After waiting for a few days, Tongji Hospital transferred Princess Kaorani to a new isolation ward, and Hu Chuyuan went to visit her.

The once beautiful foreign princess was already sick at this time, and her face was pale, which made Hu Chuyuan feel very sad and pity.

Hu Chuyuan, wearing a disinfectant mask, sat in front of the hospital bed, and waited for a while before Princess Kaorani woke up.

When she opened her eyes and saw Hu Chuyuan, she felt very relieved, although the two have not seen each other over the years, there will still be official correspondence with each other.

In Hawaii, Hu Chuyuan used his attitude and strength to force the Americans who tried to change Hawaii's constitutional system to a republican system to evacuate Hawaii, so that the Hawaiian Kingdom restored its former peace and tranquility.

With the support of Hu Chuyuan, the economy of the Kingdom of Hawaii is naturally not bad, the local sugar and coffee cultivation have grown greatly, around the port of Honolulu, the port business and transit trade are very good, for the fishing industry and seafood processing industry, the kingdom also gives a part of the subsidies and deep-sea fishing funding.

Hospitality and sightseeing tourism are just beginning to take off, and there is still a long way to go before they can be developed on a large scale.

However, Hawaii already has a very luxurious casino, with high-standard hotel facilities, plus the ferry tickets from San Francisco to Hawaii are very cheap, and there are regular flights every day, which still attracts many American guests.

Casinos are gold absorbers and money printing machines, and that is absolutely true.

As the main port of call for the Pacific Fleet, which is the joint of the U.S. and Chinese navies, the Kingdom of Hawaii is said to have stabilized militarily, and after its unconditional defeat in the Far East War, it has completely withdrawn from the struggle for hegemony in the Pacific waters.

In itself, the Kingdom of Hawaii also has an army of more than 5,000 people, as well as a coastal defense force formed by more than a dozen small defense ships and multi-purpose patrol boats, which can basically ensure the national security of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

At this time, Princess Kaorani didn't have too many worries in her heart, especially when she saw Hu Chuyuan again, she knew that as long as Hu Chuyuan was there, the Hawaii Kingdom would continue to exist.

But deep down in her heart, she still has a special regret.

An unspeakable regret.

She knows.

Hu Chuyuan also knows.

The two looked at each other silently for a moment, Hu Chuyuan smiled silently, and comforted her: "You don't have to worry, Tongji Hospital has very rich experience and means in the treatment of diphtheria, I have already had a meeting with the hospital, and they promise to cure you." ”

Princess Kaorani smiled reluctantly, and said almost weakly, "That's the best, Mr. Hu...... If I'm gone, will you continue to support the Hawaii I love? ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "Of course, there are still many Chinese living there, and I and the Chinese political axe have the responsibility to take care of them. ”

Princess Kaorani sighed silently, "Yes...... I thought, perhaps, the best ending for Hawaii would be...... As a permanent, special protectorate of China, right? ”

Hu Chuyuan thought for a moment.

He didn't think about this question.

If Hawaii were an overseas colony and protectorate controlled by China alone, Hawaii would not be very suitable for the US Pacific Fleet to be stationed for a long time, which would seem unacceptable to the United States.

Even if the U.S. eventually accepts, there will be very large cracks in the long-standing relationship.

In the Pacific region, China unites the Marshall Islands, the Caroline Islands, and the Gilbert Islands as the Pacific Islands, and sets up Taiping County, with Guam as the administrative center, with Nauru and Guam as the main administrative areas, and the Pacific Fleet is stationed in Guam and Hawaii.

This area, including Iwo Jima, Nan Bird Island, Weiyuan Island (formerly Wake Island), Tonge Island, and Midway Island, is China's "undisputed" inherent territory in the Pacific region, and the total number of Chinese is about 600,000.

The word "indisputable" means don't argue with me.

What Hu Chuyuan adhered to, and what he laid for China's expansionist policy, is like this, there are some contentions and some plans, and there are also some releases.

In the whole Polynesian region, especially in Samoa, where competition among countries is fierce, although China has seized the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Fiji Islands from France, and enjoys suzerainty over Vanuatu with Britain, China continues to maintain the principle of sharing with Britain, Germany, the United States, and France in this area.

In the case of the recognition of China's suzerainty, all the great powers can invest and develop here.

New Caledonia was renamed Lomenia and, along with the Solomon Islands and the Fiji Islands, was under the jurisdiction of the Colonial Governor of South Australia of China.

