New Shun 1730

Valknife knew how powerful the two powder kegs would be if they were put together.

He knew the company's policies very well, but he also knew that if the company didn't do this, shareholders would not get any money and the company would go bankrupt.

Now that the two powder kegs were tending to close together, he had to be cautious and careful.

It takes a spark to ignite the powder keg.

So he carefully read the letter brought back by the soldiers yesterday and the uprising program spread by the rebels outside the city, and this uneasiness became even stronger.

The program of the Chinese rebels outside the city was not only aimed at the Chinese, but also to incite all the lower classes oppressed by the Dutch.

This was like a spark that could ignite the powder keg. Once it burned to Bandung, it would surely burn the sky.

If this uprising was only led by the Chinese and the programmatic document was only aimed at the unfair treatment of the Chinese, Valknife would not care too much.

If it was just the Chinese who resisted, it would be too easy to solve.

The divide and rule and middleman policies of the East India Company have always been very successful.

The Chinese, including the wealthy, the propertyless, those with residence permits, those without residence permits, the tax farmers, the taxed, the slave workers, and the sugar factory owners, are not of the same mind, and it is impossible for them to unite. They can be easily resolved.

Moreover, the East India Company has always deliberately let the wealthy Chinese merchants be the middlemen who attract hatred.

For example, tax farming, such as collecting in-kind land rent, etc., make many people extremely hate those high-class Chinese who are domineering.

For many things, the company does not directly come forward, but outsources them. The characteristic of tax farming is that how much to collect depends entirely on ability. No one uses money to auction the right to tax farming to serve the people.

The East India Company did this intentionally: direct rule, once resistance is resistance to the Netherlands; outsourcing, there are wealthy Chinese merchants who attract hatred.

Moreover, the Chinese have money but no guns, and they are not even allowed to serve as soldiers. Once something happens, they can rely on this deliberately created contradiction to guide the oppressed to fight internally.

If it is just the uprising of the Chinese, Valknier is sure that it will not succeed and will not cause much threat at all.

On the contrary, it is entirely possible to use the previous deliberate divide and rule policy to let the Chinese, Javanese, the Chinese upper class, the Chinese lower class, and the Javanese lower class fight first.

But this time, whether it is from the letters, the program, or the current transfer direction, it can be seen that the organizer of this uprising is a man with means and has a deep insight into the weak areas and key contradictions of the East India Company's rule in Java.

At that time... move to the place where the forced planting commercial serfdom has been promoted, raise your arms and shout, and kill those local middlemen and indigenous nobles who usually act tyrannically and collude with the Dutch, and set off a big uprising at the bottom, which will be a big trouble.

If it is the Javanese feudal nobles who are against the Dutch, Valkner does not have to worry.

Historical experience tells him that the feudal nobles' anti-Dutch actions will definitely fail.

On the one hand, the lower class will not work for the feudal lords; on the other hand, if there are feudal lords who are against the Dutch, there will definitely be some who stand on the side of the Dutch and take the opportunity to defeat their political enemies.

If it is just the Javanese lower class who are against the Dutch, Valkner does not have to worry.

The Chinese will not be concerned about it, and the local aboriginal nobles will stand on the side of the Dutch and suppress the lower classes together.

If it is just the lower class Chinese who are against the Dutch, Valkenir still does not have to worry.

The hatred buried by the divide and rule will make the Javanese, the high-class Chinese and the Dutch stand together to suppress it.

But this kind of clear program; to incite the lower class slaves, slaves, village serfs under the oppression of the forced planting system, and the middle class Chinese who are treated unfairly... This is a bit scary.

Once the rebels gain a foothold in Bandung, they can receive the arms aid secretly transported from the south by the British, and they can also rely on the Mataram Sultanate. The two sides can temporarily cooperate on the anti-Dutch position.

More importantly, the forced planting system is already an important profit growth point of the East India Company in Java, and it is planned to be promoted to the whole of Java in the future.

It is already facing a financial crisis due to the sluggish sugar trade and the Japanese trade being cut off by Dashun. If it spreads to the Bandung area where the forced planting system has been established... The company is afraid that it will have a deficit this year.

Thinking of this, Valknir called Lian Fuguang and others again.

He knew that China had experienced a change of dynasty a hundred years ago, and the founder of the new dynasty was a rebel. He wanted to ask clearly how the grassroots rebels in China had always done it.

"I heard that the ancestor of the current great emperor of China was also a peasant of humble origin, who eventually became an emperor as a rebel. I know that China has always lacked the most basic respect for nobles and bloodlines, but as grassroots rebels, how do they generally do to gain people's support?"

Although the Netherlands also rebelled against Spain, the leaders of the rebellion were nobles. Valknir was still unfamiliar with the people's rebellion.

Lian Fuguang had never rebelled, but as a Chinese, he still knew these basic things.

This is a traditional art, and even in novels and stories, there are a few words.

Although he didn't know why the governor was interested in this, Lian Fuguang still told Valknir what he knew.

"Governor, the lower-class rebels usually first instigate those who cannot survive to rebel. After the rebellion, they usually choose to attack the rich and divide up their land, property and food. They have no respect for private property at all."

"They promised to distribute the land to everyone in the future. The Celestial Empire has always had a tradition of equal distribution of land. And during the rebellion, in order to deceive people, the slogan shouted by the ancestors of the current Emperor Dashun was equal distribution of land and exemption of grain."

"Not only will the land be divided equally, but all taxes will be exempted. For those rich households, they will generally be killed, and their grain and property will be distributed to those who can't survive, instigating them to join them in the rebellion."

