Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 409 Congo River Company and East African Company
King Zheng Guohui of Chu controlled the pace of external expansion and colonization very well. He first took Hawaii and then the Governorate of Patagonia. Both times he took action before the corresponding countries did, and picked the peaches first.

For example, Midway Island and Hawaii were occupied by the United States before it took action, creating a fait accompli.

This also forced the United States to swallow the bitter fruit and recognize the territorial rights of Chu on these important Pacific islands. After all, first come, first served.

For example, in the Viceroyalty of Bataglia, the Chu State was the first to launch an expedition to this vast South American plain desert, guiding Chinese adventure teams through policies to conquer the wild Indian tribes.

This achieved low-cost colonial expansion, which is a very important success story.

In Chu
Not everyone supported the Chu upper class's crazy external colonial expansion policy. There were many critics, some said it was warmongering, some said it should be stopped, some said it was sarcastic, and some were pessimistic. Most of them discussed it in private.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu dismissed these rumors as "a makeshift team that is not up to par, all of them short-sighted and unworthy of consultation."

"The future of Chu must not be limited to Southeast Asia. It should be based in Southeast Asia, developing a colonial empire facing the world and spreading our national prestige far beyond the vast waves."

"To show one's might in this era of pioneering passion is the true character of a Chinese man, and it is worth living in vain."

He said so, and he did so.

in this world
No one could shake King Zheng Guohui of Chu's ambition for external colonial expansion. The Chu State now had only a little over 300 million square kilometers of territory, while Britain had 3300 million square kilometers, which was eleven times the size of Chu.

Today, the road of external expansion and colonization is only the beginning, and is far from the end...

King Zheng Guohui of Chu asked, "Lord Wu, how is the preparation for the East African Company, modeled after the Congo River Company, progressing?"

Wu Qingfeng, Secretary of the Colonial Office, replied respectfully:
"In reply to your Majesty's words
The Colonial Office cooperated with the military, mobilized a group of retired local nobles, and selected experienced and capable officials from the Colonial Office to organize the East African Company with its headquarters in Manila.

The new East African Company had a colonial license issued by the Chu government and brought together capital from dozens of Chinese shareholders, totaling about 38 silver dollars. Together with the participation of the three major shipping companies, a total of silver dollars in equity could be raised.

The Colonial Office and the military each invested 10 silver dollars, and the total share capital was equivalent to that of the Congo River Company, and they were preparing the first expeditionary adventure fleet.

军方给予了部分库存淘汰下来的美制枪械和武器弹药，计有斯普林菲尔德M1861式步枪2800余支，美制M1857型12磅野战火炮32门，黑火药550桶及单兵装备和部分帐篷等物资。

Combined with the weapons and equipment organized by retired officers and soldiers, it should be enough.

The East African company's adventure fleet will gradually gather at Pontianak Port in Lanfang State and officially set sail around the middle of this month. The first batch of fleet will consist of 7 ships and a total of more than 3160 people.

"The capital of 60 silver dollars is only enough for the initial period, and it is still insufficient." King Zheng Guohui of Chu considered it for a moment and ordered:

"How about this: the Congo River Company and the East African Company will serve as new examples of colonization. The Royal Household Department will allocate one million silver dollars each as the second round of capital increase and share expansion funds.
In addition, we will once again raise capital of no less than one million silver dollars from domestic Chinese capital through market means and entrust the Royal Colonial Bank to be responsible for issuance.

Compared with the scattered soldiers who pioneered South America, this time, the development of Africa in the form of a colonial company is an extremely beneficial attempt and deserves strong support.

With money, you can do what you want without any worries.

I want to see how far they can go."

"Your Majesty, I hereby declare, obey your Majesty's command. The injection of royal funds will undoubtedly greatly boost the confidence of the people in the colonization, and raising Chinese capital will go without a problem."

"Hahaha... This is the effect we want to achieve, with no upper limit, so as to guide the entire nation to participate in land reclamation in Africa and create a craze." King Zheng Guohui of Chu smiled generously.

The State of Chu made a fortune by selling resources. Now, the country's urban development and industrial boom are in full swing, and it is striding towards becoming an industrialized country.

With one foot in the doorway and the other still outside, China's industrialization process is not much different from that of France and Germany. It is the only industrialized country in the entire Southeast Asia and even East Asia.

Compared with Fuso, another country that was actively developing industrialization, Chu not only started early and had a complete layout of light and heavy industries, but also far surpassed its peers in depth and breadth, making it difficult for Fuso to catch up.

In particular, the kerosene resources exported to Europe were called "black gold". In the first half of 1875 alone, the total value of kerosene exported to European countries and East Asia exceeded 1.22 million silver dollars, and it was no difficulty to reach the set target of 2.5 million silver dollars for the whole year.

With a large amount of income, he spent it without hesitation.

Today, the Chu State is vigorously building the Royal Navy's ironclad fleet. The "Huashan" class ironclad cruiser has developed into the second type, called the "Yandangshan" class ironclad cruiser.

The first ship, "Yandangshan", has a displacement of 3220 tons, which is 900 tons more than the "Huashan" class. It uses two technologically improved horizontal steam engines, which have higher coal combustion efficiency and greater power.

