Dong Shuheng suspected that Shi Dakai was interested in the superior conditions in the Nanzhang area.
The rivers here crisscross each other and it belongs to a tropical area with warm weather all year round, making it very suitable for farming. Although it is located on a plateau, the altitude is not high.
The most important thing is that there are now some small forces here, just like the chieftains in the southwest.
The Taiping Army had no decent enemies at all.
This is really a place where you can develop with peace of mind.
He thought that Dong Shuheng could no longer control this place, so he was not prepared to ask for Dong Shuheng's support. He only wanted this place.
He wanted his brothers to settle down and give them a home.
But he underestimated Dong Shuheng's ambition.
According to Dong Shuheng, the land of the vassal states legally belongs to the Chinese suzerain state.
It is illegal for the Kingdom of Vietnam to privately occupy Nanzhang and Chenla, so now it is only natural for our suzerain country to take them back.
Not only the Nanzhang area, but also Chenla, which was now destroyed by Vietnam, should be taken back.
So Shi Dakai had to get out of the way. Not only did he fail to achieve the goal set by Dong Shuheng, but he also blocked Dong Shuheng's way.
Nanzhang and Zhenla are connected together and China has a passage that runs through the southeastern peninsula. Which of those vassal states will be able to escape the control of China in the future?
In the conference room, Wen Xiang continued to introduce the situation of the vassal country.
Lanfang State in Nanyang requested to become an internal vassal state of China.
The Zhang family of Natuna Kingdom requested to annex China.
The Wu family of the Dai Yan Kingdom in Borneo requested to annex China.
A request from the Ho family of Borneo in Sumatra is enclosed.
…
Because of Huaxia’s operations in the Nanyang region and its support to these families in the past two years.
The strength of these big families in Nanyang has been greatly strengthened.
They are already firmly tied to China economically.
Dong Shuheng himself had never heard of many of the countries Wen Xiang mentioned.
Maybe some existed in history, but were later disbanded by the colonists and are now re-established.
There are now millions of Chinese in Nanyang, and they are also a very powerful force in Nanyang.
In the past, many Chinese in Southeast Asia were pawns used by the colonists to contain the local indigenous people.
When useful, they can serve as followers of the colonists. Once the colonists feel that the Chinese are too powerful, they will unite with the indigenous people to suppress the Chinese and harvest their wealth.
But in the past two years, Huaihai Company has extended its reach to Nanyang.
Dong Shuheng took advantage of Britain and France to shift their attention to the Black Sea and vigorously develop their strength in Southeast Asia.
He first tied the Nanyang families to his chariot through trade.
Large families in Nanyang transferred grain, wood, minerals, spices and other materials to China, in exchange for silk, tea, porcelain and other in-demand commodities, which were sold in Nanyang or resold to Western merchants.
It can be said that he made a lot of money.
They learned from the Huaihai Company and purchased a large number of industries in Nanyang. They established mines or plantations.
Then, weapons secretly purchased from China were used to arm the family's children in these mines and plantations.
Eventually, they moved their wealth and family here.
When they were still members of the Huai Navy, Dong Shuheng sent instructors to them and also helped them train family children in his military academy.
Gradually, the Chinese in Southeast Asia are no longer so cowardly and humble.
They began to have their own minions. They could say no to the colonists' robbery. They had the strength to resolutely fight back against the robbery of the indigenous people.
Dong Shuheng naturally knows the reason why so many Chinese countries suddenly appeared this time.
This incident itself was planned by him.
The strength of the Chinese has become stronger, so it is necessary to establish their own political power, otherwise there will be no way to bring people together.
Why are later Chinese people always being purged in Nanyang? Is it because they have not yet taken over state power?
It is impossible for Dong Shuheng to turn all of Nanyang into China. He also wants to be the leader of the earth, but that is unrealistic.
Historically, it was after the Crimean War that the great powers truly began their final carve-up of Southeast Asia.
Nowadays, much of the land here is still nominally in the hands of the sultanates established by the indigenous people.
Of course, there is also a lot of land that has been passed down from generation to generation by the Chinese.
So Dong Shuheng sent people to instigate these families to establish a country, first legally occupy these lands, and then gather more people.
Of course, China will also give them great support.
These big families in Nanyang have their own ambitions. Otherwise, there would not be so many small Nanyang Chinese countries in history.
Of course, Dong Shuheng also knew that when these colonists reacted, they would not let these countries go.
But if that happens, China can intervene in Nanyang affairs as a suzerain state.
The conflict between China and Britain and France will eventually break out, and the point of this breakout will definitely be in Nanyang.
