The sun never sets in America

Chapter 198 Voyage: Lan Fang

Lanfang territory of Han Dynasty...

At this time, three years have passed since Lanfang surrendered to the Han Dynasty, and it is now the fourth year.

Three years can turn a newborn baby into a talking child, and it can also allow a person to learn a craft or a course.

For a country or a region, although three years is not a long time, it is definitely not a short time.

Since Lanfang belonged to the Han Kingdom, the first thing to bear the brunt was the regional impact.

For those surrounding indigenous nations on the large island of Borneo, the threat to Lan Fang has increased exponentially.

It turns out that they have always regarded Lanfang as a country on the same level, or as a rival, and even some indigenous countries still look down on Lanfang, and they are always ready to launch a wave of anti-Chinese attacks.

For the Dutch colonists, the overlord of Nanyang, it is not an exaggeration to describe Lanfang as if it was stuck in the throat after it returned to the Han Dynasty.

In fact, after the Han Dynasty defeated Mexico, the Dutch were worried that Lanfang would join the Han Kingdom, thereby destroying the Dutch colonial plan.

They even came up with the so-called plan to invade Lanfang and strike first.

But before the Dutch could react, the Han Dynasty took Lanfang into their hands, causing the Dutch's strategic plan to annex Lanfang to fail.

But after the Han Dynasty garrisoned troops in Lanfang and stationed a Nanyang squadron in Pontianak Port, the Dutch could no longer bear it.

This is also the main reason why at the beginning of this year, the Dutch minister to Han repeatedly protested against Han's interference in Lanfang and Nanyang affairs.

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs used peaceful means such as no malice and peaceful coexistence to send the Dutch away.

Although they were dismissed, as long as the Dutch looked at the map of Nanyang and looked at the location of Lanfang, it would be difficult for the Dutch to give up.

However, due to Han's defeat of the United States and the deterrence of the ocean fleet's visit in the fourth year of Longwu, the Dutch could only engage in some friction behind the scenes. As for fighting the Han with real swords and guns, the current Dutch, I don’t have the guts yet…

After all, the Dutch still have power after the Sino-American War. No matter how stupid the Dutch are, they will not take the lead at this time.

But this does not mean that the Dutch have given up. On the contrary, it can be seen from the recent armed conflicts between Lanfang and several surrounding indigenous countries, especially those indigenous people holding muskets and small cannons, that the Dutch have turned behind the scenes and used those Borneo natives who hate and fear Lan Fang constantly harass Lan Fang.

Lanfang was too busy to take care of himself, so he could not threaten the Dutch's core dominance in the East Indies.

Zhao Xusheng, the governor of Han Dynasty in Lanfang, was well aware of this situation. While he mobilized Lanfang's internal militia to station at the border, he wrote to the commander of the Pacific Fleet, Baoyunshan, requesting to send more warships to Nanyang to embolden him... …

Then he traveled to Batavia to discuss relations with Pacino, the governor of the Dutch East Indies Colony, and promised not to seek to challenge the hegemony of the Dutch Kingdom in the East Indies.

After hearing this, Pacino just used a few words to prevaricate. Obviously everyone is a veteran. Who would believe what you say? ?

It's just a delaying tactic! !

Zhao Xusheng, who returned to Lanfang, summoned the big families from the original Lanfang country who had been granted Han titles and asked them to fund military expenditures to fight against the barbarians.

The reason for this is that in recent years, in response to the Han Dynasty's rubber cane sugar strategy, Lanfang territory, which is located in the southern tropical region, has been issued a large number of documents to plant rubber and expand sugar production.

And some of these documents were even sent by the cabinet. It is said that the words from above are broken by the actions from below.

A large amount of Lanfang's financial revenue had to be invested in reclaiming tropical rainforests and planting rubber trees, which was costly and extremely slow to produce results.

The only thing that may have great achievements may be cane sugar. As a tropical island, coupled with the existing cultivated land, Lanfang's location is naturally suitable for growing sugar cane and producing cane sugar.

For this reason, the Han State-owned Han Sugar Company also invested three million yuan in Lanfang to build a cane sugar refining factory that is currently the largest and fastest in the Far East.

