The next day, Carvahameha V sent a representative to demand the redemption of prisoners of war captured by the Chinese army, but this request was denied.

In the next few days, the two sides had frequent diplomatic contacts, but the fighting did not occur again.

Because after the Battle of Honolulu, both sides had already suffered heavy losses and could not fight at all, and now the two sides are asking for help from their respective countries on the one hand, and on the other hand, they are engaged in diplomatic negotiations.

When Shi Yezhi was engaged in diplomatic bargaining with representatives of Britain, France and the United States as always, Colonel Guo Yi's urgent letter for help was also sent to China.

This information was transmitted first to Edo and then back to Nanjing.

When Lin Zhe learned that the Battle of Honolulu broke out on the Hawaiian side, it was already half a month later!

Since there were no telegraph facilities in Hawaii at this time, news from Hawaii was usually transmitted to the United States, then to England by telegraph, and then to India, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, and then to Nanjing.

The telegrams in these years belonged to the relay transmission mode, and it was impossible to say that a telegram was taken in Hawaii and then received immediately in Nanjing.

However, it was naturally impossible for Colonel Guo Yi to transmit the news to the United States first, and then return to China around most of the world, so he used a more direct method, that is, he sent a fast communication ship to Japan's Edo province with letters, and then sent a telegram from Edo back to Nanjing.

Since the development of the cable telegraph, the empire has been developing domestic telegraphy rapidly on the one hand, and on the other hand, it has also actively accelerated telegraph communication between the empire and abroad.

The Shanghai Telegraph Company, in which Imperial Industries holds 60 percent of the shares, started with the construction of the Shanghai-Hong Kong submarine cable. In cooperation with foreign telegraph companies such as the Daito Telegraph Office and the Anglo-French Telegraph Company, he participated in the laying of submarine cables from Shanghai to Hong Kong, from Shanghai to Ryukyu to Japan, to Edo.

Subsequently, he also participated in the maintenance and laying of the submarine cable network from Hong Kong to Singapore and other Southeast Asian coasts.

This series of joint construction is due to the cooperation with a number of foreign investors. Therefore, the royal industry was also forced to gradually reduce its shares, and even this telegraph company has changed its name.

Year 1865. The Shanghai Telegraph Company once again carried out financing and reform, merged three other telegraph companies in Southeast Asia and India, and renamed it the 'Pan Ocean Telegraph Company', the main capital came from the Chinese Royal Telegraph Company, the British and French telegraph companies, in which the Royal Telegraph Company accounted for 18 percent of the shares, and the rest of the shares were occupied by more than a dozen other foreign-funded enterprises.

After the merger and integration, the new Pan Ocean Telegraph Company can no longer be considered a Chinese company, and the company's headquarters is registered in London. The company's administrative headquarters is set up in Hong Kong, and it operates a telegraph network from Southeast Asia and even to India, well, mainly submarine cables.

In order to win the interests of capital and even monopolize the telegraph business from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean, the company has decided to lay a submarine cable from the Americas to Asia, and at the same time lay a new cable from Singapore to India and then to the Middle East, so as to build an international telegraph network connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean.

But this kind of big plan can't be completed in one year or two!

Prior to this, correspondence between the Empire and Hawaii. Then you can only rely on purpose-built communication ships.

The so-called communication ships are the kind of ships that only seek speed, and these ships do not carry goods and passengers, but only carry letters.

For example, the specially built communication ship of the Imperial Navy. It is still a hybrid of sails and steam, and the hull is not large, only less than 800 tons. Unarmed, the hull is extremely slender. And its top speed is up to seventeen knots.

But the real horror is not its top speed, but its long endurance. Such communication vessels can cruise at an average high speed of fourteen knots, which exceeds even the maximum speed of most modern capital warships.

The reason why it can maintain a long period of high-speed cruising is not only its large sail wind area and slender hull, but also because it is equipped with a high-power steam engine and a lot of coal.

For a long cruise with a steam engine, almost every compartment on the communications ship was stuffed with coal.

Naturally, it is impossible to use this kind of ship only for speed, and its high construction cost and operating cost are not something that private enterprises can afford, and only the navy will build this kind of communication ship.

And when the communication ship brought the news of the naval battle of Honolulu in Hawaii to Japan'Edo, and then sent a telegram from Japan's Edo to Lin Zhe in Nanjing.

Lin Zhe is presiding over a cabinet education meeting!

When he saw the telegram in his hand, he just threw down a group of cabinet members, and then urgently summoned a number of senior military generals.

When the Minister of the Navy Lin Dabiao arrived in the conference room, he found that he was the latest to come, Shi Qingxuan, Xu Yanqing and others had already arrived.

After seeing Lin Dabiao come in, Lin Zhe didn't wait for him to say anything like apologizing for being late, he just raised his hand directly and said, "Since it's all here, let's start!" ”

Although he came the latest, but this time the matter was the Battle of Honolulu, as the Minister of the Admiralty, Lin Dabiao naturally stood up without giving up, and then said: "According to the information we have so far, there are a total of five enemy ships in the battle that broke out in Hawaii, and they are the warships of Britain, the United States and France.

