Germany and Japan expressed concern over the actions of the East China Government to protect overseas Chinese, and at the same time expressed the hope that the East China Government and the Netherlands would settle the dispute through peaceful negotiations, exercise restraint, and refrain from escalating the conflict.

Although the attitude of Germany and Japan is similar, but the ideas are very different, from the heart of the German government, of course, it is biased towards the Netherlands, not only belongs to the same European countries, but also culturally, belongs to the Indo-European Germanic language family of the West Germanic language branch, in fact, the Dutch and German are almost identical, but now Germany and the East China government have a number of cooperation projects, all of which are very beneficial to Germany, so Germany can only hold a neutral position.

Japan, on the other hand, is still counting on cooperation with the East China government to confront Russia, and of course does not want the East China government to shift its target to Southeast Asia, let alone the East China government to confront Britain.

The United States, France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, and other countries have all condemned the East China government, holding that the East China government's actions are infringing on the sovereignty of the Netherlands and undermining the international order. However, although these countries condemned the East China government, they were only verbal and did not take substantive actions, after all, Java belonged to the British sphere of influence and had nothing to do with these countries, and interfering in Java would have no benefit to other countries.

However, the Qing court is the most embarrassing one of all the governments, because although the overseas Chinese set up their own government, they are still subordinates of the Qing court in terms of name, but the action of arming Javanese overseas Chinese did not inform the Chunting at all, so I did my own thing, if it was in the country, it would be forgotten, after all, it was a closed door to say bright words, and the arm was broken and hidden in the sleeve, but this time it was an international event, so that the face of the Qing court was put there, and the Dutch minister had already protested to the Chunting, but the Chunting could only tell the Dutch minister that he could not control the East China government, and he could not do anything, so it could be said that he was a shame and really lost home。

In fact, the Chun court also discussed how to deal with the overseas Chinese's overseas protection actions, and Li Hongzhang suggested to the Qing court that it might as well reward the overseas Chinese in the name of protecting overseas Chinese, and give the main personnel of the overseas Chinese the rank of official promotion, of course, only a false title, and protest against the Netherlands, so that not only can the overseas Chinese show the whole country that the overseas Chinese are still the subordinates of the Qing court, but also show that the court also supports the overseas Chinese, after all, the Qing court is now the legitimate government of China, and it can get a part of the prestige from the overseas Chinese.

However, Li Hongzhang's suggestion was strongly opposed by the Manchu magnates, because the overseas Chinese suppressed the privilege of the Eight Banners in Shandong, which caused extreme dissatisfaction among the Manchu magnates, although the Empress Dowager Cixi forbade talking about punishing overseas Chinese in the imperial court, but the Manchu magnates counted these on the Han ministers, thinking that the Empress Dowager Cixi was bewitched by the Han ministers to make such a decision, and now Li Hongzhang actually proposed to give overseas Chinese a reward, and even a promotion to the rank of knight, which is naturally unacceptable, so they have made a statement to the Empress Dowager Cixi, the behavior of overseas Chinese is to despise the imperial court and provoke foreign disputesSome people even think that overseas Chinese will attract foreign troops to attack China again, so they must not be rewarded.

In fact, the attitude of the Manchu magnates was also expected by Li Hongzhang, but he believed in the political mind of the Empress Dowager Cixi, and at this time, his own suggestions were the best choice for the imperial court, so the Empress Dowager Cixi should be able to make a correct judgment.

At this time, Empress Dowager Cixi's most trusted minister, Rong Lu, died of illness. Originally, the Empress Dowager Cixi was also quite dissatisfied with the overseas Chinese, and she didn't want to use Li Hongzhang's suggestion, and Rong Lu's death made the Empress Dowager Cixi even more upset, plus a group of Manchu ministers repeatedly advised Cixi that she could not reward overseas Chinese, and the Empress Dowager Cixi was indeed worried that the behavior of overseas Chinese would attract foreign countries to attack China again, so she left Li Hongzhang's suggestion in China and decided to wait for the results of the overseas Chinese's actions to protect overseas Chinese.

And after Li Hongzhang heard this, he could only sigh, because waiting for the overseas Chinese's action to protect overseas Chinese to have results before commending them is just icing on the cake, not only will the overseas Chinese not be grateful to the imperial court, but even those who support the overseas Chinese will be dissatisfied with the imperial court, and it is clear that the imperial court will ignore it when the overseas Chinese send troops, and wait until the overseas Chinese succeed in protecting the overseas Chinese and then come to reward and grab merit, then who will trust such a court.

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"Report to the captain, the other party sent a flag to greet us. ”

Shang Jinfeng nodded and said with a smile: "It seems that the British are still very good, reply, and also greet them." ”

Originally, according to the rules of this era, when warships of different countries met at sea, the party at the bottom of the rank should first greet the party with the higher rank and show friendship, and then the party with the higher rank should return the salute. Now Shang Jinfeng is in the rank of lieutenant general, and the commander who came to the British fleet is in the rank of rear admiral, so of course it is the British who first greet the KPA fleet.

