Everyone, you and I are all mouthful, and they naturally want to get a piece of this huge amount of money.

Whenever this happens, Wang Chenhao always smiles and says, "You go down to discuss, and tell me when there is a result." ”

This time it was the same, and the ministers took their leave, and went straight back to the Reichstag to argue.

In the face of questions from reporters at home and abroad at the subsequent press conference, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Empire flatly denied the looting of the Bank Street in Cape Town, and called it a slander against the British, and accused the British [***] side of deliberately looting the banks of other countries in order to retaliate against the Chinese Empire, and framed the Chinese Empire for its ulterior political purposes.

Since the bank street has been completely blown up, all evidence under the raging fire has been wiped out. When the Chinese Empire South Africa sent troops to withdraw from Cape Town, the British army immediately occupied the bank street and prevented anyone from entering, their original intention was to prevent the citizens from taking advantage of the chaos to loot the gold and banknotes under the ruins of the bank, the British army did not know that the Chinese Emperor [***] had robbed the Bank of England, so he tried to dig up the 900 tons of gold from the ruins. It wasn't until they dug into the underground vault and found no gold that they realized that the gold had been removed.

The wounded Churchill ordered the British army to continue to protect the bank street, in order to compensate for the loss of more than 900 tons of gold by the British, he hoped to take the opportunity to dig up some gold and banknotes from the ruins of other banks, but when the British army swore to dig up the underground vaults of other banks, they found that there was nothing but charred earth and rubble.

It was only then that Churchill realized that he had been fooled, and this time announced that the Chinese Empire had shamelessly ransacked the entire bank street. However, it was precisely because the British occupied the bank street for three days that other countries had reason to believe that the British had robbed their property.

On the two-kilometer-long ruins, both China and Britain could not get rid of suspicion, but soon Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Russia, the Netherlands and other major European powers all pointed the spearhead at Britain, and the political axes of various countries openly guided public opinion, saying that the Chinese Empire was innocent and framed, and the culprit was Britain.

"Damn Chinese politicians, they are so shameless!"

In the meeting room of the British Parliament building in Downing Street, Prime Minister Thierry Henry could not help but rant at an emergency cabinet meeting.

More than 900 tons of gold seized by the British Empire in the Boer War were gone, the entire South Africa's fiscal revenue last year was also lost by millions of pounds, and the world's largest diamond, which was to be presented to King Edward VII, was also robbed.

"It's so shameless!"

"It's infuriating! How can they believe in the Chinese Empire and not in our British Empire? ”

A group of cabinet members complained, and the conference room was filled with sighs and curses.

Henry asked Secretary of State MacDonald, "What do you think their purpose is when they frame the Empire in unison?" ”

MacDonald thought for a moment and said: "Your Excellency Prime Minister, I think that if you can make Germany, France, Russia, Italy, Austria and other major European powers change their tone at the same time in such a short period of time, the Chinese Empire must have promised them great benefits, otherwise it would not have caused this result." ”

Henry asked, "What benefits can the Chinese Empire promise them?" Can't we give them the plundered gold? ”

"That's impossible!" "The fact that the Chinese Empire has openly claimed that its plan to attack Cape Town has failed, shows that they will not openly rob us of our gold, and that it will not be possible to distribute it to other countries," said Foreign Minister Sadaoyi. ”

"And what other benefits do they promise?" Henry asked, puzzled.

MacDonald sighed and said, "If I'm not mistaken, the Chinese Empire will not give them benefits out of its own pocket, and it will definitely attack the Empire." ”

"Colony!"

Henry and Sa Daoyi almost unanimously expressed their conjectures.

MacDonald nodded and said, "The Chinese Empire is estimated to transfer part of the occupied imperial colonies to Germany, France, Russia and other countries in exchange for their support and understanding. ”

Sa Daoyi shook his head and said: "Impossible, the Chinese Empire will not transfer the colonial interests in hand to them, I mean, the Chinese Empire may unite with Germany, France, Russia, Italy and Austria to carve up the Empire's overseas colonies." ”

"How is that possible?" Henry and MacDonald were shocked.

