After dealing with the relevant matters, Li Fushou carefully considered it but found no omissions, and then he felt relieved.

As the Queensland governoral election is approaching next July, Governor Frank is ready to move. He knows that he cannot fight Speaker Li Fushou head-on, so he uses some off-the-scenes attractions, hoping to attract foreign forces to compete with the absolute advantage of the Zhigong Party in Queensland.

Power is like a glass of wine, making people fall in love with it.

He scoffed at this idiot Li Fushou. As long as he cut off his hands, feet and arms to help, he would not be able to make any big waves.

As for the white hardliners in New South Wales and Victoria, there is still time to deal with them slowly in the future, so don’t worry now.

To this day

Li Fushou should step onto the shining political stage and truly dominate the situation in Queensland in the direction he hopes, rather than using his huge influence to secretly influence the policy direction.

This is like scratching a itch through the shoe, not a long-term solution.

As the direct chief of the Autonomous Commission, the governor has direct jurisdiction over the state's industrial, commercial, finance, taxation, public security and urban construction, agricultural and animal husbandry development and other work, and is a well-deserved local emperor.

The Red River Valley Farm belongs to Queensland with a scope of less than 80,000 square kilometers. The governor has direct jurisdiction and management rights outside the Earl's fief fief.

You should know that Queensland has an area of ​​1.72 million square kilometers, and the territory of the Earls of the Red River Valley is only 4.7% of it, which is less than 5%.

If Li Fushou wants to truly control the entire Queensland and let it develop according to his own wishes, it is the best choice to ascend to the throne of governor.

Anyone who hinders this critical strategy will be kicked away.

After calming down his thoughts, Li Fushou sat back at the desk and opened the military profile of the Dutch East Indies collected by the Black Guards, as well as the size of the Dutch Kingdom fleet and other top secret information.

Know yourself and your enemy, and you will never be defeated in a hundred battles.

Stevenson, an expert on American strategy issues, wrote an article called "The United States and the Dutch East India", which did not conceal the United States' saliva for the Dutch East India;

The Dutch East India is not an independent country at all, but a land of thousands of islands and endless resources, rich in spices, tin, rubber, steel, aluminum and other specialties. It is the richest archipelago in the world...

Under the world environment at the end of the 19th century

Since its defeat in the French-Prussian War, France has been inspiring to make new achievements, vigorously develops military industry and equipment, re-arms a powerful army that is enough to compete with Germany and other powers, and launched a large number of steam iron armored battleships.

Since the 1860s, France has made every effort to develop steam ironclads, which has once surpassed Britain, which has made the British Empire feel a tangible threat, thus proposing the famous "two strong theory".

That is, the size of the Royal Navy of the British Empire must exceed the sum of the second and third-ranked navy. The British Empire thus launched a super-large-scale shipbuilding campaign, and a large number of new steam iron armored warships were launched one after another, setting a distance from European competitors.

Today's era

"British-US reconciliation" is the mainstream of the international community. The relationship between the two sides has melted rapidly since the Civil War. On the one hand, the British Empire faced joint challenges from France, Germany, and Russia in continental Europe and around the world. On the other hand, the emerging United States was suppressed and excluded by European powers, and the two sides naturally approached to keep warm.

Among the world's powerful countries, the Netherlands, which has become a third-rate, has no place at all. In the eyes of the strategists of the British Empire, the Netherlands is a "neutral but small and medium-sized monarchy that is biased towards the British-American alliance. It does not constitute as strong economic hostility as France and Russia in both South America and the Far East."

Therefore, it is neither in the interests of the United Kingdom nor the United States to attack the Dutch East Indies.

The United States may have some ideas, but the main direction of expansion is Mexico and Hawaii, and the East Indies is not yet considered.

France is focused on landing on the Indochina Peninsula, launching and consolidating colonial wars against the Kingdom of Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and other places, and even looking north to China, it has no time to take care of it for the time being.

The Dutch East Indies survives in the cracks, because the world is changing and the world is changing, and a peaceful space is temporarily obtained.

The Kingdom of the Netherlands is the in-laws of Queen Victoria. The royal family of both parties is close and belongs to the English-speaking countries. This is completely different from that of Spain, Portugal and other countries.

After considering the international trend, let’s look back at the strength of the Dutch East Indies fleet, which has a sense of desolation as it is dull.

Thinking of the Age of Discovery

The Netherlands, known as the "sea coachman", has more than 17,000 sailing ships, covering five continents of the world. The famous East India Company is a microcosm of its colonial hegemony.

To this day, the powerful "sea coachman" has become a dilapidated. The Dutch East Indies colony has more than 30 wooden sail warships, including only 6 steam ironclad ships.

Among these six steam iron armored ships, the only one that can be found is the 2,700-ton "Seven Provinces" iron armored ship. There are two ships of the same type, one on Java Island and the other on the land of the Netherlands.

As for the wooden sail warships, most of which are decayed, no more than half of them can sail out of the sea, are still equipped with bore-loading cannons at the beginning of this century, which not only have a short range but also have low power.

Such an old naval force, let alone the fleets of Britain, France and other countries in the Far East, is much inferior to the Beiyang Fleet of the Qing Dynasty.

