Chapter 605: Riding the Wind and Waves

Vienna, Schönbrunn Palace

At the turn of spring and summer, the royal gardens seemed a bit sultry. This kind of weather made Franz feel irritable, and the damn sense of ritual made him feel even more aggravated.

It was obviously against the rules to conduct such an aboveboard conspiracy in such a beautiful place, even though they were discussing important strategic decisions.

But there is one thing to say, although he is already a frequent visitor to this place, he still can't help but linger.

The scenery here is really charming, completely in line with the feeling of climbing up and looking far away. There are no floating clouds but beautiful royal buildings, royal gardens and beautiful artificial lakes.

Wait what is that? Something was coming over the waves. At this moment, a seal as fat as a torpedo was dragging Friedrich rushing through the artificial lake.

Just five minutes ago the young Archduke realized that he seemed to be running late.

So he decided to take a shortcut, and after climbing up a neat tree wall, he jumped down. But his leap of faith was ruined by a branch hanging from his trousers.

Although Friedrich tried his best to swing his arms, he had no wings after all, and finally fell straight down. After the smoke and dust passed, he found that he was not injured and could feel the soft and waxy Q-bomb on his hand.

Friedrich suddenly became excited. He still remembered that Franz once told a story about a young prince who met a beautiful princess.

It's just that the princess climbed over the wall and knocked down the prince, but she was just the opposite.

While Friedrich fantasized about the other person's appearance at the moment, he was also a little troubled that he was already getting married. He didn't know whether this behavior was considered unfaithful to his fiancée?

After a battle between heaven and man, Friedrich finally opened his eyes. He found a pair of big black, moist eyes staring at him.

Only it was not a princess, but a huge seal.

"ah!"

"Ah!"

"Ahhh!"

The frightened Friedrich was about to get up and escape when the angry sea beast bit his trousers. He only had one thought in his mind at this time, why wasn't this damn rag torn?

However, the quality of military products has been tested by practice at this moment. Seeing that he could not pull out his feet, the young Grand Duke had another plan in mind, preparing to lift the seal in front of him with both hands and throw it out.

After all, he had witnessed Franz's father being able to pick it up with one arm. Presumably this thing should be as puffy as a balloon and not too heavy.

The idea is beautiful, but the reality is very skinny. The "little giant" who was only 1.6 meters tall could not even hold the giant beast's waist, but he accidentally touched the seal's itchy flesh.

The result was that because of the stimulation, it wanted to speed away from here, and the young archduke, who was also frightened, subconsciously pressed his whole body tightly against the seal.

Then a seal carried a man on its back and began to rush forward in the palace garden. Along the way, it passed through the trees, pressed over the flowers and plants, and knocked over several pieces of exquisite porcelain.

A team of maids delivering food were still joking, but they suddenly heard some strange noises. When everyone was confused, one person and one leopard rushed out of the bushes, rushed into the crowd like bowling balls, and knocked down all the maids. , drinks were flying all over the sky.

The moving seal also grabbed a fish in its mouth and then sucked it in. Although Friedrich's trousers were loosened, he could not notice them as he was already in such a mess along the way.

Finally, one person and one leopard rushed out of the garden, rushed to the pier, jumped into the air, and then landed heavily on the water.

Before the water calmed down again, the seals sprinted again, one person and one leopard chopping through the waves in the artificial lake.

Although the scene of the leopard charging was very satisfying, Friedrich as the passenger was not happy at all. Soon he couldn't hold on and fell, but what was even worse was that his legs actually cramped.

"I'm the marshal of the navy! How could I die in the sea!"

"Damn it! I can't float!"

"No wonder Franz always keeps himself away from the water. He is really hated by the sea!"

The lack of oxygen to the brain in the water made Friedrich gradually lose consciousness. Before losing consciousness, he saw a figure swimming towards him.

Half an hour later.

Franz: "Mr. Sintepna, how is he?"

"The Grand Duke is fine. He just drank some water and swallowed a fish. He may have indigestion."

"Thank you doctor, please go this way."

Franz was speechless for a while. Friedrich seemed really not suitable for "playing with water."

"Ahem!"

Friedrich coughed up another large amount of water and then woke up.

"Franz?"

