George opened his eyes, he didn't know how many times he had passed out and woken up again, he was so frightened that he was prostrated in a cold sweat so fast.

"Is it over?"

"It should be—it should be over."

Pitt didn't know how to answer, and he was deeply shocked by the large number of counterfeit million-pound bills that appeared in succession.

George shuddered and asked, "How many identical fake* banknotes have been found?" ”

Pete hesitated for a moment and said, "For the time being, I found a total of fifty-seven bills, all of which are exactly the same million-dollar counterfeit* banknotes. ”

"Five-fifty-seven?" George was on the verge of fainting again, and that was a full fifty-seven million pounds. If it's just a few million pounds, George can hide it and find a way to remedy it himself. But 57 million pounds, this huge amount of money is enough to break the Bank of England, and the stakes are so great that he dare not hide it if he wants to.

The news was quickly reported, and the entire British high-level was like a magnitude 10 earthquake, causing a huge panic.

An emergency meeting of the House of Lords was held, the ruling party was a coalition cabinet, and the core members of the Whigs and conservatives all participated.

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister has arrived! All stand up! ”

As the Prime Minister of this year's cabinet, the Earl of Aberdeen entered the conference room with a worried face.

The Whig and Conservative MPs stood and watched as the Earl of Aberdeen sat down as Prime Minister before they sat down.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please express your opinion on the sudden appearance of fifty-seven identical million-pound notes in the Bank of England!"

As soon as the Earl of Aberdeen spoke, the Whigs and conservatives expressed their opinions, and soon quarreled, and the conservatives demanded that Sir George, the governor of the Bank of England, and those responsible be punished severely, and the Whigs naturally tried their best to defend themselves. Because George was their Whig. At the same time, the Whigs believed that this was a conspiracy of the Russians, who wanted to mess up British finances and prevent Britain from intervening in the Crimean War.

The entire conference room was instantly transformed into a wet market, with lawmakers from both parties blaming each other like shrews.

This situation is very common, as long as the formation of a coalition cabinet, every time there is a meeting, the two sides will start arguing very tacitly, even if it is only for a small matter, the two sides will also start a debate. The blame is the other side.

Normally, the Earl of Aberdeen would wait until both sides were tired of arguing before speaking, but this time it was different, the Earl of Aberdeen looked very ugly, and immediately picked up the parliamentary warning hammer (the same as the magic hammer that the judge often struck) and struck it a dozen times, which made both sides quiet.

"I am very clear about the causes and consequences of this counterfeit * banknote case, and the responsibility should still be investigated, but before that, I have a more important thing to announce first, and then everyone will decide how to deal with this counterfeit * banknote incident!"

I heard the Prime Minister speak. Both sides were surprised that something could be worse than the Bank of England's loss of £57 million, so they pricked up their ears.

The Earl of Aberdeen paused and pulled out a document. Let the assistants hand it over to the great nobles of the House of Elders, and pass it on for them to take turns watching.

At the same time, he said: "You may not have received the news yet, but just five minutes before I entered the conference room, France had already decided to declare war on Russia. The French minister came to me and asked the British Empire to join the war, and everyone read the information. Tell me if we're going to war? ”

The documents are the latest information held by the British Intelligence Service, all of which are the latest reports on the Crimean War.

After the outbreak of the Crimean War last year, although Britain and France threatened Russia with a war posture, Tsarist Russia has been unstoppable since the establishment of the Holy Alliance, and the Russian Tsar has mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops to advance by land and water, and has already invaded the Danube Valley a week ago, defeating the Ottoman Turkish Imperial Army, and the navy has driven straight into the Black Sea, completely annihilating the Second Fleet of the Ottoman Navy, completely blockading the Black Sea, and obtaining the Black Sea supremacy.

This undoubtedly touched a fundamental interest for Britain and France, which regard the Black Sea as a zone of freedom of navigation and sphere of influence (PS/Just as the United States views the right of freedom of navigation in the South China Sea), and France was the first to make the decision to declare war, demanding that Britain immediately take a position and take military action.

Since the outbreak of the Crimean War, Britain and France have made a political decision to prepare for war with Russia because of their alliance with the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

Allies are used to sell, this is the dirty side between countries, both sides know it, and they don't break it.

But now the situation has changed, the Ottoman Turkish army is really vulnerable, the army has lost a large amount of territory, the second fleet of the navy has now been wiped out by the Russian navy, and the loss of sea supremacy in the Black Sea shows that Tsarist Russia has won a decisive victory in this war, and Britain and France will have no chance if they do not take action.

