After his speech in the French parliament, Xu Jichao's visit to France was also over, and he took a train from Paris to the port of Jandunkirk in Lille the next day, and took a boat to England, which lasted six days.

Generally speaking, Xu Jichao's visit to France did not achieve much, and it can even be said that there was no result at all, after all, this was not an official visit, and there were still many contradictions between East China and France, and mutual trust was not enough. But after all, the two sides are countries that have just been at war, and now they are able to visit and have the intention of improving relations, which is a good result, after all, it is not possible to really improve relations overnight.

In the afternoon, the ship arrived in England and sailed along the River Tayus into the port of London.

Britain's reception specifications are basically the same as those in France, but there are more Chinese who come to the port to greet the visiting group, more than 500 people, on the one hand, there are more overseas Chinese and students in Britain than in France; on the other hand, the British organization is more hard-working, and there are traditional performances such as dragon and lion dances, so the momentum is also huge, and it also shows the sincerity of Britain in hoping to improve relations with East China.

The current British Prime Minister, Herbert Henry Asquith, met with Xu Jichao the next day and held talks with Xu Jichao.

Asquith first said: "Mr. Xu, the French side has already informed us of the content of your talks with President Falier in France. Frankly speaking, we, like France, have the will to improve relations with East China. However, it cannot be denied that the proximity of East China and Germany has indeed hindered the improvement of our relations. ”

Xu Jichao frowned, the French did not fool themselves, could it be that the British thought that their level of fooling was higher than that of the French, so they also wanted to play this set, so he said: "Mr. Prime Minister, East China ** also hopes to improve relations with Britain and France, but now that the relationship between our three parties is like this, the responsibility is not ours but Britain and France! As for our relations with Germany, I have already explained it clearly to President Falière, of course, now I don't mind repeating it again, East China** The relationship with Germany is a decision made according to one's own interests, and we will naturally have a judgment on whether to change the relationship with Germany. ”

Asquith said with a smile: "Mr. Xu, we can ignore the decision of Huadong**, after all, at all times, the national interest should be put first." However, I think that if we can improve our relations, the benefits to East China will be far greater than that of Germany. ”

Xu Jichao was stunned for a moment and said, "Yes!"

Asquith said: "Of course! I do not deny that Germany has great national strength, but Britain and France are far superior to Germany in terms of strength in that respect. ”

In fact, Britain's attitude towards East China is much more pragmatic than that of France, and after the end of the Far East War, Britain is seriously reflecting on it, looking for the reasons for the failure of this war and the lessons for Britain. After all, the expeditionary fleet that participated in the war this time was dominated by Britain, and it was the naval field that Britain was best at, no matter from that point of view, there was no possibility of losing this war, but as a result, the first battle in the Taiwan Strait was lost, and it was lost very badly, and it could basically be regarded as the annihilation of the whole army, so Britain must find the reason, otherwise the position of Britain's century-old hegemon may not be able to be kept.

However, in the search for the cause of the failure, there has been little progress, because the battle of the Taiwan Strait is really too unreasonable, according to the surviving officers and soldiers, as well as after the end of the war, the prisoners released by East China, the navy of East China should have used a kind of tail can breathe fire, and can strike vertically from the air, and this kind of shell is extremely powerful, only one or two shots can make a battleship completely ineffective, or be sunk. And the hit rate is extremely high, almost every 100 shots, and no one seems to see the scene of such shells falling into the water. This was the main reason for the defeat in the battle for the Taiwan Strait.

However, there are many people in the Admiralty who are skeptical of this kind of law, first, this kind of shell is really too incredible, and second, there are many contradictions and doubts in this statement itself.

First of all, this kind of shell can strike vertically from the air, which is unbelievable enough, because even if it is a mortar shot, it is impossible to achieve the effect of vertical strike, and there are many people who claim to have seen this kind of shell shooting directly at the surface of the water, is there two modes of shooting of this kind of shell?

The second is that no one saw that the shells were fired from there, whether they were fired vertically from the air or directly from the water, as if they appeared out of thin air. Although the distance between the two fleets at that time exceeded 10,000 meters, this was still in the range that could be seen by the naked eye, and with the help of optical instruments, the other side's artillery firing situation could still be seen very clearly, but no one saw how this kind of shell was fired, because if this kind of shell could hit vertically from the air, then the barrel of the main gun must be raised to an angle of more than 45 degrees when firing, which is a very obvious feature, and it is impossible for no one to see.

