【2nd Update】

The violent friction that occurred in the port of San Juan South on June 10 was a direct result of the fact that China and the United States were again in a tense diplomatic standoff a few days later, and the two sides then fell into a four-hour close standoff after the collision of the US fleet with the Zhenyuan warship, but in the end, Commodore Dewey apparently realized that the probability of a missed shot was growing rapidly, and this was obviously not the outcome he wanted to see.

The U.S. Navy still has a long way to go to defeat the Chinese Navy...... This is something that veteran naval commander Dewey obviously understands far better than most American officers!

So, in the end, the U.S. Navy chose to protest in the afternoon and leave, and a little later, under the guns of Chile and other four American warships, Nicaraguan Prime Minister Martinez reached an agreement with his American neighbors to repeatedly confirm that the management of the Nicaragua Canal did not belong to the United States, and the Central American drama led by China came to an end, while Chile and the other four countries were very satisfied with the results of this military operation under the protection of China, because they had won a small victory against the powerful United States that they had never achieved before.

Early in the morning of 11 June, Huang Zunxian, the Chinese minister to the United States, who had received domestic instructions, submitted a letter of protest to President Roosevelt, demanding that the United States rein in its navy and avoid military friction with China in the Pacific, and demanding that the US government compensate for the damage to the Chinese warship. The Chinese minister demanded an explanation from China for an explanation of the incident in San Juan do Sul.

Huang Zunxian naturally ignored the Americans' demands, but directly proposed that the US Navy take the lead in shelling Chinese warships outside the port of San Juan South. And block the friendly exercises of the Chinese Navy with South American countries. In the end, the collision of Chinese and American warships was led.

The controversy between the two sides immediately triggered a new round of anti-China fervor in the US domestic media. The radical New York Daily and other newspapers have published commentaries calling on the US Government to dispatch its navy to engage in a decisive battle with China in the Pacific Ocean to protect US interests in the Americas.

And in this regard, President Roosevelt and his cabinet members suddenly lost their voices en masse, and it is clear that although Theodore and his cabinet members lost their voices en masse. After President Roosevelt took office, his support for the Navy had reached an unprecedented level, but. The strength of the U.S. Navy today, as President Roosevelt, who has military experience, is much more sober than anyone else.

If there is a naval battle between China and the United States, although there may not be a war on the east coast, at this moment, the only three battleships and five cruisers on the west coast of the United States are not enough to confront the powerful Chinese Pacific Fleet, and the other side only needs to dispatch the two battleships that participated in the Cuban War last time to exhaust the West Coast Fleet. Even if the home fleet on the west coast is reinforced, it is estimated that the news will be leaked before Cuba arrives. What's worse is that once the war breaks out. This time, the United States will probably not only face China!

In just one year, the United States has intervened in a new round of the Atlantic military race, and German Admiral Minister Tirpitz earlier criticized the Monroe Doctrine of the United States as an arrogant and rude diplomatic means, and just half a year ago, Wilhelm II bluntly stated that in order to build the great navy of the German Empire, it is simply insignificant to offend the Yankees, which has made the relations between the United States and the German Empire extremely tense in the near future, and at that time, it will be difficult for this European power, which has close relations with China, to guarantee that it will not intervene in a new conflict.

On June 21, Huang Zunxian, the Chinese minister to the United States, suddenly threw out several photos of the confrontation in San Juan South that day, which clearly showed the state of the two sides before the confrontation, and the US Navy fleet completely blocked the coast entering the port, while the Chinese side claimed that it was precisely because of the arrogant behavior of the US Navy that the collision between the two warships was finally caused.

The appearance of the photo once again ignited the diplomatic dispute that had already subsided, and the two sides exchanged verbal accusations, and what made President Roosevelt even more depressed was that after full consideration, he made up his mind that "a gentleman will take revenge, and it is not too late for ten years" to negotiate with China to resolve the dispute, but he did not get any echo from China at all.

In Beijing, Qin Kai, who was discussing with the new Minister of Foreign Affairs Chen Jitong the seventh border survey negotiations with the British on the seventh border survey of Northern Australia, naturally understood Roosevelt's depression best, because this was precisely the result of Qin Kai's deliberate actions, and in fact, his biggest purpose was naturally not to let the Yankees compensate for the dollar!

The collision of the Zhenyuan ship this time, when the news came, Qin Kai really ate for Deng Shichang's bravery, which was almost entirely his own initiative, but to hit the 15,000-ton Wisconsin with a small body of 7,000 tons, this was really a fate, but the result was actually very bad.

Returning to the Hawaii military port for maintenance, it was found that the main armor belt on the port side of the Zhenyuan ship was damaged, and the keel was also deformed, and what was even worse was that the impact guided one of the main shafts of the Zhenyuan twin-shaft engine was deformed, and the dry dock of the Hawaii military port could not be repaired at all, and it is currently returning to China at a speed of 12 knots.

