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Chapter 1732 The Wall of Sishui (Third update, please subscribe)

Surabaya.

The streets are filled with a unique atmosphere of prosperity. Like all cities in Southeast Asia, the streets here are filled with all kinds of Nanyang-made products.

Wuling, Volkswagen, Alfa Romeo and of course BMW.

Amid the traffic and the constant flow of pedestrians, Surabaya is a highly urbanized area. Although its area exceeds 70 square kilometers, Surabaya is home to % of the country's population. The highly concentrated population makes everything here full of urban prosperity.

The towering skyscrapers, the towering buildings, the bustling pedestrians, the endless flow of cars, everything looks a little similar to SEA.

This is a characteristic of many places in Southeast Asia - they are all rapidly becoming SEA-ized.

This is true in all aspects of people's life, including food, clothing, housing and transportation.

Of course, they also have some local characteristics here.

What are the characteristics of Surabaya?
On the armored vehicles on the roadside, armed soldiers were watching the surroundings vigilantly, and patrolling on the road were not only policemen, but also soldiers with live ammunition.

Police officers generally use the M1 Carbine.

And what about the soldiers?

They were using AR15 carbines.

The most common sights on the streets of Surabaya are armed military and police officers, which is the characteristic of this place.

“It’s unlike anywhere else.”

In a roadside cafe, Anderson explained to Simon:

"There are nearly five million people here, of which there are about 1.6 million natives, mainly Madurese people. This is the result of their annexation of Madurese..."

Territorial expansion comes at a price. Surabaya annexed Madura Island and tens of thousands of square kilometers of land, but the price was the addition of more than one million natives.

Pointing to some dark-skinned Southeast Asians around him, Anderson said:

"You see, they seem to be no different from the Tang people, but in fact, there are still huge differences between them, in appearance, skin color, personality, beliefs, diet..."

Pointing to a woman walking by on the side of the road, he continued:

"Here, their men will marry local women. They are often proud to marry a Tang person, because it means that the status and fate of women will undergo earth-shaking changes."

As an intelligence officer of the representative office in Surabaya, Anderson has a certain understanding of this place, which is why Simon found him, hoping to get a fuller understanding of this land from him.

Listening to his introduction, Simon said:
"Yes, it's the same in SEA. Many foreign trainees are proud to marry a Chinese. Marrying them means they can become SEA citizens and enjoy the same benefits as them."

Nodding, Anderson said:

"This is crucial, but it is completely different here than in SEA. Even if a local native marries them, it takes 10 years to become a citizen, and they also need to pass an exam."

"take an exam?"

Simon was a little curious and asked:
"What kind of investigation?"

"It's the naturalization test. They need people who can really integrate into their community. After all, this is different. There's no sea between Surabaya and its neighbors. So, they have set pretty strict requirements, like ID cards."

"I know that the identity cards in Mindanao and Malaysia have different colors. They are yellow, pink and light green. The three colors represent different origins..."

There are some local characteristics that are common. After all, their officials have all been trained in the same school. As for the police, most of them studied at the Police Academy in Kuching, so the management models are extremely similar.

Listening to Simon's explanation, Anderson nodded and said:

"Yes, that's about right, but most of the natives here have green certificates."

Then Anderson looked around and said:
“Green certificates will always be seen as outsiders.”

"So, they're actually protecting against those people, right?"

Simon asked knowingly.

Anderson did not answer him, but took a sip of coffee and said:

"If you want to understand this place, just observe slowly!"

Observation, what are we observing here?

In this way, Simon began his journey to Surabaya. Like all travelers, he rented a car, a 1960s model, a small car that didn't even have electric start. Although it was small, Simon, who was over six feet tall, didn't feel cramped at all when sitting in it.

He first went to the northern border area.

In the past few months, the refugee crisis in the border area has been impacting this new country. After leaving the city, there are industrial areas on both sides of the road. In the past decade or so, this place, like many other places, has undertaken the industrial transfer of SEA. A large number of clothing factories, toy factories, and shoe and hat factories have settled here. The prosperity of the industry has promoted local development.

Surabaya now has more than just textile industries. There are even petrochemical industrial parks and large modern enterprises such as shipyards on Madura Island. Everything seems to show the prosperity here. Container trucks travel on the roads, and those trucks transport the goods produced in the factories to the ports and then to SEA and Europe and the United States by container ships.

