Wild North America 1846

these few months

The Governor's Palace of the Dutch East Indies in Batavia had a lifeless atmosphere. The white officers who came and went had solemn expressions on their faces, and there was a lingering heaviness in their brows.

After coastal ports such as Batavia and Surabaya were once again devastated by Royal Navy artillery fire, the port facilities that had just recovered to a certain extent were bombed to pieces, which further intensified the panic among the white society in Java.

They didn't know that the Tang Empire had no invasion plan to occupy Java Island for the time being, so they would naturally think;

After solving Sumatra and Kalimantan, will Java face a massive invasion by the Tang Empire? And the bombardment of the port is just a prelude?

When disaster befalls oneself, no one can remain calm.

The Governor's Office received information from reliable sources.

There is a high probability that the army of the Tang Empire will not land on Java Island and will not get involved in the elite land of the East Indies.

But who can say for sure?

What if the Tang Empire temporarily changes its mind?

Because of the Boer issue, the relationship between Britain and Western European countries, including the Netherlands and Germany, fell into coldness and alienation, and became no longer trustworthy. Coupled with the lack of information and the blockade of the Tang Empire, it was difficult to transmit information, and the white community on the island

People are panicked.

The Governor-General did not dare to pin the future of the East Indies on the kindness of the enemy, so it launched two rounds of comprehensive military mobilization on Java Island.

Mainly based on the 31,500 troops stationed on Java Island, 276,000 white men were successively given military training for 2 to 3 months, and the same number of indigenous servants were recruited.

Large-scale construction projects were carried out in various cities and villages to build defensive fortresses and positions, as if they were determined to fight to the end.

"Your Majesty the Governor, we have done everything we can, but the current situation where all the people are in the army is bound to be difficult to sustain for a long time. A large number of young and middle-aged laborers have been transferred, which has seriously affected agricultural production and reduced autumn grain production is a foregone conclusion." Deputy Governor Fan Ba

Sir Sten shook his head with a worried expression. Now there is all bad news on the island, everything is terrible.

He couldn't help but continue talking, "By then, insufficient food will definitely cause instability on the island. Without the invasion of the Tang army, Java Island will be in chaos first."

Governor Posi's temples were obviously a lot whiter. After hearing this, he sighed and said;

"Sir, I understand your concerns, but we cannot relax our preparations for war now. This is the most urgent matter at the moment.

As the colonial governor of the Queen's government, I shoulder the sacred responsibility of guarding this territory and repel any invading enemies.

As for what you are worried about, unfortunately, these are extraordinary times.

We don’t have too much energy to focus on the aboriginal people. The culprit of all this is the greedy Tang people. We can only pray for God’s blessing!”

"Your Excellency the Governor, I hope you can state directly to His Excellency Bode, the Colonial Secretary of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, the dilemma we are facing. Under the blockade of the enemy's powerful fleet. With neither foreign aid nor domestic help, we will not be able to survive for long."

"The royal government is also actively carrying out diplomatic actions and has made demands for armistice negotiations. As long as we persist, we will see the dawn of victory."

"Is it really possible?" Sir Van Basten shook his head disapprovingly, took a sip from the wine glass in his hand, and said pessimistically, "I wonder what the people in the Royal Government are thinking? Look at half of the Tang Kingdom

In the history of colonial expansion that spans centuries, the land swallowed up by whales has never been spit out. Putting forward preconditions for returning the occupied territories is simply an insult to the intelligence of the Orientals."

"This is just a negotiation strategy. After all, no one is willing to lose the inheritance laid down by their ancestors, and no one wants to be a sinner of the nation." Governor Pos smiled bitterly and explained a few words for the royal government.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is a full constitutional monarchy. The greatest power of the country lies in the cabinet and parliament. The royal family only exists as a symbol of the country and has difficulty interfering in important decisions.

Therefore

The government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands must take into account the patriotic sentiments and tendencies of the people. Any behavior that is weak against the enemy and humiliates the country will incur the raging anger of the people.

This will inevitably lead to the collapse of the cabinet, and those in power will be labeled as capitulationists. This is tantamount to political suicide in the Dutch political arena.

Therefore, on the one hand, the Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands hopes to launch peace negotiations as soon as possible to rescue more than 50,000 white prisoners of war.

The families of these people can be found in almost all provinces and all walks of life in the Netherlands. They put great pressure on the government and asked the royal government to rescue their relatives from the damn hard labor camps in the Tang Dynasty.

On the other hand, dominated by strong nationalist sentiments in the country, the cabinet has little room for concessions.

