Nanyang Storm 1864

He who does not plan for the long term is not fit to plan for the short term. He who does not plan for the whole is not fit to plan for a part.

Dubai's King Chu-Zheng Tao pondered this sentence repeatedly in his mind, his gaze searching the map with profound meaning, lingering for a long time between the Emirate of Qatar in the north and the Kingdom of Oman in the south.

The easiest way to achieve the 1% target is through territorial expansion.

The current Dubai Kingdom, including Abu Dhabi, has a total area of ​​just over 10,000 square kilometers, which is far from the standard of 170,000 square kilometers.

To achieve this goal, it would be necessary not only to move north and completely destroy the Emirate of Qatar, but also to move south and occupy the Kingdom of Oman in order to barely meet the standard.

The Kingdom of Oman is quite large, with a total territory of over 30 square kilometers. It is located in the southeastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula and guards the entrance to the Persian Gulf.

Across from the Kingdom of Oman lies the Kingdom of Iran, with a history spanning thousands of years, and the most powerful Persian dynasty in existence today.

Dubai King Chu-Zheng Tao knew perfectly well
He could not possibly take over the Kingdom of Oman, because his two elder brothers, who controlled the Kingdoms of Yemen and Sara, also had their own ambitions for the Kingdom of Oman and would never let go of this lucrative prize.

Everyone wants to be the emperor's favorite son, not just him.

If this leads to a complete breakdown in relations between our brotherly nations, "I fear I will fail to live up to your expectations," a situation that King Chu-Zheng Tao of Dubai would never want to see.

If we truly lose the Emperor's favor, wouldn't we be picking up a sesame seed and losing a watermelon?

Therefore, even if the Kingdom of Oman is destroyed, the Kingdom of Dubai cannot keep all the spoils; it must share them with its two royal brothers.

In this way

The gap to the 1% threshold is already tight. If things go wrong, we'll have to invade the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the north and take over a large territory.

King Chu-Zheng Tao of Dubai stared blankly at the map, lost in thought. He could now somewhat understand the feelings his father had when he stood before the map and examined it.

Every act of expansion and colonization was the result of careful consideration.

After much deliberation, he finally made up his mind to launch a northern expedition early next year, aiming to swallow up the Emirate of Qatar whole.

The current international situation is very favorable. During the Russo-Japanese War, Japan is launching a large-scale battle in Liaoyang, with dozens of battles of varying sizes already taking place. The fighting is unprecedentedly bloody and brutal, attracting worldwide attention.

The small emirate of Qatar to the north has not yet attracted the attention of the world's major powers.

Even if the British had any complaints, the Great Chu Empire would step in to stop them, after all, it was an empire ruled by the Emperor and the powerful backer of the Kingdom of Dubai.

Why did they withdraw their troops after occupying the Ibrahim region of Oman?

Now they've set their sights on the Emirate of Qatar in the north?
This is also the result of careful consideration by Dubai's King Chu-Zheng Tao; the difference between the two lies in their scale.

The Kingdom of Oman is, after all, a large regional country with an area of ​​over 30 square kilometers and a population of over 130 million (note: after suffering the ravages of war, it is now less than one million). Its size and influence are incomparable to Qatar.

Moreover, the Kingdom of Oman is a legitimate protectorate of Britain, and there is a formal treaty between the two countries, which is also a point of concern.

Given the appetites of the Kingdom of Dubai, the Kingdom of Sana'a, and the Kingdom of Yemen, they are not yet able to swallow and digest a behemoth like the Kingdom of Oman; they can only leave it for later to enjoy.

If a war of annihilation were to be waged, it would inevitably provoke fierce resistance from Muscat.

If the war drags on for a long time, the small size of the Kingdom of Dubai simply cannot sustain it.

In contrast, the situation is quite different in the Emirate of Qatar.

The Emirate of Qatar covers an area of ​​over 11000 square kilometers and is located on the Qatar Peninsula. The entire ethnic population is 2.37, making it an impoverished Arab emirate.

There are dozens of such emirates on the Arabian Peninsula, and they have no protection treaty with Britain. The British also look down on such tiny emirates.

The British may look down on it, but the Kingdom of Dubai doesn't mind.

If the Emirate of Qatar is annexed, the territory of the Kingdom of Dubai will double to more than 20,000 square kilometers, and its coastline along the Persian Gulf will increase by more than 500 kilometers, which is a considerable gain.

An Arab tribe of more than 2 people could muster at least six or seven thousand able-bodied men, as well as several thousand Arab women—that's all money.

Anyway, things aren't peaceful on the Arabian Peninsula right now. The Saudi dynasty, which was just established in 1902, under the leadership of King Abdulaziz, has been expanding into the Hejaz region and has eliminated three nearby emirates.

