readx; Chapter 445

Challenger on the seas

Speaking of this, Salisbury remembered in his heart that he saw the intelligence from the Far East yesterday, which mentioned that the Chinese in the South Seas had built a huge fleet of nearly 100,000 tons in tonnage, most of which were composed of new ironclad ships, in four years. Pen Fun Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Germany, which is separated by a body of water, is also actively seeking to become a naval power after becoming the largest army power in Europe, and is striving to expand its own navy.

Although the 'Saxony-class ironclad' is only a large shore defense ironclad, it is not suitable for ocean-going voyages and operations. But its displacement of 7,935 tons when fully loaded, as well as its coarse 10-inch naval guns, still revealed Germany's ambitions in building large battleships.

The Royal Navy of the British Empire is still the most powerful naval fleet in the world, but new challengers have begun to emerge in the world.

Perhaps the only thing that reassures Salisbury is that the French Navy, which once caused Britain so much trouble and was the most feared by Britain, actually engaged in some kind of green-water naval policy, vainly trying to replace the role of battleships with torpedo boats and cruisers, which is really foolish.

Of course, the stupidity of the French is a good thing for the British, and he will never remind the French anyway.

However, even so, in the face of the old maritime powers such as Russia, Italy, Austria-Hungary and Spain, coupled with the naval fleets of Germany and the Chinese in the Far East, whose sea power is soaring, the total fleet tonnage of more than 600,000 tons of the Royal Navy of the British Empire is still too weak in Salisbury's view.

It must be strengthened. The construction of new warships in the Navy must not be stagnant in the slightest, but must continue to be strengthened.

Even, in Salisbury's heart. The total tonnage of the British Empire's fleet had to surpass that of the world's second and third largest naval powers.

Looking at the stubborn look on his old friend's face, Shelburn couldn't help but sigh secretly.

Now that Salisbury has become Prime Minister, he has acted exactly on his own will, regardless of the opinions of others, and has a stiff relationship with the House of Commons, which is not a good thing for the new cabinet.

As a successful politician. If you want to make a difference in politics, you must know how to compromise at the right time.

Moreover, Shelburne has known him for so many years. He understood that his old friend, who had a fiery temper, was a staunch imperialist at heart, and he had told him more than once, 'Britain should focus its diplomacy on the plundering of its colonies'.

Even last time at Queen Elizabeth's party. He also openly proclaimed, in front of everyone, that 'the progress of the backward race must pass through the Europeans.' The phase of British rule, in particular, had to be maintained by force, and his mission was to expand and defend the British Empire. ’

Therefore, it is certainly unrealistic to ask an old friend who has war and violence in his bones to embezzle naval funds to the army, and then use the money saved to improve the domestic economic environment.

"Selcy, now you are the Prime Minister of the British Empire. As a friend, I can't make any decisions for you. I can only give you a few suggestions!" Shelburne thought about it for a moment before he said with a serious expression.

"Say it, Shelburne, I'd like to hear it!" said Salisbury, looking calmly at his old friend's face.

Hearing this, Shelburne nodded, and then said, "Selcy, as the British Prime Minister, you should know what is the most urgent problem to solve now?"

After a pause, under Salisbury's inquiring eyes, Shelburne continued: "It's not a war, it's not an expansion of the colonies of the British Empire, our colonies are all over the world, and there are enough of them. ”

"Rather, how to restore the country's economy, which has fallen to the bottom, as soon as possible is a question that all members of the House of Commons are concerned about. They want you to face it up and fix it. Instead of throwing all our energy and wealth into the war in Egypt!"

Sure enough, as Scheer expected, as soon as his words fell, Salisbury couldn't help but say angrily: "Shouldn't we repay the hatred of the more than 200,000 British lads who were killed by those filthy Egyptian natives?"

"Selsi, there are only 50,000 British out of more than 200,000 people, and the rest are indigenous armies from India and Africa, you should know that!" Shelburne said with a frown.

"Yes, I know, but they are also subjects of the British Empire!"

Facing Salisbury's reluctant eyes, Shelburne spread his hands with a slightly helpless expression and said: "Okay! Even if those damned Egyptian natives should be judged by the British Empire, they should go to hell! However, this year's military expenditure of 150 million pounds is not too high. You must know that before our economic crisis in the past, all the military budgets of the navy and the army combined were only 30 million pounds!"

