“We have been in San Francisco for a while and it’s almost certain that the United States’ shipyard set up in California is right at Hunter’s Point in San Francisco. Hunter’s Point is right at this location.”

"This shipyard has received assistance from capitalists from the Sun-Down Empire. From building the factory to building steamships, it has been produced with a steam wooden ship with a displacement of about 2,000 tons. They are trying to build ironclad ships for the United States."

A small flag pointed at one of the places called Hunter's Corner on the map with his fingers, while Chu Qi, Guo Yan, Feng Yuruo and others surrounded the map. They looked at the location of the map and fell into a brief silence.

"This location is located in the San Francisco Bay, which can easily hide from wind and rain. With the technology and shipwrecks of the Empire of Sunset, the United States may soon develop their first ironclad ship. According to their own predictions, an ironclad ship will be launched by the end of this year. This is really not good news for our Ming Empire. In addition to our Ming Empire mastering the core technology, the Empire of Sunset, and several powerful powers of the French Empire also have a complete set of technology to produce ironclad ships. In addition to the United States, it will become increasingly difficult."

Chu Qi heard his subordinates introduce him to the intelligence collected in San Francisco. Their technology of collecting intelligence was very effective. He had found the location of the shipyard built by the United States and the plan to build ironclad ships.

The production of ironclad ships is a complex technology and a symbol of industrial strength. Only a few powerful powers such as the Ming Empire, the Sun-Don't Set Empire, the French Empire, and the Tsarist Russian Empire have the technology to produce 10,000 tons of ironclad ships. If the Sun-Don't Set Empire gives the technical assistance of ironclad ships to the United States in order to cope with the threat brought by the Ming Empire, and let the United States have a fleet of ironclad ships in the Pacific, it will threaten the security of the Beiyang waters of the Ming Empire.

Chu Qi pointed to the Hunter's Point Shipyard: "Is there a way to destroy it? It is impossible to completely stop them from mastering the ironclad ship technology, but we can delay their mastering the technology. It only takes one or two years to fight for it."

"I'm afraid the damage to the Hunter Horn Shipyard is not as easy as we imagined. The United States learned a lot from our Ming Empire. They hired militias to deploy fences at the entrances and exits of the shipyards, and strictly inspected those entering the shipyard to prevent our Jinyiwei from damaging their shipyards."

"Of course, if you try to penetrate it, it is not necessarily impossible to destroy the shipyard, it just takes time and luck."

“Increasing penetration into Hunter Point Shipyards, how long is expected to cause them trouble?”

"At least two or three months, or as many as one or two years, it may fail."

"Concentrating people in shipyards may reduce our investment in intelligence gathering work in other places."

Chu Qi faced his first choice to come to North America, whether to concentrate the Jinyiwei active in California to destroy the ironclad ship project that the United States is preparing.

"It is not easy for them to build an ironclad ship in North America from scratch... and even if they build an ironclad ship, they still need to train sailors to form combat effectiveness. Our Ming Empire only assisted the Oriental Shogunate with as many as 5 ironclad ships, and the existence of the shipyard only added a little trouble. As planned, conduct comprehensive infiltration and set up a 12-person team to try to monitor and destroy the shipyard. If the shipyard cannot be destroyed next year, you only need to monitor and collect information on ships built by the shipyard. I think the Ming fleet should be interested in these information and can easily solve them."

Chu Qi hesitated for a while, but still did not focus on destroying the shipyard.

The United States is now busy building iron ships, and it is too late to go.

Not to mention the Ming Dynasty's own fleet, even the Oriental Shogunate could defeat the United States' fleet by relying on ships purchased from the Ming Dynasty.

"This is the United States' deployment map on the West Coast, and some newly built fortresses. After they obtained the West Coast from Mexico and the Sun-Staying Empire, they were guarding us, relying mainly on building earth and rock fortresses to strengthen the defense. After all, their ships did not seem to be much threat to us, so they focused on sticking to important cities."

Guo Yan expanded another map on the wooden table, marking the fortresses on the West Coast with circles and other signs, as well as the militias of the United States in the local area.

"They had less than 3,000 militias on the West Coast, and there were few Western police officers who were used to maintain orders, with very weak defenses. Unless they were engaged in large-scale war mobilizations, or transporting troops from the east by rail, there was nothing to fear."

"If there are only five thousand people, any deputy general of our Ming army can occupy the west coast if he leads his troops."

Chu Qi's subordinates were full of confidence in the Ming army's soldiers. According to the intelligence they collected in California, a mere 3,000 U.S. militia was vulnerable to the Ming army.

Chu Qi held the same view as them, but the North American gamer was not the United States, but the Western powers standing behind the United States.

The militias in the United States are also very troublesome. They can easily mobilize hundreds of thousands of militias after mobilization.

"If we want to obtain more detailed information, we need to properly create public opinion and win the hearts of the people on the West Coast. Here are immigrants from our Ming Empire, mixed-race children from the Spanish rule, and miners from South America and other places. They have only been under the rule of the United States for more than ten years and do not have a deep concept of state, and they can change their flags at any time. Our Ming Dynasty can give them a better life."

Chu Qi pointed out a very important point. The United States did not advance westward for much time, and this was the best time for the Ming Empire to seize the west coast of North America.

The great powers fought for territory, but they generally rarely considered occupying the other party's land, and only fought for colonies. This is because the local civilians of the great powers were very cohesive. Occupying these places would cause fierce resistance, and the cost of ruling was astronomical. It would also cause uneasiness among other powers. Even the Ming Empire did not directly incorporate the surrounding vassal states into the land.

The difference is that colonies are just a resource, and local people do not have the concept of many family and country, as long as they can live.
Chapter completed!