Chapter 104: The Talents of the Captives

Pete looked pale at the Chinese army that was chasing the Dutch soldiers' buttocks and poured into Batavia, and muttered to himself: "It's over, the Dutch East Indies colony will never come back!"

"General, look!" at this moment, a young major beside him pointed and pointed in horror to the location of the Governor's Palace, which was not far away, and opened his mouth to shout.

Seeing his panicked appearance, Pete couldn't help frowning, he was very dissatisfied with the behavior of his subordinates who did not have the slightest concentration! However, he still looked in the direction of the major's finger!

Immediately, a dazzling white sè appeared on the office building of the Governor's Palace, replacing the original bright and dazzling national flag, which symbolized the sovereignty of the Kingdom of the Netherlands!

"Surrender!!" Pete whispered in a lonely voice, and then sat down on the ground weakly, and the telescope fell from his hand, rolling away and not moving!

At the moment when the white flag was raised, all the Dutch soldiers who saw it were stunned, although they were indeed not opponents of the enemy, but it did not mean that they were not patriotic!

Throwing down their rifles, most of the Dutch soldiers sat down on the ground and hugged their heads, and a low whimper sounded over Batavia, forming a lament of the end! It symbolized the final end of the Dutch regime in the East Indies!

At this moment, the soldiers of the Huo family army who caught up from behind did not go up to disturb them, although they were a loser in this war for the ownership of the East Indies, but the patriotism they showed at this moment made every Huo family army soldier who saw this scene respect!

"General, I hope you treat my soldiers well, they should not be victims of this war!" said Pete in a hoarse voice after his eyes were red and he handed his saber into the hands of Wang Xiangzong, who had arrived to surrender.

"I can promise you that these soldiers will be imprisoned in prisoner of war camps and exchanged for their labor for supplies for their lives, but we will not mistreat them! Their lives will also be guaranteed! Of course, if the Kingdom of Holland is willing to pay a ransom for them, they will also be able to return to China!" Wang Xiangzong agreed solemnly after taking his command knife.

"Thank you! Can I take a tour of Your Excellency's troops!" Pete, relieved by his assurance, asked, for he was so curious about the mysterious Chinese army that had defeated him! Moreover, he had heard many legends about this army in the past nearly a year!

"I'm sorry, General Pete, this involves some secrets of our army, I'm afraid I can't promise you!" Wang Xiangzong didn't have any ill feelings towards this general of the Royal Netherlands Army!

"I know, I'm too abrupt! Can I know what you're going to do with me, a captured Dutch officer?" asked Pete with a smile.

Hearing his words, Wang Xiangzong couldn't help but smile faintly, "Hehe, I heard that before the general joined the army, he was a top student who graduated from the medical school of Leiden University in the Netherlands?"

"How do you know?" asked Pete in surprise! From the Netherlands to the East Indies is thousands of miles away from the ocean, and the communication in this era is still backward and slow, and almost all the countries in the Far East are closed and backward feudal empires, it is hard to imagine that they would do such a detailed investigation of their own experience! And listening to his tone just now, it seems that he still admires Leiden University!

"General, although our army does not have a high level of education, it is not ignorant of this world, and the head of our army has always admired a world-class famous school like Leiden University in the Netherlands, as well as its reputation in the educational world!" Wang Xiangzong replied with a smile. Of course, almost all of what he said was heard from Huo Shan, and when the young master mentioned Leiden University in the Netherlands, his envious look made him remember it deeply!

Although Pete is now captured, he is still sincerely happy to hear others praise his alma mater!

In later generations, Leiden University is one of the world's top 100 universities, and Einstein, known as the greatest scientist of the 20th century, lived here for more than 20 years, and many of the professors of this university are future Nobel Prize winners, and have a high reputation in later generations!

"General Wang, I don't know what my status as a graduate of Leiden University has to do with my current treatment after being captured by you?" said Pete with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Of course there is a connection, and the connection is big!" Wang Xiangzong said with a smile and some exaggeration.

