Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 378 Conflict breaks out
More than ten days later
After completing his three-year term, the Governor of Malaya, Ho Sian, was ordered to return to Manila to report on his work. He was expected to take over the post of Minister of Ports, Shipping and Transportation and become a member of the second cabinet.

Father Wehorst, the former Minister of Ports, Shipping and Transportation, became the president of the University of Manila, and from then on he left politics and focused on the cause of higher education.

Colonel Zheng Guoliang, Duke of Mingdu Luo, was promoted to major general and concurrently served as the Governor-General of Malaya, becoming a well-established leader. This is very characteristic of the way King Zheng Guohui of Chu appointed officials.

To reach the level of a high-ranking official, the most important thing is not how capable you are, but to be worry-free, useful and loyal, and to help the King of Chu manage this business. This is the most important quality.

As for specific matters
Then there will be officials at all levels of the Governor's Office to handle the affairs, with corresponding target assessments and incentive measures. If you do well, you will be promoted and make money, and you will have a smooth career.

If you don't do well, you will naturally fail the annual evaluation. Then you can just pack up and leave. In formal official circles, this is called "taking responsibility and resigning." The Chu government does not keep idle people.

Another governor of Hainan in the State of Chu was Marquis Zheng Shouxin, who also served as deputy prime minister. He was also a member of the Zheng clan, and he and the royal family of Chu shared the same fate, like grasshoppers tied to the same rope.

As Chinese immigrants settled in the Shangri-La Islands and the population continued to grow, calls for the establishment of a Shangri-La Governor grew louder.

The ministers in the government are unanimously optimistic that Zheng Jiabao, Director of the Correctional Services Department, will take up this important position. The most crucial reasons are two points.

First, Zheng Jiabao is a member of the Zheng clan. Second, he is the absolute confidant of the King of Chu, and his loyalty is beyond doubt.

As the saying goes: No wind, no waves.

Sure enough, a few days later, Zheng Jiabao was appointed Governor-General of Shangri-La, whose jurisdiction included the Solomon Islands, the Sulawesi Islands and the southern Pacific Islands, and the Governor's Office was located in Xinxi'an.

In the administrative system of the Chu State, there were no provincial and state levels, and the Governor's Office basically exercised the higher-level administrative functions.

The so-called three states of East Malaya or Lan Fang State is just a geographical concept. This area belongs to Sarawak State, and that area belongs to Brunei State. There is no corresponding administrative agency.

Specifically, there are three levels of administrative agencies: the Governor's Office, the Prefectural Office, and the County Office. As for the town and village levels, they do not belong to the government offices, but to the scope of grassroots gentry autonomy.

The town mayor and village head are both elected and receive only a very meager official allowance, rather than being a full-time town mayor or village head.

These mayors and village heads all have main jobs. They are either retired soldiers, factory owners, plantation owners or manor owners, or teachers or noble gentry. They hold town and village-level positions because of their enthusiasm for public welfare.

To be honest, being a mayor or village chief is a thankless job, with lots of work to do and little income. Without some dedication, they really can't do it.

But the strange thing is that there is never a shortage of people for positions such as town mayor and village chief. This is the charm of power.

During the period when the second cabinet government of the State of Chu was being prepared, the ten-nation diplomatic consultation meeting with Malacca and Singapore lasted for more than a month and entered its second round.

This diplomatic consultation meeting of the ten Nanyang countries was proposed by the State of Chu and hosted by the United Kingdom. A total of 10 countries, including the United Kingdom, France, the State of Chu, Germany, the United States, Russia, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal and the Kingdom of Siam, participated in the meeting, which was a very impressive lineup.

This is also an international event of unprecedented scale in the Nanyang region, and it has even attracted the attention of Europe. The relevant developments have been followed up in authoritative European media such as The Times and Lyon Daily.

can be seen
The participating countries were all diplomatically independent countries, including the traditional powers of Britain, France, Germany, the United States and Russia, Portugal which had a colony in Goa, India, Belgium which was keen on scientific expeditions in Asia, and the Kingdom of Siam, the only independent country in Indochina.

As for the colonized Kingdom of Vietnam, Kingdom of Johor and the six indigenous states of West Malaya, Fuso, Ryukyu Kingdom, Aceh Kingdom, etc. which lost their sovereignty and became semi-colonies, they are all not eligible to participate.

The theme of this ten-nation diplomatic consultation meeting is "Contract Credibility and Free Trade."

The main themes are whether signed international conventions are being observed, whether the promised protection of overseas Chinese has become empty talk, and how to promote free trade and eliminate trade barriers to achieve prosperity and common progress in the Southeast Asian region.

The diplomatic representatives of Chu and the Netherlands argued extremely fiercely at the international diplomatic mediation meeting. The Dutch were often speechless and choked up, becoming the target of concentrated fire.

The three evil laws that the Governor-General's Office of the Dutch East Indies introduced on a whim were untenable from the beginning and the party was in the wrong.

When it was brought to the international stage, it was questioned to the point of being completely destroyed.

