Sino-British relations in 1868 were very complex and could not be judged by simple friendship or hostility.

In contemporary international relations, there should not be as complicated as the diplomatic relations between the two countries and China and Britain, and while there are many contradictions and conflicts, the two countries also have many common interests.

Contradictions and interests are entangled with each other, and at the same time, neither China nor Britain has absolute military confidence to crush the other.

The empire has a huge army advantage, but this army advantage is not unlimited, limited by the complex terrain of the tropical jungle in Burma and the poor logistics supply channels, in fact, the imperial army has seven or eight hundred thousand troops, but in fact it cannot invest too many troops in the direction of Burma, there is a limit of fifty or sixty thousand, and if it is more, I am afraid that it will launch a comprehensive war mobilization, and mobilize hundreds of thousands of people to help the army transport supplies.

In terms of the navy, although the imperial navy has launched the ambitious first phase of the five-year plan, but this plan has only been implemented for two years, and it will not be until after 1870 at the earliest, that the empire's first 10,000-ton battleship can be officially put into service. That is, the Tianwu (eight-year armor ship).

In addition, the offshore ironclad ship Bi Fang and a number of Zhenguang-class offshore gunboats.

And those unprotected cruisers, such as several old wooden cruisers, although the tonnage of these cruisers is acceptable, but the actual combat effectiveness is very poor, it is difficult to bear the heavy task of the decisive battle of the fleet, and can only undertake low-intensity tasks on auxiliary or secondary fronts.

The overall strength of the Imperial Navy in 1868 was not much stronger than that of the Imperial Navy in 1866.

The strength of the Imperial Navy would not be greatly increased until after 1870. Because in 1869 and 1870, the Imperial Navy will serve the two second-class ironclad ships Kuafu and Houyi, and the Chiyou will also be commissioned in 1870, in addition, there will be a number of fast cruisers and low-protection cruisers in these two years, which will greatly expand the scale of the Imperial Navy.

Only then would the Imperial Navy be able to have any hope of truly confronting the British East India Fleet.

After the defeat at the Pearl River Estuary in 1866, the British Royal Navy strengthened the East India Fleet. Although no 10,000-ton ironclad ships were still sent to the East India Fleet, there were as many as six second-class ironclads between 3,000 and 8,000 tons, and most of them were second-class ironclads of 6,000 or 7,000 tons.

And these warships of the East Indies Fleet did not affect the strategic superiority of the British Royal Navy in the Mediterranean Sea and the English Channel, you must know that since the Warrior, so far this year, the British have designed and built twenty classes of ironclad ships.

Note that this is not talking about twenty, but twenty types of warships, for a total of more than thirty. In recent years, the British have been stimulated by the Imperial Navy, the French Navy and even the Russian Navy, and they have vigorously promoted the construction of ironclad ships, and even the number of them is a little more than that of the original time and space.

Moreover, among the various types of ironclad ships built by the British, large-tonnage ironclad ships occupy a considerable proportion, there are six first-class ironclad ships of more than 8,000 tons, and there are as many as 12 second-class ironclad ships of 6,000 or 7,000 tons, and the remaining ones are mostly between 3,000 and 6,000 tons, and there are relatively few ironclad ships of less than 3,000 tons.

This is a big difference from the Imperial Navy. The Imperial Navy started late and was limited by domestic industrial strength. Therefore, it was difficult to build large-tonnage ironclad ships at the beginning, and it could only be expanded from 2,000 tons to 4,000 tons, and then to 5,000 tons.

As a result, although the number of ironclad ships built and put into service by the Imperial Navy in recent years is not small, the actual tonnage is generally small, so far. The largest tonnage ironclad ship that has been put into service is only the 5,000-ton Tianwu.

Therefore, in terms of naval strength, the Imperial Navy is still at a great disadvantage, although the Navy has put forward an ambitious strategic development plan, and has put forward tactical concepts such as blockading the Strait of Malacca. But in fact, if these tactical ideas were to be implemented, they would have to wait until after 1875 until the decisive battle fleet of the Imperial battleships and armored cruisers slowly took shape.

