If Qin Zhiyuan chooses to withdraw the manpower of the umbrella company in Borneo, then once there are people left, Qin Zhiyuan must give up these people.
At least in name, I have to give up.
So in the future, there is a question mark as to whether these remaining people can remain 100% loyal to Qin Zhiyuan in the face of the crazy encirclement and suppression by the Dutch.
Especially after the Dutch were driven out of Borneo, whether these people would still recognize Qin Zhiyuan's leadership was an important question.
Qin Zhiyuan wants to fight a proxy war and does not want to raise a white-eyed wolf.
Proxy war is a situation that often occurs when certain major powers in the 21st century find it inconvenient to openly quarrel with each other.
In Chinese terms, this is called: building a plank road openly and secretly building a plank road.
Qin Zhiyuan just wanted to fight a proxy war in Borneo.
The problem now is that under the current circumstances, in order to defeat the Germans, the French will not publicly break up with the Dutch for the sake of face and take the blame for bullying.
Then those who stay in Borneo will have to face the pressure of the Dutch alone. Whether they can withstand it is a big question.
The Dutch army was okay, and they were certainly no match for the Chinese troops that were swarming across the European battlefields, but the Dutch navy was a big problem.
The Dutch navy currently has three 3,500-ton coastal defense battleships, five 5,000-ton coastal defense battleships, six 3,800-ton Holland-class protected cruisers, and one 6,530-ton Seven Provinces Union coastal defense battleship.
Most of these warships are old models from the 19th century. Except for the Seven Provinces Alliance ship, which is younger, the rest are grandfather-class warships that should have been retired long ago.
Even this Seven Provinces Alliance ship is more than ten years old.
Although the Dutch fleet looked obsolete at this time, it could still dominate Borneo. You know, Zhang Tianshou and the others didn't even have heavy artillery, so when facing the Dutch Grandfather-class battleships, they simply couldn't
There is no counterattack capability.
If Qin Zhiyuan wants to fight with the Dutch, then he must at least have the strength to compete with the Dutch at sea.
Of course, this kind of competition does not mean that Zhang Tianshou and others want to establish a naval fleet with similar strength to the Dutch, but that they only need to lower the level of the Dutch and bring their navy to the same level as Zhang Tianshou and others.
Again, it is always easier to destroy than to build. Since no warships will be built for a while, then we should find a way to sink the Dutch warships. Neither side has warships, so there is no advantage.
So the scheduled arms still had to be shipped, but the destination was changed from Surabaya to Christmas Island, 400 kilometers south of Java.
Christmas Island had always been a territory of the Lion City before. When Qin Zhiyuan ordered Gaspard to look for an island where an airport could be built, Christmas Island came into Gaspard's sight.
At this time, the Lion City government was not synonymous with cleanliness and efficiency. Corruption and incompetence were their label. Gaspard obtained the ownership of Christmas Island from the Lion City government without much effort.
The total area of Christmas Island is 135 square kilometers. Gaspard paid 1.35 million francs for it. Ten thousand francs per square meter sounds extremely cheap, but compared with the new Baku area, it is extremely expensive.
.
You must know that when the old Renault purchased the new Baku area from the French government, the price was 100 francs per square kilometer, 100 times cheaper than Christmas Island.
In fact, the current British and French governments really look down upon these dotted islands.
The value of the islands was far from being revealed at this time. Among the colonial empires established by the British, the vast and populous regions such as India, Canada, and Australia were the major ones.
For places like Christmas Island, the British don't even bother to ask about it. It is estimated that the Queen of England does not even know that she still has such a place.
While purchasing Christmas Island, Gaspard is also looking to purchase other islands.
For example, one of the islands in the Charles Islands currently has only one fishing port and is not even a transit station. It is part of British Mauritius. Gaspard reached an agreement directly with the Mauritian government without even going through the British.
Transfer Agreement.
When signing this agreement, the Mauritian government did not even mention the residents of the island, because to Mauritians, the island called Diego Garcia has never been the territory of Mauritius, and the people on it are not Mauritians, but
Life or death has nothing to do with them.
After Qin Zhiyuan learned the news, he almost laughed and took Diego Garcia into his pocket, and immediately transferred a company of troops from Corsica and their families to move to Diego Garcia.
There are 120 people in a company, and there are about 600 to 700 people including family members. This is enough to create a population advantage in Diego Garcia.
You know, there are now less than 500 people on that island, and Qin Zhiyuan plans to pay them heavy compensation and let them move to other islands or to the mainland. In that case, there will only be Chinese on Diego Garcia.
When the time comes, they can decide on their own where they belong.
Now for Qin Zhiyuan, the only regret is that Diego Garcia is too far away from Christmas Island. The straight-line distance has exceeded 3,000 kilometers, and the plane cannot reach it directly. Otherwise, Qin Zhiyuan can now start from Corsica and take a plane all the way.
