After waiting for a long time, the staff of the Bank of England still did not wait for their governor, Sir Norman.

Because at this very moment, Sir Norman is at 10 Downing Street, reporting to the Prime Minister, Mr. John Major.

10 Downing Street, built in 1733 and connected to Whitehall Palace, the main residence of the King of England in the 16th and 17th centuries, was originally used as a side house for servants serving cockfights, and has become the residence and symbol of the British Prime Minister, and Thatcherf said that "the most precious jewel in the national heritage!"

Well, that's right, cockfighting is not exclusive to China, at least the British royal family also likes cockfighting, otherwise they would not have built a cockfighting arena specifically for cockfighting.

At this time, the British Prime Minister and First Chancellor of the Exchequer, who will only be fifty years old next year, and the successor of the Iron Lady Thatcher, Prime Minister Major was draped in pajamas and nightcaps, his brows were furrowed, and he was full of displeasure.

I don't know if this displeasure is because the person was screamed from his sleeping bed in the middle of the night, or because the pound was violently attacked?

Probably both.

"According to the latest information I have received, now in the foreign exchange market in Wellington, New Zealand, our pound exchange rate has fallen by 800 basis points, and all indications prove that this is someone deliberately suppressing the pound, and it is the international financial predators who forced the Finnish mark and lira to withdraw from the European exchange rate system, if we do not intervene effectively now, it is expected that the pound exchange rate will fall below the 2.7780 warning line by 8 o'clock tomorrow morning, that is, a full decline of 1,720 basis points or more. Sir Norman said in a deep voice, but the look of anxiety in his eyes was palpable.

The pound faced a crisis that he had not faced in all his four decades at the Bank of England.

Moreover, as the so-called name of the person and the shadow of the tree, the brutality and ruthlessness of these international financial predators, they have already seen it in the Finnish mark and lira, otherwise the presidents of their eight major European national banks would not have gathered together in the Bank of Germany to demand that the Bank of Germany cut interest rates.

Thinking of this, a flash of indignation flashed in Sir Norman's eyes, if it weren't for the goddamn big heads and sauerkraut refusing to cut interest rates, how could the pound suffer such a catastrophe, and he would not have been woken up from his sleep in the middle of the night, and then came to wake up Prime Minister Major.

There are many large countries on the European continent, and each country has a long history of grievances and hatreds, and all have relatively developed cultures, so all kinds of nicknames and even disparaging names are circulated among various countries, especially between the European troika, Britain, France and Germany.

The Germans were nicknamed "Big Heads" by the French because of their bulky helmets and slow reactions of war correspondents, while the British called the Germans "sauerkraut" on the battlefields of World War II.

In southern Germany, there is a habit of making sauerkraut, and the so-called famous German dish is "beer pork knuckle with sauerkraut".

However, good and evil will be rewarded in the end, the way of heaven is good reincarnation, if you don't believe it, look up, who will be spared by the sky.

The Germans were also not polite to the French and the British, one was called "Rokushuro" and the other was called "the monkey of the island".

Britain and France, naturally, also hurt each other, the French called the British "grilled steak", and the British felt that the French were "frogs".

One probably thinks that the British food culture is not a nightmare of fish and chips, but grilled steak, and the other mocks the French king who liked to eat frog legs and embroidered two frog legs on his royal flag.

And compared to the British, the French are too laughing and too noisy.

In addition, the timing chosen by the financial predators this time is too tricky, and at night, when the whole of London is about to fall into a deep sleep, they launch an offensive, so that even if they have the heart to deal with it, they are unable to do it.

After all, they can have a meeting in the early hours of the morning, but they can't pull reporters and media over in the early hours of the morning to announce specific countermeasures, and they don't even have a suitable trader right now.

Suffice it to say, they will be able to do almost nothing until dawn tomorrow.

A deep sense of powerlessness came over Sir Norman.

Then, looking at Prime Minister Major who had been slow to express his opinion after listening to his report, and was still in deep thought, Sir Norman directed his anger on him.

In his opinion, the first culprits of this sterling crisis are those financial giants, the second is the Germans, and the third is the one in front of him.

As the longest-serving British Prime Minister since the Earl of Liverpool in the early 19th century, and the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Margaret Thatcher has been a vocal opponent of the British pound's entry into the European exchange rate system.

