After inspecting East Kalimantan, he led a group of high-level government officials to inspect South Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan, passing through North Kalimantan and finally arriving in Lan Fangguo.

Everything he saw along the way was quite satisfying.

Before the development of the large chemical industry, the whole of Borneo was dominated by agricultural economy and characteristic plantations, rich in spices, natural rubber and rice and other crops, especially in Central Kalimantan, from the port of Semuda to the north to the city of Sampit, and then more than 100 kilometers to the southeast to Palangkaraya, tens of thousands of square kilometers are contiguous rice producing areas.

It is the second largest rice granary in the Qingshui River Basin after the Qingshui River Basin, supplying the food needs of more and more people in the Ocean Kingdom, and there is still spare energy to export to Java and other places, and the agricultural production base has been quite strong.

North Kalimantan, on the other hand, has cultivated large areas of rubber plantations and sugarcane forests, which have become an important base for the export of special cash crops in the region, and on this basis, more rubber plantations are being developed to meet the increasing demand.

By the end of 1896

Borneo has a population of more than 4.3 million people, 16 million acres of fertile land, 24,000 kilometers of roads, 660 kilometers of railways, more than 8,700 kilometers of irrigation rivers and backbone ditches, more than 800 bridges and culverts, 17 coastal ports, and infrastructure construction into a network, which has effectively guaranteed agricultural production and laid a solid foundation for the next step of development.

Look at it as a whole

The development of Borneo by the Ocean Kingdom is still far from enough, most of it is concentrated in the coastal depth of 100 kilometers, only the grain producing area of Central Kalimantan Sampet City ~ Palangkaraya City is deep inland, reaching as far as more than 270 kilometers along the narrow strip of rivers.

The developed area occupies 12% of the area of Borneo (which belongs to the Kingdom of the Ocean), and large inland areas are still covered by untouched tropical rainforests for thousands of years, and this boundless green sea is still waiting to be developed and exploited.

At the end of 1896, King Li Fushou completed a one-and-a-half-month expedition to Borneo and returned to Australia by boat.

At this time, the Borneo fleet, which was patrolling the waters off Batavia, had returned home and completed the deterrent cruise mission.

The stern signal from here was soon received by the Kingdom of the Netherlands, much to their consternation.

The Governor's Office of the Dutch East Indies, which connived at the reckless acts of the local aborigines to brutalize Chinese immigrants, has been stopped by an urgent order from Amsterdam, ordering it to immediately strengthen the control of law and order in the Surabaya area, severely suppress the local aboriginal riots, reasonably compensate the losses of local Chinese merchants, and try to seek the understanding of the Ocean Kingdom to avoid unspeakable incidents.

On January 11, 1897, Zheng Yunsong, the diplomatic representative of the Consulate of the Ocean Kingdom in Batavia, signed the "Memorandum of Understanding on the Aftermath of the Surabaya Incident" (referred to as the "Surabaya Memorandum") with the Governor of the Dutch East Indies. It stipulates that cities with large Chinese populations, such as Batavia and Surabaya, are areas of special concern for the Ocean Kingdom.

The Dutch East Indies has solemn assurances that the Dutch East Indies will earnestly strengthen regional security by the Chinese community, including citizens of the Ocean Kingdom, to have equal and fair rights to do business, buy real estate, and to ensure the safety of their persons and property.

The Surabaya Incident ended with the powerful oppression of the Governor's Office of the Ocean Kingdom, and was forced to sign the "Surabaya Memorandum" in humiliation, which was no less than a resounding slap in the face, and the consequences can be imagined.

The current Governor, Viscount van Haelsmaa-Buffon, was impeached by the Parliament of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and the governor's term of office came to an end in a hurry, and the new Governor was on his way by boat.

But this is no longer about the ocean kingdom, this matter has been publicized by local public opinion in Australia, and another round of patriotic upsurge has been set off in the country, and citizens are deeply proud of the country's strength, which has greatly deepened the sense of belonging.

Today's citizens go to overseas countries, and they will repeatedly emphasize their official status as citizens of the Ocean Kingdom, and are reluctant to mention the Manchu Dynasty to which they belonged in the past, which brings them only humiliation and white eyes.

End of February 1897

The Qing court issued an edict of the emperor, and immediately crowned the governor of Liangguang, Gu Yanchuan, the prince and prince, a scholar of Wenhua Palace, and a first-class resolute earl, in reward for his merits.

Due to his advanced age and lack of physical strength, he was allowed to remove his post as governor of Liangguang and return to his hometown.

It is hereby ordered that Gu Zhixue perform his duties as the governor of Liangguang, and that he should conscientiously guard the southern frontier and be loyal to the monarch and the lord, so as to live up to the trust of the association......