A combination of various factors forced the Royal Netherlands Government to put forward incredible preconditions for peace negotiations;

That is, the Tang State must first return the occupied Sumatra, Sulawesi and Kalimantan Islands before the next step of armistice negotiations can begin.

This resulted in the negotiation ending before it even started.

The Tang Empire has an extremely tough attitude and is not very willing or active in promoting armistice negotiations. It has already begun large-scale construction of new occupied areas.

Looking at it like this, I have no intention of returning it.

This result is neither the best nor the worst, and the current government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands can barely accept it.

the reason is simple

The armistice negotiations have been delayed as a result, and there are no signs of restarting yet. However, the term of the current government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands will expire in more than two months.

Because Dutch voters were dissatisfied with the loss of cities and territory in the colonial war, the current government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands lost the last general election at the end of the century.

As long as we survive these few months, the mess will be left to the next cabinet to deal with. Isn’t it the best of both worlds?

This cabinet no longer has to worry about ceding territory and paying indemnities, nor does it have to worry about being labeled as a capitulator, thereby completely cutting off the political path.

After a few years, just choose it again.

The most unlucky thing was the Java colony, which was repeatedly bombarded and tightly blockaded by the Royal Navy of the Tang Empire. The people on the island endured the suffering of the war, and the white colonists trembled in fear of the enemy and could not sleep at night.

Governor Pos was well aware of the stakes, but he was limited in what he could do.

At present, the island of Java, the essence of the East Indies, must be preserved at any cost, even if the blood of the local indigenous people is drained.

As for the rest... I have no time to think about it at the moment.

Tang Empire mainland

Metropolis Chaoge (Philadelphia)

On May 1 of the last year of the 19th century, coinciding with the 53rd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the emperor announced the official move of the capital to Chaoge City (Philadelphia) and held a series of grand celebrations.

The Yunxiao Palace, the seat of the new imperial government, the Parliament Building and numerous government buildings were officially opened. Major projects such as the Chaoge Royal Art Museum, the National Chaoge University, and the Royal Administrative College also held inauguration ceremonies.

heat.

More than ten days have passed

In the streets and alleys of Chaoge City, you can still see the remaining traces of the grand celebration. Bright red lanterns are hung on the endless street lamps of Glory Street and Triumph Street, and lanterns are hung on both sides of the road.

In the lush green belt, there are also firecrackers and colorful ribbons set off during the celebration, indicating that this is an unprecedented capital relocation ceremony.

On the former site of lush Fairmount Park

The New Imperial Palace is located in the shadow of countless towering trees. It neither shows mountains nor dew. It is far less majestic and majestic than the Daming Palace. Even the layout of the three main halls facing the palace is much smaller.

actually

Without the extremely large Taiye Pool and Wanshou Mountain (a homophone for "beast"), the new palace is not much smaller than the palace buildings of the Daming Palace. The layout is more compact and beautiful, and the universe is hidden inside.

Due to the short time, less than 1/4 of the construction work of the new palace has been completed, mainly the three main halls and part of the east palace, which are barely habitable.

The emperor's imperial chariot has settled in the East Palace, but he only brought a dozen young and beautiful concubines with him, and he has no plans to stay there for a long time.

By the end of the year, he was ready to return to Chang'an, the western capital.

Qinzheng Palace

This newly built palace still has the faint fragrance of nanmu. Emperor Richard is here to receive a group of cabinet members who have a routine audience.

What is different from the past is

His Royal Highness Crown Prince Tang-Li Qian also attended the regular imperial meeting. His seat is under the throne, which is a distinguished position below one person and above billions of subjects.

Among the important national affairs discussed in the court, in addition to domestic affairs, were of course the affairs of the new colonies in the East Indies, and the currently intensifying Boer problem in South Africa.

Marshal Mak Hsiao-jo, Minister of War and Chief of Staff, and Lord Liu Daqing, Secretary of the Colonial Department, respectively reported on the military progress of the expeditionary force and the construction of new colonies, as well as future plans and prospects.

"My beloved ministers have thought carefully and acted appropriately, spreading the glory of the empire beyond the waves of thousands of miles and inheriting our splendid Chinese civilization. I am very pleased."

After listening to the report, Emperor Richard nodded in approval.

In recent years, Emperor Richard has rarely expressed opinions on specific matters, mostly relying on cabinet resolutions, which has greatly strengthened the voice of the cabinet and parliament.

This colonial war to expand the East Indies is a major military operation led by the Imperial Cabinet and has the tacit approval of His Majesty the Emperor.

