Chapter 408: Is It Worth It?

Chapter 401 Is it worth it?

"There are too few berths in Pontianak Port. We need to add a few more berths, and we also need to add yards and warehouses."

After Elvis left Pontianak and entered Dongwanlu, the home of Lan Fang Company, Liang Yao, who was stationed in Pontianak, decided to invest some money in Pontianak's infrastructure after investigation.

With his current strength, the low level of development of Borneo Island, and inconvenient transportation.

It is unrealistic to want to control the entire Borneo Island.

But controlling the coastal strongholds, connecting points to lines, and lines to areas, and then slowly controlling most of Borneo Island, especially the rich coastal areas, is still possible.

"California Ports has experience in expanding the Port of San Francisco, the Port of Los Angeles, and the Pearl Harbor. There should be no problem in letting them do this.

It's just that it will cost a lot of money. San Francisco is the largest port on the West Coast, and Los Angeles has oil. Expanding the ports in these two places will pay off in a short time.

But Pontianak has nothing. Is it worth it to invest here?"

Speaking of expanding ports, Deng Wenkang couldn't help but think of the three ports of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Pearl Harbor.

Of these three ports, San Francisco has already paid off. After the discovery of oil in Los Angeles, the Los Angeles area is rising day by day, and it is only a matter of time before the investment in the port pays off.

As for Pearl Harbor, it is still maintained by the American Group at a cost.

If you want to make an analogy, the situation of Pontianak Port is similar to that of Pearl Harbor. Both are isolated overseas, not in California, and no high-value strategic resources such as oil have been discovered for the time being.

As for rubber, it will take at least eight years for rubber trees to mature.

Pearl Harbor is a transit station connecting California and East Asia, and it is necessary to maintain it, but is it necessary to spend a lot of money on Pontianak? Deng Wenkang was upset about this.

"It's worth it. If you want to achieve great things, you still have to have a long-term vision." Liang Yao stared at the simple Pontianak Port and said.

"If we control Pontianak, we will have the hope of controlling Borneo Island. If we control Borneo Island, we can project influence to the whole of Southeast Asia. There are many Chinese in Southeast Asia. As long as we can be tough here, they will seek our protection. By then, it will only be a matter of time to squeeze the Dutch out of Southeast Asia."

"Just them? Forget it. Before the Lan Fang was destroyed, they quarreled over the division of the Dongwanlu gold mine. They couldn't work together. It would be difficult to rely on them to deal with the Dutch." Deng Wenkang shook his head and said.

"Did I say I wanted to destroy Lan Fang?" Liang Yao smiled, "If they were united, we wouldn't have a chance to get involved in what's going on here, which is why I sent you here."

After all, there were only a few people in Lan Fang who were willing to serve the Dutch as traitors. Liang Yao's purpose of sending troops to Dongwanlu was not to destroy Lan Fang, but to change the management of Lan Fang, eliminate the traitors, and then let Umbrella merge Lan Fang.

"How to deal with those captives and Dutch expatriates? Although there are only over 3,000 of them, it's a lot of money to support them." Deng Wenkang asked Liang Yao how to deal with those captives.

"3,000 people? I remember we only captured 700 to 800 Dutch sailors and Dutch soldiers? Where did more than 3,000 people come from?" Liang Yao felt that this number was wrong.

"There were only 1,200 Dutch, including expatriates, but there were many native soldiers captured one after another, as many as 2,500. These natives were either local pro-Dutch chiefdom soldiers or soldiers of the Dutch Royal Dutch-Indonesian Army." Deng Wenkang reported to Liang Yao.

"We are short of manpower to develop the rubber plantation. Send them to open up the wasteland. As for the Dutch, let them have enough food. The food expenses will be settled with the Dutch later." Liang Yao said, scratching the stubble on his chin.

The local chiefdom is so poor that they definitely can't afford to redeem people.

Of course, they won't redeem them even if they have money.

As for the captives of the Dutch Royal Dutch-Indonesian Army, the Europeans and the white Dutch-Indonesian authorities will definitely pay for their redemption.

The Dutch don't care about the lives of those Javanese and other ethnic natives.

Liang Yao does not lack excellent army soldiers, but he lacks qualified naval soldiers, especially experienced and qualified naval soldiers.

These captured Dutch crew members are all very good crew members. If they can win over these crew members with rich sailing experience and combat experience, they can also improve their maritime power in a relatively short time.

"With so many captives, are the Dutch willing to pay for redemption?" Deng Wenkang was a little worried.

"They are willing to pay. What the Dutch lack is not money, but people." Liang Yao said very confidently.

These are more than 1,200 Dutch and other European captives. Even if the Dutch-Indonesian authorities do not want to pay for their redemption, the public opinion in the Netherlands will not agree.

"Yes, I understand." Deng Wenkang nodded and agreed.

"Any news from the nearby chiefdoms?" Liang Yao asked about the local chiefdoms.

"I have sent someone to pass on the message. Ye Tenghui said that the local natives are intimidated by the Dutch and are unable to make a decision for the time being. They dare not come to Pontianak to see you." Deng Wenkang said.

"However, the chief of the Pontianak chiefdom, Alkadri, has a more ambiguous attitude towards us, but he dare not express his position openly, fearing that the Dutch will settle accounts later."

There are many chiefdoms on the island of Borneo, but in West Borneo, the chiefdoms that Liang Yao needs to deal with are only the Pontianak chiefdom in the south, the Sampha chiefdom in the north, the Sintang chiefdom in the east, and the Brunei chiefdom in the northeast.

Except for the Brunei chiefdom, which is pro-British, the rest of the chiefdoms are pro-Dutch.

Liang Yao wants to maintain relatively stable control over the West Borneo region centered on Pontianak for a long time, so he must weaken and even eliminate the influence of the Dutch-Indonesian authorities on these chiefdoms.

"They are worried that the Dutch will settle accounts later, but they are not worried that I will settle accounts with them now?" Liang Yao sneered.

"Give them an ultimatum, either come to Pontianak to see me obediently, or I will send troops to invite them to Pontianak and let them choose. It will be faster to settle accounts with them from Pontianak than from Batavia."

Crusen fled back to their old nest Batavia with the remnants of his defeated army.

After this battle, the East Indies fleet suffered heavy losses.

This is the biggest loss suffered by the Dutch-Indonesian authorities since this century.

And the cause of this loss was actually the private armed forces of an American politician, which was unacceptable to the Governor of Batavia, Tevez.

Use our naval guns to teach these yellow monkeys a lesson, teach the proud Americans a lesson.

This was the slogan shouted by the Dutch in Batavia before the East Indies.

After the defeat of the East Indies fleet, there were fewer such voices in Batavia.

Many people believed that it was because they underestimated the enemy that they lost the naval battle.

The defeat of the East Indies fleet was not the worst news for Tevez.

Soon, a worse news was delivered to the desk of the Governor's Office.