"Report to the captain that the position of the Qingzhou and Yizhou ships is located at 106.67 east longitude and 2.34 south latitude, which is about 12.48 nautical miles away from us. ”

Shang Pufeng sat on the captain's command platform and said, "Immediately drive over to meet them, send a telegram to the Qingdao headquarters, and report that we have discovered the Qingzhou and Yizhou ships." ”

This is the 7th day of the Kunming ship leaving Qingdao, although it has been recuperating for nearly two years, but due to good maintenance, the state of the Kunming ship is still maintained well, by its power system, the Kunming ship is a diesel-fired hybrid, the use of diesel engines at low speeds, and the use of gas turbines at high speeds, which turned out to be a compromise means used by China's gas turbine technology in the old time and space, and the later 10,000-ton drive 055 type was directly on the 4 gas turbines.

But in this era, it has become the advantage of the Kunming ship, because the gas turbine uses special aviation fuel, and in this era there is only diesel, although the quality of diesel is not high, but it can always be used, so after coming to this era, the Kunming ship is driven by diesel engines for most of the time, although the maximum speed of diesel engine drive is only 24 knots, far lower than the 32 knots driven by gas turbines, but it is completely sufficient in this era. The Kunming ships sailed at a speed of 20 knots or more, with an average speed of 22.1 knots. Of course, the maximum range of the Kunming ship is 15 knots and 6,000 nautical miles, and if it only relies on diesel, it can only drive to Java without force, but Zhang Zhenxun guarantees that diesel can be supplied during the voyage.

On the second day of leaving Qingdao, the Kunming joined Zhang Zhenxun's nephew Zhang Zizhang in the waters of Guangzhou, and on the sixth day, it arrived at Pontianak in Poyi Chau (Kalimantan Island), where Zhang's family had a dock and had prepared diesel fuel, so the Kunming docked at Pontianak to replenish diesel fuel and drinking water on the one hand, and rest overnight in Pontianak. Because it is less than 1,000 kilometers from Pontianak to Java Island, with the speed of the Kunming ship, it can be reached in one day. However, the soldiers were still very tired after 5 or 6 days at sea, and although the hull of the Kunming ship was huge, it was still very crowded with 7 or 800 soldiers, after all, the establishment of the Kunming ship was only about 280 people.

And after leaving the sea area of Guangzhou, the temperature gradually rises, although the Kunming ship is a fully enclosed structure, and has air conditioning and ventilation system, but because of the large number of people, so it still seems very stuffy, in addition there are more than 50 soldiers along the way sick, most of them are seasickness or heat stroke, among which more than 20 soldiers are more serious.

Resting overnight in Pontianak will help the soldiers to recover some of their condition, while the seriously ill soldiers will stay in Pontianak to recuperate, and then reunite with Java when the mixed fleet arrives.

When the ship was anchored in Pontianak, the captain of the ship, Shang Jinfeng, had a long collusion with the Qingdao command, and only learned that on the morning of the same day, the British consul in Qingdao, Jin Zhang, visited the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and expressed concern about the East China Government's armed protection of overseas Chinese, believing that the act of protecting overseas Chinese would affect British interests on Java Island, and hoped that the East China Government would reconsider this overseas Chinese protection operation, and try to maintain a restrained attitude in the overseas Chinese protection operation, not to use force, still less to engage in armed conflict with the Dutch colonial authorities, and at the same time expressed that the British Government was willing to come forward to mediate the anti-Chinese incident on Java Island。

However, the British consul's representations were strongly rejected by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, pointing out that the East China Government was to protect the Chinese nationals, and expressed strong dissatisfaction with the attitude and practices of the Dutch colonial authorities, believing that under such circumstances, the East China Government could only take action to protect overseas Chinese, and asked the British Government to uphold a notarized stance in handling the matter.

The British consul said that the British government would take further words and then leave, but the Qingdao command believed that Britain was very likely to send warships to interfere with the East China government's actions to protect overseas Chinese, in this case, Xia Bohai believed that the East China government should show a stronger and resolute attitude, only in this way could it deter Britain and make Britain dare not easily provoke the mixed fleet of the East China government.

This suggestion was also supported by Qin Zheng and Xiao Jianjun, of course, Xiao Jianjun was considered from a purely military point of view, and the greater the autonomy given to the front-line commanders, the better, but Qin Zheng considered it even deeper, because the action of protecting overseas Chinese itself was actually equivalent to an act of war, and from the diplomatic negotiations between the East China government and the Netherlands, the Dutch government obviously did not treat the East China government as a formal political body, so when the overseas Chinese fleet arrived in Java, it was possible to be strongly resisted by the Dutch colonial authorities。

According to the information provided by Zhang Zhenxun, the Dutch army in Java is not much, there are about 7 or 8 warships, of which there are about 4 or 5 larger warships, because Zhang Zhenxun does not understand the navy, so he can only be distinguished by the size of the warships. However, considering the strength of the Dutch Navy and the industrial capacity of the Netherlands in this era, there was basically no sense of existence in the old time and space, and it is estimated that it will not be strong there. The Batavian Army had about three battalions of about 1,800 men, of which only one battalion was European and the other two were made up of natives. But Zhang Zhenxun also didn't know much about the performance of their weapons, and could only be sure that there were not many mobile guns with wheels.

