Chapter 313: Unexpected Gains

Austrian warships came in a hurry and left in a hurry. But no matter what, the Dutch army hiding in the fortress breathed a sigh of relief. If the Austrians' goal was to land on the island and seize the island, then they would have only one option: surrender.

Aboard the super first class battleship Venezia.

"If you have any crooked ideas in your unusual brain, tell me. If you find this sea journey boring, we can also take a trip to Hue. Last time I was in the square of the vast palace of the Vietnamese emperor. After a quick walk, it’s a great place to play football,” Friedrich exclaimed.

"Play football?" Franz asked curiously.

"Yes, this is also thanks to you and Miss Agani. Now this sport is very popular among soldiers in the army."

Of course, compared to competing in person, Friedrich, a former commander, preferred to watch the battle from the sidelines and demonstrate his ability to study tactics.

In addition, the reason why the Royal Palace in Hue became suitable for football was not the result of Friedrich's indiscriminate bombing of the city of Hue. After the Austrian army withdrew, the fire in Hue burned for another three days and three nights.

"Uncle Friedrich, have you forgotten that we have an armistice agreement? You should keep a low profile at this time, instead of going to other people's palaces to show off your power. If you can't help it, wait a few years before going It’s not too late.”

There is no need to push Vietnam too hard at this time. It is better to wait for the other side to collapse internally before taking action. But Friedrich's remarks still make sense. This trip cannot be returned empty-handed.

However, the current Nanyang has basically been divided up; Singapore and Myanmar belong to the British; southeastern Indonesia and Java belong to the Netherlands; and the Philippines belongs to Spain.

Even on the island of Kalimantan, there are four forces that are intertwined. The only ones that have not been completely invaded are Siam, Vietnam, and Laos.

However, Laos was first eliminated because it was too far from the coast and had inconvenient transportation. Franz would not do it like the Italians did, overhauling railways in the colonies, emptying the treasury, and finally handing it over to others.

For Vietnam, due to the expiration date of the armistice agreement and the remaining strength of resistance, forced occupation would outweigh the gains and losses, and would attract the covetousness of other powers.

Of course, this mainly refers to France. They sent a large number of spies, missionaries, and even merchants to Vietnam to trade with Vietnam.

In addition, the French provided weapons and instructors to the Nguyen dynasty, hoping that they could drive the Austrians out of Vietnam.

Of course, the French are not really kind-hearted. They are just preparing for the invasion of Vietnam. If the Vietnamese can have another battle with Austria, it would be best for them to take advantage of it.

Then the only option left for the Austrian Empire was Siam.

However, the "wise" Rama III is very cooperative. He has offered to help Austria more than once.

But if large-scale planting is carried out in Thailand, Austria may lose its exclusive advantage in rubber resources.

However, this is of little significance. Not to mention that the cunning British would choose to secretly test seeds in other colonies. Brazil's ever-changing domestic political situation also caused it to not fully implement and comply with the agreement.

Moreover, as far as the current situation is concerned, the biggest beneficiary of expanding rubber production is the Austrian Empire, because its industry has begun to take shape due to the advantage of starting early.

Three days later, Siam, Bangkok.

The warships flying the yellow and black imperial flags slowly sailed into the port. Even the Siamese who were used to seeing Western-style battleships were attracted by the "Venecia" as a super first-class battleship; they had never seen such a huge one. warship.

The ship had just anchored, and the Siamese officials who had been waiting on the dock for a long time with a group of coolies asked the officers above if they needed help.

After the two parties agreed on the price, labor coolies boarded the ship to unload the goods. What surprised visitors from afar was that not only the officials but also the foremen were quite a few who could speak German.

"Did we go to the wrong place? If it weren't for the help of a map and compass, I would have thought we were in Kampong Som."

Friedrich said jokingly.

"No, it seems that the king of Siam is not simple."

Franz said sincerely that he understands the difficulty of survival for small and weak countries.

Friedrich looked around and snorted.

"Really? This is simply an undefended port. If the main fleet of the empire is present, this city will be razed to the ground in one day."

"Sometimes I really don't understand your warlike heart. Why do you resort to force when things can be solved politically and economically? Furthermore, the port with piles of ruins has lost its own value. Besides, other powers will Agree?"

