Located at the "crossroads" of the Pacific Ocean, the Hawaiian Islands are the trunk line and important port of the Pacific shipping route, and have an important strategic position. In 1778, British explorer James Cook arrived in Hawaii, and Captain Cook landed in Kauai's Waimea Bay. This was the first time Westerners learned about the existence of Hawaii.

At that time, there were frequent wars between the chiefs of the Hawaiian islands due to power struggles. Cook's arrival coincided with Kamehameha's ambitions, and with Captain Cook as an advisor and with the help of advanced Western-style weaponry, Kamehameha won two hard-fought battles in Maui's Io Valley and Oahu's Nuanupari Gulf.

By 1795, Kamehameha had taken control of the islands of Hawaii, Oahu, Maui, and Molokai. Establish the Kingdom of Hawaii.

At the same time, Hawaii became a port for sailors, merchants, and whalers from all over the world due to its special geographical location. At the same time, but contagious diseases brought by Westerners led to a sharp decline in the local population of Hawaii.

In 1848, King Kamehameha III enacted the "Great Mahari" Act, which for the first time offered millions of acres of land to sell cheaply. The original intention of the "Great Mahari" was to help the common people gain access to their own land, and as a result, large swathes of the land fell into the hands of foreigners, mainly Americans, and these entrepreneurs were mostly missionary families.

Since then, the rise of the plantation economy has created a huge demand for labor on Hawaiian plantations. Accustomed to being self-sufficient and uninhibited, Hawaiian natives are not interested in profiting from plantations due to long hours, poor working conditions, and cheap pay, and 90 percent of Native Hawaiians have died of exotic diseases in the past few decades. In 1852, laborers from the Chinese provinces of Fujian and Guangdong became the first batch of contract workers. They signed a five-year contract, with free clothing, food, housing and transportation, and a monthly salary of $3.

Hawaii, four years after Kaihong, still maintained its prosperity because of its special geographical location, but in fact, behind this prosperity, there was an undercurrent surging, as the Hawaiian monarch Kamehameha IV, after his accession to the throne, tried to limit the political power of American Protestant missionaries in the Hawaiian Islands. In order to balance the foreign relations that had been manipulated by the United States in the past, he introduced the Anglican Church to establish itself on the island. Impatient with the extreme restraint of American missionaries and suspicious of American businessmen, he gradually removed all Americans from the Cabinet and strongly promoted Hawaii's business dealings with other nations.

Perhaps the most effective of these was the diplomatic relations with China that helped the Kingdom of Hawaii. China's engagement with Hawaii was actually a not-so-pleasant beginning.

In the first year of Kaihong, after the mistreatment of Chinese laborers in Hawaii was reported, the imperial government immediately sent warships to Hawaii, accompanied by diplomats to negotiate labor matters with the Hawaiian Kingdom, so as to ensure the rights and interests of Chinese laborers, and the two sides signed a "treaty of commerce" stipulating labor rights. The contract for Chinese workers is for three years, the travel in the cabin, food, accommodation, medical care, and fuel are all free of charge, there are no taxes, the price of rice is not higher than 5 cents per pound, and the salary is $8 per month for men and $5 for women. At this time, the local population grew and the lack of agricultural land became one of the reasons why Chinese people went to Hawaii.

In just four years, more than 24,000 Chinese have gone to Hawaii to make a living, and when their contracts expired, most of them did not return to their homeland, but stayed in Hawaii, using their salaries to buy cheap land to cultivate land, grow crops or raise beef cattle.

Tens of thousands of immigrants set up small family farms here, and these Chinese immigrants provided more taxes to the Kingdom of Hawaii than the large amounts of land controlled by American missionary families, and they were not as domineering as the Americans. The Consulate also helped establish the Seafarers' Home and Queen's Hospital in Honolulu in Honolulu, providing free medical care to Hawaiians and half of their Hawaiian ancestry.

