April 10, 1906.

President Zhang Lingpu of the Republic of Sumancia and his delegation arrived in Shanghai for a visit.

At this time, Zhang Lingpu was already a half-old man in his fifties, and he lived in Nanyang all the year round, and he was much darker than before, but he also looked healthy and powerful.

In a flash, he left Hu Chuyuan's side and went to Nanyang...... That was twenty-six years ago!

In the past few years, he and Hu Chuyuan have only been able to see each other every few years, which is really not easy.

Old friends meet and each other is happy.

Hu Chuyuan accompanied him with great interest to visit various large enterprises in Shanghai, and that evening, the two of them met separately again in the large study room of Yongyuan.

The ones he watched during the day made Zhang Lingpu feel quite impressed.

Drinking tea with Hu Chuyuan, talking about the past years, inadvertently, Zhang Lingpu couldn't help but say: "My lord, our dream should be considered a fulfillment, China...... China is really rich and powerful. Looking at Shanghai now, it was really unthinkable at that time. ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded with a smile and said, "Yes, China should be considered strong now, but it is not rich enough." ”

Zhang Lingpu snorted.

They still know very well that China's average national GDP is relatively low compared to the average affluence of Britain and the United States.

Taking the United States as a reference, the total population of the United States is currently 86.5 million, the per capita GDP is 374 US dollars, and the national GDP is 32.35 billion US dollars.

China's statistics are not easy to calculate, after the end of the Far Eastern War, due to the fact that the area of the three northeastern provinces increased too much, plus the territorial expansion of the provinces of West Siberia, Novosibirsk, East Siberia and Central Asia, as well as Quang Nam province...... Due to the relative chaos of these regions, there are no GDP statistics.

China's multiple nationality approach, its political axe dominating the policy of population emigration, and the size of its new territory are too large, with at least 57 million people living in areas that are difficult to calculate for a long time, making it difficult to calculate both gross and per capita GDP.

At present, China's GDP calculation has been maintained in the pre-1901 statistical range, including Inner and Outer Mongolia, the three provinces of Northeast China, Xinjiang Province, Tibet Province, Novosibirsk, Western Siberia, Eastern Siberia, Kashmir, Western Xinjiang, the Pacific Islands, Quang Nam Province and the newly added Shan Plateau region of Yunnan Province...... None of these places are counted.

In the existing statistics, although China's total GDP is roughly the same as that of the United States, the per capita GDP is only 22% of the American standard, and there are many reasons for this, first of all, the overall domestic prices are low, the average salary and income are low, the second is that there are too many underdeveloped regions, the third is that there are too many non-employed people and the population with hidden employment, and the fourth is that the calculation error is also relatively large, and there is indeed no way to count in many places.

Regardless of whether this issue is good or not, from the perspective of average wealth, there is still a certain gap between China and the European and American powers, and it may be that the gap in the Jiangnan region is smaller.

When the two of them talked about the gross national product, they naturally talked about these things.

Zhang Lingpu has worked hard in the Republic of Sumancia for more than 20 years, and now he has finally built Sumancia into the most powerful country in Southeast Asia, with the largest territory and the best industrial and agricultural foundation.

There are about 6.52 million Chinese living in Sumancia, which is also the place with the largest concentration of overseas Chinese, and the Chinese account for 73% of the total population of the Republic of Sumancia.

After so many years of development, Sumancia has a higher level of national education and infrastructure construction than in China, especially the popularity of Chinese compulsory education in primary and secondary schools is very high.

The vast majority of the officers and men of the Nanyang Combined Fleet are from the Sumancia region, and its own army has more than 200,000 people, and in terms of the level of training and equipment, as well as the educational quality of the soldiers of the whole army, it is no worse than that at home.

Sumancia is, of course, also very large, encompassing the entire island of Kalimantan, Sulawesi and the Maluku Islands.

Zhang Lingpu said these things to Hu Chuyuan very calmly, and soon, he talked about some things that he was very worried about, generally speaking, the mining resources of the Sumancia Republic are not abundant, it has relatively abundant water resources, a certain scale of bauxite, tin ore, iron ore, coal and gold and silver mines, and also a certain amount of oil resources, the problem is not prominent.

About 50 per cent of its territory is uncultivated tropical swamp wetlands, and the main industry and agriculture are concentrated in Sarawak.

While talking, Zhang Lingpu suddenly put forward a new idea.

