I

  Chapter 824 821 [Hot Air Balloon and Siege]

  The city of Batavia is divided into two by the Tiger Canal, forming two rectangular halves in the east and west.

  The canal was also built by the Han people. At that time, it was undertaken by two Han merchants. The moat can connect to the canal, and the river flows around the city and extends all the way to protect the castle.

  The castle is separated from the urban area. It is built in the north of the eastern half of the city, with moats on all sides. There are several vegetable fields to the south of the castle, and further south is the north wall of the East City.

  The four corners of the castle are four bastions connected by four straight walls.

   It is impossible for the Datong Army to land on the front, and it is easy to be blocked if it lands on the west. Going around three or four miles to the east, then lowered the boat, landed on a beach, and then stepped on the farmland to head southwest.

   Instead of directly attacking the castle, go to occupy the city first.

  Two hot air balloons took off one after another, giving a clear view of the city defense situation.

  One of the watchmen came down from the hot air balloon along the rope, and handed over the quickly drawn city defense map: "General, please take a look!"

   Tie Hong took it over and took a look. The drawing was crooked, but the basic information was clearly marked.

  The situation in the eastern half of the city is as follows: the east wall has three gates and three enemy towers, and at the southeast corner is a sharp-edged enemy tower similar to a bastion. On the south wall, there is a city gate and two enemy towers, and at the southwest corner there is also a sharp-edged enemy tower similar to a bastion.

  The situation in the west half of the city is as follows: the west city wall has two gates and one enemy tower. There are sharp-edged enemy towers similar to bastions at the southwest and northwest corners. The south city wall has no gates and enemy towers, and a bridge connects the east half of the city across the canal.

  The situation of the castle outside the city is as follows: four bastions, three towers in the middle, and moats on all sides. There is a bridge to the south that can lead to the eastern half of the city. On the north side there was a gap, next to the bastion, which gave access to the coast.

  The drawing also draws several circles, marking that there is a fort somewhere, and marking the approximate number of defenders in a certain place.

When the Datong Army was using a hot air balloon to observe, Governor Rainiers stood on the castle and was also observing with a telescope. He had a headache and said, "What kind of device is this? It can rise to high altitudes. The deployment of our troops has been controlled by China. People have figured it out completely.”

   Army commander Clapp led troops to defend the city. Through the binoculars, he could clearly see that there were Chinese people on the hot air balloon watching.

   Clapp immediately mobilized troops to test, and then he soon discovered that the Chinese watchman on the hot air balloon kept playing flags to show this mobilization.

  The Javanese servants standing on the city wall, facing the two mysterious hot air balloons, shouted and knelt down one after another.

   Clapp said to the herald: "Go and tell those Javanese soldiers that the sky is not a god, but some kind of Chinese machine. Fire and shoot those two **** down!"

   "Boom boom boom!"

  The east city wall kept firing cannons, but the balloon rose too high and the distance was far away. At best, the cannonball can hit luck and break the rope pulling the balloon, and even if it breaks, it doesn't matter, the balloon will just float with the wind until it runs out of fuel and lands.

  Those Javanese soldiers saw that the artillery could not shoot down the hot air balloon, and they were even more convinced that the Chinese army had the help of gods.

  Dutch soldiers walked along the city wall, waving whips constantly: "Stand up, stand up, don't kneel anymore, that's not a Chinese god!"

  A civil servant ran out of the castle and came to the city through the moat.

He climbed up the city wall out of breath, and came to Clapp and said: "Your Excellency the Governor has an order to conscript all civilians to fight. After the victory of the war, the property left by the Chinese will be rewarded to the soldiers according to their military achievements. Those Chinese farms outside the city , and let the soldiers plunder, and those who have made great achievements can still get the land!"

   Squad after squad of Dutch soldiers, armed with arms, recruited soldiers in the city, while punishing those who were still secretly looting goods.

  Even Indians and Arabs were forced to defend the city walls.

