After a five-day voyage, Xu Jie and Vittorio finally set foot on British soil in Portsmouth, surrounded by as many as a dozen bodyguards and service personnel. And the British Admiralty also greeted Xu Jie and his party from afar at the port.

"Hello Mr. Xu, I'm Lieutenant Commander of the Royal Navy, John Jericho. Welcome to the UK with your friends. The visitor introduced himself.

"Hello, Major Jericho." Xu Jie replied habitually. Wait, Jericho? That legendary Admiral Jericho who commanded the Battle of Jutland?! No way? I've met a big guy. After reacting, Xu Jie was suddenly a little ecstatic. This flattered John Jericho a little. As for it? I'm just a major.

In the days that followed. Accompanied by Jericho, Xu Jie and his entourage visited London's famous sights and attractions during the day, and at night, they participated in various cocktail parties and pies. As for Xu Jie himself, he shirked various invitations under the pretext of work and was busy in the hotel alone.

Just when Xu Jiewo was racking his brains in the hotel to get on the line with Xue Fucheng, during the drinking party, a group of Japanese people and Vittorio hooked up.

"Excuse me, are you the Vittorio designer of the ** Design Bureau?" A Japanese man with a German-style beard asked respectfully.

"Yes, may I ask who you are?" Vittorio asked.

"We are Aoki Shuzo, the Imperial Japanese Minister to the United Kingdom. This is my retinue, Nishikujo-kun. The visitor said with a smile.

"Excuse me, what do you want me to do?" Vittorio was curious.

"There's a lot of people here, can we change places?" With that, Shuzo Aoki led Vittorio to a room next to the hall. And in the distance, in some secluded corner, an Englishman wrote down what he saw.

"Okay, it's quiet enough here, just talk about it, my time is precious." Vittorio said dissatisfied.

"I have admired Your Excellency's name for a long time, the **-class cruiser designed by Your Excellency is really excellent." Aoki Shuzo said respectfully. Nishikujo, on the side, placed a check on the table.

"Want a **-class dome cruiser? Please contact the Italian Admiralty for this, we don't even have a complete set of drawings inside the design bureau, I can't do anything about it. Vittorio said with a helpless wave of his hand.

"No, no, no, we don't want to order a **-class cruiser, and we don't want your Excellency to be a spy. I just want you to help us design a new class of dome cruisers. Nishikujo said with a smile.

"I know that you have signed a contract with your Chinese partner, and the relevant information of the **-class cruiser cannot be sold to the Japanese Empire. But we just want you to design a new ship, and I think that even if you are a partner, you can't say that you can't design your own warships for the Japanese Empire, right? There was a hint of cunning in Aoki's eyes.

"It's really yours, in this way, if I design a new battleship for the Japanese, it will inevitably use some first-class designs on it, even if Xu Jie finds out, there is not enough evidence to accuse me. This Japanese is not simple. Vittorio thought.

"It's a cheque for £10,000 and it's just a deposit. If you can do it, we'll pay you an additional £20,000, and the Empire of Japan will pay you an additional £1.5 per tonne for each dome cruiser of this type. What do you think? As far as I know, even if the **-class cruisers are on sale. You've only barely made £50,000, have you? Aoki Zhou said in a dark voice.

"Well, this gain is really objective, but IMHO. The design idea of the **-class cruiser was proposed by Xu. Opinions on the layout of important cabins were also his thoughts. I think it's hard to surpass it at my current level. Although he was overwhelmed by the huge financial benefits, Vittorio said "modestly".

"I believe in your competence, you may consider it, and we look forward to your reply. If you want, we can also negotiate the price. Shuzo Aoki said.

"Okay, if I can, I'll send someone to contact your embassy." After a brief period of hesitation, Vittorio could not resist the temptation of a large sum of money.

"May we have a happy cooperation." Shuzo Aoki said with a smile.

"Cheers." Vittorio excitedly touched his glass with Shuzo Aoki.

On the horse-drawn carriage galloping in London at night, Nishikujo asked a little depressedly, "Is our bid for the Italians too high?" ”…,

"Is it high? Not at all, you know, as early as five years ago, Sir White could charge a fee of £2 per ton from each warship, and this ship was very much appreciated by even Mr. White. £1.5 per tonne I think is still very cheap. Aoki Shuzo smiled slightly.

"And more importantly, it is possible to separate Vittorio from the Chinese who is hostile to the Japanese Empire, this matter must not be hidden, I think even if the Chinese will not be separated from Vittorio because of this matter, and after they have a grudge against each other, the cooperation between them is estimated to have no results." Aoki Shuzo said with a somewhat gloomy face.

"In other words, as long as Vittorio agrees to build ships for Japan, we will already make a profit?" Nishikujo said with a sudden realization.

"I think Sir Watts of Armstrong Shipyard will be very interested in this, and it will definitely not be a problem to sell it for a good price." Aoki Shuzo said with a laugh.

At the same time, in a house of the British Admiralty, an Englishman handed a piece of paper to Sir Hamilton.

"Is the information reliable?" Sir Hamilton put his pipe down and said.

"Absolutely reliable, our personnel can hear it clearly through the brass pipes installed in the walls, and Vittorio has agreed in principle to put aside Xu to design a warship for the Japanese alone, and those monkeys from the East are actually asking for as much as 30,000 pounds." The middle-aged man couldn't help but pout.

"Those Japanese people are still very discerning." Sir Hamilton had a word of praise for the Japanese. "But the Italian was too short-sighted. Is that Chinese designer worth a mere £30,000? Sir Hamilton sneered.

"So what do we do next?" The middle-aged man asked.

"Keep tracking, but don't get in the way. If the Japanese are having some difficulty paying, we can help them. Then put that information together. Sir Hamilton thought for a moment and said.

After that middle-aged Englishman left Sir Hamilton's office. Colonel Fisher came out of the back room.

"It seems that the genius designer and the Italians are not working closely together." Seeing Fisher, Sir Hamilton said with a smile.

"If Mr. Xu knows about this matter, I think it will directly lead to the split of the design bureau." Fisher also said with some excitement.

"And more importantly, now that Xu is in England, as long as he himself wants, we can dig him into the design bureau of our British Empire, and those Italians who are far away in the Mediterranean can do nothing no matter how annoyed they are." Hamilton nodded slightly.