All the evidence pointed to Huaguo, and Lu Liang's provocation was enough to make the British scream loudly, and the news was transmitted back to China, causing an uproar. The sun never sets on the empire has not yet attacked China, and it dares to take the initiative to challenge the British, and a short knife goes straight into Britain's soft underbelly India, which is unbearable!

The parliament is full of voices about the use of troops against China, and there is endless clamor for erasing China and regaining Britain's interests in the Yangtze River valley, and the parliamentarians are all controlled by big capitalists and big bankers, and they can ignore the clamor and proposals, but the British government cannot, even if it bears the abuse of cowards and the like, it has to think calmly about the gains and losses.

Arthur, who succeeded Salisbury as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Balfour summoned the Minister of Civil Affairs and Military Affairs to discuss the matter, and the suppression of the Burmese uprising was undisputed and must be carried out at the first opportunity. However, there was a huge disagreement among the ministers about whether or not to use troops against China. The Minister of the Navy, John, believed that it was necessary to teach China a profound lesson, and that the navy should be responsible for this matter, and he had always been haunted by the sinking of the Far East Fleet in Canton last year, and that the sinking of three destroyers and the heavy damage of one battleship had caused the British Navy to suffer great criticism, and John hoped to restore the prestige of the navy through this incident.

"Our battleships all over the world, outnumbered by other countries combined, are not beautiful ornaments, but tools used to safeguard the interests of the British Empire, and what the British Empire lost, will be recovered by the Navy!" John's voice was unequivocal, but Belfort questioned it.

"We have to be clear about whether we want to achieve simply to force China to abandon its support for the Free Burmese Army, or to eliminate the British enemy completely. If naval warships are dispatched, then it will not be difficult to achieve the first goal, but if you want to destroy China, you will have to mobilize more warships, as well as more than half a million regular soldiers of the British Empire. This is beyond our capabilities. Prime Minister Balfour retorted.

"Another point for Your Excellency John, please note that China has strong coastal and river defense fortifications, and even if we send out our navy, we can only close China's foreign relations for a short time, but we cannot penetrate deep into the coastal areas. After all, it would be unwise to use battleships against shore artillery. This is also the reason for the defeat of the Far Eastern Fleet. Foreign Minister Rolmo said.

"Is Huaguo's army so strong that we need to send 500,000 troops?"

"Your message is too outdated, I suggest you read the information instead of partying and hunting."

"Don't talk about it, can't we unite the armies of other countries? Just like Beijing a few years ago, Huaguo will definitely succumb to a joint strike! ”

"Your Excellency really lacks strategic awareness, unlike the woman in Beijing, they have always been in a tough attitude towards the outside world, and Japan was forced to sign a treaty a few days ago. handed over the murderer of Lu Liang, such a country cannot be defeated by tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of soldiers. ”

The Council of Ministers convened by Prime Minister Balfour gradually turned into a quarrel and developed into a depth of personal attacks, and Balfour shook his head and had to suspend the discussion for the time being. He tended to strike only at Burma and wait for Japan to defeat Russia before trying to encourage them to trouble China, which was Britain's consistent strategy, but there were also many voices in parliament advocating the use of force to attack China. Balfour had to find a way to settle that group.

"When did the British Empire become helpless in the face of the international situation? Could it be that Britain was going to wage a large-scale war in the Far East at the same time as it met the German challenge? How did that wild country become a powerful, hard-line regime before everyone could react? "Balfour is at a loss. Britain, a master of strategy and an international-stirrer, finally has a time when it can't think of a way.

The situation in Burma was still deteriorating, and after the Burmese Free Army launched an armed uprising and defeated the British army in the first attack, it took a large area east of Mandalay and north of Mandalay in just one and a half months, and the impact of the uprising quickly expanded and the armed army continued to expand, from less than 3,000 at the beginning to more than 30,000 now. Although most of them were farmers armed with knives and axes, the momentum was already gaining momentum.

On July 19, 1904, the British army, which considered itself well prepared, gathered in Mandalay, where 3,000 Burmese colonies, 13,000 Indian colonies, and 1,000 British soldiers, were led by Lieutenant General Mejia. Prepare to launch a military operation, codenamed "Will of the Crown", in an attempt to wipe out the Free Army of Burma entrenched in the north in one fell swoop.

