After finalizing the navy's plan for the next 10 years, Hu Chuyuan and Minister of Coastal Defense Ding Ruchang secretly inspected the submarine dock base, and now there are six test submarines of different specifications, with the largest displacement tonnage of 450 tons and the smallest one of only 80 tons.

At the same time, radio communication technology was also being studied, and it has already applied for patents in the United States and the United Kingdom, and has begun to use it militarily.

Radio plus submarines, this is the way Hu Chuyuan wants to fight the most.

On the surface, he was far away from the Chinese Navy, but his thoughts were still influencing the entire Chinese Navy all the time, and this time, he proposed the plan for the battlecruiser, and as always, he still did not feel that the super cannon had any practical value, unless it was installed on the battleship.

His requirements for the battlecruiser were high speed and considerable defensive armor, and the firepower could be relatively weak, because the battlecruiser itself was not expected to take on the heavy duty of the main decisive battle.

Real battleships are too expensive, so what to do?

There is no way to work hard to develop the economy, and first try our best to ensure that we do not lag behind in technology.

At least in this era, a battleship is the king of the sea, even if it is a second-class battleship of eight thousand tons, a third-class or even a fourth-class battleship in the future. The battlecruiser was only an auxiliary role, responsible for patrolling and killing the cruiser.

Even if it was a battleship, Hu Chuyuan believed more in the role of armor.

The capital battleship was too expensive, and sinking one was equivalent to being completely annihilated by an army corps.

After finalizing these plans and confirming that the navy was still on the path he had charted, Hu Chuyuan took his family on a new visiting fleet to Kuching and Manila.

This is not only a round-the-world diplomatic tour, but also a military diplomacy to demonstrate China's naval strength, and an important opportunity for the East China Sea Fleet to leapfrog the Pacific Fleet.

In order to achieve this effect, the level of the diplomatic tour following Hu Chuyuan this time was also very high, led by Admiral Ye Zuqi of the East China Sea Fleet, and the flagships were two Zhiyuan-class ironclad ships, four Fuzhou-class ironclad ships, three Chaowu-class cruisers, four Chunyu-class destroyers, three defense ships, two 7,000-ton large supply ships, two 1,000-ton large patrol ships, and two torpedo assault ships.

According to the itinerary discussed by Hu Chuyuan and Emperor Guangxu in advance, patrol ships, torpedo ships, three Zhenjiang-class defense ships, and one Chaowu-class cruiser will stop at Guam to formally fulfill the Guam agreement with Guam, making Guam the territory of the Qing Empire.

Gradually, the Qing government axe will take over the surrounding Palau and Caroline Islands, and this time he will go to the United States and Germany, Hu Chuyuan is to complete this task, and reach an agreement with Germany to buy the nearby Marshall Islands.

On the issue of Guam, all countries have basically acquiesced, and other issues need to be renegotiated and divided.

If the islands are acquired, the Kiyomasa will set up a new naval base in Guam, expanding the East China Sea Fleet into the largest Pacific Fleet in the country and the largest in the area under its jurisdiction.

The huge fleet arrived in the Philippines on May 2, 1895, after a tour of the South Seas, and had a good suppressive effect on the national exclusion issue, which was boiling over at this time.

Unlike Britain, France, Germany and other countries, the Qing Navy is relatively stable and efficient in terms of development costs, and the cost-effectiveness ratio is very high, the main reason is that the single design is multi-ship.

Most of the ships in the fleet were designed and started before 1890, and once they were stabilized and confirmed to be reliable, they were soon to be built with a number of additional ships, and no less than four, or even more than 40 ships like the Chunyu class, so that the average cost of each ship was reduced to a minimum.

On 14 May, the patrol fleet arrived on Guam and officially set up a left-behind fleet and a naval division with more than 400 troops and a land battalion, as well as one county governor.

During these events in Guam, Hu Chuyuan was considering the issue of the Ogasawara Islands, which were transferred by the British in 1875 to Yumoto, and now Hu Chuyuan hopes to find a way to take them.

This kind of thing is usually done as soon as possible, but there is no particularly good way to do it for a while.

Now that you're in Guam, can you not go to Saipan?

Because he would stay in Guam for a while, Hu Chuyuan took his family to Saipan on a patrol ship, where he spent a few days before continuing to lead the patrol fleet to Hawaii.

On May 30, the fleet arrived in Hawaii and was stationed at Pearl Harbor, where it would stay for about 10 days.

This is not the first time Hu Chuyuan has come to Hawaii, where the number of Chinese is already very large, and there are also Guangdong and Fuzhou guilds.

Every time he comes to Hawaii, Hu Chuyuan will feel special and wonderful, strolling on the beach, gazing at the endless blue sea, his mind will suddenly open up to the realm of no end.

