The Prince of Wales and Queen Charlotte left the scene directly, and the discussion in the British Parliament could not continue.
At first, the Prime Minister and the representatives did not realize that Charlotte had really run straight out of London.
By the time the news was confirmed and spread, it was already that evening. In response to the unprecedented crisis, Grenville had to immediately convene an impromptu cabinet meeting.
But the meeting's start devolved directly into another scaled-down squabble.
"Betrayal! This is naked betrayal!"
"The royal family actually forced the government to transfer British interests to the Ming Dynasty!"
"Leaving London and going to Ming Dynasty is a defection. The British royal family has betrayed the British people again!"
"Her Royal Highness Charlotte has been completely controlled by Prince Dashi!"
"The evil Ming people cannot defeat us externally, so they will destroy us internally!"
"We absolutely can't let it go like this! We want to protest to Ming Dynasty!" However, this kind of quarrel was purely emotional catharsis.
Everyone basically said their own thing and yelled out the things they wanted to denounce. As Charlotte said, the British bourgeoisie is still weak.
These bureaucrats, who were caught between the aristocracy headed by the king and the bourgeoisie, were even weaker. So after yelling what they wanted to say, they immediately began to explain to each other or refute what others said.
"If according to what Her Royal Highness Charlotte said, the royal family represents the interests of all the British people, Her Highness Charlotte's request does not seem to be a betrayal of the British people, but just a conflict with the bourgeoisie..."
"It cannot be said that Her Royal Highness Charlotte is completely controlled by Prince Dashi. Her Highness Charlotte's request is obviously in line with the interests of the British royal family, so although His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales did not speak, he actually supported her."
"Her Royal Highness Charlotte is originally the Queen of the United States. She leaves London for the United States every year for a period of time. Going to the United States is certainly not considered a defection. We cannot resist our future Queen like this..."
"The people of Ming Dynasty can also defeat us outside, otherwise we would not be in such pain now, and Her Royal Highness Charlotte would not be able to threaten us with the support of Ming Dynasty..."
"What's the use of protesting? Strictly speaking, this is our own business and has nothing to do with Ming Dynasty. If you really think about it, Ming Dynasty's proposal is a transaction, not pure coercion."
"If we don't want Ming's technical support and other countries ask for support, our navy will immediately fall behind that of France, Prussia and other European and Western countries..."
"What's the use of talking about this now! The top priority now is to finalize the joint venture between His Royal Highness Charlotte and His Royal Highness Prince Dashi before His Royal Highness Charlotte really runs to the Ming Dynasty!" They have a very tacit understanding and are noisy. The disputes slowly subsided and turned to discussions of compromise.
The direction was basically what Charlotte expected.
"There is no way to completely veto this joint venture, which means a break between the bureaucracy and the royal family..."
"It also means the break between the British bourgeoisie and the aristocratic group headed by the king."
"What's more important is that Britain has once again established its hostile position with Ming Dynasty!"
"So a joint venture between His Royal Highness Charlotte and His Highness Dashi Darknet in the UK and even the whole country will definitely be established."
"Then we can only impose restrictions on the company's business scope..."
"It's hard to determine this range..."
"More openness will seriously damage the interests of British manufacturers and over-expand the authority of the royal family."
"If you open less... Her Royal Highness Charlotte will not accept it, and the technical support you can get from Daming will be very limited."
"This matter is actually not troublesome. There is actually a ready-made reference object beforehand."
"What reference?"
"The French on the other side of the strait, the business scope of the joint venture between His Royal Highness Prince Charles of France and His Royal Highness the Prince of Great Food."
"Uh...how can we refer to the French..."
"Don't worry so much for now. Let's stabilize the royal family first and determine the direction of compromise!" At this time, the discussion finally had a basic direction.
The situation is urgent now, and Grenville, as the head of the cabinet, does not wait to discuss a specific plan. After directly determining this direction, he asked other cabinet members to continue the discussion, and he immediately ran to see the Prince of Wales.
After the Prince of Wales sent his daughter away, he was really a little worried now. After all, this is fighting against the British bureaucracy.
Although Charlotte said that the Prince of Wales would be safer after she left, she was still a little worried.
