George opened his eyes. He didn't know how many times he had fainted and woke up again. He was scared and the cold sweat broke out so quickly.

"Is it over?"

"It should be - it should be over."

Pete also didn't know how to answer, and he was deeply shocked by the large number of counterfeit banknotes that appeared continuously.

George asked tremblingly, "How many fake* bills have you found in total?"

Pete hesitated for a moment and said, "I found a total of fifty-seven pieces, all of which are exactly the same fake* notes of millions of face value."

"Five-fifty-seven?" George almost fainted again, which was a total of 57 million pounds. If it was only a few million pounds, George could still hide it and find a way to remedy it himself. But 57 million pounds, this huge sum of money was enough to hurt the Bank of England. It was of great importance. He wanted to hide it but dared not hide it.

The news was quickly reported, and the top leaders in the UK felt like a magnitude ten earthquake occurred, causing huge panic.

The House of Lords held an emergency meeting, and the ruling party was the United Cabinet, and all the core members of the Whigs and conservatives participated. The British aristocratic masters, who had always been lazy, could not stand up early and rushed to the conference room, but none of them were absent.

"Your Excellency the Prime Minister! Everyone stands up!"

As the Prime Minister of this term, the Earl of Aberdeen entered the conference room with a worried look on his face.

The MPs from Whigs and Conservatives stood up one after another, watching the Earl of Aberdeen walk into the position of prime minister, and then they sit down one after another.

"Everyone, please give your opinion on the sudden appearance of fifty-seven identical million-pound notes on the Bank of England!"

As the Earl of Aberdeen finished speaking, the Whigs and conservatives expressed their opinions and soon started arguing. The conservatives demanded severe punishment for the severe punishment of the Bank of England President Sir George and the relevant person in charge. The Whigs naturally tried their best to defend themselves because George was their Whigs. At the same time, the Whigs believed that this was a conspiracy of the Russians. They wanted to mess up British finance and prevent Britain from interfering in the Crimean War.

The entire conference room instantly turned into a vegetable market, and the members of the two parties accused each other like shrews.

This situation is very common. As long as it is the time for a joint cabinet to form. Whenever a meeting is held, both sides will start quarreling tacitly. Even if it is just for a small matter, both sides will debate and accuse each other of them.

Usually, the Earl of Aberdeen would wait until both sides were quarreling and were tired before speaking. But this time it was different. The Earl of Aberdeen looked very ugly, and immediately picked up the parliamentary warning hammer (like the one that the judge often hit) and knocked hard for more than a dozen times, which made both sides quiet.

"I have already known the causes and consequences of this fake ** case. We still have to hold them accountable. However, before that, I have another more important thing to announce first, and then everyone will decide how to deal with this fake ** case!"

When they heard the Prime Minister's speech, both sides looked surprised. What was going on is even more serious than the Bank of England's loss of 57 million pounds. So they pricked their ears.

The Earl of Aberdeen paused, took out a document, and asked his assistant to hand it over to the great nobles in the Elder House, and passed it on and let them take turns to watch it.

At the same time, he said: "You may not have received the news. Just five minutes before I entered the conference room, France had decided to declare war on Russia. The French envoy came to see me and asked the British Empire to join the war. After reading the information, let's talk about whether we want to join the war?"

The documents are the latest information mastered by the British Intelligence Agency. All are the latest reports on the Crimean War.

It turned out that after the outbreak of the Crimean War last year, although Britain and France threatened Russia with a war attitude, the expansion of Tsarist Russia has been unstoppable since the establishment of the Holy Alliance. The Russian Tsar mobilized hundreds of thousands of troops and advanced by land and water. He had already invaded the Danube River Basin a week ago, defeating the Ottoman Turkish army, and the navy drove straight into the Black Sea, annihilated the Second Ottoman Navy's Navy's fleet. He completely blocked the Black Sea and obtained the Black Sea's control rights.

This undoubtedly touched the fundamental interests for Britain and France, which regard the Black Sea as a free navigation zone and sphere of influence (PS/just like the United States' attitude towards China's free navigation rights in the South China Sea), France was the first to declare war, requiring Britain to immediately express its position and take military action.

Since the outbreak of the Crimean War, Britain and France have made political decisions to prepare for war with Russia due to their alliance with the Ottoman Turkish Empire. For this reason, the British and French military sent troops to the war zone on a large scale and stockpiled weapons, ammunition and military supplies. However, Britain and France have not officially started a war with Russia for a long time, which is actually ill-intentioned. They also want to weaken the strength of their ally Ottoman Turkish Empire, hoping that the Turkish army will first fight against the Russian army and then get both sides of the British and French army.

Allies are used to sell, and this is the dirty side between countries. Both sides know it well and do not point it out.