In terms of military strength, the empire does not have much advantage, but in fact the British are no better there, although they have the advantage of the navy, but the last battle of the Pearl River Estuary has proved that although the imperial navy is weaker, but it is not without resistance, this coastal China is not the British East India Fleet can come and go as soon as it wants, and if it is not done well, it will repeat the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary, and moreover, with the strong external attitude of the empire, even if the British East India Fleet won the naval battle, But in practice, it was also difficult to force the empire to submit.

In 1858, during the Second Opium War, the British and French fleets had absolute superiority at sea, and in the end it was not the landing force that was completely annihilated, after all, no matter how strong the British navy was, it could not grow its feet to land, and it was only the army that could land, and the army was fighting, and the imperial army was not afraid of anyone, and it was not difficult to have another battle of Wusong.

To put it simply, in fact, neither China nor Britain has enough military strength to completely defeat each other, and it is not even possible to bring the other side to its knees.

Otherwise, in 1866, the two sides would not have chosen to take a step back, so as to sign the Four-Power Treaty, and continue to fight, so that the other side would not have been completely subjugated.

In addition to the military compromise accident, the outbreak of war would cause both countries to suffer huge economic losses, which were difficult for both Britain and the Empire to accept, and anyone who dared to give up tens of millions of pounds a year in trade interests would provoke public anger.

Lin Zhe could go to war with a fluttering sentence and then indulge in the fantasy of expanding his territory, but immediately after the war, international trade would enter a depression, and hundreds of thousands of industrial workers would be at risk of losing their jobs.

What's more serious is that those silkworm farmers and tea farmers who provide agricultural products for industry will suffer huge losses, and no one will buy tea and silkworm cocoons, or the price will plummet, which will greatly affect their livelihoods, and these groups are not as simple as tens of thousands of people. It's millions, tens of millions, and if you don't do it well, millions of families will go bankrupt.

The contraction of export trade will also lead to a chain reaction, and no one will want coal and steel for industrial use, and the machinery industry will naturally follow the depression.

Eventually, the working class living in the cities loses their income, and the products of light industry, which are mainly marketed to the urban class, lose their marketability.

The above phenomenon can be expressed in simple words: economic crisis!

If Lin Zhe did not promote domestic industrialization, then the impact of cutting off international trade is not great. After all, the whole country depends on the sky for food, and the government mainly relies on agricultural taxes, so the outbreak of war with Britain will not cause any practical harm.

However, once it enters industrialization, while bringing huge benefits, then the risks will also become extremely large, and if you don't do it well, it will become a Great Depression.

Since the industrialization of various countries in the nineteenth century, economic development has been very rapid, and it is also at this time that large-scale economic crises have begun to appear, and they occur more frequently. There was a major economic crisis once in about ten years, such as 1857 and even two years earlier in 1866.

However, for the time being, it has not affected the empire too much, but as the empire's economy continues to develop, the scale of industry is getting larger and larger, and the trade volume with other countries is getting larger and larger, then it will become more and more vulnerable to the impact of international trade.

If war breaks out with Britain and then trade is cut off, the harm is even greater than that of an ordinary financial crisis.

So whether it's Lin Zhe or the diplomats of the empire. This has always been avoided, and now the most important thing for the empire is not war. What is needed is a stable environment to complete the industrial revolution.

It's just that the ideal is beautiful, and the reality is the backbone.

The current chaotic situation on the side of the Ning Kingdom has brought China and Britain to the brink of war.

But fortunately, both sides are quite restrained, diplomats on both sides. That is, Song Guanqian and Wei Tuoma meet almost every day, and there is nothing to say after this meeting, basically you threaten me, I threaten you, but just talk and don't practice.

Five days after the news was cut off from Mandalay. The atmosphere at the top of the empire is even stronger, and the military has even drawn up a detailed battle plan and submitted it directly to Lin Zhe, many military bigwigs, well, mainly the bigwigs of the army, such as Lin Chengfei, Shi Qingxuan, and Xu Yanqing, have entered the palace many times, and they continue to say what the British threat theory is in front of Lin Zhe.

It is said that once the British control Upper Burma, then the empire and the British will lose the strategic buffer zone, and then the British will directly threaten the security of Yunnan, at this time, they even ignore the semi-independent Wa State and Shan State, even if the British control the Ning Kingdom, but it is impossible to directly border the imperial territory, because there is also a Wa State and Shan State in between.

