Chapter 63: The Gambler (First Update, Ask for a Monthly Pass!) )
The rain stopped, and a new round of sun in the blue sky sprinkled a soft light on the earth, indicating that a new day has come, in March, no, Shenyang, just in this year's Spring Festival, the real name of the city finally returned, and the real name of Shenyang replaced Fengtian, although in the capital, the city's name change made many Manchu nobles burst into tears, and even let some courtiers who loved the Xinjue Luo family run to cry and tell their unfilial piety. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
But their crying behavior can't stop the reality of "Fengtian" changing its name to "Shenyang", that is, they can't stop the braids outside the gate and change clothes, after all, this world still needs to speak with strength after all, at most, they just cursed the "chaotic minister and thief" again in their hearts.
Curses and curses cannot change the reality of Shenyang's name change, just as it cannot change the so-called "ancestral land" and actually restore its true face to the actual "homeland of China", and the so-called "crying tomb" and "curse" are just a piece of laughter in the Northeast, and even the newly established archaeology major of Northeastern University is wondering whether it should be an "archaeological" discovery in Tangling.
Of course, that's just a thought, after all, the Ming Emperor's Mausoleum is still under the rule of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, as for the hustle and bustle outside and the vicious curse can't have any impact on Tang Haoran, he still wakes up peacefully every day, not affected by the so-called curse.
The sunlight poured into the room through the curtains, so that everything in the bedroom was immersed in the sunlight, the floating clouds on the horizon slowly drifted by, sometimes covering the sunlight, the flickering clouds and shadows swept across the eyelids, and Tang Haoran, who was sleeping comfortably, gradually woke up from the dream.
stretched out very comfortably, and before he opened his eyes, a fragrant and fragrant familiar body fragrance immediately came to his nose, and when he opened his eyes, what greeted Tang Haoran was Shen Jingxian's eyes that were both tender and charming.
At this moment, Shen Jingxian didn't just get up, she didn't say anything when she saw Tang Haoran wake up, she just smiled, and suddenly the touching beauty on her pretty face with pink makeup was easy to ripple in this morning light. stirred up a warm ripple in Tang Haoran's heart, everything in front of him was so real, and happiness had never been so palpable as it was now.
Reflecting the sun, Shen Jingxian, who was wearing white silk pajamas, was as charming as a fairy, looking at his wife in the sun. Tang Haoran's heart couldn't help but rise with a burst of happiness. Especially when looking at Shen Jingxian's lower abdomen, that kind of happiness and fulfillment are incomparable-five months ago, Jingxian was pregnant, and the slightest uneasiness in Tang Haoran's heart has disappeared with the wind and rain, and there is no need to think about the problem of offspring anymore.
Even, for Tang Hao, in addition to the old dream of responsibility and responsibility that belonged to the traverser, there is another dream, a dream that belongs to the father to his children and grandchildren.
It was a father's dream!
When Shen Jingxian dragged her somewhat heavy body and walked to the side of the bed with her clothes. Tang Haoran lovingly swept the hair on her sideburns, pecked her lightly on the forehead, and smiled.
"Morning, wife."
Husband and wife are just a common name among the people in this era, compared with the lord and wife, Tang Haoran is more accustomed to this title between husband and wife, after all, in later generations, this is a common title. At least for him, it seemed very close, but his title made Shen Jingxian frown slightly. whispered.
"Master, you are now the governor of the three eastern provinces, and you ...... million"
Before Shen Jingxian wanted to put on the shelf of an eldest woman to remind Tang Haoran to pay attention to her identity, Tang Haoran slightly probed her lips to block her next words.
Tang Haoran's kiss only made Shen Jingxian feel weak, and she could still hold up the already unskilled housewife frame again, but she just twisted her body slightly. Some panicked, some anxious, authentic.
"Sir...... The slave family is now, why don't you let Yingyan and her sisters come ......"
Seeing the sunlight coating a faint halo on Shen Jingxian's fair skin, Tang Haoran felt a burst of blood and qi surging all over his body, and couldn't help but lower his head and bite her little earlobe, and said softly.
"You woman. I don't want to go to court soon! ”
Although the scene of the two sisters, who looked almost like twins, sleeping together was extremely tempting, but for some reason, maybe it was because it was too easy to get, or maybe it was because there were too many affairs, although Tang Haoran felt a little tempting, he didn't lose his mind, at most, he just tried it occasionally.
The warm morning is just a moment, after a moment of warmth, as the governor of the three eastern provinces, Tang Haoran still has to devote more energy to all kinds of complicated things, although there is no "second-in-command" so that no one in the entire system of the three eastern provinces can threaten his position, and the seemingly separated powers enable each organ to perform its own responsibilities, but it does not mean that there is no work waiting for him.
In fact, almost every day, even from the moment Tang Haoran sat down at the dinner table, a succession of work awaited him, and almost every day began with reading the "Daily Bulletin" prepared by the full-time personnel of the Intelligence Bureau. The "Daily Briefing" was written precisely at Tang Haoran's request, and no one knew the role of intelligence better than Tang Haoran.
