War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

Amid the shocked sounds of Nanming's monarchs and ministers, two huge hot air balloons quietly floated over the Nanming army camp.

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

The next day, the Queen of Nanming went to Mara Port in person to explain the whole story to Britain and Austria.

That is - Qing pirates attacked the Dutch fleet and the British port successively, as the Queen of Nanming and the King of Brunei can 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 even more exciting news, that is, the so-called "Qing pirates" changed their name to the "Guangzhou Navy" after leaving, and even took away British warships.

This made two senior British officials shout "impossible", but the way to check 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 someone has stolen the goods and been appointed, no one can deny it, but this is an extremely serious diplomatic incident, even for Britain, a troublemaker.

Forcibly breaking into another country's naval base to inspect military equipment is no different from declaring war.

Billy Mullen Jr., the head of the British investigation team, felt that the matter was of great importance and needed to report it 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 it is selling stolen goods or modifying them, the other party can easily hide it from the investigation team.

Vice Admiral Raven Hoback advocated immediately leading the fleet to attack the Guangzhou Naval Station. He really didn't believe that those guys with pigtails could do anything to him.

After all, this fleet is a branch of the North Sea Fleet. Its weapons, soldier quality, and even the command level of its generals are among the highest in the UK and even the world.

When the two were arguing, they turned their attention to Archduke Friedrich, who quickly 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 authority to deploy troops privately without orders from my country, let alone participate in this kind of diplomatic dispute that may cause The friction."

Billy Mullen Jr., the head of the British investigation team, let out a sigh of relief. He was afraid that this stupid Austrian young man would stimulate the stupid young man on his side to do something outrageous.

This matter is too strange and involves too much. Prime Minister Robert Peel does not want the British Empire to fall into other crises. 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 London's imagination, and such a huge loss is enough to knock out the entire cabinet.

If you can't take immediate measures, I'm afraid your career will end here, but that's better than causing a diplomatic crisis and becoming a sinner in history.

Just then Friedrich spoke again.

"But I can give you a suggestion. Send someone to determine the authenticity 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 Jr., said in unison.

"What I mean is that there are ready-made candidates here who can gather information for you. Of course, I have no intention of covering up anyone. This is also to clear their suspicions. Am I right? Miss Zhu Qiongying."

Princess Sneka scolded Friedrich. He remembered something and then changed his words: "Her Majesty the Queen."

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

Faced with the opponent's actions that were completely beyond her imagination, Zhu Qiongying couldn't even think of any resistance.

She had seen the so-called "flying over walls and climbing over walls" in martial arts circles, but no one could survive a fall of more than ten meters, let alone dozens of meters.

In fact, what Zhu Qiongying saw was only hot air balloons and Deegan-assisted ornithopters, but these things were completely beyond the scope of knowledge of most people in the world at that time.

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

The so-called Deegan-assisted flapping aircraft is based on an aircraft invented by Austrian Deegan in 1808. He loved mechanical flight and built a human-powered ornithopter.

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

However, this thing is said to be an aircraft, but it is actually more like a hybrid of a hang glider and a parachute.

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

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

In fact, Franz was not 100% sure of success, but even if the person who jumped fell to death, as long as the letter could be delivered, he could still scare him, right?

Zhu Qiongying was still very cooperative with Friedrich. She immediately said that Nanming could help investigate where the "Guangzhou Navy" hid those ships.

Naturally, the British had no reason not to agree, and Nanming's actions were also very efficient. They quickly found out everything and even drew a detailed defense map of the Guangzhou Navy.

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

As for why Zhu Qiongying has this ability, of course it is because she sold those warships to the Guangzhou Navy under Franz's instruction.

Coincidentally, after the Opium War, the strength of the Guangzhou Navy was severely damaged. Emperor Daoguang ordered the newly appointed admiral Fan Zhentao to expand the navy and build a new type of warship equipped with broadside guns (actually a barbarian ship).

The admiral, the new official, has been in charge of the job for a long time, so he naturally wants to create some momentum so that he can "live up to the emperor's favor." So he outsourced shipbuilding based on the principles of "more, faster, better, and cheaper".

In the end, after several hands-offs, the job actually fell into the hands of Nanming and the gang of traitors, something that the senior officials of the Qing Dynasty would never have dreamed of.

Of course, what they didn't expect even more was that it would trigger a huge wave.

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

However, they had no good solution at this time. They could either verify it themselves, but this would involve a huge risk; or they could turn it into an unsolved case, but London would not believe that it was a pirate.

In the end, these two people decided to take a gamble. After all, it was related to their own career, the rise and fall of their party, and more importantly, the dignity of the British Empire.

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