The Navy is very interested in Truk Island, a small island located in the Micronesian archipelago, although it is worthless like most islands in the Pacific Ocean, but it has an excellent deep-water port and can berth a large number of warships, in addition, the location of this island is also relatively unique, the Marshall Islands in the east, the Bismarck Islands (Bismarck Islands) in the southwest, the Solomon Islands, New Guinea Islands, the Philippines and other islands in the west, and the Ogasawara Islands and the Japanese archipelago in the north.

Of course, the most important thing is that the Micronesia Islands, where Truk Island is located, were at this time in contention with various countries, but Spain was the first to go and established a related colony.

After the empire quickly took the Bismarck Islands and part of the northern Solomon Islands two years ago, Spain also felt threatened, and despite the empire's opposition, forcibly declared sovereignty over the Micronesian islands, and sent troops to control the vital island of Truk before the empire.

This made the Imperial Navy even more dissatisfied with Spain, and if it weren't for the main policy of the Empire, it is estimated that those young and militant factions on the side of the Navy would have privately seized Truk Island.

More than ten years ago, the Imperial Navy had determined a very clear southward policy, and their excuse was very simple, there was the Empire's greatest enemy in the south: Britain!

At the same time, many parts of Southeast Asia had various industrial resources and markets that the empire needed.

Therefore, the navy in the empire has always advocated the so-called South Seas is the South Sea of the empire, and the Pacific islands such as the Philippines are related to the coastal strategic security of the empire, so the annual naval military expenditure should be increased and increased.

In this regard, the Imperial Army said: Blind a few!

If the empire needs Malacca, if the empire needs Burma, if the empire needs India, as long as His Majesty gives an order, then the Royal Army of the empire has the confidence to take these places.

As for the navy, it is enough to guard the coast of the empire, and if it invests an extra 10 million or 20 million in naval military spending every year in order to grab those lonely broken islands in the Pacific Ocean, isn't this nonsense?

Of course, whether it is the advocacy of the Navy or the opposition of the Army, in fact, this has not affected Lin Zhe's choice!

As a latecomer, Lin Zhe knew better than anyone that those few islands in the Pacific Ocean would become vital strategic military bases in the future.

With the current state of technology, these islands may not be needed yet, but in a few decades, they will become very important.

And even if we don't consider the military issue, let's just say that a hundred years from now, everyone will be fighting for some kind of offshore oil, exclusive economic zone, etc., let alone an island, and even if it is a reef that only emerges at high tide, it is worth fighting for by the two countries.

Therefore, Lin Zhe's attitude towards these islands in the sea has always been very decisive and simple, that is, whether it is useful or not, it will be said after grabbing it.

If you can't use it now, you can't develop it, so let's put it first, and it's a big deal to wait for a hundred and eighty years before developing.

This mentality is actually the common mentality of many ambitious emperors in history, all of them want to expand their territory, the difference is that the emperors of the previous ancient dynasties only stared at the grassland desert, or the northwest, southwest and other land frontiers, but Lin Zhe set his sights on the world.

Not to mention the Asian region around the empire, Lin Zhe wants many islands in the Pacific Ocean, and if he has the opportunity, he even wants to take down New Zealand, Australia or something.

And a few years ago, Lin Zhe saw that Columbia in the Americas fell out with the Americans because of the Panama Canal, and re-aimed at the international community, looking for other countries to dig the canal.

It is a pity that Lin Zhe reached out to Central America this time, and tried to control the Panama Canal, which was almost opposed by the United States and all European countries.

Although the conditions given by the imperial side at that time were relatively favorable, and it was said that the country had formed a joint banking group with many banks such as the Royal Bank, which could provide more than 10 million imperial gold yuan for the construction of the canal at any time.

But this kind of thing was never a question of more money and less money, but a game of national strength, and in the end the representatives sent by the empire, the improvised Canal Company of the Americas, were sent out without even making it to the first round of competition.

Frustrated, Lin Zhe also made a lot of stumbling blocks for the Americans, and then let the French pick up a bargain, but Lin Zhe estimated that there were Americans and British, whether it was the French or the empire itself, they didn't expect to build the canal smoothly.

The same is true of history, in the end, the French were bankrupt because of the obstruction of the Americans in every possible way, and in the end, even the British gave up the Panama Canal in order to gain the support of the United States because they were mired in the Boer War.

In the end, the Americans succeeded in fulfilling their promise: the United States must take control of the Panama Canal in its own hands, and it must not give up this control and hand over the canal to any European country!

