Chapter 1059 - Towards War (I)

For the world, the period from 1937 to 1938 was an era of turmoil, both in the East and in the West, which was both in the political sense and in the social sense.

During this time, the Spanish Civil War was still in full swing, Germany and Italy were getting deeper and deeper involved in the Spanish war, and correspondingly, the Soviet Union and France had to make similar "concerns", trying in vain to balance the increasingly unbalanced balance of power in Europe through the hands of foreigners. In 1937, Ireland finally completed all the formalities for independence, which seems to further prove the "retreat strategy" of the British government, and also reflects the further decline of British national power, in fact, since the end of the European war, the British economy has basically not recovered to the pre-war level, and the subsequent Great Depression has plunged the British economy into a general recession, and it is increasingly inadequate to continue to maintain the rule of a large colonial empire. The British government could only choose a "retreat strategy".

If the march into the Rhineland and the intervention in the Spanish Civil War were just a small test of Nazi Germany, then Germany's annexation of Austria in the 'spring' of 1938 can be regarded as an important symbol of Germany's re-establishment of hegemony in Central Europe and even on the European continent. Even the Soviet proposal for "joint action" was arrogantly rejected by the British Prime Minister, and it was clear that Britain could not be expected to stop the momentum of German expansion.

The British government's position further fueled Germany's ambitions, and then Germany launched an offensive against Czechoslovakia, which in turn triggered the "May Crisis" by the Sudetenland's "autonomy" issue, and it was only because of the strong reaction of the Soviet Union and the bluff verbal threats of Britain and France that the Czechoslovak government was able to temporarily survive the crisis.

The above is the basic picture of the turbulent situation in Europe, although the local fighting is in full swing, but after all, there has not yet broken out a full-scale war that has swept the whole of Europe, and it seems that Europeans can still enjoy a temporary peaceful life, although this peaceful life is still turbulent.

Compared with the turmoil in Europe, the turmoil in Asia is more drastic, because in Asia, in the winter of 1937 and the spring of 1938, two local wars broke out in Asia in succession, namely the "Turkish-Iraqi War" and the "Second Nanyang War".

The "Turkish-Iranian War" broke out in the winter of 1937, the Turkmen Soviet regime on one side and Iran on the other, and in 1935, the "Polish" Empire officially changed the name of the country to "Iran", and the supreme ruler was King Reza Khan. The shrewd and capable ruler, bent on learning from the Turkish leader Kemal, wants to turn Iran into a Middle East power, he is constantly fighting and compromising with enemies at home and abroad, trying to find a way to become a strong country, but unfortunately, this world pays attention to the weak 'meat' strong food, when the strong country is determined to interfere in the internal affairs of the weak country, any simple foreign 'diplomacy' means and international strifes can not save the weak and small countries, so the "Turkish-Iranian war" broke out, Behind the Turkmen Soviet power was the Soviet Union, and behind Reza Khan was the British, and in this there was a looming shadow of the great power of the East, and this country was China.

In fact, if it were not for China's efforts, the Turkmen Sultan state, which was originally supported by the British, would not have collapsed in early 1936, and when Sudan fled to Afghanistan with his family and jewels, China did not send the staggering army force to stabilize the local situation, but adopted a "non-interventionist stance" that made people feel 'confused', so it was in that piece of soul Several military forces have risen rapidly from the ruins of the chaotic state of Turkmenistan, civil war seems to be on the verge of breaking out, and it has created a huge strategic vacuum in the region, sucking all the high-pressure forces around, the British are trying to make a comeback, the Soviet Union is trying to rush its red 'tide' into the Indian Ocean, and even the rulers of Afghanistan are trying to get their hands on Turkmenistan's interests.

After half a year of brutal civil war, the Soviet-backed Turkmen Soviet forces successfully repelled the Afghan army supported by the British government and eliminated most of the domestic rivals, so in the autumn of 1937, the Turkmen Soviet regime was established, and soon after, in order to solve the border disputes left over from the era of the "Polish" Empire, and to avenge the "Polish" Soviet regime of that year, the Turkmen Soviet regime took the initiative to provoke the "Turkish-Iraqi War". In addition to the strong support from the Soviet Union, the attacking side also received a lot of old Chinese weapons, although some analysts believe that these old Chinese arms weapons came from several other small Central Asian countries, but the British government did not see it that way, the British government insisted that these military aid came directly from the Chinese government, and on the issue of the "Turkish-Iranian war", China obviously stood with the Soviet Union, and the purpose seemed to be to attract Britain's attention so that Britain had no time to pay attention to the situation in Southeast Asia.

What is surprising is that due to the fundamental 'sexual' differences in the policy of the Far Eastern Republics, the relationship between China and the Soviet Union has been very cold in recent years, but now they are united because of the Central Asian crisis, perhaps, international politics is so complicated, when faced with a common enemy, the two countries that were once hostile to each other can also quickly cooperate, the Soviet Union is very disappointed in Britain, believing that Britain cannot help it to stop Germany's expansion, as for China, as for China, as far as possible to use this "Turkish-Iraqi war" to grab benefits for itselfThis benefit is not only strategic, but also economic, and in this war, Chinese-made munitions and even armored combat vehicles can be seen in the armies of both 'warring' sides.

On the surface, China's "non-interventionist stance" in this "Turkish-Iranian war" seems to have no stance, or only an economic stance, but some strategic analysts in the British government insist that behind this "non-interference stance" there must be some 'yin' conspiracy, which is either related to the Soviet Union or the United Kingdom.

As it turned out, the British strategists seemed to be right in their analysis, and just as the British government was busy turning its attention to Central Asia, the situation in Southeast Asia "instantaneously" became tense, and this tension was triggered by the "East Borneo crisis".

