In 1881, the Songhu Naval Base in Shanghai, a military port that had been heavily guarded in normal times, is even more unusual today, with not only the navy's own military police units on duty inside the base, but also a large number of army units on the outside of the base.

Inside the base, a large group of army and navy generals were gathering and waiting, all of them were high-ranking generals wearing generals.

In the crowd, an admiral wearing a vice admiral's epaulette was bowing his head and whispering to a vice admiral next to him.

"Look at the time, it should be about the same!"

"Well, the prince's car should be almost here!" The lieutenant general responded, but his eyes remained ahead.

While the two men were talking in a low voice, there was a sudden commotion in front of them, and a group of cavalry on tall horses and dressed in Guards uniforms approached quickly.

As soon as they saw this group of cavalry, everyone knew that the prince's chariot was about to arrive.

Sure enough, after waiting for a while, I saw a long convoy appear in the lane ahead, most of the convoys were four-wheeled carriages, and most of the styles were uniform, but the badges hanging on the carriages were different, most of them were hanging the peony badge of the official carriage of the contemporary empire, but some of the vehicles in the middle were hung with the dragon badge unique to the royal family.

When the convoy slowly approached the gate of the naval base and drove onto the concrete road, the people waiting at the gate immediately raised their heads and chested up, down to ordinary soldiers, and up to a leading admiral, all of whom saluted in the middle of the golden, dragon-patterned, and four white Jurong horses.

In the contemporary empire, although the empire does not adopt any strict etiquette hierarchy, yellow and purple can also be used casually, but the relevant symbols related to dragons are still strictly restricted.

For example, the dragon badge worn on the left chest, which can only be used by royal employees, and the dragon costume, which can only be used by the Son of Heaven and the Prince.

Among them, the Son of Heaven Nine Dragons and the Son of Heaven Five Dragons.

As for princes, county kings, and vassal kings, they can only use four-clawed python robes, not dragon patterns.

The crown prince is the prince, and in the contemporary empire, except for the Son of Heaven, there is only one person who uses the dragon pattern-related symbols, and the clothing of the prince Lin Lian is usually five dragons (five claws).

However, this kind of general court dress, big dress and the like, will not pass on these in daily life, perhaps for low-key, the civilian clothes that Lin Yan wears every day are ordinary Chinese clothes, and he wears a dragon badge on his chest.

At this time, Lin Lu, who got off the carriage and appeared in front of everyone, was wearing an ordinary black Chinese costume and a dragon badge, although he was dressed almost the same as those officials next to him, but anyone who looked at it knew that this young man was the protagonist of this talent and everyone was waiting for.

After Lin Yan got out of the carriage, he just stood there, without talking or making any movements, but others could feel a natural superior aura from it.

Twenty-one years of royal career and three years of prince career are enough to make Lin Lian form a completely different atmosphere from ordinary people, and after he got out of the carriage, he still didn't speak.

After a secretariat official next to him walked over quickly, he bowed down and led Lin Yan forward, Lin Yan stepped forward a few steps, and then came to the many military generals waiting at the door.

I saw him smile, and then nodded slightly: "It's all hard!" ”

When everyone heard this, it was like a spring breeze, and several middle-level officers were even more excited!

After Lin Lian entered the building, there were still a few people who didn't come back to their senses, which can't be blamed on them, in the monarchy **** country like the empire, the royal family originally had a natural sense of mystery, after Lin Lian was canonized as the crown prince, although he also had an office in Xinhua Palace, and officially got involved in government affairs.

But it was still difficult for idlers to see Lin Luan.

After entering the Songhu Naval Base, Lin Lian began to visit and inspect many facilities of the naval base according to the predetermined formation, and boarded several warships for inspection.

Just when outsiders were paying attention to Lin Luan, Lin Luan himself was also stroking the cold steel on the battleship, looking into the distance, and seeing the large and small warships at that time.

"That should be the Blue Dragon, right?" Lin Yan asked, pointing to a battleship in the distance.

The naval attache attendant beside him immediately replied: "Your Highness's eyes are like torches, that is the Blue Dragon!" ”

Lin Yan smiled, as the crown prince of the empire, he would naturally pay attention to the development of the imperial navy, although he said that he could not recognize all the warships of the empire, but he had seen some of the illustrated books of the capital ships, and although it was the first time he had officially inspected the navy, he had also followed his father to inspect the navy before, or traveled on naval warships.

It is no stranger to the main warships of some of the Navy, and the Qinglong armored cruiser is also a relatively cutting-edge armored cruiser in the Imperial Navy, the ship started construction in 1871, officially entered service in 1875, and has only been in service for six years so far.