Margaret Thatcher was a staunch opponent of European integration, and it was also because of her inconsistent attitude towards the euro union that Margaret Thatcher had serious disagreements with her staff during her third term as prime minister, which eventually led to intra-party strife.

Coupled with the recession of the British economy in the early 90s and the people's dissatisfaction with the "poll tax" that made matters worse, various factors combined to make Margaret Thatcher's backyard catch fire, and it was a month after Britain joined the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in October 1990, she was forced to resign and leave the British politics she had fought for for half her life.

Before leaving, Margaret Thatcher reminded the British of the dangers of relinquishing fiscal sovereignty: "We are going to have ...... Is it a unified currency that we have no control over, and we can't even decide on interest rates or anything?"

Unlike Margaret Thatcher, who was staunchly opposed to European integration, John Major had always shown a keen interest in the European Union, and his supporters were full of joy and high spirits and were ready to revive the British Empire's economy.

But reality slapped the Prime Minister Major in the face.

After joining the European exchange rate system, Britain did not benefit from this exchange rate system, but became a firefighter for the exchange rates of small countries, and most importantly, because of the fact that the mark was anchored, the pound could not do it on its own to reduce the interest rate on bank deposits and stimulate the economy.

Soon the British Chancellor's Chancellor, Robin Pemberton, the First Minister and Foreign Secretary, the Home Secretary, the MI5 Director, and others came to 10 Downing Street from all directions.

Sir Norman had to report the latest information again to His Majesty's important ministers.

"The situation is very bad, and I hope that you will come up with a sound plan to save the pound before Her Majesty gets up. Major knocked on the table twice and said with a gloomy face.

For a prime minister like him, who mainly promotes the European exchange rate system and rises to power, the situation he is experiencing now really gives him a heavy blow.

Thinking of this, Major subconsciously glanced at the first female director of MI5, Stella Risington, who was personally pulled up by himself.

MI5 is one of the most secretive espionage agencies in the world, and it has always worked in extreme secrecy, without the authority of the government, and its name is not on the list of government departments.

In order to change the passive situation of the government's command of him, he brought MI5 under the name of the government, and was operationally responsible to the British Foreign Office, collecting intelligence for the government to deal with security, defense, foreign affairs, and economic matters, and promoted Rising to be the director of MI5.

Under the operation of Risington, MI5 began to "go out behind the scenes", and MI5, which has always been invisible, gradually entered the public eye.

He really had the heart to let Rising arrest those damn financial predators one by one and hang them in front of him.

After being silent for a while, seeing that almost everyone did not speak, Robin, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, coughed lightly, and said slowly with confidence: "I think the situation should not be so bad, at least not as bad as we imagined, the speed of decline in the pound exchange rate at the beginning is indeed worrying, but now it has not slowed down, which shows that those greedy financial crocodiles do not have so much ammunition in their hands, and it proves that the pound is strong and does not have much room to fall." ”

"I think that after we fight back tomorrow, the exchange rate of the pound may go back, and even if it can't go back, it will fall a little, which is also in our interests, after all, we have long wanted to let the exchange rate of the pound go down a little bit. Robin said with some optimism.

As the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, he naturally understands finance, so he can see at a glance that the quantum fund is weak in follow-up and will not last long at all.

Of course, that's understandable.

After all, they are a kind of empire with more than 300 years of financial history and countless financial instruments, methods and entries, which cannot be compared to third- and second-rate countries like Finland and Italy.

And he feels that the successive battles have left those financial predators without much leverage in their hands.

Hearing this, Major's tense nerves suddenly relaxed, and after glancing approvingly at Robin, he asked the Foreign Secretary: "What is Germany's reaction, do they agree to cut interest rates?"

The most important problem with hedge fund attacks this time is that the Germans are too selfish to cut interest rates.

If the rate cut can be resolved, then the pound crisis will be half solved.

The Foreign Secretary shook his head and said, "They mean the same thing as Robin, and think that the situation in the pound should be relatively optimistic, and then say that this needs to be consulted by General Manager Cole, and will give us an answer after we go to work at ten o'clock tomorrow." ”

With that, the Foreign Secretary glanced at Robin, a flash of disdain in his eyes.

A hint of disappointment flashed in Major's eyes, even gloomy, how could he not hear the meaning of the German's words, this was not only a prevarication, but also a refusal.