As the crown prince, he blurted out the private matter of buying and selling bonds at a meeting where military affairs were discussed. This was really inappropriate. The queen glared at him directly.
The crown prince lowered his head in shame, blocked his mouth with a wine glass and did not dare to speak.
Benjamin and Ai Liguo were both veteran officials. They knew that there was some bad blood between the Queen and the Crown Prince. It was a long time ago. The Crown Prince once had an affair with an actress when he was young.
The Queen's husband, Prince Albert, went to Cambridge University in person to persuade his children. As a result, he contracted severe typhoid on the way back and eventually died.
Queen Victoria had a very harmonious relationship with her husband. The death of Prince Albert caused her to take her anger out on her son, and from that day on she did not allow Albert to have access to state affairs.
Because of this, the crown prince has only been able to play his role in diplomatic situations in recent years. After all, the crown prince has a noble status and is competent to represent his mother on state visits and banquets.
This time the queen summoned the crown prince to the meeting because she thought that the Qing credential involved foreign affairs, and she had to let her son come forward, otherwise she would not let him have too much contact with state affairs.
Benjamin knew the inside story here, so he quickly changed the topic, "Your Majesty, the Crown Prince is right. We must prepare in advance. Once the news of Tsarist Russia's defeat reaches Europe, the financial market will definitely be turbulent..."
"Over the years, Tsarist Russia has carried out abolition reforms and promoted industrialization, including launching the Siberian Railway project and raising tens of millions of pounds from the Financial City. Once the news shocks the financial market, we must be prepared in advance to transfer the losses!"
"While the French have not yet woken up, sell them in large quantities. Those French guys who love loan sharking will definitely be willing to take over these bonds that are about to 'appreciate'..."
The foxes in the room suddenly laughed. What Benjamin said was indeed true. The top French officials were in high spirits now. They had actually begun to support Tsarist Russia's military operations in the Far East.
Not to mention intelligence, even low-interest loans were sent out to French people. In the hearts of these arrogant people, Xiao Letian must be defeated, and there will definitely be no accidents.
The best way to solve the problem is to divert trouble to the east and sell Tsarist Russian bonds, which are currently priced at a normal and relatively high price, to the French. People in the room quickly agreed that these specific tasks would naturally fall to the Prime Minister.
The topic soon returned to Xiao Letian and Zai Chun's visit. The emperor of the Qing Empire visited Europe. The power to promote this major historical event must be placed in the hands of the British. This was the queen's decision.
"The Qing Dynasty was the first to issue credentials to the British Empire. This recognized the status of Britain as an empire on which the sun never sets, and also officially recognized that Britain and the Qing Dynasty are equal countries. This is a very remarkable diplomatic breakthrough. This honor Can’t give it to anyone!”
"Benjamin, I know you have a deep fear of Xiao Letian, but at this critical moment, at this moment of making history, you can't cause trouble! I don't want any shameful failure in the colorful records in the history books!"
"If you want to deal with Xiao Letian, think about it later!"
"Your Majesty..." Benjamin said anxiously, "I hope your Majesty will reconsider. Xiao Letian's power has expanded too fast. Last time he visited Europe, he took a sailing wooden ship, but this time he has brought out an unprecedented The unseen Zhiyuan..."
"If he is released back to Asia, his fleet may be able to challenge the British Empire's sea power in four to five years!"
Crown Prince Edward looked at the Prime Minister who was blushing and pale in confusion, "Well... are you too cautious? My Prime Minister..."
"Is the maritime power of the British Empire so easily challenged? What does a Reach represent? Indeed, I have studied that peculiar battleship. Although it is very creative and has strong combat effectiveness, there are too few. There is only one What can a warship do? Aren’t there the same warships being produced at our Birmingham shipyard?”
The battleships the Crown Prince mentioned were the three British imitations of the Reach. Ever since the Reach slipped out of sight and entered the Atlantic Ocean, the British Navy had felt deeply humiliated.
Such a warship was not found to have slipped away from the North Sea, and then gave the French a severe lesson in the Atlantic. However, the British Navy had no knowledge of it before. This incident has become an excuse for many MPs to attack the Navy.
In order to make up for the loss of face, the Navy stepped up its intelligence collection work on the Zhiyuan. They searched all the witnesses in the Atlantic and even collected intelligence on the Iquique naval battle.
Based on the information fed back by a large number of spies, British engineers quickly restored the Reach. This is a miracle of British technological and industrial strength.
In fact, the Zhiyuan is not mysterious. It is just decades ahead of its time. It is a relatively new design idea. In fact, the Zhiyuan was assembled using the technological level and parts of the time.
Whether it is a high-horsepower steam engine, a 210-mm rifled main gun, a central axis configuration, a pure steel hull... none of these are difficult to imitate.
This kind of warship did not first appear in the UK, not because the UK could not build it, but because the mainstream ship design community did not have this idea, or in other words, if there was such an idea, it could not become mainstream and could not get funding.
That's all! However, several victories of the Zhiyuan shocked the British design community. They immediately realized their mistakes and immediately applied for funding from the Admiralty. The British Admiralty was very wealthy at that time. Without additional funding from Parliament, the three projects Construction of a Zhiyuan-class battleship began at the same time.
It is worth mentioning that this kind of warship that pioneered a new design idea was named Zhiyuan series by the European shipbuilding industry. One warship became the unified title of a series of warships. This is the privilege of being first.
The crown prince's confidence was not in vain. It was precisely because of Britain's strong industrial strength and shipbuilding skills that he did not consider Xiao Letian a threat at all.
Benjamin wanted to say something else, but the Queen was tired of this topic. She waved her hand, "I will exert influence on Parliament at the appropriate time. Next year's naval shipbuilding appropriation can be allocated to build this new type of warship..."
"I believe that the Royal Navy can easily defeat the Chinese. Regardless of quantity or quality, we in the UK should not be afraid of the threats from these small countries!"
"Now, please go all out to prepare! With this state visit from the Emperor of the Qing Empire, our national destiny in the UK will surely improve again... Now even the Emperor of the Qing Empire has taken the initiative to visit and study in the UK. This Isn’t it just to prove to the world that our British Empire is the king of all nations!”
"The most glorious moment of the Empire on which the sun never sets is about to come!"
Queen Victoria officially made a decision, and Benjamin had absolutely no choice. In 1669, the world's largest diplomatic ceremony began. m.
