"Your Majesty, the United Kingdom has issued a notice confirming that King Edward VII has died. The cause of death was respiratory failure caused by pulmonary embolism.

The diplomatic ambassador and ministers want to know with what specifications we will attend the funeral." Secretary Wang walked into the office as he read the obituary.

"I know, put it somewhere, I will deal with it later. Call the Prime Minister, I will go over to discuss this matter later." Liu Yiming was handling the documents and said without raising his head.

"Yes." Secretary Wang nodded.

The location for building a nuclear reactor in Thailand has been selected, and the handling and transfer of various personnel and materials require Liu Yiming's personal approval.

Large-scale nuclear reactors are directly related to the research progress of nuclear weapons. Without the ability to mass-produce enriched uranium-235, if you want to make a breakthrough in nuclear weapons, you can only play with plutonium-239.

Metal plutonium does not require a large centrifuge. It only needs to reprocess the reactor nuclear waste to obtain metal plutonium 239.

Compared with uranium 235, plutonium-239 has the advantages of being cheap, easily available, and having a low critical value.

But the shortcomings are also obvious. Uranium-235 is very safe before fission begins and can even be touched directly with hands, but plutonium-239 cannot.

The half-life of plutonium-239 is only 24,100 years, while that of uranium-235 is 700 million years.

It can be roughly understood as: the half-life can measure the radiation value of a substance. The shorter the half-life, the stronger the radiation and the greater the harm.

Therefore, the refining of plutonium is very dangerous, or in other words, it costs human lives - because people need to separate the plutonium from the nuclear waste.

Nanhua has no production line or processing experience, so it can only let people come in. They are exposed to the radiation source at close range, and lead-containing radiation-proof clothing cannot stop it.

Fortunately, there are still a group of miners left, and we need to catch another wave of spies, which is enough for the time being.

After processing the development documents, Liu Yiming picked up the impression of the emperor's office and stamped it on the document. The construction of Thailand's large nuclear reactor was officially put on the agenda.

The infrastructure will be completed within two years, and the nuclear fuel can be started up after the nuclear fuel is enriched to more than 3%.

Picking up the obituary of the British Empire, Liu Yiming's eyes flashed and he went out and rushed to the Prime Minister's Office.

…

"Prime Minister, His Majesty is here," the secretary reminded softly.

"Then let's do this first. You go down and prepare and make a plan. Starting from next year, we will increase the steel production capacity by 30%, the mechanical equipment production capacity by 20%, and all factories will be ready for production." Xu Hui nodded and told the Ministry of Industry

Minister Li Ziyao said.

The Qing Empire acted like it was about to fight a decisive battle, and no one in Nanhua who knew the inside story believed that the Qing Empire could achieve a tactical victory.

When the revolutionary army wins, large-scale industrial development will begin. In order not to be in a hurry, Xu Hui begins to make arrangements in advance.

"Your Majesty." When Liu Yiming came in, Li Ziyao had already left, and Xu Hui stood up to greet him.

The two sat down, and Liu Yiming changed into a comfortable position before speaking.

"I want to talk to you about Edward VII's funeral."

"What do you think?" Xu Hui's idea is to handle the death of a monarch as normal. Although the two sides have an alliance, as Nanhua has grown in recent years, there have been many conflicts.

It stands to reason that if there are a lot of conflicts, the relationship should be strengthened, but the Angsa gangsters are all in the same way, and only those who drink are punished. If you take a step back, others will take a step forward.

In this case, Nan Hua should maintain an attitude and let the British know that the situation has changed, not that I am begging you, but that both of us will benefit from our cooperation.

But Liu Yiming made a special trip and must have other ideas, so Xu Hui asked.

"The situation in Europe is becoming increasingly tense, and everyone knows that war may be inevitable."

"But there are still some people who are fighting for peace, and their influence is not small, as can be seen from the recent peace negotiations."

"We need this war. The bigger the better. This is an opportunity for us to rise, and it is also the best and fastest way." Liu Yiming said it bluntly without any concealment.

A war is inevitable, but it is also accidental.

Irreconcilable interest disputes were the fundamental reason for the outbreak of World War I. However, in fact, while the two sides were in the arms race, they had been conducting negotiations, trying to get the other side to give up resistance and give up their interests.

It was obvious that the two sides had not reached an agreement, so a gunshot was fired in Sarajevo, a series of accidental coincidences occurred, and the war started.

However, Liu Yiming is not sure now whether these things will happen. What is very realistic is that the military power of the Ottoman Empire is expanding rapidly, which is visible to the naked eye. At least its strength on paper is not weak.

The most obvious point is that during the Bosnian crisis, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Tsarist Russia did not abandon the Ottoman Empire to deal with this matter.

Even because he could not afford the war expenditure, in order to ease the situation, the Tsar implicitly sided with the Ottoman Empire in this matter.

Germany was very worried that if it supported the Austro-Hungarian Empire to annex Bosnia, it would cause the originally pro-German Ottomans to join the enemy's camp, and they also chose to operate behind the scenes.

At that time, the Ottoman Empire already had more than 200,000 new ground troops trained by the Germans and hundreds of artillery. With the support of Britain, France and Russia, it chose to deploy troops on the Bosnian border and refused to send troops from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Under the adjustment between the two sides, Bosnia still belonged to the Ottoman Empire and was still managed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, in order to deal with the increasingly rising ethnic groups, Bosnia organized movements and gave it limited autonomy.

It did not annex Bosnia, but gave it a certain degree of autonomy. Then Crown Prince Ferdinand probably would not have visited Sarajevo (taking his wife to relax).