Gradually, the industrial park buildings disappeared on both sides of the road, and the fields on both sides of the road turned into rice fields and plantations.

Although we have entered the agricultural area, we rarely see natives.

Most of these lands belong to the Tang people. Occasionally, you can see some soldiers and policemen. From their uniforms, you can tell they are the National Guard.

In Surabaya, military service is implemented for all citizens, regardless of gender, and everyone over the age of 18 must serve in the military. After citizens have completed their active service, they will be transferred to the reserve service. The reserve service period is generally until the age of 50 for men and 38 for women.
Apart from the army, navy and air force, most people are in the National Guard. When Simon first came to Surabaya, he saw that there were many young and beautiful girls here. They would carry guns, stroll leisurely, or drink coffee together in groups of two or three, or go shopping.

Female soldiers usually serve in local security forces, so the management of female soldiers is not as strict as that of male soldiers. After completing a day's tasks and work, they can go home, just like "getting off work", and they just need to return to the barracks the next day.

Therefore, they have beautiful faces and good figures, and because they carry guns, they have a different kind of beauty that attracts people's attention.

These female soldiers wearing green military pants and white or black sleeveless vests attract people's attention like a beautiful landscape.

Shortly after leaving the city, Simon was stopped at a checkpoint at a bridgehead. The inspection was carried out by male soldiers, and during the inspection, the machine guns at the bridgehead were aimed at his car.

When the young soldier saw that he was of European appearance, he said in English:

"Sir, please show your ID and open the trunk."

Simon quickly took out his ID.

"Here's my passport and drivers, sir."

While the documents were being checked, the trunk was also searched and even searched with a military dog ​​to make sure there was no contraband.

"Sir, another 30 kilometers ahead is the border area, where martial law is in place. If you don't have anything else to do, I suggest you return to the city."

"Sir, I want to go to the border."

Simon explains:
"This is my job."

The other party looked at him, then looked at his diplomatic passport, nodded, and let him pass.

After the car left the bridgehead, Simon glanced in the rearview mirror and muttered:

“This is Surabaya.”

An area that is always on high alert.

Soon, the car arrived at the border, and was stopped two kilometers away from the border.

"Sir, please turn around and go back immediately. It's very dangerous here."

Dangerous, how dangerous?
"Someone is attacking the border again!"

They were refugees gathered at the border area. Soon, Simon got into a car with an American reporter. Hatice from The New York Times introduced him:
“There are refugees everywhere.”

Hatice said:
"Hundreds of thousands of refugees from all over Java gathered at the border of Surabaya, believing they could live a better life here."

"In Java, they can only earn tens of thousands of rupiahs a year, which is about tens of dollars, but here they can earn thousands of yuan a year, which is about three or four hundred dollars. Of course they are willing to come here."

The translator Asheng, who was driving the car, said:
"However, not everyone is welcome here. Here, we are us and they are them."

He said with certainty.

"People's memories cannot be erased. Here, if you are born a Tang person, you will always be a Tang person."

He felt that his explanation was not clear enough, so he added:
"Born as a Tang person, you will be an outsider all your life."

Ah Sheng, who was driving the car, revealed the secret in one sentence - for these locals, in their eyes, no matter how poor these people were, they considered themselves locals, and the Tang people were outsiders. Even if they were crying and wanting to come to Si Shui, in their eyes - it was the Tang people who had taken away their Si Shui.

Originally Si Shui should have been theirs, originally they should have lived a good life here, originally everything here belonged to them.

So, this is where their differences lie.

Finally, they arrived at the border, where barbed wire stood. In addition to the barbed wire wall, there were two accordion-shaped wire fences. On the other side of the barbed wire, there were crowds of refugees everywhere. These refugees from all over the place grabbed the barbed wire and shouted there.

"Have mercy and give us a chance to live!"

"Have mercy, we also want to live..."

The refugees were shouting and there were also children crying. Everything was heartbreaking and painful to those who saw it. Some people even held up their children and said:

"At least give the children a chance to live..."

On the other side of the border, the guards watched all this with cold eyes...

(End of this chapter)