Chapter 495: Diverting Trouble to Others (Part 2)

Amid the shock of the Southern Ming monarchs and ministers, two huge hot air balloons had quietly floated over the Southern Ming military camp.

Then an even more shocking scene occurred. Two people with "big wings" jumped out of the basket under the balloon, and then fluttered and slowly landed on the open space in the center of the camp.

The next day, the Queen of the Southern Ming personally went to the port of Mala to explain the whole story to the British and Austrians.

That is - the Qing pirates attacked the Dutch fleet and the British port successively, and the Queen of the Southern Ming and the King of Brunei could testify.

This conclusion is incredible, but the monarchs of the two countries personally testified, and the British could not say anything.

And they also heard more explosive news, that is, the so-called "Qing pirates" changed the flag of the "Guangzhou Navy" after leaving, and even took away the British warships.

This made the two British officials shout "impossible", but the way to verify the authenticity is also very simple. That is to go directly to the Qing Dynasty to find this so-called "Guangzhou Navy".

As long as the evidence is caught, no one can deny it, but this is an extremely serious diplomatic incident, even for the troublemaker Britain.

Breaking into another country's naval base to inspect armaments is tantamount to declaring war.

The head of the British investigation team, Billy Mullen, felt that the matter was of great importance and needed to be reported to Prime Minister Robert Peel, and then apply for an investigation order from the Qing Dynasty through diplomatic means.

This is a normal process, but if you do this, it will take at least half a year to go back and forth. Whether the other party sells the stolen goods or modifies them, they can easily hide the investigation of the investigation team.

Lieutenant General Raven Hoback advocated leading the fleet immediately and attacking the Guangzhou Navy Station. He really didn't believe that those guys with braids could do anything to him.

After all, this fleet is a branch of the North Sea Fleet. The weapons, personnel quality, and even the command level of the generals are the highest level in Britain and even the world.

When the two were arguing, they turned their eyes to Archduke Frederick, who waved his hand and said.

"We Austrians are not good at naval warfare, and now that the truth has been found out, my fleet has other missions to complete. At the same time, I have no power to privately allocate troops without orders from my country, let alone participate in friction that may cause diplomatic disputes."

The head of the British investigation team, Billy Mullen, breathed a sigh of relief. He was afraid that this Austrian rookie would stimulate his rookie to do something out of the ordinary.

This matter is a bit too strange and involves too much. Prime Minister Robert Peel does not want the British Empire to fall into other crises again. Even the main purpose of his visit this time is to appease the Austrians.

But the development of events at this time has completely exceeded the imagination of London. Such a huge loss is enough to bring down the entire cabinet.

If measures cannot be taken immediately, I am afraid that my career will end here, but it is better than causing a diplomatic crisis and becoming a historical sinner.

At this time, Friedrich spoke again.

"But I can give you a suggestion. Send someone to confirm the truth of the incident first, and then take decisive action."

"What do you mean?" Lieutenant General Raven Hoback and the head of the British investigation team, Billy Mullen, said in unison.

"I mean that there are ready-made candidates here who can gather intelligence for you. Of course, I don't mean to cover up anyone. This is also to clear their suspicion. Am I right? Miss Zhu Qiongying."

Princess Sineka confronted Friedrich. He remembered something and changed his words to "Your Majesty the Queen."

Zhu Qiongying still remembered the shock before, when the Austrian messenger jumped off the huge "Kongming Lantern" and the note written by Franz himself, "Don't seek death."

Facing the other party's operation that was completely beyond her imagination, Zhu Qiongying had no intention of resisting at all.

She had seen the so-called flying eaves and walking walls in the world, but no one could fall from a height of more than ten meters without dying, let alone dozens of meters.

In fact, what Zhu Qiongying saw were only hot air balloons and Degen-assisted flapping-wing aircraft, but these things had completely surpassed the cognitive scope of most people in the world at that time.

Flying in Asia at that time was still considered a human fantasy, or even a miracle, so the intensity of this shock was unimaginable.

The so-called Degen-assisted flapping-wing aircraft was originally a flying machine invented by Austrian Degen in 1808. He loved mechanical flying and made a flapping-wing machine driven by manpower.

This mechanical device can help people achieve short-term flight in the air. In fact, his descendants made a living by jumping from hot air balloons and performing "flying" performances.

However, this thing is called an aircraft, but it is actually more like a hybrid of a glider and a parachute.

In order to increase the success rate of this operation, Franz asked the experts of the Royal Society of Sciences to modify it to increase safety and reliability.

As for the operators, they naturally used actors from the Degen family. After all, they have more experience, and as members of the circus, they also prefer to take on such challenging tasks.

In fact, Franz was not 100% sure of success, but even if the person who jumped died, as long as the letter could be delivered, it would scare the other party, right?

Zhu Qiongying still cooperated with Friedrich very much. She immediately said that the Southern Ming could help investigate where the "Guangzhou Navy" hid the ships.

The British side naturally had no reason not to agree, and the actions of the Southern Ming were also very efficient. They quickly found out everything and even drew a detailed map of the Guangzhou Navy's deployment.

Of course, at this time, the Austrian navy had already sailed to Zhenla with spices from Kalimantan.

As for why Zhu Qiongying had this ability, it was of course because she sold those warships to the Guangzhou Navy at the instruction of Franz.

Coincidentally, after the Opium War, the Guangzhou Navy was severely damaged. Emperor Daoguang ordered the newly appointed admiral Fan Zhentao to expand the navy and imitate the new warships with side guns (actually foreign ships).

This admiral had to make a little noise when he took office, so as to "live up to the emperor's grace." So he outsourced the shipbuilding work based on the principle of "more, faster, better, and cheaper".

After several changes of hands, this job actually fell into the hands of the Southern Ming rebels. It is estimated that the high officials of the Qing Dynasty could not even dream of it.

Of course, what they could not have imagined was that this would trigger a huge wave.

Although Lieutenant General Raven Hoback and the head of the British investigation team, Billy Mullen, received assurances from the Southern Ming, they were still skeptical, after all, the Southern Ming and the Qing were in a hostile relationship.

However, they had no good solution at this time. Either they went to verify it in person, but this would take great risks; or they would let it become a headless case, but London would not believe that it was done by pirates.

In the end, the two men decided to take a gamble, after all, it was related to their careers, the rise and fall of their parties, and even more to the dignity of the British Empire.

So they broke into the Guangzhou Navy's station and easily found the "looted" Dutch, British, and Austrian warships.