New Shun 1730

Chapter 698 Batavia's Decision

This colonial idea, which is completely different from that of the Dutch East India Company, is just a model for Dashun in the Nanyang region.

After passing Nanyang, when managing India in the future, this form will naturally not be adopted.

For the emperor, the temptation of India mentioned by Liu Yu is to collect land taxes and fill the treasury and the inner treasury. If you want to collect land taxes, it is impossible to follow the Ceylon model.

The Nanyang region can completely follow the Ceylon model, because for the emperor, the interests of Nanyang lie in trade, not in collecting taxes. It is unlikely to collect taxes, which is too difficult. It is better to occupy a few strongholds, control trade, and let the remaining small countries take their own course.

After the signing of this open treaty, Rajsinghe also signed a verbal secret agreement with the envoys of Dashun.

Dashun supports Rajsinghe's throne and royal power, and does not recognize the heirs that Rajsinghe does not recognize; Rajsinghe will send his confidants to the capital of Dashun to pay tribute to the emperor in exchange for Dashun's support for the Rajsinghe family.

Only in the form of tribute, it is different from Korea and other countries.

When you arrive in the capital of Dashun, you should kneel and worship.

But if Rajsinghe is gone, when the new heir succeeds to the throne, Dashun cannot send an angel to let the heir kneel on the ground to accept the canonization of the Celestial Empire as it did to Korea or Ryukyu, so that it can be considered a formal succession.

Although Du Feng did not agree rashly to this point, fearing that he would bear unclear responsibilities in the future, he also played a trick.

He felt that Rajsinghe was still young, the heir had not been determined, and he would not die for the time being. Let's talk about it in the future. Maybe when he is about to die, Dashun will have established a firm foothold in South India. At that time, even if Dashun still wants to be polite, I am afraid he himself will not dare to be so impolite.

This kind of small thoughts is actually very dangerous. If it is not done well, it will cause big trouble in the future and be criticized by people in the court. But Du Feng was a wild boy from the mountains and forests, and had never been trained in the court. He often thought he was very smart, but he had never experienced the struggles in the court, and he was far from it.

After several treaties were signed, Du Feng breathed a sigh of relief and felt that things here were stable.

Several conditions of the treaty reached the bottom line given by Liu Yu, and Du Feng himself was quite satisfied. He didn't want to use precious troops in Ceylon, a small place that could not achieve the merit of being a marquis. If too many troops were involved here, many things in the future would be difficult to do.

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Different from Ceylon, which mainly persuaded surrender and didn't fight if it could.

East of Malacca, a war with the purpose of killing a chicken to scare the monkey was unfolding with a huge battle that had never been seen in the Nanyang countries.

Many times, there was no need to fight so fiercely, but the degree of fierceness was unprecedented in Nanyang.

This should be regarded as a typical case of killing a chicken with a butcher knife. A fleet of eight armed merchant ships, Dashun had a standard battleship fleet to fight.

Just after the Christian calendar year 1745, Batavia Governor Valkenir began to become anxious.

The Chinese rebels in the Bandung volcanic area captured the fortress of Cirebon at lightning speed.

The 400 garrisons stationed in Cirebon had to declare surrender after fierce resistance.

So far, the main road connecting the east and west of the entire Java Island has been completely cut off by the sugar factory rebels. This is the worst news for the Batavia colonial government.

From the battle situation repeated by the escaped soldiers, Valkenir summoned the military personnel and council members of Batavia and asked them what to do.

It is not clear what to do for the time being, but at the beginning of the meeting, everyone unanimously cursed the British.

Four years ago, the navy of the East India Company attacked the Travancore state and was defeated by Travancore. The company has been blocking the news of this matter and does not want the countries in Southeast Asia to know about it.

Once the myth of the Dutch invincibility is broken, the rule in Southeast Asia will be in jeopardy.

The senior executives of Batavia know very well that the current company is a giant with feet of clay, a tiger with its teeth pulled out, and a lion with its claws cut off.

Once the myth of the Dutch invincibility is broken, those indigenous chiefdoms that have long been dissatisfied will have a rebellious heart.

The key is, how can the Travancore state defeat the company's fleet?

This is no secret. It was the British East India Company that took action. Without the support of the British East India Company, the Travancore state would not have been able to defeat the VOC fleet in a naval battle.

The two countries are allies in Europe. The Prince of Orange is also the son-in-law of the King of England. In this war about the succession to the Austrian throne, the two countries fought side by side.

But in Asia, the East India companies of the two countries stabbed each other. And it was unilateral, the Netherlands was stabbed, because the Dutch East India Company was now really unable to stab the British.

In recent years, Batavia's finances have been quite tight because of the Ceylon immigration. Without money, nothing can be done.

But there is really no way not to spend this money.

They dare not kill. They have to appease the Dashun, otherwise what can they do if the Dashun fleet comes and asks for punishment? It affects trade with China, and all the high-level officials in Batavia will have to be fired.

