"Herbert, Ramsay, I think we still have too few troops! This enemy of the East is stronger than I imagined, they will not sit back and wait to be killed, there must be some means and hole cards that will make them fantasize about fighting hard. Osborne, the budget of the expeditionary force needs to be increased by another million pounds, and you can find a way for me to divert it from other projects first, and whatever is there, I will bear it, and I will report it to Parliament and Her Majesty later. After a moment's thought, Palmerston immediately made up his mind and deployed: "The army will be increased by 10,000 more." Although the situation in India is not very stable, there is no need to worry so much at this time, Ramsay, you personally ordered the British troops on the Indian side to send 10,000 European troops to the nearest Calcutta. Herbert, these 10,000 European soldiers will be transported by your Royal Navy to the battlefields of the East. ”

Palmerston was also worried, for some reason, when he learned about these attacks in the city of London, he became more and more uneasy: since it was speculated that the Orientals had even come up with the crooked idea of instigating the Irish to sabotage the British soil in order to fight against the British, who knows how many means the other side would have, it can be seen that the other party has long been on guard against the British, and if he said that he had not prepared well for war in the far east, Palmerston would not believe it. Therefore, he demanded an additional £1,000,000 in the expeditionary budget and another 10,000 troops to ensure that nothing went wrong.

More than 50,000 British regular troops marched to the East, which was unprecedented. As long as it is not a long-term occupation by force of force as is the case with India, but only through the capture of coastal port cities, focusing on attacking the key cities of the criminal country in the east, forcing them to sign surrender treaties, and curbing the increasingly arrogant pace of expansion of the other side, such a strategic goal of more than 50,000 troops should have been sufficient. After all, 17 years ago, the British Empire had not sent troops from its own territory, but only sent more than 10,000 troops from Ceylon, India, and the East Indies, including Indian soldiers, to defeat the seemingly powerful Qing State in one fell swoop. Now this more than 50,000 elite soldiers from the mainland, plus weapons, I don't know how many times better than the original, and after the tempering of the Crimean War, even if the Chinese Empire in the east is much stronger than the original Qing State, it should be defeated by the army of the British Empire.

With the increase in budget and troops, Palmerston is much more at ease! That's enough to look up to those Orientals!

Palmerston then asked Foreign Secretary Russell: "What other countries are willing to follow the British Empire to the East?" ”

Russell didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly replied: "The Netherlands and Portugal both promised to send troops, the Netherlands is willing to send 5,000 troops, Portugal is willing to send 2,000 troops, and Turkey is willing to send 3,000 troops, adding up to just 10,000 multinational coalition troops." Of course, these countries sent troops, and I promised them a lot of conditions. Naturally, the Dutch wanted to regain their interests in the Dutch East Indies; In addition to Portugal, which wants to recover Macau, it also wants the entire island of Qiongzhou; Turkey also had intentions against the East Indies, and they wanted to 'save' the Allah congregations...... I verbally agreed to all of these conditions, but the exact distribution of them depends on how much each of them contributes to the war. ”

"You're right! Promise them first, as for whether they can get it, or how it will be distributed, it will ultimately depend on their performance, and the face of my British Empire. Palmerston nodded, "You can contact them again and tell them that you can give them more benefits than the conditions they ask!" After the defeat of the Chinese Empire, the country will pay a huge war reparation, and we can seize a lot of goods in the captured cities, and the British Empire can give half of it to them. There are also post-war trade tariff privileges and most-favored-nation treatment, all of which can be shared with our interests in Great Britain. The only condition is to send some more troops, and tell them that whoever sends more expeditionary force and the heavier the burden of supplies, the better the reward will be distributed in the future! By the way, what about Tsarist Russia? ”

"Just as I was about to report to Your Excellency the Prime Minister, the Tsarist side of Russia has promised to send troops with us. They were preparing to march eastward on the basis of the Governor-General of Siberia and the Governor-General of Orenburg, preparing to send 50,000 troops to recapture all the regions of Siberia, Outer Northeast and Central Asia previously occupied by the Chinese Empire, and also preparing to merge the Mongolian region into the two governors' palaces. Just Your Excellency the Prime Minister, in this way, Tsarist Russia will greatly increase its strength, and its sphere of influence will cover the whole of Central Asia, and even the areas around Aiukhan, Burma, and Tibet will become the sphere of influence of Tsarist Russia. This is extremely detrimental to our British interests on the ground! ”

Palmerston was about to say something when the butler of the Prime Minister's Mansion led Johnson, one of the cabinet members, into a hurry. Palmerston immediately realized that something was wrong, because Johnson had not informed him to come to his residence.

