The Lan army captured Sulawesi, and the Dutch colonial government in Batavia weighed the difference in strength and chose to back down, and then signed the Boni Agreement with Lan Fang, recognizing the power of Boni and Gova. Subsequently, the Republic of Lanfang announced the annexation of the two countries of Poni and Gova, and incorporated them into a province of the Republic of Lanfang.

However, the Dutch concession did not bring it much peace.

A month later, the Lan Fang Army continued to use Sulawesi as a springboard to the east to capture the Moruga Islands. The Dutch garrison on the island numbered less than a hundred, and before the Lan army could complete the landing, they abandoned Anvin and fled to Papua.

The Dutch colonial authorities protested again and sued the Republic of Lanfang to the International Court of Arbitration in The Hague, demanding that The Hague International intervene. However, although the great powers were dissatisfied with the Chinese Empire's instruction of Lan Fang to encroach on the Dutch East Indies colonies step by step, they really did not have the energy to meddle in the affairs of Southeast Asia, and the smell of gunpowder in Europe was getting stronger and stronger, and a single spark was enough to break out a major war, and the Entente and the Central Powers were preparing for war and had no time to look eastward.

In addition, mainstream European military experts believe that the Chinese Empire's support for Lan Fang to encroach on the colonies of the Dutch East Indies indicates that the strategic center of gravity of the Chinese Empire is currently in Southeast Asia, and the Netherlands should be sacrificed in exchange for the Chinese Empire's refusal to meddle in European affairs.

This view was endorsed by the two major European military blocs, and the Allied and Entente powers instructed their ambassadors to China to consult with the Chinese Empire, and as long as the Chinese Empire did not interfere in the affairs between the two European military blocs, they were willing to acquiesce in the Chinese Empire's support for Lan Fang to encroach on the Dutch East Indies.

In response to this, the Chinese Imperial Government then gave a definite reply, reiterating that it would not meddle in the affairs of the two major European military blocs, in order to appease both the Central and Entente powers.

As a result, the failure of The Hague International to react to Lanfang's military encroachment on the Dutch East Indies made the Netherlands very annoyed, knowing that they had been betrayed by the European powers.

In September 1912, with the support of the Chinese Empire, the Lan Fang Army landed at the Frank Sea Solon in the eastern part of the island of Papua and began to encroach on the western part of the island of Papua, which was occupied by the Chinese Empire and was under the trusteeship of the Republic of Australia, as well as German Papua.

The Dutch colonial army deployed more than 3,000 people in the western part of Papua Island, and only more than 10,000 Lanfang troops landed, strictly speaking, this 10,000 Lanfang army could not defeat the 3,000 Dutch defenders. Because the Lan army was composed of Chinese civilians of different ages, although they were trained by the Chinese Emperor's [***] official corps, their combat effectiveness in a short period of time was not high, and it was not enough to fight head-on with the main force of the Dutch colonial army.

However, the Dutch Batavian authorities still hoped that the Chinese Empire would stop there, so they ordered the Dutch troops in Papua to implement a policy of non-resistance and retreat to the main island of Sumatra.

As a result, the Lan army easily occupied the island of West Papua without firing a single shot.

In this way, the three largest islands of the Dutch East Indies were all occupied by the Lanfang army, and the territory of the Lanfang Republic suddenly expanded to 1.9 million square kilometers, becoming the largest country in Southeast Asia, as one of the members of the Chinese Imperial Federation, second only to the Republic of Australia.

After occupying West Papua, because this land was too large, more than 400,000 square kilometers, with a large population of more than 1.3 million Armenians, Lan Fang was not well populated, and the administration of the native Borneo was already very stressful. Therefore, the Chinese Empire finally made a decision to merge Papua controlled by Lanfang and Papua controlled by Australia into the Kingdom of Papua, and to support the Papuan King Piria Sen, who had been destroyed by Britain and Germany five years earlier, to rebuild the Kingdom of Papua as a member of the Great Chinese Federation.

The main reason for this was that the Germans were somewhat dissatisfied with Lan Fang's invasion of West Papua because of the German Papuan territories in the east, but they did not express their opposition because they did not provoke the Chinese Empire. The western islands of Papua are impoverished areas, and there are no other valuable cash crops except for some rubber and sugar cane for export, which is why the British and Germans did not send troops to invade West Papua, but have always been managed by the Dutch.

