When Wang Tan came out of Zhao Xin's office, he looked quite awake, but in fact his mind was still in a daze. He never imagined that his life would undergo such a big change in just one day.
After the graduation ceremony yesterday, he was still worried about his whereabouts. I thought it would be fine if I went to Fengtian or Shandong, but what if I was assigned to Heilongjiang City, Yaksa or even Siberia? As a result, when Huang Chengji came to him in the morning and told him that he wanted to join the Secretariat as a copywriter, he felt that a big pie had fallen from the sky; when it was confirmed that he would join the Bei Navy, he finally felt that his wish had come true.
From the bottom of his heart, Wang Tan, who was full of knowledge, did not want to be a copywriting staff who relied on others. What he longed for most was to imitate Jiang Fan and ride in the desert and Tianshan Mountains. Although the work of the Secretariat is regarded as an expensive job in the eyes of countless people, the daily routine is nothing more than drafting official documents and communicating with various departments in Beihai Town; occasionally, in the name of Zhao Xin, he has to pay tribute to those soldiers who died on the battlefield or because of the accident. Workers who were injured or killed in the accident wrote memorials.
Although in the eyes of this group of old-style literati, becoming an official through the imperial examination and engaging in central or local politics is the right way to enter the official career; however, due to the "imperial examination plus training system" in Beihai Town, the talent selection model of the eight-part essay has been changed. In addition, Zhao Xin, the "Emperor God of War", directly controls the army, and the officers' salaries are high, so the Beihai Navy group has great appeal to scholars.
The problem is that the system of the North Navy is different from any previous army. Anyone who wants to enter the military system must first undergo 3 to 6 months of recruit training, even civilian officers in the logistics and mission departments.
The North Navy is currently experiencing a climax of military expansion. The huge training plan for the 300,000-strong army has brought the total demand for officers to nearly 30,000. However, Zhao Xin insists that he should not be promoted randomly from ordinary people, but must be promoted from experienced officers and non-commissioned officers. Selection. This situation can only be regretted by the vast majority of scholars who cannot carry it on their shoulders or lift it in their hands.
The interviews with Zhao Tingjun and Wang Tan were regarded as Zhao Xin's "leisure" after a busy and stressful day. No, as soon as Wang Tan stepped out, Huang Chengji walked in with a briefcase. Zhao Xin thought he was here to inquire about the interview results. Unexpectedly, Huang Chengji came up and took out two telex newspapers directly from the folder, pushed them across the table in front of Zhao Xin and said, "A call from Kinmen."
Zhao Xin picked up the first page and glanced at the beginning, then put it aside and said to Huang Chengji: "Both of them are pretty good, but Wang Tan has other arrangements. He will report to the training base in a month. You go back and talk to Zhong Baoqi Let’s discuss and select two more students from Shandong to join the secretariat.”
Huang Chengji never expected that Wang Tan would make this arrangement. He pondered for a moment and asked, "How about letting Sun Tzu Xiao...?"
Zhao Xin frowned and said: "Sun Zixiao's whereabouts have been decided. Civil Affairs needs manpower in Shenyang."
Just a few days ago, the Civil Affairs Commission issued a decree to restore Shengjing to its old name in the Ming Dynasty. After 160 years since Huang Taiji established its capital in Shengjing, the place name "Shenyang" once again appeared on the map of China. The "Fengtian Mansion", which governed six counties and two prefectures and represented the Fengtian inheritance of the Qing Dynasty, was also swept into the garbage dump of history and was renamed Liaodong Administrative Office.
When Sun Yuanxiang was nine years old, he lived in Fengtian for four years. His late father, Sun Hao, was an official in Fengtian Mansion at that time. He had a good official reputation and was not greedy for money. He was praised by the people and Liaodong scholars. The Civil Affairs Bureau asked Sun Yuanxiang to go to Shenyang just to borrow the legacy left by his father.
Seeing Zhao Xin's expression, Huang Chengji had no choice but to say yes and then withdrew. Next, he will take Wang Tan and Zhao Tingjun to go through the entry procedures, otherwise they will not even be able to enter the government affairs compound tomorrow.
The room was clear, Zhao Xin lit a cigarette for himself and took another sip of tea. Then he slowly picked up the telegram and read it. Rucci reported three things in total, which contained a lot of content and filled two pages.
The telegram began with a brief report on the construction status of the Coloma gold mine.
After two months of preliminary survey, an old miner supported by Lanfang Company has roughly determined the direction of the two veins; this person was responsible for finding veins when he was in Borneo. Although Zhao Xin and others knew the total gold reserves in the Coloma area, they did not know the direction of the veins or the specific mining location. In short, professional matters must be handled by professionals.
