Shengjing. Inside the Imperial Palace's Chamber.

Feng Yunshan finished reading the deciphered telegram in his hand, and his face was slightly worried. Under him, Vice Premier Zeng Guanlan, Minister of Foreign Affairs Wu Ruxiao, Director of the Special Service Department Fan Ruzeng, and Chief of General Staff Zuo Zongtang stood aside. After receiving a top-secret letter from Europe, the local spies did not dare to slack off and immediately sent the top-secret letter directly from the Saigon Telegraph Office to the Seonggyung Telegraph Office. When Fan Ruzeng, director of the Special Services Department, found out, he immediately organized people to decipher it and immediately presented this top-secret telegram to Emperor Feng Yunshan.

The telegram was sent back by Guo Songtao, the imperial envoy in Europe, sending back all the recent situation in Europe, especially the British intelligence.

Feng Yunshan handed the telegram in his hand to Zeng Guanlan and asked him to circulate it to the ministers, waited for a while, with a smile on his face, and said, "Europe is a little messy. War broke out between Prussia and Denmark, and the Kingdom of Sardinia seemed to have accelerated the process of unifying Italy, with a rebel named Garibaldi leading a rebel army to conquer Sicily and Naples and declare their annexation to the Kingdom of Sardinia. However, it will take some time for them to fully unify the Italian peninsula. On the Tsarist side, it was even more chaotic, because of their heavy losses in the Crimean War, a serious crisis broke out in its country, and in the past two years there have been more than 200 serf rebellions in the territory. These serfs were also divided into two factions, one was only demanding social reform and abolishing the serfdom system without touching the interests of the landlords; The other faction called itself a revolutionary democrat, whose leader was a literati named Chernyshevsky, now in London, England, who resolutely opposed the rule of the tsars and demanded the abolition of serfdom. And France, it seems, was not reconciled and began to peek into the Suez Canal while the British were in civil strife. ”

"Of course, the most chaotic is the British Empire!" Feng Yunshan smiled a little gloatingly: "Not only did India rebel on a large scale again, losing important cities such as Delhi and Mumbai, but even Ireland began to be in chaos!" By the way, Fan Aiqing, Zeng Jize should be fine over there, right? ”

Fan Ruzeng hurriedly replied: "Back to Your Majesty, the stationmaster Zeng did a good job in London, and took care of the Mekhars family, and now he has relieved the Mecasts of his worries, and told him about the weak army in Britain, Wechen guessed that he must be willing to stand up and call on those workers to rise up against the rule of the capitalists and carry out an uprising!" What's more, even if he doesn't stand up, our Secret Service Division has a way to get other worker leaders to come forward. His Majesty said that he wrote "Capital", studied the knowledge of the world's great harmony, and always studied the ideal of workers' associationism, and Wechen believed that he would fight for the ideal! ”

Feng Yunshan was a little distracted, and it took a long time before he sighed: "I hope he can succeed!" By the way, Fan Aiqing, no matter what, send more people to protect him, ensure his safety, and if things fail, arrange for him to return to Prussia immediately. ”

Thinking that he actually used the mentor of later generations, Feng Yunshan was a little helpless, who made the British Empire too powerful. If we don't divide them from within and let them strife internally, how can we resist its fierce retaliation? As long as it drags on a little longer, with the momentum of the rapid development of the Chinese Empire and its huge economic size, it will not be long before it will be able to catch up with or even surpass the British Empire in ten years at most, and there will naturally be no need to worry about it at that time.

Now Britain should be in a mess of itself. Presumably, the Queen of England will have a headache too. Feng Yunshan secretly thought that his real intention was naturally to separate India and Ireland from Britain, and in this case, the world's most powerful country would inevitably lose its strength. But this difficulty is really not ordinary, although he has made a lot of arrangements in advance, he still has no bottom in his heart. But no matter what, he had to mess up Britain and buy time for his own development.

