afterglow

Chapter 294 Chapter [-] Preparations for the Z Fleet; Bad News Announced

When the British told the French that the Cheng'an had set sail from Port Said, the latter, who had already been ready, acted immediately.

In order to intercept the Chengan, the French Mediterranean Fleet dispatched the destroyer Lucky, two gunboats, and several seaplanes.

The second ship of the Astute class, Fortuna, is a typical French-style destroyer. They are actually called "fleet lightning strike ships" in the military language of the French Navy. As the name suggests, they are designed to fight with their own naval fleet. torpedoes attack the enemy.

As the three warships got closer, the crew could already clearly see the weapons on them—four 130mm naval guns and two triple 550mm torpedo launchers.

The same was true for the other two gunboats. The sailors in blue and white striped sea soul shirts were standing on the gun positions, and all their guns were pointed directly at the Cheng'an, as if they were ready to fire at any time.

The captain held binoculars and observed these malicious guys one by one, "Trouble, this formation is prepared, the French must know that we are still doing business with the Germans through Lumi."

"Tsk! How come we were discovered when it was our turn? Bad luck." Facing the menacing battleship, Huo Chang looked a little nervous.

The fire chief is the traditional name, and the nature of his position is similar to that of the navigator. He is in charge of maritime navigation and needs to be familiar with compass, astronomy, and hydrology.

At this time, the captain saw the yellow and black checkered flag raised by the destroyer, as well as the lights flashing regularly.

He turned around and looked at a man behind him, and said, "They have hung the flag and lit the lights, and told us to stop the ship immediately for inspection."

The latter belongs to the Foreign Affairs Department of the Ministry of Etiquette. This time, the ship will be in charge of delivery when it is unloaded at the port of Antalya.

Since doing such things secretly, the imperial court must have anticipated serious accidents that may occur, which is what happened to the Cheng'an now.

"My god, what should I do? Can't they find out?" Someone shouted: "Boss, let's just open the sea valve and sink it? Let's die without proof!"

The captain scolded back: "Your head is a lump of elm? People don't know how to fish the boat? Now that it's sunk, I'll pick it up later!"

"Be natural, don't panic." The official of the Department of Foreign Affairs was very calm. He stroked his collar, "Do as required by the memorandum, and just insist that we don't know. The French dare not do anything to us."

"That's right." The captain paused, took a long breath, and said in a deep voice, "The car on the left stops, and the car on the right goes in!"

As a result, the left propeller of the Cheng'an stopped, and the right propeller was lowered to the "forward one" gear, so as to stabilize the hull in the ocean current.

The three French warships that came to intercept turned around one after another, drew three beautiful U-shaped tracks on the Mediterranean sea, and then kept parallel with the Cheng'an.

They lowered the motorboat from the ship's side, and shortly thereafter, an armed sailor carrying a Berthier rifle boarded the Cheng'an.

The crew also assembled at the rear of the front deck, and most of the more than 40 people did not know the inside story. It was the first time for them to be intercepted by a foreign navy.

The captain in a navy blue military uniform and a hat with a large brim looked around and asked, "Who is the captain?"

A Syrian next to him immediately translated the words into Chinese.

The captain did not speak, but took a silent step forward.

The navy captain looked at him and took out a stapled document from his briefcase, "We have received an order to intercept you. This ship will be taken over and detained in Beirut. The same goes for you."

"You have no reason to detain a Chinese merchant ship." The captain replied very succinctly.

"Indeed," the captain nodded, then shrugged, "but this is an order, and we must carry it out."

"..." The captain remained silent.

"Do you know what this ship is carrying?"

"Tungsten and molybdenum."

"What about the receiver?"

"A Turkish mining company."

The captain smiled, stopped asking questions, and waved his hand directly: "Now please take your sailors back to the cabin. This ship has been temporarily taken over by the Mediterranean Fleet of the French Republic."

In this way, the Cheng'an, loaded with a large amount of strategic resources, was taken over by the French sailors, and under the escort of several warships, it changed its course and sailed straight to Beirut.

Syria is now under French colonial rule. After the end of the European War, Syria initially tried to become independent, but it only existed for a few months before the French army invaded Damascus.

