Withdraw, actually, not so easy to operate.

If Qin Zhiyuan chooses to withdraw from the Umbrella Company in Borneo, then once someone stays, Qin Zhiyuan must "give up" these people.

At least nominally, to give up.

Then after that, there is a question mark over whether these people who stayed behind can still maintain 100% loyalty to Qin Zhiyuan in the face of the crazy encirclement and suppression of the Dutch.

Especially after the Dutch were driven out of Borneo, it is an important question whether these people will recognize Qin Zhiyuan's leadership.

Qin Zhiyuan wanted to fight a proxy war, and he didn't want to raise a white-eyed wolf.

Proxy wars are a common occurrence in the 21st century when it is inconvenient for certain major powers to openly tear their faces.

In Chinese words, this is called: Ming Xiu plank road darkness Chen Cang.

Qin Zhiyuan just wanted to fight a proxy war in Borneo.

The problem now is that in the current situation, in order to defeat the Germans, the French will not openly tear their faces with the Dutch and bear a bullying black pot on their backs for the sake of face.

Then those who stay in Borneo will have to face the pressure of the Dutch alone, and whether they can withstand it is a big question.

The Dutch army was a good thing to say, they were certainly no match for the Chinese forces that were roaming the battlefields of Europe, but the Dutch navy was a big problem.

The Dutch navy now has three 3,500-ton coastal defense battleships, five 5,000-ton coastal defense battleships, six 3,800-ton Dutch-class protective cruisers, and a 6,530-ton coastal defense battleship "Seven Provinces Alliance".

Most of these warships are old models from the 19th century, except for the "Seven Provinces Alliance" ship that is relatively young, and the rest are grandfather-class warships that should have been retired a long time ago.

Even the "Seven Provinces Alliance" is more than ten years old.

Although the Dutch fleet looked old at this time, it was still possible to dominate Borneo. You must know that Zhang Tianshou didn't even have heavy artillery in their hands, so when facing the Dutch's "grandfather"-class battleships, they had no countermeasures at all.

If Qin Zhiyuan wants to fight with the Dutch, then at least he must have the strength to compete with the Dutch at sea.

Of course, this kind of confrontation does not mean that Zhang Tianshou and his team want to set up a naval fleet with the same strength as the Dutch, but as long as the level of the Dutch is lowered, and the navy of Zhang Tianshou and Zhang Tianshou can be pulled down.

Again, it is always easier to destroy than to build, since it will not be possible to build a battleship for a while and a half, then find a way to sink the Dutch battleship, and there are no warships on either side, so it doesn't matter whether it is advantageous or not.

As a result, the ordered arms still had to be loaded, but the destination was changed from Surabaya to Christmas Island, 400 kilometers south of Java.

Christmas Island had been a Lion City dependency before, and when Qin Zhiyuan ordered Gaspard to look for an island where he could build an airport, Christmas Island came into Gaspard's sight.

At this time, the Lion City government was not synonymous with "clean and efficient", corruption and incompetence were their labels, and Gaspard did not take much effort to obtain the ownership of Christmas Island from the Lion City government.

The total area of Christmas Island is 135 square kilometers, and Gaspard paid 1.35 million francs for it, 10,000 francs per square meter, which sounds like a lot of money, but compared to the area of New Baku, it is very expensive.

You must know that when the old Renault bought the New Baku area from the French government a few days ago, the price was 100 francs per square kilometer, which is 100 times cheaper than Christmas Island.

In fact, the current British and French governments really don't look down on these scattered islands.

The value of the islands was far from being apparent at this time, and the vast and populous regions of India, Canada, and Australia, which were established by the British, were the majority of the colonial empires established by the British.

In a place like Christmas Island, the British don't bother to ask about it, and it is estimated that the Queen of England does not know that she still has such a place in her hands.

In parallel with the purchase of Christmas Island, Gaspard is also looking to buy other islands.

For example, one of the islands in the Charles Islands, where there is now only one fishing port, is not even a transit point for shipping routes, and is part of British Mauritius. Gaspard did not even reach a transfer agreement with the Mauritian government directly through the British.

At the time of the signing of this agreement, the Mauritian government did not even mention the inhabitants of the island, because for the Mauritians, the island called "Diego Garcia" was never Mauritian territory, and the people on it were not Mauritians, and whether they lived or died had nothing to do with them.

After Qin Zhiyuan learned the news, he almost laughed and took Diego Garcia into his pocket, and immediately transferred a company of troops from Corsica to Diego Garcia along with their families.

A company of 120 people, plus the family members are about six or seven hundred, which is enough to form a demographic advantage in Diego Garcia.

You must know that there are less than 500 people on that island now, and Qin Zhiyuan also plans to compensate them heavily, so that they can move to other islands or move to the mainland. In that case, there would only be Chinese on Diego Garcia, and when the time was right, they would be able to decide for themselves where they belonged.

