Palmerston brought the queen and the parliament out, and began to be angry, and immediately restrained the people. Seeing this, Palmerston's tone softened and said: "As for the budget cost of 5 million pounds for this military operation, it was approved by the queen and I under pressure from Parliament, I know that you are too little, but this is also a matter of no choice. ”

"You must know that the annual naval expenditure of the entire British Empire this year is only 8.44 million pounds, accounting for more than two-thirds of the annual military expenditure of Great Britain. In other words, this war against China alone will cost nearly half a year of military spending, which is already the largest budget expenditure we can obtain! If we ask for more, I am afraid that not only those MPs, but also Her Majesty and I will have to put forward a counter-argument to reduce the budget or even cancel the military action against China. After all, the huge military expenditures of the Crimean War, as well as the military expenditures for quelling the rebellion in India, are astronomical, and two major wars in a row have already overwhelmed the empire. It was not easy to have the determination to come up with a budget of £5 million for the war. ”

As soon as Palmerston explained this, everyone understood and no longer dwelled on military spending.

War Secretary Panmmel Ramsey suddenly asked: "Your Excellency Prime Minister, sending 40,000 British soldiers is not a trivial matter, and the budget is only so small, I cannot completely transfer troops from Great Britain to the Far East, I am prepared to transfer only 15,000 troops from the mainland, and 25,000 troops from India, so as to save some military expenditure." There are two other questions I would like to ask in advance: one is that I ask Congress to approve the land to be supplied on the spot in the occupied towns and raise its own military expenses, and the other is whether the Prime Minister will simply defeat the Chinese state or conquer it completely. ”

The Minister of the Navy, Sidney Herbert, said: "The capital of the Chinese Empire is the city of Nanjing in the former Qing Dynasty, near the Yangtze River, and the strategy of our navy is to directly mobilize some of the main warships of the British mainland and the Mediterranean Fleet, together with more than 120 warships of the Indian Ocean Fleet, to form a combined fleet for the expedition to the Chinese Empire, first recover the East Indies, then occupy the Philippine Islands, Hong Kong and Macao, and then directly capture Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Ningbo, Shanghai and other important towns as it did twenty years ago. The last move captured their capital, Nanjing, forcing them to surrender. ”

Panmel Ramsey said: "Won't it take a long time? In my opinion, it is better to seize Hong Kong on the one hand and capture Guangzhou on the other. Hong Kong Island was used as a base, while the city of Guangzhou was a source of military supplies. As long as these two places are occupied, the whole of the East Indies will be reduced to the possession of our British Empire. In particular, the city of Canton, which was the birthplace of the Chinese Empire, was comparable to the capital, the headquarters of the Nanyang Company, and its wealth was astonishing, and as long as it could be captured, I estimate that every British soldier would be able to make a considerable windfall. The rest of the rest of the place, we don't have to spend time to attack slowly, we just have to kill the other party, and directly wave the army north to attack Nanjing, if Nanjing is really broken, it is likely that this Chinese empire will be torn apart. Even if the emperor named Feng Yunshan can maintain his rule, he will definitely surrender to the British, and when the time comes, we can slaughter them at will. ”

Palmerston applauded: "Mr. Ramsey is right. This war should be resolved quickly, and Britain's military spending will not take too long. Ignore the East Indies and go straight to Hong Kong and Guangzhou, and then pass through Shanghai to Nanjing, and deal a fatal blow to it. ”

Sidney Herbert also nodded in agreement: "Ramsay finally came up with a great idea. In this way, our army can also concentrate its forces and not scatter them because of the many places that have been captured. ”

"Not bad! Ramsay's strategy is indeed very good! I could have some of the Dutch and Spanish armies attack the East Indies occupied by the Chinese Empire first, and some of them bypass Hong Kong and go to Fuzhou and Ningbo to harass the coast and attract their attention. Russell agrees.

"In that case, let us proceed accordingly. A month of preparation, and a month later, the expeditionary force sent troops on time! Palmerston decided.

