The first bilateral peace talks held in Singapore in early June broke down in just over 10 minutes, which was only enough time to introduce the members of the delegations of the two sides and to look at the text of the negotiations.

Queensland and the Netherlands have vehemently accused each other of deliberately sabotaging the peace talks, offering unrealistic plans and asking for exorbitant prices, lacking peace sincerity, and being the initiators of undermining peace in the South Pacific and the East Indies.

A few days later, the original 27-member negotiating delegation withdrew 19 people, leaving only Wu Mozhou and Tang Shaoyi, as the chief and deputy negotiators, plus two Dutch interpreters and several security personnel, adding up to only 8 people, a reduction of more than two-thirds.

In order to avoid a real breakdown of the peace talks, representatives of the British and foreign missions that convened the mediation participated in mediation and pressure, but the Queensland side was very resolute;

The Dutch side has no sincerity in the peace talks, which makes it impossible to proceed with the talks, and must bear all the serious consequences for this.

After putting aside the hard words, the head of the secretariat, Fan Zhongzhai, led a large number of negotiators to leave and returned to Australia by boat.

As a result, the peace talks have reached an impasse.

A week later

June 10, 1882

Borneo (Kalimantan)

South Kalimantan Province, Malchen Port

Machen Port is an important coastal port city in South Kalimantan Province, with a city size of about 70,000 people, including about 900 people of white Dutch descent, most of whom are plantation owners and colonial officials and their families, about 12,000 Chinese, and the rest of the population is the local indigenous group.

In the face of a strong invasion by the Queensland army, the Dutch defenders gathered 380 white soldiers and 1,100 Aboriginal servants, and built barracks between the fortified houses, ready to resist the enemy stubbornly.

Now, this originally quiet and beautiful seaside port city is in the midst of war, Queensland warships gather in the harbor, a large number of soldiers of the Shangri-La Division in military uniforms rush into the city along the trestle, crisp gunfire rang out from time to time, and billowing smoke rose from more than a dozen places in the city where the fighting was fierce.

Some of the fortified forts that had been fiercely resisted by the Dutch were shelled by warships, and the defenses soon collapsed, except for some of the Dutch defenders who fled quickly, the rest of the defenders were either killed or wounded, and the rest were obediently taken prisoner.

In just over a day, the city has been completely occupied.

A Dutch-style three-storey building in the city was requisitioned as a headquarters, and at the entrance were heavily armed soldiers standing guard, and two fortifications were piled up with sandbags, each with a hand-cranked, six-barreled heavy machine gun, and the muzzle of the black hole pointed at the distant street, creating a solemn atmosphere.

In the Command

The division commander Chi Shou looked at the group of young officers with high spirits, and some of them still had traces of battle smoke on their uniforms, and they maintained high morale in continuous battles, showed a strong desire for war, and showed the demeanor of a strong army in the region.

Recently

The Shangri-La garrison won two consecutive battles, destroying the city all the way, and successively captured the towns of Saipasu, Tanjung Pasai, Bangtan, and Tarakan from Samarinda to the north, and included a large area of land in the northern part of East Kalimantan Province.

From Samarinda to the south, it successively captured Balikpapan, Tana Grogo and other important towns, occupied all the southern areas of East Kalimantan Province, and realized the military occupation of the entire territory of East Kalimantan Province.

During the battle, more than 6,000 enemy troops were killed, wounded and captured, including about 1,370 white colonial troops and the rest were indigenous servants.

Now he has received an order from the upper peak to expand the fighting to South Kalimantan Province......

The military operation to occupy the port of Machen was the beginning of a new round of expansion, indicating that the Shangri-La Division would continue to march forward, and the pace of war would not stop for a day if peace negotiations were not reached.

The division commander Chi Shouclumy said loudly; "Brothers of the Shangri-La Division, after a month of bloody fighting, we have fully occupied all the important towns in East Kalimantan Province, achieved effective rule over the region, and used thunderous means to counter the shameless invasion of Shangri-La Island by the Dutch invaders......

The voice did not fall

The young officers were indignant and shouted;

"Long live the principal, swear to defend the dignity of the principal, swear to defend the territorial integrity of Shangri-La Island, and never allow the Dutch to infringe on it!"

"Destroy the Dutch and occupy Borneo."

"Long live the Earl of Queensland, we will follow you to the death, and this will not be swerving."

"We are willing to throw away our heads and shed our blood to open up territory for the headmaster and fully occupy Borneo."

……

Loud slogans filled the headquarters, these officers were the Young Guards carefully trained by the headmaster, most of them were under the age of twenty-three or four, most of them came from the "Eagle Project" school, and after many years of loyalty indoctrination, they were standard diehards, and when they fought, they were really screaming and aggressive.

The young officers did not need to be incited, and their enthusiasm was already surging, and their desire to fight was extremely strong.

The division commander waited until the chanting slowed down a little, and then pressed down with both hands to signal a stop, and the shouting of the officers stopped abruptly, and he continued;

"Today, we have captured the port of Mazin as the first step in the advance into South Kalimantan province, and the next step will be to occupy the city of Matapura, 46 kilometers away, to consolidate our military occupation in the area.

After that, the whole division will enter a month-long rest and reorganization, and this is the good news I want to announce to you.

The commander-in-chief ordered ......"

When these words were spoken, all the officers stood straight with their legs together, their waists straight, and waited for the division commander Chi Shouclum's announcement of the order.

