In Dongjiaomin Lane, the British Legation shrouded in the gloomy morning light was as quiet as a petrified corpse.

Minister Dou Nale crossed his hands and squinted into the soft sofa in the living room, the few drops of liquid left in the porcelain coffee cup on the table glittered meaninglessly in the white light.

Mr. Dou Nale doesn't need coffee right now.

The bizarre earthquake, the strange colored lights, the unknown explosions, the noisy citizens, the military and police shouting over loudspeakers, and the urgent note sent at five o'clock in the morning disturbed the British Empire's envoy to China all night.

It's dawn, it's time to go.

The young embassy clerk, Brand, came to the gray-eyed minister and whispered in his ear: "Your Excellency, we are all packed. ”

Dou Nale nodded slightly, and shook his head unwillingly: "No, it's not that simple, cunning Chinese, what are they planning......"

"Your Excellency, the minister's wife said come down in a quarter of an hour, and the others can leave at any time."

Brand urged.

Dou Nale glanced at him dissatisfiedly: "My gentleman, then wait another quarter of an hour, sit down." ”

"If you don't mind, shall we sit down here? The Chinese military police in charge of the escort did not even see a shadow. ”

The speaker was a British Imperial Navy lieutenant in a snow-white military uniform, tall, handsome, and personable. Beside him stood an army major in a navy blue tweed uniform, with a round face, a wide chin, and a short and fat build.

"It's our brave Major Stinenor and Major Clinthey, and if you think the sofa here is comfortable, I'd be happy to let you ravage the leather and sponge."

Dou Nale replied with a smile on his own, nodding to the two British Majors who were military observers in the East Asian Alliance.

Stineau sat down upright across from Dou Nale and gave an elegant smile: "Courage is not enough, but curiosity is absolutely indispensable, and my greatest hope for coming here is to sail with the East Asian Combined Fleet - in the last moments." ”

"The last moment?"

"His Majesty the Tsar's Second Pacific Fleet is rushing here at full speed, and one day it will collide with the Combined Fleet, and it would be lucky to be able to stand on the flagship of the East Asian Combined Fleet and experience the final battle between the Steel Fleets. The previous wars, which we unfortunately missed, and thanks to the Treaty of Alliance, now we have a chance. ”

Dou Nale smiled strangely: "Have you ever considered changing your position, for example, standing on the flagship of the Second Pacific Fleet to experience the final battle between the two steel fleets?" ”

"I don't want to waste energy thinking about things that can't be achieved – I'm not interested in futile aesthetics. Moreover, the East Asian Combined Fleet—or rather, the Imperial Chinese Navy—is more valuable for research than the Russian fleet, which is full of uninspired and broken things. Have you seen those Ruixiang-class battleships with three twin twelve-inch guns? And aircraft carriers loaded with seaplanes and lifting facilities! My God, if not seeing it with your own eyes, is unbelievable! The Chinese have already far surpassed us in some ways! We must take advantage of this Treaty of Alliance to examine them thoroughly from head to toe to see what is even more surprising what is hidden behind their backs! And then, with the high level of science and technology and developed industrial energy of our British Empire, quickly turn the situation around! If it really doesn't work, I think we can also consider uniting the entire white civilization to completely destroy these yellow competitors, yes, competitors, they are already competitors, once any country has more advanced warships or naval weapons than the British Empire, it is equivalent to automatically becoming an enemy of the British Empire! ”

Stineau's sonorous and powerful speech caused Dou Nale to be uneasy: "Major, I think you have a tendency to be alarmist, indeed, the Chinese have some surprising and even puzzling things, such as aircraft, such as aircraft carriers, such as 'true Confucianism', 'neo-Confucian civilization' theory, such as 'human nature management' and 'macro-control economics', but they are still poor, backward and ignorant on the whole, and their export products are still mainly raw materials and semi-finished products. Their heavy industrial equipment has to be imported from our Western civilization......"

A voice jumping from the top of the stairs interrupted the minister's words: "Your Excellency, as far as I know, five or six years ago, China began to export a large number of high-quality steel products at extremely low prices, and Russia was once the most enthusiastic customer of China's high-quality steel products, so China's high-quality steel exports have suffered a great blow......

Dou Nale turned his head to look at it, and it turned out to be Slan Bernard, the owner of Yuansheng & Co. and the British secret intelligence agent in China, and the last time the information about Germany's seeking to lease a military port in Japan was obtained by this "British businessman who keeps to himself" through an insider's connections.

