Clark, the consul general of the British Empire in Changchun, has been very busy recently, and he has to run to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Fengluantai if he has nothing to do. In the first few days, Clark thought that the high-level officials of North Manchukuo were discussing how to reply, but after a long time, he felt that something was wrong, and after personally visiting the door to inquire, he got a reply that almost killed him: "The English translator of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has gone out on a trip, and there is no way to translate the note in English, so the note from the British Empire is being placed in a neat filing cabinet!" ”。

Clark was very speechless about the outrageous excuse of the Manchurians, which is clear nonsense! With a population of 97 million in the entire North Manchuria, is the boss who is lost the only one who knows English? And the dignified translator of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Manchuria, will he go to the primeval forest to travel? If someone is lost, won't you look for it? Although the excuse is very annoying, Clark still has to endure it, North Manchurian now has time to talk about idleness, and the British Empire has no time to accompany them.

Clark used his own translation to change the English note to Chinese, although it damaged the majesty of the British Empire a little, but it was also a solution. However, although Clark was full of sincerity, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of North Manchurian still did not reply. When Clark came to the door again, he got an even more annoying reply.

"Who did you write that note? The grammar is different, there are many typos, I can't understand it at all, we have found dozens of people, and we have been studying it for several days, and we don't even see the general meaning! "A foreign minister from the fourth grade, crossed Erlang's legs and joked about Clark to his heart's content.

Clark, who is good at debating and not good at arguing, was angry with a purple eggplant face, and left Fengluan Terrace angrily. He had the heart to go directly to the Ningxin Pavilion and directly reason with Zou Degui, the Secretary of State of North Manchuria, but after returning to the consulate and drinking a cup of coffee, he still calmed down. Today's treatment is by no means that a group of directors and directors of diplomacy make him happy, they absolutely do not have the courage to do so, this is definitely instructed by high-level figures in North Manchuria. To put it bluntly, the high-level officials of North Manchuria did not want to deal with Britain and wanted to quickly settle Japan before Britain intervened, creating a fait accompli that the British had to admit.

"Why didn't the Manchurians just reject us?" Consulate Counselor Smith smoked a pipe while helping Clark analyze the situation.

"They don't want to tear up with us yet, they want to maintain the current situation, as long as they don't answer, we have no excuse to take further action, and after a war is something that no one wants to see!" Clark was well aware of the current situation.

"In order to protect the interests of the British Empire, even to reduce the pressure of public opinion at home, we must give us an answer from the government of North Manchuria, instead of letting them delay like this forever!" Smith agreed with Clarke, but the matter had to be settled, and it would be detrimental to the British Empire's claims if it dragged on.

"The Manchurians are iron-hearted, unless there is strong external pressure, otherwise they will not give us a word of reply before the end of the war in Japan." Clark also knew that the country urgently needed a reply from North Manchuria, and even if there was to be a war, the British Empire needed to take advantage of the reason and gain the support of the people at home.

"Then let's put some pressure on them!" Smith said.

"What can we do?" Clark was putting pressure on North Manchurian every day, and the wording of the note was getting harsher and harsher day by day, but people didn't look at it, what else could he do.

"Let the Far Eastern Fleet cruise near the Yellow and Bohai Seas, and only if the Manchurians feel a real threat, they will let go of their arrogance!" Before coming to Changchun, Smith had been in the Middle East and North Africa, and violence was his most common method.

"My dear friend, the Manchurians have amassed hundreds of warships in the Far Eastern Seas, of which more than one hundred and fifty are the main ones. The Far Eastern Fleet is close to Manchuria itself, but it is very dangerous, and in case of war, it will be troublesome! Moreover, the Far East Fleet has only 18 capital ships, and they are the support of the British Empire in the Far East, and if they are severely damaged, the Empire's interests in the Far East will lose the protection of force. Clark was a purely civilian official, with very little military contact, and he felt that Smith's suggestion was too risky.

"The Far Eastern Fleet has three battleships of the latest type, their tonnage exceeds that of a detachment in Northern Manchuria, and their firepower is even more incomparable to that of the Manchurians, and they will not ......" Smith tried to convince Clark.

"The Manchurians also have the ability to build large warships, if it is ......" Clark did not listen to persuasion, but tried to convince Smith.

"They have the ability to build large warships, but they don't own a single finished battleship in the Far East, their hundreds of warships are all small and medium-sized ships, and a few battleships such as the Prince Edward are almost invincible in the Far East." Smith thought of a point that the British Parliament did not expect, that North Manchuria's ability to build ships and North Manchuria's ability to build giant ships are two concepts. The construction of large warships is protracted, and even if it is a frenzy in wartime, you will not want to go into the water in a few months. There were no battleships in North Manchuria, and it was when the British battleships swept through the Far East.

"Don't underestimate the Manchurians, their cruisers and destroyers are also very powerful, if they fall into a siege, even a 15,000-ton battleship like Prince Edward will be difficult to get out!" Clark understood what Smith meant, but he was still a little uneasy.

