Mandalay was finally recovered, and Wallace lowered his proud head, a British Royal Army field division in full formation, annihilating 5,000 men and taking more than 16,000 prisoners

It was a rare defeat for the British in the last hundred years, and it was to the squadron, which they despised, an army of opium-smokers, who had defeated their greatest British Royal Army so completely that they had not even been able to hold out for a day

The news of the defeat immediately spread like a plague to the British on the battlefield in Burma, and the most elite Royal Army in Britain was defeated, and those colonial armies had no fighting spirit, and stopped the frantic offensive in recent days, and for a while, the war in Burma suddenly seemed to stop

In Britain, it was because of this defeat that there were fierce contradictions

"Oh my God, these yellow monkeys have defeated our great British Army, this is impossible," David yelled at the telegram in front of him, patting his desk

At this time, Horton was holding a cup of coffee and said leisurely: "Don't worry, respected Mr. David, in fact, from the beginning of the war, I did not agree with entanglement with the Chinese in Burma, but should directly attack the Chinese mainland, but it is not too late now."

"No, no, no, we have lost our best fighters, and now Egypt, Iran, Afghanistan, and Turkey are being attacked by others, and the empire has no more troops to deal with China," David said, shaking his head

"A cabinet meeting should be convened immediately to discuss the current situation and come up with a plan that makes the most sense."

The Sino-British war of Burma, a local war in South Asia, but it touched the hearts of most of the world's powerful countries, France signed the peace treaty with China just a year ago, but he didn't mind turning it into a piece of waste paper at any time, the key is how much to pay, after all, he doesn't have many chips now, the navy in the Far East has almost been swept away by China, and the army is overwhelmed by the millions of troops of the Germans, and the people are bent on getting back what they lost in the Franco-Prussian War, as for the Far East, many people do not have a clear concept Of course, If it could be easily cheapened, as it had been twenty years ago, the French would not have missed such an opportunity, so the Parisian authorities had been closely monitoring the war, but now it seemed that there was little hope, and the German threat made it impossible for them to send a large army to the Far East

The Russians rejoiced that China had held back the British, and they finally had the opportunity to break the blockade line that stretched from the Near East to the Far EastAfter the signing of the Sino-Russian military alliance treaty and the demilitarization of the border between the two sides, Alexander III had ordered the Far East and Siberia to be drawn to reinforce their battle positions in Afghanistan, and strive to take this base to India as soon as possible, and in the Balkans, the Russian army had crossed the Prest River, in the event of war, They would descend on Istanbul like the 10th Russo-Turkish War, and Alexander III had no doubt that he would finally gain access to the Black Sea without the British blocking him

As for the rising Germany, the United States, Italy and other countries also have their own ideas, Germany's position is actually the most ambiguous, no matter who wins or loses on both sides, it will be of great benefit to him, he should have hoped that Britain will win, so that there is no doubt that they will get the colonies and various rights and interests they want from the weak China, but now if the British get Burma, according to the comparison of German and British naval forces, this rich land is obviously impossible to fall into the hands of Germany, which makes Germany's policy wavering, But now there is at least one thing they are very happy about, that is, the huge orders for the sale of arms to China have greatly stimulated the German economy

Under the banner of the Monroe Doctrine, the United States sought to expand its influence in the Americas, which had become the backyard of British colonial trade after the decline of Spain, which naturally produced fierce contradictions; Italy, on the other hand, was bent on the British emptying their fleets in the Mediterranean so that they could extend their hands to Africa

All of this change is coming from China

The situation in Burma has reached a stalemate, which is something that the London authorities could not have imagined, how a country that was beaten by its own small army of several thousand men twenty years ago could suddenly grow into a fierce enemy on the other side of the world, you must know that in 300 years, even in the suppression of American independence and the seven-year war with France, the British Empire did not send as many troops as it does now

The 200,000 army seems to be still lagging behind, and China's army, which has grown up in recent years, has taken Britain by surprise, and their local government officials are worried that Britain's hegemony has been shaken for hundreds of years, Britain has mastered world hegemony with its strong industrial and naval strength, and the Anglo-Spanish War, the Battle of Trafalgar, and the Crimean War have fallen one after another, so that no country has dared to question his hegemony in the past 30 years. But now China has opened this door, the battle of Burma has made all British opponents active, and all countries qualified to challenge Britain are staring at the performance of the British team

