Victoria said: "In that case, Sir Palmerston, now that you are the new Prime Minister of Great Britain, you are in charge!" ”

Palmerston secretly scolded this in his heart, but his mouth became more and more respectful: "Your Majesty, the Chinese Empire now has frequent trade with my Great Britain, and many influential ocean-going merchants in Congress have business dealings with them and are friendly with them, so once it is decided to go to war against them and submit it to the Congress, I am afraid that it may not be 100% possible to ensure that half of the members of the parliament agree to go to war." In order to ensure that more than half of the MPs are in favour of going to war, it would be better for Her Majesty to give a speech. With Her Majesty's prestige in the British Empire, this is the safest thing to do! ”

Victoria knew that this was the idea that Palmerston was fighting, but it was exactly what she wanted. didn't make excuses at the moment, and said directly: "Since this is the case, I will contribute to the British Empire again." It's just that, Sir Palmerston, you also have to support Parliament to approve an increase in the annual salary of our royal family, which is only 500,000 pounds a year, which is too little, and Sir also knows that the prince and I now have nine children to support, and the royal family is very poor, at least to 800,000 pounds a year like my grandfather George III. ”

Palmerston was taken aback, increasing from 500,000 pounds to 800,000 pounds, which is too big, if he proposes it like this, he is afraid that the parliament will be sprayed to death, so he hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, just 600,000 pounds, an increase of 100,000 pounds is barely within my range, no matter how much, I can't do anything." ”

"That's £700,000 a year. I'll be speaking to Congress tomorrow! At this time, Victoria did not look like a queen at all, but like a bargaining female trader in the vegetable market, with a philistine face.

Palmerston had no choice but to agree: "700,000 pounds is 700,000 pounds." But Your Majesty, you have to make sure that the Diet can pass the proposal to send troops to the Chinese Empire. ”

The next day, at the British Parliament, Queen Victoria delivered an impassioned speech, claiming that she was paying close attention to the damage to the interests of the British in China and the trampling of the national dignity of the British Empire, and called on the knights of the British Empire to defend their dignity and honor and take military revenge on China for the benefit and honor of all British people.

After Queen Victoria left Parliament, the members of parliament, organized by Prime Minister Palmerston, began to vote on the issue of sending troops to China.

Although many members of the House of Lords, who represented British merchants, insisted that they were opposed to sending troops, they also said that the ancient kingdom in the East had risen and was no longer the Qing state of the past, so that everyone could recognize the situation, make friends with it, strengthen cooperation and trade, and obtain greater benefits. But more members of the House of Commons were in favor of sending troops, clamoring to make the Chinese empire look good and to take the emperor to London for trial, while Palmerston shouted: "China does not understand the words of free trade, only the fire of gunboats." ”

In a speech in court, Palmerston accused the Chinese Empire of being an extremist country in the East, harming British commercial interests, plundering British property and endangering the lives of British merchants and soldiers, and embezzling British territory, dishonoring the emissaries, and must be punished.

Under his rendering, Congress finally approved the plan to send troops to the Far East by an absolute majority of 391 votes to 142.

After the Parliament passed the resolution to send troops, British Prime Minister Palmerston summoned British Foreign Secretary Russell, Secretary of State for the Navy Sidney Herbert, and Secretary of State for War Panmel Ramsay to the official residence to discuss the dispatch of troops directly.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Queen and Parliament have now approved the Far East for retaliatory military action against the Chinese Empire, and the total budget for this war is 5 million pounds! It is planned to dispatch 300 warships and 40,000 marines. Let's discuss how to send troops? Palmerston opened the conversation.

Lord of the Admiralty, Sidney Herbert, frowned first: "Sir Palmerston, this budget is too little!" We cannot muster 300 warships, and we can only get together a maximum of 100 warships, half of which are troop carriers, small frigates, gunboats, and so on, and we can only transport troops three times to complete 300 warships, and in a naval war, we can only guarantee more than 50 warships that can really be put into operation. ”

Hearing the Minister of the Admiralty's words, the War Secretary Panmmel Ramsay immediately complained: "The Army has to send 40,000 soldiers, which is a huge number!" This will be another Crimean War, which will plunge the British Empire into the quagmire of war, and I don't know how many happy and perfect British families will be shattered as a result. I hate war. However, if Her Majesty the Queen and Her Excellency the Prime Minister need to give us half a year to transfer troops, and we will share 60% of the budget of 5 million pounds, our War Department can do it! ”

