Pontianak, China's largest trade port and largest port city in the South Seas. However, the port is not seafront, but is located at the confluence of the Kapuas River and the Lanta River on the west coast of Borneo Island, 23 kilometers from the mouth of the river.

Now the Kapuas and Landa rivers have been renamed the Lan and Kun rivers. Because the previous name was Dutch, now that Borneo has been returned to China, it is natural that it will be replaced by a Chinese name.

The Capuas River belongs to the tropical rainforest climate, the rainfall is abundant throughout the year, there is no obvious dry season, the annual rainfall is more than 2600mm, and because the river is wide, it is named - Lan River!

The Landa River is called the Kunjiang River because there is a small island in the middle of the river that is named Kun Island, Kun Tong Kun, so there is the Kun River.

There are many forts here, and the defense is strong. Although Pontianak is a very important port in the whole Nanyang economic and trade industry.

But today, for example, when the battle alarm was sounded at the estuary fort, the coastal defense soldiers of the various forts were ready for battle. When Phillips jumped out of the sea one by one with the main warships of the British Empire's Far East Fleet, they were confronted with the Chinese coastal defense troops who had erected a defense like hedgehogs.

There are a total of 14 warships, the largest ironclad ship, the Giant ironclad with a standard displacement of 9,150 tons, a length of 100 meters, and a width of 20.7 meters, towering in the middle of the estuary like a hill.

The two 305mm25 double-sized main turrets, with the muzzles of the black holes also facing straight towards Pontianak. The naval flag of the British Empire flutters high on the mast.

As the governor of Lanfang, Liu Mingchuan was very angry, extremely angry. What are the British going to do?

Blatantly blockading Pontianak's sea routes, are the British going to start a war?

"Send someone to ask. If he wants to fight, then fight! Liu Mingchuan, who has been in Nanyang for several years, is not afraid of war. Even if there is a real war. It is very likely that the British navy will cut off Lanfang's access to the mainland. Liu Mingchuan didn't have a trace of fear!

"Tell Master Wei [Changjun] that his place has arrived. Don't use the regular army. With Barrow's militia group, I want the five-star red flag to fly in the wind on the roof of King Brooke's Palace in Kuching by this time tomorrow. ”

Kuching, the capital of Sarawak Royal Palace, is the home of the Brooke family. Borneo was the second largest city two decades ago, but now it is behind to fifth.

As early as the second year after the last turmoil, the Wehrmacht completely took East Borneo, which is the size of seven Zhejiang provinces, and is now outside the Brooke Palace in Sarawak. It belongs completely to China. Behind the Brooke family is the support of the British, although Liu Mingchuan is not impressed by the strength of the Brooke Palace, let alone careless, but he really did not win Sarawak's plans. However, Wei Changjun and a group of other old people have never forgotten to unify Borneo, and Liang Luyi, Wang Kun, Li Yongfei, Liu Kangsheng and others have never forgotten the blood feud of their fathers.

But no matter how much they held grudges before, they always maintained great restraint. And now that the British are here, how can Liu Mingchuan swallow this breath if he can't return the salute? Knock out Sarawak and kill two birds with one stone.

Beijing soon got the news as well. Liu Xian didn't understand what the British were crazy about, he didn't know that a torpedo boat from the South Ocean Fleet had poked the British lung tube in the air. Liu Xian felt that the British did this for no reason. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was ordered to immediately inform the British Embassy and take a tougher attitude. Liu Xian maintained restraint against the British, but he couldn't see the British on his head! In the matter of Hong Kong. He didn't give up to the British at all.

Now that the British do not want to recognize the interests of the Chinese in Kuala Lumpur and have blocked the Pontianak sea route, Liu Siam is waiting for a reply from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If not ideal. He will let Shi Da open his hands to fight Siam and do a big fight.

Today, Siam already has a navy and army that is comparable in numbers to that of the Japanese in Tokyo. The 40-year-old Chulalongkorn is full of energy, and he is financially sound. Tremendous progress has been made in reforming institutions, setting up military academies, reorganizing the armed forces, organizing the Ministry of National Defense, and developing communications and new-style education.

Beginning in 1884, Chulalongkorn followed the example of Europe and carried out a major reform of the state administrative organization, reorganizing and expanding the original six ministries of the central government into 12 ministries, in addition to the original Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Military Affairs, the Ministry of Palace Affairs, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Municipal Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Educational Affairs, the Ministry of Construction and Engineering, the Ministry of Warfare and the Ministry of Imperial Seals, and the heads of each ministry were personally appointed and dismissed by the king. Imperial power was greatly strengthened. He then established new courts, enacted criminal and civil laws, and abolished traditional torture regimes. It stipulated that all government officials received a fixed salary, and abolished the previous system of giving land to the state according to the feudal rank. The government has also hired a number of foreign experts from the United Kingdom, the United States, Denmark, Sweden and other countries as advisers to various ministries to assist in the reform project.