"Often there may be only a few thousand people at the beginning, but within a few months, tens of thousands or even more people will participate in the rebellion."

"For example, after conquering this place, whoever is the most hated and envied and who owns the most land will be killed. Half of his grain will be collected as military rations, and the other half will be distributed to the local poor, and the land that the poor most desire will be divided equally."

Lian Fuguang just introduced the route of rebellion in the past dynasties in a normal way, which is basically the same in soup but not in medicine.

He didn't know much, after all, he had not experienced it personally, but only heard it from others.

But it was these hearsays that made Valknier even more worried... This rebellious route was exactly what he feared the most.

The situation in Java was different from that in the Celestial Empire. The private system of land that could be bought and sold had just started, and it was still the traditional village land system.

However, these things were just a change of name.

In the Bandung area, the Dutch had little military power, and they mainly relied on local people for management. Those managers were half serf owners.

They had dividends from the company's low-price acquisitions, and they lived quite well, with money and food.

The local people were mostly oppressed.

According to the traditional arts of China in all dynasties that Lian Fuguang said, it was too easy to gain a foothold in the Bandung area.

Even the routine did not need to be changed.

Invade the village, execute the village chief, announce the abolition of all forced planting systems, equal land and free grain, abolishment of in-kind land rent, and all slavery-like forced labor.

Moreover, Bandung was not Batavia, and the local middlemen were not Chinese, but local indigenous people.

The rebels don't have to worry that the local natives will hate the Chinese because of the high-class Chinese tax farming and other factors. Instead, they will join these rebellious slaves to kill their village chiefs who dare not speak out.

Now this Chinese rebel can ambush a small team of 20 to 30 Dutch people. It is easy to capture a village with this level.

After entering the village, kill those who usually do evil and divide the wealth, and more people will definitely join the team.

As for the fighting power of the local native nobles, Valknier knows it too well. It is vulnerable.

While worrying about this, there is more bad news outside the city.

A damaged brown bass rifle and some English pamphlets were found in the sugar factory where the "rebels" lived.

The contents of these English pamphlets are all radical ideas during the Cromwell period.

"The Declaration of the Oppressed Poor in England", "The New Code of Justice", etc., just flip through the beginning, you can know what is in it.

After investigating the purchase time of those sugar mills, it happened to be when the British were inciting the Jenkins Ear incident.

He lacked trust in the British and had made judgments in his heart. With the conclusive evidence that the Brown Bess rifle was scrapped by accidentally loading lead bullets first and then gunpowder, Valkner had already outlined a complete logical chain.

The British had long been preparing to go to war with Spain, so they incited domestic public opinion to trigger the Jenkins Ear incident.

In order to gain a foothold in Southeast Asia after conquering Manila in the future, it was necessary to disrupt the rule of the Netherlands.

In order to let the Dutch massacre of the Chinese lead to the revenge of the Dashun, they deliberately cultivated Chinese mercenaries and incited the Chinese to revolt, instead of sending people to guide the Java natives to revolt.

Every step here is a vicious calculation and trap. If you take a wrong step, the company will be doomed, and the British can achieve their sinister purpose of dismembering the Dutch East India Company while maintaining an alliance relationship.

After so many years of working in the company, Valkner knows one thing: whoever makes the most profit is the mastermind behind the scenes.

As for Dashun, he could not see what benefits Dashun could gain: if Dashun wanted Batavia, it would be better to go to war directly, why bother?

Moreover, Batavia was a transit station of great significance to the Netherlands; but for Dashun, it was not even as good as a chicken rib.

Spices were in Ambon and Banda; the passage to India was in Malacca, why did Dashun want Batavia? To transit porcelain and raw silk by itself, and go around in circles?

Moreover, the rebels moved southward, intending to occupy the Bandung area, obviously also to receive British aid on the southern coast.

The Dutch checked the northern line very strictly, and there were cruises along the way.

And there were no cities in the south.

The British now only have one last military base in Southeast Asia, which is Bengkulu on the south side of the strait.

In order to commemorate the famous general Churchill who made outstanding contributions in the War of the Spanish Succession, the newly built castle in Bengkulu was named Marlboro Castle a few years ago. According to the Dashun system, Churchill was awarded the title of Marlboro Jiedushi or Duke of Marlborough, according to the difference between literal translation and transliteration.

Bengkulu is only separated from the coast south of Bandung by the Sunda Strait.

Thinking along the line of thought he had already figured out, he felt more and more reasonable. After all, that was the only base of the British here, and it was also the only way for the rebels to receive foreign aid and arms.

A group of mercenaries who had obviously received formal military training, a group of people who understood political science and had a deep tradition of rebellion, if they received British arms aid, it would be a disaster for the East India Company.

China has the traditional skill of rebellion.

Britain has the traditional skill of being a troublemaker.

The traditional skills of the two powerful countries are all on the Dutch East India Company, which is really unbearable.

It is even possible that these people went south to receive British arms. We can't wait any longer. We must defeat the few military personnel among them before these people have a firm foothold and have not trained an army.

Fortunately, they have just revolted, and most of them don't even have weapons. As long as a troop is sent to pursue them quickly, they should be defeated soon. As long as the core military personnel are defeated, the rest will disperse.

"Send an order to have the warships in the port set sail immediately and head to the south of the strait to strictly check all suspicious ships, especially British ships."

"Let a company of soldiers assemble immediately and prepare to pursue them. Don't give them a chance to breathe. The follow-up troops should prepare military supplies and follow up."