Empire Rise: Spain

Chapter 181: Lanfang Military Advisory Group

To demonstrate the emphasis on navy development, Carlo personally attended the groundbreaking ceremony for 11 small and medium-sized warships and also inspected the construction progress of the Revival ironclad ship.

Although these small and medium-sized warships were basically British designs, the Royal Guanyizo Shipyard made certain improvements on this basis, making them slightly different from the original British designs.

But in reality, the differences were not significant, merely changing the caliber of the cannons and slightly increasing the tonnage of the warships.

The good news of doing so was that Spain could claim these warships were independently developed, making the public believe that Spain possessed richer experience and excellent concepts in shipbuilding, thereby increasing the national pride of the Spaniards.

After all, warships that were independently developed and built would certainly sound more pleasing than imitating foreign warship models.

In any case, there were no patent rights in warship designs; countries generally imitated the better warship types, improving shortcomings and enhancing advantages.

As the nation with the strongest navy, Britain’s warship designs were imitated and studied by various countries. Spain doing so was not special; it could even be said to be a tacit choice of many countries.

Spain’s recent naval expansion actions also made the Dutch very panicked. Although the Netherlands mainland was tens of thousands of miles away from Spain, the Dutch East India Colony and Spain’s East Indies archipelago colony were now theoretically bordering each other.

The two colonies were only separated by the Sultanate of Brunai, where great powers had interests; further south was the territory controlled by the Dutch Kutai Sultanate.

Spain’s massive warship construction was certainly not for the mainland; considering Spain’s expansion in the Philippines and Borneo regions, the Dutch believed it was necessary to strengthen the defensive strength of the Dutch East Indies Colony. On the day after Spain grandly began building 11 warships, the Dutch government urgently decided to dispatch an army of more than 2,000 troops to the East India Colony and build two brand-new 1,000-ton coastal defense gunboats in the East India Colony.

Such 1,000-ton gunboats lacked blue-water combat capabilities, but they were still very useful in Borneo and the surrounding archipelago.

Whether suppressing local indigenous people or defending against Spanish expansion, this army of more than 2,000 troops and two brand-new warships could play a certain role.

The Dutch had also considered seeking British help, but the British attitude was somewhat ambiguous, clearly unwilling to directly assist the Dutch.

It made sense. The area of the Dutch East India Colony was not small, which elevated this industrial power’s overall strength to one of the top ten nations in Europe.

Having appropriate competition between the Netherlands and Spain was beneficial; at least it could make the Netherlands understand Britain’s importance, making the Netherlands obedient without other thoughts.

However, this was not so wonderful for the Dutch. If Spain’s actions were only these, it would be fine, but Spain had already reached a cooperation agreement with the Netherlands’ vassal Lanfang Republic.

The Lanfang Republic had submitted to Dutch rule decades ago, and the Netherlands obtained a considerable portion of its tax revenue from this land each year.

The main reason for the establishment of the Lanfang Republic was that the gold prospectors on this land had reached a certain scale.

The wealth created by these gold mines was partly obtained by the Lanfang Republic, and another part became tax revenue, paid to the Dutch East Indies Colony.

For the Netherlands, losing Lanfang meant not only losing this portion of tax revenue but also worrying about threats from Lanfang.

The Dutch rule over Lanfang was not mild; it was filled with uninterrupted exploitation and invasion. After these Lanfang people gained a much stronger ally, would they remain indifferent to the previous Dutch invasions? Of course not.

This also meant that in the future on Borneo, the Dutch might face a situation of being sandwiched between the Spaniards to the north and the Lanfang people to the west.

A single Lanfang was not taken seriously by the Dutch. But if it was the Lanfang Republic supported by Spain, the threat would be incomparable to Lanfang alone.

After all, the Netherlands was a nation with a population of over four million; the army it could organize was limited, and the troops available in the East India Colony were even more limited.

On July 21, 1875, the Spanish military advisory group finally arrived in the Lanfang Republic, to help the Lanfang Republic establish a new army and better safeguard national sovereignty.

