Fox of France

While the newspapers in London were attacking each other over the Lancet, a secret experiment was going on on a small island near Scotland.

A small boat sailed slowly past the small island, and a large orange-red iron ball with anchor chains covered with short steel tentacles was thrown into the sea. The iron ball first floated on the sea surface, fluctuating with the slight waves, and then pulled by the anchor chain, it sank all of a sudden, leaving only a small buoy floating on the sea surface.

Then the boat that just dropped the iron ball immediately accelerated away, and sent a signal to the two waiting boats next to it.

"Let's go. Be careful." On the other boat, Captain Kevin shouted to his sailors. Then the paddle wheels on both sides of the ship turned, and the steamer began to sail in that direction.

Behind this steamboat, a boat is towed by a cable. The ship had neither mast nor paddle wheel, but a steering wheel at the stern, by which a man steered.

The steamer cautiously passed the buoy, and the orange buoy swayed constantly in the waves stirred up by the steamer.

Captain Kevin knew that under the buoy, at a depth of only two meters, was the iron ball full of tentacles. Captain Kevin could still see it clearly through the water. Of course, it was only because the light was good and the sea water was clear at this time, and the iron ball was painted a bright orange.

Kevin also knew that the tentacles on the iron ball were a trigger fuze specially researched by the Navy. Among these lead tentacles was a small glass bottle filled with sulfuric acid. Once struck, the tentacles deform, the glass shatters, and the sulfuric acid flows out to initiate an electrochemical reaction that detonates an electric detonator (imitated from the Irish trophies), which in turn detonates the Dynamite—just one of these mines was enough to destroy even a battleship. Of course, this experimental piece will not, its charge has been reduced a lot.

But even so, once the mine exploded, it would be enough to destroy his little steam frigate. Because of this, all those who could go on the deck went on the deck, and those who could not go on the deck, their escape passages to the deck were also cleaned up.

In the rear, on the barge being towed by the steamer, Captain Anderson turned the steering wheel lightly towards the buoy. His boat is a target boat used to test the effects of sea mines, and he is the only one on board to control the direction. Considering that the explosion point should be at the bow, his safety should be guaranteed. And he has passed on the life jacket, and there are ships nearby ready to rescue him at any time. As long as he can completely complete the experiment, he might get the chance to be promoted to the military rank.

The bow of the barge hit the buoy, the ship kept going, and then there was a loud explosion.

On the steam ship more than 300 meters away, Kevin felt the whole ship jump, and at the same time, he also saw a huge water column rising high, completely blocking the ship behind.

After a while, the water column scattered into water drops all over the sky and fell down. These water drops fell down cracklingly, even a lot of water drops fell on Kevin who was hundreds of meters away. Look at the barge behind, half of which has been blown up, and the remaining half is sinking rapidly.

"Turn, turn! Go back and save people!" Kevin yelled, but he didn't hear himself.

But the boat turned around—it had been prepared long ago.

When the steamboat turned around, the barge had completely sunk, and various pieces of wood were floating everywhere on the sea. Everyone looked around and finally found an orange-red floating object among the broken wood.

"It's over there, lean in!"

The boat was lowered from the steamer, and two sailors rowed the boat over and picked up Captain Anderson, who was wearing an orange lifejacket. Because of the shock from the explosion, he was already unconscious at this time. If he was not wearing a life jacket, he might have drowned. But judging from his current appearance, he might not be able to be saved, and looking at the way his leg was bent abnormally, it was obvious that his leg was definitely broken.

"Damn it? Didn't you mean the reduced charge? How could it still be so powerful?" Kevin said in surprise.

In fact, this is not surprising, because the explosives used by the British are also the technology of nitrating starch bought from French businessmen. One of the most obvious problems with nitrostarch is that it is inconsistent in quality, and the potency can vary greatly from one batch to another. Those with high power can reach 1.3 or even 1.4 times that of TNT, and those with low power may not even have half of TNT. This mine may have reduced the charge, but it just happened to encounter the best explosives, and the result was naturally...

