Chapter 125 Sixty Million Pounds

"Young master, young master, we succeeded, we succeeded!"

Early the next morning, the quiet and peaceful Huo family's back house was disturbed by Huo Long's high-pitched voice!

Opening his somewhat confused eyes, Huo Shan raised his head to look at the already bright sky outside, rubbed his astringent eyes, and prepared to get dressed and get up! In the past few days, the entire Huo family army has been preparing for the upcoming war, and Young Master Huo, who has been studying the map late, woke up a little late today! If it weren't for Huo Long's shouting, he might have to lie in bed and sleep for another hour!

"Huo Long, come in, I'm already up!" said Young Master Huo angrily.

'Squeak', pushing open the closed door, Huo Longshen walked in embarrassedly, he just got the news because he was so excited that he forgot for a while that he was not in the young master's study, but the back house of the Huo Family Villa!

"Young Master, you got up so early, I didn't disturb your rest, did I?"

Hearing his words, Huo Shan couldn't help but roll his eyes, but after seeing him a little cramped and uneasy, he immediately smiled and asked, "Say, what's the joy of exciting, you, the head of the military department, actually ran to the back house early in the morning to find me!"

"That's right, young master! I just received a telegram from Borneo that our secret operation in Singapore has been successful!" Huo Longshen said excitedly.

Hearing this, Huo Shan suddenly stood up from his chair and asked with surprise on his face, "Did you really succeed?"

"Yes, the harvest is very rich, and thanks to the airship given to them by the young master, otherwise we would not have been able to complete such a task!"

Huo Shan waved his hand, and couldn't help but excitedly turn around the room a few times, after the success of this operation, the British Empire in the entire Far East political, military, economic and other aspects, basically because of the lack of financial support, will be paralyzed, even if they get domestic allocation, then they will not make any big moves within half a year! Because their first task now is not to expand the British colonies in the Far East, but to recover this huge amount of money!

"Now I finally don't have to worry about British interference!" Huo Shan couldn't help muttering to himself. After being stunned for a while, Young Master Huo turned his head abruptly and asked happily, "How was our harvest this time?"

You must know that these two banks not only controlled all the deposits and war funds of the British Governor's Office in the Straits Settlements, but also, as the world's most important bank in the United Kingdom, second only to the British Zhōngyāng Bank, their own wealth is also very high!

"It's huge, but we've gained nearly forty tons of gold alone! plus two hundred tons of silver, and a great deal of jewelry, jade, and antiques, and nearly fourteen million pounds of paper money! All these riches add up, and we've gained more than sixty million pounds this time!" replied Huo Long, who was also excited!

Sixty million pounds, thirty million dollars, nearly 240 million silver dollars, three times the total annual allocation of the British Empire in this era!

Although this number is huge, Huo Shan feels relieved when he thinks about the busy Strait of Malacca, which is controlled by the British! In later generations, Singapore became the richest country in the world just by virtue of its superior geographical location, and it can be seen that this long and narrow waterway of hundreds of kilometers is completely paved with gold! Of course, this also aroused Huo Shan's greed for this place, and of course he also understood that this was not the time to move here!

"Tell Huo Zhiguang, who sent the dragon's teeth, to give him all his strength to protect this wealth, and send a telegram to all the troops in the Nanyang Theater to fully cooperate and transport them to Borneo Province! and hand them over to the Zhōngyāng Bank for safekeeping! In addition, all the personnel who participated in this operation were given a commendation for a one-level military promotion, as well as a material reward of one hundred silver dollars each! and instructed them to keep it strictly secret!" After listening to Huo Long's report, Huo Shan lowered his head and thought for a while, and then began to give several orders in a row!

"This time, as the world's number one power, the Rì Buluo Empire has suffered such a big loss, the arrogant British will definitely not be reconciled, and they will definitely hold on to it and pursue it with all their might! Therefore, we must be cautious at this time!" Huo Shan said with some unease.

"Don't worry, young master, we know what to do!" Huo Longshen solemnly assured. He also understands that at this time, the British who are already angry and their eyes are red, it is better not to take the initiative to provoke!

――――――

Blake looked at the bustling port of Panaji not far away, and his heart was full of worry, three days had passed since the joint expeditionary force of the two countries arrived in Goa, the Portuguese colony in India! Within three days, he received a news that made the headquarters of the expeditionary forces of the two countries extremely depressed, that the last 40,000 Dutch troops in the East Indies had been wiped out by the Chinese forces known as the People's Army half a month ago!

This also meant that the Netherlands had lost all the colonies in the Far East that they had pioneered for hundreds of years! Moreover, the expeditionary forces of the two countries had also lost their pedal in the East Indies! Now they could only cross more than 2,000 kilometers of sea to attack the coastal seaports heavily defended by the enemy! Although they now had a superior navy, the losses of the army were already foreseeable when they landed on the islands!

"General, the domestic call back has arrived!"

At this moment, a young staff officer wearing the uniform of a major in the Royal Netherlands Army walked up behind him and said in a calm tone.

Hearing his words, Blake was shocked, and quickly turned his head and asked, "Do the prime minister and the cabinet have any new instructions?"

Looking at the strong hope revealed in the general's eyes, the young staff officer hesitated for a moment before continuing: "Let's continue the previous plan and attack Java Island!"

"Alas!" Blake couldn't help but sigh heavily after receiving this answer, although he had been prepared in his heart!

The Netherlands and Portugal spent a huge amount of money to send 40,000 army forces and nearly 10,000 navies to the Far East, and it was impossible to give up the war without firing a single shot, because they lost their bases in the East Indies and because of their inferiority in the number of their land forces! In that case, the two countries would lose their colonies in the East Indies forever and become the laughing stock of the whole of Europe, so even if they faced defeat, this war must be fought unswervingly!

"General, in consideration of the difficulties we are facing, reinforcements have been sent to us now!" the major continued!

"Reinforcements?"

After hearing his words, Blake was stunned, although he did not know much about the domestic finances, but the annual military expenditure was mostly handled by him, and according to the current economic situation of the kingdom, it was impossible to form even an expeditionary force of tens of thousands of people! If it was only a few thousand people, what was the use of the current East Indies war!

Seeing the confusion on his general's face, the major hurriedly replied: "It is the reinforcements sent by the Portuguese, and they will draw 10,000 troops from their colonies in Mozambique in Africa and their colonies in India to support our landing on the island!"

"Portuguese?" said Blake in surprise!

"It seems that the country has promised them some benefits, otherwise the greedy Portuguese would not be so active!" Blake thought of the rumor that had been circulating within him before he became the commander of the expeditionary fleet, the rumor that the prime minister had ceded the Nusa Tenggara Islands colony belonging to the kingdom to the Portuguese in exchange for their assistance in sending troops!