The leader of this military advisory group was Andrew Rosso, who had not appeared for a long time; he was now a lieutenant colonel, previously serving as regimental commander of the 25th Infantry Regiment of the 6th Infantry Division of the Spanish Royal Army, personally appointed by Carlo as the commander of the resident Lanfang military advisory group.

As for Camann Esposito, like Andrew, also a trusted subordinate from Italy to Spain, he had been promoted to colonel and served as regimental commander of the 3rd Artillery Regiment of the 2nd Artillery Division of the Spanish Royal Army, receiving even greater reuse.

This also reflected the focus of Spanish army development. Because the Spanish army had relatively few personnel, the importance of the even fewer artillery divisions was higher than that of infantry divisions.

Camann Esposito had clearly integrated into the Spanish artillery forces; even in the Defense Department’s plans, if the artillery forces continued to expand in the future, he had hope of becoming deputy division commander of a new artillery division, thereby gaining the opportunity to become a division commander.

From the current situation, it was indeed so; Camann Esposito, who graduated with a major in artillery, had a brighter future than Andrew, who majored in infantry. After all, infantry combat currently had no overly fancy tactical systems, and cultivating infantry commanders was simpler.

If Camann Esposito had integrated well into the Spanish army through his own abilities, Andrew’s situation seemed somewhat awkward.

It was not that Andrew lacked ability, but Carlo currently needed to reuse more Spanish mainland officers.

As an Italian, Andrew’s positioning in such a Spanish army was awkward, unlikely to receive greater reuse.

After all, as a trusted subordinate from Italy to Spain, after consideration, Carlo made Andrew the commander of the resident Lanfang military advisory group, responsible for helping the Lanfang Republic establish their new army and trying to handle colonial affairs.

In the future, if nothing unexpected happened, Andrew had hope of becoming one of the Spanish colonial governors. After all, he also had a nobility title; although it was the lowest baron, he was indeed one of Spain’s many nobles.

In addition to Andrew as the commander of the military advisory group, Medino, the previous military person in charge of exploring Africa, was also appointed by Carlo as the deputy commander of the military advisory group.

Like Andrew, Medino was also one of Carlo’s trusted subordinates. Both had abilities; they were not suitable for heavy reuse in the army, but they could exert their abilities in other areas, such as colonial affairs.

From Spain to Lanfang, one needed to cross the Mediterranean Sea, pass through the Suez Canal and the Red Sea, then cross the entire Indian Ocean, and finally arrive at Borneo via the Strait of Malacca.

This was an extremely long journey; the military advisory group took more than two months—accurately two and a half months—to arrive at Borneo.

The Lanfang Republic attached great importance to the arrival of the military advisory group. Of course, they had no choice but to attach importance. After all, Spain was currently the only force they could rely on, and Spain’s power was something they could not resist.

“Esteemed envoys of the military advisory group, welcome to Pontianak.” As soon as the ship carrying the military advisory group docked, the current grand governor-general of the Lanfang Republic, Liu Asheng, King Wu Guanghuai of the Daiyan Kingdom, and numerous Lanfang Republic officials had already quite sensibly stood at the port, specially coming to welcome the advisory group.

For the Lanfang Republic, they kept their posture very low. After all, the current situation was that the Lanfang Republic had requests of others, while Spain was the strongest of the two.

As the commander of the military advisory group, Andrew stepped forward first, nodding with a smile, showing no arrogant demeanor.

Before coming to the Lanfang Republic, Carlo had already instructed Andrew on the purpose and tasks of the military advisory group to Lanfang, as well as how to interact with Lanfang Republic officials.

First, before completely defeating the Dutch colonial forces, Spain would not actively antagonize the Lanfang Republic; this was also why Andrew’s attitude was relatively amicable.

Of course, if the Lanfang Republic officials did not know their place, Andrew would follow Carlo’s orders and make them understand Spain’s power.

Andrew was an Italian who had learned Spanish after several years in Spain. But the language used in the Lanfang Republic was Chinese language, and the Lanfang Republic’s governor-general Liu Asheng did not know Spanish or Italian.

This required translators for communication between the two sides; fortunately, due to long-term contact with the Dutch, the Lanfang Republic domestically had a small number of translators who understood European languages.