Over the past few decades, the local resistance movement against the colonists has intensified, and the French had to act both hard and soft, pretending to promise independence and sovereignty while hunting wildly, in order to contain and ease the hostile attitude of the local people.

After arriving in Beirut, the French colonial authorities, together with the British commissioner who had been waiting for a long time, began to inspect the strategic resources transported by the Cheng'an, as well as documents such as logbooks.

In order to avoid crowds, the French side chose the "unpacking" time at night, while the British side has repeatedly suggested that a group of reporters should be called in to expose the shameful behavior of Ming Dynasty in public.

"Sir, according to the logbook and loading and unloading records, it loaded a total of [-] tons of tungsten ore, [-] tons of tungsten concentrate, and [-] tons of molybdenum concentrate. Our visual estimation is correct."

It can be said that although the French are very angry, they still don't want to make this matter a big deal, and hope to solve the problem through official private negotiations, but the British are completely opposite.

But after all, this is within the boundaries of France's sphere of influence. If this crappy matter is exposed, the bright people who want to save face must not bear the grudge?

The French are not stupid, so naturally they didn't listen to the British.

But soon, Britain and France realized the tricky point.

Thanks to adequate preparations, Daming’s secret export of strategic resources to the German Society was very clean. Even though the French intercepted the Cheng’an, no direct evidence was found to indicate the connection between Daming and the German Society.

On the surface, this is just a resource exported by Ming to Turkey.Without hard evidence, the prover just needs to refuse to admit it.

So the French tried to interrogate the detained crew of the Cheng'an.

Ordinary sailors are completely unaware of this, and only the captain, fire chief and others know the inside story.

The Beirut Police Station is a reinforced concrete building. In the basement, the captain, the fire chief, and the foreign affairs official were separated and interrogated.

"...don't lie anymore!" a Frenchman suddenly shouted loudly: "Your companions have confessed that you are actually going to sell these ores to the Germans! If you don't state the truth, you will face many years in prison !"

This is a typical cross-interrogation method. Because the interrogated person is alone and does not know the situation of his companions, he will be more easily broken psychologically.

Sudden surprise and threat of punishment are more likely to break the psychological defense of the interrogated.

However, because these people had anticipated this, even though they were inevitably highly nervous and fearful, they still kept their mouths shut and kept silent throughout the process.

The helpless French finally gave up the interrogation. When he left, he felt like he was alive after a catastrophe. The clothes of the captain and others were drenched with sweat, and the sea breeze blew by, and they couldn't help shivering.

For the futile efforts of the French, several British commissioners could not help but be somewhat contemptuous-why bother so much?Wouldn't it be better to just forge the confession?
In this way, on the second day, the French embassy in Yingtian lodged a protest to the Department of Foreign Affairs, attaching a series of photos of the Cheng'an and the evidence collected during this period.

Due to internal changes, the Ming court has been very busy recently. Most of the officials' thoughts are on adjusting their respective networks, so they reacted very slowly to this, and did not pass the news to the cabinet until the next day.

"Ming Yin, do you know that the French stopped a merchant ship transporting ore a while ago, and now they are arguing." Yu Shenhua said while writing something.

"Intercept the ship? What ship?"

"Mine sold to the Germans."

"Oh, so what's the matter? Don't admit it." Li Guangyuan didn't take this matter to heart at all.

When the agreement was signed, Britain and France were the weaker parties. They hoped to maintain a state that was beneficial to their own country at the least cost-stop exporting resources to Germany, and promised not to invade the Nanyang region.

Since there is no strong means to counter the other party (broken trust), don't blame the other party for not complying with the agreement.

After all, in this world, the credibility of the great powers is only valid when it serves their own interests.

The decision of the cabinet is to ignore it for the time being, and then observe the attitudes of Britain and France.

Zhu Shiyan agrees with the cabinet's approach, "The British probably have to reassess the situation, and we need to pay more attention to their actions."

Obviously, Britain and France both far underestimated Ming's ambitions, and handing over Japan did not achieve the desired effect at all. It was like throwing a small piece of meat to a hungry wolf, which could not stop it.

Now it belongs to the loss of the wife and the loss of the army... But it is not always the case. After all, if there is no concession on the Japanese issue, a direct conflict may have erupted before.

As the emperor thought, the shrewd British responded quickly.