The Prince of Wales couldn't say it out loud, so he could only keep it in his heart. This made his whole mood seem a little lost, making him feel rather sad.
Grenville saw this, and of course he thought it was because his daughter was disobedient and causing trouble.
Grenville stated the tentative direction that had been discussed, and then asked the Prince of Wales: "Your Royal Highness, the cabinet has already made a plan for the joint venture, and we will convince the parliament in the future.
"So I would like to ask Your Highness to advise Your Highness Charlotte that it is best not to leave London..." The Prince of Wales was a little surprised and delighted after listening to Grenville's explanation.
This group of people is really weak, they have a compromise plan so quickly. And according to the French plan, there are many industries that can be opened up, and there are also many industries that the royal family can control.
If this matter was promoted by the Prince of Wales himself, he might have agreed directly now.
But Charlotte, who is pushing things now, gave instructions to the Prince of Wales when Charlotte left.
So at this time, the Prince of Wales responded according to his daughter's request: "Charlotte is the Queen of the United States, and it is completely normal to go to the United States.
"She was angry with you in London, and now it's obviously impossible for her to just stay here.
"She also told me when she left that after the Congress passed the cooperation proposal, she could send a telegram directly to the United States.
"After she arrived in the United States, she read the telegram, and if she was satisfied, she would stay in the United States.
"If you are not satisfied, you will really go to Ming Dynasty..." Grenville's mood and expression were very bitter.
Her Royal Highness Charlotte and the Prince of Wales are indeed completely different. It is useless to simply agree to the direction verbally. This requires the formation of a formal legal document... The cabinet discusses and determines the direction, and the formal law is formed in the parliament. These are two completely different things.
The difficulty cannot be overstated at all. Grenville verbally promised that he would push parliament to pass relevant proposals as soon as possible.
Please ask the Prince of Wales to get Charlotte back first. The Prince of Wales seemed completely convinced by Grenville, and stood directly on Grenville's side to help blame Charlotte.
But it's just a matter of standing here and complaining. He bluntly stated that he could not call Charlotte back directly, otherwise he would not let her go at all.
Grenville began to worry, knowing that he had to do what Charlotte asked. From London to Richmond, if it is a 20-knot ship, it will take eight days, and if it is a 15-knot ship, it will only take ten days.
Ten days may seem like a long time, but to form a law, ten days is a very short time... The key is that we still need to prepare for the naval treaty, and the British goals and bottom line on the naval treaty must also be confirmed.
While Grenville agreed on the surface, he was really unsure in his heart: Why is it so difficult for him to be the prime minister... The next morning, Grenville asked someone to list all the details of the cooperation between Ming Dynasty and France.
It is planned to directly copy the authorized business scope given to the joint venture company of Zhu Jingyuan and Charles in France, and lists the preliminary scope of authorization given to the joint venture company of Charlotte and Zhu Jingyuan.
I don’t have time to study it carefully, so I just copy it and take it to the parliament to discuss the facts. At the same time, he led his cabinet members to find several of the most important British naval admirals headed by Nelson and began to discuss the naval treaty.
Nelson already knew about the naval treaty, but Grenville made the introduction first and explained the basic attitude of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet: "...This is the situation. The Cabinet believes that the overall situation in the world is now becoming peaceful.
“The UK currently has no war objectives that may lead to a naval war within ten to twenty years and in the future.
"It is currently in Britain's interest to sign a treaty with the European and European countries to limit the tonnage and number of naval vessels.
“This way we can devote more energy and resources to economic development and colonial construction.
“What are your views and suggestions on this, Your Excellency Nelson?
"What are your views and suggestions on the restrictions on the tonnage and number of ships?" Nelson's mental state seemed a little decadent, but there was still a persistent light in his eyes: "All old ships should be eliminated, including traditional multi-stage ships. Gun battleships and armored cruisers are now meaningless except for fighting pirates.
"However, there is no need for ships of this level to fight pirates. A five-thousand-ton cruiser is enough to maintain order in the colony.
“However, the latest high-speed main gunboat also does not need to be built too many or too big.
"A battleship with a 360mm main gun and a full load of 40,000 tons is already the limit. Anything larger is a complete waste of resources!
"The future development direction of the navy should be aircraft-carrying cruisers!