Every year, sucrose worth more than [-] million Chinese dollars is transported to the surrounding Far East region, which can be said to be of very high value.

But the more you earn, the more you spend. Just to reclaim the tropical rainforest and plant rubber every year costs at least [-] million yuan. You must know that the annual fiscal revenue of the entire Lanfang region is only [-] million yuan. Throwing away the daily maintenance expenses, there is basically no money left. This is the main reason why Lanfang asked the local big players to pay.

It’s not intentional extortion, but I really don’t have any money! !

As for the local dignitaries of the former Lanfang Kingdom, it was actually quite difficult to get them to pay. You must know that the reason why they wanted to join the Han Kingdom in the first place was to find a backer so that they could make a fortune comfortably.

But now, a few years after they had made a fortune, Han came to them for money. To be honest, many people disagreed.

Later, Ye Tengfei, the last ruler of Lanfang who had originally proposed to join the Han Dynasty, took the lead in donating [-] Chinese yuan, and this group of talents followed suit one after another.

The total income was [-] million yuan, which was just enough to fight thousands of local militiamen in Lanfang for three months. As for what to do after three months, they could only wait for the Pacific Fleet warships to put pressure on the Dutch.

As for the rule of Lanfang by the Han State, it has never been as strict as that of the mainland. From the status of Lanfang, we can see that this place is only a territory on the political map of the Han State. It is the lowest among subordinate units. etc. exist.

Maybe it will go up higher when we establish colonies in the future, but the reality is that it is the lowest here.

According to the position given to Lanfang by the Han cabinet, it was a supplier of sugar raw materials, rubber raw materials, and even rice.

It is downstream in the entire Han industrial chain and serves as a resource base.

This status is actually very embarrassing. This person named Lanfang will not make much progress in industry, especially under the decision-making of the new Han cabinet, the strategy of strong branches and weak branches was officially adopted.

According to this theory, only places where provinces are established are eligible to engage in industry, especially heavy industries related to national security.

Even Penglai Province, which is located overseas, only has one medium-sized ammunition factory and one warship repair shop. Even the shipbuilding industry that could have developed was banned. In the end, only some repair shipyards existed, specifically for shipbuilding. Local merchant ships and fishing boats provide services.

This is true for Penglai Province, not to mention the territory of Lanfang. You must know that Lanfang is still jointly governed with the local big families according to the treaty signed at the time. From this point of view, Lanfang is a special existence in the entire Han governance system. .

The local area has its own militia. Although the soldiers are under the supervision of the cabinet, the governor is appointed by the Han State, and even some key positions are dispatched from the Han State, but he cannot handle the local Nanyang Chinese and mixed-race population. Over time, the middle and lower classes have become Most of the officials are locals.

The locals huddle together for warmth and form gangs, such as the Southern Fujian Gang, the Northern Guangdong Gang, the Southern Guangdong Gang, and the Jiangsu and Zhejiang Gangs who immigrated to Lanfang in recent years.

If you add in the senior officials sent by the Han Kingdom, such as Governor Zhao Xusheng, then the internal situation of the entire Lanfang territory will be very complicated.

So much so that within the Han State, there is a saying that Lanfang is the only autonomous territory of the Han State.

Even Liu Peng himself didn't say anything about this. Instead, he just said such meaningful words when he dispatched the new governor of Lanfang Territory: "Lanfang affairs are not as important as domestic affairs, although national affairs must be given priority." , but you can’t take arbitrary power, you just need to control the overall situation!!”

Although these words are a bit obscure, the actual meaning is that Lanfang is not a local, and it is not possible to use local methods. The interests of the Han country should be put first, but for local affairs, as long as the overall situation is controlled, there is no need to interfere. too much.

The implication is that if the locals want to fight among themselves, let them fight among themselves. Anyway, as long as it does not hinder the rule and economic interests of our Han country, they can do whatever they like.

This is actually the way the UK treats Canada, Australia, South Africa and other places. It only cares about economic gains and national interests, and does not care about anything else. As long as you stand together with the British Empire and follow the call of the British Empire, the British Empire can receive Benefits and other things will not be mixed in.

The Han Dynasty was more stringent than the British, and added many political conditions. For example, in addition to sending governors, it also sent other officials to govern.