In addition, another reason why the Chinese Empire supported the restoration of the Kingdom of Papua was that once the European War broke out, the Chinese Empire could instruct the Kingdom of Papua to attack German Papua and then annex the entire island of Papua without participating in the war.

The Chinese Emperor Wang Chenhao's interest in Papua Island was very large, because German Papua was rich in products and mineral deposits, with copper ore reserves of 944 million tons, gold reserves of 1,831 tons, and copper-gold symbiotic ore reserves of about 400 million tons. In addition, there are rich resources such as gold, chromium, nickel, bauxite, submarine natural gas and oil. The reserves of the two major oil fields of Kutub and Gobe reached 400 million barrels. The oil field reserves of the Southern Highlands province are 17 million barrels. Natural gas reserves are 12.2 trillion cubic feet. Forest resources are abundant, with tropical primeval forests covering an area of 36 million hectares, accounting for about 77% of the country's land area, with a total forest volume of about 2.9 billion cubic meters and a recoverable volume of 500 million cubic meters.

The most developed areas of Papua are under German Papuan control, including the well-developed Port of Moresby, which is a natural harbor that can be used as a large naval base and a trading port in Oceania.

In addition, the Chinese Empire's possession of the island of Papua also contained another layer of political significance, that is, to open up the passage of the Chinese Empire through the north and south of the earth.

At this time, the Chinese Empire had expanded its territory to the northernmost polar region of the Arctic Ocean, and the southernmost Antarctic polar region of the earth, and the mainland and territory of the Chinese Empire occupied all the north-south latitudes from north to south, with an east-west width between 180 degrees east longitude (prime meridian) and 75 degrees west longitude.

After obtaining the island of Papua, the territorial waters of the Chinese Empire were connected from north to south.

The Chinese Empire supported Lan Fang's army to encroach on the Dutch East Indies step by step, in addition to seizing the rich resources of the Dutch East Indies, another purpose was this plan to connect the north and south poles.

Emperor Wang Chenhao of the Chinese Empire knew that after more than 100 years, the earth will warm, the glaciers in the north and south poles will melt a lot, the Arctic Ocean will be navigable in the future, and the global shipping route will no longer rely on the Suez Canal and the Panama Canal. Global warming will inevitably lead to the transformation of the tropics into hypertropics, temperate zones into tropics, and polar zones into temperate zones.

Wang Chenhao hopes to leave a place for future generations to gain a foothold in the future, so the plan to connect the north-south and north-south territories with territorial waters has been in the plan since the day of the seizure of Antarctica. Because only by opening up the territory of Southeast Asia can it be connected with Australia and Antarctica all the way, so as to complete the plan of connecting the north-south axis, even if there are changes in the international community in the future, the Chinese Empire can also say that Antarctica belongs to the Chinese Empire.

In August 1912, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Empire officially declared the Chinese Empire to be the Empire of the whole latitude, and the Western countries called the Chinese Empire the Axis Empire, on the grounds that the territory of the Chinese Empire ran through the north and south poles of the earth, and the geographical axis of the north and south of the earth and the north-south geomagnetic axis of the earth were all within the territory of the Chinese Empire.

In this regard, Wang Chenhao, the emperor of the Chinese Empire, immediately smiled bitterly after hearing this, this Axis Empire is not a good name, and the defeated side in World War II is called the Axis Empire.

Of course, Wang Chenhao doesn't care about this, what happened to the Axis powers, if the Axis powers win, then he is a good name recognized by the world.

As a result, the Chinese Empire also acquiesced to this title. Since then, the Empire of All Latitudes, the Empire of Immortality, and the Axis Empire have all been known as the Chinese Empire, and have been widely circulated by countries around the world.

The covert actions of the Chinese empire in Southeast Asia inevitably did not arouse the vigilance of certain countries. Among them, the French-controlled French Indochina made France feel threatened, so France sent a note to the Chinese Empire's political axe to test the tone of the Chinese Empire on the French Indochina issue.

In response, the Chinese Empire made it clear that it recognized French colonial dominance in French Indochina and would not support resistance forces in French Indochina.

