United States of America.

Portsmouth, Eastern Virginia.

In a speeding carriage, four Chinese sat in the carriage. I saw these Chinese, all of whom were full of excitement.

"Brother Wu, I only learned a few months ago that the Holy King ascended the throne and became the emperor of the Chinese Empire. Unexpectedly, in just a few months, the empire captured Tianjing, and even Hong Xiuquan committed suicide! Now that the Manchus and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom have been defeated, as long as the remnants of the Manchus are swept away, China will be unified and peace will be enjoyed. One of them, a scholar in his thirties, dressed as Chinese, said to a man of the same age in the middle.

"Yes! I didn't expect the king to ...... Hey, that's fine, that's where he ends. With the Holy King, no, now it should be called Your Majesty, with Your Majesty, the world will definitely be peaceful! However, it is not peaceful now, and before I came to this United States, His Majesty personally explained to me that we came to this American Virginia for three purposes. One was the establishment of the consulate of the Holy Kingdom in Richmond, which has now been built; The second is to lead this group of soldiers and soldiers, a group of machine factories, textile factories and other factory miners, and a group of boys to study in this United States, which is now almost completed; The third is to find a way to contact those large shipyards to see if they can buy large warships, but this point has not been able to complete the task, fortunately this time with this excellent opportunity, it must be done. The person known as Brother Wu said.

These Chinese were none other than Wu Ruxiao, deputy secretary of foreign affairs of the Shengwang Palace, who had come to the United States from Guangzhou two years ago with former US Commissioner to China Marshali, and his entourage, and the scholar in his thirties, named Lu Ziyue, was originally the grandson of Lu Guanheng, the owner of Guangli Bank, which ranked second among the 13 banks in Guangzhou, and later worked as a general translator at the Nanyang Company. Before Wu Ruxiao participated in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in his early years, he was originally a partner in Guangli Xing, and he was familiar with Lu Ziyue, so when he wanted to come to the United States this time, he brought Lu Ziyue and his younger brother Lu Zimin over as translators and helpers.

Wu Ruxiao and his team followed Marshali all the way, going and stopping, from Guangzhou via Hong Kong Island, Manila, Singapore and Malacca, Mumbai, Cape Town to London, after resting for more than a month, after the completion of the transaction between Marshali and others, they set off again, crossed the vast Atlantic Ocean to Boston, and then traveled all the way, and finally arrived in Richmond, the capital of Virginia.

Along the way, Wu Ruxiao and them can be said to have opened their eyes. He never dreamed that this world would be so big, the vast sea, really boundless, countless days and nights of sailing, and finally reached the destination. It took almost a year to finally arrive. Even if Marshali and others stop and go on the road because they want to do business, it is too far away. At this time, Wu Ruxiao and the others no longer thought that they were the people of the Heavenly Empire, and looked down on foreigners and other barbarians, and suddenly felt that they were like frogs at the bottom of the well, and they had never seen the world. However, this was only a momentary thought, and slowly, after experiencing countless places and days and nights of sailing, Wu Ruxiao and the many people sent by the Holy Kingdom led along the way had deeply understood why the Holy King sent them. And Wu Ruxiao secretly made up his mind to complete the task of the Holy King.

When Wu Ruxiao followed Ma Shali, he brought three groups of people.

The first batch was composed of 52 soldiers of the military and naval divisions, half of whom were grassroots soldiers such as platoon commanders and company commanders, not that Feng Yunshan deliberately wanted to train officers, but that these people had barely read some books, and they followed Lu Ziyue and other generals in the Nanyang Company to learn foreign languages, and they could barely understand the words of foreigners. Perhaps the Holy King had told the Yankees that once they arrived in the United States, Marshali led them to the Annapolis Military Academy in Maryland, which was the U.S. Naval Academy.

The second group of workers from the machine factory and the textile factory, a total of 120 people, were selected by the Nanyang Company, but this group of workers did not have such good conditions, only a few of them knew foreign languages, and some of them did not even know even words. After arriving in the United States, through Marshali's connections, he directly arranged for them to learn machine operation and manufacturing processes in several large factories in New York.

The third batch of 150 children were directly 150 children, all of whom were orphans left behind after the war with the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and were adopted by the Holy State, this time they were brought out by Wu Ruxiao, and after Lu Ziyue taught them English, as soon as they arrived in the United States, after some teaching, they were divided into 15 groups, each group had 10 points, and they were scattered and sent to local schools in the eastern states of the United States.

And Wu Ruxiao and the others, after completing the arrangements of these three groups of people, immediately began to prepare for the establishment of the consulate. Fortunately, with the help of Marshali, and it may have been that the Holy King had greeted John the Great who contracted the Imperial Railway Project, the John family used their influence to make Wu Ruxiao almost unhindered, so they directly built the Chinese Association in Richmond, and the Virginia State Assembly agreed to the Holy State to set up a consulate in Richmond, so the Chinese Association became the first Chinese consulate on American soil.

However, Wu Ruxiao and his family wanted to acquire large shipyards, especially Portsmouth Shipyard and Norfolk Naval Shipyard, both of which were located in Norfolk, not far from Richmond, which was very conducive to their management, but unfortunately, because these two shipyards were manufacturing warships for the US Navy, they were unable to acquire them despite the repeated maneuvers of Marshali and Big John.

And this time, they received a letter from the Norfolk Navy Yard majority shareholder George Murphy. Lang Feng's message was that they were invited to discuss business. Wu Ruxiao and they knew that this must be related to the plague in Norfolk. Since last summer, the city has been plagued by the plague caused by mosquito bites, and the whole of Norfolk, with several shipyards and textile mills, large and small, has now all closed down, and Norfolk, which originally had a population of 30,000, now has only more than 10,000 people left, and more than half of the population has fled to other places to escape the plague. Without workers, many factories would have to close down, and Wu Ruxiao maliciously speculated whether even the Norfolk Navy Yard would be devoid of workers. Lang Feng just passed the word.

So, Wu Ruxiao asked Lu Zimin to stay in Richmond, and he and Lu Ziyue hurriedly hired a carriage to rush to Norfolk.

When you enter downtown Norfolk, you will see a desolation.

The coachman in the carriage was reluctant to go any further into downtown Norfolk, and he said that as the weather warmed up and mosquitoes began to appear, the terrible plague began to spread again, especially in the area near the shipyards by the bay.

In desperation, Wu Ruxiao and Lu Ziyue had to get out of the carriage and go on foot. The two of them were dressed densely so as not to give mosquitoes a chance to bite.

At the gate of the Norfolk Navy Yard on the edge of the Elizabeth River, the Norfolk Navy Yard major shareholder George Murphy is also fully armed and tightly wrapped. Lang Feng led a few people out, and first he and Wu Ruxiao were a bear hug. Obviously, Wu Ruxiao, who has been in the United States for so long, has adapted to this friendly way of foreigners.

After greeting each other, the two walked to the dock and stood on the bank of the river, but George spoke first: "Mies Wu, you must know, because of this damn yellow fever plague, my Norfolk Navy Yard can't sustain itself. I invite you to come today, I would like to ask, are you still interested in taking over? ”

Although Wu Ruxiao can barely understand English, it is still a little difficult to speak, and he can only translate through Lu Ziyue: "Mr. George, I am happy to take over." The first thing to confirm, though, are you sure you can sell? The U.S. Department of the Navy won't get in the way? ”

"Of course not! Miss Wu, you can rest assured! My uncle, an Lieutenant Governor and Congressman, had been warned that the Admiralty had interfered with my right to trade freely. George patted his chest. [.]