However, in addition to building the mining area, the current main task is to build a road along the south fork of the Yuanwu River to the Lushui Plain. This must be done by horse-drawn carriages in both directions, otherwise it will be difficult to transport mining equipment and supplies into the mountains. . As for taking a car, forget about it for now, the construction is too difficult. Rucci predicts that even with enough manpower and tools, the entire road will have to wait until May next year to be completed at the earliest.
In addition, part of the river channel of Lushui, that is, the Sacramento River in another time and space, needs to be deepened and widened to ensure the passage of flat-bottomed barges with a load of more than 500 tons. The current river can be used by assault boats and small boats, but the construction of settlements and roads in the Lushui Plain requires the transportation of a large amount of materials and equipment, so the depth of the river must reach four meters.
Zhao Xin had already anticipated the problem of the gold mine. In the final analysis, it was necessary to have sufficient manpower and materials. The supplies were easy to deal with, and at worst he could go there himself, but manpower was not that simple. It is easy to pick up a few pieces of placer gold from the river ditch, but it is another matter to realize large-scale mining. Even in the modern era of another time and space, a small gold mine would take one to two years from construction to production.
The second thing is that the negotiating mission sent by the Spanish will arrive at the Golden Gate Fortress by boat on the 10th of next month to negotiate with Beihai Town on the return of prisoners of war and the issue of California. According to the previous envoy sent by Monterrey, the official head of the mission is Alonso Nunez de Haro Peralta, who is currently the Archbishop of the Diocese of Mexico and the Royal Supreme Council of Spain. Representatives in the Americas; deputy leaders are Captain José Joaquín de Arrillaga, Governor of California, and Fermín de La Suén, President of the Franciscan Mission.
The reason why the standards are so high is because Lucci captured a big fish in the battle of San Bruno Mountain-Admiral Denava, the commander-in-chief of the Western Province.
The Spanish Viceroyalty has been greatly embarrassed this time. No matter how they retaliate in the future, what they have to do now is to do everything possible to get the captured general and other officers back before the news reaches the British and Americans. It is so popular among the world that even the archbishop came out for this reason.
It is also interesting to say that the Spanish person responsible for communicating with the Golden Gate Fortress was a monk named Hilarion Diez who had been stationed in the dioceses of Manila and Macau. This person went to the Diocese of Manila more than ten years ago, was stationed in Macau for many years, and was proficient in Cantonese Mandarin. Although Rucci found it difficult to communicate verbally with the other party, he had no problem communicating in writing.
If Zhao Xin had been mentally prepared for the above two things, the third thing mentioned in the telegram made him frown deeply.
Just five days ago, an American fleet arrived in Golden Gate Bay, led by a middle-aged man named Robert Gray. According to the other party, they set out from Boston in April and were employed by two trading companies in Boston and did not have an official status.
The American fleet docked in Golden Gate Bay for a total of two days. First, they went ashore to visit Lucci. The atmosphere during the meeting was very harmonious. When Captain Gray introduced himself, he mentioned that their original plan was to go to Nucat Bay to purchase a batch of furs, and then go to Guangzhou for tea trade; they had already traveled the same route in October of the previous year and returned to Boston in July of last year. , the benefits are huge.
The reason why they came to Kinmen was because when they passed through and docked in Acapulco, Mexico, they heard in a tavern on the pier that there was a strange group of oriental people who had a conflict with the Spanish in Alta California. Out of curiosity, they Come visit. The American fleet also replenished fresh water and vegetables before leaving. Captain Gray proposed to use the goods on the ship as payment, but Rucci generously offered to waive the fee. It’s just a few hundred kilograms of radishes, really not worth mentioning.
"Robert Gray?"
Zhao Xin felt a little familiar when he saw the name, but after thinking about it, he had no clue. He got up and walked to the bookshelf. It took him a few minutes to finally find a thick book printed and bound on A4 paper among the many densely arranged materials. I saw the home page written in large English: Conflict on the Northwest Coast - Confrontation between the United States and Russia in the Pacific Northwest.
This is the advantage of using foreign language materials. The few old-fashioned scholars in the secretariat can't understand them at all. Even if they come to help clean up, they don't know what the writing is.
He opened the book and first checked the table of contents, then quickly turned to page 12, and finally found the captain's name.
"Oh no! It's him!"
Robert Gray was the first captain in American history to complete a circumnavigation of the world. He "discovered" and named the Columbia River, which originates in the Rocky Mountains and flows westward from Nucate Sound into the Pacific Ocean. Of course, the Spaniards had been here before him, but the careless Spaniards only saw the swarms of sea otters on the coast and had no time to pay attention to the turbid river water flowing out of the shore. As a result, the latecomers took advantage.
It was precisely because of this man's northward expedition in 1792 that the United States, which was founded less than 20 years ago, gained a foothold on the northwest coast of the Pacific, covering an area of more than 2,600 square kilometers on Vancouver Island. In the next few years, the U.S. government used this as a reason to propose territorial claims to the Oregon region to the United Kingdom. Later, Seattle and even Washington State also came over based on this claim.