"150,000,000,000 pounds is necessary for us to defeat the Egyptians! Salisbury still insisted.

Faced with the stubbornness of his old friend, Shelburn could only shake his head in his heart, he knew that what he had just said was in vain.

"Well, now that you've made up your mind, I don't have much to say!, but I hope that you'll listen to the report of the House of Commons and care about the domestic economy as you pay attention to the war in Egypt and the construction of new warships!"

"Okay, I'll take care of it!" Salisbury didn't take the matter very seriously, though he said it last.

"Alright, dear Shelburne, let's not say such disappointing words! Now that you are my Minister of War, tell me about the formation of our Egyptian army!"

After listening to his old friend's words and looking at the look of interest on his face, Shelburne nodded, then reached out and took out a stack of papers from the black briefcase he was carrying, and handed them to Salisbury.

Then, as he looked at it carefully, he said, "In order to achieve victory in the Second Egyptian War, our War Department will again mobilize 250,000 regular troops from the country, then 10,000 from Australia, 50,000 from Canada, and then 400,000 native servant troops from our colonies in South Africa, India, and the Middle East!"

"These 710,000 Egyptian troops, plus the 50,000 troops still stationed in Alexandria in northern Egypt, and the 120,000 elite troops in southern Egypt and Sudan. We will have 880,000 troops in this Egyptian war. And these 880,000 army boys will be commanded by Army General Sir George White!"

After listening, Salisbury nodded and motioned for Shelburn to continue.

"In order to ensure the smooth progress of this war in Egypt, we have prepared enough weapons and ammunition, including 1 million new rifles, 1,000 new machine guns and 500 artillery pieces produced by the Royal Arsenal of Enfield. ”

Although both the Huo Jiajun and the U.S. Army used more than 1,000 artillery pieces in the battle, even the new machine guns far exceeded 1,000.

However, due to the backwardness of information in this era, and the relationship between China and the United States that has not personally experienced the war.

Today, the arrogant British Army top brass still adheres to the centuries-old Army tradition, and although they recognize the power of machine guns and artillery, they always place them in the position of army support weapons, rather than the decisive force for victory in the war.

Therefore, the Egyptian British army, which has millions of people, is only equipped with 1,000 new machine guns and 500 artillery pieces, not to mention compared with the Huo family's army, and even the American army far surpasses them.

"In addition, there are 600 million rounds of rifle ammunition, 15 million rounds of machine gun rounds, and 2 million rounds of light and heavy artillery shells. Moreover, in order to ensure that these weapons can be delivered to Egypt in a timely manner, we have prepared a capacity of 600,000 tons of cargo ships and more than 500,000 people!"

Fortunately, Egypt was not too far from the British mainland, otherwise it would have been a bit reluctant to support such a large-scale maritime expedition with British industry at this time.

After listening to Shelburne's words, Salisbury also finished reading the information in his hand, and after putting it down, he lowered his head and pondered for a while, then raised his head and stared at Shelburne's eyes, and said: "Old friend, this war, the army department is very well prepared!"

According to the information I have received, those damned Egyptians began to recruit soldiers in Egypt after brutally slaughtering our soldiers, and now their number has multiplied several times to 600,000!"

"I know, Sersi, but most of the 600,000 men are farmers who have just laid down their hoes, and most of them don't even know how to use guns, so they don't pose a threat to our elite army!" said Shelburne with a look of contempt.

"But just two months ago, these peasants defeated more than 200,000 of our war-hardened elite troops in Cairo!"

After hearing this, Shelburn also became a little silent. Although he was tempted to say that it was a despicable sneak attack by the Egyptians, this bloody fact is now indefatigable in the history of the British Army.

Looking at the silent old friend, Salisbury said with a hint of sigh: "Shelburne, we need more troops to go to the Egyptian battlefield, and I hope to use overwhelming superiority to defeat this Egyptian resistance at one time." ”

After a pause, Salisbury looked his old friend in the eye and said with a heavy face: "Shelburne, we can't afford to fail again! Otherwise, all the colonies of the British Empire will have problems." At that time, we will pay an even heavier price than we do now, and even shake the foundation of the country!" )u