Lomenia is the richest resource, with more than 600 million tonnes of phosphate, 1.6 tonnes of gold, 3.5 million tonnes of nickel concentrate and 7.3 million tonnes of bauxite mined annually in this region, more than 90% of which are shipped to China.

Even so, Hu Chuyuan was not too greedy to try to occupy this place for a long time.

For China, as long as mining continues on the current scale for 50 years, even if these areas are finally read, it is acceptable.

In the long run, China still has to firmly occupy the Taiping Islands, which is also the most feasible bottom line.

From the Hawaiian Islands to the south and east, Johnston Island and the Lane Islands are all within the US naval sphere of influence, while the northwest region of Hawaii, including Cooley Island, Midway Island, Lysan Island, and Gardner Island, as well as the entire western Pacific region where the boundary is demarcated, belong to the Chinese Navy.

In Polynesia and Samoa, the Chinese main body has adopted the strategy of cooperation with the British, and has maintained a balanced separate occupation with France, Germany, and the United States.

Hu Chuyuan stayed in the ward for half an hour, talked with Princess Kaorani about some things without nostalgia, and finally left under the persuasion of the attending physician, not only to protect himself who lacked diphtheria bacillus immunity, but also to let Princess Kaorlani have more rest.

He was just worried in his heart, not knowing how long Princess Kaorani would be able to rest.

A few days later, inside Shanghai's forever Phu Quoc Villa, a secret military meeting began to take place.

China's major military and military equipment technical experts, some important generals, and staff officers all arrived at Yongyuan one after another, and that evening, everyone gathered together to officially discuss the long-term development plan of the navy and army in the next 10 years.

After the end of the Far East War, in order to gradually reduce the threat posed by China's forces in the international arena and avoid endangering the traditional cooperative relations between Britain, Germany, and the United States and China, China's navy and army forces have always been in a relatively low-key state of reduction and adjustment.

Now, China's status as a world power is indisputable, and Belgium, Italy, and even Austria-Hungary can only be regarded as small countries in front of China.

China's navy and army are the second strongest in the international arena, and there is no dispute about this.

Objectively speaking, all countries have become accustomed to dealing with China with a calm mindset that faces the strong.

In this case...... I'm sorry, but China's navy and land forces are going to make new big moves.

The first thing to talk about is definitely the issue of the international situation as a whole, including former Navy and Army ministers Lu Guangquan and Lu Han, current Navy and Army ministers Li Kaiye and Ye Zuqi, and some important experts in the military industry.

Everyone is now concerned about the full-scale confrontation between Germany and France in Europe and Africa, and it is not known whether there is a possibility of a larger war.

Lu Guangquan, who had already left the wilderness, had a lot of time to study these issues, and he first expressed a point of view, believing that it was impossible for Germany and France to break out into a full-scale war for the time being, and that it was inevitable that France would suffer a big loss, but the international situation would certainly change very much after that.

After listening to him, everyone nodded in agreement and said yes.

Hu Chuyuan also made a similar judgment, and he continued: "China's development has made Britain feel very uncomfortable, and Germany's development has made Britain feel even more uncomfortable...... As for France, to be honest, it has been a type with low eyes and masters for so many years, so no matter how large the colonies occupied by France are, they actually don't pose much of a threat. ”

Lu Guangquan immediately asked Hu Chuyuan: "Chairman, what do you think we should do in this matter, let France suffer, or follow Germany to make another profit from France?" ”

Hu Chuyuan said: "It's not that we haven't done anything before, but this time the problem is still more serious, let's rather wait and see from the side than be dragged into this muddy pool." Guinea, Congo and Chinese Somalia are our most important overseas colonial provinces in Africa. In addition to this, we are in no hurry to occupy more colonial provinces in Africa for the time being. ”

Listening to these words, everyone nodded slightly.

Perhaps, Hu Chuyuan said that he would continue to fall into the well, and everyone would nod.

After the unification of Gabon, Congo and Belgian Congo, China obtained a huge colony of "Central African Congo Overseas Province" in Africa, with a total area of 2.954 million square kilometers, and the mining resources in this region are also exceptionally rich, with sufficient copper, cobalt, iron, manganese, diamonds and oil, especially cobalt resources, which plays a vital role in the second take-off development of China's porcelain industry.