Despite what the Chinese Empire said, the French government still had no bottom in its mind, so after consulting with Britain and Russia, it was decided that the Chinese Empire should find a powerful enemy as a containment, so that the Chinese Empire would not have time to intervene in Indochina or European affairs.

As a result, Britain, France, and Russia are optimistic about the United States, and the large-scale naval arms race between China and the United States and the normalized naval and military confrontation have proved that the relations between the two countries are very bad. The economic strength of the United States can be completely consumed by the Chinese Empire, and the Chinese Empire has always been wary of the Chinese Empire, and the quasi-alliance relationship between the United States and the United States has always made the Chinese Empire angry, and the powerful Pacific Fleet of the United States at Pearl Harbor is also a huge potential threat to the Pacific Fleet of the Chinese Empire.

The Chinese Empire deployed a military strategy of island chain blockade around the United States, and similarly, the United States countered by using East Asia and the Philippines in Southeast Asia as a bridgehead to deter the Chinese Empire from the north and south. Especially the book, which is at the doorstep of the Chinese Empire, has a very strong deterrent surname.

Britain, France, and Russia then approached the United States and the United States to secretly build a military alliance to contain the Chinese Empire. Due to the deterioration of Sino-British relations after the Sino-Russian War, Britain began to use the United States and the United States to contain the Chinese Empire, but at first the United States and Britain did not fall into the British trap, but the relationship between the United States and Britain set the tone at that time, and then after the Sino-British War, the United States and the United States clearly felt the imminent threat of the Chinese Empire. The large-scale naval arms race between China and the United States also began at that time, and because of the lack of economic and technological resources, and the lack of positive support from the outside world, they did not dare to show off their might in front of the Chinese Empire, so they have been developing military technology in a low-key manner, and Britain and the United States have given strong support.

With this kind of relationship between Britain and the United States, there will be a basis for further negotiations, and soon, under the mediation of Britain, the Entente countries will no longer restrict the export of military technology to the United States, including the core technology of key weapons. For example, the manufacturing process of large-caliber main guns, which has always plagued the United States, is in urgent need of steam turbine technology and large-caliber main gun technology, and so on, and the Entente countries are not restricting the transfer of technology.

As the world's second largest economy (surpassed by the Chinese Empire), the United States has a strong economy, and once it receives technical support from the Entente, then the military industry of the United States will be greatly improved. In the same way, the Chinese Empire was obsessed with the annual compensation of 1.25 million pounds to the Chinese Empire, which dumped large-scale commodities on the Chinese Empire, forced it to sign a series of unequal treaties, and even imported heroin on a large scale under the banner of exporting medicine.

What was most unacceptable to him was that the Emperor of the Chinese Empire demanded that Emperor Momoto change his name, and that there could only be one Emperor of the Chinese Empire in Asia, and that Emperor Momoto must be demoted to the rank of king. This has already made the political axe very angry, but the cabinet of the Chinese Empire has repeatedly met with the consul general in China to mention the merger of the Great Chinese Federation. Obviously, the political axe understands that once it is incorporated into the Great China Federation, then it will lose its diplomatic power, and the country will become a vassal state of the Chinese Empire, subject to the Chinese Empire everywhere, which is not allowed by the political axe.

In 1912, the military Yamamoto Gonbei successfully formed a cabinet, becoming the first military cabinet in the country, creating a precedent for the military to be in power.

The Yamamoto Gonbei cabinet strongly rejected the demands of the Chinese Empire, and in order to maintain the status of the Yamamoto Gonbei, the Yamamoto Gonbei cabinet actively negotiated with the United States and the Entente countries, asking to join the Entente camp or form a military alliance with the United States.

However, the United States is very careful about whether or not to form a military alliance with the United States, and the United States pursues the same policy of isolation as Britain did in the early days, not forming an alliance with any country, nor creating any enemy country. This can be seen from the fact that the United States was willing to pay $30 million to buy the Philippines from Spain after the Spanish-American War, and the United States did not want to establish enemies.

In the same way, the Entente side is also very careful, at the moment the focus of the Entente is the European Allied bloc, if the Entente is allowed to join the Entente, then it is obvious that it will directly offend the Chinese Empire, and even force the Chinese Empire to occupy the camp of the Allied Powers, which is a result that Britain, France, and Russia do not want to see.