Franz was very speechless, and then stopped a little girl who looked like she was working hard with a fruit basket on her head. He bought her fruit basket with a gold coin, picked up a durian and broke it open with his hands.

His unintentional movement made Dai Yanshanyin scream out in surprise, and Friedrich also widened his eyes in disbelief.

"How did you do that!" the latter exclaimed in surprise.

"Your Highness, the smell of this thing is really unbearable. It is probably poison. For the sake of your health, throw it away." Da Yanshanyin said while fanning the smell from the tip of his nose.

Franz had no choice but to throw the durian aside, then turned to Friedrich and asked, "Do you want to learn?"

"I have no interest in becoming a victim of such a strong-smelling weapon."

"Well, let's get down to business."

At this time, Da Yanshanyin pulled Franz's clothes. The latter followed the direction pointed by the former and saw that the little girl who had just sold fruit and was about to go home seemed to have encountered some trouble. It should be a gold coin.

"Uncle Friedrich, please send a company to follow me. I need to deal with something."

In fact, Franz had a small team of personal guards with him on this long journey. But he was not familiar with the local environment when he first arrived, so it was safer to bring more for safety.

After all, even the so-called "saints" can make mistakes, not to mention that he had just fallen in Borneo, so he must not be careless.

Next, Franz turned into the alley surrounded by more than a hundred fully armed strong men. The scene inside was naturally a scene of several gangsters robbing a little girl.

When these bullies saw more than a hundred well-dressed soldiers rushing into the alley, they were all dumbfounded, and then a great drama of a saint descending from heaven to help others was staged.

Da Yan Shan Yin took advantage of this free time to quietly pull the little girl to an area far away from the center of the conflict, preparing to ask about her family situation and give her family a sum of money to let them leave this place of trouble.

After all, all this was caused by Franz, and whether it was out of kindness or not, the little girl was involved in unnecessary troubles.

Although he can help now, the final result of such chivalrous deeds still depends on the final result. If those gangsters continue to make trouble for her and her family after he leaves, then he will harm her.

So Franz, who didn't want to be rewarded by his conscience, was ready to spend a sum of money to break it all, but the answer Da Yan Shan Yin got was that the little girl was actually an orphan.

After asking for his opinion, she took the little girl named Yakunda with her; but this did not arouse Franz's much interest.

Soon after this episode, Franz and Friedrich got the chance to meet the King of Siam. According to Siamese common sense, envoys who wanted to meet their king had to go through layers of approval and wait for a long time.

Just as the Siamese officials were lamenting the power of the neighboring suzerain, a whole fleet flying the Austrian flag sailed into the port.

The sails that covered the sky made the Siamese officials at the port sweat coldly, and the Zuo Ma Ling (a secret agency similar to Jin Yiwei) who was responsible for investigating the Austrian envoys ran back to the palace.

Rama III knew the way of survival of a small country. Although Siam was a hegemon in the Indochina Peninsula, it was just a joke in the eyes of the powerful Central Plains Dynasty and the powers that crossed the sea.

After all, at this time, Siam couldn't even deal with those fanatical Zhenla religious guards, let alone their masters?

The strength of the Austrian fleet was unprecedentedly strong. Of course, what surprised him the most was that the envoys who came this time were actually two members of the royal family.

Rama III, who had never seen a member of the European royal family, was full of curiosity, "Do they have four eyes and three legs?"

The magnificent Siamese palace complex blinded Friedrich's eyes; of course, he didn't know that the Siamese palace in history was not much better than the Phnom Penh Palace in Cambodia and the Hue Palace in Vietnam, but its special feature was that it was the only royal palace that had not been baptized by war.

He was deeply fascinated by the towering trees and Chinese-style buildings around him. This kind of magnificence is completely different from the feeling brought by ordinary European buildings nowadays. It is more like the feeling when he first saw the walls of Constantinople; a heavy sense of history came to his face, making him have an impulse to conquer this place.

Franz, who lived in Shenzhou in his previous life, and Da Yanshanyin, who was more familiar with East Asian palaces, had no feeling. But Xiao Yakunda was like entering the Grand View Garden, curious and scared.