“So I think we just need to make sure that other European and American countries don’t exceed us in terms of tonnage of main gunboats.
“Even in order to reduce the tonnage of the main gunboats we need to build, we can proactively request to jointly reduce the tonnage.
“I think we can try to limit the tonnage of all countries’ main gunboats to less than 160,000 tons.
“On this basis, we should ensure that we have as much cruiser tonnage as possible to gain a relative advantage in cruisers.
“Even, a special tonnage share is requested specifically for the aircraft-carrying cruiser.
“An aircraft-carrying cruiser must have sufficient tonnage and scale to exert sufficient advantages.
"It should be at least the tonnage and size of a traditional armored cruiser, preferably the size of a 40,000-ton high-speed battleship." Grenville and other cabinet ministers were obviously stunned when they heard this.
"Your Excellency Nelson, I remember... you support the construction of more and larger high-speed battleships!
"When did you switch to supporting the cruisers?"
“So you now believe that aircraft-carrying cruisers are the future of the Navy?
"We have not heard that Ming Dynasty has special research and planning on aircraft-carrying cruisers!" Nelson immediately replied very seriously: "The things I support have never changed.
“I always believe that the best warships should run faster and fight farther.
“Speed and range are the best defenses.
“Before the emergence of flying machines, we could only build faster capital ships and use larger main guns to gain greater range.
“But after flying machines mature, warships equipped with aircraft can control and launch attack distances, which has an absolute advantage over traditional gunboats.
"So of course I will support the construction of an aircraft-carrying cruiser!
"Although the current world situation is peaceful, military thinking and equipment technology are undergoing subversive innovations.
“I think high-speed capital ships will be eliminated by aircraft-carrying cruisers before they mature.
“There is no news about the aircraft-carrying cruiser leaked from Ming Dynasty, but it is one of the important reasons that makes me pay more attention to related technologies.
"The people of Ming Dynasty may have realized that aircraft-carrying cruisers are more important than high-speed battleships, so they adopted stricter confidentiality methods.
"So, in terms of technical cooperation with Ming Dynasty, I think the top priority should be technology related to flying machines and engines." After Nelson finished speaking, the scene was silent for a few seconds, and then Grenville asked: "Your Excellency Nelson, this is the Navy. Common meaning?
"Fewer fast battleships, more aircraft carriers?
"Can aircraft-carrying cruisers really gain an advantage against high-speed battleships?
"According to the information I know, the aircraft-carrying cruiser is currently only in experimental status.
"The Ming Dynasty has kept its aircraft-carrying cruisers secret. This is just your guess. It cannot be verified." Nelson seemed a little decadent when he heard this question: "Indeed, if the Ming Dynasty does not take the initiative to disclose it, there is really no way to do it. Something simple to verify.
“The mainland of Ming Dynasty, its surrounding areas, and all continental coastal areas can be considered restricted areas for other countries.
“It would be too easy for Ming Dynasty to find a sea area large enough to carry out relevant tests and research secretly.
“Of course I also understand that the navy understands the risks of innovation in weapons and equipment better than politicians.
“So although I fully support aircraft-carrying cruisers now, my request is only to reduce the tonnage and share of high-speed battleships, not to eliminate high-speed battleships entirely.
“After all, if aircraft-carrying cruisers can completely replace the status of battleships in actual combat, then building some battleships now is just a waste of money and steel.
“But if aircraft-carrying cruisers cannot replace high-speed battleships in actual combat, if they cannot cope with high-speed battleships, and if we do not build battleships at all now, what we may lose is the entire fleet and even the country.
“This is a stable proposal after sufficient compromise and compromise after internal discussions and consultations within the Navy.
“We are planning and designing a large aircraft-carrying cruiser with a full load displacement of 20,000 to 30,000 tons.
“After it is completed, more comprehensive and closer to actual combat exercises can be conducted to verify it.
"I think that if we want to sign a naval treaty, we should reserve at least 80,000 tons for aircraft-carrying cruisers. It is best to have the same share as high-speed battleships." After hearing this, Grenville nodded lightly with a complicated mood. : "I understand. Thank you, Lord Nelson, for your suggestion. We will seriously consider it."
