Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 255 Petroleum Resources
After returning to the palace, King Zheng Guohui of Chu took a bath and changed his clothes into a light linen shirt that was breathable and comfortable. He then walked to the front hall on the second floor in thin shoes.

Miaohua happened to come out holding Xier, a little over two years old, and ran into His Majesty the King head-on. She quickly put Xier down in her arms with a look of panic.

She knelt and bowed, saying, "I was unaware of your Majesty's arrival and have offended you. I respectfully beg your Majesty's forgiveness."

"It's not a crime for you not to know. Please stand up without any formalities!" King Zheng Guohui of Chu stretched out his hand to support her, his eyes falling on Xier, who was chubby and had a fair and clean face.

At this moment, Xier was looking up at the tall king-father with a pair of pure and flawless big eyes, with a hint of fear in her eyes.

Miao Hua hurriedly squatted down and urged in a low and anxious voice, "Your Highness, please pay your respects to His Majesty. How do you say what I taught you?"

"Your Majesty." Xier fiddled with her little fingers and said in a milky voice.

This name melted Zheng Guohui's heart, and his eyes became especially gentle.

This is the continuation of Zheng Guohui's bloodline in this world, a small meat ball, with white teeth and red lips, super cute and adorable, and big black eyes that are pure and quiet without any impurities.

"Hey..." For fear of scaring the little meat ball, King Chu Zheng Guohui responded in an extremely gentle voice.

Bound by the strict rules of the royal family, Zheng Guohui could not hold this little boy in his arms and stroll around the palace, because this child was born to a concubine.

Your Majesty's every move will affect the rise and fall of the inner court, and it is not just as simple as a father's care.

The State of Chu now subtly follows the royal convention of "one prime minister and four concubines on both sides". The "one prime minister" is Queen Zheng Li, and there is nothing to say about this.

According to the palace rules

All children born to concubines were raised by Queen Zheng Li and respectfully addressed as "Queen Mother". This was the majesty of the mistress of the harem, and Xier was no exception.

Qiao Yue, who gave birth to the King's child, is now a "common concubine", higher than all the concubines. This is also the mother's status due to her son. In Ganquan Palace, her status is second only to the queen.

The positions of concubines were all vacant. In that era, the rate of infant mortality was very high, even in the royal court, so there was no rush to promote anyone. We had to wait until Xier turned 12 and became an adult.

Dongmei, who is now pregnant, is still a favored concubine and has not yet been promoted to the position of "concubine". This can only be achieved after she gives birth successfully.

The best thing is that both mother and child are safe, otherwise there is no choice of "saving the older or the younger".

According to palace conventions, the top priority is to ensure the safety of His Majesty's bloodline, no matter the cost, and even King Zheng Guohui of Chu is not allowed to interfere.

Prince Zheng Guohui of Chu crouched down, trying not to scare the chubby little boy, and said softly, "Why is this little prince so smart? He's so young and already shouting 'Your Majesty!' He's truly amazing."

When Xier saw his outstretched big hand, she was a little scared and put her two chubby little hands behind her back, shrank back a little, and looked back at Miaohua at a loss.

Miaohua nodded rapidly and gently said to Xier, "Your Majesty praised Xier, and Xier said, 'Thank you, Your Majesty, for the praise. I can't bear it.' Hmm... tell me, what would Xier say?"

"See Your Majesty."

Probably because she had taught these four words many times, Xier's grandmother said them again in a deep voice, then opened her mouth and laughed happily, giggling "hehe" with great joy.

Xier opened her arms to be hugged anyway, so Miaohua could only hold Xier in her arms and said in a panic, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. Xier is still too young to speak long sentences."

"Haha, I am so cruel, how can I blame it on a child?" King Zheng Guohui of Chu rarely made a joke.

Zheng Guohui's eyes fell on Miaohua. Miaohua squatted down and had exquisite curves. Looking down at him from above, his eyes saw a plump and white cleavage at her neckline, which was quite breathtaking.

Miao Hua originally had a very beautiful face, and she was also in the prime of her life at the age of 18. Her face was fair, rosy, tender and plump, with a little baby fat.