However, this information is sufficient, and the strength of the Netherlands alone is obviously no match for the Guardian Fleet. Since considering the British interference, the Qingdao command asked Shang Jinfeng to establish a stable garrison on land as soon as possible after arriving in Java, so that it was too late for the British fleet to arrive, and it would take at least three days for the British to dispatch the fleet from Singapore, so Shang Jinfeng had to complete this goal within three days. Then it is all the more necessary to have the power to fire first and control the initiative in their own hands.

And having the right to fire first, Shang Jinfeng was naturally happy, and at the same time reported his plan to the command. During the past few days of sailing, Shang Jinfeng was not idle, and after he joined Zhang Zizhang, Shang Jinfeng asked Zhang Zizhang about the situation in Java, focusing on the landing site and the location of the station.

Although Zhang Zizhang has mainly followed Zhang Zhenxun's activities in China in recent years, after all, he grew up in Java and is still very familiar with the situation in Java and Batavia, so he first suggested to Shang Jinfeng that he could anchor at a wharf run by Zhang's family and let soldiers land. Located about 50 kilometres from Batavia, this wharf can accommodate ships of around 6,000 tons. As for the land station, Zhang Zizhang suggested setting up a farm run by the Zhang family. This farm is only about 12 or 3 kilometers away from the wharf, and it is connected on a very flat road, and it is about 60 kilometers away from Batavia City, with an area of more than 3,000 acres, mainly planting sugarcane, tea, coconut, and grain, with more than 800 employees, a large number of houses, and a lot of grain and medicinal materials. and also drew a simple drawing for Shang Jinfeng.

After consideration, Shang Jinfeng thought that it was okay to use the farm as a station, not only a large number of ready-made facilities were available, but also the employees of the Zhang family could assist, and the farm was just within the protection range of the Kunming naval guns, which was indeed a very suitable place; but when he landed at the dock of the Zhang family, Shang Jinfeng denied this suggestion, because it was too dangerous, after all, it was not Pontianak, but the territory of the Netherlands, of course, Pontianak was also a Dutch colony, but the Netherlands' national strength was weak, and its control over the colony was limited, and Java was the core area of the Dutch colony, and the control was also the strongest, can bring great damage to the Kunming ship, so it is best to anchor at least 15 kilometers from the pier at sea, and use small boats to send the personnel and weapons of the army to the pier. Zhang Zizhang has no objection to it, anyway, there are small boats in the dock.

After listening to Shang Jinfeng's suggestion, the Qingdao command basically agreed, but it had to contact Zhang Zhenxun and ask for Zhang Zhenxun's opinion, so that he wanted to understand the current situation of the wharf and farm that Zhang Zizhang said, whether it had been looted or occupied by the natives, so it was agreed to reply to Shang Jinfeng after 24 hours.

However, Zhang Zizhang also provided Shang Jinfeng with an alternative, that is, about 70 kilometers from Batavia, there is a very flat beach, which is very suitable for the landing of the army, but it is more than 20 kilometers away from the farm. But there is also a Chinese residential area nearby.

Early the next morning, the Kunming departed from Pontianak and headed for Java Island, and at about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, it joined the Qingzhou and Yizhou in the sea east of Bangka Island to form a forward fleet.

The Qingzhou and Yizhou received orders from Qingdao in the Andaman Sea, accepted a new mission, joined up with the Kunming ship, formed the forward fleet of the overseas Chinese protection fleet, and rushed to Java Island to protect the Chinese nationals.

After learning the news, the soldiers on the two warships were very excited, because the soldiers were affected by the traverser, and their morale was very high, and they had just received a new warship, and they all hoped to test the power of the warship on the battlefield, and the traverser had been instilling patriotism and nationalism education in the soldiers, so the soldiers had a relatively deep understanding of the country, the nation, and the people, and they heard that their compatriots were bullied overseas, and they all had a heart of hatred for the enemy. And the German engineer who accompanied the ship did not object to this, and it was a normal thing in the eyes of European countries to arm the protection of overseas Chinese.

However, at this time, the two warships left Germany, and had been sailing at sea for more than 20 days, and the soldiers were very tired physically and mentally, and at this time the coal, food, and drinking water on the two warships were also insufficient, so Zhang Wei decided to anchor at Medan Lane on Sumatra, replenish coal, food and drinking water, and rest for two days, the soldiers were really new again, so the two warships set sail again, crossed the Strait of Malacca, and joined the Kunming ship.

When the three warships met at sea, the crews of both sides came to the deck and waved to each other in celebration of the rendezvous at sea.