Li Yongji didn't go around in circles with Minister Wei Tuma, and he got straight to the point in his twenties, and directly said what he meant, so Wei Tuoma quickly understood Li Yongji's intentions.

"Your Majesty, are you saying that you want to join forces with us Britain to intervene in the American Civil War, recognize the Confederate States of the South, and fight against the United States of the North?"

"That's what it means." Li Yongji nodded, "Don't you think the United States is too big?" It would be nice for everyone to be able to divide into two countries, wouldn't it? ”

"I'm afraid it's hard for me to make decisions about this matter......"

"It's up to you." Li Yongji waved his hand, "Of course you don't say anything about this matter, but you can tell your Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, oh, and your Prime Minister, that if they are willing to cooperate, I can go to the army, and you only need to go out of the navy, help us transport personnel and supplies, and blockade the east coast of the United States." ”

"This ......"

"Of course, we can not declare war." Li Yongji smiled, "Just like you helped the Russians, we can also have a volunteer army." That is, on the surface, we do not interfere in the American Civil War in the name of the state, but what about it, we can organize volunteer armies, you know what I mean? ”

"I see." Wei Tuma nodded, "Since it is the meaning of His Majesty, I will pass your meaning back." ”

"Very good...... Ah, by the way, you can also sue your Majesty the Queen and Her Royal Highness. Li Yongji said, "Let's just say, if you are willing to join hands with us, then in the next process of amending the treaty, we can also sign some reciprocal agreements with you Britain that are more conducive to both sides, such as mutual recognition of each other's most favored nation trade, mutual recognition of intellectual property rights, mutual liberalization of investor qualifications in some fields such as mining, and so on, and even some technical cooperation is not impossible." ”

"Technical cooperation?" Wittoma's eyes lit up, "You kind of hayfall and aspirin. Can we be given the technology for these drugs? ”

"Well, to tell you the truth, I don't count." Li Yongji shrugged his shoulders, "Don't look at Bayer, I have a big stake, but the technology is separate, I can only sell it, but whether the technology can be given to you, I can't be sure." The only thing I can be sure of is to give you a little discount on the selling price, or a little more shipment. ”

"That's right." Wittoma nodded, "That about your ironclad technology." Is it possible to cooperate? If not, can you sell us one? ”

"Ironclad?"

"Yes, your ironclad ships without sails." Wittoma hurriedly said.

Due to Li Yongji's secrecy measures, Wei Tuma did not know about advanced technologies such as radio and automatic weapons, but he knew the scale of the expeditionary fleet, so the news of the annihilation of the whole army was too shocking, and even he chose not to believe it when he heard the news.

Facts speak louder than words, though. No matter how disbelievable he was, when he saw so many captives appear, he knew it was true.

As a diplomat, after confirming the fact of defeat. I quickly calmed down and began to look closely, and this observation did find a problem.

To know. When the prisoners were sacrificed this time, the Zhenyuan and the Gray Arrow No. 1 also officially appeared in front of the world, so Wei Tuma immediately felt that there was something wrong with these two ships. Especially the Gray Arrow No. 1, which was strictly concerned by him.

There is no other reason than because the Gray Arrow No. 1 has no sails, no chimneys, and no paddle wheels!

In the middle of the nineteenth century, it was already the era when scientific knowledge began to explode, and Britain had already begun the research of armored ships, but it had not yet formed a system and was still in the exploration stage, so it was very sensitive to new technologies.

At this time, although there have long been armored ships, but because the power of the steam engine is not enough, it has not completely gotten rid of the sails, if according to the normal procedure, at least 10 years later, that is, in 1873, the British made no sails, completely using steam power "Ravage" armored ship, then will open the era of full steam engine power, so at this time to see a battleship without sails at all, it is simply a torch in the night, conspicuous and abnormal.

In addition, although the propeller has appeared at this time, it is not even considered non-mainstream, and the practicality is very poor, at most it is a whimsy, so the so-called ship is to indicate the ship, and the name of the ship comes from this.

However, neither the Gray Arrow No. 1 nor the Zhenyuan have a bright wheel, but they can still exercise it on their own, which also arouses the curiosity of Wei Tuma.

There are also chimneys, and the power of steam engines is to burn coal, which must be indispensable chimneys, but none of the ships in the fleet of the Chinese Navy have chimneys, which also makes him feel very strange.

In contrast, he was also interested in things like rotating turrets, but after all, it was someone else's warship, and it was impossible to tell him these secrets, so he could only write them down quietly, hoping to send back to England what he saw with his eyes.

In other words, although he did not have time to ask the prisoners and did not know the real situation of the naval battle, he still saw at first glance that the victory of the Chinese Navy must be related to these two strange warships.

Of course, although he felt that these two ships were very strange, he still didn't think that only two such strange ships could decide the victory, so he felt that it should be the Chinese Navy that hid its strength, and the warships that came to the public appearance this time must only be a small part of the representative, but even if it is a small part, it is enough for him to see a lot of things.

Originally, he also planned to find a way to investigate the situation of the Chinese Navy, but now that Li Yongji himself said that he could cooperate, of course he had to bring this up first.

