On the evening of February 3, 1898, a skirmish broke out between the American and Spanish navies outside the port of Havana.

Zhou Ruidong's words made Qin Kai also surprised, the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in history has a series of inducing factors, even President McKinley of the United States of America, before the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, did not directly challenge Spain's determination, although the United States has a lot of complaints about the Spanish action in Cuba to suppress the rebels, but to let the United States start a war for Cuba's independence, this is obviously not what the US government wants to do.

The Spanish-American War, it was the growing national and military strength of the United States, and the increasingly unstable Spanish rule in Cuba, these two factors, coupled with the fact that Cuba's sugar industry originally accounted for nearly half of the world's share, with an annual output value of nearly 50 million US dollars, the United States obviously has more direct interests than morality in helping the Cuban rebels to become independent!

It's just that...... The news brought by Zhou Ruidong completely subverted Qin Kai's original prediction, the fuse that appeared in history when the second-class battleship Maine exploded in the port of Havana did not appear, and this time the United States was furious by the very radical news media "New York Daily" (this "New York Daily" is not the "New York Times" in the future), the owner of this newspaper, Hirst, is undoubtedly a talent of popular incitement.

On January 21, Davis, a war correspondent for the New York Daily News, brought back from Cuba a large number of photographs of the war between Spain and the Resistance, as well as a large number of injustices suffered by American citizens in war zones. Directly the search of the American female tourist by the Spanish military. Performed as an act with an evil purpose, pornographic, and vulgar.

Subsequently. The abundance of images of the brutality of the battlefield directly irritated the nerves of the United States of America, and two days later, on 4 February, the United States Congress passed a proposal calling for a declaration of war against Spain...... However, it was vetoed by President McKinley, who soon realized that some necessary response was necessary.

On the 30th, US Secretary of State William sent a note to the Spanish ambassador. At the same time, the United States once again reiterated its demand that the Spanish Government do everything possible to reach an armistice agreement with the rebels, and the US West Coast Fleet, which was cruising the Florida military port, also received new orders on the same day, and the US Navy second-class battleship USS Maine and the cruiser USS Monterey escorted two merchant ships to the port of Havana, Cuba.

When the convoy sailed into the periphery of the port of Havana on the afternoon of the 3rd, it was intercepted by the Spanish Navy patrol boats, and the Spaniards asked to board the US Navy warship for inspection, which was naturally refused. And the 10-inch main gun on the battleship Maine also demonstratively pointed at the Spanish patrol boat, which is this scene. Apparently causing a great crisis, two Spanish gunboats patrolling in the distance were the first to open fire, damaging an American merchant ship.

The Maine was apparently also quite surprised by the bombardment, and the cruisers Maine and Monterey also launched a counterattack for fear of being attacked by shore batteries, covering the evacuation of the two merchant ships at the same time, and the news was quickly sent to President McKinley's office in the White House on the same day, and at the same time, it was quickly advocated by the American media, including the New York Daily News, and a large number of news media, including the New York Daily News, immediately advocated a declaration of war against Spain.

Qin Kai carefully studied the telegram that was quickly transferred to his hands after dozens of sea forwards, and it was only 24 hours since the incident occurred, and the maritime communication network played an extremely efficient role, after all, the node transmitted from the west coast of the United States to Panama would take at least half a day in this era, and then there was a link composed of military radios, which obviously played an unusual role.

"Tomorrow...... In the afternoon, he informed Minister Schleier and Minister Power of the conflict between the United States and Spain, and asked the British to mediate the conflict between the United States and Spain! Qin Kai immediately gave an order, and he also estimated that the US government might not immediately declare war, and this would give Britain and Germany a little time.

The outbreak of the Spanish-American War is obviously the irreversible direction of the wheel of history, one side has the most powerful battleship group on the West Coast, while the Spaniards still maintain the stinky frame of the old empire, and it is strange not to fight! However, it was the great victory in the Spanish-American War that allowed the US Navy to try the huge benefits brought by the cannons of giant ships and opened the door to US foreign expansion.

He Xing and Tang Shaoyi's two money bags were soon unhappy to get involved in Premier Qin's overseas grand strategy, and they left together to discuss the canal funds, and a little later, Lu Han rushed to come with a follow-up telegram!

Sure enough, as Qin Kai expected, US President McKinley rejected Congress's request for a declaration of war, and the Republican president obviously believed that Congress's proposal to declare war again was obviously a kind of kidnapping of presidential power, and early on the morning of 8 July, the White House announced that it would launch an investigation into the shelling of the port of Havana, and at the same time, the White House also sent a note to the Spanish minister, asking the Spanish side to strictly deal with the Spanish naval parties involved in the war.

