While the newspapers in London were attacking each other over The Lancet, a secret experiment was going on on a small island near Scotland.

A small boat slowly passed by the island, and a large orange-red iron ball with anchor chains covered with short steel tentacles was thrown into the sea. The iron ball first floated on the surface of the sea, and then with the slight waves, and then sank all at once under the traction of the anchor chain, leaving only a small buoy floating on the surface of the sea.

Then the small boat that had just dropped the iron ball immediately accelerated away, and sent a signal to the two boats waiting next to it.

"Let's go over. Be careful. On the other boat, Captain Kevin shouted to his sailors. So the paddlewheels on either side of the ship turned, and the steamer began to sail in that direction.

At the back of this steamship, a boat was towed with a cable. The ship did not have either a mast nor a paddle wheel, only in the place of the stern there was a steering wheel, with the help of which a person controlled the direction there.

The steamer cautiously passed by the buoy, the orange-red buoy that swayed in the waves stirred up by the steamer.

Captain Kevin knew that underneath the buoy, but at a depth of only two meters, was the iron ball full of tentacles. Through the sea, Captain Kevin could still see it clearly. Of course, it was only because the light was good and the water was clear that the iron ball was painted a bright orange-red color.

Kevin also knew that the tentacles on the iron ball were a kind of trigger fuse specially developed by the Navy, and among these lead tentacles was a small glass bottle containing sulfuric acid. Once impacted, the antennae will be deformed, the glass will shatter, and the sulphuric acid will flow out to cause an electrochemical reaction that will detonate an electric detonator (based on a replica of the Irish trophies), which will then detonate the explosives contained in the iron ball—just one such mine would be enough to destroy even a battleship. Of course, this experimental one will not, and its charge has been reduced a lot.

But even so, this mine, once it exploded, would be enough to destroy his little steam frigate. Because of this, all those who were able to go to the deck went to the deck, and those who could not go to the deck, their escape routes to the deck were also cleaned.

In the rear, on the barge towed by the steamer, Captain Anderson gently turned the steering wheel towards the buoy. His ship was a target ship used to test the effects of mines, and he was the only one on board to control the direction. Considering that the point of the explosion should be in the bow of the ship, his safety should be guaranteed. And he has already passed on his life jacket, and there are ships nearby that are ready to rescue him. As long as he can complete the experiment, he may be able to get a chance to be promoted to the rank.

The bow of the barge hit the buoy, the ship continued forward, and then a loud explosion sounded.

On the steamboat more than three hundred meters in front, Kevin felt that the whole ship seemed to jump, and at the same time, he also saw a huge column of water rise high, blocking the boat behind.

After a while, the water column scattered into a cloud of water droplets, and these water droplets crackled and fell, and even Kevin, who was a few hundred meters away, fell a lot of water droplets. Look at the barge behind it, half of which has been blown off, and the remaining half is sinking rapidly.

"Turn, turn! Go back and save people! Kevin shouted, but he didn't even hear his own shouts.

But the ship turned around - it was already prepared.

By the time the steamer turned around, the barge had sunk and the sea was littered with pieces of wood. Everyone looked around and finally found an orange-red floating object in the wood chips.

"It's over there, get up there!"

The boat was lowered from the steamer, and two sailors rowed the boat over and scooped up Captain Anderson, who was wearing an orange-red life jacket. Because of the shock in the explosion, he was already unconscious at this time, and if he was not wearing a life jacket, he would probably have drowned. However, with the way he is now, he may not be able to be saved, and looking at the abnormal bending of his leg, you can know that his leg is definitely a crushing fracture.

"Damn it? Didn't you say that the charge that has been reduced? How can it be so powerful? Kevin said in amazement.

Actually, this is not surprising, because the explosives used by the British were also the technology of nitrostarch bought from French merchants. One of the most obvious problems with nitrocellulose is the inconsistency of quality, and the difference in power between one batch of products and another can be significant. If the power is large, the power can reach 13 or even 14 times that of TNT, and the power of the poor power may not even be half of TNT. This mine may have reduced the charge, but it happened to hit the best explosives, and the result was naturally ......

