Winston Churchill and all the members of the Royal Council gathered in the conference room of Buckingham Palace, and the whole room was filled with an oppressive atmosphere.

Finally, the footsteps of a naval officer broke the oppression, and he entered the office, whispered a few words in the ear of the First Sea Lord, and quickly left.

Churchill asked in a deep voice, "What is the situation?" ”

"We have found no trace of Her Majesty the Queen, and there is nothing on the sea that can be salvaged."

"How can this be, Your Majesty will definitely float with your own strength," the Foreign Secretary's voice trembled slightly, completely lacking the calm style of the past, "It's impossible not to find ......"

"Maybe His Majesty fainted in the explosion." Churchill interrupted the Foreign Secretary, and he glanced coldly at the former Chamberlainite, "Your Majesty had just finished a day's fighting, had not eaten, and was much more vulnerable than usual, and this was probably happening." ”

After Churchill's words fell, the room became quieter.

Everyone's expressions were very gloomy, as if tomorrow would be the end of the world.

Everyone here knew that a retreat was imperative, and Isabella had died at this juncture, and if the British government chose to retreat again, they would face a storm of accusations.

It would be fine for parliamentarians who are probably aware of the situation on the continent to say this, but the people who have been kept in the dark and have always thought that the war situation on the continent is at least "indistinguishable" will surely set off a storm of opposition to the withdrawal.

And some guys with ulterior motives will definitely try to ride this wave to rise to power.

"After we are forced to resign en masse, the one who will come to power will probably be a soft persimmon." Winston Churchill said in a disdainful tone, "The last war broke the bones of too many people, and they were afraid that another big war like that would greatly shrink their fortunes, whether it was the House of Lords or the House of Commons, it was full of such people." They were anxious to make peace with the Germans, without thinking about what that would mean for the British Empire. ”

Winston Churchill thumped the table.

"If Napoleon had not been thwarted back then? Bonaparte's ambitions, the British Empire simply did not have its current position. If a large number of young people had not been resolutely sent to the battlefield in the last war, there would not have been the status of the British Empire for more than a decade. Those fools can't see that the world has reached the time to reshuffle, the last war was just a rehearsal, and now this war will determine the world pattern for at least the next fifty years! Winston Churchill took his breath, glanced at the people at the table, and continued, "We must carry on the war, we must defeat Germany, the destroyers of the world order, we may not be able to prevent the United States from becoming the number one power in the world, but the United States and us are separated by the Atlantic." At the very least, we have to make sure that the situation on the other side of the English Channel is still under our control. ”

"But now," said Ironside, the chief of staff of the Army, "we are not immune to the negative effects of the retreat." The masses will not agree to us withdrawing our troops when the Queen has just died in battle, and if we don't, those troops will be buried on the continent, and we will not be able to defend our homeland. ”

The words of the Chief of Staff of the Army made the Commander of the Navy and the Minister of the Sea frown together, but neither of them spoke.

Ironside continued: "The Luftwaffe can destroy our ports and other facilities, and today's battle has shown that it is very difficult for us to hold off the Luftwaffe attack with the Shenki alone, and we must be prepared for land warfare. ”

As Ironside's voice fell, the room fell silent again.

Just then, the door to the conference room opened, and the Queen's intelligence chief, who did not normally attend such meetings, walked into the room. He first glanced at Winston Churchill, the expression on his face a little hesitant.

"If it's important information, tell it in front of all the gentlemen." Churchill said.

"Well," the intelligence chief bit his lip, "our spy has just sent a telegram saying that Lin Youde has arrived in Hamburg this afternoon, and then he has set sail with a large retinue of the last remaining pilot ship in the harbor of Hamburg. The pilot ship returned from the North Sea after dark, and instead of calling at Hamburg, it sailed inland directly along the Elbe. ”

There was immediately a discussion at the conference table, and everyone looked at each other, exchanged complex glances, and talked in low voices.

"It's too coincidental, isn't it?" Churchill's lieutenant whispered to him, "It is unusual for the fleet to go to sea before an attack and return after an attack, and to have the de facto leader of the whole country go out himself." ”

"Maybe he went out to sea just to fish." Winston Churchill said in a voice that could be heard by everyone at the table, muffling out the whispers at once, and then he looked at the intelligence chief and asked in a cold voice, "That's it?" No more information? ”

"Yes, no."