Lin Lian continued to look at the other battleships in the harbor, and the naval attendant military attache beside him also took the initiative to explain: "Next to the Qinglong is the battleship Fengbo, which just completed a mid-term overhaul last month, and has undergone certain modifications, and has been replaced with a more powerful 150-millimeter secondary gun!" ”

"Next to the Fengbo is its sister Yinglong, according to the Navy's refurbishment plan, the ship should be overhauled and refitted in July this year!"

As one of the three major naval bases in the empire, the Songhu Naval Base was originally berthed with a large number of warships, but today because it was inspected by the prince, some of the capital ships that were away on weekdays also returned to Hong Kong for inspection.

Therefore, in the base today, there are three battleships, three armored cruisers, seven capital ships, and more than 10 small and medium-sized warships such as cruisers of various types.

In fact, if Lin Lian went to Hong Kong, he would still be able to see more capital ships, because since the empire recovered Hong Kong, Hong Kong has been built into a pure naval base, the entire Hong Kong Peninsula is a military restricted area, and the port of Tsim Sha Tsui is the best deep-water military port in the southern mainland of the empire.

In addition, the main imaginary enemy of the Imperial Navy was the East India Fleet of the British Royal Navy, so the Hong Kong Naval Base became the most important naval base of the Empire, with a large number of capital ships moored all year round, and there was a whole fleet of battleships alone, a full four, more than today's Songhu Naval Base.

Looking at the many warships moored on the dock, although Lin Luan's face remained calm, his heart was already a little excited.

Looking at these warships, it was the first time that he really felt the growth of the strength of the Imperial Navy, and he was able to intuitively feel the rapid development over the years.

And the admiration for his father in his heart has also risen to a higher height.

As a prince who grew up with Lin Zhe since childhood, Lin Lian understands some of Lin Zhe's ambitions better than other outsiders, and understands better why his father went to great lengths to develop the navy, which is to be used to confront Britain and the United States and other countries, compete for Southeast Asia and even the entire Pacific Ocean.

And seeing this fleet today, it seems that the navy developed by my father over the years has been quite effective, and perhaps it will play a greater role in the upcoming war.

As the prince of the empire, although the crown prince Lin Lu has no right to decide on many major matters, he will still know what he should know, as far as he knows, his father has asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to secretly contact the Americans, why contact the Americans?

It's for the many colonies in the hands of Spain!

A few years ago, diplomats from both countries would often talk about Spain in private, and it slowly developed into official and secret contacts between the two sides.

The impetus for this was very simple: the Americans wanted Cuba, the empire wanted the Philippines and, of course, the large number of Pacific colonial islands in Spanish hands.

Lin knows that once China and the United States reach an agreement on the distribution of interests and cooperation, then war will ensu.

And in this future war, the army can only be a spectator, and the protagonist of the war will be the navy!

This is also the reason why Lin Lian came to inspect the Songhu Naval Base, he wanted to inspect the navy on behalf of his father, check the current situation of the navy, and at the same time convey to the navy the importance of his father to the navy.

Lin Yan stayed at the Songhu Naval Base for two days, the first day was to inspect the base, and the second day was to wait for the ships to go to sea and watch the navy's formation and artillery drills in the coastal waters.

This was also the first time in his life that he saw the naval fleet's artillery drills, although they were all training shells, but watching the multiple main guns on the battleship shooting, the fireworks and rumbling sound from the muzzles of the guns still made Lin Yan deeply feel the enormity of these warships.

While Lin was inspecting the navy in Shanghai, the diplomats of Washington and the empire in the United States were also secretly negotiating with the Americans.

It's just that this negotiation is not the conflict and contradiction between the two countries in the past, and the Alaska issue and the Hawaii issue have not been involved, and their secret negotiations in the past few days have only one matter, that is, how to liberate the Spanish colony.

Well, it might be illusory to say that, but in short, they were talking about how to divide up Spain's colonies in the Americas and the Pacific, and how to cooperate in order to obtain them.

It was not a matter of a day or two that the United States and the Empire had become greedy for Spain's colonies, or the diplomats of the two countries would not have begun to probe and negotiate privately years ago.

For the Americans, Spanish-controlled Cuba was like a fishbone, stuck in the throat, and their policy of trying to turn the whole of America into their backyard was greatly hindered.

For the Empire, the Philippine Islands were like a mountain separating the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean, and the Empire's mainland to the subject country of Langang or to the South Pacific Governorate were all influenced by the Philippine Islands.

In addition, many other Pacific islands under the control of the Spaniards were also coveted by the empire, such as Lin Zhe, who repeatedly mentioned the importance of Hawaii, Guam, Truk Island and other Pacific islands in some strategic meetings.

Because although these islands do not have much economic value, their military and strategic value is very large, these islands have very good deep-water ports, and the geographical location is quite good, which is an indispensable naval port for modern empires to control the Pacific Ocean.

Lin Zhe is very concerned about these, and the navy is naturally very concerned. (To be continued.) )