It turned out that when the East China government first negotiated with the Netherlands, the Dutch government did not really do anything wrong, after all, it was not a secret that the Eight-Nation Coalition returned from China, and it was not a secret in Europe, although the Dutch government did not study it carefully, but it also knew the general process and reasons, and the Netherlands was a small country, of course, it did not want to cause additional trouble, so the Dutch government immediately sent a telegram to the Batavian authorities to inquire about the situation.

However, the governor of Batavia, Willem Rooseboom, sent a telegram back to China, swearing that there would be no such thing, and on the contrary, he also made a mistake, saying that many Javanese Chinese did not respect the laws and regulations of the colony, gathered people to make trouble, suppressed the local soil, and maliciously competed, which seriously damaged the economic interests of the colony, and the colonial authorities arrested some Javanese Chinese in accordance with the law, and as a result, they colluded with the East China government to exert pressure on the colonial authorities.

At the same time, Javanese businessmen also sent a telegram to the Dutch government, proving that what the Governor's Office said was true, and demanding that the Dutch government not be stubborn to the pressure of overseas Chinese, and must give a tough reply to the East China government.

Of course, the Dutch government believed what its own people said, not to mention the testimony of the merchants, so it sent a reply letter to the East China government that was quite polite in the eyes of the Dutch government. The reaction of the East China government was far more fierce than the Dutch government had imagined, and it even wanted to arm the overseas Chinese. Although the Dutch government does not want to cause trouble, after all, it is a European country, and it was also the role of the hegemon back then, and it is very clear that the situation has developed to this point, and it is not something that can be solved by diplomacy.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Netherlands was a world-class power, defeated the Spanish Habsburgs in the Thirty Years' War and gained formal independence, established a republic, and won the title of "sea coachman" by virtue of the advanced navigation and shipbuilding technology of the sail age, and launched a century-old maritime hegemony with Britain.

However, after all, the Netherlands is a small country and a widow, and it gradually fell behind when it entered the first industrial revolution, in the era of the Napoleonic War, the Netherlands was also once lost, although after the defeat of Napoleon, the Netherlands was restored, and became a constitutional monarchy by the republic, but Belgium, which originally belonged to the Netherlands, Luxembourg has become independent, so that the Netherlands has lost nearly half of its territory, and it is no longer able to participate in the competition of the world, so it tries its best to maintain neutrality in major international affairs, carefully survive in the gap between the great powers, and rely on Britain in the economy, but because of the vast colonies left in the glory period, the Netherlands is now generally very rich. In the Boer War launched by Britain in South Africa, the Boers who were enemies of Britain were descendants of the Dutch in Africa, but the Dutch government only verbally criticized the British, but did not give the Boers any substantial help.

At present, the Dutch navy has more than 10,000 people, and the main combat warships are: five old 5,000-ton coastal defense battleships, equipped with two 240-mm guns, three old 3,500-ton coastal defense battleships, equipped with three 210-mm guns, and six 3,800-ton protective cruisers. Although such a naval scale had little presence in this era, it was quite impressive for a country like the Netherlands, which has only a territory of just over 40,000 square kilometers and a population of more than 5 million.

At present, the Dutch Navy has a total of eight warships distributed in the colonial areas, including four in Batavia, a 5,000-ton coastal defense battleship Amsterdam, a 3,500-ton coastal defense battleship Utrecht, a 3,800-ton protective cruiser Rotterdam and Tilburg, and five or six 400-600 ton shallow water gunboats and * boat destroyers.

But such strength obviously cannot be the opponent of the East China government, after all, the overseas Chinese have defeated the German expeditionary fleet with 4 10,000-ton battleships and armored cruisers. This was not something that the Netherlands could contend with, so the Dutch government could only turn to Britain for help, hoping that Britain would intervene. At the same time, the Dutch government also warned Batavia that the East China government had decided to arm the overseas Chinese and prepare Batavia.

Governor William Roseblu, who received the warning from home, was also nervous, and hastened to gather the officials of the colony to discuss how to deal with the armed protection of the East China government. Some officials advocated that the current anti-Chinese movement in Java should be pacified as soon as possible and the situation in Java should be restored, so that overseas Chinese would not have the excuse to interfere in the situation in Java.

However, this idea was strongly opposed by Hellwig, commander of the Dutch fleet in Batavia. His proposition was to prepare for war immediately, and when the warships of the East China government came, he would attack them head-on. Because the Netherlands has not participated in major international affairs for decades, although the Netherlands itself is located in the center of Europe and has many sources of information, it can keep up with the times, but Batavia is partial and does not have many sources of information, so its understanding of the times is a little lagging behind in its understanding of the current situation outside Europe, and it does not know much about the detailed process of the defeat of the Eight-Nation Alliance's war of aggression against China, and still regards the East China government as the same as the Qing court.

