Lin Yongxiang is very busy, really busy.

Four years ago, the emperor told him that he would control half of the Pacific freight within five years. Now, only four years have passed, and sixty percent of the entire Pacific freight volume has been completed by the Pacific Freight Company controlled by the emperor, not counting the two percent that the emperor forcibly distributed to the Beiyang Steamship China Merchants Bureau and the Ryukyu King Shangtai. Lin Yongxiang believed that if the emperor let him do it, the two would have been crushed by him a long time ago. The other 20% of the freight volume is based on the east coast of the Americas, and the Pacific cargo is far away from the place where it cannot be taken care of for the time being.

This all depends on the standard box transportation proposed by the emperor. Other freight companies always collect money one by one, but Pacific Freight is not, we are counting money by box. If your goods are less than one box, but as long as you can find someone else's goods and are willing to be able to consolidate with your goods, the two will only charge one box of money combined. Pacific Cargo also provides special express business, which can be specially sent by small boat according to customer requirements for a batch of goods to be transported, although the price is very expensive, but it is still cheaper than other companies. With low prices and a variety of business models to choose from, Pacific Freight cannot make a fortune. Nowadays, the Pacific freight routes have long been extended to Europe and the United States and other parts of the world.

Pacific Freight also has a special department, the Route Optimization Department, which Lin Yongxiang was unhappy with when he first set up this department. I can't grab money outside, why do I want to do this thing. But the emperor's will can't be violated, why don't you raise a few more idlers, and the related households still have to take care of it. However, Lin Yongxiang believes that the matter cannot be expanded, otherwise it will repeat the mistakes of the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau back then. But when he cautiously suggested to the emperor, he was beaten out by the emperor. In the end, the emperor personally arranged for people to enter the department, and demanded only one: all ships must deliver a copy of all the information about the nature of the goods to be carried, the time and place of departure, and the delivery. Unexpectedly, this department broke out after a year of silence, and according to the route they designed, it can use 70% of the existing ships to transport back and forth in a fully loaded way to meet the current cargo volume. It turned out that this department was right. Fewer ships to transport more goods means that profits are exploding, for which the emperor rewarded Lin Yongxiang with a jade ruyi.

Today's Pacific Freight Company is a company with nearly 30 cargo ships and cruise ships of more than 5,000 tons, including 12 10,000-ton cargo ships, and countless cargo ships of less than 5,000 tons. And that's just the ships on the sea, not the ones being built on the slipway, and today Pacific Cargo is already the owner of the major shipyards in Europe. It is not only the No. 1 maritime freight company in Asia, but also the largest freight company in the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean, and this scale even exceeds some of the old European freight companies. Pacific Cargo operates routes across three oceans. Today, it is slowly eroding the local freight business in Europe with lower prices and more efficient transportation. The same standard container mode brought by Pacific Freight has also begun to spread in Europe. However, it is fortunate that Pacific Cargo's business in Europe does not involve local short-haul routes, and only accepts long-distance shipping business to Asia, so it does not cause hostility among local European freight companies.

But it is precisely because of the optimized route that the efficiency is higher. Therefore, more ships can be freed up for the development of ocean routes such as Europe and the United States. The most direct result was that when the Qing-Dutch war broke out, some cargo ships were still far west of the Indian Ocean, and there was already a shortage of large cargo ships to follow up the fleet. Due to the lack of transportation capacity, the detachments of the Qing Navy could only be forced to "invite" the British ships to conduct "friendly exercises." Make the most of it.

Meantime. As the largest freight company in Southeast Asia, it also needs to ensure the stability of local freight as much as possible when ensuring the transportation of war trophies, so it is not easy to dispatch the existing ships more effectively.

Before the war started, Lin Yongxiang was already squatting in the route optimization department to discuss the future route arrangement with these young students. But what I really didn't expect was that the bastards of the navy went crazy to grab money, and even sent marines to attack inland, and the loot was so rich that it was not loaded. But the freighter must be just a freighter, and he can't fly. When some goods of low value are abandoned. Not to mention the bandits in the navy, even Lin Yongxiang himself is heartbroken. If you can ship them all back. I'm going to build a few freighters again. Fortunately, there was no waste, and it was all distributed to the local Chinese, so it should be regarded as a kind of compensation for them.

The transportation of war booty still clashed with ordinary freight, and not only did there appear a large number of strands on the wharves of other countries in Southeast Asia, but the ports and wharves of the Qing Dynasty were also full of goods. There is no way, the supply of the fleet is the object of priority guarantee in wartime. If water and food can replenish the fleet on the spot, but supplies such as ammunition and medicine need to be loaded and transported from the country by cargo ships. Otherwise, relying on the ammunition that the fleet loaded before going to sea would be far from being able to meet the needs of the fleet and the Marine Corps for more than 40 days of continuous operations overseas. Therefore, it is not surprising that there were stranded goods in the Qing Dynasty. The choice of route is even more cautious, whether the cargo ship is sailing or returning, basically will not take the fastest route. From time to time, they still go around the sea, because the cargo ship also has a more important mission - to provide vigilance for the fleet.

