More than half a month later

On October 15, 1904, the Second Pacific Fleet of Tsarist Russia set off from the Libao base on the Baltic Sea coast, with Rozhestvensky as the commander of the fleet, leading a large formation composed of 38 main combat ships and more than 100 supply ships, and embarked on a long journey to the Far East.

In this unprecedentedly large formation, more than 70 coal carriers were hired from Germany alone to provide important fuel supplies.

At this moment

Thousands of miles away in Manila, the wind and sunshine are beautiful, and the sea breeze blows the coconut palms and shakes gently, a picture of the quiet years.

A week ago

Rear Admiral Jensen Adenauer received an appointment from the African Detachment of the Indian Ocean Fleet, and immediately took his family on a fast cruise ship to Mozambique, where he was now sitting on the deck basking in the warm sun and drinking afternoon tea somewhere off the coast of the Indian subcontinent.

Li Siyuan is now accompanied only by Brigadier General Geng Chengen, who replaces the role of Major General Jensen Adenauer, and further serves as deputy director of the Royal Admiralty's Institute of Military Strategy and director of the Crown Prince's Chamberlain.

If you switch to the official sequence of the Qing court, it is almost the role of the crown prince.

In the small garden of the mansion

Brigadier General Geng Chengen was accompanying Li Siyuan for afternoon tea, the only two of them in the Western-style pavilion, and on the second floor of this mansion, his wife Geng Wu was accompanying the crown princess Pan to talk about some women's affairs, and seemed to talk about some newly popular topics of sweaters.

Most of the etiquette of the royal nobles of the Ocean Empire originated from the United Kingdom, with Chinese characteristics, which can be regarded as a fusion of Chinese and Western, characterized by simplicity and clarity, without so many cumbersome scruples.

Taking a sip of the coffee cup, Li Siyuan asked; "Brother Chengen, what do you say about the fleet?"

Brigadier General Gengen replied; "Oh, that's right...... Your Highness;

I went there in the morning and did not see Commander-in-Chief Zhang of the fleet, and Deputy Commander Li Jie led the "Melbourne" warship formation to the north, but I only saw Vice Admiral Li Sixian, chief of staff of the fleet, who was preparing to go to Mindanao to inspect the situation of suppressing bandits.

Due to the rush of time, just stood on the dock and said a few words.

A total of three sets of experimental "radio rangefinders" were produced, all of which were installed on the ships of our Pacific Fleet, the first two on the "Melbourne" and "Beilun" on this northern voyage, and the last on our "Sanmarinda".

Chief of Staff Lee meant;

His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief did not make a special explanation, so since there is a formation of ships from Beihang to conduct sea experiments, the "Three Marinda" will still be docked for maintenance as planned, and everything will be said after the ship is overhauled, anyway, there is no hurry to work in the past three or two months. ”

Speaking of this, Brigadier General Geng Chengen coughed dryly twice, revealing a look of wanting to speak and stopping.

Hearing this news, Li Siyuan was inevitably a little disappointed in his heart, and when he saw him like this, some anger rose in his heart, and he said; "It doesn't hurt to be blunt, don't babble like a."

"Uh...... Chief of Staff Lee said one last word; There are no rules, and there is no circle, please be considerate of the difficulties of the fleet. ”

Chief of Staff Lee's vague meaning is obvious; Don't talk about it with a radio rangefinder, you have to stop sailing, and penalties are inevitable.

Li Siyuan was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and his face showed a look of crying and laughing; "Brother Chengen, am I so obvious?"

"Indeed...... A little bit. ”

"When will the three Marinda be in the dock?"

"The No. 1 dock and the No. 2 dock can be repaired, and now the No. 1 dock is building a 15,000-ton naval fast coal carrier, which cannot be released in a short time, and can only wait for the No. 2 dock, it is estimated that it will take more than a month, and our ship will definitely be able to enter."

"Well, that's all there is to it." There was no way to be in a hurry, Li Siyuan sighed helplessly.

The only large docks in the Luzon Islands that can repair large battleships are the No. 1 and No. 2 docks, both of which are 26,000-ton giant docks, which belong to the Manila shipyard under the Red Hill Shipbuilding Group, and have strong technical force to undertake large ship construction orders.

These two large dockyards are the most important facilities in the port of Manila, the home port of the Pacific Fleet, and with them, the main battleship does not need to travel thousands of kilometers back to the Australian mainland for overhaul, and can be completed in the home port.

In the entire western Pacific region (excluding the Australian mainland), except for Manila, only the port of Nagasaki in Fuso has the maintenance capacity of more than 10,000 tons of capital battleships.

There are many large dockyards in Australia, but this one is too time-consuming, and I can only give up thinking about it.

During this time, he could only be idle, Li Siyuan felt bored, and asked casually; "What is the situation with the trade of Somali companies with Russia?"

"I don't know about this yet, and I don't care about it." This question was very abrupt, and Brigadier General Geng Chengen was stunned for a moment before answering; "Or ...... I called them, the person in charge, to come and report back to you personally. ”

"Is Sir Lee still there?"

"It should be there, I'll call now and let Sir Lee ......"

"Don't bother, it's okay to be idle left and right, you tell him that we're going to have a trip, let's meet and talk."

"Okay, listen to Your Highness's orders."

The Somali company, which is also headquartered in Manila, has grown over the years to not only have a large tobacco plantation in Legazpi, but also tens of thousands of acres of orchards, taking advantage of the region's excellent subtropical climate to grow fruit and develop canned fruit products.

Due to the lack of mature cold chain technology, the desire to eat fresh tropical fruits is a pure dream in Europe, so canned fruit products from the tropics are very popular in Europe and sell quite well.

