At 4 a.m. on February 18, 1898, the Chinese 13th Fast Squadron, which was carefully navigating in the Strait of Magellan, finally encountered the ocean-going freighter Nanhua 17351 on the northwest side of the reef of Cross Island, which had departed from the port of Punta Arenas and was trying to make contact.

After receiving a telegram from the Chinese Consulate in Buenos Aires, Bernard Chen, an overseas employee employed by the Intelligence Department in Rio Grande Bay on the east coast of Argentina, immediately contacted the Chinese freighter anchored at the port, and at the same time paid for the hiring of several Argentine sea vessels, and then prepared to sail from the Strait of Magellan into the west coast to look for the 13th Squadron, but unexpectedly encountered the fleet in the strait.

Liu Hetu was very pleased to hear the news from the consulate brought by Bernard Chen, and after leaving the radio communication network in the Pacific Ocean in the south, he was also considering reporting his whereabouts to Beijing at the right time......

However, the appearance of Bernard Chen immediately solved the problem, and he immediately drafted a secret telegram for Bernard Chen to take back to the consulate in Buenos Aires and forward it back to Beijing, and the appearance of this receiving fleet also effectively increased the speed of navigation of the fleet, and before dawn, the fleet had sailed through the bottom of the deep V-shaped channel of the Strait of Magellan under the leadership of the Argentine cargo ships in front, and turned rapidly to the northeast.

The news of the rapid detachment arrived in Beijing early on the morning of the 19th, Qin Kai was listening to the report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zeng Jize has recently been unwell, and Chen Jitong has temporarily taken over the daily duties of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Prime Minister, London has agreed to our request, and the British government has agreed to fully support our rights and interests in the Panama Canal. Moreover, a note has been sent to Brazil. Allow our warships to enter anchors and supplies. And agreed to provide us with repair services at the UK shipyard in Maranovan! ”

"Very well, in the afternoon you will confirm with Bauer the position of both of us in the US-Spanish conflict...... The power of the Americans cannot be allowed to enter the Caribbean, this is our bottom line! "Qin Kai is very satisfied with the results of diplomatic mediation, and he is out of reach and lacks interest in things in the Atlantic, which is the traditional sphere of influence of the British, so let the British worry about it.

The reaction of the British. As Qin Kai expected, the British Empire undoubtedly still had the most powerful technology and the most open academic atmosphere of this era, but Britain's biggest weakness was the lack of the native population.

However, the current British government, and even Lord Fisher, who holds the future of the vast Royal Navy, apparently do not think so, owning the most extensive colonies of the era, and plundering countless wealth from the colonies every year to supplement the decline of the empire's native economy. This is enough to support a powerful navy of the first class in the world.

Therefore, when he proposed to jointly contain the United States, the only country in the world whose GDP surpassed that of the British Empire. This is undoubtedly the allure of the British Empire, and it is undoubtedly the best diplomatic means to unite with third parties to contain the adversary!

That afternoon, Bauer happily completed the final agreement with Chen Jitong very quickly, and he was very excited about the benefits that the empire would gain from this Caribbean conflict...... The Chinese intervention was completely unexpected and equally surprising to London.

However, the absolute superiority of the Chinese navy in the Pacific will undoubtedly exert enormous military pressure on the West Coast of the United States, which even an idiot can understand the importance of Chinese involvement, and China's only claim for West Coast interests is Colombia, which is obviously perfectly acceptable.

Of course, the ambition of the British Empire is not only in the interests of Central America and South America agreed with Qin Kai, the British Empire is in charge of the final important strait of this era, the Strait of Gibraltar, which was originally seized from the Spanish Empire, but the ownership of the Strait of Gibraltar has always been a diplomatic conflict between Britain and Spain.

At the same time as diplomatic consultations with China, London was engaged in another, more important round of talks with the Spanish envoy, and Prime Minister Salisbury made it clear to the Queen of Spain that the British Empire's intervention in the mediation of the Spanish colonies in the Americas was conditional on the two countries reaching the most complete settlement on the Strait of Gibraltar.

The question of the century, which hung in suspense between Britain and Spain, now has the best chance of being resolved, and Bauer is a crucial figure in it, and it is he who has bundled this series of diplomatic interests together in his previous proposals! And Powell is also convinced that once the Strait of Gibraltar issue is finally resolved, it will be another brilliant achievement in his diplomatic career.

Since President McKinley announced on 8 January that he would veto the congressional war proposal and launch an investigation into the shelling of the port of Havana, the US investigation, which lasted for more than a week, was forcefully blocked by Spain.

