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Volume Three: The Wind Rises in the South, Chapter 47, Chapter 47: His Majesty the Prime Minister

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    But the talented Balfour saw the roots of decline in the flowers of victory.  For hundreds of years, the British Empire has had only one diplomatic goal: to ensure that Europe is divided, to defeat any country that may dominate Europe, and to never allow the ports of the Low Countries that can directly threaten the British Isles to be in the hands of a powerful power, no matter how powerful it is.  Called Charles V, Philip II, Louis XIV, or Napoleon I.  It is precisely because the British Empire has done all this that it can focus most of its national power on overseas colonial trade and defeat its opponents on the mainland one by one. The reason is simple: those opponents must spend most of their energy  to deal with its neighbors, and Britain is an island.  But the situation is changing. As time goes by, there are fewer and fewer chess players on the European continent who are qualified to participate in this annexation war. Although the empire's diplomats are becoming more and more skilled, they have to do it when there are fewer and fewer participants.  The difficulty of balancing in the game is naturally becoming more and more difficult, especially after the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. The Hohenzollern family completed the annexation of the Rhine and South German states and established the German Empire. Europe lost a housewife.  , and there is one more master.  There are only a handful of players left on the European continent who are qualified to participate in this game. Once a war breaks out, its scale and intensity will definitely dwarf past wars.  As a result, a dilemma faced the elites of the British Empire: once the war broke out, if the British Empire stayed out of the matter as it had in the past, or only invested a small number of marines in the war, then the winner of the war would naturally  Becoming the unquestionable master of the entire European continent, the British can no longer play the same trick of linking the weak against a strong one in the past, and this is something they absolutely do not want to see, because this can almost be said to have struck a decisive blow.  The death knell of the destruction of the British Empire; and if the British Empire joins this war, the huge manpower and material resources required will bankrupt the empire, or at least collapse the colonial system all over the world. The survival of the British Empire now cannot leave the colonies.  .  If the British Empire wants to continue to survive, the only way is to prevent a war from breaking out on the European continent. But can this war be avoided?  At the Berlin Conference, Prime Minister Bismarck, the host of the conference, claimed that the Germans wanted nothing in Europe and had no territorial claims.  This is what he said and he did.  In the view of the smart Balfour, Bismarck's statement was very wise. Germany was strong enough and had aroused the wariness of all the remaining countries in Europe. The foundation of the Three Emperors system after the Congress of Vienna had been shaken, and useless ambitions would only give rise to  Bring disaster upon yourself.  But Bismarck's successors may not be so wise. Besides, the signing of the Treaty of Berlin did not solve the Balkan problem, but made it more complicated: Russia held a grudge after losing its spoils; while the multi-ethnic empire of Austria-Hungary was annexed.  After Bosnia and Herzegovina, it only adds to its own troubles. On the other side of the border, the compatriots in these two newly annexed areas will definitely find ways to support the local anti-government forces, because the strength of these small countries is far smaller than that of Austria-Hungary.  Empire, they will naturally recruit Russia, who is also a Slav, for reinforcements. In such a complicated contradiction, is it possible for the behemoth Germany to stay out of the matter?  Not to mention the old hatred of the French being forced to cede Alsace and Lorraine after the Franco-Prussian War.  How could the British Empire sleep peacefully next to such a huge powder keg?  Not to mention deploying troops to launch a costly disciplinary war thousands of miles away.  "Belfort! What are you thinking about?" A soft cry woke Belfort out of his thoughts. He raised his head and saw the Marquis looking at him with concern.  He smiled awkwardly: "Uncle, I'm sorry, I was distracted just now!" "Are you distracted?" The Marquis put down the quill in his hand and replied with a smile: "You should be thinking about the incident in Myanmar, okay?  "Tell me what you think! Belfort, you always surprise me!" "I don't know much about the situation there, so I want to-" "Tell me what you think.  Not in the House of Commons, just in the office of an old friend!" The Marquis interrupted Balfour's answer. He gently tapped the knuckle of his left index finger with his quill: "If you don't understand the situation there,  I think quite a few members of Congress don¡¯t understand the big difference between Myanmar and a wild duck in West Sam County!¡± ¡°Uncle, you can¡¯t belittle my respected colleagues like this!¡± Balfour retorted in a somewhat embarrassed tone.  "Well, I admit that some of them can separate the two!" The Marquis of Salisbury had a narrow smile on his face. When he was alone with Balfour, he liked to make some harmless jokes.  This is a sign that he has a good impression of the other person.  Then he withdrew the smile on his face and said solemnly: "Tell me, in a few hours I will go to the House of Commons to be questioned by your respectable colleagues. Let me first listen to the most outstanding one among them.  What¡¯s your opinion?¡±&nbsp"I think it is unrealistic to solve this problem purely by military means!" Balfour answered straight to the point: "If you want to defeat the Chinese militarily, you must obtain the consensus of the great powers, at least the support of Annan's French army.  . And given your weak position in the House of Commons, the war against China can only be quick and without setbacks, but this is too difficult. The capital of China is in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, with many forts along the way; and  After carrying out military reforms, China has between 300,000 and 500,000 well-equipped troops. This is a quite astonishing number! " "You are right, Balfour! It seems that there is only one way to go!  "The Marquis nodded: "Carry out a small-scale punitive expedition to Burma instead of going to war to stop that Gladstone's mouth!" At this point, the Marquis stood up and took a few steps back and forth.  