Since it was decided to build a new type of battleship, of course, it was necessary to make preliminary preparations, first of all, the drawing work should first check and fill in the gaps, and then the shipyard construction stage.

At present, the new warship is still in the stage of checking and filling in the gaps, so it has not yet entered the formal construction.

And at this time, a major event that caused a sensation in the world spread. That is, Alexandrina Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Empress of India who ruled the British Empire for 64 years and led the British Empire to its peak, died on January 22, 1901.

The news was a sensation for the whole world, and it was no different for Italy.

"Then the Prime Minister will lead the team to London."

In the palace, Carlo looked at the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary in front of him, and said the specifications of the Italian diplomatic mission this time.

Carlo, of course, will not take this trip to London lightly, in addition to the funeral of Queen Victoria, who is worthy of the memory of the British, it will also be the enthronement of the new King Edward VII.

This is the time when dignitaries from various countries gather, and Italy, as one of the few great powers, certainly cannot be shabby. It is necessary to send high-level foreign diplomatic missions, at the lowest level of foreign secretary, or to deliberately despise the British Empire.

Of course, a higher level can be led by the prime minister, and if you pay more attention to it, it will be led by Carlo himself.

However, Carlo himself was not interested at all, firstly, he did not want to stay in England for so long, and secondly, he was full of dignitaries from various countries, but it was unlikely that he wanted to talk about something. And the Savoy family is not married to the British royal family, so why rush over. Therefore, the best candidate is the prime minister, who else is it.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Prime Minister Antonio had actually expected Carlo's roll call, and he was basically the only one who was appropriate to lead the team, after all, it was indeed a bit inappropriate for his own monarch to go.

Leading a team to London to attend the funeral of the old king and the enthronement of the new king did not have much to do with Italy.

To be honest, the current relationship between Italy and Britain is a bit delicate, and the rapid development of Italy in recent years has made the relationship between Britain and Italy a little delicate. The relations between the two countries have gradually changed from relatively close at the beginning to normal relations. Especially after Italy won the war with the Ottomans, diplomatic relations between the two countries declined significantly.

You must know that at the beginning, many of Italy's weapons and technologies could be obtained from the British Empire, for example, on the Galio-class battleships, the 460 mm main guns used were Armstrong's masterpieces. And the subsequent naval artillery and even power and other technologies, Britain helped a lot.

However, in recent years, as Italy has become more and more German-Austrian, and relations with Britain have gradually changed from friendly to normal, it has become difficult to obtain technology from the British Empire.

Of course, this is also a very normal thing, and the huge increase in Italian power certainly made the British Empire feel that its position in the Mediterranean was threatened.

"By the way, what's the situation in the Far East at the moment?"

At this time, Carlo suddenly asked about the Far East.

Let him ask like this, naturally there is a new situation in the Far East. This time, the countries jointly taught the queen mother a lesson, and there was no difficulty at all in the battle. The total strength of the intervention forces of various countries is as high as more than 70,000 (this is the number of troops that actually participated in the war), which is simply not something they can resist.

The army was invincible in the Far East, and it was not at all something that the old army in the hands of the Empress Dowager could withstand. Not to mention the ambiguity of the southern provinces and the fact that they have declared a state of neutrality, which can also see a lot of problems.

In addition, in this coalition operation, the French army finally used its new 75-mm rapid-fire gun, which had a rate of fire of up to 15 rounds per minute, to the surprise of officers from other countries.

The German officer, who finally saw the new French 75-mm rapid-fire gun, hastened to inform Berlin of the situation. This led the German Army to once again put pressure on Krupp to come up with artillery with a rate of fire comparable to that of the opponent as soon as possible. As for the Italian side, the War Department also asked the major arsenals to come up with designs comparable to those of their opponents. However, in addition, the War Department has also asked countries to come up with large-caliber long-range artillery programs.

At present, the question of the new French artillery is not urgent, after all, there is still time.

And at the moment in the Far East, the most urgent problem for the countries is the Russians.

That's right, the Russians. In this war of intervention in which all countries participated, the Russians were not at all honest.

