London, the capital of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Today, the largest city and seaport in the world, has a population of just over 3 million. Because more than 1 million residents burned coal, the entire city of London was completely gray, and the name of the foggy city, although it has not yet been officially called, has been heard from time to time. The smog of more than 50 times a year is indeed very frequent.

At three or four o'clock in the afternoon, a heavy fog lasted all day, and the darkness did not stop at all, although it was only afternoon, and the sky was completely dark.

The gray-black masonry paved road, the damp and misty road surface covered by the haze, the muddy water that has been run over by horse-drawn carriages, and the dim and faint street lamps are printed upside down, making people feel lonely!

In contrast to the gloomy and quaint houses that line the streets, the streets are filled with a wide variety of people: military police, coachmen, hawkers, cooks, prostitutes, drunkards, unemployed vagrants, thieves...... There was also a group of workers who had gone bankrupt because they had lost their jobs and were noisily holding rags to each other, presumably preparing to petition in front of the city hall.

Behind the tumultuous crowd, several guards gathered around a magnificent carriage and drove unhurriedly across the street.

In the carriage, Count Henry, who was wearing a tuxedo and was full of wine, was holding a fat and bewitching woman around his hands at the moment, and there were bursts of coquettish laughter from time to time in the carriage.

The Earl of Henry, a media merchant who was in charge of two medium-sized newspapers, had just come out of Frete Street in the West Cause, when he happened to meet this noble lady whose husband was on an expedition, and invited her to his home, the meaning of which was naturally understood by everyone.

"Lady Styra, your Viscount has only been away from London for about twenty days, and you can't hold back?" Count Henry teased as he pinched the fat buttocks of the woman in front of him.

"Henry, you're so bad! You come to seduce people every day, and you still blame them for not being able to hold back? The noble lady smiled and gasped: "That dead ghost, who used to be only on duty in Europe for a few months and a half, actually said that he was going to the far east to fight the barbarians there, and I am afraid that he will not be able to return to London without ten months and a year." How can I be entertained by such a long period of loneliness? ”

"You little! It's really inseparable from the nourishment of a man for a moment! When I get to my lodgings, let me nourish you well, and do some of my strength for poor Viscount Styra, so that he can slaughter the arrogant Orientals in peace. Henry's hand was already wrapped like a viper into the woman's garment, and he kneading it and laughing triumphantly.

"Dead Henry, if it weren't for the fact that those newspapers of yours were advocating for the legislators to go on an expedition against the barbarians of the East, how could my husband have been called up? It's not all your damn media businessmen, who would rather have wars every day for the sake of news. Don't say that you didn't send reporters to follow the expeditionary force to dig up news about the war. ”

"Haha! Yes, war can make endless news, and this expedition to China will make my newspaper a lot of money! However, as the captain of the British Royal Navy, your family Stirra will definitely capture a large amount of loot on this expedition, otherwise he would not be so eager to rush into the war! ”

While the two were chatting, their hands and mouths were not idle for a moment, and their movements became bigger and bigger, the temperature in the carriage became higher and higher, and the clothes on the woman's body became less and less.

"Dead Henry! ...... Tell the coachman to slow down the carriage, I ......" the lady's voice was already sweet. Henry immediately understood, and with a slight tug of a drawstring bell on the carriage, the carriage slowly slowed down and passed a street corner at the speed of a pedestrian.

At this moment, there was a bang, and the carriage hit some covering, followed by a loud explosion, several guards were killed and injured on the spot, and the coachman was also blown aside. Henry, who had taken off his tuxedo, was even more pitiful, because the explosion started from the side of the carriage he was sitting in, and his back was blown up and all the blood was blown, screaming for help. It was the noblewoman who was naked, but because she was pressed by Henry and was invisibly protected, she was only frightened, not seriously injured, but because of excessive fright, she stood hysterically on the carriage board that had been lifted off the roof and shouted: "Help! Help me! ”

A few gunshots followed.

The street corner is chaotic. The pedestrians around them, whether they were nobles or dentists who were noble and arrogant just now, or thieves and vagabonds, all fell to the ground at this moment, trembling, and said the same thing: "Oh, God." ”

A patrol of military police in the distance heard the noise and was already running towards this direction with a loud shout. A gust of wind blew, and the smoke began to clear, leaving only wails and begs for mercy, and the attackers had long since left.

The homeless people who were lying on the ground just now rushed up, scrambling for the belongings, smoke and soil that had been blown up and dropped on the carriage, until the military police arrived, and then dispersed!

......

Three days later.

The Admiralty Chancellor, Sidney Herbert, rode in his own carriage down a wide street, not far in front of Groveona Square, surrounded by upscale residential areas. Seeing that he had entered here, Herbert's heart was relieved.

