The next day, after the fleet passed through a small deserted island and reef, the "Nanyang No. 7" fast sailing ship leading the way in front waved a flag, saying that it was about to reach the coast in front.

Tan Tiyuan let the lookout hand on the flagship "Nanyang No. 1" take a look, and sure enough, he could see a faint gray black line in the distance to the southeast. That's right, it seems that less than a few dozen miles away, there is the land of Sarawak.

However, at this time, the "Nanyang No. 7" came with news: several black spots were found in the sea to the west, and it should be a few ships sailing in.

Tan Tiyuan immediately ordered the whole army to be on alert, adjusted the formation, and transferred the troop carrier that had been dragged in the middle to the northeast, leaving two frigates to guard the troop carrier.

Half an hour later, Tan Tiyuan had already discovered through the telescope that there was a medium-sized frigate and four merchant ships coming to the west, with a rice flag on the bow, which was obviously a British merchant ship.

The other party obviously also discovered this huge fleet in the northeast, and it seemed that they were hesitating a little and began to slow down, but because it was a headwind, it was a little slow.

Tan Tiyuan asked the "Nanyang No. 7" at the front to play the flag, indicating that his side was not an enemy and had no intention of starting a war, so that the other party did not have to be afraid. The five boats on the opposite side probably didn't believe it, but after hesitating for a while, they finally turned their bows and headed back to the west, which changed from a headwind to a tailwind, and then they retreated with their sails full, and sailed so fast that in less than half an hour, they fled without a trace.

Tan Tiyuan ordered not to chase and organized the fleet to continue to move towards the land in the southeast direction.

Zeng Guoquan next to him couldn't help but ask, "Commander Tan, why didn't you intercept those warships just now?" ”

Tan Tiyuan sighed and said, "That's Yingyi's merchant ship, and that warship is guarding the four merchant ships, not against us." Those merchant ships should have sailed from the other side of the Strait of Malacca, and I don't know whether they were going to Hong Kong Island or Luzon, but in this way, they would definitely report to the British Colonial Governor of the Strait, and if the British also intervened, it would be a lot of trouble. Our country is not strong enough to tear the skin of the British directly, and it is good that they can retreat on their own. ”

Then, Tan Tiyuan officially ordered to break away from the Third Fleet, and directly led the First Fleet to the southwest and went straight.

The reason for the three-pronged approach is that before the British Straits Settlements reacted, the matter between Sarawak and the Republic of Lanfang should be quickly resolved, and Borneo should be basically occupied, and after the established facts were created, there would be nothing to say about the other side to negotiate or protest.

……

At dawn, the sky was just a little brighter. Two miles away from the mouth of the Sarawatsu River, several troop transports quietly stopped on the sea, and everything was quiet. On the shore of the estuary, there were already several rowboats full of soldiers with steel knives at their waists, a strong bow on their backs, and Colt revolvers or Sharps M1852 carbines in one hand. These were the officers and men of the special battalion directly under the headquarters of the 38th Infantry Division, and they were transferred with the 6th Infantry Regiment to attack the Bullock Dynasty, which slaughtered Chinese compatriots.

At the front, Rong Weishan jumped up, but quietly and silently, jumped onto the riverbank, and his vigorous figure disappeared into the thin morning mist, and behind him, more than ten soldiers hurriedly followed.

Rong Weishan is a native of Dong'an, Yongzhou Prefecture, southern Hunan, after participating in the capture army three years ago, although he is still young, his figure is already in his twenties, because he has learned some martial arts since childhood, he is deeply agile, and was selected as a special soldier from the field army last year. He is less than 17 years old, but he is tall and burly, his head is as big as a fight, his martial arts are strong, his arm strength is superb, he is known as "a hundred heads of blades", he can lift 500 catties, he is the first master in the 38th Division, and now, he has become the deputy commander of the special service battalion of the 38th Infantry Division and the commander of the first company.

On the left bank of the Sarawak River, a magnificent three-storey western-style building stands next to it, the sides of the exterior wall are still full of devastation, and the marks blackened by the fire are still left there before they have time to be repaired, as if to tell people how tragic the war that took place here not long ago.

"My lord, this is the royal palace of the British chief Bullock." A dark and thin Chinese guide whispered in Hakka. Rong Weishan nodded, his eyes searched quickly, he was looking for some sentry posts to kill, firstly, in order not to let the other party find out, he had a guard, and secondly, it was easy to find out the situation.

