The sea is so colourful that it is almost impossible to tell where the sky is and where the sea is.

Only the sunlight shone on the white waves brought up by the warship Lion, shining like diamonds.

It was a third-class gunboat in service with the British Navy, and its 48-meter hull was armed with sixty breech guns. Such a firepower configuration makes it a behemoth in the entire South China Sea. Not only did the so-called sailors of the Tay Son Dynasty in Vietnam dare not touch their edge, but even the leaders of the Nanyang pirates who received the official photos of the Tay Son Dynasty did not dare to rashly provoke the fleet they led.

At this moment, in the Indian Ocean, apart from British warships and merchant ships, it is difficult to see the armed fleets of other countries. The coachmen of the sea have declined, and the ports of Batavia are full of ships in disrepair, and only these old shipwrecks can give a glimpse of the Dutch fleet that sailed through the seas many years ago.

The highest ranking man on board the Lion was Count George Macartney, who stood on the deck overlooking the sea. The veteran Irish-born diplomat had visited Tsarist Russia, dealt with the shrewd and hard-nosed Tsarina Catherine II, served as a colonial official in the Caribbean, and then served as governor of Madras in India for six years.

In terms of seniority, in terms of status, in terms of his experience of living in the East, and in terms of his friendship with the top management of the East India Company, this earl could be regarded as the best person acceptable to Downing Street and the East India Company.

As the most famous British diplomat of this period, Macartney preferred to give up the opportunity to become the viceroy of India, and won the honor of "the first British ambassador to knock on the door of China". In the eyes of this diplomat, who is already in his fifties, probably only this incident can draw a strong end to the end of his career.

At this moment, the Lion sailed on the sea of the South Sea, and the verdant islands and reefs were like emeralds carved by famous craftsmen, surrounded by white and silver sand, showing in front of this diplomat.

But this tropical scenery even tired him of Macartney, who had crossed the Atlantic several times and traveled back and forth between the colonies and the British mainland. His gaze did not linger for a moment from the islands, but from time to time he looked behind the Lion.

Behind the Lion was the 1,000-ton cargo ship Hindustan sent by the East India Company, which was loaded with large gifts for the new emperor of China, and most of the mission's attachés, including painters, artists, craftsmen, bands, and two Chinese Catholic priests who had been smuggled to Italy for many years with the help of the Jesuits, were the only two interpreters of the mission.

On either side of the Hindustan were two small sailing ships, the Jackal and the Clarence, which were supposed to be all the ships of the diplomatic mission.

But behind the Clarence there were two ships with the red, white and blue flags on the masts of the Dutch East India Company with the abbreviation "VOC". These two Dutch armed merchant ships could not help but make Macartney feel a little unhappy.

These Dutch merchant ships, like the Lion, were to land in Canton as a mission sent by the governor of Dutch Batavia to meet the Chinese emperor.

But compared to the British mission, the mission of the Dutch mission was not so easy.

Isaac Tihinger, the governor of Chinlasu in Dutch Bengal, and his lieutenant Fan Bailan, were standard Asian experts. Isaac was the sole person in charge of the Dutch East India Company's dealings with the Wakoku, and met Tokugawa Ieharu Tokugawa, the 10th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, many times before he became a daimyo in the Wakuni kingdom and knew the unspoken rules that East Asian politicians should follow.

Fan Bailan, on the other hand, is a Dutch East India Company Taipan who has dealt with the Chinese for many years, and can be called a thorough China expert.

Such a line-up, in every respect, was much superior to the British Mission.

But the task they have on their shoulders is extremely difficult:

Fifty years ago, the Dutch slaughtered tens of thousands of overseas Chinese in Batavia, causing the Red Creek Massacre.

For European countries, such a frenzied massacre of the diaspora of another country is tantamount to a declaration of war. However, when the governor of Batavia at that time tried to mediate this matter with the Qing state, he was sent back by the last emperor of the Qing state with an understatement: "The country abandoned the people, did not hesitate to abandon the tomb of the ancestors, and went abroad to seek profits. ”

Although the Dutch East India Company's economic activities in Batavia were completely paralyzed by the massacre, the resulting losses caused so much that the angry East India Company's board of directors sentenced the governor of Batavia to death. However, the new Chinese court does not seem to have forgotten this history, nor does it have the intention of giving up the pursuit for the sake of "Sino-Dutch friendship".

Unlike the British mission, the mission led by Mr. Isaac was summoned by the Chinese court to explain the aftermath of the Hongxi tragedy, the punishment of the murderers, and the compensation of the survivors.

Obviously, what the Chinese imperial court really wants to solve is the issue of the status and belonging of overseas Chinese in the Nanyang region. This is tantamount to another kick in the broken house of the stormy colonial regime in Southeast Asia by the Dutch!

The gloomy Governor Tichinger, and the even less good-looking Mr. Van Bailan were like a pair of ominous mourning birds to Macartney. And through what happened to the Dutch, the seasoned diplomat could clearly see that the country he was about to visit seemed to be about to wake up from centuries of slumber.

When a country with a vast territory and a large population is awakened, it will burst into such a powerful vitality that Macartney had seen in Tsarist Russia under Catherine II. But in terms of population and territory, Tsarist Russia is much dwarfed by China!

A hint of melancholy unconsciously appeared on Macartney's face, but this melancholy was soon interrupted by a brisk voice: "Count Macartney, you are here. We will leave this group of islands tomorrow, and according to the plan, the fleet will anchor in Toulon Bay in Cochinchina - there are too many sick among our sailors!"

Macartney turned around and was not surprised to see his deputy envoy and friend, George Staunton, a botanist of the Royal Society, talking in an exaggerated tone about the rest of the trip.

