In the combat history of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army recorded later, the Battle of Balikpapan was termed "a battle of historic significance, where the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army completely annihilated the defending enemy at Balikpapan." This phrasing looks magnificent and atmospheric; it was the text the compilers came up with after great effort.

From the perspective of battle results, a total of three Dutch warships were sunk, with a total tonnage of less than 1,500 tons. More than 200 "Dutch armed forces," including police, were killed or captured. The number of commanders and fighters on any single large warship participating in this operation was far greater than this group of "Dutch armed forces."

The evaluation of "historic significance" was correct, however. The Chinese Navy had traveled thousands of miles to fight for the first time and achieved complete victory. Even if the scale of the battle was insignificant, being able to implement a war of such scale was itself a great achievement.

After the war began, the Chinese submarine force began to disperse, patrolling new sea lanes. Aerial reconnaissance planes took off non-stop during the day, trying hard to find traces of the nearby Dutch Navy. The purpose of this war was to swallow the Dutch East Indies, not a short-term decisive battle. A large number of convoys transporting supplies set off from Cambodia, Guangdong, and Taiwan, beginning transportation towards Balikpapan.

The Dutch knew their navy and air force were no match for the Chinese. What they relied on was the colonial system supported by the British. Whoever challenged this colonial system would be at odds with the world's boss, Britain. The Netherlands never expected China to jump out directly and beat the Netherlands so painfully.

The war broke out on August 4th. Four weeks later, on September 1st, near a small beach in northeastern Borneo, two Chinese units riding bicycles met head-on. These were military bicycles produced by the Forever Bicycle Factory. The appearance imitated the configuration of later generations' mountain bikes, only fully utilizing the positions of various racks. Although it was September, every soldier was dressed tightly enough. Even the places that weren't tight enough were coated with anti-bite ointment. Sweat flowed, washing out tracks. A layer of salt stains from repeated sweating formed on the camouflage uniforms.

After the two teams met head-on, there was no expression of jubilation. The comrades threw down their bicycles and lay down on the picturesque beach, all motionless.

This was also a scene worth recording in history. After the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army occupied Balikpapan, they immediately crossed the rain forest-covered areas under the leadership of local overseas Chinese and intelligence personnel in Borneo, launching attacks on Dutch strongholds in Borneo. For hundreds of years, the Netherlands had never imagined that one day more than 100,000 troops would suddenly land on Borneo. Those strongholds were not fortress-types built for large-scale campaigns at all, and the number of defenders was also very limited. Under the fierce blows of the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army, these strongholds were finished one after another. Some strongholds didn't even have battles; after the Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army surrounded the stronghold, the Dutch inside surrendered.

The Workers' and Peasants' Revolutionary Army naturally wouldn't foolishly think the fighting was over from then on. In addition to aerial reconnaissance and mapping, ground reconnaissance troops divided into hundreds of small detachments to start exploring the whole island. These two small detachments belonged to the two routes that had traveled the farthest. There were now three countries on Borneo: British Malaya in the north, a Sultanate, and the rest was the Dutch East Indies. One branch of the reconnaissance troops went clockwise, the other counter-clockwise, and they finally met after each circling half the territory of the Dutch East Indies.

In the pre-war planning, Borneo was a large island that China was determined to incorporate into its territory. Even in the worst-case scenario, where China faced attacks from the combined forces of Europe and the United States, China would not easily give up this old land of the Lanfang Republic.

To possess this island, one must understand it and personally walk through it. The main task of the vanguard troops in the small detachments was to explore the path and find passable routes. The soldiers experienced the scorching sun, rainstorms, mosquito bites, attacks by poisonous snakes and wild beasts, sweating and bleeding. Using a relay method, they finally walked a circle around Borneo in four weeks.

The specific path walked by these two small detachments was less than one-sixteenth of Borneo. Before the previous small detachment was exhausted and unable to move forward, they would find a passage to the seaside, and while the Navy conducted hydrological surveys of Borneo, they would drop off a new small team. The comrades walking inland had it much harder; it was difficult even to replace them, because the replacement teams also had to personally walk the road explored or even opened up by the previous teams before they could continue to explore forward.

Now that the reconnaissance troops had met, it proved that it was completely possible to march around Borneo on foot. When marching, the comrades had no distractions, but once the goal was completed, the accumulated immense fatigue instantly drained them of almost all their strength. After lying down for nearly an hour, the captains of the two small detachments barely managed to crawl up, exchanging intelligence while starting to set up the radio.

The Navy naturally had the Navy's tasks and could not accompany the small detachments at all times. After the telegram was sent, a response was received quickly. The troops were required to stand by in place for the time being.

"What's going on? Is there fighting at sea?" The two captains felt very surprised. It was just that the nearest small detachment was also two days away from them. Chatting via radio was a completely unrealistic idea. Since the superior ordered to stand by, one captain directed the comrades to set up tents, and the other took a few comrades who could still walk to scout the terrain nearby.

Because they had been running on land all the time, the comrades' feeling about the war was still the situation during the pre-war mobilization: "The troops must first get rid of the Dutch reactionary navy at sea." This was not the troops deceiving the comrades; in reality, this was also the most reasonable option. It's just that facts often easily exceed imagination.

Since the troops began landing on August 4th, in the following four weeks, the Netherlands did send warships to try to harass China. The number of Dutch warships was only thirty or forty, and the tonnage was very limited. Since China's battleships had already joined the war, the Netherlands did not want to humiliate themselves. Not to mention there were heaven knows how many Chinese submarines underwater. Even with such an indecisive attitude, under China's strict aerial reconnaissance and maritime defense, the Netherlands still lost seven warships. This war only had a sufficient sortie scale on the first day of fighting; in the following half month, the fighting at sea was very limited.

