Since the passage of the new tariff bill by the Empire in 1878, China and Britain have repeatedly negotiated the tariff issue many times, and the differences are relatively large, but after two years of ink and ink work, coupled with the very large trade volume between China and Britain, it is not beneficial for both sides to drag it out, so taking advantage of this opportunity, the Empire and Britain have each made a concession, and reluctantly reached a new tariff agreement that is satisfactory to both sides.

As for the Ning Kingdom, he also knew why Wei Tuoma would talk about it in today's topic, since Li Haotong took power, this Ning Kingdom was relatively honest ten years earlier.

However, the Ning Kingdom is an independent country in the end, and people like Li Haotong are also ambitious, in the first ten years of power, Li Haotong was busy purging dissidents, controlling power and promoting the modernization and reform of the Ning Kingdom.

Through the development of agriculture, timber and other basic processing industries, the national strength of the Ning Kingdom has increased.

However, in the past two years, Li Haotong has relied on the national strength of the Ning Kingdom to increase, and the military strength of the Ning Kingdom is relatively strong, and it is not possible to fight against China and Britain, but if you want to fight Siam and other Southeast Asian countries, it is basically nine out of ten, so in the past two years, it is the idea of Siam next door.

In the past two years, several military conflicts have broken out between the Kingdom of Ninh and Siam.

Not long ago, the Kingdom of Ning and Siam fought another battle on the border, the Siamese army was defeated, the loss of troops was as high as 5,000 people, and the Ning army penetrated more than 200 miles into Siam, which caused great panic in Siam, and hurriedly asked Britain, the Empire, France, etc. to mediate.

The British naturally did not want to see Siam, a country that was used as a buffer zone, be destroyed, and they did not want to see the Ning Kingdom become bigger, so this time, the British were very active in mediating the war between the Ning Kingdom and Siam.

In this regard, the empire is well aware that Li Haotong of the Ning Kingdom is pro-China, and the gradually aging king of the Ning Kingdom also married the daughter of the imperial nobles a few years ago, and the Ning Kingdom is basically half a foot has already stepped on the chariot of the empire.

Therefore, the empire turned a blind eye to the expansion of the Ning Kingdom.

However, there are limits to allowing the expansion of the Ning Kingdom, although the empire wants to pull the Ning Kingdom into its own chariot to fight against the British, but it does not want to see the Ning Kingdom too strong, or even occupy a large territory of Siam or other Southeast Asian countries.

Over the years, the empire has been on guard against the Ning Kingdom while wooing, needless to say, and the main means of defense is to infiltrate and control the two Tusi jurisdictions of Shan State and Kachin State.

Shan State and Kachin State are Tusi jurisdictions, and in the early years, the Ning Kingdom entered Myanmar and was entrenched in these two places at the beginning, so after the establishment of the Ning Kingdom, these two places were also incorporated into the Ning Kingdom by Lin Chengting.

Therefore, the local Tusi power has not dissipated, after the establishment of the Ning Kingdom, the Tusi in these two places rebuilt their power, except for the nominal belonging to the Ning Kingdom, basically belonging to the autonomous state, with an independent army.

Of course, this has a great deal to do with the support of the empire, otherwise, with Lin Chengting's momentum of daring to fight with the British for several years, these two Tusi jurisdictions would have been wiped out long ago.

These two Tusi jurisdictions are the two nails that the empire inserted into the Ning Kingdom, and even the entire Burmese region!

The empire is also dissatisfied with the expansion of the Ning Kingdom in recent years, so if the British mediate this time, the empire will most likely reduce its support for the Ning Kingdom.

Although the war launched by Li Haotong will not be fruitless, it is not expected to cede a large territory from Siam.

It is estimated that after Li Haotong understands it, he will change the direction of expansion, Siam and other places are not good places, but Chin State and other areas in the northwest are still expanding outside the direct control of the Ning Kingdom and the British, and even expand all the way to the west to the Indian border, or if they are bold enough to directly start a war with the British and seize Burma, the empire will definitely welcome it.

However, it is estimated that it is no problem for Li Haotong to fight Qinbang, but if he goes to war directly with the British, it is estimated that Li Haotong will not have the courage.

After thinking about it for a while, Song Guanqian also said: "The empire also wants to see the Indochina Peninsula maintain peace and stability!" ”

This answer basically means that the empire agrees to work with the British to curb the eastward expansion of the Ning Kingdom.

