To the Dutch, the Chinese government's "most solemn protest" was entirely within expectations. In the several centuries since European colonizers had arrived in Southeast Asia, the Netherlands had only suffered a loss once, in Taiwan. When the Spanish—now defeated by the Americans—massacred Chinese people in Luzon centuries ago, what could the Ming government of that time do? When the Netherlands destroyed the Lanfang Republic, what could the Manchu Qing government do? That the People's Party was capable of issuing a "most solemn protest" showed that the Chinese government's reaction was actually quite sharp.

Of course, the Netherlands could not see the segmented ship construction beginning trials in China's completely closed-off shipyards, nor could they see the laser beams used for positioning in that segmented construction. Even if the Dutch had seen them, they wouldn't have understood the significance of these odd-looking things. This was different from hundreds of years ago; China's technology had comprehensively surpassed the Netherlands, reaching a level the Dutch couldn't even comprehend.

For the Dutch, since the Chinese government was protesting and the Bank of China refused to hand over data, naturally, they had to employ coercive measures. They immediately seized the Bank of China's branches in the Dutch East Indies on charges of violating Dutch law. After the Netherlands took such hardline measures, the British, in accordance with their agreement, also announced the termination of the Bank of China's deposit operations in British Malaya. For a time, both the Dutch and the British in Southeast Asia began to lay their hands on China's wealth.

What did such a move against China's state-owned banks mean? At least to the large number of former military personnel in the state-owned banks, this was no different from a declaration of war. Such actions undoubtedly reminded these former soldiers of the imperialist invasions of China. The news that followed was even more provocative: the Dutch East Indies authorities had imprisoned Wang Qinian on charges of "tax evasion." Because the amount involved in Wang Qinian's alleged "tax evasion" was "huge," the local court refused his request for bail.

At such a moment, the Japanese fleet, which had been turtling up for a long time, sortied its main force from Kure. The massive fleet swaggered along the coasts of Korea and China in a demonstration of force before sailing into ports in Taiwan. The People's Air Force and Navy, naturally, would not let Japan demonstrate so comfortably; Air Force reconnaissance planes, fighters, bombers, and torpedo attack aircraft followed them all the way. The Yellow Sea Fleet urgently fired up their boilers and weighed anchor, trying their best to rush over. It was just that compared to Japan's grand fleet, these ships and planes did indeed look somewhat shabby in size.

The British maintained silence; sometimes, for a great power, not speaking represents an attitude more than speaking does. Just like after 9/11 in the United States, China expressed sincere condolences. But what was said wasn't important. Thinking back to the US bombing of the Chinese embassy and the South China Sea collision incident a few years prior to 9/11, Chinese leaders likely weren't truly all that sorrowful about the United States' "tragic misfortune"—they might even have felt quite pleased. A great power could say things they didn't mean. But if China had remained silent after 9/11, *that* would have signaled a serious attitude.

As the dispute between the Netherlands and China intensified, and Japan poured oil on the fire with its demonstration, the British remained truly wordless, not mentioning a syllable of it. The Soviet Union, of course, shouted a few times on China's behalf. The United States, conversely, only made a few understated remarks, which everyone could understand; since the US wasn't participating in this loot-sharing operation and was having its own chaotic domestic issues, expecting the US to jump in and meddle at this time was clearly unrealistic.

This reaction was also within the expectations of Britain, the Netherlands, and Japan. They had chosen this timing specifically to strike when China was isolated and without aid.

March 1933, in a Dutch prison.

A Dutch prosecutor stared down from a high position at Wang Qinian, who was shackled in handcuffs and leg irons. Although this prosecutor very much wanted to intimidate Wang Qinian, Wang remained composed and completely unmoved. The Dutch dared to arrest Wang Qinian, but that was as far as they would go; they didn't dare to do anything excessive, such as finding an excuse to kill him. If Wang Qinian were to actually fall critically ill in prison, the ones who would be most terrified would likely be the Dutch themselves.

Seeing that he couldn't intimidate Wang Qinian with his gaze, the prosecutor could only speak in a threatening tone: "Wang Qinian, do you admit your guilt?"

"I am innocent. My so-called crimes are entirely your frame-up," Wang Qinian replied calmly.