Although during the period of the Tongjian Mansion, many pieces of information were submitted to the palace every day, but during the "Northeast Campaign", Tang Haoran always missed important information due to too much intelligence, and it was precisely for this reason that Tang Haoran asked for not much information, but fine, one per day was enough, drawing on the experience of later generations, Tang Haoran asked the Intelligence Bureau to provide a briefing that "contains all the major matters worthy of his attention", and it was small enough, "so that he can carry it with him and read it at any time in his free time." This is how the Daily Bulletin, which resembles a summary, was born.
As in the past, after entering the office, Tang Haoran read today's "Daily Bulletin", there are a total of 14 pieces of information in this briefing, 10 pieces of domestic information, which are intelligence officers from the mainland, and a total of four pieces of foreign information, except for one piece of information related to Japan that comes from the intelligence station, and the other three are completely from public channels - that is, news in newspapers, which is not a big deal, after all, even after a hundred years, The collection of intelligence from publicly available information remains the main channel through which intelligence agencies of various countries gather intelligence.
Although most of this information is limited by the times and has a certain lag, and when it is compiled into a book, it is already a few days ago, or even more than ten days ago, but even so. In this era, perhaps Tang Haoran is still one of the few officials who can directly grasp a lot of intelligence, and it is precisely because of this that he is making many decisions, so that he will not make misjudgments.
"Is there any news from Tianjin?"
Because there were not many things worth paying attention to in today's briefing, after closing the briefing, Tang Haoran looked up at Li Muchen who was sitting in front of him. Looking at his student, who is also the director of the Intelligence Bureau, he is more concerned about Tianjin, to be precise, whether Li Hongzhang from Tianjin will sing this play with him as he wishes.
Different from the dramas sung in the past, this drama involves a big country after all! Although even that great power itself is not aware of the power it possesses now, this still does not prevent Tang Haoran from being vigilant against it, because no one knows the power of that country better than him.
"Teacher. There is no news from Tianjin yet! ”
Although the Intelligence Bureau has cultivated a number of internal lines in the Beiyang Yamen, there is always a certain lag in intelligence work, and not all intelligence is accessible to them.
"Well, I see, the bureau has been paying attention to it recently...... This "Honolulu incident" is not so much a surprise of the Americans as a mistake in our intelligence work, if we can take Hawaii more seriously. If the intelligence work is more in-depth, how can the United States allow the United States to take control of Hawaii so easily! ”
When referring to Hawaii. Tang Haoran only felt a pain in his flesh, and his dissatisfaction with the United States became even stronger, and it was strange to say that in another time and space, although he did not have much bad feelings towards the United States, he did not have a good impression of it. And in this space-time. For the United States, Tang Haoran can be said to be extremely disgusted. In this time and space, because the United States does not support China's relationship with the Korean suzerainty, the relationship between Tang Haoran and the United States has been quite tense since he became the commander of North Korea. And the tense and even confrontational relationship naturally caused Tang Haoran to feel bad for him.
And this tension has not faded because Tang Haoran became the governor of the three eastern provinces, but has become more tense -- last year, with the appearance of the Beiyang Fishing Fleet's whaling fleet in Hawaii and the signing of the "Maritime Trade Treaty" with the Kingdom of Hawaii in the name of the Unified Governor's Office, it became more subtle and even more tense.
The reason for this is very simple, the Kingdom of Hawaii is located at a strategic point in the Pacific Ocean, called the crossroads of the Pacific Ocean, and has been watched by the United States for many years. Historically, Hawaii was the most important supply base for American whaling ships, and after the decline of the whaling industry, the United States valued and watched because of its geographical location.
The demand for whales and catches has led to the fact that in the past year or so, the Beiyang fishing industry has turned most of the Pacific Ocean into "pastures", and Hawaii, because of its special location, has become the most important supply port for fishing companies in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
History is always in surprises, before and after the signing of the treaty, Tang Haoran realized that the current Hawaii has not been occupied by the United States, and he knows that the strategic location of this island is extremely important, so he naturally shows ambitions that do not match his strength.
Lack of strength?
It doesn't matter, this does not prevent Tang Haoran from deploying in Hawaii to launch a strategy.
According to this strategy, in addition to maintaining this whaling base, he also has to emigrate to Hawaii, and more importantly, with the help of tens of thousands of Japanese immigrants on the island, through the numerical advantage of immigrants, to ensure the success of the future Hawaiian strategy. The fundamental reason why it is called "future" is because the strength of the Northeast Navy is not good.
According to Tang Haoran's understanding, it seems that the United States annexed Hawaii at the end of the 19th century, and even led to the Japan-U.S. Hawaii crisis, but he does not know the specific time, but he believes that he has enough time to slowly lay out. But unexpectedly, two months ago, the American diaspora, with the support of dozens of Marines, staged a military coup d'état to establish the so-called "Republic of Hawaii."
What's even more annoying is that because there was no telegraph, the news of the coup d'état in Hawaii was not until two months later, with the arrival of a whaling ship in Dalian, that Tang Haoran learned that the Hawaii he had just targeted was seized by the United States, which had been watching him for a long time.