Whether it is a Whig parliamentarian or a conservative parliamentarian, after reading this information, they understand the seriousness of the problem.

"If the Black Sea is controlled by the Russians, it will be a serious threat to the future maritime trade of our British Empire in the Black Sea region, and we Whigs support war with the Russians!"

"Since the French have made a formal decision to go to war, then we in the British Empire cannot sit idly by, and we conservatives have also agreed to formally declare war on Russia, anyway, we have made political preparations in this regard last year, and now after more than half a year of military preparations, we believe that the British Imperial Army will definitely turn the tide."

It was to be expected that both the Whigs and the conservatives agreed to go to war officially.

The Earl of Aberdeen nodded, and immediately ordered someone to draft a declaration of war against Russia.

Then he said: "Now I am going to talk about this counterfeit * money case, because our British Empire is about to start a full-scale war against Russia, the daily war consumption will be an astronomical amount, which requires a large amount of military spending." At such a time, I hope that you will keep this case of counterfeit banknotes confidential and never spread the word. ”

Viscount Palmston, president of the Whiges, said: "Your Excellency the Prime Minister considers the situation very important, if at this time let the people know that the Bank of England has counterfeit * banknotes and has lost 57 million pounds, then the people will definitely panic, they will doubt the authenticity of the pound sterling notes in their hands, they will flock to the counter of the Bank of England to ask for the exchange of gold, once there is a run on gold, the Bank of England may go bankrupt instantly, as the central bank of the British Empire, the pound will lose market credit, The consequences are bound to be catastrophic, so I also propose that His Excellency the Prime Minister must not get this matter out. ”

The conservative president, Earl Derby, was immediately displeased, and he objected: "This is not good, five seven million pounds is not a small amount, it is you Whigs who have not managed the Bank of England well, and you must take responsibility." ”

At this time, although the Central Bank of England was the Bank of England, the right to issue British pound notes was not only the Bank of England, but also the Conservative-controlled Commercial Bank of Scotland and the Commercial Bank of Northern Ireland, which also had the right to issue British pounds.

Historically, the Bank of England really defeated the Commercial Bank of Scotland and the Commercial Bank of Northern Ireland to completely unify the right to issue British banknotes in 1928, which shows that the two banks controlled by conservatives are very strong.

Viscount Palmston was also at a loss, and at this time he had to compromise with the conservatives appropriately, so he proposed: "We will find a way to find out the source of this counterfeit* banknote and recover the 57 million pounds of money that have been cashed out!" ”

Earl Derby snorted coldly: "Get it back? What a joke! Don't you see those counterfeit * banknotes? It's almost exactly like the real thing, and if it weren't for the top secret information leaked by your Bank of England insiders, how could the other party have forged it so real, just like the real thing? ”

This is also where Viscount Palmston is puzzled, but he believes that the confidential information of the banknotes issued by the Bank of England has never been leaked, but unfortunately the facts are in front of him, and he is at a loss to argue.

This is, the Earl of Aberdeen suddenly spoke: "Okay, let's do a compromise. In the case of counterfeit banknotes, the Bank of England has an unshirkable responsibility, and all personnel involved in the secrecy of banknotes are all isolated and examined to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future. The lost 57 million pounds sterling was made up by the Bank of England, which was all the hard-earned money of the people of the British Empire. In addition, the Bank of England is a central bank after all, and now that the war is imminent, the empire urgently needs large military spending, and the Bank of England needs to start the printing press to increase the issuance of pounds. ”

This was clearly in favor of the Whigs, and the Earl of Derby objected: "This will not work, turning on the printing press is tantamount to indiscriminate issuance of paper money, which will lead to the depreciation of the pound sterling, which is not conducive to the economic stability of the empire." ”

The Earl of Aberdeen laughed: "During which war did we not turn on the printing press?" Rest assured, the British Empire and France will form an alliance that will soon defeat the Russians, and when the time comes, a large amount of war reparations will be snatched back, which will make up for the shortfall of the additional banknotes, and will not affect the stability of the value of the pound. ”

Derby knew Aberdeen had already made a decision and immediately stopped opposing it.

In this way, during the secret meeting of the British aristocratic council, the counterfeit * money incident was concealed. However, the secret investigation did not stop.

Fortunately, the British police and military believed that the Russians had done the counterfeit money, and transferred their hatred to the Russians, so that the British army fought the Russians to the death on the battlefield of the Crimean War.

So, the Russians lay down their guns! (To be continued......)