This belated appointment to the imperial court broke the silence of nearly half a year, and finally relieved Li Fushou, who was far away in the Ocean Kingdom, and his efforts for half a year were finally not in vain, and the court softened.

Although there was no explicit order to open the sea, for those shrewd and slippery governors everywhere, this imperial court appointment was no less than a beacon.

But if you don't know how, that's stupid.

The current situation is already very clear, the imperial court is submissive in front of foreigners, even if Gu Yanchuan, the governor of Liangguang, is so reckless, he still gets a good home for being promoted to a knighthood and returning to his hometown.

Gu Zhixue took over the post of governor of Liangguang, sat in the Liangguang region to listen to propaganda and did not listen to the tune, and held 70,000 new troops, as if he had become the hegemon of one party, which made people doubt whether the Liangguang region belonged to the imperial court or the Gu family.

However, this was the grotesque scene that happened in Shenzhou at the end of the century, and the prestige of the imperial court was greatly damaged.

In the Liangguang region, there is a faint momentum of becoming the leader of the alliance in the southeastern provinces.

Under the leadership of covert forces, the governors of the southeastern provinces tacitly relaxed the imperial court's strict measures to prohibit the sea, and the process of immigration was slowly recovering, but it would take time to return to the scale of 1895.

The huge and bloated Qing Empire was slow to respond, coupled with the prevalence of bureaucracy, excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes, and the outrageous slow efficiency of the government, and the suffering of the common people was not taken into account at all.

Even if the immigration department is anxious, it can only succumb to reality and get through one link after another step in a step-by-step manner.

The serious impact on the ocean kingdom has already been caused, in 1897 1~3 months, the total number of immigrants is only 46,600, only 1/9 of the previous year, with the efforts of the immigration department, it is expected that there will be a recovery growth in the second quarter and the third quarter.

Considering the full support for the construction of the large chemical industry, all the Chinese immigrants are currently invested in the Balikpapan area to meet the demand for a large number of laborers for the construction projects everywhere and ensure the smooth progress of the Kingdom's number one key project.

There have been no immigrants arriving for three months, which has directly led to a significant increase in the salary level of local employees in Australia, and the impact has been passed on to overseas states, where there has been a shortage of labor market and a large increase in wages to varying degrees.

In April 1897, the Greco-Turkish War broke out.

The Greco-Turkish War referred to the war between the Greek Kingdom and the Ottoman Empire for the island of Crete.

As early as May 1896, the Greeks on the island of Crete revolted to annex Greece in order to free themselves from the brutal oppression of the Ottoman Empire, and in November of the same year, the Ottoman Empire declared war on the Cretans in response.

In February 1897, a force from the Kingdom of Greece came to the aid of the local Greek descendants of the revolt, and the British, French, Russian, German, Italian, Oceanic Kingdoms, and Austria-Hungary declared Crete to be autonomous under "European protection", with a very clear bias.

On 5 April, Greece sent a landing force to occupy the island, and the Ottoman Empire declared war on the Kingdom of Greece, and the Greco-Turkish War officially began.

Li Fushou doesn't care about these things in Europe, there is a war every once in a while, and when there is almost no stop, he is now concerned about another thing.

On April 9, 1897, at the "Winner's Cup First Power Aircraft Design Grand Prix" held in Brisbane, the biplane power vehicle designed by the Chinese engineer Fu Changge and Fu Changsheng brothers, named "Kunpeng No. 1", carried out a 270-meter-long powered flight at the flight site, which was considered to be the world's first aircraft flight and went down in history, won the Grand Prix 5000 gold award, and won the "Winner's Cup".

Li Fushou flipped through the resumes of the Chinese engineer Fu Changge and the Fu Changsheng brothers, whose father belonged to early Chinese immigrants, named Fu Dexing, who ran a small inland shipyard in Songjiang City, and lived in relatively wealthy conditions.

Fu Changge and Fu Changsheng immigrated to Australia in 1883, when one was 13 years old and the other was 9 years old.

The brothers have been immersed in shipyards since childhood, and have a great interest in mechanical design, and when they grew up, they were admitted to the mechanical design major of Red River Valley University as an engineer, and worked in the design department of Phoenix Bicycle Factory.

In Australia

The glider sport from the West is nothing new, Fu Changge and Fu Changsheng are both senior members of the Songjiang Changkong Glider Club and have hundreds of glider flight experience.

Over the years, various design dreams and blueprints of power aircraft imported from the West have been widely known in the glider club, and there are also many interested people who have started to study them, and Fu Changge and Fu Changsheng brothers are one of them.

