1890 King of Southeast Asia

Weybridge, a small country town in the southwest of London, has been a gathering place for aristocrats since the end of the 18th century, and is full of aristocratic manors.

In the 19th century, steam engines began to be used on a large scale as universal power, and all industrial cities were filled with toxic industrial waste gas. The aristocrats preferred to live in the countryside.

Later, as time went by, it simply became that the rich and aristocrats in London worked during the day, returned to the suburban villas at night, and returned to the manors in the countryside for vacation during the holidays.

After Xu Sunming joined the war in Italy, he contacted Charles soon, and then Charles sent them to live in his manor in Weybridge.

Charles was already a successful person. After returning to China, he stayed in the army for a while. After retiring, he chose to go into politics and became a member of the House of Commons.

In theory, according to his political capital (born in an aristocratic family, a military family, and helped Britain to attract a lot of business), he had a chance to become a cabinet minister in the future.

But Charles was unlucky. Just when he was thriving, the relationship between Britain and South China began to become delicate, and he was attacked by political enemies because of his close relationship with South China when he was in the military and politics.

The Liberal Party formed a cabinet many times, but he did not get an important position. He was attacked by political enemies again, so he simply gave up politics and went into business.

Relying on his relationship with South China, Charles got the exclusive sales rights of South China medicine in the UK. Later, he became a car agent, and helped South China purchase technical equipment, etc., which saved a lot of money.

After leaving Parliament, he simply relied on his accumulated connections and made crazy investments and integrations to form a multinational group integrating production, sales, import and export trade.

The business scope covers various industrial products such as agricultural products, food, medicine, machinery and equipment, and tens of thousands of workers work for him.

At this time, Charles suddenly found that his influence had exceeded that of his influence as a member of parliament, and he could even support several spokespersons in the House of Commons.

Everything he managed was inseparable from the South China Empire/Huaxia Empire, accounting for more than 50% of the group's business, so he urgently hoped to maintain a good relationship with the Huaxia Empire.

When Liu Yiming found him and hoped that he would find a place for the observation group to recuperate, Charles immediately offered his manor.

He had more than one such manor.

"Xu, I'm back!" Charles laughed and greeted Xu Sunming, and the butler beside him anxiously reminded him to pay attention to his manners.

The butler was the son of Charles' father's butler, a very British gentleman, a professional aristocratic butler.

"Robert, you go and get busy first, I have my reasons." Charles looked at Xu Sunming who was coming over and whispered to the butler Robert.

"Mr. Charles, when did you come back? You should be very busy now." Xu Sunming walked up with a smile and shook hands with Charles.

"Just came back, this damn road, can't the government repair it? I'm shaking so hard that my waist is broken." Charles smiled and changed the subject.

The two entered the manor garden and sat next to the grape rack.

"Xu, how are you doing here? Are you used to it?" Charles drank black tea elegantly.

"Very good, it can be said to be great. I have plenty of time to go fishing every day, which reminds me of the leisurely and comfortable time when I was studying at the Royal Naval College in Greenwich."

Xu Sunming lied to him. His study abroad life in Greenwich was very tight and there was no time to relax.

During breaks or vacations, he either stayed in the library or conducted military exercises with his classmates.

At that time, they knew that when they graduated, they would drive warships back to China, and they might even drive warships directly on expeditions.

As for fishing, he had fished enough in the navy over the years. If he was not really bored, he would not fish.

"Really? I really envy you. I also miss my college days. Speaking of which, I am also your senior, but when I was in service, you were still a child..."

"By the way, have you gone hunting? There are many hares and wild boars in the nearby forests, and even bears. It would be boring to fish all the time, and the fish in this river cannot be eaten."

Charles said half with emotion and half with advice.

"I'll consider it, sir. Shouldn't you be handling business in the company at this time? You should be quite busy recently." Xu Sunming nodded perfunctorily.

He couldn't stand the British talking around and not getting to the point all day, so he asked proactively.

"Oh! Yes, thanks to the damn Germans, my business is very good, and good business means I'm very busy..."

"I came back this time to ask when you plan to go to the navy to observe the situation?"

"Please don't get me wrong, I'm not driving you away, but isn't this your job? You haven't been there for so long, I'm afraid Liu will be anxious."

Charles said dragging his feet.

Seeing that he looked reluctant, as if he was forced to say it, Xu Sunming smiled in his heart, but remained calm on the surface.

"Mr. Charles, I have asked officials from the British Admiralty and the Foreign Office, and their answer is that there are no combat missions in the near future."

"I looked for my classmates when I studied in the UK - most of them work in the Royal Navy, and their answer is the same, there is no news of observation groups boarding the ship in the near future."

