Father of France

Chapter 149

Koeman made it sound like the military was the one advocating this, and that he was just relaying a message in French Indochina, which changed the attitude of the wealthy Chinese.

It went too smoothly, almost unbelievably so, but there's a reason for it. Chinese people overseas have always played a secondary imperialist role. Looking at the business of Chinese people in Southeast Asian countries, it's actually similar to that of the Jewish people.

Of course, this refers to Jews before World War I, who were important aids to imperialism when needed, and sacrificed when not needed.

Unlike the Jews after World War II, who were essentially liberated from their servitude and, after decades of hard work, were about to turn against their masters.

So, the wealthy Chinese who are essentially accomplices of the colonizers actually have a stronger sense of class consciousness than national consciousness, and their current behavior proves that Koeman's judgment was correct.

This is the power of capital. The only way to deal with them is through interests; talking to them about ideals is like casting pearls before swine.

Chinese people were restricted from owning land in French Indochina. Although this restriction was only nominally enforced, it was in effect. Now, Koeman has decided to try a different approach.

Land also has the potential for appreciation and can be financialized. If you don't believe it, just look at the richest people in the United States in the 21st century. Whether they are oil tycoons or Silicon Valley moguls, they are also major landowners in the United States.

Land is the best carrier of wealth. You can acquire land even without directly owning it. Isn't that what American seed companies do?
This also leveraged the advantages of wealthy Chinese in the Embankment. Although French Indochina was a French colony, due to its remote location and the limited number of French immigrants, French capital was destined to miss out on certain areas of French Indochina.

For a long time, the French Indochina Governor's Office focused its financial resources on developing infrastructure, mainly transportation networks and mining, and was unable to expand its trade system.

This is very much in line with the characteristics of usury imperialism, but how could a colony of 700,000 to 800,000 square kilometers and 30 million people only have mineral mining, which is of interest to France, as a worthwhile investment?
In places where French capital couldn't reach, the Chinese, who claimed to be victims of imperialism but were also seen as imperialists by the Vietnamese, filled that void.

In order to separate the Chinese from the Vietnamese, the French enacted laws to gradually allow the Chinese to enjoy more business rights than the locals and other foreigners. This can be seen in various agreements signed between France and the Qing Dynasty, such as the Tianjin Trade Agreement signed with the Qing government in 1886, which included clauses allowing the Chinese to operate freely in Vietnam.

Of course, this treaty was also part of the many unequal treaties of the Qing government in a broad sense, but in the eyes of the Vietnamese, these two robbers were really friendly, and seriously damaged Vietnam's sovereignty while talking and laughing.

Individual Chinese tycoons are certainly far less wealthy than French capital, but the proximity of their motherland to China means that the number of Chinese people is increasing.

Chinese people started with daily necessities and gradually began to "encircle the cities from the countryside," conquering one field after another, entering the service industry and then the light industry.

Clearly, this round of negotiations for France to reclaim northern French Indochina will likely further expand the range of businesses operated by Chinese.

Businessmen cannot be separated from politics, especially the most powerful and wealthy. Perhaps the French military's reputation still held sway, as the Chinese tycoons of the five major banks on the Embankment endorsed the French army... In reality, it was the grand blueprint described by Corman.

This conversation was a pleasant one, with both host and guests enjoying themselves immensely. This shows that Koman's promises were successful; they were practically walking away arm in arm. Koman had no doubt that these wealthy Chinese men would arrange for him to have a few innocent women, experience the fine traditions of the East, and have multiple wives and concubines.

"They're quite pleased with themselves. If it weren't for the superior avoiding risks, would such a good thing have fallen into their laps?" Lefebvre couldn't help but say as he followed Corman back to downtown Saigon. "Sir, they actually have the financial resources to cover the costs of land reform. What if..."

"Don't worry, Lefebvre!" Coman said, his tone instantly shifting to that of a far-right wing. "This is more about maintaining their colonial rule in Indochina. Divide and conquer, deliberately create ethnic conflicts—wasn't that exactly what the Dutch East India Company and the British East India Company did? Once the economic strength and population of the Chinese threaten their dominance, we will not hesitate to ignite the fuse of ethnic conflict and let the locals deal with the Chinese; we won't need to lift a finger ourselves."

"As for enabling the five major Chinese banks in the Embankment to go beyond French Indochina and become internationalized, this will take time to prove, and it is still a long way off whether it will succeed."

Koeman's far-right military-style rhetoric allayed Lefebvre's concerns. However, his words served only this purpose: to help the five major Chinese banks internationalize in French Africa?

The real purpose was to prepare for the collapse of French rule in French Indochina, and ultimately to provide a route for wealthy Chinese in Cholon to escape after the fall of South Vietnam.

