Field Marshal Roberts, commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, reported back to the country on the difficulties encountered by the coalition forces at present and his own analysis of the situation. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

The Prime Minister immediately convened a cabinet meeting.

At the cabinet meeting, the Minister of the Navy first analyzed the difficulties faced by the current Combined Fleet, the Xia Empire blocked the Red Sea with mines, and could not completely remove mines in a short period of time, the reinforcement fleet and baggage transport ships could only detour through South Africa, and the Xia Empire occupied the island of Madagascar and many islands in the Indian Ocean, and must have laid out a net to wait for the imperial reinforcement fleet to throw itself into the net, and under the current circumstances, the Admiralty could no longer guarantee the logistics supply of the expeditionary force; More importantly, there was a possibility that the Combined Fleet would be completely annihilated in the port of Bombay, and if the Combined Fleet was lost, the naval strength of Britain and France would be immediately surpassed by Germany, and the Empire would likely face the fate of Spain and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Now the reason why the Xia Empire did not attack the combined fleet in Mumbai is that they are forcing the empire to negotiate with them, and if the empire continues to be obsessed, the combined fleet will only be completely annihilated.

The words of the Admiralty Secretary plunged the Cabinet into a state of panic, and the fate of the British Empire was unimaginable if the Combined Fleet was lost.

The Minister of War agreed very much with the words of the Minister of the Navy, and now the expeditionary force is blockaded in Mumbai, constantly bombed by the airships of the Xia Empire, with heavy casualties, the wounded officers and soldiers cannot be treated, and the logistics cannot be guaranteed. Until the British Empire can find a new weapon to counter the Xia Empire's airships, it cannot engage in military confrontation with the Xia Empire; Now the reason why the Xia Empire did not annihilate the coalition army was to force the empire to negotiate.

Finally, the Secretary of War also published the content of Field Marshal Roberts's analysis to the cabinet members, and it was definitely a fatal mistake to form an expeditionary force this time, otherwise with the current military strength of the Xia Empire, it could only stop at British Burma, and the British Empire should have entered into peace negotiations with the Xia Empire at that time; The reason why the Xia Empire created so many exiles was that they wanted to rely on the exiles to stop the advance of the expeditionary force, and their purpose was not to confront the empire head-on, which was very in line with the Xia Empire's consistent hooligan behavior.

The words of the Minister of War gave everyone a glimpse of the life of the Expeditionary Force and the Combined Fleet.

Because of the wrong decision to form a four-nation alliance, as well as the many wrong moves that he chose to provoke the Xia Empire in the early stage, the prime minister's psychological pressure was very great, and his face was always black, this matter could not be concealed, and sooner or later it would leak out, and after solving the current problem, the parliament and the opposition parties would definitely challenge the cabinet.

However, for the time being, it is still necessary to put the interests of the British Empire first, solve the current problems first, and wait for Britain to get out of the predicament before considering the difficult problems facing the cabinet.

The Minister of Colony of India said: "Your Excellency, the essence of the eastern, northern, central and southeastern parts of India have all been plundered by the Xia Empire, and local production has been severely damaged and cannot be restored in a short time, and even after recovering these territories, it will require a huge amount of capital investment; What would happen to the Empire if it lost British India? What would happen to the empire if it only lost central and eastern India? What will happen to the Empire if it loses the Combined Fleet? ”

The words of the Indian colonial minister made everyone fall into deep thought.

The Minister of the Navy said: "Ladies and gentlemen, please don't be so pessimistic, judging from the fact that the Xia Empire did not bomb the combined fleet, there is room for détente with the Empire, the Empire needs to contact the Xia Empire as soon as possible, and reach an agreement with the current Xia Empire's occupation area as the ceasefire line, the Empire can still occupy the central and western regions of British India, the Empire can increase the development of the Indian Plain, compared to the central and eastern regions, the western part of India will be able to operate well soon after the plague and continue to create value for the Empire." ”

The words of the Indian Colonial Secretary and the Admiral Secretary opened everyone's minds, and the possibility of managing the Indus River Plain well is very high, and the local infrastructure is good, especially the Karachi Port can be used as the leader to drive the development of the entire central and western regions; The Indus River was easily accessible, and in 1861 the Karachi Railway to Gotri was established and extended to Multan in 1878 to connect with the Punjab Railway.

The Foreign Minister said: "Your Excellency, Prime Minister, since the two countries have not declared war so far, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been in frequent contact with the Xia Empire, the attitude of the Xia Empire is very clear, the Empire must apologize to the merchants of the Xia Empire, and make reasonable compensation for their losses, this war is completely caused by the Empire, and the Xia Empire is in the hands of many Imperial officers and citizens of the Straits Settlements, if the negotiation is resolved, I am afraid that the Xia Empire will open its mouth, and the asking price will definitely not be low." ”

The Indian colonial minister said: "Your Excellency, this Indian war, let the Indian princely rule collapse, after the plague, the remaining labor force will only be left with strong health, the empire can nationalize all the land, divide it into small pieces and sell it to the Indians, and pay for the land with grain every year, I believe that the Indus River Plain will soon have a new opportunity, even if it is worth taking out some compensation; I'm just worried, what will happen to those Indian rebels? ”

