1850 American Gold Tycoon

Chapter 401 Is it worth it?

"There are too few berths in Pontianak Port. Several more berths need to be added, as well as yards and warehouses."

After Elvis left Pontianak and entered Dongwanlu, the hometown of Lanfang Company, Liang Yao, who was based in Pontianak, decided to spend some money on Pontianak's infrastructure after inspection.

With its current strength, as well as the low level of development and inconvenient transportation on Borneo Island.

It is unrealistic to control the entire island of Borneo.

However, it is still possible to control the coastal strongholds, use points to form lines, and use lines to form areas, and then slowly control most of the island of Borneo, especially the wealthy areas along the coast.

"The California Port Authority has experience in expanding the Port of Jinshan, the Port of Los Angeles, and the Port of Pearl Harbor. There must be no problem in leaving this kind of thing to them.

But this will cost a lot of money. Jinshan Port is the largest port on the West Coast, and Los Angeles has oil. Expanding the ports in these two places can pay for itself in a short time.

But there is nothing in Pontianak. Is it worth spending money here? "

Speaking of port expansion, Deng Wenkang couldn't help but think of the three ports of Jinshan Port, Los Angeles Port and Pearl Harbor.

These three ports, Jinshan Port, have already paid back their investment. After the discovery of oil in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles area has been on the rise. It is only a matter of time before the investment in the port will be paid back.

As for Pearl Harbor, the American Group still provides money to maintain operations.

If we want to make an analogy, the situation of Pontianak Port is relatively close to that of Pearl Harbor. They are both isolated overseas and not in California, and high-value strategic resources such as oil have not yet been discovered.

As for rubber, it takes at least eight years for a rubber tree to mature.

Pearl Harbor is a transit point connecting California and East Asia. It needs to be maintained. But is it necessary to invest heavily in Pontianak? Deng Wenkang was very worried about this.

"It's worth it. If you want to achieve big things, you have to take a longer view." Liang Yao said, staring at the simple Pontianak Port.

"If you control Pontianak, you can control the island of Borneo. If you control the island of Borneo, you can project influence to the entire Southeast Asia. There are many Chinese in Southeast Asia. As long as we can be tough here, they will seek our protection. It is only a matter of time before the Dutch power is squeezed out of Southeast Asia.”

"Just them? Come on. Before Lanfang was destroyed, they started quarreling over the carving up of the Dongwanlu Gold Mine. They couldn't work together. It would be difficult to rely on them to deal with the Dutch." Deng Wenkang shook his head and said.

"Did I say I wanted to destroy Lanfang?" Liang Yao said with a smile, "If they unite, we will have no chance to interfere in the affairs here. This is why I sent you here."

After all, there are only a few people in Lanfang Company who are willing to be traitors and serve the Dutch. Liang Yao's purpose in sending troops to Dongwanli is not to eliminate Lanfang Company, but to change the management of Lanfang Company and eliminate the traitors among them. Then let Umbrella merge with Lanfang Company.

"What to do with those prisoners and Dutch expatriates? Although there are only a little over 3,000 people, it is a huge expense to support them." Deng Wenkang asked Liang Yao how to deal with those prisoners.

"Three thousand people? I remember we only captured seven or eight hundred Dutch sailors and Dutch soldiers? Where did the more than three thousand people come from?" Liang Yao felt that this number was wrong.

"There are only 1,200 Dutch including expatriates, but many native soldiers have been captured one after another, as many as 2,500. These natives are either local pro-Dutch chiefdom soldiers or the Royal Dutch Indian Army. soldiers." Deng Wenkang reported to Liang Yaohui.

"We are short of manpower to develop rubber plantations. Send them to open up wasteland. As for the Dutch, let them have enough to eat. The food expenses will be calculated with the Dutch later." Liang Yao said, grabbing the stubble on his chin.

The local chiefdom was so poor that it would definitely not be able to afford the money to redeem the people.

Of course, if they have money, they won't be able to redeem it.

As for the prisoners of the Royal Dutch and Indian Army, the Europeans and the white Dutch and Indian authorities will definitely pay for their redemption.

The Dutch don't care about the life or death of the Javanese and other indigenous peoples.

Liang Yao does not lack excellent army personnel, but he lacks qualified naval personnel, especially experienced and qualified naval personnel.

These captured Dutch crew members are all very good crew members. If these sailors with rich navigation experience and combat experience can be won over, their maritime power can be improved in a relatively short period of time.

"How can the Dutch pay to redeem so many prisoners?" Deng Wenkang was a little worried.

"Don't worry, what the Netherlands lacks is not money, but people." Liang Yao said with great confidence.

These are more than 1,200 Dutch and other European prisoners. Even if the Dutch and Indian authorities do not want to spend money to redeem them, the public opinion environment in the Netherlands will not agree.

"Yes, I understand." Deng Wenkang nodded and agreed.

"Is there any news about the nearby chiefdoms?" Liang Yao asked about the local chiefdoms.

"I've sent someone over to send a message. Ye Tenghui said that the local natives were intimidated by the Dutch's power and couldn't make a decision at the moment. They didn't dare to come to Pontianak to see you." Deng Wenkang said.

"However, Alkadri, the chief of the Pontianak chiefdom, has a more ambiguous attitude towards us, but he does not dare to express his position openly because he is worried that the Dutch will settle the score later."

There are many chiefdoms on the island of Borneo, but in West Borneo, the only chiefdoms that Liang Yao needs to deal with are the Pontianak Chiefdom in the south, the Sanfa Chiefdom in the north, the Sindang Chiefdom in the east, and Brunei in the northeast. Chiefdom.

Except for the Brunei chiefdom, which has a pro-British attitude, the rest of the chiefdoms are pro-Dutch chiefdoms.

Liang Yao wanted to maintain relatively stable control over the West Borneo region centered on Pontianak for a long time. He must weaken or eliminate the influence of the Dutch and Indian authorities on these chiefdoms.

"They are worried about the Dutch settling accounts later, but aren't they worried that I will settle accounts with them now?" Liang Yao sneered.

"Give them an ultimatum, either come to Pontianak to see me obediently, or I will send the army to invite them to Pontianak and let them choose. Setting off from Pontianak to settle accounts with them is better than setting off from Batavia to find them. Settle the accounts quickly."

Cruson fled in panic with the remaining defeated soldiers and returned to their home base of Batavia.

After this battle, the East Indies Fleet suffered heavy losses.

This is the largest loss suffered by the Dutch-Indian authorities this century.

The cause of this loss turned out to be the private armed forces of an American politician, which was unacceptable to Batavia Governor Tevez.

Use our naval guns to teach these yellow-skinned monkeys a lesson and teach the proud Americans a lesson.

This was the slogan uttered by the Dutch of Batavia before the East Indies.

With the defeat of the East Indies Fleet, there were far fewer such voices in Batavia.

Many people believe that it was their underestimation of the enemy that led to the defeat of this naval battle.

The defeat of the East Indies Fleet was not the worst news for Tevez.

Soon, even worse news was delivered to the desk of the Governor's Mansion.