Lord Moyu was forced to open

"Your Majesty, according to the news sent back by the European spies, this is roughly the situation."

In Funing Palace, Zhao Jun stroked his chin and said thoughtfully:

"So the reason Great Britain is not in step with the rest of Europe is because Europe is playing a trick on them and taking advantage of their low tariffs to make a killing while they're raising tariffs?"

"That's right! According to the latest intelligence, after discovering Great Britain's behavior, France, Spain and other European countries immediately came to visit. At that time, Great Britain's Prime Minister apparently agreed to their request, but after they left, Great Britain continued to do as it pleased. Even Great Britain's Prime Minister has been ill and unable to leave the house for half a month.

Now all European countries are extremely dissatisfied with Great Britain and are discussing whether to lower tariffs again.

After all, their country's revenue has been decreasing over this period of time, while Great Britain has been making a lot of money, which is enough to make other forces in their country jealous and force them to compromise. "

Yun Yi respectfully reported the relevant information collected by the National Guard Bureau one by one.

Zhao Jun pondered for a moment, then raised his lips and said with a smile: "It seems that Great Britain will also raise tariffs soon."

Yun Yi was puzzled.

"Your Majesty, Great Britain is making a lot of money right now. Judging from their current behavior, it is unlikely that they will raise tariffs. The most likely scenario is that they will make a final profit before other countries lower their tariffs."

Zhao Jun shook his head and said, "It's impossible. Great Britain can become the most powerful country in Europe today. They are definitely not fools. The reason why European countries want to increase tariffs is to prevent a large amount of gold and silver from flowing into our Song Dynasty.

This is their main purpose. Now Great Britain seems to have betrayed Europe, but it is only out of greed and they want to take advantage of the opportunity to make a fortune. However, their real purpose is still to curb the flow of gold and silver into our Song Dynasty. Otherwise, no matter how much they earn, it will all flow into our Song Dynasty in the end. They still know the priority.

So now that other European countries have almost reached the bottom line, Great Britain should be far less likely to raise taxes, and what they earn now should be enough. "

Yun Yi was stunned, but he didn't quite believe it, because according to the intelligence, Great Britain showed no signs of raising tariffs. Would it really be as His Majesty said?

Yet only three days had passed.

When Yun Yi received the latest information sent back from Europe half a month ago, he was stunned.

Your Majesty actually guessed it right!
Great Britain also announced an increase in tariffs just half a month ago.

Now the whole of Europe has increased tariffs on Song merchants. After paying taxes, the profits that Song people can make when sending their goods to Europe are only a little.

But they could make a lot of money by sending their products to the Song Dynasty!

As soon as the Song Dynasty court received the news, Zhao Jun immediately ordered countermeasures and asked the Ministry of Revenue to also increase tariffs on goods entering the country from European countries.

At this point, the contest between the East and the West officially began!
The ones who were least affected were the maritime merchants who used to make huge profits by relying on the trade between the two sides!
Merchants on both sides complained bitterly!

The news of the Song Dynasty's increase in tariffs soon spread back to Europe through European merchants.

All countries were immediately furious!
boom!
"They actually dared to raise tariffs. Does the Song State want to become an enemy of us in Europe?"

The French and Spanish envoy slammed his fist on the long wooden table in front of him and said angrily.

Envoys from other countries also expressed their dissatisfaction.

As the host, British Prime Minister Churchill remained calm, puffing on his cigar without saying a word.

He was very disdainful of these guys' performance.

It is not the first day that they have known about the State of Song. The current emperor of Song has a strong temper and will never give in to them.

This day was destined to come from the moment they, Europe, made the decision to raise tariffs.

This is also clearly known to everyone. Now this group of people are pretending to be stupid again, which is really disgusting. Although they are from Great Britain, they are not so cautious as to ask questions knowing the answer.

After the envoys from European countries had vented their anger, the French and Spanish envoy Kroll said to Qiu Jier: "Qiu Jier, now that Song has raised its tariffs, we don't need to waste time with them anymore. Let's just join forces to attack Song together. Song has such a huge market, as long as we can conquer it.

Then not only can all of us get a large colony there, but we can also get a dumping market.

Make a lot of money! "

In response, Qiu Jier finally put down the cigar in his mouth.

He stood up slowly and said, "Since we have already prepared for this, why waste some time and put on a show here for so long?
Then according to our previous division, Great Britain will provide three first-class sailing battleships, ten second-class sailing battleships, forty third-class sailing battleships, and forty sailing auxiliary transport ships."

According to the warship level of Great Britain, the highest-level sailing battleship has a displacement of 16 tons. The overall length of the ship is nearly meters, the width is meters, and it has three full decks.

The first-class sailing battleship is not only huge in size, but also has one hundred 12-pound to 32-pound muzzle-loading smoothbore guns as a means of attack.

It can be said that the firepower is powerful!
However, due to the high cost, there are only ten ships in the whole of Great Britain. Excluding those left behind in the mainland and stationed in various colonies, only three can be mobilized now.

The second-class sailing battleship also has a displacement of 2500 tons. Although its length is not as long as the 70m of the first-class sailing battleship, it is still more than meters.

It is also 90 meters wide and has three decks, but only guns.

There are only twenty ships in the whole of Great Britain, and half of them have been dispatched now.

As for the third-class sailing battleship, it is already considered the main battleship of Great Britain today, with a displacement of 1,700 tons, a length of 54 meters and a width of 14 meters.

But it only has two decks.

There were only seventy artillery pieces loaded.

However, it is relatively balanced in all aspects and has a high cost-effectiveness, so it is now the main battleship type of Great Britain.

As for the transport ships, they are purely troop transports.

Great Britain directly contributed 90 warships, which was a huge contribution.

Other countries were not stingy and immediately announced the military forces they would contribute.

Among them, France and Spain were the country that sent the second largest number of troops after Great Britain, with nearly eighty warships ranking second in the combined fleet.

At last count, the entire combined fleet had a terrifying number of 300 ships!
There are seven first-level sailing battleships, thirty second-level ships, one hundred and ten third-level ships, fifty-three fourth-level ships, and one hundred troop transports.

The advanced fleets among them were mainly from Great Britain and France and Spain, accounting for half of the strength of the Combined Fleet.

The remaining third- and fourth-level ships and troop transports are mostly produced by other countries.

After counting the number of ships that the combined fleet will have, everyone was very excited and felt that they would definitely win this battle.

It's just the Song Dynasty. No matter how vast its territory is or how strong its national power is, can you still defeat the combined fleet of the entire Europe?

This time, the territory in Europa's hands will increase again on a large scale!

...(End of chapter)