In the prime minister's official residence in Downing Street, after several meetings in two days, the ministers reached a new consensus on the situation in the Far East.

Malaya and Borneo are indeed very important to the British Empire, but the overall strategy still has to give priority to Europe.

Based on this, the British side has been trying to stabilize the situation in the Far East at the lowest cost, and will not increase its troops if it can, and concentrate its energy on Europe.

After all, the military power and economy of the British Empire are far from being as proud of the world as they used to be, and there must be a distinction between primary and secondary.

But now, a series of actions by Ming Dynasty forced the British side to adjust its strategy, strengthen the defense of the Far East, and take the increasingly intense threat seriously.

In addition to actively contacting the Americans, the British immediately began to consider deploying a new fleet.

Historically, as the threat of Japan was fully revealed, Britain decided to deploy the Z fleet before the outbreak of the Pacific War and stay in Trincomalee (Sri Lanka Island) to deter Japan.

The original plan at the time was to send a large fleet of HMS Repulse, HMS Renown, HMS Prince of Wales, HMS Duke of York, and several Vengeance-class battleships, including the aircraft carrier HMS Radiance and Ark Royal.

But then it was interfered by the cigar fat man-since the German Bismarck can contain half of the Royal Navy's home fleet, what's the problem with a George V now to contain the Japanese fleet?

So as we all know, the inevitable tragedy of the Z fleet.

But now, because the time was earlier, and the Royal Navy also paid more attention to the Ming Navy, and dared not be scornful, it has a very core positioning for the planned fleet—Z Fleet is an existing fleet.

Before the war broke out, this fleet could deter Ming and make Ming people think more about it.

After the outbreak of war, this fleet can contain the main force of the Ming Navy's Nanyang Fleet.

If one's own side is at a disadvantage, then it can flexibly leave the port and retreat westward to Sri Lanka, retreat to the Indo Ocean, wait for an opportunity, and disgust the Ming Navy.

Compared with the decisive alternative of the British, the French continued to wrestle with the Ming court.

They threatened a batch of high-precision machine tools and a heavy machinery production line that had not yet been delivered, and demanded that Ming Dynasty must stop exporting to Germany, otherwise they would definitely intercept any Ming merchant ships carrying strategic resources entering the Mediterranean Sea.

The imperial court naturally ignored it. If it let go, wouldn't it be tantamount to admitting that it was indeed exporting resources to Germany?

The French government forcibly detained hundreds of special machine tools and heavy machinery production lines ordered by Daming enterprises. The Mediterranean Fleet was ordered to stop and inspect any Daming merchant ships passing through the Suez Canal. Once they were found to be loaded with tungsten, nickel, molybdenum, rubber and other resources, It was detained in Beirut.

While condemning the slander from the French side, the imperial court began to freeze the assets of some French companies in Daming.

You come and I make moves one after another on both sides, and there is an endless stalemate.

Normally, this should have attracted a lot of attention, but now it was overshadowed by another big news from Daming.

On the morning of the fifth day of August, the Sun Moon Society announced the news of Zhu Liqie's death, causing an uproar across the country.

Afterwards, the imperial court announced that all government offices across the country must fly their flags at half-mast for ten days; the clan mansion required all the royal family to fast for three days, and offenders would be punished severely.

"Oh my god! Didn't the prince be fine a few days ago? Why did he suddenly... die?"

Early in the morning, Xia Xiaoshi had just prepared breakfast and was about to have dinner with Zhou Changfeng, but was shocked by the terrible news from the radio.

Zhou Changfeng on the side looked as usual, just looked at her calmly, and then sighed softly.

"Sir, why are you so calm? Didn't you know it before?"

Zhou Changfeng said "hmm" while peeling the salted duck eggs, and didn't say much.

Xia Xiaoshi didn't get to the bottom of this matter, but asked on her own: "Your Majesty is quite old now, so who should inherit the throne in the future? I remember that there seems to be a prince?"

In fact, the outside world did not know until today that the emperor had passed before the death gate, his physical condition was not as good as before, and he had been preparing for his abdication for several days.

"Yes, there is a little prince," Zhou Changfeng nodded first and then shook his head, "but...it's not him."

Xia Xiaoshi, who was scooping porridge with a spoon, was even more confused when she heard the words, "Sir... are you... joking?"

(End of this chapter)