When Downing Street vetoed the proposal of the Hamaguchi cabinet and refused to hand over Zhang Meng to the Japanese Metropolitan Police Department back to Japan, Hamaguchi Yuyuki was slightly surprised, he did not expect that the British government would reject the Japanese government's appeal for the sake of a small and inconspicuous country.

At first, Hamaguchi thought that this was just a good face for the British government, as long as they were given enough steps to get down, so he appealed to the British government again in his capacity as prime minister, and this time he even asked the Japanese Metropolitan Police Department to falsify Zhang Meng's 'evidence' of robbing the Bank of Japan in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo.

This evidence is only based on the investigation report handed over to Kamei by Luo Shanshan, which does not directly prove that Zhang Meng and his men robbed the Bank of Japan, but after careful reasoning, 70% of Zhang Meng's modus operandi was guessed. Although there is no direct evidence, the Japanese Metropolitan Police Department believes that Zhang Meng did it, so they directly falsified the so-called 'evidence' based on Luo Shanshan's reasoning report.

Relying on the so-called conclusive 'evidence' in his hands, Hamaguchi Yuyuki once again made solemn representations to the British government, demanding that the British government hand over Zhang Meng to the Japanese government for handling.

At the same time, Hamaguchi was on the verge of intensifying his contradictions with the Japanese military on the issue of the actual implementation of the treaty after the signing of the "London Naval Arms Treaty." The Yuyuki Hamaguchi cabinet supported the conclusion of the treaty in order to alleviate the financial pressure, but the Japanese military has always opposed the conclusion of the treaty in order to maintain the core interests of maritime hegemony and the military-industrial chaebols, and has taken practical actions to prevent the Japanese government from dismantling warships and lowering the standard for the production of treaty-type warships. When the two sides were arguing, Yuyuki Hamaguchi suddenly used the Japanese emperor to put pressure on the Japanese military to forcibly carry out the contents of the treaty, which greatly touched the nerves of the Japanese military.

In order to divert the attention of the Japanese military, Yuyuki Hamaguchi, who had already been assassinated once, made solemn representations to the British government and made clear his position on the issue of the actual implementation of the London Naval Treaty. If the British government did not agree to Hamaguchi's terms, the Japanese government would be powerless to prevent the military from rescinding the treaty, as the Japanese military was subordinate to the emperor and not under the control of the Japanese government.

Hamaguchi Yuyuki still negotiated directly with the British government, he still looked down on the Tang Empire, thinking that as long as the British nodded and agreed, then Zhang Meng had to obediently avoid the Tang Empire being retaliated by Japan.

He was clearly wrong!

Because it is impossible for Zhang Meng to sit still.

On the contrary, Yuyuki Hamaguchi really Zhang Meng this time.

For Zhang Meng, whoever provokes him, he will beat him, and he will never be soft.

The so-called 'hard evidence' of the British Downing Street against the Japanese and the threat of refusal to honour the London Naval Arms Limitation Treaty suddenly became silent.

As Hamaguchi judged, the British worked with the United States to draw up the London Naval Treaty in order to relieve the pressure on their own financial expenditures and weaken the Japanese navy. Whether to sacrifice a Zhang Meng or avoid offending Japan so that it obediently fulfills the London Naval Treaty was hotly debated in the British Parliament. Between personal interests, face and national interests, the British finally chose to stay out of the way to solve this thorny problem.

The British Foreign Office immediately declared to the Japanese Government that it had authorized and recognized that the Tang Empire had an independent foreign policy, that the question of Zhang Meng should be resolved through consultation between the Imperial Government of Japan and the Government of the Tang Dynasty, and that the British Government would act as a mediator to seek a settlement between Japan and the Tang Dynasty.

After the incident, British Prime Minister Macdonald called Zhang Meng again in his personal name. On the phone, MacDonald tried his best to defend and comfort Zhang Meng, and claimed that he would never support the Japanese government to force Zhang Meng to go to Japan for trial, hoping that Zhang Meng could hold on until the Japanese military formally fulfilled the "London Naval Treaty" and dismantled all the warships that exceeded the standard.

Zhang Meng understood that Britain's maritime military liliang was shrinking globally, and if Japan could not be forced to fulfill the London Naval Treaty, then the Japanese navy in the Pacific region would unscrupulously attack British interests. In the face of the core interests of the country, the British naturally had to choose to sacrifice Zhang Meng.