"Yes, uncle, I am here. How did you fall into the water."

Friedrich gasped hard: "There was a seal, it dragged me in. Who would have thought it was so heavy?"

After hearing the cause and effect, Franz was even more speechless.

"The seal my father held was only about 60 kilograms, and the one you tried to lift weighed at least 150 kilograms. Even my father knows that you have to pick the softest persimmons. Obviously your challenge has exceeded the level."

Friedrich rolled his eyes at Franz and then changed the subject.

"Okay, let's not talk about it anymore. Why do you want to come to me?"

"Do you remember that little island in the Pacific that I described to you?"

"Hawaii? Isn't that a British place?"

On February 10, 1843, the Royal Navy's battleship "Callisterford" arrived in Honolulu.

British merchants Richard Charlton and Alexander Simpson claimed that the British and their property were treated unfairly on the island of Hawaii.

So the British commander George Paulet made a series of demands to the then Hawaiian King Kamehameha III, and threatened that if the legitimate rights of the British were not met, he would immediately launch an attack.

In fact, similar things have happened before. The Americans and the French have used similar reasons to blackmail this kingdom surrounded by the ocean.

But the former only blackmailed money, while Britain's goal was the entire Hawaiian Islands.

Although Kamehameha III wanted to fight hard, after all, he had more than 100,000 subjects and thousands of warriors, these natives who were only equipped with spears, daggers, axes and some old-fashioned flintlocks were simply unable to fight against the British guns and cannons.

Although George Paulet actually had only about 300 marines and 500 naval soldiers under his command.

But just a simple contact killed most of the 100 bravest warriors in the Hawaiian army, while only one British recruit was burned by the gunpowder gas of his rifle.

In the end, Kamehameha III had no choice but to surrender, and finally on February 25, 1843, the Kingdom of Hawaii and the United Kingdom signed a temporary cession agreement on the islands.

After that, the British established a committee on the island of Hawaii and began to rule the islands in a high-pressure manner. They began to occupy ports, drive out foreign merchants, erase traces of the Kingdom of Hawaii, support puppets, and even established a puppet army composed of Hawaiians.

However, the British's behavior of eating alone was soon protested by French and American merchants. The French even sent a fleet to talk to the British.

So soon the British restored the independence of the Kingdom of Hawaii, but in fact they still sat firmly on the throne of the emperor.

It has to be said that the strategic vision of the British Empire is indeed unique. This island country located deep in the Pacific Ocean has indeed become the strategic core of the Americans' control of the Asia-Pacific region in the future, and one of its places was also visited by aircraft from another island country nearly a hundred years later.

Although there are three forces on the Hawaiian Islands, namely Britain, France and the United States, Britain and France obviously did not ask the Americans for their opinions when they divided the archipelago, and they did not intend to let the latter join the dinner.

An American businessman on the Hawaiian Islands wrote to the then US President James Knox Polk, hoping that the most powerful president in American history would send a fleet to threaten Britain and France like the French, so as to protect the interests of American businessmen.

But being tough does not mean being stubborn, especially after being cheated by the British once in Lion Rock, Polk began to re-examine himself and the United States, which seemed not as perfect as he imagined.

The US government rejected the businessman's request, so the businessman named Thomas Fanar turned to write to the Austrian Imperial Government, claiming that his ancestors were subjects of the Holy Roman Empire.

The Austrian top leaders had no interest in this action across half the world, after all, the output on those small islands might not be enough for transportation costs.

However, Franz was quite interested in this, and he had another purpose, which was to knock on the door of Japan.

After all, Austria wants to develop California and Nevada, and the current manpower is far from enough. Moreover, Japan's financial system is also very chaotic at this time, and it can still make a lot of money, and it is even possible to use the loopholes to control its financial system in one fell swoop.

In fact, Franz still brought some private goods. For example, some music

In Schönbrunn Palace, Friedrich expressed his incomprehension of Franz's strategy, because Japan at this time was still very mysterious to Westerners.

Although Austria has a lot of intelligence provided by the Dutch, it still doesn't know much about its internal structure, military strength, and resource allocation.

Friedrich: "My navy has launched a new ship again, and this time it's a good time to try it."

Franz: "It's okay to try, but I don't think it can fight."