The Dutch used the Lan Fang Kingdom as an example to prove that the massive invasion of Chinese forces led by the Chu Kingdom would pose a serious threat to the regional situation and security, and even threaten the colonial rule of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

This in itself is untenable. The Lan Fang Kingdom is an independent Chinese country on the surface. It has a history of more than 80 years and has been widely recognized by neighboring countries.

There was a struggle for power within the country, and the people were allying with the State of Chu. From a big picture perspective, there was no problem at all, as all rivers flow into the sea!

Bridges are bridges, roads are roads. The Governor-General's Office of the Dutch East Indies and the Lan Fang Kingdom are two different things.

We cannot say that the Dutch were the first to set their eyes on the residential land of Lan Fang next door, so we cannot half buy and half give it to the State of Chu. It mainly depends on Lan Fang's own thoughts.

So since the Tsarist Russia set its sights on Afghanistan first, couldn't the British occupy it first?

The Russian Tsarist army first set their sights on the Kingdom of Iran and had already invaded northern Iran. So couldn't the British take the lead and invade southern Iran?

The French wanted to colonize Indochina and integrate it into a contiguous colony that was no less impressive than the Indian subcontinent, but the British took the initiative and launched the Anglo-Burmese War, occupying Burma.
Whoever gets it first gets it. This was the law of the international order in the 19th century. Tsarist Russia could not sanction British expatriates for this reason.

Similarly, the Netherlands cannot sanction the Chu expatriates for this reason, which is obviously unreasonable.

After the second round of consultations, and after consulting representatives from various countries, the UK made the following four arrangements:

First, all countries formed a public consensus, requiring the Netherlands to comply with the signed treaty to protect the interests of expatriates, respect the seriousness of the contract, and revoke relevant unreasonable laws.

Article 2: All countries formed a public consensus and demanded that the State of Chu make a public commitment to eliminate the concerns of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Regarding the currently undisputed Dutch territories in southern Kalimantan, the Chu State promised not to attempt to interfere and promised not to change the status quo by force or other means.

Article 3. Other countries participating in diplomatic mediation shall jointly sign the Singapore Declaration, respect the seriousness of the contract, and supervise the implementation of the contract by both parties.

Article 4. The parties will continue to engage in in-depth consultations on free trade and the elimination of tariff barriers to achieve the vision of promoting regional trade prosperity and common progress.

The State of Chu was the first to express its agreement with the UK's four points, and was willing to make public commitments at the government level and keep its promises.

However, after careful study, the Kingdom of the Netherlands flatly rejected Britain's four demands.

There are three reasons for this

First, if the Chinese Restriction Act is completely abolished, the unlimited influx of Chinese expatriates will inevitably change the status quo in the East Indies, which is an outcome that the Dutch side cannot accept.

Second, the Chinese in the entire Nanyang region have formed a complete and powerful trade circle. Coupled with the support of Chu State's finance, they are unmatched in the business field. This is an indisputable fact.

If restrictions are lifted
If Chinese people can freely purchase land, plantations and fixed assets, the power of Chinese society will expand infinitely, reaching a point where it will be difficult to control, and the potential harm will be enormous.

Third, even if Chu publicly pledged to uphold its territorial borders, its credibility was questionable.

If strict restrictions are not imposed, the demographic structure of southern Kalimantan will likely change, and the Dutch colonial government cannot afford to take such a risk.

The Dutch had a deep fear of the almost endless influx of Chinese immigrants. Over the past few years, they had watched helplessly as the State of Chu grew from weak to strong, and in the blink of an eye, became a giant that could stand shoulder to shoulder with themselves.

Under the jurisdiction of the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, there were more than 1240 million people on Java Island, more than 130 million people in southern Kalimantan Island, and more than 250 million people on Sumatra Island, with a total population of about 1630 million.

This is comparable to the current population of the Chu State, and it is indeed a regional giant of similar size, stronger than the French Saigon Colony and the British Straits Settlements in Indochina.

This time
Governor Ord of the British Straits Settlements put a lot of effort into this. He really wanted to ensure the success of this unprecedented diplomatic mediation, which would be a highlight in his resume and demonstrate his outstanding diplomatic coordination skills.

Unexpectedly, the beautiful dream was shattered by the Dutch.

In the last few days of the year, Governor Ode conducted a third round of diplomatic mediation to bring together the broken parties, trying hard to persuade either side to make concessions and try to bridge the differences.

In the end, it still didn't go as planned.

This unprecedented grand diplomatic event ended in a whimper, with no consensus reached and naturally no results achieved.

This made Governor Ode very angry and felt humiliated.

He cursed with a frantic look on his face, "These damn Dutch, is it so difficult for them to abide by the treaty they once signed? This is simply the biggest joke of the century."

"What the hell! These Yankees are just mercenary businessmen at heart. They have no integrity, don't abide by contracts, and forget their principles when they see profit. I've had enough of them. They're all idiots."

"And those damn Orientals, why can't they just be quiet?"

January 1872, 11

In Samarinda, East Kalimantan Province, under the jurisdiction of the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, a fierce conflict broke out over the deprivation of Chinese ship merchants' operating qualifications and the detention of cargo ships.

