"Lin Chengting is dead?" Lin Zhe looked at the telegram in his hand, muttering to himself, a lot of things flashed in his mind, he had heard the name Lin Chengting countless times, but the funny thing was that Lin Zhe and Lin Chengting had never met, and they had always heard of their names but not their names.

Last year, Lin Zhe learned that Lin Chengting was seriously ill and couldn't last long, and even since last year, various forces have begun to compete for the throne of the new king of the Ning Dynasty.

Its Ning Dynasty, which is supported by the British and a large number of ministers of the DPRK and China, and the second prince who has the support of the empire and some military forces, although these two parties are still small children and have little influence themselves, but the major stakeholder groups behind them have already begun fierce competition.

Although Lin Chengting relied on recuperation and worked hard for more than a year, he still couldn't survive it, and now that Lin Chengting is dead, the Ning Dynasty will definitely set off some turmoil, and this heir battle is not only related to the political situation of the Ning Dynasty itself, but also related to the competition between China and Britain in Myanmar.

"We have already made a relevant budget for this before, and if conditions permit, we can immediately mobilize relevant forces to promote the second prince of the Ning Dynasty to ascend the throne!" Song Guan saw that Lin Zhe was deep in thought, and immediately took the initiative to speak!

"Oh, now that you're ready, let's do it!" Lin Zhe waved his hand and didn't say anything more to Song Guanqian.

The problem of the situation in the Ning Dynasty The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the military side have already begun to make relevant preparations a year ago, and the imperial minister in Ning is cooperating with Li Haotong to win over those neutral ministers of the Ning Dynasty, and at the same time the military troops stationed in Ning. A full 1,200 men had been replaced by the most elite field unit in the Imperial Army, consisting of five infantry companies, an artillery company, a cavalry company, a baggage company, an engineering platoon, and a military band. These troops formed a mixed regiment known as the 'Burmese Merchant Guards'.

Like any other foreign troops. Although these forces are nominally directly under the control of the military, in reality they are under the dual leadership of the military and local ministers, and local diplomats can directly order the troops stationed abroad to fight if necessary.

For example, although the detailed combat missions of the Imperial Army and Navy in Japan are under the internal jurisdiction of the Army and Navy, who to actually fight, such as when to bully a certain Japanese daimyo, is usually decided by Li Bocang, the Imperial Minister in Japan.

In these years, due to the constant communication, the distance is long. The diplomatic personnel of the empire had considerable autonomy and could even directly start a local war if necessary.

Usually the ministers of some chaotic or important areas, Lin Zhe will add a minister with full power for the affairs of a certain place, which includes foreign affairs and military affairs.

For example, Li Bocang, in addition to the title of Imperial Minister to Japan, he also had a temporary mission, that is, 'Minister Plenipotentiary for Japanese Affairs'.

The Imperial Army's Burmese Merchant Corps was originally relatively scattered and staffed by ordinary soldiers, but since the chaos in Myanmar last year. It was through rotation that the army transferred the above-mentioned troops from the front-line field units stationed in Yunnan and formed a new merchant protection group.

Previously, the garrison of the merchant group was relatively scattered, and some of them were stationed in the capital of the Ning Dynasty. That is, Mandalay in Myanmar, after the Ning Dynasty established its capital here, it directly changed its name to 'Kyoto'. The province was changed to Zhili Province. This name change was in accordance with the tradition of the Confucian dynasty, and the name of the capital was either Jingshi or Kyoto. Throughout Asia, there are many cities that have historically been called Kyoshi or Kyoto.

However, many people do it for the convenience of the name. At the same time, it is also to distinguish from place names such as Kyoto in Japan, Kyoto and Tokyo in Vietnam, and at the same time, the Chinese people also have a sense of pride in the country, thinking that titles such as Kyoto and a certain Beijing can only be used in the Great Chinese Empire, and it is inappropriate for other barbarians to use them, so contemporary Chinese people will still use the name Mandalay even in official documents.

In addition to the garrison in Kyoto, Burma, the Merchant Protector also has troops stationed in Lashio, an important town in northern Burma, and the rest of the group is mainly deployed in some more important strategic locations.

However, with the tense situation in Myanmar, the merchant group has begun to shrink its strength, and the main strength of the regiment is now concentrated in Mandalay.

