The youngest host of the meeting continued: "Recently, France's colleagues are buying large quantities of the national debt of the Great Empire. They did not suffer any losses due to the war, but took advantage of the opportunity to make huge profits."
"We may not win the eastern market in the end, but instead hand over our own position to others. Those rich French usurers have already begun to extend their hands to London. What are they going to do?"
"It couldn't be more obvious that they want to seize the dominance of Europa's financial industry."
The young man was right. The headquarters of their faction was in London, and before that it was in the Netherlands.
They have always been the largest behind-the-scenes controllers of Europa's financial industry.
They indirectly control politics by holding large amounts of national debt and monopolizing the right to issue currency.
In Europe, they are uncrowned emperors!
The local French financiers across the Channel have always been their opponents.
Those people are still lending money at high interest rates, and they have been squeezing them out because they are local forces.
When they were in the Netherlands, those people encouraged France to take advantage of the naval battle between Great Britain and the Netherlands to attack the Netherlands from land.
Eventually, the Netherlands lost its status as a maritime hegemon and financial center.
As a result, these people transferred their power to the country of Yu, where the power was at its peak.
Now that they have finally taken control of the country's financial industry, they will naturally not watch the fruits of victory being picked away by others again.
The short, fat and balding man said: "I think we should end this meaningless war in the East as soon as possible and let the country turn its attention back to Europe."
"If France is allowed to become the overlord again, just like it was decades ago, we don't know how much resources will be wasted trying to suppress them. The enemy in front of us is always more important than the enemy far away."
The short, fat, bald man was talking about the freak who appeared in Francie decades ago. That man led Francie to conquer almost half of Europe.
Da Ying united almost all European countries and launched several wars before defeating that man.
A lot of the investment was made by them.
At this time, a tall and thin old man with arched eyebrows and deep eyes said: "Temple doesn't seem to want to end like this. If he admits defeat now, then all the mistakes and guilt will be his, and he cannot accept this."
result."
"Now that we have the War Act, he has a lot of power. We really can't do anything about him for a while."
Seeing that everyone was a little disappointed, the youngest man said: "Others can't do anything to him, but the woman in the palace can. We just need to let that woman see that the current situation is enough to threaten her rule."
.”
"In her eyes, how could those distant colonies be as important as her own position?"
The short and fat man continued to ask: "Yes, but how to make her feel that her position is unstable? You must know that her current position is very stable. And this queen is not a simple person."
The woman the pudgy man was talking about was none other than Queen Victoria.
She is the granddaughter of George III and the only daughter of Prince Edward and Princess Victoria, sister of King Leopold I of Belgium.
Victoria grew up in her mother's German environment. Her father died young and she was educated under the tutelage of her uncle Leopold I in her early years. She was influenced by liberal ideas for a long time.
After the death of her uncle William IV, Victoria became king.
During her reign, the power of the empire reached its highest level. It is known as the Victorian era.
This middle-aged lady, who is nearly forty years old, is only a little over one and a half meters tall. She originally had some baby fat on her face. Now, like most Western women, her body has begun to put on weight, and her face looks even plumper.
However, her plump face could not hide the sadness on her face at this time.
To make matters worse, her closest lover, Prince Albert, passed away just at the most difficult time for her.
Prince Albert was not only her lover, the father of her many children, but also her political adviser.
Albert is a mature, steady, tall, handsome, and extremely self-disciplined man.
When he was here, Victoria's life and the entire Great Empire were arranged in order by him.
At this time, Victoria was wearing a black widow's dress with a frown on her face. At this time, facing the crisis of the Great Empire, she had no clue.
Widows who just lost their men are the most insecure. At this time, they are sensitive and timid.
She didn't even want to hear any news from the outside world.
After taking care of her husband's life, she moved to Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
This castle is located in Scotland and was built in 1390.
In 1848, Victoria and her husband, Prince Albert, visited here for the first time and fell in love with it. After purchasing it, it has been owned by the royal family. Including the castle, Balmoral Manor covers a total area of 50,000 acres.
At this time, Victoria could only feel a little at ease if she stayed here.
But there are some things that cannot be avoided.
She was destined to become a monarch when she came up, and it was impossible to obtain true freedom.
She is not only herself, but also the queen of the Great Empire.
Although she was unwilling, she still wanted to meet the Chancellor of the Exchequer, James Harris, who had come from London.
"Your Majesty the Queen." Harris originally wanted to say a few words, but when he saw the Queen's cold face, he couldn't say many words.
Those words that were originally meant to be comforting seemed to turn into ridicule after being spoken.
"Harris, if you are here to report on the Eastern War, then there is no need to repeat it. I already know that the parliament has completely handed over this matter to the cabinet, and I don't want to deal with it anymore."
Victoria has been the queen for so many years, she is not stupid, although she still has a lot of power.
But she knows very well when to exercise power and when not to exercise power.
Exercising rights means assuming corresponding responsibilities.
Although she is in sadness and confusion now, this does not affect her IQ.
If she intervened in this matter at this time, it would be equivalent to taking over a hot potato.
When the time comes, it will not be so easy for her to throw it away.
"Your Majesty, I don't want to cause you more trouble. But there is one thing that I must report to you."
"What's going on? Just tell me." Queen Fei Dudu's face was expressionless.
In the past, she didn't like anyone except her husband, Prince Albert.
Even the nine children she gave birth to were taught by her husband, and she was not close to them at all.
"Your Majesty, the Prime Minister wants to issue another 500 million pounds of war bonds to support the war in the East. This war has already cost us 200 million pounds. The losses he has caused have exceeded this amount."
"Now our borrowed foreign debt is five times the fiscal revenue, and the Great Empire has been reduced from a creditor country to a debtor country."
