1850 American Gold Tycoon

"Mr. Liang, forgive me for being rude. Liu is a rough man. I hope Mr. Liang will not remember the faults of others." Liu Shanbang stood up and clenched his fists at Liang Yao to accuse him.

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

"Out of the friendship between our compatriots, I am willing to help, otherwise I would not have brought you to San Francisco for discussion.

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

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

Liang Yao sent soul torture to Wang Jia and Liu Shanbang.

The answer is obvious: no.

From the beginning of the Dutch-Chinese War, the Dutch controlled the sea. The Chinese resistance companies spent most of their time in passive defense and rarely had the opportunity to take the initiative.

Wang Jia and Liu Shanbang were silent when they heard this.

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

The Dutch-Chinese War has come to an end, and the armed forces of the Dagang Company and the Twelve Company have long been exhausted. It is unrealistic to rely solely on their strength to expel the Dutch and Indian colonial government forces on Borneo Island. They do not have this ability.

If he wants to win this war and obtain the land on Borneo Island, Liang Yao must personally intervene to have any hope.

"Defeat the red-haired ghost at sea?" Liu Shanbang said in disbelief with his eyes widened.

"The red-haired ghosts are very powerful at sea. If we fight the red-haired ghosts on land, we can still resist one or two. If we fight on the sea, we have no chance of winning."

"Old Liu! Mr. Liang is not a person who speaks arrogant words. He does what he says! Mr. Liang has a big ship like the Chaoyong! In the Japanese country, he defeated a hundred thousand Japanese army. A mere red-haired ghost. , why bother!" Wang Jia said hurriedly.

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

That way, there will be much less pressure on them to resist the company.

Liang Yao took a sip of tea and immediately stated his conditions: "It is not impossible for me to send troops. Dagang Company and other Chinese resistance companies on Borneo Island will be merged into Umbrella Company. This is my condition for sending troops." . I still say the same old saying, the gold mining business on the island is still yours, and the other businesses are mine."

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

"As long as Young Master Liang is willing to help, Dagang Company and Company 12 are willing to merge into Young Master Liang's Umbrella Company!" Wang Jia asked after expressing his stance, "I wonder when Young Master Liang will send troops?"

"Send troops after the year." Liang Yao just gave a vague time.

The deployment of supplies, the mobilization of the army, and the preparation of public opinion all take time.

Liang Yao does not fight uncertain wars. Only after these preparations are completed, Liang Yao will officially send troops.

The Super Valiant, which has just returned to San Francisco, also needs time to install the new Sacramento naval gun. Furthermore, the soldiers in Liang Yao's army were not only white, but also Chinese. After the New Year, the white soldiers would celebrate Christmas and the Chinese soldiers would go out after the Spring Festival, and the morale of the soldiers would be even higher.

Soldiers are human beings too. If they go off to war without being allowed to celebrate major annual festivals, these soldiers will inevitably have emotions.

The impatient Liu Shanbang was about to emphasize to Liang Yao the precarious situation on Borneo Island, hoping 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 up his robe and knelt down, and kowtowed heavily to Liang Yao: "On behalf of the tens of thousands of living beings on the island of Borneo, Mr. Wang thanks Mr. Liang for his life-saving grace!"

Since the outbreak of the Dutch-Chinese War, these overseas abandoned people in Borneo have been in a state of isolation and fighting alone. Liang Yao is the first and only force that has made it clear that he will help them.

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

Liang Yao stepped forward to help the Wang family, and asked Wang Jia the last and most serious question: "How many available troops do the Dagang Company and the Chinese Resistance Company have?"

With tears in Wang Jia's eyes, he replied decisively: "All the people are soldiers!"

"Liang Mou has prepared your meals for you. After you finish eating, you will have a good rest in Tingtao Garden. Reporters from the newspaper will come to interview you later. You only need to explain to these reporters that Borneo Island is Just compare the past experiences of the Chinese and the current situation." Liang Yao nodded and said to Wang Jia.

"Reporter?" Wang Jia asked confused.

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

"I understand." Wang Jia nodded.