Then there are two people who talked about the problems of Alaska and Hawaii, these two are old problems, and it is basically impossible to talk about the results directly, anyway, the British do not want to see the empire control Alaska, and then threaten the security of Canada.

However, since the empire and Russia signed the Alaska sale agreement, the empire has justifiably obtained Alaska, and the British can only oppose it verbally, otherwise they can only start a war, just for a barren land like Alaska, to start a war, for the British to lose more than worth the loss, so they only maintain verbal opposition.

However, in order to dispel the vigilance of the British and prevent the British from being provoked, the empire was very careful not to send too many troops in Alaska, and now the empire is on the Alaska side, but only stationed less than a thousand regular troops in a few important strongholds along the coast, this kind of force can only be regarded as better than nothing, and the symbolic significance is greater than the practical significance.

However, there are not many land forces stationed, which does not mean that the empire's control of Alaska is poor, after all, in a ghost place like Alaska, it is still the navy that wants to control it, and the army is of little significance.

The empire relied on Port Beagle, but it stationed many warships in the North Pacific, not to mention small armored cruisers and conventional cruisers, and sometimes some capital ships would also go north for training to increase their control over the North Pacific waters.

The current Aleutian Sea is basically the backyard of the Imperial Navy, and the Imperial Navy is very active in this sea area.

As for the Hawaiian issue, in fact, the British, like the French, did not have much say in the case, as early as ten or twenty years ago, Britain and France and other countries were still trying to control the islands, but after the rise of the empire and the United States, Britain and France and other countries have basically given up the idea of controlling the Hawaiian Islands.

The current dispute over the Hawaiian Islands is mainly between the Empire and the United States.

In order to increase its control over Hawaii and completely annex the Hawaiian Islands one day, the empire spent a lot of thought, the most important of which was to encourage the people of the country to move to the Hawaiian Islands.

When the empire first acquired Pearl Harbor, there were less than 100 Chinese resident in Hawaii, and most of them were past merchants, and there were no immigrants who settled there.

However, after the empire obtained Pearl Harbor, with Pearl Harbor as the core, a large number of Chinese residents were gathered, at first most of the Chinese were soldiers and their families stationed there, and some were merchants, but then slowly some people went to the Hawaiian Islands to open plantations, do business, work, etc.

The number of ordinary Chinese immigrants gradually increased.

By 1880, there were nearly 10,000 Chinese in the Hawaiian Islands, and all but one-third of them were military personnel and their families.

Of course, these are immigrants, but they are not subjects of the Hawaiian Kingdom, as they still retain the citizenship of the Empire.

This is also a very special phenomenon of contemporary immigrants, that is, a large number of immigrants who go abroad to work and live, they basically retain the nationality of the empire, and few say that they will join the nationality of the local country.

As long as the number of Chinese in the Hawaiian Islands increased, the empire was sure that Hawaii would be completely annexed in the years to come.

It's just that it's not just the empire that's doing it, it's the Americans doing it too.

Now China and the United States are in a-for-tat confrontation on the Hawaiian side, the Americans rely on the distance, and the empire relies on the Pearl Harbor military base.

Although the British have no intention of controlling Hawaii, why did Song Guanqian still talk to Sir Wittoma about Hawaii, it was because Britain was the world leader these days.

If the Hawaiian issue had the support of the British, the empire would have faced less resistance when it came time to compete with the Americans for the Hawaiian Islands.

The British are the boss of the world, and their influence is still very large.

However, if you want to get the support of the British, the price that the empire needs to pay is not small, after all, the British are not good people, if you don't come up with some real money, don't think that the British support the empire, let alone support, and then the British will have to burn high incense if they don't drag you back.

Naturally, the Empire is not willing to pay too much price, whether it is for the British to let the Empire give up their support for the Langang State, or for the Empire to give up the two colonial strongholds that have been painstakingly established in the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea, this is unlikely.

In recent years, with the development of national strength and the strength of the navy, the empire has also begun to try to seize islands in the Pacific Ocean, initially in the South China Sea.

Regardless of whether anyone has been to the South China Sea or not, whether it is an island or a small island, all of them have been erected on the monument of the sovereignty of the empire, and the words "such and such as the Great Chinese Empire" mentioned above.

Subsequently, the empire was a number of islands in the deep Pacific Ocean that had not been actually controlled or discovered by other countries, but unfortunately although there were many islands in the Pacific Ocean, most of them were already owned by them, and Spain, the Netherlands, France, and the United Kingdom, four countries, occupied most of the large and small islands in the Pacific Ocean.

