Chapter 390: Everybody Is a Soldier

"Mr. Liang, please forgive me for my rudeness. I am a rough man. I hope you will not bear grudges against me." Liu Shanbang stood up and clasped his fists to Liang Yao to apologize.

"Mr. Liang, I have always been straightforward. Please forgive me for the offense." Wang Jia also said to Liang Yao with an apologetic look.

"For the sake of our friendship, I am willing to help you. Otherwise, I would not have taken you to San Francisco for discussion.

The Dutch blockaded West Borneo Island from the sea. If the sea blockade is not broken, I will not be able to transport a large amount of supplies to support you.

Do you think you can defeat the Dutch with only a small amount of material assistance?"

Liang Yao asked Wang Jia and Liu Shanbang a soul-searching question.

The answer is obvious: no.

Since the outbreak of the Dutch-Chinese War, the Dutch have controlled the sea power. Most of the time, these Chinese resistance companies are on the defensive and rarely have the opportunity to take the initiative.

Wang Jia and Liu Shanbang were silent after hearing this.

Seeing that the two were silent, Liang Yao continued: "If you want to break through the Dutch blockade at sea, you must hurt them at sea, and only I have the ability to hurt the Dutch at sea and break through their blockade."

The Dutch-Chinese War has entered its final stage. The armed forces of the Dagang Company and the Twelve Companies have long been exhausted. It is unrealistic to rely solely on their strength to expel the Dutch colonial government forces on Borneo Island. They do not have this ability.

In order to win this war and obtain land on Borneo Island, Liang Yao must intervene in person to have hope.

"Defeat the red-haired devils at sea?" Liu Shanbang said in disbelief with his eyes wide open.

"The red-haired devils have strong maritime power. If we fight with the red-haired devils on land, we can still resist a little. If we fight at sea, we have no chance of winning."

"Old Liu! How can Mr. Liang be a person who speaks wildly? If he says there is, there is! Mr. Liang has a large ship like the Chaoyong! He has defeated the Japanese army of 100,000 in Japan. The red-haired devils are nothing to mention!" Wang Jia said hurriedly.

Liang Yao wanted to intervene directly in the dispute on Borneo Island, which was extremely beneficial to the Chinese resistance companies on Borneo Island. Wang Jia was eager for Liang Yao to intervene directly as soon as possible, preferably by sending troops.

In that case, the pressure on their resistance companies would be much less.

Liang Yao took a sip of tea and then put forward his conditions: "It's not impossible for me to send troops. Dagang Company and other Chinese resistance companies on Borneo Island will be incorporated into Umbrella Company. This is the condition for me to send troops. I still say the same old thing. The gold mining business on the island is still yours, and the other businesses are mine."

Wang Jia and Liu Shanbang fell into a brief silence, but the severe situation on Borneo Island did not allow them to hesitate for too long, and they quickly gave an answer.

"As long as Mr. Liang is willing to help, Dagang Company and the 12th Company are willing to be incorporated into Mr. Liang's Umbrella Company!" Wang Jia asked after expressing his position, "I wonder when Mr. Liang will send troops?"

"After the New Year." Liang Yao just gave a vague time.

The allocation of materials, the mobilization of the army, and the preparation of public opinion all take time.

Liang Yao would not fight a war without confidence. Only after these preparations were completed, Liang Yao would officially send out troops.

The Chaoyong, which had just returned to San Francisco, also needed time to replace the new Sacramento naval guns. Moreover, Liang Yao's soldiers included not only white people but also Chinese. After the New Year, the white soldiers celebrated Christmas and the Chinese soldiers went to war after the Spring Festival. The morale of the soldiers would be higher.

Soldiers are also human beings. If they were not allowed to celebrate the annual major festival and went to war, these soldiers would inevitably have emotions.

The impatient Liu Shanbang was about to emphasize to Liang Yao the precarious situation on Borneo Island and hoped that Liang Yao could send troops immediately, but Wang Jia stopped Liu Shanbang.

Wang Jia stepped forward and bowed deeply to Liang Yao, then lifted his robe and knelt down, kowtowed heavily to Liang Yao: "On behalf of tens of thousands of people on Borneo Island, I thank Mr. Liang for saving my life!"

Since the outbreak of the Dutch-Chinese War, these overseas abandoned people in Borneo have been isolated and helpless, fighting alone. Liang Yao is the first and only force that clearly stated that it would help them.

For this reason alone, Liang Yao deserves Wang Jia's worship.

Liang Yao stepped forward to help Wang Jia up, and asked Wang Jia the last and most serious question: "How many soldiers are available in the Dagang Company and the Chinese Resistance Company?"

Wang Jia, with tears in his eyes, replied resolutely: "Everyone is a soldier!"