Now for Qin Zhiyuan, the only regret is that Diego Garcia is too far away from Christmas Island, the straight-line distance has exceeded 3,000 kilometers, and the plane cannot reach it directly, otherwise, now Qin Zhiyuan can start from Corsica and fly all the way to the Far East, which is much faster, and he can make a round trip in a week.

However, this is not a problem, as technology improves, the flight range of aircraft will continue to increase, and one day, when aircraft with a range of more than 3,000 kilometers appear, the earth will become a global village, and the value of these islands will be highlighted.

What Qin Zhiyuan has to do now is to let Gaspard acquire such islands all over the world, it doesn't take too much, as long as there are islands at key nodes, then Qin Zhiyuan will have a broad strategic space in the future.

Of course, if the French Congress collectively has a convulsion, then a large island like Madagascar will be handed over to Qin Zhiyuan, and Qin Zhiyuan will not refuse.

However, for a large island such as Madagascar, it is not appropriate to assimilate them by means similar to those in Corsica.

You must know that there are millions of Malagasy people on the island of Madagascar, and Qin Zhiyuan cannot find a place where he can settle so many people, nor can he afford to relocate millions of Chinese to fill Madagascar.

Of course, although it is not possible to assimilate completely, it is still possible to assimilate a part......

When the colonial crisis had not yet fully erupted, an island like Madagascar, which covers an area of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, should still be forgotten, and the French would not let go anyway.

At present, Qin Zhiyuan's approach has aroused the vigilance of some people in the French Congress, and asking Qin Zhiyuan to give the Congress an explanation is a signal, if Qin Zhiyuan continues to make big moves, it may attract a mass siege by the Congress.

This is a scene that Qin Zhiyuan absolutely does not want to see.

Therefore, since the outbreak of the Surabaya incident, Qin Zhiyuan has been staying in Sidi Bel Abbas, seemingly training recruits of the Foreign Legion to avoid becoming the focus of everyone's attention.

But sometimes things are so strange, and if you don't look for something, it doesn't mean that things won't go to you.

Oil drilling in New Baku is progressing well, but the construction of the oil pipeline is difficult.

The oil pipeline from Nova Baku to Gabès is about 500 kilometers in total, plus a 10-kilometer radius on both sides of the pipeline, which the French government named the Baku corridor.

In order to prevent the impact of geological changes on the pipeline, the location of the pipeline should be selected in a relatively good geological condition, and these areas are often inhabited by local indigenous people, which involves a relocation problem.

In this area of about 5,000 square kilometres, there are about a dozen indigenous settlements, and convincing them to move would not have been a hassle, as long as they were paid.

But when a group called the Gabès Alliance came along, it became a hassle to relocate residents.

The demands of this "Gabès Alliance" are simple and crude: since the oil pipeline passes through our land in Gabès, then we, the residents of Gabès, must enjoy a part of the benefits, otherwise we will not allow the oil pipeline to pass through our land.

As the Chinese saying goes, it is: I opened this mountain, I planted this tree, and if you want to live from now on, leave to buy road wealth!

Well, this statement is not accurate, because the pipeline was not built by these Gabes, and even the leader of this "Gabes Alliance" was not a Gabese at all, but a standard Tu Ni Si.

However, this does not prevent the organization from pursuing its own interests.

When Qin Zhiyuan received an ultimatum-like announcement from this organization, Qin Zhiyuan didn't care, because the French government would definitely not sit idly by and watch its own interests be damaged, and the French government would take the initiative to dissolve the organization without Qin Zhiyuan's action.

But then something happened that completely changed the course of this matter.

One day in mid-November, a construction team near Doose was ambushed, killing forty-five construction workers and an engineer from mainland France. Their heads were cut off with sharp knives and placed in a strange pattern near the corpses, which, when recognized, was a symbol of the local camel cavalry during the feudal period, a practice that was also a traditional practice of camel cavalry.

On the same day, an exploration team in the area of New Baku was also attacked. This time, because the expedition team was protected by Foreign Legion soldiers and equipped with automatic weapons, the attack did not succeed, and the attackers were killed by more than two dozen people, but at the same time, the attackers also killed four Foreign Legion soldiers of the exploration team.

On the corpses left behind by the attackers, there are very obvious signs of the stars and moons, which is also a tradition of camel cavalry. Moreover, through the analysis of the corpses, these camel cavalry still used relatively primitive weapons, that is, those spears and curved and long sabers, and were not equipped with current firearms.

It's the 20th century, and I still play with big swords and spears, I really don't know whether to live or die.

Qin Zhiyuan immediately ordered the plane to take off to look for the traces of these cavalry, and at the same time ordered another regiment to be sent to the New Baku area to prevent the recurrence of such vicious incidents.

Just after Qin Zhiyuan ordered the troops to leave, Qin Zhiyuan's office welcomed an unusual guest, Jules Fresine.

This man was Clemenceau's personal representative.

(To be continued.) )