In late spring, London can be described as rainy and rainy, and the cold and warm air meet over the British Isles, so that it is often covered with rain, and this kind of weather will only make people feel extremely bored!

But even more annoying is the increasingly hot weather, when London is extremely polluted, littered, and filled with the smell of horse manure, and in the summer, the whole city can be said to stink. The entire Thames www.biquge.info ferment under the scorching sun, flowing with brown liquid.

Although construction of sewers began in London three years ago, the city's environment will not change much until everything is completed. For the wealthy, they may be able to hide in suburban estates before summer arrives, but for the prime ministers and officials at the Prime Minister's residence in Downing Street, there is no room for them to hide.

At this time, at the Prime Minister's residence, the Viscount of Palmston, who had always been known in London political circles for his sleekness and opportunistic pandering, and who had been standing in a state of standing since he entered the political arena, would be standing in front of the window, watching the various umbrellas that came and went in the gloomy weather below.

“…… Now that Panama has been occupied by the Chinese, as we speak, according to the information we have, their fleet, which was scheduled to visit Cuba, is turning to Cologne, which is much larger, and it is certain that the government of New Grenada is now neither able to stop the Chinese nor the Chinese from occupying Panama! ”

Foreign Secretary Russell looked at the Prime Minister and said seriously.

"So now the Americans ......"

Before he could finish speaking, Palmston sighed inwardly, then moved his shoulders before speaking.

"It seems that now the Americans will no longer be able to stop them!"

"Yes, Your Excellency, despite the fierce performance of the Chinese in the American newspapers about the occupation of Panama and their unanimous public opinion, Secretary of State Arward even advocated a declaration of war against China. However, the president was very restrained and calm, and only when he met with the Chinese ambassador to the United States, he declared to him that the United States would not recognize China's occupation of Panama for any time, and they reaffirmed their concern for the interests of the American diaspora......"

After Russell said this, Palmston replied directly.

"There is no point, whether the Americans want it or not, it is already occupied by the Chinese, and with the character of the Chinese, they will never withdraw from there!"

In the past few years, Palmston can be said to have dealt with the Chinese, those Chinese are completely different from the Qing people in the past, their biggest characteristic is "greed", it can be said that greed, they not only set their sights on Africa, but even island after island in the Pacific Ocean, two years ago, when the Portuguese, the French and of course the British were fighting over the ownership of those islands that they discovered, they first sent troops to Polynesia, and then declared that it was Chinese territory.

The actions of the Chinese stunned France, Portugal and of course the United Kingdom, and of course when the three countries protested, the Chinese Foreign Ministry answered very simply.

"Although China was not the first country to discover Polynesia, it is certain that neither Britain, France, nor Portugal sent administrative offices or garrisons to this region, and the presence of missionaries does not indicate that they have the right to govern Polynesia, and according to the internationally accepted principle of terra nullius, after the establishment of an administrative body in China, they have unyielding sovereignty over Polynesia!"

It was then that Britain had to confront the nascent nation, eager to expand its colonies around the world. Faced with China's "cunning" in the Polynesian question, the British established their own protectorate off the southern coast of the island and nearby islands because they feared that China would occupy New Guinea during negotiations. The Chinese followed suit and occupied three areas in the northern part of the island. The following year, Britain and China signed an agreement delineating their respective spheres of influence on the island. Subsequently, China openly occupied the northern part of the island of New Guinea and the nearby islands.

And their expansion in Africa was even more jaw-dropping, they were expanding in the same way as in the 17th century, in Africa, there were more than 50,000 modernly equipped Chinese troops, using guns as plowshares, fighting for the expansion of their colonies, and the granting of land for soldiers stimulated those Chinese soldiers to fight for land.

In the face of the protests of Britain and France and other countries, the Chinese did not even have the interest in hurriedly negotiating, and their answer was very simple - send a fleet to Africa and send more troops to Africa to speed up the occupation of Africa, and of course the consolidation of the occupied areas, there is a lot of intelligence that the Chinese army has carried out extremely cruel methods of warfare there, and some people even suspect that there is a "Vernichtungs Befehl", of course, the Chinese have never admitted this, But one thing is for sure, their expansion in Africa has never stopped.

Not only that, but now from its annexation of Panama, one thing is certain is that these "borderlands" alone can no longer satisfy the desires of the Chinese!

That's where I'm most worried!

At this moment, the door of His Excellency the Prime Minister's office opened. The Admiralty-Chancellor Romene stood at the open door, and when he saw the Admiralty Chancellor coming, Palmston smiled, and then beckoned to him:

"General, please come in!"

Foreign Secretary Russell nodded his head and greeted him, saying that whatever choice was ultimately made, it was certain that the opinion of the Royal Navy would be needed.

"Gentlemen, please."

Standing at his desk, Palmston picked up a large box of cigars and held it out to Romaine and Russell.

Naturally, both men reached out and picked out a cigar from the box, and then puffed out the clouds with His Excellency the Prime Minister.

"Your Excellency, is it because of the events in Panama?"

In fact, in the past few days, the most discussed issue in London -- the Chinese occupation of Panama has shocked the whole of London, and people have been discussing this issue and discussing the military adventures of the Chinese.

"yes, I guess it's not a secret."

Palmston's eyes were fixed on Romene, and then he said:

"What we can see is that in the last ten years or so, we, with the connivance of Britain, Chinese are spreading his claws throughout Africa, and even through Mozambique, which they have purchased from Portugal, they have built railways to the so-called Transvaal Republic and the Free State of Orlanz, and have established diplomatic relations with them, and have supplied them with weapons and other supplies, and their actions have seriously damaged the interests of Britain......"

