Seeing this, Fisher was very angry, he patted the podium again and said, "Gentlemen, the claim of the six Haitian-class patrols was stated by the remnants of the Far East Fleet in the Battle of the Yangtze River Estuary, you can question it, but unless there is conclusive evidence, the Royal Navy will only rely on the information provided by these witnesses, instead of listening to the wild speculations of idlers who were still idle thousands of miles away at the time!" ”

"Rear Admiral, please watch your words!" , Fisher's group ridicule aroused the general dissatisfaction of the councillors present, and some impulsive guys even grabbed the things around them and smashed them on the podium, the speaker had to warn Fisher at this time, and at the same time advised the parliamentarians in the audience to at least listen to Fisher finish the report first, otherwise it will be dragged on, when will it take to send troops to the expedition?

After being warned, Fisher slightly restrained his tone, but his argument did not change in the slightest, "Sir, there is another detail, which may not be clear to everyone, when the Chinese destroyed two Centurion-class battleships, they actually only used two Haitian-class armored cruisers, that is, the Haitian-class armored cruiser sank the Centurion-class battleship in a one-on-one battle, and its combat power is obvious. Based on my years of experience, even the Monarch-class battleship that we are proud of is no match for her! ”

Fisher's remarks once again aroused widespread doubts, how could the Sovereign-class battleship, which is the pride of the British, lose to a mere armored cruiser? But Fisher remained unmoved, insisting on his point of view, and then the speech could not proceed at all

The Speaker proposed to the Secretary of the Navy that a different representative should speak, but the Secretary of the Admiralty expressed his confidence in Fisher, and although he did not like the latter, it must be admitted that no one in the Royal Navy was more capable than him, especially in naval ordnance.

In desperation, the speaker could only let the army representative speak first, and the answer of the army representative also made the parliamentarians extremely dissatisfied, he pointed out that the current China is no longer what it used to be, and it is extremely tough on the outside world, and if it wants to force it to accept harsh conditions that are enough to make up for the start of the war and the losses before it, it must break the new Chinese regime, in that case, at least 200,000 army troops are needed, and it cannot be a colonial army, and the current Britain simply cannot do it to send so many elite army troops to distant East Asia.

"Unless it is a general mobilization and the whole country enters the wartime system, the empire can only invest tens of thousands of troops in East Asia at most, but the price of general mobilization is too great", the Marquis of Salisbury, who was elected prime minister for the third time not long ago, frowned more and more, and then he thought of Japan, an island country in East Asia that was still at war with China, and his expression was a little better, "By the way, although the Japanese navy is finished, their army is still there, and Japan's full mobilization can increase the total strength of the army to hundreds of thousands, with the support of the empire." , even if it's two or three hundred thousand, it can be sent, anyway, those dwarfs are easy to feed. In this case, the empire only needs to send 50,000 land forces, which is almost enough, so that Australia and New Zealand can send troops, and the descendants of those criminals are still very combative."

But all this is inseparable from a premise, that is, we must first defeat the Chinese navy and seize the sea control along China's coast, otherwise even if Japan is willing to borrow troops, it will not be able to safely transport it to the mainland! Moreover, if it drags on for too long, Japan will be forced by the pressure of the Chinese Navy to sue for peace, or even submit to China from now on

So the question came back, and the Marquis of Salisbury rubbed his faintly aching temples, and sighed with a sad face, "Or, invite Fisher to come over and talk about it in private, and after I have a score in my heart, I will go to work as a member of the party, maybe it will be better, that guy is speaking publicly is like shooting at everyone!" ”

In order to prevent Fisher's temper tantrum from making him unable to get off the stage, the Marquess of Salisbury invited Fisher's close friend, the famous warship designer Sir William White, to the Prime Minister's residence in Downing Street.

However, this was of no avail, and in the face of the Prime Minister's questioning, Fisher spread his hands and said that his views and suggestions had been written in the report without reservation, and the Marquis of Salisbury suddenly exploded like a lit cannonball

"What nonsense are you talking about in your report! Does the Royal Navy need to dispatch more than eighty percent of large and medium-sized warships to have any hope of winning? Even if two first-class powers join forces, they don't need the Royal Navy to do their best! ", the Marquess of Salisbury snarled without the grace of a prime minister.

But Fisher said without backing down, "Actually, that's still an ideal situation, considering that the Chinese Navy is fighting at home, and both ship condition and intelligence are superior, even if we can send all the Royal Navy warships that can sail to the sea, it will be difficult to win." This is not only my opinion, but William also thinks so. ”

"The Haitian-class armored cruiser is an epoch-making new ship type, and its appearance has made all the battleships and large cruisers in the world obsolete overnight, and the gap in the combat power of a single ship is so large that it cannot be made up by the number of piles alone. What's more, the Chinese have six Haitian-class cruisers, not just one we initially thought. William White was also at once in solidarity with his friend, and although he was deeply ashamed to publicly admit that the work of others was better, he was not a jealous villain, and he would design better warships to prove himself again, rather than ignoring the facts and belittling the achievements of his peers.

Compared with Fisher, whose talent has not been fully revealed, William White, a warship designer who has long been famous, knows that even laymen know that he is powerful, and when the Marquis of Salisbury heard it, his expression changed, "Is it really so powerful?" Is the gap between it and the current capital ships of various countries as greater than when the Sovereign-class battleships came out? ”

"How can that be compared?" William White's answer pleased the Prime Minister first, but his next words immediately made the latter look like he had just died of his son, "Well, I mean that when the Sovereign-class battleships first came out, the combat power advantage of the ironclad ships at that time cannot be compared with the current advantages of the Haitian-class patrol ships. Due to the fact that the shell problem had not been solved at that time, it was actually difficult for the Sovereign-class battleship to sink a 7,000-ton ironclad ship in a one-on-one battle, and it could only be severely damaged, which was completely incomparable with the sinking of a Centurion-class battleship by the Haitian-class mounted cruiser. And Haitian is still a cruiser, how can this be compared? (To be continued.) )