"Mr. Bernard, are you going to come with us?"

Brand asked.

Bernard replied with a slight hint of relief as he took off his hat to everyone: "Yes, in this kind of confusion, it must be the wisest choice to follow His Excellency the Minister.

Although he was slightly upset by Bernard's interruption just now, he politely beckoned him to sit down and introduced him to the acquaintance of the two majors.

"Do you have any news about last night's chaos?"

Of course, Dou Nale will not forget to ask Bernard, a "China expert", for information.

"His Majesty the Emperor has already moved to Tianjin, the members of the National Assembly and important members of the military and political departments are also being transferred there under the escort of the military police, and in addition, a press conference will be held at the Prime Minister's Mansion at nine o'clock, you should know all this, right?"

"Yes, that's all you know?"

"My insiders are busy escaping from the capital, and I can't get in touch at all, and now the streets are full of agents from the National Security Agency and special police officers from the National Police Department, so I won't do anything I'm not sure about. But I was intrigued by the fact that someone had seen a group of strangely dressed people with all sorts of strange utensils in their hands near the Ministry of Defense building...... But this is not much useful information, there are so many incredible things in this country, some time ago, when I saw with my own eyes a behemoth over six hundred feet (one foot equals 3.48 centimeters) passing over my head, I could even feel the hand of God's creation caressing the back of my head! ”

Army Major Krinthi interjected with interest: "Mr. Bernard is talking about airships, right?" I was so fascinated by that thing that I heard that the monster could fly 1,600 kilometers with five tons of bombs in one go! Think about it, if we can build this monster en masse, the fate of Paris and Berlin will be decided by us! Hundreds of airships filled the sky densely, and hundreds of tons of ZHA medicine were thrown on the Arc de Triomphe or the Brandenburg Gate in one go, can this not make people's blood boil? Everyone, imagine a British Empire that controls both the sea and the sky, and who else can challenge the hegemony of the great sun that never sets! ”

Rear Admiral Stino, however, was far less optimistic: "Chinese! Be wary of the Chinese! Because this monster was first created by the Chinese after all! If they can create this kind of monster, they should also be able to create another kind of monster that is also jaw-dropping. I advise you, don't trust the cunning Chinese, we must plan in advance, and unite the forces of the entire white civilization world before this yellow alliance established by the Chinese has the ability to swallow our global empire, and completely destroy them in infancy! ”

Bernard nodded in agreement: "I've been thinking about it lately, China, no, the entire East Asian Union is actively carrying out the process of industrialization, they use our free trade to make themselves stronger, and gradually grab our markets and raw materials as competitors, and more importantly, their products are cheaper and of better quality, and in the future, the entire white civilization will feel their pressure!" This is no longer a question of state to state, it is a question of racial dominance, who controls whom, who serves whom, who supplies raw materials and digests products for whom, this is an existential jihad between East and West! If we sit idly by, in a few years, India will be our future, and we will be China's future! ”

Dou Nale looked displeased: "So, are you dissatisfied with the Sino-British alliance treaty signed by me?" ”

Bernard said: "Your Excellency, we are discussing the fate and future of the British Empire, no, not only the British Empire, but the entire Christian civilization, the entire Caucasian civilization, and the dominance of the world!" China's sleeping lion is slowly waking up, its claws threatening the world, and it will repeat the nightmare of the Mongols ravaging the lands of Europe! The entire civilization of the world must unite and slaughter it in one fell swoop before it puts its claws on our throats! I know that Your Excellency does not have a good opinion of the Germans, but at present we have no fundamental conflict of interest with Germany, Germany is not in a position to threaten our overseas colonies, but China can, China's huge army will rush into Burma at any time, invade India, and if they want, the whole Indochina Peninsula will become their meal! Note that the East Asian Alliance has more than a quarter of the world's population, and according to European conscription standards, they can conscript hundreds of millions of people into the army, think about it, an army of 100 million people! We'll be gnawed by them until we don't have a bone left......"

"Who will be gnawed by whom to the bone?"

The minister's wife, who appeared at the top of the stairs with a delicate handbag, unconsciously interrupted the conversation, which had just begun to smell of gunpowder.

A military attache of the embassy also happened to rush up: "Your Excellency, the Chinese police in charge of escorting have arrived at the gate of the embassy. ”

Dou Nale got up with a smile and said, "Gentlemen, it's time to go, and when we settle down, let's continue this interesting discussion." ”

Yes, it's time to go.