London, Imperial Embassy.

A knock on the door in the middle of the night woke Hu Chuan from his sleep. He immediately went to Kang Ming’s room to wake him up and also called the guards to take their revolvers and cautiously go downstairs. After the port incident, the Imperial Embassy had been repeatedly attacked, often with radical British people throwing bricks or torches. This made them become nervous, but the embassy could be broken into by rioters at any time.

Although he and Kang Ming could have chosen to return to the Empire with Yue Yun, they did not want their work over the past two years to be ruined. Just yesterday, they had finally reached an agreement with the Scottish parliamentarians. As long as Scotland became independent, the Empire would immediately announce its support. However, the Scottish parliamentarians were also very cautious and would not take the risk if the Empire could not guarantee its military presence in Europe. So they planned to send the message back to the Empire so that the Empire could prepare in advance.

Going downstairs, a guard looked outside and found that there were no large crowds gathered. He immediately asked the guards to open the door. At this moment, an Imperial person dressed as a merchant walked in confidently.

Hu Chuan was stunned and asked, “Who are you?”

The merchant smiled and said, “I am a Secret Guard of the Empire, and I have been ordered to inform you to evacuate Britain in advance.”

“Evacuate? Could it be that the Emperor…” Hu Chuan said in shock.

The Secret Guard nodded. “Britain’s rude behavior has challenged the Empire’s bottom line. The Emperor has officially ordered a war against Britain. In two or three months, the news of the declaration of war will reach Britain.”

Hu Chuan and Kang Ming looked at each other, and Kang Ming said, “That’s great. Our mission here is basically complete. It’s time to teach them a lesson. But why did you come in the middle of the night? You gave us a fright.”

“I had no choice. My ship just arrived, and I came to find you right after I got off,” the Secret Guard said. After the armistice agreement was signed, there had been some trade between the Empire and Britain. He had disguised himself as a member of a trading company that frequently traveled to Britain. Because their business involved industrial products, Britain was very welcoming.

After a pause, the Secret Guard continued, “When I came just now, I found many spies around the embassy. Evacuating now will definitely alert the British. So, tomorrow, when our ship has settled the fees, you can board the ship under the pretense of visiting an Imperial merchant ship, and we’ll take the opportunity to escape. Anyway, they won’t be able to catch up to us.”

Hu Chuan was a little worried. “Since the Emperor has declared war on Britain, don’t the British people in the Empire know about it? If they find out, we probably won’t be able to leave.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. This time, the Emperor has forbidden the British from taking Imperial ships to Britain. In other words, it will take two or three months longer for the British in the Empire to return to Britain than for us to leave.”

Hu Chuan and the others were relieved, and they said, “Okay, we’ll evacuate tomorrow. When we come back next time, we will definitely humiliate the British.”

Everyone laughed in unison.

The next day, Hu Chuan ordered all important documents to be burned, and then he led the envoys to the port. Because the embassy had a habit of inspecting Imperial merchant ships in the past, the British did not show any unusual reaction.

However, when the Empire’s merchant ship started and sailed toward the sea, the British who were following Hu Chuan reacted. They immediately reported the news to Tulip Palace.

“What! Hu Chuan ran away!” Queen Victoria said in disbelief.

She frowned and immediately ordered a search of the embassy. The news came back quickly that all the documents in the embassy had been burned, leaving only some clothes and other sundries. Upon hearing this news, Queen Victoria’s heart pounded violently a few times. At this moment, she suddenly realized that she had been overly confident. She had thought that since Britain and the Empire were tens of thousands of miles apart, detaining and then releasing the ships would only be a diplomatic incident. At worst, she could personally apologize, and the Empire would not go to war because of it. But now that Hu Chuan and the others had suddenly withdrawn, it was clearly a premonition.

“We should have turned all those forty-two warships into British property,” Queen Victoria murmured.

At this moment, Murphy and Brooke had arrived after receiving the news. After confirming the news, their expressions were extremely ugly.

“Your Majesty, with all due respect, we must now prepare for war. I ask Your Majesty to issue a national mobilization order to enter a state of war,” Brooke said.

Murphy said, “We must immediately communicate with other European countries to win their support. If the Great Yu Empire attacks Britain, their security will inevitably not be guaranteed. Only when the whole of Europe unites can we overcome this crisis.”

Queen Victoria rubbed her forehead in pain and said, “France is currently unable to fend for itself. We must seek support from Prussia, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Tsarist Russia, and Austria. As long as they stand on our side, we can carry on this war.”

With that, Queen Victoria said to Brooke, “You must immediately send envoys to various European countries. The war is probably not far off.”

Brooke bowed and immediately took action, while Murphy also prepared to go to the parliament to announce the news.

Just as Queen Victoria had predicted, more than two months later, the embarrassed British delegation returned to Britain from the Great Yu Empire, bringing back the Empire’s declaration of war and the news of the Empire’s attack on the British colonies in Africa.

…

Cape Town. Liu Chen was eyeing the area known as the Cape of Good Hope by the Europeans. This was Britain’s southernmost colonial government in Africa. It was originally a Dutch colony, but it was taken over by Britain after the Anglo-Dutch War.

The Empire had always been uninterested in Africa, and the main reason was the attitude of Emperor Xiao Ming. At the Imperial Court, Xiao Ming rejected the suggestion to import slaves from Africa and analyzed the harm it would cause the Empire in the future. Based on the law prohibiting the import of slaves from Africa, the Empire’s interest groups were naturally uninterested in Africa, as the Empire was most in need of slaves.

“General, the artillery is ready and can fire at any time!” the captain of the King-class ironclad warship reminded him in a timely manner.

Liu Chen put down his binoculars, his expression firm. He cherished this opportunity to atone for his crimes. Since leaving the Empire, he had fought his way along the east coast of Africa, and now the entire east coast of Africa’s ports had been occupied by the Naval Marines. The follow-up Imperial engineering teams would quickly rebuild these ports. Subsequently, the garrisons and supplies would be in place one by one, making these ports the Empire’s supply bases.

However, the European forces on the east coast of Africa were relatively weak. In his opinion, the real challenge was the west coast of Africa. This was because of the Spanish occupation of the northwest African coast, the Portuguese occupation of both sides of the southern African continent and the island of Madagascar, and the British and French occupation of the Gold Coast of the Gulf of Guinea and the coasts of North Africa and Egypt. However, at present, his target was Britain, and other European countries were not included for the time being.