Expedition to Europe

While Qin Zhiyuan was preparing intensively, Pierre was not idle either.

Unlike Qin Zhiyuan, who was mainly military-oriented, Pierre had to coordinate the interests of different interest groups before setting off.

In the process of Pierre obtaining the position of Governor of Madagascar, businessmen played a great role, among which the Renault family and the Rothschild family, as well as the bankers in Paris, played an important role.

The reason why these people invested in Pierre was that they needed to get a return after Pierre took office. So when everything was settled and Pierre had obtained the position of Governor of Madagascar as he wished, Pierre still had a lot of work to do to ensure that these investors got what they wanted and lay a good foundation for future cooperation.

Basically speaking, Madagascar's resources are indeed very rich. Among them, iron ore, coal mines, and gold mines have been mined. However, due to the lack of cooperation from the locals, there are still many areas in Madagascar where the French have not set foot at all, so only a small part of the area has been initially explored, and there are more areas waiting for people to explore.

What Pierre needs to balance is the mining rights of these mining areas.

You should know that Madagascar is now under the control of the French. In Madagascar, there has been a vested interest group that has been working hard for many years. Of course, compared with the people gathered around Pierre, the local businessmen in Madagascar are inferior in terms of financial resources and influence. However, the strong dragon cannot suppress the local snake. Pierre brought these businessmen to Madagascar, and it is impossible for them to completely occupy all the mineral resources in Madagascar.

The most important minerals in Madagascar now are iron and coal. For old Renault, these two things are not of much value. Although the coal mines in Madagascar have rich reserves, they are not of great economic value. Even if they are mined and transported thousands of miles to Europe or Asia, there is not much oil and water to be made. At this time, Madagascar’s geographical disadvantages are magnified. No matter where you want to go, Madagascar is a bit too far away.

Speaking of iron ore, under the premise that old Renault already owns part of the iron ore in the Pilbara region, the iron ore in Madagascar is not very attractive to old Renault. Compared with the Pilbara region of Australia, the iron ore in Madagascar is not at the same level in terms of quality or reserves.

As for the gold mine, it is even more useless. Perhaps for ordinary people, gold is undoubtedly the most attractive, but for people like Old Renault, gold is not very meaningful. With basic resources such as coal and iron, as much gold as you want is at your fingertips.

After this analysis, Madagascar, which seems to be rich in resources, is actually a useless existence for Old Renault, which is really puzzling to Old Renault.

There is nothing to be puzzled about. In the past few years with Qin Zhiyuan, Old Renault is now an out-and-out mining tycoon. There are the world's few gems like the New Baku Oilfield in front of him, and there are huge wealth like the Pilbara Iron Mine waiting for Old Renault to dig, so there are really not many things that Old Renault can take a fancy to now.

Fortunately, Old Renault still has Qin Zhiyuan as a strong backer. Under Qin Zhiyuan's guidance, Old Renault won Pierre the right to explore mineral resources in southeastern Madagascar. No matter what kind of mineral resources Old Renault finds in southeastern Madagascar, Old Renault has 50 years of mining rights.

In the eyes of the Rothschild family and the bankers in Paris, Old Renault is just a gamble, but only Qin Zhiyuan knows that there are a lot of bauxite resources in southeastern Madagascar, among which there is a bauxite mine with a reserve of more than 100 million tons in the Manantenina area alone.

Compared with iron ore and coal mines, Qin Zhiyuan pays more attention to the aluminum mines in Madagascar.

With the vigorous development of the aviation and automobile industries, aluminum, as a light metal, has extremely broad applications in important industrial fields such as aviation, construction, and automobiles. The material properties of aluminum itself and the unique properties of its alloys make the position of aluminum in the industry increasingly important.

Old Renault has another unique advantage in entering the aluminum industry. Because of the relationship with the Federal Group, Old Renault can connect with the Mellon family in the United States through Allen. The Mellon family monopolizes the aluminum industry in the United States and must have its own unique technical advantages. If Old Renault can join forces with the Mellon family, then Old Renault will not only establish the same advantages in Europe as the Mellon family in the United States, but at least he can occupy a place in the European aluminum industry.

This is enough. Compared with the United States, the situation in Europe is more complicated. The relationship between various interest groups is intricate. It is not so easy to stand out in an industry.

With the support of Qin Zhiyuan, Old Renault's direction was immediately clear. Pierre did not set obstacles for Old Renault in this matter. The Rothschild family and the bankers in Paris did not intend to compete with Old Renault for the southeast of Madagascar, so Old Renault simply took over the mining rights in the southeast of the private family. While the Rothschild family and the bankers in Paris were still competing for the dominance of those existing mineral deposits, Old Renault had already begun to form his own team and was ready to go at any time.

