New Year's Day in 1885 is coming

The festive atmosphere in the Red River Valley is not very strong, and except for a slight mention in the newspapers, the vast majority of local residents are not aware of the festival at all, and even if they do, they have no intention of joining in the fun.

In this day and age

There is a folk trend of "expelling foreign religions and killing foreign demons" in the land of China, and the ignorant people think that the blonde and blue-eyed foreigners are monsters who come to harm the Qing Dynasty, so the resistance is very strong, and they spontaneously expel the foreigners.

There is no such situation in Australia, and the Chinese immigrants who have crossed the ocean to Australia have seen too many blonde and blue-eyed foreigners, Indian Ah San who speak in a strange tone, black people dug out of the coal pile, and local aborigines with red skin, knowing that the world is not only yellow-skinned Chinese, but also various other ethnic groups, so as not to make a fuss.

From the heart

Chinese overseas immigrants still regard themselves as the superior country of the Celestial Empire, and they have a pride in their hearts, which comes from the national self-confidence cultivated by thousands of years of civilization.

Many residents are accustomed to using the lunar calendar to live their lives, which is quite different from the Gregorian calendar used by government departments.

This is actually a misunderstanding

New Year's Day is not a Western holiday, but a statutory holiday set by the Queensland government in order to implement the Gregorian calendar, after consulting the earl, it is said that the word New Year's Day was finalized by the earl himself, and was determined by the state legislature.

Before Chinese immigrants set foot on the fertile soil of Australia on a large scale, New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia generally used the Gregorian calendar to calculate time, which is a unified calendar with the European and American worlds.

During Li Fushou's years in Australia, because of the inconsistency between the time calculation of Westerners and Orientals, there have been many unnecessary misunderstandings, resulting in considerable economic losses, and the mixing of the two calendars in social life has caused great confusion, so it is imperative to unify the calendar.

Think about it

It was decided to adopt the international calendar, the Gregorian calendar, and all government departments, major enterprises and trading companies in Queensland adopted the Gregorian calendar, and printed both the Gregorian calendar and the lunar calendar on the issued annual calendar for residents' reference.

Due to the lack of publicity, many residents still think that this festival is a foreign festival.

The beginning of the new year

Under the deliberate impetus of Li Fushou, Queensland began to implement a more active immigration policy, focusing on the policy level and the financial level, and striving to promote the migration flow to a higher level in the new year.

According to statistics, by the end of 1884;

The population of Australia exceeded 7 million, except for the total number of more than 770,000 Chinese immigrants (referring to Australia alone, excluding the number of immigrants from Shangri-La Island and Borneo), the annual new birth population reached 411,700, of which more than 9 percent were born in Chinese families, creating a record high.

This means that Queensland has added nearly 300,000 stable families (some wealthy families have many wives and two or more children), and those who can afford to marry wives and have children are financially well-off, almost middle-class.

Getting married and having children in Australia is not an easy task, even the cheapest indigenous Borneo woman will cost a dozen pounds, and there is no bank loan, it is all cash transactions.

So many families have ushered in new life, new hope, and family inheritance, which has brought the whole society into a more stable state, full of joy and peace.

Heading into the new year

Situation in the Far East

As soon as the southern border of the Manchu Empire had just dissipated, the hot spots on the islands in the north were rapidly fermenting and heating up sharply, and it was likely to turn into a regional hot war, which attracted the widespread attention of envoys from various countries.

The Qing court's attitude towards Fusang is still quite tough, and it is just a matter of being afraid of the strong ships and cannons of the Westerners, and a big Oriental island country dares to come to attack my Great Qing Huwei, is it really bad to be a disciple of my Eight Banners?

The Western world, led by Britain and France, is also not optimistic about Fuso at this time, it is really a poor jingle sound, a rice dumpling with a little natto can be regarded as a delicacy in life, how much can it be? Coupled with the fact that there are no mines (gold and silver mining resources have been exhausted), no resources and no land, it is like a deformed dwarf challenging the giants, and the odds of winning are really not high.

After several tug-of-war negotiations, the Fuso Kingdom was forced by the pressure of Western countries to back down, recognizing the Qing court's suzerainty status over Korea, recognizing the dominant position of the Qing court's garrisons, and promising to exercise restraint and not interfer in the internal affairs of Korea.

The island country has an extremely narrow mentality, and it can't tolerate things that are bigger than sesame mung beans, so how can they give up in the face of this humiliating failure?

This was an introduction that planted the seeds of hatred in the war between the Qing and Japan.

The Qing court did not care about the dissatisfaction of Fusang, but joyfully celebrated the victory mediated by the diplomatic missions of European countries, and was full of self-satisfaction for a while, as if it had returned to the glory of the powerful era of the past.

Daqing is like a young master born in a wealthy landlord family, tall and strong, wearing silk and satin, eating delicacies, slaves like clouds, 10,000 acres of fertile land, and his strength looks quite strong.

This is not the case in Fuso

He was like a poor boy in the mountains, he had nothing but a firewood knife pinned to his waist, and he didn't have the next meal after eating, and he was really very poor.

In this case

The two sides fought each other for their lives, and it was not the size and heritage of the two sides that determined the victory, but the will to fight that forced to the edge of the cliff and had no way to retreat.