The reason was what Queen Victoria said when he met Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle just now.

"Herbert, why am I so upset after this expedition?" When Herbert saw the Queen, Victoria's face was a little pale, the corners of her eyes were puffy, and she asked worriedly, "You know, although Palmerston and Ramsay know military affairs, they are both from the army, and they are arrogant and stubborn. Only you have worked in the navy and army, and you are my close minister, you tell me the truth, is there a 95% victory rate in this expedition? ”

"Your Majesty, 95 percent may not be, but it's not too much, and 90 percent of the victory is certain. The soldiers of our British Empire are well-trained, and they are all elite soldiers in a hundred battles, and they have always been invincible. The Chinese Empire is just a group of flintlock pistols that we eliminated decades ago, defeating the more backward Qing Tatars, that is, relying on the large number of people, India and Russia are different from the people and soldiers, and they are not killed by our British warriors! Not to mention those short Orientals, where can they be compared with Russian and Indian soldiers? Our British Expeditionary Force will definitely be able to defeat 10 with 10 and defeat 100 with one. Herbert was full of confidence and comforted confidently: "Even if there is a problem, there is also the huge expeditionary fleet of our British Royal Navy, this time our expeditionary force has more than 50 warships, including more than 20 warships with a tonnage of more than 2,000 tons, and there is no non-European country in the world that can block the attack of such a huge fleet." Even if the Chinese State is much stronger than the previous Qing State, even if they have been desperately buying warships everywhere in recent years to build a naval fleet, but warships are so expensive, just like the so-called century-old navy, even if it is the richest and most powerful in the world, our British Empire, does not dare to order a huge fleet in one go, this is not something that can be built in a few years, rest assured. The small fleets of the other side are just bullying the miscellaneous fleets of the East Indian Ocean Fleet. ”

"Herbert, your words are always so reassuring! It's comfortable to listen to you! However, Herbert, you still can't take it too seriously, you are the Minister of the Navy, and the Royal Fleet of this expeditionary force is the heart and soul of your Admiralty, even if you lose a few dozen or so capital warships, it is a major loss. You know, I got special information that the Chinese country has bought a lot of warships from France and the United States, and even they can build some small warships themselves. It is still necessary to be careful against the other side, otherwise, the eastern country would not have so arrogantly expanded its power, occupied almost all of the East Indies, and annexed Japan. Queen Victoria was relieved, but she still reminded.

"Your Majesty, although France has many good warships, they are not many, they themselves are not enough, and they are ready to order warships from the shipyards of our British Empire." Herbert smiled nonchalantly: "As for the United States, is there a strong navy?" Her Majesty won't forget that decades ago, our British fleet blocked all the major ports of America, right? ”

"Herbert, it's better if you are confident! So I'm relieved! Victoria also laughed, but immediately stopped smiling again, and said with some melancholy: "There is one more thing, which has nothing to do with you, but since you are here, I will tell you by the way." You've been going to have to be careful with your family lately, you know? Recently, many members of the royal family and the nobles and knights of the British Empire, and parliamentarians in London have been attacked and injured by gangsters, and Sir Palmerston has just come to me for help, asking to persuade Parliament to increase the budget and increase the number of patrol military police, and the police departments in London are busy, and tens of thousands of military police and temporarily hired patrol officers are scattered around the streets and alleys to patrol back and forth, but the whole London is still chaotic, a mess, people are assassinated or robbed every day, and even the widest roads are not safe. ”

"What?" Herbert really didn't know that there was such a thing, he had recently been preoccupied with the expeditionary force and the fund-raising, and the news of such panic must have been blocked by the cabinet and the queen, and the major newspapers did not seem to publish much about it, so he really did not know about it.

"Just be careful!" Victoria said hatefully: "I don't know who did it, can those Oriental people's hands and feet still reach the British mainland?" That's horrible, too! ”

"Your Majesty, could it be the Irishman or the French?" Herbert resolutely did not think that they were Orientals, and Orientals were all lowly yellow-skinned monkeys, how could there be whites who worked for them?

"Well, it's possible! Palmerston and they have already sent someone to investigate in secret, and I have also written a letter to Parliament, asking them to increase their funds, expand the number of military and police in London, eliminate those saboteurs and rebels as soon as possible, and let London settle down as soon as possible! ”

"Whoa!" The carriage braked sharply and stopped suddenly, Herbert, who was sitting in the carriage, almost crashed into the carriage, he hurriedly opened the carriage door, and just wanted to scold the coachman, only to hear a few gunshots, the coachman sitting in front of him had been shot in the head, bleeding profusely, and he was not alive, two of which were shot at him, fortunately he was careful enough, and quickly closed the carriage door, and the bullet shot the not too thick mahogany carriage door through two holes.

"God, there are assassins! Help me! ”