Start 1861: I Just Inherited the Dutch Throne

January 6, 1882.

Kingdom of the Netherlands, Australian mainland, Melbourne, Defense Square.

King William IV of the Netherlands and the visiting King Chulalongkorn of the Kingdom of Siam met for more than 10 hours and held many dinners. It can be said that they were warmly entertained.

In the end, the two countries reached a public agreement, that is, in the next three years, the King of the Netherlands will sell 3 of the 10 first-class sailing battleships currently in use to the Kingdom of Siam, divided into one ship per year.

Because the amount of the second-level sailing battleships and the third-level sailing battleships is large, 4 units each are sold.

In other words, if everything goes well, in the fourth year after three years, the Kingdom of Siam will assemble a new battle fleet with 11 warships.

After this news was announced, the world was once again shocked by the successful sale of the Dutch large-scale.

11 battleships in three years. Although they are old-fashioned sailing battleships, which country in the world has sailing battleships in service? Isn’t it good?

Even in the UK, among the 270 warships of various types currently in service, more than 160 are sailing warships, and more than half of them have not yet been replaced.

Needless to say there are 50 submarines underwater.

Even in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the replacement rate has only reached 70%. The Netherlands has more than 200 surface warships and more than 110 underwater submarines.

In other words, the Netherlands currently has more than 60 sailing warships.

This time 11 ships were sold to the Kingdom of Siam, and there are still 49 ships left. It seems that other countries followed the trend and purchased Xiangguoguo.

Let's just say that even Germany, Sweden and Denmark have taken a peek at the Dutch sailing warships.

They are asking about quotations and trying to buy them cheaply. These countries are calculating carefully.

The sale of Dutch sailing battleships also created a huge tsunami in the world's military landscape.

You must know that there are no more than 15 countries with 3 first-level sailing battleships, 4 second-level sailing battleships, and 4 third-level sailing battleships. All of a sudden, the Kingdom of Siam only purchased sailing battleships, plus With its own naval power, it can surpass most countries and reach the top fifteen in terms of naval warship strength in the world. This is extremely enviable.

You know, even if it is as powerful as the Ottoman Empire, it currently only has 5 steam battleships. The others are all sail battleships, and most of them are Level 3, Level 4, Level 5, and Level 6.

The Ottoman Empire's navy only ranks twelfth in the world among the world's naval forces, including Britain, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Spain, the United States, Austria-Hungary, Portugal, the Qing Dynasty, Denmark, Sweden, the Ottomans, Greece, Japan, The Kingdom of Siam, and the sixteenth is Brazil.

Look, the Kingdom of Siam is in one step and will soon catch up with the newly rising Japan in the Far East supported by Britain in three years. This has attracted the envy of Japan.

Reaching the sky in one step is like the Kingdom of Siam.

For this reason, many hidden careerists in Japan began to attack Japan's cabinet Prime Minister Shigenobu, putting Japan into a diplomatic dilemma.

In particular, Kuroda Kiyotaka, a political ally of Foreign Minister Hirobumi Ito, became a gunman.

Ten years ago, Kuroda Kiyotaka used it as a base for building Hokkaido to defend against Tsarist Russia. He expanded facilities on the island and approved 10 million taels of silver as the total budget for development in the next ten years.

By the end of 1881, the 14th year of Emperor Meiji's reign, the post of the Hokkaido Expansion Envoy was about to be abolished. In order to continue the operation of the Hokkaido Expansion Project, Kuroten Takakiyo resigned from his post to support the operation and reported it to the company, and contracted it at a low price. local government-owned enterprises

, so that these officials can successfully take over and manage the property for 30 years.

380,000 yen without interest and 30 payments, with a total investment of approximately 14 million yen in ships, total investment_warehouses, farms, coal mines, breweries, sugar refineries and other government properties were sold to the Secretary of the Kaixiang Envoy Guan Tianru and his party Since the Hokkai Company itself had no capital relations, the entire transaction was undertaken by the Kansai Trading Company controlled by Tomohashi Godai, a wealthy businessman who was born in Dowa Kuroda Kiyotaka Satsumaban. It can be said that the above-mentioned sales rules were opposed by another government leader, Dasushi Shigentobu.

So at this time, Ito Hirobumi began to emerge and win over Kuroda Kiyotaka to fight against Ogami Shigenobu.

Naturally, Ogashi Shigenobu refused to let it go. This plan was immediately promoted by Shigenobu Ogashi to be published in newspapers in Japan. People in power and in the opposition began to strongly condemn Kuroda Kiyotaka and Godai Tomohitoshi. However, because they both belonged to the Satsuma lineage, Many elders and members of the Senate gave it to each other privately, and finally let it go.

The Choshu clan, headed by Ito Hirobumi, and the Satsuma clan of Kuroda Kiyotaka Meridian joined forces and determined that the commander of the Hizen clan, Ogashi Shigenobu, had disclosed relevant information.

Therefore, during this period, they have been hammering hard at the government cabinet of Shigenobu Ohsura in an attempt to oust him and dissolve the cabinet.

However, Yuu exposed the scandal of Kuroda Kiyotaka last year. Kuroda Kiyotaka already had to resign as Minister of Economic Affairs and resigned from the cabinet sinecure.

Discussions are also underway to abolish the post of Kai Kuan Envoy.

However, because he is an important figure in the Satsuma clan, it is indeed difficult to attack him.

Even with Ogami Shigenobu's compromise, Kuroda Kiyotaka became the new Speaker of the Diet.

…

The Emperor Meiji looked at these people in front of him who were at odds with each other very angrily.

The three major factions are Shigenobu Ogami, Hirobumi Ito, and Kiyotaka Kuroda.

“Everyone, if the warships of the Kingdom of Siam sail back to Bangkok from the Netherlands, then Bangkok may surpass us and become the second largest naval power in Asia after the Qing Dynasty.

Let’s talk about how to solve it.

Kuroda Kiyotaka-kun, please tell me."

Ask from the bottom up, this is the principle.

The higher you go, the more decisive you are in making decisions.

Therefore, the thoughts of the people below are what he cares about.

"Your Majesty, I feel that even if the Kingdom of Siam achieves the status of the second largest warship tonnage in Asia, it will only be superficial."

Kuroda Kiyotaka said indifferently.

"How do you say that?" Emperor Meiji asked curiously.

Emperor Mei_ji would not say anything if Kurote Kiyotaka answered the question whether he was satisfied or not.

However, it does not mean that the people next to you will continue to watch. Your Majesty, you still need to take the lead, not the vanguard.

"Your Majesty, I think the Netherlands is now selling large-scale arms to the Kingdom of Siam mainly to stimulate Britain.

As we all know, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom are now playing indirect games, but they have not started fighting directly.

This shows what? It shows that both countries are concerned about each other's strength.

I am afraid that I may win against the opponent, but lose to the countries next to me that benefit from it.

Therefore, my judgment is that the Netherlands deliberately sold arms to Siam in order to allow the Kingdom of Siam to consume British energy, or to directly fight against British strength in Indochina. "

"No matter which one, it is not the most urgent for us. On the contrary, increasing our own strength is what we need to do most."

Emperor Mei_ji nodded and asked: "Then what solution should we use?"