Nanyang 1931: From piglets to giants

Chapter 161 Zheng Yi's Malay Corps

"Who? Who did you say asked me for help?"

In Kedah, Zheng Yizhen came here to give a speech, which was rare for him. He showed his affinity with the people and stayed here for a full half month, watching Tao Jun reorganize the Royal Malayan Regiment and the Malay armed forces.

Although he does not participate in practical affairs and does not understand practical affairs, as a spiritual leader, he still has to take charge personally.

Besides, he actually didn't trust Tao Jun enough to give all the military power to him, so he still had a hand in personnel appointments and dismissals.

Originally, he planned to use these Malays from Kedah as vanguards to advance into southern Thailand, but unfortunately, he really only planned to occupy southern Thailand, and only wanted that small area on the Malay Peninsula to resist the Japanese army.

I didn't expect it to be so big.

Siam split?
New Siamese Government?
Is my butterfly effect so strong?

"Tell me, who is this person who set up the New Siamese government and asked us for help to build national unity and resist Japan?"

Chen Jingchuan said with longing, "General Wu, General Wu Aihua, our Chaozhou Gang has decided to fully support General Wu. Speaking of which, General Wu is a fellow Chaozhou native. His ancestral home is also in Shantou."

As he spoke, he actually said with emotion: "Although this person was born and raised in Siam and has a Siamese name, he can no longer speak Chinese well.

However, they still remember their Chinese identity and stepped forward in this critical moment.

For the Chinese in Siam, and even for other ethnic groups, they fought against tyranny. This is truly a role model for overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia!"

As he spoke, the admiration in his eyes could hardly be suppressed.

After changing his identity to a Chinese and taking a Chinese name, Wu Aihua's prestige in the Chinese community skyrocketed. He still considers himself a Teochew, and he is indeed a Teochew.

Zheng Yi originally planned to let Chen Jingchuan and Liao Gongpu compete to see who was more capable and support whoever would become the president of the Chaozhou Chamber of Commerce and take over the Chaozhou Gang.

Now it seems there is no need to choose.

Wu Aihua, who suddenly appeared, immediately became the popular and recognized new leader of the Chaozhou gang among the Chinese in Siam.

It is unknown how many generations of Chinese people he is, but his status is too high after all. Moreover, he suddenly changed his name and rebelled at this time, which really gave people a sense of heroism, like trying to mend the cracks in the sky and showing his heroic qualities in the face of adversity.

But Zheng Yi was a little confused by Wu Aihua.

"Tell me, what was Wu Aihua's previous Thai name?"

"Luang Phibun"

"Luang Phibun? Are you sure it's Luang Phibun?"

"Ah, yes, what's wrong?"

"what?"

For a moment, Zheng Yi actually had a suspicion that the history he traveled through might have some kind of parallel universe.

How did Luan Phibun become a patriotic overseas Chinese leader?
This is Thailand’s Nazi leader!

Although he is indeed of Chinese descent, he is considered the scum among the Chinese. He was the one who proposed the "Greater Thai" doctrine. He was ruthless in dealing with the Chinese. He was a lackey of the Japanese and later became a lackey of the Americans.

This is a Nazi war criminal!
Of course, he has mixed reviews. It is true that many Thais consider him a national hero, and people in Europe and the United States at least think that he is a dictator.

How come in this time and space, this Chinese scum has become the leader of the Teochew Gang?

What happened?
Instead of resigning, Phraya Phahony embarked on the path of a traitor?

Zheng Yi was not very familiar with Phraya Phahonyūn, after all, wasn't he a leader during World War II?

But Zheng Yi remembered that during World War II, Luang Phibun was a dictatorial fascist who was crazy about Japanization. He promoted militarism in Thailand and signed the Japan-Thailand Alliance with Japan.

It used Malaya as a passage for Japan to attack, was completely pro-Japanese, was a loyal vicious dog of Japan, and was a member of the evil Axis powers.

Although I don’t know the details about him, he is definitely a negative historical figure.

Later, when Japan was about to be defeated, in the late stage of the Pacific War, because his military government was unpopular, he was overthrown by the domestic opposition, the civilian government was reorganized, and the King of Thailand was invited to return to the throne.

After returning to the throne, the King of Thailand quickly restored order, corrected the wrong strategic decision of Phibun, declared war on Japan in time, switched to the Allied camp, and eventually became the victor of World War II.

This is also the only place in World War II where the storm was at its center but was not affected by the storm at all. It escaped the invasion and massacre of Japanese militarism in the early stage, and later joined the victorious country and perfectly avoided liquidation. It is a super invincible "lucky guy".