In the period that followed, not only Britain, but also the whole of Europe became a sensation.

Britain did not hide at all its intention to send troops on an expedition against the distant Chinese Empire in the East, but made a great deal of publicity. While the British Admiralty and War Office were preparing to send troops, Prime Minister Palmerston, in the name of Queen Victoria, the British Führer, immediately sent a note to the Netherlands, France, the United States, Spain, Austria, Prussia, and Tsarist Russia, asking them to support and join the British troop and unite in the crusade against the evil Chinese Empire.

The Times, Britain's most widely circulated and influential newspaper, directly published the Queen's speech declaring war on the Chinese Empire, and Queen Victoria called on the brave knights of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to march eastward to defeat the evil Eastern Empire, free the enslaved natives there, and bring them freedom and civilization.

British Prime Minister Sir Palmerston and Foreign Secretary Russell also issued statements in Britain's leading "Times" and "Daily Telegraph" respectively, complaining bitterly about the anti-British atrocities of the distant Eastern Empire, and saying that they would lead the warriors of the British Empire to crusade against that evil country, erase the shame it brought to the British Empire, and restore the honor and interests of the British Empire.

Immediately, British Foreign Minister Russell further said that the Netherlands, Spain, and Ottoman Turkey would send a total of about 10,000 soldiers to the Far East together with the British Empire's expeditionary force. Russell even openly talked about the situation in the East Indies and the Far East after the expedition, saying that after defeating the Chinese Empire, he would not rule out restoring the previous order of power in the East Indies and the Philippine Islands, and dividing the spheres of influence according to the amount of troops and contributions from each country. This is simply a naked attempt to attract countries to follow the British Empire on the expedition.

At the same time, Austria's "New Free Press" and "New Vienna Zeitung", as well as the Dutch "Amsterdam Zeitung" and Spain's "Le Monde" also carried large chapters on the news of the British Expeditionary Force's dispatch of troops, praising Britain's feat of preserving European honor and restoring the interests and trade of the European powers! At the same time, they said that they would also send troops to conquer the Far East together with the British army and contribute to the new world order.

France's Le Presse and Le Figaro seem to have different views.

The newspaper was the official newspaper, representing the mouthpiece of Napoleon III, and was neutral, expressing only concern about the British army's expedition and saying that it would continue to follow up. Le Figaro, on the other hand, seems to be less friendly, a private newspaper that directly and unceremoniously criticizes the British military dispatch as an aggression that will either lead to a crushing defeat or a small victory that will lead to a larger world war, and thus plunged into a continuous war, which is more terrible than an outright defeat.

An anonymous author of Le Figaro directly pointed out that the British navy, with its world's best strength, may still be able to maintain its superiority over China, while the British army will inevitably fall into the encirclement of the Orientals and will not be able to get out if it attempts to make a landing operation. He explained that the Chinese Empire's current army is already among the top in the world in terms of weapons and equipment, and its combat skills are not a problem except for insufficient training and combat skills. And the abundant logistical support and the fanatical worship of the emperor by the soldiers of the Chinese Empire will make the soldiers of the Chinese Empire full of fighting spirit and forgetting to die, which is very terrifying!

The unknown author said that the soldiers of the Chinese Empire were terrible, and the most terrible thing was the population base of that country. Even if one out of a hundred people were chosen to serve as a soldier, the country's army would reach 4 million. And the world's largest army of Tsarist Russia, but only a million troops, Napoleon the Great, who swept through Europe, was also blocked by a million troops of Tsarist Russia and failed, now the Chinese Empire is even more terrible than Tsarist Russia, if Britain abandons the strength of warships, and directly sends troops to land and attack the city, it will be defeated.

The Prussian "General Report" and the "Prussian Kingdom Newspaper" were even more unceremoniously stated that they would send troops against Britain and other countries against the Chinese Empire. A number of Prussian officials and members of the royal family were interviewed and said that they were not optimistic about the British army's expedition. Even some Prussian merchants and civilians expressed their readiness to give some support to the humiliated Chinese Empire.