But what this group of people in the army said is to worry about the country and the people, and think about the strategic security of the empire, but aside from these false words, then it is a large number of army generals who are dreaming of expanding their territory and sealing the princes.

There are no noble titles or even hereditary titles that have been obtained from war exploits?

"These militants, one by one, are crazy, they only see that Burma is at their fingertips, but they don't see how much pressure our navy is under!" Lin Dabiao heard that Shi Qingxuan entered the palace again to meet the Son of Heaven, there was no need to guess, he knew with his toes that Shi Qingxuan was going to persuade the Son of Heaven to send troops.

Compared with the group of people in the army, who are resolutely war-oriented, the navy is resolutely anti-war!

Why? Because the current Imperial Navy is very hard, it can't beat the British East India Fleet, and when the war breaks out, their army will take down the Ning Kingdom and even enter Burma, it is estimated that it is not a big problem, but the Imperial Navy wants to hold the sea frontier for thousands of miles, to be honest, it is very difficult, if this one is not good, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Tianjin and other coastal cities will face a huge crisis, and then the people will point the finger at the navy, and even in the future, because the coast will be attacked by the British Navy, and finally forced to negotiate peace with the British. Then their navy is a sinner for the ages.

Even if the senior generals of the navy do not learn to play seppuku in person at that time, they will be shameless in the face of the Son of Heaven and the people, and it will be the lightest to resign at that time.

"They saw the opportunity, they would give up easily, now these people have entered the palace several times, we can't wait like this, it's too passive, in the afternoon, you will enter the palace with me, be sure to let the emperor know the difficulties faced by our navy!"

"Yes, the contradiction between the empire and the Yingyi is very big, I have no objection to fighting the Yingyi in the future, but I can't fight now, now our main fleet has not yet taken shape, and the pressure to have a decisive battle with the East Indies is too great, if we wait for a few years, then our navy will have a lot of certainty, and it will not be too late to fight again!"

Again, it is said that it also represents a general view within the Navy.

Admirals are also soldiers, and naturally like the army group, they dream of expanding their territory and then being promoted to the rank of knight, but the war they hope for is after 1870 or even 1875, when the main fleet of the Imperial Navy is formed, then the Imperial Navy will not fight whoever it wants, and then it will be the time for the admirals to reap huge military achievements.

Fight now? Is it possible to let the failure of the Navy serve as a backdrop for the success of the Army?

No kidding, the Navy will never allow this to happen!

For a while, because of the affairs of King Ning's side, the top level of the empire set off a controversy, and even the cabinet was divided into the main battle faction and the anti-war faction, and the navy and the army could be said to have completely parted ways in this incident, the army wanted to fight, and it was to fight now, and the navy resolutely disagreed.

In the past, although the Imperial Navy and the Imperial Army competed and there would always be quarrels in the annual military budget, there were no conflicting opinions on some major strategic directions, but this time, the contradictions between the Navy and the Army broke out head-on.

At the strategic meeting in front of the Imperial Palace, at the beginning, it was just a matter of arguing about Ningguo's side, but the army accused the navy of wasting tens of millions of military spending every year, but now this critical moment is to be a turtle with a shrunken head, saying that the navy's military expenditure is better to be given to the army, so that the army can expand its army by hundreds of thousands, and when the time comes, it will not take much effort to blow it into India.

These words made Lin Dabiao half angry.

Lin Dabiao immediately retorted: The army gets more than 100 million military expenses every year, if the navy had this money, it would have built a huge fleet a long time ago, and it is not a matter of words to clean up the East India fleet at that time, and your army has so much military spending every year, the north cannot be pacified, and the three Central Asian countries are also accounted for by the Russians, and even to solve the war in the Far East, they have to rely on their navy to raid Port Bide and several other Russian port cities on the west coast of the North Pacific, otherwise, your army is still crawling in the frozen ground now.

If your army is really that awesome, let's drive the Russians back to Europe first.

Before the war started, the high-level of the empire was in a mess, which made Lin Zhe quite speechless, these ministers don't seem to be so unreliable on weekdays, how can they all become shrews at the critical moment, and dare to scold at the imperial meeting. (To be continued.) )