The region is rich in both water and forest resources, with CITIC Bank and Wells Fargo being the regional note-issuing banks, while MCC, Standard International and Rio Tinto are the region's most important mining development companies, where CITIC has set up the CITIC Agricultural Development Corporation, which deals in palm, coffee and timber.

China exports grain and industrial products to the Chinese Congo, mainly importing ores, hardwood, ebony and palm oil.

In fact, China's annual grain exports to Africa are also very high, and there are already about 25,000 Chinese living in Congo, operating mines, plantations and shops.

In addition to Congo, China also owns Somalia and Guinea in Africa, which is not large in size and does not have many resources, and its main role is to provide a port and base in the Red Sea region, so that China's Indian Ocean fleet can be anchored for a long time.

Guinea, on the other hand, has the iron-rich and bauxite-rich ore that China desperately needs, as well as diamonds and oil, and cash crops such as coffee, palm and peanuts.

Throughout the African colonies, as in South Asia, China has consistently pursued a relatively active economic development policy, encouraging local indigenous people and Chinese to develop agricultural economy and agricultural processing industry, and implementing stable policies such as agricultural support loans.

After a few years of development in China's hands, Congo and Guinea doubled their total import and export volumes, exporting oil, coffee, palm oil, natural rubber, cocoa, and some agricultural processing products abroad, and importing rice, textiles, machinery products, and electrical products with China.

Relying on this different policy, China is also accelerating its development, and the total export value of industrial products is increasing rapidly.

Perhaps, seeing this, Germany also began to try to expand new colonies more anxiously, and their choice was to attack France.

What about poor France!!

The huge colonial market that did not match the strength of the country was their original sin.

When it comes to China's interests in Africa, when it comes to new developments in the international situation as a whole, everyone in the room has a roughly the same premonition that the world is getting closer and closer to a larger war.

Especially after the Dreadnought-class battleships were put into service, a new arms race was created around the world, especially in Europe, with Germany, Italy and Austria-Hungary all building new battleships comparable to the Dreadnought-class.

Germany was going to build four dreadnoughts in one go, two for Italy, and two for Austria-Hungary.

In response, the two contracts initially estimated by the UK were already clearly insufficient, and the UK quickly increased the contract for the Dreadnought-class battleships to four and accelerated the development of the 22,000-ton Duke-class battleship.

The pressure on China from this new change also exists, so the first official agenda item of the Shanghai meeting this time is to discuss the issue of adding new battleships to the main battleship of the navy.

China is indeed strong today, but one thing is certain – China's military spending is not sufficient.

In 1905, China's total annual fiscal revenue was 1.84 billion yuan, about 207 million pounds, which was 33 million pounds higher than that of the United Kingdom, but China's economy was mainly internal construction, education and infrastructure construction was still in the stage of urgent need for large-scale investment and support, and agricultural support expenditure was higher and ranked first in the national fiscal expenditure.

Agricultural support for construction, education, infrastructure construction, and military spending are the four major areas of China's fiscal expenditure, each accounting for about 10 percent, and even so, an average of 300 million yuan of treasury bonds will be issued to the country every year for large-scale agricultural economic construction.

This is the fundamental policy of China's economic development, and it is impossible to change it.

Therefore, the expenditure of [***] can only be maintained at about 20 million pounds, maintaining an annual growth rate of 5%-8%.

The navy accounts for an average of 46% of the 178 million dollars spent on military expenditure each year, which is 4.48 million pounds less than the British navy and about 67% of the British navy's military spending.

After Germany raised its naval spending to 10.7 million pounds, it is indeed very difficult for China to continue to maintain the size of the world's second navy.

As various countries simultaneously increase the research and investment in mechanized troops, China's advantage in the army is also rapidly shrinking, especially Russia obviously has a strong revenge plan, has temporarily stopped the development of the navy, concentrated on the development of the army, and concentrated the vast majority of the main forces in Yekaterinburg and Chelyabinsk region.

Tsarist Russia's strategy was very obvious, that is, to continue to seek a large-scale decisive battle with the main force in the army.

These are the backdrops of the Shanghai Conference.

The world is not stable, and new wars can come at any time, especially when large-scale wars are about to break out, and the contradictions between Germany, France, Britain and Germany, China and Russia, and Russia and Austria can all kick off the prelude to large-scale wars at any time, and the chaotic situation in Africa and the Balkans may be the fuse.

With the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, Britain, Germany, Russia, Italy and France ...... Including China, it has obvious interests in West Asia.

(To be continued)