"Ironclad without sails?" Li Yongji thought for a while, knowing that what the other party was talking about might be Gray Arrow No. 1, so he nodded, "The vision is good, this kind of battleship is indeed infinitely powerful, but it's a pity that we don't sell this kind of thing to the right people." ”

"Your Majesty, with all due respect, you don't seem to be sincere." Wittoma frowned.

"Sincerity? Sincerity is mutual, Your Excellency. Li Yongji smiled, "Actually, we have a lot of other technologies that we can work with you." For example, ironclads, although we can't give you the warships in service, we still have second-class ironclad technology, and I think you will also be interested. For example, rotating turret technology. I guess you'll be interested. ”

"Rotating turret technology?"

"That's right." Li Yongji smiled, "With the rotating turret technology, the artillery can shoot at any place in the front, backward, left and right, and the battleship does not need to be sideways to fight, it can be headed forward to reduce the battle surface." Suffice it to say that with the technology of rotating turrets, the era of battleships became obsolete. ”

"Are you saying that with this technology, the era of battleships became obsolete?"

"Pretty much." Li Yongji continued. "To be honest, the reason why we were able to win this naval battle with a huge disparity in strength was all due to new ironclad warships and new tactics. As far as I know, although the Russian expeditionary fleet also had ironclad ships, their number was too small, and the combat method was still the old-fashioned first-line column, playing sideways row guns. And our battleship is head forward, using the superior fire of the rotating turret to attack, so that. Our contact surface is small, and your contact surface is large...... Well, I can't say the specifics, but this rotating turret technology is really good, yes. played a key role. ”

It's true that the rotating turret technology is a really good one, but it looks good, but it actually works. First of all, it is necessary to make a breakthrough in artillery technology, and it is necessary to increase the power and accuracy of artillery, otherwise. The power of the cannon can't keep up, and if you just have a rotating turret, it won't be very useful.

Therefore, Li Yongji came up with this technology in order to mislead them about the development of warships, and asked them to build armored ships in advance and abandon battleship tactics.

Once they do this, mass-producing armored ships and reducing the production of battleships, then with the current level of steam engines and metallurgical technology, the warships they build will inevitably not be able to sail long, and the ability to colonize overseas will be greatly reduced. At the same time, they will use all their strength to build ironclad ships, which will also take up a lot of steel, which is equivalent to wasting their production resources.

In fact, even if Li Yongji does not come up with this technology, at most in a year or two, Western countries will develop the technology of rotating turrets, after all, the threshold for this thing is not large, except for the problem of metallurgical process, it is mainly a conceptual problem.

Listening to Li Yongji's words, Wei Tuma nodded noncommittally: "Your Majesty, I'm afraid I can't make the decision on this matter, I'm just a diplomat, not a technician, okay or not, I'm afraid we still need our technicians to make an assessment." ”

"Yes, yes or no, it does require an assessment from our technicians." Li Yongji said with a smile, "Actually, I myself have another suggestion, that is, I hope to raise the diplomatic level between us, from the minister level to the ambassador level, and then, the two sides send ambassadors to each other, what do you think of this idea?" ”

"Great, of course it's a good idea." Wei Tuma nodded hurriedly, "If Your Majesty can agree to upgrade diplomatic relations to the ambassadorial level, it will be a good thing for both of us. In fact, we thought about it a long time ago, but at that time, your Qing government didn't appreciate it at all, so ...... In short, I think that the exchange of ambassadors is not surprising, and my Government is not able to ask for it. ”

"Very good, it seems that we can at least reach a consensus on this." Li Yongji smiled and nodded, then took out a thick large letter and handed it to Wei Tuma.

"What is this?"

"This is my handwritten letter to your Queen and Her Majesty, which contains my greetings and the specific benefits of interfering with the United States." Li Yongji smiled, "I have already had the content translated into English, presumably my true meaning should be clear, you just need to hand over the letter to your queen and prince, how to make a decision is their business."

In addition to my handwritten letter to your Majesty, there are also some photos in it, all of which are real photos of my army, so that your Queen can have a more intuitive understanding of my army, so as not to misestimate my strength. ”

"Oh, that's right." Wittoma nodded, "Indeed, I have also participated in your military parade, and I am also very surprised by your army, I personally think that it is indeed necessary to show your strength to the West, so that the West can re-understand the strength of His Majesty, so as not to have any misunderstandings again." ”

"Whether Westerners are willing to face us up to us or not, it doesn't matter, strength is a thing, isn't it?" Li Yongji smiled.

"Yes, strength is a qiē." Wittoma nodded as well.

"Oh, yes, I forgot to say it." Li Yongji said, "On the issue of US interference, whether you British agree to do it with us or not, we will do it ourselves, and we will continue to go to the French, Spaniards, and other Western powers that we can find to form a united national volunteer army." In other words, we have decided to intervene in the American Civil War, and if you Britain are willing to join our intervention alliance, then we will all get rich together, and if you don't come, then don't blame us for not informing you. Or, if you don't come, please don't hold us back, or your Indian colonies will be very close to us, and I think you will know what I mean. (To be continued......)