Chapter 423: Declaration of War

"The detachment encountered the Spanish fleet in the Strait of Gibraltar, engaged in battle with the enemy for unknown reasons, and was then surrounded and annihilated by the Spanish fleet from the east and west. Currently, there is no report of surviving warships. Spain did not declare war before the naval battle broke out, and no news has been sent back after the naval battle."

Looking at such a shocking telegram, the gaze of Britain's current Prime Minister, Arthur James Balfour, carried a trace of surprise and more anger, and his eyes also became cold.

After being silent for about a minute, Prime Minister Arthur James Balfour slammed the hot telegram in his hand onto the table and then shouted: "Assemble the cabinet! Tell them, the Spanish have attacked without declaring war!"

After giving his order, Arthur James Balfour didn't care how his subordinates reacted, took a deep breath, and leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes as if he had fallen into deep thought.

The actions of the British cabinet members were fast; it took less than 20 minutes for all the ministers of the cabinet departments to gather together and come to the Prime Minister's residence, 10 Downing Street.

The cabinet ministers all looked solemn; they either exchanged whispers with each other or stared at the content of the telegram on the table, their expressions flat, not knowing what they were thinking.

"Gentlemen, take a look. This is the latest news from Gibraltar. Six hours ago, our detachment sent to the Mediterranean was surrounded and blocked by the Spanish Navy, after which a fierce battle broke out between the two sides. Our detachment was annihilated, and so far there is no news of any surviving warships.

Who can tell me how these damn Spanish people have the guts to provoke the British Empire? They savagely and shamelessly launched a sneak attack on us, without any declaration of war or notification beforehand!

We must immediately, immediately give a response! I want to let the Spanish understand that there is only one consequence for angering the British Empire, and that is to be smashed to pieces!

Can the Navy mobilize within a few hours? Since the Spanish have already attacked without declaring war, they will definitely launch an attack on our Gibraltar fortress.

I need the Navy to guarantee the safety of the Gibraltar fortress; I absolutely do not allow the Gibraltar fortress and the Strait of Gibraltar to fall into the hands of the Spanish," Prime Minister Balfour said word by word.

"Prime Minister, although I am also angry at the savage and shameless attack by the Spanish, I have to remind you that our finances cannot afford the expenditure of declaring war on Spain.

If we want to defeat Spain, besides sending the Navy, we must also send hundreds of thousands or even millions of troops.

Up to now, we still have more than 200,000 troops staying on the land of the Boer people in South Africa. I really dare not imagine how exaggerated our fiscal expenditure will be if we open a battlefield against Spain in Iberia and Northwest Africa.

If we rashly declare war on Spain, the one that might collapse is not Spain, but the Empire's finances," Chancellor of the Exchequer Austen Chamberlain clearly had a completely different view and stood up to put forward his opposing opinion.

For a long time, the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer was concurrently held by the British Prime Minister. From this aspect, one could see how important the position of Chancellor of the Exchequer was; Austen Chamberlain also possessed a portion of the right to speak in the British cabinet, after all, the fiscal budgets of various departments had to rely on the approval of the fiscal department.

Although he was clear about the importance of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Prime Minister Balfour could not care about anything else at this time. If he did not make an extremely rapid and powerful counterattack against this matter, what would the British people think of him as Prime Minister?

The British Empire, with the number one Navy, had been annihilated; this was not only the shame of the British Navy and the cabinet government but also the shame of all British people.

"There are many ways to solve the financial problem, but there is only one way to solve the annihilation of the detachment, and that is to declare war on Spain!

If we can use the news of the detachment's annihilation in the Strait of Gibraltar to stir up the anger of the people and then issue war bonds nationwide, I think we can raise a portion of the war funds.

We absolutely cannot accept Spain wantonly slaughtering our soldiers; for the sunken warships, for the soldiers who died in battle, for the dignity of the Empire, we must give Spain a powerful counterattack; this is our only choice.

In addition, diplomatic condemnation of Spain cannot be less. Originally, I thought that only a savage country like the island nation would use the method of attacking without declaring war to gain an advantage; I didn't expect such scum to appear in Europe as well.

Since Spain dares to attack us without declaring war, they must be prepared to be condemned by the whole of Europe. The diplomatic department should take action immediately; I hope that within 48 hours, news of Spain attacking us without declaring war and sneaking an attack on our fleet will appear in all of Britain and even most of the important cities in Europe," Prime Minister Balfour said with an angry face.

Whether this matter could be handled well concerned whether his Prime Minister throne could continue to be maintained. Once it was not handled well, making the people dissatisfied with him, then he would have to say goodbye to his Prime Minister throne.