"In view of the serious lack of peace sincerity on the part of the Dutch side, the almost delusional demand for the division of China's inherent territory has directly led to the breakdown of the peace talks, and we must bear unshirkable and serious responsibility for this.

Therefore, the commander-in-chief decided to fight back against the arrogance of the Dutch side with an iron-blooded attitude, further expand the occupation of various areas of Borneo, and fiercely respond to the enemy's provocations with an iron fist.

Due to the protracted and normalized nature of the war, in order to cope with the current situation, it is hereby decided to reorganize and reorganize your department, and the order is as follows;

The 1st Regiment of the former Shangri-La Division, the 1st Battalion of the Artillery Regiment, the Baggage Regiment and some of the personnel of the division headquarters were expanded into the "1st Kalimantan Division", the original unit numbers were removed, and the insufficient personnel were selected from the militia.

Wei Chi Shouzhuo is hereby appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Borneo military and concurrently the commander of the 1st Kalimantan Division, the deputy division commander Li Baihu is concurrently the commander of the 1st regiment, the deputy division commander Huo Xiaohu is the commander of the 2nd regiment, and Zhou Dazhui is the commander of the 3rd regiment.

The 2nd Regiment of the former Shangri-La Division, the 2nd Battalion of the Artillery Regiment, the Guard Battalion and some personnel of the division headquarters were expanded into the "2nd Kalimantan Division".

Liu Shan is hereby appointed as the commander of the 2nd Kalimantan Division and concurrently the commander of the 1st Regiment, the deputy division commander Koch is also the commander of the 2nd Regiment, and Hu Zhengzhong is the commander of the 3rd Regiment.

In addition, the reorganization of the Shangri-La Island garrison was reported;

With the 3rd Regiment of the former Shangri-La Division and the 3rd Battalion of the Artillery Regiment as the team, it was upgraded to the Shangri-La Garrison Division. Fritz is hereby appointed as the commander-in-chief of the Shangri-La military and concurrently the commander of the garrison, and the deputy division commander Mo Rufeng is also the commander of the third regiment (the third regiment is the main force), the first regiment commander Qi Feng, and the second regiment commander Zhao Jiaxiong.

It is hereby ordered!

The order was issued and immediately executed, and I sincerely hope that your troops will fight bravely, make persistent efforts, set an example of iron-blooded soldiers, and make new contributions to expanding the living space of Chinese immigrants.

This order! ”

After the order was read, there was a cheer in the command headquarters, and after the large-scale expansion of the troops, all the young officers present were added to the rank one after another, and naturally they were jubilant and full of fighting spirit.

This large-scale expansion is a change made in response to the actual situation on the battlefield.

On the battlefield of Shangri-La Island, the Moresby area became the focus of contention, and after the 3rd Garrison Regiment absorbed four militia regiments, the size expanded to a staggering 13,000 people, which was tacitly approved by the command.

The task of completely annihilating the Dutch landing force was overwhelming, and in order to launch a large-scale counterattack, it was imperative to twist all military forces into a rope, so that the troops could grow rapidly in the bloody battle.

In the face of a strong enemy, it is imperative for the Third Garrison Regiment to be upgraded and reorganized into the Shangri-La Garrison Division, which is also an encouragement to the soldiers who fought bloodily in front.

Chi Shouzhuo, the former commander of the Shangri-La Division, led the 1st Regiment, the 2nd Regiment and the Artillery Regiment to land at the port of Sammarinda, and with the assistance of more than 10,000 militiamen, they rapidly expanded, fully occupied East Kalimantan Province, and are marching towards South Kalimantan Province.

With just two regiments and more than 4,500 divisional troops, it was impossible to occupy a wider area, and it was imperative to reorganize the troops in order to cope with the changing situation and the military needs of the long-term presence in Borneo.

After this round of expansion

According to the standard of 6,500 full divisions, the whole Borneo will have two main forces with a total of 13,000 people, integrating militias with rich combat experience and quickly forming combat effectiveness.

To this end, Australia will send 170 retired veterans and 820 young grassroots officers who graduated from the Eagle School to further strengthen its control over the new troops, with a view to forming combat effectiveness as soon as possible.

The main towns in South Kalimantan Province are Matapura and Mazen, and the occupation of these two important towns means the occupation of South Kalimantan Province, which occupies a small part of the entire territory of Dutch Borneo.

Choosing to reorganize the troops at this time is an old-fashioned practice.

Borneo (Kalimantan) has a total area of about 743,300 square kilometers, is the third largest island in the world, belongs to the tropical jungle climate, the average annual temperature is 24~25 degrees, and the rainfall is about 1700 mm.

Today's Borneo is divided into four powers;

Among them, the largest force is Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei in British Malaya, collectively known as the "Three States of North Borneo", referred to as "Sarabun Shah", with a total area of 196,500 square kilometers.

The second largest power is the Lanfang Kingdom in the northwestern region, with an area of less than 30,000 square kilometers, and is the only country left by the Chinese in the Nanyang region today.

The largest force is the Dutch Kalimantan region, with an area of 509,000 square kilometers, divided into five provinces: North Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and West Kalimantan.

Of course, this was before April 1, 1882.

After the Queensland forces landed in Samarinda, East Kalimantan and South Kalimantan fell into the pockets of Li Fushou, forming the fourth largest power in Borneo.

The cutting off of a large chunk of the colony from the Dutch really hurt them, and it was also the point of the question to slow down the rule of the occupied territories and prevent them from jumping over the wall.