More than a month later

Palembang

A large luxury cruise ship docked at the dock, and a large group of richly dressed high-class gentlemen and ladies and high-ranking generals, surrounded by His Royal Highness Tang Li Xin, Prince of Pingxi, who was preparing to return to the imperial mainland, were saying goodbye on the dock.

Prince Pincy, as the commander of the expedition, has basically completed his mission, and it is time to return to the Kingdom of Ohio.

They were accompanied by some officers who had been transferred back to China, some of whom had entered military academies for further studies and were ready for promotion, and some of whom had received new appointments and returned to North America with their families.

"Seventy-one brother, the king has heard about Bandayachi, it is a long-term unstable area, which is a headache for the Dutch." Prince Pingxi Tang Li Xin has a strong aura, holding the marshal's noble scepter in his hand, and is seriously instructing Brigadier General Tang Li Yi.

For this royal brother who is at the bottom of the ranking, he still takes good care of him as an imperial brother, and continues to explain;

"It is the king's intention to arrange for the armored division to guard Banda Aceh, and although it is chaotic and the indigenous Aceh people are wild and untamable, it is a good place to make achievements.

What the Imperial Panzer Division has done proves that you are a person with a heart and will not fail to live up to the arrangements of this king.

Even if the means are a little harsh, the benefits are for the present and the future generations, and this is a necessary measure to completely integrate the Aceh region.

This king has already explained to Commander Liu Guozhong, be more tolerant of Aceh affairs, and your armored division can let go and do things, and you don't have to look ahead and backward. ”

"Thank you for the royal brother's care, the foolish brother is very grateful." Brigadier General Don Li Yi replied with a fist in his bow.

The imperial brother did not call Wei by his position in the army, but affectionately called "seventy-one brothers", he naturally followed the good and called each other by the imperial brother, which was more intimate.

As a matter of fact

In this Tang-Dutch war, the intersection of the two was a little more.

In the past, I had only met a few times from afar at grand royal events, and I had never even talked.

His Royal Highness Tang Li Xin, Prince of Pingxi, is the prince of Empress Lin, and his identity is many times more noble than that of these princes?

In addition, Prince Pingxi has been fighting in the south and north for decades, and he is one of the few giants in the imperial military, and his military rank and status are more noble, and he has little intersection with a small colonel or even a brigadier general.

The age difference between the two is 17 years, almost a generation.

But this time, when he was in the expeditionary force, Prince Pingxi gave the armored division a lot of special attention, which made Brigadier General Don Li Yi feel a lot of warmth in his heart.

After the dock goodbye

His Royal Highness Don Li Xin, Prince of Pingxi, led a group of attachés to board the luxury cruise ship, and the military band played a majestic movement, and the beautiful melody echoed on the pier.

The luxury cruise ship sounded a long air whistle and slowly left the dock, and His Royal Highness Prince Pingxi, who was standing on the side of the cruise ship, waved his hand frequently and said goodbye to the crowd of people who saw him off.

"Master Shiza, His Royal Highness the Prince has left, let's go back too?" Colonel Pan Zhixin came over and said.

Brigadier General Don Li Yi stood by the dock, his expression stunned, and he could feel the deep care of the imperial brother for him.

Now that His Royal Highness Prince Pingxi has left, I feel a little uncomfortable in my heart.

Hearing Colonel Pan Zhixin's gentle advice, he looked back.

on the pier

Many of the high-ranking generals and the high-ranking noble gentlemen who saw them off had already dispersed, and they got into their cars and left the dock in a puff of smoke.

This time I came to Palembang, first, to see off His Royal Highness Prince Pingxi. The second is to participate in the high-level military meeting of the Sumatra Corps, which will make adjustments to the next step of the army's deployment.

As the situation on the island becomes more stable, the Corps is about to begin the process of retiring veterans and recruits as a routine of each year.

This year's veterans will definitely be placed on the island of Sumatra, most of them are military and police, major docks and grassroots positions in government departments, which are all the practice of the stable society in the new colonies, and it goes without saying.

"Let's go, let's go back too." Brigadier General Tang Li Yi glanced at the back of the cruise ship in the distance again, and then said.

Got in the car

The black sedan drove on the flat and wide new avenue, and the street trees transplanted on both sides of the road looked like neat queues of soldiers, revealing a new atmosphere everywhere.

Palembang was the first place where the Imperial Army landed, and construction began relatively early, with most of the highways on the outskirts of the city already built, and only a few roads still under construction.

This has given Palembang a new look, and factories such as cement factories and oil mills have been built, bringing a lot of jobs to the local area, and many new Chinese immigrants have become part of the workers.

The factories and enterprises run by these Chinese capitalists are generally impossible to recruit local natives, but they will recruit unemployed whites.

This was the customary rule of the multi-ethnic society of the Tang Empire, whether it was in the empire itself, in overseas provinces, or in new colonies.

As the car drove into the city of Palembang, it was time to see groups of white prisoners of war toiling to build houses and bridges under the scorching sun, turning their skin red.

"Master Shizao, I always feel that the Dutch's head is caught in the door panel, and they actually take the initiative to sue for peace, why do you have to set the preconditions for the return of Sumatra and Kalimantan?" Colonel Pan Zhixin smiled bitterly and shook his head, obviously puzzled.

