Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 450 Colombia is annoying
After reviewing the thick book "Overall Report on the National Economic Development of Chu State in 1882", King Zheng Guohui of Chu felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of data.

He wrote, "While the achievements are certainly encouraging, we must recognize the gap between us and the advanced powers of the United States and Britain. We must correct our attitude, work hard to catch up, and truly develop the Chu economy."

His imperial instructions will serve as the core guiding ideology of the Chu government in the future and will be implemented as a programmatic central policy.

Looking carefully at the flourishing calligraphy, King Zheng Guohui of Chu nodded in satisfaction at his own powerful writing skills. These characters were written with great elegance and force, and they could be felt through the paper, embodying the majestic aura of a king.

He put down his pen and took a sip of the hot tea.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu closed his eyes and rested for a while, then took stock of the major international events in his mind.

The Guano War between Chile, Peru and Bolivia in South America had already been decided in 1883. With the help of British instructors, Chile defeated Peru and Bolivia, whose weapons and combat ideas were relatively backward, and won a decisive victory.

There's not much to say about the entire war process. It was probably just a bunch of rookies fighting each other.

There is no best, only worse.

The Chilean army has entered the Peruvian capital of Lima, occupied it militarily, and carried out large-scale looting, burning and killing, leaving deep pain in the hearts of the Peruvian people.

Chile ultimately won and, through a post-war peace treaty, seized the Peruvian provinces of Tarapacá and Arica, as well as Bolivia's Littoral Province.

Since then, Chile has embarked on the road to becoming a powerful country, while Bolivia lost its access to the sea and became a landlocked country. The country's development has been seriously hindered, and more than a hundred years later it has become the most backward agricultural country in South America.

Such results are actually self-inflicted and are completely unworthy of sympathy.

Peru and Bolivia, independent and autonomous Indian countries, have huge problems. They do not abide by contracts or keep their word at the national level. The government changes its policies every day after coming to power, corruption is rampant, and the conflicts among internal factions are extremely deep.

With all the quarreling going on all day, how can we have the energy to develop the national economy?

from beginning to end
Apart from purchasing $400 million worth of war bonds issued by Chile on behalf of Britain, which were secured by Atacama Desert resources and had an annual interest rate of 11.6%, the State of Chu basically did not intervene in other matters.

It now seems that this investment is stable. Chile has obtained sovereignty over the Atacama Desert and will never allow Bolivia and Peru to get involved in it in the future. There is no problem with repayment ability.

This batch of Chilean war bonds was issued by Britain in London, with a total amount of 1500 million US dollars. Most of the buyers were businessmen and wealthy people from Britain, France, Germany and other countries, who were stable profit-seekers in Western countries.

In France, there are more than 320 million rentiers who make profits by lending money. They are called usurers and are actually the earliest capital market.

King Zheng Guohui of Chu did not have any feelings towards the three South American countries. After all, Chu had signed binding cross-border treaties with Chile and Argentina, and there was no territorial dispute in the Viceroyalty of Patagonia.

In the past two years, Colombian President Varez has often jumped out and strongly criticized the Chu State's expansionist colonial actions of conquering Nicaragua and Honduras in Central America in a fierce tone, believing that this was an act of aggression to enslave the people of Central America and should not be taken lightly.

These chaotic voices made King Zheng Guohui of Chu turn his attention to Colombia, a country in Central and South America.

Think carefully
In fact, the country of Colombia jumped out to accuse the Chu State of implementing expansion and colonialism in Central America based on considerations of interests, in an attempt to contain, pull, and create trouble for the Chu State's "look east" colonial policy.

Why do you say that?
Today's Colombia has inherited the territory of the former New Granada, and the Panama Canal, which was originally planned to be built, is located within its territory. This is a current international focus and a mega-project that has attracted worldwide attention.

Every move of the Panama Canal project is of concern to the Colombian government.

Over the past few decades, a complex web of grievances and grudges has been formed surrounding the construction of the Panama Canal. The people of South American countries are naturally sensitive and intuitive, and are prone to making irrational decisions when they are passionate.

Panama is currently in the early stages of construction of a canal company led by the French, and news has come from the State of Chu about the survey of the Nicaragua Canal. How could this not make Colombian President Varez anxious and angry?
What are you doing? Aren’t you just making trouble?
Oh, I'm about to start building the Panama Canal, a century-old dream of the Colombian people. And you're surveying the Nicaragua Canal over there, clearly sabotaging it.

It is precisely driven by this kind of thinking that the Colombian government has been jumping around. From the president to the foreign minister, they always mention the invaders from the Chu State and constantly criticize the Chu State's colonial actions, which has caused certain troubles to the Chu State.

The toad is crawling on your feet, it's disgusting!

As early as 1849, when an American company was preparing to dig a canal across Nicaragua with Greytown as its end point, the British cited the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty, accusing the United States of violating the legitimate rights and interests of the Moskito Kingdom, an Indian nation protected by Britain, resulting in the project being cancelled.

This major setback made the United States realize that building a canal across the Isthmus of Panama might be a more cost-effective option.

The Americans invested $750 million to build a railway connecting Panama City and Colon, which was an infrastructure project started in advance in preparation for the construction of the Panama Canal.

Unexpectedly, after a series of grievances, Colombia first handed over the rights to build the Panama Canal and lease the canal area to the United States for a period of 100 years.