From MacDonald's words, Zhang Meng got a signal. That is, the British government will not provoke Japan again until Japan actually fulfills the London Naval Treaty. In other words, the British will turn a blind eye to whatever measures the Japanese Hamaguchi Yuyuki cabinet will take against Zhang Meng.

Zhang Meng knew that although Japan signed the London Naval Treaty, the Japanese military had actually been delaying the implementation of the actual content of the treaty, and they even carried out a second assassination operation against the chattering Yuyuki Hamaguchi to kill him, until after the 918 Incident, Japan was forced to make concessions and fulfill the treaty to appease the countries under great pressure from Britain and the United States and other Western countries.

At this time, there are still 4 months before the 918 Incident, and these 4 months are quite dangerous for Zhang Meng and the entire Tang Empire, because Britain can't help anything during this time.

In order to deal with the extreme actions that the Japanese devils would take against Zhang Meng personally or the Tang Empire next, Zhang Meng had to step up his armament training.

Due to the lack of strategic depth in the Tang Empire, Zhang Meng had to strengthen the naval and air forces to intercept the Japanese army far from the mainland, at least not to expose the mainland of the Tang Empire to the range of the Japanese Navy and Air Force.

At this time, for security reasons, Zhang Meng further purchased more than 10,000 PD29 mines from Britain to strengthen the minefield range and minelaying density in the surrounding waters, making it difficult for Japanese naval warships to get close to the mainland coastline of the Tang Empire.

Regarding Zhang Meng's concerns, MacDonald expressed his understanding of the convenience given in the purchase quantity of PD29 mines, and the reduced price was urgently delivered to the Tang Empire in the form of half selling and half giving away.

PD29 mine is used by the British Navy to block the German High Seas Fleet during World War I. The British Navy had a large inventory and could immediately supply the Tang Empire.

The newly demarcated mine defense area is three times the area of the original mine defense area, and the two add up to nearly 20,000 mines, completely protecting the three archipelagos of the Tang Empire. The shipping lanes were also classified by the military and placed under the direct control of the military to prevent Japanese ships from approaching and scouting.

At this time, the Royal Navy of the Tang Empire had been officially established. These include six Leander-class light cruisers on temporary lease from the British Royal Navy, eleven 500-ton gunboats purchased from the Chilean Navy, and two 100-ton torpedo boats that are about to be decommissioned as gifts from the Royal Australian Navy. The first batch of four Utopian-class destroyers purchased from France by Ecuador, Venezuela, and other countries have completed the formalities and arrived at the Longmen Military Port of the Yanjing Naval Base (formerly the Neifuya Military Port) and are undergoing sea trials for three months. The first batch of ten V4 submarines built by United Iron and Steel Shipyard also formed the first submarine formation, which was distributed in the waters around the Tang Empire to serve as a vigilance and reconnaissance mission.

Zhang Meng has already urged the British and French sides to speed up the construction of the Linxian-class light cruisers and the follow-up ships of the Kongxiang-class destroyers, and at the same time are willing to pay an extra one-third of the cost, and demand that the British and French shipyards start construction in three shifts 24 hours a day to speed up the delivery date.

The construction of the Tianwang-class aircraft carrier at the United Steel Shipyard in San Francisco is already the fastest progress, and Zhang Meng considered that the training of carrier-based aircraft pilots has not yet been completed, so he did not urge the shipyard to rush to work, but stepped up the training of future carrier-based aircraft units in the Xuanwu Air Force Base.

Xuanwu Air Base has two runway facilities on land that simulate the flight decks of aircraft carriers, on which more than 1,000 naval aviation pilots and more than 6,000 aircrew members train every day. According to Zhang Meng's request, when the aircraft carrier is officially put into service, they must adapt to the take-off and landing of fighters on the aircraft carrier within one month, and form combat effectiveness within three months.

Aside from naval aviation, the Royal Air Force of the Tang Empire has been the first to form a scale, which is all due to the results of Zhang Meng's emphasis on air supremacy. Zhang Meng knew that he could not defeat the Japanese navy on the sea for the time being, so he would spend great efforts to build the air force.