I guess the food in the palace is very good, and the girls are all well-proportioned and charming.

This little girl still has something.

Zheng Guohui's lips curled up into a strange smile, and he asked in a low voice, "How long have you been in the palace?"

Miao Hua clearly felt the extremely aggressive gaze of King Zheng Guohui of Chu. She was 18 years old at the moment, at the age of a young girl in love. She didn't know what that meant.
Miao Hua's heart was filled with ecstasy and uneasiness, and she replied in a trembling voice, "Your Majesty, Miao Hua has been with the Queen in the palace for three years and has been serving her all the time."

"Well, come to the palace to sleep with me at night." King Zheng Guohui of Chu gave the order without any question.

Miao Hua's face flushed instantly, and she felt her body tremble uncontrollably. She felt weak and had no strength left. She replied in a trembling voice, "Your servant will obey the command of Your Majesty."

"Okay, stand up." King Zheng Guohui of Chu saw that the little girl looked like she was about to faint, so he reached out and helped her up.

Miao Hua was still holding Xi'er tightly in her arms. She lowered her head and said, "I'll take my leave."

Then he left in a hurry, even his steps were a little disordered.

A palace concubine who doesn't want to climb into bed is not a good servant. Miaohua is different from ordinary palace maids. She was originally a dowry maid and grew up with the young lady.

In this life, she was destined to serve the master and his wife. Now that the master was the king of Chu, being summoned by the emperor was like ascending to heaven for Miao Hua.

Zheng Guohui didn't take this little incident seriously.

He sat down on the couch in the front hall, picked up the "Overview of World Affairs" placed on the side of the couch, and began to flip through it, waiting to have dinner together later.

On normal days, Queen Zheng Li would accompany King Zheng Guohui of Chu for meals. The two of them would sit together and talk and chat, which was much better than dining alone.

The harem of Ganquan Palace is not big, with only a Baroque three-story palace building and a quiet area in the back garden, which is now the residence of the Queen Mother.

Each floor of this Baroque palace building is more than ten meters high. It is magnificent and majestic without losing its royal dignity.

The only drawback is that the place is a bit small.

The main entrance is a wide staircase carved from granite. Every detail is exquisite and has the unique beauty of Baroque architecture.

The main hall is located on the west side of the wide staircase, the second floor is the front hall, and the third floor is the back hall, which is close to His Majesty the King’s large study.

The bedroom of King Zheng Guohui of Chuchu is on the east wing of the third floor. It has a bedroom suite, a bathroom, a small study and a dormitory for palace maids on duty. In the middle is the rear hall and the large study. On the west side are the warehouse for storing secret documents and documents, a tea room, and several treasure rooms for storing many rare antique paintings, as well as a bedroom with a bathroom.

This bedroom with a bathroom was originally used by the king's favorite concubine Dongmei. She was also the king's concubine who served him all the time. Dongmei was responsible for tidying up the important large study and small study herself.

No one is allowed to go up to the third floor without permission.

Queen Zheng Li usually lives in the east wing bedroom on the second floor. If the King of Chu wants to rest here, he will also spend the night in this bedroom. Needless to say.

Including Qiao Yue, Qiao Xing, Su Meiniang, Ruqin, Siqi, Xia Yu, Dongmei and other personal concubines, they all lived in the west wing on the second floor. There were eight suites with bathrooms, one for each person, and two palace maids to serve them.

Now with the addition of the wonderful paintings, there are exactly eight rooms, one for each person.

Other concubines who were not favored, such as Yushu, Miaohua, Chunhua, and Qiuyue, all lived in the west wing of the first floor, and there were also some close palace maids who served the king and queen.

The maids, female officials and others in the palace lived in the houses on both sides of the square in the harem. The guards and soldiers on duty could only stay in the front hall where they worked daily and could not enter the square.

This was also because the palace was too small, and the harem was filled with the royal family and palace maids, so it was absolutely necessary to avoid any discrepancies between men and women.

This also concerns the reputation of the royal family and is by no means a trivial matter.