Now, almost every day, Palmston, as Prime Minister, hears complaints from the South African colonies, complaining about the so-called Boer growing closer ties with China, complaining about the Chinese building a railway to them, and in order to facilitate London's interference in African affairs, they even use missionaries in European newspapers to promote how the Chinese use indigenous slaves in Africa, of course, according to the official Chinese answer, this kind of enslavement against the indigenous people does not exist, In the farms of Chinese immigrants, the aborigines used are "free people", they are the "indentured laborers" of Chinese immigrants, of course, their workload is large, the working hours are extremely long, but the salary is extremely meager, but just barely subsisting, and the working conditions are "extremely bad", of course, this kind of harshness is only relative, those missionaries accuse the "ragged, living in straw huts of the natives like slaves", in the eyes of Palmston is simply a joke, after all, those natives are not used to wearing clothes in the first place, He also lives in a straw hut.

Of course, all this is just an excuse, just hoping to arouse the "benevolence" of the British, and then let Britain intervene in Africa and regain the "Africa" belonging to Britain from the hands of the Chinese.

But they apparently ignore the fact that the seizure of African colonies from China requires the price of war!

It is precisely for this reason that Palmston has always pinned its hopes on "diplomatic mediation" rather than waging a war full of possibilities against China.

"At a time when Britain's interests have been seriously damaged, we have to think of other ways to solve the current problem, and now in the face of China's world-wide ambitions, the countries of Europe are watching us and how Britain will react!"

Panama, of course, and Hawaii, all of which have crossed Britain's bottom line, and with conflicting interests in Africa and the Pacific, Palmston believes that perhaps the last resort must now be considered.

"Your Excellency, although the Chinese Navy has made rapid progress in recent years, with as many as 13 ironclad ships, one thing is for sure - they are by no means the opponent of the Royal Navy!"

Although Romene was conceited in his words, he did have the capital of conceit, and Britain's naval construction and its overseas colonial undertakings were interdependent and mutually reinforcing, and together they became the strong cornerstone of the British Empire. In view of this, Britain attaches great importance to the construction of the navy, and has always placed it in a more important position than the army. In the past few years, the British government has initially formulated its naval construction goal -- "to make its navy strong against the navies of the two great powers," that is, the British navy should be stronger than the navies of the two countries in second and third place combined. To this end, it has adopted relatively effective measures in several aspects, such as the investment of naval funds, the expansion of the size of the fleet, and the improvement of ship technology, and has achieved practical results.

Although Britain lagged behind China in the use of ironclad ships, the Battle of Lingdingyang still had an impact on the Royal Navy, and in the following years, Britain conducted a large number of tests, and in 1858, when it learned of the water news that China's new ironclad ships were in service, it was immediately decided to build two 9,000-ton combat ships in response. Compared with the displacement of more than 2,000 tons of the "Fenghai", the "Warrior" class, built as an old naval power, is undoubtedly a behemoth in the navy. As the world's first real ironclad ship, as a deterrent, it has become famous as soon as it enters service, in addition to these two ironclad ships, the Royal Navy also has three 10,000-ton ironclad ships under construction.

And this is the source of Romene's confidence to say this, not to mention that Britain still has hundreds of thousands of tons of unarmored ships. However, after he said this, he deliberately emphasized.

"But sir, we must take into account that at sea we may be able to win, but on land it is the greatest weakness of the British Empire, such as Hong Kong and Lower Burma, and if war breaks out, I think it is difficult to guarantee that it will not be fought by the superior Chinese army! Especially Hong Kong! ”

It is a well-known thing that the Chinese have been indignant about the Qing Empire's cession of Hong Kong, if the war breaks out, they will definitely occupy Hong Kong immediately, as for Lower Burma is nine years ago in the Anglo-Burmese War, for the British occupied all the coastal areas centered on Yangon, the Anglo-Burmese War of that year The Qing Empire was powerless to resist, but now, if war breaks out, will the Chinese Empire continue to sit back and watch the British occupation of Lower Burma, and even Tanah Salin, Arakan and other areas?

“…… On the Indian side. ”

After a moment's thought, Palmston continued.

"It is believed that, judging by China's transportation conditions in Yunnan, they will avoid sending troops to Lower Burma, after all, the primitive and poor transportation there is difficult to maintain the operational needs of a modern army, and Charles? Governor Canning said that the advantage in Lower Burma belongs to Britain, they can send 100,000 colonial legions there, and correspondingly, backward transportation, poor natural environment, it is difficult for the Chinese to send the same size of troops, so there is no real security problem in Lower Burma and India, only Hong Kong, but Hong Kong can eventually be solved through negotiations at the negotiating table. I have just reached a preliminary consensus with the Foreign Secretary: we have agreed that in this time of crisis throughout the world, it is very appropriate to take some of the necessary means to preserve Britain's interests and world order......"

There was no joy on Romain's face as he sat quietly, cigarette between his fingers, and inadvertently set his eyes on the portrait of Her Majesty on the wall behind the Prime Minister's desk.

“…… Given China's aggressive posture around the world, it is necessary to stop them, and Britain's grip on the world cannot be relaxed for a moment...... Therefore, we believe that Britain needs to show our power to China, and so, I decided to send our fleet to Cologne! ”

Palmston, after quickly finishing his last sentence, pursed his lips and looked at Rome Inn, who also withdrew his gaze from the portrait of the Queen, looked at the Prime Minister and said.

"Your Excellency, we must note that China has 4 ironclad ships there, which is likely to mean war!"

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