Their momentum surged, and they became somewhat carried away.

Just three months ago
A group of camel riders from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia attacked a patrol of cavalry from the Kingdom of Jeddah, resulting in more than 20 deaths and injuries.

Both sides have their own reasons, making this a very confusing situation.

The Kingdom of Jeddah did not let the enemy off easily. It immediately dispatched an understrength cavalry regiment, totaling more than 740 riders, to penetrate more than 110 kilometers into enemy territory and wipe out two nomadic tribes that were subordinate to the Saudi Aziz dynasty.

More than 2,000 people were killed, while the enemy suffered only 6 casualties, making it a resounding victory.

The cavalry of the Kingdom of Jeddah fought swiftly and withdrew quickly, suppressing all the leading figures of the two nomadic tribes. The remaining thousands of tribespeople were packed up and taken back, along with more than 70,000 cattle and sheep, and more than 1,000 fine horses.

Reasoning with people won't work; you have to resort to ruthless tactics.

Saudi King Abdulaziz immediately backed down and hastily sent envoys to Jeddah to sue for peace. After paying 17000 Ottoman gold coins, the two sides reached a non-aggression pact.

As for the two vassal tribes that were taken over by the Kingdom of Jeddah, the Saudi envoys never mentioned them at all, treating the matter as if it never existed.

What does it mean to be imposing?

This is what you call power in the Kingdom of Jeddah. The war made the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia feel like a bucket of cold water had been poured over its head. Now it has completely sobered up and knows who it shouldn't mess with.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia ceased its raids in the Hejaz region, much to the relief of the many emirate chiefs who were filled with anxiety. They sent envoys to Jeddah seeking protection and marriage alliances.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at that time was not the vast country with an area of ​​more than 225 million square kilometers that it would become in later generations. It only occupied Riyadh, which was located in the heart of the desert, and did not have a clear border with the surrounding countries.

At this time, Saudi Arabia had not completely occupied the Hejaz region, but the Najd region, centered on Jeddah, was already the territory of the Kingdom of Jeddah.

From Jeddah to Dubai, they are on the same latitude line.

This latitude line divided one-third of the territory of the later Saudi Kingdom, but the area between the two countries was a vast desert, barren and uninhabited, so there was no clear demarcation.

These countries all harbor some ambitions, so they tacitly agree not to discuss territorial division, as that would be tantamount to tying their own hands.

In its original history, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia conquered more than a dozen surrounding emirates over 30 years, eventually acquiring its vast territory of more than 225 million square kilometers.

There's not even a shadow of him yet.

After carefully considering it in my mind
Dubai's King Chu-Zheng Tao has made up his mind to conquer the Emirate of Qatar, and the timeframe is set for next year, otherwise things may change.

Unconsciously, he learned some of his father's essence.

That is to take advantage of the fact that the foreign powers are too busy to attend to other matters, and seize as much as possible, and get the benefits first.

In late 1904, the Kingdom of Dubai was experiencing a surge of construction activity.

Thanks to the large influx of prisoners, many construction projects in the Kingdom of Dubai were launched rapidly. Scaffolding was everywhere in the city, and roads and bridges in the suburbs were repaired and rebuilt on a large scale. Both urban and rural areas were bustling with activity.

Dubai Port's Terminal 1 has been completed and put into use, and construction has begun on Terminals 2 and 3, deep-water terminals. Thousands of Arab convicts are working hard on the construction site, and the construction precision is quite impressive.

Large stones transported by horse-drawn carts were piled up along the coastline to form a continuous series of stone mounds of varying heights, used for repairing coastal embankments and building new docks and shipyards.

Downwind of Dubai City, large tracts of newly leveled land are being rolled and flattened by tractors-pulled stone rollers; this area will eventually become home to textile factories and industrial zones.

The Kingdom of Dubai is not far from Egypt, a famous cotton-producing region. The cotton textile factory, which is invested and led by the royal family, will import more than 400 British spinning machines and build a medium-sized textile factory here.

Many Arab women studied in the nearby tent camp. Once the factory was built and the machinery was installed, they became the first female textile workers.

In addition to textile factories, weaving mills, dyeing and finishing workshops, garment factories, and other facilities will be built nearby, specifically for producing robes and clothing unique to the Arabian Peninsula, which will also have a large market in the Persian Gulf region.

As long as the price is low and the quality is good, there's no need to worry about selling the goods.

Industrialized textile production has proven to be a fatal blow to traditional handicrafts.

Dubai's development of the textile industry is not intended to replace the traditional British fabric market, but rather to gain a share of this large market.