Dong Shuheng knew this from the beginning.
An important reason why Dong Shuheng has developed farms in the Far East in the past two years is to reduce his dependence on Nanyang grain.
Once a war breaks out in Nanyang, sea transportation will inevitably be cut off, and it will be difficult for supplies to go north again.
At that time, the Chinese in Nanyang must first rely on their own strength to protect themselves.
The armies of these small countries are actually their own family private armies.
The officers among them were all trained with the help of China.
Military schools focused on strengthening their education in guerrilla warfare.
When one day, the colonists raised a butcher knife against the Chinese in Nanyang, they could still use the island's topography to deal with these colonists.
The land in these small countries, like the Chinese farms in Nanyang, is constantly developing in depth. Although they are still dots, sooner or later these lands will be connected into a network.
Inland roads can connect these huge plantations together. How many troops will the colonists have to send to trap them?
Moreover, if something goes wrong in Nanyang, China will not ignore it.
These Chinese could survive as long as they retreated to the interior to fight guerrillas with the colonists, or to other Chinese gathering places.
At least there won't be the kind of scene in history where Chinese people were arbitrarily massacred by foreigners and natives.
This time, these small Chinese countries have chosen to annex in order to further strengthen their ties with China.
No matter what aspect they consider, they must be tied to China.
Of course, China also needs them. Through the Chinese in Nanyang, China can continuously obtain resources from Nanyang and help China develop as quickly as possible.
The Ministry of Commerce has made statistics. Now China needs to import 10% of its food from Nanyang. At its highest, this figure was 30%.
Fifty percent of the copper comes from Nanyang. With this copper, China can mint copper coins and produce cables.
Another 25% of high-quality wood comes from there.
Others include spices, rubber, etc.
These things are indispensable for China's development.
Sooner or later, Dong Shuheng will have a fight with the colonists in Nanyang.
If it wins, China can at least establish its dominance in the Western Pacific.
Lose? Dong Shuheng never thought that if he didn't win one game, he would have another one.
The eight frigates in Gaoyou Lake that Dong Shuheng had high hopes for had secretly entered the military port of Weihaiwei.
Neither the Nanyang Navy nor the Beihai Navy received a new frigate.
They only belong to the newly established First Fleet. The fleet commander is not Liu Dahai or Bao Youzhi. It is Du Hang of the Black Dragon Navy.
This is China's first real fleet. In the past, China only had a navy. In Dong Shuheng's eyes, the fleet should be made of steel like this.
No one thought that Du Hang would become the commander of the First Fleet.
Only Dong Shuheng himself knew. From the very beginning, Dong Shuheng selected him and trained him in a targeted manner.
Du Hang's experience is very rich, which is all the result of Dong Shuheng's arrangement.
Not only that, Dong Shuheng also personally taught Du Hang. This kind of warship is brand new, and its combat method is also brand new. No one knows about it.
Only Dong Shuheng knew some rare knowledge.
In fact, Bao Youzhi's conditions are also very good, but he is already well-known in the Chinese navy and is not suitable for sudden disappearance.
However, Du Hang is different. He has been away from the Black Dragon Navy for some time, but no one pays attention to this matter.
At this time, he was leading his men to intensify their training to become familiar with the warship in their hands.
Of course, the eight kiloton-class frigates in Dong Shuheng's hands alone cannot move sideways on the sea, even if they have a big killer weapon on them - torpedoes.
Because they have a huge flaw, which is the problem of voyage.
Due to their tonnage, these frigates can theoretically only operate offshore and rely on the port supply points established by Dong Shuheng.
Once there is no coal to burn, they will become forts floating on the water.
Therefore, Dong Shuheng must equip them with wet nurses, and a supply ship that can keep up with them has not yet been built. Therefore, they can only train in the Bohai Bay for the time being.
In fact, the colonists in Southeast Asia have now felt the changes in the Chinese.
In the past year, there have been dozens of wars between Chinese and indigenous people.
Some of them were the intertwining of the territories of both sides, and some were the robberies of the Chinese by the natives.
Others were done by indigenous people instigated by the colonial authorities.
Among them, the Dutch colonial authorities did the most.
The Dutch colonial authorities themselves were average in strength, but they were an established colonial power in the Southeast Asian region.
They are very skilled at winning over the natives and attacking the Chinese.
However, most of these conflicts ended in indigenous defeat.
The originally cowardly Chinese people did not know when they turned into soldiers.
When facing the attack from the natives, they took out the muskets they bought from who knows where, formed a line formation, and were able to fire volleys.
