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, and was undertaken by two Han merchants at that time. The moat can be connected to the canal, and the river flows around the city and extends to protect the castle.
The castle is separated from the city. It is built due 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.
At the four corners of the castle are four bastions, connected by four straight walls.
It was impossible for the Datong Army to land on the front, and it would be easy to block the landing on the west. They circled to the east for three or four miles, then put down the small boat, landed on a beach, and then headed southwest through the farmland.
Instead of attacking the castle directly, capture the city first.
Two hot air balloons took off one after another, giving a clear view of the city's defense situation.
One of the lookouts 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 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: on the east wall, there are three gates and three enemy towers, and at the southeast corner is a large acute-angled enemy tower similar to a bastion. On the south city wall, there is a gate, two enemy towers, and at the southwest corner there is a similar bastion.
The enemy tower is at a sharp angle.
The situation in the western half of the city is as follows: the west city wall has two gates and an enemy tower, and there are large acute-angle enemy towers similar to bastions at the southwest and northwest corners. The south city wall has no gates and enemy towers, and there is a bridge across the canal and the east wall.
Half of the city is connected.
The situation of the castle outside the city is as follows: four bastions, a three-story tower in the middle, and moats on all sides. There is a bridge in the south that leads to the eastern half of the city. There is a gap in the north, next to the bastion, that leads to the coast.
There are also several circles drawn on the drawing to mark where there is a fort and how many defenders there are.
When the Datong Army used a hot air balloon for observation, 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. Our military deployment has been blocked by China."
People have completely figured it out.”
Army Commander Clapp led his troops to defend the city. Through his telescope, he could clearly see that there were Chinese people on the hot air balloon observing.
Clapp immediately mobilized his troops to test, and then he soon discovered that the Chinese lookouts on the hot air balloon kept sending out flags to demonstrate this mobilization.
The Javanese servants standing on the city wall, facing the two mysterious hot air balloons, even shouted and knelt down one after another.
Clapp said to the herald: "Go and tell those Javanese soldiers that what is in the sky is not a god, but some kind of Chinese machine. Fire and knock down those two balls!"
"Boom boom boom boom!"
The east city wall kept ringing with gunfire, but the balloon rose too high and the distance was far away. The cannonballs could at most be lucky and break the rope pulling the balloon, and even if it broke, it wouldn't matter, the balloon would only drift to the fuel in the wind.
Exhausted landing.
Those Javanese soldiers saw that the artillery was unable to shoot down the hot air balloon, and they became even more convinced that the Chinese army had divine help.
The Dutch soldiers walked along the city wall, waving their whips constantly: "Stand up, stand up, no more kneeling, that is not a Chinese god!"
A civil servant ran out of the castle and crossed the moat to the city.
Panting, he climbed up the city wall and came to Clapp and said: "Your Excellency the Governor has an order to recruit 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 merits. Those Chinese farms outside the city
, let the soldiers plunder, and those who have made great achievements can still get the land!"
Group after group of Dutch soldiers, armed with weapons, were recruiting soldiers in the city, and at the same time punishing those who were still stealing property secretly.
Even the Indians and Arabs were forced to defend the city walls.
Sanjay Gutap, with his clansmen and assistants, was responsible for guarding a small section of the city wall. After the Dutch soldiers left, the wealthy Indian businessman quietly went to the next door: "Gaul, don't be too desperate. The Chinese are not Bandan bandits, nor are they
Matalan bandits. Malacca was occupied by the Chinese, but the Indian merchants there were not robbed. If we resisted too fiercely, we would be killed."
The Indian businessman named Gore said: "I know that I will not defend it. As long as the Chinese soldiers attack from here, I will give up the city wall immediately."
This is the dividend of a good reputation.
In the past offensive and defensive battles of Batavia, whether facing the Banten army or the Matalan army, all races in the city would unite as one and resist to the death.
Because Wan Dan and Ma Dalan's army would definitely loot the city if they conquered it.
If the castle is breached and Batavia is completely occupied, the Banten and Mata Blue armies will not kill people indiscriminately. The sultans of the two countries also want "long-term development" and they will charge a high head tax. This head tax is the Dutch tax.
several times.
In order not to be robbed and not to pay the high poll tax, Indians and Arabs always actively helped the Dutch defend the city.
Now, they have no motivation to defend the city.
Who doesn’t know what happened in Malacca? The Chinese army will not rob randomly, and the head tax is lower than that of the Netherlands.
If they were not afraid of dying in battle, Indians would even want to help the Chinese army fight for the lower head tax.
On another section of the city wall, several wealthy Arab businessmen were also passing news to each other. Once the Chinese army attacks the city, do not resist, flee back to your own community immediately, and then wait and see how the situation develops.
Before the battle began, the defenders were already demoralized.
The Javanese soldiers and Javanese civilians were kneeling and worshiping the hot-air balloon on the city wall. They were beaten by the Dutch soldiers and stood up tremblingly. The Indians and Arabs, on the other hand, pretended to defend the city wall, but were ready to escape at any time.
Clapp already felt that something was wrong in the atmosphere and said to the herald: "Go to the Governor's Mansion and ask the Governor to issue weapons to the slaves and ask all the slaves to come and defend the city wall."
In order to prevent slaves from escaping back to their hometowns, slaves in Batavia were all brought from outside.
The number of black slaves was very small, and most of them were indigenous to small islands like Bali.