All that's left for the empire is some leftovers!

And even so, countries are arguing about these islands that have little practical value, you say it's yours, I say it's mine, and the result is that it doesn't matter whose it is, grab it first.

Over the years, the empire has also acquired a small number of islands in the deep Pacific Ocean as colonies, the most notable of which is the 'Dongren Islands'.

The so-called Dongren Islands are actually the 'Bismarck Islands' in later generations, and it is a matter of luck that the Empire was able to obtain this archipelago!

Because the archipelago was discovered by European countries for a long time, but these countries generally have little interest in this island, and in the last decade or two, the Dutch and the British have also focused their attention on the island of New Guinea, so they are not very interested in this archipelago with little interest.

In the early seventies, the relevant officials of the empire looked through the documents of various countries, but were surprised to find that none of them had declared sovereignty over the islands.

As a result, the Imperial Navy, which was full of territorial expansion, combined with the relevant diplomats, sent many expedition fleets to the islands, and then erected sovereignty monuments one by one, and finally spent two or three years establishing a number of symbolic colonial strongholds.

Then he shamelessly declared his sovereignty over this archipelago!

And in 1878, under the pretext of offering gifts to the crown prince, all parties in the empire announced that this island would be collectively called the 'Dongren Islands', and the South Pacific Governorate was established to govern the Dongren Islands and several colonial strongholds in the northeast of the island of New Guinea.

The word Dongren, that is, the name of the palace where the prince lives, is generally called the prince by the outside world, and sometimes Dongren Hall is also used.

But it's a pity that these islands have not been wanted by Europeans for hundreds of years, and there is a reason, these islands basically have nothing, and there are still a lot of barbarians, let alone development, even if you want to establish a colonial base here, it is not easy to survive.

After so many years, the permanent population of the empire in the South Pacific Governorate is less than 2,000, and more than 500 people are soldiers scattered in colonial strongholds and adventurous merchants who serve the soldiers, and the rest are some local civilized natives, as for ordinary Chinese immigrants, sorry, there are none.

This kind of ghost place, no property, even if there is no property, the local natives are all ruthless characters, eating people or something is trivial, and the climate is also quite bad, one accidentally contracted the disease and died, there are no antibiotics or anything like that in these years, living on an island with an extremely harsh natural environment such as the equator, whether you can survive depends purely on whether God gives face.

Aside from military personnel and adventure merchants, not many people are willing to immigrate here, as this is not a place like Hawaii.

However, Lin Zhe doesn't care if these places can be developed, the natural environment is not bad, and it can't be developed now, so he will occupy it first and develop it slowly later, even if it can't be developed, it's good to put it on the Pacific Ocean as a landscape!

Lin Zhe is more supportive of seizing colonies, so the people below are also very active, so that over the years, although the empire has not grabbed any strategic places in the Pacific Ocean or anything like that, there are still some miscellaneous, islands with no practical value.

In general, what the Reich is doing in the Pacific is actually similar to what the Germans have done in this region in history, it is too late, so it would be nice to have two broken islands for you, and as for wanting more and better colonies, there is no second way except war.

Some ordinary islands naturally have no strategic value, and the empire also has the mentality of grabbing as much as it can, but the island of New Guinea is different, although this place is also poor mountains and bad waters, and it is extremely difficult to develop, strictly speaking, there is no significance in development, but its strategic position is more important.

If the island can be controlled and relied on the island's ports, then it can provide the Imperial Navy with a forward base to penetrate deep into the South Pacific.

However, it is a pity that the western part of the island of New Guinea is now in the hands of the Dutch, and the southeast is a British colonial stronghold, and the best port of Moresby is in the hands of the British, and now the empire can only establish a few colonial strongholds in the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea.

In the past two years, the empire has also had a certain conflict with the British and the Dutch on the issue of the island of New Guinea, and it is basically impossible for the British to take advantage of this negotiation or use the Hawaii issue to get the empire to push out the island of New Guinea.

Of course, if the British are willing to exchange some more important colonies, such as Singapore or something, let alone just two colonies in the northeast of the island of New Guinea, the entire South Pacific Governorate can be exchanged for the British, and the empire can add a few million or even tens of millions of dollars to the purchase cost!

It's a pity that the British weren't stupid enough to do that! (To be continued.) )