After Governor Sumanville said this, he stood up and walked away, Claros also left the conference room angrily, and Lin Fei saw that the British and Dutch were gone, and returned to the post house leisurely with his entourage.

After tossing all night, when I returned to the post house, it was almost dawn, Lin Fei asked people to send a local traditional food, after eating and sleeping, I woke up, it was already noon, it was time for lunch, the local Chinese restaurant heard that Lin Fei came to the post house, lined up to deliver food, Lin Fei did not dare to ask for it, this is to prevent someone from poisoning the food.

Lin Fei asked people to go out to buy a delicacy, and asked people to buy all the newspapers in Pontianak, and read the newspapers while eating, although the matter of the sinking of the ship happened last night, but the news has spread far and wide, and the newspapers have been full of articles about this matter, as for the riots against the Chinese, the newspapers have rarely mentioned it, and a few days ago, the newspapers were all praises for the rioters.

Lin Fei handed over the Dutch newspaper to his subordinates for translation, and then read the English newspaper, the English newspaper in Pontianak was run by the British, and it was full of comments asking the Dutch to punish the murderer, but these people wrote very politely, after all, they were on the territory of the Dutch, and if they provoked the Dutch, they would all be finished.

Lin Fei paid special attention to whether the British newspapers mentioned himself, and it turned out that the British newspapers did not say anything about the Chinese Empire.

Lin Fei finished reading the British newspaper, the translator sent the Dutch newspaper, Lin Fei read the Dutch newspaper, which was full of accusations against the British, and the same as the British newspaper, the Dutch newspaper did not mention anything about Lin Fei and the Chinese Empire.

Lin Fei was very happy after reading the two newspapers, because the more no one paid attention to him, the more beneficial it would be to him, and it was exactly what Lin Fei wanted to do to stumble the British and the Dutch in secret.

It is a pity for Lin Fei that because of the underdeveloped communication technology, Lin Fei cannot see the newspapers in Britain and the Netherlands, and the sinking of the British warship by the Netherlands is not a trivial matter, and it will definitely cause an uproar in the two countries.

Not only the two countries of Britain and the Netherlands, but also other countries in the world will be affected, and the two countries that are most affected are the two countries, one is Germany and the other is France, both of which are coveting the colonies and markets of Southeast Asia.

The next day, on January 17, Britain and the Netherlands launched a second round of negotiations on the Resolve incident, Lin Fei still attended the negotiations, but still no one paid attention, in this round of negotiations, Governor Sumanville proposed to set up a joint investigation team with Britain to jointly investigate the Resolve incident.

Claros categorically rejected Governor Sumanville's offer, and during the talks, Claros sternly pointed out that the Determination had been deliberately sunk by the Dutch, which was an ironclad fact and that there was no need for investigation.

The Dutch, of course, would not bear this black cauldron, and Governor Sumanville once again solemnly denied that the Determination had been sunk by the Dutch, and accused the British of deliberately provoking and creating trouble, and the two sides broke up again unhappily. It is worth mentioning that neither side had the slightest suspicion of Lin Fei and the Huaxia Empire, and Governor Sumanville even sent an envoy to test Lin Fei, hoping that Lin Fei would mediate.

This fire between Britain and the Netherlands was lit by Lin Fei himself, and of course Lin Fei would not extinguish him himself, so Lin Fei declined the request of Governor Sumanville.

In the following days, the British and Dutch quarreled over the incident, and the two sides negotiated several times, but nothing tangible could be reached, and both sides blamed each other.

On January 22, the news of the British and Dutch came to Pontianak, and Lin Fei sent his subordinates to inquire, only to know that the Determination incident had set off far more waves in the two countries than he had imagined, and as soon as the news of the sinking of the Determination returned to Britain, the whole country was boiling, and the domestic people set off a huge wave of protests, and they marched around Buckingham Palace to demand that the British government take a tough approach to the Netherlands.

On 19 January, the British ambassador to the Netherlands, Leonard Wilson, met with Queen Emma, the ruling queen of the Netherlands, to exchange views on the Resolve incident, which Queen Emma denied on the spot.

Seeing that the Netherlands refused to admit to sinking the Resolve, Britain recalled its ambassador to the Netherlands on 20 January, and on the same day, the Netherlands recalled its ambassador to the United Kingdom, and relations between the two sides fell to a freezing point.

On 21 January, Queen Victoria II ordered the Governor of Burma to provide aid to the British forces in Singapore. At this time, the largest British colony in Southeast Asia was Burma, which also had the largest number of British troops, while Singapore had a small number of British troops, and this order was interpreted by the outside world as the British were preparing to use force.

