Queen Victoria, dressed in full costume and served by two maids, came to the meeting room, saw the four important cabinet ministers, and said with a smile: "What is the important matter for the four knights to come to see this king together?" Could it be that the war of the British Empire Expeditionary Force in the East has ended, and those Eastern barbarian emperors can't help but beg for mercy so soon? ”

These words made the faces of the four people present hot, extremely ashamed, and quickly stood up.

Herbert wanted to speak and stopped, and Palmerston was also embarrassed and embarrassed, but among the four, he was the leader, and in desperation, he could only say cheekily: "Back to Your Majesty, just now, a surprising bad news came, my British Empire's expeditionary force to the East was defeated, and almost all the troops were wiped out. The same was true of the other Portuguese, Dutch, and Ottoman expeditionary fleets. ”

"Oh, God! My Prime Minister, are you crazy? Are you sure you're not talking gibberish? Queen Victoria had a long mouth, and her face was full of incredulity.

"We can't believe it! But it's true, Your Majesty! Foreign Minister Russell had a calm personality, and as soon as he spoke, he quickly calmed the queen, but in order to further convince the queen that they were not joking, Russell handed the queen a few letters in his hand.

Victoria took the letter suspiciously and quickly skimmed through it.

On her face, which was still charming, the original ruddy color also turned white, and then it was blue-black.

"God, it's true!" The Queen of England muttered as she read the letter: "The expeditionary fleet, which has one-fifth of the entire Royal Navy strength of the British Empire, and nearly twenty warships of three other countries fighting together, actually told this king that it was burned down by the Chinese army in the east?" And what about Seymour, the commander of the expeditionary force? Is he a stupid pig? ”

Herbert, the Lord of the Admiralty, could only come forward and say sadly: "Admiral Seymour was also burned to death, and his bones were gone. ”

Victoria realized that it was not appropriate for her to insult the dead commander, but she still did not believe it: "What kind of black oil is there in the world that can burn the entire kilometer-long river?" Could it be that the Orientals can't do witchcraft? ”

War Secretary Panmmel Ramsey smiled bitterly: "Your Majesty, this black oil, which has been collected in Klosno, Poland, and Baku, Russia, is a liquid coal, which is extremely flammable and can indeed float on the surface of the water to burn. It's just that who would have thought that that crazy eastern country would quietly mobilize so much black oil, it's crazy. They created new ways of naval warfare, and later, this black oil will become a strategic resource. I, the Kingdom of Great Britain, must unearth and seize this black oil as soon as possible. ”

Palmerston looked at Panmmel Ramsay dissatisfied, this black oil is the business of the Minister of Mines, and it has nothing to do with the purpose of coming today, what does that name do? Seeing that the queen had accepted the news, he spoke directly: "Your Majesty, I am primarily responsible for the fiasco of this expedition to the East. In a few days I will publicly apologize in Congress and submit my resignation in a few months. But before I can resign, I must face this defeat and assume the next responsibility, which is to negotiate peace with the Chinese Empire and rescue the captured British Empire soldiers. In addition, another purpose of coming here today is to ask Her Majesty to exert influence on the incoming Prime Minister and the Diet to persuade them to launch another expedition against China after the peace talks! ”

Victoria was taken aback, this war against China was originally proposed and decided by Palmerston, and such a fiasco was indeed explained by Palmerston's resignation. He also understood that the captured soldiers had to be brought back through peace talks.

But she never imagined that Palmerston would say that as soon as the peace talks were over, he would persuade the new prime minister and the National Assembly to immediately launch another expedition against China.

"Sir, this can't be! I can't say yes! Victoria said angrily: "Even if I agreed, those MPs would not agree, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer would not agree!" As you know, the Kingdom of Great Britain now spends more than £8.4 million a year on its navy alone, and the actual amount of money allocated for this expedition to the Chinese Empire is about £6.5 million, far exceeding the planned £5 million. It is equivalent to embezzling more than three-quarters of the naval funds of the entire kingdom of Great Britain for next year. Listening to the complaint of the Minister of Finance, the original kingdom's finances were very difficult, and the expenses caused by the Crimean War and the Indian rebellion were still owed a large amount so far, and if the expedition to China was launched again this year, I was afraid that the navy and army would not be allocated funds in the next two years! ”

Palmerston naturally knew that Victoria was telling the truth, but he still insisted: "Your Majesty, listen to me, if my Kingdom of Great Britain wants to maintain its status as the world's first power, and if it wants to maintain the title and glory of the empire on which the sun never sets, it must immediately organize a second expedition against this Chinese empire. We must go all out and learn the lessons of this expedition to defeat that country once and for all! Otherwise, once it rises, it will seriously threaten the position of our British Empire, and not only will all the territories and interests of the Far East be lost, but even India will be lost! In fact, it is already very powerful and has risen! ”

