Episode 37 War? Peace?

"Terror repression" in the city.

Feeling cornered, the governor went into a frenzy and took all his anger out on the local mob, with more than 2,000 Dutch troops and policemen scattered around the city, shooting almost at the sight of the locals running. The city was filled with gunshots, howls, shouts, and even machine guns. Several Makqin water-cooled machine guns were even dragged out for use.

Everywhere there were loudspeakers commanding in the local language: "All the locals immediately stop running, and squat on the ground with their hands behind their heads, or they will be killed......"

On both sides of the street, piles of locals were everywhere, squatting on the ground in horror, holding their heads in their hands, looking around. Among them were many poor local women, with bare feet and high-end silk skirts, staring at ignorant eyes, looking at the men. Most of their beautiful clothes were torn, and some of them were bloody, but they still wore them with great interest.

A truck full of Dutch GIs sped through the streets, with a loud horn on the front of the truck shouting "...... Otherwise, they will all be killed......", a local young man ran by shirtless in front of him, still holding something in his arms. A shot rang out, and he fell to the ground, and the truck sped by, rolling him over a few times, his flesh and blood blurred, the brand-new bicycle parts in his arms scattered to the ground, and he still wore five or six watches on his swarthy arms.

At an intersection, two locals were crouching in the corner, holding their heads, and were being beaten by several Dutch policemen with rattan signs, screaming miserably. I don't know how the two locals provoked them, and several Dutch policemen cursed, beat with batons, kicked leather shoes, and almost beat them to death.

Xiang Xiaoqiang took the expatriates out of the consulate all the way, and they had already seen it. At first they were frightened, hiding behind the guns of the Dutch guards, like a group of stowaways, but after less than ten minutes of walking down the streets, everyone was already marching in the middle of the road with their chests puffed up.

However, the Dutch soldiers in that platoon were all highly nervous, one by one with their rifles flat, looking around, as if they were escorting not the Chinese who had always been bullied, but the royal queue of their own country.

A local youth stood a few meters away, holding his beaten brother, pointing to the team and shouting something in grief.

The Dutch soldier next to him didn't say a word, and raised his gun to knock him down.

Among the corpses of Chinese people on the streets, there are already occasional corpses of locals. The difference is that most of the Chinese corpses are horrific and ravaged, and most of them are women and children. Many of those who were killed a day or two ago have already begun to **, and large swarms of flies are buzzing around. The bodies of the locals were generally only young men, and there was only one fatal gunshot wound.

However, the biggest difference is that the corpse of the locals can only be seen once a street or two, while the corpse of the Chinese can be seen in an average of a few steps.

Still, the riots were subsided, and more Chinese were saved. The Chinese are the smartest, and although they see the authorities' military and police suppressing it, they understand everything, and they know that all this is due to Xiang Xiaoqiang.

Xiang Xiaoqiang has now become their hero, and the latter part of the road was carried up by the crowd and walked above his head in cheers. The consulate secretary and Xiang Xiaoqiang's two guards were also lifted, and if it weren't for the fact that the three old men repeatedly excused themselves from heart disease, they would have also been lifted.

Hundreds of Chinese carried Xiang Xiaoqiang and his party, sang the Ming national anthem, and slowly entered the port of Batavia like a triumphant army.

In an instant, the entire Batavia port was boiling, they already knew the progress of the matter, and they all cheered and rushed in the direction of Xiaoqiang, and soon, thousands of people in the port also sang "Mountains and Rivers of the Old Country", and many people were in tears, chanting Xiang Xiaoqiang's name. After the national anthem is over, the entire port "Xiang Xiaoqiang!" Xiang Xiaoqiang! Wave after wave of cheers.

Qiu Yu was busy in a group of nurses, leading people to treat and comfort women and children, and at this time he also looked at Xiang Xiaoqiang proudly, and burst into tears with excitement.

A large number of separated expatriates flocked to the docks, hoping to find their loved ones among the hundreds of new arrivals. From time to time, there was a burst of excited cries from the crowd for the reunion of loved ones. However, many more have never found their loved ones.

