Rebirth of the Qing Empire

The Netherlands is well aware that its country is small and weak, so it seizes every opportunity to expand its living space, open up overseas colonies, and amass wealth from all over the world. This is the same greed, barbarism, despicable and shameless as European countries and Japan.

Since the Qing government at that time did not express any dissatisfaction with the Dutch occupation of various Chinese immigrant settlements in South Asia and the criminal act of massacring Chinese immigrants, it further fueled its arrogance, but it was still wary of the huge Qing Empire.

Therefore, for decades, it has not officially declared that it occupies the South Asian islands, so there is no issue of sovereignty.

Kalimantan, the main settlement place for Chinese immigrants in South Asia, is still an unclaimed land, and Chinese immigrants were the first pioneers and main operators of this island. According to the preconceived international practices of the contemporary world, it was taken back by the Qing Dynasty.

The empire takes everything for granted.

Kalimantan is commonly known as Borneo by the Chinese. It is the third largest island in the world, almost equivalent to the combined area of ​​the five Shanxi provinces. The center of the island is mountainous, with many peaks over 4,000 meters above sea level. The island is surrounded by plains.

, most of the island is covered by dense virgin tropical rainforest, and a number of large rivers suitable for navigation constitute the island's water transportation network. The cities are all built on the coastal plains, and the vast inland is isolated from the world's primitive mountains and jungles.

, legend has it that there are also cannibal savages living there.

The island has rich tropical products and is an ideal raw material supply base. It is suitable for the development of basic industries such as petroleum, non-ferrous metals, rubber, medicine, wood and agricultural product processing, and mechanical industries such as ship repair and shipbuilding. And with its superior geographical location,

It can effectively control various important waterways in South Asia, such as the Strait of Malacca, the Strait of Makassar, the Sunda Strait, etc. and the surrounding sea areas. Gradually forming the Chinese mainland-Hainan Island-Xisha Islands-Nansha Islands-Green Island Islands-Malacca Strait-Indian Ocean

The defense chain ensured the smooth flow of the South China Sea-Indian Ocean-Atlantic sea route of the Qing Empire, and better conducted maritime trade with countries in South Asia, Africa, the Middle East, the Mediterranean coast and Europe.

After comprehensively considering the above situation, Kang Fan has plans to further seize Kalimantan Island. The Dutch Navy has been reluctant to come to retaliate against the Bac Ninh Navy, but it has been harassing the waters around the Green Island Islands, and the Bac Ninh Navy must take the initiative.

Already.

But the occupier of Kalimantan is not only the Netherlands, but also the United Kingdom.

The British captured the northwest of Kalimantan from the Dutch and had the most powerful navy in the contemporary world. This made it more difficult for the Bac Ninh Navy to capture Kalimantan. But considering that the British were struggling to cope at this time

In the arms race with Germany, the main focus is on Europe, and the control over distant South Asia has to be weakened. The Bac Ninh Navy should have a chance.

Furthermore, the Bac Ninh Navy has submarines and aviation units with extremely strong combat capabilities. Whether it is a direct battle with the British Navy or cutting off its maritime supply lines, it has the strength to compete. If a war is to begin, it is still unclear who will win and who will lose!

In August 1914, the Qing Empire announced that in order to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese immigrants on the island of Kalimantan, it would take back the island. It clearly stated to the British and Dutch countries that it would not hesitate to fight for this tough stance, and made a big fanfare.

Start preparing for war.

At this time, the First World War had broken out in Europe, and Britain was fighting with all its strength. After learning of the Qing Empire's intentions, it immediately agreed to "transfer" the northwest of Kalimantan to the Qing Empire. The Netherlands, as a besieged country,

The two major European camps regard this small country as "insignificant" and has been forgotten by Europe. Where can we find help? Facing the emergency situation of the Qing Empire's soldiers pressing on the border, we can't stand it alone.

Undecided.

"Then let's give them some color to see!" Kang Fan patted the Dutch East Indies marked on the map at the headquarters of Green Island Base, and turned his eyes to the window. Not far away, close to the dock, the amphibious

At the airport, newly assembled HNA "Seahawk" fighter jets are waiting eagerly for departure.