It's much faster to fly to the Far East. You can make a round trip in a week.
But this is not a problem. As technology improves, the flight distance of aircraft will continue to extend. One day, when aircraft with a range of more than 3,000 kilometers appear, the earth will become a global village, and then the value of these islands will be highlighted.
What Qin Zhiyuan has to do now is to let Gaspard acquire such islands around the world. It doesn't take too many. As long as there are islands at key nodes, Qin Zhiyuan will have a broad strategic space in the future.
Of course, if the French Congress collectively has a headache, Qin Zhiyuan will not refuse to hand over a large island like Madagascar to Qin Zhiyuan.
However, for a large island like Madagascar, it is not suitable to use methods similar to Corsica for assimilation.
You know, there are millions of Malagasy people on the island of Madagascar. Qin Zhiyuan can't find a place to house so many people, and he doesn't have the ability to move millions of Chinese to populate Madagascar.
Of course, although complete assimilation is impossible, partial assimilation is still possible.
Before the colonial crisis fully erupted, it was better to forget about Madagascar, an island covering an area of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. The French would not let it go under any circumstances.
For now, Qin Zhiyuan's actions have aroused the vigilance of some people in the French Congress. Asking Qin Zhiyuan to give an explanation to Congress is a signal. If Qin Zhiyuan continues to make big moves, it may lead to a siege by Congress.
This is a scene Qin Zhiyuan absolutely does not want to see.
Therefore, since the Surabaya incident broke out, Qin Zhiyuan has been staying in Sidi Bel Abbas, seemingly receptive and training the recruits of the foreign legion, to avoid becoming the focus of public attention.
But sometimes things are just so weird. Just because you don't look for them doesn't mean they won't look for you.
Although oil drilling in New Baku is progressing smoothly, the construction of oil pipelines is full of difficulties.
The total length of the oil pipeline from New Baku to Gabes is about 500 kilometers, plus the ten kilometers on both sides of the pipeline. This section was named the Baku Corridor by the French government.
It is actually not easy to build pipelines in desert areas. In order to prevent the impact of geological changes on the pipeline, the construction location must be selected in areas with relatively good geological conditions, and these areas often have local aboriginal settlements.
It involves a relocation issue.
Within this area of about 5,000 square kilometers, there are about a dozen aboriginal settlements. It is not a troublesome matter to persuade these residents to move, as long as they pay money.
But when an organization called the Gabes Alliance emerged, relocating residents became a troublesome matter.
The demands of the Gabes Alliance are simple and crude: Since the oil pipeline passes through our land in Gabes, then we residents of Gabes must enjoy part of the benefits. Otherwise, we will not allow the oil pipeline to pass through our land.
To use a Chinese saying, it is: I opened this mountain and planted this tree. If you want to live from now on, leave money to buy the road.
Well, this statement is not accurate, because the pipeline was not built by these Gabes people, and even the leader of this Gabes alliance is not a Gabesian at all, but a standard Tunisian.
But this does not prevent this organization from putting forward its own interests.
When Qin Zhiyuan received an ultimatum-like announcement from this organization, Qin Zhiyuan did not pay attention, because the French government would not sit back and watch its own interests be harmed. The French government would take the initiative to disband this organization without Qin Zhiyuan taking action.
But something happened next that completely changed the direction of this matter.
One day in mid-November, a construction team near Douse was ambushed. Forty-five construction workers and an engineer from mainland France were all killed. Their heads were chopped off with a sharp knife and placed near the bodies.
It became a strange pattern. After being recognized, this pattern came from the symbol of the camel cavalry during the local feudal dynasty. This practice was also the traditional habit of the camel cavalry.
On the same day, the exploration team in the New Baku area was also attacked. This time, because the exploration team was protected by soldiers of the Foreign Legion and equipped with automatic weapons, the attack did not succeed. Instead, more than 20 people were killed by the attackers.
, but at the same time, the attacker also killed four foreign legionnaires from the exploration team.
On the corpses left behind by the attackers, there are very obvious star and moon symbols, which is also the tradition of the camel cavalry. Moreover, through corpse analysis, these camel cavalry also used relatively primitive weapons, namely those spears and long and curved weapons.
The saber is not equipped with current firearms.
We are already in the 20th century, and still playing with swords and spears is really desperate.
Qin Zhiyuan immediately ordered the plane to take off to search for traces of these cavalry, and at the same time ordered an additional regiment to be sent to the new Baku area to prevent such evil incidents from happening again.
Just after Qin Zhiyuan ordered the troops to set off, Qin Zhiyuan's office welcomed an unusual guest, Jules Frasine.
This man was Clemenceau's personal representative.