Xiang Xiaoqiang was easily put on the ground by the expatriates, and immediately found that there were several more huge ships in the port, and they all hung the Ming flag. The people around him told him that he had just entered the port in the morning, and that some had come from the neighborhood, and some had arrived from Siam, Malaya, and other places yesterday, and that they had all received orders from China to pick up the expatriates. Expats are now being shipped.

In addition, there were several foreign ships, two Dutch, one American, one British, one Japanese. They all sailed through the Strait of Malacca to nearby waters, and received orders from their own countries that war was likely to break out between the Netherlands and the Ming Dynasty, and they came to pick up their nationals temporarily.

For a time, ships from all over the world gathered in the bay of Batavia.

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at his watch, it was almost eight o'clock, and there were still ten minutes left. He commanded:

"Get everyone up to speed! All must be on board by 9 o'clock! ”

The four Daming giant ships in the port are all cargo ships, all of which exceed 10,000 tons, and there are two or three small cargo ships of several thousand tons. Among them was a 18,000-ton freighter that happened to be empty. It had just finished unloading in Singapore, and when it heard the call, it didn't load again, and came straight over. Although its tonnage is not as good as that of the Yongan Princess, because it is a freighter, the internal space is huge, and the transportation capacity is far more than that of the cruise ship inside. This alone can transport almost half of the expatriates in the port. The other three 10,000-ton freighters are not empty, but they still have a lot of room to load.

It's eight o'clock.

The guards on the Princess Yongan hurriedly ran down and handed a telegram to Xiang Xiaoqiang. When Xiang Xiaoqiang opened it, it was a telegram from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the name of Zhu Yourong, informing Xiang Xiaoqiang to close the Ming Consulate in Batavia and withdraw to the ship with the consul and all the personnel.

"Call back," Xiang Xiaoqiang said, "and it has been complied with." ”

At the same time, in Amsterdam, the Ming embassy in the Netherlands was closed.

Ming consulates in Rotterdam, The Hague, Breda, Helmont, Eindhoven, Leiden, Haarlem and other local cities were closed.

Ming consulates in colonial cities such as Medan, Semarang, Bandung, Surabaya, and Palembang were closed.

The Ming consulate in Dutch Guiana was closed.

The diplomats of the Ming Dynasty in the Netherlands and the Dutch colonies had burned documents, lowered the national flag, dismissed employees, closed the buildings, and returned to the Ming Dynasty with their families and luggage.

The whole Kingdom of the Netherlands, from the queen to the prime minister, to the officials at all levels, to the governors of the colonies, to the ordinary citizens, watched all this as if they were dead.

Now there are no diplomatic relations between the Ming Empire and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The next step is war.

The two 10,000-ton freighters were already full of expatriates and slowly left the port and sailed north to British Malaya, as well as the Kingdom of Siam (Thailand), the only remaining overseas vassal of the Ming Dynasty.

A third of the expatriates in the port remained.

In the command room of the Yongan Princess, Xiang Xiaoqiang and his advisers were listening to the radio, and the chief of the general staff of the Ming Navy was answering reporters' questions in Nanjing. While they listened, they gathered around the chart table to watch, and Qiu Yun was on the side to assist them in explaining.

“…… In the early hours of this morning," said the Chief of the General Staff of the Navy, "our three cruisers have set off from their bases in Siam and headed south. At the same time, one of our battleships and two cruisers have also set off from the port of Zhanjiang and headed south...... Of course, the task of these two squadrons was not to attack the Dutch East Indies directly, but to hold the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and the Cape of Good Hope, respectively, to prevent any Dutch reinforcements from entering the Indian Ocean. ”

A reporter asked: "Mr. Marshal, as we all know, the Royal Netherlands Navy still has two capital ships in the Dutch East Indies, what does Mr. Marshal think of these two capital ships?" Do you think they pose a threat to the Ming Navy? ”