On September 8th, it was clear and light wind, a perfect flying weather. 120 "Seahawk" fighter planes of the Bac Ninh Naval Aviation Force, fully loaded with bombs, took off one after another. After refueling and replenishing at sea by the Navy's "Jiaolong" submarine, they flew over the Kalimantan Island.

, launched fierce air strikes against several major cities on the remaining islands of the Dutch East Indies.

Due to the vast forest area and abundant wood resources in the Dutch East Indies, and being located in a tropical area, the buildings in the above-mentioned cities all use wood as the main building material. Therefore, the Bac Ninh Naval Aviation used a large number of burning

Bombs caused large-scale fires in these cities. The fires were so fierce that they could not be controlled at all, and then ignited the forests around the cities, triggering even more terrifying forest fires. Wherever the flames passed, everything became a piece of scorched earth! It continued.

During the more than ten days of operations, the local Dutch navy ships, army weapons and equipment, and various combat supplies were all canceled before they could be used, causing serious casualties to soldiers and civilians. This kind of air strike operation was impossible to fight back and caused huge damage.

It caused huge panic to the local Dutch people, and their already fragile fighting will instantly collapsed!

This is the beauty of the "limited strike" that Kang Fan said: when one's own side forms an effective deterrent to the enemy with its strong military strength, it uses one's own technological weapons with absolute advantages to carry out a one-sided military strike against the enemy's important areas.

The purpose is not to annihilate how many enemy troops there are, but to destroy the enemy's will to fight and obtain the maximum war benefits with the minimum war investment. Because, in actual combat, the tactics of "conquering the enemy without fighting" are often ineffective, and most of them

The enemy is the master who "will not shed tears until he sees the coffin" - Japan is an example.

At the same time, the Bac Ninh Navy's "Da Qing" class cruisers and "Jiao Long" class submarines went around to carry out "unrestricted sea safari" missions. As long as they were Dutch ships, whether military or civilian, they were all sunk, and the task was quickly completed.

The mission was to blockade the island of Kalimantan from the sea, cutting off all connections between the island and the outside world.

As a result, the Dutch on the island are always in danger of retaliation from local Chinese immigrants, and they are in constant panic.

The Netherlands developed into a world maritime trade power in the early to mid-17th century. The number of its merchant ships exceeded the total number of merchant ships owned by all European countries at that time. It was known as the "Sea Coachman". With its powerful navy, it seized control of sea routes along the sea routes.

They established colonial strongholds all over the world, including Taiwan Island during the rule of China's Ming Dynasty. These colonial strongholds strongly supported the Netherlands' global maritime trade and brought it huge wealth, but they did not fundamentally change its

Due to the inherent weakness of the country, it was eventually defeated by the British at sea and the French on land in the mid-to-late 17th century. The wealth accumulated over many years of hard work was wiped out, and it quickly declined. At one time, the country was subjugated.

This is like the Qing Empire before the Opium War. Although its economic aggregate accounted for a quarter of the world's economic aggregate at that time, it was definitely a rich country, but it was not a powerful country because it did not have a strong national defense force, so it had to

Being invaded by world powers. In other words, no matter whether it is a big country or a small country, money cannot buy national security.

The Netherlands is rich, but its war resources such as territorial area, population, natural resources, etc. are nothing compared to the Qing Empire. The Netherlands has a mainland area of ​​more than 41,000 square kilometers, which is only slightly larger than Taiwan Island and has a population

There are only more than 10 million. Although it has a relatively "strong" defense force compared to its country, it does not have the resource base to withstand a large-scale war, and the resource base cannot be bought with money.

Before the Opium War, the Qing Empire had money and abundant war resources, but without a strong national defense force, national security could not be guaranteed.

After all, having money does not mean you have everything.

The city of Batavia, located on the northwest coast of Java Island in the Dutch East Indies, was the political, economic and military center of the Dutch East Indies. It was once the largest concentration of Chinese immigrants in South Asia. They supported the city's sugarcane planting industry.

The sugar production industry, commerce, and construction industries made great contributions to the prosperity of the city and created huge wealth for the local Dutch colonial government.

In the 1820s, as the European cane sugar market gradually became saturated, and cheaper cane sugar from Brazil in South America flooded into the European market, the cane sugar industry, the economic backbone of Java Island, suffered heavy losses. A large number of sugar cane plantations and cane sugar production were

The production plants went bankrupt and closed, and a large number of Chinese immigrants and local indigenous workers lost their source of livelihood. In despair, they flocked to Bacheng to seek a livelihood.

