Zhou Cheng looked at these so-called Hawaiian law enforcement officers with guns in front of him, and couldn't help frowning!

As an officer of the Imperial Royal Navy, Peri originally planned to travel to the United States on the Yuxiang and serve as the Imperial Observer in the United States.

In countries where consulates were opened, the Imperial Empire generally sent military attachés to the post of military attaché, and depending on the specific country, officers on land and sea were sent to serve as military attachés.

Among them, the highest standard is naturally the Imperial Military Attache in Britain, with an army colonel serving as the full military attaché, and a naval lieutenant colonel and army major as deputy military attachés.

The military attaches in other countries such as France, Prussia, and the United States are basically lieutenant colonels or majors.

This time, he went to the United States as a lieutenant military attaché with the rank of lieutenant lieutenant in the navy, and his main mission was to investigate the reform and development of the United States' military power after the Civil War.

But what he didn't expect was that on the way to the United States, he encountered the unfair treatment of the people of the empire in Hawaii!

After seeing some of the emperor's citizens arrested or even shot on the dock, as the highest-ranking officer on the Yuxiang, he was duty-bound to understand the situation and negotiate.

However, when he came ashore to express his intentions, he was stopped, and the authorities of the Kingdom of Hawaii refused his request to see the arrested subjects of the Empire, and repeatedly told him that these people had violated the laws of the Kingdom of Hawaii, so they were arrested, and these people refused to be arrested by law enforcement officers and even fled, so they caused casualties in the pursuit process!

If this argument were placed in the 21st century, I am afraid that people would think that this is the autonomy of the Hawaiian Kingdom, and there should be no other way than to hire a lawyer for them.

But the point is, this is not the 21st century. It's the nineteenth century!

In addition, it is very critical that with the rise of the Chinese Empire. A few years ago, the British and French forces were defeated, and now it is the north that rejects Russia. In the southern resistance to France, he also intervened in the Japanese Civil War, the American Civil War, and negotiated with Britain over the Burma issue.

This series of foreign actions is very clear that China in this era was not crushed as it was in history.

The Chinese people of this era are still proud, they still regard themselves as the center of the world, except for Huaxia, everything else will be barbarians at that time, well, at most, some barbarians are civilized barbarians. For example, Britain, France, the United States, etc.

As for the Kingdom of Hawaii, what the hell is this in the minds of the upper echelons of the empire or ordinary people? How dare a barbarian country arrest or even kill the subjects of the Empire?

The power of life and death of the people of the empire belongs to His Majesty the Supreme Emperor, and no one can decide their life and death except for the Son of Heaven, let alone these barbarians!

This is despite the fact that Hawaiian law enforcement has explained that the Chinese businessmen they arrested were arms dealers who sold large quantities of weapons to a member of the royal family who was plotting to overthrow the regime, despite the Hawaiian Kingdom's edicts. And caught red-handed by the Hawaiian authorities!

But the surrounding Cheng doesn't care about these!

He looked at the Hawaiian officials and left a message: "The lives of the subjects of the empire belong to my emperor, and you have no right to arbitrarily decide!" ”

After that, it returned to the Yuxiang!

Immediately afterwards, he reported relevant news to China through various channels. On the one hand, the Yuxiang was directly requisitioned as the Imperial Navy!

Then the crew of the ship was mobilized and armed!

Although the Yuxiang was a merchant ship, it was like most merchant ships in those days. They are all armed merchant ships, and there are many cannons on the bows!

Subsequently. In his diplomatic capacity as a military attaché stationed abroad, he formally submitted a document of representation to the Kingdom of Hawaii, demanding that the Kingdom of Hawaii release its subjects within a time limit. And whether these imperial subjects commit crimes or not will naturally be investigated and tried by the imperial judicial system, and barbarians are not qualified to judge imperial subjects.

For the Hawaiian Kingdom, this is a blatant violation of their judicial power.

And this matter quickly attracted the attention of a small number of local French, British and Americans!

The British had long claimed sovereignty over Hawaii, but no one recognized it but themselves.

France also had partial sovereignty over Hawaii in 1849!

As for the Americans, although they did not claim sovereignty over Hawaii, the Americans began to invade Hawaii.

Today, the Kingdom of Hawaii is barely surviving surrounded by many great powers!

Now the decision of the surrounding Cheng will naturally attract the attention of these three countries!

Although the Kingdom of Hawaii is already crumbling, it will not agree to the request of the surrounding Cheng for no reason, so there is no doubt that he refuses.

But the determination of the surrounding Cheng is greater than they imagined!