The third suspicion is that the power of this kind of artillery shell can be said to be very huge, one or two rounds can make a battleship completely lose its combat effectiveness, or be sunk, but some people have seen that some warships have suffered 5 or 6 rounds, although they have also suffered heavy damage, but they are far from completely losing their combat effectiveness or being hit.

The fourth suspicion is that the tail of this shell can breathe fire, which is a very obvious feature, because whether it is a vertical strike from the air, or a direct shot against the water surface, it has this feature, which is somewhat similar to the principle of fireworks, so some people think that this kind of shell is based on the principle of fireworks, can be regarded as a kind of large fireworks, but fireworks are not accurate, and this kind of shell is almost missile, how is this done, in addition, there are people who claim to see a pair of wings in the middle of the shell, is there such a shell?

The fifth suspicious point is that in the naval battle of the Natuna Islands before the battle of the Taiwan Strait, East China did not use this kind of weapon, but used traditional artillery battles, although this battle was won, but it itself was also damaged a lot, why did East China not use this kind of artillery shells in the naval battle of the Natuna Islands! Moreover, in the battle of the Taiwan Strait, East China did not use this kind of artillery shells for a long time, and it was more than ten or twenty minutes before and after, no more than 30 minutes at most, and then basically used traditional artillery bombardment.

The sixth suspicion is that according to the information obtained by British intelligence officers, the new warships built by East China ** are also traditional multi-turret warships, and they do not look like they use this kind of shells.

Based on so many doubts, some people think that this so-called tail fire-breathing shell is a soldier's illusion, and why many soldiers have this illusion should be a collective effect, that is, a soldier will say his own illusion, affecting the judgment of other soldiers, even if some soldiers do not have this illusion, but there are more people who believe in this illusion, but they doubt their true perception and form a collective illusion, which is why there are many contradictions and doubts in this tail flame-breathing shell. The defeat in the battle of the Taiwan Strait should be due to other reasons.

However, there are also people who hold a different view, and based on what they know, they have come to a conclusion based on what they know. The overseas Chinese who established East China ** may have mastered a certain technology on the island where they lived before landing in Chinese mainland, and based on the principle of fireworks, they created a new type of artillery shell, which can rely on the tail fire to propulsion, achieve ultra-long range, have great power, and solve the problem of accuracy. At the same time, this Spitfire shell was produced in a variety of models, with different styles and powers.

Of course, the Spitfire shell is just a code name for this weapon, and overseas Chinese may not use this name. Before overseas Chinese landed in Chinese mainland, the few warships they brought were equipped with very few guns, only one main gun, and the caliber was not large, and now it seems likely that they were equipped with this kind of spitfire shells, and they did not need to be fired from the barrel.

As for how this technology came about, it is very likely that it was not developed by the overseas Chinese themselves, but what relics and revelations were found, because there is a legend that the island where the overseas Chinese originally lived was the remains of the Atlantean civilization, if this statement is true, then this technology should be created by the Atlantean civilization, but with the sinking of the island where they lived, this technology was either lost, or lacked the conditions for realization, and even maybe only the island could be produced, so in the establishment of East China ** After that, only conventional warships could be built. However, on the few warships brought by overseas Chinese, a certain number of such weapons should be equipped, so they can only be used in the most critical battlefields, and in the secondary battlefields, traditional warships are used, and artillery is used to win the victory.

It should be said that this speculation is indeed bold enough, and logically justifyable, and some of it is close to the truth. However, it is unlikely that the British Admiralty could use such a report as the reason for the previous defeat in the Taiwan Strait. The first is that this speculation is based entirely on the fact that most of the information has not been proven to be true, and some of them are not even at all, and it is entirely based on ideas, and secondly, the brain hole is so big that even Atlantis has come out, so this speculation is more suitable as fodder for fantasy fiction than for an official report of the Navy. If this report is submitted to the Cabinet, it is estimated that the Admiralty will be dismissed tomorrow.

In fact, even the naval technical officials who speculated on these circumstances did not believe that these speculations were true, after all, they were too unbelievable, so there was no reason to argue, and the last speculative report was put into the archives of the British Navy and sealed, and the Admiralty said to the cabinet that there was not enough information now, and more and more detailed information must be collected in order to fully understand the reasons for the defeat in the battle of the Taiwan Strait.