A look of anger floated onto the prosecutor's face. For days now, Wang Qinian had consistently given this one answer, saying nothing else at all. No matter how the prosecutor used threats or inducements—saying that signing a plea deal would lead to a lighter sentence—Wang Qinian remained completely indifferent, as if he had become addicted to living in prison.

If it were anyone else, the Dutch prison had plenty of means to deal with them; making someone wish for death rather than life was too easy inside a prison. But the higher-ups had given orders: Wang Qinian must absolutely not be mistreated, and the People's Party must not be given a pretext. Even if it was a frame-up, they still had to have some regard for international appearances. Moreover, there were Dutch merchants in China; if Wang Qinian were mistreated here and the People's Party took retaliatory action, turning it into a messy dogfight, neither side would benefit.

After another round of meaningless interrogation, the farce temporarily ended. However, the prosecutor wasn't worried. Wang Qinian could be a stone in a latrine—hard and smelly—but many overseas Chinese did not possess such hard bones. The family fortunes they had accumulated over a lifetime were all in the Dutch East Indies, and they didn't have the conditions to resist to the end. Once these people were broken, they could use criminal deduction to entrap Wang Qinian, and then all they had to do was deport him. Law was really just a matter of doing that.

Not being able to mistreat Wang Qinian didn't equate to not being able to mistreat other overseas Chinese. Already, some Chinese, unable to withstand the torture and coercion, had admitted to their own criminal acts. And these acts weren't entirely false accusations; as for tax evasion, it was the same all over the world. It was truly easy for the tax bureau to find fault. The only problem was the lack of hard evidence to effectively link these people's confessions to Wang Qinian, which was the difficult spot for the Dutch side right now.

The Netherlands felt no danger at all in doing this. The entire world was wailing like ghosts and howling like wolves due to the Great Depression. Even without the wailing and howling, European countries and the US had no reason to stick their necks out for China, and certainly no reason to uphold justice for China. The only one who could speak a few words for China was the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union was viewed as a massive threat in Europe. Even if some countries wanted to say a few seemingly reasonable words of fairness, as long as the Soviet Union stood on China's side first, these countries could only shut their mouths. This was the reality China faced.

Britain wasn't just calculating against the Dutch; the Dutch were also calculating against the British. As long as China's naval power couldn't suppress Britain and Japan, any use of force by China against the Netherlands would face joint suppression by Britain and Japan. The Dutch East Indies were thousands of kilometers from China; if they suffered a military strike, Britain and Japan would bear the brunt of it. The Netherlands wasn't worried at all about encountering any danger themselves.

April 17, 1933.

The silhouette of a fleet appeared in the waters of the Dutch East Indies. The red flag of the Chinese People's Navy flew high on the mast of every ship in this fleet. In the command room, the fleet's supreme commander was Sa Zhenbing. This old man, over seventy years of age, had resolutely demanded to participate in this military operation before fully retiring. This was the farthest voyage by Chinese warships to date. The Military Commission, embracing an attitude of blowing the matter up, had dispatched a special task force combining the two main forces of the Nanyang Fleet and the Yellow Sea Fleet to demonstrate in the Dutch East Indies.

"Radar has detected enemy warships. Distance is approximately 80 kilometers to the due west."

"Reconnaissance Flight Group Three reports via telegram: Dutch fleet discovered. Strength: one destroyer, one frigate."

"Radar scan has not detected enemy submarines."

The special task force was composed of one aircraft carrier and two battleships as its core. The destroyers and frigates were all installed with new-model radars. While these couldn't compare to the Aegis and phased arrays of the 21st century, and the radar installed on ships with insufficient tonnage was single-function—either surface search, air search, or underwater sonar search—even so, the search capabilities of the special task force had reached an unprecedented level.

In terms of gunnery duel experience, the People's Navy didn't consider itself to have outstanding ability; it was said that some Japanese naval observers had eyesight keen enough to see stars in broad daylight. The loyalty and courage of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army were beyond doubt, and arming this loyal and courageous army was China's technology. The minimum education level of the naval fleet commanders and fighters was junior high school graduation, and the proportion of university graduates from the National Defense University exceeded 15%.

Sa Zhenbing looked at the bright green dot representing the enemy on the instrument display, his heart filled with a myriad of feelings. He was old, too old to actually participate in combat anymore, and the technological development of this era had gone beyond Sa Zhenbing's imagination. War began beyond the line of sight; this was already an era for young men.