Lieutenant General Mega was not in favor of marching at this time, as it was the rainy season, which would make it difficult for the army to move an inch, make weapons useless, and leave artillery mired in the mud. But the corrupt and incompetent bureaucrats from London let the Mei family march immediately and exterminate the Free Army as soon as possible. Myanmar is not South Africa, and fighting here will cost several times.

Although there is a waterway of the Irrawaddy River, the steamships can only reach Magway, which is more than 400 kilometers south of Mandalay, and the rest has to be transported by small manpower boats, which makes the logistics troops suffer, and the people requisitioned from the local area do not cooperate, and the work is not serious, and the transportation volume of more than a month is only enough to meet the consumption of the army for half a month, not to mention the guerrillas on both sides of the Irrawaddy River and around Mandalay, which increases the trouble of transportation.

But an order is an order, and Mejia also knows the importance of Burma to India, and the importance of India to Britain, not to mention anything else, Mejia's family has great interests in India, which is also the biggest motivation for him to attack.

According to intelligence, the Free Army has one of the largest training camps in Lashio, northeast of Mandalay, which is one of the bases of the Free Army, and Si Kao in the north is also one of the base areas, from which most of the guerrillas and Free Army fighters attack villages and towns and transportation lines, and the capture of these two places will deal a heavy blow to the strength of the Free Army.

“FK！” Mega hid in the tent, holding a pipe, looking at the map and scolding loudly, not caring about the tired staff officers around her, in fact everyone wanted to scold as loudly as Mega. It had been two days since the departure, and Mejia had led 500 British soldiers and 3,000 Indian colonial soldiers to attack the first target, Lashio, and the distance of less than 100 kilometers seemed to be never-ending, and the dense rainforests and high mountains made the march almost impossible.

"Report to the general, seventy more colonial soldiers and three British soldiers have contracted dysentery, and our non-combat attrition has reached more than four hundred!" The officer reported to Lieutenant General Mejia in a tone bordering on complaint.

Mejia didn't pay attention to the officer's tone, he even thanked his army for not collapsing or rioting! There were still more than ten kilometers from here to Lashio, but at this time, the straight-line distance on the map, he knew that it would take at least more than four hours for the army to reach its destination. Fortunately, there was no attack by the Free Army along the way, otherwise Mega herself would have lost confidence.

The British army struggled to advance in the heavy rain, and the British native soldiers enjoyed the services of the colonial soldiers, with raincoats, umbrellas, and even sedan chairs for officers, and they cursed the weather and the colonial soldiers around them with some resentment in the respect of the Indian colonial soldiers and the envy of the Burmese colonial soldiers. Less than half of the two days were sunny, and those officials in London should be damned!

Suddenly, the heavy rain unexpectedly stopped, the dark clouds dispersed, revealing the long-lost sunshine, and all the officers and soldiers, including Mejia, raised their heads to enjoy the brief sunny day.

Almost at the same time, gunfire rang out, and the Free Army fighters had been following the group, and now they had finally found an opportunity to attack. Yong Jimi personally led 2,000 Free Army soldiers to launch this ambush war, a sniper instructor from the 1st Mountain Brigade of the Zhenguo Army, hit Lieutenant General Mejia with only one bullet, Mejia fell from the sedan chair made the British army completely panicked, lost command, and faced with the ubiquitous bullets, in the panic the British army has not organized effective resistance.

The bullets shuttled between the branches and the deep grass knocked down the soldiers one by one, shouts and cries for help, screams filled the jungle, when they saw the British soldiers running back, all the colonial soldiers seemed to have found the backbone, threw away their weapons and ran back, the chaotic retreat gave the Free Army more opportunities, under the command of the instructor, the Free Army soldiers continued to pursue the scattered British troops with their immature combat skills and shooting skills.

The British soldiers who were the first to flee were soon overtaken by the Burmese colony, who was familiar with the jungle, and then by the Indian colony soldiers, the pampered British could not take advantage of their long legs at all, and were completely pinned down by this jungle, and then one after another fatal bullets. As a result, the British, who had been superior to the British in the past, began to surrender under the threat of death, and after the Free Army soldiers under Yong Jimi surrounded them from both sides, most of the soldiers from the Indian and Burmese colonies who tried to escape also raised their hands and surrendered.

In the Battle of Lashio, the British army suffered more than 300 casualties, surrendered more than 2,400 people, and the rest fled into the jungle, but no more than 30 people actually returned to Mandalay. (To be continued.) )