"Liang has prepared your meals for you. After you finish eating, you can have a good rest in Tingtao Garden. Later, reporters from the newspaper will come to interview you. You just need to explain to these reporters the past experiences and current situation of the Chinese in Borneo." Liang Yao nodded and said to Wang Jia.

"Reporter?" Wang Jia asked puzzled.

"Just do as I say." Liang Yao said.

"I understand." Wang Jia nodded.

"I have heard something about the Chinese in Southeast Asia. As far as I know, the Chinese company on Borneo is a colonial company of the Qing Dynasty. There is also a saying that it is a tributary state?"

Having lived in California for so long, Fremont has often come into contact with Chinese people.

Although Fremont cannot write Chinese, he can still roughly understand Chinese conversations.

"If they were a colonial company or tributary state of the Qing Dynasty, would they still need to ask us for help?" Liang Yao said with a long sigh.

"That was to protect themselves by claiming to be a colonial company and tributary state of the Qing Dynasty. It was just a fox pretending to be a tiger, but the tiger of the Qing Dynasty was made of paper.

They submitted a petition at the end of the 18th century to express their willingness to become a tributary state of the Qing Dynasty, but the Qing Dynasty ignored their request."

The identity of the Qing Dynasty as a tributary state was indeed protected by the Chinese companies on Borneo Island headed by the Lan Fang Company in the early days, making the Spanish, Dutch, and British people wary of the Chinese forces on Borneo Island.

But as the international reputation of the Qing Dynasty plummeted and the lies were exposed, the Chinese forces on Borneo Island also ushered in their doomsday.

Not being protected by the motherland is not only a tragedy for the Chinese on Borneo Island, but also a tragedy for all the Chinese in Southeast Asia.

Immigration, trade, exploration, and even conquest, these things that Europeans did, the Chinese in Southeast Asia had also done, and much earlier than the Europeans.

During the Five Barbarians' Rebellion, a small number of immigrants had already taken boats to the south to find the Peach Blossom Spring in their hearts overseas.

After the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty and Zheng He's voyages to the West, Chinese immigrants in Southeast Asia ushered in a wave of peaks.

However, whether it was the Yuan Dynasty or the Ming Dynasty, the Central Plains dynasty's attitude towards these overseas immigrants was still indifferent.

But in the Qing Dynasty, the situation was completely different.

The large number of immigrants who immigrated overseas in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties were not just refugees who could not survive the famine and took a boat to make a living overseas.

Instead, there were many literati, officials, and even former Ming royal family immigrants with strong political colors.

Even the last emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty, Emperor Yongli Zhu Youlang, fled to Myanmar.

The Qing Dynasty rulers, who had gained the country improperly and were extremely inferior, had more hostility and vigilance towards overseas immigrants in addition to the indifference of the previous dynasty.

It is not difficult to understand why the emperors of the Qing Dynasty did not express anything after learning that the Chinese in Southeast Asia were massacred, but applauded.

After all, in their eyes, these Southeast Asian immigrants were either remnants of the previous dynasty or traitors.

In the Hongxi Massacre in 1740, the Dutch-Indonesian colonial government instigated anti-Chinese riots in order to weaken the influence of the Chinese, and more than 10,000 Chinese were killed.

Afterwards, the Dutch-Indonesian authorities were still wary of retaliation from the Qing Dynasty and sent envoys to the capital to apologize.

Emperor Qianlong was not angry but happy when he heard about this, thinking that it was the fault of the overseas Chinese and did not hold the Dutch-Indonesian authorities responsible.

This is also why the Dutch-Indonesian authorities dared to act recklessly against the Chinese in their expansion movement on the island of Borneo today.

Similar tragedies still occurred from time to time until the end of the 20th century.

In fact, the Chinese immigrants who fled to Southeast Asia after the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty also had a strong political attribute.

However, the number of countries destroyed by the Mongols and Yuan Dynasty is so large that it is hard to count them all, and the Southern Song Dynasty is not missing.

In addition, the Yuan Dynasty existed for a short time, and the Yuan Dynasty rulers had limited control over southern China. The Yuan Empire also needed to rely on maritime trade to fill its treasury, so its attitude towards the Chinese in Southeast Asia was not as vigilant and hostile as that of the Qing Dynasty.

The Chinese community in Southeast Asia is large enough and has enough wealth.

As long as the Qing government used it properly, it could have exerted influence in Southeast Asia.

To put it another way, even if a Chinese regime in Southeast Asia survived, the planners behind the scenes of the anti-Chinese movement in later generations would at least have concerns before planning.

The safety of the shipping routes in the South China Sea and even the Strait of Malacca could be more guaranteed.

It's just a pity that none of these are available.

"Don't want the overseas territories that are delivered to your door?" Fremont felt incredible and couldn't understand the brain circuit of the Qing rulers.

"Now they are delivered to our door, do we want them?" Liang Yao asked Fremont with a smile.