"Yes, the entire English Channel and the North Sea have been calm recently. Except for the German submarines, no other ships have come out to cause trouble, so there is no point in observing."

"So, it's not that I'm delaying on purpose, but the timing is not right. I've explained this to His Majesty."

Xu Sunming took a sip of tea and lay on the grapevines

"What? No missions in the near future?" Charles was stunned. This was not the same as the news he received.

He was commissioned by the Ministry of the Navy to "invite" Xu Sunming and his party to the Ministry of the Navy, but not to board the ship directly, but to let them go to the Ministry of the Navy to discuss the specific details of the observation.

That is, the observers must abide by those regulations, can board those ships, can go to that war zone and so on.

These things are not important, because those who understand will understand, and those who don't understand will not be sent out, unless the country is really poor and has no navy, or is very shameless. What's important is the attitude, just going through the motions.

However, Charles knew how much coldness Xu Sunming and his party encountered after crossing thousands of miles to London.

During this period, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called from time to time to inquire about their location, and never asked about anything else.

Is this an attitude of cooperation? Is this an attitude of importance?

Charles didn't want to agree, but there was no way. The government found the House of Lords, and his father was also in the House of Lords.

Although the House of Lords is called a botanical garden, it is not a plant, and his father brought a large group of government officials with noble titles to find him.

Charles really didn't want to care, but the interests were there.

If he didn't go, although he wouldn't be hostile, after all, he would be needed during the war, but it might be inconvenient to do anything in the future.

There was no way, so Charles came, asking in a roundabout way, and expressed from the beginning that this was not his intention, and by the way, he waved a little flag.

Who knew that the group of miscellaneous politicians were unwilling to even perfunctory, and directly told Xu Sunming that there was no mission.

Who is Xu Sunming? A naval soldier of the Huaxia Empire who graduated from the Royal Naval Academy in Greenwich, his current rank is Vice Admiral of the Navy. The purpose of coming here is to observe and exchange, as well as the preliminary preparations for the Huaxia Empire to participate in the war.

And what about the British Empire? A traditional naval country, the world's first naval power, facing Germany, the world's second naval power.

The two sides launched a fierce confrontation in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. Although it was mainly a competition between small warships, medium and large warships were not completely parked in the port, and they would still meet from time to time.

Every day, dozens of warships left the British port and dozens of warships returned to the port. The Admiralty actually told the observation team that there was no point in observing.

Charles completely understood what this sentence meant by no mission. Xu Sunming was very angry!

Before, Britain thought that with the participation of Italy, the power had changed, and the battlefield situation became more and more optimistic. Similarly, the treatment enjoyed by the Huaxia Empire Observation Group was also changed.

Using such perfunctory language to describe it, it can be seen that Xu Sunming was very angry.

Such an important matter, no one in the Admiralty and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs told him, and most importantly, his father didn't tell him.

The status of the House of Lords was still very high at this time. Although it could not directly control the House of Commons and the Cabinet, it had a lot of power and even greater influence.

If the people of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Admiralty did not tell Charles' father in advance about this matter, they would be besieged by all the members of the House of Lords.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Navy would not want to cause such trouble, so Charles quickly guessed that it was his father, Earl Elgin, who did not tell him.

"A generous gift... um!" Charles almost cursed after he figured it out, but when he saw Xu Sunming, he held back and smiled.

"Mr. Charles, what's wrong with you? Are you feeling uncomfortable?" Xu Sunming looked at Charles curiously, who was straightening his body and stretching his neck like a swan.

"No! Sorry, I'm rude." Charles reacted and drank a sip of red tea to calm down.

"Robert, open a bottle of champagne for me."

"You should try the champagne here. I brewed it with grapes from the vines next to you. Because the output is not large, only 18 bottles are brewed in total. Bring a few bottles to Liu when you go back."

Feeling that drinking tea was not enough, Charles called for wine, but it was low-alcohol champagne. After all, there were important things to discuss and he couldn't get drunk.

"Xu, the Ministry of the Navy found me and hoped to discuss with you and decide on the matter of boarding the ship." Charles said after taking a sip of wine.

"Before I left, our foreign minister had already discussed these matters with the ambassador. There should be nothing to discuss, right?"

"But I don't know why, they were so anxious about something that was clearly agreed upon, but when I arrived in London, they were no longer anxious."

Xu Sunming smiled and pointed it out directly.

"They..." Charles wanted to say something, but a member of the observation group ran over with a piece of paper and stopped him from continuing.

"Captain, a telegram from home. Encrypted telegram." The visitor deliberately said the last sentence in English...