Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 1298 Breakout
General Capelen was awakened from his sleep by his adjutant. The Dutch fleet's supreme commander was in port, fast asleep on his flagship, the Batavia, when Madura's fireships launched their attack.

Upon learning of the port's attack by fire ships, General Capelen was instantly wide awake. He didn't even have time to put on his clothes and rushed out barefoot.

When I ran to the deck, I looked around and saw that several warships outside the harbor had been set on fire because of the sneak attack. The flames were burning and the sea and sky were red.

"What's going on? Where are the enemies? Who! Who launched the attack?" Upon seeing this, General Capelen immediately became anxious. With so many warships in the port, how could they have succeeded so easily? Did they not even notice the attack beforehand?
"Your Excellency...it was...it was Madura's men. They sneaked into the harbor in small boats and then launched the attack." At this moment, an officer ran over in a disheveled state and reported to General Capelen.

"The Madura people? Those natives?" General Capelen's eyes widened. In his mind, he had never taken the Madura people seriously.

The Dutch were invincible across the seas, defeating countless nations and establishing vast colonies. Whether in Africa, the Middle East, the New World, or the Far East, aside from suffering two defeats at the hands of the Ming Dynasty, the Dutch were virtually unchallenged. In Capelen's eyes, Madura was merely equivalent to the indigenous tribes of the New World, utterly insignificant.

Moreover, the Dutch had long planned to conquer Madura. If it weren't for the Ming Dynasty's sudden military intervention, the Dutch army might have already crossed the strait and landed on Madura Island. As the highest-ranking military commander of the East India Company in the Far East, General Capelen never took Madura seriously.

Yet this tiny insect, which could be easily crushed, had launched a despicable attack on their fleet today, infuriating General Capelen. The enemy's fire attack had already succeeded; several of their warships were ablaze, and the port was in complete chaos.

Enraged, General Capelen no longer cared about the Madura people who had launched the sneak attack. At present, because several warships were on fire, the fire was spreading rapidly. These bastards had obviously used a lot of fuel and other flammable materials. Oil was leaking from the wrecked fire ships and was still burning on the surface of the sea. If the fire were allowed to spread, the consequences would be unimaginable.

General Capelen immediately ordered firefighting efforts to prevent the fire from spreading further. But just as he gave the order, a muffled boom of cannon fire suddenly rang out. He opened his eyes wide and looked in the direction from which the cannon fire was coming, but because he was in the center of the port engulfed in flames, he could not see the situation on the dark sea in the distance.

However, he soon learned what had happened. When the lookouts on the perimeter signaled to General Capelen that a massive fleet had suddenly appeared on the sea east of the port, and that the fleet had formed an attack formation and was firing at them, General Capelen's face turned pale.

"The Ming Navy!" General Capelen wasn't stupid. If he still couldn't react by now, he wouldn't have become the highest-ranking military commander in the Far East.

His original purpose in assembling the fleet here was for the upcoming naval battle with the Ming Dynasty. Although the East India Company had intensified its efforts to gather troops and warships after mobilization to prepare for war with the Ming Dynasty, time was too short. Reinforcements from the Far East, including Africa, could not arrive in time. The Dutch fleet assembled in the South China Sea, apart from its own fleet in Batavia, only had reinforcements that had arrived earlier from the Indian Ocean.

In addition, there were the Dutch armed merchant ships temporarily requisitioned by the East India Company, plus the vassal army of Mataram, which barely managed to assemble 130 warships (armed merchant ships) and 17,000 troops.

Some of these warships and troops were in Batavia and Malacca, but the main force of the fleet was in the hands of Kapelen, hiding in the port of Surumay.

General Capelen had his reasons for making this arrangement. Although he had more warships than the Ming Dynasty's combined fleet, intelligence indicated that the combined fleet dispatched by the Ming Dynasty was larger and more powerful.

Moreover, most of his fleet was temporarily recruited, with less than half of it being actual regular navy personnel belonging to Capelen; the majority were armed merchant ships that filled the ranks.

Even with the addition of the Matarans, General Capelen wasn't entirely confident he could defeat the Ming fleet with such a force. Therefore, he devised a plan: deliberately shifting the fleet eastward, away from Batavia where it was originally stationed, and hiding in Sulumay. His purpose was simple: Batavia wasn't easy to conquer; even the strongest Ming warships couldn't land. If the Ming launched a direct attack on Batavia, given its city defenses and garrison strength, the Ming wouldn't be able to break through in a short time.

Once the Ming Dynasty adopts such tactics, then General Capelen's opportunity will come. He can use Batavia to tie down the Ming fleet and its forces, and when the enemy is in a difficult battle, he can lead his fleet to suddenly attack from Sulumayi, directly from east to west, catching the enemy off guard and thus defeating the Ming fleet in one fell swoop.