What was lost on the battlefield, the Dutch delusionally wanted to take back from the negotiating table, is really a bit fantastical.

Brigadier General Tang Li Yi sat in the back seat of the car with Erlang's legs crossed, looked at the receding scenery outside the window, and said with a flat expression; "It comes from the self-confidence of white Europeans, especially the old colonizers of the Netherlands and Spain. Although they are not good at governing colonies, they are good at bargaining in diplomatic negotiations, but they are good at fishing in troubled waters. ”

"Master Shizao, aren't they worried about the more than 50,000 white prisoners of war in our hands?"

"Brother Zhixin, the armistice negotiations are not so simple, the East Indies are the crown jewel of Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. Spices and tropical products were sold in Europe, and the annual income from the colony was close to half of the Dutch government's finances. How can you give up so easily? ”

"Dying to the end is a humiliation!"

"Hehehe, Brother Zhixin understands better than the Dutch. The recent military operation of the Royal Fleet on the island of Java, with the bombardment of the ports of Batavia and Surabaya, must have made the Dutch feel painful, right? ”

Speaking of which

Brigadier General Don-Li Yi showed a look of pride on his face, which was a sincere pride for the Empire.

With a powerful fleet of five 12,000-ton Duke-class ironclads, it is an unrivaled naval force in the entire Pacific region.

Wherever the muzzle of the gun is pointed, it is the unquestionable jurisdiction of the empire, and no refutation is accepted.

Even the Royal Navy of the British Empire stationed in India's Third Fleet is slightly inferior in strength because it is equipped with mostly second- and third-class ironclad ships that have been eliminated by the home navy.

As for the Fuso Navy, it is even less worth mentioning.

The Tang Empire was committed to encompassing the entire Pacific Ocean as a small imperial pond, and the invasion of the East Indies was part of this long-term strategy.

The purpose is to improve the layout of the Pacific Rim colonies and further consolidate and strengthen the dominant position of the Tang Empire in the Pacific region.

In the vastness of the Pacific Ocean

The Royal Navy occupied all of the islands that could allow human survival, and set up garrisons of varying numbers.

Dozens of people, hundreds or thousands of people, most of them were used to exile criminals from the empire itself.

This was a very deterrent policy, which greatly reduced the crime rate in the empire itself.

Everybody knows;

If a crime is thrown into a forced labor camp, there is at least some hope that he can be reintegrated into society. If you are exiled to an isolated island in the Pacific Ocean, you will be blind in this life.

As a matter of fact

These exiles from the empire itself were not so bad, and the local garrison managed the other exiles through the good behavior.

Let them reclaim the fields, grow vegetables, grains, melons and fruits, raise cattle, sheep, chickens and ducks, and even go to the sea to fish, and try their best to achieve self-sufficiency in living materials.

A well-behaved exile can also have a local indigenous woman, and he will not have a bad time having children on an isolated island.

Unfortunately, from the day of exile to the Pacific Island, it meant that it was impossible to return to the empire.

The terrible legend of exile on the island has always prevailed in the Empire, which will sober up the hot-headed cowboys and have a great deterrent effect.

There are many islands in the Pacific Ocean, such as Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu Island, etc., some have more populations and better natural conditions.

Some are on the Pacific migration route, and ships are coming and going. Some are more remote, and it is rare for imperial cargo ships to arrive during the year.

It is worth noting

All of the exiles were of Chinese descent, which was apparently a deliberate attempt by the Empire to increase the local Chinese population.

At the end of the 19th century, in the world of the world, including Europe, the criminal law was harsh, and the famous French writer Victor Hugo wrote "Les Misérables", the protagonist Jean-Argent was sentenced to five years of hard labor in a quarry for stealing a piece of bread.

Later, because he could not bear the torture, he escaped several times, and after being recaptured, his sentence was extended to 19 years.

In the United Kingdom, a teenager was sentenced to exile in Australia for stealing two pounds of cotton yarn.

There are countless similar examples, basically as long as the criminal law is violated, the sentence will be very heavy, and the same is true in the Tang Empire.

The so-called stealing chickens and dogs, it is impossible to catch and release them, and basically if they are caught, they will be thrown into a hard labor camp or sentenced to exile.

The difference is what you stole from?

Smoking low-value items such as chickens, ducks and geese is almost 2~3 years of hard labor, and if you are a habitual offender, you will have to double it.

If you steal donkeys, mules, horses, cattle and other large animals, then you have to congratulate you, and you are happy to mention a ticket to exile on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean, and you can basically say goodbye in this life.

In any case, there will be no return to the empire itself.

The most interesting thing is the Germans, Kaiser Wilhelm II has always wanted to have all German colonies in the Pacific, even if it is a deserted island.

The German expedition had been roaming the Pacific for many years, visiting almost every Pacific island belonging to the empire, and finding not a single island that could be colonized.

The reason is simple, these are owner's territories.

Some of the Pacific islands that belonged to the French in the early days were also bought by the Tang Empire for a small amount of money. The Pacific islands, which belonged to the Spaniards, were directly occupied, such as Oahu and Saipan.

The Germans arrived too late, and they couldn't even eat a little leftovers. (End of chapter)