1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 733 Reversed Situation

Compared with the detailed information obtained by Cheng Dapeng and others in Batavia, the information obtained by the Haihan military is very rough.This information was basically provided by the Daming maritime merchants who returned from the north. The military and the Ministry of Security spent a lot of effort to slowly piece together these fragmented information into useful information.

According to the summary and analysis of various intelligences obtained, the military finally believes that the size of the army sent by Matalan to attack Batavia is about 6 to [-]. First-hand information can only be inferred from the size of the fleet described by others and the deployment of troops in a certain place.In addition, in order to cooperate with this battle, the country of Matalam also conscripted more than [-] civilians to participate in the battle. The number of people participating in the battle alone has exceeded the manpower invested in the country's last war against Batavia.

Matalam was able to launch such a large-scale war within a few days after the death of Dutch Governor Cohen, and its mobilization ability really surprised the Haihan Executive Committee.The executive committee has always regarded the Dutch East India Company as the biggest obstacle to the expansion of Haihan to the south, but ignored the existence of local regimes in Nanyang. Most of the traversers believed that the environment in Nanyang was difficult to breed an empire with strong war power. But Mata Ram is undoubtedly an alternative existence.

Since this regime was only a phenomenal existence in history, the glorious time was only a few decades, and then it went downhill all the way until it was finally divided and ruled by the Dutch. The Haihan Executive Committee has never taken it too seriously. However, it is precisely at this time that Matalam is at its strongest, and its ability to mobilize wars in this war has drawn the attention of the Executive Committee—it is necessary to mobilize tens of thousands of troops within a few days And to achieve cross-sea combat, not to mention countries like Annan and Champa, even with the conditions of Ming Dynasty, it is difficult to do so.

And Matalan's attack on Batavia this time is no longer in the historical records. In other words, this is actually one of the butterfly effects brought by the time-traveling group to this time and space.In the original history, the offensive launched by Matalam in 1629 was the last attack on the city of Batavia, and the governor of the Netherlands, Cohen, died of illness during that war. However, due to the appearance of Haihan, Governor Cohen successfully renewed his life. , and the country of Matalan did not stop there, and waited until three years later to launch the third Maho war.Regarding the result of this war, there are no ready-made historical materials to refer to. No matter how much black technology Haihan has in his hands, it is hard to predict who will win this time. One of the reasons why war is of particular concern.

However, due to the limitation of Haihan's current sphere of influence and maritime strength, it is impossible to send personnel to the front line to watch the battle. Therefore, it is impossible to get accurate information about the size of the troops participating in the battle, the way of fighting, the dynamics of the battlefield, the progress of the battle, etc.While Haihan was anxious, he could only patiently wait for further news.

Of course, considering the current diplomatic relations Hai Han has established, it's not like he can't get any news.After the news of the war broke out back to Sanya, the executive committee immediately authorized Roger of the Abuna Islands to negotiate with foreign ships passing by and purchase relevant information.

At this juncture, the only ones who have the ability and the courage to go to the local area to watch the game are the Portuguese who have no taboos.The closest Portuguese colony to Batavia is in the Strait of Malacca. Although the distance between the two places is thousands of nautical miles, which is similar to the southern voyage of the Ambuna Islands, the Portuguese have an advantage in that they also have business with Matalam. Therefore, their ships can stop at the port of Mata Ram for supplies. Of course, they can also use this to inquire about some information that Haihan is not convenient to come forward to inquire about.

However, even if the Portuguese merchant ship directly went south to Batavia after getting the news from the Port of Ambuna, it would still have a voyage of [-] nautical miles. The timeliness can be said.Roger originally wanted to take a Portuguese merchant ship to make a trip himself, so that he could send a report on the battlefield to Sanya by telegram.However, after consideration, the Executive Committee decided that this move was too risky. If Luo Jie made any mistakes, it would be an irreparable loss.Moreover, there are still many development and infrastructure projects in the Abunana Islands. As the local military and political leader, Roger must not abandon the matter at hand at will. Even if he wants to move the place, he has to wait for the headquarters to send people to take over the work just work.

This came and went, and the time soon came to the end of July.Haihan still didn't have any more definite news, only that the Mata blue army had been blocking the Batavia Harbor, but he didn't know anything about the situation on land.Haihan can only judge from the movement of the Mata blue army. Batavia should not have fallen at this time, but it is difficult to have a clear result on which one is weaker and which one is stronger.

On August 8, a merchant ship returning to Daming from the eastern port of Java brought a new message.It is said that a large-scale Dutch armed fleet broke through the local Sulumayi Port a few days ago, which is called the Surabaya Port by the Chinese in later generations.

As an important trading port in the eastern part of Java Island, Surabaya Port has been visited by Chinese as early as the beginning of the 13th century. In the "Zhu Fan Zhi" written by Zhao Rushi in the Song Dynasty, it was called "Chongjia Lu", and in the Yuan Dynasty written by Wang Dayuan. It is called "Chongjialuo" in "Daoyi Zhilue", which is a transliteration of the ancient local name Jungala. In "Yingya Shenglan" written by Ma Huan in the early 15th century, the local area was called "Sulu Mayi", and later this name was continued. With this place name, the book describes the local area as "luxuriant forests, more than a thousand families, more than half Chinese. There are also tens of thousands of gibbons and monkeys." It can also be seen that the Chinese have long had a certain influence in the local area. Merchants also often traded spices with the aborigines at local ports.

Sulu Mayi Port is one of the important trading ports of Matalam. However, due to the outbreak of the war, most of the local sea and land forces were transferred to Batavia to fight, resulting in a very empty local defense. , The Dutch fleet entered the port almost effortlessly, destroyed all the official institutions established by Mataram in the local area, and looted a large amount of gold, silver and jewelry.However, the angry Dutch did not completely lose their minds. They only drove away the foreign ships moored in the port, instead of grabbing them indiscriminately - after all, they were still counting on these merchant ships to go to Bada in the future. Via conducts trade, if there is a pirate business here, it can only smash its own signboard.

