"Why only call yourself king and not emperor?" Qi Dajiang asked curiously.

"Hanzhou officials believe that I have not yet achieved great merit and high moral standards, so I cannot be emperor for the time being." Qi Tian said with a smile: "Moreover, based on traditional Chinese etiquette, Ming Dynasty already has an emperor, and we in Hanzhou

As a country of immigrants originating from the Ming Dynasty, it cannot claim to be emperor without permission."

"Then we in Hanzhou should respect the Ming Dynasty as our suzerain state, become its vassal state, and bow down to the emperor of the Ming Dynasty?" Qi Dajiang's face stiffened and he asked in a deep voice.

"That's not the case. The Ming Dynasty is the Ming Dynasty, and our Hanzhou is the Hanzhou. They have nothing to do with each other. We just respect the emperor of the Ming Dynasty in terms of traditional etiquette and culture, and even in the hearts of many people." Qi Tian explained: "

We in Hanzhou will continue to develop independently in the future. We will not have any suzerain state, let alone a vassal state of any political power."

"That's good." Qi Dajiang smiled, "I thought that after finally developing Hanzhou, we had to put ourselves under the control of the Ming Dynasty. Then we have worked hard for several years, isn't it like marrying for others?

Clothes! Those scholars are also pedantic. The slaves in Liaodong established a system and called themselves emperors, but we can't get the title of emperor."

"Second brother, he calls himself emperor and builds an empire. His name is very resounding, but it is of no benefit to the development of Hanzhou. Instead, it only makes others laugh." Qi Tian said: "As of the end of February, our population in Hanzhou will be nearly

Reaching 90,000 people, it is not as good as some of the feudal kingdoms in the Nanyang region. Therefore, we, Hanzhou, are still outside the name of the kingdom. When we are strong enough to dominate Nanyang and dominate the great powers in the next few decades, we will

The title of emperor and empire will naturally fall on us."

"I think Hanzhou can definitely do it under your leadership." Qi Dajiang said: "At that time, our Hanzhou, oh, no, our Qi State will become a country comparable to the Ming Dynasty.

The prosperous dynasty. Haha, how come those old gentlemen recognized your proposal to use Qi as the name of the country?"

"Menghou Gong and the others were originally opposed to this country name." Qi Tian shook his head and said: "They thought that using the surname as the name might lead to instability and would not last long, like Han, Zhao, and Wei during the Warring States Period. But Prime Minister Pan and others

Hanzhou officials agree more, saying that "Qi" symbolizes the unity of Hanzhou and the co-creation of China.

.In addition, we are from Shandong and belonged to Qi in ancient times. Some people say that Qi’s nature belongs to the virtue of metal, which is the beginning of the rotation of the five elements. Didn’t the Jiannu found the country’s name Qing, which belongs to the virtue of water to restrain the virtue of fire in the Great Ming Dynasty.

. And our Da Qi is Jin De, which just restrains Qing Shui De. Therefore, our Hanzhou will be called Da Qi from now on!"

"The Great Qi Kingdom is so good. It is much stronger than the Hanzhou Huaxia Kingdom you proposed." Qi Dajiang nodded and said: "In the future, our Great Qi Kingdom will work together to build a strong and wealthy country. Then we

The Qi family can also be passed down to all generations."

Qi Tian smiled and did not answer. How can there be a dynasty in this world that can be passed on to all generations? What he can do now is to work hard to lay a solid foundation for Hanzhou and open up more living space for the Chinese nation. Even in the future

Having unworthy descendants and ruining the family would somewhat leave enough space for the Han people to develop.

"...Fourth brother, if after you become king, I..., when I see you in the future,...will I kneel down and worship you?" Qi Dajiang asked.

"Da Qi wants to restore the ritual and abolish all official kneeling rituals from now on." Qi Tian sighed slightly in his heart and said: "From now on, in public, you and I are kings and ministers. In private, we are still brothers."

"...How will the arrangements be made after my uncle's death?"

"As a posthumous gift to King Lu, it will be hereditary to the country."

——————————

"In view of the current increase in the number of naval ships in Hanzhou, there is a certain degree of confusion and unclear responsibilities in the entire management and subordinate relationship." He Yunfeng looked at the naval officers present with a serious look on his face, "Therefore,

Under the orders of the Commander-in-Chief, the Military and Political General Staff now makes the following adjustments to all ships under the Navy's jurisdiction."