At present, the four air bases of the Royal Air Force of the Tang Empire have 3,000 pilots and more than 21,400 air crews, equipped with 175 F11C fighters, 245 P6E fighters, 270 W3 water reconnaissance aircraft, 406 SC-1 bombers, and 580 reconnaissance trainers of various types of aircraft.

These aircraft are all active aircraft models used by the U.S. Army and Navy produced by Raptor Air and purchased from other aircraft factories in the United States, and their combat performance has basically remained at the level of the late stage of the First Shijie War.

The Raptor fighter jet, which is being designed and developed by Raptor Airlines, has already produced design drawings and completed the production of a prototype two months ago. It's just that the full-scale wind tunnel laboratory of the first phase of the wind tunnel group built by Zhang Meng has not been completed, and it is expected that it will take at least half a year to be completed and put into production, because Tesla carried out an ultra-high voltage power grid shiyan halfway, because the workers were not enough jishu, which led to an electrical fire, resulting in the forced suspension of wind tunnel construction and dozens of deaths and injuries.

Fortunately, Raptor Airlines has its own small wind tunnel laboratory, so in order not to affect the scheduled test flight of the Raptor fighter, the staff had to disassemble the prototype of the Raptor fighter, take it to the United States to test one by one, and then take it back to the mainland of the Tang Empire for reassembly and test flight.

Although the Raptor fighter project was forced to be postponed due to an accident, Raptor Airlines completed the design and prototype production of the SC-2 dive bomber on schedule on the basis of the US Army's SC-1 bomber and in accordance with Zhang Meng's requirements.

In order to enter mass production in a hurry, the SC-2 dive bomber has not changed greatly in the overall appearance, and still adopts the SC-1 ready-made fixed landing gear biplane propeller shape, but in order to enhance the instantaneous structural strength during the dive, the whole body has realized a metal skin to facilitate the penetration performance.

Because it is a dive bombing, the previous aerial bomb hook needs to be modified to meet the needs of the bomber when the bomber performs a vertical dive action, and the bomb will not hit the propeller after being thrown. In order to prevent the pilot from pulling up the aircraft in time to avoid hitting the ground during dive bombing, the SC-2 is equipped with an all-metal speed brake on the tail, which can instantly reduce the dive speed of the aircraft from 900 km/h to a normal 270 km/h, and the pilot can easily pull the plane up at an altitude of more than 300 meters above the ground.

It was precisely because there were not much improvements that the SC-2 dive bomber was able to quickly complete the finalization and put into production, and most of the parts could be produced using the original production line, so it was able to be delivered to the Royal Air Force of the Tang Empire within the time specified by Zhang Meng.

So far, Raptor Airlines has produced and delivered 300 SC-2 dive bombers for the Royal Air Force of the Tang Empire, and the Air Force has renumbered it as FC-1 dive bombers. All of these planes were sent to Suzaku Air Base to be organized into three bomber groups separately, and they were kept strictly secret from the outside world, and even the Air Force did not know that there was such a dedicated dive bomber unit.

The newly formed dive bomber unit takes off from Suzaku Air Base every day and goes to an uninhabited coral island 160 kilometers away from Suzaku Air Base to practice bombing.

The uninhabited islands are equipped with a variety of sturdy simulated fortifications for bombers to bomb, and large granite reinforced concrete breakwater dikes are built around the islands, which are specially used by torpedo planes to simulate the launch of torpedoes to attack the side of battleships, and dive bombers sometimes use them for bombing training.

In order to practice dive bombing of ships, Zhang Meng even bought back several old ironclad ships and battleships of the last century from the Chilean Navy at his own expense, and moored them in shallow waters near uninhabited islands, where bomber units and torpedo planes carried out dive bombing and torpedo attacks, so as to improve the pilots' actual combat attack capability.

However, in real combat, it is impossible for the enemy's warships to stay in the military port and wait for you to bomb them, and most of them are high-speed moving targets. In order to solve this problem, Zhang Meng thought of Tesla again, because Tesla invented the wireless remote control of the small motorboat as early as 30 years ago.

Tesla helped re-develop a remote control that can remotely control a target from a distance of 1,000 meters, although the remote control is large and bulky, but it can be installed on a ship.

As a result, it didn't take long for the bomber group and torpedo group to attack the ships moving at high speed close to the actual combat, which greatly improved the bombing and attack capability of the Tang Imperial Air Force.