They tried to attack the port of Honolulu to annihilate our warships, but Colonel Guo Yi, commander of the Hawaiian task force of our navy, went out to sea to meet them, and after four hours of fierce fighting, they successfully sank two enemy ships, suffered more than 300 enemy casualties, and captured more than 90 prisoners!

As for our army, one was sunk, one was heavily damaged and could not be repaired, two ships were seriously injured, and more than 300 officers and men were killed or wounded! ”

"The warships of Britain, France and the United States? Are they trying to provoke an all-out war with the Empire? When Shi Qingxuan heard this, his face became cautious.

Lin Dabiao said: "This is a bit complicated, although we all know that they are warships of Britain, the United States and France, but they have all accepted the employment of Kawahameha in advance. The Hawaiian flag was hoisted during the battle, so we can't tell if this battle was a war with Britain, France, and the United States. And I'm afraid that Britain, the United States and France will not admit that this is the war they provoked! ”

"Is there any danger on the Hawaiian side now? Can Guo Yi hold on? Xu Yanqing also asked.

Lin Dabiao said: "According to Guo Yi's report, the enemy should have temporarily lost the ability to continue the attack, and their remaining three warships are all injured to varying degrees, and it is impossible to continue the attack." If they want to attack, they will have to wait for the arrival of reinforcements, and this time will take at least half a month or even more than a month! ”

"What if they, especially the Americans, sent fleet reinforcements directly from the West Coast? It is estimated that it will be able to arrive in half a month, and even if we send the fleet over now, I'm afraid it will take a month, right? I remember that there weren't many capital warships on Japan's side. In the past, warships could only be transferred from the First Fleet, so was it too late? Shi Qingxuan asked: "If the naval battle is lost, can the navy hold Hawaii in a land battle and encircle the imperial territory without losing?" ”

Lin Dabiao still had a lot of pressure in the face of Shi Qingxuan's inquiry, and as the Minister of the Admiralty, he knew better what the situation of the fleet under his command was.

The main warships of the Imperial Navy are concentrated in the First Fleet, especially ocean-going warships!

Usually, when they have to carry out ocean-going missions, they are transferred from the First Fleet, such as the Pacific Fleet. The battleships were drawn from the First Fleet.

But now the Pacific Fleet's capital ships have been used to send to Hawaii twice and form the Hawaiian task force. As a result, the current Pacific Fleet is only an empty shelf, with only a few offshore gunboats. And these gunboats can't go to Hawaii for a mission across six or seven thousand kilometers.

Therefore, if you want to send reinforcements, you can only draw them from the First Fleet on the mainland, no matter how much you need to do it. Sending any warship over but in light of the time, this one-way trip will take at least a month or more. And during this time period, the reinforcement fleet of the Americans had already arrived in Hawaii.

And when the time comes. It is very difficult to predict how the situation in Hawaii will develop.

"It is indeed difficult in terms of time, but many warships of our navy are in a standing state and can be dispatched to Hawaii at any time, and before that, I believe that Colonel Guo Yi has enough courage and ability to defend Hawaii for the empire!"

When he said this, Lin Dabiao obviously didn't have too much self-confidence, otherwise he wouldn't have said that Colonel Guo Yi had enough courage and ability, but would have said that the Navy's Hawaiian Task Force had enough strength.

Obviously, if the strength is not enough, you can only rely on the bravery and talent of the soldiers to make up for it!

Their focus has always been on Hawaii, because for these military generals, the Battle of Honolulu is a naked slap in the face of the empire and the face of their military, which is unbearable in any way, so at the beginning of the meeting, they were discussing how to reinforce the fleet, and there was a big battle for Hawaii to bring Britain, France and the United States to a large-scale fleet decisive battle.

But at this moment, Lin Zhe's mind is not thinking about Hawaii, for Lin Zhe, Hawaii's strategic position is very important, which is undoubted, but now the problem is not in Hawaii itself, but in the cooperation of Britain, France and the United States.

At the same time, although the tension in Hawaii was caused by peeping into Hawaii at the beginning, things have developed so far that it has affected more than just Hawaii!

While these generals were discussing the situation in Hawaii, Lin Zhe was thinking about it, why not just take this opportunity to take back Hong Kong? Well, and Macau.

Although there is nothing to ask for in these two big places, and the empire has no reason to need these two places, but on the side of the empire's couch, how can others be allowed to snore?

If he doesn't drive away the British entrenched in Hong Kong, he Lin Zhe is not sure!

Lin Zhe changed his habit of rarely speaking in the middle of the meeting at this time, and said directly: "Could it be that wearing gloves can mean that their hands are not stained with the blood of the imperial soldiers?" ”

"They have to pay for it!" Lin Zhe did not wait for the generals to discuss what the results were, but directly gave his order: "The navy must be prepared to deal with any situation." The army has strengthened the defense of the coastal provinces, and the troops of Guangdong are ready to recover Hong Kong! ”

As soon as Lin Zhe's words came out, many of the generals present were stunned, they obviously didn't expect that a mere naval battle on the Hawaiian side would make Lin Zhe react so violently, and even asked the military to prepare for a full-scale war between words.

Sending troops to Hong Kong? Is this the rhythm of a complete face-to-face with the British?

What if you turn your face and are blocked by the British at sea, regardless of the victory or defeat of the war? The group of civil servants in the cabinet still have to live or die! (To be continued.) )