"Teacher, Mr. Da Meng, the quality of these Dutchmen is good, right?" Huo Shan looked at the excited two of them and asked with a smile.

"Not bad, not bad, it's just great, 26 doctors, 98 masters, 269 bachelors, so many senior talents together, enough for us to establish a comprehensive university!" Rong Hong looked at the list passed from Nanyang, and couldn't help but answer excitedly!

Since the beginning of Huo Jiajun's first five-year plan, Huang Sheng's work has become more and more busy, and the work of the Ministry of Education has become weak, so he has no choice but to pull his old friend, who did not want to be an official before, to the position of Minister of Education.

Looking at the excited gods of the two, Huo Shan was happy in his heart, but at the same time, he couldn't help but be a little annoyed, if it weren't for the resume of Pete, the commander of the East Indies garrison of the Royal Netherlands Army, when he found out that he was born in Leiden University, a world-famous school, he suddenly realized that he almost forgot that there was such a treasure trove of talents around him!

You must know that education in Europe has been popularized for a long time, and their talents are not only abundant but also numerous, and the Netherlands, which used to be a coachman at sea, is one of the best, and the domestic economy is developed, and the popularization of education is not far behind! Therefore, many of these officials of the Dutch Governor's Office and many officers in the army have the experience of studying at universities, and many of them are rare high-level talents!

"This is a big solution to our big problem! We used to recruit university teachers in Europe and the United States, but when people heard that they were coming to the Far East and coming to the Qing Kingdom, no matter how high the price we offered, they were not willing to do it! I thought that the two universities involved in our five-year education plan could not be established, but now with these teachers, I am afraid that we will be able to establish one more comprehensive university in five years! This is really great!" Rong Hong said with his eyes red with excitement. Since returning to China after completing his studies, after seeing the ignorance and backwardness of the country, he has been running in many ways, and finally facilitated the completion of more than 120 young children studying in the United States, but the Qing court's prudence in popularizing new education made Rong Hong, who was dedicated to cultivating high-level talents for the country, lonely, so he did not hesitate to throw himself into the arms of Huo Jiajun after seeing the huge study abroad team and education development plan thrown out by Master Huo! Of course, there is also a part of Huang Sheng, who is an old friend, and the reason for persuasion!

"Huo Tian, I'm afraid that your Ministry of Industry and Commerce has also gained a lot of money, right?" Huo Shan didn't disturb the two old men who were obviously caught up in the imagination of a better future, and turned his head to the young man who was sitting next to him with the same smile on his face.

Speaking of those Dutch captives, Huo Tian could not hide the joy in his heart, "Yes, young master! What these Dutch people did not say about their craftsmanship and knowledge, we have captured nearly 60,000 Dutch soldiers before and after, and except for 20,000 of them, who are peasants, beggars, criminals, and other people we don't need, almost all of the others have the experience of working in factories, and many of them are also skilled engineers! I believe that if they join us in our five-year industrial plan, then after five years, it will far exceed the industrial scale we originally formulated!" Moreover, with these Dutchmen, in one to two years, they will train us several times more industrial workers than this! This will greatly increase the speed of our industrial development! Young master, I have to say that this war is really good, I can't help but add millions of square kilometers of land, and there are tens of thousands of talents that we urgently need in the fields of economy, industry, education, etc., young master, we will have to fight a few more battles like this in the future!"

Listening to Huo Tian's babbling words, Huo Shan could feel that he had really made a lot of money in this war! Not only the talent and land, but also the fifty tons of gold, five hundred tons of silver, and the antique calligraphy, paintings, jewelry, and jade collected by the Dutch in Batavia that they had not yet had time to transport!

"I believe that with the harvest of this battle against the Netherlands, in a few months, when the second phase of the war comes, they will not have the slightest objection!" Huo Shan looked at the smiling people in the study with a smile, and secretly thought in his heart.