I heard that after the end of World War II, this guy came back to power by being pro-American and licking the boots of the United States. However, I haven't paid much attention to the history of Thailand after World War II, and I don't know how he, a fascist war criminal who was overthrown by a coup, managed to come back to power.

But this is Thai history.

Wasn’t it the King of Thailand who restored order in Thailand?

When introducing Thailand’s modern history, don’t most of the emphasis be on the Thai king’s superb foreign policy and strong personal charm?
How did the big villain... become the big hero?
As expected, politicians don’t have any personal morals. They just use whatever morals the country needs.

If you think about it carefully, the difference between Thailand and Siam is actually the same as the difference between Vichy France and Free France.

"Mr. Zheng, General Wu asked me to come back and ask for your assistance. The situation on the front is very tense. Phraya Phahony has just made such a big reform in the country and provoked France. This has given General Wu some breathing space."

"Yala, Pattani, and Narathiwat provinces have officially announced their participation in the New Siam and are establishing a 'New Siam Army'. Not only Chinese, but also Malays, Khmer, and Thais have joined."

"We are determined to jointly resist Phraya Phahon's tyranny. However, at present, although we have a mass base, we lack the necessary weapons and various supplies. We are also in dire need of them."

"I heard that from all over Siam, including the Laotians in the far north, a large number of refugees are heading towards the three southern provinces. The number of refugees has increased dramatically, and various civilian supplies are in short supply."

In short, Mr. Zheng, our Chaozhou Gang is in urgent need of your help."

Zheng Yi: "Ah, I see. I'll tell Qiwen to allocate some money to you first. After all, Luan Phibun... no, it's General Wu Aihua. He used to be the Minister of Defense and the Deputy Marshal of the Army."

"I think he must have a lot of old subordinates within the government army. You Teochews have been operating in Siam for so many years, so you should have some connections, right? Let's try first to see if we can get him from Siam, or rather, Thailand."

"First, let's try to buy arms directly from Thailand, from within the Thai army, and see if there are any former subordinates of General Wu within the Thai army who we can directly defect to."

"Warfare, in the final analysis, is still fought by human beings. Now that we are out, we must pay the soldiers. Send a telegram directly to General Wu and tell him that the salaries of the new Siamese army will be paid by Penang, and the salary will be double that of the Thai army."

"Yes!"

Anyway, since Phraya Phawong came to power in a coup, Thailand has changed the recruitment system to a conscription system, which means compulsory military service. The military pay is not much, and even if it is doubled, it is not much.

Any army that is forced to serve will not receive high salaries. For a country as small as Siam, this kind of nationwide war preparation almost bankrupted the government.

This is also the reason why Phraya Phahon is not very popular.

It is obvious that Phraya Phahon foresaw the future super war, so he sacrificed the economy to protect the military, and even expanded the army, which was really a bit too extreme.

The sudden start of conscription, for which the country and society were completely unprepared, would inevitably throw the entire social production into chaos, and would inevitably have a great impact on government functions and finances.

People all over the world are the same. Until the shells actually fall on their heads, those who engage in military-first politics that sacrifices the economy will definitely be criticized. In the eyes of the vast majority of Thai people, Phraya Paphon is now a warmongering tyrant.

After all, Siam was a small country, but Phraya Phahony expanded the army to 600,000 people in just a few years.

Most Thais actually don’t understand what he is trying to do. After all, Japan is a country that practices militarism, and the people know that this is to go to war with China and seize China’s resources, markets, and money.

The people believe that their army can win and bring benefits to the country, so they support it fanatically.

But Thailand.

To the north was the French East Indies, to the south was British Malaya, to the west was British Burma, and to the east was the Dutch East Indies.

You said you want to engage in militarism, where are you going to expand to?

Thai people do not have such strong nationalist sentiments. They are not a very warlike nation. Men who keep saying Sawadee Ka, Sawadee Ka all day long lack masculinity when they speak.

When it comes to bullying their own ethnic minorities, they may have the courage to do so, but you are practicing Greater Thai nationalism and militarism by maintaining an army of 600,000.

Those Thai people are not happy.

They didn't have the strong confidence of Japanese militarism, and everyone thought Phraya Phahon was crazy. Even the Thais, who were the apparent beneficiaries, were quite dissatisfied with this, let alone other ethnic minorities.

Especially the Chinese.

The title of "the scum of the Chinese" has now fallen on his head.

After all, Phraya Phahon is also Chinese, and also a Teochew.