There is a reason why as many as 168,000 troops were used before and after, especially with the Second Corps of the Royal Guards as the main force.

This is mainly because the Province of Paradise, the Kingdom of Luzon, the Kingdom of Cebu and the Kingdom of Mindanao all belong to the royal sphere of influence and have a strong military presence.

Mobilizing troops nearby saves time, effort and military expenses, and the effect is not bad at all.

Of course

According to the tacit understanding between the royal family and the imperial government before the war, the occupied Kalimantan Islands belonged to the royal family of the Tang Empire and could be used to enfeoff vassal states.

As the Sumatra Islands are located in an important position on the south side of the Strait of Malacca and are the only passage between the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, the empire established a province directly under the jurisdiction of Sumatra.

Although the Sulawesi Islands cover a vast area, they are sparsely populated and have little development potential, so the empire set up overseas districts in the area directly under its jurisdiction.

This is just a future plan, and the current conditions are not yet mature.

Prime Minister Duke Pan Shouguo stood up, clasped his fists and chanted;

“Start your majesty;

After repeated studies and judgments, the cabinet believes that although the war in the East Indies has initially achieved pre-war goals, it may further fall into long-term international disputes.

Originating from the self-restraint of the empire, this caused the Kingdom of the Netherlands to have unrealistic delusions on the East Indies issue and tried to delay changes.

In their view

The East Indies was the Tang version of the Boer issue. After a long enough fermentation, it was enough to win the sympathy of European countries for the Kingdom of the Netherlands and form a strong international pressure on the Tang Empire.

In view of this

The imperial government believes that Plan B should be decisively launched to further occupy the line from Bali to East Timor on the east side of the Java Islands, and bring the war to the doorstep of Java itself.

Only by exerting extreme pressure like this and promoting peace through war can we end the East Indies' hand as soon as possible and usher in the expected armistice and peace negotiations.

If the empire ties its own hands, it will not be conducive to resolving the territorial dispute in the East Indies.

If a small wound is delayed for a long time, the ulcer will inevitably become bigger and bigger, and the European powers will free up their hands to get involved, which may lead to the danger of being unable to end."

this……

Further occupy the line from Bali to East Timor?

Emperor Richard instantly understood what the Prime Minister meant and couldn't help but think deeply;

Bali is an affiliated island of the Java Islands. From Bali eastward to East Timor, there is an island chain that is more than 1,270 kilometers long, which is much wider than the main island of Java.

If this section of the island chain, which is more than a thousand kilometers long, is cut off, then the main island of Java will become an isolated island surrounded by the territory of the Tang Empire.

The Tang Empire's military frontier was located in Bali, which was only separated by the Bali Strait, which was only a dozen nautical miles away. It was like a sharp knife on the back of Java Island, and the security environment became unprecedentedly bad.

From the island of Kalimantan, which is hundreds of kilometers away, to the island of Bali, which is more than 10 kilometers away, the armies of the Tang Empire pressed forward step by step. This is what extreme pressure means.

If the Kingdom of the Netherlands tries to wait for change, it must consider whether it can withstand the serious consequences of a full occupation of Java Island.

As long as you are not stupid enough, you have to make a decision whether to completely lose all your wealth, or to leave with some chips, whether to fight or to fight against the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

From this point of view, it seems that something is going on?

Emperor Richard has no ready-made historical experience to draw from, but with his rich political experience, he knows that hesitation and missed opportunities are the most taboo in military affairs.

"Since the war in the East Indies is led by the government, let's go ahead with it. But we must pay attention to policy coordination with London to avoid miscalculations on both sides."

Speaking of which

Emperor Richard thought for a while and then added;

"To promote the attack on Bali, it is better to proceed slowly rather than hastily, and to leave sufficient time for the European side to react.

Judging from the current international situation

Britain's main energy is focused on the Boer issue in South Africa, and it has no time to take care of the East Indies for the time being. Feedback on related issues may be slow or even contradictory.

The German hand that the Dutch relied on could not stretch out that long, and the empire still had plenty of time.

The opportunity for change should be after the outbreak of the Boer War in South Africa. If the war goes well, the East Indies issue may become complicated for a long time.

If the war goes unfavorably or even the British army suffers heavy losses, then... it may be rare good news for a complete solution to the East Indies problem.

International affairs are by no means isolated, but are interconnected and affect the whole body.

Calmly examine the international situation and take appropriate actions at the right time to get twice the result with half the effort!"

"Your Majesty is wise, and I have no right to disrespect you." All the ministers stood up and saluted in reply. (End of this chapter)