"No matter how realistic the simulation of the training environment is, it cannot be equated with combat, because any change in the war is possible." This is Guangxu's speech at the meeting of the Supreme Staff of the General Staff Headquarters. Therefore, the use of all possible wars to conduct actual combat tests has become the most important part of training.

Spotting the opponent in advance on the vast expanse of the sea is crucial for adjusting strategy and tactical choices when engaged. Radio, the Qing army's most secret means of communication, was used for the first time in large-scale reconnaissance in naval warfare.

At the end of the Battle of Tsushima between Qing and Russia, a large number of soldiers who had retired from their wounds entered the expanding Pacific Freight Company. And these soldiers also knew that the emperor had therefore set up a military welfare committee, and the members were those who had retired from their injuries like them. Most of the profits made by Pacific Freight were reinvested in the construction and training of the navy, while the remainder was used to comfort the families of the incapacitated and war-dead soldiers. You must know that all the money at the beginning of the establishment of Pacific Freight was from the Emperor from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. After the Pacific Freight Company began to make a profit, the emperor not only did not take a tael of silver from here, but also cut off the head of the prefect who embezzled pensions.

The most feared thing about being a soldier is not dying in battle. I am afraid that after my death, my family will become even more depressed because of the loss of the man, the main source of income for the family. Now that the emperor has solved their worries, with the pension of the imperial court and the subsidies we give every year, the life of the family can always go on, and the children can be brought up.

Who doesn't understand this truth. Although he was despised by other retired soldiers every time, Zhang Laosan always said so. Before retiring, Zhang Laosan was a captain and navigator on the heavy patrol of the Tiger Roar, and retired due to injuries in the fierce artillery battle of the Battle of Tsushima. When I was discharged, I heard that a military welfare committee was going to be formed. He resolutely gave up the job of the Naval Academy to hire him as a teacher, he thought that he could teach those future generals as a single Qiuba, so he thought it would be more practical to join the Pacific Freight Company to earn two dollars to subsidize those disabled comrades. When he heard that the emperor was going to give the first money from the Military Welfare Committee from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. I donated all the retirement money, and persuaded other retired soldiers: The emperor is a disability pension and a retirement pension, and now the emperor has to pay for the subsidy, anyway, I am embarrassed to take it.

When his words reached the capital. The emperor specially gave his newborn daughter a blonde hairpin. This is a hairpin carved with a phoenix. Ordinary people don't say that they use it, it is taboo to play such a hairpin, but if it is given by the emperor, it can be worn openly. It's a great honor. So Zhang Laosan worked harder. It is precisely because of the addition of more and more retired soldiers such as Zhang Laosan that there are more and more reliable personnel in the Pacific Freight Company, so the radio has also been used on a large scale in the Pacific Freight Company. And this time is a test for them.

Facts have proved that retired soldiers such as Zhang Laosan still play an important role. Because of their advance and effective warning, the British Navy could not find the Pacific Fleet until the cargo ships could no longer fit it.

War on the Dutch. This is the first time that the Great Qing Kingdom dares to go to war against foreigners, or we take the initiative to wage war against others. How inspiring that is. First of all, the Far Eastern Fleet of the Dutch was killed. And then do whatever you want on Dutch turf. not only saved the local Chinese, but also taught the Dutch a hard lesson to see if they dared to bully the Chinese again in the future. Then there was the signing of the "Sino-Dutch Singapore Treaty", how many treaties did the Qing Dynasty sign with foreigners, and which treaty did not lose money and cede land. But this is not, not only did the Qing Dynasty not lose money to cut the land, but also the foreign devils to lose money to us. Everywhere you go, it's full of pride. The day the treaty was signed coincided with the day when the Pacific Fleet's Longxiao Squadron docked in Singapore for supplies. I heard that the Chinese in Singapore were as lively as the Chinese New Year that day, dancing dragon lanterns and singing big operas. General Li also opened the warship for Chinese to visit, but it was finally stopped because there were so many people that some people fell into the sea. It's exciting to think about.

It's a pity that I couldn't catch up with this glory. Hi--Zhang Laosan sighed, but with a confident face, he commanded the sailors to start unloading. The gold jewellery may not be visible in the chest, but the scent of the bags of precious spices is real, and the wooden rafts of precious wood dragged behind the ship are also very conspicuous, not to mention the bundles of guns and ammunition that have been hoisted from the ship.

