1890 King of Southeast Asia

The Dutch reaction was suffocating. They did not add a single soldier to Java, but only ordered the mercenaries who were participating in the war against the Kingdom of Aceh in Sumatra to separate a regiment of 3,000 people to support Java.

The Dutch or Europeans' consistent pride made them not care about the emergence of Nanhua. They just regarded this as a simple rebellion of the natives. Looking at the entire colonial empire system, which country's fatal land did not rebel? Just calm it down.

This time it was public opinion that caused the Kingdom of the Netherlands to be nervous. The increasingly weak Kingdom of the Netherlands could not withstand any storms.

Letting the colonies go will only make people know that the Kingdom of the Netherlands is already strong on the outside but weak on the inside, and has no ability to protect its own interests. Then all kinds of monsters and demons may come up and take a bite of the Dutch colonies.

What scares the Dutch most is that the situation in Europe is not good. Germany in the north is rising. At the same time, as a neighboring country directly bordering France and Germany, it is also across the English Channel from Britain. Although it is a neutral country, it is just a buffer country.

But what is worrying is that there are conflicts of interest between the three major powers. At present, France is thinking about revenge for the Franco-Prussian War. As for Britain and France, the love and hatred between them can be written into a campus costume love idol bitter Korean drama, which is long and stinky!

At this time, Germany and the British Empire were still friendly countries. It was not until William II came to the throne, drove away Bismarck, overturned Germany's colonial policy, and vigorously developed the navy that Germany and the British Empire became enemies.

In this case, the Dutch did not dare to show that he had lost the courage to rush into the Port of London during the Anglo-Dutch War in the past, so that he hesitated to send support to the colonies.

………………

The Netherlands sent a telegram of hundreds of words to Van Hertz, the chief of staff of the Dutch colonial army who was fighting in Sumatra.

The general idea was that Van Hertz temporarily took over the post of governor of the colony, concurrently served as the commander of the Dutch colonial army, and led all the troops in the Dutch East Indies. This was the most powerful governor in history, and all the military and political power of the Dutch East Indies was given to him.

At the same time, the Prime Minister strongly demanded that he quell the rebellion and restore order in East India within five weeks.

Van Hertz, who served as the Chief of Staff of the Dutch Colonial Army in 1899, was the one who completed the unification of Indonesia and shaped modern Indonesia in history.

After receiving the appointment, Hertz quickly selected 3,000 European mercenaries who were fighting guerrilla warfare in Aceh and rushed to Batavia by ship.

November 4.

"So, if the rebels had not issued a statement, you still don't know that Java is about to be occupied, right!" In Batavia, in the Governor's Mansion, Hertz was furious.

Looking at the room full of silent Dutch officers, Hertz held his forehead. He didn't want any of these good-for-nothings, but they all had some background. Now was his critical period. If he won this battle, maybe the word "temporary" of the acting governor could be removed, but could he fight with these good-for-nothings?

"How much intelligence do we have about the enemy!" Hertz asked.

The response to him was still silence...

"You bunch of rubbish, three days, three days already, no news at all!" Hertz said frantically.

"General, this thing may be useful." At this time, a staff officer handed him three telegrams.

All three telegrams were sent from Yogyakarta.

"Yogyakarta City was attacked, the enemy's identity is unknown, there are more than a thousand people, wearing green uniforms, with some old artillery, initially estimated to be moved from other cities, the rifle model is very complicated, but basically from our army, our army annihilated more than 800 enemies in the battle to defend the city, the enemy has retreated."

"The enemy attacked again, they have 2,000 people, they sent a messenger, showed me two sets of tattered officer uniforms, claiming that they have annihilated the bandit suppression troops."

"The enemy's firepower is too strong, Yogyakarta can't be defended, my troops are about to surrender..."

The last telegram was obviously not sent.

"The entire Batavia, with thousands of soldiers and navy, is not as useful as Yogyakarta!" Hertz said to his officers holding the telegram.

"How many people are there, what are their weapons and equipment, how much reserves are there, who is the commander, where is the headquarters, how many people are stationed in each city, I want to know all this, now! Immediately! Go find this information for me!" Hertz shouted at his officers.

………………

In Surabaya, Charles has left, and most of the reporters have left, except for John from the beautiful family, who wants to stay and record this matter.

"Excuse me, Commander, your previous actions must have angered the Dutch. What is the purpose of doing this? Is it just for a celebration ceremony?"

"John, people cannot think rationally when they are angry, and the same is true for the country." Liu Yiming said.

