Lin Haijiang's smile for Dumont. Rosser and Simpson, Dalhousie and others are tantamount to the devil's smile, the Chinese pay attention to knowing each other and knowing themselves in a hundred battles, and the most terrible thing is that Lin Haijiang knows their every move, and even knows the general direction of their Congress's strategic deployment?

And what makes them nervous is that they don't know Lin Haijiang, and they don't even know his specific strength and surname, no one wants to meet such an opponent, but at this moment, they just meet it, as far as Lin Haijiang is concerned, they don't think that Lin Haijiang is a loyal courtier of the Qing Dynasty, nor is he a friend of European countries in the East, let alone a Qing man who is tolerant and humble in the traditional sense.

If some of the main elements of Lin Haijiang's surname are similar to those of some European countries, only Prussia, which is rigid, loyal, extreme, and nationalistic, comes close to it.

Now that Lin Haijiang's army was in control of the city of Batavia, and the five thousand soldiers and fleets that the Dutch had transported in four months' voyage had become the trophies of this oriental barbarian with great tendencies for reading, and as recently yesterday everyone was worried about the two Dutch ironclads, which had been greatly damaged by the British Far East Fleet, and Dalhousie and Bao Ling feared that the expansion of Dutch power would directly affect the British sphere of influence in the Strait of Malacca.

Dalhousie conspired with Ergin and Bao Ling for almost half the night, trying to find an event that would bring the Old Port into conflict with the Dutch, and only one day later, the Dutch ironclad changed owners.

According to the general rules of Europe, these warships can be redeemed, but Lin Haijiang does not recognize the so-called general rules of the seas of the countries at all, only the ships he does not want can be redeemed, this is a devil who can even squeeze out the water of Liu Dinggan, so the ironclad ships of the Dutch belong to Lin Haijiang without accident.

Dalhousie, Ergin, Bao Ling and others were also extremely depressed, just a day ago they had hoped for a battle between the Netherlands and the Old Port, no matter which side wins, it will be powerful for the British Empire, but now they have a different idea, Dalhousie suggested that Congress should pay attention to Lin Haijiang at the level of the overall strategy of the empire.

In the following talks, Lin Haijiang took the initiative in everything, and the original Dutch sphere of influence was reduced to a hundred nautical miles near the city of Batavia, but it did not include the direction of the Strait of Malacca, Lin Haijiang's fleet had the right of passage, but the management was owned by the British, and also in the Old Port Strait, the British and French fleets had absolutely safe right of passage.

For the battle of the Strait of Malacca, Dalhousie and others still remember vividly, and in the two months after the war, the corpses of British officers and soldiers were still washed up on the beach from time to time, which was a very difficult bitter fruit for the British, who had always been proud and extraordinary, but since it had become a foregone conclusion, the British could only accept it calmly.

It can be said that the wicked people have Lin Haijiang to play the role, and all they have to do is to condemn this bad act, and then study how much they can benefit from the withdrawal of the Dutch power?

It can be said that before this, the British had been encouraging the Dutch to clean up the indigenous forces and Chinese forces in Southeast Asia, and politically the British had always shown a friendly attitude towards the Dutch, which made the Dutch dare to let go and set fires everywhere in Southeast Asia.

But the Dutch are definitely not the hunting dogs kept by the British, and there will be no owner who jumps out and opens his mouth to bite because his dog has been beaten, and even if it is an iron-mouthed steel tooth, he is afraid that he will not be able to bite Lin Haijiang's ironclad ship, and now the generous Dutch gave him two more.

Dumont. Like Simpson, Dalhousie and others, while exaggerating the threat of Lin Haijiang, Roself was conveying to China the Qing admiral's yearning for the civilized world, the possible surname of cooperation with him, and the future prospects.

Taking this opportunity, Lin Haijiang also put forward a proposal for the development of Qiongya first, including the construction of a railway around the island, the construction of two large military ports and shipyards in Haikou and Sanya on the island, and the construction of a large-scale iron and steel smelting base and machinery and equipment processing plant in the hinterland of Wuzhishan.

Dalhousie & Dumont. Rousseff looked at each other, and it was clear that Qiongya was not in the scope of their previous cooperation plan, but Simpson was very interested in the huge island adjacent to the mainland.

As a statesman, Simpson had an extraordinary acumen that the Qing regime was still in a state of turmoil due to civil strife, and that British power had penetrated into the Yangtze River valley in the heart of the Qing dynasty since the opium war of 1840, and that even the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, known as the rebel side, had traces of British merchants.

This is something that the French could not catch up with in any case, and the French were now concentrating their energies on Indochina, just as the British were concentrating their energies on India.

France needs more benefits, a bigger market, and a more ideal partner! Also an agent!