The cabinet meeting was soon convened under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister, the Marquis of Salisbury, and the first to speak was the Minister of War, Admiral Dannatt, although he was already full of silver hair, but he still spoke with a loud voice, he had participated in the Crimean War, personally commanded a brigade in the fortress of Ineda, and defeated two divisions of the Russian army: "We should send troops to China as soon as possible, and defeat them as completely as we did twenty years ago, this is not only about Burma, It is also related to the life of the British Empire, and now our opponents are helping the Chinese openly and secretly, and defeating the Chinese will deter our opponents, and can also boost the morale of the people at home, and solve the many troubles of the current government, and the staff's proposition is to increase troops as soon as possible, and the strength should be as strong as possible to cope with all possible situations"

Listening to him, the thin Marquis of Salisbury sighed and said softly: "According to the general's intentions, how many more troops do we need to increase to deal with all possible situations"

Admiral Dannatt hesitated a little, and muttered: "The plan of the staff requires the cooperation of five to seven infantry divisions and the navy......" Listening to Dannatt's vague and slurred words, the Marquis of Salisbury couldn't help frowning

"This is the opinion of the General Staff? Five to seven divisions, the General Staff knows how much supplies will be consumed every day on such a scale, and how many ships will be needed for transshipment in the far Far East, and now that the domestic economy continues to be sluggish, our exports have shrunk by one-third compared with 10 years ago, and because of environmental pollution, our imports of wheat and meat have increased greatly, and there are already big problems in the finances, and the fiscal deficit this year is already certain, and if the scale of the war is expanded, the deficit will be so serious that it will be beyond measure," said the finance minister unceremoniously

Admiral Dannatt was so angry that his beard trembled: "If you don't send troops to China, will you give in to the Chinese?" Or will it continue to be consumed in Myanmar? ”

Horton watched these politicians who controlled the direction of the British Empire with cold eyes, and he had long told them that the Chinese were different, but they still used the old thinking to think, and now they were finally hurt by the Chinese, fortunately, it was still too late, the strength accumulated by the British Empire for 300 years was not something that the Chinese could shake, as long as the key points of the Chinese were controlled, they could force the Chinese to submit to the feet of the British Empire again

The Marquis of Salisbury glanced at Houghton, who was sitting not far from him: "What do you think, our advisor?" ”

Houghton raised his head, cleared his throat and said: "China is a vast and populous country, their people are hard-working, and they are accustomed to obeying the voices above, so any country that engages in a long-term war with China, the result is disastrous but they also have shortcomings, that is, they like to fight with themselves, once they lose their ruling order, they can easily fall into division and chaos, and their rich places are in the east, especially along the coast, Our powerful navy can easily control these places of theirs."

Horton paused, looked at the politicians around him, and continued: "To deal with the alliance of the Chinese and the Russians, we can completely rely on other forcesThe French and the Japanese are the best allies, France has a navy second only to ours, now they are worried about the threat of the Triple Alliance, as long as we provide them with guarantees, France will definitely not refuse to send a fleet to form a joint fleet with us Japan is a good force to balance China and Russia, Japan's position in East Asia can blockade most of the ports of Russia and China, although they have great ambitions, but they are easier to tame than the Chinese, as for the Russians, we need not worry too much, they have never lacked Chinese ambitions, as long as the war goes well, they will eagerly tear up the alliance treaty with the Chinese and join us"

The Marquis of Salisbury listened to Houghton's words, pondered for a while, and finally said in a deep voice: "The majesty of the British Empire cannot be challenged, and the Chinese must pay the price for their recklessness, but the threat of the Russians must also be taken into account, limiting the expansion of the Russians is our established policy, we cannot change that we are now working to stabilize the world order, we cannot rely on ourselves alone, we should unite some allies" He said and looked at Foreign Minister Granville: "The Ministry of Foreign Affairs will send someone to contact France as soon as possible, I would like to have a meeting with His Excellency Hubnell, and in addition, you will summon the Japanese Minister again and make our request."