On the same day, diplomats in Lisbon contacted the British Ambassador in Lisbon, and the news quickly spread to the UK.
After the British Prime Minister, the Marquess of Salisbury, convened a cabinet meeting, they still favored Portugal regarding the incident between the Qing Dynasty and Portugal.
After all, Portugal is also its younger brother, but the British cabinet does not want to offend the Qing Dynasty too much, because the Qing Dynasty now makes a huge contribution to the British economy.
Therefore, the British cabinet finally made a resolution, authorizing the Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces in Hong Kong to dispatch a fleet to Macau to prevent a war between the Qing Dynasty and Portugal in Macau.
At the same time, the British Governor in Hong Kong was appointed to coordinate the negotiations between the Qing Dynasty and Portugal to ensure that the two sides stopped the war.
However, in order to ensure the interests of the Western powers in China, the British also ordered the British Governor in Hong Kong to tilt toward Portugal during negotiations, so as not to damage Portugal's fundamental interests in Macau.
And Liu Hai didn't know that during the time he left Shanghai, the international situation was already changing.
After three days of sailing, his small fleet finally arrived off the coast of Macau.
At this time, the Portuguese Governor in Macau, Gao CaoSe, had also received news from China. He already knew that the Qing Dynasty had sent three cruisers south, and one of them was the 8,500-ton armored cruiser Insolence.
The governor of Macau felt bad all over. Apart from some patrol boats, there was not a single decent warship in Macau. There were thousands of troops stationed in the army, but they couldn't go to sea to fight the warships.
So the governor of Macau had to order all the army troops to enter the forts and prepare to rely on the forts in Macau to fight the Qing army.
However, Gao Kaose also knew that this was just a show of affection and had no effect at all, because Macau was on the territory of the Qing Dynasty. The Qing army could land from any place and then attack the rear of Macau, and the main function of the fort was
It blocks the sea, but it doesn't have much of a deterrent effect on land.
Gao Kauser hurriedly contacted the British Governor in Hong Kong, hoping that he could send troops to assist the Portuguese defense. However, the Governor in Hong Kong did not agree to his request, because if this matter went wrong, it would escalate to the conflict between the two countries.
There was a diplomatic dispute, and Britain did not want to offend the Qing Dynasty to death.
Therefore, Shang Gaokao could only wait helplessly in Macau for the arrival of the Qing fleet.
After Liu Hai's fleet arrived near Macau, he immediately took action. He first led the cruiser to patrol the waters off Macau, and all ships entering and leaving Macau would be intercepted by him.
Seeing this situation, the Governor of Macau could not stand it. He hurriedly sent an envoy in a small boat to Liu Hai's ship, the Jiangsu, and wanted to negotiate with Liu Hai.
At that time, Fernand was approaching Liu Hai's fleet in a small boat. The first thing he saw was the majestic Jiangsu.
After seeing this battleship, Fernand's heart dropped. Not to mention Macau, even in Portugal, there was no warship that could compete with this battleship.
Now he was also a little angry in his heart. All the gentlemen in the country only made decisions based on their heads, but they did not know the actual situation of the Qing Dynasty.
Now that Portugal is really at war, can it really compete with the Qing Dynasty?
When Liu Hai received the report that the Portuguese envoy was coming, he immediately ordered someone to take the envoy to the conference hall of the Jiangsu without any delay.
Fernand boarded the Jiangsu along the ladder. After boarding the warship, he looked around. He was looking at the armament and personnel of the Jiangsu armored cruiser.
Along the way, he saw that the Jiangsu's equipment was neat and well-maintained, and its various artillery pieces were well maintained. Moreover, the crew members on board all had serious faces, acted neatly, and operated in a standardized manner. This made him even more disappointed with Portugal's future.
It was under the control of this emotion that Fernand entered the council chamber. Then he looked up and saw a young general sitting in the middle.
Fernand looked at the general sitting in the middle and had no intention of standing up to salute. Although he blamed the general in his heart, he had to bow his head under the eaves, so he had no choice but to step forward and salute Liu Hai first.
"My Majesty Fernandez, by order of the Portuguese Governor in Macao, has come to ask you why you want to block the waters of Macao."
Liu Hai looked serious, "Your Majesty, did you say something wrong? Macau has always been the territory of the Qing Dynasty. What's wrong with our Nanyang Fleet's actions here?"
After hearing this, Fernand hurriedly defended: "Although Macau is the territory of the Qing Dynasty, it was leased to me by the Portuguese Empire a long time ago. Now the warships led by the general are patrolling overseas in Macau and intercepting merchant ships, which is a violation of the agreement between the two countries.
"
After listening to the other party's sophistry, Liu Hai slapped the table and his eyes widened, "Since 1845, Portugal has never given me a penny in rental fees from the Qing Dynasty. According to the agreement, Macau should have been taken back by our country long ago. I am sure
The Qing Dynasty did not take back Macau in the hope of peace between the two countries, so you should be honest. But then you expelled our Qing officials, unilaterally occupied Macau, and now you want to permanently occupy Macau through a contract. What do you think?
