I started with the Shinsengumi in Bakumatsu

Chapter 231 We still need to develop

On Ogasawara Island, new buildings are rising one after another. Relying on Futamiura, warehouses and residential buildings were built first. In such a simple environment, a small dock has been built.

Ogasawara Island is very lively now. In order to speed up the construction of Futami Port, Yagyu has been transporting workers and sufficient supplies to the island.

With the efforts of thousands of workers, the construction of Futami Port was very rapid.

In just three months, Futami Port has begun to take shape, enough to accommodate ships of less than 3,000 tons.

The first port to be repaired was the military port, and the material warehouses had also been built, which were filled with supplies needed by the fleet.

Now, the naval fleets are more closely connected, and the command of the flagship is much smoother than before.

Seeing that everything was ready, Yagyu led the fleet to leave Hakodate and arrive at Ogasawara Island.

The next day, the fleet departed here and headed south, directly to Iwo Jima.

Iwo Jima is not big, less than one-third the size of Ogasawara Island. Although the island does not have many resources, it produces sulfur.

Besides, it’s not far from here to Guam.

He planned to occupy the islands in northern Oceania and southeastern Southeast Asia.

However, he will not get too close to Australia for the time being. That is the territory of Great Britain, and the relationship between Japan and Great Britain is not good now.

If he gets too close to Australia, he is afraid that it will arouse the dissatisfaction of Great Britain. He does not want to break out a war with Great Britain.

Even if a war breaks out, it will be difficult for Japan to win. Even if it repels the British, it will only destroy the achievements of Japan's reform in recent years.

He plans to stop at Guam.

It was not convenient to go south, so he could continue to push northeast.

Such as Hawaii.

The Hawaiian Islands cover an area of ​​more than 16,000 square kilometers. Such a land area is already quite large. Although it does not have many natural resources, it is compensated by other resources.

The Hawaiian Islands in particular have excellent tourism.

In addition, there are excellent ports on the Hawaiian Islands, such as Pearl Harbor, which can berth aircraft carriers.

Furthermore, the Hawaiian Islands are located almost in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, with British colonies to the south and the west coast of the United States to the east.

If a military base is built here, it can monitor the surrounding east direction, especially the east direction of the United States.

If Japan owns the Hawaiian Islands, Guam and other places, it can form a multi-layered defense system and make it difficult for the United States to get close to the Japanese mainland.

Japan can not only defend against American attacks, but can also organize its troops to take the initiative to attack.

However, there is a unified force on the Hawaiian Islands;

The Kamehameha dynasty and many other foreigners are on the island.

The Kamehameha dynasty ruled for nearly a century from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth centuries.

The Kalakaua dynasty ruled from 1874 to 1894.

Ale'i continued to rule Hawaii until Queen Lili'uokalani stepped down and the Hawaiian dynasty was overthrown.

Even though there are native forces on the Hawaiian Islands, the Hawaiian Islands are within the sphere of influence of the United States at this time.

In 1842, the United States first recognized the Kingdom of Hawaii. This diplomatic recognition was mainly due to Japan. If Japan forcibly annexes Hawaii, the United States will intervene on the grounds of anti-aggression.

In 1864, due to the outbreak of the American Civil War, Hawaii was forced to sell land to the US military to grow coffee, and then the United States leased Hawaii's seaport.

In 1873, the U.S. Secretary of State took the initiative and stated that other countries would not be allowed to annex Hawaii.

If Yagyu wants to annex the Hawaiian Islands, he must be prepared for war with the United States.

But at this stage, Japan does not have the strength to go to war with the United States.

Yagyu could only suppress his thoughts and continue to develop the country's strength.

Fortunately, he could also go to several Pacific colonies handed over to him by the French government.

Although those islands are not big, and there are even a few uninhabited islands, they are not without value. For example, Clipperton Island is rich in guano, which contains fertilizer that nourishes the land.

Nauru in the Pacific and Peru in South America once made a lot of money from selling guano.

Especially Nauru, a country that relied on abundant guano to achieve national prosperity, but as the guano was harvested, the country's economy collapsed and it quickly fell into poverty.