He asked Hu Chuyuan very directly: "My lord, if the Republic of Sumansia is directly allowed to join China by means of a referendum, become an autonomous state of China, and then gradually transform into a province, is this possible?" ”

"Oh?"

For this proposal, Hu Chuyuan was a little surprised.

It was completely unexpected!

Of course, Hu Chuyuan can understand the meaning behind this proposal, because the proportion of Chinese in Sumancia is very large, and if you want Sumancia to really develop, the most direct way is to become a province of China, as the focus of China's investment and construction in Southeast Asia, and enjoy domestic economic policies.

On the other hand, this may also be a long-cherished wish of Zhang Lingpu.

Whether it is a patriotic overseas Chinese or a Chinese who has opened up a large territory for China has different meanings, and Zhang Lingpu prefers the latter.

In addition, if Sumancia is a province of China, the Chinese are more likely to operate in Sumancia for a long time, settle down, and in the case of a relative lack of resources, they can also take advantage of the special geographical location to absorb the mineral resources of Southeast Asia and Australia, develop a more powerful industrial system, and develop into China's domestic market and the surrounding Southeast Asian market.

Hu Chuyuan thought about it for a while, and then said to Zhang Lingpu: "It still depends on your wishes and those of the local Chinese, and we must have a very welcoming attitude." If Sumancia becomes a province of China as a whole, it will also play a very vital role in the long-term development of Sumancia and China's economy. However, we must also take into account the issue of international implications. Over the years, the number of Chinese in Australia has been surging rapidly, reaching more than 1.2 million last year, although most of them do not have Australian citizenship, but for the United Kingdom and Australia, this is still very threatening. In Singapore, the total number and proportion of Chinese are also excessive. If Sumancia becomes Chinese territory too quickly, the negative impact of this matter will be very great for Britain. ”

"Yes!"

Zhang Lingpu agreed, indicating that he had also carefully considered these issues.

After thinking about it, he and Hu Chuyuan continued: "What we mean is that it is better not to have a referendum and directly become an overseas autonomous state of China, and then gradually transition into an autonomous province, which will have a transition period of about ten years, and eventually become one or two ordinary special economic provinces." ”

Hu Chuyuan snorted, and he still agreed with this idea.

He said to Zhang Lingpu again: "I have nothing to oppose, and it can be said that it is very welcome, but the current prime minister is Qu Hongji, and I am only responsible for national defense and military affairs." When you go to Yanjing, stop by and talk to him to see what his attitude is. Prior to this, we actually wanted to consolidate our interests in Southeast Asia, and considered gradually transforming Singapore into a province in China, but it was very difficult. Britain has indeed made a lot of concessions to China over the years, including Kashmir and Shan State, which have been transferred to China one after another, but for Britain, these are unimportant marginal interests, and Singapore's problem is completely different. Once we formally annex the whole of Sumancia, the British will certainly be very stimulated, and we will have to make assurances with the British that this is just a special case and that the same thing will not happen in Singapore. ”

Zhang Lingpu sighed and said, "That means that once Sumancia becomes a Chinese province in the South Seas, the country must abandon its plans in Singapore?" ”

Hu Chuyuan nodded and said, "What will happen in the future...... To be honest, it's unlikely that you'll really give up, but for now, you still have to make it clear to the British in name that it will never happen in Singapore. ”

After a pause, he sighed again: "Chinese pay attention to honesty in doing things, but sometimes they can't be too honest. ”

Zhang Lingpu smiled, thinking about more things in his heart.

He actually knew very well in his heart that in the hearts of Hu Chuyuan, Lu Guangquan, and Qu Hongji, the place they really wanted to take down was not necessarily Singapore, Singapore was just a guarantee plan, and their actual goal was the Philippines.

In recent years, the number of Chinese immigrants in the Philippines has increased significantly faster than in other Southeast Asian regions.

Up to now, the total number of Chinese in the Philippines has increased to 5.2 million, an increase of 20 times compared with 20 years ago, and is surging at a rate of 300,000 every year.

The Chinese now largely occupy Luzon in the north and Medan in the south, squeezing the Malays into the central Visayas.

In the past four or five years, internal conflicts have broken out between the Chinese armed forces and the Malay armed forces, and although the news has been very blocked, it is absolutely impossible to hide Zhang Lingpu, after all, there are some things that still need his help in secret.

The result of this internal conflict is clear: the Malay armed forces were largely dismantled, and a large number of Malays were forcibly relocated to the Irian Peninsula.

