In the British Prime Minister's Office at 10 Downing Street in London, England, the Marquis of Lansdowne, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, heard that the British Secretary of the Navy Campbell was preparing to form a huge expeditionary fleet, including 6 newly built old man-class all-steel battleships, 6 Majestic-class all-steel battleships, 10 ironclad battleships, 12 large fast armored cruisers, and a large number of fast protection cruisers, destroyers and torpedo boats, and couldn't help frowning and worriedly said: "Campbell, we have transferred so many warships, In particular, 6 Majestic-class all-steel battleships were transferred, so didn't our home fleet become very weak? We should consider the threat to our British homeland, which is a very strong German navy in Europe. ”

Campbell said helplessly: "I have tried to draw as few all-steel battleships as possible from the home fleet, only 4 Majesty-class battleships from the various fleets on the mainland, and the other 2 Majesty-class battleships from the Americas and Australia, so that we still have 8 Majesty-class all-steel battleships on our homeland." There is no way to do this, Lin Daxin's Northeast Navy has a large number of all-steel battleships that have captured Italy, France, Russia and the United States, and according to our intelligence, the entire Northeast Navy has 28 all-steel battleships. It was in the naval battle not so long ago that 2 ships were sunk. The Northeast Navy still has 26 all-steel battleships, and our British Navy wants to have an advantage. It is only possible to draw as much as possible a large expeditionary fleet. ”

British Prime Minister Salisbury frowned when he heard that so many warships had to be transferred, knowing that Britain had always regarded the Germans as its greatest potential enemy.

The German Navy has developed rapidly in the naval arms race in recent years, and the German Navy already has 4 Brandenburg-class all-steel battleships, 10 Frederick III-class all-steel battleships, and 10 Wiecchelsbach all-steel battleships, adding up to 24 of the most advanced all-steel battleships of the German Navy, and there are 10 more enlarged and improved versions of the Braunschweig-class all-steel battleships under construction in German shipyards.

The German Navy's 10 Braunschweig-class all-steel battleships will enter service with the German Navy next year. Then the Germans will have a huge navy of 34 all-steel battleships next year, which is already a great threat to the powerful British Navy.

Moreover, the Germans did not have so many overseas colonies, and most of the warships remained in Europe, so the threat to the British mainland was even greater.

Salisbury pondered for a while and said: "Campbell, we can't ignore the German factor, the four majestic all-steel battleships on the mainland should not be transferred to the expeditionary fleet, and the other warships should also be withdrawn less. ”

Campbell said embarrassedly: "But with the strength of the Northeast Navy, we will not send a powerful expeditionary fleet to merge with the Asian fleet. We simply cannot afford to engage in a large-scale naval battle with the Northeast Navy. ”

Salisbury explained: "Our purpose this time is just to teach Lin Daxin a lesson, not to fight to the death with his Northeast Navy, after all, if the Royal Navy loses too much in the battle with the Northeast Navy, it will make the Germans wake up with laughter in their dreams." We, the British Army, will not fight with Lin Daxin's troops in Asia this time. ”

After a pause, Salisbury continued: "I think it is a very good plan to join forces with the Japanese navy. Japan's navy still had 16 all-steel battleships after the recent naval battle. Moreover, there are 8 all-steel battleships of the majestic class inside, and our British Navy only needs to cooperate with the Japanese Navy. The hard battle should be left to the Japanese, and we only need to help the Japanese ensure sea supremacy, and it is best to let the Japanese and Lin Daxin's Dingbei Army fight for defeat on land. Of course, the expeditionary fleet still has to be sent, and it is necessary to put pressure on Lin Daxin to unconditionally accept the three demands put forward by our British Empire. ”

As the British Secretary of the Admiralty, Campbell listened to Prime Minister Salisbury say this, and then nodded, it is also what Campbell likes to see if he can draw less local warships and let the home fleet face the navy of the Germans in Europe.

And Campbell listened to Prime Minister Salisbury's meaning, this time Britain did not want to start a full-scale war with Lin Daxin, but just wanted to teach Lin Daxin a lesson, let Lin Daxin accept the withdrawal of troops from South Africa, compensate for the losses of the British Army, and publicly apologize to the British Empire, these three requirements.

Salisbury's subsequent remarks confirmed Campbell's speculation.