Hu Chuyuan likes this feeling.

The size of the visiting fleet completely shocked the entire Hawaiian Kingdom, and Queen Liliukalani, who was on the verge of danger, received Hu Chuyuan's family and the fleet with special warmth, and invited Hu Chuyuan and his family to live in the Hawaiian royal palace, Iolani Palace.

Accompanied by Hu Chuyuan, there is also a local Chinese businessman Chen Fang, who is more than seventy years old Hawaii Old Sugar King, although he is very old, but his health is not bad, last time, when Hu Chuyuan came to Hawaii, he was living in Chen Fang's Noa Villa.

Iolani Palace is a very beautiful and delicate small palace, not large in scale, of course, far inferior to Hu Chuyuan's Yongyuan, or even as good as Zhenyuan, but it is also very interesting, especially in such a small island country.

The Hawaiians are a naturally enthusiastic people, and according to tradition, under the guidance of Queen Liliukalani and her ministers, they held an interesting welcome ceremony for Hu Chuyuan and his party.

Such an interesting scene and picture scroll made Pan Limei and her two young sons, who had been silent for a long time, very happy, and many Chinese also gathered in the square outside the palace to watch the Hawaiian ceremony together.

It's a very interesting thing.

In fact, there were also many people from the Fuqing Society who were the ones who sabotaged the coup d'état that the Americans were trying to carry out in 1887.

While the Americans humorously set up a purely white army and took out a thousand rifles, the Chinese also gathered their own arms, four or five thousand men were armed with the best rifles of the time, and some came from the Black Flag Army.

What's even more humorous is that that night, the two sides did not use force, just confronted each other in silence, but that night, the Fuqing Society sent hundreds of real red sticks to cut the Americans to the ground in the middle of the night.

Recently, Americans have wanted to play a new trick by demanding that the future of the Hawaiian Kingdom be decided on the basis of a vote of only white people.

So, Hu Chuyuan came over.

Hu Chuyuan himself didn't really want to interfere in those things in the United States, if it was indeed a plan formulated by the American political axe, and he wanted to invade the Kingdom of Hawaii in a bright and bright way, then it would be okay...... As long as the rights and interests of the local Chinese are guaranteed, Hu Chuyuan will not have any objections.

It's a bit too low-level to engage in such nonsensical tricks.

Life is actually very interesting.

Queen Liliukarani gave Hu Chuyuan the feeling that she was just a singer who could sing quite a lot, a rich old woman who was very good at enjoying life, although she was already a fifty-seven or eighteen-year-old old lady and chubby, she still liked to sing and dance.

She was like a lead singer, singing with the people of the palace.

This Iolani Palace is also very interesting, there are no walls, there is no defense at all, and the royal palace is gathered in the square, very solemn, and very self-entertaining singing indigenous folk songs, in order to welcome special guests.

It was getting late, and at the suggestion of the royal advisors, Queen Liliukalani remembered something, hurriedly ended the ceremony, and welcomed Hu Chuyuan and his family into the palace to live and enjoy their Hawaiian specialties.

Chen Fang and his eldest son, Chen Long, served as interpreters and accompanied him in.

Located on the west side of the Iolani Palace, the Grand Dining Room of the Royal Palace is a circular room with a beautiful dome and European-style furniture, and the state banquet is also held in a European way.

All those who had been invited to the banquet walked in one after another, and at this time, out of the backyard of the palace came a beautiful woman, dressed in a gorgeous violet dress, with black and bright black hair, a high nose, deep eyes, fair skin, and a broad forehead.

A very beautiful young woman, twenty-two or thirteen years old, who looks like a Latin American woman with mixed race characteristics, and a bit like a noble queen among vampires.

It's really special.

Seeing her at a glance, Hu Chuyuan felt a little attracted!

The ceremonial officer of the palace was introducing something, and the elderly Hawaiian sugar king Chen Fang quietly translated to Hu Chuyuan: "Lord Zhongtang, this is Princess Victoria-Kaorani, and the only niece of Queen Liliukalani. ”

Oh?

I'm still a princess!

Princess Kaorani walked over, and Hu Chuyuan bowed slightly, and when she raised her head, there was also a faint wonder in her eyes when she looked at Hu Chuyuan, or a secretly angry luster, in short, it was a bizarre gaze worth playing.

Under the traction of Queen Liliukalani, she sat at the second seat of the table, which happened to be opposite Hu Chuyuan's seat.

Once everyone was seated, the small court began to serve delicious and wonderful delicacies.

Hu Chuyuan is a laid-back person who has nothing to do with himself, and he has no ideas about the future of the Hawaiian Kingdom, but he tastes these delicacies with great interest, and from time to time he whispers with Pan Limei to exchange opinions in private, asking about specific possible practices.

