latest news, the Spaniards have transferred a troop stationed in Guam to Manila, and the maximum number of colonial soldiers on Guam is currently no more than a hundred colonial soldiers, including more than 90 colonial servants, and I think we only need to send one gunboat to drive the Spaniards out of Guam—" Chris Graham handed over a message from the General Staff that had just been sent from the Ryukyuan people.

As senior officials of the Pacific Fleet, George Dewey and Chris Graham were well aware of the mission of the Pacific Fleet, and the reason why Washington placed the Pacific Command at Pearl Harbor was a clear revelation of its ambitions for the Pacific Ocean, and Guam, as the closest Spanish colony to Hawaii in the Pacific, has always been the target of the Pacific Fleet's attention.

Well, the Spaniards are indeed in decline, since the defeat of the Armada, Spain's colonies around the world have been shrinking, before, Spain also had Cuba in the Caribbean and the Philippines in Southeast Asia to cover their shame, and now Cuba broke away from Spain through the War of Independence, and the Philippines became Spain's last colony, in other words, if Spain went to war, then Southeast Asia would become the main battlefield of the United States and Spain.

As for the Ryukyus, since the Ryukyu Group supported the independence of the Ryukyus, although the Horsemen Group has never recognized this, but the relationship between the Ryukyu and the United States is seen by everyone, the United States wants to do something to Spain, and the Ryukyu has become the largest eyeline of the Pacific Fleet in the Far East, just half a month ago, George Dewey and the Ryukyu government signed a "Cooperation Agreement", once the United States and other countries in East Asia and other countries are at war, then the Pacific Fleet can use all the ports in the Ryukyu, This relieves the biggest logistical danger for the Pacific Fleet, and if there is a war with the Spaniards, the Ryukyus will become the rear of the Pacific Fleet, which is very beneficial to the Pacific Fleet, and the most direct benefit is to shorten the supply line of the Pacific Fleet by about 8,000 kilometers.

"Don't worry about Guam, we have only one goal, that is, the navy of Manila, send a telegram to our Ryukyu friends, if you can, ask them to conduct a preliminary reconnaissance of Manila, and it is best to get the fort defense map of Manila port." George Dewey didn't take Guam to heart, don't look at Guam's important position in the Pacific system of the American military in the twenty-first century, but in the nineteenth century, well, the Spaniards never paid attention to it.

Guam is part of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific Ocean, located at the southernmost tip of the Mariana Islands, in the sixties of the seventeenth century, Guam became a Spanish colony, when there were about 50,000 Chamorro people on the island, and by 1720, there were no more than 2,000 Chamorro people on the island, which shows how bloody the Spanish colonial rule was.

In view of the demographic crisis in Spain itself, the Spaniards had to implement a policy of softness towards the local Chamorro people in the later period of their rule of Guam, but it was too late at this time, and until now, the island has not more than 5,000 residents, so Guam is at the bottom of the food chain in the Spanish colonial system, if it were not for the fact that there are only so few colonies left in the hands of Spain, perhaps the Spaniards would not have stationed troops in Guam at all.

Even if there is a garrison, a force of more than 100 troops is unlikely to cause any trouble to the Pacific Fleet, after all, the Spanish will to fight is not comparable to the Japanese in the twentieth century, during World War II, Guam became one of the bloodiest battlefields during World War II, but now it is the nineteenth century, George Dewey did not associate Guam with the word "bloody".

"Okay, in fact, I still think that the advice given to us by General Bai of the Ryukyus is worth trying, the people of the Philippines are unstable, we only need to pay a small price to make the Spaniards take care of themselves, if we pay a greater price, we don't even need to send a fleet, we can drive the Spaniards away from the Far East." Chris Graham doesn't know Bai Qi, but that doesn't stop Chris Graham from appreciating Bai Qi.

That's right, it's appreciation, although the word is a bit condescending, but an American general has enough mental advantages in front of a Ryukyu general, even if this Bai Qi general also has American citizenship, so it is not too much to describe it.

Bai Qi's suggestion to George Dewey was very simple, that is, to stir up contradictions between the Spanish colonizers and the indigenous Filipinos, and use the indigenous Filipinos to drive the Spaniards away, which could also bring trouble to the Spaniards, and the size of the trouble was directly proportional to how much support the Pacific Fleet could provide, and Bai Qi was more inclined to spare no effort.

"We have to think about this, after all, we are still in Hawaii, if we want to provide support to the Filipinos, then we can only do it through the Ryukyuan, so there is a problem, when the Spaniards are driven away, whether the Filipinos are more inclined to the Ryukyuan or more inclined to us, although the Ryukyuan are now our friends, but in the face of interests, this relationship is not strong." George Dewey was thinking a little too much, but it wasn't unfounded, Hawaii was too far from the Far East.

Speaking of "provocation", George Dewey, who already knew the restoration process of the Japanese shogunate, knew that Bai Qi was a good player, and it was precisely because of the provocation of the Ryukyuan people that the Meiji government of Japan was defeated, and as a result, according to the analysis of the intelligence that George Dewey has now obtained, although the shogunate has resumed its rule in Japan, it is not the shogun who really has the final say in Japan, but the Ryukyuan people.

"I don't think there's any need to worry about it, we all know the background of Bai Qi, and we also know how independent the Ryukyuan people are, so I believe that the Ryukyuan people will treat us the same way they treat the Japanese shogunate, besides, we still have the trump card of Reem, so the Ryukyuan people don't dare to make trouble from it." Chris Graham has confidence in Li Mu, of course, the Horse Group recruited cowboys to go to the Ryukyus and did not hide from anyone, subverting a country with a business, which sounds a bit ridiculous, but there are more absurd things than this, so Chris Graham does not think that Bai Qi dares to steal the fruits of the victory of the Pacific Fleet.