Admiral Sidney Herbert immediately jumped to his feet: "Ramsay, what nonsense are you talking about!?" £3,000,000 for your Army, are you crazy? You also used to stay in our Admiralty, and you don't know how much it costs to dispatch hundreds of warships in our navy? ”

Prime Minister Palmerston smiled bitterly and looked at Foreign Minister Russell on the side, Russell spread his hands: "Gentlemen, haven't you ever thought of uniting friendly forces to send troops together?" ”

Secretary of the Navy Sidney Herbert and Secretary of War Panmur Ramsay were stunned for a moment, and then rejoiced: "Yes! We can also get the French to join us. However, do they want to, I heard that the French have been very close to the Eastern barbarians recently, and they have not even pursued the occupation of Indochina by the Chinese state. ”

Russell said calmly: "Yes, France and the Chinese Empire have indeed had a tendency to ally recently. Now that the Chinese Empire has purchased a large number of goods from France, the trade between France and the other party has been close to the trade volume with our British Empire, and the Gallic chickens have made a lot of money in the past two years, so they will be so concerned. Not only did he not care about the loss of Indochina, but he also sent troops together with the Chinese Empire to jointly attack and carve up Mexico. Therefore, I am afraid that it is difficult to say that the French sent troops this time. However, in addition to France, there were other countries, such as the Dutch and the Spanish, who hated the Chinese Empire very much, and promised them a promise to return the colonies of the East Indies to them, which were originally theirs, and presumably they would be very dedicated and send a lot of troops! In particular, their envoys from Tsarist Russia had already met with me and His Excellency the Prime Minister not long ago, but we did not immediately agree, and dragged each other first, so that the initiative was in our hands! ”

"Tsarist Russia must be willing to send troops to cooperate with us in sending troops from the west and north, but while we teach the barbarians in the east, we must also pay attention to guarding against Tsarist Russia, and we must not let them take this opportunity to extend their claws to India and Central Asia again. In addition, Austria, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia may all be persuaded by us to send troops together, but it will only require a military sponsorship of about 1 million pounds. Russell analyzed for a long time, and finally began to come up with the idea of those military budgets.

Palmerston cried out, "All right! Do you still want others to say that our British Empire cabinet is not like a wet market? I'll tell you, a total budget of £5 million, which took a lot of hard work to get Parliament to approve! It couldn't be more! According to the old practice, half of the navy is 2,500,000 pounds, the army is 2,000,000 pounds, and Lord Russell, and the remaining 500,000 is left to you to squander, but remember, whether you mean to send troops to Austria, Ottomans or Sardinia, you must send at least 10,000 troops and bring your own troop carriers. ”

As soon as Palmerston's words were finished, Russell, who had a calm face, also began to be angry: "Mr. Prime Minister, this time to send troops to the far east, the time is at least half a year or a year, you want to use 500,000 pounds to hire 10,000 foreign reinforcements to fight for half a year and a year, aren't you crazy?" Not to mention the consumption of ammunition, just the food, drink and Lazar of these 10,000 combat soldiers will cost 200,000 pounds in half a year, plus their casualty compensation, even one tenth of the people, at least more than 200,000 pounds, plus their employment costs, it has exceeded 500,000 pounds, not to mention the consumption of ammunition is at least two or three hundred thousand pounds. So it's impossible! ”

Secretary of the Navy Sidney Herbert and Secretary of War Panmuel Ramsay also raised objections: "How can our navy, which has always accounted for two-thirds of its military spending, only account for half of the budget? At such a distance, and the shells of warships, they are very expensive, and if we only have such a small amount of military spending, we will not even dare to fire shells, and can we still defeat the evil Orientals? ”

"Not bad! Our army only has a meagre £2 million to spare, which is only capable of sending 30,000 troops, otherwise we are afraid that the extra 10,000 boys will defect to the enemy on the battlefield. ”

Palmerston's face became very ugly, he slammed the table, stood up, and said with a gloomy face: "Enough! This is my order, and the decision of the Queen and Congress! The funds will be distributed according to what I just said, the navy will dispatch 130 warships at one time, and the army will dispatch 40,000 soldiers. Russell's side, there are so many, try your best to persuade other countries to send troops, if the cost is not enough, you pay for it yourself. ”