In the remaining days, His Royal Highness Nicholas, the Crown Prince of Tsarist Russia, and his entourage visited Sapporo, Linshui and other cities by train, appreciated the developed offshore fishing and fishery of Beihai Province, and visited the people in depth.

Through these visits, the mystery of the abundance of food and clothing for the local people was solved.

The Tang Empire's Beihai province has made extensive use of chemical fertilizers, and after each season's crop is harvested, potatoes and Chinese cabbage are interplanted, which greatly increases production and solves the problem of insufficient local vegetables and staple foods.

In particular, pickled cabbage, radish, soybean paste and other vegetables, supplemented by local abundant fish resources, can ensure self-sufficiency, and also have a certain ability to export seafood.

Whenever the long winter comes, the island's residents will store a large number of pickled cabbage, vermicelli, soybean paste, salted fish, salted chicken, salted duck, salted meat, etc., farmers stop working, fishing boats also stop going to sea, and start a long "cat winter", up to 4~5 months a year.

Most of the seafood such as pickled fish and shrimp in Beihai Province are exported to Fuso and the Qing Kingdom, and millions of Tang Yuan worth of surplus can be harvested every year.

The province imported tea, silk, porcelain, bamboo products and cultural toys from the northern continent, and bilateral trade was quite smooth, and it was also a bridgehead for the export of imperial industrial goods to the mainland.

in the province of Butterworth

There are several large oil depots in the building, storing up to tens of thousands of tons of kerosene, diesel, lubricating oil and heavy oil, which is the base for the export of the world's oil giants of the Tang Empire to the north.

The southern base is in the Kingdom of Luzon, where there are also many large oil depots, mainly facing Southeast Asia and the southern part of the mainland, forming a relatively stable export base.

The Tang Empire's 10,000-ton tankers have regular routes, from large refineries in Los Angeles and the south, loaded with petroleum products to Beihai provincial oil warehouses, where they are unloaded through a dedicated pipeline at the oil terminal.

Several oil depots in Beihai Province are equivalent to a northern distribution center, and most of the oil ships that come to load oil are hundreds or even thousands of tons, not special oil tankers, which need to be loaded and unloaded through oil drums.

These offshore cargo ships were loaded with oil and transported to ports in the northern part of the continent and to the neighboring kingdoms of Amami and the Ryukyus, where most of them were put into the warehouses of local foreign companies and then sold.

Crown Prince Nikolai was impressed by the well-developed infrastructure of Butterworth Province.

The railway transportation here is convenient, the highway is accessible in all directions, and there are relatively complete farmland and water conservancy facilities, reservoirs, bridges, etc., even St. Petersburg cannot reach such a level, is this the strength of an industrial country?

During the reign of Alexander II, Tsarist Russia partially emancipated the serfs and began the process of industrialization.

However, due to the country's large and bloated state, it has only achieved a certain degree of industrialization in parts of Europe, such as the coastal regions of Ukraine and St. Petersburg, and the vast majority of the interior is still the same.

It will take at least a few decades to reach the current level of infrastructure in Beihai Province.

Thinking that the Tang Dynasty is a huge empire about the same size as Tsarist Russia, with a larger population, and a remote overseas province can develop like this, wouldn't the empire itself be more developed?

Thinking of this, Crown Prince Nikolai boarded the ironclad ship "Memories of the Sea of Azov" again with mixed feelings and went to Fuso to start a new visit.

As soon as he set foot in the country of Fuso, Crown Prince Nicholas fell in love with this country full of oriental characteristics, which had all the elements that met his imagination.

Timid and yellow-skinned, he was short like a child. The old stone pavement streets and the wooden shoes that "kick and kick" when walking, the pavilions and pavilions with oriental architectural characteristics, and the muddy and narrow streets......

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Nicholas felt aggrieved in Beihai Province, and finally regained a strong sense of superiority after arriving in Nagasaki, Fuso Province.

The meticulous care of the Fuso official also made His Royal Highness the Crown Prince very satisfied.

Starting from Nagasaki, the crown prince of Tsarist Russia and his entourage took a special train through Hiroshima, Kobe, Osaka, and arrived in Kyoto.

After arriving in Kyoto, Nikolai and his entourage visited the old city of Kyoto with great interest, enjoyed the spectacular scenery of "Five Mountains Sending Fire", and wandered on the shores of Lake Biwa in a beautiful environment......

On the afternoon of May 11, Crown Prince Nicholas, who was immersed in the beautiful scenery, passed through Otsu on his way back from Lake Biwa, and he and his companion, Prince George of Greece, each rode through the street in a rickshaw and waved to the local people gathered on both sides of the street.

In order to receive VIPs, the Fuso National Police have already spread all over the streets and implemented strict control measures.

Buildings on both sides of Otsu Main Street are not allowed to stay on the second floor or above, except for police officers, and onlookers are not allowed to wear headscarves and other objects to cover their faces.

The Japanese and Russian government attachés accompanying the tour, the entire procession consisted of 50 rickshaws, forming a long human-powered tricycle convoy.

"George, it looks like we're very popular here, and I already have a good impression of this country." Nikolai said with a smile on his face, not forgetting to wave very gentlemanly.

