At 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the 11th, 600 people from the 3rd Regiment and 1st Battalion of the Marine Corps successfully landed from the No. 6 Shoal, and in the past nearly 2 hours of bombardment, the Sin Chew Port Fort was seriously damaged, and what was more serious was that the heavy machine gun bullets from the air were almost raining down on the fortress, and the 700-kilogram bombshell made the entire island seem to sink every time it exploded.

By the time the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Marine Regiment attacked the fortress with air fire support, the resistance encountered was almost minimal, and after paying the price of less than 30 casualties, the heavy artillery battery holding the entire Sing Chau Strait had fallen...... Subsequently, the two ships of Dingzhen once again acted as a firm stormtrooper leader, taking the lead in entering the port to shell the harbor.

The entire Sin Chew port area is less than 5 kilometers long, completely shrouded in the range of the Chinese Navy's heavy artillery, however, the Pacific Fleet does not seem to have completely destroyed the local plan, but all the large equipment, warehouses, berths and a large number of British merchant ships in the port have been cleared at fixed points, in less than 1 hour, the entire Sin Chew port is full of billowing black smoke British ships, and those European caravans passing by anchor are all silently watching this scene of one-sided battle.

The whole raid lasted a full six hours, and under the escort of countless heavy artillery, two battalions of marines landed and raided the British garrison near the port.

On the flagship Dayu, Xu Shoushan, commander of the Pacific Fleet, calmly browsed the results of the assault one by one, while the officers were still sorting out new results and sending them up...... Three-dimensional all-round attacks and heavy bombardment carried out by airship units. Panicking the British army, which had never experienced such an attack. The battle went well. Even Xu Shoushan felt incredible.

Originally, in the plan of attacking the British batteries, it was planned to bomb the airships in turn, and then the fleet would carry out artillery bombardment, and finally the marines would carry out land attacks to seize it, but unexpectedly, after the six airship aircraft carriers attacked at full load in two rounds and dropped nearly 60 700-kilogram giant bombs and nearly 700 high-explosive bombs of 200 kilograms, the defense system of the entire port was completely destroyed.

Even the two ships Dingyuan and Zhenyuan, which were on assault mission, had nothing to do after they attacked the port...... As a result of the battle, a total of 7 cruisers of various types, 6 torpedo boats of the Royal Navy's Far East Fleet were destroyed, and nearly 70 merchant ships flying the British flag were ordered to disembark. All destroyed on the spot.

Of course, the most important result of this battle is obviously not only the destruction of the British port closest to the South China Sea, but also the British Far East Fleet not only lost the arsenal near the port of Sin Chew Harbor, but also completely lost control of the Strait of Sin Chew.

By nightfall, the main force of the Pacific Fleet had completely disappeared from Sin Chew Harbor, and when Sir Bout, the Governor of the Straits Settlements, returned to the Governor's Palace, which had become a sea of fire, accompanied by dozens of British soldiers. His mood at the moment can only be described as extremely depressed......

Having never experienced such a failure, he immediately sent a telegram to London reporting the heavy loss of the Straits Settlements Sin Chew Harbor. And when this telegram arrived in London the next morning, it immediately caused a violent political upheaval throughout England!

On that day, the Times declared July 11, 1892 as the day of shame for the British Empire in a full-page black tone, and the British Royal Navy, which claimed to have the right to speak at sea in the entire world, suffered a miserable defeat under its own nose, in addition to the loss of 10 warships of various types including the Neptune, and torpedo boats, the British Empire's merchant fleet, which represented the overseas interests of the Empire, was sunk and nearly 80 ships were captured.

And at this time, a military intelligence telegram from the Far Eastern Fleet was suddenly poked out, this is the commander of the Far Eastern Fleet, Edward? Vice Admiral Simon's justification report on the loss of 3 warships by the Navy in the Kundur Channel, Vice Admiral Simon obviously did not expect that his large rear was being completely ravaged under the surprise attack of the Pacific Fleet, so the Far East Fleet said with an extremely confident attitude that although it lost 3 warships, the Royal Navy had already grasped the initiative in the war at sea, and the only result of the Chinese Navy was to destroy it directly after being caught by the Royal Navy!

The leak of this military intelligence cable almost became a huge joke for the entire British Empire that day, and that a man who had suffered a serious military defeat should despise his opponent so much...... In the afternoon, in the British House of Commons, the leader of the Liberal Party, William? Gladstone delivered an impassioned speech in which he lashed out at Salisbury's cabinet for its rash troop plans.

The leader of the Liberal Party proudly posted his pre-war diplomatic plan to solve the problem of Emperor Wen in the Far East, and said very hindsightly that it would be difficult for the Royal Navy to achieve a substantial military victory in an expedition that spared no expense.

