Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 124 King of Nanyang?
Although it has only been half a year, Zheng Yi and Penang have never been short of money since the Penang Petrochemical project was successfully put into production half a year ago.

Things like plastics and chemical fibers have annual production volumes in the billions of tons in later generations, and the cracking furnaces he designed in his previous life had annual production volumes of tens of millions of tons.

The design scheme that Zheng Yi is currently working on is a combination of modern and ancient elements, but overall, it is actually at the technical level of the 1960s.

This is equivalent to directly advancing cutting-edge materials science by thirty years.

A technology that directly improves the world's material technology by 30 years has earned Zheng Yi enough money to become the world's richest man. Isn't this too much to ask?
The Penang Chinese Group holds nearly one-third of the shares of the three factories, and Zheng Yi holds almost half of them, or one-sixth.

At least in terms of personal wealth, he is definitely one of the richest people in the world.

The other four oil sisters have almost reached an agreement to build factories in Penang. By then, Zheng Yi and the Penang Group will be able to hold about 30% of the shares. He can't imagine how much money they will make.

At least few people have as much cash flow as he does.

It is precisely for this reason that the development and construction of Penang is not actually prioritized for the purpose of making money, and its finances are also very healthy. Even if they were not healthy, Zheng Yi would not mind spending some of his own money to subsidize Penang.

Anyway, he himself doesn't know how much money he has now. When the money reaches a certain level, it is just a number. For him, how to make money is no longer a problem, but how to spend it is.

It was 1936, and the devastating war was getting closer and closer. Naturally, he could not avoid being involved in it.

He also doesn't mind enjoying himself in his personal life.

At the highest point of Penang Hill is his house, which has an indoor swimming pool, a gym, a football field, and a huge garden.

Although the area is not too large, only more than 2,000 square meters without the garden, the decoration inside is as perfect as possible, and all the best things are used.

The bowls he uses for eating at home are all from the official kiln.

The main reason was that there were too few people in their family. He didn't even have an elder. Apart from him and Li Jiazhi, he had no other relatives. Li Jiazhi was not very willing to live with Qian Qiwen and asked Qian Qiwen to move out.

Qian Qiwen's house was in the villa area below theirs, and she was a neighbor of Tan Kah Kee, Li Xiaoshi, Xu Shengli and others.

She is also the deputy mayor of Penang and is considered a top official. She herself is not willing to live with Zheng Yi and others.

Although Zheng Yi still reserved a room for her, she never lived there. When they were dating, Zheng Yi had to go through a secret passage and a secret elevator that even Li Jiazhi didn't know about to go to their house.

She was clearly his concubine, but he made it seem like she was having an affair with him.

Why did his mother force me to marry her?
It's all stealing anyway.

For two people, living in a house of more than 2,000 square meters is already very big. If it is bigger, he may not be able to adapt to it and will not be able to enjoy it.

Zheng Yi has never known how those wealthy people who live in villas worth tens of thousands of square meters live. Don’t they feel scared when they are at home?

Li Jiazhi even had to go to work every day, riding a new bicycle down from the top of the mountain every day, and refused to let the driver at home take her.
But when she comes back, a driver will pick her up at the foot of Penang Hill and bring her bicycle up as well.

The two have been married for two years. He is still teaching English in a girls' school, and no one in the school knows that she is his wife.

I don’t know what’s so interesting about this crappy class, but since she likes it, Zheng Yi just lets her do as she pleases.

Although the villa is not big, he is very attentive to the security of the villa and even the entire Penang Hill. There is a mountain to protect against air raids and it is equipped with almost saturated anti-aircraft guns. There is an entire guard company protecting him in the back mountain, the foot of the mountain, and around his villa.

This guard company was naturally composed of local Fujian soldiers that Mr. Qian had carefully selected when he and Mr. Qian were negotiating.

Zheng Yi also made it very clear to them that they were here to earn foreign exchange and to treat it as a mercenary mission.

As a capitalist, he doesn't expect these people to be loyal to him. Zheng Yi himself is not very interested in the so-called loyalty. He doesn't believe in it.
In modern society, people may be loyal to their ideals and beliefs, but it is difficult for them to be loyal to an individual.

Zheng Yi admitted that he was not good at controlling others. He was fine with just treating it as a business. The relatively special background of these people meant that they would not have any connection with Penang or other overseas forces, and they were not easy to be bribed. They were all from northern Fujian, so he could feel a little more at ease using them.

He is so rich now, truly wealthy enough to rival a country. There are quite a few forces that have motives to kill him and kidnap him, and they must all be huge. To be honest, he is really afraid of death.

