Add one Giant-class Edinburgh, and eight ironclads are complete.

There was also a Sovereign-class as the flagship of the Beiyang Naval Division, and the Russian battleship Duke Suvorov served as the flagship of the detachment. The Beiyang Naval Division was officially rebuilt. As for the opposition of the Japanese, Hu Xiaoyan did not mention it, and Fisher did not say much.

Joke. If the British Empire wants to sell warships, who will dare to stop it? Don't want to die?!

The Japanese don't necessarily care, the eight ironclads look very strong, and Heihachiro Togo doesn't necessarily care. If the Japanese Navy can win the First Sino-Japanese Naval Battle, they will have the heart to win the Second Sino-Japanese Naval Battle! What's more, the current strength of the Japanese Navy is not what it used to be.

The negotiations with Fisher went well, and in the end Hu Xiaoyan paid 18 million pounds. A total of eight ironclad ships (junk) and the battleship Sovereign (outdated) were obtained, as well as a Russian battleship Duke Suvorov (okay), while two Russian cruisers and one supply ship in Singapore were also received by Hu Xiaoyan.

Eight large yuan, two flagships and two cruisers, and a supply ship constituted the main force of the New Beiyang Naval Division. However, this still could not change the reality that the Beiyang Naval Division lagged behind the Japanese Navy.

"Your Excellency Viscount Albert, how long are you going to be drunk?" A handsome gentleman lay on the table in the middle of the tavern and seemed to be asleep, while a hooded man in the shadows opposite him was despising Albert.

"I've heard that your fiancée, Grace, seems to be marrying someone else. Aha, your old man's butler seems to be looking for you everywhere today, and may soon find the tavern. Ten minutes or eight minutes? The man pulled out his pocket watch.

"I'll kill you." Albert looked up.

"Can you still hold the revolver in your hand?" The man scoffed.

"Don't your hands tremble anymore?"

"Maybe five minutes." The man threw out a document and threw it on the table.

Albert held out his hands and put them in front of him. His hand trembled as he reached for his glass. His eyes didn't look at the paperwork either.

"Looks like I'm here again for nothing." The man shook his head.

"You scrapped years ago. Even if you go to the battlefield, you can only die. ”

Albert ignored the man's departure, and just shivered and poured the wine down his throat, only alas, only a drop of wine slipped out of the glass.

"Serve!" Albert slapped the table vigorously.

"Colonel Albert, you've had enough." Alvin, the tavernkeeper, sat down next to Albert and poured Albert a large glass of beer.

Colonel Albert gulped down his glass, but more than half of the beer went into Albert's neck.

"Colonel Albert! I've found you. Alvin, it's great that you're there. An annoying voice interrupted Albert's movements.

Albert paused and slowly lowered his glass.

"Sign it!" A document was placed on top of the previous one, and the person who came opened the document and pointed to the signature file.

Albert put down his glass, took his pen from his jacket pocket in a drunken daz, and signed his name crookedly. Then go get the wine glass again. Alvin tries to stop Albert to sign, but is stopped by Albert's left hand.

"Good, Albert. Thank you for your cooperation. And please don't go to Grace again, it will be a shame on our family. The man reached out and took the document away.

"Avery !" Alvin shouted.

"Don't you see? He is no longer the Albert of a few years ago. Avery glanced at Alvin, and finally walked away with a sigh.

"Leave him alone." Albert put down his glass, but suddenly fell down.

Alvin seemed to hear sobbing, and he could only silently pour Albert a glass.

Not long after Hu Xiaoyan returned to the hotel, an English gentleman wearing a hood walked in.

"Albert is hopeless."

"You're wrong. He just didn't shed tears when he saw the coffin! I'm sure he'll compromise. Otherwise, I let His Excellency the Prime Minister suppress him for so many years, and my work would not have been in vain. Hu Xiaoyan didn't raise his head, just quietly looked at the documents in his hand.

"What about the others?"

"Several others have already signed agreements." The man handed out a thick stack of papers.

"Excellent! I don't believe that an annual salary of £500,000 a year will not impress these 'patriots'. Albert is such a fool, a million pounds a year, he can actually refuse!? Hu Xiaoyan was a little skeptical about the charm of the pound.

"Nope! Sometimes love can be more glamorous than the pound. The man chuckled.

"That Miss Grace has been grounded. Just wait a month to marry an old bureaucrat in his thirties who is good for nothing. ”

"It's pathetic." Hu Xiaoyan sighed.

"yes. It's pathetic. The visitor smiled faintly.

"Originally, Albert had a chance, but unfortunately he didn't know the times."

