"Toot ......"

As the cruiser "Hairong" sailed into the sea area of only one kilometer outside the port of Surabaya, the whistle sounded on the sea surface like a demonstration, and bursts of excited shouts sounded on the beaches of Surabaya, which were the overseas Chinese in Surabaya shouting and cheering for the warships coming from their country.

Overnight, on the streets of Surabaya, the expressions of the Chinese, the natives and the Dutch changed, and the huge fleet, at least the huge Chinese fleet that the Chinese in Surabaya had never seen before, sailed to the sea off Surabaya, after firing dozens of artillery pieces and conducting a "proper artillery drill", the Dutch, who had once flaunted their might, became humble overnight, and the once arrogant mayor made an appointment with the president of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce and members to discuss compensation.

As early as 18 days ago, almost when China sent a fleet to "visit" Dutch East India, the Surabaya police department wanted to release the overseas Chinese it had arrested, but the vast majority of overseas Chinese stubbornly chose "justice will be restored, and we will not be released from prison until we wait." Even at this time, there were still as many as 900 overseas Chinese in the prison in Surabaya.

The natives, on the other hand, looked at the warships on the open sea with a frightened and envious look, they were jealous of the Chinese, and some of them were worried about their fate, and they understood that for the Dutch, the natives who shot could be abandoned, and fifteen days ago, two hundred and thirty-six indigenous policemen and soldiers suspected of shooting and beating overseas Chinese were arrested and imprisoned, which was the governor's overture to the Chinese.

While the people on the beach were shouting, baskets of fresh fruits and vegetables, beef, and sea fish were carried onto more than a dozen small wooden boats, which were the overseas Chinese in Surabaya to raise funds to buy supplies for the labor army.

On the fourth day of the fleet's arrival in Surabaya, the overseas Chinese representatives finally got in touch with the fleet through the consul, and the commander of the fleet agreed that they should come on board the ship to express their condolences to the sailors.

"This is the warship of the motherland!"

Looking at the majestic warships on the sea from afar, listening to the gunshots in the air, Xie was still in an inexplicable mood, this is a sense of belonging, when he was getting closer and closer to the battleship, he saw the president of the Chinese Chamber of Commerce on the ship and the old people of the grandfather's generation, this will be an old tearful look, finally, when they saw the bow emblem of the dragon ship on the bow of the battleship shining golden in the sun, they all knelt down and began to kowtow to the battleship.

"If you don't know how to count, you don't kneel down yet!"

I don't know why Xie heard his grandfather's reprimand, and hurriedly knelt down, that is the five-clawed golden dragon on the bow of the ship is the royal emblem, for those of them who are far overseas, when they see the bow emblem of the dragon ship, in addition to gratitude, it is more of a respect for the emperor, that kind of reverence for the emperor from the bottom of the bones.

After respectfully following the grandfather to bow to the nine, the ship had already approached the Zhenhai warship, and when he raised his head, Xie only saw a row of naval officers and soldiers in white military uniforms standing on the side of the ship.

All of them looked at this majestic warship and the mighty naval soldiers on the battleship, and at this moment, the eyes of overseas Chinese, whether they were old or young, flowed out, this was the first time in their lives to see a warship from the motherland, and their arrival was not for anything else, but to support them who had been bullied overseas.

Countless times, when they were bullied, they always dreamed, one day, when they needed, the warships of the motherland cruised in front of their eyes, crying out for them, and the warships used cannons to protect them, and at this time, this scene in front of them was not the dream that appeared countless times in their dreams?

Now that the dream has finally come true, they are no longer bullied by those foreign devils like in the past. And now the dream that has been pursued by generations seems to be getting closer and closer! Now, whenever they mention their ancestral land, it is no longer as sad as it used to be, and tears of excitement and pride welled up in their eyes.

When the overseas Chinese delegates trembled along the gangway and stepped onto the Zhenhai battleship, in the combat conference room of the battleship "Zhenhai," the flagship of the fleet, the captains of the ships of the fleet, the commanders of the Marine Brigade and the chief of staff were holding a meeting at this time, and Liu Guanxiong, commander of the fleet, made arrangements for the battle sequence of the fleet.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please remember that we carry out His Majesty's decree, and therefore our personal opinion should remain, and I will command the fleet according to the actual situation, and according to His Majesty's decree, after the arrival of the British [***] ship, we must not start the battle lightly, and if the Dutch on the shore provoke, there is no need to wait for further orders, but remember that the general order is that the Dutch do not open fire, and we do not wait for the artillery to be fired, and if the Dutch fire fire, Surabaya will be completely blown into ruins!"

