I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 499 Attacking Batavia
  The city of Batavia is now regarded as the colonial headquarters of the Dutch East India Company and the last colonial center city of the Dutch in the Far East.

In a century when the Dutch were still praised as sea coachmen, the Dutch East India Company sought greater interests in the Far East. As a result, the city of Batavia was established on Java Island and served as the colonial headquarters of the East India Company in the Far East.

It is worth mentioning that the Dutch city of Batavia was actually built by the Chinese from the inside to the outside, from canals to drainage canals to military facilities such as city walls and fortresses, all without exception.

In particular, the Chinese's outstanding brick-making and brick-laying skills were praised and admired by the Dutch at that time.

Although the Dutch are mentally ill most of the time, their brain circuits are difficult for even their descendants to understand. But when Batavia was first established, the then Dutch Governor Kun was at least like a human being, or in other words, the Netherlands was in its prime. Therefore, both the Governor-General and the Parliament have a longer-term vision and give priority to the interests of the motherland, the Netherlands.

In Batavia at that time, Governor Kun did everything he could to enrich the colony's population. In addition to the normal high salaries to recruit Han people from the neighboring country of Wandan, they even used warships and sailing ships to directly go to the coast of China to plunder people.

Moreover, even the captured Han people were not treated as slaves. Instead, the natives were assigned to intermarry and arranged to settle in Batavia. All retail industries in the city, including coastal trade contracting rights, were also handed over to the Han people in the city.

In short, we are doing everything possible to keep these Han people. Even at any cost, they sent a large number of fleets abroad to attack the Far East trade of the Spanish and Portuguese, and then promised huge profits to lure Chinese merchants to trade with the Dutch.

To this day, the sugarcane planting industry in Batavia has long been dominated by the Han people. 84 of the total 79 sugarcane plantation parks are owned by Han Chinese landowners.

Is this still available?

In particular, the Dutch had just experienced the defeat of Spain, with almost all their local strength lost, and national cohesion also suffered a heavy blow.

If it had not been for the rise of the Ming Dynasty, the Han people in Batavia would have been massacred by the crazy Dutch a few years ago, just like the Spanish massacre in Manila.

This is why the Dutch and Spanish are crazy. You don't even know why they massacre?
  For money?

Money was indeed stolen, but the entire city became a dead city.

What is a dead city? There are no workers to clean the drainage channels. Even the barbers and snack vendors have been killed. The city's functions are completely paralyzed, commerce no longer exists, and you can't buy food even if you have money.

The Fujian Marine Division of the Ming Army had already sent troops south as early as the beginning of the year. After sailing on the sea for several months, they finally arrived at the sea off Batavia, which was later to be the capital of Indonesia, Jakarta.

Tang Tongjiang stood on the deck and put out his telescope: "Those castles should be the bastions mentioned in the intelligence! The defenses are quite tight, and the Dutch governor who originally designed and built the castles is quite capable."

Naturally, it was impossible for the Ming army to attack Batavia unprepared. They were just collecting intelligence and wooing the surrounding indigenous countries for their own use.

After looking at it for a while, it was almost certain that it would be impossible to land and attack from the front, because it would definitely be attacked by the bastion fort with no blind spots, and the city would have to suffer losses before it could be attacked.

Tang Tongjiang ordered: "Let the warships go around and land, and then send out the hot air balloons to reconnoiter the enemy's situation."

The Ming army warships received the order and made a large circle until they were several miles away from the south bank. Then they put down their sampans and landed on the beach. Although this is the colonial headquarters of the Dutch, except for the city of Batavia, most of the other areas are vassal areas, so there are not many Dutch garrison, not even navy patrol ships.

The Dutch were indeed in serious decline. Not only were their local forces finished, but even the East India Company in the Far East was getting weaker.

In fact, this is not all because of the weakness of the Dutch, but because they had previously joined forces with the Ming Dynasty to attack Spain, which to a certain extent weakened the strength of the Dutch navy.

Moreover, after the victory of the war, the Dutch colonies expanded again. The original navy had to allocate part of its force to guard and suppress the colonial natives. In addition, there was a mortal enemy Spain in the north, which required even more troops.

As the Ming army made a large-scale landing, it encountered no resistance. The hot-air balloons carried by the army also began to slowly take off, and the Dutch city defenses on the seaside were instantly visible.

The lookout quickly drew a detailed picture of the city's defenses, along with written annotations. Then he put the drawing into a wooden box and hung it down along the rope. The officer on duty below took the drawing and handed it to Tang Tongjiang: "General, please take a look."

Tang Tongjiang opened the drawing and combined with the text, he roughly understood the specific garrison situation of the Dutch city in front of him: "Good guy, these Dutch don't have many troops, but they have a lot of artillery."

Whether it is the specific structure of each bastion, the number of forts, the direction of the moat, the number of garrison towers, and the approximate number of garrison troops, they are all drawn in great detail. He is obviously a professional.

This is natural. As the latest reconnaissance hot air balloon, the person who can serve as a lookout must not be an ordinary soldier.

While the Ming army was using hot air balloons for reconnaissance, the new Dutch Governor Van Kroon was also standing on the castle, holding a telescope in his hand: "Damn it, how on earth did these Chinese troops do it? They can actually make mortals fly into the sky. . This is the realm of the gods, and our troop deployment has been completely seen by the Chinese army."

Fankron cursed, his face full of annoyance, he was an old hapless man.

The former Governor-General De Haan was very lucky. The Ming Dynasty had just formed an alliance with the British and had not yet taken action against the Netherlands. This guy suddenly died of illness. As the new governor, Fan Klon arrived in Batavia at the end of last year. He didn't even have time to be greedy for money. Then the Ming army attacked the city of Batavia.

Yes, Van Kroon had long known that the Ming Dynasty might take action against the Dutch, because the British in Bencoolen suddenly changed their attitude towards the Dutch, and even stopped doing the original smuggling business.

Many British businessmen also took the initiative to move away from Batavia. Since last year, Batavia suddenly had a large number of Chinese merchant ships. If you haven't guessed this, the Dutch no longer have to hang around in the Far East. Went down.

But guess what, the Dutch didn't want to give up on Batavia just like that. After all, this was the headquarters of the East India Company, and the Netherlands had poured a lot of financial resources and efforts into it. They had to recruit vassal indigenous servants while hoping that the Ming Dynasty would not be like this. Treat allies.

Peter, the commander of the Dutch Army, was leading troops to defend the city at this moment. He also saw the hot air balloon through a telescope, and could clearly see Chinese soldiers on the hot air balloon watching.

Peter was shocked, but his expression remained unchanged. He said to the herald: "Quick, let our soldiers fire into the sky immediately to knock down all those flying balls."

It was too late to test, because all the indigenous servants on the city wall who could see the hot air balloon began to kneel on the ground, kneeling and shouting, not knowing what they meant.

　Work overtime today, it’s snowing (ω)
  　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)