"The North Sea Fleet of the Navy (today's Timor Sea) was established. The ships under its jurisdiction are the professional battleships Qiming, Yangming, and Shengming, the armed merchant ships Kaifeng, Yangwu, Yangwei, and Yangbo, and the attached Feiyu Kuai

There are three ships, a total of ten large and small ships. The combat and activity area is from Hanzhou Jianye Port to Timor Island, Java Island, Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Xinsheng Island and other sea areas. The fleet commander is the Navy Commander Qi Dajiang

Concurrently."

"The Weiyuan Fleet was established, with six ships including the professional battleship Jinghai, the armed merchant ship Tuoye... and its combat and activity areas were eastern Hanzhou, Weiyuan Island, and Midway Island (today's Palauco)

Rolle Island) and other sea areas, the fleet commander is Niu Jinmin."

"The Ryukyu Fleet was established, with six ships including the professional battleship Jingha, the armed merchant ship Yongjin, etc. The combat and activity areas are the Ryukyu Islands where Hanxing Island (today's Miyako Island) is located, Luzon

, Daming and other sea areas. The fleet commander is Luo Rucheng."

"The Hanzhou Exploration Fleet was established. The ships under its jurisdiction are Feiyu Clipper, Feiyu 6, Feiyu 7, Feiyu 8, and the transport and supply ships Yongxin and Yongchang. The fleet's mission is to explore and find routes between the east and west of Hanzhou.

As well as suitable for building residential areas, the fleet commander is Dong Fengshan."

"All the special cargo transport ships and special immigration transport ships in the original navy fleet were separated from the navy and handed over to the newly established Hanzhou Ocean Shipping General Trading Co., Ltd., and their personnel were temporarily placed under the jurisdiction of the trading company."

After reading out the Hanzhou Navy ship reorganization order in one breath, He Yunfeng looked back at Qi Tian, ​​waiting for his further instructions.

"The establishment of three major fleets is to rationally allocate all the maritime armed forces of Hanzhou and better safeguard the maritime rights and interests of Hanzhou. As we all know, the sea route is long and communication cannot be timely. It is necessary for each fleet to actively respond according to its environment and surrounding situations.

make timely and limited responses

Yes. However, each fleet is divided into three places. This does not mean that you can work alone in your respective activity areas and develop in isolation. Our number of ships is still very small. Facing such a vast sea area, there are only a dozen ships and three fleets.

The fleet is simply unable to fully safeguard our rights and interests in Hanzhou."

With that said, Qi Tian looked at the many core officers of the Hanzhou Navy present, smiled slightly, and continued: "However, as the population of our Hanzhou gradually increases and our shipbuilding capabilities increase year by year, our ships will also

Slowly increasing. Although the war with the Dutch East India Company is over, our Hanzhou Navy’s

The main mission has changed from attacking Dutch merchant ships to all-out immigration affairs. However, the construction of professional warships in our navy will not stop. We plan to add one to two new ships every year to the various fleets of the navy. Moreover, our warships

It will be built larger, have more firepower, and strive to be stronger in terms of protection."

"Our future opponent in Hanzhou has not changed, it is still the Dutch East India Company. In the course of the three-year war, the main force of our Hanzhou navy has almost never had a face-to-face confrontation with a Dutch warship. In addition to the weakness of our maritime power, there are also

Our naval officers and soldiers are engaged in technical battles at sea

We lag behind the Dutch in all aspects of peace. But I hope that after ten years of development, our Hanzhou Navy will be able to have a head-on confrontation with the Dutch at least in local naval battles the next time it goes to war with the Dutch, and completely defeat them.

Can control the sea in Hanzhou mainland."

"Therefore, in the next ten years, the Hanzhou Navy will not only assist the Hanzhou Ocean Shipping Company to complete its annual immigration mission, but also practice the latest maritime tactics to reduce the technical war with the Netherlands, Spain and other Western maritime powers.

Level difference. Everyone

, Hanzhou is surrounded by oceans on all sides. In the future, major commercial and trade interests will also be overseas, and the connections with many territories and the mainland of China are all based on ship exchanges. Therefore, you now have the heavy responsibility on your shoulders to strengthen Hanzhou, develop Hanzhou, and communicate

Outreach depends on you."

"We will definitely live up to the commander-in-chief's expectations! We will live up to the expectations of Hanzhou!" The main naval officers present here promised in unison.

"Hanzhou has a small population base, and the navy's military resources are also weak." Qi Tian continued: "From now on, the three fleets of the navy may wish to recruit more pirate forces from Nanyang, Ming Dynasty, Japan, and even Korean waters. We, Hanzhou,

After a battle with the Netherlands, it will surely attract the attention of many pirate forces. If they want to have a good background, our Hanzhou will be their best choice."

