The next day, the Times, Britain's largest newspaper, published a piece of news that caused a sensation in the whole of London and even the whole of Britain: The kingdom's expeditionary force to China was defeated, although it was not completely annihilated, but less than one-third of the army escaped from the Indian Ocean, tens of thousands of people died in India, and tens of thousands of people were captured by the Chinese Empire, the Kingdom of Great Britain suffered a worse blow than the Crimean War, and the kingdom's position in the world and Europe collapsed violently.

Newspapers such as "News of the World" and "Daily Mail," which do not have such a strong official background, directly reported the fiasco of the expeditionary force against China with headlines such as "This is a fiasco that completely destroyed the British Empire," "The British Empire never sets on India and the East," and "The fiasco of the two expeditions to China has buried the entire British Empire."

Even some other cheap penny newspapers angrily denounced the British cabinet government for making such a foolish decision as an expedition to China. Among them, the Sunday Times openly declared that Queen Victoria and former Prime Minister Russell were the main culprits in this fiasco, and that the more than 100,000 British soldiers who died or fell to the hands of the enemy were solely responsible.

The newspaper held that when the Chinese Empire had become strong and the first expeditionary fleet to China was completely destroyed, this expedition to China should not be launched again. The Cabinet government did not do any intelligence gathering and did not recognize the situation, which led to the fiasco. And the queen instigated the war against China, financed military spending, and sent the lads of Great Britain to the grave only for the wealth and gems of India. The article claimed that the British government and the royal family should immediately intervene to negotiate peace with the Chinese Empire, and jointly finance the ransom of the captured British soldiers to Europe, and to pay pensions to the families of the soldiers who died in the war to support them.

Although many people in the upper echelons scoffed at such arguments in the newspaper, they were recognized by many people at the bottom, especially the families or relatives of the soldiers who died in the war. This is still after the Kingdom of Great Britain pacified the labor movement in the country, another demonstration, immediately made the whole of Britain very nervous, hurriedly mobilized troops to maintain order, but most of these demonstrations were the families and relatives and friends of the soldiers, and even among the soldiers who were transferred to suppress it, many of their family members also came here to march, so how could these soldiers bear to use force against their familiar relatives or the people who fought for the interests of their compatriots? After all, marching for those soldiers who died in battle today, tomorrow may be for themselves.

Therefore, from the morning onwards, large-scale demonstrations began to take place in the streets of London, especially on the side of Parliament Square, and by noon the whole Parliament Square was already flooded, with tens of thousands of people shouting for His Excellency, for the Queen's arrival, for the rescue of the captured soldiers who were still suffering in India.

And the Earl of Derby, who hurried back to the Prime Minister's Office in London after hearing the news, was also as big as a fight, and Queen Victoria's stroke was more or less due to his factors, and although he didn't care much about this prime minister anymore, he would be forced to resign and step down after a few months in office, which would always make him lose face and have a bad reputation for him. Therefore, he had to do his best to maintain it.

As soon as he returned to London, he gathered the members of his cabinet to discuss how to deal with the disastrous defeat of the British expeditionary force against China. And the demonstrations that started in the morning, the derby did not pay much attention, these are just small things.

Derby glanced at the crowd already waiting in the conference room, this time the cabinet ministers arrived in time, the Secretary of State of the Navy Sidney Herbert, the Secretary of State of War Panmel Ramsay, the Secretary of State Howard, the Secretary of State Wallace, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Gladstone, the Secretary of State for Justice Truss, and even the Secretary of State for Post, Roland Hill, who was not a Cabinet Minister, had arrived.

Derby's tone was rather heavy: "Ladies and gentlemen, I think you all already know the news of the crushing defeat of our expeditionary force in the East. This unprecedented fiasco was really worse for the already troubled Kingdom of Great Britain. When I got the whole news, I rushed to Windsor Castle yesterday to tell Her Majesty, who also fell ill when she learned of the bad news. Now, this thorny problem is all up to us to solve, so let's discuss it. ”

The Minister of War, Panmel Ramsay, said directly: "Earl, and gentlemen, the reason why our army has suffered a crushing defeat and lost more than 100,000 troops is because of the crushing defeat of the expeditionary fleet. Their defeat put the entire army in danger throughout India, depriving it of all logistical supplies and fleet cover, and, when the enemy is attacking, as a large naval fleet, it is impossible to even warn it...... Therefore, although some of the fiascos of the army were due to the improper command of the army department, the unfamiliar training of soldiers, and the lack of military pay and treatment, the most important thing was two points! ”

After saying that, Ramsay glared at the Admiralty Lord Sidney Herbert, and continued hatefully: "One is that the fiasco of the Navy caused the defeat of the Army!" After all, the fiasco of the expeditionary fleet not only damaged the morale of the officers and men of the army, but also left them with no way to retreat, and they were all separated and unable to support each other, so how could they not be defeated. The Admiralty is directly responsible for this!

The second is that the weapons equipped by Great Britain are too far behind those of the Chinese Empire. Whether it is from artillery or muskets, in terms of range, accuracy, rate of fire and ease of use, there is too much difference. Our arsenals in Great Britain and those arms experts, what are they doing? The most important reason why our expeditionary army was able to easily defeat those Indian rebels and defeat those Bengali rebels who were twice as many as us, but were defeated in front of the Chinese emperor's ** team, which was even smaller than us, was this: our weapons, compared to the ones they used, were simply rubbish! ”

Admiral Sidney Herbert immediately shot back: "No, no, no, the crushing defeat of your army has nothing to do with our navy. Moreover, it was the drag of your army that prevented our navy from attacking quickly, and it was always hovering in the Indian Ocean, so that the enemy could calmly mobilize all the naval fleets to surround our navy, and this was the fiasco. If it weren't for the army's delay, our navy would have cooperated with your army, and the expeditionary fleet would have conquered the Malacca Strait long ago, entered the China Sea and captured their cities of Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Shanghai, and Shengjing. At this moment, it may be a great time for the whole country of Great Britain to celebrate the victory in the Far East! ”

After speaking, seeing that everyone looked stupid, Herbert also realized that what he said now was too stimulating for them, and it was no longer appropriate, so he pulled back the topic, softened his tone, and said: "However, Ramsay's statement about the backwardness of Great Britain's weapons is true, and our Admiralty must also respond to this major problem!"

In my opinion, the fiasco of the expeditionary fleet of our Navy was caused precisely by the backwardness of weapons and equipment! As we all know, the navy mainly depends on the firepower of warships and the solidity of warships. And our Chinese fleet, although the number of warships is larger than that of the Chinese Empire, and the carrying capacity is also large, but they are all old-fashioned warships. Listening to the battle situation transmitted by telegram, our largest ironclad ship, the "Warrior", was attacked by the enemy with a submarine that could burrow into the sea, and the bottom plate of the "Warrior" was blown into the water, and it sank. Most of the other ships were damaged by the heavy artillery of the enemy, which was far more advanced than the most advanced Armstrong guns of our Kingdom of Great Britain. ”

The Earl of Derby grimaced and exclaimed, "What are you doing here?" After losing the battle, instead of thinking about how to deal with the current crisis in the Kingdom of Great Britain, do you want to shirk the responsibility and clear the situation? ”