What should I do?"
After hearing this, Fernand also lowered his head. This matter was indeed done sloppily in China. They did not understand that the Qing Dynasty's naval strength was rapidly expanding, and they made the decision to permanently occupy Macau through a contract.
"Your Majesty General, this is a matter between the two governments. Our Macau local government only hopes that you can immediately lift the blockade on Macau so that commercial trade can continue."
Liu Hai looked into the other party's eyes and said word by word: "I am going south to Macau under the orders of the imperial court. I will never give up halfway. Go back and tell the Governor of Macau that if you want me to withdraw my troops, Macau must return to the state it was in before 1840."
, If not, my general’s army will march straight in, and everyone will be devastated, so don’t blame me for being ruthless.”
After Liu Hai said this, he stopped talking nonsense to Fernand and directly ordered people to drive him out.
After Fernand left the Jiangsu armored cruiser, he returned to the main island of Macau in a small boat and reported Liu Hai's request to the Governor of Macau, Gao Kauser.
After listening to Fernand's report, Gao Kauser was worried about the ants on the hot pot, but there was nothing he could do.
Now he can only send a report to the country, explain Liu Hai's requirements to the country, and ask for clear instructions from the country.
The other side kept sending people to plead with the Governor of Hong Kong and immediately sent warships for reinforcements.
But the current Governor of Hong Kong, Cameron, is just an agent. He is actually the Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces in Hong Kong. He does not dare to make such a major decision and can only report to the country.
Until the country sent an order, agreeing to send the Hong Kong fleet to reinforce Macau and divide the military forces of the two sides so that the two sides could avoid conflicts.
Only then did Cameron send the fleet stationed in Hong Kong to Macau.
But after this back and forth, and the fact that three or four days have passed since the negotiations in London, the entire Macau has been almost completely sealed off. Merchant ships from Macau cannot go out to sea, and merchant ships coming to Macau can only transfer to Hong Kong.
Macau's economic losses have been huge.
When the Hong Kong fleet appeared off the coast of Macau, Macau Governor Gao Kaosu finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Cameron brought his warships to the waters off Macau and inserted himself between the Macau and Liu Hai fleets, dividing the forces of the two countries.
After receiving the report, Liu Hai came to the side of the ship and observed the Hong Kong fleet with a monocular.
After reading this, Liu Hai couldn't help but shake his head. Although Britain is the world's largest naval power, its territory is too large and there are many places to use warships. As a result, when they were assigned to Hong Kong, they were all old ships.
However, although Liu Hai had the ability to eliminate the opponent within two hours, he did not dare to have any contempt.
Because the opponent is standing behind that behemoth, the British Empire. Even if this fleet is completely annihilated, the British Empire will quickly mobilize warships from all over the world for support.
After dividing the two sides, Cameron was very satisfied to see that the Qing fleet did not take further action.
It seems that the other party is still very afraid of the military strength of the British Empire.
So the acting governor sent invitation letters to Liu Hai and Macau Governor Gao Kaose respectively, asking them to come to the British ironclad ship for talks to peacefully resolve the Macau issue.
After Liu Hai received the notice from the other party, he did not hesitate at all. Originally, he did not want to go to the south this time to fight. Now with the British adjustment, as long as the territorial integrity of Macau can be preserved, he can explain to the court.
So Liu Hai took a few escorts and took a transport boat to the British ironclad.
After Liu Hai boarded the British armored ship, he looked at the armored ship up and down and found that its tonnage was still quite large, but it used front-loaded artillery.
Before Liu Hai could look at it for a long time, the first mate on the ship led Liu Hai into the conference room of the armored ship. At this time, the Governor of Macau had been waiting for a long time.
As the landlord, Cameron sat in the middle, then asked Liu Hai and Gao Kaose to sit on both sides of him, and started the mediation this time.
"Two gentlemen, this time we are holding consultations on the Macau issue. Please express your opinions."
As soon as Gao Kaose finished speaking in Cameron Highlands, he immediately roared, "I demand that the Qing fleet leave the waters off Macau immediately, compensate for the losses caused to Macau this time, and promise that Macau will be the territory of the Kingdom of Portugal from now on."
After hearing what he said, Liu Hai ignored him and turned to Cameron, who was sitting in the middle.
"Mr. Governor, you have also seen the other party's attitude. Do you think it is necessary for us to continue talking?"
Cameron also has some headaches about the Governor of Macau. You don't even look at the current strength gap between the two sides. Even if I favor you, I can't make it too obvious.
So Cameron could only persuade Gao Kauser, "Sir, I think you should face the current reality and come up with some feasible and constructive plans instead of asking for high prices."
After Gao Kaose listened to his background and what Cameron said, he immediately understood. It seemed that the other party did not want to offend the Qing Dynasty too much. His asking price just now made the British a little dissatisfied.