UK, 10 Downing Street.
Britain has changed its Prime Minister again and again!
However, this time the Prime Minister who was replaced was not lifted off the Prime Minister's throne, but stood up and left on his own. However, the reason for his resignation had nothing to do with the aggressive Ming Dynasty. The reason for his resignation was the "Catholic Emancipation Issue" in the UK...that is, the issue of whether Catholics and Protestants should be equal!
This matter is actually a problem in the "high, big, high" British Isles! More than ten years after the emperor swept across Europe and sent the ideas of freedom and equality all the way to the Rakshasa Kingdom, British Catholics are still facing legal discrimination! The three prime ministers (Jenkinson, George Canning and Robinson) who advocated giving Catholics a relatively equal status all had to retreat because of too much opposition. The Robinson cabinet, whose ruling foundation was basically unstable, simply had to resign and step down because of the divisions within the Tory Party caused by this issue... and his replacement as prime minister was the ordinary former Indian Emperor Akbar. The Duke of Wellington returned from the Indian Empire with II.
Although the Duke did not dare to send troops to Peshawar to fight against the Western King Wu Zhenzhen in the end, he did meritorious service in helping Prince William legally usurp the throne. Of course, those who have meritorious service should be rewarded by a high official.
Therefore, King George IV of England rarely made a comeback and suggested that the Tory MPs, who were leaderless and unwilling to hand over power to their rival Whig Party, supported Wellington, who had a weak partisanship but at the same time had high prestige. The Duke became Prime Minister to clean up the current mess.
And the Duke of Wellington, who sat on the throne of Prime Minister as he wished, unexpectedly encountered a new unexpected event.
And this unexpected incident is that the Ming Empire is selling off the best battleships and armored cruisers in the world!
"This, this, is this the best battleship and armored cruiser in the world?" The Duke of Wellington frowned and looked at the report sent by the Lord of the Admiralty, the First Sea Lord and the Permanent Secretary of the Admiralty.
"It's a shame, they're the best!"
“The best so far…”
"Especially the Hero class... except for the radio station that is only available in the high-end version, this ship does not use any cutting-edge technology. It has no steam turbine, no oil or mixed-fired boiler, and no piggyback turret layout. . But this battleship has brought mature technology to the extreme, and also demonstrated super quality control and integration capabilities. According to secret reports from envoys from France, Prussia, the Netherlands, Austria and other countries who boarded the ship, the workmanship of this battleship Excellent, as exquisite as a work of art. The hull is smooth and simple, very beautiful.
The noise made by the main engine is not too loud when sailing, and it is very calm. The black smoke coming out of the chimney is not too big either. It reached a speed of more than 22 knots at top speed, which was 2 knots faster than the expected maximum speed. This also shows that the boiler and steam engine of the Hero are all superior in performance!
This battleship Hero also has a layout of 6 main gun turrets... There are 4 main gun turrets arranged on the left and right sides of the battleship. The whole ship has 6 twin 280 mm 45-caliber main guns. .....The firepower is so powerful! "
The old man, Earl Nelson, showed a greedy expression as he spoke, and almost asked Wellington for some funds to buy two boats for fun.
"Earl, with the current strength of the Royal Navy, can we defeat it?" Duke Wellington asked with a frown.
"It's very difficult, very difficult, very, very difficult!" Earl Nelson shook his head repeatedly with a serious look on his face, "Earl, this is not someone's bluff, but the true strength of the Ming Dynasty's navy and shipbuilding industry!"
"Can't we build this kind of ship?" asked the Duke of Wellington.
"Of course we can build it...but not now, not three months later, not even two years later, but at least three years later!"
"Does it take that long?" Duke Wellington frowned.
"Yes," Earl Nelson said, "We haven't even started the design yet! Although we can improve on the Sovereign class, a battleship with a standard displacement of nearly 20,000 tons, even if it does not adopt too many new technologies, will It also takes a year to design. It takes almost two years from laying the keel to completing the outfitting of the first ship. So at the earliest, we have to wait until three years before we can get a large number of 20,000-ton Sovereign upgrades available. Here we are. At that time, Ming Dynasty may..."
"But Ming Dynasty is now selling off heroes like this everywhere..." Duke Wellington frowned, "What does this mean? Do they have such a large production capacity that they can meet both domestic and international demands? "
"Mr. Prime Minister," George Elliot took over the British Prime Minister's question, "The Ming Dynasty's naval ship research and development has a practice, which is said to have been implemented since the time of King Zhuge Wuzhong. That is, one generation for service, one generation for development, and one generation for pre-research. , exploration generation... This is a rolling advancement from generation to generation.”
This Yilu turned out to be an expert on Ming Dynasty issues in the British Navy! There is a lot of research on the Ming Dynasty's armament development route.
George Elliot went on to say: "Since they have now put the Hero class into production, it means that the battleship that is one generation ahead of the Hero class has already started to be developed. It is likely that considerable progress has been made and may be about to be put into production.
In addition, the Ming Navy's first-generation battleship cannot have only one project, but will promote multiple projects at the same time... Some projects are more radical, and some are more conservative. They also pit several projects against each other and choose the best one. "
"The hero level is the best among several events?" Duke Wellington asked.
"Probably not. This Hero class obviously adopts a conservative design idea to protect the radical route. The reason why Ming Dynasty exports a large number of Hero class to the outside world means that a battleship better than the Hero class has been completed or is about to be completed. Research and development!
It may be a battleship that is one generation ahead of the Hero class, but takes a radical approach... or it may be a battleship that is one generation ahead of the Hero class. But no matter what, it is impossible for the Ming Navy to equip a large number of hero-class and hero-class ships. This is also the practice of the Ming Dynasty. The main battleship types for personal use are not exported until they become obsolete, and the exported ship types are rarely used for personal use. "
The Duke of Wellington looked at Earl Nelson again, and the Earl just sighed and nodded - the old man looked at the battleships with covetousness, but Ming Dynasty did not like them.
"Then... what is their purpose of exporting a large number of hero-level weapons?" Duke Wellington asked.
Lord Palmerston, Lord Admiralty, said: "Prime Minister, I think they are passing knives to France and the Rakshasa...especially to the Rakshasa, to encourage the Rakshasa to march to Constantinople, from Become Eastern Rome!"
Wellington frowned: "But haven't we already agreed to attack the Turkish Empire together? We also agreed to the marriage of Princess Victoria and Grand Duke Alexander."
"But we are still not ready to launch an attack together!" said Viscount Palmerston, "and British arms and French Bonapartists are still entering Constantinople... I believe the Tsar will not Nothing."
Britain would certainly not agree to the Rakshasa Kingdom taking Constantinople unless it was absolutely necessary. The continuation of Britain's delaying policy would certainly make the Czar impatient. And Nicholas I was not a fool. Of course he could see what Britain was thinking. The reason why he did not go it alone was of course because he was afraid of the British navy.
"Really..." Duke Wellington pressed his forehead. He now understood why Jenkinson and George Canning fell, and why Robinson resigned. It’s really hard to be the Prime Minister of the British Empire!
Just when Wellington was wondering whether he should follow Robinson's example and "resign in advance", Viscount Palmerston suddenly changed the topic and said with a smile: "Prime Minister, I think the Ming Empire's practice of selling off battleships and armored cruisers , in fact it is completely wrong, they made a serious mistake!"
"Error? What error?"
"Time window... They gave us a time window to defeat them!"