It is precisely because of the damage that Phraya Phahon's militarism has caused to society that a large number of opposition groups who are dissatisfied with his rule have now gathered under Wu Aihua's command. Although the so-called New Siam Army has been established for less than half a month, fresh blood is constantly flowing in every day.

In the army, batches after batches of troops joined Wu Aihua in an organized manner.

After all, he did not hold the position of Deputy Field Marshal of the Army for nothing. He was originally the successor that Phraya Phawong had intended to cultivate, and his prestige in the army was already high.

In fact, the power situation he represents now is against Phraya Phawong's power. In a country like Siam, the so-called main ethnic group, the Thais, only account for 40% of the population, less than half of the country's population is engaged in nationalist Nazism.

This is not something a normal, thinking politician would think of.

In fact, under such circumstances, it is very strange that Wu Aihua went to Pattani to establish New Siam. Given his qualifications, prestige, and position in the military, even a military coup seemed unnecessary.
Given that Phraya Phawong was doing such atrocities, he could have voted him out directly in Parliament.

No matter how you look at it, this looks like a setup.

For a moment, it was hard to tell whether this was a good thing or a bad thing.

"What do you think?"

Zheng Yi turned around and asked the two young men beside him.

"The Royal Malayan Regiment of Kedah is ready to follow your orders. I am willing to lead the charge and fight at any time to rescue our Malay compatriots."

But this man was dark and small, with standard Malay appearance, and looked to be in his twenties, but he could speak Chinese quite fluently.

It was Anand Said, the new commander of the Kedah Malayan Royal Regiment appointed by Zheng Yi after he came to Kedah.

This guy was originally a low-ranking officer of the Royal Malayan Regiment. He was allowed to participate in the coronation parade of Sergeant George V. He was a good dog for the British colonists to rule Malaya.

In the Royal Corps, Malays can only serve as low-level officers. Zheng Yi does not want to use the British, nor does he want to choose Malay nobles or religious leaders from the old Malay system. He can only pick a general from among the short ones and entrust important tasks to them from these low-level officers.

Isn't that why he was chosen?

Anand Said is almost the only anti-Japanese hero in World War II that Zheng Yi knows, because historically the anti-Japanese armed forces on the Malay Peninsula were basically composed of Chinese, and the only Malay who could be proud of it was Anand.

He performed bravely in the Battle of Singapore, but was eventually tortured to death by the Japanese.

He is a brave man certified by the Japanese.

Therefore, after forming the Malay armed forces in Kedah, Zheng Yi appointed this person as the commander of the corps.

Of course, he also thought about letting the Chinese command and lead the Malays, but that would be no different from the British, and there would be no way they could stop the ferocious Japanese army.

The entire Kedah Royal Regiment currently has an initial recruitment scale of 3000 people, of which 4000 are from the original British army, and the remaining are temporarily recruited from various tribes in Kedah.

The military pay was changed to be paid by Zheng Yi, who also provided them with weapons and equipment. The old guns and cannons of the British army were all recycled. Now that the war was imminent, Zheng Yi naturally did not care about the military pay, but gave them more than twice the salary of an ordinary strong laborer in Kedah.

Although it is certainly far from comparable to the Chinese in Penang, it is definitely considered a high salary among Malays.

It was definitely impossible for the Malays, and no one dared to allow them to carry guns freely. Zheng Yi had never thought about conscription, so in fact only the selected people could carry guns. The military system did not imitate any of the European and American powers, but imitated the imperial guards system of the Northern Song Dynasty.

That is to say, soldiers are allowed and even encouraged to start families in the camp. Special military residential areas and factories are built for military families. When soldiers are training or going on expeditions, each person can arrange for two family members to work in the military family factory.

The factory mainly includes textiles, gun maintenance, food processing, rubber deep processing, etc. It is also responsible for the production of all military supplies for the Malay army except bullets.

There are also schools, hospitals and even nursing homes in the military area that are currently under construction to ensure that all soldiers will have no worries.

After all the soldiers finished their training during the day, Zheng Yi arranged Chinese instructors for them to teach them cultural courses and help them learn Chinese and traditional Chinese culture.

This treatment is much better than when I was in the British Army before, and one person serves in the army and the whole family benefits.

Of course, Zheng Yi was not a living Buddha. When he went to war, these family members were hostages. If one person escaped, the whole family would be punished. Moreover, although the military commander was Malay, the leaders of logistics and military factories were all Chinese.

As for how to punish everyone involved, Zheng Yi didn't know and hadn't figured it out yet. After all, this was not a civilized method in modern society.