At this time, the British warship sent another flag, saying that it was going to Java to protect overseas Chinese, and it was not aimed at the People's Army fleet, and hoped that the People's Army fleet would not be misunderstood.

After Shang Jinfeng found out, he not only laughed, but said, "They really came to protect overseas Chinese, and now Java will be lively." Reply to them, keep a safe distance between the two parties, and you can remain friendly. Tell Qingzhou and Yizhou to go 5 kilometers ahead and strengthen vigilance. ”

The Kunming ship is the anchor of the People's Army Navy, but although the Kunming ship has strong combat effectiveness, it is a thin skin and a big filling, and its defense is extremely poor, so it needs to be protected and must not be placed within the range of the opponent's firepower.

And on the flagship of the British fleet, the British fleet's flagship, Rear Admiral Snow Hamilton, the commander of the British fleet and also the captain of the Old Man, also received a flag from the KPA fleet.

Rear Admiral Hamilton then ordered: "No warships shall enter within 10 kilometers of the opposing warship." ”

Colonel Michael Adams, the first mate of the Old Man Asterisk, frowned and said, "Captain, if we can't get within 10 kilometers of them, then we can't go in a straight line, we have to go around in a circle." ”

Hamilton said, "Let's go around in circles." ”

Adams said: "Captain, isn't it too weak for us to do this, our fleet of the British Empire should not make a detour to let the fleet of any country." ”

Hamilton glanced at his first mate and said, "Colonel, please remember that our mission in Java is only to contain the fleet of overseas Chinese and prevent them from taking radical action, not to start a war with overseas Chinese, unless they take the initiative to attack us." And they arrived first, so we made a detour to let them, and it was also a normal voyage, and there was nothing to show weakness or show weakness. ”

Seeing that the British fleet chose to make a detour to maintain a safe distance from the People's Army fleet, Shang Jinfeng was also very satisfied, and at the same time said that the British fleet was not hostile at present, so he ordered to play a "smooth journey" flag, and the other party quickly replied with a "I wish you a long way", from these interactions, the two sides seemed very friendly.

The British warship consisted of 5 warships, the core of which was two battleships, the Old Man Star and the Giant, as well as a protective cruiser and two * boat destroyers. Rear Admiral Hamilton, the commander of the fleet, had previously served in the Boer War and arrived in Singapore at the end of last year, not only as captain of the battleship Asterisk Old Man, but also as deputy commander of the British Far East Fleet. Vice Admiral Owen, commander of the British Far East Fleet, will leave his post at the end of this year and return to China, and the candidate to replace him as commander has basically been determined to be Hamilton, and the candidate to succeed Hamilton as captain of the battleship Star Old Man is Adams.

The British Far East Fleet had a total of 8 battleships, but they were usually distributed in various parts of Asia, and only these two warships remained in Singapore. Therefore, after receiving an order from China to send a fleet to Java in the name of protecting overseas Chinese, Owen immediately formed a fleet with these only two battleships as the core, and set off for Java first, and at the same time mobilized warships from all over Asia.

Five British warships passed in front of the People's Army fleet in a large circle in a column, and the commanders of both sides were observing each other's warships, and Adams seemed to have discovered a new continent, and said: "They only have three warships, and these two warships are obviously damaged, even the turrets are crooked, and this one, there is a big gap on the side side, it is really funny that they actually drove such a mutilated warship." ”

"No, Colonel! there's nothing funny about that. Hamilton put down the binoculars in his hand and said: "These are all injuries left in the battle, didn't we have received information before we set off, the overseas Chinese defeated 6 Dutch warships with only two warships, and sank 5 of them, it should be these two warships, these damages should be left in that battle, so these two warships are warships that have experienced the baptism of war." ”

When Adams heard this, he couldn't help but be in awe, Britain is a country with a strong naval tradition, and the officers and men of the navy are proud of fighting, and in the concept of the British Navy, the value of a warship can only be reflected on the battlefield, and the warship that has not participated in the battle, no matter how gorgeous and mighty it is, it is meaningless, so the British Navy will maintain respect for the warships that have participated in naval battles, even if it is the opponent's warship.

What's more, although the scale of the battle between the KPA Navy and the Dutch Navy was not large, the results should not be underestimated, so although Adams looked down on the KPA Navy, he still respected these two warships very much. Of course, respect is respect, and when it comes to the battlefield, there will be no mercy.

The British fleet crossed the front of the two KPA warships, and Adams said, "I really hope to be able to compete with the overseas Chinese fleet." ”

Hamilton laughed and said, "Don't worry, if you want to participate in the battle, you will have a chance in the future, but this time the chance is probably not big, because we are not here for the war." ”