Salisbury turned to the Marquis of Lansdowne, the deputy minister of the Foreign Office, and said: "Let the Japanese contact the Japanese and tell the Japanese that our British Navy is willing to work with the Japanese Navy to escort the Japanese transport ships, and to maintain the smooth sea passage of the Japanese, so that the Japanese can ensure the supply of ammunition and supplies for their army." ”

Then Salisbury said to Campbell: "The Admiralty wants to tell the fleet in Asia and the fleet that is about to go on an expedition, our British Navy is not going to fight to the death with the Northeast Navy under Lin Daxin this time, our purpose is to teach Lin Daxin a lesson, our British Navy, as long as we help the Japanese to protect the sea supply channel, it will bring Lin Daxin a lot of trouble, try not to engage in a large-scale exchange of fire with the Northeast Navy." ”

Campbell asked: "If our British Navy escorts Japanese transports, and the Northeast Navy attacks the convoying fleet, do we have the right to fire?" ”

Salisbury nodded and said, "Then work with the Japanese Navy to teach the Northeast Navy a hard lesson to the Far East military strongman Lin Daxin!" ”

On September 27, Prime Minister Hirobumi Ito hurriedly came to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, saw Emperor Meiji and said with a happy face: "Your Majesty the Emperor, great joy!" Great news! ”

Emperor Meiji has been very depressed because of a series of bad news in the past few days, and yesterday he executed a palace attendant because of a trivial matter.

I didn't expect that Japan had carefully planned and prepared for a war for 4 years, only in the early stage of the attack on the forces under Lin Daxin, and some achievements were made, and then there was the defeat of the Japanese Navy's combined fleet, the plan to occupy Sakhalin Island was aborted, and the third batch of landing troops of the Japanese Northern Dispatch Army was severely damaged, and more than a dozen divisions of the Northern Dispatch Army of Japan that had landed were facing the danger of being cut off by the sea passage, and this series of bad news made Emperor Meiji doubt that he chose to fight with Lin Daxin now, is not the right decision.

Emperor Meiji asked with a puzzled expression, "Good news?" What's the good news? "There have been no major operations in the Japanese army and navy recently, so I don't know what good news there is.

Ito Hirobumi said urgently: "His Majesty the Emperor, it's British!" The British are willing to join forces with us against Lin Daxin, this is an agreement sent by the British minister to Japan, and if Japan agrees to this agreement, the British Navy will work with our Japanese Navy Combined Fleet to escort our transport ships to the Far East Province and South Korea. ”

Hirobumi Ito then handed a piece of paper to Emperor Meiji.

"And such a good thing!" Emperor Meiji was surprised to accept the agreement that the British wanted to sign with Japan.

The agreement said that in order to maintain the long-standing friendship between Britain and Japan, during the conflict between Japan and Lin Daxin, the British Royal Navy will send warships to carry out joint escort with the Japanese Navy on the transport ships transporting personnel, weapons, ammunition and materials, and the Japanese Navy.

But the British Royal Navy would not take the initiative to attack the Northeast Navy, their task was only to escort ships, so Japan needed to pay the British a symbolic escort fee.

Emperor Meiji looked at the cost of the escort demanded by the British, which was really only symbolic, asking for only 50,000 pounds.

Emperor Meiji was immediately pleasantly surprised, but he asked in wonder, "Ito-kun, why is this the British?" This is tantamount to helping us deal with Lin Daxin in vain! ”

Ito Hirobumi said with a smile: "I learned from the British minister in Japan that Lin Daxin's arrogant guy actually took the initiative to provoke the British, he sent a unit known as the South African Volunteer Army, to South Africa thousands of miles away, to help the South African Boers and the British Army fight, bringing a lot of losses to the British Army in South Africa, the British are with our hands, to teach Lin Daxin, this is also that Lin Daxin asked for himself, but for our Japanese Empire, it is a great news." ”

When Emperor Meiji heard this, he waved his fist excitedly and said, "That Lin Daxin is arrogant!" There is a saying that if God wants it to perish, he must first make it mad! That Lin Daxin had just defeated the Russians, so he didn't know how many catties and taels he had, and he would go to trouble the British, hahaha, this is really Amaterasu's blessing! ”

Ito Hirobumi continued: "Although the British are not prepared to formally engage in war with Lin Daxin this time, but in order to leave a profound lesson to Lin Daxin this time, not only will the British fleet in Asia help us escort the Japanese transport ships, but the British will also send a large expeditionary fleet from the mainland to Asia to join the escort ranks." (To be continued......) R1071