On January 21, the spokesman for the French president and the spokesman for the German Kaiser successively expressed their stance on the Resolve incident, hoping that Britain and the Netherlands would exercise restraint. The Qing State even expressed its position, saying, "I hope that the two states of Britain and the Netherlands will be good for eternity, and there will be no disputes." Naturally, no country would pay attention to it.

British troops stationed in Singapore also began to move towards Pontianak, including another Sovereign-class battleship...... The Revenge, with two cruisers, arrived in the waters near Pontianak on January 23, and on January 24, four troop carriers and four supply carriers also arrived in the waters near Pontianak, ready to launch a landing operation.

Not to be outdone, the British mobilized forces from Sumatra and Java to support Pontianak, and war clouds were over Pontianak for a while.

In Pontianak City, the Dutch magnates fled one after another, and the rich Chinese also wanted to flee, but the escape of the Chinese was restricted by the Dutch, and as for the natives, there were very few rich people, so they all stayed in the city obediently.

Although they were not afraid of the Chinese Empire, they were also worried that the Chinese Empire would join forces with the British, so they ordered the police and the army to severely crack down on violence against the Chinese, and many of the initiators of the violence against the Chinese were British.

On January 25, Emma, the regent of the Netherlands, made a public speech, saying that "the Resolve incident was a shameless provocation by the British, whose purpose was to find a suitable excuse to rob the Dutch East Indies", and called on all citizens to defend the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

On January 27, Queen Victoria II of England made a public speech, saying that "the Resolve incident is a provocation and insult by the Dutch to the British Empire, and if the Kingdom of the Netherlands does not give a satisfactory answer to the British Empire, the British Empire will use all means to defend the dignity of the Empire."

At 9 a.m. on 28 January, Claros, on behalf of the British Empire, delivered an ultimatum to Governor Sumanville if the Kingdom of the Netherlands did not accede to the British Government's three-point request for the settlement of the Resolve incident within twenty-four hours, namely, first, to hand over all the crew of the torpedo boat that fired the torpedo; second, five million pounds sterling; Third, publicly apologize to the British Empire, which will then use the harshest means to punish the Dutch garrison in Pontianak.

After Claros delivered the ultimatum, the entire British Consulate withdrew from Pontianak, along with the British expatriates at the Consulate.

Although the Dutch were in a weak position, they did not give in to the British, on the one hand, because they really did not do it, and they were unwilling to bear the blame, and on the other hand, because five million pounds was too much, and the Dutch were unwilling to come up with so much money at once, so the Dutch categorically rejected the British three-point demand.

Lin Fei saw the war clouds, and his heart was secretly happy, he did not return to the Chinese Empire, because his purpose was not only to provoke Britain and the Netherlands to go to war, he wanted to take Pontianak and the entire Dutch colony of Borneo as his own, Borneo is the world's famous oil producing area, in the Second World War of Lin Fei's era, the Japanese attacked the South Seas, one of the important purposes was to obtain the oil resources of Borneo.

Lin Fei negotiated with the British and the Netherlands, and under the pretext of providing assistance to the Chinese, he temporarily borrowed the No. 9 pier in Pontianak Port as a temporary camp for the Chinese Empire.

In order to prevent the Chinese Empire from supporting Britain, the Netherlands readily agreed to Lin Fei's use of Pier 9, and the British made a promise not to attack the ships and personnel of the Chinese Empire at Pier 9 in order to prevent the Chinese Empire from supporting the Netherlands.

At 9 a.m. on 29 January, the time specified in the ultimatum had arrived, and the Netherlands still did not accede to the British three-point demand, and at 10 a.m., Claros telegraphed to Governor Sumanville that the British would strike at the Dutch army in Pontianak at any time.

It is interesting to note that Britain did not declare war on the Netherlands, because if war was declared, the two countries would enter a state of war, and not only the colonies in the South Seas, but also Britain and the Netherlands would be at war, and Britain was unwilling to make the war so large.

Governor Sumanville ordered the commander of the fleet to lead the Dutch fleet out of Pontianak Port and to temporarily station on Padang Island, more than 50 kilometers south of Pontianak.

As soon as the Dutch fleet left the port, the British fleet was aware of it, and Claros immediately ordered the fleet commander to pursue the Dutch fleet and be sure to annihilate it, and the British fleet immediately chased the Dutch fleet, and the naval battle between the two sides was about to break out.

This book was first published from 17K Novel Network, the first time to see the genuine content! R405