If they don't kill, there will be a strong uprising army composed mainly of Chinese in the Bandung area, and these unemployed people may turn around and join the uprising army.

Although the treatment of these immigrant Chinese slaves is very bad, no matter how bad it is, immigration still costs money.

Dashun also has supervisors in Ceylon, and the mortality rate must be controlled below 50%, otherwise Dashun will definitely cause trouble.

Transporting people, food and accommodation all cost money.

In recent years, Batavia's finances have been really poor. Immigration also led to resentment among middle-level company employees throughout Batavia.

Historically, after the Hongxi tragedy, people in the middle class made a fortune. The estates and properties of several wealthy Chinese were all divided.

Now, they dare not grab it.

Originally, middle-level people could still make some money by accepting bribes, such as the Chinese slave workers needed by sugar factories, but they could turn a blind eye and not check the residence permit issue.

But now, the income of the middle-level people is gone; the company headquarters continues to focus on trade with China, and the status of the transit port is struggling to maintain. Under the multi-party game, Ceylon's goods must first go back to Batavia and then go to the Netherlands. It means accommodating local interests; the depression of the sugar industry and the demise of transit trade have led to the depression of the commercial service industry.

On one side, the British stabbed knives in Ceylon, India, and even Java.

On the one hand, the middle-level employees are extremely dissatisfied. Since the immigration policy was launched, there have been more than a dozen letters from employees known to Valkenier to the headquarters complaining about him as the governor.

On the other side, there was Da Shun who stared at the company's Chinese policy like a bastard.

Also, the uprising in the Bandung area was encircled and suppressed twice, resulting in the loss of troops and generals. It is understandable that those rebels had guns and artillery, given by the British.

However, during the second siege, these rebels did not even lay an ambush. Instead, they directly set up battle formations, beat drums, formed lines, and fired a volley at close range, directly defeating the company's troops.

There are guns and cannons, they are not scary.

The Sinhalese people on the island of Ceylon also had guns and cannons, but they were still vulnerable; the Nanyang chiefs also had many muskets, but they were still easily defeated by the Dutch.

They might be arrayed in a field battle, which would be very scary.

After the failure of the second siege, Valkenir took the opportunity to first blame the incompetence of the garrison commander, because the garrison commander had always wanted to be the governor and was in a competitive relationship with Valkenir, and he would write letters to him from time to time. The board complained.

Then in 1743, a treaty was signed with the rebels in the Bandung area, recognizing the control of these rebels over the surrounding area.

Secretly, he wanted to mobilize troops and generals to prepare for another wave of encirclement and suppression. There, it is too close to Batavia, and if it cannot be extinguished, I am afraid that the chiefs in the Java area will soon unite with them to rebel.

Valkenir felt that this delaying strategy was a good one.

However, I never thought that it was not their company but the Chinese rebels who took the initiative to tear up the treaty.

The field battle was enough to shock the upper echelons of Batavia. Now they actually attacked the bastion directly, and it was a very standard bastion attack tactic. It took seven days for the defenders to collapse and surrender.

In this regard, Valkenir faced Batavia's senior officials and expressed his thoughts with great caution.

"Gentlemen, now is not the time to scold those shameless British. We must take Cirebon back, at all costs."

"We've proven that we may not be able to control the mountains."

"But if we can't control even the coastal cities, that will be the beginning of the collapse of corporate dominance in Southeast Asia. It's a domino chain that will trigger a cascade of reactions."

"The company must at least prove that we still have absolute dominance in the coastal areas."

"Fortunately, after the immigration incident, the security situation in Batavia has improved. A large number of members of the Black Shirt Party were sent to Ceylon. The Chinese in the city are all good people who paid the poll tax. They are weak and timid. They are worried I don’t dare to do anything bad with my own bottles and belongings.”

"We can leave a small number of troops to defend Batavia, mobilize the troops and fleets of Bekasi, Semarang, and Madura, recruit ships, and make these people realize that the company's force is still not something they can challenge in the coastal areas. of."

Valkenier's idea was still correct. The Dutch failed to encircle and suppress the volcanic area, although the ruling prestige of some companies was shaken.

However, the various small kingdoms of chiefs and chiefs still need to do business. Although the Dutch cannot attack the mountainous areas, on the other hand, the Dutch are not very interested in the mountainous areas and have not reached out to the mountainous areas.

However, if the coastal areas cannot be defended, the problem will be huge.

Those small countries have been coveting cities in coastal areas for a long time. Once the coastal cities were captured, why did they have to do business with the Dutch? Isn’t it good to sell it to the Portuguese, British, or even the French at a higher price?

The news that Cirebon had been captured this time could not be concealed. It can be said that countless pairs of eyes across the entire Java Island are staring at the actions of the Dutch, and they all want to know whether the Dutch can't even defend the coastal areas.

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