"Now there are demonstrations everywhere outside, and people feel that the fruits of their hard work have been wasted in the war."
"Parents do not want to send their children to die in the army again. The current subcontinent is like a gold-eating beast, swallowing up the wealth accumulated by the Great Empire over hundreds of years."
Harris spoke passionately.
Victoria could picture such a scene in her mind.
The gold, silver and jewelry stored in his treasury are like being placed in a funnel, rapidly decreasing.
Women tend to love money more than men.
"How could it cost so much?" The Queen did not expect that the cost of this war would be so high.
You must know that the current fiscal revenue of the Great Empire is less than 100 million pounds a year.
Because trade with the East was cut off, there was almost no income from the subcontinent.
This fiscal revenue will also be greatly reduced.
"Your Majesty, the battleships lost alone are worth tens of millions of pounds. There are also hundreds of thousands of soldiers recruited, which cost a lot of money. Even the supplies on the front line are purchased at high prices from Egypt.
.”
"The transportation costs in between are astronomical."
"We have lost a large number of merchant ships at sea in the past two years. These merchant ships could have generated tax revenue, but now they are gone."
What Harris said is a bit exaggerated, but the data are true.
As Treasury Secretary, Harris and Temple are not partisan.
In fact, he is a member of the Conservative Party. The reason why he was able to become the Minister of Finance was because of the compromise between the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party.
Harris himself is indeed very good at managing money. The most important thing is that he is a representative promoted by those financiers.
Daying's finances depend on those financiers, so they will not completely give up this financial power to the government.
Naturally, Harris was also instructed by those people to secretly come to the Queen to complain this time.
After he said so much, the Queen was finally touched.
"Harris, what do you think the king should do?" the queen asked.
"Your Majesty, we must recognize the situation clearly at this time. We cannot continue to fight this meaningless war just because some people do not want to leave a name in history. We still have nearly 200,000 soldiers in the subcontinent. They do not have naval support.
Logistics supply.”
"And they have been compressed into a palm-sized area around Mumbai. We must now find a way to save these soldiers. There is only one way to save them, and that is to cease the war."
"Harris, what does Parliament mean? I understand that you want me to remove Temple from his post, but I must get the support of Parliament. The armistice cannot come from my will, only from Parliament. Do you understand?"
Victoria, like Temple, is unwilling to take responsibility for failure. That's why she said this to Harris. She knows who Harris represents, and these people have ways to persuade parliament.
After Harris left, a handsome middle-aged man walked into the room.
This person is John Brown, Victoria's attendant.
Brown approached the Queen, but the distance seemed a bit too close.
Finally, the queen couldn't hold on anymore and cried.
As an attendant, John naturally took the queen into his arms and gently stroked her broad and soft back.
It's like comforting your lover.
"嘤嘤嘤......"
The queen said with a tearful voice that after Prince Albert's death, she seemed to have become an ordinary woman again and no longer looked like the original queen.
"They all come to bully me. Wuwuwu...what should I do? John, can you help me?"
The handsome Brown looks somewhat similar to Prince Albert in temperament.
After the prince left, Brown gradually entered the queen's life.
Brown is a gentleman who takes good care of the Queen's life. But he never makes any demands on the Queen.
This feeling is something the queen cannot feel from those female attendants.
The Queen gradually regarded him as Prince Albert's shadow.
"Your Majesty, you are the queen of the Great Empire, and you have the final say on the empire. But this war is not your choice, it is the people's own choice. Now that we can't go on, we have to end it by them. But there is one thing.
You have to grasp it, after all, the Great Empire is still the Great Empire of Europe. If anything will affect the status of the Great Empire in Europe, then this matter must be given up."
…
It’s hard to imagine that these humble-looking people are discussing how to influence the decisions of the Great Empire.
Those who didn’t know better thought these people had escaped from a lunatic asylum!
But this group of people really influenced the decision-making of the Great Empire.
Of course Dong Shuheng didn't know that there was a group of people inside the Great Empire who were assisting him.
…
At the same time, Mr. Iron-Blooded is stepping up his efforts to integrate the entire North Germany.
Prince Adalbert is heading south to Africa with the German fleet to find a suitable colony for himself.
The German Navy now has twelve capital ships, and its naval power is second only to the Empire of Great Britain and France.
Such a huge fleet cannot continue to sit in a bathtub like the Baltic Sea.
Originally, the Great Navy would have suppressed them, preventing the German Navy from extending its power beyond the Baltic Sea.
But now that the Imperial Navy of Great Britain has failed one after another and has reached the point where it is in decline, there is no energy left to manage the German Navy.
Everyone has seen that France is enclosing land on a large scale in North Africa and West Africa.
France's colony in Madagascar was also strengthening.
The French also established their own Indian Ocean fleet based on Madagascar.
Placing the fleet base in Madagascar is, on the one hand, to avoid the attack of the Renaissance Army. On the other hand, it is to control the southwestern region of the Indian Ocean.
Poor Austrian Emperor Joseph was hit by successive defeats and lost his confidence.
I can only hide in Vienna, indulge in sex, and use alcohol to anesthetize myself.
Fortunately, the Habsburg family has a strong foundation.
In addition, they had a good relationship with the Renaissance Army and their business dealings gave Joseph a lot of money.
On the battlefield of the subcontinent.
Because of the failure of the previous naval battle, the Yin army began to shift from an offensive state to a defensive state.
General Robert on the northern front has withdrawn to the line of Ujjain and Udaipur.
While retreating, they were attacked by the Jhanxi cavalry and lost a lot of their baggage.
The retreat of the Japanese army brought great confidence to the entire Northern Alliance.
According to the deployment of the war zone, the army on the northern route did not attack Robert's heavily defended defense line, but transferred reinforcements and 20,000 Jhansi cavalry to attack Punjab in the northwest.