Bali actually has no specialties. The Dutch carried out massacres there purely to capture slaves. Men could be captured as slaves for their own use or sold. Women were captured and sold to the Han people as wives. After the Han people settled down and settled down,
I wouldn't even think about leaving Batavia.
Historically, it was more than 200 years ago that the Netherlands conquered Bali on a large scale. The indigenous people of Bali were very tough. They first fought hard, but when they couldn't win, they committed collective suicide. Even members of the royal family committed collective suicide in front of the Dutch army. Because they were conquered by the Dutch
After being bullied for nearly three hundred years, knowing that he would end badly after being captured, he would rather commit suicide than be a prisoner.
One after another, slaves were assigned simple weapons and brought to the city wall to prepare for defense.
Some slaves looked around, ready to surrender or run away at any time. But there were also many slaves who were eager to fight because their masters had promised many benefits, such as finding wives for them.
The Chinese troops outside the city did not attack the city immediately, but instead set up camp in the farmland.
About half a day later, Sun Jie and Su Dingguo came with an army of Han landlords. They also gathered many urban Han people who had fled to the countryside.
"This is General Tie Hong, the commander of this battle." Sun Jie introduced.
Su Dingguo looked at Tie Hong in a daze. Why was the commander of the Chinese army actually a tall black man?
Sun Jie whispered: "This is a hero from Conglong. Before Your Majesty raised his troops, he followed Your Majesty to rob Chaoguan. If he hadn't been born too dark, I'm afraid he would have been made a marquis."
Su Dingguo did not dare to neglect and quickly handed over his hand: "The common people pay homage to General Iron!"
"There is no need to be polite," Tie Hong said to Zhang Xianzhong and Sun Kewang, "these Han rebels will be handed over to the two of them to command."
"Easy to say!"
Zhang Xianzhong was overjoyed, but he was worried that he had few soldiers.
Zhang Huangyan was the governor of Luzon and Kuang Hong was the governor of Palembang. They were not allowed to leave their jurisdictions without court orders, so the army was completely under the command of Tie Hong.
The force arrangement is as follows: Tie Hong personally leads 2,400 Datong troops, Zhang Xianzhong leads 400 ronin, 1,000 Han rebels, Sun Kewang leads 400 ronin, more than 600 Han rebels, and the prince of Johor leads 1,500 Johor soldiers.
The chief envoy Liu Hanyi and the deputy envoy Sun Jie did not intervene in the military affairs when they arrived on the battlefield. They only coordinated and arranged logistics work and were responsible for appeasing the Han people who came one after another.
Many of the small guns on the navy ships were dismantled and taken outside the city for exploratory bombardment.
On the second day after landing, the shelling of the city wall began.
Johor soldiers and Chinese civilians, as well as Javanese serfs brought by Chinese landowners, were assigned to cut down trees and dig soil.
Siege engines needed to be built, and the moat had to be filled with soil.
This stalemate lasted for more than half a month, with the moat still being filled in. The Dutch Castle had plenty of food, but the food in Batavia City was getting less and less.
The food needed in the city comes from Han landlords and is transported to the city through the Tiger Canal every month.
The Han landowners also kept a secret, always storing grain in the countryside and not selling too much to the city at once, in case the Dutch and Javanese suddenly turned against each other.
Su Dingguo said: "The food stored in the city can be eaten for another month or two at most. We don't have to rush to attack or fill the moat, and try to avoid too many casualties. After one or two months, the food in the city should be eaten.
It’s over. Then it will depend on whether the Dutch are willing to use the food in the castle to support them. If the food is transferred from the castle, the food in the castle will be consumed. If the food is not transferred from the castle, the Javanese and Indians in the city will
The Persians (Arabs) will starve."
Tie Hong said with a smile: "Then take your time and besiege the city for two months first."
Before the fighting started in Batavia, fighting had already broken out in Buriangan (Bandung) and Palembang.
When the Matalan aristocratic landowners in Briand heard that Batavia was besieged, they immediately launched a series of uprisings. They first killed Dutch missionaries, robbed missionary plantations, burned hospitals and schools (all missionary sites), and then
Surrounded the city of Briand with only 30 Dutch soldiers (and a large number of servants).
This uprising quickly spread to Cirebon on the seaside, and then to Semarang further west.
There was a great Han uprising in Semarang, and the surrounding Matalan aristocratic landowners responded one after another.
The puppet Sultan of Matara originally gathered ten thousand troops and planned to come to the rescue of Batavia. When he heard that an uprising broke out in Semarang, he was so frightened that he immediately returned to the capital halfway, and was blocked outside the city and could not enter, but he was in the city.
The Green Cult leaders united with the nobles to rebel.
The Sultan of Mataram was so frightened that he led his troops to retreat to the eastern cities. As a result, the aristocratic landowners in the east also rebelled, and various rebel armies began to encircle and suppress the Sultan's army.
Twenty years ago, Ma Daran could still raise an army of 100,000, but now it has declined to this state.
Before the puppet sultan of Matalan died, three sultans appeared among the rebels. The three rebel sultans were all from the aristocratic and landowning class, and they all said that they were the orthodox members of the Matalan royal family. It is estimated that after they destroyed the puppet sultan, they themselves
You have to play several more games until someone wins the final victory.
In addition, the Han rebels in Semarang actually produced a sultan, who seemed to want to establish a city-state in Semarang. Of course, he was only called the sultan internally, and the Chinese governor externally.
On the other side of Palembang, the Dutch fleet returned, and the Indian Ocean fleet was also there, with more than 30 large and small warships, trying to attack the Han port.