Iron Dynasty Chapter 1144

"We've lost, the Royal Navy is finished." A person on the port shouted this, and the entire port immediately fell into hysterical crying. Ho

"We've lost, the Royal Navy is finished."

A person on the port shouted this, and the entire port immediately fell into hysterical crying. However, their sadness could not stop the complete annihilation of the British navy. Just before darkness was about to cover the land, the last British warship turned into a sea of fire under the bombardment.

On the King-class ironclad warship, Liu Chen and Xie Yuan showed victorious smiles. Today, they finally got their revenge. But their mission was not over; it had just begun.

Liu Chen said, "The Emperor wants us to blockade Britain. From now on, we must control all shipping routes to Britain and prohibit all non-Imperial ships from passing through."

Xie Yuan nodded and said, "In that case, you and I will split our forces and go in two directions, one in the east and one in the west. While blockading, we will also destroy Britain's other ports."

Liu Chen nodded in agreement.

The next day.

When the sun rose, the British people in London found that the Imperial warships had all disappeared overnight. A strange atmosphere immediately enveloped London, and various speculations were circulating in the streets. Many people believed that the Imperial warships had chosen to withdraw after destroying the British fleet, and some merchants even planned to set sail again to engage in maritime trade.

But bad news soon came. Some armed merchant ships that tried to sail out were sunk by Imperial warships patrolling the shipping routes. It was then that the British people finally realized that the Imperial Navy had blockaded the British waters. The news from all over Britain in the following days confirmed this fact. Imperial warships were constantly attacking British coastal cities and sinking any merchant ships that sailed out to sea.

The entire Britain was now like it was in a cage, and this plunged the British people into panic. While Britain's industry was flourishing, its economy was mainly derived from plundering its colonies and dumping its domestic industrial products. It could be said that Britain's power was built on its vast colonies and overseas trade. Now that Britain's two lifelines had been cut off, it would not take long for Britain to be reduced to a third-rate country.

Compared to the panic of the British people, the British nobles were even more pathetic. They had gathered a large army and mobilized the entire population, preparing to fight the Empire to the death on land. However, the Empire did not play by the rules. Now, this huge army had suddenly become a burden. Having to support so many soldiers without a war was a heavy burden on the current British government. After all, with trade cut off, the British mainland simply could not support so many troops.

"Murphy, you can't disband my army. The war has just begun, and no one can guarantee that the Empire won't land."

In the parliament, when Murphy proposed cutting some of the army, Butler objected excitedly.

"I'm not saying now, but if the blockade continues, we will have to make this decision. Think about it, for the past two hundred years, it was the overseas colonies that fed the twenty million British people on the mainland. In fact, Britain's land alone cannot feed so many people. Once there is a food shortage, no one can guarantee what Britain will face next," Murphy's tone was filled with deep helplessness.

The parliamentarians were silent. The British Royal Navy was completely finished, and they were powerless to lift the Empire's blockade of the British coast. Butler's face was flushed with anger, but he knew that his army could not fight at sea.

"We have already lost this war. Britain, without a navy, is nothing but a lame duck. Britain, without the sea and overseas colonies, will inevitably fall into decline. In the future, even if the Empire withdraws its troops, a declining Britain will inevitably be bullied by other European countries. In that case, we might as well beg the Empire for forgiveness. Money, land, markets, whatever they want, we will give them, as long as our Britain can survive," a parliamentarian shouted loudly.

"Shameless!"

"Throw him out!"

"..."

As the parliamentarian's words fell, the entire parliament was like boiling water. The parliamentarians cursed one after another. The conditions mentioned by this person deeply stung them, because this was exactly their policy toward the colonies. However, a part of the parliamentarians chose to support the parliamentarian who spoke up, because in their eyes, the problem they were facing now was Britain's survival.

Murphy was also in a tangled mood. The most important problem he faced was the twenty million mouths on the island. The prosperity of industry had allowed British merchants to enclose a lot of farmland, and at the same time, a large number of farmers entered urban factories to work, which made Britain's agriculture very fragile now. If they wanted to feed so many people, Britain would have to destroy its industry and return to the era of being an agricultural country.

"Silence! Now is not the time for infighting," Murphy roared. "Now that Her Majesty and Brooke are in Moscow, if Her Majesty plans to do something diplomatically, she will definitely send people to contact the Empire. For now, all we can do is wait."

Everyone stopped arguing upon hearing this. Faced with an uncertain future, they could only continue to wait.

Qingzhou.

The news of the London naval battle reached here three months later. When the news was published in the newspaper, the entire Empire's people were in an uproar. For them, this time, they had finally returned the humiliation they had endured.

"Your Majesty, with the battle of London, Britain will no longer be able to cause trouble at sea. We should take this opportunity to quickly capture Britain's colonies in South America."

In the Imperial Study, Pang Yukun said excitedly.

Cui Shang'an said, "It's really difficult for a mere sixty warships to blockade the British coast. Liu Chen also mentioned that it is impossible to completely prevent British ships from sailing out to sea. I suggest that the military factory should quickly produce a batch of naval mines and send them to Europe to blockade the sea."

Xiao Ming nodded upon hearing this. With the improvement of the Empire's industry, the Empire's military industrial system was also becoming more and more perfect, and all kinds of weapons had special research rooms for them. Since they had landmines, it was natural that they also had naval mines. Three months ago, the Empire's contact naval mine was successfully tested, which meant that the Imperial Navy would have the ability to lay mines and blockade ports. And this greatly reduced the heavy task of the warships.

"Naval mines are good. Urge the military factory to produce them as soon as possible. It will probably take at least a year and a half to get the British to surrender this time," Xiao Ming said.

After a pause, he continued, "In addition to naval mines, the production of tanks and military vehicles must not be relaxed. For the Empire's army, mechanization will be the next goal."

Cui Shang'an was excited when he heard this. Just thinking about the Empire's large-scale tank operations in the future made him unable to sleep, so he loudly responded.

Pang Yukun said, "Britain's surrender is only a matter of time. I have already thought of the conditions we will put forward after Britain surrenders. Didn't Britain want to steal the Empire's technology? Then this time, the Empire will completely cripple Britain's industrial capabilities and prohibit them from researching weapons. We will treat them like sheep and shear their wool."