Hearing this, Qiu Yu smiled contemptuously. Sure enough, the chief of the General Staff of the Navy on the radio also smiled:

"Mr. Reporter, you have a little misunderstanding. That's right, the Netherlands did not have capital ships. According to the definition of the Washington Naval Conference, only battleships and battlecruisers could be called capital ships. The main strength of the Dutch Navy at the moment is only a few cruisers. As far as I know, there are two ships that are now in the Dutch East Indies, namely the 'Surabaya' and the 'Batavia'. These two ships, with a displacement of only 6670 tons and 150 mm guns, belonged to light cruisers. …… If nothing else, these two warships pose no threat to us. …… Of course, if the captains of these two ships are brave and resolute enough, they may cause us some trouble. ”

The last sentence full of contempt made the reporters present laugh.

……

At eight twenty-ten o'clock, a guard hurried in and said that the Governor of the East Indies had asked for an audience. It's under the ship right now.

Xiang Xiaoqiang was a little surprised, but he didn't expect the Dutch East Indies Governor to come in person. It seems that he has lost his temper at all. This is very different from when I first arrived yesterday.

Xiang Xiaoqiang stood on the gangway, looking condescendingly at the somewhat empty port. Just below the huge Yongan Princess, two cars were parked on the dock, looking like two beetles. There were several small ant-like people standing nearby. The fat man at the front was none other than the Dutch Governor in the East Indies.

Xiang Xiaoqiang sighed softly, walked down the gangway, and stood in front of him.

The Governor took off his hat, wiped his sweat with a handkerchief, and then said rather respectfully:

"I am pleased to inform you, Your Excellency, that the riots in Batavia have been completely quelled. …… Maybe you're interested in taking a look around town? ”

Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded, looked at his watch, and said:

"Well, time is running out, I hope your efforts will avoid war."

The governor relieved half of his heart and quickly asked Xiang Xiaoqiang to get into the car. Xiang Xiaoqiang and the governor got into a car, and let Song Ruhai and the two guards get in another car and drive towards the city.

The streets of Batavia are calm and in shambles. Military police were under martial law everywhere, except for the corpses that could be seen everywhere on the ground, and piles of locals crouching in the corners, guarded by armed military police. Now the only people walking on the street are Chinese.

These Chinese who survived the catastrophe came out of their hiding places in twos and threes, began to extinguish the fire in their homes, and searched for their family members in the pile of flies flying around.

A wave of suicides began by Chinese women in Batavia. Many Chinese women who had been imprisoned for the past two days, or even tied up all the time, were rescued at this time and then committed suicide. More women found the horrific bodies of their husbands and children and then committed suicide as well. Now the authorities have to dedicate a portion of their police force to stem the tide of suicides.

The car was moving fast, and the Governor was determined to show Xiang Xiaoqiang the main streets of Batavia within twenty minutes, so as to prevent him from using the excuse of not seeing all the cars that the riot had subsided.

At 8:45 a.m., the car returned to the port after a frantic circle around the city.

The Governor and his entourage stood in unison, looking at Xiang Xiaoqiang with eyes that were almost pleading. The Governor's expression was on the verge of crying.

Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at his watch, there were still twelve minutes before nine o'clock. Removing the possible error of the mechanical watch, that is, there are still ten minutes.

Now Qiu Yu was on the deck, climbing the railing and looking at him. When he left just now, Xiang Xiaoqiang agreed on a password with Qiu Yun. This is the gesture of life and death of a defeated gladiator in the gladiatorial arena of ancient Rome.

With a thumbs up, Qiu will send a report to Nanjing, saying that the riots have subsided. War will not break out.

With a thumbs down, Qiu will send a report to Nanjing, saying that the riots have not subsided. Then war would have been declared at nine o'clock sharp.

Now war is still peace, and it is in the hands of Xiang Xiaoqiang's thumb.

Qiu Yu held the railing and stretched out his head anxiously, looking at him.

Xiang Xiaoqiang hesitated. In the end, he made up his mind and stretched out his arms.