Chapter 258: Lanfang Conflict

After seeing the policy of encouraging childbirth formulated by the Andalusia region, Gao Da immediately decided to let other regional governments follow suit, trying their best to increase Spain's population growth speed.

The policies formulated by major regions did not conflict with the policies formulated by the Spanish government, and the public could even enjoy double subsidies.

Doing so could also strengthen the public's willingness to have children; if there were benefits to having children, I believe most people would still be willing to have children.

Gao Da was quite satisfied with the policy formulated by the Andalusia region, and along the way, Gao Da was also quite satisfied with the work of the Andalusia regional government.

It was a matter of course that the performance appraisals of the Andalusia regional governor and some government officials were excellent evaluations; they would more easily obtain opportunities for promotion, and Spanish newspapers would also heavily publicize their political achievements, allowing them to obtain support from more of the public.

Gao Da did not count on those regions with a population of less than one million for the time being, but for regions with a population of over one million, encouraging childbirth by imitating the policy of the Andalusia region was very necessary.

The total population of these regions with a population of over one million occupied the vast majority of Spain. If the population birth rate could be kept at around 4%—5%, Spain's newborn population each year could break 400,000.

Coupled with the endless stream of foreign immigrants and the indigenous population who joined Spanish citizenship, Spain's annual net population growth of nearly 500,000 was no problem.

Under such population growth speed, Spain had hope of reaching 30 million people before 1900, so that it could obtain enough say in World War I.

At the same time, Spain's policy of encouraging population birth also did not need to worry about being imitated by other countries at all. Because other countries did not attach such strong importance to population, and they were not willing to pay too much capital just for population growth.

While the governments of major regions in mainland Spain were constantly formulating policies and subsidies to encourage childbirth to execute Gao Da's orders, a conflict was taking place on the island of Kalimantan, thousands of miles away from mainland Spain.

As the third largest island in the world, the situation on the island of Kalimantan was quite chaotic and complex. On the island, there existed not only conflicts between colonialists but also conflicts between the indigenous people of the island.

After the Lanfang Republic obtained Spain's support, its development speed could be described as riding the dust, and its strength soon surpassed the Sarawak Kingdom in the north and the Kutai Sultanate in the east.

The strength and prosperity of the Lanfang Republic made the Dutch jealous. If it weren't for Spain's strong intervention, the vast land of South Kalimantan should have belonged to the Dutch long ago.

The most fertile land on the island of Kalimantan was the land of the Lanfang Republic. Because of the reclamation by diligent Chinese, the grain output here was several times that of surrounding indigenous countries, and the Lanfang Republic was also a famous grain production area in the surrounding area.

It was a pity that this grain production area had already been controlled by Spain, and a large amount of grain was transported from the island of Kalimantan to the Philippines every year, providing for Spanish colonialists and the local indigenous people in the Philippines.

The grain output of the Java island occupied by the Dutch was also not small, but there were a large number of indigenous people on Java island, and even the grain on Java island was not enough for these indigenous people to divide.

For the Dutch to accelerate the colonization of the East Indies, they must have enough grain output to support colonial troops and immigrants.

After thinking about it, the Dutch finally set their sights on the Lanfang Republic. Of course, they did not dare to openly invade the Lanfang Republic supported by Spain, but chose another way, which was to encourage indigenous people to invade the Lanfang Republic, while testing Spain's attitude.

The Dutch also knew about the Lanfang Republic training new troops. In order to strengthen the combat power of the indigenous people, the Dutch gathered over 10,000 firearms through various ways and handed them over to the Kutai Sultanate and the Sarawak Kingdom.

Relying on the large indigenous population and these 10,000-plus firearms, these two indigenous countries still had high hopes of posing a threat to the Lanfang Republic.

If Spain did not support the Lanfang Republic, then the Dutch could naturally take the opportunity to enter and restore control over the Lanfang Republic.

If Spain chose to support the Lanfang Republic, it didn't matter, because due to the mobilization of troops to support the Lanfang Republic, Spain would definitely reduce its investment in New Guinea.

In this way, the Dutch could gain an advantage in the colonization of New Guinea island and establish their own colony one step ahead.

