Chapter 234 Money! Make money first! (Second update, please subscribe)
Sometimes, people are afraid of being forgotten.
As soon as you are noticed, someone may come.
Speak of Cao Cao, Cao Cao has arrived.
A B24 bomber was flying above the sea. Amidst the roar of the engine, the passengers in the cabin desperately covered themselves with blankets to resist the cold at high altitude.
"God bless you, but you must not touch a Japanese plane."
While covering his body with a blanket to resist the cold wind pouring in from the shooting window, Lord Bilster was worried about the Japanese plane that might appear at any time. ——After all, many places, including Sulawesi, were under the control of the Japanese army.
Worrying about his own safety, Lord Bilster thought to himself,
"Why did I get so confused that I accepted this assignment from the board of directors?..."
< br>Errand, what kind of errand is it?
Of course, it was to take back the oil fields and refineries belonging to Royal Shell Oil Company from General Lee.
Lord Bilster is a title that Marcus inherited from his grandfather, Marcus Samuel Sr., who was the founder of Shell Oil Company. Although in more than 30 years Before, it had to merge with Royal Dutch Petroleum Company in order to avoid bankruptcy, but the Samuel family has always been an important major shareholder of the company.
The oil fields in Borneo are the most important oil fields of Royal Shell Oil Company. After the Allied forces began their counterattack, the board of directors had been looking forward to returning to Borneo, but soon, news came from Asia. They were dumbfounded.
Because the Dutch East India Army was unable to attack Borneo, the task was handed over to the Australian Imperial Army by the Allies. However, due to the refusal of the Australians, this task fell on the Borneo Guard Force.
Where did this army come from?
It took them a long time to figure out where this force came from - mercenaries from the North Borneo Company.
As soon as they heard about the North Borneo Company, the board of directors of Royal Shell Petroleum Company became nervous. They knew all too well what the oil fields in Borneo meant to the North Borneo Company.
It is wealth!
For a business, nothing is more important than making money.
Will North Borneo Corporation willingly return those oil fields and refineries?
No one knew the answer, but after learning that they were denying the Dutch East Indian troops access to Borneo, the board of directors of Royal Shell had to seriously consider the issue.
It is obviously impossible to get the oil fields back as soon as you open your mouth. The other party will definitely put forward some conditions.
Probably blackmailing them.
In the end, they sent a special envoy. After all, some things have to be faced.
And Lord Bilster is their special envoy, because he holds the title of the British Empire. The British Empire's brand name is enough to make the other side fear it.
After all, the North Borneo Company was a British colonial company. It would certainly be easier for the British to resolve some issues than for the Dutch to do so.
However, neither the board of directors nor Lord Bilster thought at all what they would encounter here.
When Lord Birster's plane landed at Sandakan Airport, Li Yi'an was on the plateau inspecting the construction progress of the university - Nanyang University. In the construction plan of Borneo, this university was It is truly the number one project because this university has a stake in the future of Borneo.
The future lies in talents. It is impossible to support an industrial power by relying solely on German scientists and engineers. Only by cultivating its own talent team can we achieve truly sustainable development.
The planned Nanyang University is a large-scale comprehensive university that can accommodate 24,000 students at the same time. As for the student source, Li Yi'an is not worried. Not to mention that the domestic student source is absolutely sufficient, even in Germany. From their searches and troops, tens of thousands of college-level young people could be drawn out. They did not enter college not because of lack of ability, but because the number of college enrollments was too limited—for example, Southwest Associated University only enrolls a few students every year. Hundreds of people.
The only problem is the school building. In order to allow the university to start teaching as soon as possible, there are more than 5,000 construction workers on the university's construction site, working on multiple teaching buildings at the same time. After inspecting the construction site, we almost walked nearly Ten kilometers.
Dragging somewhat heavy steps, Li Yian and Sun Yujie, director of the Preparatory Office of Nanyang University, walked into the wooden room together. Here, Li Yian received a call from the secretary's office.
“The special representative of Royal Shell Oil Company, the British Lord Bilster, arrived in Sandakan on a special plane and asked to meet with Li Yi’an.”
“Speak of Cao Cao, Cao Cao arrived, but he came after all. ! "
Li Yian stood up and said.
"I will return to Sandakan now... No! Let that lord come to see me!"
Li Yi calmed down and sat back on the chair again.
"There are a few things that we need to do as soon as possible. First, speed up the construction of the school building and strive to put the school building into use before March next year. Second, notify Zhu Yihai and let him start recruiting students in China. The quota Tentatively, 20,000 people are the minimum. The more students, the better. In the future, we will not only have a Nanyang University, but also a junior college. Third, speed up the immigration introduction work. We must not stick to the formality and introduce as many immigrants as possible as quickly as possible. , Bring in labor force. Four..." Compared with that Lord Bird, the construction of the university is the most important at the moment. He is just an expired nobleman. Is it necessary to see him?
There is no need for that at all.
Yes, people always get a little excited when there is an opportunity to extort money.
The first meeting between Lord Birster and Li Yi'an was at the university construction site. When he first saw this huge construction site and knew that it would be a university, he had a feeling that this person was different from anyone he had come into contact with before.
“At least this is a person who has received Western education, so he should be able to talk about it.”
Lord Bilster has such confidence,
“It seems that this time It won’t be a waste of time.”
But soon, he realized that he had thought too much. In other words, I think about things too simply.
"Your Excellency, you are here just in time. I have a bill here."
"What? A bill?"
Lord Bilster was a little confused.
“My army, I mean my army, Mr. Lord, you know, my army is not affiliated to any country, he is a mercenary of the North Borneo Company, for a just cause, we We came here and helped you drive away the Japanese, but now we need to settle a score..."
What account?
Of course it was the war debt. In fact, Li Nian originally planned to discuss this debt with the Dutch officials, but after he refused the request of the Governor of Dutch East Indies to station in Borneo, the other party stopped bothering him. He gave him no chance to hand over the bill. Now, Lord Bilster came just in time.
Royal Shell Oil Company...that is also from the Netherlands!
Let him send a signal to the Dutch first.
After all, we are businessmen, not robbers. Absolutely no robbery.
“First of all, when I attacked Taragan Island, in terms of ammunition, I spent about 15,000 tons of ammunition. The ammunition alone was more than 30 million U.S. dollars, which also included pre-war training, troop transportation, and personnel. Casualty pensions, and other aspects of expenditure totaled 51.24 million U.S. dollars. Secondly, during the attack on Balikpapan, we fired more than 250,000 artillery shells..."
In simplicity After introducing the expenditure on recovering Dutch Borneo and the oil fields, Li Yian said with a smile.
“For now, our company has spent a total of US$350 million to recover Dutch Borneo and your company’s properties. It is expected that after the land recovers Banyan, the total expenditure will exceed US$1 billion,”< br>
Did you really spend that much money?
The answer is of course no, but the bill must be that much.
There are at least a hundred very shrewd German accountants in Sandakan, and they are producing the bills there with the unique German shrewdness.
As we all know, when fighting, a lot of money is spent!
"Mr. Lord, about 40% of it involves your company's industry. When will you pay this debt?"
What?
Arrearage!
Lord Bilster almost exclaimed.
"Your Excellency General, what does the expenditure of war have to do with us? This is war, it is military expenditure..."
"But we are not an army or a country. In business, this You and the Dutch government will definitely have to pay for it."
Li Yian shook his head.
“After all, hiring mercenaries costs money, and mercenaries are very expensive, and the cost is increasing every day!”
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(End of this chapter)