At this point, things have deviated from the development trend. Liu Yiming is a little worried. It would be funny if the two sides really negotiated something, such as carving up the Chinese areas.

Therefore, Liu Yiming decided to work harder and tie them to the chariot.

First of all, it is to strengthen the Anglo-Southern Covenant, strengthen the relationship between the two countries, and make it public.

"So, what are we going to do?" Xu Hui asked curiously.

"The funeral of King Edward VII was handled with the highest standards. The British ambassador represented the government, and Hu Xihua, as my personal representative, traveled from Amsterdam to London to attend the funeral." Liu Yiming said.

Xu Hui frowned. He had never heard of such an operation. Is this reasonable?

"The government issued a public condolence message. In addition to those clichés, it also emphasized our unbreakable friendship and implicitly demonstrated that South China is willing to engage in deeper cooperation with the United Kingdom for regional stability and international order."

"Is this... going too far? The British are not polite." Xu Hui said in surprise.

Britain is the undisputed number one power in the world. If Nanhua does this, it will only make people think that Nanhua has become your little brother and pawn of the British Empire.

The British are even less polite. They don't care whether you are polite or not. If you dare to give it a pole, it will dare to find a higher one to climb up.

"It doesn't matter. What we have to do is to make the British more proud and more confident, so that they think that the Far East is stable and will not threaten its core interests."

"Only in this way can it confront the Germans without any distractions and not think about compromise." Liu Yiming has already made a plan.

Next, Nan Hua will act as a clown jumping up and down, increasing the complexity of the region, finding some enemies for himself, and reassuring the British.

"If that's the case, according to convention, the new king will hold a ship review in June next year. We originally planned to send a large patrol ship to improve the specifications?" Xu Hui thought for a while, and this is also feasible.

Anyway, there will be no consequences if it doesn't work out. At worst, there will be another "deterioration of relations". This is normal in international affairs. If there is a date or no date, it will be a slap in the face!

"George V, send the Arab. Remember to put the name of the Arab on the side of the ship. It should be big and eye-catching! Just use it as a way to promote sovereignty." Liu Yiming nodded.

"Okay, use gray paint and white reflective fonts to ensure eye-catching." Xu Hui nodded.

The Arabian class is still one of the most powerful warships in the world, and sending it out is enough to give you face.

"Then I will prepare the "enemy". I plan to have some disputes with the Germans, whether it is the islands in the Pacific or Shandong."

"Speaking of Shandong, I am going to have a verbal quarrel with the revolutionary army on the issue of Tianjin Wei, so that everyone can see the contradiction between us."

Liu Yiming also needs to consider the so-called enemies. Only when Nanhua "cannot escape" and cannot threaten the Indian Ocean will Britain relax its vigilance against Nanhua.

The British Empire has three lifebloods: fleet, routes and India.

India is the source of legal authority for the British Empire, and the British king also serves as the emperor of India - although it is of no use.

…………

In mid-November, after a series of traitorous treaties were signed and a large amount of land was ceded, the loan that Zaifeng had longed for finally arrived.

"Didn't you say full payment? Why is it only 20 million taels?" Zaifeng couldn't help but ask when he got the final receipt.

Zai Ze stood aside with a stinky face.

You know, this was a loan that he handled, and now his reputation has become notorious. What happened? More than two million taels of silver were missing, and he, the person in charge, didn’t even know where he was.

"Brother Wang, the more than two million taels are a kickback for Bahana and the others." Zai Xun said from the side.

"Kickback? One draw out of ten? Why not pay at a 95% discount!" Zai Feng was furious when he heard this.

The 50% discount payment is only a little over one million taels, which is more than one million yuan more.

In normal times, a million or so would be nothing to him as a regent. The Qing Empire's annual tax revenue is 300 million taels, so just squeeze it in.

(Due to excessively backward taxation and corruption, the Qing Empire was divided up after at least the same amount of taxes were taken out of the pockets of the common people.)

"Twenty million, give Yuan Gongbao 6 million, and give the War Department 8 million, and 14 million will be gone."

Zai Ze murmured to himself,

"Once a war breaks out, it will cost a town three and a half million yuan a month, and the remaining money will not be enough to use."

"What will happen if we don't start a war? This amount of money is not enough to pay military salaries to so many people for a few months. If we fight, we can still grab a wave of money and continue to borrow money. If we lose, then there will be nothing.

"Zai Feng breathed out.

"It doesn't matter. I have already found out that the rebels only have 70,000 to 80,000 people with combat effectiveness. The remaining 100,000 have less than three months to train, so their combat effectiveness is worrying."

Zai Xun said confidently,

"And if we don't have money, will they have money? There are countless landlords and gentry in the south of the Yangtze River who resist taxes and donations. They all have their hearts set on me. As soon as the heavenly soldiers arrive, they will definitely eat the pot of pulp and welcome the king."

The rest of the people nodded after hearing this and agreed with this statement.

"Your Majesty, I think it's better to continue the preparatory process of establishing a constitution, so as to win over the people." Zai Ze's eyes lit up.

If everyone has no money, then this battle is to compete for the hearts and minds of the people. If the hearts of the people are there, the general trend will be achieved.

Zaifeng didn't say anything. He just stood aside and thought for a long time. He picked up the tea cup and put it down again without taking a sip. Everyone didn't dare to disturb him and looked at him one after another.

After a long time, Zaifeng put down his teacup and nodded with an angry expression.

"Constitutionalization! But! You can't allow others to seize power, otherwise it won't be much different from defeat!" Zaifeng said fiercely.
Chapter completed!