Friedrich: "I'm not talking about the British and the French. How can such a big Japan sit down and talk with us without fighting a few battles?"

Franz: "You don't need to do the negotiation."

Friedrich looked at Franz with some doubts, and the latter snapped his fingers. Kagura put on the witch costume again, but the feeling it gave people was completely different from before.

"Didn't you say that Japan is a patriarchal society? Are you sure this girl won't be torn apart by five horses?"

Franz: "That depends on whether you have enough deterrence!"

Friedrich sighed.

"I don't know what you are planning? But I must tell you that Britain and France have made many small moves at sea.

If they come out in full force like before, in case of any disturbance, the previous Mexican-American War is the best example."

In fact, since the main force of the Austrian Imperial Navy went to the East and failed to return in time, Franz had very few choices in the Mexican-American War, which put the Austrian side in a passive position strategically, especially in the direction of California.

If the Austrian Imperial Navy was there at that time, I am afraid that the US military would not dare to take action against California. Even if the two sides fought fiercely, the former would have a high probability of sending the latter to the bottom of the sea.

Franz: "So you only take ten ships this time."

Friedrich: "Ten ships?!!! Are you kidding? Didn't you say that country has at least 30 million people and 500,000 naval and land forces?

Are you going to let me use ten ships to fight France?"

Franz: "Don't worry, that country has many islands and mountains, and the local separatist forces are very strong. The shogunate has only 200,000 troops, and they can only mobilize 100,000 at most, and it will take at least half a year, so you don't have to worry at all."

Friedrich: "Do they have artillery?"

Franz: "Yes."

Friedrich: "You are murdering! Your toy soldiers just killed 5,000 British troops on Kalimantan!"

Franz reminded: "That's the British Indian Army."

Friedrich was speechless.

"Aren't Indians considered British?"

"Not."

"Why?"

"If you don't believe it, go ask the British."

Friedrich was speechless again. When he went to India before, the British really said so.

"Just treat them as African natives."

Franz comforted, and Friedrich immediately retorted.

"To deal with those African natives, you only need to use a few incendiary bombs, and then wait for the fire to subside to identify the bodies. Can you do the same with the shogunate?"

"Really!

Most of the houses in Japan are wooden buildings, and the layout is extremely unreasonable, with dense buildings, narrow roads, and extremely poor fire resistance.

In addition, there are no advanced fire-fighting equipment. The fire may be more severe than the dry season in the African grasslands!

But fire attacks are bad for your virtue, so you'd better not do it."

In fact, there are many super fires in Japanese history, and there have even been disasters like the Edo Fire that destroyed the city.

A fire directly burned down two-thirds of the buildings in Edo City at that time, and the number of direct casualties was as high as 100,000.

"What is Yin De?"

"Comparison table of Eastern gods killing people."

Friedrich was confused, but he was still looking forward to this trip. After all, it was his first time to sail around the world.

The route planned by Franz was to start from Austria, bypass South America to California, then set off for Hawaii, and finally to Japan.

"Okay then. I have another question."

"Go ahead."

"Is it not appropriate to bring women to sea, or is Miss Kagura ready to 'sacrifice' herself to the navy?"

"Don't worry about that, I have my own way. Just put her in the same room with your fiancée."

"Sineka?"

"Yes, it's really annoying."

"It's all your fault! You put my fiancée and Karolina together!"

"How should I know!"

"You are regarded as a saint by the archbishop, but you don't know that my sister is the most spendthrift among all the noble ladies in Vienna?"

"How should I know!

I just think it might be inconvenient for a girl to live in Schönbrunn Palace, so I will send her back to your house. After all, Princess Sineka will be your wife sooner or later, so it is completely reasonable for her to live with your sister."

"Damn it, my salary and pension combined are not enough for her to spend."

"Isn't your family famous for spending money? Why are you still worried about this little money?"

"Who said that our family spends money? We are just never stingy with the money that should be spent."

"Then how did Aunt Carolina develop the habit of spending money?"

Friedrich said helplessly.

"Hey! My father thinks that girls are born to spend money."

"Okay. I will help you solve the problem of money. It's better for you to keep her with you. As your wife, she should also adapt to your life.

In addition, I think it is quite romantic to treat this world trip as your wedding. "