The humility of the Chinese has won the favor of the whole Hawaiian Kingdom, but in the midst of this goodwill, no one can stop the undercurrent.

“…… American missionary families control 70 percent of Hawaii's arable land, but their population is less than 1,000! In contrast, there are nearly 25,000 Chinese living in the kingdom, while the native population of Hawaii is only 75,137! 100,000 people own less than 30% of the arable land! This is undoubtedly catastrophic! ”

Looking at the Kingdom of Kamihameha IV in front of him, Li Guoan, who was the imperial ambassador to Hawaii, continued when he said these figures.

"Now, those Americans who have lost power under the intervention of His Majesty the King, who still hold a lot of Hawaiian wealth, are they willing to lose power? No! ”

Shaking his head, Li Guoan's eyes stared at the king in front of him, he had received a domestic order - to facilitate the annexation of Hawaii to China!

"We have credible intelligence that they are planning a coup d'état!"

"Coup d'état!"

Looking at Li Guoan in surprise, King Kamihameha IV asked rhetorically.

"Do you mean that the consul wants to overthrow my rule?"

After four years of interaction, Kamihameha IV can be said to have great trust in the consul in front of him, especially when the behavior of the two is compared with that of the Americans.

Over the past four years, despite the growing number of Chinese immigrants here, they have complied with Hawaiian law and provided half of Hawaii's tax revenue. And China has also given Hawaii a lot of help, they have helped Hawaii build a modern port, provided Hawaii with hundreds of thousands of yuan in loans to build hospitals, schools, to train indigenous doctors themselves, and more importantly, since last year, the Chinese began to provide them with a variety of vaccines, just like cowpox can prevent the spread of smallpox, those vaccines can prevent the spread of measles and other diseases, and his son is the beneficiary, it can be said that the entire Hawaiian kingdom has benefited. After vaccination, the infection rate of infectious diseases that claimed hundreds of thousands of Hawaiians fell to almost zero.

Because of this, for the Chinese, Kamihameha IV has always been grateful. This is especially true after the comparison with the United States.

"Yes, Your Excellency!"

Of course not really!

The so-called intelligence is just a fiction of the intelligence agencies, but this information is extremely real and there is relevant evidence, such as the purchase of a large number of weapons and even several artillery pieces by American expatriates in the past few months.

In the face of this information, Kamihameha IV fell into silence, despite the fact that the Kingdom of Hawaii as a country, the strength of the so-called army was hardly worth mentioning, and even the docks did not have artillery, and in the words of Westerners, there was no standing army here at all. There were only some guards of the royal palace.

If these American immigrants were going to carry out a coup d'état, how should they put down the coup d'état? In contemplation, Kamihameha IV turned his gaze to the consul in front of him.

"Your Excellency, according to the treaty signed between our two countries, you should guarantee that Hawaii will not be annexed by other countries!"

Such a treaty is not limited to China, which they signed with the United States many years ago, and is just a means of self-protection for weak countries in the face of external threats.

"Your Majesty, according to the terms of the treaty, we can only act according to the powers of the treaty when other countries try to annex Hawaii, but now ......"

Looking at His Majesty in front of him, Li Guoan shrugged his shoulders helplessly.

"This is your internal affair, and according to the habits of the Chinese Empire, we have no intention of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries!"

How is this possible?

If he had no intention of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, he would not have supported the expulsion of the Americans from his cabinet by King Kamehameha IV, and would he have given advice on his internal affairs again and again.

"Your Excellency, Consul!"

Kamihameha IV stared at the consul in front of him, his fat body shape characteristic of Hawaiians conveying a kind of pressure.

"Now, we need help from our friends! Help us get through this! ”

At this time, Kamihameha IV used the term "friend" to describe China, because in the past four years, China has really done what only friends can do, and what they need in return is extremely fair, just the same trade and the right of port call for warships as other countries.

