Dragon Sea Empire

Banten was basically spared from military disasters during the last Javanese melee, so it maintained a prosperous market. In addition, Batavia became the stronghold of the confrontation between China and the Netherlands, and a lot of overseas trade was transferred to Banten. Therefore, in fact, these Banten Sultan's life in [-] was very prosperous.

Banten became the real international port of Java Island: Malays and Jining (Indians east of Cape Comorin) run the local financial and usury business, they lend money and operate the pawn business of ships, Many of the ship pledgers in Banten were Ethiopian sailors in East Africa. Most of the Jining people and Mumbai imported cotton and white cloth. Thread embroidery, Bengalis are mainly traders of cheap gems and small commodities.

The Chinese have their own residential area in the western suburbs outside the city wall of Banten, where they built a fence and built a large number of wooden houses centered on the Chinese business hall. They mainly went deep into the interior with scales to buy pepper, and Chinese businessmen monopolized it. The pepper business was calculated, and when the Chinese ship arrived, the pepper was moved into the market and sold to those domestic maritime merchants. In Banten, the merchants of the Chinese merchants and the Dutch agreed that the pepper trade would be run by the Chinese alone. And pay a certain annuity to the Dutch.

The Portuguese here mainly exchanged cloves, nutmeg, cardamom flowers, white sandalwood and medicines with the linen brought by Malacca.

Residents of Banten Port mostly use a large amount of lead money imported from China as a small commodity circulation tool in the market. These lead money are called Bitis, and 1 pieces are worth 20 cents (cents). They are mainly Huatian, which does not belong to the Chinese company system. The company and other Chinese companies minted it in West Borneo. Yin Feng also thought about casting his own currency after hearing about this kind of lead money.

The unit of lead money is so small, which shows that the people in Banten lived very cheaply at that time, which mainly depended on the import of products from Chinese merchants. Silk, golden floral cloth, needles, combs, glasses, umbrellas, boots, jewelry, bronze mirrors, fans, jewelry boxes, paper (the people of Banten use paper in addition to writing with a kind of leaf), imperial calendar, gold leaf, Mercury, holeware, long knives, and various medicines. Just looking at the varieties of these goods, we can see that Chinese goods are very closely related to the daily life of Javanese people. Recently, Chinese companies have learned a full set of glass mirror making methods from European craftsmen. The glass mirrors produced by Zhonghua Company in Taiwan and Hong Kong are very popular at home and abroad. Banten Sultan also bought several gold-inlaid glass mirrors from Zhonghua Company.

In addition to buying pepper, Chinese merchants also bought indigo, white sandalwood, clove, nutmeg, turtle shell and ivory. Businessmen believed that the goldware made by the Chinese was not as fine as those made in Bali at that time, and the Chinese were still brewing rice wine in Banten.

The Sultan of Banten is Prince Muhammad. He came to the throne at the young age of 9. At the beginning of his ascension, the actual power was in the hands of the Prime Minister Mengkubu Michayana Gala, and he was crowned by his daughter As the king's main concubine, but the young master's nanny Neia Nban Langong, as a woman with little culture, is clever and clever, and she is called "the queen mother of the country", and she acts very authoritarian. Holding the kingship.

This time Banten went to war against the Chinese and wanted to seize the trade rights monopolized by the Chinese. The actual idea was set by Prime Minister Mongkubu Michara, and it was also the result of his desire to gain more power through war. However, Prime Minister Banten I saw the short-term benefits, but I didn’t expect that the existence of the Chinese was already crucial to the economy of the Banten state. Followed to the east of Batavia, and began to join forces with the Dutch to besiege Chinatown east of the Chillion River.

At the same time, because of the absence of Chinese, Banten fell into the same predicament as the Spaniards after the Manila massacre: all the supply of cheap daily necessities was cut off, most of the domestic and international trade stopped, and ordinary people lived in poverty. There is no business tax, no head tax from the Chinese, and no enjoyment of luxury goods such as Chinese silk, ceramics, and jewelry. The Prime Minister himself has also been attacked by various nobles and big businessmen in the country, asking him to find a way End the war sooner.

Therefore, the Banten people have little interest in continuing to fight the Chinese. Most of the time, the more than 5000 million Banten troops in Batavia will not work hard, and the Dutch will fight very vigorously at the beginning.

With the stalemate in the battle of Cirebon, the Madalan reinforcements that the Dutch originally negotiated with the Madalan Sultan Agung were unable to arrive in Batavia, and Banten's army was so weak in the battle that the Dutch desperately rushed to Malacca. He wanted to ask for help from the direction of the Dutch army that was besieging Malacca, otherwise they would not be able to defeat the Chinese at all.

Much of Chinatown, east of the Chillion River, has been under Chinese guard.