Just at Dalhousie and Dumont. While Rosseff was still hesitating, Simpson suddenly said bluntly: "I think we in France will be very interested in the development of the cliff, and the only thing I want to remind you is that if we build a railway according to international practice, we will have the right to develop minerals within ten miles along the line." ”

As soon as Simpson's words came out, Dalhousie's first consciousness was that he had been deceived by this gang of shameless France? But Dalhousie soon discovered that he was just as shocked as Dumont. Rousseff, apparently Consul General Simpson did not communicate with Dumont before this provisional decision. Say hello to Rousseff!

Could it be that the old dog Simpsons smelled something again? Dalhousie hardly hesitated: "We in England are building the Ring Island Railway for the same reason. ”

For this reason, Simpson glared at Dalhousie very unfriendly, and Dalhousie automatically ignored this very irrational behavior in a diplomatic situation.

After both Britain and France expressed their positions, Lin Haijiang smiled and waved his finger and said, "Ten miles is too much, one mile!" Did you pay for this railway? ”

Simpson frowned and said, "Could it be that Mr. Lin, do you have the money to build such a railroad yourself?" ”

Lin Haijiang was really surprised by this, you must know that the construction of the railway was an extremely expensive project at the end of the fifties of the nineteenth century, and now for the development of mineral rights within ten miles, Lin Haijiang knew very well that the purpose of the British and French was definitely not in Qiongya, they wanted to use Qiongya as an experimental site to form an established example.

Under the conditions of semi-colonial and semi-feudal society in the late Qing Dynasty, imperialist forces continued to infiltrate, but who spent money on the construction of railways? Who benefits from this, Lin Haijiang really doesn't know? The Manchu court's resistance to the railroad was almost like that of a rebellious Heavenly Kingdom.

In fact, Lin Haijiang believed that this was due to the fact that the Western colonizers did not understand the national conditions of the East and the thinking of the Oriental people, and that the Qing court's unauthorized use of the earth's leylines and swallowing clouds and spitting fog were just some excuses for the sake of reasonable refusal and not to anger the foreigners.

The Qing court did not have a truly comprehensive understanding of the international political situation and the ambitions of the Western powers for China, and when they saw that the railway could travel hundreds of miles and transport a large number of materials and people, the first thing that came to their mind was that the railway could transport troops.

Otherwise, the Qing court, who dared to sign any traitorous clause, was afraid to build a few railways? The Qing court, which had no industrial base, was still worried about the right to develop minerals within ten miles of the railway? Later generations always stand at the height of history and evaluate history from the viewpoint and perspective of major rights and wrongs.

From 1842 onwards, the capitalist countries of Europe and the United States, led by Britain, forced China to conclude a series of unequal treaties and turned China into a market for their commodities. In the fifties and sixties of the nineteenth century, the British Parliament further decided to build railways in China in order to facilitate the expansion of economic colonial aggression against China.

Especially in the sixties, some British industrial and commercial groups wantonly created public opinion for this reason, and repeatedly demanded that their political axes take some kind of effective action. Britain, American, French, German, and other merchants in China, as well as the embassies and consulates of these countries, were also active, either giving orders to suggest that the Qing government should put the railway on the list of "things that should be learned," or waiting for an opportunity to make the railway a treaty privilege to force the Qing government to agree to it. They also have no regard for China's territorial sovereignty, or they have infiltrated the interior to survey the shipping lines, or they have built railways privately at treaty ports.

The Qing court also really realized that foreigners would not die in the Qing Dynasty, so it led to the introduction of a series of policies such as preventing the people more than preventing the invaders!

However, history is history, and if we cannot truly restore the true nature of history, then for history, it is tantamount to deliberate distortion.

Lin Haijiang has always reminded himself not to underestimate the wisdom of his predecessors, after all, the wisdom of his predecessors comes from the accumulation of his predecessors, even those so-called scholars who have been around the mean, university transfer all their lives, there are some very special and desirable places, their special lies in their adaptation to this era, and it is also the times that gave birth to them.

Looking at these sharp-edged foreigners, Lin Haijiang knew that the surname of the Chinese people was good at patience, good at coming from others, even if they had advanced weapons, they would do everything they could to hide them, and vigorously deny them, but the Europeans are different, not to mention having them, even if there is a semi-finished product, they have to take it out and show off the deterrent power of future existence, which is the difference in thinking caused by the different origins of nationalities and races.

Lin Haijiang himself did the same, this surprise attack of the Dutch was completely disintegrated before it was launched, otherwise the Dutch would have experienced the power of the old port fortress group that Lin Haijiang spent more than five million taels and after three and a half years of painstaking operation, and if possible, they would also see the horror of the train cannon around the island.

On the map with Dalhousie, Dumont. After Rotherf, Simpson, Bao Ling and others divided the Indonesian archipelago after the withdrawal of Dutch power, Dalhousie and Dumont. Rosseff and the others all seemed very satisfied, this was an unexpected gain, or it was not impossible for Lin Haijiang to show favor.

Unlike the Russians, the British and French were not so eager to map the Far East, or from a certain point of view, the strategic decision-makers of Britain and France were very self-aware, they were far away from the Qing state, and they could not swallow the empire of the boss at all, and could only beat the side drum to obtain the maximum economic benefits.

