After taking over the Eastern Wanlu government, the follow-up to enter the Republic of Lanfang was the Heixingen Foundation, and after leaving behind an armed force of more than 300 people in the Republic of Lanfang, Archduke Ferdinand headed east with the fleet.

The 300 men did not stop at East Manlu, but continued to Pontianak, the city of the Republic of Lanfang in the south.

East Manlu is built on the west bank of the Wanlu River, a tributary of the right bank of the Kun River (Kapuas River), while Pontianak is located at the mouth of the Kun River, which is an excellent port and the largest city in Kalimantan, with a predominantly Chinese population.

Dong Wanlu and Pontianak are about twenty or thirty kilometers away in a straight line, so there is still a difference between the two cities, and Dong Wanlu can become the capital because of the gold mines, which is where the Lanfang Kingdom (company) made its fortune.

Pontianak, on the other hand, has developed into the most economically excellent city in the whole of Kalimantan by virtue of its convenient transportation conditions, where the East African Armed Forces and the Zanzibar Chamber of Commerce have made contact.

……

"Barabac Island ahead? It seems that it is another uninhabited area, similar to Sumatra! Find a place to stop over. Archduke Ferdinand took a telescope and surveyed the environment of Balabac Island.

Balabac Island is supposed to belong to the Spanish Philippine colony, which is held in the Balabac Strait, with Kalimantan Island to the west and the Philippine Islands to the east.

However, this tacit territory is not recognized by East Africa, because Balabac is really a deserted area, as Ferdinand said.

In the 21st century, the total population of Balabac Island was just over 15,000 people, and the main products were shells and coconuts.

The island has no economic value at all, and its strategic position is not reflected at all, after all, Kalimantan and the Philippine archipelago are quite backward regions.

The strategic value of Balabac Island will not be reflected until later generations of Americans set up military bases here, and in fact, the purpose of the United States to set up military bases is to make the Far Eastern powers unhappy in the South China Sea, of course, there are also reasons for the good economic development of Southeast Asia in later generations, so that Southeast Asia has a certain position in the world economic map, at least stronger than Africa.

Archduke Ferdinand and his fleet found a place where they could go ashore and prepared to spend the night, and planted the flag of East Africa on the beach.

"From today onwards, this is the territory of our East African Kingdom!"

In this way, the Kingdom of East Africa has its first colony in the South Seas, and in fact it is not right to call it a colony, and there are not even a few people on Balabac Island.

In the following days, Archduke Ferdinand and his navy simply set up a military fortress at the landing site, leaving behind twenty or thirty men and some supplies to prepare to begin their journey north.

Balabac Island has no economic foundation at all, the whole island is a tropical rainforest, and the people who stay behind cannot be allowed to eat coconuts to satisfy their hunger.

The occupation of Balabac Island is so unpretentious, there are many terra nullius like this, there are many in the Pacific Ocean, and in the previous life, Germany planted its flag on uninhabited islands in the Pacific Ocean like East Africa, and obtained a large number of overseas colonies, such as Nauru Island in the reserve of the German Marshall Islands in the previous life.

Ernst knew that Nauru was rich in guano resources, but the East African Navy made its first voyage, and the destination was not there, and the East African Navy had to make up a lot of lessons, so he first took Balabac Island to practice.

East Africa does not have the ability to enclose islands in the Pacific Ocean on a large scale, and Balabac Island, for example, belongs to the Philippine archipelago and part of the Palawan Islands.

In the future, it should belong to the Philippines, which is now the Spanish East Indies, but it is useless to just declare it, and when the Spaniards discover Balabac Island, the Germans are afraid that they will have to wait for the Year of the Monkey, because the population of these islands is too sparse, like the discovery of the Germans on Balabac Island is probably a difficult task to find a needle in the sea, and the Spaniards will not care if they find it, Balabac Island has nothing but the rainforest.

Just like Nauru Island, it was the British who discovered Nauru Island, but it was not until 1888 that Germany designated Nauru Island as its own German colony in a pile of scraps, and no one knew the value of guano (phosphate) on the island.

Balabac doesn't even have guano, so what's the point of East Africa occupying Balabac? In addition to training the navy, the most important thing is to use it as a springboard, with Mindanao in the Philippines to the east, Palawan to the north, Kalimantan to the west, the South China Sea to the northwest, and a bunch of islands of the Far Eastern Empire in the South China Sea to the northwest.

"The supplies left behind are enough for you to stay here for three months, and when we arrive in Zhuhai, we will send a message to the country, save some ammunition, and be prepared in case you encounter wild people."

Savages are true savages, and there are also savages in the Congo rainforest in East Africa, which are not the same as the general aborigines, no matter how backward the aborigines are, there are also tribal civilizations, and the savages are not even mixed with tribes.

"This location, if you want to explore the interior of the island, it's best to go in a group, but don't go deep if there is no big situation, there are generally swamps or dangerous creatures in the rainforest area, although I don't know if there is one on Balabara Island, it's better to be careful."

Before boarding the ship, Archduke Ferdinand carefully instructed the soldiers who had been left behind that this was indeed a difficult task.

The rainforest is probably only slightly more difficult to survive than in northern Siberia, but Balabac Island is small in size, otherwise the traffic alone would be enough to make people's scalps tingle.

The difference between rainforests and ordinary forests is that the water is deep, which is also an important reason why rainforests are difficult to develop, after all, it is the rainy season all year round, and it may rain at any time, even setting fire to the mountains will not work.

Balabac Island is a little better, it's smaller, and it's easier to drain rainwater into the sea, but if it's an island the size of Papua New Guinea, it creates massive wetland swamps.

In fact, this can be seen from the neighboring island of Kalimantan, but Kalimantan is still relatively populous and a little more civilized.

……

It took eight days for Archduke Ferdinand to finally arrive at the port area of Zhuhai in the Far Eastern Empire with his fleet, and Archduke Ferdinand finally had the opportunity to see for himself the largest existing ancient civilization in the world.

"The Far East has a very developed agriculture and an urban population comparable to that of Europe, and if you consider its size and population, the potential of this country is really too great."

Archduke Ferdinand spoke highly of him when he first arrived in the Far East, but he did feel uncomfortable with one thing, and that was the strange hair ornaments of the Far Eastern Empire.

"Your Excellency, don't be surprised, the history of the Far Eastern Empire is very long, but our understanding of the Far Eastern Empire in the West only stays in the stereotype of the Qing dynasty, in fact, it can be seen from the ancient paintings of the Far East that they did not have this hairstyle more than two hundred years ago."

"I know this, and there are a lot of Far Eastern paintings in Ernst's collection, but you can only feel them when you go deep into the environment, and I have seen them in books before, but when I came to the Far East, I found that the experience can only be understood and not expressed."

Archduke Ferdinand felt that it could only be described by a "strange" word, without any derogatory meaning, the most popular hairstyle for men in East Africa was the inch head, so in addition to skin color, Ferdinand felt that the East Asian immigrants in East Africa were not much different from Europe, and they seemed very energetic, but the Far Eastern Empire gave him the feeling of malnutrition, yellow face and thin muscles, and even less mental state than the black people in East Africa.

This is to be sure, before the Germans colonized, the Negroes lived on abundant natural resources, and they had no worries, hunting when they were hungry, picking wild fruits, and engaging in activities, dancing, and drawing tattoos.

Rich meat supplements, plus eating well, sleeping well, no worries, can the mental state be bad? On the contrary, after the Germans came, their mental state declined rapidly.

(End of chapter)