This place is only more than 4,000 kilometers away from the Hawaiian Islands, which is not very far. The naval fleet will also pass by this area when moving to other places.

Nauru has not yet been occupied by others, so Yagyu decided to occupy it and take the resources here as his own.

Of course, the issue of occupying Nauru is not the most important. The most important thing is that Clipperton Island, delivered by France, is designated as national territory by US legislation.

However, it is also considered a colony by France.

This uninhabited island was discovered by the Englishman John Clipperton in 1705 and was later named after him, but the UK did not claim sovereignty.

In 1836, the Spanish navy discovered this place and took control of it.

Annexed by France in 1855.

In 1856, the United States legislated it as a national territory.

A few years later, French sailors discovered the island again, but France did not claim sovereignty.

In early 1858, the French government issued a charter for the development of guano, but it was not actually used.

On November 1858, 11, a French officer cruised outside the island on a merchant ship. He declared France's sovereignty over the island, made a geographical record, and landed on the island, but did not leave any sovereignty on the island. Mark, he reported the entire incident to the French Consulate in Honolulu, notified the Hawaiian government, and published it in a local newspaper.

Clipperton Island is a completely closed ring-shaped coral reef island. It is not suitable for human habitation. However, it has guano resources and can be used as a transfer station. For Japan, even if it is an uninhabited island, it is still a piece of territory and cannot be discarded. .

As for the other colonies, there are no such disputes, and the area is not small, with several places adding up to tens of thousands of square kilometers.

Yagyu led his troops to land in these colonies, confirm his sovereignty, arrange for officials to govern the places, and also set up schools to allow all children to attend school and learn Japanese culture.

For the people in these colonies, their lives were not good. Now Yagyu has designated these places as national territory and granted equal rights to the local people, which has made life easier for the locals.

Of course, there were still some people who made a little trouble, especially the local Polynesian forces who thought they were independent after the French withdrew and were very strong against the Japanese naval fleet.

Yagyu did not hesitate and sent troops directly to attack Papeete, the core island of Tahiti. The Papeete government's resistance did not cause too many casualties to the Japanese army before they surrendered.

Several officials who led the resistance were all arrested and beheaded in public.

Later, Yagyu declared this place to be Japanese territory. He explained in detail the obligations and rights of becoming a Japanese citizen, which reduced the resistance of the people at the bottom.

After several months of sailing back and forth, Yagyu inspected all the colonies ceded to Japan by France, including Clipperton Island, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna Islands, and Vanuatu. , and divided into Japanese territory.

This time, Japan's territory increased by one hundred and fifty percent. After handling these matters, Yagyu led the fleet back to Hokkaido.

This time has reached the sixth year of Meiji, which is February 1872.

The shipyard in Hokkaido has produced the fourth battleship. The weight of this battleship has reached more than 8,000 tons. It is much stronger than Fuso, Mikasa and Asahi in terms of firepower and protection.

This new battleship was named Mount Fuji and was incorporated into the fleet.

In the more than half a year since Yagyu left, Otto has built a gas internal combustion engine factory and started selling gas internal combustion engines.

Meanwhile, German chemists had theoretically produced diesel and asphalt.

Otto still remembered Yagyu's instructions and was already planning to research diesel internal combustion engines.

However, now he is working on motorcycles.

He created the first generation motorcycle based on a simple concept drawing left by Yagyu.

The appearance of the motorcycle is very simple. He just added something to the frame in front of the bicycle to fix the reduced kerosene internal combustion engine.

In terms of ignition method, it is different from today's motorcycles. It starts the internal combustion engine manually, rather than twisting the handle or pedaling ignition.

Although this motorcycle is very simple, it can travel faster than a bicycle.

At Otto's experimental site, Yagyu saw the test subjects.

A Japanese assistant stepped forward and started the motorcycle.

"Rumble, rumble..."

There was a noisy roar, a burst of black smoke came out, spraying the assistant in the face, and at the same time, the motorcycle started without control.

Otto quickly asked: "Mr. Prime Minister, look, is this the same product as you thought?"