In the past, Wu Shuzhen attended such formal diplomatic occasions, and she really felt that Pan Limei had suffered a lot of grievances in the past two years, so Hu Chuyuan deliberately took her out alone to relax.

The first time she could sit on such a stage, Pan Limei's heart was also extremely sweet.

The delicacies offered at the Hawaiian Royal Palace are truly delightful.

After eating some local tropical fruits, a few pieces of Kalua roast pig and a plate of seafood octopus soup, Hu Chuyuan felt a little full, but he still wanted to eat something else.

It's still delicious!

He was about to eat some more steamed pork slices called laulau with slices like willow, when Princess Kaorani on the other side suddenly lightly hit the crystal cup with a silver spoon, and smiled mysteriously: "............&&××!" ”

Hu Chuyuan didn't understand.

Chen Long, who was sitting behind him as an interpreter, immediately interpreted the indigenous language, which turned out to welcome Hu Chuyuan and the visiting fleet of the Qing Empire.

Hu Chuyuan nodded slightly politely, thanked Princess Kaorani for her gratitude, and then said some polite words to the surname, and when he sat down again, Queen Liliukalani also began to talk to him in English, so that he could not continue to eat attentively.

There is no doubt that Queen Liliukarani finally realized how powerful the Qing Empire was, and she was now eager to co-opt the Qing Empire to balance the Americans, especially those who remained in the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Hu Chuyuan nodded with a smile, but didn't say anything.

It was too complicated to talk about things at such a state banquet, it was really unnecessary, besides, he really didn't care too much about the future of the Hawaiian Kingdom, unless, the small island nation could sell it to him...... Money is still very easy to say.

That's not bad, so you can live here and enjoy the world and life in the future.

Although this experience is a little bloody, it is also a wonderful life!

Queen Liliukalani said a lot of admiration for the Qing Empire and admiration for the local Chinese, which seemed a bit flattering, but she also maintained her spirit as a queen of a country and that condescending feeling, although all her citizens combined were only 100,000.

Hu Chuyuan didn't say anything.

After the state banquet, Hu Chuyuan stayed in the palace, and the room was not very much, barely enough.

The next morning, after Hu Chuyuan got up, he walked around the garden casually, playing a set of Baguazhang to strengthen his body.

At this time, Hawaiian sugar king Chen Fang and his eldest son Chen Long also walked in, accompanied by Li Cunyi, quietly and silently waiting in the corridor, watching Hu Chuyuan box.

After sweating all over his body, Hu Chuyuan took the hot towel from Li Cunyi's hand and wiped it slightly, and then motioned for Chen Fang's father and son to come and sit down.

In a large pavilion, Hu Chuyuan ate some fruit and made a pot of Huangshan Taiping Houkui, which is a new tea species that has only appeared in recent years, with a long-lasting fragrance and goose yellow soup, which belongs to white tea.

Hu Chuyuan invited Chen Fang's father and son to drink Monkey Kui together, and after a while, he asked Chen Fang: "Who is the most important politician here?" ”

Chen Fang smiled bitterly and said, "Not for the time being, the American church and the Falangist Party often send so-called advisers, let's ...... Zhang Renkang has always been in charge in secret, and Huang Xibao is the main person in charge in the Fuqing Society, but the queen herself still believes in our father and son. ”

Hu Chuyuan thought about it for a while.

Zhang Renkang and Huang Xibao are both members of the first batch of young children studying in the United States.

In fact, most of the first batch of young children who studied in the United States did not return to China, half of them continued to stay in the United States, and the other half went to Europe one after another, some of them served as consuls and other positions, some continued their studies, and a small number of people such as Zhan Tianyou, Pan Mingzhong, Wu Yangzeng and others returned to China to serve as technicians.

Especially under the influence of Ouyang Geng, Lu Guangquan, Huang Zhongliang and others, most of them joined the Fuxing Society, and some people, such as Cao Jifu and others, wanted to follow the constitutional monarchy system.

Zhang Renkang is the head of the Hawaii branch of the Chinese League, responsible for organizing the local Chinese to protect their rights and interests, and Huang Xibao is the soul of the Fuqing Society...... Strategist, and was responsible for organizing a branch force in Hawaii in an attempt to turn Hawaii into a new Borneo as well.

After thinking about it in his heart for a while, Hu Chuyuan asked Chen Fang to send someone to invite Zhang Renkang and Huang Xibao over.

These two people knew that Hu Chuyuan was coming, and thought that Hu Chuyuan would still live in the Chen family's Nuya villa, so they lived in advance, but they didn't expect that the royal family would graciously invite Hu Chuyuan's family to live in the palace.

To be honest, this palace is not as large as Villa Noa.

In order to welcome Hu Chuyuan's visit, Chen Fang also specially expanded the villa last year.