This is also to prevent the local situation from getting out of control. After all, if the British approach is followed, how can the local government tolerate most of the local finances being invested in bottomless rubber.

You know, this is the tax paid by the local people. It will take three or even four consecutive years to pay for the rubber that may take more than ten years to recover the investment. If the local people are in power, even if they agree to the above It is estimated that most of the demands were made in a positive and negative way, or even in direct confrontation with the central court.

In fact, many local people are very dissatisfied with the current behavior of throwing money into the rainforest. They have repeatedly requested the Governor's Office to allocate part of the money and invest it in local public areas such as medical care, education, and infrastructure, just to name a few. Said, for the welfare of Lanfang people.

However, successive governors only made promises but did not do anything. They only continued to intensify their efforts to drain local finances and throw money into the rainforest.

After all, for these people, coming to Lanfang to become an official is just to accumulate qualifications. Once they have enough qualifications, strength, and connections, they will naturally try their best to be transferred back to the Han Dynasty.

Even if you don’t have the strength, you will try your best to shorten your time away as much as possible.

Under such circumstances, it is absolutely impossible for these people to seriously develop Lanfang.

Such behavior has accumulated a lot of resentment in the hearts of Lanfang locals over the past few years. This is also the main reason why many local forces are reluctant after Zhao Xusheng persuaded him to donate. The issue of donating money is actually a secondary issue. The most important issues are the status of Lanfang people and the economic distribution of Lanfang.

Whether the newly appointed Zhao Xusheng knows about these issues, of course he does.

But it is easier to know than to do. First of all, the biggest trouble is finance. How to allocate more finance to Lanfang local without violating the rubber production expansion order above is actually a very test of wisdom.

After thinking about it for a long time, Zhao Xusheng suddenly figured out something when he inspected the local militia drill in Lanfang.

That is, since Lanfang's local finance and economy are limited, it is impossible to achieve a balance between rubber and Lanfang.

Then just don't do it well. Why should we be friendly to the neighboring small countries? These guys are not good people in the first place.

If their country is destroyed and their population and money are robbed, not only can the current financial problems be solved, but also manpower will be available for rainforest development and rubber planting, which can reduce development costs and even rob a batch of people. Property construction in Lanfang local area alleviates the conflict between local people and the local Han people! !

While Zhao Xusheng watched the militiamen practicing with guns, a bold idea came to him...

The consequences were unbelievable when Zhao Xusheng looked back decades later.

An accidental idea created a Nanyang monster...Lan Fang! !

.............................................

Pontianak Port…

After three years of renovation and expansion, the entire Pontianak Port has reached the top five levels in Southeast Asia in terms of port scale.

Ranked ahead of Pontianak Port are Batavia, Malacca, and even the few ports on the Indochina Peninsula.

In addition to a commercial port, the entire Pontianak Port also opened a military port with a fort next to it.

There were six warships transferred from the Han Dynasty to Lanfang docked in the military port. These warships together formed the Han Dynasty's Nanyang Fleet.

The so-called Nanyang Fleet should actually be added with a word, because it is affiliated to the Pacific Fleet of Han Dynasty stationed in Penglai Province and is a subordinate naval unit.

Because of the affiliation, the quality of the warships in the entire Nanyang Fleet is not very high. The largest ship, the local flagship Lanfang, is just a third-class steam sail warship.

Among the remaining five, only two fourth-level ships have been steam-modified, and the remaining three fifth- and sixth-level battleships are still ordinary sailing battleships.

It can be seen from this that the Nanyang Fleet is the weakest fleet in the entire Han Navy. Even steamization has not been fully popularized. Because of this, the Nanyang Fleet is also called the "Nanyang Fleet" by the local naval officers. The Maritime Museum means it is too old.

This is also the main reason why Zhao Xusheng wrote to Baoyunshan asking for help.

After all, facing the East India Fleet of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, there is no certainty that just relying on these six warships to form a half-young fleet.

…………

At five o'clock in the afternoon, not far from the time when the sun went down, a steam merchant ship flying the Chinese flag docked in Pontianak Port.

This merchant ship is the Happiness from North Korea.

We stayed in North Korea for six days. During these six days, the Xingfu was selling industrial products from Han and buying ginseng produced in North Korea, intending to bring it back home and sell it at a high price.