At the main entrance of his villa, there is a small office building, which is the command center for the security personnel.

After entertaining Marshal Mai for a night and sending him back to the Philippines, Zheng Yi unconsciously strolled here.

"Mr. Zheng? Why are you here?"

When the company commander of the guard company, Yang Shaomin, saw Zheng Yi coming, he quickly stood up, stood up to him and saluted.

"What do you want?"

"Nothing, Mr. Yang, are you studying English? You've really worked hard. Sit down, I just want to chat with you."

"Yes."

Yang Shaomin sat down with a smile, his back straight.

Yang Shaomin was from Wanning, Qiongzhou. He joined our party as early as 1928 and was assigned by the organization to Nanyang in 1929. He came to Nanyang earlier than Zheng Yi and was also a celebrity in Malaya.

Zheng Yi did not expect that this person would take the initiative to come to him and serve as his guard company commander, and take the initiative to come to his side and become his confidant.

You know, this is the founder of that thing in Malaya. Zheng Yi was originally very afraid of that organization.

So, there is no Ma X in this time and space?
That’s a good thing. Zheng Yi has always been troubled by how to deal with this problem.

Instead, he took the initiative to ask Yang Shaomin, "I heard that you took the initiative to go to Kedah a while ago. I haven't asked about the situation there for a long time. I wanted to ask you, what's the situation there now? Is the war still going on?"

"It's okay. After the aristocracy was gone, most of the lower-class Malays had land. Of course, the old feudal forces were not so easy to eliminate, but they were not very powerful. They only united with those in Perak to put up a stubborn resistance in the border areas of Perak.

It’s just that… the Malays are so poor, so poor that even if there is a reasonable distribution…”

As he spoke, Yang Shaomin glanced at Zheng Yi a little embarrassedly.

At present, the war on the Malay Peninsula has not completely subsided. In Perlis, the situation is relatively peaceful and the Malays there are also relatively peaceful.

After all, the number of people in the settlement corps that He Shili had set up there had exceeded 30,000, and Zheng Yi had given them most of the tanks, armored vehicles, airplanes, and World War I equipment that had been eliminated by the Royal Machinery.

Although they are all rags, they are enough to make the Malays speak nicely. It is the most peaceful of the three states. The more than 10,000 hectares of rice planted there have become Penang’s most important food reserve.

Perak has been fighting all the time. That state is half Indian and half Malay. When the fighting started, although the Indians had a clear advantage with the support of Zheng Yi and occupied an important city like Ipoh, they were never able to completely defeat the Malays.

Those Malays must have the support of the Colonial Affairs Bureau. Even the sultans of several other states have openly taken action in Perak.

The Indians' organizational ability was just so-so, and they were just weaklings fighting each other. Zheng Yi was well aware of the actions of the Colonial Bureau, but since the ones being beaten were all Indians, he didn't care.
It was almost as if he controlled the Indians and the Colonial Office controlled the Malays, and they were competing with each other to fight a proxy war.

It's so tragic.

"Do those reactionary armed forces have British support?"

Yang Shaomin: "There should be. There is nothing we can do about it. But it doesn't matter. The reactionaries are all paper tigers. The military support from the Colonial Office is just that.

But, Mr. Zheng, the lower-class Malays are really too poor, especially in Kedah, which is only one city away from Penang. Sometimes... Oh, forget it.

Zheng Yi, however, roughly knew what he wanted to say and said, "Have you seen 'The Jews of the East'?"

Yang Shaomin nodded.

"Do you think everything in the book is true?"

"This... at least, it can't be considered completely wrong. From the Siamese perspective, the Chinese are accomplices of the Western powers, helping them to effectively colonize them and exploit them, monopolizing society's wealth while refusing to contribute to society."

As he spoke, Yang Shaomin sighed and said, "Mr. Zheng, you are the leader of our overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. I would like to ask you, have we, the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia, really made any contributions to Malayan society?"

Zheng Yi: "We do quite a bit of charity work, um..."

Yang Shaomin: "Yes, the Chinese in Southeast Asia have built a large number of schools, ancestral temples, and ancestral halls, but what do these have to do with the Malays? You have leased the best land to plant rubber, palm oil, and coffee, even affecting other people's food production."

"You have mined all the tin on the surface of the earth, and in exchange for the first pot of gold for you big bosses, but this is a natural resource. Let's not talk about who is the indigenous and who is the foreigner between the Chinese and the Malays.

