New Shun 1730

In terms of absolute military strength, the East India Company is a lean camel that is still bigger than a horse. Even if the Chinese rebels gathered in the Volcano area can fight the Dutch with the same strength, if all the Dutch garrisons in Southeast Asia are deployed, the Dutch are still stronger and more numerous.

But absolute military strength is always a number on paper, and there are not many troops that can be assembled for field battles. The Dutch colonial policy is really hard to describe. The company is only for profit, and it is too exploitative, and troops are needed everywhere.

The final result of tearing down the east wall to repair the west wall is that the east wall and the west wall will collapse together. This is the most basic common sense of a colonial governor.

Fortunately, the Dutch still have the advantage of shipping in Southeast Asia. Since they can complete the great migration of Javanese Chinese to Ceylon within three to five years, their shipping projection capabilities are still sufficient.

Valknier knew that this matter could not be delayed, and the sooner it was resolved, the better. Considering the situation in Europe, Valknier believed that this should be supported by the British behind the scenes.

The current situation in Europe is the Anglo-Dutch alliance. Without tearing their faces apart, if the British were to play tricks behind the scenes and disintegrate the Dutch rule, once the war was over and a fait accompli was created, the British could take advantage of the situation to insert their hands into Southeast Asia and realize the dream that had lasted for a hundred years since the Dutch were expelled in the third year of Tianqi.

The troops in Bekasi, Semarang, Madura, as well as the troops in other parts of Java and the mobile troops in Batavia, while ensuring the guarding of the fortress, could draw nearly 2,000 people, plus the mercenaries of the local indigenous people and the bombardment of warships. Valknier felt that the chances of winning were still very high.

Unfortunately, the Dutch garrison in Cirebon surrendered, resulting in the "rebels" holding three or four hundred hostages. Otherwise, after capturing Cirebon, all the captured captives could be subjected to the most cruel punishment of dismemberment in Batavia, and the separated bodies could be hung on the cross, one at a distance from Batavia to Semarang, so as to deter those who dared to resist.

The meeting ended quickly. This time, Valknier would lead the troops himself. Because the last encirclement and suppression failed, he had taken the opportunity to temporarily detain the military leaders who might threaten his power.

After the agreement was made and the order was issued, several Dutch strongholds were connected by the navy, and the army began to gather towards Cirebon.

Cirebon.

This city, where Chinese settled thousands of years ago, still does not have an absolute advantage. A sunken ship was salvaged from the seabed in later generations. It was a ship from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. There were Chinese porcelain and Arabic emblems of "Only the Lord is Great" on the ship; Ceylon gems, Indian bronze statues, Byzantine glassware... Merchant ships from China to Arabia had stabilized their routes as early as the Tang and Song dynasties. Zheng He's treasure ship also relied on this mature route as a foundation to go far beyond the mature route and start the journey to the West.

Today, the city is under the control of the Chinese rebels, but the rebels do not have a good popular base here.

The group of people who most support the rebels have moved to Ceylon.

The remaining Chinese actually prefer the rule of the Dutch.

It is not that they worship foreigners, but the powerful Dutch can bring them the stability they want most. Most industrial and commercial practitioners who can afford the head tax and have formal residence permits are still very wary of the group of "thieves" who occupy the city.

As for the richer people, they are actually considering making trouble.

Because they are worried about their Chinese identity, they will be implicated when the Dutch fight back in the future. If they can make a pledge of allegiance when the Dutch attack, they may be able to avoid being liquidated because of their bloodline identity.

They did not know that the main fleet of Dashun had set sail from Guangzhou. If they knew, they would definitely support these rebels with all their strength and wash away their identity of cooperating with the Dutch.

This kind of people's hearts and minds is a big test for the defenders.

Fortunately, the Dutch built a decent fortress here, and the separation of the city and the fort also made it easier to defend the city.

Niu Er, who had been active in the Bandung area for several years, had completely won the hearts of the rebels with several victories over the Dutch, and his prestige was unparalleled. Some of the original leaders of the rebels were either excluded or deprived of power, and some died of illness.

A large number of "heroes" who were said to be from Guangzhou, Fujian and other places continued to join the team, breaking the original balance in the rebels. With a systematic organization and military victories, it was easy to seize the leadership of the rebels and basically squeeze out people who were not in the court system from the decision-making circle.

There was also a split within the rebels. Some people still wanted to rent some ships from pirates and go to Borneo, where the Dutch were relatively weaker, to achieve great things. They felt that there was no development in the Bandung area and the Dutch were too powerful. They had agreed to gain a foothold, and if they were unwilling to work together, they would go their separate ways.

For example, Huang Ban, who was quite prestigious in the team, wanted to find pirates to rent a ship to Borneo and bring his confidants. First, they had different ideas about the future. Second, he felt that there were more and more people around Niu Er and his brothers, and their status was very awkward: they were not as good as them in fighting. In terms of connections, they could get guns and cannons, and they did not discuss some confidential matters with him.

So, when he proposed to take his brothers to Borneo to accomplish something great, he died.