However, the local Dutch colonial government did not allow these unemployed people to enter Bacheng. Instead, they were treated as mobs and forcibly sent overseas or arrested and killed. The Chinese immigrants were forced to defend themselves and resisted the Dutch colonists with arms. As a result, bloody conflicts broke out between the two sides, which eventually led to disaster.

It affected the Chinese immigrants living in Bacheng, which led to the "Hongxi Massacre" that shocked the world on October 9, 1740. As a result, more than 10,000 Chinese immigrants living in Bacheng, regardless of gender, old and young, were killed by the locals.

The Dutch colonists killed them inhumanely, and the blood of the Chinese immigrants dyed the river called Hongxi red in the west of the city!

After the tragedy, the Qianlong government of the Qing Dynasty at that time argued that these Chinese immigrants had "abandoned their royal status", were "born in that place and are actually no different from foreigners", and "the incident may be hurtful, but in fact they are responsible for their own faults".

After interrupting the trade between the Qing Empire and the Dutch East Indies, there was no action! But since then, Chinese immigrants were "fearful of the city like tigers and wolves" and "shunned it" one after another, and the city quickly declined.

.Although Bacheng is still the ruling center of the Dutch East Indies, there are very few permanent Chinese immigrants. Most of them are Dutch, Europeans and local indigenous people.

Therefore, for this city, the Bac Ninh military carried out what the local Dutch said was "extremely vicious and brutal" unrestricted bombing, regardless of military and civilian targets. Almost all the buildings in the city were bombed and burned, and both the military and civilians in the city

More than 70% of them died in the subsequent fire that spread all over the sky, and the fire actually burned for three days and three nights!

"Have you done something this time? Have residential areas become your main bombing targets?" Kang Fan said to Tang Wanghe, the commander of the naval aviation force who was commanding the operation.

Commander Tang was once one of the veteran pilots taught by Kang Fan himself. He had a quick mind, a steady personality, and was rarely impulsive. But this time, he must have been impulsive.

Commander Tang widened his small but bright eyes and asked Kang Fan hotly: "Passed? Have you passed?!"

Seeing him like this, Kang Fan couldn't say anything. He smiled faintly and said, "You are the commander of HNA, you have the final say."

"Then principal, please stop talking!" Commander Tang said angrily.

Kang Fan raised his eyebrows, stretched his hands out into the air and pressed a few times, "I'm leaving. Isn't it okay if I leave?"

Commander Tang only looked at the huge map in front of him and said without raising his head: "Principal, I am executing your order - to carry out a deterrent air strike on Batavia City."

Kang Fan said nothing.

Commander Tang looked up at him and suddenly smiled sheepishly, "Principal, I'm just a little impulsive..." Then he changed back to the fiery expression just now, "But Principal, these Dutch people can call

'Human'? They can attack the defenseless women and children among our compatriots. Why should I be polite to them?! I would rather be scolded by these guinea pigs than let the ghosts of those dead compatriots live in my dreams.

Poke my spine!"

Kang Fan had nothing to say and turned around and left.

On September 26, the local Dutch colonial government was forced to give up the island of Kalimantan. All Dutch soldiers and civilians on the island evacuated to Java Island by boat. Several cities on Sumatra Island were in ruins and were still in ruins.

All this was done amidst the thick smoke from the unextinguished forest fire, and it was extremely embarrassing!

The Bac Ninh military took over the island of Kalimantan intact and confiscated all the Dutch assets on the island. What made Confan especially happy was that Balikpapan, an oil industry city that the Dutch started building in 1897, was completely restored.

It was taken over and the urgent fuel supply problem of the Bac Ninh army was solved on the spot. In addition, all the land, houses, industrial and mining enterprises, shops, etc. that originally belonged to the local Chinese immigrants were returned to their original owners, and the order was "no longer to the Dutch."

The Dutch colonial government was forced to pay a compensation of 10 million taels of silver in exchange for the tranquility of other areas in the Dutch East Indies.

Kalimantan finally became "the paradise of Chinese immigrants in South Asia" again, and became the largest overseas territory in the Qing Empire by land area.