In the Han Dynasty, ginseng and other Chinese medicinal materials from the Far East have always been the most valuable commodities.

After all, the climate in Han is very different from that in China. It is still difficult to grow the same Chinese medicinal materials as those in China. Even if they are grown, the efficacy of the medicine will be greatly reduced due to the unsuitable soil and water, and ginseng may even turn into radish. joke.

Therefore, the trade in medicinal materials has always been the most prosperous trade between the Han Dynasty and the Far East. Among them, the ginseng produced in the Liaodong region of the Qing Dynasty can often be sold at a high price in the Han Dynasty according to its size and age.

Because Liaodong ginseng is too expensive, North Korea, which is adjacent to Liaodong, has become the biggest substitute.

In fact, the medicinal efficacy of ginseng produced in the area near Liaodong in northern North Korea is not much different from that of Liaodong ginseng, and can even be said to be exactly the same.

But just because the place of origin is wrong, the price will drop by at least [-]%. But also because of this, compared to the expensive Liaodong ginseng, North Korean ginseng has the largest sales volume and the widest market in Han.

When Bai Erwen and Luo Daniu got off the Xingfu, what they saw was a Pontianak city that blended Han, Nanyang, Western and other styles. It was also the center of Lanfang's rule.

In Pontianak City, you can see Nanyang-style pointed temples, as well as Dutch and Spanish-style red and yellow Western-style buildings.

There are even many square buildings, which are currently the most popular in Han Dynasty. Several different styles of buildings are mixed together to form the city of Pontianak with a population of [-]. (The square architecture refers to Chicago and Detroit in the United States during the Great Lakes Industrial Period)

Throughout the city, the three races of Chinese, foreign and native are mixed, with Chinese accounting for the majority, followed by natives, and third by whites.

There are many tropical trees planted on both sides of the street, and even coconut trees are planted in front of some people's houses.

When Bai Erwen and Luo Daniu sat on the local tuk-tuk, looking at the scenery outside the curtain, they were a little dazzled for a moment. (A tuk-tuk is actually a three-wheeled bicycle, but because the local heat is too hot and the sun is too harsh, a cover is added. Because the driver drives around in the streets and alleys, it is also called a tuk-tuk)

Jingle bell... Jingle bell...

Each such tutu three-wheeled bicycle has a bell. During the riding process, it will make a jingling sound, which also helps pedestrians and peers in front of them to give way in advance.

"Give me this..."

"How much??"

"Two copper coins..."

Bai Erwen and Luo Daniu stood in front of a coconut stall and bought two coconuts that can also be drunk in Hawaii. However, when they drank it, they always felt that the taste of Lanfang was sweeter and had a special flavor. aroma.

"Erzi, look over there..." Luo Daniu pulled Bai Erwen aside who was still sipping coconut water, and pointed to a shop opposite with a signboard and colorful pictures.

Bai Erwen took a closer look and saw the four characters "Star Dance Hall" written on the signboard. There were also small signs below, introducing the services inside. One of the Indian belly dance performances attracted Bai Erwen's attention.

"Lao Luo..." Bai Erwen called Luo Daniu affectionately.

"What's the matter??" Luo Daniu didn't understand what Bai Erwen meant.

"Are we brothers??" Bai Erwen asked Luo Daniu with a smile.

"Yeah, what's wrong??" Luo Daniu replied without thinking, but as soon as he finished speaking, his heart skipped a beat.

"Since we are brothers, there is nothing to say. Brother Luo will pay for today's consumption!!" Bai Erwen patted Luo Daniu's strong chest and pulled him towards the Star Ballroom opposite.

"Ahem, when did I say I was going to treat you, wait a minute!!"

"You said it yourself, we are brothers, brothers, how can we tell each other apart, right?"

The arguments between Luo Daniu and Bai Erwen came from the Star Ballroom.

In Lanfang City, a plan is being brewed against the surrounding indigenous kingdoms.

No one knows what it will bring, but there is no doubt that every step of the Lanfang Governor's Mansion will change history and the history of the entire Nanyang.

　Ask for a reward, ask for a monthly ticket

　　

　

(End of this chapter)