Their arrival triggered the cheers of the onlookers along the street, and the cheers rose wave after wave, rendering quite enthusiastic.

go without saying

This is also a program carefully arranged by the Fuso government, which is to hope that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince can feel the friendship and enthusiasm of the people of Fuso, and the effect seems to be really good.

Prince George's rickshaw was right behind His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, and he responded with a smile; "Your Royal Highness, these Orientals have expressed enough awe and reverence for the Empire, uh......"

Before he could finish his sentence, he saw a dark figure rushing from the side of the road, raising the long knife in his hand and aiming it at Crown Prince Nikolai's head and slashing it down.

This time, the rabbit fell too fast, and it was too late to react.

After hearing only a creepy muffled sound of a knife entering the flesh, the honorable Crown Prince Nikolai fell off the rickshaw with a "bang", the blood had stained the top hat red, and he screamed loudly.

The murderer slashed His Royal Highness the Crown Prince with a knife, and before he could stop, the Greek prince, who had reacted very quickly, had already jumped off the rickshaw and stabbed him in the back with a hard cane in his hand.

This heavy blow stabbed the murderer and screamed in pain.

The sharp front edge of the cane was like a spear, piercing the killer's back quite deeply, causing considerable damage to him.

This change caused the entire human-powered convoy and its surroundings to suddenly become chaotic, and the screams and shouts became a mess.

Crown Prince Nikolai, who was stabbed for no reason, was sober at the moment, and he got up and ran in a panic, ignoring the bloody wound on his head.

Although the murderer behind him was stabbed with a cane, he completely ignored his injuries, staggered and regained his footing, and chased after him with a steel knife.

Looking at this gritted teeth, it seems that Crown Prince Nikolai must be killed.

It was too late, but it was too fast, and a rickshaw driver in front of him pounced, wrapped his hands around the murderer's waist and threw him to the ground. A rickshaw driver also arrived immediately behind, pounced on the murderer and held the murderer down, and the three of them were entangled to death.

The murderer, dressed in a police uniform, could no longer get up and could only cry out in pain; "Heaven punishes the thief, it's a pity that the success falls short!"

This person is a policeman from Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture, and his name is Tsuda Sanzo. And his goal was to kill the Russian crown prince.

His Royal Highness Nicholas, the crown prince of Tsarist Russia, was slashed severely, leaving a 9-centimeter-long terrifying knife on the right side of his head, and his face was covered with blood and he was embarrassed, but fortunately, he did not worry about his life.

After the assassination, the whole country of Fuso was shaken.

As soon as this incident came out, Prince Sugawanomiya Weihito felt that his small body could not be carried, and immediately played to Emperor Meiji in Tokyo and asked for guidance.

When Emperor Meiji received the report, he immediately ordered Prince Weihito to stand guard around Nikolai and immediately sent Prince Nohisa of Kita-Shirakawa Miyato to Kyoto first.

Just one day later, on the evening of May 12, Emperor Meiji arrived in Kyoto to visit Nikolai.

However, the anger of the Russian side has not yet dissipated, and under the pretext that it is too late, the emperor and his entourage will visit him another day.

On May 13, Emperor Meiji personally visited Nicholas despite the opposition of his ministers, and led the three princes of Chihito, Weihito, and Nohisa to Kobe to see him off.

The government and the opposition of Fuso were very afraid, fearing that they would provoke a big retribution from the Tsarist Empire and launch an invasion war under the pretext of launching an invasion war.

His Majesty the Emperor issued an order in a reply telegram ordering His Royal Highness Tang-Li Zheng, the twenty-ninth son of the Emperor, to go to Fusang to appease the matter in person.

"It is advisable to properly appease the emotions of the Russians, and not to overflow the anger and cause disturbances, special message!"

During that time, the Fuso people were quite nervous, and they were afraid that this would provoke retaliation from the Tsarist Empire.

For a long time

Schools across the country were closed, and all shrines, temples, and churches took action to pray for the healing of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Nicholas.

At the same time, more than 10,000 telegrams of condolence poured into the Russian embassy to express the deep sense of regret of the Fuso people.

In Jinshan Village, Yamagata Prefecture, where the incident occurred, it was forbidden to use "Tsuda" as the surname and "Sanzang" as the name, for fear of arousing the associations of the Russians and asking the teacher again.

On May 20, a woman named Yuko Hatakeyama apologized in front of the Kyoto Prefectural Office, known as the "martyr of Suizhou", and it became a beautiful talk for a while.

On the part of the Tsarist government, when it learned that His Royal Highness Crown Prince Nicholas had been assassinated in a foreign country, it was immediately furious and demanded that the murderer be severely punished, otherwise they would meet each other in arms.

Tsar Alexander III was enraged and demanded that the Fuso government sentence the prisoners to death, and it was only under the diplomatic mediation of the Tang Empire that the mood became more reasonable......

These disturbances did not cause much trouble in the imperial palace of the Tang Empire, because Emperor Richard was now dealing with the situation in North America, and frequently coordinated his position with London and Paris through transoceanic telegrams.

The Tang Imperial Army also crossed the border and entered Maryland and Delaware on a large scale, forming a substantial deterrent to the French Expeditionary Force entrenched in Washington, D.C., and entering the stage of military confrontation.

The recent deployment of military forces on both sides is less than 17 kilometers away, and it is easy for a misfire to occur. (End of chapter)