Because of dissatisfaction with the United States' tough attitude, Colombia subsequently overturned the agreement and began to actively introduce European powers to dig this important canal in order to punish "the United States."

In 1876, the French-controlled International Civic Association for the Construction of an Interoceanic Canal was established in Paris to conduct research on the construction of the Panama Canal, a move that was endorsed by the Colombian government. The French acted swiftly, dispatching a delegation led by French officer Lieutenant Lucien Wise to Panama for a field investigation.

Lieutenant Weiss was very active. On March 1878, 3, he successfully reached a formal agreement with the Colombian government in the name of the association for France to build the Panama Canal.

That's it
The Colombian government gave the right to build the Panama Canal to two families, first to the United States and then to France, which completely angered the Americans.

In other words, the Colombian government not only offended the Americans, but also the Chu people. He himself was dancing happily and looked very cool. I don’t know who gave Colombia the courage.

While the State of Chu was conducting a comprehensive survey of the Nicaragua Canal, the French Interoceanic Canal Company moved quickly. On July 1879, 7, the French Interoceanic Canal Engineering Company was formally established, obtained the lease to dig the canal, and began to actively prepare for the canal project.

Under the leadership of Lesseps, the world-renowned French engineer who had presided over the construction of the Suez Canal, after several years of preparation, eight construction plans were developed, and the Panama Canal was finally officially scheduled to be built in February 8. This was also the beginning of an engineering disaster.

Because the State of Chu had stable investment from the royal fund, it continued to conduct in-depth surveys of the geography and hydrological conditions of the Nicaragua Canal, and developed a detailed and reliable engineering plan, taking into account many difficulties.

From beginning to end, it was not affected by the official opening of the Panama Canal.

Facing this circumstances
Even the British have become Muggles. They don't know whether to negotiate a treaty for unimpeded passage through the Nicaragua Canal with the Chu people, or to negotiate a treaty for unimpeded passage through the Panama Canal with the French. Let's just wait and see.

Thought of here
King Zheng Guohui of Chu suddenly sat up, his eyes gleaming with brilliance. He knew that the Panama Canal dug by the French was only a half-finished project after all, and there was no need to worry about it for more than a decade.

As soon as the construction of the Nicaragua Canal begins, that place will be destroyed sooner or later.

The Nicaragua Canal is currently undergoing steady hydrogeological surveys, which are listing in detail the difficulties and obstacles in the project and taking practical measures to resolve them one by one.

It will take at least two to three years to complete this process.

The preliminary preparations for the entire Nicaragua project lasted for seven years, and were carried out as thoroughly and reliably as possible, taking into account all possible difficulties.

Therefore, King Zheng Guohui of Chu was not in a hurry to take action, but in response to the Colombian government's jumping around and making lies, it was necessary to take actual military action to let them know who was the king and who was the big king?
The process was of course to use courtesy first and then force. The Chu State Ministry of Foreign Affairs came forward to refute the smearing remarks made by the Colombian side, demanding that its president and senior government officials formally apologize, and promise that they would never speak nonsense in the future and would treat the relationship between the two countries with a rigorous and formal attitude.

If this cannot be achieved, Chu will not rule out using all possible means to make Colombia taste the serious consequences of its irresponsible remarks.

These diplomatic procedures must be followed, but they are unlikely to be of much use.

These Central and South Americans are typical people who only care about food and not about fighting. They are all very arrogant and think they are powerful and tough guys, but in fact they are just noobs.

To put it bluntly, it means not knowing yourself.

While conducting diplomatic negotiations, King Zheng Guohui of Chu also ordered the Royal Ninth Division stationed in Rican Guatemala to expand its armaments and actively make military preparations.

He ordered Viscount Wang Hai, the Governor-General of Central America, to make corresponding preparations for war, including personnel training and material preparation, and to wait for the order to go into battle immediately.

The Royal Navy will soon have two main ironclad ships, Zhendong and Zhennan, lead six ironclad cruisers and several coal ships, traveling thousands of miles eastward to Central America, to meet up with the battleships "Zhenyuan" and "Zhenwei" stationed at Pearl Harbor, and implement the maritime blockade mission on the Pacific side during wartime.

The Governor's District of Hawaii will send reinforcements to Central America in a timely manner, strengthen some well-trained officers and combat backbones, conduct military training for new recruits in Central America, and prepare for combat.

It was now February, 1883, and still very early in the morning.

Once the real war starts, it will only last for three to five months. It won’t drag on for very long, and we really can’t afford to lose face.

In a war aimed at striking and punishing, there is no need to think too much. Just burn, kill, and loot along the way. Use brutal warfare and heavy casualties to intimidate the enemy and teach them a lesson.

It is estimated that Britain will not intervene in this troublesome matter. A large gold mine has been discovered in South Africa, and Britain's attention has been drawn to southern Africa. How to deal with the Boers is enough to give the British a headache.

Given the ongoing construction of the Panama Canal, there is a possibility that France will intervene, but the Chu State does not care much.

France only has a colony in Suriname in South America and a small number of French colonists on several small islands in the Caribbean. There are no other large-scale colonial areas in Central America.

On the Pacific side, there is a complete lack of French influence.

If you don’t have the strength, what’s the point of intervening?

(End of this chapter)