"I have also heard 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 another saying that it is a tributary country?"

Having lived in California for so long, Fremont has had frequent contact with Chinese people on weekdays.

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

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

“That’s because they claimed to be a colonial company and tributary state of the Qing Dynasty in order to protect themselves. They were just pretending to be powerful, but the tiger of the Qing Dynasty was just paper.

At the end of the 18th century, they expressed their willingness to become a tributary state of the Qing Dynasty, but the Qing Dynasty ignored their request. "

The status of a tributary state of the Qing Dynasty did provide protection to the Borneo Island Chinese Company headed by the Lanfang Company in the early days, making the Spanish, Dutch, and British very wary of the Chinese forces on Borneo Island.

But as the Qing Dynasty's international reputation plummeted and its lies were exposed, the Chinese forces on the island of Borneo also ushered in their end.

Not being able to receive the blessing of the mother country is a tragedy not only for the Chinese on the island of Borneo, but also for all Chinese in Southeast Asia.

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

During the Wuhan period, a small number of immigrants were already sailing south by boat to find their dream destination overseas.

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

However, no matter it was the Yuan or the Ming Dynasty, the Central Plains dynasty at this time still only ignored these overseas immigrants.

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 ships to make a living overseas.

Instead, there were many immigrants with strong political overtones, including many literati, officials, and even members of the former Ming Dynasty clan.

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

The rulers of the Qing Dynasty, who had gained the country unfairly and had extremely low self-esteem, were not only indifferent to overseas immigrants but also hostile and wary of them.

It is not difficult to understand why the emperors of the Qing Dynasty in the past dynasties not only did not express anything but applauded when they learned that the Chinese in Southeast Asia were being massacred.

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

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

Afterwards, the Dutch and Indian authorities were wary of Qing revenge and sent envoys to the capital to apologize.

Emperor Qianlong was not angry but happy when he heard about this incident. He believed that the overseas Chinese were to blame themselves and did not hold the Dutch and Indian authorities accountable.

This is also the reason why today the Dutch and Indian authorities dare to act recklessly against the Chinese in their expansion campaign on Borneo Island.

Similar tragedies continued to occur until the end of the 20th century.

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

However, the fingers and toes of the countries destroyed by the Meng Yuan cannot be counted together, and there is no shortage of the Southern Song Dynasty.

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

To take a step back, even if a Chinese regime survives in Southeast Asia, at least the planners behind the anti-Chinese movement in later generations will have concerns before planning.

The safety of waterways in the South China Sea and even the Strait of Malacca can also be further guaranteed.

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

"You don't want all the overseas territories that come to your doorstep?" Fremont found it unbelievable and couldn't understand the thinking 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 moment, and after thinking briefly and weighing the pros and cons, he replied with great certainty: "Yes! Definitely! Whether it is for tropical plantations or to gain a strategic fulcrum in Southeast Asia, it is worth the risk." Fight."

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

Fremont and Liang Yao thought of going together and getting a base on Borneo Island. Liang Yao wanted not only rubber planting land, but also a strategic fulcrum.

Britain and France were so strong that these two heavyweights could not move their overseas colonies.

Liang Yao could only control the Spanish and Dutch colonies.

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

The current relationship between Spain and Liang Yao cannot be said to be good or bad. It can only be said that it is quite satisfactory and it will try its best not to offend him. Without enough power, it is foolish to make enemies on all sides.

If Liang Yao was asked to choose whether to use Spanish cheese or Dutch cheese, Liang Yao would choose the Netherlands without hesitation.

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

And ever since Liang Yao's expedition to Japan forced Japan to sign the switch, he single-handedly broke the Netherlands' trade monopoly on Japan.

The Dutch have long hated Liang Yao and even the United States with gnashing of teeth. The relationship between Liang Yao and the Dutchman had long since reached a freezing point.

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

"However, given the current severe situation in the country, I'm afraid Congress will not go to war with the Netherlands." Fremont said, holding his chin and beard.

"Did I say I would 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 is prevalent in the Netherlands, and its domestic politicians are mostly 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 all 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.