It sent only one division of troops to participate in the coalition army (more than 13,000 people), and it could only rank fourth in terms of the number of troops contributed by each country. (Germany sent more than 24,000 troops because of the Philippines, followed by 18,000 from Japan, 14,000 from Italy, 12,000 from Britain, and 3,500 from France; Eight hundred in the United States and four hundred in Austria-Hungary. ）

However, compared with only sending 13,000 troops to participate in the coalition army, Russia sent more than 10 troops into the northeast of the Qing Dynasty. In the name of punishing the Manchus, these Russian troops not only occupied various cities in the northeast, but also swept away all the information on the local government's household registration, acres of fields, and minerals. In addition to this, the Russian army claimed to have attempted to send officials to the local area in order to facilitate the maintenance of law and order in the local area, as well as to manage the local Russian army as well as its own people.

Everyone is a thousand-year-old fox, who still doesn't know who, and such an obvious move by the Russians makes countries very dissatisfied. Jointly we intervened in the Manchus, did you work for the Russians?

In the face of the actions of the Russians in the Northeast, it was unanimously stated among the countries that the Russian troops in the Northeast must be included in the coalition forces.

It is clear that this is intended to restrain the Russian troops in the northeast, and when the countries withdraw, these Russian troops in the northeast will also retreat together.

As for the unanimous attitude of various countries, the Russian side strongly objected, claiming that the army in the northeast could not be included in the coalition forces.

At present, the countries are negotiating with the Russians, and this is what Carlo asks about.

"Your Majesty, the Russians in the Far East are very vague, but they still do not agree with the inclusion of the troops in the northeast into the coalition forces, and for this reason there is also a disagreement among the countries on this occasion."

The inconsistencies in Bakona's statements come mainly from Germany and France, which are reluctant to take a hard line against Russia.

Not to mention France, France and Russia are allies and do not want to offend Russia on the issue of the Far East. As for Germany, the same is true, and there is only one sentence to describe it.

Germany's attitude towards Russia's eastward expansion was basically instigation, in order to relieve the pressure on its own east.

"We don't care about other countries, but on the issue of the Far East, our country must insist that the territorial reunification of the Far East must be guaranteed, and we can also allow our ministers in the Far East to openly express their stance that our country will resolutely resist the move of splitting the Qing Dynasty."

"Yes, Your Majesty, I will send a telegram to Minister Jia Liwen when I go back."

Carlo's attitude is well understood, because this matter, in addition to satisfying the feelings of a previous life, is also good for Italy. This joint intervention of various countries in the Qing State will definitely affect the Qing people's perception of Italy, and at this time, they openly declare that they want to protect the territorial integrity of the Qing State, which is a gesture of goodwill.

Although I was involved in this intervention war this time, it was just that I was forced, and in fact, I still wanted to make friends with the Qing State in my heart. Of course, the deep-seated reason is that Italy does not want to fall out with its largest overseas market, which is all due to economic interests. Although the Qing State will face the situation of the largest indemnity in the future, the market in the Far East will not be reduced at all, but will accelerate the start of its own industrial development.

Thinking of the reparations, Carlo couldn't help but ask. "How are you talking about the Qing country's reparations so far?"

"At present, the total amount of compensation has been negotiated by various countries, and the Qing country will compensate 450 million taels of silver based on the calculation of one tael of silver for each Qing person."

This is consistent with history, and this high indemnity is also a humiliation, with everyone losing a silver tael or two. At present, the annual fiscal revenue of the Qing State is almost only 100 million taels, which directly requires four and a half years of fiscal revenue to compensate. This has far exceeded the losses of various countries and the cost of sending troops, and the law of the jungle has been vividly demonstrated.

However, Bacona then continued. "At present, all countries have reached a consensus on the reparations, that is, if Russia announces the withdrawal of its troops from the northeast, then it can get the first share of the reparations."

As soon as Bacona said this, Carlo immediately understood. This is to spend the money of the Qing people and let the Russians evacuate.

This abacus is a good fight, but it's a pity that Maozi is a person who doesn't remember to eat, which is afraid that it is difficult to satisfy St. Petersburg, and it is impossible to say that it is like in history, announcing the withdrawal of troops and getting the first share of reparations, but the result is delayed, that is, not withdrawn. Eventually, the British Empire sent a thug to Japan, and it took a little education to make the Russians retract their claws.