Churchill nodded.

"Then you can leave, and in order to avoid unnecessary suspicion, I just reported that you had better let it rot in your stomach for the time being."

The Chief of Intelligence bowed to Winston and turned away.

Then Churchill turned his gaze to the crowd at the table: "I know what you're thinking. I have to admit that Her Majesty the Queen may indeed have been caught by Lin Youde, otherwise I can't explain this coincidence. But we have to be prepared in many ways, and if Her Majesty is captured, we have to have one set of responses, and if Her Majesty dies in battle, we have to be able to deal with both situations.

"In the event of His Majesty's death, I will announce the dissolution of the National Assembly, which should buy us a certain amount of time, during which time we can turn the tide of public opinion if we do well enough. In the event that His Majesty is captured, I will consider peace talks with the Germans, but we will drag out the peace talks, and the Russians will not sit idly by and watch this last chance to flank Germany with us slip away. ”

Winston Churchill paused, then added in a strong tone: "In either case, I will massively purge the pan-humanist forces in the country, and I will throw all their central figures into prison - no matter how famous and accomplished they may be; I'll burn their newspapers and printing presses; I will whip those who try to change the order and form of the country. ”

Churchill's final addition has clearly won the approval of many people in this room, who either already have a knighthood or will certainly do it in the future, and who certainly do not like the pan-humanists who want to destroy the old order.

At this moment, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly asked, "What if His Majesty takes refuge in Lin Youde?" What should we do in that case? ”

"Presumptuous!" The commander of the navy said loudly, "These 12,450 are impossible, and His Majesty has always been concerned about the British Empire......"

"No," Winston Churchill shook his head, his expression terrifying, "Your Majesty is indeed quite interested in Lin Youde personally, and they just met in Lille, but the two of them met, and His Majesty left Lille in a hurry, and then Xia Li happened?" It wasn't long before the Germans attacked Lille's fall to Germany, and the queen soon decided to take the ...... herself."

Churchill's face grew more and more gloomy.

The faces of the other participants were similar.

Churchill shook his head again.

"Let's wait and see what happens. In order to avoid being preempted in terms of propaganda, we will now inform the newspapers and ask them to publish the news early tomorrow morning that the Queen had 'disappeared' during the night raids of the German army. ”

The propaganda minister took out his pocket watch and looked at it and said, "Now tomorrow's newspaper has been arranged, and it is estimated that it will ......."

"Then let them print the number, in short, the people should get the news of the queen's disappearance early tomorrow morning, so that we don't have to carry a pot to hide the news, and it will be more convenient to deal with it later, and the people will have a foreshadowing in their hearts, and they won't feel too sudden."

Many old politicians at the conference table exchanged glances at this moment.

Foreshadowing? Foreshadowing what? The Queen's death in battle does not need foreshadowing, nor does it need to be captured, these things should have happened very suddenly, and the people would not have too much suspicion. Only the Queen's rebellion needed to be foreshadowed, because most citizens would not accept it immediately.

"Your Excellency......"

As soon as Ironside spoke, Churchill interrupted him: "I haven't decided what to do yet, I said, it depends, you know, it depends." We must fight the Germans to the end, and for the sake of the after-war, we cannot give credit to the Russians, for the sake of the future of the British Empire, we must fight to the end. ”

Ironside kept his mouth shut, while the two Royal Navy men looked at each other.

One of them was a close friend of Churchill, and the other was a former subordinate of Churchill, and they were both quite aware of the character of Churchill, who had spent the last war as Lord of the Admiralty, and knew that Churchill was not only a politician for the sake of the British Empire, but also a political animal through and through.

The characteristic of the political zhì animal is that, in order to be invincible in the ********, it will take advantage of what a qiē can use.

Everything in his eyes was made for struggle, and there was nothing else in his mind except calculation.

As long as there is political interest, Queen Isabella is just a card that can be played.

Of course, until then, he will accurately calculate the benefits and losses of a qiē to ensure that the card is used efficiently. So it doesn't matter whether Isabella defected or endured humiliation with the Germans, the key is how to use the card to get the most benefit with the least cost.