"Now, your warship is anchored in the harbor, and as a friend, I trust that your strength can help me through the difficult time before me, and I and the Kingdom will be forever grateful for your help."

For Kamihameha IV, in the face of this sudden news, all he could rely on was the Chinese in front of him and the Chinese warships in the harbor, and the reason why he was willing to trust the Chinese was because of the friendship shown by the other party in the past four years.

"Your Majesty, as friends, we should indeed help you and your kingdom through this difficult time!"

Meeting the gaze of Kamihameha IV, Li Guoan continued.

"But what we have to consider is that even if we help you this time, what about the next time? This time, our fleet is here, it can stop all this, but next time, if we don't get intelligence, if our fleet is not here, if, by that time, it's American warships that are here, then, Your Majesty, when the time comes, what will we do? ”

Li Guoan's rhetorical question made Kamihameha IV stunned, his brows were furrowed, and the expression on his overly fat face became more and more solemn.

What about next time?

What if it's the American fleet next time?

"If ......"

After thinking for a long time in the face of Li Guoan's answer, King Kamehameha IV suddenly thought of what the English missionary had said.

"Shall we lease you an island or a port to be used as your naval base? That way, you can stay here forever! ”

Compared with the Americans, Kamihameha IV and the indigenous people of the island prefer these Chinese with similar skin colors to themselves, like their humility, like their gentleness, and like that they don't have that sense of dominance.

If it had been last year, Li Guoan would have immediately accepted such a proposal, after all, for the Navy, obtaining a naval base in Hawaii has always been the Navy's dream -- which means advancing the maritime defense line thousands of nautical miles eastward.

Whoever controls Hawaii controls the Pacific Ocean!

Moreover, as a diplomat, Li Guoan knows very well that the ambassador to Russia is now conducting land negotiations with Russia, and once the negotiations are completed, many outstanding land issues will be resolved, and at the same time, Alaska is very likely to be purchased by China.

At that time, Alaska, Hawaii and the Nantian Islands in New Guinea will form a barrier, the empire's barrier in the Pacific Ocean, and at that time, the Pacific Ocean will most likely become a "swimming pool" for China, but what is the biggest weakness in this barrier? It's Hawaii, because it's not China's land!

Therefore, it is impossible for him, as well as at home, to be satisfied with a pitiful base.

"Your Majesty, sometimes, even we can't stop a lot of things!"

Shaking his head, Li Guoan said bluntly.

"The movement of our troops requires domestic authorization, and if there is no domestic authorization, the consul has no right to mobilize the army, and now as a consul, I can ask for the help of the navy on the voyage, in the name of safeguarding the interests of the expatriates, but I have no right to ask for the help of the garrison! Your Majesty! ”

Authority, this is a suitable excuse, the consul does not have any authority over the garrison, after all, the garrison is different from the traveling naval fleet, this is the common consular authority and responsibility of all countries.

As for Li Guoan's answer, Kamihameha IV was silent, and he naturally knew that the other party was not looking for an excuse, but he could feel that behind his refusal, there was more desire, and a base could not satisfy the Chinese.

The reason why I believe that the Chinese desire for Hawaii is because he learned from the British missionaries that it is because of the special geographical location here, which determines that the Chinese cannot sit idly by and watch other countries control this place, compared to the British, they are more eager to get here, and even their desire is far more than the United States!

This desire is not because the Chinese have a larger whaling fleet than the United States, in fact, China only has a few dozen whaling ships, and the Chinese fleet that arrived in Hawaii is more warships than whaling ships!

China has a much larger fleet than the United States!

They needed to get a port in Hawaii for the fleet, and Kamehameha IV had always believed that this was exactly what China wanted, but what was their goal now?

Is it the same as the Americans, who also want to annex Hawaii?

After thinking of this possibility, Kamihameha IV's face became even more difficult to look at, and the gaze looking at Li Guoan was no longer as friendly as before!

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