The letter ships arrived in the Americas three months before the arrival of the Grand Fleet.

Attracted by the huge maritime trade interests, China's shipbuilding capacity has become stronger and stronger in recent years, not only in terms of the scale of shipyards, nor in the expansion of output, but also in terms of technology.

The foundation of the Chinese to make sea ships is stronger than any country, there are some technologies that have stood at the peak of sailing ships very early, even if the West squeezes in, it cannot eliminate these technologies, such as hard sail technology, Westerners can insist on their soft sails, but can not make the Chinese accept, China continues to use hard sails, the Portuguese combined with hard sails to build old lock ships is an example, the hull technology is completely Western technology, but the sails use Chinese hard sails, it is enough to show that hard sails are at least not worse than Western sails.

Another technology, which was not introduced by Westerners until the age of steel ships, is the watertight compartment technology. Because watertight compartments greatly increase the safety of merchant ships, allowing Chinese merchants to obtain the safety of sea transportation when the hull is thinner, the Chinese ship has a lighter hull and a shallower draft. The French ship had a similar characteristic, with a shallow draft and a fast run. But the French did this at the expense of the safety of the hull, so the French warships were often defeated in head-on battles with the British warships, and even the ability to resist wind and waves was even worse at sea.

Chinese craftsmen combined some Western concepts, in the merchant ship to continue to retain the watertight compartment technology, to maintain the characteristics of the hull lighter, continue to increase the hull, change the traditional length-width ratio, and at the same time add more sails, in order to pursue speed, in the maritime transport, run faster, of course, faster recovery of costs.

So there was a kind of slender hull, the ratio of length to width can reach more than 6 to 1, in the 500-ton merchant ship, equipped with five masts, the shallow draft almost close to the water sailing, extremely fast, almost double the traditional sailing ship. In the early days, these ships were designed to transport tea to Europe, and the arrival time in London was shortened to three months.

Due to its slender hull and high speed, it gradually acquired the name of the Exocet ship, which has many similarities in principle with Western scissors, but the scissors have not yet appeared. The clipper ship uses a hollow bow to make the boat more buoyant and has a shallower draft, while the watertight cabin technology makes almost all the bottom of the ship hollow. The popular design of the clipper ship to reduce the stability of the superstructure has also appeared on the Flying Fish ship, which is the result of repeated modifications by Chinese and Western shipbuilders. It can't even be called a Chinese ship, but the product of a combination of Chinese and Western technologies.

As soon as this kind of ship appeared, it was recognized by the market and widely promoted in the tea transportation industry. It has now been accepted by Western countries, but the Exocet they built is also different from that of China, and they have modified soft sails instead of hard sail technology. With the construction of the railway to the Black Sea, tea, medicines, these high-value commodities, and high requirements for preservation conditions, a large number of railways, and then from the Black Sea to Europe, closer than the Suez Canal, from the Chinese tea region of spring tea to London, now it only takes almost two months.

After not going through the Suez Canal, the Exocet gradually withdrew from shipping in the Indian Ocean, after all, the bulk commodity trade here is more cost-effective with larger tonnage seafaring ships. But on the Americas route, the Exocet continued to have a place, after all, the transport of tea to the Americas had to be carried by sea.

The army also used a large number of Exocet ships as letter ships, arriving in Kanayama (San Francisco) three months earlier than the fleet to deliver the news of the crown prince's visit to the Americas.

Zhu Lian attached great importance to this news, and together with Chen Zhouquan, he opened up the current situation in the Americas, with a population of more than 10 million, living a prosperous life, living and working in peace and contentment; But his personality is more open-minded than Chen Zhouquan, and he can afford to let go, so he is older than Chen Zhouquan, but he lives longer, Chen Zhouquan is dead, and he is still alive more than ten years older than Chen Zhouquan.

But he is also over seventy years old, and he is seventy or eight this year, and he has a few years to live, so he is eager to realize the capital in his hand, hoping to get the emperor's approval and make the Zhu family a veritable king of the Americas. He was willing to become a deferential vassal state, paying tribute every year, like Joseon and Annam.

Zhu Li felt that the emperor should not refuse, after all, the Americas are thousands of miles away from China, and there are still criminal records; Didn't the emperor canonize Su Chonga as the king of South Africa, and it was not a problem to canonize him as a king of the Americas. It's just that the emperor didn't have an attitude for a long time, so he decided to test it, after all, he couldn't wait for many years, in case he died, whether his sons could keep the family business, he didn't have confidence at all, he was not much different from Chen Zhouquan in the ability to cultivate his children and grandchildren, his children were more than Chen Zhouquan, there were eight adult sons, and there were a lot of daughters, and the eight eldest sons were divided into five rooms, each of which went his own way.

It's not that Zhu Lian is not strong in command, and he can't even control his sons, but these sons follow him to fight the world together, the eldest two sons, who were with him on the sea back then, and the other sons have also made contributions to the development of the Americas, and the other side of the credit is that they have each cultivated their own team.