No matter how the Spanish chose, the Dutch would not suffer anyway. As long as the Dutch did not take the initiative to join this conflict, Spain had no reason to declare war on the Dutch.

If the Spanish forcibly invaded the Dutch colony, the British would not sit idly by. Precisely because of this, the Dutch dared to safely plot against the Lanfang Republic, even though they knew that behind the Lanfang Republic was Spain, a powerful power-level country.

Unknowingly, the Spanish military advisory group had been in the Lanfang Republic for five years.

In these five years, the Lanfang Republic had also developed quite rapidly, and its population had even broken 4.3 million.

Of course, these populations were data after counting the local indigenous people, Chinese, and all other immigrants. If only the main ethnic group of the Lanfang Republic, the Chinese, were counted, the Lanfang Republic's population was actually still less than 600,000.

But it was precisely these less than 600,000 Chinese who reclaimed a large piece of land, making the Lanfang Republic's grain output always rank first among all countries and indigenous forces on the island of Kalimantan.

Many lands on the island of Kalimantan were uncultivated wasteland, which European colonialists and local indigenous people were not interested in, but these Lanfang people had an obsession with reclaiming wasteland.

The Lanfang Republic generally had only two types of population: one was gold diggers specifically panning for gold near gold mines, and the other was farmers living around villages and towns and cities.

If it weren't for the Lanfang Republic lacking chemical fertilizer technology, and agriculture relying entirely on manpower, I am afraid the Lanfang Republic's grain output could have achieved a significant increase.

This was also the reason why the Dutch set their sights on the Lanfang Republic. Weren't this group of people who almost didn't resist and were diligent better than those indigenous people who didn't love labor and were lazy?

Andrew Luo Suo, as the head of the Spanish military advisory group stationed in Lanfang, learned about the conflict between the Lanfang border and local indigenous people for the first time.

Because Lanfang was too far away from mainland Spain, as the head of the military advisory group, Andrew had the right to decide for himself.

Once the Lanfang Republic was invaded, Andrew had the right to decide for himself whether to help the Lanfang Republic or remain indifferent.

Of course, according to Spain's current diplomatic policy, the attitude of the Spanish government was clearly to protect the Lanfang Republic.

But if they were facing a strong enemy, such as when Britain chose to help the Dutch invade the Lanfang Republic, Andrew could remain neutral to avoid Spain being involved.

But it was very obvious that the British did not have the energy to manage the affairs of the island of Kalimantan at this time. The Anglo-Afghan War and the Zulu War had just ended not long ago; although Britain did not send too many troops, the military expenditure spent was not small at all.

If there was nothing particularly important, the British would not break out into conflict with other powers at such a moment.

After all, Britain had many enemies in various places; once Britain fell into a bitter battle, there would definitely be many people falling into the trap.

Andrew naturally understood the importance of the Lanfang Republic to Spain. After learning about the conflict between the Lanfang Republic and local indigenous people, Andrew expressed Spain's attitude to the Lanfang Republic, which was that Spain supported the Lanfang Republic in fighting against the indigenous people.

The Lanfang Republic, having obtained Spain's support, no longer hesitated; after all, their purpose in training 20,000 new troops was not to put on a show, but to protect the safety of the Lanfang Republic.

Facts proved that the Lanfang Republic sending troops was the most correct choice.

Because after the conflict broke out in the border area, the two indigenous countries had already secretly mobilized troops to invade the Lanfang Republic.

After the Lanfang Republic's new army arrived near the border, they happened to encounter the indigenous army that had crossed the border of the Lanfang Republic.

Both sides understood their purpose in coming to the border, and at the first moment of the encounter, both sides launched a fierce attack.

The Lanfang new army had undergone five years of training; although they had not participated in a real war, their combat power was not something these indigenous people could compare to.

The result of the encounter between the two sides was also very clear: the Lanfang army only suffered a few hundred casualties, and beat the indigenous army to pieces, with casualties of at least several thousand.

The moment the battle result was sent back to the Lanfang government, Andrew couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. The Lanfang new army was trained by him; if the performance of the new army was not good, wouldn't that prove his ability was not good?