Although this time and space are different from history, the inertia of history is not so easy to break, and it is not much easier for the empire to control the Panama Canal than it is to occupy Singapore.

Although the intervention in the Panama Canal failed, it was a clear indication of the Empire's attitude towards foreign expansion.

Now, Lin Zhe has pushed the empire to set its sights on the Philippines and many other Spanish-controlled Pacific colonies, among which the Philippines, Guam, and Truk Island are the most important.

It's just that if you want to attack Spain, the military pressure is not great, with the current strength of the empire's navy and army, Spain, which has declined, is absolutely irresistible, and with the current empire's third largest navy in the world, even if Britain is the world's boss in person, it will feel huge pressure.

Therefore, the military strength of the Spanish side was not a factor to be considered, and it was the British and the French who really made the empire hesitate.

In this case, although the Spaniards were vulnerable, the empire waged war against Spain and seized colonies such as the Philippines, which was no longer a simple colonial war for Britain and France, but an imperial challenge to the old colonial powers, that is, to challenge Britain, France, Spain, Russia and other countries.

At that time, the British, French, Dutch, etc., out of consideration for the defense of the empire, are very likely to take drastic measures, especially the United Kingdom, which has always pursued a policy of continental balance.

The rise of the empire was originally quite uneasy for the British, although the British were reluctant to take risks because of the huge trade volume between the empire and Britain in recent years, and because the empire was mainly focused on Russia in its external expansion, and did not say that it was directly aimed at Britain and France.

This was also an important reason why the British remained neutral in the war between the Langang State of Borneo and the Dutch.

If the empire also shows a strong desire for expansion, especially for the expansion of Southeast Asia, it can be said that it is close to touching the psychological bottom line of the British, they will think that today the empire has fought Spain, seized the Philippines, tomorrow may fight France, and then seize Nanqi. The day after tomorrow, they will attack the Netherlands, and then take Borneo and Dutch Indonesia.

In the end, who's to say that the empire's expansionist ambitions won't be aimed at Singapore, Burma, India?

Although it is unlikely that the British will support Spain or even enter the war, this kind of major event, even if it is a small possibility, needs to be avoided as much as possible.

This is also the main reason why the empire wants to pull the Americans!

The same reason arises with the Americans, who want to seize Cuba, and they also need you to consider the reaction of the British.

Concerns about traditional colonial powers such as Britain and greed for the colonization they possess are the core factors that have brought China and the United States together.

However, after these secret talks, China and the United States did not reach a major agreement, and the biggest difference was that the Americans believed that if they started a war now, the American navy would be weak and that it would be difficult to fight the Spaniards, but if the British sent a fleet to intervene, the US Navy would be very bad at that time.

So they hoped that the Empire would send a detachment to the east coast of the United States to fight jointly with the Americans.

Otherwise, they would rather wait for more than ten years to build up the navy.

This made the imperial negotiators speechless, this Cuba is not what we want, but you Americans want, let us send a fleet all the way to the east coast of the United States.

Moreover, in the event of war, the Imperial Navy had a very heavy task, as they had to prepare for the British East India Fleet and the French and other possible intervention fleets.

The empire has a huge navy, and if Britain and France and other countries want to intervene, they will definitely send an equally large navy at that time, so if war really breaks out, any of the imperial royal navy is to prepare for the possible intervention fleet of Britain and France.

In the internal plan of the Imperial Navy, there was not even a plan to send the main fleet to cover the landing of the army in the Philippines or other islands, at most it was to send some old-fashioned second-class ironclad ships, and the capital ships would all rest and prepare for war in Hong Kong, Zhanjiang, Cam Ranh Bay and other major ports at any time, so as to meet the British East India Fleet at any time.

In this case, let the empire send capital ships to form a detachment to help the Americans fight?

It's simply impossible!

Although China and the United States secretly collude together, everyone also has a small ninety-nine, the empire wants to pull the Americans to share the pressure, the Americans want to borrow the empire's huge navy, the most important thing is that no one is willing to suffer, in some islands in the Pacific Ocean, the Americans also hope to get a large number of islands.

The Philippines did not dare to ask for it, but they wanted the Marshall Islands and Guam and other important islands in the middle of the Pacific, but the Empire was equally unwilling, and the Empire insisted on obtaining all the Spanish islands in the Pacific.

In this case, although both countries wanted to unite with each other to divide the Spanish colonies, there were still too many obstacles in reality, and after some secret talks, although the two sides reached some tacit understanding, they did not reach the agreement that both sides expected to form an alliance to fight in the West. (To be continued.) )