"I know, how could we let our fleet fall under their siege? Now that North Manchuria is busy with the war against Japan, a large number of main forces have been concentrated in Busan, Vladivostok, and Hokkaido, and the main forces of the Yellow Sea Fleet have also left for the Tsushima Islands, and the sea forces in the Lushun and Dalian areas are very weak. Smith reached for the map on the wall, pointing to the southernmost tip of the Liaodong Peninsula.

"The garrisons in Jinzhou, Yingkou, and Dalian are very strong, and the Far Eastern Fleet has no chance of winning!" Clark nodded repeatedly, but he still didn't let go.

"The Far Eastern Fleet only wants the Manchurians to put pressure, not a war with the Manchurians, as long as the Far Eastern Fleet cruises in the Lushun area, it can put a lot of pressure on the Manchurians. In doing so, we could not only force the Manchurians to give us an answer as soon as possible, but also allow the Yellow Sea Fleet to return to defense and relieve the pressure on the Japanese side. Smith improvised a way to kill two birds with one stone.

"Good! Contact Admiral Kent of the Far Eastern Fleet! Clark thought about it for five minutes, and finally nodded.

The Far East Fleet of the British Empire was originally stationed in Singapore, but later Singapore was lost, and half of the Malay Peninsula was gone, so they could only move to Hong Kong. North Manchuria put tremendous pressure on the British, so they could only lose all of Southeast Asia to the East India Fleet and let the Far East Fleet move east to protect the interests of the British Empire in China and East Asia. Hong Kong is just a small island, except for the geographical location is not bad, there are simply no advantages, and the fleet is even a problem with stable supply. Therefore, the base of the Far East Fleet is in Hong Kong, and the logistics supply point is in the Yokohama concession of Japan.

When Clark sent a telegram greeting Kent, the Far Eastern Fleet was preparing to evacuate in Yokohama. With the exception of Northern Manchuria, the Great Powers had only police power in the Japanese concessions, but not the right to garrison troops. The Far Eastern Fleet relied on good relations with Japan, and it was okay to come and yo around if there was nothing to do, but if the war really started, they had to evacuate, otherwise they would be given a spoonful of stew by the Manchurian Army, and they could only be regarded as unlucky. Kent was very annoyed by the move, and after seeing the telegram sent by Clark, he personally commanded the main force of the fleet to go straight to Lushun and kill him.

Kent was originally going to suddenly appear in Dalian Bay and give the Manchurians a big surprise, but he didn't expect that as soon as he entered the Manchurian territorial waters, a Manchurian destroyer rushed over at a very fast speed. Kent was puzzled, and couldn't figure out how the Manchurians found themselves, and they didn't meet lighthouses, outposts, patrol boats, or anything along the way! He didn't know that because of Guo Xing'a's golden finger, a hundred projects had been developed a few years ago, including vacuum transistors, mobile televisions, cathode ray tubes, and magnetrons, and radars a year ago. Although the current performance needs to be improved, it is still not a problem to search for such a large target of the Far East Fleet.

"You have entered the territorial waters of North Manchuria, please return and sail away as soon as possible......" After the destroyer saw the flag of the Far East Fleet clearly, it did not attack, but set up a huge loudspeaker and shouted it over and over again in Chinese and English. If Clark heard the shouts of the Manchurian destroyers, he would definitely jump to the street and curse the street, isn't the only one in Northern Manchu who can speak English?

The destroyer did not drive out by force, so he made such a big horn and chased the Far Eastern Fleet and kept shouting, which made Kent so upset that he almost ordered to open fire and sink him. Kent once wanted to use acceleration to get rid of this annoying guy, but the speed of the voyage really couldn't do it, no matter whether the Far Eastern Fleet was accelerating or maneuvering, the destroyer followed them steadily, and there was no sense of struggling at all. After a few laps off the coast of Dalian, when the Far Eastern Fleet had to let the boilers rest, the Manchurian destroyers were still calmly facing the sea, except for the loudspeaker like a huge wave, and there was not a second of idleness.

"Go to Lushun!" Kent definitely plays big.

According to the information from Smith, the area around Arthur is extremely empty at present, and there are only two destroyers in the harbor to watch over it, and this is a good time for the Far Eastern Fleet to shake its might. The Far Eastern Fleet was wrecked in this sea area back then, and now it is time to take revenge. Wasn't Port Arthur the core of the Manchurian Navy? The Far Eastern Fleet prefers to have a good time in Arthur.

"You enter the military control zone, and our army orders you to leave immediately!" As soon as the fleet arrived in Arthur, another destroyer sailed out of the harbor, and the words on the loudspeaker became more severe, but of course Kent still ignored it.

"Boom...... Rumble...... Boom...... "Kent was thinking about whether to sail into Port Arthur to take a good look, when the two destroyers preemptively moved. The guns and rockets on the two ships were aimed at the Far Eastern Fleet, and the Prince Edward fired a salvo, instantly drowning the 15,000-ton Prince Edward in a cloud of fire and smoke.

"Also...... Damn, chase after them, don't let them run! As soon as Kent was halfway through his shouting when he found the two destroyers flying back and fled back to Port Arthur, he was mad and commanded the Far East Fleet to chase after him without hesitation.