"The plains of North America and Russia are our cornfields, Canada and the Baltic Sea are our forest areas, Australia is our pastures, Peru is our silver mines, South Africa and Australia are our gold mines, India and China are our tea plantations, the East Indies are our sugar cane, coffee, spice plantations, and the southern United States is our cotton plantations!"

When Victoria's Britain was in its heyday, when the British were so conceited about their "empire on which the sun never sets", when Lord Salisbury complained in 1861: "Britain spent £1.5 million a year defending its colonies and nourished only a large number of military garrisons and a sense of complacency of the empire on which the sun never sets." Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo”

The complacent, proud Britons did not realize how other nations looked at all that Britain had with envy, jealousy, and hatred, but they knew that they did not have the strength to challenge them, the power that Britain possessed, the power that Britain had accumulated in the last hundred years of the Industrial Revolution, and which Britain had demonstrated in front of the nations of the world by defeating Napoleon.

Britain is not to be challenged!

Both Napoleon's France and the Russian Empire once hated the battlefield, and with their blood and tears they proved to the world the fact that "Britain is unchallengeable!" ”

All right!

That's because Britain is too powerful for a country to challenge it!

Indeed, Britain is so powerful, that its industry, its commerce, its finances, its everything, and, of course, its vast colonies are nourishing Britain, making it stronger and stronger day by day, and it is impossible to even think of challenging it.

But now, when China declared war on Britain, and when the whole world thought the Chinese were crazy, everything that followed fell through everyone's glasses.

People were surprised to see that the Chinese launched an attack on Britain around the world, and not only were they not defeated by the British, and even the British could not even draw enough forces to defend their huge colonies. It was also at this time that people seemed to see a reality that could not be ignored - Britain was too small, and at the same time, Britain was too big!

It's too small because he only has a pitiful land of three islands, a pitiful population of 50 million. It was too big because of their huge colonies around the world, which perhaps nourished their colonies, but this colony was also Britain's greatest weakness - they could not have protected such a large colony in time of war!

Even in the face of attack, the British simply did not have enough strength to defend the security of the colonies, and once they lost the colonies, would Britain still be as strong as it is now?

"Britain without colonies will be completely reduced to a small third-rate country!"

In the summer palace of St. Petersburg, facing the Tsar, Duke Gorchakov said in a calm but somewhat excited tone.

"Now, we have seen that the Chinese have captured almost all of Australia with only tens of thousands of people, where the British guarding the colony are even only tens of thousands, and now the Chinese army is attacking Burma, their army, even more has occupied the Straits Settlements, soon, they may attack India, what we must see is that now the British, although they are mobilizing their forces as much as possible, but before they mobilize their forces, Their empire on which the sun never sets has been torn to pieces by Chinese in all directions......"

As Foreign Minister of the Russian Empire, in the past few months, Duke Gorchakov has looked at the changes in the international situation with an excited and even somewhat excited mood, not only on the battlefield, but also on the diplomatic situation.

"Your Majesty, since the time of Napoleon, the British have never been so passive as they are now, and one thing is for sure, even London cannot respond accurately, and they don't even know where to give the Chinese the most direct response, because Britain needs to face the Chinese blow around the world!"

"Yes, Your Majesty, it is certain that now the Chinese have won the initiative strategically, Africa, India, the Straits Settlements, and even Australia, the seemingly scattered offensive is actually forcing Britain into a situation that is difficult to take care of, no matter where the British launch a counteroffensive, for the Chinese, it will not be fatal, and will further disperse the forces of the British, for now, the closest area to Britain is North Africa, if the British attack there, what will they get?" It will only distract them, but if they do not attack North Africa, it will become a stronghold for Chinese to attack the British......"

As an army general, Dmitry may not have performed very well in the Crimean War, but he was able to see exactly who was in the right direction.

"Compared with the British, the Chinese can continue to put more troops into various battlefields, and then millions of troops, can give the British a heavier blow, according to the information we currently have, in China's shipyards, there are hundreds of ironclad ships under construction......"

Hundreds of ironclad ships...... After all, the Chinese Navy is different from the navies of other countries, because of the lack of high-quality oak and teak for shipbuilding, so the Chinese Navy advocated "replacing wood with iron" as early as the beginning of the army, so in addition to the second-hand sail steamships purchased by the army as training, most of the other combat ships are iron-hulled ships, from the "Hubei class" with a tonnage of more than 6,600 tons to the "Shanzi-class" artillery escort ships with a tonnage of only a few hundred tons, but one thing is certain. The outbreak of war caused the Navy to place orders for more than 200 warships at the same time, which filled all of China's slipways, from combat ships to escort ships.

"Hundreds of ironclad ships!"

Even Alexander II, as the Tsar, was also shocked when he heard this figure, after all, now there is not a single ironclad ship in the whole of Russia, and the Chinese defeated the invincible British fleet with ironclad ships, and it is precisely because of this that now the Admiralty will immediately approve the construction of ironclad ships, and even hope to be able to buy ironclad ships from China.

"Then this time the British Navy will obviously be difficult to defeat them!"

