The Natuna Islands include more than 200 large and small islands. The islands have high temperatures and heavy rainfall throughout the year, and tropical rainforests cover the entire island.
Tropical rainforests are called green deserts. After the land where the rainforests are located is reclaimed, crop yields are low. After a few years of cultivation, cultivation will have to be abandoned due to severe soil erosion. Therefore, although the Natuna Islands cover an area of more than 2,000 square kilometers, the island
There is not much land suitable for cultivating crops. The Han people who have migrated to the island in the past dynasties live concentratedly on the north and south coasts of the island. According to statistics, the population is only 3,700.
It took three or four days for the fleet to clear away the scattered forces on the island. At the same time, a hundred engineering troops who followed the fleet were excavating land and building temporary camps at the western port of the island.
There are about 1,000 young Han people on the main island. Sun Bin followed the practice in Rio Grande do Sul and selected 300 people to form a militia force. More than 20 fleet soldiers served as grassroots officers and were responsible for training. The remaining seven
Under the command of Ah Chen, more than a hundred young men were leveling the foundation in preparation for the construction of a defensive castle in the near future.
The construction project was carried out in full swing for more than ten days. With the efforts of more than a thousand young Han people and soldiers, the land leveling work in the western port area was successfully completed. The housing problem of more than 600 fleet soldiers was also solved due to a group of rebels.
The confiscated houses in hand have been distributed and settled.
The population of the island was originally small, and the dominant ones were only the village chiefs of a few villages. Under the force of the fleet officers and soldiers, the chiefs of seven Han villages actually handed over their control over the men, women, and children of the village.
So that Sun Bin's orders can be smoothly conveyed to every village under his command.
At the temporary headquarters of the fleet, in a wooden house confiscated from the head of the rebellious village, Sun Bin summoned Ah Chen, Liang Xing and other main leaders of the fleet to discuss future plans.
"Everyone, according to the advance plan, a large merchant ship consisting of transport ships will arrive at the Natuna Islands in three months. During these three months, we will be responsible for sending people to contact the Chinese scattered throughout Southeast Asia and try to obtain as many immigrants as possible.
Number of people.”
"Master Sun, I have a few acquaintances in the Straits Peninsula. Through them, I can recruit a group of Chinese immigrants." Liang Xing was a British colonial businessman in the past. Sun Bin was not surprised that he had connections in the Straits Peninsula.
Nodding to Liang Xing approvingly, Sun Bin continued: "The first batch of immigrants is marked as about 10,000 people. There are many Chinese workers in the Straits Peninsula, and with the relationship between the Liang Xing brothers, we should be able to get several thousand immigrants from there. Kalimantan
The Dutch, British, indigenous and Chinese forces on the island are mixed, so we will not consider immigrating from there for the time being. As for Thailand and Annan, there have been many Chinese since ancient times. We can send more manpower to these two areas to obtain immigrants."
"Thailand is a stable country, and most of the Chinese immigrants there are in the upper class. It may not be easy to recruit immigrants from Thailand. However, the southern region of Annan is suffering from French invasion, and the government control in the northern region is weak, and local forces are mixed. The local
There are several powerful armed organizations among the Han immigrants. If they can be used by our army, the plan to recruit immigrants will be smoother." Liang Xing suggested.
The situation in Thailand is stable, and there are few anti-China massacres there. Many Chinese immigrants to Thailand have mostly integrated into the local society. It is indeed difficult for Chinese people with stable lives to follow the fleet to immigrate to South America.
Sun Bin thought carefully for a while and said: "There are a lot of Chinese in Thailand. If we want to establish a stable immigration channel based in Southeast Asia, we cannot do without Thailand, a Southeast Asian country. The plan to send personnel to Thailand remains unchanged. As for how many immigrants can be recruited and released,
Secondly, let’s first place a team of our manpower in Thailand.”
Sun Bin did not explicitly state the purpose of arranging manpower in Nanyang, because he only learned about this from Li Mingyuan shortly before leaving. Before leaving, Li Mingyuan asked him to secretly develop forces belonging to the National Defense Forces in various parts of Nanyang and form a complete network.
The intelligence network not only serves the upcoming immigration operations, but is also responsible for investigating local situations in various parts of Southeast Asia and providing intelligence support for the National Defense Force's future operations in Southeast Asia.
Intelligence is the eye of a country's military strategy. What Sun Bin did in Rio Grande do Sul was to infiltrate the intelligence of southern Argentina and Brazil. Therefore, after receiving Li Mingyuan's secret mission, he did not make it public and secretly formulated future action plans during the voyage.
After revealing the incident in Thailand, Sun Bin continued: "There are several armed forces related to the Kingdom of Heaven in the northern area of Annan. In a few days, I will lead a group of people to Annan in person. During my absence, everything on the island will be handled by Liang.
Brother Xing is responsible. Everyone must obey Brother Liang Xing’s orders carefully and not delay the prince’s important events.”
"I obey my orders." After hearing Sun Bin's arrangement, Liang Xing responded.
"While I'm away, I have two things to tell you first. The first is to send personnel to Kuching to purchase construction supplies in a few days. You will let a few foreigners in the fleet be responsible for this matter, and they will do it as required.
The second thing is to cooperate with the Achen brothers to occupy all the surrounding islands of the Natuna Islands, and select a few larger islands to establish outposts to prevent other armed forces from invading."
"Don't worry, Mr. Sun, I will make arrangements carefully." Liang Xing listened carefully to Sun Bin's words and replied.
"After staying on Natuna Island for more than ten days, there is not much time left. I will set off for Annan with some brothers tomorrow. I will leave the rest to you brothers."
"Isn't it too urgent to leave tomorrow? Mr. Sun, why don't you wait for two days before leaving?"
"I can't wait any longer. Yesterday I got news from a Chinese businessman that conflicts between several armed forces in the north and south have intensified, and large-scale conflicts are likely to break out in the near future, so I have to get there as soon as possible."
"The situation in northern Annan is complicated and it is close to Guangxi, which was ruled by the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Please pay attention to safety on the way."
"I will be careful." Sun Bin nodded and accepted Liang Xing's kindness...
The next day, Sun Bin took more than a hundred military elites, disguised as Nanyang Chinese businessmen, and sailed to the northern part of Annan.
After Sun Bin left, Liang Xing immediately took over the work he left. While sending Ah Chen to drive a 600-ton armed merchant ship to occupy the surrounding islands, he also sent more than 30 people led by four Germans to board the largest armed merchant ship.
Mission to Kuching.
Kuching is the capital of Sarawak. It is nominally ruled by the white kingdom Brooke Dynasty, but in fact it is a British colony.
After the ship arrived in Kuching, the four Germans met with the local British representative in the name of purchasing supplies and obtained directly from him a license to purchase supplies and build a trading station. The price they paid for this was only a few hundred.
Yuan silver coin.
The meeting process was simple and pleasant. In less than an hour, several Germans got what they wanted. Then four Germans stayed and chatted with the British, while the remaining Chinese were responsible for purchasing materials and goods and choosing a suitable location to build the building.