In conflict
Suddenly, more than a dozen Chinese youths rushed out, wielding sharp machetes, and killed or injured seven white people. More than a dozen indigenous patrolmen were also killed or injured, attracting police officers from all over the city.

More than one hundred white military and police officers quickly rushed out, raised their rifles, and opened fire at the chaotic crowd at the dock, killing and injuring dozens of people on the spot, and most of the others fled.

At night
A group of Chinese armed forces attacked the Samarinda police station at night, killing and injuring more than a dozen white policemen with machetes and muskets, and set fire to the police station, which led to the "Samarinda Massacre" escalating again.

White military and police were mobilized in large numbers to search for Chinese suspects throughout the city. The sounds of crying, smashing and looting plunged the entire city into chaos.

Regarding the conflict in East Kalimantan, the Chu State expressed great concern and declared:

If overseas Chinese cannot be treated fairly and equally, the Chu State will not rule out the use of force to resolve the problem. All options are possible, and the Dutch army will never be allowed to use brutal means of suppression.

A wave of unrest, a wave of up again.

January 20th

In Banjarmasin, Central Kalimantan, the local police drove a Chinese businessman out of his shop. The businessman refused to comply and ended up lighting firewood, and the family of five was burned to death.

After the tragedy, a large-scale Chinese parade involving thousands of people broke out in the area. When the parade arrived at the small square in front of the Banjarmasin Church, it was ruthlessly shot by the military and police.

Huge chaos instantly occurred, with 22 people killed in gunshot wounds and trampling, more than 150 people injured, and more than people arrested.

after the incident

The Chu Royal Navy dispatched an ironclad fleet, which cruised all the way to the port of Banjarmasin and bombarded Banjarmasin with naval guns, posing the most direct threat of war to the Dutch white colonists.

Immediately release all Chinese, provide generous compensation to the families of the deceased, compensate for medical expenses and issue a public apology, strictly prohibit the military from participating in local security suppression operations, maintain restraint, and resolve the problem reasonably.

Otherwise, Batavia and all the Dutch East Indies colonies would be in flames.

The time limit is 3 days. If no positive answer is given or any of the clauses are violated within the deadline, the State of Chu will officially declare war on the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

This unprecedented crisis that broke out in Southeast Asia immediately attracted the attention of the British.

The new ironclad fleet of the British Royal Navy's Third Battle Fleet set out from Calcutta, with the 6852-ton "Duke of Kensington" as its flagship, and began to set off for the South Seas.

However, Kolkata, India is nearly 1700 kilometers away from Batavia, and Batavia is more than kilometers away from Banjarmasin.

At the speed of the British Ironclad Fleet, it would take at least 11 to 12 days to arrive, and if you add the replenishment in Singapore along the way, this time would be extended to more than two weeks.

It is definitely impossible to get there in just three days.

In order to avoid the outbreak of war, the Governor of the British Straits Settlements, Ord, once again made a guarantee to the State of Chu. He guaranteed that the Governor of the Dutch East Indies would definitely abide by the conditions of the State of Chu. At the same time, he sent a British envoy to Batavia to conduct crisis diplomatic mediation.

Sir Joachim Anderson, the British envoy who arrived in Batavia, made it clear that the Dutch were to blame for the two vicious incidents, which led to an unprecedented deterioration of the current situation.

Britain provided a guarantee for the Netherlands, requiring the Netherlands to strictly abide by the Chu ultimatum. This was a reasonable request and must be completed without compromise to prevent the situation from sliding into a dangerous abyss again.

If the Netherlands fails to comply, Britain will remain neutral in future affairs between the two countries, including in the event of war, and all consequences will be borne by the Netherlands itself.

This statement is quite serious. The Netherlands can be so arrogant, largely because it has the support of Britain behind it, which allows it to look down on everything.

If we remove this ladder, isn't it all over?

Out of desperation, Sir Barbour-Verbruggen, the Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies, had to fully agree with the British envoy's opinion, accept the Chu ultimatum, and implement it accordingly.

Such behavior is like slapping yourself in the face.

The Dutch authorities released more than 200 arrested Chinese people, compensated the casualties of the Banjarmasin incident and the Samarinda massacre, severely punished the perpetrators, and promised not to send Dutch troops to quell local conflicts.

All matters were mainly handled by the police station under the colonial governor's office to maintain public order and deal with public security incidents. The move to forcibly confiscate Chinese fixed assets and shipping company operating rights was abandoned in order to calm the situation.

News came out
After extensive coverage by Manila's World Journal, there was a burst of cheers in the country of Chu. Chinese people in many cities beat drums and set off firecrackers to celebrate, and everyone had a proud expression on their face.

For the State of Chu, this was undoubtedly a shot in the arm to rally the people's hearts.

The government took advantage of this opportunity to launch a wave of extensive propaganda, saying, "Overseas Chinese can only be strong if they unite," otherwise they will be scattered and vulnerable to bullying. "I am for everyone, and everyone is for me." "The idea of ​​only cleaning up one's own door is unacceptable," and so on.

(End of this chapter)