"Your Majesty, we must note that Britain is more powerful than China, and correspondingly, the British are also expanding their navy—"

Fernand, as Minister of the Admiralty, immediately reminded the Tsar,

"In the British shipyards, they are also crowded with warships ordered by the British Navy, and among those warships, there are as many as a dozen warships of more than 9,000 tons, and they all draw on the "Hubei class" without exception, and it is certain that they are more ......powerful than the Hubei class."

The reason why he deliberately emphasized this point is because as a naval commander, he knows very well how powerful the Royal Navy is, and he also clearly knows that any country that despises the Royal Navy will pay a heavy price for its carelessness, and it is precisely because of this that he believes that now is not the time to "take advantage of people's danger" and "take advantage of fire", after all, the victory of the Chinese is only temporary.

"Well, Fernand, I wonder, how long will it take to build a 10,000-ton ironclad ship?"

"About three years!"

Fernand's answer made Duke Gorchakov smile, and then he looked at His Majesty the Tsar and said.

"Your Majesty, it is certain that for a long time to come, the British will not have enough ironclads, and in the absence of ironclads, is it possible that the British Navy will make a move? Apparently not? Why is that? It's because the British know very well that even if they send their own fleet now, it will only increase the results of the Chinese's ironclad fleet, and that's it, Your Majesty ......"

Duke Gorchakov, who turned to His Majesty, looked at the Tsar and said solemnly.

"The British may be able to build a lot of ironclad ships in the next three years, but will the Chinese watch them build warships without doing anything?" Your Majesty! ”

Obviously, no country will wait for the enemy to strengthen itself day by day for as long as three years, and they will continue to attack, keep attacking, and completely crush the opponent when they have not completed their preparations, which is the original intention of war.

"Your Majesty, if the Chinese fleet appears in Britain now, what will Britain use to block them?"

"Present in the UK? Was it an attack on the British mainland? The Chinese are crazy, aren't they? ”

"Crazy? Of course not, of course they don't need to do that, they just need to be there and blockade Britain with the French, just like the British blockade of France back then, but compared to the blockade of France, the blockade of Britain is simpler, because Britain is an island country! ”

The Foreign Secretary's answer made Alexander II's eyebrows furrowed.

"France? Gorchakov, are you saying that the French are ready to join in? ”

Although France played a very disgraceful role in the Crimean War, Alexander II clearly understood that he should work with France to balance Britain, so as not to become the British Genban.

"It's not clear whether the French are joining China now, but who knows? Now the Chinese ambassador is the most popular diplomat in Paris, and Napoleon III has repeatedly expressed concern about the situation, but the whole of Paris knows that the reason why Napoleon III and France are now expressing neutrality is waiting for an offer from both sides, but we must believe in one thing - it is always easier to be generous to others than to take something out of one's own pocket, after all, something is someone else's and never feel distressed, isn't it? ”

It's easier to be generous! 、

Even idiots know this to be true, because no one feels sorry for someone else's stuff, and what does that mean?

"Therefore, in the next negotiations, the Chinese will continue to make offers to the French, of course, all the offers are made from the British colonies, they are going to divide the British colonies with the French, Your Majesty, in this case, what conditions can the British offer?" China's homegrown? What do you need to face in China? The millions of troops that need to be faced are a nightmare for any country, and as for the colonies in Africa, if it were really suitable for survival, the British, Spaniards, and Portuguese would not have waited until now, and they would not have sold their colonies to Chinese so happily, just like we sold East Siberia to Chinese, because it was a barren land at all......"

Three months ago, after half a month of negotiations, Russia sold not only Alaska to China, but also East Siberia to China, of course, in order to take care of the "face" of the two countries, the Chinese paid for the purchase of "Central Siberia" land east of Lake Baikal, but in the actual negotiations, the two sides negotiated on the basis of all the land east of Lake Baikal, and the Chinese paid a large sum of money, and the total amount of payments amounted to 100 million Chinese dollars!

"When the colonies of the Chinese are not worth mentioning, what other chips can the British offer? Use them to protect the colony as a bargaining chip? To attract the French to become their allies? My Majesty, even if British diplomats did this, the politicians in London would not agree, after all, for the British, they could not give up the colony to another potential enemy in order to defend it, but for the Chinese, they had no scruples about it, because for them, all they had to think about now was to defeat the British, as for the huge British colony-"

With a sarcastic smile on his face, Duke Gorchakov said in a mocking tone.

"It's just a bargaining chip Chinese to persuade other countries to join them, to become their allies, and to work with them to dismantle Britain, the "empire on which the sun never sets", just like the bargaining chips they have given us, and the whole Middle East and India ......"

When Duke Gorchakov mentioned the chips offered by the Chinese, whether it was the tsar or others, they all looked excited, and everyone knew very well what those lands meant to Russia.

"Maybe there is agriculture worth mentioning in the Middle East besides the Euphrates, and there may be grazing in Persia, where there is nothing worth mentioning except the desert, but India, India is one of the most splendid jewels in the crown of the British, and now that the warm South has opened its doors to us, you have only one question to consider, whether to enter that gate, or to reject it? Your Majesty! ”

After a rhetorical question, Duke Gorchakov bowed his head slightly to His Majesty the Tsar, and then he chose to be silent, now he no longer needs to waste his tongue, what he said has far exceeded the Chinese's "gift money" of 1 million rubles, and now it is time for His Majesty the Tsar to weigh it!

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