"Borneo", this is the Chinese name for the island of Kalimantan in the East Indies, the Chinese began to migrate to the Borneo region hundreds of years ago, in ancient and modern times, most of the Chinese moved to the west of Borneo, for "West Borneo", and after the First South Sea War, Chinese immigrants began to carry out a large-scale strategic transfer to "East Borneo", and because of the policy and economic preferential treatment given by the Chinese central government to overseas immigrants, it is under this incentive policy, By 1937, there were 5 million Chinese and overseas Chinese living in East Borneo, and these Chinese immigrants undoubtedly also had dual citizenship, a passport issued by the Chinese government, and a residence certificate issued by the Dutch East Indies colonial government, then the situation is even more complicated, and this Chinese country is the Second Republic of Lanfang.

More than 40 percent of the Chinese who have settled and worked in East Borneo have migrated from the territory of Lanfang, so these people have a third passport, the Lanfang passport, and the Second Republic of Lanfang also recognizes dual nationality, so that there are three countries that have legal jurisdiction over some Chinese in East Borneo, namely China, the Netherlands, and Lanfang, so this will bring a very practical problem: if the Chinese in East Borneo and the local indigenous people or Europe, the United States, In the event of a conflict between Japanese immigrants, which country should play the role of arbiter?

This question was partly answered through an international treaty between China and the Netherlands in Switzerland, in which the Chinese government recognized the "precedence" of the Dutch East Indian colonial authorities over Borneo, but only on the condition that Chinese law be used in cases involving Chinese citizens, and that a jury must be established, and half of the jurors must be local Chinese.

It is worth mentioning that this international treaty was signed by China and the Netherlands, and was jointly endorsed by the United States, Britain and other powers, but the Second Republic of Lanfang did not join this international treaty, this is a tail, if the Chinese government is still "supervising" Lanfang's foreign "diplomacy" affairs, then, this tail will be hidden behind the Chinese shield, but if China's "supervision" of Lanfang's foreign "diplomacy" policy disappears, then, this tail will be exposed in front of the Dutch.

In 1936, the Chinese government and Lan Fang Zheng formally signed an agreement to return the "supervision power" of foreign affairs and national defense to Lan Fang Central Government, so that the Lan Fang Second Republic finally became an "independent country" in the true sense.

Since it is an independent country, it must exercise the sovereignty of an independent state, so from 1937, the Second Republic of Lanfang began to negotiate with the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in accordance with the instructions of President Lanfang, requesting to join the Sino-Dutch Nanyang Treaty and to have jurisdiction over the citizens of Lanfang in East Borneo.

Under the strong mediation of China, Britain, France, the United States, and Japan, the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands finally agreed to Lan Fang's request for treaty amendment, and Lan Fang also became one of the "East Borneo interests".

Since the end of the First South China War, East Borneo has actually become a public colony, Britain, the United States, France, the Netherlands, China, Japan can all carry out economic activities such as immigration and investment in this area, this public colony is actually similar to the public concession opened by the great powers in China in those years, but the area is much larger, so, in this sense, Britain, the United States, France, the Netherlands, China, Japan, these countries can all immigrate to East Borneo, but the problem isThe local area is a tropical region, the climate is hot, the epidemic is prevalent, and the Europeans who live a privileged life would rather receive political relief in their own country than go to East Borneo to endure hardship, so that only China and Japan have the largest number of immigrants to East Borneo, and among them, Chinese immigrants occupy an absolute advantage.

There is no doubt that due to the absolute superiority in the number of immigrants, the Chinese have an absolute say in East Borneo, and because of the nationalist theories such as "unity of the 'jing' god" and "Yan Huang 'jing' god" that the Chinese central government has been vigorously propagating, the local Chinese immigrants often behave very grouped in the face of foreign races, coupled with the proliferation of martial traditions and weapons of the Chinese in the Lanfang area, the East Borneo region has finally become a fire of ethnic and racial conflict. The increasing number of violent clashes involving the Chinese, and the jury's "non-cooperation" stance, which often ended in the victory of the Chinese, was a judicial "institutional 'sexual' defect", and the Dutch East Indian colonial authorities were helpless to do anything about the situation and could only build up the anger of the local indigenous people, which eventually exploded.

In the autumn of 1937, as discontent with the large-scale land annexation by local Chinese landlords and farmers erupted, tenant farmers and yeoman farmers revolted in East Borneo, which began as sporadic armed conflicts, but then quickly turned into a full-scale war, in which the Chinese, the Dutch, the Japanese, and the indigenous people were all involved, and in turn, the Chinese immigrants played the horns. Above all, the indigenous revolt was quickly extinguished in the face of the Chinese People's League, armed to the teeth, and then the situation in East Borneo quickly turned against Dutch interests, eliminating the rival guerrillas and electing their own political leader and issuing "proposals" to the Dutch colonial authorities for "autonomy".

There is no doubt that in the eyes of the Dutch government, this is a "'yin' conspiracy", and it is the governments of China and Lanfang that plan all this, and in the face of the "* disaster" of aggressively "forced" people, the Dutch government is determined to fight back with all its might, after all, for the Netherlands, the loss of Borneo is equivalent to the loss of everything in the Netherlands in the East, what is left of the Netherlands now? The Netherlands had almost nothing but colonies, which were vital to the Netherlands in times of economic crisis.

The Dutch government was determined to safeguard colonial interests, and this determination was also "sympathized" by the British government and the French government, so in the 'spring' of 1938, a Dutch colonial army transferred from the mainland finally landed in East Borneo, and ignored the "warning" of the Chinese government and Lan Fang Zheng fǔ, and began to quickly launch a full-scale attack on the Chinese People's League in East Borneo.