In 1886, Chulalongkorn established the "Gelong" in accordance with the Western cabinet system, and abolished the former prime ministers, the Minister of the Interior and the Minister of War, and the heads of the executive of each ministry were all called ministers. By 1888, the original 12 ministries were changed to 10, and the War Department and the Imperial Seal Department were reduced to departmental organs. Each ministry had a clear division of labour, thus becoming the prototype of a modern administrative organization.

The feudal system of feudal titles and land searches was abolished, and salaries were paid instead, and local officials were appointed and transferred by the central government. A modern state apparatus was established.

In 1873, King Rama V established the Tax Agency, issued regulations for the protection of taxes, uniformly set tax rates throughout the country, and strictly managed the tax work of the central ministries; Abolish the method of being recruited by the state and send officials to collect taxes directly, so as to effectively stop all kinds of illegal acts of tax evasion and evasion. From 1888 onwards, the King's budget was separated from the national budget, preventing members of the royal family from squandering state property. In the decade from 1882 to 1892, national revenues rose from 8.5 million (700,000 pounds) to 22 million (1.7 million pounds) without new taxes. So much of the revenue was still obtained in the hands of the Siamese Taiping Army in Chiang Mai and other large areas. If it were not for the Taiping Army pressing north of Bangkok, and if there was no special significance for Siam's existence, although the support of Britain, France and the United States for Siam would not be as huge as it is now, and Siam's development speed would certainly not be as fast as it is now, but Siam's overall development might not be weak.

With the economic development, the rising birth rate, and the influx of many overseas Chinese into Siam, the population of Siam increased from more than 5 million at the time of King Rama V's accession to the throne to 7 million [not counting the lost land such as Chiang Mai]. Life expectancy in Siam has increased by more than 5 years due to improved medical conditions.

In terms of troops, Siam's new army reached 100,000 many years ago, and now it has more than 150,000 people, and is organized into five corps and 20 divisions. There is also a modern navy that is inferior to China and Japan among Asian countries.

The emergence of a new army and a modern navy required a large number of modern officers, and Chulalongkorn, with the help of the Danish Rischel, established a number of military academies and focused on strengthening the navy. In order to recruit enough qualified students for these military schools, Siam's cultural, educational, and health undertakings have also developed tremendously. The Siamese government was tolerant of Western-founded religious schools, and established a number of secular and specialized schools, such as the Drawing School, the Civil School, the Normal School, and the Medical College. Some changes have also been made to the school curriculum. King Rama V also issued an edict to select international students and send them to study abroad. By the 90s of the 19th century, civilian education began to form a boom in the country. In addition, a library and a museum have been established. In the area of health, new hospitals, psychiatric hospitals and orphanages have been built, the Red Cross and the Health Bureau have been established, and piped water facilities have been built.

In terms of Westernization alone, Siam is not lagging behind Japan.

Chulalongkorn also realized the ease of modern transportation such as railways. In Siam, after entering the 80s, railways, highways, posts and telecommunications and other transportation undertakings developed rapidly, thus connecting the remote areas with the capital Bangkok, which was conducive to the development of remote areas and the construction of national defense and security, so that the whole country was linked into a relatively close economic whole, and promoted the development of the country's commodity-currency relations.

Although Liu Xian was a little disdainful of Siam, he could not deny Chulalongkorn's talent and ability. Although Siam's reforms have also been infiltrated by European and American countries, many rights have been held in the hands of foreigners. For example, the general counsel and foreign policy adviser are Americans; The Treasury and customs advisers are British; The naval adviser was Danish; Army advisers were German and Swede. Foreign advisers are also employed in other ministries and in a number of agencies. Today, there are more than 200 foreign advisers in the Siamese government. They are in power and actually control various departments in Thailand. So much so that there was a joke about a Thai finance minister, who was saying goodbye to the ministry's foreign advisers, asked, "Who will be in charge of the ministry after you leave?"

Liu Xian is not afraid of Siam's continued development and growth. But he was worried that if Siam grew stronger, Shi Dakai's Taiping army might not be able to hold on. The latter is already two out of sixty. The Taiping Army, which is now entrenched at the junction of Burma, Siam and Vientiane, has its capital in Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Siam that was conquered at the beginning. The generals who led the army can no longer see the figure of the old man back then.

However, Chen Rong, Cao Dalei, Huang Pengfei, Zeng Ming, Wei Da, Zhang Zhuozhi, Zhang Zhuoai, Ma Guilin, Lan Sicheng, Zhou Hehu, Niu Chuqun, ......, you can still see their origins from the surnames of these front-line leading officers.

Liu Xian can trust Shi Dakai, Chen Decai, Lai Wenguang, Zeng Shihe, Huang Zaizhong, Wei Pucheng, Cao Wohu, Ma Ronghe, Lan Chengchun, Liang Chengfu, Lan Chaozhu, Zhou Shaoyong, but he can't trust Chen Rong, Cao Dalei, Huang Pengfei, Zeng Ming, Wei Da, Zhang Zhuozhi, Zhang Zhuoai, Ma Guilin, Lan Sicheng, Zhou Hehu, Niu Chuqun......

If the prestige of the Taiping Army is smashed by this group of young generals, China will be passive in the southwest. (To be continued......)