In addition to secretly sending dozens of military instructors at Li Haotong's request and joining the Ning Dynasty army under Li Haotong's control, the Imperial Army began to invade the Shan and Wa regions under various pretexts last year.

Shan State and Wa State used to be part of China's territory and were administered by local Tusi. However, during the Qingming Dynasty, it gradually broke away from the rule of the Central Plains and became independent of the Outuo region between China and Burma, that is, the border area that did not belong to the rule of any one country.

After Lin Chengting entered Burma, he relied on strong military means to pocket these two regions, and after Lin Chengting established the Ning Dynasty, he wanted to directly include these two areas into the territory of the Ning Dynasty, but this move was strongly opposed by the empire.

You must know that when Lin Chengting entered Upper Burma to fight against the British army and the Gongbang Dynasty, the Imperial Army behind also followed and controlled many areas.

As a result, the Shan and Wa states became disputed border areas between the Ning State and the Empire.

When the Sino-British Treaty was signed, the empire forcefully forced Lin Chengting to recognize the independent and autonomous powers of the Wa and Shan states.

Thus, although these two states are now nominally part of the territory of Ning, they have great autonomy, and their tusi is hereditary, with full internal power and the ability to raise armies, but their diplomatic power is greatly limited.

In general, these two states can be regarded as vassals of the Ning Dynasty, or vassals with a very high degree of freedom.

Naturally, the Tusi of these two states were supported by the empire, and even the empire helped them each form an army of thousands of people.

These two states are still nominally vassals of the Ning State, but in fact they have long hugged the thighs of the empire!

As soon as the situation in Burma was tense, the two states were at the behest of the Empire. They began to increase their armaments for war, although their army was not much. But in total, there were more than five thousand people, who also used the retired 1858 rifles of the Reich. The commander is naturally all Chinese advisers, and the combat effectiveness is not good or bad, but it is still okay for these more than 5,000 people to be used as cannon fodder.

As for the Imperial Army itself, the troops on the Yunnan border have never slackened, as long as Lin Zhe gives an order, tens of thousands of troops can cross the border line, and then directly kill Mandalay or even Yangon.

After the news of Lin Chengting's death came back, the military moved quickly, and all the troops stationed in Yunnan had canceled their vacations. You can enter Myanmar at any time.

Of course, unless the situation deteriorates irreversibly, it is impossible for the Imperial Army to invade Burma on a large scale, and the protagonist in this chaos is not the tens of thousands of Imperial Army troops in Yunnan.

Even the Imperial Army's 1,000-strong merchant corps in Mandalay and the servant armies of Shan and Wa States were secondary, and their role was actually to prevent accidents, such as the British massacre into Upper Burma at such a juncture.

This chaos in Ningguo has to be solved by Ningguo itself, after all, this is a very typical battle for heirs. Even if it starts, it will be a civil war.

It's a pity that the top echelons of the empire are far away from Ning Guo and can't get too much limited information in time, at the beginning. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was able to receive telegrams from Mandalay, but from the next day onwards, they were no longer able to receive telegrams from Mandalay. Moreover, the information obtained from the British side shows that the British have also lost telegraph communication with the Mandalay side.

Very obvious. The Mandalay side didn't know which side it was, so they cut off the telegraph communication. It's very simple to cut off telegraph communications, and you don't even need to occupy the telegraph room, just cut the wires.

Without telegraph communications, the situation in Burma was now dark at the top of the empire, and at this time, all kinds of conspiracy theories began to emerge.

At the meeting jointly held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Royal Army, Xu Yanqing said directly: "Is it possible that the British are doing ghosts, and whether they have sent people into Upper Burma, so they cut off the telegram and don't let us know!" ”

"Yes, what is the situation in Mandalay now, we don't know anything now, in case there are any uncontrollable changes, then we will be passive, and it may even affect the strategic security of the entire southwest region!" It was the military who spoke.

"If you want me to say, what are you waiting for, immediately telegraph the front-line troops and let them enter Burma immediately, as long as the main force of our army arrives, no matter what happens, are you still afraid of overturning the sky!"

Listening to the words of these military generals, Song Guanqian felt a little contempt in his heart, these martial artists think about fighting every day, and they don't have to think about it, if the British really send troops, how can the intelligence officers of our empire in Rangoon not get any news.