Fortunately, the performance of the Lanfang new army was quite good, and it could be described as easily crushing the indigenous army. This also proved that the training method of imitating the Spanish army was highly effective, and Lanfang people could also be trained into an army with powerful combat power.

Although the Lanfang Republic achieved victory in the conflict, the necessary reporting was still indispensable. Andrew sent all the conflicts between the Lanfang Republic and the indigenous people and the battle results of the encounter between the two sides back to the country in the form of a telegram, and requested the next step of the Spanish government.

Because the distance between the two places was very far, by the time Spain received the telegram, several days had passed since the conflict broke out.

The outbreak of this conflict was actually a good thing for Spain, because it proved that colonialists including the Dutch had not given up on Lanfang.

If the Lanfang Republic did not rely on Spain's rule, it would be annexed by the Dutch at any time.

This could also let the Lanfang people understand that only by submitting to Spain's rule could they preserve their country and regime.

The current Philippines did not have enough troops to suppress the Lanfang people, so the Spanish government must ensure the stability of Lanfang.

Once a rebellion occurred within Lanfang, the Spanish government could only mobilize troops from the more distant African colonies or the mainland, which would waste a long time.

As long as the Dutch still had ideas about the Lanfang Republic, the Lanfang people would have to submit to Spain's rule.

As long as Spain occupied the dominant position, it could obtain more benefits and advantages from Lanfang. The only railway in the current Lanfang Republic was invested and built by Spanish capital; although the ownership belonged to the Lanfang Republic, Spanish capital also had the right to collect road tolls on this railway for 30 years.

There were many such cooperations, such as the grain export of the Lanfang Republic, the vast majority of which were first purchased from the Lanfang Republic by Spanish capital, and then sold to other countries and regions.

This also led to Spanish capital almost firmly controlling Lanfang's economy, the status of Spaniards in the Lanfang Republic was extremely high, and Andrew's influence in the Lanfang Republic was naturally extremely high.

In order to strengthen control over the Lanfang Republic, Spain could be described as using every possible means.

The good news was that the first batch of international students sent by the Lanfang Republic to Spain had successfully graduated, and the second batch of international students was also about to graduate.

With Gao Da vigorously developing Spain's education industry, some of Spain's universities also had a good reputation in Europe.

This also allowed Spanish universities to obtain many study abroad applications, many of which were European students, but there were also many from Asia and the Americas.

The international students at this time were different from later generations; the gold content of international students was still very high. Spain did not have any "wild chicken" (diploma mill) universities that mixed degrees; as long as it was a university focused on national development, it required students to master enough knowledge and possess a certain hands-on ability.

Especially famous science universities like the Royal Academy of Sciences attached great importance to the cultivation of students' talent. From the fact that students could join the Royal Academy of Sciences for research upon graduation, it could also be seen that the Royal Academy of Sciences attached equal importance to students' theoretical knowledge and practical ability.

Precisely because of this, the international students cultivated by Spanish universities all possessed a certain ability.

Currently, the first batch of Lanfang international students sent to Spain had successfully returned, and they had also become talents highly valued by the Lanfang Republic, and were entrusted with important tasks as soon as they returned to the Lanfang Republic.

If one had to say who was most valued at present, perhaps it was Wu Yuansheng, an international student who graduated from the Royal Military Academy.

Andrew carefully selected in the Lanfang Republic, and in the end, only less than ten people were selected to study at the Ma Deli Royal Military Academy.

And Wu Yuansheng was one of the representative figures. Because of his excellent performance at the Ma Deli Royal Military Academy, he was once received by the vice president of the military academy and was invited to stay in the Spanish army to serve.

But because of his attachment to Lanfang, Wu Yuansheng finally chose to return to Lanfang, and the Spanish side did not block him.

Wu Yuansheng and others who had just returned to Lanfang were reused by the Lanfang government, and these military academy international students all obtained the position of regimental commander plus the rank of major.

Especially Wu Yuansheng, because his performance was too excellent, his military rank was extra promoted to lieutenant colonel by the Lanfang Republic, serving as the actual leader of the Lanfang new army.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 259 =====