The winter wind is howling, the city is flying, and the snowflakes are falling leisurely in every corner of London.

In one of the study rooms in Buckingham Palace, the fireplace was blazing and the flames were jumping, baking the whole room warm. An old man over the age of sixteen is sitting quietly on the wide sofa, although he is wrapped in a velvet blanket and his hair is gray, but between the opening and closing of his eyes, a luxurious and heavy unique charm is like a wave crashing, rushing to his face.

He is Albert Edward, the eldest son of Queen Victoria, the maternal uncle of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and the most powerful imperial monarch on the planet.

Prior to this, although Edward VII was the first candidate for succession to the British king, his road to supremacy was not smooth. Because of his dissolute and unruly private life, the horse farm, the ball, the dining table and the woman's bed were the places where he spent most of the more than 40 years before he ascended the throne, so he was disgusted by Queen Victoria; In matters of state, Queen Victoria kept him out of the country until the last 10 years of her life, when he was allowed to gradually become involved in government affairs. However, thanks to this, Edward VII possessed great communication and oratorical skills, which made him extremely popular among the people, and within two years of his accession to the throne, he was supported and loved by almost all the English people.

After a slight knock, the door creaked open, and a chill poured in, causing Edward to twist his fat body a few times and wrap the blanket around him. After seeing the visitor's face clearly, Edward's face showed a hint of joy; He gestured to the sofa next to him with his hand, motioned for someone to sit down, and then smiled: "My Prime Minister Balfour, what news have you brought me this week?" ”

Balfour is in his early fifties, with an elegant face, many years of political experience and super trench attributes, which make him have all the external and internal conditions that the upper elite have. Hearing the king's inquiry, Balfour replied respectfully: "Your Majesty, there is news in Central Europe that is quite favorable to the British Empire. The German government rejected their navy's second naval law of building 28 new battleships in eight years, and froze this year's battleship budget; At present, on the slipway of Germany, only the keels of two medium-sized warships have been laid, both of which were built for the German Far East Fleet. Now, the British Empire could more calmly maintain the sea power and the standards of the two powers, and begin to capture the seafarers built by France and Russia. Speaking of this, Balfour couldn't help but smile slightly, and said, "For the first time, I felt that these savage men in the jungle could be so lovely; Yes, they do have the urge to beat them up on many occasions, but this is an absolute exception. ”

"What? You say that the Germans themselves rejected the second naval law proposed by their own navy? Edward was shocked to hear this, "My Prime Minister, it's not April Fool's Day, and it's even more incredible than Miss Lillian opening her charming legs to me!" ”

Balfour turned a deaf ear to the King's last words, saying: "Following the news from the intelligence services, our ambassador to Berlin has also sent back an official statement from the German government that the Kaiser has indeed rejected the enlargement bill made by his Admiralty. Originally, I thought that after the completion of the canal across the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, the Germans would set off a strong naval construction climax, so I prepared an additional 3 million pounds for the navy in advance to build ships for countermeasures; Now it seems that the money is not going to be used. ”

Edward nodded slightly, the look of astonishment on his face gradually receding, but the frown that had turned into a Sichuan character revealed that he still felt twelve points of doubt about this matter. After a while, he let out a long breath and said, "My God, this is not like what Willy did. How could this bad boy who was hostile to glorious Britain all day long, and who dreamed of taking away the Poseidon Trident, suddenly seem to be a different person? ”

Speaking of this, Edward's eyes suddenly flashed with a different color, as if he thought of something, and shook his head: "No...... I know Willie too well. This little German peacock, who has 3,000 suits of all kinds, always wants to fiddle with the brilliant feathers on his tail in front of the world; Coupled with his extraordinary love for naval warships and his extremely greedy thirst for hegemony in the world, it stands to reason that he could not have done this. I'm almost certain that this must not have been Willy's intention; And while the Germans are slowing down on the sea, they will certainly compensate for the accelerated pace of expansion in other areas. My Prime Minister, is that so? ”

Balfour showed admiration on his face, and said convincingly: "Your Majesty, what you said is not bad at all. The Kaiser had a very close relationship with the Minister of the Admiralty, Tirpitz, and he originally strongly advocated the naval expansion bill of 3.5 new battleships this year, but due to the opposition of Crown Prince Etter, the Kaiser temporarily canceled this decree and froze the battleship plan for this year. Whatever the purpose of this little guy, it did reduce the pressure on my British Empire to a certain extent. If the Germans really started building warships at this pace, then the Reich would be in a dire situation. ”