Yagyu remembered that the motorcycle sample he drew was definitely not like this.

"Mr. Otto, the motorcycle product you developed is very good, but it is still far from what I imagined.

After all, this is a product, and we need to improve its shortcomings. For example, at least not to let black smoke spray into the customer's face when starting the engine.

In addition, when the motorcycle starts, the engine is running but the car is still disabled, so that customers will not be confused.

I'm just making some suggestions. The specifics will depend on Mr. Otto's talent, but I believe that with Mr. Otto's ability, this is definitely not a problem. "

Otto listened to Yagyu's suggestion and said confidently: "Mr. Prime Minister, your suggestion is very reasonable. I will continue to improve motorcycles."

Not only motorcycles have come out, but also the first generation of experimental products of the electric car studied by Erich have appeared and achieved success.

The first-generation trams were not large. One carriage could only accommodate more than twenty people. The distance traveled was no more than a hundred miles and the duration was short.

But this is enough to meet Yagyu's requirements.

He didn't use the tram as his main mode of transportation, he just used it as a gimmick to make Japan famous.

Yagyu immediately said: “This product can continue to be improved, but I plan to build tracks in Kyoto and use electric cars.

Mr. Erich, be prepared, you will be remembered by people all over the world with the appearance of the tram. "

Erich was very excited. He never thought that one day he would become world-famous!

He said enthusiastically: "Don't worry, Mr. Prime Minister, I will definitely improve the tram!"

Yagyu didn't stay in Hokkaido for long, and immediately returned to Kyoto on a warship.

After a year, Yagyu felt a little emotional when he saw the snow scene in Kyoto.

As soon as he got off the special train, Toshimichi Okubo was already waiting with Eiichi Shibusawa and others.

Liu Sheng stepped forward to greet each one and said, "Why be so solemn? It's enough as long as your wishes are reached."

Okubo Toshimichi replied: "The Prime Minister is running around for state affairs, and we can only express our respect through this behavior."

"Let's go and talk in the carriage."

Yagyu nodded slightly.

"Our joint construction plan with Germany has made a major breakthrough. This time I have brought back a new technology as epoch-making as an electric light. Once it is exhibited, it will definitely shock the world."

Okubo Toshimichi was secretly frightened and asked curiously: "Prime Minister, what can be so powerful?"

Yagyu didn't hide it, and said directly: "You know that electric lamps rely on electricity to emit light, right? The new product also relies on electricity, just like electric lamps.

Next, we need to build tracks along Kyoto's main roads and set up wires along the tracks. "

"Railway? Electric train?"

Okubo Toshimichi hesitated to express his guess.

"Yes, it's called a tram. Although it's not as long as a steam locomotive, it can travel in urban areas.

Litong, think about it, even in urban areas in Western countries, only horse-drawn carriages can be used as transportation, and the trams we use are like steam locomotives that no longer use horses. What does that look like? "

Okubo Toshimichi really can't imagine the sight of a steam locomotive-like tram running on the main road in the city. That's something that doesn't even exist in Western countries!

"This is really unimaginable!"

Yagyu then talked about the matter with Shibusawa Eiichi and others, and the cabinet needed to do a good job in this matter first.

And Yagyu didn't go to the cabinet. He hadn't been home for more than a year. It was time for him to go home and take a look.

The news that Yagyu had returned to Kyoto had been immediately sent back to Yagyu's mansion. On the way back, Yagyu had already received the news from the police.

Ajin asked people to prepare food immediately.

She stroked Jubei's head with a gentle smile and asked: "Jubei, your father is coming back, are you happy?"

Now Jubei is about to be four years old. He is no longer the child who only knows baby talk. Now he has become enlightened, knows dozens of words, and can speak fluently.

It's just that he is very familiar and unfamiliar with the father his mother said.

Because his memory of his father was very vague. He only remembered that his father was a tall man, and he didn't know the rest.

But people around him would describe to him that his father was a great man who led the country from weakness to strength, and he was the son and heir of this strong man.

Now that this man is back, Jubei feels a little heavy.

(End of this chapter)