The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 848 This first island chain will eventually be torn apart!

"Secret treaty?" The 15th Earl of Derby asked with a frown. "Prime Minister, what secret treaty do you want to sign with the Asahi Heavenly Kingdom? Is it a secret treaty against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?"

Hearing his series of questions, Prime Minister Disraeli laughed and said, "Of course, the secret agreement we are going to sign with the North and the South is to deal with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Because the Japanese archipelago is an iron chain that locks the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!"

At this point, he winked at the Minister of the Navy, Coningsby, who immediately spread a map of the Pacific Ocean on the conference table and pointed to the port of Nagasaki on Kyushu Island in Japan on the map and said, "It is only 430 nautical miles away from Shanghai, the most important industrial and commercial city of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. If a fleet departs from Kyushu Island in Japan and sails west at a speed of 10 knots, it can bombard Shanghai in 43 hours! If the mission of this fleet is to block the mouth of the Yangtze River, then more than half of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's shipping will be interrupted, and 70% of its foreign trade will be impossible. If we also close the Strait of Malacca at the same time, then 90% of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's foreign trade will be gone, and it will only be able to play with itself in the future!"

Disraeli sneered, "Six hundred million, oh, maybe seven hundred million people will be trapped on the East Asian continent, with no overseas markets, no imported food, and even no bird droppings. Those yellow monkeys will soon know what it feels like to starve! The angry people will overthrow the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom government themselves, and then beg us to lift the blockade!"

"What the Prime Minister means is," the 15th Earl of Derby had already understood what Disraeli was thinking, "that at some point in the future, we will deploy our fleet to Kyushu Island and use Kyushu as a base to launch a naval blockade against the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom?"

Admiral Coningsby took the initiative to answer the question and replied with a smile: "Earl, this is the blockade plan against China proposed by First Admiral Sir Parker! The best way to deal with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, a superpower with an extremely excessive population and very dependent on external resources and even food and fertilizer imports, is not to invade, but to use a naval blockade to cause civil unrest in the country due to short-term hunger. We predict that as long as the blockade can last for 12 months, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will almost certainly collapse!"

"But the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's navy is not weak either?" The 15th Earl of Derby frowned and said, "They seem to have 5000 ironclad ships with a standard displacement of more than tons, and many lightly armored cruisers. Can the Royal Navy really carry out the blockade mission effectively?"

The Navy Minister replied: "Sir Parker has carefully studied the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's ironclad ships and cruisers. These ships are indeed difficult to deal with. Although their tonnage is not too large, the caliber of the artillery they are equipped with is also average, and the number is not large. But every time they are in actual combat, they can always achieve an excellent exchange ratio. They are indeed opponents that cannot be underestimated! However, in the face of the overwhelming numerical advantage of the Royal Navy, they are still bound to lose."

"Then why don't we implement the blockade mission immediately?" asked the 15th Earl of Derby.

"Because our fleet cannot drift on the sea for a year or two to perform blockade missions," the Navy Minister explained. "Ironclad ships are actually very delicate weapons. They need careful maintenance, regular maintenance and overhauls to exert their great power when needed. Most of the time, they should be anchored in the port waiting for war opportunities, and we lack such a port on the sea in East Asia for a large fleet to anchor."

"Oh, I see." The 15th Earl of Derby nodded slightly. "Then where is our largest naval port closest to the Chinese coast?"

"Bombay," replied the Lord Admiral, with a wry smile.

"Ah, it seems a little far away!"

"It is indeed a bit far," said Prime Minister Disraeli, "so the First Sea Lord thinks we must first complete a series of port construction before we can send a certain number of naval capital ships to the Far East to implement the blockade mission."

Naval Minister Coningsby pointed to Singapore on the map and said, "First, Singapore. We have to expand Singapore into a naval fortress that can accommodate a large fleet!" Then he pointed to the Australian coastline and said, "Then Sydney, it will become the home port of the Royal Navy's Pacific Fleet." His finger slid north on the map, "Then this area, New Guinea Island, we need to find a natural deep-water port here, and then build port facilities, warehouses, docks, and artillery positions to make it a gateway base for Australia. But New Guinea Island is more than 2500 nautical miles away from the coast of China!"

His finger finally landed on Nagasaki: "So Nagasaki is the key point! As long as we can take Nagasaki, we can strangle the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom by the throat and force it to kneel to us!"

"We already have a concession in Nagasaki, don't we?" asked the 15th Earl of Derby.

"Yes!" said Prime Minister Disraeli, "but the British Concession in Nagasaki doesn't have facilities that can accommodate a large fleet, and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom also has a concession in Nagasaki and has stationed troops! If we sail our fleet into Nagasaki, we might be attacked by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's army on the shore! Of course, the main problem is that Nagasaki doesn't have facilities that can maintain a large fleet. So Sir Parker submitted a secret report, hoping to build docks, artillery batteries, shipyards, and barracks in Sasebo on Kyushu Island, and when necessary, turn it into a forward base for the Royal Navy to blockade the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!"

"But can the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom allow the Asahi Heavenly Kingdom to do this?" The 15th Earl of Derby still felt that this matter was not very reliable.

"That's why we need to sign a secret agreement," Disraeli said. "A British company can build a military port in Sasebo in the name of helping the Korean Heavenly Kingdom build a new port and shipbuilding base. When the military port is completed, our fleet will suddenly move in to complete the blockade of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom!"

