After the weekly pre-imperial meeting, Emperor Richard took his pet beast for a walk on the shore of the Seven Star Lake in the palace after lunch, enjoying the quiet and peaceful scenery.

Today's pet beasts are white-skinned, rich, and red for 4 generations, and they have grown up in the deep palace since childhood, and they are more and more spiritual.

Emperor Richard walked on the shore of the beautiful lake for a while, and when he stopped to look left and right, Fa Cai, who was huge in his physique, obediently leaned up and lay down on the grass, gently rubbing Emperor Richard's leg with his huge head.

The meaning is obvious;

Master, you are tired of walking, just sit on me and rest!

Emperor Richard sat down in understanding, and the colorful white tiger known as the "Four Generations of White Skins" also lay down, squinted his eyes and stretched his head to Emperor Richard's hand, so that his master could easily scratch it.

If it weren't for the majestic animal skin and huge physique, it would have made people mistakenly think that this pair of ligers were proper licking dogs.

Sitting leisurely by the Seven Star Lake, Emperor Richard could see the unfinished palace complex on the other side of the lake, which is currently temporarily suspended.

On the west side of the Seven Star Lake, there are 10 palaces of different shapes composed of the West Palace Palace Group, mainly Han and Tang style palaces, and French, British, Baroque and Spanish palaces, all of which are from the handwriting of famous architects, and are gorgeous and extraordinary.

The concubines of the emperor of the Tang Empire came from all over the world, with different skin colors and different religious beliefs, so the court also built royal temples, Taoist temples, Protestant churches and Catholic churches.

Different from the Han and Tang Dynasty palaces in the East Palace, the West Palace is an organic fusion of different architectural styles, and the buildings located on the riverside are more similar to the Bund in Shanghai.

It's just more low-key and luxurious, mostly hidden in the lush forest, which looks staggered.

The number of new palaces and pavilions required was staggering. At least more than ten years of continuous construction will be required to complete the general pattern.

As for the final completion, it will take even longer.

Just like the Daming Palace, it has been under continuous construction for decades, and due to the vast area and numerous palaces, it has not been finally completed.

With Emperor Richard's current high status, he has taken a light look at these things outside his body.

However, as the dignity and glory of the Tang Empire, reflecting the royal grandeur of a great country, the imperial palace is also too shabby to be built.

Sit on the shore of Seven Star Lake

At this moment, Emperor Richard's mind was not on the East Indies, but at the sparkling lake in a daze, thinking about nothing.

After living in the deep palace for decades, he is really tired of this life.

The long-planned trip around the world was postponed again and again due to the complexity of state affairs and the pleas of the ministers, and everywhere he went, he was surrounded by a group of people, and he had to dress up in disguise if he wanted to pay a private visit.

He is like a dragon trapped in a deep pool, and he has long wanted to soar into the sky and soar between heaven and earth.

Therefore, in the past two years, the emperor has always asked the crown prince to attend to increase his experience in handling major national affairs.

Pinch your fingers and do the math

Crown Prince Tang Li Qian will also be 50 years old next year, he has always acted steadily and dignified, and his personality is serious, and Emperor Richard can rest assured that he will abdicate in advance in a few years and be an idle cloud and wild crane-like emperor.

The biggest resistance came from a group of courtiers and the top powerful families of the empire.

Alas, let's talk about it in a few years.

A few clear eagle chirps were heard not far away, and Emperor Richard turned his head to see several vigorous bald eagle figures rising into the sky on the tall treetops, which soon turned into small black dots.

Hehe, these wild little guys.

Unlike the pet animals in the court, which were fed on time and on time, these bald eagles foraged in the wild except for the occasional feeding by Emperor Richard.

These proud bald eagles can't even look at the food that others feed, let alone eat.

After sitting by the lake for a while, Emperor Richard stood up and walked in the direction of the harem.

……

In April of the same year, Sir Alfred Milner, Prime Minister of the British Cape Colony, instructed the British expatriates in the Transvaal to write a letter of grievance to Queen Victoria, asking her to protect the interests of her British subjects and create a reasonable pretext for war with the Boers.

In June, Milner and Kruger held their last negotiations in Bloemfontein on the protection of aliens. While negotiating, the British side seized the time to send troops to South Africa from overseas.

In this year, the Western world launched a massive campaign of sympathy and solidarity with the Boer Republic. The Netherlands and Belgium formed numerous civil society groups, solicited donations, published articles, established foundations, and donated wartime mobile hospitals and medical equipment to the Transvaal.

Thousands of volunteers from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, New Zealand, Russia, Ireland, Italy, and Scandinavia countries crossed the ocean to the Transvaal, ready to fight alongside the Boers.

With Britain amassing more and more troops, the Boers could no longer sit still, importing large quantities of military supplies while rearming for war.

End of August

The Tang Empire sent troops again, occupying the line from Bali to East Timor in 11 days, and burned the flames of war to the gate of Java Island, which suddenly made the originally calm regional situation tense.

The Governor's Palace of the Dutch East Indies sent a telegram for help, flying like snowflakes to the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

At this time, it coincided with the handover of the old and new prime ministers of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and they were caught off guard and were confused from top to bottom.

Domestic calls for a speedy settlement of the East Indies issue immediately rose to the top, and for a time it overwhelmed the South African Boer question and became the primary international issue of concern to the Dutch people.

The families and sympathizers of the white POWs staged a huge march to demand that the Royal Government face up to the East Indies problem, free the white POWs through armistice negotiations and international consultations, and let the boys go home.

More than 50,000 white prisoners of war have put the small Western European nation under unimaginable pressure.

At the end of the 19th century, the total population of the Kingdom of the Netherlands was only 5.1 million in mainland Europe and abroad, and these 50,000 white prisoners of war accounted for 1%, and all of them were strong young white men.

The family and sympathizers behind them can easily be magnified more than ten times by a factor of influence, and no one can ignore this powerful social force.

At this time, the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands was in a hurry, because the British also came to the door.

These two things came together to overwhelm the Royal Government.

On 9 October 1899, the Transvaal government issued an ultimatum to Britain, demanding that Britain cease to increase its troop build-up to South Africa, withdraw all troops that had arrived in South Africa after 1 June, and submit all disputed issues to diplomatic arbitration with a deadline of 48 hours for answers.

On 10 October, Chamberlain, the British Colonial Secretary, ordered Milner to reject the conditions offered by the Boers.

At five o'clock in the afternoon of October 11, 1899, the Federal Parliaments of the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State declared war on Great Britain, and the Second Boer War officially began.