The story is very simple, just like the story of Emperor Taizu attacking Cao Cao and Ge Liyan in the story of the opening of the Dashun.

After a large-scale purge of those who wanted to go to Borneo, the fighting power of the rebels did not decline, but instead completed institutional construction. According to the drill manual of Weihai Xiaozhan, an army that could fight against the Dutch in the field was trained.

Arms, equipment, gold and silver were sent from time to time by the ships of the British East India Company. A large number of Chinese gathered here were also arranged to settle and plant crops, and the movement of registering households and dividing the land among villages and communities was also implemented in the original Javanese territory.

If it were in the turbulent times of the Celestial Empire, this would have meant "getting rid of bandits, consolidating the regime, and having the potential to dominate the world."

Colonists sometimes have a dual mission, on the one hand, to destroy the old system, and on the other hand, to transform society according to the needs of the colonists.

The Dutch have been in Batavia for a long time, and the great change they brought to the Bandung area is the gradual disintegration of the original village community. This disintegration also made it easier for the people sent by the Dashun Privy Council to start the war: they may not have experience in other things, but they are still very familiar with the idea of ​​equal distribution of land, military farming, and building the regime before the founding of the Dashun.

With the support of external funds, as well as a large excess of officers and low-level officials, the entire Bandung area has actually completed the transformation of the land system.

This is within the plan of the four military towns in Nanyang. Once the status of Batavia as a transit port disappears, if you want to maintain the Java military town, you must shift the focus from the city of Batavia to a wider area.

At this time, Niu Er was extremely cautious. You don't know how expensive firewood and rice are if you don't manage the family. Only after he really controlled the rebel army did he know the importance of the court's support.

Without the talents, officers, gold, silver, and arms supported by the court, he would be nothing.

Although he attacked and killed Huang Ban, if he put himself in Huang Ban's shoes, he would probably think of going far away to Borneo. Huang Ban didn't know about the support of the court, so he couldn't see hope. If he didn't have the support of the court, he would definitely not choose to stay here.

Let alone the fact that the Whale Marquis was still there, even if the officers of Weihai had many ideas, no one dared to do anything. They all knew that if they really made some small moves, the Whale Marquis would be afraid of being implicated and would definitely attack and kill with all his strength. Who could stop him at that time?

Let's talk about the self-proclaimed king. Unless you run to the mountainous area where the army is difficult to enter and become a local chief. Otherwise, the financial problem alone is difficult to solve.

Now the rebel army in the Bandung area has a total of 1,800 off-duty troops, which is an unreasonable proportion. If there is no input of external forces, not to mention that the officer problem cannot be solved, it is a problem to support these two thousand people and maintain basic qualified training.

The higher you stand, the more you understand the power of the court now, and the more cautious you will be. I hope the court will not think that you have any disloyalty.

For this war, Niu Er has never considered failure. The moment he received the secret letter from the Privy Council last year, asking him to attack Cirebon, he knew that there would be no more VOC flags in the entire South Seas.

At this moment, he stood on the old Dutch bastion that had been urgently repaired, holding a telescope and looking at the warships flying the VOC flag on the sea, looking back at the rebel soldiers who were waiting there silently or making fire and clamping lead bullets with clamps, but what he was thinking about was the unrighteous attack on Huang Ban and others.

If those people had not been attacked and killed at the beginning, this attack on Cirebon would definitely cause a lot of controversy. Because without considering the court's entry, or without considering the background that the rebels were just cooperating with the court to attract the Dutch navy, it would be completely wrong to attack Cirebon.

Because attacking Cirebon would inevitably fail. Moreover, once it failed to defend and the troops were lost, the Sultanate of Matalan, which had been flirting with them before, might immediately turn against them, show loyalty to the Dutch, and attack their base together.

But the attack had already happened. All the rebels had completed a transformation of identity inadvertently, even without their knowledge.

From the beginning, they were rebels, organizations with their own ideas, certain political demands and purposes.

They became a part of a huge and sophisticated state machine.

The officer corps was headed by him, and he had to listen to the command of the Privy Council. The actions of the Privy Council had to be approved by the emperor, and they were linked together.

The officers did not need to consider whether the attack on Jingliwen was right or wrong.

They only had to consider obeying the orders that Niu Er received from the Privy Council, and after the Dutch assembled, they had to hold on until the court's warships appeared on the sea.

As for how many people would be lost in this situation where they had no control of the sea, the number of artillery was not dominant, and they were easily bombarded, and the people in the city did not support them very enthusiastically, they would not consider it.

The number of people lost was just a number for the court, which could be directly converted into money to calculate. As long as each soldier is guaranteed two or three taels of silver per month and has enough food, with the population of Dashun, an army can be mobilized at any time, as long as the court is important and still holds the money and rice bags.

Defending Jingliwen means that every officer from the court can have military merit and be promoted, regardless of how many people die.

If he can't defend it...it's hard for others to say, but Niu Er knows that he will definitely have only one choice left: suicide. Keep an identity for his family, wife and children.