August 8, the eighth year of Taiping in the Ming Dynasty, Honolulu Harbor, Kingdom of Hawaii.
The battleship Hero, the armored cruiser Haohan, the cruiser Lushun, the cruiser Tianjin, the destroyer Xinhui, the destroyer Shunde, the Yamato "floating hotel", and the Musashi "floating hotel" were lined up, one after another, Rolling up the snow-white waves, it slowly sailed into the harbor. This port is similar to the famous Pearl Harbor ten kilometers away. They are difficult terrain that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Pearl Harbor was a narrow inlet with a vast expanse of water that could fit an entire Pacific Fleet into! The Port of Honolulu is much smaller and the terrain is much narrower. It is a small island stuck at the entrance of a shallow bay like a thermos stopper, thus forming a narrow and slender natural sheltered water area.
Honolulu was already a port before white settlers arrived. However, because the geographical location of the Hawaiian Islands was not superior in the age of sailing, it was even a bit useless - it happened to be in the windless zone. Before the advent of steamships, few sailing ships would dock in Honolulu, so in Honolulu All the ships coming in and out of Port Lulu are native Hawaiian ships. Of course, in the age of sail, few Western colonists would care much about the Hawaiian Islands, small islands hanging in the middle of the Pacific. So until the beginning of the 19th century, there was still no colonization here.
During the years when Native Hawaiians had limited contact with the outside world, a "great emperor" emerged on the Hawaiian Islands, namely Kamehameha I, the founder of the Kamehameha dynasty that now rules the islands.
However, this great emperor who defeated all the half-L natives in Hawaii had not enjoyed the fruits of victory for a few years. After defeating Napoleon, the British Empire and the Ming Empire came to Kamehameha I. The "black ship visited Hong Kong" also forced Kamehameha to receive an unequal treaty from one country. The British aimed their cannons at the palace of Kamehameha I to protect his safety. The Ming Dynasty's warships blocked the exit of Honolulu Port, expressing their desire to protect the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Hawaii from infringement...
Kamehameha, who had been a ruthless man all his life, was really helpless in the face of this dimensionality-reducing attack from imperialism... He purchased muzzle-loading guns and smoothbore rifles from Eastern and Western merchants when he was campaigning on the Hawaiian Islands. Cannons are simply incapable of dealing with an armored ship with a displacement of tens of thousands of tons.
However, in the end, the two imperialists negotiated an unequal treaty that was relatively equal to the Kamehameha dynasty. It only provided for the open door, extraterritoriality, agreed tariffs, freedom of preaching, establishment of concessions, and embargo. Weapons, one-sided MFN, etc. In short, except for the land cession and compensation, everything was used by Kamehameha I.
Of course, such a person who has been a leader for half his life is not willing to spend the rest of his life in such a miserable way. So he came up with a clever trick to use emperor (imperialism) to control the emperor. In order to control the two unreasonable imperialisms of the Ming Dynasty and the Great Britain, he simply gritted his teeth and brought in Japanese devils to help control the Ming Dynasty. Britain......
Therefore, in the commercial port next to Honolulu Port, there is a situation where one large, two small and three concessions stand side by side. The largest concession among them is of course the Japanese Concession... The Honolulu Concession is Japan's only concession overseas, so of course it takes it very seriously. Moreover, there are many poor people in Japan, and groups of them went to Hawaii to work and start businesses. With their efforts, the Japanese Concession in Honolulu became larger and larger. Although the Ming Concession and the British Concession occupy a small area, they are well built and have a bit of Chinese and British style.
Zhuge Weidao and Zheng Guoxian were both standing on the bridge of the Hero, holding up telescopes and looking at everything in front of them.
Honolulu, whose Chinese name is Honolulu, appeared in front of them.