The Minister of War smiled and said: "Your Excellency is too worried, now the empire has hundreds of thousands of troops in Mumbai, and it is impossible to confront the Xia Empire, but it is more than enough to deal with these thugs, and the soldiers are worried about returning in vain; Having cleaned up these thugs, and just brought these places under the direct rule of the empire, my fear is that if we do not negotiate as soon as possible, and quickly take control of the many princely states and the fortresses of the feudal lords and princes and nobles on the Indus River Plain, the wealth in them will be swept away by the mob and then flee to Iran and Afghanistan and other places, you must know that just the gold, silver and jewelry accumulated by those princely states for hundreds of years is a priceless wealth, and a little bit of it will be enough to pay the reparations of the Xia Empire; So, we have to be fast. ”

When they occupied Bengal in 1757, the British plundered more than 58 million pounds of gold, silver, jewelry, and other wealth; In 1799, during the capture of the capital of Mysore, another 15 million pounds worth of treasures were looted.

Of course, all those present understood how great the wealth of the princely states and princes and nobles of India was, and after the Minister of War had finished speaking, the eyes of all the cabinet members turned red; This time the mob captured the fortresses of the princely states and princes and nobles, and the British took the opportunity to take possession of them.

With this wealth, the cabinet will be able to give an account to the people, not only to make up for the loss of this dispatch, but also to make a big profit; As for the territory occupied by the Xia Empire, they all knew that it must not be recovered, and if the negotiations were accelerated, it would be good to be able to keep the central and western parts of British India; With the wealth plundered back from India, Britain must increase military investment and find a chance to fight a decisive battle with the Xia Empire, as long as Britain does not fall, there is a chance to snatch those lands back.

The prime minister's thoughts are similar to those of everyone else, but he prefers to stabilize the situation in Europe after the matter with the Xia Empire is resolved, and then compete with the Xia Empire.

With a clear objective, the cabinet meeting quickly passed a resolution on peace negotiations, instructing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to immediately contact the Xia Empire to ensure the safety of the expeditionary force and the combined fleet in India, no matter what the cost.

British Foreign Secretary Sir Grey was authorized by the Cabinet to immediately send a telegram to the ambassador to the Xia Empire to seek peace talks with the Xia Empire; At the same time, he personally visited the ambassadors of the Xia Empire at the embassy of the Xia Empire in Britain and actively requested a peaceful settlement of the contradictions between the two countries.

Then, he summoned the French ambassador to Britain to communicate the policy towards the Xia Empire, hoping that France would join in peace negotiations with the Xia Empire.

At the same time, the French government also convened a cabinet meeting, which was presided over by the French president himself, and the decisions made were similar to those of the British government, which were based on the overall interests of the country.

If the war against the Xia Empire had been defeated, France would not have had a good time, and now they are facing strong pressure from Germany, and if they lose the navy of the combined fleet and the land of 1 army group, they will definitely lose in the face of Germany, and even if they do not fail, they will pay a greater price.

Originally, considering that Britain was the main force, there was a certainty of victory against the Xia Empire on the territory of India, and this military operation could be regarded as a training exercise, and it could recover the occupied colonies, but I did not expect that this completely fell into the trap of the Xia Empire, and the whole army would be wiped out immediately, and in the face of this situation, the only way was to choose to negotiate peace with the Xia Empire, and as for the price paid, I couldn't care about it at all.

According to the information sent back by the deputy commander of the expeditionary force, if France does not participate in the expeditionary force, the Xia Empire will not attack the island of Madagascar at all, they will only stop at Burma, and this time the troops were completely pitted by the British; Negotiating with the Xia Empire under the current passive situation, not only will the occupied colonies not be recovered, but there will also be other costs, which will certainly not be small.

In any case, however, it was necessary to save the trapped army and navy, which were an important force for France against Germany; Moreover, in the hands of the Xia Empire, nearly 100,000 French officers and soldiers, civil servants, businessmen and their families in the French Indochina colony were imprisoned, as well as tens of thousands of French soldiers on the island of Madagascar, etc., these people must also be rescued, otherwise France will be finished.

As soon as the British Foreign Secretary and the French ambassador communicated Britain's decision to hold peace talks with the Xia Empire, the French ambassador to Britain immediately reported to the French Foreign Ministry, which was in the hands of the French government, and the diplomats of the two countries immediately took action.

The Belgian and Dutch armies were also heavily bombed by the Xia Empire in Bombay, and they also guessed a bad outcome, but they could do nothing but report the situation to their respective kingdoms.

Britain and France only informed Belgium and the Kingdom of the Netherlands that they wanted to negotiate peace with the Xia Empire, and they knew nothing about how to negotiate and what price they would have to pay, so they could only resign themselves to fate; Faced with this situation, the bowels of regret in both kingdoms were blue.

The British and French ambassadors to the Xia Empire visited Hua Guoqiang together and asked for peace talks and an end to the bombing of the port of Mumbai before peace talks. (To be continued.) )