The sun on the trail blizzed the deck, whether it was above the deck or the lack of food, and no one could last long in the direct sunlight at such temperatures

Space.

Sweaty, Park Chang-so stepped onto the deck from the cabin, carrying a few bamboo poles in his hand, followed by another sailor, carrying a bundle of canvas on his shoulder. After the two of them landed on the deck, they immediately threw themselves into the construction of the shelter.

Now, Park Chang-so is a qualified sailor. He spent a whole year working as a fisherman on a Chinese-owned slag boat to get the job, and used the opportunity to learn Hokkien fluently, and when a local Chinese-founded steamship company in Sumatra began recruiting skilled sailors, Park Chang-so finally got the decent and lucrative job for almost a year. As a North Korean expatriate mixed in Nanyang, Park Chang-so was lucky. After all, compared to the North Koreans who still carry sacks on the docks, Park Chang-so no longer has to worry about loan sharking, in fact, he paid off all the loan sharks last month, and now he is busy moving his family from Busan to Sumatra.

In order to reunite his family in Nanyang, Park Changxiu has been working harder lately, and in order to earn more wages, he is even willing to work as a sailor on those steamships with aging equipment and serious hull rust. And this kind of work often means high risk, and because of this, the income is higher than that of other steamers, and now, the steamer that Park Changxiu is on is a ship that is about to be scrapped. It was an old ship that the owner bought from a French merchant, the hull was made of steel, but the buildings above the deck were wooden, and for this reason, when the shell of the Dutch warship hit the superstructure, the wooden buildings caught fire and finally destroyed the main part of the building, and if it were not for the desperate efforts of the crew and sailors to extinguish the flames, I am afraid that the whole ship would have sunk.

Now, since most of the ship's superstructure was destroyed by fire, only awnings had to be erected. Otherwise, more people will fall under the equatorial sun.

This steamer was made "Java". Now the passengers on the ship are also mostly overseas Chinese who have come from Java Island, and they are preparing to immigrate to Sumatra Island, because compared with Java, Sumatra is now the paradise of Nanyang Chinese, according to the original sailing plan, this "Java" steamship will sail directly from Java Island to Sumatra, the departure port is Batavia, and the destination port is Palembang City, Sumatra Province.

But the Java did not arrive in Palembang as scheduled, just as the ship sailed to the waters south of Bangka Island. They came across a Dutch gunboat, which immediately flagged the "Java" and ordered the "Java" to return immediately. Otherwise, the captain of the "Java" was already a little hesitant, and most of the passengers on the ship were also opposed to returning to Java. The dilapidated steamer ignored the Dutch warship's flag and continued its voyage to the main island of Sumatra.

When the Dutch warship saw that the "Java" did not obey the order, he immediately pursued it with increased horsepower and bombarded it with the ship's naval guns, one of the shells hit the bridge and cockpit of the "Java", killing the captain on the spot, and ignited the superstructure of the ship, and finally forced the steamer full of Chinese immigrants to stop advancing. When the fire on the "Java" was extinguished, the Dutch gunboat approached, sent sailors aboard the "Java", forcibly towed the ship to the sea, and finally towed the "Java" to the port of Belyang, Bangka Island, and ordered the "Java" to anchor in the port of Belyang, but at the same time did not allow anyone on board to disembark.

In this way, since yesterday afternoon, the crew and sailors of the "Java", as well as the passengers, have been under house arrest on board, hungry and thirsty. And they were all terrified, not knowing what the Dutch were going to do with them.

At night, it is good to say, both in the cabin and on the deck, there is a sea breeze, but as soon as the sun comes out during the day, the cabin is too hot to stay, and people can only go on the deck, but the sun is strong on the deck, and there is no building to accommodate, so the crew and sailors have to build a sunshade on the deck for the passengers to escape the blazing sun.

Since the captain had already been killed by a shell from a Dutch warship, the ship was now commanded by a first mate, and it was under the command of the first mate that Park Chang-so was in charge of taking the bamboo poles from the cabin to the deck to build an awning.

Now that the awning is almost finished, it is time to put the finishing touches on it, and soon, Park Chang-so fastened the bamboo poles to the deck and assisted the sailors in putting the canvas up, and then the awning was officially completed.

Park Chang-so picked up the towel around his neck. He wiped the sweat from his face, then looked up. Look to the shore, on the pier over there. He could see the Dutch gunboat, which was replenishing coal, and yesterday afternoon, it was the same warship that intercepted the Java and destroyed the superstructure of the Java with the warship's guns.