But since we all live on the same land and belong to the same country, it doesn't make sense for you to take all the resources from the land without them getting even a fraction of the benefits, right?"

"Mr. Zheng, I have been in Nanyang for some years. During these years, I have been living with the poorest working class.
Among these poor people are Chinese and Malays. There are problems in Southeast Asia."

Zheng Yi remained noncommittal. "It's a colony, not a normal country. It's a myth that there's nothing wrong with the social structure. It's all the fault of the fucking British."

Yang Shaomin: "Before you came, the life of the lower-class Chinese workers was not very good. After you came, the life of the Chinese workers was better. At least they had a place to settle down in Nanyang, and they really had established themselves in Nanyang.

My comrades and I have great admiration and respect for you. With you, the Chinese community in Nanyang has advanced by at least several decades.
Now it seems that the situation is much better than back home. However… life for the Malays remains unresolved, and it can even be said that it has become even more difficult.”

Zheng Yi frowned and said, "I admit everything you said, but there's no point in blaming me or the Chinese bosses like us. We are just capitalists, not politicians.

Even if we are politicians, all I need to be responsible for is this little piece of land in Penang. I don’t want to manage them, and they don’t pay taxes to me. What does it have to do with me whether they are poor or not?
The resource issue was decided by the British. The British did not allow Malays to mine or go to plantations, nor did they allow the Chinese to farm or hold official positions. This inevitably led to the abnormal social phenomenon on the Malay Peninsula where the Chinese were rich and the Malays were powerful.

At the same time, the lower-class Chinese laborers and the lower-class Malay farmers are also the objects of exploitation in this deformed society.

Aren't we Chinese in Southeast Asia victims of colonialism? It's only been a few days since the Chinese workers were freed from their status as slaves. I myself was sold to Southeast Asia as a slave.

Even if there are ethnic conflicts, why don’t you blame the British but instead blame us Chinese? What’s the logic behind this?”

Yang Shaomin: "Of course this is the fault of the colonizers and imperialism. However, ethnic conflicts are easy to resolve, but class conflicts are really hard to resolve. Besides, after you came to Southeast Asia, can the Chinese still say they have no rights? The Malays, however, still have no money."

Zheng Yi: “…………”

Yang Shaomin: “Penang and Kedah are too close after all. The richer Penang is, the higher the prices will be, and the prices in Kedah will also be higher. You have to admit this.

If Mr. Zheng really wants long-term peace and stability, I think he should find a way to ease this class conflict. Moreover, doesn't Mr. Zheng want to rule Kedah as a hinterland and buffer zone for Penang?

Zheng Yi: ???

I really don’t want to.

Why should I rule the Malays?
Yang Shaomin nodded and said, "Mr. Zheng, you are blinded by a simple ethnic perspective and have ignored the real problem.
The conflict between Penang and Kedah, at least in my opinion, is not primarily a conflict between the Nanyang Chinese and the Malays. That is just a superficial phenomenon. In essence, it is a class conflict, a conflict between urban and rural areas.

"Mr. Zheng, do you really think that a city's development can be completely separated from the countryside, that rural areas can be left alone, and that as long as they don't rebel, cause trouble, or carry out terrorist attacks, they have nothing to do with the city?
If my guess is correct, Penang should have been flooded with a large number of Malays, especially those from Kedah.
I believe this is uncontrollable. If you are willing to look beyond the relatively narrow ethnic perspective and look at the issue, aren't these just migrant workers?

"But they have no security working in Penang, even basic survival is a problem. I heard that Mr. Zheng has a good understanding of Japan's social structure.

Look, is the relationship between Penang and Kedah similar to Tokyo and its surrounding areas in Japan?

Zheng Yi: "It's very troublesome. Moreover, if I really directly manage Kedah, there are nationalists among the Malays who will rebel.

And have you ever thought that in the eyes of the Colonial Office, they would think that I was encroaching on their British Malaya.

I have no interest in governing the Malays, so why should I get involved in this kind of trouble?"

Yang Shaomin: "Politics, how can it be without trouble? Penang is only a small place after all. If we just want to live behind closed doors, there will be no depth at all.

How can an independent political system without a hinterland, a city without any rural ties, develop? Does it really have potential? How can Penang withstand even a mere lack of food and water?

"Besides Penang, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, and Malacca are all Chinese cities. Siam, Burma, and Indonesia all have Chinese people. Since Mr. Zheng has achieved such a great success today, it would be unreasonable for him not to become the leader of the Chinese community.
If problems arise in the future, do you intend to bring all the Chinese from Southeast Asia to live in this small Penang? I'm afraid there won't be enough space."

