The Suez Canal, with an annual revenue of £30 million, has always been an important pillar of British government. Now the Suez Canal has fallen within a month, which is immediately deplorable to the British.

However, what made the British even more painful was that in addition to the overall operation of the Eight-Nation Coalition in Egypt, there were also wars in the lands of British colonies around the world.

On April 12, the Russian Empire issued an ultimatum to Persia, ordering it to expel the British consul and the British troops in Tehran.

13 On the 13th, the Persian Empire rejected the demands of Tsarist Russia, and the whole country entered a state of war.

At dawn on the 15th, 230,000 Russian troops launched an all-out attack on the 122-kilometer-long border from Baku in the west to Mahabat in the east.

The Persian army fought back, but the gap between the combat effectiveness and equipment of the two sides was too large, and the Persian army was not the opponent of the Russian army at all, and the 130,000 Persian army was defeated.

On the 22nd, the Russian army attacked the city of Tehran, and 2,000 British troops and 70,000 Persian troops fought in the city.

King Qajar VII of Persia had expected the British to send reinforcements from India, but the British base camp meant that the British army in India would step up its defenses and keep India at the expense of Persia.

On the 27th, the city of Tehran, which had been held for five days, was broken by the Russian army, Qajar VII committed suicide, and the remnants of more than 300 British troops surrendered. The remnants of the Persian army, led by Muhammad, withdrew from Tehran and continued to resist the Russian invasion.

In mid-May, the Persian army was forced by the Russian army to retreat to Bandar Abbas on the Persian Gulf coast, where 60,000 Persian troops and 170,000 members of the Persian Church resisted.

However, the surrendered Persians were subjected to a bloody massacre by the angry Russian army, and 170,000 civilians in the entire Abbas region were massacred by the Russian army, and the blood stained the Persian Gulf red.

It was not until mid-August that the Russian army essentially wiped out the resistance of all remnants of the Persian army and completed the military occupation of Persia. But there are still Persian guerrillas attacking the Russian army everywhere.

After four months of fierce fighting, the Russian Empire came out of the sad shadow after the Sino-Russian War, and although it lost its access to the Far East, it lost access to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean.

Tsarist Russia's center of gravity was in Europe, and its control over the Far East was so weak that it lost it. But the Persian Gulf is different, Persia is not far from the center of Russia, and Russia can easily control it.

Emperor Nicholas II of Russia celebrated this in Moscow, and the Russian Admiralty even demanded the immediate formation of an Indian Ocean Fleet, and the Army proposed an attack on the British Indian colonies.

However, after the Sino-Russian war, Russia's financial resources are stretched thin, and the domestic economy is recovering, so it is not suitable to expand the war. Therefore, after the occupation of Persia, the Russian political axe did not provoke the British army in India. And the British army in India was also worried that the Russian army would attack India, so they did not dare to attack, but blindly defended.

In North Africa, the 200,000-strong French army assembled on the western border of the Anglo-Egyptian Sultanate quickly crossed the border and attacked the Anglo-Egyptian Sultan.

On April 19, the main force of the French army and the main force of the Anglo-Egyptian Sultan Army encountered the main force of the Anglo-Egyptian army at Umu Sherman on the west bank of the Nile, and a major battle broke out in the tunnel.

The two sides invested more than 700,000 troops, with 200,000 French troops and 120,000 French North African servant troops on the French side, with a total strength of 320,000. On the Anglo-Egyptian side, there were 70,000 British troops, 130,000 Egyptian troops, and 220,000 Sudanese troops, for a total strength of 420,000.

Fierce fighting broke out between the two sides on the edge of the desert, and countless shells fell on the desert, stirring up a storm of sand and dust.

After half a month of fierce fighting, the French army failed to break through to Umu Sherman.

However, the French army was not reconciled, and 120,000 troops were drawn from French North Africa to form a second army, which moved south along the Nile and captured Fashoer on May 12.

On 15 May, the French Second Army crossed the Nile and advanced towards Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast.

The food and ammunition needed for Umu Sherman, where the Anglo-Egyptian coalition forces were located, came from Port Sudan in the rear, and once Port Sudan fell, the Anglo-Egyptian-Sudanese coalition forces would be in a desperate situation.

As a last resort, the Anglo-Egyptian coalition had to send 100,000 troops back to help. As a result, the French army did not go directly to Port Sudan, but turned around halfway and set up an ambush in the Atbara Gorge, resulting in an ambush of 100,000 Anglo-Egyptian Sultan troops, and after seven days of hard fighting, the entire army was finally annihilated.