General Capelen's plan was sound, and its chances of success were considerable. If nothing unexpected happened, Zheng Hongkui might have fallen into his trap. Indeed, if Wang Fuzhi's men had made contact with Madura and learned from Prince Durno that the Dutch were hiding in Sulumay, Zheng Hongkui, who had been unable to locate the main Dutch fleet, might already be preparing for a formal attack on Batavia. Once fighting broke out in Batavia, General Capelen's plan would be halfway to success. When his fleet suddenly appeared east of Batavia, launching an attack while the Ming army was focused on attacking Batavia, Zheng Hongkui would suffer heavy losses, if not a crushing defeat.

However, the plan went awry. The Ming fleet not only failed to be in Batavia, but also failed to launch an attack on Batavia as General Capelen had predicted. Instead, it suddenly appeared east of Sulumay and joined forces with the damned Madura people.

The Madurai first used small boats as fire ships to launch a night raid on the fleet anchored in the harbor, causing a great fire. Now the Ming fleet has appeared outside the harbor, recklessly opening fire on their own fleet in the harbor. What does this mean? General Capelen, a veteran of many battles, felt his heart sink instantly. He knew that he absolutely could not hesitate at this moment, otherwise he would face a crushing defeat with the annihilation of his entire army.

The situation was critical, and General Capelen made a decision instantly. He ordered all warships to set sail immediately and break out of the port.

Although several warships on the outskirts had already been set ablaze by fire ships, and the sea was ablaze with fire oil, if they did not leave the port immediately, they would be on the defensive. The Ming fleet would not hesitate to attack. Such a good opportunity was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Once the port was completely blockaded, the Dutch fleet would be finished.

Charge out! We have to charge out!

Only by breaking out can we survive!
General Capelen knew very well that no matter how great the losses, they had to break out of the port to have a last chance of survival.

Under his command, the warships in the port began to move. However, the problem was that his fleet command went wrong at this time. After all, this fleet was cobbled together and was not a real main fleet. There were many armed merchant ships that had been conscripted. These merchant ships belonged to Dutch merchants and not to the East India Company Navy.

Therefore, neither the captains nor the sailors of armed merchant ships are soldiers. In the event of a naval battle, these armed merchant ships could be of some help, as they possess a certain number of cannons and can cooperate with warships to strike and harass the enemy. However, in the current chaotic situation, their reaction and courage are naturally far inferior to those of real soldiers.

Besides these, there were the Mataram people's warships and soldiers. Although Mataram was a vassal state of the Netherlands, and had sent quite a few warships and soldiers to join General Capelen's fleet, their fighting strength was, frankly, inferior to even those armed merchant ships.

If it were a favorable situation, the Mataran people might not have any problems, but in the current situation, with the port fire and the Ming fleet appearing in the distance, the Mataran people were instantly terrified. Although they received orders from General Capelen, the Mataran people simply did not have the courage to rush out of the sea of ​​fire to face the heavily armed Ming fleet. Instead, in order to escape, these Mataran people did the opposite, steer their ships towards the dock, intending to land there and escape directly to safety.

"Damn cowards! Cowards!" General Capelen was furious at the sight, especially when he saw a Mataran warship, in its panic, blocking one of his own warships that was rushing outwards, effectively blocking the channel.

These bastards should all be hanged! They are not soldiers at all. Just as General Capelen was about to order his ships to break out at all costs and open fire on any who tried to stop them, flames suddenly broke out in the city of Sulumayi, and countless terrified shouts could be faintly heard.

"It's over!" General Capelen stared dumbfounded in the direction of Sulumay. Although he did not know what had happened in the city, from the attack on the port to the chaos in the city, General Capelen knew without a doubt that this could not have been an accident.

The most likely explanation is that the enemy not only launched a surprise attack on the port with fire ships and then blockaded the perimeter with their fleet, but also sent agents to infiltrate Sulumay in advance, launching their attack in the port and simultaneously in the city. This may sound far-fetched, but it is the truth. Moreover, Sulumay was originally Madura's territory, but due to the Dutch, it had become the territory of the Madalan people.

From this perspective, since the Madura people have already sided with the Ming Dynasty, it wouldn't be difficult for them to send some people infiltrate, given their familiarity with the terrain and their original identities. Thinking of this, General Capelen regretted not concentrating his forces to eliminate the Madura Kingdom first. If he had wiped out these damned natives and destroyed the Madura Kingdom earlier, how could this situation have arisen today?

(End of this chapter)