New Shun 1730

This logic can be regarded as the standard logic of many middle- and upper-class Chinese who go abroad: because of the resistance of the Chinese at the bottom, we have been treated unfairly and jealously.

This is the reality.

This is also true historically.

After the Red Creek Massacre in Batavia, many wealthy Chinese businessmen who were lucky enough to escape did not resent the Dutch and took the initiative to acquit the Dutch, believing that the cause was caused by the riots of unemployed Chinese. Some people even think that this is just the governor's personal reason. "If the Dutch master knew about it, he would not tolerate it." However, the Dutch governor certainly has a certain responsibility, mainly because of the riots by the Chinese at the bottom.

However, what Fuguang said was not entirely wrong. At least it was absolutely true that the Chinese in the city did not support the Chinese rebels in the mountains.

Because the Chinese in the city could afford the poll tax, they also relied on Batavia's special transit port status to make a living.

Moreover, the Chinese people living in the city knew that the Dutch were invincible by force. In addition, if those poor devils gain power, I am afraid that most of the big business people, tax collectors, loan lenders, sugar factory contractors, and those who collect spices for the Dutch will have their property robbed by those outside the city.

Even after the Hongxi massacre in history, the Netherlands acknowledged this in writing when they accused Lien Fu and sought scapegoats internally to avoid affecting trade with China.

[That is: They (Chinese living in the city) know the company's strength better than those outside the city and can make more accurate estimates. 】

[Driving us (the Dutch) away and reforming their administration will never bring any benefit to their trade and commerce. So they (the Chinese in the city) could not harbor the same anti-company ideas as their compatriots outside the city. 】

This kind of thinking is normal.

If you have a clearer mind and look further, you may think that even if the imperial court goes to Nanyang, is it a good thing?

Once Batavia's status as a transit port disappears, once Batavia's status as the VOC capital disappears, it will be bad news for the people of the capital.

And the vast majority of people's business contacts were with the East India Company. Whether it was selling opium to China or working as a middleman in Java to purchase cash crops that companies wanted, the Dutch needed to be here in order to prosper.

Reality is very real, without those beautiful filters of imagination. Including the Lanfang Republic, which was regarded as a totem of overseas Chinese in later generations, they also sold opium to the mainland. When they paid taxes to the Dutch in 1823, they also used opium to offset part of the tax. Of course, according to some logic, we can also think that selling opium to the ignorant colonial people under the rule of the Manchu Tatars is really a good man! But how you view this matter has nothing to do with the facts.

In short, the fact is that the black-shirted party and sugar factory slave workers outside the city could no longer survive, so they revolted and captured a Dutch military camp with kitchen knives and bamboo sticks. Finally, they withdrew to Central Java and struggled for survival, where they survived for the most part; Historically, when the people in the city were massacred, they showed no resistance and basically died. Many were massacred. All the participants recalled that the Chinese in the city obeyed the company's orders obediently. When they were attacked outside the city, they stayed behind closed doors until they were killed. Some wealthy Chinese businessmen who were lucky enough to escape also took the initiative to find problems on the Chinese. And I think the Netherlands mainly knows that it will not let such a thing happen.

At this time, Lian Fuguang's logic was this: If the Chinese outside the city rioted, because they were all Chinese, the Chinese in the city might also be implicated. If something goes wrong and the Dutch kill people, these people are looking for the lives of you people who rioted in the sugar factory.

If you say this to ordinary people, they may think it makes sense.

It seems that this is really the case.

Maybe some people with kind hearts and soft hearts will blame themselves.

But when Wang Wu heard this, he couldn't help but laugh and said: "What a bullshit. Valkenir doesn't even dare to kill the slave workers in the sugar factory outside the city. If he tries to move? Scared him to death."

"You are really good at putting gold on your face and repaying the good offices of your mediators. It's obviously a gunboat from the imperial court that came to Batavia. If Valknear is given an extra egg, he doesn't dare to kill him."

He was full of swear words and unspeakably vulgar, which made Lian Fuguang a little uncomfortable. But thinking that this man was able to do business with the British East India Company alone, and was also a strong man who was at least qualified to be on an equal footing with him, it was hard to show his displeasure.