However, the collision of the Zhenyuan ship still produced huge political results, and Huang Zunxian made full use of this opportunity to drag the US government into a big quagmire of diplomatic sparring, and the implementation of the canal plan between the United States and Nicaragua was therefore forced to be temporarily shelved.

Qin Kai even considered whether to take this opportunity to grab the right to operate the canal again, but considering that Nicaragua does not have Chinese power at all, and the length and cost of the Nicaraguan Canal are insufficient in input and output, it is better to invest in the industrial support of overseas provinces that are in full swing in China today.

What made Qin Kai very happy was that the Boer War, which lasted for two years, finally made the British Empire tired of coping, and the Salisbury cabinet was hit hard in the domestic political arena because of a series of mistakes in the war, at this critical juncture, Chen Bo, the minister to the United Kingdom, proposed to Britain a package to solve the joint exploration of the Australian border, which became a key diplomatic plan of the Salisbury cabinet, and immediately received an enthusiastic response, obviously, the upcoming 1902 general election, The Conservatives are not willing to let go of power!

The Boer War, which lasted for two whole years, after the British government invested nearly 350,000 troops and spent nearly 35 million pounds in military spending, still showed a war situation that confused the whole world, although Admiral Roberts completely defeated the organized confrontation of the Boers with the operation of the large army, and captured the Transvaal capital Pretoria nine months ago.

However, the whole of South Africa was completely under the threat of Boer guerrilla warfare, and on 2 July, the bad news came again, when the army of Lieutenant General Main of the 7th Cavalry Regiment was besieged by guerrillas in the mountains west of Pretoria, and Lieutenant General Main was seriously wounded and captured...... It is difficult to find a large Boer army in the Transvaal, but the British Empire, which sent nearly 400,000 troops, still struggled to control this rich land.

Just as Qin Kai and Chen Jitong were discussing and digging the corners of the British wall and knocking on the Yankees' bamboo poles, Tang Shaoyi, the Minister of Finance, with several officials from the Ministry of Finance, had already appeared outside the door in a hurry, and Chen Jitong, who had already obtained a clear result, immediately greeted with a smile, and then muttered a few words to Qin Kai and turned to leave.

When he saw Chen Jitong disappear outside the garden gate of the Prime Minister's Palace, Tang Shaoyi had already sat down under Qin Kai with a solemn expression......

"Shaochuan, didn't you come to ask me for money today...... I remember that I just approved 25 million yuan of industrial funds a week ago, and if I want money, I can't go to Zhonghu to ask for it! Qin Kai laughed and said to Tang Shaoyi, who was rolling his eyes, that the investment projects of the Ministry of Finance in the past two years have been amazing, and the results of domestic infrastructure construction driven by it are even more gratifying, but the Ministry of Finance is almost on the verge of bankruptcy.

However, due to the sharp rise in international silver prices in the past two years, China's finances, which have not been changed to the gold standard, have greatly benefited, and the Global Sources Consortium has also made a lot of overseas mergers and acquisitions, and the industrial fund chaired by the Minister of Industry Xu Jianyin has also swelled significantly, so although the national financial expenditure is not small, it has operated very efficiently, after all, there is a huge inflow of overseas capital.

Tang Shaoyi's answer was completely beyond Qin Kai's expectations, "Prime Minister, I heard that the navy is making trouble with the Americans again, but you have made it clear in the cabinet's established plan that military spending "only decreases and does not increase", and the funds on my side will definitely not be able to be diverted for military spending at that time, so I came to you to confirm this matter, and I must let those guys in the army who are afraid that the world will not be chaotic stop and stop!" ”

I am afraid that the world will not be chaotic...... It seems that it is himself, the prime minister, who can only smile when he hears Tang Shaoyi's complaints, and he is naturally not interested in fighting with the Americans now, but if the United States allows the United States to develop its economy with peace of mind, this is obviously not the result he wants to see, so if the Nicaraguan Grand Canal does something, it is very important to hope that the United States will also be drawn into the increasingly fierce arms race, rather than being free from this money-burning game.

However, the decision to pull the United States into the arms race and not let it develop in the burrowing of its head is also quite thrilling for Qin Kai, as a prophetic traverser, this huge country's powerful industrial and economic capabilities, given time, will undoubtedly become a formidable opponent...... And this "American copy" that will surprise you will indeed be a big challenge, to be honest.

It has built a strong China, but from an economic point of view, it is far from being called powerful, but fortunately, the great achievements in heavy industry have provided an important military umbrella for the rise of the country, and now the rapid rise of light industry in domestic and overseas provinces is quickly becoming a new pillar of the domestic economy. (To be continued......)