On May 29, the French army captured Port Sudan, cutting off the retreat and supply base of the Anglo-Egyptian-Sudanese coalition forces.

On August 3, the Anglo-Egyptian-Sultan coalition army, which had run out of supplies, tried to break through, but was resolutely beaten back by the French army.

On August 7, the Anglo-Egyptian and Sudanese coalition forces ran out of ammunition and food, and the remaining 130,000 surrendered. France occupies the LinkedIn Egyptian Sudan colony.

At the same time, in the area of British Somalia, next to the Anglo-Egyptian Sultan, 30,000 Italian troops from Italian Somalia attacked 10,000 British troops there.

However, it was a big surprise that the 30,000 Italian troops failed to defeat the 10,000 British troops. At the Battle of Galcayo, 30,000 Italian troops were defeated and routed all the way to Mogadishu.

On the other side, 10,000 Italian troops were supposed to attack British East Africa and support the German East African army. As a result, Major General Woodrose, the commander of the British East African colonial army, suddenly abandoned the German army on the opposite side, and in turn marched for two days and two nights, and ate 10,000 Italian troops in Baidoa in one fell swoop, and then quickly marched eastward, and after returning to the division with 10,000 British troops from the south, he stormed Mogadilin, and after three days of fierce fighting, the remnants of more than 10,000 Italian troops were driven out to sea. If it weren't for the timely arrival of the 3rd Pacific Fleet, artillery fire blocked the way of the British army's advance, and more than 10,000 Italian troops would have been annihilated.

Despite this, the panicked Italian army left behind more than 6,000 prisoners of the British, less than 3,000 escaped on board the ships of the Imperial Chinese Navy, and thousands more were missing.

The Somali campaign ended with the defeat of the Italian army and the victory of the British army.

Instead of seizing British Somalia, Italy fell into the hands of the British, which can be said to have lost its wife and army.

Having eliminated the Italian army, Major General Woodrose immediately turned around and returned to British East Africa.

By this time, the German army had successively captured Sinjida and Arusha, and marched to Kenya, the capital of British East Africa. The German army had more than 30,000 troops, and although the British army had more than 40,000 people, its combat effectiveness was obviously inferior to that of the German army.

However, Woodros was shrewd in tactics, implementing the tactics of clearing the field with strong walls, setting fire to the mountains and slowing down the German attack. At the same time, he found that the Germans divided their troops to defend every place they occupied, so he deliberately retreated without a fight, losing seven or eight towns for the Germans to occupy, and distracting the main German army. At the same time, Woodrose knew that the chances of winning a frontal battle with the Germans were not good, so he chose to fight guerrilla warfare, around the rear of the German army, and attacked the German military depots and supply depots everywhere.

On August 8, the supply depot in Kirosa, the rear of the German army, was attacked by the British army, and the German army's supply materials for three months were gone. The panicked Germans quickly retreated, trying to retreat to the sea to get supplies from the Imperial Chinese Navy.

However, Woodros had already judged the intention of the German army, and set up an ambush in the Mikumi Forest Gorge (now Tanzania National Park), burning the entire forest, and the main force of 30,000 German troops was wiped out in the canyon.

Subsequently, Woodrose recruited the British in British East Africa, and soon developed into an army of more than 60,000 people, successively recovering the land occupied by the German army, keeping British East Africa and British Somalia, becoming the only victory of the British army since the start of the war, seizing Italian Somalia, and saving a little face in the great rout.

Although the Germans lost in British East Africa, the Germans won one after another in Bechuana and South Africa.

Beginning on 8 April, 120,000 German troops and 27,500 Dutch troops set out from German Southwest Africa to launch attacks on British Bechuana, Rhodesia, Orange, and Transvaal.

The German army was invincible, defeating the main force of the British army in Bulawayo, Pretoria, and Hannesburg, winning three battles and three victories, and eliminating more than 12 British troops. The Dutch army contacted the local Boers and regrouped 60,000 troops to cooperate with the Germans in attacking the British.

By the beginning of August, the British Bechuana had completely fallen into German hands, the Free State of Orland was liberated, and the British army was divided between the Transvaal and Cape Town, but the British army here had just finished the Boer War, and the fighting force was stubborn, holding on to the fortifications to resist the German-Dutch attack, and the two sides fell into a stalemate.