  Sanjay Gutap took his clansmen and buddies and was responsible for defending a small section of the city wall. After the Dutch soldiers left, the wealthy Indian businessman quietly went to the next door: "Gauer, don't try too hard. The Chinese are not bandits from Banten or Matalam. Malacca was occupied by the Chinese, and the Indian businessmen there did not We were robbed. If we resist too fiercely, we will be killed instead."

  The Indian businessman named Gore said: "I know, I will not stick to it. As long as the Chinese soldiers attack from here, I will immediately give up the city wall."

   This is the dividend that a good name brings.

  In the past Batavia offensive and defensive battles, whether it was facing the Banten army or the Matalan army, all races in the city would unite as one and resist to the death.

  Because of Wan Dan and Ma Dalan's army, if they break through the city, they will surely plunder.

  If the castle is breached and Batavia is completely occupied, the Banten and Matalan troops will not kill people indiscriminately. The Sudans of the two countries also want "long-term development". They will charge a high poll tax, which is several times that of the Dutch tax.

  In order not to be plundered and to avoid paying high poll taxes, Indians and Arabs always actively help the Netherlands defend the city.

  Now, they have no enthusiasm for defending the city.

  Who doesn’t know what happened in Malacca? The Chinese army will not loot randomly, and the poll tax is lower than that of the Netherlands.

  If it wasn’t for the fear of dying in battle, Indians would even want to help the Chinese army fight for a lower poll tax.

   At another section of the city wall, several wealthy Arab businessmen were also passing messages to each other. Once the Chinese army attacks the city, don't resist, flee back to your own community immediately, and then wait and see the development of the situation.

  The battle has not yet begun, and the defenders have lost their morale.

  Javanese soldiers and Javanese civilians were kneeling on the city wall to worship the hot air balloon, and they were whipped by the Dutch soldiers and stood up tremblingly. But the Indians and Arabs, pretending to be defending the city walls, are ready to slip away at any time.

   Clapp already felt that the atmosphere was not right, and said to the herald: "Go to the governor's mansion and ask the governor to issue weapons to the slaves, and let all the slaves come to defend the city wall."

  In order to prevent slaves from escaping back to their hometowns, Batavia's slaves were all brought in from outside.

  The number of black slaves is very small, and most of them are natives of small islands like Bali.

  Bali actually doesn’t have any specialty products. The Dutch carried out massacres there, purely to capture slaves. Men can be captured as slaves, used for themselves or sold. The women were captured and sold to the Han people as wives. After the Han people settled down, they would not think about leaving Batavia.

  Historically, it has been more than two hundred years since the Netherlands conquered Bali. The aborigines in Bali were very stubborn. They first fought against them, and then committed suicide collectively when they couldn't win. Even members of the royal family committed suicide collectively in front of the Dutch army. Because they have been bullied by the Netherlands for nearly three hundred years, knowing that they will end up miserable after being captured, they would rather commit suicide than be prisoners.

   One slave after another, they were assigned simple weapons and brought to the city wall for defense.

  Some slaves looked around, ready to surrender or flee at any time. But there are also many slaves with high fighting spirit, because the master promised many benefits, such as finding wives for them.

  The Chinese army outside the city did not attack the city immediately, but set up camp in the farmland.

   About half a day later, Sun Jie and Su Dingguo came with an army of Han landlords, and they also gathered many urban Han people who had fled to the countryside.

   "This is the commander of this battle, General Tie Hong." Sun Jie introduced.

  Su Dingguo looked at Tie Hong in a daze. Why was the coach of the Celestial Army turned out to be a tall black man?

  Sun Jie said in a low voice: "This is a hero from Conglong. Before His Majesty raised his troops, he followed His Majesty to rob the bank. If it wasn't born too dark, I'm afraid he would have already been named a Marquis."

  Su Dingguo didn't dare to be negligent, and hurriedly cupped his hands: "The grass people pay homage to General Tie!"

   "There is no need to be too polite," Tie Hong said to Zhang Xianzhong and Sun Kewang, "These Han volunteers will be handed over to the two to command."