"He's, there's even a cannon." A foreigner pointed to the cannon that was being hoisted and scolded angrily.

This is just an ordinary civilian cargo terminal in Guangzhou, and the reason why it will be unloaded here is because all the cargo ships have returned, not to mention the number of military terminals, even the labor is not enough, so the civilian freight terminal is temporarily requisitioned. So there will be foreigners watching here, and all of them will have the unwilling scolding of foreigners, and the foreigners who saw this scene deeply agreed with reporter James's report at the moment. The Qing Dynasty made a fortune because of this war.

Zhang Laosan glanced at the foreigners outside the cordon, and looked at the goods being transported out of the cargo ship leisurely. Suddenly, he pointed to the two porters who were carrying large boxes and said, "Wait. Zhang Laosan stepped forward and pointed to the box without a padlock and asked sharply, "Who opened the box?" ”

As soon as Zhang Laosan finished speaking, several vigilant gendarmes rushed up and pointed their guns at the porter. The porter was frightened, and fell to his knees tremblingly and swore that he had never touched the box, and that it was like this when he moved out.

Zhang Laosan opened the box and looked at it, and after the gold bars inside were neatly arranged and not missing, he nodded. After the gendarmes searched the porter and found no other illegal entrainment, he was allowed to continue his work. The porter ran away, not daring to glance at the shining gold in front of him. But the foreigners in the distance were blinded by the gold. Zhang Laosan laughed, personally locked the box and sealed it, and waved it away.

"Wait, that box can't move. That was the gold of the British Empire. Some of the onlookers had different opinions.

Fart, fuck off, die far away...... Both the gendarmes and the sailors burst out into curses. Zhang Laosan was the most angry: "How did the capture of my Qing fleet fighting overseas become British, don't you make it clear why do you think Lao Tzu will not dare to beat you?" Who said it. ”

"I said that." A foreigner raised his hand to squeeze through the crowd and walked up to Zhang Laosan under the care of the military police: "Mr. Captain, I am the consul of the British Empire in Guangzhou, and this box and the gold in it are the property of the British Empire." ”

Zhang Laosan was very angry, this is obviously the property seized by the fleet from the South Seas, how come you have become British? Zhang Laosan gave the consul a fierce look, and didn't want to pay attention to this inexplicable consul, but the consul held the box and didn't let him take it. He said that he had noticed the box as soon as he got off the ship, and that it was exactly the same as the box that the British Empire had stolen in the South Seas, and if it was, the gold bars in the box would have the HSBC mark on it. There is no way, he is a foreign consul, and the fleet can have no taboos in Indonesia, but this is Guangzhou, and it is not good to hack the British consul in broad daylight.

In order to prove the correctness of the British consul's words, Zhang Laosan found the commander of the military police company, and then tore the seal again in front of everyone to open the lock. What stunned Zhang Laosan and the commander of the military police company was that the bottom of the gold nugget inside was really marked with the English words of the Qingguo branch of the HSBC Bank. Zhang Laosan didn't believe in evil, so he poured out all the gold and looked at it one by one, and the result was not only that there was each piece, but also that the marks were exactly the same. What's going on? The three of them looked at each other, all of them at a loss.

Zhang Laosan didn't know what to do, and the commander of the gendarmerie company didn't know how to deal with it, but the British consul naturally wouldn't agree to take the box away. On the premise that they could not afford to offend the British, Zhang Laosan and the commander of the military police company had no right to deal with the situation to the British consul, and everyone reported it separately. So in a room inside the cordon on the dock, six people sat down and looked at the box in the middle.

This news quickly spread throughout the world, and the world's attention focused on the Pontianak Qing fleet quickly turned to Guangzhou. Everyone wondered what had happened to the British fleet of treasures, and where were the treasures worth tens of millions of pounds now?

Ogener was greatly surprised to receive the telegram that among the seizures of the Qing Kingdom in the South Seas was the looted treasures of the British Empire. But when he saw Guangxu, Guangxu was also asking Lin Yongxiang, who didn't know why. So, Lin Yongxiang, who had just come down, got on the train and went south non-stop.

Three days, the train from Beijing to Guangzhou takes three days. In the past three days, two boxes of silver and one box of jewelry were found in the English characters of the Qingguo branch of the HSBC Bank from the cargo ships that had returned to Guangzhou one after another to unload the seized.

What really happened to the British fleet that transported the treasure? Why did British treasures appear in Qing seizures in Indonesia? How many treasures did the Qing Kingdom find? Where did they find the treasure? All the questions point to a maddening fact - the appearance of the British treasure that had been stolen in the South Seas! (To be continued......) u