Australian Storm 1876

  Chapter 711 1896

  North Queensland has been developed for more than 10 years, and Qingdao, Cairns, Darwin, Linyi, Rockhampton and many other dazzling immigrant cities have emerged, as well as dozens of small towns, accommodating more than 2.3 million immigrants.

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  The most dazzling city is Qingdao, with a total urban population of over 430,000. The various industries of industry, agriculture, animal husbandry, business and mining are advancing side by side, and are developing better and better. It has become the central city of northern Queensland, exuding an inconceivable brilliance.

Qingdao is now a famous wool spinning city. The 19th Wool Spinning Factory is under construction. This is a heavyweight factory using innovative wool spinning technology. It is expected to recruit nearly 20,000 textile workers to digest the entire northern part of Queensland. A huge amount of high-quality wool resources.

  Relying on abundant resources, here is also a non-staple food additive processing center and a high-quality coal export and transshipment base. The high-quality coal from Linyi is loaded here and shipped to all parts of the world.

  Relying on Rockhampton’s unparalleled advantages in geographical resources, it has more than half of Australia's beef and dairy cattle breeding industry. This has developed a mature leather processing industry in Qingdao and has become the most important leather processing base in the Ocean Kingdom.

  Now, the Qingdao factory of Dongfanghong Machinery Company is located here again, which will surely bring a lot of job opportunities in the machinery industry, further enrich Qingdao's economic structure, strengthen the city's carrying capacity and attractiveness, and enter a virtuous circle.

  By the end of this century, the city is likely to exceed the 600,000 population barrier and become one of the top eight metropolises in Australia.

Comparison

  The development of Keynes and Darwin is much inferior. Keynes has a population of barely over 200,000 so far, and Darwin can be over 100,000. It has already been thrown away by competitors.

  Qingdao is a seaside city 800 kilometers north of Brisbane. If calculated by distance, it is almost the distance from Peiping to Lianyungang, Jiangsu.

  Overall

  The population of northern Queensland is still very sparse, mostly concentrated around the urban areas dominated by Qingdao, Cairns, and Darwin. Leaving the city, there are sparsely populated pastoral areas and wasteland.

  According to the plan of the Ministry of Transport;

   will divide the original phase one project of the northern extension of the coastal railway into two, and build an 800-kilometer railway from Brisbane to the north to Qingdao, and connect all large cities with a population of more than 400,000 together by railway lines.

  As for the railway line to continue to extend northward to Burns, I am afraid that it will be a long-term plan.

  End of September 1895

  The small fleet composed of the heavy cruiser "Qinglong" and the coal carrier "Postman" left the Red River Valley pier and embarked on a long journey to Europe.

  October 1895

  Ocean Kingdom issued the "Ocean Kingdom Charter", which established the Ocean Kingdom as a capitalist country with a constitutional monarchy through the constitution, implementing the separation of powers. The king is the supreme head of the country and the army and has the right to dissolve the parliament and re-elect.

  Early November 1895

  According to the King’s Decree, the "Ocean Kingdom Education Law" was issued and implemented;

  It is stipulated that every preschooler who has reached the age of 7 is obligated to receive education. The government will subsidize public schools to promote the establishment of an education system for all, improve the quality of citizens, and create a good atmosphere of respect for knowledge.

  Then in mid-to-late November, intensively promulgated the "Ocean King Civil Law", "Ocean Kingdom Criminal Law", "Compulsory Military Service Law", "Commercial Law" and other heavyweight laws that have been brewing for a long time. It is known that citizens at home and abroad will comply with them.

  December 7, 1895

  The Duke Marconieno of Ethiopia, together with 2,000 Humen mercenaries, won the battle at Amba-Araghi. The Italian army suffered a second defeat and suffered heavy losses.

  December 16, 1895

  Indochina Peninsula

  A small-scale exchange of fire between the French colonial army and the Vietnamese border guards resulted in several deaths and injuries on both sides. This incident immediately attracted the attention of Britain, Germany, Russia, the United States, and the Oceanic Kingdom. Notes were sent out through diplomatic channels, hoping that both sides would exercise restraint.

  The Kingdom of Vietnam specially invited Britain and the Kingdom of Oceans to take the lead in diplomatic mediation, and tried their best to ease the situation in North Vietnam and avoid the raging of war.

  The United Kingdom happily accepted the request for diplomatic mediation. After the Ocean Kingdom had a meeting, it decided to hold an international conference in Singapore to mediate the contradiction between the French Saigon Governor’s House and Vietnam.

  Early 1896, (22nd year of Guangxu)

  The Qing government began to raise the second phase of the "Shimonoseki Treaty" compensation to Japan. In order to compete for this big piece of fat, Britain, France, Germany and Russia all participated in it and put pressure on the Qing court.

  For a time, all the powers of all countries were attracted to the Far East.