Regardless of how you look at it, however, the experiment was a huge success.

Immediately after the success of this test, the Navy men proposed to the Cabinet that this weapon could be used to blockade the Irish coast and block the Irish from receiving assistance, so as to eliminate them.

If the experiment had been successful a few months ago, Prime Minister Addington would have approved the operation immediately, but now he was hesitant because if he did, it would likely lead to war.

When Britain and France signed the peace agreement, everyone was actually insincere about peace. They were all ready to catch their breath and continue to fight. At that time, if there was such a thing, I was afraid that the British would grit their teeth and destroy the rebels in Ireland first.

But the situation is different now. After the peace agreement was signed, the British economy began to pick up as the European market reopened its doors to Britain, and some industries, especially the textile and steam engine manufacturing industries, became noticeably prosperous. They brought more benefits to Britain and a lot of political and economic benefits to the Tories.

At this time, if there is a war, then there is no doubt that it all is over.

Addington knows that many owners have expanded their production because of the boom in the textile industry, and in the intervening months, the number of textile machines has increased by almost a third, and the size of the textile industry is still expanding.

Such rapid expansion is of course indispensable to the intervention of finance, and the owners of those textile factories generally borrowed a lot of money from banks, or raised a lot of funds through the stock market. Once the war starts, these investments will naturally be lost. Many factories will go bankrupt, and the money lent to them by the banks will not be recovered, and then the banks may also be dragged down by this and fall into trouble, or even go bankrupt. In addition, many industries, including steel, including machinery manufacturing and other industries, have also made a lot of money through the expansion of the textile industry, and in order to cope with the urgent expansion of the textile industry, they are also expanding their own production capacity, in the event of a war, they will also suffer, coupled with the internal problems caused by a large number of unemployed people, the entire British economy may immediately have serious problems. This left Addington to consider whether it was appropriate to take action at this time.

So Addington went to the former prime minister, Pitt Jr., to discuss.

After Pete Jr. stepped down, he remained the most important boss of the Tory. Because of his experience and talent, his influence in the Tories is still significantly greater than that of Addington. Even the king, who played a key role in the ouster of Pitt Jr., actually trusted Pitt Jr. more between Addington and Pitt Jr. So, in the face of such trouble, he had to go to Pete Jr. for technical guidance.

In this regard, Pete Jr.'s attitude is quite resolute. He believed that there could be no real peace between England and France unless the French abandoned their ambitions. And Ireland is so important to the UK.

"Ireland is not the same as North America. The abandonment of North America would do limited damage to our prestige; But to abandon Ireland, or to make us despised by the whole of Europe. Ireland is so close to us, and if we can't put down the rebellion, or even have to recognize their independence, how will the rest of the world think of us?

The loss of prestige is not enough. Once Ireland becomes independent, it will surely become our enemy. Those guys in North America still have ill will towards us. And the Irish, who will only hate us more than the guys in North America. Ireland is so close to us, and hates us so much, that they could easily become other nations – let us be more explicit, the French are a tool to threaten us.

Once the French are allied with independent Ireland, once the French begin to deploy in Ireland, will we be able to sleep? What is the temporary financial hardship compared to this? And as long as we guide it, we can't reduce some of our losses. Besides, we have also opened up the market to the French, which in some way has also caused losses to some of our other industries......"

But Prime Minister Addington was still hesitant. Because his situation is different from that of Pete Jr., after achieving peace, relying on the peace dividend, Addington's approval rating is gradually increasing. And the people who supported him were mainly the textile mill owners and those who had made money from the trade with Europe. If you choose to support the Navy's mine-laying operations, it means that you have betrayed your supporters, and a politician who will betray your supporters, who will support them in the future? This will almost ruin your political future!

Thinking of this, Prime Minister Addington began to suspect again that Little Pete's suggestion had an unspoken goal, which was to get him down so that he could return to the position of prime minister again.

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