Thanks to the government's preferential policies to guide the development of science and technology, the brothers have received 200 gold from the "National Science and Technology Innovation Fund" for scientific research, although the money is not much, but it has greatly encouraged the enthusiasm of science and technology people.

The real catalyst for qualitative change was the government's announcement of the "Winners' Cup First Powered Aircraft Design Grand Prix", which caused great repercussions in the kingdom, attracting hundreds of scientific and technological innovators to participate in the competition, and dozens of aircraft design schemes appeared.

It is precisely because of the previous accumulation that Fu Changge and Fu Changsheng brothers, with their solid engineering skills, designed the upper and lower wings on the basis of the glider, in order to expand the wing area, and used the 16-horsepower gasoline engine of Volkswagen as the power, after dozens of technical verification and field flights, they finally successfully designed the "Kunpeng No. 1" biplane.

This was six years ahead of the original history when the Wright brothers designed the first aircraft in 1903.

Li Fushou touched his chin interestingly, and a full sense of accomplishment filled his heart.

One accident, he changed history again.

It seems that as long as the direction is pointed out, the hard-working Chinese scientists are not lacking in creativity, the world's first inflatable bicycle, the first tractor, the first car, the first tank, the first plane are all from Australia, the ocean kingdom has become one of the mechanical science and technology powers.

The School of Science and Technology of the University of the Red River Valley is one of the world's top science and engineering institutions, and has made a great name in the world's scientific and technological circles.

The innovative transmission technology laboratory is also well-known, and has developed a series of high-tech products such as three-speed gearbox and clutch, which have been quickly put into industrial application and achieved dazzling economic returns.

To the emerging world mechanical science and technology power, the Ocean Kingdom is second only to Germany and the United States in this field, limited by the size of the population and scientific and technological heritage, what is lacking is only a single category of mechanical science and technology, not a leading field of mechanical equipment and manufacturing.

Even so, it is enough to be proud.

Through the intervention of science and technology policy, Li Fushou has incubated many important scientific and technological achievements in advance, which makes him happy, but also has a kind of confusion and anxiety about the future in his heart.

The instigation of the butterfly's wings greatly diminished his prescient advantage.

Without strong follow-up support, where these scientific and technological achievements incubated in advance will lead the world is an issue that must be highly valued.

Pinch your fingers and do the math

The birth of the world's first inflatable bicycle has formed many bicycle brands in the Ocean Kingdom, which are blooming in the market competition, and the products are exported to Europe and the United States, and are widely popular.

There are two crucial factors in this, the first is that Goodyear Rubber holds many patents on air tires, although there are many infringers in Citigroup who have seized a considerable part of the market.

But this problem is not a cause for concern, and it makes him rampant for a while, and after many years, he can naturally settle accounts after the autumn, so that these infringers who follow the trend will even spit out their principal and profits.

The second is the resource advantage of natural rubber in the Ocean Kingdom, which is located in the Jinshui River Basin and the endless natural rubber plantations in North Kalimantan, which is a sufficient foundation for the development of the tire and rubber industry in the Kingdom.

According to statistics

The natural rubber of the Ocean Kingdom accounts for 72% of the world's production, Malaya and Penang under the British Channel Governor's Office account for 13%, Northern Thailand accounts for 4.2%, Central America accounts for 6.59%, and other scattered tropical regions occupy the remaining share of production.

From the distribution of resources, it can be seen that natural rubber plantations are basically distributed along the equator, except for a few areas in Central America, most of the production is concentrated in the oceanic kingdom and the British Straits Settlements, accounting for 85% of the total, if you add the northern region of Thailand close to 90%.

Nowadays, in the overseas states of the Ocean Kingdom, the 3~8-year rubber plantations under development have entered the rubber tapping period, which will further promote the production of natural rubber and effectively guarantee the development of the tire industry and the natural rubber industry.

This is a resource advantage that other regions cannot catch up with no matter how much they pat the horse, and they can only be greedy, but there is nothing they can do.

Natural rubber trees are not casual plants, they have very high requirements for climate, rainfall and sunshine, the closer to the equator line, the more obvious the geographical advantages, the higher the yield, the better the quality of natural rubber.

It can grow elsewhere, but don't be too demanding on quality.

The development of automobiles, tractors and other industries have benefited from this, and the Ocean Kingdom has a heavy tax on the export of natural rubber, with a tax rate of up to 78%, which leads to the unprofitable export of natural rubber puree, and can reasonably avoid taxes and win more profits by processing them into industrial products and then exporting.

For the capitalists, what to do is self-evident.

The lack of natural rubber resources, coupled with the lack of core patented technology, has made industrial countries such as the United States, Germany and France unable to develop and expand industries such as automobiles and tractors, and have gradually been left behind by the ocean kingdom, and the distance is getting farther and farther.

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