After once again customizing His Majesty's will, Liu Guanxiong glanced at the officer in front of him, just as the naval staff speculated, after the fleet entered the South Seas, Britain, the United States and France, which had colonial interests in the South Seas, would definitely take action, and in addition to refusing the Chinese fleet to enter the port, the fastest reaction was that Britain sent warships to visit Surabaya.

"Do you have any questions?"

Shao Mingqiu, commander of the Reading Brigade of the Marine Corps, asked.

"Sir, if the Netherlands fires, how should our Marine Brigade respond!"

"According to the direct instructions, the Marines can land and launch an attack on Surabaya at a timely time, and according to the development of the war, they can consider launching an attack on other areas, but further orders are required!"

"If the British [***] ship fires at our ship when the fleet retaliates against the Dutch provocation, please ask the commander to give a clear indication of whether to return fire or not!"

Cheng Biguang suddenly asked, he was not worried about the dilapidated coastal defense ships and cruisers of the Dutch, but the only thing he needed to consider was the British [***] ship that was about to arrive in Surabaya.

"I won't fire the first shot, this is Your Majesty's decree! As soon as the British ship fired first, it quickly sank the opponent with the momentum of thunder! ”

"I disagree with that!"

Commander Li Dingxin of the cruiser fleet immediately spoke out against him, and everyone turned their attention to him.

"Sir, if we sink the British ship, it will inevitably cause a shock to the British, since Nelson, several countries have challenged the British Navy, if our fleet sinks the British ship, it is certainly self-defense, but sinking it is only afraid that it will be in vain!"

"That's not possible, let's just stop there and wait for the British to fight!"

Tang Qianming smiled and said.

"Hurt him, the British want to play a story, sink him, the British still have to play a story, the same is indispensable to cause trouble at night, it's better to sink him directly!"

"It's easy to sink, but what happens next?"

Li Dingxin asked rhetorically, and then solemnly expressioned.

"Therefore, the Commander asks the commander to agree that if the British ships open fire, please also use the thick armor of the two ships to directly ram the British ships as protection, so that when negotiating with the British, our country will not be left behind, and at the same time prevent the British from taking advantage of this to cause trouble! ”

Undoubtedly, he put forward a relatively mature opinion, that it is more secure to hit than to fire.

"Well, I'll report this to the General Staff, but until further orders arrive, I hope you must abide by Your Majesty's orders!"

This was the end of the task force meeting, and then, when the officers went to the deck to meet with the overseas Chinese representatives, Liu Guanxiong and Cheng Biguang did not leave the conference room, and after the dozens of officers of the fleet left, only the two of them were left in the spacious conference room, and the two of them did not greet the overseas Chinese representatives, but each lit a cigarette and waited there.

"Drama people will change, but if you want to change for the better, I'm afraid it's going to be difficult!"

Taking a puff of cigar, Liu Guanxiong glanced at the port of Surabaya outside the porthole; in order to achieve the effect of intensification and at the same time not to irritate the other side, after the fleet arrived in Surabaya, it did not enter the port directly, but anchored in the open sea to conduct "artillery drills." This is to create a false appearance for the outside world, and even in conjunction with the "combat meeting" of Fang Cai.

"In any case, the British sent warships, didn't they?"

Cheng Biguang smiled, with some helplessness in his smile, the navy was preparing to come here to fight, but he never thought that the so-called war was just a name, in Gengzi, the navy was "neutral and avoiding war", but this time, the navy was "looking for trouble and avoiding war".

"Only you and I in the entire fleet know the intention of going south to the South Seas this time, so we have to stay here for a long time! I'm afraid it's not as easy as you and I think, if we stay here for one more day, the Dutch will be nervous for one more day, and the same British and Americans will react! ”

"Yes! The Admiralty's instruction is that during the negotiation period, we must not leave Surabaya, and at present the consul in Batavia is negotiating with the Governor of East India on the "visit" of our fleet. In addition, you can also send officers to the Chinese school to give speeches, and even wait for the British [***] ship to come, you can also communicate with them, in short, stay as long as you can! ”

Liu Guanxiong sighed helplessly, looking at the Dinghai battleship overboard, when the two battleships had not yet returned to China, he had imagined that after the two warships returned to China, they would be able to protect the coastal defense, but now? China's navy is still too high to be high, and it is not enough to threaten weak countries and not to guard against foreign powers.

"I don't want to do that, we're here anyway, let's go! According to His Majesty's wishes, in the future, our navy will issue a special national defense bond in Nanyang, which will be dedicated to naval construction, shipyards, bases, and warships, all need money, and this money is all pointed to the burden of the imperial court, I don't know what year and month it will be, if we go south this time, we can exchange tens of millions of bonds, it will be two cruisers! ”

"It's far away, Hengqi, I always have a feeling that the "Yuan Hunt Plan" should start soon! ”

(To be continued)