Two days later, the Yuxiang suddenly entered the depths of the harbor and used the ship's guns to carry out a symbolic shelling of the harbor!

Not to be outdone, the Kingdom of Hawaii also counterattacked with the pitiful few cannons, but both sides were restrained, the shelling was only symbolic, the shelling of the Yuxiang was all hit in the open space, and the land batteries were also hundreds of meters away from the landing point of the Yuxiang.

But it was such a symbolic bombardment, but it caused even more waves, because I don't know if it was like those indigenous soldiers on the Hawaiian battery who drank some kind of divine oil in India, and their accuracy increased rapidly, and then they really hit the Yuxiang with one shot.

The native Hawaiian artilleryman was stunned when he saw that the shell he shot out was deflected by hundreds of meters, and then smashed directly on the Yuxiang, what are you kidding, I was obviously aiming at the empty sea area more than 100 meters away, how did it hit someone's ship.

The solid shell slammed into the Yuxiang's superstructure, setting off a scene of sideways planks flying sideways, killing one crew member and injuring two on the spot.

The Yuxiang was just an ordinary armed merchant ship, and it did not have too strong armed forces, which was simply impossible to resist the fort, and the Yuxiang had no intention of engaging in an artillery battle with them at all. It was only intended to carry out a symbolic shelling to put pressure on the Hawaiian authorities. But I didn't expect them to dare to really fight back, and they were hit.

This change slammed the hands of the surrounding people on the table!

Familiarity is unbearable. This barbarian dared to bombard the imperial merchant ships, and it was really difficult to calm the resentment in his chest if he did not calm this small barbarian country.

Considering that the Yuxiang itself is not well armed, and there is also a shipload of arms on board, which is worth a lot of money, and considering that there are some ships from other countries in the port, this will cause great losses if there is an accident, so the Yuxiang took the initiative to evacuate the port and anchor in the open sea to wait.

And this time. The surrounding city has already urgently reported to the minister in the United States, and also through the channel of the Pacific Trading Company to report to the country.

This time, the report was no longer about the Hawaiian Kingdom arresting and killing the subjects of the Empire, but about the fact that the Hawaiian Kingdom dared to bombard the Imperial merchant ships and the ships of the active military personnel of the Imperial Navy.

This report was transmitted by ship and telegram relay several days later before it was transmitted back to Imperial Nanjing!

When Lin Zhe saw the report of this matter, he didn't know what expression to show, it seemed that he was at fault no matter what.

But now it is not a question of who is in charge, but of the majesty of the empire being provoked by a small barbarian state!

When the cabinet and the top brass of the military learned that there was a state shelling the merchant ships of the empire. I thought it was that powerhouse, but if you look closely, Hawaii? Few people have ever heard of this name.

Damn, when did this Hawaii emerge as a powerhouse?

Where is this Hawaii? How big is the country? What is the population? What is the total economic volume? And how many of their ironclads are there? How many troops are there in the army? How is it compared to Anglo-French Prussia?

If war breaks out with them. How many troops does the empire need to take it? If it is a transoceanic operation, are these ironclad ships of the Navy enough now? Does the other party have that kind of 10,000-ton ironclad ship? Is it enough for 100,000 troops to go with the ship?

Before the Hawaiian Kingdom could figure out what it was, the military had already held two high-level meetings in a row. The Army said it could dispatch at least one division of the expeditionary force at any time, and would draw more troops if the war expanded. If necessary, at least five divisions or more can be dispatched.

On the Cabinet side, if war breaks out. We will fully cooperate with the military's actions as soon as possible, and tens of thousands of tons of various materials will be delivered to various ports for loading and departing with the expeditionary force as soon as possible.

The Navy also said that the officers and men of the First Fleet have canceled all their vacations and can urgently assemble and dispatch at any time!

But when they figured out the current situation in Hawaii, they couldn't help but show angry and contemptuous expressions!

Damn, what kind of joke is this, even a small country dares to offend the empire, well, it is absolutely unforgivable to make them worry about death before.

So after the bigwigs in the cabinet learned about the strength of the Hawaiian Kingdom, Prime Minister Xue Huan said indifferently, this is a matter that your navy itself has done, and you can solve it yourself, well, whether it is a negotiation or a war, you can do it yourself, anyway, there are so many things in the cabinet, but there is no time to deal with these trivial things.

The army also said that it was such a big, and it actually held two high-level military meetings in a row, which is not nonsense, dealing with a small country, and it is still those uncivilized indigenous barbarians, our army will not be involved, we have more important things, and your navy will solve it yourself.