And this merchant ship returning to Daming happened to witness the entire process of the Dutch fleet capturing Sulu Mayi Port. According to the description of the crew on board, the Dutch fleet had at least 3000 armed sailing ships equipped with a large number of artillery pieces. .Judging from the shape of the ship, this fleet probably has a size of two to three thousand people.

Under Roger's repeated questioning, the captain of the merchant ship revealed another very important piece of information.Before his ship left the port, he applied for fresh water from the Dutch. During this brief contact, he heard a Dutch crew member express that he would burn the war to the port of Mata Ram.Although this sounds like just a slogan, Roger believes that it may indicate that the Dutch counterattack is not limited to Sulumayi Port.In other words, the Dutch will probably take advantage of the empty defense of Matalan to destroy the main ports on its land.

From east to west, the territory of Mataram includes most of Sumatra, Java, and Timor Island. The east-to-west span exceeds [-] kilometers, and the north-south span also exceeds [-] kilometers. In this area, it also includes Including the vast sea area, if you really want to attack ports one by one along the coastline, even if it goes as smoothly as Sulu Mayi Port, it may not be completed in two or three months.Therefore, Roger thinks that the Dutch fleet may not only appear in Sulumayi Port, but will launch similar attacks in many places, and then counterattack Batavia together.

If the Dutch really adopted such a combat plan, it would undoubtedly be quite difficult to implement.In this era of lack of long-distance communication means, it is difficult for multiple troops to fight together in a vast geographical area, not to mention that the chessboard is still dominated by the ocean, and it is indeed quite difficult to achieve synchronization of operations.However, in the telegram Roger sent to the Sanya headquarters, he still insisted that the Dutch, known as the "sea coachman", must have arranged a counterattack plan when they went to the colonies in Southeast Asia to assemble their fleets, and would According to the agreed time, they appeared in the sea off Batavia at the same time, and solved the Batavia city besieged by the Matalan army from the sea.

After Roger's report was sent to the Military Commission, it also attracted the attention of the top military officials.If Roger's deduction is consistent with the facts, it can be explained that the Dutch have been preparing for the outbreak of war in the past three years, because such a large-scale cross-regional troop build-up is unlikely to happen when the war breaks out. Measures that are taken suddenly at this time will inevitably require a lot of preparation and rehearsal before they can be realized.The Dutch gave up their sea defenses and allowed the Mata blue army to successfully land in Batavia Harbor and besiege the city, but gathered sea forces on the periphery and waited for the time to counterattack. This kind of battle plan is indeed crazy, but if it is really realized , that will indeed deal a heavy blow to Mata Ram.

The military staff has also conducted several combat games, but because the military intelligence on both sides is not detailed enough, it is difficult for the game to reflect the real battle situation.But one thing is certain, that is, the Dutch are indeed betting on the safety of the city of Batavia by doing this.Because regardless of whether the Dutch had prepared such a plan before the war, but after the war broke out, their sea power did not choose to return to the Batavia port as soon as possible, but suddenly began to attack the enemy's port after being silent for half a month. , This is undoubtedly a gamble that the opponent cannot capture Batavia within this period of time, otherwise, even if the Dutch destroy all the important ports in Matalam, they will not be able to recover the loss of the city of Batavia.

In terms of the importance of Batavia City, losing this place is basically equivalent to losing the foundation of the East India Company in Southeast Asia and even the Far East.Although the Dutch had quite a few colonies in Southeast Asia, due to objective conditions, most of them existed in the form of plantations, and there was no second large city like Batavia.Given the current situation where all the heroes in the South China Sea stand side by side, it will probably be difficult for the Dutch to find another place to stay in the short term and rebuild a port city to replace Batavia's status and functions.

If you lose, you will lose completely. If you win, you will solve the threat closest to you once and for all. The fact that the Dutch used this as a bet for a showdown with Ma Languo shows how determined they are in this war. .

After realizing the truth of the matter, the high-level officials of the Haihan military not only respected the Dutch, after all, this kind of direct showhand and gambling with the opponent in the war is not a decision that ordinary people can make.Yan Chujie asked himself that if the enemy attacked Sanya directly, he would not dare to let the three existing fleets lurk outside for more than half a month and sit and watch the enemy attack his base camp.

"It's a pity that there is no further information to prove our guess." After Yan Chujie reported the situation, he said to Tao Dong with regret: "To be honest, I really don't want to face a crazy opponent like the Netherlands on the battlefield. .Even if they can win this war in the end, I estimate that the battle situation in Batavia will be very tragic, and the loss may not be calculated by money alone."

Tao Donglai said: "But having said that, I still hope that the Dutch will win in the end. Do you know why?"

Yan Chujie nodded and replied: "The Dutch want to expand in the Nanyang region, and there are many external forces that will stop it. But if the Matalan country defeats the Dutch, it will soon unify most of the Nanyang region and become A regional power. In the future, it will not be so easy for us to intervene in Nanyang affairs."

"And this Matalan country is too aggressive and expanding too fast. If it continues to grow, this country will not stop at Nanyang." Tao Donglai added: "If they go north, they will soon collide with us. Come on, that's not a good thing."

Tao Donglai didn't finish his sentence, but Yan Chujie already knew what he meant.Matalam is actually similar to Haihan in some respects, and they are both in the stage of rapid expansion of their sphere of influence. Once there are no Dutch in Nanyang, there will be almost no other forces that can restrict Matalam. It is not a good thing for Haihan, who is temporarily unable to extend his tentacles to Nanyang.

(End of this chapter)