"It's entirely possible!" Finance Minister Bao Niegen, who had not been silent, suddenly raised his head and said: "The imperial navy has been beaten to a pulp, and the main fleet has lost half of it, and it no longer dares to engage the Chinese imperial navy. The Atlantic Fleet of the Imperial Chinese Navy, their submarines blocked the Empire's sea life supply lines, and we lost more than a hundred more merchant ships this month than last month, and if this continues, the Empire's domestic material reserves will soon be exhausted, and they don't need to fight us, and a few more months of delay will be enough to bring the Empire to its knees. ”

Henry nodded, "That's right! The empire's industry is completely dependent on overseas industrial raw materials and overseas colonial markets, and at present, the raw materials needed by the empire's industry cannot come in, the goods for export cannot go out, the economy has been hit hard, and prices have skyrocketed. ”

Henry then looked at MacDonald and asked, "When will our new fleet be completed?" ”

MacDonald replied: "Prices are skyrocketing, the cost of building ships for the Admiralty is skyrocketing, and additional appropriations are needed. This is still secondary, the Imperial Navy's large-scale shipbuilding project needs a large amount of steel, and the domestic steel companies are reducing production on a large scale because they cannot obtain iron ore raw materials, and the supply of steel we need cannot be supplied, forcing our shipbuilding program to be extended. ”

"What? Still going to extend? Henry glared for a moment and said, "It's because the navy has no foresight that the empire is now in an extremely passive situation. No, it has to be done on time, or we're really finished. ”

"If you look at it economically, if we don't change the situation with sea transportation as soon as possible, the empire's economy will collapse in the next three months, and our gold standard will collapse in two months," Bauniegen said. ”

Henry exclaimed, "What? Is something wrong with our financial system? ”

Bao Niegen nodded and said: "Because of the shortage of materials, domestic prices are soaring, the people's confidence in the pound banknotes has begun to waver, coupled with the instigation of some unkind spies in the Chinese Empire, the current imperial people have begun to cash out gold on a large scale, and the gold reserves of the Imperial Central Bank are declining rapidly, and theoretically they can last for two months." ”

Sa Daoyi said suddenly: "I heard that during the war between the Chinese Empire and the Tsarist Empire, they secretly exported a large number of counterfeit ruble bills to the Tsarist Empire, which caused the domestic prices of the Tsarist Empire to rise wildly, inflation was serious, and finally the financial system collapsed. Then we need to be careful! ”

Bao Niegen smiled bitterly and said, "There is already a fake pound!" It's just that there aren't many of them, and the degree of simulation is only 70% level, which can be discerned by careful people. The current situation that caused the instability of the pound was caused by the blockade of the Chinese Imperial Navy, and as long as this problem was solved, the empire could completely wear down with the Chinese Empire, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable. ”

Henry sighed: "Speaking of which, in the end, it's all because of the Navy's inadequacy. ”

MacDonald also sighed and said: "You can't blame the navy entirely, if the imperial decision-makers had seen clearly the conspiracy of the Chinese Empire earlier and made preparations in advance, if they could have taken the initiative to put down their subordinates and abandon Hong Kong, it would not have become like this." ”

Sa Daoyi said: "It's useless to talk about that now! There are two paths before us, one is to continue fighting, and the other is to immediately make peace with the Chinese Empire and end this damned war before they resort to more shameless means. ”

"Report! The MI2 Intelligence Station in Yenching obtains urgent information from the German Embassy in Beijing. ”

The secretary's office urgently sent a report from the British Intelligence Service, and Henry opened it and was taken aback. Everyone took the information and looked at it, and they all showed horror.

On March 20, 1906, the Chinese Empire, together with the ambassadors of the German Empire, the Second French Republic, the Kingdom of Italy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Turkish Empire, the Russian Empire, and the Dutch Republic, held a secret closed-door meeting at the Yenching Empire Building.

The conference lasted three days, and the Chinese Empire proposed to the ambassadors of Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Russia, Turkey, and the Netherlands to form an eight-nation alliance to divide up the British colonies around the world.

After bargaining, the G-8 reached a consensus of interests, established an Eight-Power Alliance headed by the Chinese Empire, and secretly signed the "Joint Treaty of the G-8 Treaty on the Partition of the British Colonies by China, Germany, France, Italy, Austria, Russia, Turkey, and the Netherlands." According to the terms of the treaty, the Chinese Empire promised to be responsible for pinning down the main force of the British navy and covering the landing of the Eight-Nation Coalition forces in British colonies around the world.