The Eight-Nation Coalition attacked Britain, and the most successful was the Chinese Empire.

Since the Chinese Imperial [***] team basically asked for islands and archipelagos with extremely important strategic locations, and the British garrison on them was not much, as few as 20 people, and as many as 200 people, so with the assistance of the Chinese Imperial Navy, the attack was extremely smooth. It successively occupied the British Indian Islands, the Maldives Islands, the British West Indies, etc.

During the attack on the British Singapore fortress and the two islands of British Cyprus, they met with stubborn resistance from the British army. However, after the Chinese Emperor [***] tried to attack, he found that the British army resisted fiercely, and the cost of a strong attack was too great. So he gave up the assault and chose to besiege rather than attack.

The tactics given by the General Staff of the Chinese Empire were to continue to blockade the British mainland, strike at the British sea life supply lines, and force the British to sue for peace and cede Cyprus and Singapore to the Chinese Empire.

This tactic quickly paid off.

By August 1906, the total number of merchant ships lost by Britain had reached 6,266, with a registered gross tonnage of 8.73 million tons, accounting for two-thirds of the total number of British merchant ships and the sum of the total tonnage of British shipbuilding in five years.

Britain finally couldn't stand it, there were no merchant ships in the country that dared to sail, British prices soared, before the war a penny could buy three days of newspapers, now a newspaper costs 20pence, soaring prices panicked the British people, the British economy was in turmoil, the financial system was about to collapse, and the British political axe had to ban the direct exchange of paper money and gold.

The overseas colonies were full of war, and the goods of the colonies could not be transported to Britain, and British goods could not be exported. There were no raw materials in the factory, and workers were laid off in large numbers. The shortage of materials forced the British political axe to adopt a military control and distribution system. Britain relied on imports of grain, wool and agricultural products from the colonies, and now that food was scarce and its citizens were starving, British political pressure was enormous, and it had to choose to compromise.

On August 17, 1906, the British Foreign Office finally put down its face and took the initiative to contact the Chinese Empire and ask for peace talks.

Yanjing, the Forbidden City.

When Wang Chenhao, the emperor of the Chinese Empire, learned that Britain finally couldn't stand it anymore and took the initiative to ask for peace talks, he immediately convened a pre-imperial meeting.

"Good! The British seem to be unable to stand it, and are finally going to succumb, what conditions do you think we should put forward? ”

Wang Chenhao asked the ministers with a happy face.

When they decided to go to war with Britain, they were all worried about repeating the mistakes of the Sino-British War of 1840. But now, they have the bottom of their minds, the Chinese Empire united with the other seven powers to divide the British colonies, this move has prevented the Chinese Empire from losing its reading power with the British, and at the same time, the Chinese Empire's war with the British has achieved remarkable results, and the British finally can't hold on.

As the prime minister of the imperial cabinet, Zhang Feng took the lead in saying: "The empire has won a complete victory in this war, and the benefits obtained are more than ten times the consumption of the war, even if we do not make any demands to end the war, we are all big winners." I think it would be sufficient for the UK to recognise what is provided for in the Eight-Power Convention. ”

Chancellor of the Exchequer Song Hanzhang said: "Isn't that too cheap for the British? The British are so rich, it shouldn't be a problem to pay billions in reparations. ”

Wang Chenhao suddenly rolled his eyes, and there was a black line. The ministers also sighed.

Song Hanzhang smiled: "I'm just making an analogy!" When Britain launched the Opium War, the empire compensated 21 million Mexican eagles, according to the purchasing power of silver dollars at that time, excluding the inflation of the past 60 years, 21 million is equivalent to about 90 million dragon coins now, counting the interest and the serious blow to the empire, the empire should ask for at least 500 million dragon coins. ”

Wu Tingfang said: "The British will definitely not do 500 million dragon coins!" 100 million dragon coins is acceptable! ”

Zhang Feng said with a smile: "We can just have a number of how much we will lose, and we will talk to them first." Asking for a sky-high price, do you sit on the ground and pay back? ”

Wang Chenhao nodded and said: "What the prime minister said is very true, first ask for a price, talk to them, and if not, it's not too late to reduce the price!" However, we can't fight Britain to the end. Now we have succeeded in pulling the Seven Great Powers into the chariot and creating a contradiction between Britain and them. After that, we should ease the contradictions with Britain, let Britain use its hatred with the other seven countries, let Britain fight with them, and we can profit from it. What do you think? ”

"Your Majesty is wise!" The ministers echoed in unison.