With blue water and white sand, Honolulu City, the Kamehameha dynasty's castle built by Japan's Sumitomo House, has been expanded several times and has become very majestic and majestic, standing among a lot of messy local indigenous houses. The huge Japanese-style castle looked eye-catching...at least that's what Zhuge Weidao thought. When he saw the city of Honolulu, he felt as if the Japanese had occupied Hawaii!
The Ming Concession and the British Concession are just east of this Japanese-style castle. The houses in the Ming Concession are all white walls and black tiles, making them look neat and wealthy. The streets are not wide, but they are enough for carriages and cars to pass.
The British Concession is full of small white and red western-style buildings, with a typical European colonial flavor. They reflect the sunlight near the equator, making them appear peaceful and peaceful.
The Japanese Concession is just south of this Japanese-style castle, next to the pier. It is a large area filled with low-rise Japanese-style houses and narrow streets. This is also the busiest of the three major concessions. Pedestrians are coming and going on the streets, and shops on both sides of the streets are open.
On the pier, Zhuge Weidao suddenly discovered two steamships of four to five thousand tons that looked quite familiar... They seemed to be the two Yapian ships he met in the Kii Waterway!
Oh, it kind of looks like it. If you look closely, it doesn't look particularly similar.
Just when he was about to take a closer look, Zheng Guoxian suddenly said to Zhuge Weidao: "Brother Daozi, look, the Queen Mother of Hawaii, the British Minister, the Ming Dynasty Minister, and the Japanese Minister are all coming to the pier to greet us... ..The Royal Guards of Hawaii also came with them, which were trained by instructors sent by the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan."
As he spoke, he pointed his finger, and Zhuge Weidao also turned his eyes. Sure enough, I saw a fat official wearing a Ming Dynasty official robe on the pier, wiping the sweat from his face. There were also several tall white civilian officers standing next to him, and a Japanese samurai. The guy was standing next to a fat indigenous woman wearing a golden barrel skirt made of very "saving" materials. A group of native Hawaiian soldiers dressed in Japanese ashigaru, carrying Japanese-made breech-loading rifles, stood lazily around them.
Zhuge Weidao sneered: "Okay, these native Hawaiians quite trust the Japanese...Brother Shenshan, has everything been arranged?"
Zheng Guoxian smiled and replied: "It's all arranged. This time it's the job of the Army Intelligence Bureau. You and the Navy just need to cooperate."
He paused and then said: "The dirty work will be done by Saigo Takamori and his northern samurai to mobilize the Japanese residents in Honolulu and the pro-Japanese elements among the natives... It will lead to a war." Just like an ordinary rebellion, the queen regent of the Kamehameha dynasty and the teenage king would run to the Yamato with the Japanese minister to take refuge. The British minister and the foreign devils in the British Concession would probably come too. Take refuge.
After they board the ship, the cannons on Honolulu will fire at the Hero, but you don't have to worry, they are just old-fashioned front-loading cannons and are of no use. At that time, you can just run away to Mexico with the Kamehameha royal family, the British ambassador, and the British expatriates. "
Zhuge Weidao nodded and lowered his voice: "Don't you need an accident of falling into the water?"
"Falled into the water?" Zheng Guoxian was stunned for a moment, then laughed, "Brother Daozi, you are really good at telling jokes... They are going to die. Doesn't it look like we invaded the Kingdom of Hawaii? We How could the Ming Dynasty do such a thing that seizes people's kingdoms and destroys their heirs? So what is going to happen tonight is a rebellion launched by the progressives of the Kingdom of Hawaii! This is the internal affairs of the Kingdom of Hawaii. We, the Ming Dynasty, cannot interfere. We are just The expelled members of the Kamehameha royal family were removed from the Kingdom of Hawaii on humanitarian grounds.
On the way to Mexico, Michiko is also responsible for persuading the queen mother of the Kamehameha dynasty... that dark and fat woman. You only need to convince her to testify before the Mexican Emperor Agustin I and say that she If it is overthrown by the rebels in the country, then the next thing will be easier to handle. "