Soon, two detectives were found on the side of the palace, Rong Weishan led the three to approach stealthily, pulled up the bow and arrow on his back, one signaled, one arrow put down one of the detectives, a rabbit flew up and had already knocked down the other detective, the tip of the knife against his neck, pulled it to a hidden place, and let the black and thin guide force him to ask.

This is a Malay from Kuching, and according to his disclosure, Rong Weishan quickly figured out what happened and immediately sent someone to report it to You.

The Kuching area was originally a dependency of the Sultan of Brunei, and more than a decade ago a man named James? The British in Bullock, because they helped the Sultan of Brunei put down the rebellion in the Kuching area, and privately invited the warships of the British Straits Settlements to blackmail the Sultan of Brunei and appoint him as the governor of Sarawak.

And then, James? Taking advantage of the good relations with the British Straits Settlements, Bullock gradually expanded his power, and with the help of the Royal Navy, he exterminated pirates and forced Borunei to subjugate Bonei, so that Sarawak became independent from Brunei, established the Kingdom of Brock, and annexed the surrounding areas and Labuan Island in eastern Brunei.

Originally, James? Bullock returned to England as a hero and was appointed Governor of Labuan and Vice-Consul of Borneo by the British, but later failed to negotiate with Siam due to his lack of talent, and asked the British government for a bounty after helping the Straits Settlements to suppress piracy, which attracted disgust in Britain. Now, James? Bullock had lost the support of the Straits Settlements Navy and instead relied on borrowing money to recruit soldiers from the area to maintain his rule.

It was for this reason that he increased his taxes, forcing the Chinese miners in the gold mines in the Selom Mun area near Kuching to resent and rebelled.

According to the sentry's confession, about two or three months ago, about 600 heavily armed Chinese miners of the 12th Company, under the leadership of the leaders Liu Shanbang and Wang Jia, set out from the company's base camp of Maoshan and took a boat down the Sarawak River from the short corridor.

It was also because the Chinese rebels were not ruthless enough, perhaps because the targets were only Bullock and the palace officials, the rebels did not cause many casualties, only 5 Westerners were killed, and the local Malays and Chinese in Kuching did not suffer much interference. The next morning, after the Chinese miners completely occupied Kuching, Liu Shanbang summoned the four most powerful people in Kuching, the Christian bishop of Sarawak, Francis, the Malay local chieftain Datuk Banda, the manager of the Mu Niang Company, and the British businessman Rubel, indicating that the miners aimed to eliminate the Bullock dynasty, not against other foreigners and religions, and that Liu Shanbang was not good at governing local government affairs, so he directly appointed Datuk Banda to govern Kuching, and Rubi and Rubel assisted in handling chores.

Three days later, Liu Shanbang led 600 miners out of Kuching City and demanded peace with Bullock, who had already fled. But Bullock didn't buy it, he took advantage of Liu Shanbang's defenselessness, and his nephew Charris? With the help of Bullock and Lu Bi, the manager of Mu Niang's company, and others, he privately invited more than 100 British soldiers from the Straits Settlements, plus instigated the Dayats of Sekalem and Celebes and some local Malays in the Sarawak River, to form an armed force of several hundred people to attack the 12th Company in Shilongmen.

More than two months ago, Bullock personally led an armed force of several hundred people, on a steamboat provided by Mu Niang, along the Sand River to slaughter the unsuspecting Chinese workers in the hills of Youlan's belly, the rebel leader Liu Shanbang and his guards were also killed, and about hundreds of Chinese immigrants were killed in the entire area around Xinyao Town.

Then Bullock led his army along the river to the Shilongmen area, he connived at his troops to wash the headquarters of the 12th Company Maoshan and the surrounding area, even the old and young women and children hiding in the woods of the Chinese workers and their families were all hacked to death with knives, the entire Maoshan and the Shilongmen mining area nearly 3,000 Chinese were killed, the corpses were all over the field, the blood flowed like a river, and the stench of the corpses under the scorching sun was disgusting for several miles.

Speaking of this, the detective also made a frightened appearance and pleaded with a frightened face: "My Allah, I beg you, let the villain go." The villain is also forced to be helpless, if he doesn't help Bullock, he will take my life. ”