  After fierce competition, the Anglo-German Group overwhelmed the Russian-French Group and obtained the second loan right from the Great Powers to the Qing government. For this reason, the British Embassy held a three-day celebration reception to celebrate this victory.

   February 10, 1896

  On behalf of the Manchu Prime Minister’s Office, Hurd signed the "English-German Foreign Loan Contract" (also known as the "English-German Loan Detailed Regulations") with HSBC and Deutsche Bank in Beijing.

  There are 18 clauses in the "British, German and Foreign Money Contract", among which the main provisions are:

The total borrowing amount is 16 million pounds (100 million taels of silver, converted at a pound 6 taels of 6 percent silver) at a 94% discount (94%). The annual interest rate is 5%. The payment is limited to 36 years. Pay off early or all at once.

  The Manchu Qing court used customs revenue as a guarantee. Within the repayment period, the position of the General Taxation Department of the Manchu Qing Customs must be filled by a British person, so that the United Kingdom obtained a 36-year guarantee of controlling the Manchu Qing customs administration. (Note, this is historical fact)

  Why did the powers in Europe and America rush to lend money to the Qing government?

The secret here is the huge amount of interest. Presumably many people who are burdened with loans know that if the interest rate is 5% per year for 36 years, the principal and interest will be doubled, plus the 94% discount for delivery, so the calculated interest is more than 5%. , Can be described as a good abacus.

  So the European powers not only borrowed money, but also borrowed more money. If the Manchu Qing court did not borrow money, it would not give face, and that would be maddening.

  The British had a **** fight for this and publicly threatened them; if they did not borrow money from it this time, they would resort to force at all costs.

  Look at this virtue, whether there is a taste of strong buying and selling.

It’s a pity that no one expected that the Manchu Qing government could not last for that long, and it would collapse early, so I won’t talk about it later.

Before this huge amount of borrowing was covered, the Manchu Qing court allocated 5.6 million pounds (35 million taels of silver) to the Ocean Kingdom and set aside 3.84 million pounds (24 million taels of silver) according to the previous intergovernmental agreement. Previously, a two-phase war compensation of 12 million has been paid, this is the second one) to Fusang State as the final compensation of the "Shimonoseki Treaty".

  The war reparations that were originally planned to be received in 3 to 4 years were all received at once. What a blessing!

  Ocean Kingdom’s subsequent construction plans for the two metropolitan-class battleships "Matsujiang" and "Melbourne" were successfully approved, and "Beilun" and "Tianquan" were also scheduled for subsequent construction.

  In the intensive planning of the construction of the new first-class cruiser, the three powers of the Ocean Kingdom, Tsarist Russia, and Fusang in the western Pacific have entered the period of vigorously building battleships at the same time. The United States on the east coast of the Pacific is also developing battleships in full swing to cope with the madness at the end of the century.

   March 1, 1896

  Humen mercenaries obtained accurate information. The Italian army was separated from each other by the marching, and there was a good opportunity to wipe out the enemy. Because the follow-up Italian army moved slowly, the Egyptian army was able to severely damage the scattered Italian army one by one.

  The Royal Ethiopian army and Humen mercenaries moved quickly, using frontal attacks and flanks to fight in depth, focusing on attacking and encircling the forefront of the Italian Legion.

The main target was the column of General Aliberton of the Italian army. Although the Italian artillery effectively sniped the offensive, the Italian army's column was still defeated and almost wiped out under the fierce counterattack of the Humen mercenaries. The army column was also defeated.

  Although the Italian army has good equipment and military technology, it did not show the style of a strong European army in the Battle of Adwa. As a result, it was defeated by the coalition of the indigenous army of the Kingdom of Ethiopia and the mercenaries of Humen, and it was defeated.

  Post-war inventory

   The 17,000 Italian troops who went out on the expedition suffered 13,000 casualties and 3,000 people were captured. Fewer than 1,000 people fled back.

  Ethiopian indigenous army killed about 5,000 people, injured more than 10,000 people, Humen mercenaries killed and injured more than 100 people.

  In this battle, Tsarist Russia also appeared.

  In order to curb the expansion of British, French, and North African forces, Tsarist Russia is collecting donations in the country. Through the Tsarist Red Cross, a medical team is sent to provide medical care for the Ethiopian soldiers, and fully supports the just war of Uncle Black.

  The fiasco of colonizing the Kingdom of Ethiopia has made the Kingdom of Italy a laughing stock for European countries.

  The former German Prime Minister Bismarck sneered sharply: “The Italians came to the African continent with a mouth full of cavities, but they have a great appetite.”

  The King of the Ocean Kingdom Li Fushou commented on this; “It is a pity that this is a failed performance. It seems that Italian opera and food have lost the ambitions of the Romans.”