Sure enough, Johnson hurriedly said: "Sir, something is wrong!" Hundreds of soldiers and policemen were poisoned in many barracks and police stations in London, as well as thousands of traders, workers, teachers, doctors, coachmen, craftsmen of all kinds, unemployed workers and vagrants, especially alcoholics. I have coordinated with the London Metropolitan Police and the Royal Gendarmerie to investigate the matter, suspecting that there was a problem with the batch of beer produced by the Courage Brewery in Bermonse six or seven days ago, and I wonder if it was secretly poisoned or if their own beer had gone bad. I've had dozens of doctors do the lab and will soon be able to figure out the cause. As a precaution, I have ordered that all beer in London be strictly forbidden, sealed on the spot, and that all hospitals and clinics be on standby to rescue the poisoned. ”

"What?" Palmerston was blinded, and it took a while to react, and he scolded loudly: "Bastard! Isn't London martial law, how can those soldiers and policemen still get drunk and poisoned? What did that courage brewery do, they had such a big problem with their wine, didn't they find out at all? ”

As he spoke, he looked at the people who were all looking at him, and shouted, "What are you looking at, don't deal with this matter quickly!" Immediately shut down any news of this damned matter, not to be reported in any newspaper, not to spread it, or else the whole of London would be in turmoil, more frightening than the damned attack on the Cabinet Ministers. ”

Palmerston was about to conclude an informal cabinet meeting that had already taken place and demanded that Home Secretary George solve the case immediately, and then hurried with Health Secretary Johnson to King's College Hospital in Bermonsay, where more than 200 poisoned people were taken to the large hospital that had been established more than 10 years ago.

The Borough has long been a factory cluster in London, where a large number of heavy workers lived, so the impact of the brewery poisoning was much more than what you see.

The entire hospital was full, but poisoned people continued to be pulled into the hospital by horse-drawn carriages. The same is true of other hospitals in the Bermensai district, and it is not known how many victims there were in this poisoned beer incident.

After a hurried look at the poisoner, Palmerston rushed to the brewery where the incident occurred like a firefighter. All the beers have been sealed, but there are still many beers that have been circulated out of control, and there are people who continue to be poisoned after entering the market.

Seeing the Mayor of London and the London Police Chief again, Palmerston didn't even feel like scolding, and asked directly: "Did you find out what kind of poison it was?" Who is the murderer? ”

The London police chief looked frustrated: "Sir, I only know that it is an alkaloid, and we have invited Darwin, a naturalist from Cambridge University, and Hooke, a botanist, who are nervously analyzing poison samples, and we don't know exactly what the composition is." As for the murderer, he was supposed to be a barn keeper at the brewery, but he was lost a few days ago. ”

Palmerston waved his hand weakly: "Send someone to pour all the remaining beer of the Courage Brewery into the Thames and destroy it, and the Courage Brewery will be closed and not allowed to open again until the mastermind behind the scenes is found." All other breweries in London have strengthened their management, and all ex-factory beers must be sampled and inspected to confirm their safety before they can leave the factory. ”

The Mayor of London and the Commissioner of Police of London hurriedly came down and arranged for people to do it.

At this moment, a military police officer hurried over and whispered something in the ear of the London police chief.

The London police chief's face changed greatly, and he didn't have time to listen, so he rushed to Palmerston: "Mr. Prime Minister, something is wrong, there is a fire in the British Museum, and the police must be organized to put out the fire immediately!" After speaking, he yelled at the two policemen behind him: "Summons to assemble!" ”

Palmerston didn't have time to ask what was going on, because he had already followed the police chief out of the brewery, and looked up to see smoke billowing northwest of central London on the other side of the Thames, which was the same direction as the British Museum.

I can't hide it at all. The British Museum, not only the United Kingdom, but the world's oldest and most magnificent comprehensive museum, has a collection of many cultural relics and treasures from all over the world, witnessing the strength of the British Empire, there are treasures in Greece, Egypt, the Americas, India and other places, originally Palmerston also thought that after the expedition to the East, the British Museum will add tens of thousands or even 100,000 pieces of oriental antique cultural relics, but I didn't expect that there would be a fire.

First the dignitaries were attacked by gangsters, then there was the beer poisoning incident, and now there is the British Museum on fire! Although he had not yet arrived and did not know what was going on, Palmerston could almost conclude that this must have been a purposeful conspiracy, and that it must have been for the British Empire, as was the attack and the poisoning! That is, it was either planned by the damned Orientals or directed by the stupid Irish.

But the opponent's combination punch hit his own goal! Palmerston also didn't know how the members of Congress would attack him and his cabinet members.

It was his strategic intention to send a large army to the Far East to destroy the Eastern Empire, which was preparing to rise by force. Now that the other party is just making some small moves from afar, he has made himself anxious, and Palmerston can't help but smile bitterly: he and the cabinet have underestimated each other!

However, the more this is the case, the more it shows that the other party is terrible, and the more we must destroy the other party as soon as possible! We must resist the pressure, completely defeat the Chinese Empire in the East, suppress it, divide its land, and split its forces, especially the emperor who established the empire, we must not let it develop anymore, we must get rid of him!

Destroy the enemy, preferably from within. Palmerston has always thought so. Although he was confident in the strength of the British Empire, and never doubted that the expeditionary force was strong enough to sweep through the eastern country, he was still prepared to make another arrangement, at least in the process of starting a war, so that the other side could not fight with all its strength. Wouldn't it be better if we could completely defeat the other side from the internal disintegration without a fight or with little or no fighting? At least let the other party taste this kind of burnt out.

Palmerston clenched his fists, inhaled sharply in the gutter, and looked at the sky with a gloomy face, and the sky above central London was already full of smoke.