"Dear Mr. Chinese Ambassador, I am Sanders, a senior member of the Dutch East India Company. The army you lead is very brave. I am willing to surrender to you on behalf of the company. Please ensure the safety of all employees of the company..."
Sanders led his men out of the fortress, bowed and saluted like a gentleman, and then talked a lot.
Kuang Hong expressed his attitude: "Dutch officials and soldiers in Malacca did not harm Chinese civilians, so you are not guilty. However, when the two countries are fighting, casualties are inevitable. My soldiers have lost a lot, all caused by you. Now yours
You are prisoners of war. You will all be detained until the Governor of Batavia comes up with a plan to completely resolve the conflict between the two countries."
All Dutch people, including Sanders, breathed a sigh of relief.
Because China and the other seven-nation coalition forces suffered hundreds of casualties before and after the siege, and the Malay indigenous casualties were close to a thousand. They were afraid that this would anger Kuang Hong, so they ordered to kill all the surviving Dutch.
The arsenal in the central castle was quickly emptied. Whether it was solidified gunpowder or dried gunpowder, they were all thrown into the sea and destroyed.
These things are too unstable and will explode if you are not careful. They must be dealt with as soon as possible to make people feel at ease.
After the arsenal was emptied, Sanders and other Dutch prisoners of war were herded into the arsenal.
Immediately, Kuang Hong ordered: "Count the treasures in the castle and reward the soldiers from all over the world based on their merits!"
Malacca is an exclusive port for the Netherlands, and ships from other countries cannot enter the port. Of course, it is possible to enter the port, but a very high entry tax is required. Therefore, merchant ships from various countries generally choose to replenish at the ports of Johor or Aceh.
Dutch merchant ships would come twice a year to take away the goods stored in Malacca.
There are also some merchant ships that will transport some goods and store them in Malacca. For example, all the goods purchased from Thailand will be transferred to Malacca, mainly sappan wood, white wax and fur.
"Sir, there are a lot of goods in the warehouse. It takes time to calculate the specific value in silver. In addition, there are dozens of black slaves in the castle. How to deal with these slaves?"
"Negroes? Did they go to war?"
"They had no weapons, but they helped carry things during the war. After interrogation, these black slaves were either slaves of Dutch officials or porters in the castle warehouse."
"It is not good to release them directly. These black slaves may not be able to find a living. Your Majesty also prohibits the army from selling slaves. Let them work as coolies for now. The seized materials will be auctioned and someone will be needed to carry the goods. Choose a few smart black slaves and let them
They were in charge of other black slaves."
The seized Dutch goods seemed to be a lot, but in fact they were not worth much when converted into silver. After all, they were Southeast Asian specialties, and they had to be shipped to Europe to really make a fortune.
Just like coal, how much can you earn by selling it in Shanxi?
Several small countries helped send troops. Since Malacca was captured, some profits should be given to them. They couldn't let their efforts go in vain.
Kuang Hong called all the military generals from various countries and announced: "I will give you half of the supplies captured in Malacca. The Siamese army deserves to be commended for their bravery in fighting. Of the half of the supplies, Siam alone takes the most.
20%, and the rest is divided according to the number of troops sent by each country."
"Thank you, Lord Angel!" Prince Narai was overjoyed. The second reason for getting more spoils was that he gained the favor of Chinese officials.
Kuang Hong continued: "Everyone who has contributed to the war can come with me to Nanjing to meet His Majesty the Emperor. If you send your own ship, you can bring as many people as you want, and you are responsible for the travel expenses. If you take a Chinese ship to Nanjing, you can bring one person with you.
All travel expenses for the entourage will be borne by China."
Small countries such as Dadi and Dingjialu only have small mountains offshore and have no ability to go to China on their own. As soon as this statement came out, they were very happy and wanted to go to China with the ship. Anyway, China promised to pay for the travel expenses.
Big countries like Johor and Siam want to take advantage of the opportunity to engage in trade. They go to sea independently and are easily robbed. By following the Chinese navy, they can avoid the risk of pirates.
After appeasing the nobles of these small countries, the local Chinese leader Chen Erxun actually came to offer advice.
"Sir, since the heavenly soldiers have occupied Malacca, they can send out troops to seize Ambon Island." Chen Erxun said.
Kuang Hong asked in confusion: "Where is Ambon Island?"
Chen Erxun said: "According to this, the sea route is thousands of miles away, and I heard that it is in the southern sea area of Sulu."
Kuang Hong laughed and said, "You actually know about something so far away?"
Chen Erxun said: "The common people have settled in Malacca for generations, and Ambon Island is the starting point of the spice trade. There are countless spice ships every year.
It was transported from Ambon Island and passed through Malacca to the west. As long as people can remember, they have heard of the famous name of Ambon Island."
Chen Erxun was afraid that the Dutch would come back and blame him for giving advice to the Datong Army, so he simply tried to draw out the firepower and instigated the Chinese army to occupy the Spice Islands.
Without the Spice Islands, the Dutch East India Company would be half in ruins!
"You tell me and I listen. The more detailed the better." Kuang Hong really didn't understand this.