"If Mr. Cheng can not only lead the Chinese in Penang to prosperity, but also lead the Malays in Kedah, and even gain prestige among the Malays through governing Kedah, and transcend the narrow shackles of ethnicity, and truly promote the co-governance and tolerance of the Chinese and Malays, and use the entire Malay Peninsula as a hinterland, so that the people of the two races can live in harmony, then this is true and lasting peace, isn't it?"

"Excuse me for being blunt, but if you simply want to be the leader of the Chinese community in Southeast Asia, it's probably going to be difficult. The Chinese are scattered, especially after leaving Malaya. They are all in small groups, and ultimately they are all a minority."

"In comparison, I think it would be easier for Mr. Zheng to be the leader of the entire Nanyang."

"The Song and Ming dynasties were both very particular about defending against foreign invaders, emphasizing that those who are not of our race must have different hearts. However, the splendor of our Chinese civilization ultimately lies in the Han and Tang dynasties. As the saying goes, embracing the world is the key to greatness."

Zheng Yi: “…………”

For a moment he was speechless.

What he said did make some sense, but when Zheng Yi heard it, he couldn't help but shook his head and smiled bitterly.

I admire these internationalist fighters for being able to give up their so-called national prejudices so easily.

Perhaps this is the romance of the idealists in the early twentieth century.

If he were not an idealist, he would not have traveled all the way from China to Southeast Asia to spread revolutionary ideas.

"You want me to enter the country, so that you can use these few Chinese in Southeast Asia to swallow up all of Malaya and establish a Southeast Asian version of the Qing Dynasty?"

Yang Shaomin: "Why not? All the people want is a wise ruler. Are the Qing and Ming dynasties really that important to the people?"

"Mr. Zheng, do you want to be like the Song or Ming dynasties, confined to their own limitations, confined to the tiny island of Penang? Or do you want to be like the powerful Han and Tang dynasties, forging ahead, embracing the vast sea and expanding the territory?"

Zheng Yi: “…………”

Brother, do you know that you will be scolded in the future for praising the Qing Dynasty like this?

The pie that Yang Shaomin painted clearly wants him to unify Southeast Asia.

At the very least, he should be the leader of ASEAN.

"Wait, aren't you a fucking internationalist fighter? Why do I feel like you're just like Yao Guangxiao? You're fucking kidding me!"

Upon hearing this, Yang Shaomin looked disappointed, but he said, "I am indeed an internationalist fighter. However, in my opinion, Mr. Zheng, you are a true wise ruler, a shining light that can guide workers everywhere. You are a leader. If Southeast Asia can truly be led by you, that will be the true light of internationalism! Then..."

"Stop! Stop it! Shut up!"

Zheng Yi didn't dare wait for him to finish and interrupted him immediately.

There are some things Zheng Yi doesn't want to do, but the timing is not right.

World War II is about to begin!
After World War II, there were plenty of opportunities to expand territory, so why should he mess around now?
Can't you just wait a few years?

"No, how did this conversation get to this point... Oh, Kedah."

If it was just the state of Kedah, it would be easy to handle.

"Well, I understand what you mean. I can provide them with some money as initial start-up capital to build a public water plant in Kedah."

“Any Malay in Kedah who is willing to follow me can participate in this project.

Pump lake water or groundwater directly from Kedah, purify it, and send it to Penang through pipelines. Penang's biggest problem right now is not a shortage of food, but a shortage of water."

"I will pay for the construction of the factory and the repair of the pipes. Anyone who is willing to work and is pro-China is required to be able to speak at least 100 sentences of Chinese. I will arrange for them to work in the factory.

I buy water from Kedah at the same price as tap water in Kuala Lumpur. The money I earn is used for the development of Kedah and to subsidize the Malay people in Kedah."

"But there is one thing: this water pipeline is related to Penang's fresh water security. I paid for it and I did the work. I have done my best for them."

"Let me tell you, if the pipeline is safe, it's all good for everyone, but if anyone dares to damage this freshwater line, when it's damaged, Penang will be in trouble. If we send troops to Kedah again, if they don't drink the toast, I will make them drink the penalty drink."

　Some people say that the protagonist is not good to Chinese people and thinks that the 30-square-meter house of a family of three is too small.
　　I can only say, buddy, you must be relatively young. When my parents got married, their wedding house was only 30 square meters. That was in a good unit, and my dad was a small leader, a section-level cadre. Do people today have no concept of hard times? In that era, this was considered a luxury house.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)