The "Overview of World Affairs" that King Zheng Guohui of Chu read was not simply a summary of newspapers and magazines from European countries. These summaries were contained in the "Foreign Publications Opinion Column".

Each excerpted article will have information about where it was taken from, which country, which day's newspaper, who the author is, who translated the excerpt, etc.

Some important content, as well as marginal notes by senior staff members of the Secretariat, are used to interpret the trends of Europa Universalis.

Much of the sensitive information collected from various channels such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior is also included in the "World Overview".

After flipping through two pages, King Zheng Guohui's eyes suddenly became focused, and he read on intently. This was a report on the exploration and development of oil resources in Europe and the United States. It discussed the Texas oil field development boom in North America, the history of Tsarist Russia's oil field development, and the earliest Tyumen oil field.

As early as the early 18th century

Peter the Great was well aware of the importance of controlling the country's mineral wealth, so he spent a lot of energy studying mineral science, lingered in factories and mines, and condescended to make friends with senior mine owners from other European countries to broaden his horizons.

On August 1700, 8, Peter I issued an order establishing the Mining Administration in Moscow.

On January 1703, 1, the first newspaper in the history of Tsarist Russia, the Gazette, published its first issue:
According to reports from Kazan, large amounts of oil and copper mines have been discovered along the Sogu River.

This was the first public publication on oil in Tsarist Russia. From then on, oil became an important resource that Peter the Great ordered to be explored and mined.

With the Treaty of Petersburg signed in 1723, Tsarist Russia acquired the lands of Baku, Derbent and surrounding provinces, and from then on owned the earliest oil fields in Tsarist Russia, and subsequently began commercial exploitation.

The article also concluded by saying;
The oil exploration program under the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies started very early, with systematic exploration beginning in 1859.

It is estimated

There is a high possibility that the East Indies contain oil and gas blocks. As early as the 8th century AD, crude oil was successfully extracted on the island of Sumatra using primitive methods.

At that time, it was called "kerosene".

Zheng Guohui put down the materials in his hand and thought with a frown;

Judging from the internal information currently available, these Dutch devils are very smart. The conquest of Sumatra may not be entirely for the sake of colonies, but also for the oil fields.

The former Governor of the Dutch East Indies, Pos, was a Dutch nobleman with great foresight. In a secret letter to the royal family, he once said:

"If the potential oil and gas resources in Sumatra can be confirmed, it will be a new opportunity for the Kingdom of the Netherlands to regain its glory. It is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity..."

This also explains why the Dutch royal family could tolerate the diversion of colonial income from the East Indies for more than a decade and invest all of it in the military budget for conquering Sumatra.

It is always worth fighting for this great opportunity for the resurgence of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Unfortunately
Due to the backwardness of geophysical exploration methods in today's era, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies has never been able to determine where the legendary oil seeps are?

This is like the naughty ginseng doll in Daxinganling. You know it exists in the mountains, and many people have seen it and owned it, but you just can't find it.

Isn’t this kind of result crazy?

When Zheng Guohui thought of this, he couldn't help but smile.

His slender fingers gently tapped the coiled dragon carved on the treasure couch, thinking about the opportunity that the Chu State could take advantage of, when it could intervene, at least to gain a foothold in Kalimantan and then make plans for the future.

The Dutch were searching everywhere like aimless flies. With so many islands and such a large territory, there was definitely something for them to look for.

Zheng Guohui didn't need to, because he knew that there were oil fields with considerable reserves on the island of Kalimantan, and he had been there when he traveled in his previous life.

Samarinda, a coastal port city in East Kalimantan province, has rich onshore oil resources, and there are many oil pumping workers on the outskirts of the city.

In the northern territory of the indigenous kingdom of Brunei, there are also rich land oil resources, just along the coast, and they are easy to find.

The trouble with Brunei is that it belongs to the Malaya region and is now a protected area of ​​the British Straits Settlements, so it will not easily allow others to interfere.

This place is more troublesome than Dutch Kalimantan.