"Etter?" Edward's brow furrowed at the sight of this name, as the uncle of all of Europe, he certainly knew the young crown prince of the Empire of Moral Will; And at the various upper-class drinking parties where he mingled, he would hear the information of this guy who was known as the dream lover of all European girls from the mouths of many noble ladies and celebrities. In his impression, this guy was nothing more than a vase that made those deep resentful women lustful and fantasized, and he didn't expect that his most disobedient nephew, Willy, would restrain his greedy, arrogant, and mischievous nature for his sake this time. Edward made a mental note of the name, and then spoke, "I know it." However, with Willy's greedy character, it is obviously impossible to be satisfied with this status quo. Elsewhere, the Germans should have done the same, right? ”

Balfour nodded, "That's true." The Germans slowed down their expansion on the seas, but intensified their penetration into the Middle East, especially with the help of the Ottoman Empire. Three days earlier, the battleship 'Hayreddin' ordered by the Ottomans in Germany had been completed and handed over, and Germany took the opportunity to put forward a proposal to help the Ottomans extend the Eastern Railway from the current Konya to Baghdad and Basra, 2,400 kilometers away. The Ottoman tyrant Abdul Hamid II was originally a monarch who was extremely friendly to Germany, and the two previous visits to Austria by Kaiser Wilhelm had greatly deepened his yearning for the embrace of Germany; Now that he has the most powerful warship in the Aegean Sea with the help of the Germans, there is no reason to refuse such a railway artery project that would allow the Ottomans to modernize. If we had not intervened, the Hans would have extended their hands from Asia Minor to the plains of Mesopotamia and then to control the entire Persian Gulf. ”

Edward snorted and said, "I know that this guy Willy will not be satisfied with the status quo. In the interests of the British Empire, we must not allow these Hans to enter the Middle East! He sat up from the sofa with his half-lying body and spoke in a non-negotiable tone: "Since Willy's visit to Istanbul four years ago, the situation in the Ottoman Empire has changed dramatically, and the Germans have not only begun to export goods to this empire in large quantities, but also extended their hands to the army of this empire; At present, almost all of Hamid's hundreds of thousands of army troops are filled with arms and instructors from Germany! Add to that the influx of German goods into the Ottomans, and they are gradually squeezing our grip on the country; In order to prevent the Germans from reaching into the Persian Gulf and threatening India, we must stop them. Now that the Boer War is over, the South African question, which has been our biggest headache, has been resolved, and the Reich's attitude towards the Germans can be hardened again. ”

"But we are powerless to stop the Kaiser and Hamid from cooperating." Balfour smiled bitterly and said, "It is precisely because of the just-concluded Boer War that the image of the Imperial Army has plummeted internationally; We used more troops than the combined population of the two Boer countries, but the end result was 31 months of fighting, thanks to the opening of the British pound! The Imperial Army was 6 times larger than the Boer Army, but its battle losses were 6 times higher than that of the Boers, and the Army was a complete waste of existence from any angle and time period. Thanks to this group of guys who can make General Wellington crawl out of the grave and then die of anger, the voice of our British Empire in the world has been seriously reduced, and it is no longer possible to get Hamid to submit to it through coercion and intimidation as before. ”

"The army is unusable, but don't we still have the navy? The British Empire has the most powerful maritime power in the Mediterranean, and the weight of this stick should be heavy enough! Edward said with some dissatisfaction.

"Yes, this force can really make Hamid back down. But Britain had just gone through a bitter Boer nightmare, and the people of the country wanted a peaceful atmosphere; If an atmosphere of war is created at this juncture when the Boer question has just been resolved, it will arouse strong opposition from all circles of politics and business, which will be extremely detrimental to the government. Moreover, this is only the normal operation of German capital, and it does not constitute a reason for the use of force at all. Balfour glanced at Edward, and then said, "And more important may be the German response to this." What if we take a tough stance against them to the point of provoking them to reapply this naval law? Although the British Empire was not afraid of any challenge from the seas, it was true that there could be no more arms race with the Germans when we needed to clean up France and Russia first. If the Germans had started pouring their industry into the navy, the Reich would be in real trouble! ”

Edward said slowly, "So what do you mean?" ”