"Ha, Chris, don't have too much confidence in Reem, on general issues, I'm sure Reem will take care of the overall situation, but in the face of such a big country as the Philippines, can you guarantee that Reem will not be tempted? If Riem flatly denies his relationship with the Ryukyu government, then what will we do then? Send gendarmes to arrest Reem and torture him? Don't be funny, I'm afraid the gendarmes haven't arrived in New York yet, and our dispatch will come sooner. George Dewey still doesn't want to take risks, with George Dewey's understanding of Li Mu, although Li Mu is unlikely to tear his face with Washington, why pin his hopes on the torture of human nature? This in itself is unfair.

Some people say that "human nature is inherently good", some people say that "human nature is inherently evil", in fact, good and evil are relative, Hitler is so anti-human when he dies, and Eve is willing to die with him, so the key to the problem is not good and evil, but the impact of the environment, if the Filipinos really drive the Spaniards away through means similar to the Cubans, then no matter what choice Li Mu makes at that time, this is irresponsible for the country.

"Well—well—" Chris Graham gave up arguing, it wasn't worth wasting saliva on something that hadn't happened yet.

"That's right, our opponent is Spain, not France, not England, so we don't have to do so many side moves, we just need to sail the fleet outside the port of Manila, and if the Spaniards know each other, they will make the right choice." George Dewey doesn't want to introduce too many uncontrollable factors, anyway, he can beat the Spaniards with such a dignified goal, so it's better to be safe.

Just as George Dewey and Chris Graham set their sights on the Philippines, Shikoku Island, thousands of miles away from the Philippines, Bai Qi and Pan Tingzhen, the prime minister of the Ryukyu Kingdom, were also discussing the Pacific Fleet.

"The Americans certainly set up the Pacific Fleet not only to deal with the Spaniards, the current Spain is not worthy of so much attention from the US government at all, the Americans want to make their voices heard in the world, and at the same time test the bottom line of the British and the French, the Spaniards are just the chicken in front of the monkey." Hakuki has forgotten his American citizenship and is wholeheartedly playing the role of Minister of War in the Ryukyus.

Just after the shogunate resumed its rule, Shikoku Island became another trophy of Li Mu, and as compensation for the Ryukyu War, Shikoku Island was ceded to the Ryukyu government by the shogunate, and the Ryukyu government immediately sold Shikoku Island to the Shoma Group for $300,000, which also became the first income of the new Ryukyu government.

Slightly better than Shikoku Island is Hokkaido, after the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese government has just begun to develop Hokkaido on a large scale, you must know that before, the Meiji government did not even have a decent administrative body in the Hokkaido region, and the Ezo people in Hokkaido did not succumb to the rule of the Meiji government, strictly speaking, in Hokkaido, the Meiji government and the Ezo people were still at war, and the shogunate restoration interrupted the Japanese government's strategy for Hokkaido, although in the past two years, there have still been Japanese smuggled into Hokkaido through various means, But these smuggling have become illegal, and the Ezo people of Hokkaido are even preparing to establish an independent state, which is clearly the result of the support of a certain force at a later date.

"What we have to worry about now is whether the establishment of the Pacific Fleet will have an impact on our Ryukyus, some time ago we signed an agreement with the Pacific Fleet, which means that the warships of the Pacific Fleet can enter our ports at will, even if we have a good relationship with General George Dewey, but we can't guarantee what other people will think." Pan Tingzhen doesn't care about Spaniards and Filipinos, Pan Tingzhen only cares about Ryukyu and only cares about the 60,000 Chinese in Ryukyu.

After several years of efforts, the number of Chinese in the Ryukyus is rising, from the initial more than 5,000 people to now has grown to more than 60,000, in contrast to the sharp decline of the Ryukyu natives, before Japan launched the war against the Ryukyus, there were nearly 300,000 people in the Ryukyus, only a few years later, 300,000 people dropped to less than 200,000, of which some of them emigrated to the United States, and the large number of projects of the new government is also one of the reasons for the sharp decline in population.

It sounds cruel to have such a declining population, but this situation is constantly happening all over the world, and although the Ryukyuan people are decreasing relatively quickly, the Ryukyuan people have not perished, which is quite fortunate compared to many ethnic groups, so no one pays attention to what is happening in the Ryukyu.

"What can you think? When the Americans fought the Spaniards, they easily destroyed our Ryukyu as well? Don't be funny, the Americans don't have such an appetite, and those politicians in Washington don't dare, even if the Americans defeat the Spaniards, the Americans will have to see the reaction of the British and French first, and then they can determine the next move, and until then, we are all safe. Bai Qi is completely worried, this is rooted in Bai Qi's judgment, although the Americans are now waiting for the day, but they are also weak-minded, and after the United States takes the Philippines, they will always have to digest it for a while before looking for the next prey.

Of course, the length of this digestion time is still up for debate, after all, the Spaniards have been operating in the Philippines for hundreds of years, and even if the United States wants to eradicate the influence of the Spaniards in the Philippines, it is not something that can be done in three or two years, not to mention, if someone gets in the way again, then the speed of the United States' digestion of the Philippines will be correspondingly extended, and it is uncertain what will happen at that time.

"But what about after that?" Pan Tingzhen obviously thought further, and it was best to have some way to do it once and for all, so that Pan Tingzhen could sleep well at night.