For the Chinese side, this was a golden opportunity. In half a month, China transported a large amount of supplies to Balikpapan, not only quickly restoring local oil production but also adding a lot of simple and easy-to-operate oil refining equipment.

Transportation and construction were operations that had been drilled many times domestically. Not only factory equipment but also numerous supplies, and even a large amount of vegetable seeds and chemical fertilizers were transported. The Chinese army never forgot to handle logistics themselves.

There were few battles at sea, but not few on land. In this precious half month, the Chinese Army resolved all Dutch strongholds on Borneo. They massed troops on the border between the Dutch East Indies and British Malaya.

During this period, the Dutch East Indies side was not idle either; their main work in this half month was holding meetings. Reporting to the country, the Dutch East Indies authorities holding meetings, and meeting with the British. The only thing accomplished was that the Netherlands also declared war on China. Apart from this, the Dutch didn't figure out any clues.

China had changed very, very much in these years, yet in the eyes of the Dutch, the China of 1935 was no different from the China invaded by the Eight-Nation Alliance in 1900. Once inherent impressions are formed, they are extremely difficult to break. The Netherlands dared to boldly challenge China, but never thought China would really come knocking. Encountering sudden changes, both the Dutch homeland in Europe and the Dutch East Indies authorities were dumbfounded. The Dutch central government and local authorities had neither a strategic design for a war with China nor campaign preparations. Since the Chinese Navy held the advantage, and the Netherlands lost several ships in succession, they couldn't even figure out how to conduct naval battles.

One thing was crystal clear to the Dutch: the Netherlands was clinging tightly to Britain's coattails in Southeast Asia. Now Britain was the world boss; as long as the British came forward to solve it, the Netherlands should be able to get rid of China. The Dutch central government and local authorities were working hard to request British help.

Britain knew this little brother needed the big brother to prop up the scene. In the past four weeks, China had only attacked Borneo and had not continued to advance to other islands of the Dutch East Indies. Just a glance at the map of Southeast Asia would make it clear that the Dutch East Indies belonged to the heartland of Southeast Asia, and Borneo was geographically the heartland of the Dutch East Indies. Even if the Chinese only occupied Borneo, it was tantamount to inserting a sharp knife into Southeast Asia.

Theoretically, Britain should indeed come forward to oppose it. In fact, there were a few MPs shouting for Britain to teach China a lesson, and most British MPs believed that China must withdraw from the Dutch East Indies unconditionally. But the British had been the hegemon of the world for hundreds of years, and their intelligence was absolutely not an issue. China massing troops on the Sino-British border—its attitude was self-evident. In the eyes of the British, China's leader Chen Ke was the prototype of a "dictator," bold and fearless, cruel and incomparable. If Britain really issued a war threat to China without being prepared for war, Chen Ke would probably really dare to make a move against Britain.

It's one thing for a little brother to be beaten, but another thing for the big brother to be beaten personally after issuing a threat. The British wanted to make more sufficient preparations, at least transferring more warships to Southeast Asia, and secondly wanted to delay time so China wouldn't launch more attacks. So the British side issued a relatively mildly worded suggestion to China, requesting China and the Netherlands to negotiate.

This request for negotiation was something China had never expected. In the strategic plan, China thought the best-case scenario was for the Dutch Navy to launch a suicide group attack after the war started. Unexpectedly, in reality, the response of the Netherlands and Britain was several times better than imagined. For every day the Netherlands and Britain dragged on, China gained an extra point of preparation. Since Britain and the Netherlands wanted to drag, then let's drag!

Thus, the airfield runways paved with pure steel plates gradually turned into runways paved with quick-drying cement and steel plates. Then, the site selection for large airports ended..., precise mapping work for large airports began..., excavation work for small airport runways began..., engineering machinery and equipment transported from China were put into use..., more than 100 sets of mobile small-scale oil refining equipment were debugged, capable of producing more than 5,000 tons of gasoline and diesel daily...

Colonialists found it hard to understand China's strategy. Their purpose of seizing land was to drive the people on this land to create profits for the colonialists. Just as after the Netherlands occupied the Spice Islands, they drove the local natives to plant spices and made a fortune through the spice trade. In China's current strategy, China itself would rely on its own labor to the greatest extent to complete the construction. This construction time was naturally the longer the better.

The British were certainly not fools. Although they didn't know exactly what was being transported by sea, seeing China transporting supplies to Borneo ship after ship, it didn't look like a good thing no matter how you looked at it. The various delays shown by China in the negotiations also proved that China had no intention of withdrawing at all. The British released a piece of news, "In view of the situation in Southeast Asia, Britain has leased a batch of warships to the Netherlands."

It was said to be leasing warships, but the personnel on the ships were also "leased" to the Netherlands; just taking down the British flag and hanging the Dutch flag would do.

"Will the British send this fleet to attack our communication lines?" It was not surprising that the British would make a move; rather, to what extent the British would make a move was the Military Commission's biggest question.

"Send all submarines out! Including the submarines in the direction of Japan." Chen Ke ordered. If the negotiations could be dragged on for another month, that would be great. Chen Ke felt slightly regretful. After another month of delay, China's airports in Borneo would be basically completed, especially the oil transportation and storage parts would likely be completed. The air and sea search radar systems could also be debugged. At that time, even if Borneo couldn't be called impregnable, it could at least resist the attacks of Britain and the Netherlands in a very layered way. "At the same time, proceed with the next step of the plan, cross the sea to attack Sulawesi."