Germany and Japan expressed concern about the East China government's actions to protect overseas Chinese, and also expressed their hope that the East China government and the Netherlands can resolve disputes through peaceful negotiations, maintain restraint and not escalate conflicts.

Although Germany and Japan have similar attitudes, their ideas are very different. From the perspective of the German government, of course they are biased towards the Netherlands. They not only belong to European countries, but also have similar cultures, and belong to the Western Germanic branch of the Indo-European Germanic language family. In fact, Dutch and German are almost the same. However, now there are multiple cooperation projects between the German and East China governments, which are very beneficial to Germany, so Germany can only take a neutral position.

Japan still hopes to cooperate with the East China government to fight against Russia. Of course, it does not want the East China government to shift its target to Southeast Asia, let alone the East China government confrontation with the UK.

The United States, France, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Portugal and other countries all expressed their resentment to the East China government, believing that the actions of the East China government were infringing on the sovereignty of the Netherlands and undermining the international order. However, although these countries blamed the East China government, they were only verbal and had no substantive actions. After all, Java belongs to the British sphere of influence and has nothing to do with these countries, and interfering with Java has no benefit to other countries.

However, the Qing court was the most embarrassing and awkward among all governments, because although overseas Chinese have established their own governments, they are still subordinates of the Qing court in terms of fame. However, they did not inform the Dutch court of arming Java to protect overseas Chinese, and they did their own things. If they were in the country, they would not have done anything. After all, they were talking in the closed door and silenced their arms and hid them in their sleeves. However, this time it was an international incident, which made the Qing court's face go there. The Dutch minister had already protested to the Dutch minister, but the Dutch minister could only tell that he could not control the East China government and was powerless. It could be said that he was embarrassed and really threw it home.

In fact, the Qing court also discussed how to deal with the overseas Chinese protection action of overseas Chinese. Li Hongzhang suggested to the Qing court that it is better to commend overseas Chinese in the name of overseas Chinese protection and to promote the title of the main overseas Chinese. Of course, the only thing that was added was a false title and protested against the Netherlands. This not only showed that overseas Chinese were still subordinates of the Qing court, but also expressed that the court also supported overseas Chinese. After all, the Qing court is the legal government of China now, so it can be allocated a portion of the reputation from overseas Chinese.

However, Li Hongzhang's suggestion was strongly opposed by the Manchus' powerful people. Because overseas Chinese suppressed the privileges of the Eight Banners in Shandong, it aroused extreme dissatisfaction among the Manchus' powerful people. Although Empress Dowager Cixi prohibited talking about punishing overseas Chinese in the court, Manchus' powerful people counted all these as Han ministers, and believed that Empress Dowager Cixi was bewitched by Han ministers and made such a decision. Now Li Hongzhang actually proposed to commend overseas Chinese, and even promoted the title, which was naturally unacceptable. So he advised Empress Dowager Cixi that the behavior of overseas Chinese was to despise the court and provoke foreign disputes. Some people even believed that overseas Chinese would attract foreign countries to send troops to attack China again, so they could never give commendations.

In fact, the attitude of the Manchu powerful people was long expected by Li Hongzhang, but he believed in Empress Dowager Cixi's political mind. At this time, his suggestions were the best choice for the court, so Empress Dowager Cixi should be able to make a correct judgment.

At this time, the minister whom Empress Dowager Cixi's most trusted minister Ronglu died of illness. Originally, Empress Dowager Cixi was quite dissatisfied with overseas Chinese, and she actually didn't want to use Li Hongzhang's suggestions. Ronglu's death made Empress Dowager Cixi even more upset. In addition, a group of Manchu ministers repeatedly advised Cixi that they could not commend overseas Chinese. In addition, Empress Dowager Cixi was indeed worried that the behavior of overseas Chinese would attract foreign troops to attack China again, so she kept Li Hongzhang's suggestions and decided to wait until the overseas Chinese protection action would have a result.

After hearing this, Li Hongzhang could only sigh, because it was just a icing on the cake to reward the overseas Chinese after the results of the overseas Chinese protection action. Not only did overseas Chinese not be grateful to the court, but even those who supported overseas Chinese would be dissatisfied with the court. It was obvious that the court ignored the overseas Chinese when overseas Chinese sent troops, and when overseas Chinese successfully protected overseas Chinese and then came to reward and rob merit, then who would trust such a court?

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"Report to the captain, the other party sent a banner to greet us."

Shang Jinfeng nodded and smiled: "It seems that the British are still very knowledgeable. I reply and greet them."