Even if the Chu State could obtain it through various means, it would not be able to mine it for at least 30 to 40 years. Otherwise, when the British came to settle the score, there would be no room for reason.
These days, the British are the boss who dominates the world, bullying people everywhere with the help of force.

As early as 1815

The number of sailing battleships in the Royal Navy of Great Britain reached 99 ships, with a total tonnage of 62.2 tons, far exceeding the total tonnage of France, Russia and Spain behind it.

The British sailing fleet can be said to be covering the sky and the sun, crisscrossing the entire Mediterranean and the Atlantic Ocean, coming and going freely in the seven seas of the world, and dominating the waters of the world.

In the eyes of the British, the navies of other countries, except those of France and Russia, were almost insignificant.

The Spanish Royal Navy, which ranks fifth in the world today, has a total tonnage of only 5.5 tons, which is not even enough to fill the gaps in the teeth.

As for other countries, the British can completely ignore them. Even the second-ranked French navy has a tonnage of only 22.83 tons, only about one-third of the British navy.

If you want to live a peaceful life, you must not offend the British.

Therefore, it is very easy for the indigenous people of Brunei to take over, but after taking over, they must not develop it, so as not to arouse the jealousy of the British.

If oil is easy to find, why couldn't the Dutch find it?

This has to do with the fact that the Dutch whites colonized the East Indies for more than 300 years, but they neither spread religion to the indigenous people of the islands nor opened schools to spread the Dutch language.

The entire white colonial class was completely separated from the local indigenous people, with almost no overlap.

The Dutch white colonists were very proud. They were only willing to live in a small circle of white people and rarely had any involvement with the local indigenous people, whom they looked down upon.

Even matters such as tax collection and social stability were outsourced to the Chinese, who could be called middlemen.

In Batavia, the most powerful Chinese leader was called "Kapitan", which means "headman". He was not only the chairman of the maintenance association, but also the prefect, the police chief, and the tax farmer.

This was an indispensable and important part of the dual ruling structure of the Dutch colonies. In other cities, the Chinese and local indigenous nobles played the role of tax farmers, and the white colonists only had to collect the money.

This formed two distinct social groups. The indigenous people could not understand Dutch, and only some Chinese families who converted to Protestantism could understand both Dutch and the indigenous language, becoming a bridge of communication between the two.

An interesting fact is
The Dutch white colonial army fighting on the island of Sumatra was often accompanied by local indigenous vassal troops during military operations, and would advance with torches at night.

These torches are stained with black oil, which the local indigenous people call "wax". It is soaked in a pond full of black liquid and used for lighting at night.

The Dutch white colonial army fought on the island for more than ten years, unaware that the oil they had been searching for was right next to them.

Firstly, the top brass of the Governor-General's Office of the Dutch East Indies concealed the news, and the army was generally unaware of the exploration of oil resources. Only a very small number of high-ranking generals knew about it.

Secondly, no white colonial officers paid attention to these things. They used the indigenous people as cannon fodder, so how could they care about their well-being?

The Dutch survey teams that went deep into the mountains and forests to search hard had dozens of people at most and only a few at least. It would take more than 20 years to search the entire island.

What's funny is
Most of these white survey teams did not understand the local Aboriginal language. Even if the Aboriginals told them, no one would understand without a Chinese interpreter.

By mistake
The oil fields that the Dutch had been searching for were always a hair's breadth away from finding them.

How did the Dutch find the oil fields later?
I can’t remember this Zheng Guohui, it must have been at least 20 or 30 years later.

The Royal Dutch Petroleum Company was first established in 1889 and initially surveyed oil fields in the Dutch East Indies, around the same time.

After the Dutch discovered the oil fields, the British soon came knocking, and thus the Anglo-Dutch joint venture Royal Dutch Shell was formed.

The British have good reasons too.
I transferred the East Indies to you. Don't I have a share in any resources found here?

Do you have the ability to eat alone?

The behind-the-scenes transactions are unclear, but in the end, the Dutch wisely gave up their inappropriate ideas and chose to take a share and cooperate with the British.

(End of this chapter)