In the hot summer, trade is busy in the waters around the South Asian subcontinent. There is an endless stream of merchant ships coming and going between the East and the West, presenting a scene of the Maritime Silk Road.

However, the United Kingdom and other European countries, which have not been supported by the Yapian trade, have been in a state of trade deficit in this legitimate trade, but they have suffered losses.

In particular, China has taken the initiative to reduce the value of the renminbi by 50 percent, and the new version of the renminbi is only equivalent to 50 percent of the face value of the old renminbi, which is equivalent to half of the disguised depreciation, expanding the competitiveness of foreign trade, and even exacerbating the trade deficit of European and American countries with China, causing Britain and other countries to be strongly vigilant.

Britain has been suffering from illegal money attacks, the pound continues to depreciate, ten years ago a pound to one yuan of old currency, five years ago became two pounds to one yuan of old currency, the British domestic economy is a heavy blow, but for the British foreign trade enterprises is beneficial, can reduce the cost of foreign trade. It's a pity that now the renminbi has taken the initiative to depreciate and returned to the state of exchanging one pound to one renminbi, and this bit of foreign trade benefit of Britain has disappeared again.

In order to compete with Spain and the Netherlands for hegemony in the world's oceans, the British Navy was in cahoots with pirates, sacked Spanish and Dutch merchant ships, and finally weakened the national strength of Spain and the Netherlands, and Britain gradually became stronger from the profits from the looting of merchant ships, and finally defeated Spain and the Netherlands and obtained the world's maritime hegemony.

Today, the rapid rise of China's navy has made Britain feel a huge threat. In order to prevent the rise of China, the British Navy did its old business again, some of them quietly retired and turned into pirates, specializing in looting passing merchant ships near major sea lines of communication around the world, in order not to arouse China's suspicion, all the merchant ships of British pirates will be looted, but the focus will be on looting Chinese merchant ships and cracking down on China's maritime trade.

Recently, with the boom of the global automotive market. Chinese cars are exported all over the world, and the huge profits have made the British people red. The most important in the automotive industry are gasoline and diesel. Although European countries already have the capacity to synthesize gasoline and diesel in the laboratory, it will take some time to build large-scale petrochemical plants from the laboratory to industrial mass production. Nowadays, all the auto fuel in Europe and the United States is imported from China, which is another piece of fat. Make the British jealous.

As a result, the British pirates focused on targets such as oil tankers and large transport ships flying the Chinese flag, looted fuel and cars on them, and then sold them in the European and American markets to obtain huge profits.

Whether it is cars or fuel, they are currently the most sought-after materials, and even the British Royal Navy is hot, sometimes flying pirate flags and robbing Chinese cargo ships.

For Chinese merchant ships. Starting from the Chinese mainland, it is safe before passing through the Manila Strait, because the Chinese Navy's Qizhou Ocean Fleet has set up a naval base in Lanfang Prefecture, which can ensure the safety of Chinese merchant ships, but beyond Malacca, there is no shadow of the Chinese Navy in the Bengal Sea, the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea, the Mediterranean, and then the Atlantic. It was all patrolled by British naval warships, and the British Navy preferred to protect foreign merchant ships rather than Chinese merchant ships. Even if they give money to the British Navy, they are meat buns and dogs, and they don't care if they give less, and if they give more, they will soon come and rob with pirates, and even the British Navy will do it themselves, and in the end, they will kill people and destroy their bodies.

This situation was quickly taken seriously by the Chinese government, at the first imperial council in the eleventh year of Guanghua. Proposed by Li Hongzhang, Minister of the Prime Minister's Yamen.

The functions of the Prime Minister's Yamen are different from those of the Qing Dynasty, and Li Weiguo newly established the Prime Minister's Yamen, which is only the Prime Minister's Overseas Trade Affairs Yamen, with a Prime Minister. There are five vice premiers, of which the first prime minister is Li Hongzhang, because the original positions of Li Hongzhang as the minister of Beiyang and the minister of Nanyang have become virtually non-existent, and they were finally dismissed by Li Weiguo.

Li Hongzhang has the ability to govern the country, and after these years of covert investigation, Li Weiguo believes that Li Hongzhang has fully adapted to his role and can be officially activated and reused, so he was given the post of prime minister, which is very important.

Admiral Minister Lin Jiyun took the initiative to say: "The waters beyond the western Pacific Ocean are the traditional sphere of influence of the British Navy, and if the Imperial Navy rushes to cruise, I am afraid that it will arouse strong dissatisfaction in Britain and detonate the current delicate peaceful relations between China and Britain." ”

"Then you can't just watch the lives and property of the citizens of the empire suffer and ignore it, right?" Li Hongzhang was dissatisfied.

