Chapter 353: The Fearful Governor (4/4)
When the Dutch governor in Batavia received a note from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Great Song Empire forwarded by the British, he was not feeling well. Of course www.biquge.info, he knew what was happening in West Borneo as mentioned in this note, and in fact, he was also mentally prepared that the Republic of Lanfang, which had been destroyed by them, would seek their "suzerain" to mediate. But what the Governor never expected was that these Chinese people who had been destroyed would actually find the Great Song people!
Who has been in the limelight in Asia lately? As long as you care a little about current affairs, you will know - Da Song! Just last year, a unit of the Great Song Royal Marines landed on the Liaodong Peninsula strongly, established a stronghold between the Manchu Beiyang defenders and the Japanese landing force, and stubbornly gained a foothold, uh, well, drove both of the original warring sides out of the peninsula.
This year, at the negotiating table upstairs in Maseki Chunfan, Japan, the demands made were not met. A battleship of the Royal Navy of the Great Song Dynasty blocked the sea off Maguan and used the main guns of the sixteen-inch battleship to collapse all the batteries in Maguan one by one.
The Great Song Dynasty is now synonymous with power and arrogance, and of course, the people of the Great Song Dynasty knew how to use diplomatic means flexibly compared to the Manchu Dynasty, which now dominated the land of China and loved to close off the country. Well, let's put it bluntly, the Great Song people will play hooligans in diplomacy!
When encountering a diplomatic letter of questioning nature sent to oneself by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of such a country, whoever sits in the position of governor will be frightened! The Netherlands was no longer the "coachman of the sea" of the seventeenth century, and the East India Company saw the weakened Manchu dynasty as an obstacle in its dealings with the Republic of Lanfang. When the Great Song came to meddle in the affairs of West Borneo, what else could the Netherlands do?
The Dutch were also fortunate enough to witness the spectacular salvo of its three sixteen-inch main guns. To be precise, the luck of the Dutch merchant ship of more than 1,000 tons at that time was simply against the sky, and the Great Song Dynasty battleship fired a salvo at it with three main guns, and finally the landing point of the three shells happened to be stuck outside the range of near misses. The waves raised by the explosion only changed the course of the merchant ship, and the lucky merchant ship was not injured except for some crew members who fell overboard.
The British, who were the recipients in the end, told the Dutch that the Great Song had only bombarded them as a warning. My God! The huge waves of the cannonballs used by the Great Song people to warn of artillery bombardment could easily push a merchant ship with a displacement of 1,000 tons at high speed off course, so who could withstand the shells they used to break through the armor and siege the city?
The Dutch governor was reluctant to find that Batavia, where he was located, might become the next place to eat Song cannonballs after Maguan. The diplomatic note was written in black and white: If it is found that the purge of the Chinese by the Dutch in West Borneo is true, the Royal Navy of the Great Song Dynasty will be sent to carry out a military strike to punish them.
From 1884 onwards, the Dutch fought fiercely against the Chinese in West Borneo until 1888, when the Dutch were able to control the war, but there are still rebels fighting there. The governor didn't even have to ask his staff to know that there was of course a massacre of the Chinese by the Dutch.
The fleet of the Great Song Royal Navy is coming, what do we do to resist those giant battleships with 16-inch guns? Not to mention that the Netherlands doesn't have this strength in the South Pacific, even if the entire fleet of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is pulled over, it may not be able to carry that kind of fleet composed of giant battleships? Could it be that Batavia will not be able to escape the fate of destruction this time? Will his fate be the same as that of the eighteenth-century governor named Wargeniel, who died in prison?
"Before I came, His Excellency Ogna, Minister of the British Empire to China, instructed me that His Excellency the Governor General must insist that Dutch officials have nothing to do with everything that happened in West Borneo. The blame lies with the unscrupulous East India Company, where the Dutch government was unaware of what had happened and did not send any officials to the area. The English courier said to him when he saw the frightened face of the Dutch governor in Batavia.
"This, this, is it useful to say that? We did participate in military operations there. The Dutch governor didn't react for a moment.
"Then quickly withdraw all personnel with official backgrounds, and if you can't withdraw, quickly disassociate yourself with them, if you still want to keep Batavia." The British messenger nearly the frightened governor to death.
"I see! I understand! "The man who can be the governor cannot be a political idiot, and the Dutch governor understands the tricks of this.
The British did not want to let the powerful Great Song people control Batavia, and this was their only chance to survive. Perhaps there is some agreement between Song and Ying, as long as the Dutch officials do not interfere in the affairs of West Borneo, Nabatavia will maintain the status quo.
Then I can only abandon the East India Company and the gang, I can't evacuate all the people, the Great Song people came with a big stick, if I didn't even beat a dog, I wouldn't have to come to Batavia to find me unlucky! The Dutch governor immediately made up his mind to lose the car and protect the commander.
"Remember, you're running out of time, and make sure things are done thoroughly! It is true that the British Empire is reluctant to allow an empire with a strong navy to occupy Batavia, but your presence in the South Pacific is less important than the benefits that the empire can provide in other ways. "John Bull's messenger is a very subtle threat.
Damn it! The Lanfang Republic, which was rich in gold and silver, had already fallen into my hands, and even their "suzerain" had given up on them, so why would the Great Song people come to meddle in the affairs there at this time?
Anyway, the Great Song people could only let the miscellaneous pieces of the East India Company that were still suppressing the Chinese in West Borneo, hoping that would extinguish the anger of the Great Song nationalists, and the Dutch governor in Batavia rang the bell at his desk and called his confidential secretary.
On the Liaodong Peninsula, the "Zhenyuan" ship has been repaired in Japan and returned to the Dalian Bay wharf. Workers are carrying supplies and ammunition to the warship, which has been used as a trophy for display in the history of the original plane, and has a different fate in this era.
At this time, the sailors on the Zhenyuan ship had yellow and white skin colors, the white ones were the officers sent by the British Navy to guide and the sailor officers sent by the Jewish consortium to take over the ironclad cruiser, and the yellow-skinned ones were the officers and men of the former Beiyang Naval Division who had defected to the crossers.
Different from the humiliating fate in the history of the original time and space, the current "Zhenyuan" ship is about to go to West Borneo, thousands of miles away, to carry out a military attack on the Dutch who slaughtered the Chinese people there, and really do something worthy of their "Zhenyuan" codename!