Suddenly he stopped and said: "But before that, Belfort, I need you to do something for me. Please go to Myanmar and serve as my plenipotentiary ambassador. Theson was fooled by the boy named Gillings  The letters he wrote back have become cannonballs for the Liberal Party to attack us. You know what to do!" At this point, the Marquis blinked twice at Balfour.  Belfort bent down gracefully and replied in a low voice: "Yes, Your Majesty Prime Minister, your order is my wish!" Bagan, the Royal Palace.  For Diok, these days have been very difficult. He is like a firefighter, running around the city of Bagan, extinguishing every spark that may become the source of the riot. He has sent hundreds of spies to monitor  The monks of Mohe Bodhi Temple also asked painters to draw hundreds of portraits of Songshen who was speaking in front of the palace that day, distributed them, and offered a reward for his head with the territory of five villages or 10,000 pounds in money.  Provide valid clues and you can get half of the reward.  Although Diok did everything anyone could do in his position, he still felt that the building under his feet was loosening and crumbling. As he walked on the road, the crowds on the roadside cast hateful looks at him, and his ears  Bian could hear the curses of "murderers" and "traitors" all the time. Even his most important support now, the New Army, was showing signs of instability. His trusted officers in the army had reported to him many times that the soldiers were  They were connecting in series, exchanging vows while pointing to the lotus in front of the river, as if there was some huge conspiracy happening, and the entire Bagan city was like a huge tomb that could open its black mouth at any time and swallow him up.  The shun army outside the city still hesitated to move. Although Diok offered Mr. Chen higher and higher prices and sent more and more abundant gifts, Mr. Chen could always find new ones.  The excuse was that the Shun army was just busy collecting food around Bagan and building fortifications near the dock, but there was no sign of entering the city. The only thing they did was to send a guard of 200 people to Diok, equipped with two  The Gatling gun was used to ensure the safety of Diok's family. This gave Diok a sense of security. After all, it was impossible for these original Chinese to participate in the riot.  Diok had been busy in the city for a whole day. He returned to the palace at the first watch. After eating a few mouthfuls of food, he fell on the bed. As he was sleeping in a daze, he heard a burst of gunshots and instinctively  A Gulu climbed up from the bed, first pulled out the pistol from under the pillow, and then he felt a little calmer, and asked in a cold voice: "What's going on, where is the gunshot?" "Master Regent, the gunshot should be from  It's coming from the south of the city!" Zhang Qi's voice came from outside the door. These days, he has been the commander of Diok's personal guard. He travels around every day and stays outside when sleeping. He is almost inseparable.  "South of the city? Oops, it's over there at the New Army camp!" Diok jumped down and took two steps before he felt the coldness on his feet. It turned out he was not wearing shoes.  He hurriedly walked back to the bed, put on his clothes and shoes, and walked out the door. He saw Zhang Qi, neatly dressed, standing solemnly as the Prime Minister. He couldn't help but nodded slightly: "Assemble the guards, let's go to the military camp first."  "Look!" By the time Diok left the palace gate, the gunfire from the military camp in the south of the city was too dense to hear. Looking from a distance, he could see the fire shooting into the sky, turning the night sky into a purple color.  Like clotted dirty blood.  Obviously this was a large-scale mutiny, and the mutinous soldiers may have occupied the weapons depot, otherwise there would not have been such intensive gunfire.  "Lord Regent, the situation looks bad, why don't we leave the city first!" Zhang Qi looked at the fire in the distance and whispered to Diok.  "Leave the city?" Diok looked at the sky in the distance and hesitated for a moment, but his perseverance still prevailed. He pulled out the pistol on his waist: "No, there are so many Buddhist temples in Bagan, we can't just do it like this  Throw them to the rebels, Zhang Zhangshou, you send twenty people to send my wife and children to Mr. Chen first. " "Yes!" Zhang Qi nodded, turned around and gave some instructions, and the group headed towards the military camp in the south of the city.  Running away, as the distance approached, Diok began toUnder the cover of the concentrated gunfire, shouts were heard. It was tens of millions of people shouting in Burmese, "Share the land equally!" Diok couldn't help but change his face. The thing he had been most afraid of in the past few days finally happened.  If the soldiers' request was just for an increase in military pay, he was prepared to accept the request; if it was just for him and had the support of the Shunjun outside the city, he was not worried and would at most flee to the Shunjun barracks outside the city; but like this  The riots demanding the redistribution of land are the most terrifying. There are not many in Myanmar's history, but the result every time is "the bones are exposed in the wild, there are no roosters for thousands of miles, and the blue sky is turned into ruins." In the dense forest, there are  Many of these relics tell the cruelty of past wars. If this riot is not suppressed before it fully unleashes its power, Bagan City will become one of those abandoned ancient cities. They can only be found in ancient books.  The prosperity of the past.  Author's words: Weber's consistent creed is that authors should focus on their works and write good things, rather than asking readers for recommendations or collections.  Readers vote based on the quality of the article rather than the author's request. This is a positive interaction. After all, readers come here hoping to see good articles, not what the author wants.  But after reading it over the past few days, I found that there were only three or four recommendation votes a day. This made me very dissatisfied. Is my writing not good?  But I didn¡¯t see any similar messages in the discussion forum?  It¡¯s not that I didn¡¯t say no, some readers might have thought that Weber didn¡¯t care about these things at all.  Here I want to say that Weber cares about grades very much, because writing a book is a very lonely process, and it requires the support of readers to continue!  Thank you very much!
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