Having set the focus of work, the next thing is more cumbersome and painful, waiting for cumming is an inquiry from the British Prime Minister and the Cabinet, if he cannot give a satisfactory answer, I believe that his position will not be secure.

The morning meeting lasted for an hour, and after the assignment was completed, Cumming returned to his office to sort out the debriefing materials, and the next task was to meet the inquiries of higher-level officials, which was very different from the internal meetings he chaired, where he was the party to the debriefing, and the name of the intelligence chief was nothing at all.

After combing his mustache and hair, and taking a closer look at the suit on his shoulders for hair and dandruff, Cumming walked away from the mirror with satisfaction and stepped into the car with his materials. When the intelligence bureau was first established, I didn't have a secretary yet, so it was always a bit troublesome, and the configuration of a female secretary was not only eye-catching, but also doubled the face, well, I had to explain the matter!

At 10 Downing Street, Henry Campbell, the British Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Party, is sitting in the cabinet room waiting for the arrival of cabinet members. Like Prime Minister Salisbury, he hated the cramped, stuffy Cabinet room, but it was a pity that Balfort, the previous Prime Minister, of the Conservative Party, was in office and established its image as the Prime Minister's Office. As the new prime minister, he was politically required to stay at 10 Downing Street.

It was not far from the Intelligence Bureau building to 10 Downing Street, but when Colonel Cumming came in, all the Cabinet members and Prime Minister Henry were already waiting there. Colonel Cumming nodded awkwardly, and then sat down in a small corner of the small conference room, compared to these Chancellors, Privy Council Ministers, Lords of the House of Commons, and Foreign Secretaries, he was really a small foot, and he had no orders, so he could only listen.

Prime Minister Henry looked at the ministers who arrived in time with satisfaction, and the cabinet members he selected were still good. At this time, Henry can be described as in high spirits. Former Prime Minister Balfour was disgraced by the unresolved war in Burma, the loss of interests in the Far East, and Japan's defeat in the Russo-Japanese War. The Conservative Party was unable to recover, losing the new Prime Minister election to the Liberal Party and losing most of the seats in the House of Commons.

Balfour's ouster, the Conservative Party's election defeat, was not only due to a string of misfortunes in the Empire, but above all the enormous popularity of Liberal leader Henry Campbell. Prime Minister Henry took the lead in agreeing to autonomy for the Dreenschwa and Orange River Colonies. Thus the loyalty of the Boers to the British Empire was obtained, and the Boer question was completely solved. In addition, the Scottish-born caster advocated that the British Empire expand its influence in the Far East, increase military spending in the Far East, solve the Burma problem in the shortest possible time, and strive to ensure India's security, and in addition to strengthening the penetration of Germany and Austria-Hungary, co-opting France and Russia, and restricting China's expansion in the Far East. Winning the election is a matter of course.

The Prime Minister's huge prestige has unified the Liberal Party and the exceptionally powerful Cabinet, and Henry can maximize his own decision-making, and this cabinet meeting is the first fire after Henry took office, the target, the Far East. Henry believed that only by solving the problems of China would Britain in the Far East be solved. This, in turn, allowed Britain to concentrate all its energies on dealing with a rising Germany.

The meeting was briefed by the Minister of Finance, Foreign Affairs, Home Affairs, and the Navy Minister, and the meeting entered a lengthy and monotonous atmosphere. Cumming, who was very nervous at the beginning and listened carefully to every word, felt that his limbs were sore, and his mind was sluggish, but his small identity made him dare not act rashly. This cabinet meeting was only here to observe, and Prime Minister Henry personally arranged it, although I don't know what the purpose is, but it is good to listen honestly.

"The Royal Navy of the British Empire will successfully launch the first super-warship in five years, according to the design of naval engineers. It is difficult to do it with a super warship with a displacement of 50,000 tons, and artillery with a caliber of more than 380 mm is not a big problem, but it is difficult to use large-caliber naval guns suitable for warships. Our first super battleship will have a displacement of between 30,000 and 40,000 tons, a main gun caliber of 305 mm, and the structure of the battleship will also be based on the structure of our dreadnought-class battleship heavy firepower battleship. Judging from the Huaguo 'Taishan', this structure is the most suitable for heavy artillery bombardment. Our super-battleship is being designed, and construction is expected to begin in May of this year, launch in three years, and enter service at the longest in 1910. And as soon as we start construction, we will have three, so that we can form a numerical advantage over the Chinese navy. Secretary of the Navy McKenna said.

"What about the German Navy?" Prime Minister Henry asked.