"Wechen obeys!" Fan Ru replied in a loud voice: "Your Majesty rest assured. The present uprising of the British workers had many favorable conditions, which were completely different from those of the Chartist movements they had done before. In order to cooperate with this uprising, our secret service department not only sent nearly 100 spies from China to Britain, but also absorbed and developed more than 300 spies from Prussia and other European countries, and put them into the Britain, ambushing them in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool and other industrial cities in advance, supporting and assisting those workers' leaders, and inciting those workers to rise up against the government and plot an uprising by befriending them. Moreover, this large-scale uprising, which was launched in a situation of internal emptiness after most of the troops on the British mainland had been transferred, was enough to deal a heavy blow to Britain! ”

Feng Yunshan turned to Wu Ruxiao and Zuo Zongtang next to him and asked, "Don't listen to the two Aiqing, tell me your opinion!" Will this workers' uprising in Britain succeed in overthrowing the current British rule? ”

Wu Ruxiao hesitated slightly, and said, "Your Majesty, Weichen feels that I am afraid that it is a little difficult!" After all, those are just ordinary workers, even if they are instigated and organized, they may not be able to achieve great things! What's more, Wechen also heard that those workers were divided into many factions. Some skilled workers, such as ship workers, machine workers, and railway workers, who received high salaries and lived in very good conditions, were staunch supporters of the current British cabinet government while maintaining their present interests. The unemployed, the unemployed, and the poorly paid workers, who could not support their families, wanted to change their precarious lives, and were willing to follow the leaders of the workers' associations in rebellion, but even these workers had different attitudes. Some wanted to express their demands peacefully through nonviolent means such as demonstrations, while others were radical workers, leaning towards the theory of the Mekars, to revolt through violent resistance, overthrow the current British government, and re-establish a government led by workers' associations. Therefore, these workers cannot be effectively united, and even if they are together for a while, it is easy to divide the fruits in the event of victory and be divided by unequal distribution, and if the British cabinet government had co-opted one side and agreed to the conditions of the reformists, they would have stopped the confrontation and turned the spearhead against the radical workers for their own interests, and together with the government forces against their former allies, it is also very likely! Therefore, Your Majesty, Wechen is not optimistic that these British workers' uprisings will really succeed. ”

Zuo Zongtang also nodded and agreed: "Your Majesty, Weichen agrees with Lord Wu's opinion!" Unless the Makars could integrate and train all the poor workers into a regular army and establish a well-organized organization, it would be difficult for the workers to revolt alone without unity. If they can mobilize those low-level policemen and low-level soldiers, starting with the capture of big cities such as London, they will probably succeed! The success of a coup d'état has never depended on the number of people or on who is justified, but only on the strength of the armed forces. ”

After listening to the words of the two, Feng Yunshan couldn't help but feel a little disappointed in his heart, but at the same time, he also admired the opinions of the two from the bottom of his heart. Wu Ruxiao, probably because he was the Minister of Foreign Affairs, knew a little about the situation in Britain, analyzed that the workers did not work together, and speculated that their uprising would not succeed; Zuo Zongtang, on the other hand, completely proceeded from a military perspective and historical reference, and deduced that the British workers' uprising did not establish a certain number of its own army, nor did it send soldiers to rebel, and deduced that the uprising was difficult to succeed.

Think about it too. Later generations of great men said that a power comes out of the barrel of a gun, and any coup d'état without armed forces will be difficult to succeed. The fundamental reason why the February Revolution in Russia was able to overthrow the Tsarist regime was that soldiers participated in the workers' uprising from the very beginning, and the workers and the rebel soldiers seized the arsenal and weapons depot at the first time, seized a large number of weapons and armed them, and a large number of troops participated in the uprising. Otherwise, it could only be suppressed by the Tsarist Russian army like hundreds of peasant uprisings.

Thinking of this, Feng Yunshan couldn't help but feel a little helpless. It seems that it is still difficult to realize his fantasies of inciting the British workers' uprising in the same way as the February Revolution. Britain's control of the army was not at all comparable to that of the end of Tsarist Russia. Moreover, after all, Britain ostensibly advertises democracy and freedom, unlike Tsarist Russia, which carries out dictatorial and bloody rule, and these British workers do not have the blood of the old Maozi of Tsarist Russia.