There were many conflicts, and the Dutch were secretly observing them. The changes in the Chinese gave the Dutch a sense of crisis.
Except, of course, the Dutch are concerned about this.
The British on the Malay Peninsula were also worried about the expansion of the Chinese.
Those Chinese plantations in the northern part of the Malay Peninsula have their own armed forces, and they continue to penetrate into the inland areas with arms.
Eliminate or capture the scattered indigenous tribes and convert the lands of those tribes into farmland.
The British had no time to take care of this. The management of the British Straits Settlements on the Malay Peninsula was mainly concentrated in three cities: Malacca, Penang and Singapore.
The wider area is still managed by some of the original indigenous kingdoms, and many of them just swore allegiance to the Queen of England.
In fact, Britain does not have the ability to directly control these places.
Huaihai Company's farms were purchased from these local kings and were originally legal.
As for the scattered indigenous tribes, they all illegally invaded the Huaihai Company's farms.
Then it is natural for Huaihai Company to eliminate these people.
But in recent months, Chinese farms in the Malay Peninsula have encountered several rather bizarre attacks.
Because although the attackers were still natives, these people had obviously undergone certain military training.
They are more like the army of the local kingdom.
But even these people were defeated by the militia.
Yang Guangquan's farm has tens of thousands of young people and tens of thousands of people including their families. The cultivated land is now equivalent to the cultivated land of a county.
It is backed by Mersing’s excellent port facilities and has convenient transportation.
There is a road connecting this farm from the port. The entire farm is located in the northeast of the Sultanate of Johor. To the north is the border of Siam.
The Sultanate of Johor's control over this place is very weak. Many places only belong to them in name.
The terrain in the inland area is higher, with an altitude of more than 1,000 meters, and it belongs to the plateau forest zone.
The natives there did not submit to the management of the Johor Sultanate.
It is also because of this that the Sultanate of Johor sold such a large piece of land to Huaihai Company.
Now the indigenous people here have been cleared by the farm militia, and the land has been reclaimed.
Some people began to want to go out and pick peaches under the encouragement of caring people.
But they underestimated the capabilities of Huaihai Company's farms.
Yang Guangquan and the others encountered this aboriginal attack involving thousands of people.
The driving force behind this was a British official from the Straits Settlements.
The executioner was a general who was friendly with him in the Sultanate of Johor.
The Sultan of Johor was a small country, and he only had 2,000 men under his command as a general.
Sending a thousand to attack a Chinese farm is already the maximum limit.
Unexpectedly, these thousand people were wiped out not long after they went up.
Yang Guangquan was really surprised that so many indigenous people came at once. At first, the militiamen on duty on the farm were beaten back and forth.
In the end, the farm was forced to fully mobilize, and three thousand militiamen were dispatched at once to eliminate the opponent in one fell swoop.
After checking the opponent's weapons, Yang Guangquan and others determined that these people were the troops of the Johor Sultanate.
Immediately, people from Huaihai Company approached the Johor Sultanate for negotiation.
The Sultan stated that he was not aware of this matter. In fact, the power of the Sultan of Johor had been seriously eclipsed by the British.
Many officials in the kingdom were directly loyal to the British and were not loyal to the king.
This matter can only be left as it is, and the farm will not suffer any loss anyway.
Yang Guangquan reported his speculation to the Chinese government.
On the other hand, Brandell, the governor of the British Straits Settlements, also wrote a report to the British Colonial Secretary.
He pointed out in the report: In the Straits Settlements and the Dutch colonies, the influence of the Chinese is gradually strengthening.
They were no longer as scattered as before, but gradually gathered into forces. Many small Chinese countries were established in places beyond the control of the colonial authorities.
Even within the colonial boundaries, the Chinese continued to exploit the loopholes of the colonial authorities to expand their private estates.
Those manors are dotted all over, and some of them are as big as a county in England.
And we can be sure that someone is secretly arming them.
The indigenous forces in the colonies were no match for them, and the colonial authorities did not have enough land forces to deter them.
In the long run, this will be very dangerous.
We suspect that all this is the work of the newly established Chinese government. I have informed Minister Bao Ling to negotiate with the Chinese government.
I hope the authorities will take note of the seriousness of this matter.
If this is a conspiracy, what do our opponents want to do?
We are preparing to arm a group of indigenous personnel, which requires a large amount of weapons, so we hope the government can transfer a batch of weapons from India.
Let us have enough indigenous troops to curb the disorderly expansion of these Chinese.
——John Brandell, Governor of the Straits Settlements