Rama III sat on the throne of his palace, waiting for Franz and his party to arrive while listening to the reports of his ministers.

"How are their movements and whereabouts these days?"

"Your Majesty, those Austrians taught a few gangsters on the dock a lesson."

Rama III couldn't help but sigh, "Really? I didn't expect that the gangsters are so brave now. My generals were scared by the Austrian warships."

However, the monarch did not show a trace of surprise on his face, but continued to ask calmly, "Anything else?"

"They also took a little girl along the way." The minister replied respectfully.

After hearing this, Rama III's mouth curled up an arc. Sure enough, people can be bought if they have desires, even enemies are no exception.

"Bring all the selected beauties into the palace. Those distinguished guests from afar may need them."

The eunuchs of the Siamese palace naturally understood the king's meaning, and immediately went down to prepare.

An hour later, in the main hall of the palace.

Franz and Friedrich met the legendary Rama III.

Because they did not know Siamese, the language talent of these two people was useless. They wanted to ask Da Yanshanyin to help translate, but according to the eunuch who summoned him, Rama III had already learned German, so they gave up.

In the hall, the two sides looked at each other; Rama III's initial impression was that Austria might be the legendary Lilliput country, and these two royals looked even taller than himself.

(Franz 150cm, Friedrich 158cm, Rama III 160cm)

In fact, this kind of looking up and down is a very impolite behavior, but it was tacitly agreed by both parties.

Friedrich thought that the fat man on the throne was more like a grocery store owner, and did not take him seriously.

Franz had a bad first impression of the monarch in front of him. The routine fake smile and the group of ugly people he brought made him feel a chill.

However, this did not prevent the subsequent agreement negotiations between the two sides from ending smoothly in a friendly atmosphere. Rama III decided to allocate 10,000 acres of land for development and rubber planting with a stroke of his pen.

His original intention was to cater to the Austrian Empire, but he did not expect that the other party would put forward the condition that the selling price could not be lower than 1,000 florins per ton.

(The market price at this time was 500 florins per ton.)

However, this little money did not make Rama III take it too seriously, but he felt that Franz seemed to be slightly different from other powers.

The careful Rama III saw that the other party seemed to have no interest in the carefully prepared gifts, so he asked the women to leave the hall.

After that, the two sides had a very awkward and official-like exchange of flattery. Before leaving, Franz suggested, "Your Majesty, I have another request."

"Please go ahead, Prince Franz." Rama III could not distinguish the relationship between Austrian nobles.

"I met an orphan in your port and felt very sorry for him. I hope that the kind-hearted King can take him in."

"Oh? The orphans of our country are all my subjects. This is naturally my duty."

However, the monarch sneered in his heart, "This foreigner is really unkind. He actually asked someone to raise a woman for him."

Of course, Franz would not know his psychological activities. He just handed the little girl named Akunda to the other party.

Franz felt that he had finally ended a bad relationship, but he did not expect that it would become a bigger bad relationship in more than ten years.

After the trip to the palace, Franz and Friedrich returned to the warship with a batch of gifts from the King of Siam. In any case, the harvest this time was considered to make everyone forget the unpleasant trip to Borneo for a while.

10,000 mu of rubber forest may seem like a lot, but in fact, the output after rubber tapping is only about 650 tons, which is a drop in the bucket for the exaggerated growth rate of Austria's rubber industry, and it will take another eight years to harvest.

It's just that it's a little early for a fleet of this size to go to Japan to cause a "black ship incident" in advance.

Just when Franz thought everything was settled, things took a turn for the better again.

When the ship was about to enter the Strait of Malacca, a fearless boat approached the battleship "Venetiana" directly; however, it was naturally impossible to stop the battleship in motion.

There was only a crisp sound, and the boat broke into pieces. Although Franz and Friedrich didn't know what the other party's purpose was, they decided to organize the officers and soldiers on the ship to rescue the people who fell into the water first.

Soon a wet oriental woman was pulled up, but she didn't care about that anymore.

"Are you here for my Ming Dynasty? I am Zhu Qiongying, the legitimate daughter of the Ming Dynasty! Where is the barbarian chief?"

4,000-word chapter.