Therefore, Britain, France, Russia, and the United States all rejected the request, but they promised to export core military technology to the country, help the company speed up its economic development, and provide necessary loans for economic development and military growth.

In this way, from 1912 onwards, both the United States and the United States received the core military technology export of the Entente.

Among them, the United States wants to obtain the core technology of the naval steam turbine and the technology of the 16-inch large-caliber main gun, because the US Navy has seriously lagged behind the Chinese Empire in the naval arms race of 1910 and 1911. Therefore, the U.S. Navy urgently needs these two key technologies to improve the U.S. Navy's military capabilities.

The UK is very generous, as well as its favorable price to transfer the core technology to the United States. In the past, the cooperation with the United States was reserved, but now the United States needs to contain the Chinese Empire in Asia, so that the Chinese Empire has no energy to meddle in European affairs, and once a European war breaks out, Britain can concentrate on dealing with Germany.

After acquiring the core technology of the 16-inch main gun and the core technology of the steam turbine, the US Navy immediately went to the Colorado-class battleships and Denver-class battlecruisers.

Among them, four Colorado-class battleships were built in the same class, and four Denver-class battlecruisers were built in the same class, and the design cost of a single ship has soared to 35 million US dollars (mainly due to the introduction of British core technology, which accounted for more than 8 million US dollars).

The basic design of the Colorado-class battleship inherited the Tennessee-class battleship, inherited the standard style cage mainmast of the previous American battleships, and imitated the Chinese Empire to build a flying scissor bow, but because the 10,000-ton hydraulic press project was not up to par, the flying scissor bow looked dull and ugly, and the secondary gun was still installed on the bow deck.

In order to counter the Song-class battleships of the Chinese Empire, the U.S. Navy carried 8 twin-mounted 16-inch (406mm) caliber main guns on the Colorado-class battleships, and suddenly crossed the 15-inch main gun, and directly adjusted from the 14-inch to 16-inch of the Tennessee class to catch up with the Chinese Empire, but it was still a year late, because the Song-class battleships of the Chinese Empire had been under construction for more than a year, and they were currently launched, and the 16-inch main gun system and outfitting work were being carried out.

Due to the increased firepower, the defense was correspondingly strengthened to defend against enemy shells of the same caliber, the waterline armor reached 13.5 inches, the compartment was 13.5 inches, the front of the turret remained up to 18 inches, and in order to save tonnage, the conning tower would be 16 inches.

The rest of the aspects are similar to the Tennessee class, but because of the use of electric drive, although the control surname is good, easy to maintain and manage, but the motor speed can not be greatly improved, the maximum speed is only 21 knots, which has become the Achilles heel of the Colorado class, because the US Navy has no actual combat experience, does not know the important surname of speed for battleships, at the same time, the Chinese Empire claimed that the Song-class battleships only have a speed of 23 knots, paralyzing the US Navy. In fact, the Song-class battleships had reached a speed of 29 knots, which gave them an absolute advantage over the Colorado-class battleships.

Similarly, the Denver-class battlecruisers of the U.S. Navy reduced their armor protection on the basis of the Colorado-class battleships, with a main armor belt of only 228 mm and a speed of only 27 knots because of the use of electric motor drives.

It has also obtained these core technologies, and its military strength has been greatly improved. At the same time, Britain, France, and the United States formed a joint banking consortium to lend low-interest loans to the capital, and even forgave most of the loans that the company had borrowed from them before. In this way, the navy began to rise.

Ben and the United States obtained a large amount of core military technology from the Entente, much to the annoyance of the Chinese Empire. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Chinese Empire immediately sent a note to the British, French, and Russian ambassadors to China, raising a solemn protest in person.

Britain, France, and Russia naturally denied this, but expressed their willingness to intervene in the investigation of the incident and give a reasonable answer to the Chinese Empire. In fact, this is a typical political delaying tactic, and this investigation does not know the year of the monkey. Since the Chinese Empire could not have conclusive evidence and no excuse to put pressure on the Entente, the matter was quickly settled.

However, the Chinese Empire has also heightened its vigilance as a result.

(To be continued)