Chapter 1061

“Your Royal Highness’s idea is absolutely right. This is exactly what I wanted to say. As a massive empire spanning between Asia and Europe, we must ease our relationship with the Ottoman Empire to prevent the Chinese Empire’s westward advance.”

Murphy cast a look of appreciation at Victoria. Although this queen was young, she had a unique political vision.

Victoria nodded. She had been thinking about how to deal with the rise of the Chinese Empire, and now she had several mature ideas.

“The journey from Asia to Europe is a long one. It took us a hundred years to build coastal supply ports. Before they acquire these ports, it will be very difficult for their fleet to fight us in Europe. If we suffer a defeat in India, the next step is to consider how to leave nothing useful behind for the Chinese Empire.” Victoria’s voice was cold.

Murphy, who understood Victoria, said, “Are you suggesting we take measures to destroy the ports?”

“That’s right. For any port that we cannot hold, we must not leave anything useful for the Chinese Empire. To research and equip ourselves with the same equipment as the Chinese Empire, we need time. Without a doubt, this method will make the Chinese Empire spend ten, or even dozens of years, to rebuild the coastal ports.”

Murphy noted down Victoria’s decision. He said, “More important than these things is the alliance of Europe. Now that Prussia’s interaction with the Chinese Empire is too close, it will bring instability to Europe.”

Victoria’s eyes flickered. She understood what Murphy meant. In fact, because the Chinese Empire had harmed Britain’s interests all over the world, the British nobility were now in a state of panic. As long as they could stop the rise of the Chinese Empire, they were willing to pay any price.

This included her marriage. According to the current situation, it seemed that she would have a Prussian husband in the future.

“I am now prepared to agree to this matter, but this is not enough to make Prussia abandon the Chinese Empire. I believe we should force the other German confederations to merge with Prussia. Only by fulfilling Prussia’s wish will they eventually side with us. After all, rather than unifying the German Confederation through war and risking a war with us, they will definitely choose the easier way to get what they want.” Victoria said.

Murphy showed a look of joy. In his opinion, Victoria was becoming more and more like a mature politician. He said, “I will arrange this. I believe that as long as the European countries can unite, they will definitely be able to stop the Chinese Empire, because we have common interests in our overseas colonies.”

Nodding slightly, Victoria continued, “In addition, from now on, we must, at all costs, poach talents from the Chinese Empire. At the same time, you must tell Cao Kun to be bold and do his thing without fear. No matter whether the plan succeeds or fails, we will guarantee that even if they fail and flee to Britain, they will still enjoy noble status and a prosperous life.”

“I hope this Cao Kun will not disappoint us,” Murphy sighed.

After the failure of the combined fleet, Britain’s stance had shifted from offense to defense. Now, they only wanted to stall the Chinese Empire to buy Britain time for technological development.

This was because in the past few years, after obtaining a large amount of basic technological knowledge, Britain’s technological development had made great strides.

After the periodic table caused a sensation, it was successively verified by British chemists, which rapidly improved Britain’s chemical level.

And in terms of steelmaking, they also obtained a nearly perfect process. Using this process, they began to abandon inefficient steelmaking methods, which allowed Britain’s steel quality to make great progress.

In addition, the achievements in physics were also satisfactory. Everything the Great Yu Empire had now, they were also developing.

What disappointed them, however, was that the two scientists they obtained from the Chinese Empire had limited knowledge. They knew very little about the core technologies of some technological products.

The consequence of this was that they had to take many detours to verify a certain technology. It was precisely for this reason that they could not catch up with the Chinese Empire at the same level.

The things that appeared in the Chinese Empire in these two years were becoming more and more numerous, and the speed was getting faster and faster, which made them feel even more powerless.

It was precisely because of this that the parliament decided to obtain the Chinese Empire’s core technical personnel at all costs. However, the Chinese Empire seemed to have been prepared for this, and the core technical personnel were often under very strict protection, making it difficult for Cao Kun’s people to succeed.

…

Calcutta.

Cao Kun, looking at the trenches that stretched for dozens of li and crisscrossed like a spider’s web, was lost in thought. The terrifying weapons of the Chinese Empire were no longer a secret. Europe’s linear tactics had been completely subverted by these weapons.

After suffering continuous defeats and heavy casualties, European military generals began to research ways to counter these weapons.

It was then that these crisscrossing trenches with deep tunnels inside appeared.

“Why are there so many tunnels inside these trenches?” Cao Kun asked, puzzled.

“It’s to prevent being bombed. It is said that the Chinese Empire’s ironclads are very powerful, and we don’t want to be blown to pieces,” Butler said, his face filled with worry. Bad news was coming one after another.

The news of the ironclad fleet had already spread to Calcutta from the Netherlands. To prevent being bombarded like Manila, he had his soldiers dig tunnels in the deep trenches to hide from the bombardment.

“So that’s it. Mr. Butler is indeed an excellent young general of Britain,” Cao Kun praised.

He had left Britain half a year ago. Following the shipping lanes, he arrived in India, where he gathered a large number of people who harbored hatred for the Empire.

Many of these people were those who had fled the Empire to overseas after Xiao Ming’s massacre of the powerful families. Now, these people were all brought together by him because of their shared hatred.

To achieve his goal, he promised these people that they would get British citizenship in the future. After all, after fleeing overseas, the lives of these former children of powerful families were miserable, and they desperately wanted a prosperous life.

This promise greatly moved them.

A strange smile appeared on Butler’s lips. In fact, he looked down on this person who had betrayed his own country, but now Britain really needed him. At the very least, this group of people could use their skin color to infiltrate the Chinese Empire and steal benefits for them.

“I am now gradually accepting a fact. For Britain now, an excellent scientist is much more useful than ten excellent generals. So, compared to me, you are more important to Britain. I also hope that Mr. Cao Kun can achieve satisfactory results as soon as possible.”

Butler’s flattery was very pleasing to Cao Kun. He said, “Everything is within my control.”