It turned out that according to the rules of this era, when warships from different countries meet at sea, the party with the lower rank should first greet the party with the higher rank and show friendship, and then the party with the higher rank and the gift is returned. Now Shang Jinfeng is the rank of lieutenant general, and the commander who comes to the British fleet is the rank of major general, so of course the British first greets the People's Army fleet.

At this time, the British warship sent another flag saying that it was going to Java to protect overseas Chinese and that it was not directed at the People's Army Fleet. I hope that the People's Army Fleet will not be misunderstood.

After Shang Jinfeng found out, he not only laughed, saying, "They came to protect overseas Chinese as well, so Java is lively now. Reply to them, keep a safe distance between the two sides and keep a friendly relationship. Tell Qingzhou and Yizhou to go 5 kilometers ahead and strengthen the vigilance."

The Kunming ship is the decisive needle of the People's Army Navy. However, although the Kunming ship has strong combat power, it has thin skin and large fillings and extremely poor defense. Therefore, it requires key protection and must not be placed within the opponent's firepower range.

On the flagship Old Man Star of the British Fleet, Major General Snow Hamilton, the commander of the British Fleet and the captain of the Old Man Star, also received a flag utterance from the People's Army Fleet.

So Major General Hamilton ordered: "All warships are not allowed to enter within 10 kilometers of the other warship."

Colonel Michael Adams, the first mate of the old man's star, frowned and said, "Captain, if we cannot enter within 10 kilometers of them, then we cannot go straight and must go around a circle."

Hamilton said: "Then go around in a circle."

Adams said: "Captain, are we too showing weakness in this way? Our British Empire fleet should not detour the fleet of any country."

Hamilton glanced at his first mate and said, "Col. Please remember that our mission to Java is just to restrain the fleet of overseas Chinese and prevent them from taking radical actions, rather than to start a war with overseas Chinese unless they take the initiative to attack us. And they arrived first, so we took a detour and made them sail normally, and there is nothing to show weakness or weakness."

Seeing that the British fleet chose to turn around to maintain a safe distance from the People's Army fleet, Shang Jinfeng was also very satisfied. He also said that the British fleet is not hostile at present, so he ordered a flag saying "Good luck all the way", and the other party quickly replied "I wish you a long way". Judging from these interactions, the two sides seemed very friendly.

The British warship consists of five warships, the core of which is two battleships, the Old Man and the Giant, as well as a protective cruiser and two *boat destroyers. The Fleet Commander Major General Hamilton had participated in the Boer War before and came to Singapore at the end of last year. He is not only the captain of the Old Man and the Asterisk battleship, but also serves as the deputy commander of the British Far East Fleet. Lieutenant General Irving, the commander of the British Far East Fleet, will leave the office at the end of this year, and the candidate to replace him as commander has basically been determined. The candidate to replace Hamilton as the captain of the Old Man and the Asterisk battleship is Adams.

The British Far East Fleet has a total of 8 battleships, but they are usually distributed in various regions of Asia, and only these two warships remain in Singapore. Therefore, they received a domestic order to send a fleet to Java in the name of protecting overseas Chinese to restrain the fleet of Chinese overseas. Irving immediately formed a fleet with the only two battleships as the core and set off for Java first, and at the same time mobilized warships from all over Asia.

Five British warships circled a large circle in a row and passed by the People's Fleet. The commanders of both sides were observing the other's warships. Adams said as if he had discovered a new continent: "They only have three warships, and these two warships were obviously damaged, even the turrets were crooked, and there was also a big gap on the side of the ship. It was so funny that they actually drove out such a broken warship."

"No, Colonel! There is nothing funny about this." Hamilton put down the telescope in his hand and said, "These are all injuries left in the battle. Before we set out, we had not received the information. The overseas Chinese defeated the six Dutch warships with only two warships and sank 5 of them. These injuries should be left in that battle. Therefore, these two warships were warships that had experienced the baptism of war."

After hearing this, Adams couldn't help but feel respect. Britain is a country with a strong naval tradition. Navy officers and soldiers are proud of fighting. Moreover, in the British navy's concept, the value of a warship can only be reflected on the battlefield. No matter how gorgeous or majestic the warships are, it is meaningless. Therefore, the British Navy will keep respect for warships that have participated in naval battles, even if they are the opponent's warships.

What's more, although the battle between the People's Army Navy and the Dutch Navy was not large, its achievements should not be underestimated. Therefore, although Adams looked down on the People's Army Navy, he still respected these two warships very much. Of course, no matter how respected he was, he would never show mercy on the battlefield.

The British fleet passed by the two warships of the People's Army, and Adams said: "I really hope to compete with the overseas Chinese fleet."
Chapter completed!