As long as Fusang can slaughter the slaves (North Korea) under the landlord and young master, he will be able to eat with a round belly, and from then on embark on a counterattack life of gradually becoming stronger and transforming.

It's nothing if you lose, because Fusang has nothing to lose, and the poor rats in the family have to cry when they come, and the robbers feel compassion when they see it.

When it comes to playing with life, are barefoot people still afraid of wearing shoes?

borneo

The Dutch invasion of Lan Fang in late September last year once again caused turmoil in the South Pacific Islands.

Li Fushou expressed strong dissatisfaction with this, and in his capacity as a "protector of overseas Chinese," he ordered the Dutch colonists to immediately stop their acts of aggression that caused chaos in the local situation, immediately stop their barbaric acts of killing Chinese civilians, immediately and unconditionally withdraw from the territory of Lanfang Kingdom, restore local peace and tranquility, and investigate the crimes of those responsible.

meanwhile

He sent a letter to the British Channel Governor's Office, calling on the British to take the initiative to stand up and unite with international forces to maintain peace and stability in the South Pacific region, cherish the hard-won opportunity for peace, and stop the aggressive Dutch from continuing to endanger regional peace......

Queensland's army and navy forces were mobilized accordingly, holding armed exercises, continuing to exert strong pressure on the Dutch and engaging international parties in the "Lan Fang invasion".

The new governor of the Dutch East Indies, Count Hoffmann, stepped up the war of aggression in Lanfang on the one hand under strong international pressure, and after breaking the East Wanlu for the second time, he carried out a brutal bloodbath against all the middle and upper classes of the Chinese, and the situation changed color for a while.

It just came at this time

Li Fushou, Earl of Queensland, was summoned by London and traveled thousands of miles to Europe.

Due to the hasty schedule and the lack of time for detailed arrangements, the powerful military forces deployed in Borneo could only continue to maintain pressure, and no one dared to act rashly without a clear order from the top.

This gave the Dutch a precious respite, on the one hand, to make a gesture of retreat, and on the other hand, to continue to hunt down the leaders of the rebellion in Lan Fangguo, setting off round after round of bloody storms.

According to post-mortem statistics;

The Dutch invasion of Lanfang caused more than 8,400 casualties, destroyed more than 3,000 houses, and displaced more than 100,000 people in the war, which was almost a catastrophe for a small country with a population of less than one million.

You must know that among the population of less than one million in Lanfang Country, there are only 170,000 Chinese, and the rest are all local indigenous people.

Under the leadership of Sheng Yeyun, the "Jiabidan" in Bacheng, the bloody massacre and plundering of the wealthy overseas Chinese were carried out, and most of the more than 8,400 casualties were Chinese, and the middle and upper ruling forces of Lanfang were swept away.

The Dutch army withdrew to West Kalimantan before the end of the year, and by this time the kingdom of Lan Fang was already wailing and dying in name.

The timing of this is very delicate, it is the time when the Earl of Queensland Li Fushou returned from Europe, and the British Channel Governor's Office, which was originally slow to act, suddenly accelerated its action and united with the diplomatic envoys of France, Germany, Italy, the United States and other countries to carry out international mediation.

End of December 1884

The international intervention force, with the 1st Division and 3rd Regiment of Kalimantan as the main force, marched into Dong Wanlu, the capital of Lan Fang Kingdom, and began to restore social order, maintain law and order, and conduct a detailed survey of the social situation in preparation for the resumption of construction.

In the International Intervention Force

With the 1,860 people sent by the British as the main force, 1,855 of them were officers and soldiers of the 3rd Regiment of the 1st Division of Kalimantan, plus the 5-member officer corps sent by the British Channel Governor's Office, forming the final British Dispatch Army.

France sent a company of 130 troops, Italy sent a squad of 13 men, Germany and the United States each sent two officers as observers, and Tsarist Russia and Fuso also wanted to send soldiers to participate, but the British Channel Governor's Office politely declined.

The reason is that the Earl of Queensland believes that this matter has nothing to do with the two countries, and the incident of Lan Fangguo will not be concerned by the two of them.

This made the Tsarist Russian woolly bear angry like thunder, which made the little devil of Fusang black-skinned, and secretly made another note in the small notebook, which can be regarded as hating Li Fushou, Earl of Queensland.

Lan Fang was originally a corporate republic, founded on trade, and the fishing industry and docks were ready-made, and they were not seriously damaged in the war.

Food, canned food, tents and other relief supplies from Shangri-La Island soon arrived, and after the relief supplies were distributed, the social situation quickly stabilized, and under the command of Queensland civil affairs officers, people began to spontaneously pick up the rubble and rebuild their homes.

As the leading force in the reconstruction of Lanfang Country, the money for relief materials in Queensland is not taken in vain, and the manpower and material resources invested will be converted into money, so it is logical to occupy the gold mines in West Borneo and reopen gold mining, providing a steady stream of funds for the reconstruction of Lanfang Kingdom.

The vast West Borneo gold mines are co-managed by Shangri-La Bank and Huitong Bank, and the proceeds of the two major international banks are converted into bailout funds for social reconstruction.

In fact

The West Borneo gold mines, originally owned by several major Chinese families, have now been wiped out under the brutal bloodbath of the Dutch, and the so-called trusteeship is equivalent to de facto ownership.