Wu Tingfang said at this time: "Your Majesty's strategy is really clever, and now the hatred between the Seven Great Powers and Britain is over, and Britain's overseas colonies are facing collapse. Now if the Empire is quick to negotiate peace with Britain and get out of the matter, Britain will quickly recover, and Britain's first priority at that time is not to go to war with the Empire, but to try to retake the colonies that have been divided by the Seven Powers. ”

"That's right!" Zhang Feng said: "The British colonies occupied by the empire are basically places of low economic value, and compared with the British colonies occupied by the other seven powers, the British must be more distressed and want to take them back." After all, Britain is a European country, and the strategy of long-distance friendship and close attack forced Britain to temporarily ease the contradiction with the empire and go all out to deal with the seven European countries. After all, the threat at home is the greatest. ”

Wang Chenhao nodded and said: "So when you negotiate with Britain, you must express our position clearly, and don't weaken Britain, because Britain is a pawn to contain the European powers, and our real purpose is to make Britain fight to the death with the Allied Powers or with the Entente, if they can make them fight infighting in the future, that is the real purpose of the Empire." ”

"Obey the Divine Commandment!"

Wang Chenhao's words were very clear, and the ministers of civil and military affairs naturally understood this truth no longer.

On August 18, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Empire, Wu Tingfang, met with Sir Sir Sir John Newelljordan, a British envoy who had come from the Imperial Palace, and both sides expressed their positions on their respective political axes and their willingness to end the war.

"Mr. Zhu Erdian!" Wu Tingfang said: "You should know very well that if you were willing to return Hong Kong to us, it would not have caused today's consequences. Therefore, all the responsibility lies with your country, and the Chinese Empire does not bear the responsibility for the war. ”

Zhu Erdian is now on the weak side, so he naturally understands this truth, so he said: "So we hope to restore the pre-war situation with your country and restore the reconciliation between China and Britain." ”

"That's what we hope too!" Wu Tingfang said: "However, it depends on the sincerity of your country. Now it was not just the Sino-British war, France, Germany, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Russia, Turkey, the Netherlands were all involved in this war, and we have to take into account their attitudes. ”

Zhu Erdian knew that Wu Tingfang was unwilling to negotiate peace easily, and the difference was that Britain needed to promise corresponding benefits to the Chinese Empire. So he said: "I understand your country's difficulties, and I also ask your country to understand our difficulties." If your country is willing to put an end to this war, our political axe is willing to take responsibility for this war. ”

Wu Tingfang smiled and said, "Since you said so, then I will give you an explanation." We are indeed willing to end the war on the condition that your country recognizes the present de facto occupation of British Australia, British Bermuda, British West Indies, British Cyprus, British Malta Islands, and British Singapore by the Chinese Empire, and compensates us with 500 million pounds sterling for the war expenses. ”

Although Zhu Erdian knew in his heart that the Chinese Empire would definitely ask for a sky-high price, he never thought that it would be such a lion's mouth.

"You don't have any sincerity in peace talks! This condition is really difficult for our country to accept! ”

Wu Tingfang didn't say much to him, but said: "It's better for you to ask your country's political axe for the privilege of plenipotentiary negotiation, and then we can talk!" Drop-off! ”

Wu Tingfang directly issued an eviction order, and the strong side was undoubtedly revealed.

Zhu Erdian was very unhappy in his heart, he came to China more than ten years ago, and the Chinese officials at that time spoke to him in a low voice, a living slave. But now, in more than ten years, China has been turned upside down, and the officials of the Chinese Empire can be so arrogant to the officials of the British Empire, which really makes him a little unbearable.

However, that's the strength. Zhu Erdian had to admit that the current Chinese empire was able to push Britain to a dead end, and it was enough to make Britain put down its noble head to sue for peace.

Leaving the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Empire, Zhu Erdian immediately reported the situation to Britain.

Soon, British Prime Minister Henry called Zhu Erdian back: "The Chinese Empire has choked the lifeblood of the British Empire, and we have to promise them that you can negotiate with them as much as you can." Your first priority is to get the Chinese Empire to end the state of war as soon as possible, and our supply lines must be restored, otherwise the citizens of the British Empire will starve to death. ”

Zhu Erdian understood that the breaking of the Chinese Empire was the most crucial factor in forcing Britain to bow its head.

(To be continued)