McKenna motioned to the young man next to him, of course, compared to these old men, Churchill, who had just turned thirty, was indeed a young man, but the cabinet members knew this young man, and had a close relationship with his father, and did not mind the young man standing up to answer the Prime Minister's questions, but expected what kind of performance he could give.

Churchill, who served as assistant secretary of the admiralty, made a name for himself in Britain because of his successful escape from prison in the Boer War, and after entering politics, he first joined the Conservative Party, but he walked on the opposite side of the government on trade issues, resolutely opposed the policy of trade barriers, and insisted on upholding the principle of free trade, so he broke with the Conservative Party and sat in the opposition seat. After the Liberal Party came to power, Churchill was appointed Under-Secretary of the Colonial Office and promoted self-government status for South Africa, and later became Assistant Secretary of the Admiralty.

Coming from a famous family means a smooth career, coupled with Churchill's superior ability, he is even more like a fish in water, and in front of his uncle's ministers, Churchill has no stage fright at all: "Compared with the German admiral Prince Heinrich, Wilhelm II and Tipilz are more like naval madmen." "These Germans are no strangers to everyone, and they don't need to be detailed by Churchill.

"Kaiser Wilhelm is a crazy admirer of Mahan, but also the main culprit in provoking the winning contradictions, with his support, the ship-building madman Tipilz successively revised the naval law, the formation of the first fleet, the second fleet, in the Chinese 'Taishan' and China's dreadnought-class warships came out, Tipilz proposed a supplementary bill for the navy, decided to follow in the footsteps of our navy, began to build the same full-weight firepower warship, that is, the world called the 'Wuyue ship'. That is, we are now in an arms race with the Germans, and if we are not careful, we will be overtaken by them. "Churchill's task was to illustrate the situation, not to make recommendations, and if he had thought of it, the British Navy would have to have twice as many capital warships as the Germans in order to guarantee naval superiority over the Germans.

Prime Minister Henry nodded, Churchill young man behaved well, his thinking was clear and organized, his eyes swept around the conference room, and then stopped on Colonel Cumming in the corner: "Colonel Cumming, can you tell us about the German Navy?" ”

When the meat scene came, Cumming raised his head, fortunately he had been prepared, and his surprised expression flashed: "Yes, Your Excellency Prime Minister, my lords, due to the initial establishment of the Secret Intelligence Bureau, we have limited information in our hands. I would now like to report to you the information I have. ”

Secretary of the Navy McKenna frowned, this Cumming was originally from the Navy, and he was only a colonel, in charge of naval intelligence. People who disdain themselves on weekdays actually sit in the same room with themselves to report to the prime minister, and they seem to be on an equal footing, which makes people a little unhappy! However, the young Churchill was very interested in Cumming, and the two had been friends before, and they usually communicated a lot, and their views had in common in many aspects.

"The newly developed dreadnoughts in our country have a great impact on Germany, which means that the battleships that Tipilz advocated building before have become scrap metal. In Germany's 1904 Naval Supplementary Act, it was planned to build four dreadnought-class battleships, with a displacement of about 18,000 tons, a main gun caliber of about 280 mm, and a speed of 19 knots, which was somewhat different from the battleships under construction in our country, but the German battleship was obviously focused on defense, although it was not known that its armor thickness was higher, but it should be higher than our battleships. This information, although obtained by agents of the Intelligence Agency at all costs, still needs to be verified, so it can only be used as a temporary reference. ”

"In addition, it is important to note that our agents have discovered that the Germans have been in close contact with the Chinese recently, Heinrich and Tipilz have disappeared from our sight for more than three months, and Crown Prince Wilhelm, Moltke Jr. and others have disappeared at the same time, and their whereabouts are unknown. But there is reliable information that at the Munich fair, Huaguo participated in the exhibition, but curiously it was quickly canceled. Soon after Heinrich and others reappeared, the number of Chinese in Germany increased. Of course, these are all speculations, and there is no definite evidence yet, and the Intelligence Bureau will follow up further. What I fear most is that the Germans have acquired the technology to build super-battleships from the Chinese, and if it is true, it will be a devastating blow to us. In addition, China also has the technology of armored fighting vehicles, and once it is obtained by Germany, its powerful Prussian army will be strengthened. ”

Everyone has heard of the German shipbuilding plan, even if they heard the technical indicators from Cumming, they didn't pay much attention to it, with the German shipbuilding strength, it was not enough to compete with the British, and the massive shipyards all over England could build a large number of warships and flood the whole world. But the suspicion of Germany's cooperation with China is a big surprise, and it is true that, as Cumming said, if Germany obtains the technology to build superships, or directly acquires a super-warship, then Britain's advantage will be lost! Damn the Germans, damn the Chinese! (To be continued.) )