However, no matter how you look at it, the experiment was a huge success.

After the success of this test, the guys in the navy immediately proposed to the cabinet that this weapon could be used to block the coast of Ireland, block the way for the Irish to receive aid, and thus eliminate them.

If this experiment had been successful a few months ago, then Prime Minister Addington would have approved this action immediately without even thinking about it, but now he is a little hesitant, because if such an action is approved, it is likely to lead to war.

When Britain and France signed the peace agreement, everyone was actually equally insincere about peace. They were all ready to catch their breath and continue to fight. If there was such a thing at that time, I am afraid that the British would grit their teeth and destroy the Irish rebels first.

But things are different now. After the signing of the peace agreement, because the European market reopened to the UK, the UK's economy began to pick up, and some industries, especially the textile and steam engine manufacturing industries, were obviously booming. They brought more benefits to Britain, and also brought a lot of political and economic benefits to the Tory Party.

At this time, if there is a war, there is no doubt that it will all be over.

Addington knows that because of the prosperity of the textile industry, many owners have expanded their production. In these few months, the number of textile machines has increased by nearly one-third, and the scale of the textile industry is still expanding.

Such rapid expansion, of course, cannot do without financial intervention. The owners of those textile factories generally borrowed a lot of money from banks, or raised a lot of funds through the stock market. Once the war broke out, these investments would naturally be lost. Many factories will go bankrupt, and the money lent to them by the bank will naturally not be recovered, and then the bank may also be dragged down by this and get into trouble or even go bankrupt. In addition, many industries, including iron and steel, including machinery manufacturing, have also made a lot of money through the expansion of the textile industry, and in order to cope with the urgent expansion of the textile industry, they are also expanding their own production capacity. Once there is a war, they will also Coupled with the internal problems caused by a large number of unemployed people, the entire British economy may experience serious problems immediately. This made Addington have to consider whether it was appropriate to take action at this time.

So Addington went to the former Prime Minister Peter Jr. to discuss.

After leaving office, Pete Jr. is still the most important leader of the Tory Party. Because of his experience and talent, his influence in the Tory Party is obviously more than that of Addington. Even the king, who played a key role in Pete's resignation, actually trusted Pete more between Addington and Pete. Therefore, when faced with such troubles, he had to go to Pete Jr. for technical guidance.

In this regard, Pete Jr.'s attitude is quite firm. He believed that unless the French gave up their ambitions, there could be no real peace between Britain and France. And Ireland is so important to Britain.

"Ireland is different from North America. Abandoning North America will cause limited damage to our prestige; but abandoning Ireland may make us despised by the whole of Europe. Ireland is so close to us. Under such circumstances, if we cannot settle the rebellion, we may not even have to If we don't recognize their independence, what will other countries think of us?

The loss of prestige is nothing. Ireland, once independent, must be our enemy. Those guys in North America have been spiteful to us to this day. And the Irish, just hate us more than the guys in North America. Ireland is so close to us, and hates us so much, they could easily become the tools of other countries - let's be more specific, the French to threaten us.

Once the French are allied with an independent Ireland, and once French troops begin to deploy in Ireland, will we be able to sleep? Compared with this, what is temporary economic difficulty? And as long as we are guided, we are not completely unable to reduce some losses. Besides, we have also opened up our market to the French, which has also to some extent caused losses to our other industries..."

But Prime Minister Addington was still hesitant. Because his situation is different from that of Pete Jr. After peace was achieved, Addington's approval rate gradually increased by virtue of the peace dividend. And those who supported him were mainly those textile mill owners and those who had made money in trade with Europe. If I choose to support the navy's mine-laying operation, it means that I have betrayed my supporters. A politician who will betray his supporters, who will support him in the future? This will almost ruin your political future!

Thinking of this, Prime Minister Addington began to doubt again. Pete Jr.'s suggestion had another unspoken goal, which was to get him out so that he could return to the position of prime minister.