He just said: "In any case, with your few broken guns, is it possible that you really want to imitate the mantis? Do you know where the Netherlands is? Do you know how big the Netherlands is? Do you know how many warships and soldiers the Netherlands has?"

"You don't know, let me tell you. This Dutch country is tens of thousands of miles away in the west of the ocean. It is not just a small Batavia. It has thousands of warships and hundreds of thousands of soldiers. Even the powerful Western countries will see it. The ship of the Blue Flag Country was trembling. They were detained by the Dutch, but they just suspected that they were pretending to be pirates, but why didn't they just stop the ship for inspection? Those who fight only make the Rakshasa country lose its armor."

"You just occupy Cirebon, so what can you do?"

"To put it bluntly, if you follow the Dutch, you will have meat to eat and business to do. What about you?"

"Now that you are here and my brother is here, I might as well say something clear. You guys can't win, so why bother?"

"Don't talk nonsense. Even the imperial court in the north said that land was equalized and grain was exempted. But if you win the world, don't you pay taxes and grain? We collect taxes and collect poll taxes. Is it possible that you will succeed? No more taxes?”

"We can't collect taxes, we can't do business, we don't have ships, and we can't do maritime trade. How do you want us to support you? How can we be of one mind with you?"

"My brother has lost his mind and gone crazy. He listened too much to the storytelling of Yue Wumu, Prime Minister Wen, and the Heroes of the Water Margin, and his brain is damaged. Among the thousands of you, there is not a single person with a sound brain who can do this. Someone who knows the current affairs?”

Speaking of this, Lian Fuguang looked at his younger brother again, then at Wang Wu and others sitting in front of him, gritted his teeth and said: "If you surrender to the governor, I will mediate to ensure that you are safe. How about it?"

He didn't notice that his younger brother Lian Jieguang's face twitched when he just said "the imperial court in the north", nor did he notice a hint of panic in his younger brother Lian Jieguang's eyes.

Lian Fuguang felt that this was his last attempt to save his younger brother. If he could surrender, with his status as Kapitan and some Dutch lawyer friends, not to mention taking care of others, his younger brother would still be able to take good care of him.

As long as he is not exiled to Cape South Africa, he can keep his brother safe wherever he is in Southeast Asia, whether it is Ambon, Java, or Sulawesi. But if he was exiled to Cape, there would be no choice. He didn’t know anyone there, but his lawyer friends would probably try to get him to go to Ambon or Sulawesi.

As soon as the words fell, the room fell silent, and no one answered for a while.

He thought Wang Wu and others were moved.

But little did he know that at this time, the people in the room had all kinds of strange thoughts, and they all had different thoughts, but there was no such thing as "heartbeat".

Lian Jieguang thought to himself: Brother, brother, what are you talking about? Do you dare to criticize the affairs of the imperial court? You also talk about equalizing land and exempting grain. I just hope that the adult will think you are ignorant and not pursue the crime. You are the Kapitan of Batavia, and you are considered a rebel, but you still say this at this moment?

People around Wang Wu thought, this guy has lost his mind and can't be saved. The Marquis of Whales knew that our rebels wanted to attack the Dutch retreating army alone, so he sent us here overnight. He just thought that you were the Kapitan in the city and wanted to incite the Chinese to revolt first, lest the Dutch would be surrounded and massacred in despair. If it weren't for these Chinese people in the city, I would have slapped you in the face, what the hell, bah.

Wang Wu was relatively calm. He complained when he accepted the mission before rushing to Batavia overnight.

He felt that the Chinese in the city were just outsiders.

As for those Lei Zhenlan and Kapitan, he could understand that the Dutch ruled Nanyang, so someone had to come forward to stand on the side of the Chinese and deal with the Dutch.

But the problem is that they have another level of identity, they are tax collectors.

In recent years, Wang Wu has dealt with the British a lot. He has also been to India and Bengkulu, so he still has some perspective.