The first batch of eight "Yandangshan" class ironclad cruisers will be built to supplement the current ironclad fleet, eliminate the old sailing cruisers and sailing frigates, realize the complete "iron armoring" of the fleet, and complete a gorgeous transformation.

In the field of main ironclad ships
After more than half a year of silence, a new round of ironclad battleship shipbuilding boom has been set off again, referring to the pros and cons of the six main ironclad ships, namely "Zhendong", "Zhennan", "Zhenxi", "Zhenbei", "Zhenyuan" and "Zhenwei".

The new "Zhenhai" flagship ironclad warship, embracing the current trend of powerful naval vessels and massive guns, has seen its displacement expanded to 8500 tons, surpassing the -ton mark. Construction began last month at the Royal Manila Naval Shipyard, with a construction period of one and a half years and a planned launch and commissioning by the end of next year.

The subsequent sister ship "Zhenjiang" will be built at the Jinsha Shipyard in the second half of this year. The Navy's first phase of construction funding has been in place, and the ship is in the process of preparing steel materials and customizing marine steam engines, boilers and other equipment.

The ironclad ships "Zhenhu" and "Zhenhe" have been included in next year's construction plan. The corresponding construction funds will be allocated at the beginning of next year and will be put into construction in succession.

As the displacement of these new ironclad warships increased rapidly and their performance became stronger, their manufacturing costs also rose sharply.

The initial order price of 107 million silver dollars per ship of the "Zhendong" has risen sharply to 155 million silver dollars for the current "Zhenhai" ironclad ship, a straight increase of nearly 50%.

The total cost of custom-building the four battleships Jiang, He, Hu and Hai was over 4 million silver dollars. Even a wealthy family like the Chu royal family found it a bit difficult.

Developing the navy is indeed a money-eating beast, and there is no exaggeration in that.

Although the cost is huge, the rewards are also great.

Manila's World Journal reported in succession on the construction of a new round of four "Zhen"-class main ironclad ships by the Chu Royal Navy, which attracted great attention from neighboring countries and received mixed responses.

This shows that the British Royal Navy's Third Battleship Fleet, known as the overlord of the Indian Ocean, now also shows caution and superficial courtesy in the face of the booming Chu Navy.

The Chu Navy had enough to be proud of for being able to gain the serious attention of the British Royal Navy's Third Battleship Fleet.

When the four ships Jianghe, Huhai and Hai are put into service in the next two years, the Chu State will have a total of 10 main ironclad heavy ships, and the strength of the Chu Navy will soar again.

Even when facing the main force of the British Royal Navy's Third Battleship Fleet, they were not intimidated at all. The strength of both sides on paper was almost the same.

throughout Southeast Asia

The only thing that King Zheng Guohui of Chu cared about was the attitude of the British. He had enough confidence to say "no" to the perfunctory attitude of other powers.

This strong confidence comes from the ironclad fleet, which is the naval fleet that the Chu State focuses on developing. It will maintain high-intensity investment and continuously build new ironclad ships.

With these big guys around, the British people's attitude became softer and their tone was no longer so domineering. They became more negotiable and easy to talk to.

Influenced by Confucian culture, the Chinese nation tends to be introverted and conservative.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu's aggressive attitude of foreign expansion and colonization resonated strongly not with the Chinese people, but with the elites of the Meiji Restoration, who were so excited that their blood boiled.

Okubo Toshimichi humbly said:

"Every word His Majesty the King of Chu said can stir the blood in our hearts. It is truly a pearl of wisdom and thought-provoking!"

"As expected of a king from the Chinese nation, his courage and vision rival those of Western European powers, and even surpass them. He has provided a clear direction for Fusang's future colonization and development, and is worthy of careful consideration and understanding..."

"Reading your Majesty's words in depth always provides great inspiration."

The result of flowers blooming inside the wall but fragrant outside the wall left King Zheng Guohui of Chu speechless.

Over the years
With the strong support of British capital, Japan's industrialization process caught up rapidly, and the effect was much stronger than the national industry led by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in northern China.

But compared with the State of Chu, it was far behind.

In the final analysis
Developing an industrialized economy requires people, money, land, and markets. Fuso is a remote and poor country with very few resources, and it is extremely difficult to develop it.

This requires tremendous perseverance and persistence, and some of the Chinese people must make sacrifices.

Just like the hundreds of thousands of Nanyang sisters in Fusang, who engaged in the flesh trade in exchange for precious silver and British pounds, and accumulated the initial capital for industrial development bit by bit, it was full of blood and tears.

The State of Chu did not go through this stage. Instead, relying on its rich copper and crude oil resources, it took off directly and skipped the most difficult stage of primitive capital accumulation.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu watched helplessly as Fusang Kingdom climbed out of the ruins of civil war, paying far more hardships than ordinary people could imagine, and gritted his teeth as it embarked on the difficult road of industrialization step by step, but he was helpless.

The rise of a regional power with a population of tens of millions cannot be stopped by human power. If we interfere without knowing our own limitations, the consequences will often outweigh the gains.

Just a few years
Fuso had already shown an eager attitude towards external colonial expansion and was aggressive on the Korean Peninsula, especially coveting the peninsula's rich coal and iron resources, which were exactly the nutrients Fuso urgently needed for industrialization.

(End of this chapter)