Under the leadership of Sun Yusheng, Yang Wangpeng, Xiong Chengji, and others went to No. 5 to go to No. 5, and Lu Ping, who led the Chinese Navy's ocean-going fleet to be stationed at No. 5, was talking to a group of overseas Chinese representatives in the officers' conference room, and there were also some journalists and diplomats from the consulate present.

These people have been boarding the warship for more than half an hour, as representatives of the Chinese community in Sumatra, they are here to welcome the fleet, and many of them are boarding the Chinese warship for the first time, and according to international practice, the warship in service of any country represents the sovereignty of the country, and the warship is a mobile land, and stepping on the deck of the warship means returning to the land of the motherland, the land of the homeland. For the enthusiasm of the local Chinese and overseas Chinese, Lu Ping is also very excited, how many years, this is probably the first time in modern times that China has sent such a huge fleet to the South Seas, in the past, when the Qing court did not fall, it would occasionally send warships to the South Seas to go around. However, one is that the number of warships is small and does not show strength, and the other is that the purpose of showing off is far more than the protection that can be provided for the local Huaqiao.

On the way to Sumatra, Lu Ping led the fleet from Manila to Sumatra, and on the way, Lu Ping had already received clear instructions from the Central Committee and the Admiralty, and he was told that the current situation in Sumatra was rather tense, so this ocean-going exercise should not only train officers and men. More importantly, Mr. President made his position clear in the telegram from the Commander-in-Chief, in which he authorized Lu Ping to "act cheaply" if necessary

The so-called "cheap action" means that the decision of whether to go to war or not is in the hands of Lu Ping, that is, if the action to protect overseas Chinese is stopped by a certain force, then Lu Ping can completely decide whether to use the fleet to fight back by force.

If, before rushing to Sumatra, Lu Ping was a little strange about this order, then now, he is no longer strange, just now, these Chinese representatives who boarded the warship have already told Lu Ping in detail about the current tense situation on Sumatra Island, Lu Ping has now understood the seriousness of the local situation, to use a sentence that is not an exaggeration to describe that the current Sumatra Island is a wooden barrel full of gunpowder, a spark will cause a violent explosion, and once this powder keg explodes, the outcome is only two." One is that the local Chinese forces are in a slump, and the other is the other. It is the Chinese who rule the whole island, and the decision is in Lu Ping's hands.

That's why. The Chinese and overseas Chinese groups have already made preparations for contingencies, not only stockpiling a large amount of arms and materials, but also seizing the time to organize regimental training and armed training; once the conflict turns into war, Palembang will probably immediately become the military command center of the Chinese armed forces, and the ocean-going fleet commanded by Lu Ping will also play a vital role.

In order to ensure the operation of the fleet, the Chinese community has prepared a large number of necessary materials for the fleet in the port warehouse, except for the lack of artillery shells, all other materials needed by the navy can be found in the port warehouse, from the cables used by the warship to the daily necessities needed by the sailors, from the materials for the maintenance of cannons to the coal and heavy oil used in the boilers of the warships, many kinds of materials are complete, if the warehouse is not destroyed and the warship has enough shells, the fleet can support the operation here in Palembang for a long time.

This is also one of the enthusiastic manifestations of the Chinese, and it is impossible for Lu Ping not to be moved, coupled with the authorized telegram from the center, he has now officially decided to temporarily cancel the original fleet sailing training, and first anchor here in Palembang for a period of time to wait and see how the situation changes.

After the talks with the Chinese deputies, Lu Ping called a few adjutants and instructed them to lead the people to visit various parts of the warships; in particular, Ding instructed the adjutant to show the Chinese and overseas Chinese the destroyers built by China and the seaplanes carried on the warships, which are also a symbol of the great progress of China's munitions industry and a confidence in the enhancement of national strength. By displaying these weapons, the Chinese and overseas Chinese can rest assured that as long as the center stands behind them, no enemy will have anything to fear.

As soon as Lu Ping had finished his talks with the Chinese representatives, he received another report from the officer on duty that Mr. Sun from the League had come over and asked to board the ship for a visit.

To tell the truth, Lu Ping didn't care about the title of "revolutionary pioneer", he was born in the Beiyang Naval Academy, although he was sympathetic to the revolutionary ideas of the League, but as a professional soldier, he insisted that soldiers should be pure, and it was best not to participate in political activities, so he hesitated for a moment after receiving the report of the officer on duty, and finally decided to meet that Mr. Sun Xiao, after all, this is also a Chinese wanderer, and he has been wandering abroad for many years. In any case, the mobile land of the motherland cannot refuse a revolutionary who is determined to expel several captives.