But now the situation has changed. The Ottoman Turkish army is really vulnerable. The army is defeated and lost a large area of ​​territory. The second navy squadron has now also eliminated the Russian navy. The loss of the Black Sea sea power shows that Tsarist Russia has achieved a decisive victory in this war. If Britain and France do not take action, there will be no chance.

Whether it was Whig members or conservative members, after reading this information, they understood the seriousness of the problem.

"If the Black Sea is controlled by the Russians, it will be a serious threat to our British Empire's maritime trade in the Black Sea region in the future. We Whigs support the war with the Russians!"

"Since the French have made the decision to formally start a war, our British Empire cannot sit idly by. We conservatives have agreed to formally declare war on Russia. Anyway, we have made political preparations in this regard last year. Now after more than half a year of military preparations, we believe that the British Empire's army will definitely turn the tide."

It was also expected that both the Whigs and the Conservatives agreed to formally start the war.

The Earl of Aberdeen nodded and immediately ordered people to draft a declaration of war against Russia.

Then he said: "I will talk about this fake ** case. Since our British Empire is about to go to full war against Russia, the daily war consumption will be astronomical, which requires a large amount of military expenditure. At this time, I hope that you can keep this fake ** case confidential and must not be spread."

Viscount Palmston, president of Whigs, said: "The situation that the Prime Minister considers is very important. If the public knows that the Bank of England has fake notes and loses 57 million pounds at this time, the public will definitely panic. They will doubt the authenticity of the pound banknotes in their hands. They will flock to the counter of the Bank of England to demand exchange of gold. Once there is a gold run, the Bank of England will probably go bankrupt in an instant. As the central bank of the British Empire, the pound will lose its market credit, and the consequences will inevitably be disastrous. Therefore, I also have the suggestion of the Prime Minister. This matter must not be spread."

The conservative president Earl Derby was immediately displeased, and he opposed: "This is not possible. 57 million pounds are not a small amount. It is because you Whig sent people to not manage the Bank of England well. You must bear the responsibility."

Although the British Central Bank was the Bank of England at this time, the issuance rights of the British pound banknotes were not only the Bank of England, but also the Conservatives controlled Scotland Commercial Bank and the Northern Ireland Commercial Bank, and also the pound issuance rights. The two sides have been fighting each other to unify the issuance rights of the British currency. Now that there is a problem with the Bank of England, it is a good time to fight against the Whigs, so conservatives will never miss this opportunity.

Historically, the Bank of England truly defeated the Bank of Scotland and the Bank of Northern Ireland to completely unify the issuance of British banknotes in 1928, which shows that the two banks controlled by the conservatives were very powerful.

Viscount Palmston was also in a disadvantageous position. At this time, we must properly compromise with the conservatives. So we suggested: "We will find a way to find out the source of this fake* banknote and retrieve the 57 million pounds of cashed out!"

The Earl of Derby snorted coldly, "Retrieve it? What a big joke! Haven't you seen those forged fake * money? Almost exactly the same as real money? If it weren't for your insiders of the Bank of England who leaked the top secret information, how could the other party have forged it so real, just like real money?"

This is exactly what Viscount Palmston is puzzled, but he believes that the confidential information of the banknotes issued by the Bank of England has never been leaked. Unfortunately, the facts are in front of him and he cannot argue.

This is, the Earl of Aberdeen suddenly said: "Okay, let's deal with it with it. The Bank of England has an unshirkable responsibility for the counterfeit* banknotes. All personnel involved in banknote secrets are isolated and reviewed to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future. The Bank of England finds ways to make up for the loss of 57 million pounds, which are all hard-earned money for the people of the British Empire. In addition, the Bank of England is a central bank after all, and the war is imminent, and the empire needs a large amount of military expenditure. It is necessary for the Bank of England to start the printing press and increase the issuance of pounds. At this time, the people must not know about the counterfeit* banknotes."

This is obviously favoring the Whigs. Earl Derby opposed: "This is not enough. Starting the printing machine is equivalent to issuing paper money indiscriminately, which will lead to the depreciation of the pound and will be detrimental to the economic stability of the empire."

The Earl of Aberdeen smiled and said, "Which war did we not start the printing machine? Don't worry, the British Empire and France formed a coalition, and they would soon defeat the Russians. When they seized a large amount of war reparations, they would make up for the deficit of issuing additional banknotes and would not affect the stability of the British pound currency."

Derby knew that Aberdeen had made a decision and immediately stopped opposing it.

In this way, during the secret meeting of the British noble parliament, the fake money incident was concealed. However, the secret investigation did not stop.

Fortunately, the British police and the military believed that this fake * money incident was done by the Russians, and transferred all hatred to the Russians, causing the British army to fight the Russians to death on the battlefield of the Crimean War.
Chapter completed!