In such a large international commodity market, even a few percent share is enough for the Kingdom of Dubai to live comfortably.

Dubai's King Chu-Zheng Tao is very confident because he has the support of three brother countries and can also dump his goods on the East African Governor's Market, a market with more than 600 million people.

The population under the jurisdiction of the East African Governorate is as high as 550 million, and the four peninsula countries together have nearly one million people. Isn't this a natural huge market?

In the modern colonial era, the so-called market is linked to spheres of influence.

It's no wonder that the United States invaded Cuba, and Japan and Russia fought tooth and nail for the three northeastern provinces and Manchuria, because these regions inherently contained huge economic interests and were highly exclusive.

The main business of the Kingdom of Dubai is smuggling, which involves using mercenaries to break through the trade barriers set up by various countries, thereby gaining extra profits at the expense of the tax revenue of those countries.

Therefore, he was very confident in selling Dubai's textiles to the large markets of the countries around the Persian Gulf.

Of course, this single medium-sized textile factory is far from sufficient to meet the demand, and more textile factories need to be built in the future.

While large-scale construction is underway on the shore, many fishing boats have also appeared along the Dubai coast, setting sail for nearshore waters to carry out fishing operations.

Offshore fishing is a traditional industry in Dubai, which also used to have a pearl harvesting industry. The coast around Dubai is rich in natural pearls and is a major economic pillar of the city.

Later, under the impact of artificial pearls from Japan, this industry quickly declined.

Fortunately, the Kingdom of Dubai had the example of the Great Chu Empire, which rapidly developed numerous fishery product processing plants and canneries by relying on offshore fishing, exporting these seafood products to Europe. This was much better than pearl fishing.

Large numbers of Arab women work hard in fish processing plants. Some large plants employ hundreds or even thousands of women, while smaller plants employ dozens or hundreds.

With a sufficient labor force, Dubai's fish processing industry has also flourished, capable of exporting hundreds or thousands of tons to Europe, forming a considerable scale.

In one or two months, the Kingdom of Dubai absorbed 16 captured Arab men and women. Except for a small number of Arab women who were rewarded to the soldiers for their military achievements, most of the other women were put into the market.

This sparked a buying frenzy in the Kingdom of Dubai. Regardless of their wealth, Chinese men who had immigrated there flocked to the market to buy their favorite Arab women to take home and start families.

Those short of money can take out loans. The Royal Colonial Bank offers special preferential loans to support this, with a maximum limit of 300 silver dollars per person, a monthly interest rate of 8.6%, and an annual interest rate of slightly over 10%.

In just a few months

More than 35,000 Arab women were bought and sold, forming more than 35,000 Chinese families. In addition, more than 10,000 young and beautiful Arab women were sold to the empire's homeland, earning millions of silver dollars.

The remaining 3 Arab women mostly went to work in factories, docks and other places, where they were centrally managed and provided with food and lodging, waiting to be absorbed by the subsequent Chinese immigrants.

Dubai's King Chu-Zhengtao was quite astute; he was unwilling to sell all 3 Arab women in exchange for an astonishingly large fortune.

Instead, they should remain in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where they can marry Chinese immigrants, form immigrant families, and have children, further expanding the population of the Dubai Kingdom. That is the long-term solution.

Moreover, these Chinese immigrants aren't getting things for free; they have to pay real money to buy them.

When funds are tight, why not take advantage of the fact that the newly established banks in the Kingdom of Dubai can earn an extra cent in interest?

The chicken lays the egg, the egg hatches into a chicken, and so on, endlessly.

With ample financial support, the Eastern Shipping Company, responsible for transporting immigrants, increased its efforts to send immigrants to the Kingdom of Dubai, with an average of two immigrant ships arriving each month.

After 1905, the Kingdom of Dubai received an average of 6177 Chinese immigrants per month, an increase of nearly 80% compared to the previous year, which is quite considerable.

In less than 10 months, they absorbed the remaining nearly 3 Arab women, buying them all up.

During this period

On February 2, 1805, the Kingdom of Dubai dispatched 1720 cavalry and 2,000 infantrymen to march north and, in five days, conquered the Emirate of Qatar.

In this battle, more than 3,000 people, including resisting tribal warriors, tribal chiefs, nobles, and religious figures, were killed, almost wiping out the upper echelons of the Emirate of Qatar.

The territory of the Emirate of Qatar has also completely fallen into the hands of the Kingdom of Dubai.

And this change

It caused no international ripples whatsoever. The world's major powers paid no attention to the disappearance of a small emirate; their eyes were fixed on the Russo-Japanese War, which was already reaching its climax. (End of Chapter)