The naval officer of Hanzhou nodded, convinced. They began to recruit pirate forces active in the South China Sea four years ago, and one or two thousand people came to join them one after another, greatly enriching Hanzhou's maritime power. But in the past few years,

Hundreds of sailors have been lost due to various risks such as storms and epidemics at sea. However, the number of sailors trained by itself is limited, and the needs of other maritime sectors such as fishing, transportation, and exploration have to be taken into account, so the overall number of sailors in Hanzhou has always been in short supply.

.

For this reason, those immigrants from Hanzhou who only have a few months of offshore fishing experience will be quickly recruited to serve as temporary sailors on naval warships or transport ships, and then weeded out from the cruel sea waves to select sailors who are suitable for sailing.

.Nearly half of the sailors on all Hanzhou ships have been at sea for less than three years. This is one of the reasons why the overall maritime combat effectiveness of Hanzhou Navy is not high.

Compared with the continuous expansion of the size of the Navy, the Marine Corps, as the main land combat force in Hanzhou, only maintains the current scale of eight companies. Among them, six companies are fully equipped, and two companies are only equipped with officers and non-commissioned officers.

The total number of the Shelf Company is only over 920.

Considering that Xinsheng Island needs to be moderately involved in the affairs of Annan, Cambodia, Champa and other countries, Hanzhou will station two Manchu companies, supplemented by more than 300 rural soldiers, to maintain Hanzhou's local force.

Because Hanxing Island had to face the complex situation of Japan, Ming Dynasty and other countries, it also stationed two full-scale companies, supplemented by more than 300 local soldiers, to maintain the appropriate force projection to the area.

Zhenhai Fort (formerly Dili City) in the northern part of Timor Island and Weiyuan City (Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea) on Weiyuan Island are each stationed with a full company, supplemented by local military organizations to ensure the security of the two places.

.

The remaining two unsatisfied shelf companies are deployed in Jianye Prefecture in the north of Hanzhou. If reinforcements are needed in various places, they can quickly go to support after replenishing soldiers.

With a population of 90,000 in Hanzhou, it is still difficult to maintain nearly 4,000 navy ships and marines. Moreover, almost all walks of life in Hanzhou are short of personnel. Some officials even requested that Timor Island and

The two overseas territories of Weiyuan Island have increased the number of captured natives and transported them back to the mainland to fill in agriculture, mining, construction, and countless infrastructure constructions that have emerged in Hanzhou.

———————————

"I didn't expect that Hanzhou's urban construction was not only rationally planned and neatly laid out, but the overall scale was also very huge!" Cornelis van der Lin, the governor of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia, led several attachés and met with several people.

Under the protection of Hanzhou patrol police, we are visiting Jianye City.

In order to observe the founding ceremony of Hanzhou, Governor Delin arrived at Jianye City in Hanzhou on an armed merchant ship three days ago. On the second day of his arrival, he met politely with the young ruler of Hanzhou, and both sides reiterated their

The peace between the East India Company and Hanzhou, and the willingness of both parties to maintain maritime order throughout the East Indies. Regarding the issue of future market opening and bilateral trade, Governor Delin was surprised that the other party seemed to be more enthusiastic about it than he was.

.

The young ruler of Hanzhou suggested that both sides should not interfere with or impose any restrictions on trade exchanges, allow goods to be imported and exported freely, and eliminate cumbersome entry and exit procedures and various taxes and fees.

From this point of view, Hanzhou is eager to import goods from the outside world. This must be because this barren continent cannot provide all kinds of production and living materials needed by the Hanzhou people. In this case, wouldn't this be a good place to use things?

The Indian Company's commercial and maritime transportation advantages controlled the trade dominance of Hanzhou, and then incorporated Hanzhou into the colonial system of the East India Company.

"I think the Han people have unique professional advantages in urban construction." Governor Delin said: "The construction of our Batavia City Hall has been stalled for more than three years. Can we leave it to them now?

Design, construction. Also, can their materials that can strengthen buildings be introduced so that we can further strengthen the defense of each trading station?"

"Sir Governor, I don't think the Hanzhou people will pass on that kind of building reinforcement material to us." A senior business representative shook his head and said: "The importance of this kind of material in strengthening city defense facilities is self-evident. They

The secret of making this material will be kept."

"Then we must try our best to obtain the manufacturing method of this building material." Governor Delin said: "We need to build our strongholds in the East Indies as strong as the fortresses of the Han people. Even,

We can also spread this technology to our European homeland and build our United Provinces into a huge fortress group."

The next day, March 1, the Governor of the Dutch East India Company, Batavia Deering, witnessed an Eastern-style monarch's enthronement ceremony, which was also the formal establishment of a regional power.
To be continued...