This was good news for the mission, as fresh water could be replenished on the spot in Cochinchina, and sick sailors could be treated with the help of the East India Company.

For the ocean-going voyages of this era, the death rate of the mission was surprisingly low, and only a few attachés and sailors died in various accidents. But in order to ensure safety, it is better to transfer the sick number out of the fleet.

Macartney was more concerned about his duties as a diplomat than with these chores, especially the Dutch fleet that followed the Lion, which was more like a piece of dirt that could not be wiped away, and he was always concerned.

"What do the Dutch say? Are they going to anchor in Toulon Bay too?"

"They didn't mean to act with us. Staunton shook his head, not hiding his contempt for the Dutch, "Governor Tichinger probably thought that he had an excellent personal relationship with our generous Indian Governor-General, and made a nonsensical suggestion to our captain, Sir Gower. For a moment, I thought that the venerable Governor had read too many bedside readings such as Gulliver's Travels or The Adventures of Baron Minshehausen. ”

Staunton spread his hands and continued in a mocking tone:

He said that on the route from the South China Sea to the Pacific Ocean, there were large groups of strange native pirates, with their short monkey-like bodies, who could swim in the sea for long periods of time, and attacked every merchant ship they could see, killing all the crews and devouring their corpses. In the coastal areas of Cochinchina, these indigenous pirates have been rampant in recent months, turning Cochinchina into a no-go zone for fleets. Therefore, he proposed that we should move in the direction of China's Qiongzhou Island as soon as possible, and only under the protection of the Chinese Coast Guard fleet on Qiongzhou Island can we ensure the safety of the fleet. ”

Macartney did not pay any attention to Staunton's sarcasm about the Dutch governor, but simply asked, "What do you think of this, my friend?"

"It's just a trick of the Dutch. "I was a seasoned explorer, having traveled deep into the islands and interior of the equator, and met the ignorant and uncivilized natives. But never before had an indigenous tribe had such amazing physical prowess that could dive deep in the sea for long periods of time and pose such a threat to armed merchant ships. As I have said a long time ago, the Dutch and the Portuguese are full of envy and hatred for our diplomatic actions in China, and they will resort to all kinds of despicable means in order to monopolize the huge profits of trade with China, but I did not expect that they would spread such childish rumors......"

Before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by the lookout on the mast, and the young sailor let out a half-surprised, half-frightened scream: "God, what is that?!"

As if to annotate the sailor's cry, in Macartney and Staunton's field of vision, a white wave appeared at the junction of the sea and the sky, and this white wave was surging in the direction of the Lion!

And in the white waves, there seems to be a large group of creatures hiding in them, swimming forward with the white waves.

Gower, the captain of the Lion, also ran to the deck with a telescope, and he only picked up the telescope and looked at the rushing white waves, and then cried out: "Savior, there are such monsters living in this world!"

Before he could finish his words, the monoculars were snatched by Macartney, but the diplomat did not need to confirm that the white waves were no more than a mile away from the Lion. At this distance, the silhouettes of animals that appeared to be human and shimmered with a blue-blue sheen like fish scales could be faintly seen in the waves, but what was even clearer was the stone spears held in the hands of these strange creatures.

"It's an enemy attack, get ready for battle, Captain Goyle!"

As Macartney spoke, a series of bugles sounded on the lion's horn, and the sailors rushed to run. Marine-born artillerymen were ready to take position around the more than 60 breech guns equipped with the Lion.

The quality of these sailors and artillerymen is also excellent in the whole of Europe, but while they are preparing for naval battles, the alien creatures hiding in the waves can already get a glimpse of the whole picture.

Their heads are long and round, their mouths are large and broad, and their eyes are bulging, some of which resemble gigantic mudskippers, but their bodies covered in blue scales are close to those of chimpanzees. And their scale-studded, ape-like limbs made Staunton, a learned explorer, wonder which class of animals to classify this creature into.

But what frightened the crew of the Lion even more than this academic annoyance was the next move of these strange creatures.

As they approached the Lion, they invariably raised their front paws holding the stone spears, and then slammed into the Lion and threw the stone spears one by one!

The rough stone spear was not enough to inflict fatal damage on the sailors, but if it was hit by such a heavy stone spear, it would be seriously injured, if not dead.

What's more, among these stone spears, there are also one or two iron spears!

Although the Lion's crew was selected from the British Navy, the guards responsible for protecting the mission were carefully selected from the Royal Army and artillery, and the attack on these sea monsters was immediately organized.

The gunshots rang out densely, and in the blink of an eye, a large area of blood was stained on the sea. But in the midst of the barrage of gunfire, there was still a soldier who was unlucky and was pierced through the thigh with a spear.

But in this vast pool of blood, more monsters rushed up and threw stone spears at the Lion. The Hindustan, the Jackal, and the Clarence followed, and even the two Dutch merchant ships that wanted to turn the bow of the ship when they saw that the situation was not good, also became the targets of the siege of this group of monsters!

Compared with the Lion, a gunboat armed to the teeth, cargo ships like the Hindustan, supply ships like the Jackal and Clarence, although there were also guards and sailors who picked up their guns and began to shoot back, but in the blink of an eye, several people were seriously injured by stone spears.

In the eighteenth century, such a serious injury was tantamount to an early announcement of death!

To add insult to injury, the sailors who were tending to the Lion's cabin soon brought even worse news: "These monsters are scuttling the bottom of our cabin!"

It was only then that the high-ranking members of the mission, including Macartney and Staunton, finally understood why the Governor of Isaac had been so cautious in admonishing them.

If you encounter a group of marine monsters that can dive for a long time, you can chisel through your cabin one by one, and which fleet can withstand this!