Britain has long regarded France as its potential competitor in trade with China, and at present, railways are still not a popular facility in Europe and the United States, and its greatest function is to serve industry and make the transportation of industrial products quantitative.

The British have always wanted to build a railway network to the Pearl River and the Yangtze River in the southeast, and the French at that time, in addition to stepping up colonial aggression in Vietnam, in order to enable their own forces to preemptively enter China's Yunnan and even the entire southwest region, they were also planning to build a line in the same direction, that is, a railway from Vietnam to Yunnan.

In order to avoid conflict with France, the British colonial authorities in India decided to suspend their plans to build a railway in Burma, but several important industrial and commercial groups in India, such as Manchester, Hudfield, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Halifax and other cities, have repeatedly submitted memorandums and petitions to the British Parliament and the political axe for more than ten years, insisting that southwest China is a promising market for British trade with China, and demanding that a railway be built from Burma to Yunnan.

The British media, such as The Times, The China Telegraph of London, and so on, have repeatedly advocated that such a railway would be a "shortcut" to China's "back door" and into China's vast interior.

But how can this shortcut be opened so easily? Today Lin Haijiang let Dalhousie, Dumont. Rotherph, Simpson, Bao Ling and others saw hope for a possible surname that could achieve their aspirations without the huge risk of war, and for this reason their political axe did not even need political support, as long as they did not put pressure to thwart Lin Haijiang's development plans.

At the end of the talks, the three parties complimented each other very amicably, and the cheapest and most loyal friend had become the least valuable thing. For Ruseff and others, if Lin Haijiang can maintain such a very friendly attitude, then the political attitude of the Congress towards the two Guangxi will be ambiguous, Lin Haijiang suddenly asked Bao Ling: "I want some seeds and saplings of the clover rubber tree, a mature rubber tapper!" ”

Dalhousie didn't know what the rubber Lin Haijiang was talking about, but Bao Ling happened to know that because the rubber at this time was still coarse rubber and had not yet been used in large quantities in the military field, and there were no large-scale rubber gardens in Southeast Asia. Bao Ling smiled slightly: "In order to witness our friendship, as long as you need a small amount, I think it can be done!" ”

In the carriage on the way back, Dalhousie looked at Bao Ling and asked, "What does Lin Haijiang want rubber for?" ”

Bao Ling said thoughtfully: "The word rubber comes from the Indian language, which means the tree that sheds tears, and natural rubber is made from the latex that flows out of the clover rubber tree when it taps rubber through coagulation and drying. After the preliminary plasticizing, mixing, calendering or extrusion, molding and vulcanization and other basic processes, each process has different requirements for the product, respectively, with a number of auxiliary operations. ”

Bao Ling gestured at his feet and said: "For example, wrapping on the wheels of the carriage can play a role in shock absorption, but rubber products are easy to wear and break!" You know, those things are not cheap, and the process is very cumbersome, and there will be an embarrassing smell when producing and processing, God knows what Lin Haijiang wants that thing for? ”

What Bao Ling does not know is that the molecular chain of rubber can be cross-linked, and when the cross-linked rubber is deformed by external force, it has the ability to recover quickly, and has good physical and mechanical energy and chemical stability.

When Dalhousie heard that there were so many shortcomings of the original rubber, he nodded with satisfaction and said: "Since it is not an important thing, although it is good for him, but in the specific implementation of the development of Qiongya, we must get more than the French, even if we sacrifice our interests in Indochina and the southwest, only by controlling Lin Haijiang's basic industries such as metallurgy, manufacturing, machining, shipbuilding, etc., can we really control his lifeline, otherwise once this tiger is out of the cage, it will hurt people!" ”

Dumont. Unlike Dalhousie, Rasseff's participation in the development of Qiongya is merely a friendly signal to Lin Haijiang, and it will take time for France to reverse the image of Lin Haijiang, which they have completely demonized.

From enemies to friends and partners in the future, although Dalhousie and Dumont. Ruseff knew that Qiongya was not under the jurisdiction of Lin Haijiang at this moment, but for the Lin Haijiang forces with an ironclad fleet, it was just a process of exploring and fetching things.

However, at this moment, the former Dutch-Indonesian colony Governor Sinksen and his adjutants, Michel, Major Manukcan, and General Wiba, together with a large number of wounded and prisoners, boarded the large cruise ships St. George and St. McCanthy.

For this repatriation of prisoners, Lin Haijiang paid a lot of expensive expenses, it can be said that the Dutch officers and soldiers who boarded the ship can enjoy VIP treatment, the reason is very simple, it is not how generous Lin Haijiang is, but the Dutch are too generous this time, half a year's tax, two ironclad ships and several third-class sail battle columns, including fifteen ships, now Lin Haijiang's biggest problem is to sell these ships and the warships that captured Britain and France before to whom?

(To be continued)