"There are very few fools like him anymore. Now there are more and more 'smart people' in society, and people like Albert are only suitable for living in fairy tales. ”

Hu Xiaoyan was silent. Albert was a young army officer with persistence and ideals, but unfortunately, the army itself was very unappreciated in Britain, and if it weren't for his father's prestige in the army and his viscount status was also a little charming, he would not have been able to get the rank of colonel. But also officially because of the rank of colonel, Albert's promotion path was fixed. Countless Army officers like Albert eventually fell and threw themselves into the arms of the pound, except for Albert.

"You're wrong." Hu Xiaoyan sighed lightly, he knew very well that Albert would definitely become a hero admired by the world! Because Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany would start World War I in 1914, the British Army would be useful! As for the British Navy? When the time comes, it's just chicken ribs. The navy could neither blockade Germany nor prevent the bombing of London by German airships. The British Navy was good for nothing in the whole of World War I! Nothing! Later generations desperately exalted the role of the Battle of Jutland only because the British Navy only showed their presence slightly in this battle. In fact, the overall strength of the British Navy, which had many dreadnoughts such as the Dreadnought, far surpassed that of the German Navy at that time. Winning the Battle of Jutland is a matter of course, and it is only a problem if you can't win it!

Albert joined the Eight-Nation Alliance, where he was only a minor major at the time, but it was Albert's courageous counterattack that kept the British Embassy safe. This was the only remarkable record of the British Army in the Battle of Beijing. It was because of this war that Albert was promoted to lieutenant colonel, and soon after returning home, he was promoted to colonel. But Albert was a captive in China for at least a year. This year completely knocked Albert's high-mindedness to the bottom, and it was because of this that Albert quickly fell. After losing the battle, he actually became a hero of the War Department!!

"Gary, this is the end of your mission, don't try to get close to Albert again. I've got you on a new mission! Go to Mexico! After so many years, they can't even settle for a single state in Mexico, and your task is to get involved in the construction of the state government and try to help our people run for governorship. I will run for president of Mexico in the future. Hu Xiaoyan took out a document from the drawer.

"I'm going to provide funding and assistance, it's all in there. Take a good look. Think about what else needs to be added. ”

"I like this task." Gary smiled.

"I always thought you were the greatest adventurer of the century."

"I always have." Gary walked out with the papers.

Hu Xiaoyan smiled and sent away his old classmate Gary.

"It's time to go back." Hu Xiaoyan pulled out a document.

The above is information that the Japanese government is going to reduce the price of raw silk across the board.

"Little Japan can't help it."

Japan can't help it! After more than two decades of operation, Japan's raw silk production has more than tripled that of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. If it weren't for the establishment of Hu Xiaoyan's raw silk industry cooperative, if it weren't for the fact that Hu Xiaoyan had to paste in tens of millions of taels of silver every year to support the raw silk industry in the Manchu Dynasty. Japan has long been far away from the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Now Japan's raw silk industry is still stronger than that of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, but the raw silk industry of the Manchu Qing Dynasty has also begun to rise slowly. The output of raw silk in the Manchu Qing Dynasty was certainly inferior to that in 1885, but it was slowly rising every year in these years, and the quality of raw silk in the Manchu Qing Dynasty was not as good as that of Japanese raw silk, so the price of raw silk in the Manchu Dynasty was also lower than that of Japanese raw silk. As a result of Chamberlain's reciprocation, Britain imported 100 percent of the raw silk from Japan at present, and now imports 60 percent. Every year, Japan loses a part of its profits. This year's raw silk export industry is even more serious.

Most of the funds needed for the development of Japan's heavy industry come from the raw silk industry. The shrinkage of the raw silk industry means that the development of Japan's heavy industry is being held hostage. What's more, the light industry base of the Manchu Qing Dynasty has been built in three: Anqing, Nantong, and Shenyang. This led to the difficulty of Japanese light industry products in the Manchu Qing Dynasty. The global raw silk industry is mainly concentrated in Japan, Manchu and Italy. And Italy is negligible, their raw silk production is less than a tenth of that of the Manchus. The decline in the number of Japanese raw silk exports meant the rise of the Manchu raw silk industry.

Light industrial products are not selling, and the raw silk industry is shrinking, how can Japan stand it? Of course, tea is also a way out. But 70 percent of Europe's tea imports come from India and Southeast Asia. The remaining 30 percent were only in turn to get Japan and the Manchus! Japan's main source of funding is raw silk.

Therefore, the price reduction of Japanese raw silk has become inevitable.

It is necessary to ensure the suppression of the Japanese economy!

Hu Xiaoyan never thought about fighting Japan in World War I. It's not realistic! Japan's strong navy ensured that the Japanese mainland would not be attacked by the Manchus. Even if the Eight Great Distances are rebuilt, it will not work.

So Hu Xiaoyan was ready to suppress Japan economically from the very beginning. Japan, which has no money, no matter how strong its navy is, is just a tiger made of paper, which can be broken at the slightest stab.