After hanging out with Qin Zhiyuan for a long time, old Renault has become accustomed to doing things unconventionally. The big capitalists of this era are indeed unscrupulous. Although Governor Pierre has not yet taken office and the African Corps formed by Lan Fang has not yet set out, old Renault has already organized an expeditionary force himself and is ready to go to Madagascar at any time.

When old Renault does anything involving military matters, Qin Zhiyuan is definitely there. The mining area in southeastern Madagascar that old Renault has taken over originally has Qin Zhiyuan's 45% share. Therefore, the "exploration escort team" organized by old Renault has a total of 1,200 people, which is exactly the size of an infantry battalion.

It is just a battalion, so there is no need to reorganize it. Qin Zhiyuan directly selected a reinforced battalion from the active army of Lan Fang, gave it the name of "exploration escort team", and took a cruise ship from Lan Fang to Madagascar, preparing to start the colonization of Madagascar.

That's right, it is "colonization". Now Lan Fang has the qualifications for colonization, which is recognized by the whole world. Although this unit still bears the name of "exploration escort team", everyone knows that this is a step that Lan Fang will take sooner or later. Like capitalist countries such as Britain, France, and the United States, when Lan Fang's strength develops to a certain extent, Lan Fang will definitely choose to expand outward.

In mid-June, after the British coordination, the war between Port Hedland and Western Australia came to an end.

The result of the coordination was that Western Australia recognized Port Hedland's autonomous status, gave Port Hedland seats in the state parliament that matched its strength, and no longer imposed export surcharges to ensure that Port Hedland's free trade was not interfered with.

In return, Port Hedland released all the Perth Expeditionary Force prisoners of war and returned all ships including the "Perth". At the same time, Port Hedland recognized the leadership of the Western Australian government and paid taxes to the Western Australian government in accordance with the pre-war agreement.

Objectively speaking, this result not only maintained the face of the Western Australian government, but also ensured the sustainable development of Port Hedland. It was a win-win result.

But everyone knew that the dispute was far from over, and even the seeds of hatred had been planted. Since Port Hedland had obtained autonomy recognized by the British and Western Australian governments, it would definitely be more unconstrained in the future.

It was a very unexpected result. Although Port Hedland showed great strength, it did not attract the suppression of the British. On the contrary, the choice made by the British was very intriguing. Even in the whole process of adjustment, the British position was somewhat biased towards Port Hedland.

If you only look at Port Hedland, you may feel that the British took the wrong medicine, but if you magnify it to the whole of Australia, the British choice is not surprising.

In the World War, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps fought for the British. During the entire World War, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps fought bravely and made outstanding contributions, and performed outstandingly in the Commonwealth Army.

After the World War, the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps returned to Australia and New Zealand, and their outstanding performance in the World War began to become a burden on the Australian government.

The original text is in the six # 9 @book/bar!

In fact, all the merits were obtained with the heavy casualties of the soldiers. The better the performance, the heavier the casualties. The same is true for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps in the World War.

After the war, the pension for the disabled and dead soldiers became a big problem.

The Australian government adopted a wartime supply system during the World War. This policy adjustment caused complaints from all walks of life in Australia, but in order to deal with the Germans, Australians still showed patience. When the World War ended, just when Australians felt that they were finally going to breathe a sigh of relief, the Australian government not only did not touch the wartime supply system, but instead intensified the taxation.

The reason for this special situation is the issue of paying pensions for disabled soldiers. Originally, the money should have been paid by the British, but the British are now unable to take care of themselves, so the money fell on the Australian government again.

So the current Australian government has a lot of complaints about the British, so much so that calls for autonomy are endless.

In this context, what the British need to do is balance.

For example, in the war between Port Hedland and the Western Australian government, Britain appeared as a "mediator", which fully emphasized its status as a sovereign country and showed its indispensable value to the Australian government. It can be said that it killed two birds with one stone.

Perhaps for the British, Australia, which keeps having small accidents, is more in line with British interests.

With the war between Port Hedland and the Western Australian government settled, Qin Zhiyuan could finally visit the UK with peace of mind.

Just when Qin Zhiyuan arrived in London, the "exploration escort" organized by Old Renault finally arrived in Manantenina in southeastern Madagascar, and the first conflict with the locals broke out.

From the moment the Lanfang people set foot in Madagascar, the war had already started simultaneously. Whether for the Malagasy people or for the Lanfang people, this is destined to be a dark history that is difficult to talk about in the future.