At the same time, several four-wheeled carriages can be seen on the wharf, one of which is carrying a five-color flag, but it is the Chinese consulate in Beli and the "fierce diplomatic carriage." Yesterday, the carriage carrying the consul Jisheng rushed to the Maji site for some negotiations, and the consul was allowed to board the "Java" to visit the overseas Chinese with Chinese nationality. At that time, Mr. Consul promised the overseas Chinese to solve the problem of the detention of the "Java" as soon as possible, and after. The consul went ashore again and continued to negotiate with the Dutch authorities, sending telegrams to the country in the next month. Tell the Ministry of Foreign Affairs the details of the "Java incident", as well as the statements of the Dutch authorities, today. Mr. Consul rushed to the dock early in the morning. Someone was sent to bring food and water to the ship's Huaqiao, and at the same time told the expatriates that there was no need to worry, that the central government of China was negotiating with the Dutch embassy in China about the incident.

The Dutch authorities seized the "Java" on the pretext that the ship was unsafe to sail, and the old ship had long since passed its scrapping life, but it was still being used to transport migrants, so the Dutch authorities seized the ship, believing that they were also "for the sake of the safety of overseas Chinese." As for why the passengers and crew on board were not allowed to leave the ship for a long time, the Dutch authorities came up with the excuse of "checking the weight of the ship", although they also knew that the original invitation of the ship was Batavia, and there was no plague there at all.

In any case, it cannot change a basic fact, that is, in the "Java Incident", the Dutch warship opened fire, and since the passengers on the "Java" were Huaqiao, most of them had Chinese nationality, so from the perspective of international law, these guns of the Dutch warship had potential diplomatic risks, which could be regarded as firing at a civilian ship registered in the Dutch East Indies colony, but also as firing at a group of Chinese citizens. It will be up to the Chinese and Dutch governments to escalate the incident into an act of war.

Park Chang-so was a little frustrated, he could have earned a considerable salary for this voyage, but now that the ship was destroyed, the shipowner would certainly not record the loss in the accounts of the steamship company. The wages of the crew and sailors can only be deducted, so Park Chang-so's wages for this voyage are probably as small as the buildings on the deck.

Although frustrated, Park Chang-so still hopes that the incident will end as soon as possible, or wait for his family to rush from the Korean Peninsula to Nanyang. I'm afraid that there is not enough money to cope with the livelihood, after all, there are more and more new immigrants on Sumatra, and the rent, food, vegetables, and membership fees are all rising, but the wages cannot rise, and the labor is getting cheaper and cheaper, and it is becoming more and more difficult to earn a living here.

A crew member brought a bucket of cold boiled water from the cabin. The passengers on deck rushed up and began to scramble for water, which caused some chaos on the deck, and the first mate who commanded the crew had to order everyone on the deck to line up, while Park Chang-so and several crew members were responsible for maintaining order.

Before the crew could finish distributing the bucket of boiled water, they suddenly heard a long whistle coming from the sea outside the harbor, which was very different from that of ordinary steamships, and it was obviously a warship, and it seemed that there was more than one.

"The Chinese Navy is coming! The Chinese Navy is coming! ”

A sailor standing on the remnants of the cockpit shouted a few words. Before the words could be spoken, there were several long whistles, and then the passengers and crew of the "Java" heard the sound of military trumpets and electric bells from the other side of the docks, which those who were familiar with the rules and regulations of the Dutch army would know as soon as they heard it. This indicates that the Dutch garrison in the port is about to be put on alert.

At the same time, the Dutch gunboat, which was resupplying coal on the other side of the dock, hurriedly loosened its cable. And cobalt began to rise, and the boiler began to pressurize and steam up, belching black smoke and whistle from the smoke. Slowly left the dock and headed out of the harbor.

Seeing the Dutch warship sail out of the Hwa Bridge on the small "Java" in the harbor, Park Chang-so hurriedly boarded the remnants of the ship's cockpit, took the binoculars from the sailor's hand, and looked out into the sea outside the port.

Several warships appeared in the lens of the telescope. As they sailed from west to east, the five-color flag on the ship fluttered in the wind, and black smoke billowed on the sea, and all the turrets were turned, and the muzzles were aimed at the sea to the south.

There are not only those few medium-sized ships on the sea, but also on the sea south of the medium-first ships. It was also followed by two Dutch warships, both of which were sailing in the same direction, and both were clearly in a posture of war.

Park Chang-so was very curious, he had never witnessed a naval battle before, and when the Chinese consul arrived on board the "Java" this morning, he had told the crew that if the Dutch authorities insisted on not agreeing to the release of the Chinese citizens detained on the "Java", then the Chinese central government would not rule out taking military action to protect the rights of its citizens. Safeguard the dignity of the country.

Now that the Chinese naval fleet and the Dutch fleet that followed behind are ready for battle, and no one knows whether a naval battle will break out, Park Chang-so can only pray now that once the war starts, the crew and passengers of the "Java" will not be affected by the flames of war, after all, they are civilians, not soldiers, and more importantly. Park Chang-so and several crew members on board are not even Chinese citizens at all, they are so-called "Sumatra residents". There are more chapters, support the author, and support genuine reading