The treaty clearly divided the territory of the British colonies among the eight countries, of which the Bechuana and Rhodesia regions of British South Africa belonged to the German Empire, and Orange and the Transvaal belonged to the Dutch and Dutch Boers. British East Africa, British Uganda, and British Abycilia were divided by negotiation between the German Empire and the Kingdom of Italy. British Somalia and British Sultan Fashoel were occupied by French troops, and British Egypt was returned to the Turkish Empire and occupied by the Turkish Empire. The Persian Empire, a British vassal state, was taken over by the Tsarist Empire, and in order to alleviate the contradictions between China and Russia, the Chinese Empire assigned the Gold Coast of British West Africa and British Liberia to the Tsarist Russian Empire, and the Chinese Empire would send the Atlantic Fleet to cover the landing of the Tsarist Russian expeditionary force in West Africa, and could even send marines to assist the Russian army in attacking the local British army.

The British territory of Rio de Oro was assigned to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was occupied by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. British Australia, British Bermuda, British West Indies, British Cyprus, British Malta Islands, and British Singapore were assigned to the Chinese Empire, which was occupied by the Chinese Empire alone.

The British Malayan Islands were occupied by the joint forces of France and the Netherlands, the British Papua was divided by the joint forces of Germany and France, and the British Suez Canal was occupied by the joint forces of the Group of Eight, and after the war, it was jointly administered by the Eight-Nation Alliance.

In the last paragraph of the treaty, the G-8 recognized the British colonies they occupied, and if there was a conflict of interest, it should be resolved peacefully within the G-8.

After the signing of the treaty, the G-8 pledged to send expeditionary forces to various battlefields within a month. The commander-in-chief of the Eight-Nation Allied Forces is Duan Qirui, a second-class general of the Chinese Empire, the deputy marshals are German Army General Varysi, and the French Navy Admiral Peros is the deputy commander, and the staff officers of the Eight-Nation Allied Forces Headquarters are two from each country.

The total strength of the Eight-Nation Coalition is 400,000 troops, not including the number of troops sent by each country alone. The coalition forces were only responsible for attacking the 300,000 British troops stationed near the Suez Canal area. The 400,000 allied forces included 100,000 in the Imperial Chinese Army, 100,000 in the German Army, 100,000 in the French Army, 30,000 in the Italian Army, 30,000 in the Turkish Army, 20,000 in the Austro-Hungarian Army, 18,500 in the Russian Army, and 1,500 in the Dutch Army.

The G-8 pledged that all of the forces participating in the G-8 coalition would be assembled in Jerusalem in Turkey and Tripoli in Turkey within two months, and that they would launch an attack on the British defenders of the Suez Canal from the east to the west and by the end of May.

Since the battlefield of the Eight-Nation Coalition is in Egypt, the Turkish Empire will be responsible for the logistics and transportation of the Eight-Nation Alliance, in addition to dividing 30,000 land forces under the command of the Eight-Nation Alliance. In return, the Eight-Nation Coalition helped the Turkish army to settle the British forces elsewhere in Egypt. To this end, the Turkish Imperial Government will mobilize 1 million people to serve as the logistics force of the Eight-Nation Coalition to ensure the smooth movement and supply of the Eight-Nation Alliance.

After the end of the secret meeting of the G-8 to jointly divide the British colonies, because it was top secret, the information obtained by the British intelligence officers was only the tip of the iceberg, and the specific content could not be obtained, but British Prime Minister Henry and others smelled a huge danger.

"What do you think they want to do?"

"The eight nations met in secret for three days, and after the meeting did not reveal anything, and the countries diplomatically incited their people to accuse the Empire of robbing their banks in Cape Town, and they were deliberately inducing their people to hate our British Empire, and I think they are going to take revenge on the Empire," said Sadaoyi. ”

MacDonald frowned: "The eight countries come from two major military blocs, and if they can reach an agreement, it means that they have gained far more benefits than the differences between the two sides. ”

"Oops!" MacDonald suddenly said worriedly: "They won't really be ready to divide up the empire's overseas colonies, right?" ”

Henry's expression was gloomy and he said, "This possibility is too big!" The Imperial Navy was defeated by the Imperial Chinese Navy, unable to maintain overseas colonies, and the Imperial Army was already small and scattered all over the world, giving them every opportunity to break through. They must have thought that we would not be able to hold our colonies without a navy, and that if the Chinese Empire promised them sea supremacy, they would be entirely likely to invade our colonies. ”

MacDonald slammed his fist on the table and said fiercely, "Damn, they're going to take advantage of the fire." ”

(To be continued)