Zuo Zongtang saw that Feng Yunshan's face was not good-looking, and knew that the emperor was not very comfortable, after all, the British workers' uprising, the emperor took a lot of effort. He hurriedly relieved: "However, Your Majesty, Weichen feels that even if the British workers' uprising cannot succeed, it will definitely deal a heavy blow to Britain's national strength and cause it to suffer heavy losses. Moreover, if the workers in Britain had been able to make a little more violent noise, it would have been a great support for India and Ireland, where the rebellion had taken place. If the Irish, Sikhs, and Bengalis had seized the opportunity, Ireland and India might have been able to break away from the colonial rule of the British Empire. ”

When Feng Yunshan heard Zuo Zongtang's words, a smile appeared on his face, and he nodded: "Not bad!" Even if the British workers' uprising failed, if it did break out, the British would panic and bring back the soldiers who had been sent to India and other overseas troops to quell the uprising. As long as the British can be held back for a year or two, the restless princes of India, as well as the Sikhs and Bengalis, plus Burma, Gurkha, etc., are enough to defeat the British soldiers in India. When the British put down the rebellion, and then go back and send troops to re-enter India, those forces that have already enjoyed the taste of independence and power will not be so easy to succumb, and at that time, our Chinese Empire can fully support them, provide them with weapons and tactical guidance, and resist the return of British forces to India. ”

Wu Ruxiao said: "Congratulations to Your Majesty!" As long as India and Ireland can become independent from Britain, other British colonies will also take the opportunity to demand independence, and at that time, it will be like an avalanche, and Britain may lose its position as the world's first power. And it is not impossible for our Chinese Empire, under the leadership of His Majesty, to rise to the top, surpass France and Britain, and become the world's first power from now on! ”

Feng Yunshan waved his hand: "Wu Aiqing is thinking too far, I don't have to become the number one power, as long as my people and the people of the Chinese Empire can live a good life and no longer be invaded by foreigners, they will be satisfied." By the way, Wu Aiqing, Fan Aiqing, has there been news from the United States recently? ”

Wu Ruxiao and Fan Ruzeng both shook their heads. "There's been no special news lately!" Fan Ruzeng added: "The United States is really far away from our Chinese empire, and the transmission of information is very inconvenient, and every time I receive news, it is three or four months later. By the way, Your Majesty, two or three years ago, led by Britain and co-financed by the United States, an Atlantic submarine cable company was established, which was presided over by William Thomson, a young professor at the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom, and successfully laid a transatlantic submarine cable from the island of Ireland to Newfoundland in the North American colony the year before last, and successfully connected the telegraph. However, the cable soon broke. Now that William Thomson has found a way to avoid breakage, and invented the mirror galvanometer telegraph, which solves the problem of receiving weak signals over long distances, that William Thomson is asking people everywhere to help him re-lay new submarine cables, but no one wants to believe him and throw money at him. After all, it cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, and it didn't create a trace of value, and it broke. But the general manager of the Atlantic submarine cable company, an American named Felt, was supportive and was running around to help find shareholders to inject capital. ”

Feng Yunshan remembered that the telegraph system of the Chinese Empire, although it developed very quickly, there were long-distance telegraph cables, but they were basically on land, and even if some submarine cables were laid, they were all close to the Qiongzhou Strait and the like. A little farther away from Fujian to Taiwan, the signal will not be received. Isn't this news just a good solution to the problem of laying submarine cables?

Feng Yunshan remembers that it was this Atlantic cable company that finally succeeded in laying a transatlantic submarine cable from Europe to the Americas a few years later, connecting the communications of the two continents. Well, they have to be stopped, and they have to be used for themselves!

Thinking of this, Feng Yunshan said: "Fan Aiqing, no matter what means are used, your Secret Service Department is responsible for bringing that Professor William Thomson and the general manager of this Atlantic submarine cable company to Shengjing, I have a great use, if I can't bring it, I'd rather kill him." In addition, if it is possible, the Atlantic submarine cable company will be bought directly, and if it is not possible, it will be destroyed as much as possible. ”

Fan Ruzeng had been following Feng Yunshan for a long time, so he naturally understood what the emperor had in mind, and hurriedly nodded and wrote down the matter.