This piece of fat in his mouth was snatched away by someone without saying hello, how can it not be annoying, not to mention Tang Haoran, who knows that the Pacific Ocean will be a battlefield of Sino-US wrestling in the future, how can he tolerate the United States using Hawaii as a base to control the Pacific Ocean and push the front to his doorstep.
But in the face of fait accompli and the lack of strength, what can Tang Haoran do?
What can be done is very simple. It is a protest, as was the case with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in later generations, through which the "strongest of the strongest" protests were issued - but what effect would that be?
Therefore, after some deep consideration, Tang Haoran still made an attempt -- gunboat diplomacy.
That's right, it's to send warships to Hawaii!
Although he didn't have the slightest muscle in his arm, Tang Haoran knew it very well. In this era, if you do not show your own strength, then your own interests will be ignored by other countries. More important is Hawaii's unique strategic location, unlike any other island, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, halfway from the west coast of the United States to China in Asia. This allowed Hawaii to both supply the U.S. fleet heading to Asia and defend the U.S. homeland. Strategically, the United States believes that it must control the Hawaiian Islands and cannot allow enemy countries to control them, so as to ensure the implementation of the United States' expansion interests and global strategy.
This is true for the United States. The same is true for China, where if Hawaii could be controlled by China, it would be tantamount to pushing China's defense in the Pacific Ocean all the way to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, directly to the west coast of the United States. As a major Pacific power, whether or not it can master Hawaii is directly related to whether China is on the defensive or offensive in the confrontation between China and the United States in the coming centuries.
More precisely, for both Pacific countries in China and the United States, Hawaii is in whose hands. All determine whether each other is on the defensive or offensive, and the importance of their strategic position. And even far from being compensated for by a large fleet!
It is precisely because he is well aware of the importance of its strategic location that Tang Haoran said that the lowest goal is to ensure the existence of the Kingdom of Hawaii, to ensure that it is not occupied by the United States, and at least to ensure the balance of power between the two sides in the Pacific. And now all he needs to do is to get the United States to throw a rat trap and not blatantly annex Hawaii.
"Teacher. Will Tianjin really cooperate with us? ”
As a participant in the plan, it was difficult for Li Muchen to imagine that Tianjin, or the Beiyang Fleet, would be willing to be used by the teacher.
"If you don't cooperate, you have to cooperate, our Li Zhongtang has no other choice!"
To be precise, Tang Haoran didn't give him any other choice at all. Why did it take half a month after the ship was sent to protest to the United States? He didn't even greet Tianjin during the protest, in fact, he was telling Li Hongzhang that he could send a ship without saying hello, and he could also cause trouble in Hawaii without saying hello.
If the "Jingyuan" opens fire in Hawaii and fights with the US Navy warships, then the US fleet will reach its doorstep, and the Beiyang Navy will still have to clean up the situation, and even if Li Hongzhang is unwilling to meet the battle, he will only be forced to meet the pressure of domestic public opinion, and then the victory or defeat of the Beiyang Navy will have nothing to do with his governorship of the three eastern provinces.
In other words, Tang Haoran used the method of poking a big hole in the sky to force Li Hongzhang to cooperate with him in a play and force the Americans to make concessions on the Hawaii issue, so as to avoid the immediate annexation of Hawaii by the United States.
"Teacher, even with the cooperation of Li Zhongtang, it can be ......"
After a pause, Li Muchen asked in a very uncertain tone.
"Will the U.S. really budge?"
Although as the director of the intelligence bureau, he is more concerned about the country, at most one plus Japan, as for the United States, it is too far, although the teacher has affirmed several times that the United States will definitely make concessions, but he still does not have the confidence.
"The current United States has limited strength, as long as we show our strength and determination, the United States will definitely give in, and more importantly, ......"
Looking at Li Muchen, the corners of Tang Haoran's lips raised slightly.
"The right of the United States to declare war lies with Congress, and without the approval of Congress, the US Navy will never dare to open fire, and what we need is to send warships to Hawaii to show the President of the United States and Congress that we will never accept the annexation of Hawaii by the United States, even if it is a war!"
Whether it is bluffing or exaggeration, the reason why Tang Haoran, who is not very strong, dares to choose this adventure is entirely based on his understanding of the US policy at this time, and the current United States has grown into a muscular youth after a century of development, although its domestic capital forces are trying to promote the United States to participate in the world stage, but its domestic mainstream still adheres to a conservative foreign policy, and under the condition that the conservatives still control the mainstream of American public opinion, it is not impossible to take a millet from the fire. At best, the United States sees China as an imaginary enemy in the Pacific.
But what's the point? After all, for Tang Hao, China will have only one enemy in the Pacific Ocean in the future, and that is the United States! Not only is he the only enemy, but he will also be the ultimate enemy, which is why he cannot accept the American occupation of Hawaii and push the front to his doorstep.
"Of course, it's a gamble, Gentomo ......"
Casting his eyes on the students, Tang Haoran smiled slightly.
"Now that the gamble has opened, whether you win or lose, let God decide!"
(Today's 10,000-word update, ask for a monthly pass, ask for a subscription!) (To be continued.) )