Before the British sent troops, they themselves first sent troops to Burma on a large scale, and even if the British did not declare war on the empire immediately, they would at least mobilize in India, and then send a large number of troops into Upper Burma-for-tat, and at that time, China and Britain would be very interesting to fight?

Once Burma is occupied by the Empire, then the British India will be directly exposed to the Empire's troops, and with the strength of the Imperial Army, once it is under the Imperial Army, the British know that the situation will be very bad with their toes.

In order to ensure India's strategic security, any sign of the empire's advance into Burma would provoke the most violent reaction from the British, and the slightest mistake would be a large-scale war.

This meeting between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the army made Song Guanqian a little disappointed, the idea of these soldiers was not to support the second prince to ascend the throne, maintain a balance of power with the British in Burma, etc., they thought about directly annexing Burma, and then it was best to enter India.

At that time, these military generals will be able to have one or two more stars on their shoulders, and maybe there will be several more princes and nobles

And this is contrary to the position of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

This diplomat in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a lot to think about, and it is impossible for the military to want to start a war simply for the sake of expanding the territory.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs needs to take into account that once Burma gets out of control, and then leads to a direct war between China and Britain, and even a conflict between China and Britain throughout Asia, it is debatable whether the Imperial Navy can cope with it if they send a main fleet.

Even if it can be coped with, it will greatly affect the trade between the empire and the United Kingdom, and may even affect the entire international trade of the empire.

As the empire became more and more industrialized, the empire was now more and more dependent on foreign raw materials and industrial markets, and raw silk alone could bring tens of millions of dollars to the empire every year.

It can be said that as the empire participates in international trade for an increasing share, it becomes less affordable to cut off international trade.

Moreover, the share of trade between the Empire and Britain was so great that despite the Empire's efforts over the years to open up new markets for industrial products, such as Europe, Asia, and even the Americas, no matter how hard it tried, it could not bypass the British.

At present, the share of trade between Britain and the empire accounts for more than 40 percent of the empire's import and export trade, and this is difficult to change in a short time.

Therefore, the price of a complete break with Britain is too great!

Of course, this situation also existed on the British side, which also profited a lot from trade with the empire every year, and rashly clashed with China or even cut off trade, which was a double-edged sword, hurting the enemy and hurting itself at the same time, which can be described as killing a thousand enemies and losing eight hundred.

This can be seen from the fact that although there have been many conflicts between the empire and Britain in recent years, the two sides have maintained great restraint, and the high-level leaders of the two countries are actually unwilling to have a large-scale war at this time.

The ideas between politicians and soldiers are completely different, and in order to expand their territory and win the war, what kind of trade will they care about, just fight directly.

Back at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Song Guanqian asked the telegraph room if there was a telegram from Mandalay, but the telegraph room's answer made him a little disappointed: No.

In order to learn about the situation in Mandalay as soon as possible, Song Guanqian asked people to pay close attention to the news in Yangon, and ordered the imperial consul in Yangon to report back by secret telegram as soon as he learned the relevant news.

The consul in Rangoon also sent several secret telegrams to the Empire, mainly to report some relevant movements of the British, saying that the British in Rangoon had also cut off telegraph communications from Mandalay, and now the British troops in Rangoon had begun to mobilize, and had tried to send several river gunboats along the river to the north.

At the same time, the imperial consul in Yangon had already held two consultations with the local British, mainly to exchange information, so as to avoid information asymmetry and misunderstanding between the two sides.

For example, when the British sent river gunboats north, they notified the imperial consul in Yangon in advance, just to avoid misunderstanding the empire and thinking that the British were going to invade the Ning Kingdom on a large scale.

From this information, it can also be found that the current British and the empire are almost the same, they have lost contact with Mandalay, and they are nervous and at the same time maintain great restraint, that is, they are afraid of a misunderstanding, and then it will cause a war between China and Britain.

It's just that now the telegraph lines on the Mandalay side are different, and neither China nor Britain knows what the specific situation is on the Mandalay side.

At this moment, whether it is Nanjing or London, they no longer know that Mandalay is now in flames, and the sound of guns and cannons has resounded all over the city! (To be continued.) )