Zhu Lian was very sure that if he died suddenly, then his eight sons would definitely kill each other like Chen Zhouquan's three children. So he needs to get the support of the emperor, if the emperor canonizes the king is different, there are Chinese regulations, and he needs to be canonized by the emperor in order to obtain the throne, then as long as China does not fall, the American countries will not fall, just like the North Korean Lee dynasty can stand for hundreds of years without falling, relying on the canonization of the tide. It is also possible that Nguyen Zheng will split like North Korea, but with the mediation of the heavenly tide, one side can also be divided into princes.

Therefore, the name of China is very important to him, without this name, he can't even gather the power of his sons, unless he is willing to kill his relatives in righteousness, and cleanse the other sons for his successor before his own death, but the tiger poison does not eat the son, he can't do it.

Therefore, he sent a vague signal to the emperor, by sending troops to annex Chen Zhouquan's forces, to show the emperor his unique power in the Americas, if the emperor intends to canonize, his Zhu family is the unyielding lord of the Americas, if the emperor is unwilling to divide the Americas, it will be troublesome, and the emperor will definitely take measures.

Zhu Li is very ambivalent about the latter possibility, he is an ambitious person, and it is impossible for anyone in his state to be without ambition, and he is a pirate king who crosses the sea. If the emperor refuses to divide the Americas, he is very unwilling to give up these foundations, but he is full of powerlessness against China.

He considered all possibilities, the United States on the other side of the mountain was separated from Britain and fought a bitter war for eight years, if he went to war with China, could he fight for eight years? It's not that there have been no Yi people looking for him for so many years, Yingyi has already wooed him, and said that he has all kinds of this, he believes that if he starts a war with China, Yingyi will support him. But even if Yingyi himself has only been fighting with China for a year, he can't hold on, and when he Zhu Hui starts a war with China, Yingyi picks his pick, who will he talk to.

The cost of confrontation is too high, and his behavior is a thief in China, and he wants to punish the nine tribes. His Zhu family has been a maritime merchant for generations, although he has been discriminated against, but the family has a big business, and there are still a huge number of branches in the country, if he can succeed, then those people will give up, and they will succeed in ten thousand bones, and he has the psychology of abandoning his family and business if he wants to achieve the emperor's hegemony and abandon his family. But if there is little hope and the nine clans are ruined, then it is really a shame to the ancestors, and they will not be able to live in peace after death.

Zhu Li, who was contradictory, did not dare to take the lead, he planned to see if the emperor's mind was making a decision. The emperor sent the crown prince, Zhu Min felt that there might not be any good news, if he was canonized, he would definitely send a member of the ministry, send the crown prince, and bring soldiers, no matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like he came to canonize him. Although the name of sending troops is to go on an expedition to the United States, who does not know the allusion of the false journey.

He is not afraid of the crown prince's soldiers, the news is that 100,000 troops will be sent, if this is not an imaginary number, he is not afraid of 100,000 if it really comes, and he is not afraid of even 200,000 or 300,000 people.

The problem is that if you win the battle and solve the problem, you can wipe out the army of the crown prince, but you will stab the basket, and then it will not be two or three hundred thousand people, and it is not impossible for the Chinese army of two or three million, and the Son of Heaven will ambush millions of corpses in anger, this is not just a metaphor.

Zhu Li, who was anxious, decided to greet the crown prince first, and he personally greeted him at the port. Bringing two less important sons, even if you give the crown prince respect, the other sons are stationed in various places, just in case.

When the fleet finally entered the port, warships of all sizes docked at the pier, and the sailors disembarked and lined up, and the soldiers quickly occupied all the important places in the port, looking like they were not good.

Zhu Lian still did not act, the nearby forts and fortresses were in his hands, and the port was no obstacle to the other party.

He waited at the customs yamen, but he could not wait for the crown prince to get off the ship, and soon an officer came and ordered him to go to the ship to meet him.

Zhu Li is very conflicted, he can't help himself when he gets on the boat, if the other party is not good for him, he is powerless to fight; But he decided to go anyway, he was prepared for everything, and even if he didn't have an accident, his sons would be in control. In the Americas in the past few decades, he has not been a fool of everything, and the iron bucket that has been built for him here a long time ago, even if the emperor comes, he will not want to take away his inheritance easily, this is the confidence that he really dares to hint at the emperor to divide the seal.

If the crown prince is not a stunned young man, he will not necessarily make a move to detain him, the Manchu Qing Dynasty detained Zheng Zhilong, causing Zheng Chenggong to crisscross the Taiwan Strait for decades of lessons, I believe that the Great Zhou will consider it.

In his impression, the emperor has always been a very calm and relatively able person to make concessions, and it is unlikely that he will make such an extreme move, so Zhu Lian still decided to board the ship and meet him.