A battalion of Nanyang brigade fighters under the command of Zhao Xuanming and the defense team of the Chinese Commercial House. The self-defense team organized by other local Chinese companies has a total of more than 1200 people. There are nearly [-] local Chinese and overseas Chinese, most of whom are men. With the Chinese Commercial House As the backbone of the Chinese and overseas Chinese, and the Nanyang Brigade has also stockpiled ammunition and food in Batavia, the local Chinese are relatively united and united. Therefore, since the war started half a year ago, Batavia Chinatown has been persistently resisting, countless times. The Dutch and Javanese natives drove out, and the Chinese also took the initiative to attack and once invaded the Dutch residential area west of the Ciliwong River.

A section of the coastline of Batavia is also under the control of the Chinese, but the outer sea is full of native Javanese sampans and Dutch armed merchant ships. The Chinese ships that come to rescue the Chinese in Batavia can only venture to the shore at night. Therefore, Yin Feng and other people in the old camp of the Chinese Army have learned that the situation here in Batavia is much better than that in Cirebon.

When Yin Feng divided his forces in Semarang, he told Ye Hua, the commander of the Second Fleet: first deal with Banten, and then deal with Batavia. The infantry of the Fifth Division was put on the shore, leaving behind two old-fashioned gunboats, and then the main force of the fleet ignored the armed merchant ships of the Batavia Dutch, and headed straight for Banten Port with the large battleship Pingyuan as the main force.

At that time, Banten did not have a planned and built berthing port. Most of the foreign ships were moored on a berth sheltered by a small island. At the beginning of last year, a brick building was built at this place for defensive purposes and to prepare for war with the Chinese. The fortress of the city was equipped with Portuguese cannon, but the Bantenites did not yet know how to handle it, and there was an extreme shortage of gunpowder, which was bought from the Dutch gunpowder factory in Batavia.

The quality of the city wall of Banten City is very poor. There is no watchtower. There are three steps behind the wall. You can climb it with a ladder. After the news came that he had launched 1.5 soldiers to attack Banten, the residents built plank roads along the inside of the wall, trying to stand on the scaffold-like plank road under the protection of the parapet to resist the enemy.

In short, in the eyes of the Chinese Army, the scale of Banten's military defense measures is almost equal to nothing.

The Ye Hua Fleet took advantage of the Chinese Army's strong maritime maneuverability, and appeared outside the port of Banten before the Banten Army in Batavia sent the news of the arrival of the Chinese Army back to the country.

After only half a day of bombardment, the port of Banten was finished. More than 2000 Chinese sailors and marines landed under the city wall of Banten. The sailors and marines easily broke into the city almost without a fight. Under the guidance of the espionage agents familiar with the situation in Banten, they went straight to the palace of the Sultan of Banten. The main force of the Banten army was still in Batavia. The defense in Dancheng was extremely empty, and the Chinese army seemed to be in an uninhabited land.

That night, Prince Muhammad, the Sultan of Banten, and his nanny, Neia Emban Langone, were captured by the Chinese army at the same time. human command.

The situation in Batavia was completely turned upside down three days later. The Chinese fleet bombarded the Dutch East India Company’s business house in the outer harbor. The Banten army and the Chinese army jointly attacked the Dutch. The battle was fully launched west of the Cilión River. .

At that time, the main street in the Dutch residential area was the so-called Prince Street. It walked southward from the city wall in a straight line. On its east side, a moat parallel to it was dug and named Huhao. The most important building was Concentrated here, along this artificial river to the west is the city hall and the square. On the west side of the square, there is also a Dutch church. Banten's transport teams continue to come to Batavia, all of which are escorted by sailors and marines. Food and grass supplies solved the food shortage problem of the Chinese in Batavia. The mixed troops of the Chinese Army and the Banten Army under the command of Zhao Xuanming quickly reached the Tiger’s Trench, forming a situation where they were fighting the Dutch across the Tiger’s Trench. The initiative is in the hands of the Chinese.

On the fifth day after the Chinese army captured Semarang, the news had already arrived in Cirebon. Madaram Sultan Agong hadn't thought of it at this moment: Yin Fengfeng led the army straight to his lair, and at this moment, the Cirebon Chinese Commercial Center Most of the morale has been restored. The news that Captain Yin Feng's army is coming soon encouraged everyone. Even Prince Cirebon heard the news and began to secretly deliver food to the store.

The Madalan people are still stuck in various camps south and east of Cirebon King City. Sultan Agung is not reconciled. He worked hard to deal with the Dutch and Banten people, and even sent his guards The army and the troops directly under it went to the front line to fight, but they were unable to capture a Chinese business house with more than [-] casualties.

The young Sultan Agung has not yet become a seasoned hero, and still has the blood of a young man, but the news that the Chinese army has landed in Semarang has made his subordinates very worried. The feudal lords, noble princes, etc. The war in Cirebon has also lost the slightest interest.