"Continue forward!" Sa Zhenbing issued the order with composure. This would be his last time commanding a fleet of such scale.

"Left full rudder," the captain ordered.

"Left full rudder!" the commander shouted into the communicator.

"Rudder full left!" The helmsman's reply came quickly through the communicator. The fleet carved a beautiful large arc, turning its bow toward the direction of the enemy.

Thirty minutes later, the communications officer shouted again: "Submarine sonar has locked onto the enemy!"

The Navy's submarines were equipped with sonar, which was one of the People's Navy's killer maces. A moment later, the communications soldier shouted again: "Sonar has discovered traces of an enemy submarine."

Excited expressions appeared on the faces of all the commanders. Although they had tested this new equipment dozens or hundreds of times in exercises, this was the first time using it against an enemy. Many commanders couldn't help but clench and unclench their hands; as long as the fleet commander gave the order, battle could commence immediately.

At this point, the enemy hadn't even had time to react; it was very likely they hadn't yet discovered that such a large fleet had closed to within attack range. The People's Navy had already corrected its course, bearing straight down on the Dutch Navy. It wasn't until the two sides closed to a distance of 40 kilometers that the Dutch naval warships began to turn their headings in a panic, as if startled. They moved to intercept the People's Navy fleet. Dutch radio waves also appeared in the radio monitoring system. Presumably, they were sending an emergency transmission to the naval command in the Dutch East Indies.

"We can prepare for a strike at least half an hour in advance," Sa Zhenbing said leisurely in the command room.

Unless it was at the imminent-combat readiness level, warships were prepared for battle at any time. A well-trained navy, like the British or Japanese, could fire shells within a few minutes of encountering the enemy. Otherwise, from encounter to main gun salvo, it would take at least ten minutes or so. Ten minutes was enough for the torpedo planes and bombers of the carrier group to launch a round of attacks. If the enemy's luck was bad, by the time the battleships closed in, they would only be conducting roll-call fire against burning, exploding enemy vessels.

"Fire-control radar activated! Begin target lock." When the distance to the Dutch Navy was only 30 kilometers, the People's Navy was already prepped for firing.

"Laser auxiliary measurement start." The commander in charge of the gunnery system suppressed his excitement and issued the order.

Moments later, observers saw several bowl-sized red light spots appear on the side of the Dutch warship's hull. The light spots flickered. The firing system's calculators, based on the angle of the laser emission and the position of the laser emitter relative to the muzzle, quickly determined the firing angle.

The laser emitter quickly made fine adjustments. When the light spots of two laser beams appeared in almost the same position simultaneously, the absolute distance between the People's Navy vessel and the enemy was determined. With confirmed figures, hit probability would be greatly increased once fire was opened.

"Experiment complete!" the gunnery system commander shouted loudly. The laser emitter immediately ceased operation and entered standby mode.

This was the naval warfare of the future! Sa Zhenbing's heart surged with emotion. Even though it had been performed multiple times in practical exercises, having it verified in quasi-combat still gave this old soldier a massive shock. The opposing Dutch Navy still had no idea what had happened; with the characteristic valor of a navy, the Dutch Navy stubbornly closed in to shadow the sudden appearance of the Chinese fleet.

Sa Zhenbing ordered, "Sail according to plan." After speaking, he leaned back in the command chair and closed his eyes. Such a drill had consumed a great deal of Sa Zhenbing's energy; he indeed needed rest. In Sa Zhenbing's mind, the expression of relief on Chen Ke's face after personally participating in the exercise floated up. For this founder of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, that was rare. For Sa Zhenbing, the various precise, effective combat and search capabilities that generations of naval servicemen had fantasized about had all become reality. What was needed now was merely brave, bold, and astute actual combat. These were precisely the things the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army lacked least.

The sudden appearance of the People's Navy off the coast of the Netherlands' colony brought a massive shock to the Dutch. The Chinese wouldn't dare attack the Dutch East Indies—even after seeing the People's Navy's large fleet, the Dutch still believed this. However, the fact that the Chinese Navy had the ability to arrive at the coast of a Dutch-controlled region was still a huge impact. The last time such a thing had happened was 272 years ago, on the island of Taiwan, which at that time was nominally still within China's territory.