Fortunately, they were not far away, and after waiting for a while, Zhang Renkang and Huang Xibao hurriedly rode over, and as soon as the two entered the garden, they walked over quickly to see Hu Chuyuan.

Hu Chuyuan invited them to sit down and continued to pour them tea.

After a while, Hu Chuyuancai and Zhang Renkang said: "The goal of my diplomatic visit is very simple, that is, to ensure that all countries recognize Guam as our China, and in addition, if Spain and Germany can sell the Caroline and Marshall Islands to us, it will be a great thing." So, the issue of the Kingdom of Hawaii is really not the focus of my visit...... To be honest, I'm just here for a vacation and a few days of fun. ”

When everyone heard this, they all nodded silently.

They knew in their hearts that considering the long-term relationship between China and the United States as a whole, as well as the special close relationship that they are currently maintaining, neither the Qing government nor Hu Chuyuan would raise objections to the US occupation of Hawaii.

Zhang Renkang thought about it for a while, and analyzed with Hu Chuyuan: "Lord Zhongtang, I think that the US political axe has no intention of really occupying Hawaii at present, at least it will not openly send troops. Let's see, can an embassy be officially established in Hawaii to influence and protect the Kingdom of Hawaii from the perspective of political axes? ”

Hu Chuyuan bowed slightly, but he didn't agree hastily.

The affairs of the Hawaiian Kingdom are all made up by the Huameng themselves, especially Zhang Lingpu and Zhang Bishi, who contributed their efforts and money, and wanted to control Hawaii in the entire economy, in fact, they did it.

After weighing it in their hearts, Hu Chuyuancai and Zhang Renkang said: "In this way, I will test their bottom line after I go to the United States." If it is feasible, I will send a telegram to the Imperial Court, and the Consulate General in San Francisco will send personnel to set up a Consulate General here first, with you as the Consul General. Let's talk about the specifics when we get to the United States. The question at hand is how powerful are the Americans here? ”

Zhang Renkang said: "Far less than us, Hawaii has nearly 100,000 residents, and we account for more than half, most of them are from Guangdong and Fujian, and in the past two years, there have also been some merchants from Huizhou and Zhejiang, who operate timber and sugar businesses here." ”

Hu Chuyuan sighed, he pondered, the Americans did not dare to make greater moves, the key is that there are too many Chinese, with the rapid expansion of the naval strength of the Qing Zheng Axe, which has exceeded the current level of the United States, the Americans must also be figuring out the bottom line of the Qing Zheng Axe.

He thought for a while, and said to Zhang Renkang: "Then help the Hawaii Kingdom prepare an army, the scale is not too large, three or four thousand people, just be well-equipped." ”

Zhang Renkang nodded, secretly happy in his heart.

Hu Chuyuan is an invisible emperor, as soon as he speaks, others will be able to do things.

However, Hu Chuyuan really doesn't have much consideration for Hawaii.

At noon, Hu Chuyuan was going to take his family to Villa Noya, the scale of Iolani Palace was a little smaller, and he was not used to living there.

As he was leaving, the beautiful Princess Kaorani came to him alone.

Princess Caorani is a beautiful girl, because her uncle is American, she has lived in the United States since she was a child, and she lived with her aunt and received a church education in the United States.

There is a rumor that the American Church Organization hopes to use this educational background to convince Princess Kaorani to "consecrate" the Kingdom of Hawaii to the Church and protect the rights and interests of the American church.

Entering the courtyard where Hu Chuyuan lived, Princess Kaorani slowly opened a precious black folding fan made of sandalwood, and looked at it faintly, as if she was wondering something.

It just so happened that Hu Chuyuan walked out...... He was about to say goodbye to the royal family.

The two glanced at each other, and Hu Chuyuan immediately bowed his head politely and said, "Your Royal Highness Princess, how are you?" ”

"Hello!"

Princess Kaorani smiled interestingly, and there was a hint of nervousness in her seemingly leisurely posture, it seemed that she also knew what Hu Chuyuan meant, and she could no longer maintain her arrogant and charming charm like yesterday.

She closed the fan and suddenly said in English: "Mr. Hu, it is very interesting to hear that you are about to make a tour of Europe and the United States on the orders of His Majesty the Emperor of your country, and that you are carrying such a large and attractive beautiful fleet. With all due respect, would you like to tell me a little bit more about your fleet? ”？？

Hu Chuyuan thought for a moment and said, "Of course you can!" ”

He didn't expect the poor semi-professional escort force of the Hawaiian royal family, so he made a look and asked Chen Shanyuan, the counselor of the Fuwei Battalion, to arrange the itinerary temporarily.

Although Pearl Harbor at this time was nominally owned by the Spaniards, and the actual garrison had long since been Americanized, the U.S. Navy had only a few old cruisers here.

(To be continued)