"Yes, Her Majesty! Sir is telling the truth! Herbert also nodded, and said with a serious expression: "In this expedition, we all underestimated this Chinese Empire. In fact, judging from the details of the battle returned this time, even if they didn't use the conspiracy of attacking with black oil and fire, our British Expeditionary Force would only be able to capture Guangzhou, Fuzhou and other ports at most, and even Shanghai! Their fort was no longer the earthen fort of twenty years ago, but unusually strong. In particular, the rifled gun called Krupp that they developed on their own was even sharper, and it was even more advanced than the latest Armstrong gun manufactured by our British Empire. Moreover, while buying a large number of warships from France and the United States, they also built a large number of warships on their own, and worked hard to develop their naval fleet. When the time comes, if we want to defeat it, I am afraid that it will be difficult, after all, Great Britain is too far from the East, and it is impossible for us to send all the naval fleets to the East. ”

Foreign Minister Russell also nodded: "Not bad! All four of us agreed that we must launch another expedition against China to defeat this rising eastern power, and that it is better to eliminate the emperor named Feng Yunshan, only in this way can the Chinese empire be completely weakened, or even dismantled, and relegated to the ranks of the backward and weak countries of the East. If there is no war fund, it will be squeezed out, and the war fund will also be squeezed out. The future of the British Empire is at stake! The point is that in just a few years, this eastern country has become a superpower comparable to Tsarist Russia, and if this momentum continues, it will never be long before it will develop into a superpower comparable to the British Empire. Such a thing, Your Majesty, I suppose you must not tolerate it, right? ”

Victoria's brows furrowed, she didn't expect that the four important ministers came to her for such a thing, to talk about the problems of that eastern country so seriously, and to endanger the position of the British Empire? Use this to convince yourself to persuade the members of Congress to re-send troops and go on an expedition to the East.

That Eastern country is really so powerful that the four major ministers in the cabinet of the British Empire are so jealous?

That Feng Yunshan's Oriental Emperor really has that bit of gold in his own right, and in just a few years, he has led that backward and ignorant Eastern country to develop into a world power comparable to that of European powers, and even endangers himself, the world's largest power that will not set the sun on the throne?

Queen Victoria fell into deep thought.

............

Despite the Cabinet's efforts to delay and cover up the news of the disastrous defeat of the British Empire's expeditionary force to China, it was ultimately unable to block it.

Three days later, The Times, the most widely circulated and influential newspaper in Britain, published on the front page the news of the disastrous defeat of the British Empire's expeditionary force to China: Who caused the fiasco of the 50,000 soldiers to be wiped out? The glory of the British Empire was completely destroyed.

Other newspapers, such as the News of the World and the Daily Mail, both pennies with a large circulation and lace newspapers with a small circulation, carried fiery and sustained reports on the disastrous defeat of the expeditionary force.

The Telegraph: "In the expeditionary forces, the army did not play any role at all, or rather, they went on a one-way trip to the Far East and never returned to London. And the expeditionary fleet is even more surprising and frightening. This is fundamentally a mistake in decision-making, a war in which command is also wrong and intelligence is wrong. So many mistakes buried 50,000 English soldiers in the far east, in an inland river called the Pearl River! Our Majesty the Queen and the Prime Minister, and the Cabinet members, it is they who instigated the MPs to approve the war against the Far East, and it is they who send those innocent lads to the hell of the East! ”

The Daily Mail reported: "As soon as we left India and entered the Straits Settlements, our ridiculous expeditionary force was sleepwalking, and the commanders were led by enemy commanders and intelligence officers in their sleep. Before they could get close to the city of Guangzhou, the infantry was scattered by tens of thousands of troops, and the navy was also attacked sporadically and lost several warships. The strangest thing is that the commander, who was as stupid as a pig's head, thought that he had won a great victory when the enemy continued to deliberately lure the enemy into the depths, and finally entered an inland river called the Pearl River, which was 4 kilometers long on a dark and windy night. Tens of millions of gallons of oil covered the river with a width of 0.5 kilometers, and then a raging fire was ignited, and the red flames almost dried up the Pearl River, and even the sun in the east was delayed by half an hour for the sun to rise that day, and our British Empire Expeditionary Fleet, as well as the combined fleets of the expeditionary fleets of the other three countries, were buried in the flames, along with the stupid pig-headed commander, and also saw God. What a great tragedy! ”

The reporters of the "Daily Telegraph" and "Daily Mail" tried their best to expose the disastrous process of the defeat of the British Expeditionary Force, and more importantly, they aimed the spearhead at the cabinet that launched the expedition and the commanders who organized and directed the war.