The basis of Batavia's prosperity was the local forces in Batavia who kidnapped the Dutch East India Company and forced the goods to be transferred in Batavia.

Not to mention the previous obstacles to direct trade with China. Even Ceylon’s cinnamon had to be shipped in Colombo or Jaffna. It went against the wind first to Batavia, where it was then packaged and shipped back to Europe.

As the imperial court moved to Southeast Asia, Batavia's status was bound to decline. Not to mention that the Nanyang Protectorate chosen by the imperial court was in Malacca, but what was Batavia in the eyes of the imperial court? Why should Ceylon's cinnamon gems, etc. be transported back to Batavia first?

In addition, if the imperial court continues to sell tea, porcelain, and silk to Europe in the future, the ships can just go directly through Malacca. Is it necessary to make a detour and visit Batavia first?

In this case, in the future, the Chinese in Batavia will feel that life is not as good as it was in the Netherlands, and I am afraid they will be upset.

Life would be worse than it was under Dutch rule, which is almost inevitable for some. It has lost its status as a transit port. Let’s not talk about other things. Let’s talk about restaurants, hotels, brothels, casinos, and vegetable sellers. It used to be 10,000 people a year, but now it’s a thousand. Not affected?

Do people think that much? I will only feel that life is not as good as it was when the Netherlands ruled.

Even if these dissatisfied people are in the minority, is the court trying to do something to win the hearts of the Chinese in Batavia?

At the very least, the tax farming system must be abolished, right?

The imperial court basically didn't use the tax farming system, and the court actually didn't like letting the tax farming companies make the difference in the price - no tax farming company lost money, even if they cried and shouted that they didn't make any money at all, but instead subsidized it. A large amount of money cannot be believed.

Furthermore, there are many people who are contractors of sugar factories.

Of course the rebellious slave workers in the Guiyi Army hated the red-haired ghosts, but they often said things like "You don't have a residence permit. If you don't work hard, I will report you to Bacheng and let you go to the Dutch to do hard labor until you die." Should those who use words to oppress Chinese slave workers be punished?

Even if the Guiyi Army, which consisted of only 2,000 people, expanded to 5,000 in the future, wouldn’t the Chinese in Ceylon still be slave laborers back then?

If they do nothing, and even continue to let them contract the sugar factory and become masters, what will these rebels think?

According to Wang Wu's thinking, since the Dutch prisoners could be captured, used as hostages, and the Dutch were not allowed to massacre, why should Kapitan be asked to present the certificate of surrender and meritorious service anyway?

If the Dutch really have murderous intentions, it seems to be a good thing to let the people know how cruel the Dutch are.

In the future, because the imperial court did not need Batavia to transit, Batavia gradually declined, which also made the people remember that although Batavia declined under the rule of the Celestial Empire, at least there was no massacre.

However, Liu Yu told him that people's memory is not that long. Even if they really killed someone, at most twenty years later, the hatred would be basically forgotten, and it would be useless.

Fence-sitters are actually quite good.

As long as the wind on their side is strong enough, fence-sitters will never turn to the other side.

Now in Nanyang, the east wind overwhelms the west wind, and fence-sitters are still trustworthy.

Strong winds know strong grass, and national chaos shows loyal ministers. On weekdays, it is not necessary for everyone to be strong grass.

Moreover, the Celestial Empire was also responsible for not going to Nanyang three hundred years earlier. Going to sea to make a living, you have to live, right?

As for why Kapitan and others had to make merit anyway, it was also to shut up some people in the court: they believed that going to Nanyang, abandoning the king's rule, would forget the Celestial Empire over time, and even collude with the barbarians.

If Kapitan and Lei Zhenlan can turn the tables and make meritorious deeds, they can say in the court: Chinese are Chinese, and barbarians are barbarians. Their arguments cannot be resolved by waves of the sea or natural barriers. Wherever there are Chinese, as long as the heavenly soldiers arrive, the people will surely win food and follow them...

It will also allow the court to feel at ease and encourage people to go abroad.

Besides...

Wang Wu remembered that Liu Yu said a few words.

"The autumn will settle the accounts. Why are you in such a hurry?"