He even asserted that even if the Royal Navy was able to seize the initiative at sea, as the admiral said, and even blockade the Chinese Navy in a certain military port, the military expenditure of more than 30 capital warships and nearly 70 naval support ships of various types alone would be enough to plunge the British economy into an unprecedented economic depression again.

In the debate in the House of Commons in London that day, the eloquent leader of the Liberal Party showed almost 200 percent of his eloquent talents, and rejected the proposal of a group of Conservative MPs to expand the scale of the war in the Far East and devote more maritime power to nothing.

What is even more bizarre is that the former British prime minister, who has officially announced his candidacy for the August election, confidently appealed to the media and the people who are in recession that the British Empire cannot and should not be involved in unnecessary wars for any other country, especially one in which the situation is increasingly unfavorable.

The Salisbury cabinet apparently couldn't sit still in response to the Liberals' sudden opposition and extremely bad military start. Churchill held a military briefing in the Far East on behalf of the Prime Minister, and the young and ambitious British gentleman was very sure that the Royal Navy had absolute maritime superiority, and although it was shamelessly attacked by the Chinese, it was only a temporary defeat, and Vice Admiral Simon had broken through the Chinese resistance and was turning the tide of the war.

A German reporter from Hamburg asked almost a naked question, "Half a month ago, the British media announced that they would help the Netherlands repel the Chinese attack within a month, and at the same time asked the Chinese government to compensate the Netherlands for its losses in the Dutch East Indies...... Excuse me, how big are the losses of the Royal Navy and British merchant ships now? ”

In the midst of chaos and laughter, Randolph? Churchill was obviously unable to answer such an impertinent question, and just as he was about to order the police to announce that the briefing was over, a British reporter outside rushed into the venue with a telegram, and a moment later, the Times reporter read it aloud,

"Two British merchant fleets were captured by Chinese warships outside the Indian port of Vekia, and after the Chinese Navy ordered the crew to abandon ship, they destroyed only 11 British merchant ships in the open sea at one time, and then calmly got rid of the Royal Navy battleship Ben Bauer, which came to pursue......"

This news immediately set off earth-shattering doubts again, and Churchill apparently had no knowledge of the contents of this telegram, and as a result, in a sea of questioning and scolding, the Salisbury cabinet war briefing was declared to be over in a very humiliating manner, and Foreign Secretary Churchill went to Salisbury in disgrace to try to find a way to turn the situation around.

And half an hour later, the Times reporter, who had come to the venue to read the telegram, secretly entered the Liberal Party leader William in a horse-drawn carriage? Gladstone's apartment, Sir Gladstone was naturally very satisfied with the Conservative Party's turmoil before the general election, and after careful consideration, he quickly handed over a proposal to the Times reporter for economic recovery, asking for an instalment in two days later to continue his campaign.

That night, the popular big man for the future British prime minister chose to go out in secret, and secretly met with a mysterious guest, Chen Bo, the Chinese ambassador in the United Kingdom, in the luxurious estate of Poirot, who is now famous in London.

The meeting between the two sides was obviously just a political transaction, so after a brief conversation after the meeting, it was clear that Gleisdo was not a politician who wanted to sell British interests in exchange for power, and because of his political position, there was no need to do so, but he was clearly very disgusted by a series of economic and military policies of Salisbury's cabinet.

Therefore, as soon as he opened his mouth, he proposed, "Consul Chen, I ask your country to immediately stop the attack on the British trade route, which is very detrimental to the future peaceful coexistence between China and Britain!" ”

Chen Bo, who wore a Chinese-style hat, did not buy the account of the leader of the British Liberal Party, and he immediately rejected the other party's request, "Sir Gladstone, this is a war provoked by your country, and, as far as I am concerned, even if the war is conducive to your election victory, the war in the Far East can still easily destroy your credibility in forming a cabinet...... The greater your country's losses in the Far East, the more we can make everyone understand the importance of getting to the negotiating table! ”

Gladstone naturally understands that he can't control the other party's plans at all, but he is not a fuel-efficient lamp, and China secretly approached him, obviously also valuing his own advantages in the election, "Mr. Chen, even if the Royal Navy suffers great losses, I think, your country will pay a huge price, and in the end, who will propose the negotiations, this is not anyone's ability to judge, so if your country wants to achieve peace, it must also give up some of its interests in the East!" ”

"Oriental...... The Beijing government does not want to be contained by any country, the Strait of Malacca must be under the control of the Chinese Navy, and we can accept the jurisdiction of the Indian Ocean with your country! Chen Bo immediately announced the overseas claims of Greater China in color. (To be continued......)