"The Dutch are enraged, what can they do? All they can do is blockade the port and send troops to attack. The navy can't do anything. My navy is very weak, with only three gunboats, but the navy alone can't deal with me."

"Do you want to lure the Dutch out? Do you want to fight them in the field?"

"But forgive me, wasn't your previous approach better? Quietly occupying most of Java, you can continue to advance, and the situation will be more favorable by then, right?" John asked in confusion. After all, relying on this set of tactics, the South China Army won a series of victories, but now it has abandoned the familiar tactics and is planning a decisive battle in the field. It doesn't make sense no matter how you think about it.

"We can't take down Batavia with this set of tactics, and the speed and casualties of street fighting are definitely not as suitable as field fighting." Liu Yiming said.

"Okay, you are a general..." John still didn't understand, but he knew he didn't understand, so he didn't ask too much.

From November 5th to 11th, in a week, Hertz sent many spies to find out the truth about Nanhua.

Among them were not only Dutch, but also a large number of natives and a small number of Chinese. Surabaya had the foresight to block the city completely. Liu Yiming received news of spies being caught in various places one after another, but inevitably, there were always fish that slipped through the net, and the Dutch still got some intelligence.

For example, there were only more than 2,000 people stationed in Semarang by Nanhua, and the emptiness of Surabaya in the rear was also spread.

Hertz, who got the news, mobilized dozens of native tribes from several ethnic groups to look for the "main force" of Nanhua everywhere.

Yes, Hertz did not believe that the main force of the South China Army was more than 2,000 people in Semarang. In his mind, the Chinese would not fight. To be able to capture a city without even sending out a message, there must be a huge and outrageous number of troops, so Hertz was very cautious in looking for the "main force" of the South China Army!

I'm afraid Liu Yiming didn't expect that the smooth attack during this period actually made Hertz make a strategic misjudgment. That is, from here on, the Dutch were getting farther and farther away from Java.

On November 11, Hertz, who had never received an accurate report from the South China Army, was furious. A week had passed since the five-week deadline given to him by the Prime Minister, and in this precious week, he had not received any useful information, so he had no idea where to start his strategy.

Van Hertz may be a proud general, but he is not stupid, otherwise he would not be able to expand the Dutch colony to its peak and fix it. But no matter what, collecting intelligence is just for stability, and the contempt for the colonial people will not disappear for the time being.

"There is no time, assemble the troops and get ready to go." Hertz said to the adjutant.

On October 12, Hertz left Batavia with an army of 5,000 people and headed east by land.

Because of the loss of ten warships totaling 20,000 tons, Hertz did not know how strong the naval force of Nanhua was, so he did not take the sea route to attack.

For safety reasons, Batavia was left with 3,000 defenders, including more than 1,000 navy and 1,000 East Indian puppet troops. The real Dutch colonial army had only two understaffed battalions, less than 800 people.

Because of the difficult road, large number of equipment and people, and the inability to adapt to the environment, the Dutch could only march 15 kilometers a day, but this was the speed after full deployment. Relatively speaking, the vanguard could reach more than 20 kilometers.

………………

Turn your attention back to Nanhua.

When Hertz mobilized scouts to conduct reconnaissance on Nanhua, Liu Yiming was not idle either. He not only conducted counter-reconnaissance operations, but also sent out a large number of special forces battalion scouts, but the effect was not ideal.

After Hertz arrived in Batavia, he implemented strict control over Batavia, especially against the Chinese. The Chinese could not enter and leave at will. Nanhua had just been established and only the Chinese were available, so it was difficult to get useful intelligence.

It was not until the Dutch army left the city that the scouts rode back on horseback.

However, Nanhua was not without action when there was no news. On the 6th, the main forces of the second and third detachments, which had been resting in Yogyakarta for four days, left Yogyakarta to more than 100 puppet troops who had just been recruited, and then the whole army set out to move closer to Semarang.

Due to the restrictions of road conditions, with only basic ammunition and food, they marched for five days and finally arrived in Semarang.

At this time, Semarang had assembled more than 4,000 troops, including more than 1,000 people who were still ambushed in Dahukou. In the next plan, the Nanhua army mobilized more than 5,000 troops.

On October 10, Liu Yiming ordered the first detachment to set off westward and build positions next to a mountain 110 kilometers away from Batavia to prepare for defense.

For this defensive operation, Liu Yiming prepared hundreds of kilometers of iron wire. Unfortunately, the problem of insufficient transportation capacity has been bothering the Nanhua Army since arriving in Semarang. This is why Liu Yiming chose to expose himself after taking Semarang and urge the decisive battle to come!

So until the battle began, only 110 kilometers of iron wire were transported.