The most mainstream European language was French, after all, France had once been the most powerful nation. Although the usage scenarios of French had slightly decreased, it remained one of Europe’s mainstream languages; basically, most European nobles spoke French.

Besides French, there were many relatively mainstream languages, such as Spanish language, English language, and German.

Spanish language was not an obscure language, which was why the translators here knew Spanish.

Compared to Spanish language, Italian was currently indeed a relatively obscure language. Besides use within Italy, Italian was rarely seen elsewhere in Europe; even in Italy’s diplomatic occasions, Italian was not used unless with even weaker countries.

“Esteemed envoys, our country has prepared a sumptuous welcome banquet for you; please proceed.” Lanfang Republic grand governor-general Liu Asheng said with a smile.

After hearing the translator, Andrew nodded with a smile, giving his attitude: “We would be delighted.”

Although the purpose of the military advisory group was to help the Lanfang Republic establish a new army, this was obviously not something that could be completed in one day.

Andrew was not hasty about this day; instead, he wanted to understand the current situation of the Lanfang Republic as much as possible, thereby determining how to establish and train the Lanfang Republic’s new army.

Fortunately, Spain already had experience in army reform and had transported several batches of weapons and equipment to the Lanfang Republic.

The Lanfang Republic currently stockpiled over 20,000 old-style muskets and more than 1 million rounds of ammunition; forming a new army of around 20,000 troops was completely feasible.

For the Lanfang Republic, with a Han Chinese population of just over 500,000, forming a new army of 20,000 was almost the limit.

If the numbers were larger, regardless of whether there were enough weapons and ammunition, the Lanfang Republic could not afford so many soldiers.

The group proceeded grandly to the residence of grand governor-general Liu Asheng, where relatively sumptuous dishes had been prepared, specifically to entertain the military advisory group members who came from afar.

At the banquet, Liu Asheng introduced to Andrew some of the Lanfang Republic’s main military officials, as well as King Wu Guanghuai of the Daiyan Kingdom, and stated that the Lanfang Republic new army’s commands would follow Andrew’s command and arrangements.

The cooperative attitude of the Lanfang Republic made Andrew quite satisfied, but Andrew clearly could not fully believe the words of the Lanfang Republic officials.

After the gathering ended, Andrew returned to the rooms prepared by the Lanfang Republic for his group to rest and understood the current situation of the Lanfang Republic through information.

The establishment history of the Lanfang Republic was quite complex, and even the current political system of the Lanfang Republic was relatively complex.

Saying Lanfang was a country was correct; saying it was merely a Han Chinese company was also correct. Although there was a so-called grand governor-general as the ruler, Lanfang’s system did not resemble a complete country; it was more like a company with an army.

The Lanfang Republic had been established for nearly a century, with the Han Chinese population reaching a peak of 500,

But the current situation of the Lanfang Republic was relatively poor, with some population loss. Many Han Chinese chose to go to the northern Sarawak Kingdom, where new gold mines awaited exploitation.

Meanwhile, a considerable portion of the Lanfang Republic’s gold mines had already been mined, and gold prospectors naturally preferred unvisited gold mine areas.

Additionally, the Dutch mad expansion severely squeezed the living space of the Lanfang Republic and the Daiyan Kingdom.

The so-called Daiyan Kingdom was actually an indigenous force in the east of the Lanfang Republic. The first king of the Daiyan Kingdom was Wu Yuansheng, founder of the Jusheng Company, the predecessor of the Lanfang Company.

At that time, the Jusheng Company was also a relatively large Han Chinese company on Borneo, but because Luo Fangbo, a subordinate of Wu Yuansheng, gradually surpassed Wu Yuansheng in prestige, the Lanfang Company eventually replaced the Jusheng Company.

After Wu Yuansheng’s status was replaced, he was sent to guard the Daiyan Sultanate to the east of the Lanfang Company. Because the sultan king at that time was extremely brutal, causing dissatisfaction among local indigenous people and a few Han Chinese, Wu Yuansheng eventually killed the Daiyan Sultan and was acclaimed by the local indigenous people as the new Daiyan King.