Forcing these wealthy Chinese to immigrate to France with their wealth is not an option. Unless Koeman has Yuri's influence, they would normally choose the United States, or at most Hong Kong.

To ensure that the wealth of these individuals was used by France, a channel needed to be established. This way, if South Vietnam couldn't withstand the pressure, wealthy Chinese would independently make choices that aligned with their interests, after weighing various factors. Whether the Chinese possessed this potential depends on their class background. Although the million-strong Chinese population constituted only a small fraction of the thirty million people in French Indochina, their educational levels were vastly different.

The Chinese community in Cholon is like a paradise in the field of education, with primary and secondary education almost unaffected by the war. One secondary school alone has more than 6,000 students, and the number of students in Cholon's Chinese schools, including primary schools, is no less than 100,000! As long as they are Cantonese, Teochew, Hakka, Hokkien, or Hainanese, no matter how poor their family is, as long as their children are willing to study, almost everyone can go to school.

Although there are no higher education institutions in China, families with the means will send their children to study at universities in Hong Kong, France, or Singapore, and vocational education is quite good.

It is precisely for this reason that the highest-ranking official of Chinese descent in French Indochina before World War II was an educational administrator. This demonstrates that France also recognized the educational success of the Chinese community.

It is already a miracle that such a small population can produce a similarly large secondary education population compared to Vietnam's nearly 30 million.

Five days later, the Socialist-French Communist coalition government in Paris approved the bill for land reform in French Indochina, which was not slow for France.

“It looks like French Indochina will become the first country in Asia to carry out land reform.” Dassanio, in the Governor’s Palace, was both amused and exasperated, unsure how to evaluate the bill.

Now, the great Eastern power is still under Chiang Kai-shek's leadership. The Indonesian Communist Party was defeated in a showdown with Indonesian right-wing armed forces as soon as the French army landed on Java Island. Even MacArthur's land reform in Japan has not yet begun. French Indochina has become the first place in Asia to carry out land reform.

After a moment, General Dashanliu composed himself. Since it had already begun, he wouldn't dwell on the pros and cons. On the contrary, although General Dashanliu was a right-wing soldier, he also understood the importance of propaganda.

Doing without saying anything is definitely not the style of a colonial government. The French, represented by Dachanliu, still hoped to maintain French rule in French Indochina for a long time. They were even going to carry out land reform. If they didn't do some serious publicity to increase French support for French rule in French Indochina, wouldn't the land reform have been in vain?

The French Indochina Governor-General's Office had barely begun, with no land reforms in sight, when they immediately built a high-rise building and announced what could be described as an attractive modernization plan for French Indochina.

In agriculture, the main objective was to increase grain production to achieve food self-sufficiency and to provide raw materials such as cotton, jute, and labor for industrial development. Significant efforts were made to construct water conservancy projects, expand irrigated areas, and promote new varieties and advanced farming techniques.

France will help French Indochina establish an industry centered on electricity, coal, metallurgy, and chemicals, and help French Indochina become a model for wealthy regions in Asia.

Of course, Corman knew this was impossible. France hadn't even recovered its own electricity, coal, metallurgy, and chemical industries, so how could it have the time to help French Indochina establish such an industry?

It was Dassamus's way of making empty promises under the guise of land reform, except that while Coman's promises were vague, Dassamus's were more concrete and seemed to have substance.

As for the fact that it ultimately failed, didn't you see the Governor's Office's announcement? This land reform was a gradual reform, and it would definitely take some time to test the results, so it started with the Catholic community's residential areas.

The results will take two or three years to assess, and whether land reform will continue at that time will be determined then.

Almost simultaneously with Koeman's cameo as a progressive military man, a new sun was rising over the Korean Peninsula, ensuring that Koeman's tentative attempts at small-scale military intervention would not be the last to shine.

Almost simultaneously, the North Korean government promulgated a land reform law, confiscating land previously owned by religious groups, local landlords, and Japanese without compensation and distributing it to poor farmers and tenant farmers.

In just twenty days, North Korea announced the success of its land reform, and a large number of northern landlords fled south across the 38th parallel to seek the protection of Syngman Rhee.

The efficiency displayed by North Korea was terrifying. In comparison, Corman, who had just begun to experiment with military government in French Indochina, immediately realized the gap between them. "Were we too lenient with the Vietnamese? Is it okay to take bigger steps?"

“Sir, you said before that we shouldn’t add to Paris’s burden.” Lefèvre immediately played his part, preventing Coman, who wanted to stand shoulder to shoulder with the sun, from getting carried away.

(End of this chapter)