It is precisely in view of this business opportunity that the Somali company will make canned fruit into another special product, in the Luzon Islands a dime can buy more than 10 pounds of fruit, made into canned fruit and sold to Europe, a pound can be sold for 4~5 pence, about 3 jiao 5 to 4 jiao, the value has increased dozens of times.

Australia has abundant food additive resources, sucrose resources and fruit resources, the combination of the three, the development of canned fruit series products is very promising.

All canned fruit exported is packaged in 80-pound barrels, which are then portioned into one-pound, two-pound, and five-pound household packages when they arrive in Europe, while 80-pound barrels are suitable for restaurants.

Exporting canned tropical fruits to Europe, the Somali company is the only business and has no competitors.

in the South Seas and the Indian subcontinent

The French Indochina Peninsula had similar favorable climatic and geographical conditions, but did not develop a decent industry, even matches and shovels needed to be imported, and the Dutch East Indies was in a similar situation, with basically no industry developed, and mainly the export of primary agricultural products, supplemented by a small number of handicraft workshops.

South India is a region with a large population, high survival pressure, frequent natural disasters, droughts and locust plagues, and even basic food needs cannot be guaranteed, let alone large quantities of fruits are exported.

The Somali company is a super-large integrated company, involving tobacco, fruit and grain cultivation, processing and production, foreign trade, transportation, finance and commercial real estate, employing more than 100,000 people.

Capital from the armed smuggling industry in Somali State has been laundered through the company, and the development has become more and more prosperous.

Before Li Siyuan, the Duke of Shangri-La, came here, he deliberately emphasized that he should keep a low profile.

Therefore, only Liao Liao and several senior executives of the company came forward to greet him early, and Viscount Li Yong, chairman of the board, led Luo Jianye, general manager of the company, Igor Smolnikov, deputy general manager, Li Xiaozu, director and others, to greet His Royal Highness the crown prince.

Li Siyuan drove lightly, and only brought Brigadier General Geng Chengen and two secretaries to the Somali company, and after greetings, he came to the luxurious living room that had been prepared for a long time, and sat down as a guest.

On behalf of the Somali company, Viscount Li Yong first extended a warm welcome to His Royal Highness's visit and gave a brief introduction to the company's current business, focusing on trade with Russia.

The specific part of the business was taken care of by the Russian-born deputy general manager Igor Smolnikov, who gave a detailed introduction.

According to the presentation;

The trade with Russia is very prosperous, which is mainly divided into two parts, one is the European branch in St. Petersburg and Moscow, dealing in high-end luxury products produced by the oceanic empire, including cashmere sweaters, high-end woolen clothing, various brands of cars, bicycles, cigarettes, etc., which are widely popular with the upper class of the Russian nobility and celebrities, and the product sales are quite hot and profitable.

Thanks to the huge population size, the consumption power of the middle and upper classes of Tsarist Russia is quite amazing, and it is located in the alpine zone, and the demand for cashmere sweaters, woolen clothes and other light, soft and warm high-end clothing is very huge.

Even if it's expensive, it can't stop the enthusiasm to buy.

The biggest obstacle to the development of Tsarist Russia's trade was that local corrupt officials were rampant, and all government departments were eating and taking cards, and if they did not have a strong trading partner, they would be eaten alive in minutes.

One is to supply a large number of supplies to the Tsarist Russian army in the Far East, including cigarettes, sugar, various canned food, meat sausages, grain, pig bristles and oil, which are purchased by Tsarist officials in the Somali company and pay high freight, and the Somali company is responsible for transporting them to Russian cities on the Heilongjiang River.

Armed smuggling is precisely what Somali companies do best, with 20 years of professional experience in this field, which reflects a high degree of professionalism throughout the entire transportation process.

The Somali company set up the port of Naha in the Ryukyu Islands as its home port for smuggling, and there was a large warehouse complex where supplies for Tsarist Russia were transported by ordinary freighters, and no one dared to make a trip under the wing of the Royal Pacific Fleet.

From here, continue to the north, the Yellow Sea.

The Fuso Combined Fleet has been hovering for a long time in the waters around Port Arthur to carry out blockade tasks, and there is an endless stream of supply cargo ships from Fuso to Dalian, Jinzhou, and other places, and a large number of troop carriers have been sent back and forth to transport the mobilized reserve divisions of Fuso to the three northeastern provinces, and then a large number of wounded and sick people will be transported back to the mainland.

The war for hegemony in the Far East, fought by Fuso with the strength of the whole country, consumed countless materials, and hundreds of freighters traveled to and from this busy route every day, transporting soldiers and supplies to the front.

In light of this

Eleven 1,500-ton fast smuggling vessels specially transferred by the Somali company formed two groups and planned a route through the western Pacific Ocean on the east side of the Fuso Islands; after bypassing the Fuso Islands, they turned northwest from the Nemuro Strait north of Hokkaido, and then took advantage of the high speed to cross the Soya Strait at night and enter the Heilongjiang channel.

The speed of the fast smuggling ship is as high as 27 knots, and the ordinary light cruisers of Fuso cannot catch up at all, and the destroyers of several hundred tons and torpedo boats of several tens of tons cannot sail far, and it is even more impossible to catch the traces of the fast smuggling ships in the vast sea.

So, for several months, the smuggling operations of Somali companies have been going well.

High risk brings high returns, the armed smuggling business of Somali companies is lucrative, and the transportation cost is more expensive than the goods, so Tsarist Russia has to suffer this knife in order to maintain the supply of materials for the army at the front.

Compared with the huge cost of transporting supplies from Tsarist Russia to the Far East, it is more cost-effective to entrust Somali companies with transportation.