Zhao Xin originally thought that the Americans' expansion into the West and the establishment of strongholds would be decades later, but he never expected that they would happen now.
This is absolutely impossible!
Zhao Xin, the "Luo Ying Divine Axe" in Washington, did not take it seriously. The old man had only a few years to live, but the third president Thomas Jefferson was by no means an easy person to deal with. This man not only founded the "Democratic-Republican Party", the predecessor of the future political party of the United States, but also completed the purchase of French Louisiana during his term, nearly doubling the territory of the United States.
Thinking of this, Zhao Xin decided to take action as soon as possible, no later than June next year, to capture the American stronghold on Vancouver Island. Buy by force, sell by force, or sell if you don’t want to, or if that doesn’t work, implement military occupation of Vancouver Island!
Now, even if the British were given ten courages, they would not dare to go around the entire America and declare war with Beihai Town. You must know that their current main opponent is France, and the "French Revolutionary War" is not over yet!
Besides, whether it is the one being sent to the British mainland or the mission sent by the Viceroyalty of New Spain, it is enough to prove the military strength of Beihai Town.
After reading the telegram, Zhao Xin felt that he had to go to Kinmen anyway. Lu Qi is currently preoccupied with many things. Not to mention the large stalls on the Lu Water Plain are too busy, and he is not good at confrontation at the negotiation table. So he drafted a brief telegram, then called Chai Rugui and asked him to send it to the telecommunications room to be sent to the Kinmen Fortress. The content on the draft is just one sentence: "If nothing unexpected happens, arrive at Kinmen before the 10th of next month."
Nowadays, in the whole of East Asia, when it comes to who is the first person at the negotiation table, whether it is the shogunate, the Li Dynasty, the Manchu Qing Dynasty, or Tsarist Russia, Zhao Xin has to be addressed as "boss". This guy is best at making excuses with reason at the negotiation table, and he can often surprise his opponent by surprise.
Just like the border negotiations between Beihai Town and Li Chao, the final contestants were Wang Zhong and Liu Taigong, but the actual mastermind behind the scenes was Zhao Xin. Although Ding Guofeng took the lead in the negotiations between the South Asian continent and the British, he was also the commander behind the scenes.
To put it bluntly, this guy's method is nothing more than a slap in the face and a sweet date, a combination of military and economic means. If you are not satisfied, just flip the table and rely on the gold in your hand to defeat your opponent with advanced weapons from another time and space and your own "supply of mythical beasts". The Shogunate, Manchu Qing Dynasty, Tsarist Russia, Annan, the Netherlands, the Li Dynasty, and the British have all suffered greatly from it, and the Spaniards and Americans will be no exception in the future.
Apart from these things, the problem of the Russians in Alaska was best solved this time.
Zhao Xin was thinking about it, and suddenly he had a premonition that Beihai Town might have a war with the United States over the Louisiana Territory in the future. After all, both sides were determined to win.
Today's Louisiana and even Florida are Spanish colonies. The former was ceded to Spain by Louis XV after the Seven Years' War and became a province in the Viceroyalty of New Spain; the latter was ceded to Spain by the British after the American War of Independence.
There is no Panama Canal in these days. If a war were to begin, it would be nonsense to cross the North American continent. The fleet of the Northern Navy could only go around Cape Horn and head north towards Huanglong. Other supplies are easy to deal with, but fresh water supplies must be obtained from the shore; either a Portuguese colony or a Spanish colony.
In this way, the negotiations with the Spanish mission must be well controlled.
On the plus side, Louis Charles and King Carlos IV of Spain are both members of the Bourbon royal family, and Spain is still a member of the "Anti-French Alliance" and supports the restoration of the French Bourbon royal family, so it must not be allowed to Louisiana was ceded to Napoleon as a result of the defeat.
On the bad side, it is definitely not that easy to get Spain to spit out Louisiana obediently. Either a large army will be sent to completely defeat it, or it can only be exchanged for the security of the Philippines.
But five massacres, 100,000 Chinese lives! Not to mention Zhao Xin's unwillingness to let Manila go, I'm afraid other people in the committee won't agree either.
How to do it? Zhao Xin walked back and forth in the room for a long time, and the last thing he could think of was to wait for Elizabeth to pass the postpartum recovery period and take Louis Charles and her brother to Europe. Build a relationship with the mediocre Carlos IV, and then find a way to get rid of Queen Louisa and her prime minister's lover who actually control the government.
The problem is that if you go to Spain, you have to go to the United Kingdom. Moreover, you have to go to Europe. You have to go to Belgium and Austria anyway, which are the strongholds of the French royalists.
Next year, the Bei Navy will go south to enter the customs, and there is also the matter of touching warships... Zhao Xin just feels a little hopeless, and he is almost catching up with the production team's donkey.