Lin Jiyun retorted: "Lord Li doesn't need to be angry, this is also something that can't be helped, although the Imperial Navy is developing rapidly, the number of warships is relatively small, and patrolling the western Pacific Ocean is already overstretched, and it is impossible to send warships to escort merchant ships throughout the process." ”

Wu Yong, the secretary of the Ministry of War, said: "This is also the truth, our number of warships is limited, and if we send fewer warships out, once we encounter the British Navy, it will be a sheep waiting to be annihilated." If we send too many of them, there will be a loophole in our local coastal defense, and once the enemy comes to attack, we will not be able to recover the warships sent abroad in a hurry, and this will cause serious consequences. Besides, even if we send warships out, the current capital ships do not have the ability to sail to the ocean, and we do not have any naval bases to replenish when we leave the western Pacific. If you bring a supply ship, then the cost of escort is too high and it is a huge financial burden. ”

Wu Yong's analysis is very thorough, although Li Hongzhang agrees, but he will not sympathize, because he is in charge of foreign trade work, if effective measures are not taken, his prime minister's yamen will wait to close the door.

Li Weiguo sat on the dragon chair, listening to the discussions of the ministers, and kept thinking.

"It's because the Imperial Navy is not strong enough, but we're already working on it, and it's still unrealistic to have the ability to cruise the world's seas like Britain in a short period of time. But we can find another way. ”

Li Weiguo suddenly had a flash of inspiration and continued: "Hasn't Myanmar become a vassal state of the empire, on the other side of Myanmar is the Burma Sea and the Bengal Sea, facing the Indian Ocean, we can build a naval base in Burma, so that we can help the merchant ships passing through the Indian Ocean to escort them!" ”

It suddenly dawned on the ministers that their deliberate disdain for the vassal states led them to ignore the strategic location of Burma.

Yes, isn't the southern part of Myanmar the mouth of the Indian Ocean, and it is completely possible to build a naval base there, so that the Chinese Navy will not be able to go out of the western Pacific. Is it a grand cruise in the Indian Ocean?

"Your Majesty Shengming!"

"Okay, don't be a sycophant, remember to go back and look at the world map in the future, don't just stare at home, but also have a view of the overall world situation, otherwise the problem will be too narrow."

"Ministers obey His Majesty's teachings!"

Li Weiguo nodded. He said: "Then it is decided, the navy has stepped up its preparations, selected a naval base in Burma, and sent a fleet to patrol the Indian Ocean at an early date. At the same time, we must step up the construction of warships, and the Imperial Navy will go to the whole world, and a western Pacific cannot accommodate us. ”

The ministers received orders one after another and quickly began their work.

Myanmar has recognized China's dominance over its suzerain. Therefore, diplomatic and military power have been transferred to the Chinese government, so it is understandable that China will station troops in Burma and open up naval bases, and the British can only stare dryly.

Soon, the Chinese Admiralty chose three naval stations along the coast of Burma, the ports of Yangon, Mawlamyine and Tante, of which Mawlamyine was a former naval base for the British Navy, which the British used as a springboard to invade Burma. After the Third Yapian War, Lower Burma was recovered. It was recaptured by the Chinese Shence Army.

Today, the Chinese Navy has rebuilt a naval base on the delta of the Mawlamyin estuary, built coastal fortifications on the shore, dug silt in the harbor, and widened the port of Tuoshen. At the same time, two ironclad ships, four cruisers, 16 frigates, 22 gunboats, and seven fish and radium boats were removed from the two fleets of the Northern Ocean and the Eastern Ocean. At the same time, 15 old sail cruisers and sail frigates were removed from the river defense fleet and formed the Indian Ocean Fleet to go south and deploy to the Burmese naval base.

Across the Burma Sea is the Andaman Kaba Islands, which are under the de facto control of the British, and were originally only used as a place for British prisoners. With the reopening of China's naval bases in the Burmese Sea. In order to form the Indian Ocean Fleet, the British Royal Navy also had to take measures to station some warships of the British Indian Ocean Fleet in the waters near the Andaman Nikaba Islands to monitor the range of activities of the Chinese Navy.

As the Chinese Navy has deployed in the waters around Myanmar, China's newly formed Indian Ocean Fleet has embarked on combat-ready cruises to escort passing Chinese merchant ships passing through the Burma Sea, the Bengal Sea and the Arabian Sea.

Of course, this escort is also a paid service, and the fee is relatively high, because the price of coal in this era is very high, especially the ironclad ships, cruisers and frigates made of wrought iron, the hull is seriously corroded by seawater at sea, and the daily maintenance cost of the warship is also very high.

Even if the fee is high, the Chinese merchant ships in the past are willing to pay protection fees, protected by their own country's navy, and naturally have security guarantees, even if they spend more money, Chinese merchants are also willing, after all, the profits of a trip to the sea trade between the East and the West are huge, and they don't care about this protection fee.

But for the Chinese Navy, the protection fee alone is enough to maintain the daily expenses and combat readiness maintenance of China's Indian Ocean Fleet, and there is no need for the Admiralty to allocate funds at all, leaving a huge amount of expenses.

