The incense burner reef incident was originally just an accidental incident involving illegal British businessmen, and North Manchuria and Britain had also discussed similar situations before, and the reason why it made such a big fuss was entirely due to the national policy of the British to stir up. As an island country, the British Empire has been engaged in continental balance of power in Europe all the year round, and after playing for a long time, it is inevitable that it will form a habit, so the British have engaged in a balance of power policy all over the world. The fundamental purpose is to make the world's major countries fall into a state of antagonism, and the balance of power is so that no one can help the other, so that the British can transcend the outside and profit from it.

In the Far East, Britain has always adopted the strategy of supporting the countries of East Asia against Tsarist Russia, because the double-headed eagle Tsarist Russia is the strongest country in the East. However, the development of Goxinga seriously exceeded the expectations of the British, and North Manchuria had already formed an absolute superiority over Russia in the Far East, which the British did not want to see. China was originally the natural hegemon of East Asia, and if Russia was solved for Guoxinga, and then it would be in the same league with the Qing Dynasty, there would be nothing to do with the British in the Far East, and even the British colonization in Southeast Asia would be affected. Therefore, Britain must properly attack North Manchuria, weaken the strength of North Manchuria, and maintain the balance of power between China and Russia. Of course, the British are not crazy, they will not be so fierce at the beginning, they have used a set of small combos before, and the results are all self-defeating, so they have to roll up their sleeves and end the game themselves.

North Manchuria is Britain's largest political and economic partner in Asia, and although it has not signed an alliance, it is almost a strategic partner. North Manchuria, which was just starting out, was still a bridgehead in the Far East against Tsarist Russia, and Britain had always supported it, but everything changed because of a naval battle off the coast of Central America. The southern government of the United States is one of the important suppliers of British cotton, and Britain naturally supports the southern government, but due to the legitimacy of the northern government, it has to remain neutral. North Manchuria suddenly jumped out to provide advanced weapons to the Confederate government, and Britain naturally raised their hands in favor, but a naval battle in which the 1st Rapid Reaction Fleet defeated the capital ships of the US Navy made the British discover something unplanned.

After the fact, military experts from various countries analyzed the battle of the United States, and they all believed that the Federal Navy did not intend to start a war for the purpose of driving away at the beginning, which caused the fleets of the two sides to get too close, giving the First Rapid Response Fleet the opportunity to launch a wolf pack offensive, which led to the disastrous defeat of the Federal Navy. Judging from the situation of the ships participating in the battle on both sides, if a war breaks out in earnest, the First Rapid Reaction Fleet will have absolutely no chance of winning. Moreover, the North Manchurian Navy has nothing to praise at all, except for the relatively excellent weapon system.

Although the victory of the First Rapid Reaction Fleet was unanimously regarded as an accident by experts from various countries, the British still strengthened their vigilance against North Manchuria. This fledgling little partner seems to have grown too quickly, and if North Manchuria is allowed to continue to develop, the interests of the British Empire in Asia will inevitably be threatened. Therefore, when the two sides had frequent economic exchanges and harmonious cooperation in major industrial projects, Britain began the first step to contain North Manchuria-Aspen fleet.

Although the Qing court spent a lot of money to buy the Aspen fleet, if there was no Guoxing, Britain would never have sold such a large and complete fleet to the Qing Dynasty at one time. The reason why the British came up with a large-scale Aspen fleet so quickly was to let the Qing court contain Guoxing'a, so that Guoxing'a was in a situation where he was surrounded by enemies on all sides, and had no energy to develop externally. The attitude of the British government was that it was best for the British to control the Aspen fleet, and if not, to make the fleet as much British influence as possible. It's a pity that the actual operation of Li Tai and Aspen are dead eyes, and they have completely turned the Aspen fleet into a British fleet paid by the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing Dynasty will certainly not accept this kind of nonsense request, and the two sides have not yet begun to deal with North Manchuria, and they quarreled first. As a result, Northern Manchurian took advantage of the contradiction between the imperial court and Li Taitai to directly make a surprise attack and rob the entire fleet. The fleet that was originally used to contain Northern Manchuria, but it turned out to be the belongings of Northern Manchuria, and it really shot itself in the foot.

Unable to find a strong containment around North Manchuria, the British could only find a way to take advantage of North Manchuria's own policy mistakes, so they launched a second move - to support North Manchuria's southward expansion. The geopolitics of the Nanyang region is extremely complicated, and the old colonial empires such as Spain and the Netherlands are not easy to mess with. Britain could use the South Seas to disperse the energy of North Manchuria, consume the financial resources of North Manchuria, and then achieve the goal of weakening North Manchuria. However, no one thought that Spain and the Netherlands were all strong and middle-class, and they really coerced out of the realm, and North Manchuria drove a few warships over, and they actually relented. Britain's goal of dispersing the power of North Manchuria was not achieved, but instead allowed Manchuria to obtain a large number of colonies in the South Seas, because of the great internal response of the Republic of Lanfang, North Manchuria quickly gained a firm foothold in the South Seas. The British smashed their feet again, but instead of weakening the strength of North Manchuria, they made the development of North Manchuria more balanced.