  Indochina Peninsula

  Vietnam

  In the current era, in the entire territory of the old Kingdom of Vietnam, the southern, central, and northern areas, the unaccurately counted population is about 10 million, mainly living in the southern area of ​​the Red River Plain, that is, the surrounding area where the French Saigon Governor’s House is located.

  The population distribution of the old Kingdom of Vietnam was in the shape of a barbell, with a small area in Zhongqi and a large population in the northern and southern regions.

The Beiqi area (excluding the approximately 300,000 people in Hanoi) where the newly established Yue State is located has a total population of approximately 2.2 to 2.3 million. Recently, some Guangxi people have moved to this area, with a total of approximately 50,000 to 60,000. The overall population size is not affected. Big.

  Taiyuan Province, Taiyuan City

This is the seat of the Yue King's capital. The Yue Kingdom's King Gu Zhiwen set up his palace in the original Taiyuan City Government Office. This is a traditional building with distinctive Ming and Qing architectural styles. It occupies a small area, about three acres (metric system). Left and right, symmetrical layout.

   Entered the yammen yard, and there are 6-room scholars on the left and right. Now it is the seat of the six kingdoms. The main hall of the yamen is the main hall of the Yue King's Palace. The sparrow is small and has all five internal organs.

  In King Gu Zhiwen’s idea, the royal palace should be located in Hanoi, which has a longer history, where there are ready-made palaces for use, but at most they can be expanded and repaired, and there is no need to start all over again.

  But the idea is full, the reality is very skinny.

   Hanoi, which is only 79 kilometers away from Taiyuan, is now in the hands of French colonists. In order to unify and perfect the Indochina Peninsula strategy, they will not easily give up and give King Gu Zhiwen his dream.

  A small country has the benefits of a small country. The French Expeditionary Force and the New Vietnam Army confronted along the outer area of ​​Hanoi. The front line was only more than 50 kilometers away from Taiyuan, and the sound of guns could be heard faintly.

   Say something bad;

  If the battle goes well, the French Expeditionary Force will go fiercely, and it will be able to force the march to the outskirts of Taiyuan one day and night. This is really nothing to brag about.

Therefore, at the junction of the two sides, the Yue State stocked a powerful 16,000 new army, that is, the Yue State 2nd and 3rd Divisions, the right wing was covered by tens of thousands of black flag troops, and the left wing was the remaining 8,000 elite new troops, which was Yue State First Division.

  In the rear, there are field guards improved from the original green battalion. The field regiment has two thousand soldiers as a combat unit. There are 6 field regiments, numbered from 13 to 18 regiments, scattered throughout the kingdom.

As can be seen

  This is a defensive layout with heavy front and light back. Basically, the elite troops have reached the first and second line positions. Once they are broken through. Then the country is over.

This is also the sadness of a small country, because there is not much strategic depth to retreat. Lang Son in the north is just a small mountain town, unable to accommodate large-scale troops and population, and Shanxi or Dien Bien Phu is good and partial. Living in a corner is really not a good choice for the capital.

   Therefore, it is really helpless for the Yue Kingdom to choose Taiyuan as the temporary capital of the king.

  From the very beginning

  Vietnam is facing a huge crisis of destruction at any time. The first battle is not a joke. Since the border friction broke out in December last year, the Vietnamese new army has always maintained a high level of alert to prevent the French from coming over in a certain morning.

  From the geographical location of the old Kingdom of Vietnam, it can be clearly seen that the entire country is in the shape of a dumbbell. Beiqi is the dumbbell head located in the north, with irregular omelets spread out in the shape, while Hanoi happens to be located at the southern end of the omelet.

  The current situation is like being bitten by a Frenchman, splitting.

If it is not possible to bring the Hanoi region into the bag, push the border of the southern tip of Vietnam to a place where the dumbbells are narrow and shake hands (Zhongqi), and build a strong defense line here, then the crisis of destruction that Vietnam faces at all times will not be possible. Lifted.

Therefore, it is not only the French who want to destroy this newly born Chinese feudal kingdom northward, but the Yue country is also thinking day and night to fight over, establish and consolidate the kingdom's ruling foundation, completely eliminate the crisis of demise, and at least be stable and stable. Can sleep well.

  Compared with the battle between the two powers that is brewing in Northeast Asia, this is the fateful battle of the Indochina Peninsula pocket edition. Although separated by thousands of miles, the meaning is the same.

  The intention of the French colonists to destroy the country is clear. It is not only necessary to improve the territory of the Indochina Peninsula colony, but also to see the fragile Qing Dynasty to the north, and it is very important that Taiyuan, which is rich in iron ore resources, can be taken into the bag.

  In the entire Indochina Peninsula

  The high-quality iron ore in Taiyuan Province can be said to be a scarce resource. With it, the French colonists would not need to import high-quality steel from the Ocean Kingdom to produce steel products needed for military and farming.

  Nowadays, in the French colony of Indochina, not even a wok can be produced. How can this be done?

  (End of this chapter)