"Prime Minister, if the Americans don't go to war right away, I think it's definitely a fool's job!" Lu Han smashed his mouth, pointed to the telegram and immediately made his judgment.

Zhou Ruidong, who was next to him, took a cup of tea and coffee, and also said casually: "Instructor, according to the news from the Intelligence Department, the United States has assembled 4 of the latest Indiana-class battleships and 4 protective cruisers in Florida, while the Spaniards only have 6 cruisers and a maximum tonnage of only 6,000 tons...... I don't think the Spaniards can fight a war at sea unless they can completely control the land! ”

What Zhou Ruidong and Lu Han said is obviously the truth, but they obviously understand better the reason why the United States has not taken action so far, and the shadow of war since the Civil War has obviously played a significant role, and the previous presidents of the United States have always maintained the Monroe Doctrine of maintaining stable domestic development and reducing conflicts with European countries, and this political tradition has enabled the United States to achieve an unimaginable speed of development, but the Monroe Doctrine's practice of not intervening in the colonies of European powers in the Americas has hindered the United States on the road to becoming a great power in the Americas.

"Ruidong, Gungtang, I still have the same old saying, don't despise the United States, this will make one of our most formidable adversaries, I am worried about the rise of the United States on the West Coast, in that case, the United States will affect the countries of South America, and the geographical location of the United States will eventually make this country have to enter the Pacific Ocean...... Therefore, we must do our best to keep the power of the Yankees as contained in the Atlantic as possible, not in the Pacific! ”――

"Report, General, received an urgent telegram from Beijing from the destroyer Wuning!"

On the battleship Dayu, Xu Shoushan, who was holding a book and reading with relish, took the telegram from the adjutant casually, and after taking a look, he immediately came to the front of the chart in surprise, and a few minutes later, when Han Tianye and Yang Yonglin, the chief of staff of the fleet, came in a hurry, they were also startled by the content of the telegram.

"General, the Prime Minister asked us to mediate the war between the Yankees and the Spaniards? What is this for? White devil dog eats dog, let's just watch the show! Han Tianye was the first to speak, "Besides, we haven't arrived in Chile yet, and when we go to Cuba around Cape Horn, we will have to run for at least half a month!" ”

Yang Yonglin on the side was already lying on the chart or gesturing, and immediately picked up the topic of Han Tianye, "We are now 700 kilometers away from Lima, the capital of Peru, and we have to travel 14,000 kilometers around Cape Horn to Cuba, and if we cruise at 12 knots, we have to run for 27 days, and at the end of the month at the earliest, our fleet can reach the port of Havana, Cuba...... However, I still resupply and carry out a simple clean-up at the port of São Luis in Brazil as planned! ”

Xu Shoushan naturally heard the words of the two staff officers clearly, in fact, the reason why he was surprised was originally because Qin Kai mentioned it very directly in the plan for his round the world trip to the world that Qin Kai gave him earlier-limited intervention in the crisis on the west coast of the Americas, at that time, he didn't even understand what this so-called crisis was, but now he doesn't need to make any explanation at all, the only thing he needs to understand now is what limited intervention is!

"Immediately reinstate the ...... to Beijing"

At this moment, the door of the command room was pushed open, "General, Beijing emergency call!" ”

The telegram was immediately sent to Xu Shoushan's hand, he glanced at it, scratched his head with a strange expression, and then waved his hand, "Reply, the order has been received and is being implemented!" ”

"General, how do we carry out the maneuver? Originally planned to visit Lima, Peru, Iquique Autonomous Prefecture, Chile Valparaiso military port, whether to cancel the telegram! "Yang Yonglin is already quickly overturning the cruise plan and making corrections to the recent fleet action.

Xu Shoushan stood in front of the chart, staring at the route map that Han Tianye was drawing and pondering for a while, before he said: "The original plan will be carried out as usual, and a new combat order will be issued immediately...... We must do our best to project our influence where it is needed, so that we can show our power to the whole world! ”

15 battleships, battlecruisers, armored ships, 10 destroyers, 2 airship carriers, 2 supply ships, 12 accompanying merchant ships, 4 British, Italian, German coal carriers...... A huge fleet of 45 large ships was sailing across the Pacific Ocean to the waters of the South Pacific, and Xu Shoushan's telegram from the flagship Dayu formed a new detachment in just 10 minutes.

"The three ships of Heavenly Wolf, Tiankui, and Xuanyuan form a fleet of 13 detachments, and they will come to receive the battle order immediately!" (To be continued......)