Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 71 Chinese in Arms

At 12:20 that evening, a group of Fuqing people on horseback arrived at Lai Renkang's mine, threw down seventeen guns and a large bag of bullets, and turned around and left without saying a word.

Lai Renkang quickly picked it up and smelled the fresh oil on the gun. He couldn't help but widen his eyes for a moment.

"New...new gun!"

"Dad, it's really a gun. Now that we have a gun, we won't be afraid of them anymore."

"But we only have seventeen people and seventeen guns, and they..."

"What are you afraid of? Dad, haven't you heard that a pile of sand can make a tower? Since Master Zheng has given each of us guns, all the Chinese in Kaki Bukit must have one. If we are scattered, we will be bullied by the Malays and Indians, but what if we gather together?"

"How can we get together? We all have our own careers, how can we get together?"

"Gather together and strike first, just like our brothers in Perak, strike first and destroy them."

"If we kill them, how are we going to explain this to the British?"

"Why bother with so much? Just kill it first!"

"........."

The same thing was happening almost simultaneously throughout Kaki Bukit, throughout Perlis, and even throughout the northern part of British Malaya.

The $900,000 originally raised for the Great Wall War of Resistance was used to produce arms day and night.

It was originally agreed that it would be supervised by the British, but then again, there is no guarantee that any signed agreement will be implemented.

Zheng Yi still fulfilled their duties of replacing equipment for the British army, but more than half of the production capacity was secretly retained.

Their current ability to make guns is passable, but the main problem is the lack of supply of bullets.

However, if one does not carry a gun for the purpose of anti-British colonialism but simply for self-protection, then a gun with eight or ten bullets is actually enough.

Even among the Chinese in the city, the gun ownership rate has increased.

As for the northern region, it is now almost the same as the western United States. There are gunfights every day.

Of course, while arming the Chinese, Zheng Yi did not forget the orders from the Colonial Office. The Colonial Office's police force was also undergoing a comprehensive equipment replacement, and the armaments of the Malays and Indians directly under the British Army were also being upgraded simultaneously.

This is also the reason why the British could barely tolerate the Chinese carrying guns and did not really start a war.

In the final analysis, it's all about self-protection.

As for Zheng Yi, he was not even opposed to arming those Indians and Malays. When Japan invaded in a few years, they would at least be a force of resistance.

Zheng Yi believed that if the Chinese wanted to have independent armed forces, they could only start from the border areas, especially the northern border, adjacent to Siam, which was just right to receive the Chinese who fled from Siam.

Although that place was very poor and had no money, it had an advantage that other regions in Malaya did not have. That was that it was next to Siam and at least there was no need to worry about starving to death.

The Siamese tycoon Yi Guangyan can be considered their collaborator. Although it is unlikely that he would provide them with arms, smuggling rice is too easy for them.

In fact, the British have been forced into a difficult situation by Zheng Yi, which is quite uncomfortable.

At present, the economic crisis has not yet passed. The Chinese in Malaya have achieved such good economic development in the past year or so. This is all due to the achievements of their colonial administration.
If we really turn against the Chinese for the sake of the Malays and Indians, we might even have to deploy troops on a large scale.

Then forget about the economy.

Besides, the Chinese are no longer a soft persimmon, and it is not easy to chew this hard bone.

To repeat, Zheng Yi has no way of fighting the British to the death. The Chinese people do not have that ability.

But they still had to be able to make the British a little wary of them. If things got really bad, they wouldn't be able to die with you, but they still had the ability to bite off a piece of you. He certainly couldn't drive the British out of Malaya, but if he could just drive the Director of the Colonial Office back to Britain, that would be easy enough.

But you say you don't care. The Chinese have guns and weapons, and their advantage over Indians and Malays is really too great.

The situation in which the Chinese and Malays had been balancing each other was broken.

What was even more unacceptable to the British was that Zheng Yi actually recruited a large number of unemployed Chinese in Penang to dig tunnels in Penang.

It is said that there are now more than 50,000 Chinese people digging tunnels in Penang.

Why the hell was he digging a tunnel for no reason?
Fifty thousand people are digging tunnels, and it is said that they can dig several kilometers a day. The tunnels are deep and large. Is this for Penang's independence?

In addition, no one knows who started it, but people in Penang are saying that in a few years, the power of the Chinese will become stronger, and Zheng Yi will become a tax farmer in Penang.

This is a bit much.

You Chinese haven't had a tax contractor for more than 40 years. Do you want to be a tax contractor without our British consent?

What are you going to do!

The so-called tax farmers, or Kapitans, were actually a system from the 18th and 19th centuries, where the British delegated the grassroots management of a region directly to the secret societies below, backed by the British army.

For example, the tax farmer of Kuala Lumpur, Loke Yew, was actually the mayor of Kuala Lumpur. He was in charge of all the Chinese except the British.
The British don't care what you Chinese do, as long as you pay enough taxes to the Colonial Office every year.

It is somewhat similar to project contracting and is a very loose management model.

But this was something from the 18th and 19th centuries. At that time, the British rule over Malaya was not very deep, there was no industrialization, and in fact, the profits that the Colonial Office could directly squeeze from the Chinese were not high, basically just counting heads.

The most crucial thing is that at that time, the proportion of Chinese in Southeast Asia was at most 20% to 30%.

Now it’s more than 50%, almost 60%.

You also have the ability to industrialize.

There are also military factories.

If I give Penang to you, will it still be mine in a few years?
Do you want to be a tax collector or a warlord?
Being a warlord in a colony of my British Empire?

Do you have that ability?
What’s even more amazing is that Zheng Yi has done so many things, but he himself seems to have never avoided it. He still flies back and forth between Penang and Kuala Lumpur every day, and the time he spends in Kuala Lumpur is no shorter than that in Penang.

They didn't know whether they had nothing to hide or were just confused.

However, just as Li Xiaoshi had expected, the Colonial Office felt that the Chinese in the north were difficult to deal with and, to be honest, it was not worth mobilizing troops. So, after Zheng Yi returned to Kuala Lumpur again, they sent several British policemen to block him at their doorstep.

"Mr. Zheng Yi, if it's convenient, could you please go with us to the police station to investigate a little?"

Hearing this, Zheng Yi didn't say anything. He had expected all this.

Wang Qiaoyun quickly stepped forward to stop them, saying, "What are you doing? Brother Zheng is one of the leaders of the Nanyang Chinese community and the leader of the Fuqing Gang. Do you know that if even a hair of his were to fall, all of Malaya would be in chaos?"

Zheng Yi smiled and patted Wang Qiaoyun's head, saying, "Don't worry, I'll be out in a few days at most. I know what's going on and have already made preparations.

By the way, go find my eldest brother Li Xiaoshi later and tell him not to panic. I'll be away for a few days to keep the Fuqing Gang stable. Keep things going as usual and don't disrupt the production rhythm."

"Also, tell him not to go around asking people for help on my behalf. It's useless. I can get out without him asking anyone. It won't be long before the British will be begging me to get out."

After saying that, Zheng Yi said to them calmly, "Let's go."

(End of this chapter)