This made the top management of the empire react so much at the first time they learned the news, this is because since the establishment of the empire, the merchant ships of the empire have not been shelled, and the merchant ships of the empire dare not say that they are walking sideways around the world, but no one dares to stop or even shell them in this part of Southeast Asia.

Therefore, the military and political officials of the empire subconsciously reacted, since this country that dares to shell the empire's merchant ships must be a strong country!

In addition, this is also related to the rapid response that Lin Zhe has been emphasizing in recent years, because there are many external conflicts in the empire, especially with Russia, Britain and France, large-scale wars will break out at any time, plus Japan's side, so Lin Zhe has always asked whether it is the cabinet or the military, must always be prepared, once a war breaks out, it must be mobilized as soon as possible.

After a day of nervousness, he found that the so-called power that made him extremely nervous was just an indigenous island country in the Pacific Ocean, which made the imperial military and political top brass very faceless.

The Cabinet and the Army declared on the spot that this was a big deal and that your navy would solve it on your own.

And the navy is also a little depressed, why? Because the hero of this matter is the active major of the Navy, it is the report of the surrounding Cheng that makes the country so nervous.

However, he didn't say what kind of powerful Hawaii was, he just reported that the Yuxiang was shelled, and several people were killed and wounded.

Organize a massive fleet expedition? No kidding, the First Fleet of the Imperial Royal Navy is the essence of the Imperial Navy, which is used to defend the Empire's thousands of miles of sea frontiers, and the intended combat goal is to fight a decisive battle with the main fleets of British and French maritime powers.

It's time to take a vacation, and don't talk to me about Hawaii in the future!

So, although the Kingdom of Hawaii shelled the Yuxiang due to an accident, the empire went through the initial nervous reaction, and it was what to do when it came over.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which belongs to the cabinet, sent instructions to the minister in the United States, so that the minister in the United States should be fully responsible for the Yuxiang incident, and as for how to deal with it, your diplomats in the United States will look at it, and it is up to you to decide whether to negotiate or directly destroy the Kingdom of Hawaii.

On the navy's side, the "Imperial Royal Navy's Pacific Fleet," which was still stationed in Japan, sent a telegram to the "Imperial Royal Navy's Pacific Fleet," asking them to appropriately dispatch warships to Hawaii and obey the arrangements of the diplomatic personnel stationed in the United States.

Those diplomats told you to shell the port and shell it, and the landing operation was to land and fight!

In short, after these two directives were issued, the military and political leaders of the empire directly left this matter behind, and the only one who was still paying attention to this matter was the emperor Lin Zhe.

Unlike other people in the empire who don't care about or even despise Hawaii, Lin Zhe is very aware of Hawaii's great strategic significance!

To be precise, it is the strategic significance of Hawaii to the United States!

If Hawaii were in the hands of the Americans, it would be tantamount to allowing the Americans to protrude thousands of kilometers into the Pacific Ocean, allowing them to penetrate the waters of the Central Pacific.

On the contrary, if the Empire takes control of Hawaii and builds it into a huge naval base, then the Imperial Navy will be able to set foot in the waters of the Eastern Pacific, and even directly threaten the western coast of the United States, and the famous Hollywood will have to be overshadowed by the Empire's naval guns!

Therefore, although Hawaii is insignificant in many aspects now, although all countries have expressed interest in Hawaii, but none of them directly chose to annex this archipelago country, and it was not until after the eighties and nineties that the importance of the Hawaiian Islands gradually became prominent, and finally it was swallowed by the United States.

Lin Zhe was busy with many state affairs before, although he also thought about taking Hawaii under control, but due to the limited strength of the imperial navy, it was not realistic to attack Hawaii across thousands of nautical miles.

And now, since there is an excuse, although this excuse is very reluctant, and it belongs to the kind of person who is responsible for his own loss, but anyway, he finally has an excuse No, as for the reason, history is written by the victors, but if you change some records, who will know what the truth of the matter is!

Although the strength of the navy is not good, there are still some ocean-going vessels, and large-scale operations cannot be maintained, but small-scale landing operations should not be a big problem.

As for the fact that in case of opposition from Britain, France, the United States and other countries, or even the direct use of force to annex Hawaii by the Empire, it is a big deal to retreat, anyway, this Hawaii is not an empire in the first place, and if you can grab it, you can grab it, and if you can't grab it, you won't lose it!

For this reason, Lin Zhe bypassed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and personally sent a telegram to the imperial envoy to the United States, asking the envoy to the United States to use the Yuxiang incident to occupy the Hawaiian Islands and obtain a forward position for the empire in the central part of the Taiping Army. (To be continued.) )

PS: 2-in-1 chapter