The Beiyang Fleet ordered the new gunboats of the "Chorong" and "Yangwei" from Britain. They just returned to the Beiyang Fleet to join the line in July 1881, greatly strengthening its naval power. In addition, the six "Town" shallow water gunboats were the strongest in the Far East.

The two cruisers have a displacement of 1,350 tons, have 2 10-inch caliber main guns (i.e. 254 mm) and are quite powerful in combat.

The Beiyang Fleet ordered the Dingyuan and Zhenyuan giant ships in Volkeng, Germany, have a displacement of more than 7,000 tons. They are second-class steam iron armored battleships, with combat effectiveness among the entire Far East.

The Dutch East Indies fleet has a large number of warships, but most of them are old and equipped with boreboats lagging behind the times. The only thing worthy of *** is;

Originating from the deep naval tradition, the naval soldiers of the Dutch East Indies fleet are of high quality, and they are not inferior to the Royal Navy of the British Empire, and are stronger than the naval officers and soldiers of the German Empire.

Li Fushou silently covered the file. It was now August. The Albatross ocean-going patrol ship was first to be equipped and delivered to the Coast Guard officers and soldiers who were picked up in Portsmouth, England for training. The subsequent ships can be equipped in early September. It is expected that the two ships will set off and return by the end of September.

With these two main warships in his hand, Li Fushou is confident in dealing with the Dutch East Indies fleet. Regardless of the ship's performance, firepower, protection and speed, the Albatross fully crushed the old "Seven Provinces" steam ironclad ship.

Some people may wonder why the Beiyang Fleet ordered the 1,350-ton "Super Yong" and "Yangwei" from the UK, which are new light cruisers in the Beiyang Navy sequence. The Red River Valley was also ordered from the UK's 1,770-ton Seagull Type II, which is called a patrol ship, not a cruiser.

Comparison of the two

The Seagull Type 2 is ahead of the "Choyong" and "Yangwei". Not only does it have a displacement of more than 420 tons, but its speed of 21 knots is far ahead of the "Choyong" 16 knots.

Firepower

The "Super Yong" is equipped with two British 254mm breech-loaded main guns, one in front and one in the front and rear. The "Albatross" is equipped with two German 239mm breech-loaded main guns, which are advanced front and back piggyback arrangements. There are also 4 120mm secondary guns on both sides of the hull. The firepower of the front half is more fierce. The main gun and the secondary gun can deliver more ammunition in a short period of time.

In terms of cost

The "Schaoyong" and "Yangwei" totaled about 128,000 pounds, with a single ship costing 64,000 pounds, and the "Albatross" costing 102,000 pounds per ship. It is suitable for ocean-going navigation, with faster speeds, more stable navigation, and more intense firepower per unit time.

Why is the "Schaoyong" a light cruiser, and the "Albatross" can only be a patrol ship?

This is because the "Super Yong" belongs to the Beiyang Navy sequence of the Qing Empire and is a regular naval organization, while the "Albatross" belongs to the Queensland Coast Guard, or to the Earl's Territory of the Red River Valley, and is of a private guard.

This situation is similar to the later self-defense forces, which are standard selling dog meat with sheep's head, and their actual combat effectiveness is not inferior at all.

Li Fushou doesn't want that good reputation. He only needs to be affordable. The current military preparations are to control the deadly dog-beating stick, which makes the Dutch dare not underestimate it at all.

It is of course good if you can not fight, but once you start, your confidence will not be weak at all.

Even if the Kingdom of Dutch mobilizes domestic fleets to reinforce, the Red River Valley will also have two subsequent new ocean-going cruise ships in the end of December. It is still unknown which will win the battle between the two sides.

The Red River Valley is due to the strength of the ship and the cannons, and the officers and soldiers united as one and fought with no hesitation.

The Dutch East Indies fleet is due to its familiarity with the geographical environment, the fleet officers and soldiers are of high quality and can use old-fashioned equipment to achieve the greatest effect. This is a possible variable.

Li Fushou had a lot of thoughts in his mind, and walked to the large map of the East Indies hanging on the wall, looked carefully, and finally stayed at the position of Lan Fangguo and thoughtfully.

The position of Lanfang Kingdom is very subtle. If the fleet attacks from now on, it can cut off the spice trade line that is crucial to the Dutch East Indies, giving the other party great pressure.

Thinking of this, Li Fushou could no longer sit still and said, "I'm here."

"Master, what are your instructions?" Today, the secretary on duty was Nangong Yunfei. He came to the front quietly and bowed.

"Call Fan Zhongzhai immediately and Tian Shan comes to discuss matters."

"Yes, I'll go now." Nangong Yunfei immediately took the order and left.

Fan Zhongzhai and Tian Shan, as the leading boss in the Secretariat, have their own secretarial team around him. They do not live together in the Hubin Hotel, but each has a separate yard. Fortunately, they are not too far away.

About a few minutes later

Fan Zhongzhai and Tian Shan rushed to the study room in a hurry, closed the door and talked for a long time, and did not leave until late at night.

Preliminary agreement

As the special representative of the Earl of Queensland, Tian Shan went to Lan Fangguo to privately contact his president, explore the possibility of further cooperation between the two sides, and understand the other party's attitude, which is particularly important.
Chapter completed!