Fremont hesitated for a while, and after a brief thought and weighing the pros and cons, he answered very affirmatively: "Yes! Definitely! Whether it is for tropical plantations or for obtaining a strategic fulcrum in Southeast Asia, it is worth a try."

Fremont, who was born as an explorer, is a very adventurous person with a radical attitude towards overseas expansion.

Fremont and Liang Yao thought of the same thing. To obtain a base on the island of Borneo, Liang Yao wanted not only a rubber plantation, but also a strategic fulcrum.

Britain and France are strong, and the overseas colonies of these two heavyweights cannot be touched.

Liang Yao can only touch the colonies of Spain and the Netherlands.

Of course, these two countries cannot be offended at the same time, otherwise Liang Yao will not be able to bear it.

Spain’s current relationship with Liang Yao cannot be said to be good or bad, it can only be said to be mediocre, and it is best not to offend them if you can. Without sufficient power, it is foolish to make enemies everywhere.

If Liang Yao is asked to choose whether to touch the cheese of Spain or the cheese of the Dutch, Liang Yao will choose the Netherlands without hesitation.

The Netherlands is not only inferior to Spain in national strength and size.

And since Liang Yao’s expedition to Japan and forced Japan to sign a contract to open the door, he has broken the Netherlands’ trade monopoly on Japan.

The Dutch have long hated Liang Yao and even the United States. The relationship between Liang Yao and the Dutch has long dropped to the freezing point.

"I think so too." Liang Yao nodded in approval.

"But given the current severe domestic situation, I am afraid that Congress will not go to war with the Netherlands." Fremont pinched his chin and beard and said.

"Did I say we were going to go to war with the Netherlands?" Liang Yao said clearly.

"This was a war between two companies, the Dutch East India Company and the Umbrella Company, not a war between the United States and the Netherlands."

The United States will not easily go to war with the Netherlands, and the Netherlands will not easily go to war with the United States. This is Liang Yao's judgment.

Mercantilism was prevalent in the Netherlands, and most of its domestic politicians were composed of businessmen.

Businessmen tend to care about gains and losses. This is sometimes an advantage, but sometimes it is a disadvantage.

The bottom line for the Dutch is Sumatra and Java, two islands that have been painstakingly managed for two hundred years, especially Java.

These two islands are the core interests of the Dutch in Southeast Asia, and the island of Borneo is only the peripheral interest of the Dutch in Southeast Asia.

As long as Liang Yao does not immediately touch Sumatra and Java Islands, the Dutch will not waste their wealth in Southeast Asia with Liang Yao regardless of gains and losses.

In this way, Liang Yao was able to control the war within a certain scale and make it a colonial corporate war between the Dutch East India Company and the Umbrella Company, rather than a war between countries.

Of course, Liang Yao wouldn't mind if he brought down the entire country of the United States. At most, he would not be able to monopolize the strategic fulcrum of Borneo Island after the war and would have to share a piece of the pie with the American government.

Fremont sat on the sofa, took out a Havana cigar from his coat pocket and played with it in his hand. As the cigar turned in his hand, Fremont's thoughts also started to revolve: "If it is a company and a company, There is nothing better than a war between the two countries. As long as it can be won, California will have a new strategic support in Southeast Asia.

It’s just that although the Netherlands has declined, the Dutch East India Company has two hundred years of accumulation and strong financial resources. Are you sure you can win this war?

I believe in your military talents, but the Netherlands is not Japan. This is a modern country after all. "

"I have prepared a gold reserve of US$11 million for this war. I will mobilize local dignitaries in California to join in and let them buy shares in Umbrella and become shareholders of the company." Liang Yao said.

The reason why Liang Yao had been leaving the gold mined by Umbrella Company in Australia was just for today.

He now has enough financial resources and strength to carry out a war of medium intensity and limited scale.

In order to successfully enter the gold mining industry in Australia, Liang Yao transferred 10% of the company's shares to Australian dignitaries and 10% of the shares to a British consortium headed by the Baring family.

Later, Liang Yao gradually recovered some shares, increasing his shareholding ratio from 80% to 85%.

Liang Yao is willing to transfer some shares to the local politicians and plutocrats in California, making Umbrella a colonial company for Californians.

As for letting Australian dignitaries and British consortiums hold some shares, this is not a bad thing for him.

Furthermore, Liang Yao could afford to lose this war. If he lost, he would just go back to California and continue farming. It would just be a loss of some personal prestige.

The Dutch and Indian authorities can also afford to lose. After all, the Dutch and Indian authorities only partially control the island of Borneo, and the island of Borneo is not yet their core interest.

So since both Liang Yao and the Dutch and Indian authorities can afford to lose, are there any forces in this war that cannot afford to lose?

Of course there is, and the Chinese resistance company on the island of Borneo is the only force that cannot afford to lose.

If they lose, not only will their property and interests in West Borneo not be saved, but their lives may not be saved either.