Lu Ping rushed to the side of the ship, personally greeted the leader of the Confederacy, and ordered the officers to sound the ship's whistle as a warm welcome.

Mr. Sun was very happy, took Lu Ping's hand, took a group photo in front of the camera, and then offered to have a "private meeting" with Lu Ping, but this suggestion was politely declined by Lu Ping.

"Mr. Sun, I still have official business to deal with, I will have someone take you around the warship, you can stay until before dark, and then I will send someone to send you off the warship, naval regulations, warships are not allowed to stay overnight non-military personnel, therefore, I hope Mr. Sun can understand."

Lu Ping explained, then took his leave, leaving an adjutant to accompany Mr. Sun and his party to visit the warship.

However, for Mr. Sun, Xiong Chengji, and others, this visit was somewhat interesting, they did not care about the military, they were more concerned about politics, although they also knew very well that politics could not be separated from the military, but since that Commander Lu refused to hold a secret meeting with them, then they naturally did not have to care about the combat effectiveness of this fleet.

Accompanied by the adjutant, Mr. Sun and Xiong Chengji boarded the bridge and looked far away, seeing two warships swimming back and forth on the sea beyond the harbor. Judging by the flag hoisted by the warship, it is clear that it was a warship of the Dutch East Indies colonial authorities.

"That's a Dutch warship, is it a cruiser up there?" Mr. Sun asked the adjutant who had accompanied him on a tour of the warship.

"Yes, the cruiser is the two Dutch-made" Gerdland-class colonial cruisers, which are the prototypes of the active cruisers of the Chinese Navy, the Haishen and Hairong Haichou, which are slightly outdated in terms of structure and design, and are already old warships. The adjutant replied.

"Well, if" the sea is deep, with which side of the cruiser has a better chance of winning in a one-on-one battle? Mr. Sun asked again.

The adjutant said: "If a single ship fights," the sea is deep, and the ship has a greater chance of winning, because the "sea" and word ships in active service of our navy have been modernized and refitted, and have been equipped with the latest German shooting command and rangefinder, and the accuracy and firing degree of shooting are better than the Dutch ships of the same type, plus the Dutch warships have been in service in the Far East for many years, and their maintenance status is not as good as our ** ship, and they are slower on the voyage. In the event of a single confrontation, if the quality of the sailors of both sides is the same, our warships will win. ”

"The Dutch sailor's element," a.

"It's hard to say, I'm afraid that only after the fight can we find out the truth and the truth."

Listening to the adjutant's words, Mr. Sun, Xiong Chengji and others all smiled faintly, and from the adjutant's words, everyone also understood a basic fact, that is, the current squadron ** team is filled with arrogance up and down, eager to fight, and even the European powers don't pay attention to it.

Perhaps seeing the questioning stance of these League cadres, the adjutant said: "In a war, it is necessary to pay attention to fighting more and fighting less, and fighting weak with the strong, especially in naval battles, the side with more ships and more guns always has a much greater chance of winning than the side with fewer ships and fewer guns, and now that the war is going to war in Europe, the Dutch government declares neutrality, but no one dares to guarantee that the war will not burn to the Netherlands, after all, there is a lesson from Belgium, so the Dutch government has to put the main naval force on the mainland, as for the East Indies colony, there are only a few large warships at present." Geldland, class cruisers, no matter how big the warships are, there are no more, but if you look at our fleet, not only have cruisers, but also have two large ocean-going attack ships, this kind of warship is classified according to the European naval powers, at least it is a heavy cruiser, and it can even fight with the battle cruisers, and it is easy to clean up the Far East Fleet of the Netherlands, if there is really a war, how can Commander Lu only send a single ship to fight? It must be a fleet. ”

Speaking of this, the adjutant suddenly realized that he was talking a little too much, so he quickly stopped talking and did not analyze in depth.

"If there is really a conflict with the Netherlands, will the center really let Commander Lu lead the fleet to attack?"

Xiong Chengji said to himself, he didn't expect to get an answer, but now there are more than one or two people who have the same idea as him, in fact, almost all the League cadres present are pondering this problem, after all, this is directly related to the situation in Sumatra, and their idea is to fish in troubled waters here, otherwise, they would not be here to promote the theory that "all Chinese are Chinese".