Chen Erxun said: "Malacca was Portuguese before, and the Spice Islands are also Portuguese. There are more than ten islands there, growing various spices. Controlling the Spice Islands, and then controlling Malacca, is equivalent to controlling the spice trade between the East and the West.
Portugal did this, and so did the Netherlands. Now that China has occupied Malacca, why doesn’t it want to occupy the Spice Islands again?”
The Spice Islands in a broad sense include the entire Southeast Asia, Borneo, Java, New Guinea, and Sumatra.
In a narrow sense, the Banda Islands and Bacchan Islands are sometimes called the Spice Islands, and they are the main producing areas of cloves.
Initially, Portugal controlled these islands. However, Portugal was too useless and was often taught by the natives to teach them how to behave. The most typical example was the "Ternate War".
Ternate Island, with an area of only 106 square kilometers, has a sultanate established by indigenous people.
In places with bigger farts, resistance is strong. At the beginning of the attack on Portuguese villages, the Portuguese relied on negotiation and compromise to barely maintain peace.
Then, Portugal built castles, but the castles were captured by the islanders and all Portuguese colonists were killed.
It was not until Portugal was annexed to Spain that Spain and Portugal joined forces to retake Ternate Island. Within just a few years, the indigenous people on the island rioted again and drove away the Portuguese and Spanish.
The natives of a small island are so strong, but the army of these colonists is really weak.
Then, the Dutch came.
The Dutch learned the lessons of their predecessors and began to play tricks of massacre. On various islands, they consciously carried out long-term massacres, specially selected the food harvest season, killed the natives, snatched the food, and burned down the houses. This continued for more than ten years, resulting in these
On the islands, the number of indigenous people continues to decrease and they are almost driven back to primitive society.
It was not until the number of natives dropped sharply that the Netherlands truly began to colonize Ternate Island as a ruling base. It was not until the occupation of Batavia that the Netherlands began to colonize Ternate Island.
The Governor's Palace of the Dutch East India Company was moved from Ternate Island to Batavia.
In order to monopolize the clove trade, the Netherlands even killed all the British people on Ambon Island. Then they destroyed all the clove trees on other islands and only allowed cloves to be planted intensively on Ambon Island. In this way, they successfully controlled the supply of cloves.
The several islands there are the starting point of the Netherlands in Southeast Asia!
Kuang Hong returned to the warship and asked Hong Xu for a map of Nanyang, and soon found various archipelagos.
Hong Xu pointed to the map and said: "The location of these islands is east of Kalimantan and south of the Spanish Philippine Islands. If we want to control there, the best springboard is Zamboanga. Zamboanga is now in the hands of Sulu. , Sulu is also a vassal state of Datong. However,
Spain occupies most of Mindanao, and only a small piece of Zamboanga is still in the hands of Sulu. We must beware of Spain."
Kuang Hong said: "When I return to Beijing, I will make suggestions to Your Majesty and request to expand there step by step in the future.
Hong Xu smiled and said: "Once the maritime merchants know about it, they will definitely support it enthusiastically. Because our country's spices, especially cloves, have to be purchased from there. After being controlled by the Netherlands, the price of spices has increased a lot. As long as the Dutch are driven away, our country will Maritime merchants can make greater profits."
"We can't just let businessmen make profits," Kuang Hong said. "We can learn from the Dutch and set up overseas yamen on each island. There are not many officials in each yamen, just a few people are enough, and dozens of troops are stationed at each place. City. In this way, the salaries of officials and soldiers are not much, but they can collect spices from the natives. Even the spices do not need to be collected by the government, w.; just let the merchants buy them. The government only needs to control the port, and the merchants want to transport them away For spices, you must pay taxes to the government! "
Of course Hong Xu supports this plan. There are so many islands that must be conquered one by one, which means that the navy will always have battles to fight and can continue to gain military exploits.
Hong Xu looked at the map carefully: "We are not in a hurry about the Spice Islands yet. We have occupied Malacca now, and we can't just throw it away. If we want to govern Malacca for a long time, we must have a foothold in the middle. Bintong Long (Champa) is a supply point, and you have to choose another one, otherwise it will not be very safe."
"How about here?" Kuang Hong pointed to the location of Singapore.
At this time, Singapore was called Temasek and Aralia Gate. Decades ago, the capital of Johor was not far from the other side of the Singapore Strait. The last time the capital of Johor was moved, the capital was burned down by the Portuguese. From then on, not even Singapore was moved. Note that today only a group of Malay indigenous people live there.
It is estimated that with a few thousand taels of silver, one can buy the entire Singapore from Johor, because that place is really worthless, and even the land cannot grow a few grains of food.
Hong Xu pointed casually: "It's better to occupy this whole area."
The area that Hong Xu was pointing to was the archipelago south of Singapore, including Batam Island, Lingga Island, Singapore Island, etc., all of which belonged to the Kingdom of Johor at this time.
Kuang Hong shook his head and said: "There are too many. They are all barren islands. If you occupy them, you don't have the energy to run them. All you need is Temasek (Singapore), a choke point."