On May 6, 1910, King Edward VII of Great Britain and Emperor of India died of pneumonia at Buckingham Palace.

There are many theories about the reasons for Edward VII's death, some of which are simply ridiculous, but this does not affect Edward VII's belovedness.

Of course, the reason for this love is really a bit unspeakable, the British royal family in recent years is really speechless, Edward VII himself has been talking about the affairs of the government and the public, and then the other members of the royal family are not willing to be lonely, and have contributed a lot of talking points to the public.

The most speechless was Prince Albert Victor, the eldest son of Edward VII, who was born frail and mentally deficient, his teachers could not teach him anything, and medical experts could not give him a specific treatment plan.

The Prince was initially sent to Cambridge University, but the lecturer said that he was so ambivalent and slow that he could not even understand the meaning of the word.

Then the prince was sent to the army, but he could not understand even the basic orders, and he was also unable to adapt to the life of the army.

Although the prince has intellectual disabilities, but the instinct is very strong, he overindulged, contracted syphilis at the age of 20, and later had problems with sexual orientation, Edward VII in order to restore the first heir to the British throne to normal, for the prince to choose a beautiful and virtuous wife Mary, hoping that the prince can return to normal after marriage.

Mary was the Prince's cousin, a descendant of King George III, but the Prince died before he could get married, so the Prince's younger brother George became the first heir to the throne and married Mary in 1893.

This George is George V, who ascended the throne after the death of Edward VII.

With such a big incident happening in Britain, it is natural that they have no intention of paying attention to the troubles of the Dutch, and the protests of the Dutch government are like sinking into the sea, and there is no response.

After the death of the king, the Viceroy Viscount Gladstone and the Prime Minister Ade must have returned to England to attend the funeral of Edward VII, and before leaving, Viscount Gladstone and Ade specially summoned Roque to Pretoria.

"I don't know what's going on in the East Indies, but as you all know, the Umbrella Company is a mercenary company, and as long as the money is enough, it can accept anyone's employment, and maybe the indigenous Umbrella Company of the East Indies wants to overthrow the Dutch rule." Roque pushed it all out, though the reason was not convincing.

Viscount Gladstone and Ade obviously didn't expect Roque to come up with such a clumsy reason, which was obviously not even perfunctory.

But from another point of view, this reason can actually be justified, and there is no problem with logic.

"Locke, Holland is important to us." Viscount Gladstone tried to convince Roque.

If you look at the map, you can see that if you don't take into account the English Channel, the location of the Netherlands is right between Germany and the United Kingdom.

However, this is of little significance to the arms race, the Netherlands is weak and does not dare to express any opinion in the current international affairs, Germany needs to cross the English Channel if it wants to attack the British mainland, and it is simply a flat horse to attack the Netherlands, so the Netherlands does not help on either side, and does not dare to help.

"Where does it matter? The Netherlands can help us implicate the German dreadnoughts? Or can it help us share the pressure from the land? Roque didn't believe this nonsense, the Netherlands chose neutrality in the First World War, the Dutch gold reserves increased by 4.5 times during the war, and at the end of the First World War, the value of the Dutch gold reserves was nearly twice the total face value of the Dutch mainland and colonial banknotes, so the Netherlands would help the British?

This was just wishful thinking, and before the war broke out, both Britain and Germany wanted to win over the Dutch, so the Dutch could play left and right.

"Locke, the Netherlands is an independent country after all, you always have to pay attention to the influence." Ade also doesn't believe Roque's nonsense, and Ade knows Roque better than Viscount Gladstone.

"Your Excellency the Governor, Your Excellency the Prime Minister—" Roque was courteous and thoughtful, and he must give face that should be given, and he would have to speak after the nonsense: "—First of all, I did not attack the East Indies for no reason, and if the East Indies had not seized the Ark, I would not have gone on an expedition—"

Since Viscount Gladstone and Ade didn't believe it, Roque stopped quibbling and simply opened up and said: "You all know the situation in southern Africa, we are underpopulated, seriously under-employed, since fifty years ago we have reimbursed immigrants who are willing to come to southern Africa for immigration expenses, help them settle down, give them farms, give them living materials, give them cattle and sheep, but what is the effect? Still no one wants to come to our southern Africa, and the population of our southern Africa has not exceeded 10 million until now, so I will try every means to emigrate from the Qing Dynasty - the Dutch are entrenched in the East Indies, relying on the exploitation of the East Indies to maintain a luxurious life at home, we are engaged in an arms race with Germany, we are trying to maintain the international law that has always been there, but what are the Dutch doing? They are pulling our hind legs and seizing our ships, just for the private interests of a certain official, if the Netherlands has strong strength, forget it, but with the current Netherlands, hehe, please forgive me for my presumptuousness, the current world is the law of the jungle, with strength, in order to have a matching status, a country like the Netherlands, sooner or later will be eliminated by the world, if the East Indies are controlled in our hands, it will play a greater role. ”

After listening to Roque's words, Viscount Gladstone and Ade looked at each other, not knowing how to respond.