Just when the cadres of the League were wondering when this Sino-Dutch conflict would break out, outside the port of Palembang, the two Dutch naval "Geldlands." The cruisers were still swimming back and forth along the territorial waters, and on the deck of one of the warships stood a great man, none other than Mr. van Eidenberg, the Governor of the East Indies Colony appointed by the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Edenberg had arrived off the coast of Palembang from the Governor's Palace in Batavia, and since he learned that the Chinese naval fleet was about to rush to Sumatra for "ocean-going exercises," Edenberg was on pins and needles, and after careful consideration, he finally decided to come over in person, in any case, to avoid further deterioration of the situation in Sumatra.

As the governor of the Netherlands, Edenberg was well aware of the current situation on Sumatra, and to be honest, he, like the Dutch government, did not want to see war in Sumatra at this time, and once chaos broke out here, no one dared to guarantee that the other islands would not have similar chaos.

Similarly, Idenberg, like the Dutch government, believes that the unoptimistic situation in Sumatra is directly related to the central government of China, although there is no direct evidence that the central government of China is making trouble behind the scenes, but there is some indirect evidence, including some reports of eyeliner planted in the Chinese community, all of which show that the central government of China is fully supporting the Chinese forces on Sumatra, and it seems that the Nanyang Chinese Association is directly under the orders of the Chinese central government, as for the league that has declined, It also seems to play a secondary role in it.

There is no doubt that if there is a conflict between the Chinese and the natives on the island of Sumatra, the central government of China will definitely find an excuse to intervene, as evidenced by the Chinese naval fleet that has arrived from Manila. China's "mad president." At least, the Japanese government is grabbing the "terra colonies" and the "mad president" is looking at the colonies already occupied by the Netherlands, which is as bad as the nature of the United States' seizure of the Philippines and Cuba under Spanish occupation. The difference is that the slogan of the United States is to support the independence struggle of the people of the Philippines and Cuba, while the slogan of China is to protect overseas Chinese.

If the Malayan crisis had not exploded, there would not have been so many Chinese expatriates on Sumatra, so Idenberg insisted that the Malayan crisis was also planned by the "mad president", and from the beginning, the Netherlands was the target, and Britain was just the "mad president." I played it like a monkey.

Standing on the bridge just now, Edenberg had already seen the excessively grand ceremony of welcoming the fleet on the pier of Palembang with a telescope, and now, standing on the deck of the warship, Edenberg was nervous in his heart, as the colonial governor, he knew very well that the current Dutch colonial army could not stop the Chinese from acting willingly, unless the British government or the United States government was willing to intervene, but now Britain was caught in a European war and could not extricate itself, and the United States had officially declared war on Germany, so these two countries could not be counted on.

"Please report to Singapore that the British Governor of the Straits Settlements must send a fleet to assist us in controlling the situation in Sumatra, and if the British Governor wishes to help, the Dutch concubine government will make concessions on the final border of Borneo. If the British Governor fails to take substantive action, I fear that the rebellion will gradually spread to Malaya and Borneo, and that the British colonies will suffer unless we join forces to curb the ambitions of the Chinese

Edenberg finally decided to ask the British for help, but his telegram for help had no effect, and the British Governor of the Straits Settlements quickly replied with a telegram telling Edenberg that the British Far East Fleet could not act under any circumstances because they had already seen the whereabouts of the remnants of the German Far East Fleet, and that the German naval problem must now be dealt with as a priority.

In desperation, Edenberg had no choice but to ask the Japanese government for help, but the Japanese government also made a condition that the Japanese government would not interfere with China's actions unless the Dutch government was willing to transfer all the western Dutch colonies of New Guinea to Japanese administration.

Edenberg did not have this power, and he was fully convinced that the Dutch government would not agree to this, in exchange for conditions, so he had to give up.

"Could it be that the situation in Surdara will eventually become uncontrollable?"

Edenberg looked at the Chinese flag fluttering in the harbor and made a painful choice, deciding to order the withdrawal of all Dutch garrisons on the island, so as not to lose the more than 5,000 troops on the island.

By the time the order of the Governor was given, night had already reigned over the island.

Late that night, a fire broke out on the outskirts of Palembang, and a Dutch barracks that had been evacuated was reduced to ashes.

Thus began the rebellion.