It will take some time to prepare for the military exercise, but isn't the "Free Trade" just idle now? Anyway, it's still idle, so why not let her visit a target country first. So at the order of Napoleon, the French Foreign Ministry began to contact the UK and proposed that in order to enhance mutual understanding between the two countries and deepen the friendship and mutual trust between the two sides, the navies of both sides will send a warship to each other for a friendly visit. The French also said that they will send the "Free Trade" as the "Envoy of Friendship" to the UK. At that time, friendly British people can board the "Free Trade" and under the guidance of relevant personnel, understand various details of the French warship. Some lucky spectators will even have the opportunity to simulate certain equipment in person.

When Prime Minister Addington learned about the French's proposal from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was very surprised. He immediately asked the Minister of Navy and Foreign Minister to discuss it. Everyone agreed that the French were here to demonstrate.

"So we don't agree with them?" asked Prime Minister Addington.

"How can that be done? That would make us timid." The Navy Secretary immediately expressed his objection, "and they came to the Free Trade. We do wish to learn more about the ship."

"Is there anything special about this ship?" asked the Prime Minister.

"This is a steam cruiser. Although it is called a patrol ship, it is a large ship the size of a second-class battleship. It is just that there are relatively few artillery equipment. Not long ago, this ship fought two battles in the Caribbean and the US Navy. It captured, sank, and severely damaged one American warship, almost causing the Americans to lose half of their navy at once."

"Hahaha, those rebels, their entire navy only have six warships." Prime Minister Addington smiled gloatingly. But he found that the Navy minister had no intention of laughing, so he asked: "Why, a second-class battleship - although they called him a patrol ship and killed three patrol ships, shouldn't this be normal?"

"Your Excellency, this is the case. The three American patrol ships are also warships close to the size of a second-class battleship. In a sense, they are special warships that sacrifice a certain amount of firepower to increase their speed. The greater function of this type of warship is not to be used for battles on battle lines, but to attack routes. Our warships, which can beat them, most of them can't beat them, but they can't beat them.

And according to our observation of the Second Battle between the Free Trade and the Americans, no warship can surpass the Free Trade and the Free Trade and Vehicle can sail to the Caribbean and have good self-sustainment."

"Is the steamboat we developed recently not as good as it?"

"I'm afraid yes, Prime Minister. When our propeller rotates at high speed, the efficiency of our propeller has dropped sharply and violently vibrated. It has not been completely solved yet. So, at least for now, our ship has not reached the speed of the "Free Trade".

In addition, according to our people's description of the second battle of the "Free Trade", in addition to the speed, there are two other points that surprised us. One is the firepower of the "Free Trade". The "Free Trade" does not have many cannons, with only nine cannons on each side. However, in actual combat, we observed that the number of shells fired by this ship in a unit of time is almost no less than a third-class battleship. You know that if a ship can run at a speed of 15 knots and does not rely on wind power, it can still have such firepower - that would be terrible. If the content of the report is true, then no warship in the entire navy, including the "Victory", can beat the "Free Trade" in combat."

"Even the 'Victory' can't do it?"

"Yes, Prime Minister. Because of their speed advantage, they can easily get into the T position. This makes the firepower advantage of the Victory not very good."

"Ah, I roughly understand. The first surprising thing you mentioned about that boat was the rate of fire of its cannon? So what is the other one?"

"It was its defense, our people observed that both sides fired at a very close distance, but the American cannons failed to penetrate the Free Trade board at one time. All the shells hit the board at the Free Trade board. Later, according to the information we learned from the Americans, they even suspected that the Free Trade was a real iron-shelled ship."

"So you want to take this opportunity to take a look on that boat?"

"Yes, Prime Minister."

"Okay, then I have no objection. In short, we can't show weakness to the French, right? But then, will we send that boat to visit France?"

Although there is still a need to carefully consider which boat to send to the end, since the French dare to take out their most advanced warships for the British to see, can the British still be so timid that they dare not watch them? What's more, the French media have already begun to build momentum for this matter.