   "Easy to say!"

  Zhang Xianzhong was overjoyed, but he was worried about his lack of troops.

  Zhang Huangyan is the governor of Luzon, and Kuang Hong is the governor of Palembang. They are not allowed to leave their jurisdiction without imperial orders. Therefore, the army is completely under the command of Tiehong.

  The troops are arranged as follows: Tie Hong personally leads 2,400 Datong troops, Zhang Xianzhong leads 400 ronin and 1,000 Han rebels, Sun Kewang leads 400 ronin and more than 600 Han rebels, and the Prince of Johor leads 1,500 Johor soldiers.

  The main envoy Liu Hanyi and the deputy envoy Sun Jie did not intervene in the military when they arrived on the battlefield, but only coordinated and arranged logistics work, and were responsible for appeasing the Han people who came one after another.

  The small cannons on the naval ships were dismantled and pulled outside the city for tentative shelling.

   On the second day after landing, they began to bombard the city walls.

  Johor soldiers and Han civilians, as well as Javanese serfs brought by Han landlords, were assigned to cut trees and dig soil.

   Siege equipment needs to be built, and the moat must be filled with negative soil.

   The stalemate lasted for more than half a month, the moat was still being filled, and the food in the Dutch castle was sufficient, but the food in Batavia was getting less and less.

  The food needed in the urban area comes from the Han landlords and is transported to the city through the Tiger Canal every month.

  The Han landlords also kept a hand. They always kept food in the countryside and would not sell too much to the city at one time, in case the Dutch and Javanese suddenly turned against each other.

Su Dingguo said: "The food stored in the city can last for another month or two at most. We don't rush to attack, and we don't need to rush to fill the moat. Try to avoid too many casualties. After one or two months, the food in the city should be eaten." It's over. At that time, it depends on whether the Dutch are willing to take out the grain in the castle. If the grain is adjusted from the castle, it will consume the grain stored in the castle. If the grain is not adjusted from the castle, the Javanese, Indians, The Persians (Arabs) would go hungry."

   Tie Hong said with a smile: "Then take your time, and we'll besiege the city for two months first."

  Batavia has not yet fought, but Brianan (Bandung) and Palembang have already fought.

  The aristocratic landowners of Matalan in Burianan heard that Batavia was besieged, and immediately staged an uprising. They first killed the Dutch missionaries, robbed the missionary's plantations, set fire to hospitals and schools (both missionary sites), and then surrounded the city of Brianan, which had only 30 Dutch soldiers (and a large number of servants).

   This wave of uprising quickly spread to Cirebon by the sea, and then burned to Semarang further west.

  There was a big Han uprising in Semarang, and the surrounding Mataram nobles and landlords responded one after another.

  Matalan puppet sultan originally gathered 10,000 troops to rescue Batavia. As soon as he heard that the uprising broke out in Semarang, he was so frightened that he returned to the capital halfway, and was blocked outside the city, but it was the leaders of the city and the nobles who rebelled.

  Matalan Sultan was frightened out of his wits and led his troops to withdraw to the east city. As a result, the aristocratic landlords in the east also rebelled, and various rebels began to encircle and suppress the Sudanese army.

  Twenty years ago, Matalam was able to pull up an army of 100,000, but now it has declined to this appearance.

  Matalan's puppet sultan was not dead, but three sultans appeared in the rebel army. The three rebel sultans were all from the aristocratic and landlord class, and they all said that they belonged to the orthodox royal family of Mataram. It is estimated that after they wipe out the puppet sultan, they will continue to fight a few more games until someone wins the final victory.

  In addition, the Han rebel army in Semarang actually produced a sultan, who seemed to want to establish a city-state in Semarang. Of course, it is only called Sudan internally, and the Governor of China externally.

   On the other side of Palembang, the Dutch fleet has returned, and the Indian Ocean fleet is also there, with more than 30 large and small warships, trying to attack the port of the Han people.

  (end of this chapter)