Within the Malay community, the Chinese mainly chose to support the Visayas, who had the most moderate attitude and a relatively large population, to deal with the Tagalogs, who were too hard-lined, and other minority tribes such as Ilogo and Bisaya, and constantly provoked tribal conflicts between the Visayas and the Tagalogs, and helped the Visayans cleanse the Tagalogs.

After so many years, Zhang Lingpu has long been a very sharp old politician.

He knows that once the Philippines is really gradually sinicized, the future of Sumancia will be more difficult, compared to the Philippines, Sumancia is very weak in local mining resources.

Compared with Singapore and the Philippines, Sumancia also lacks geographical advantages, Singapore is the choke point of the Strait of Malacca, the geographical center of the entire Southeast Asia, and the Philippines is the most important link in China's Pacific strategy, and controlling the Philippines can directly face the entire South Pacific.

Compared with Sumancia, the Philippines' climatic environment and resource conditions are also more suitable for China's long-term needs.

To be honest, at this moment, Zhang Lingpu is still very entangled in his heart.

He loves China, and he also loves Sumancia, which he founded, and thinks about things from the perspective of China's highest political center, and the occupation of the Philippines and Singapore is of course the most important thing, but he also hopes that China and Sumancia will merge together to build a strong country in his heart.

On April 17, after concluding a week-long visit to Shanghai, Zhang Lingpu led a delegation to Yanjing, where he and Qu Hongji had several meetings.

On the issue of the merger of Sumancia, Qu Hongji also considered a lot.

It is certainly inappropriate to dismiss Zhang Lingpu's proposal, not to mention that China does have this need, but the problem is that it cannot affect the domestic plan to gradually annex the Philippines and Singapore.

At this time, Qu Hongji thought of what Hu Chuyuan said - no matter how good we do, the Philippines can still read, and I am afraid that only Singapore can truly belong to China's Nanyang territory forever.

In fact, Qu Hongji also has such considerations.

Many things in China are the basic strategies laid down in the era of Hu Chuyuan -- just do it and don't talk about it.

As long as it is possible, even if it takes 30 or 50 years, they will annex the Philippines and Singapore, with the exception of Sumancia, which is really not in the domestic consideration.

Qu Hongji did not reject Zhang Lingpu's proposal, but suggested that all this should be dealt with slowly, and then set Sumancia as an overseas autonomous state after a period of time, and then see the reaction of various countries.

Unlike Hu Chuyuan, Qu Hongji has another thought in his heart - if the merger is successful and Zhang Lingpu returns to the stage of mainstream domestic politics, does that mean that Zhang Lingpu may also become the new prime minister?

This may still be a big surname, Zhang Lingpu's achievements in Sumancia over the years are very good, and he also has a deep network in China.

Qu Hongji thought again, it's not good, Zhang Lingpu is aiming for the throne of the Chinese president!

Anyway...... This matter is a bit mysterious, and that's what Qu Hongji thinks.

Soon after Zhang Lingpu left China, a large-scale military coup finally broke out in the Ottoman Empire, with more than 20,000 troops marching from Macedonia and storming Istanbul, triggering an even larger uprising along the way.

On May 24, Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, was occupied by the Ottoman Alliance Young Progressive Party, and Sultan Abdul Hamid II was overthrown and placed under house arrest.

At a time when the Young Progressive Party (APP) continued to consolidate the New Deal and its military, China was also engaged in intensive diplomatic activities for other countries to recognize the New Deal, and by the end of May, China, Britain, France, and the United States had successively recognized the New Deal, while Germany and Russia were slow to recognize it.

The condition put forward by Germany was that the New Deal Axe would recognize the validity of the German-Austrian "Baghdad Railway Agreement," but the New Deal Axe was categorically unacceptable, and the failure to accept this agreement was also the basis for Britain, France, and other countries to recognize it.

Russia, for its part, began to appear rampant again, demanding that the Ottoman region of Armenia be ceded to Russia.

With China behind it, the Young Progressive Party is even more obsessed with the Russians.

After acknowledging the Young Progressive Party and the new Sultan and the new Ottoman Empire, the Chinese Foreign Aid Committee immediately proposed it at home, and Qu Hongji approved the proposal, sending three divisions and a total of 93,000 troops to the Baghdad area to protect the Ottoman Empire.

In return, the Ottoman Empire handed over the oil from Iraq to China for unified development.

(To be continued)