Britain, which smashed its feet twice in a row, removed the former consul in North Manchuria, Ali Guo, and prepared to take a tough attitude towards North Manchuria. Now North Manchuria and Russia are extremely tense on the northern border, and war may start at any time, and there are only more than 10,000 Japanese mercenaries stationed in the Lushun Military Port and Dalian and Yingkou Economic Zones in the south, which is the time when the military pressure in North Manchuria is the greatest, so Britain decisively chose to do it at this time.

The Derby Cabinet, which is from the Conservative Party, absolutely supports the use of pressure from both the north and the south to force North Manchuria into submission. However, North Manchuria was an important export of British industrial products, and its army strength was too strong for the British to land and occupy an important city, so the cabinet wanted to control the scale of the situation. Try to focus on threats as much as possible, and try not to use force as much as possible, as long as North Manchu is willing to provide the secret of its weapons, and the matter of weakening North Manchu can be done slowly. However, it is a pity that the consul who was just transferred to North Manchuria two months ago was Sir Pashali, who had never seen his name in Goxing, and he was an absolute war maniac. China is Pashali's second hometown, but this man has a deep hatred for his second hometown, and if it weren't for the lack of troops, he would have the heart to attack Changchun directly.

Pashali proposed to the commander of the Far Eastern Fleet, Commodore Gillet, another very crazy plan. In the first step, the Far East Fleet cut off the main channel of Dalian Port, lured the remaining fleet of Arthur to meet the battle, and then annihilated the remaining fleet of North Manchuria. The second step was to immediately occupy the Port of Arthur and the Dalian and Yingkou economic zones after the remaining fleet was annihilated. The third step was to take advantage of the inability of the North Manchurian government to respond, and the Far East Fleet bypassed the Tsushima Strait, directly attacked Vladivostok, and annihilated the North Sea Fleet in the harbor. If the above plan can be accomplished, it can annihilate all the naval forces of North Manchuria, and destroy all the important ports and economic zones of North Manchuria. But Brigadier General Gillett's reply was simple, "Bull shit!" ”。

If you have to find a feasible part of the plan, then the only step is to lure and destroy the remaining fleet, which is too ideal, but it is the only reliable part of the whole plan. From the second step onwards, the plan for the rest of the country was all nonsense, and there was no possibility at all, unless the officers of North Manchukuo were all British spies.

Although the Japanese mercenaries are the worst in the battle sequence of North Manchukuo in terms of fighting will, training, weapons and equipment, etc., they are also a very powerful armed force. Schneider rifles, Armstrong field guns, and Gatling guns have lagged behind in Manchuria, but they are still relatively advanced in the world. More than 10,000 troops with such equipment are definitely not easy to deal with, after all, the best equipment of the British army is like this, and the strength of the British army is only more than 5,000 people, which is only half of the opponent's. Pa Xiali, who had just arrived in Northern Manchuria, seemed to completely regard Northern Manchukuo as the Qing Empire a few years ago, thinking that he could still stage the glory of Bali Bridge, but unfortunately he forgot that the person who forced them into a dilemma under the city of Beijing was Guo Xing'a, the general of Northern Manchuria.

Even if the combat power of the British army is super strong, and the fighting will of the Japanese mercenaries is weaker than that of paper, the British army can at most conquer Dalian, and it will not be able to move Lushun at all. One is that the defenders of Lushun are regular Manchurian troops, with equipment level and combat effectiveness far exceeding those of Japanese mercenaries, and the other is the terrifying Lushun fortress. Judging from the very incomplete intelligence at present, North Manchuria must have spent great efforts to build the fortifications of Lushun, and the military port of Lushun can be called the first fortress in the Far East, and the number of permanent fortifications and large-caliber coastal artillery in it is extremely amazing. Moreover, the natural environment of Lushun is too good, it is almost a natural fortress, and the firepower of each battery can completely block the waters around Lushun. The Far Eastern Fleet may be able to annihilate the remaining fleet in Lushun, but if it dares to approach the Port of Arthur, it will definitely be completely solved by the shore anti-aircraft artillery. Attacking from the land is also a beautiful idea, and regardless of whether the shore defense artillery can turn or not, just a supply line of nearly seventy kilometers on the road is enough for the British army to have a headache, and the premise is that they can take Dalian.

As for the last step of North Vladivostok, it was almost a death, Lushun's Bohai Fleet went to the South Seas, and the North Sea Fleet did not move in Vladivostok's hometown. The North Sea Fleet, which has more than 30 capital ships, even if the ships are inferior to the British ships, has advanced weapons systems and wolf pack tactics that have severely damaged the US Navy. If the Far Eastern Fleet goes on an expedition to Vladivostok, it is likely to be attacked head-on by the North Sea Fleet, which is waiting for work, not to mention occupying Vladivostok, whether it can come back alive or not. What's more, Vladivostok is different from Dalian, behind Vladivostok is North Manchurian itself, and it is the base camp of the Dongjiang Army Cluster in North Manchuria. There are no less than 100,000 troops in the provinces around Vladivostok, and the British army has a few thousand people, which is simply not enough for people to stuff their teeth.

Although Pashali's plan was completely rejected, Gillet was still ready to try to block the main channel of Dalian Port, after all, there were things going on in the north and south of Manchuria, and a little pressure might be a miracle effect. After Gilette approached the port of Dalian from the open sea, the four cruisers and three destroyers left behind by the Bohai Fleet could only light fire and anchor to meet the enemy. Ding Shengping, the temporary commander of the fleet, didn't want to fight 10,000 in his heart, but he was helpless.