"Perrescience (English version)" first disclosed the news, and the style of the report is naturally the style of "Perrescience" that is always shorter, the bigger the matter. It only uses two lines of text to report the news on the front page: "The French Navy's 'Free Trade' steam-powered cruise ship will visit London on May 10. Citizens can board the ship to visit."

This news is on the front page, but there are no other explanatory words, which is easy to attract readers' attention. Of course, if it is just like this, it is not enough. Then "London Businessman" published an article saying that the visit of the "Free Trade" is a sign of the continuous improvement of strategic mutual trust between Britain and France. This friendly visit will surely further increase the understanding of both sides, thereby consolidating the hard-won peace and friendship between the two countries.

However, at this time, important British newspapers generally did not join in. At most, they had reprinted relevant news and did not comment on it. However, some tabloids reported on this matter, but the basic content can be summed up in one sentence: the Wang family navy is full of martial ethics, and the French navy is unbearable.

The reports of these British tabloids seemed to make the French unhappy, so the Sun (English version) gave a comprehensive introduction to this epoch-making French warship, including its power and its amazing performance... Basically, although The Sun did not say it explicitly, anyone could see its subtext: "This ship can beat any warship of the Wang family Navy in a single fight."

Of course, the "exaggerated" reports on the Sun (English version) made many British people feel very popular. So many British tabloids began to fight back, mocking the unreliable boasts on the Sun (English version) and using revolutionary technology to increase the firing rate of artillery to four or five times the original, allowing the "Free Trade" with only nine guns on each side to have firepower no less than battleships. It is completely bragging and not making drafts.

As for increasing the firing rate of artillery by four or five times, considering that the original firing rate of the French Navy's cannon was more than half slower than that of the UK, and their cannons were originally smaller, and the 110mm caliber, which is just about 12 pounds. The 12-pound cannon is also very embarrassed to install on the warships. Look at our British warships, what level of cannons are there?

But in general, although it is a bit noisy, the sound is not high. At least, those larger and slightly more important media have not joined in, because although some of them have their own special news channels and know some situations, they do not want to jump out at this time, and wait a few days later, they will be slapped in the face by reality. In general, people in this era are relatively simple. Although people also lie, deceive, and steal, they are at least embarrassed to call it the glory of continuous progress in public. They will not make it happen that the day before yesterday said that no one would die, and in a blink of an eye, it turns out that if there are fewer than 100,000 people who die, it means that I am too capable of such a joke.

Of course, in the final analysis, this is not because the people of this era are more moral. It is because the poor in this era still lack education. Education has two functions: one is to make people understand the truth; the other is to make people stupider than uneducated people. In the second purpose, the education of this era is too different from later generations, so in this era, a beautiful new world cannot be established.

As for those big newspapers that did not get news through special channels, they did not make any noise, because they felt that quarreling with the tabloids was a loss of identity, and it was not in line with the elegant demeanor of the United Kingdom.

The British are still very confident about their navy, and one of the manifestations of being confident is that they don’t care much about other people’s criticism and are not stingy in praising their strengths. Anyway, what you call strengths and progress are, in his opinion, that is, the primary school student gets a full mark. Well, my friend is so smart and amazing. Come on, uncle will give you a lollipop.

However, if he suddenly realized that he did not get a full mark in the elementary school exam, but got a full mark in a higher school institution than him, his mood would probably be quite the same. This is just like the big gap between the Red Rabbit Kingdom and the Lighthouse Kingdom. When the GDP of the Red Rabbit Kingdom was less than half that of California, the Lighthouse Kingdom's evaluation of the Red Rabbit Kingdom was much better; when the GDP of the Red Rabbit Kingdom became closer to the Lighthouse Kingdom, the situation would be completely different, and the giant panda immediately turned into an evil dragon.

On May 10, the Free Trade Docked at the Pier at the Port of London.
Chapter completed!