Malay society is not a modern and civilized society.

However, there are compensations for casualties, and they are promised that their relatives will take over. If they make great military achievements, they can choose whether to transfer to Penang after discharge, and they can be directly given Penang nationality.

Although the establishment time is short, the military barracks and dormitories, as well as military factories and schools, are still under construction and have not yet been put into production, but the morale of these Malay soldiers is already quite high.

After all, Kedah is close to Penang, and Penang’s industrial production resources can be easily transferred here. Even the food, Zheng Yi made them eat at the same level as the workers’ canteen in Penang.

Apart from not eating pork, which is generally replaced with chicken or duck, there is no difference in other aspects.

As the saying goes, a man will die for his friend. Although the Malay Army was reorganized not long ago, the benefits Zheng Yi gave them were real, especially to the old soldiers. In comparison, the gap between Zheng Yi and the Colonial Bureau is too obvious.

In half a month, they received new guns, new clothes, meat in their meals, and plenty of rice and curry. Their wives and children also got decent jobs.

Everyone is naturally anxious for an opportunity to perform well.

When they heard that they were going to rescue their Malay compatriots in southern Thailand and fight against Siam, no, against the Thais, the entire Malay army couldn't help but cheer and their morale was high. They couldn't wait to use the rifles in their hands to teach those arrogant Thai guys a lesson tomorrow.

You know, Kedah used to be part of Siam. It has only been less than 30 years since it gained independence, and they still remember the oppression they suffered from Siam, or to be more precise, the Bangkok royal family.

To be honest, the former Siamese royal family's exploitation and oppression of ethnic minorities in the border areas were no less severe than those of the British colonists. Even the older Malays in Kedah paid taxes to Bangkok.

Now that Kedah has relied on Penang, Mr. Zheng has killed their Sultan and their landlords, built a water plant for them, and instead of collecting their grain taxes, he buys their Malay rice at a high price.

Now they are asking us to serve in the army, arranging decent jobs in factories for our wives, children, and younger brothers and sisters, and even allowing our children and us to go to school for free.

In the name of Allah, it is time to charge into Siam, rescue our compatriots, and let them live a good life like us!
Zheng Yi was a little hesitant: "You have been formed into an army for only half a month, which is too short a time. Let alone training, I am afraid that you are not even familiar with each other.
There are more new recruits than veterans, and even among the veterans, if I may be frank, they are probably inferior in terms of experience and training."

"Honestly, I want you to go, but I think you need to prepare and train for three to five months before I can let you go. You have to know that once you go up, you will face a real battlefield, which is..."

Anand's neck stiffened when he heard this. He said, "Mr. Zheng, do you look down on us Malays? We have courage too."

Zheng Yi: "Ah, no, no, no. It's not that I look down on you. I'm just worried that you haven't trained enough. If you're not careful, you might suffer heavy losses. So, Anand, don't get excited yet. We need to think about this matter carefully."

"I understand what you mean. Don't worry. I still need to ask General Tao and General Bonnar what they think."

Anand couldn't help but frown when he heard this: "General Ponar?"

Zheng Yi: "The Kra Isthmus is indeed easy to defend and difficult to attack on land, but it is long and narrow and lies along the coast, so the pressure on the coastal defense is enormous. Since we need to support General Wu, we must naturally consider the possibility of an enemy attack from the sea."

"If we can borrow the British fleet, there's no need to fight. We can just pull it along and make a few circles around the Isthmus of Kra and the Gulf of Siam. That will make the Siamese navy, and even the Japanese navy, hesitant and wary."

"The Kra Isthmus would be easy to defend if the navy hadn't caused trouble."

"Anand, I understand what you mean. When you return, make military preparations and await my orders. When the time is right, I will transfer you north."

In fact, Zheng Yi didn't expect Anand to be so active and have such a bad temper.

In fact, he is not in a hurry now. After all, there is Siam and Thailand over there, and they are already in a civil war.

It’s not that Zheng Yi doesn’t want to support them. He can just provide some money or even weapons first and let them fight on their own. If they really can’t hold on, it’s not too late for him to consider sending troops north.

Besides, the issue of Thai nationalism is definitely a provocation to Britain and France.

After all, it is an old and powerful country. It’s okay for Japan to show off occasionally, but can it even bully Siam?
This matter is very complicated, and Zheng Yi certainly won't act impulsively. He even plans to go to France in a few days to see if he can get some support from France.

However, Zheng Yi did not notice that when he said that he was going to discuss this matter with Bonnar, Anand's expression was obviously a little wrong.

(End of this chapter)