In Herveg's view, it was not unusual for the Qing court or the East China government to defeat the Eight-Nation Alliance, because the countries did not do their best in the first place, and didn't the Boers in South Africa rely on geographical and environmental advantages to confront the British Empire under the condition of absolute disadvantage? However, to go to Java to protect overseas Chinese, a strong navy was needed, and Helweig's impression of the Chinese navy at this time was still in the era of the First Sino-Japanese War. Therefore, Hervig insisted on taking a tough stance against the East China government's actions to protect overseas Chinese.

Helweig's opinion was supported by most colonial officials, and the reason was very simple, this time the Chinese exclusion action, the colonial authorities in Batavia adopted a tacit and even supportive attitude, and the wealth of the Chinese looted by the natives was also shared by the colonial authorities, and once the overseas Chinese landed in Java to protect the Chinese, and after learning the truth, I am afraid that most of the colonial officials will be punished at home. In addition, although the number of Chinese in Java is small, they control huge wealth, and once they have the support of the state, then it will be difficult for the colonial authorities to control it in the future. Therefore, it is necessary to stop the overseas Chinese from protecting overseas Chinese.

Just this morning, the warships patrolling the waters of Java discovered the Qingzhou and Yizhou, although they did not hang the dragon flag of the Qing court, but the goal was to go straight to Java, so they issued a warning to Batavia, Helweig had already made preparations, and immediately took the four main warships of Batavia out of the port to meet the Qingzhou and Yizhou.

Although the size of these two warships is much larger than all the Dutch warships, but after all, there are only two, the Dutch fleet not only has 4 warships, but also two * boats, which can be cast close to the *, so Herveg thinks that with the strength of the warships alone, he has at least 7 percent chance of winning, and if you add the advantage of the quality of the soldiers, then the probability of winning can even reach 9 percent.

Linkevich returned to his flagship, the Amsterdam, and informed Helwig of the outcome of the negotiations, and Helwig knew that war was inevitable, so Helwig ordered: "Inform the lookout, signal to them, and ask them to leave immediately." Inform the ships and prepare for battle. ”

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"Report, Qingzhou news, they have broken down with the Dutch, the Dutch warship has played the flag of 'asking us to leave', and Commander Zhang has asked to open fire. ”

"Agree to open fire, and wish them a successful start, notify the Ministry of Aviation, and immediately take off the helicopter to monitor the situation on the battlefield. ”

Just after Shang Jinfeng gave the order, someone reported: "Captain, the assault boat is ready." ”

"Let's go. ”

After separating from Qingzhou and Yizhou, the Kunming ship turned to the southwest, and after sailing out of a distance of more than 40 kilometers, it arrived at the agreed sea area, and it can be seen that there is indeed a wharf in the distance, although the scale is not large, there are only two trestle bridges, but there are also more than 10 ships of all sizes docked. So Shang Jinfeng ordered to put down an assault boat, send Zhang Zizhang to the dock to contact, and prepare for the landing of the army, and it is best to transfer one or two barges over to speed up the landing.

As a matter of fact, the Kunming does not have much landing equipment of its own; there are two armed boats, four assault boats, and 12 rubber boats for life-saving purposes, which can theoretically transport about 300 people at a time, and all the officers and men of the ship can be transported; however, the army has to transport not only personnel but also all kinds of weapons and equipment, so that the transportation capacity will be sharply reduced to about 150 people, and it will take five to six transportation needs to be completed; therefore, if the wharf can transfer two barges over, it can basically ensure that all the personnel and equipment of the army can be transported at one time, and it will only take two at most, which will naturally greatly speed up the transportation and landing。

On the other side, the Qingzhou also came with the news that the talks between the two sides had collapsed and that a war would start. Although Zhang Weiji reported to Shang Jinfeng that the other party's warships were not very good, Shang Jinfeng was not at ease, after all, there were only two warships on his side, and they were both protective cruisers, and this was the first time that the People's Army Navy used warships in this era to fight, so Shang Jinfeng decided to send carrier-based helicopters to monitor the battle, and when necessary, he could help Qingzhou and Yizhou.

The carrier-based helicopter carried by the Kunming ship is a Z-20 anti-submarine type, which can carry two fish 7 type *, although before the crossing, this * is mainly used to attack submarines rather than surface ships, but the anti-* means of warships in this era are quite primitive, basically relying on the maneuver of the ship to get rid of *, and the self-guided type that is installed with active and passive sonar to track sound signals as a guide * The defense is basically zero, in the previous battle, the traverser used the fish 7 to hit the enemy ship, although it was launched on the warship, but it is still a very effective weapon, so the straight 20 with two *, can be in the battle at the moment of construction, help Qingzhou, Yizhou.