At 10 Downing Street, the British cabinet is already in chaos.

"The information from the Americans, everyone looks at it, what do you think about it directly?"

Prime Minister Belfort put a telegram in front of everyone.

According to information from the Americans, the mighty British Far East Fleet was wiped out and, in just two hours, completely annihilated.

The U.S. battleship USS Illinois went to the center of naval warfare to confirm this information, and the U.S. government conveyed the news to the British.

The attitude of the Americans is very simple, watching the excitement is the first thing, and the other is to ridicule the British, and it is better to further expand the scale of this war.

Having lost all the main forces of the Far Eastern Fleet, not only could Britain's interests in the Far East not be guaranteed, but even India's interests were under great threat.

Britain in this period, in the ranking of all fleet powers, the Far Eastern Fleet was second only to the Portsmouth Fleet and the Home Fleet, while the Indian Fleet was one of the last fleets.

The Indian fleet had only two battleships, and they were all old battleships, and they all needed to rely on the Far Eastern Fleet for everything.

And the reason why Britain strengthened the Far East Fleet was also because of the increasingly obvious factors of Russia's strategic intentions in the east, otherwise there would be no need for the British to support Japan to fight Russia.

However, there has been such a change in Southeast Asia, and the British, who thought they were absolutely sure, accidentally fell into the sand, how is this good?

No one will be able to answer Balfour's question, resign, and apologize to the Queen and the entire British population? Or will the war be expanded and all opponents who dare to provoke Britain will be crushed to pieces?

Balfour didn't know what choice he should make, especially if this information was true, it would be an absolute disaster for Britain.

"Bang!" In the silence of the conference room, Balfour slapped his palm on the table and shouted at everyone present: "All speak their minds." ”

"Your Excellency, the truth of this matter is unknown, maybe it is a conspiracy of the Americans......"

Before the man could finish speaking, he was violently interrupted by Belfour: "Bastard, what kind of conspiracy is this, where did it come from until now, how can the Americans use such fake news to deceive us." ”

The furious Balfour knew very well that since the United States dared to report the news to the British, the Americans were sure to guarantee the accuracy of the news.

Balfour had no extravagant hopes from the start, that it would be a fake news, and that only naïve fools would consider that unrealistic possibility.

"Your Excellency Prime Minister, if this matter is true, then with all due respect, the immediate reformation of the Far East Fleet must make Fan Yize's blood debt repaid."

"Sending a fleet to the Far East, from the itinerary to the preparation time, it will take at least more than a month, and in this time, I am afraid that most of our colonies in the Far East have been occupied by Fan Yize."

"We still have a strong army, and we will definitely be able to salvage the situation."

"Can an army without a navy be counted on?"

"The army of the Far East, capable of dealing with the colonies, but can it deal with an enemy who can easily defeat the Dutch?"

"Why don't you keep fighting? Let the whole world see our jokes, Britain cannot afford to lose this face. ”

"If Britain loses, you can imagine what the consequences will be, and the already ambitious guys in Europe will think that we are already vulnerable, and will speed up their actions to provoke us. Especially the Germans. ”

……

A group of people immediately talked about it, each expressing their opinions, and the quarrel made Balfour's head bigger.

Fisher, the second admiral of the British Royal Navy, who was sitting next to Belfort, listened for a long time, and suddenly slapped the conference table in front of him, and the loud sound made everyone shut up. Ba, eyes are naturally focused on him.

I saw Fisher stand up with a serious face and said: "What should be done now is that the navy needs more advanced and more powerful warships, instead of putting precious time and finances on meaningless things. ”

"What do you mean by meaninglessness?" Someone snorted coldly and asked, "Is it pointless to preserve the glory of Britain?" ”

"Blindly sending the fleet over now, it is pointless, the mighty Far Eastern Fleet was destroyed in just two hours, isn't it enough to explain the problem? Are we going to send all our warships to the Far East? Even if we can defeat Fan Yize at that time, how much heavy price we will have to pay, have you ever thought about this? Fisher retorted angrily.

"Then do you want to let go of Fan Yize, a bold guy?"

"It is precisely because we need to restore the honor of the British Navy that we need to develop more powerful warships." Fisher took a deep breath and explained: "I don't think that the fleet under Fan Yize can be large enough to defeat our Far East Fleet, the only possibility is that Fan Yize has mastered more advanced warship technology, and their warships have more powerful combat effectiveness, so we can't be careless, this will directly affect Britain's interests in the world." ”

Most of the people in the conference room were silent, in fact, there was no lack of eyes similar to Fisher's among them, but they were too unwilling to accept the defeat of the Far Eastern Fleet.

Six old man-class battleships cost the British Royal Navy a lot of military expenses and a huge amount of energy, and the result is really unacceptable.

Listening to Fisher's words, Balfour was silent for a moment, and then decided: "Appointing Fisher as the First Sea Lord, all the royal funds and shipbuilding technology, the cabinet will fully support it, and the only thing you have to do is to build me a more powerful warship." ”

Hearing this, Fisher shook his head a little helplessly, and said: "I accept this task, but a brand new battleship is not so easy to build, at least I need detailed information on the destruction of the Far East Fleet." ”

Historically, it was only after the Battle of Tsushima that the British dreadnoughts were formalized in terms of construction indicators and technical data.

Now the goal of building a new type of warship must be to overpower the warships under Fan Yize's command, so it is natural to know the detailed information of the fleet under Fan Yize.

Otherwise, there is no way to start.

Balfour was naturally well aware of this, and he already had a plan, saying: "You are ready, and someone will naturally do the rest." ”

Fisher didn't ask for any more difficulties and began to look forward to what he was going to do next.

Even if this did not happen, Fisher also deeply realized that the strength of the British Navy must be further improved.

This naval battle in the Far East only advanced history a little, otherwise it would take another half a year for Fisher to be promoted to the rank of First Sea Lord, and the construction of the dreadnought would not begin until next year's Battle of Tsushima.