The arrogant posture of the Spanish bullfighters was honestly completely incomprehensible to the American cowboys, and even the British Minister to the United States, Sir Chacleton, secretly called on the Spanish Minister Wilbers on January 10, and he was very cautious to ask the Spaniards to agree to a joint investigation to confirm the shelling of Havana.

However, Wilbers was obviously also a bullfighter temper, this was in fact a hawkish patriot, he couldn't understand the friendliness of the British at all, so he almost unceremoniously rejected the British's proposal, for which Sir Chuck Richton was also depressed for a long time, and finally, the British gentleman remembered the agreement between China and Britain, and turned to seek the help of Huang Zunxian, the Chinese minister to the United States.

After Huang Zunxian made a phone call to Beijing, he made it very clear to the British that China believed that the Spanish bullfighters would not recognize the seriousness of the problem until the war began, so China was not prepared to intervene in mediation now, and of course, China did not mind British involvement.

After repaying the most gentlemanly displeasure with the cunning of the Chinese, Sir Chucleton turned to the US government, and the British gentleman made it very clear to President McKinley that the British government did not want to change the current situation in the Americas, nor did it want to see a war break out in the Americas for any reason.

President McKinley did not buy the British at all, and the Republican president had always been very averse to others influencing his independent decision-making, so the British warning was completely disposed of as nonsense, and the request to send a note to the Spaniards to open an investigation into the shelling of the port of Havana was rejected by the Spaniards ten days later.

Spanish Minister Wilbers responded to the US government that the Spanish Navy is conducting an investigation into this matter, and when the results of the investigation come out, it will give feedback to the US side on the results of the investigation, but Spain refuses to allow any Americans to interfere in the investigation!

When the news spread, the United States was in an uproar, and the New York Daily immediately published a cartoon showing President McKinley trembling in front of the Spanish bullfighters with a hesitant look, and the editorial that day was even more explicit: This American newspaper, which is known for its inflammatory content, offered a reward of $20,000 for clues to investigate the Havana shelling.

On the 20th, after no investigation could be launched at all, President McKinley finally made a heavy decision to submit the US-Spanish conflict to Congress for discussion, and once this decision was revealed, the whole world already understood that a US-Spanish war was inevitable!

The warnings from Britain, China, and Germany quickly panicked the Spanish government, which was in a mess in the domestic political situation, and Spanish Navy Minister Payne immediately issued a warning to Rear Admiral P. Sevela of the Cuban fleet, demanding that the fleet stationed in Havana immediately enter a state of combat readiness and organize a possible military operation by the US Navy.

Obviously, this Rear Admiral Severa has far sharper foresight than the Spanish government, and the United States has stationed five battleships, including the "Iowa," the "Indiana," the "Massachusetts," the "Texas," and the "Oregon," in the southernmost port of Florida, and the U.S. Navy has mobilized six cruisers of 3,000 to 7,000 tons, including the "Brooklyn."

Such a huge fleet was completely suppressed by the Cuban fleet, which consisted of only four cruisers and four frigates, and he had no strength to fight a head-on battle at all, so he immediately sent a telegram to the country, asking for reinforcements from the Spanish mainland.

In this case, the mediation package proposed by London to Spain has still not received an official response from the Spanish side, which makes Salisbury's cabinet angry, the Spanish bullboy is obviously a group of brainless animals, on the 22nd, the Secretary of the Admiralty, Sir Fisher, announced that the battleship Glorious and three Edgar-class cruisers will be sent to the west coast of the Americas for training.

On the 27th, the United States Congress passed a joint resolution declaring that the United States of America supports Cuba's freedom and independence, demanding that Spain withdraw its troops, and approving President McKinley's use of armed force to implement this resolution.

On March 1, Deputy Secretary of the Navy Cecil ? Roosevelt issued an operational order, ordering Commodore Sampson to blockade Cuban waters from Havana to the western tip of the island nation to Cienfuegos on the south coast, and the U.S. government announced that the U.S. Navy would wipe out all Spanish maritime power in the Atlantic unless the Spanish government accepted a joint resolution of the U.S. Congress.

War broke out......

The news spread outward, and in the Key West Military Port in Florida, Commodore Sampson had already boarded his flagship battleship "Iowa" with great ambition, and with an order, this huge sea force with five new battleships and six cruisers launched in the last two years slowly left the port with billowing black smoke. (To be continued......)