Everyone understands the law of the jungle, but no one brings it to the table for public discussion.

Roque's words can be regarded as tearing the veil of warmth under international law, what colonial system, what Three Emperors Alliance, all are the interests of Hongguoguo, and Britain really watched the Dutch occupy the East Indies indifferently?

Don't be funny, Britain is just involved in most of the energy by Germany, and there is no spare energy to deal with the Dutch, the Cape was originally a colony of the Netherlands, and the Boers are the descendants of the Dutch, and now the Cape is the Cape state of the Federal Government of Southern Africa, and the Boers are now British nationals, so the relationship between Britain and the Netherlands will be very good?

If he said this, I am afraid that both Viscount Gladstone and Ade would blush.

"The actions of the Umbrella Company are not state actions, but corporate private actions, if the Dutch have the ability, then they can completely defeat the mercenaries of the Umbrella Company to regain lost territory, I will never use a single soldier of the federal government to participate in the war, but if the Dutch cannot defeat the mercenaries of the Umbrella Company, then they also deserve it, an independent country, if even a company cannot be defeated, then this country should not exist." Roque is indifferent, so he doesn't care if the Dutch live or die.

This sounds very reasonable, but in fact, many things in this era are really ridiculous, the power of enterprises in this era is terrifying, is the East India Company strong? Was the West India Company strong or not? Once Rhodesia was a South African company, do you know how big Rhodesia is?

1.14 million square kilometers!

At the time, the Dutch East India Company accounted for about half of the world's trade.

As for the British East India Company, India was once controlled by the British East India Company, and the Opium War was single-handedly provoked by the British East India Company.

Therefore, although the umbrella company is only an enterprise in name, no one regards the umbrella company as an ordinary enterprise, and commercial enterprises can maintain tens of thousands of mercenaries all year round?

The Dutch army did not necessarily add up to 20,000.

This statement should be a bit exaggerated, but one thing is for sure, the Dutch army is certainly no match for the mercenaries of the Umbrella Company, otherwise the Germans would be the first to do it.

"Locke, what are you trying to achieve?" Ade finally asked this question, and I guess this is what the Dutch are most concerned about right now.

"I want the whole island of Sumatra, and incidents like the seizure of the Ark will never be allowed to happen again." With an area of 473,000 square kilometers, Sumatra is the sixth largest island in the world and the largest island in the East Indies.

As for the 740,000-square-kilometre island of Kalimantan, ownership is still disputed, and British Malaya also claims sovereignty over Kalimantan.

More important than the area is the geographical location of Sumatra, the Lion City is on the other side of Sumatra, if the East India loses Sumatra, then the East India will lose control of the Strait of Malacca, which is absolutely unacceptable to the Dutch.

"The Dutch could not have accepted it—" said Viscount Gladstone.

"That's okay, I know the Dutch won't accept it, but sooner or later the Dutch will face reality, but when the Umbrella Company takes control of the whole of Sumatra, the Umbrella Company's demands will no longer be limited to Sumatra." Roque is ambitious, one island of Sumatra is certainly not enough to satisfy Roque's greed for land, and Roque will never allow some disgusting things to happen in this time and space.

After listening to Roque's words, Viscount Gladstone and Ade couldn't help but look at each other, neither of them expected Roque's ambition to be so big, originally Viscount Gladstone and Ade thought that Roque just wanted the promise of the Dutch, as well as monetary compensation, but they didn't expect Roque to want the life of the Dutch.

"Locke, you have to think about it, this is against a country." Ade actually knew that once Roque made up his mind, he couldn't waver, but he still had to say what he had to say.

"Hehe, don't worry, two lords, no matter how difficult the Dutch are, how difficult can they be compared to the Germans?" Roque was not afraid, the servant army of the East Indies was no match for the mercenaries of the Umbrella Company, and if the Dutch mainland wanted to support the East Indies, then they would have to reinforce the East Indies through the Suez Canal or bypassing Africa.

To bypass Africa, Cape Town is a hurdle that cannot be bypassed in any way, otherwise you can refer to the Russian fleet during the Russo-Japanese War.

To pass through the Suez Canal is better said, remember Socotra?

Socotra is located at the mouth of the Red Sea.