"But what should we do if the Asahi Kingdom does not abide by the secret agreement?" The fifteenth Earl of Derby was still a little worried.

Disraeli shrugged: "We don't need Yang Xiuqing to do too much. He just needs to let our fleet and the Royal Marines enter Sasebo Port at some point in the future, and then he can just sit back and wait for both us and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's main naval fleet to be defeated.

Maybe he will have a chance to take over the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in this life and replace the defeated Luo Yaoguo. Even if he takes a step back, he can completely eliminate the interference of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and completely complete the great cause of the union of Korea and Japan. He can even send the army to expel our fleet from Sasebo with great righteousness. If he does not consider his own interests at all and only cares about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and tears up the secret agreement, then we will not lose anything. We will just sell a shipyard, a Warrior-class ship, some large-caliber coastal guns to Japan, and give them some backward technology for manufacturing the Warrior-class ship. "

Tianjing, the Prime Minister's Office of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Luo Yaoguo stood in front of the conference table of the National Defense Industry Committee. Behind him was a huge Pacific map with the deployment of the British Royal Navy in the Pacific marked on it. Wang Yan, Zhang Bao, Xu Shou, Weng Tonghe, and Ma Baocai, who had just returned from the UK and became the director of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's National Defense Committee, sat around the table, all with solemn expressions.

"Everyone," Luo Yaoguo pointed at the map, "Although the British Royal Navy is far more powerful than ours, it is constrained by the lack of ports in the Pacific Ocean that can accommodate large fleets. Therefore, it is unable to deploy a large fleet in the Pacific Ocean that is strong enough to suppress our naval fleet. However, this situation will be completely changed in the next 10-15 years!"

Wang Yan frowned and said, "Teacher, where do you think the British will deploy their large fleet?" He paused, "Students are worried."

He stopped talking here, but his eyes were pointed at Japan on the map.

Zhang Bao said without any context: "They don't even need to attack directly. As long as they block the mouth of the Yangtze River, our foreign trade will be paralyzed."

Luo Yaoguo sneered, "So, we have to build a fleet that can fight them before they do!" He turned to Xu Shou and Ma Baocai, "The National Defense Industry Commission and the Armaments Department should immediately start the construction plan of the Dalian Shipyard and the Guangzhou Shipyard. The Guangzhou Shipyard needs to build a 10,000-ton dock and a slipway. The Dalian Shipyard needs to secretly build four 30,000-ton super-large docks!"

"30,000-ton class?" Xu Shou was shocked. "We need to build four more?"

"Yes, four," Luo Yaoguo added, "We must keep it a secret from the outside world! In addition, we will build large coal and steel complexes in Anshan and Fushun in Liaoning Province. The Martin furnace at Xuzhou Steel Plant must also be completed as soon as possible. We will soon need a lot of high-quality special steel."

Xu Shou and Ma Baocai quickly wrote down Luo Yaoguo's instructions.

Weng Tonghe pondered and said, "Your Majesty, in terms of technical reserves, should we first focus on completing the research and development of the 10000-ton ironclad ship, and then start the preliminary research of the 1.5-ton battleship?"

Luo Yaoguo shook his head: "No, we must advance simultaneously. The British are already developing larger warships, and we cannot fall behind." He looked around at everyone, "Minister Xu, the design institute of Jiangnan Shipyard will be responsible for developing a 10000-ton ironclad ship, codenamed 'Project 1'; President Weng, the ship laboratory of Taiping University will lead the preliminary research of a 1.5-ton 'coal-fired and steam-powered' battleship, codenamed 'Project 2'."

Wang Yan was a little worried: "Teacher, for a 1.5-ton battleship, our double-expansion steam engine might not be able to withstand the test."

"The French Paris government has agreed to technical cooperation," Luo Yaoguo said calmly, "They are ahead of us in steam engine research, and have also conducted preliminary research on steam turbines, but they lag behind Britain due to lack of funds. I plan to develop triple-expansion steam engines and steam turbines with them. My Taiping Heavenly Kingdom will invest all the research and development funds, and France will provide experts and technical information to carry out research in the power laboratory of the Shanghai Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau. In addition, the International Workingmen's Association will also mobilize a group of technical workers from the British Parsons Company to work in Shanghai. I believe that within ten years, there will be achievements!"

Everyone looked at each other, fighting spirit burning in their eyes.

Yang Xiuqing held the secret agreement presented by Yang Chengtian in his hand, his fingertips trembling slightly.

"Father, the British promised that as long as we allow them to build a military port in Sasebo, they will support us in unifying Japan, and even," Yang Chengtian whispered, "help us return to Tianjing during the Taiping Rebellion. And we don't have to bear any responsibility on the surface!"

Yang Xiuqing was silent for a long time, and finally smiled bitterly: "We are of the same roots, why are we so eager to hurt each other?"

He looked out the window and saw the sunset was blood-red.

Luo Yaoguo took Hu Wansheng's telegram from Zhao Liewen and frowned slightly.

"Your Majesty, Ambassador Hu has an urgent report that the Kingdom of Asahi is secretly negotiating with the United Kingdom on the introduction of the Warrior-class ironclad warships."

Luo Yaoguo placed the telegram on the table, slowly walked to the map, and stared at the island chain extending from the Japanese archipelago to Taiwan. After a long while, he whispered, "This first island chain will eventually be completely cut off!"

(End of this chapter)