In the future, the Chinese Admiralty will continue to send more warships into the Indian Ocean Fleet, which can not only improve the capabilities of the naval officers and men through continuous escort operations, but also solve some expenses, and also protect the shipping routes, which will be of great benefit to both the country and the people.

But the British pirates were not happy, originally looting the rich Chinese merchant ships could get huge profits, but now the Chinese merchant ships are under the escort and protection of the Chinese Navy warships, it is difficult for the pirates to start, naturally they will starve.

The British Navy was also not happy, because China's Indian Ocean Fleet not only patrolled the waters around the Indian Ocean, which was tantamount to invading the British Navy's sphere of influence in the Indian Ocean, weakening the prestige of the British Imperial Navy in this region, and at the same time competing with the British Navy for escort business, which made the British Navy's Indian Ocean Fleet also very annoyed.

As a result, the Chinese and British navies have often been locked in a state of armed confrontation in the waters around the Indian Ocean, which can last for several hours or as long as 10 days and half a month, which has intensified the tension between the Chinese and British navies in the Indian Ocean.

Fortunately, in this era, there were already telegrams to transmit news, and China's telegraph lines were also laid into Burma and directly to the naval bases, so both the Chinese Navy and the British Navy were able to report the situation to their respective governments in a timely manner through the telegrams from their respective naval bases, and the Chinese and British governments had to maintain a semblance of peace, so the military confrontation ended after frequent disputes between the diplomatic departments of the two sides.

With the escort of the Chinese Navy's Indian Ocean Fleet, the Chinese oil tankers returning from the Persian Gulf were safe, and the Chinese merchant ships doing maritime trade in the region were also safe, but the British pirates also withdrew from the Indian Ocean and continued to be pirates in Somalia, still focusing on robbing Chinese merchant ships bound for Europe.

In response, the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Chinese Navy had no choice but to extend the escort route, but the endurance of the warships was limited, and it was necessary to find a place to refuel coal, replenish food and fresh water. The most desirable location was Sri Lanka, which was unfortunately occupied by the British, and the British government agreed in principle to the supply of Chinese warships, but in fact the commanders of the British naval bases there often refused to supply Chinese warships under various pretexts to prevent Chinese warships from continuing to escort.

At first, the Chinese warships could only load as much coal as they could, but after several encounters with pirates, the Chinese Admiralty decided to find a nearby place to refuel after encountering several encounters with pirates, and discovering that the coal-ridden cabins and decks were too prone to bullets and fires, and even affecting the living conditions of the officers and sailors at sea.

Near the Indian Ocean route, apart from Sri Lanka, is the Maldives archipelago, a few hundred nautical miles away. It is the territory of the Dutch and the only Indian Ocean transit station other than the British coaling station.

At the beginning, the Dutch authorities, in concert with the British authorities, used various reasons not to refuel the Chinese warships.

Soon, however, agents of the Indian Ocean Fleet of the Chinese Navy and the Chinese S.H.I.E.L.D. jointly created a case of disappearance of a Chinese naval officer in the Maldives.

When a Chinese Navy second lieutenant officer disappeared in the Maldives, the Chinese Navy's Indian Ocean Fleet quickly dispatched marines to forcibly land, accusing the Dutch authorities of illegally seizing the Chinese officer and capturing the Maldives by force.

The Dutch government panicked at first, but soon they understood that this was the snatching of the Maldives by Chiguoguo!

However, the Netherlands' national strength has long been weakened, and even the 700,000-square-kilometer island of Kalimantan (Lanfang Prefecture) has been given to China free of charge, not to mention the Maldives Islands, which are only a few hundred square kilometers in front of them.

Knowing that the Chinese Navy needed the Maldives as a transit coal refueling station in the Indian Ocean, the Dutch authorities could only suffer a dumb loss and were forced to transfer the Maldives Islands to China for a price of 500,000 yuan.

At three o'clock in the afternoon of April 15, the Dutch flag was lowered from the Governor's Palace of the Maldives, and as the Chinese dragon flag was raised at the Governor's Palace of the Maldives, it announced the end of Dutch rule in the Maldives and it would become China's overseas territory.

Subsequently, the Chinese Navy expanded the size of the coaling station in the port of Maldives, and built a naval base and coastal fortifications. Since then, Chinese naval vessels and Chinese merchant ships have been able to dock in the Maldives for replenishment. After the Chinese Navy has resupplyed, it can directly escort Chinese merchant ships safely through the Gulf of Aden and all the way to the Suez Canal.

Entering the Mediterranean Sea from the Suez Canal, which is the hinterland of European countries, the British navy and pirates did not dare to blatantly rob Chinese merchant ships, after all, Britain did not want to tear its face with China and start another war.

As a result, Britain's brazen piracy against Chinese merchant ships failed, and instead prompted the Chinese Navy to enter the Indian Ocean, setting up a number of naval bases and supply points on the Indian Ocean shipping routes, and expanding its power and presence in the Indian Ocean. (To be continued.) )