The power of the British Empire's Prime Minister was still very large; after all, the British monarch rarely participated in government affairs, and the Prime Minister was not only the nominal highest leader of the government but also the actual greatest power holder.

Just like this meeting, as long as Prime Minister Balfour was determined to declare war on Spain, even if important officials like the Chancellor of the Exchequer opposed it, they could not stop the process of Britain declaring war on Spain at all.

While Britain was having a heated discussion about this and finally decided to declare war on Spain, Spain also held a small meeting for this naval battle.

In the large conference room of the Royal Palace of Madrid, Gao Da summoned all cabinet members and emphasized the main content of the meeting in the first sentence after the meeting started, which was that from this moment on, Spain and Britain would be in a state of war.

Spain's "blocking and intercepting" (a Chinese idiom meaning to stop and attack) led to the outbreak of the naval battle, which looked a bit unexpected, but thinking about it carefully, it was reasonable.

Although in some situations Spain's toughness could indeed make Britain retreat, this was only achievable without touching the bottom line.

The British Empire was, after all, the most powerful European hegemon; once the bottom line was touched, Britain would definitely spare no cost to protect its interests.

It was very clear that for Britain, Spain's behavior of repeatedly interfering in Portugal's affairs had already touched its bottom line.

Previously, Britain did not stop Spain from annexing Morocco because Britain was in the Boer War stage and it was difficult to have the funds and energy to erupt into another large-scale war.

After Spain annexed Morocco, the British government's attention to Spain had been raised infinitely, and they also made up their minds to resolutely not allow Spain to annex Portugal again.

Because once Spain was allowed to annex Portugal, Spain would not only integrate the entire Iberian Peninsula but also form actual control over the Strait of Gibraltar between the Iberian Peninsula and Morocco.

The Gibraltar fortress managed and built by Britain would become a display; after all, the land and ocean around Gibraltar were almost all under Spain's control. Even if the British continued to occupy Gibraltar, the right of passage through the strait was absolutely not decided by the British.

"I am not surprised by the outbreak of war; if Spain wants to truly realize its revival, recovering Gibraltar is very necessary. If you want to recover Gibraltar, you must become an enemy of the British Empire." Looking at the cabinet members with different expressions, Gao Da said slowly: "

Now, the war has broken out; we need to make full preparations and responses to ensure that the winner of this war has and only has one, and that is the Kingdom of Spain.

Minister Qiao Di, talk about the combat plan of the national defense department," Gao Da finally looked at the current Minister of National Defense, Qiao Di, who was also the person who knew Spain's combat plan against Britain best.

"Your Majesty, everyone," Minister of National Defense Qiao Di stood up upon hearing this and reported the combat plan of the national defense department to everyone present: "

Our combat plan will be divided into land parts and sea parts, respectively dealing with threats from Britain on land and at sea.

First, in the land combat part, we plan to use the Royal Army's 1st Infantry Division and 1st Artillery Division to storm Gibraltar, and try our best to capture Gibraltar before the arrival of British reinforcements to increase the people's support for this war.

In order to deal with the landing war that the British might launch, we plan to dispatch the 2nd Infantry Division, 3rd Infantry Division, 4th Infantry Division, 1st Cavalry Division, and 2nd Artillery Division to the North Coast to protect our long Atlantic coastline.

The 5th Infantry Division, 6th Infantry Division, 7th Infantry Division, 2nd Cavalry Division, 3rd Artillery Division, and 4th Artillery Division are lined up on the Portuguese border to guard against the possibility of British troops landing from the Portuguese region and sneaking an attack on our domestic inland areas.

Other armies should also be prepared for war; once the front line falls into crisis, other armies should support the front line at the first time.

In terms of the Navy, our *Dreadnought* battleship achieved an unexpected effect, plus the reason for the two fleets surrounding from east and west, in the case of annihilating the British detachment, we only paid the price of one armored cruiser and two light cruisers being heavily damaged.

Currently, our Home Navy can still mobilize 20 battleships and 40 cruisers; under the premise that Britain does not draw naval forces from outside Europe, we are fully capable of competing with the British Navy.

In addition, our *Dreadnought* battleship has not been exposed so far. If we can continue to achieve unexpected effects at the critical moment of the campaign like this naval battle, it can also make the British suffer a big loss.

Unless the British are already developing powerful battleships of the same level as the *Dreadnought*-class battleship in advance, otherwise, within the next two years, Britain has no means of resistance against our *Dreadnought*-class battleship.

Even if they encounter Britain's large-scale fleet, the *Dreadnought* battleship can do "if you can't beat them, run," and the speed of the vast majority of British warships cannot compare to the *Dreadnought* battleship, which is also our greatest advantage. ===== CHAPTER 424 =====