Suddenly, the island of Java was in flames of war.
The Chinese and Madalan people fought with the Dutch and Maduraan troops, and there was also a conflict between the Chinese and the Huatian Company; the Madalan and Maduran people were at odds with the Huatian Company... There has never been anything like this on Java. The flames of war started, and the six participants fought against each other. There was me among you, and you among me. The Dutch occupied most of the ports, the Chinese had strongholds everywhere, and all the princely states were local snakes. , the spheres of influence are intertwined.
This great melee suddenly spread throughout Java and involved all places in Southeast Asia where the Dutch and Chinese lived together.
Conflicts occurred between Dutch immigrants and Chinese immigrants in Sukatana, Makassar, and Jayakirta in southern Kalimantan, as well as in Aceh, Old Port, Pariaman, and Jambi in Sumatra. The British and Portuguese also took advantage of the situation and started plundering the Maluku Islands, Ambon Island, Banda Islands and other places controlled by the Dutch. Even the French intervened and started a war against the Portuguese in Malacca.
The chaotic situation affected most of Southeast Asia within two months.
The Portuguese merchant ship "Queen", carrying a fleet of more than 1,000 passengers and crew, left the port of Lisbon in a mighty manner with salutes, prayers, a team singing hymns and a carnival costume team, but during the voyage Due to the spread of septicemia and dysentery, many people became extremely weak. When the fleet finally arrived in Goa six months later, less than 200 people survived, including Jewish businessmen Ben Cadras and Bernard. One of the members of many families in Europe.
At that time, British ships and Dutch ships were relatively clean, while Spanish and Portuguese ships were suffocatingly dirty, with garbage everywhere, and diseases could spread easily. This should be one of the reasons why many people died on each voyage. one.
These ships were so dirty, they gave off a bad smell, and the death rate was extremely high. Sometimes hundreds of people died on a ship before it reached Goa, which is no surprise.
The Queen continued sailing eastward and arrived in Malacca in August 1613.
Jewish businessman Ben Cadras plans to meet with Bernardo, the rising star of his family, in Malacca. The first foreign major shareholder of a Chinese company is already the owner of the Chinese Merchant House in Malacca. The entire Jewish Cadras family and them Relatives are fleeing to the East one after another, hoping to see the legendary and great Captain Yin and the rich and powerful Chinese company he established.
Moreover, Ben Cardras also brought an important piece of news to the China Company. Before Bernardo returned to the East with Ye Hua's fleet the year before last, he had sent a letter with the same content to all members of his family all over the world. : Asking family members to inquire about the Spanish at any time, and then find a way to pass it to Bernardo on the other side of the world in time, "The time has come to take revenge on the Spanish," he ended the letter with a word that is rarely used by this family. The Hebrew text in which this sentence was written.
Ben Cadras originally planned to use this news as a stepping stone to join Bernardo's cause, but he came at the wrong time: Malacca was in the middle of a war, and Bernardo, the shopkeeper of Malacca, was not there. Luzon.
The French fleet and the Dutch fleet jointly attacked the city of Malacca occupied by the Portuguese. The Chinese and indigenous people helped the Portuguese to defend Malacca. This war had just started a month ago, and the two sides were fighting fiercely.
Since the port could not be berthed, the Empress, protected by a Chinese military two-masted gunboat, broke through the Strait of Malacca and sailed directly to Taiwan. The personnel of the Chinese Company in Malacca did not know that there was an important messenger on the ship. In this way, The news brought by Ben Cadras would not be able to be delivered to Yin Feng in a timely manner through the Chinese company's fast carrier pigeon relay transmission network throughout the East Asian waters.
Ben Caderas was doing business with Spanish merchants in the Spanish territories in the Italian peninsula. Through his network, he met Alonso Fonseca, the commander of the Asian expeditionary force of the Spanish Empire who counterattacked Manila. By chance, During this time, he learned about the strength of the Spanish Expeditionary Force from Alonso Fonseca's servant.
A month later, just as the melee in various parts of Southeast Asia reached its climax, Ben Cadras arrived in Manila.
Duarte de Montoya, a Jew who set out from the port of Acapulco, Mexico, was still drifting in the Pacific Ocean. Ben Caderas had brought the intelligence of the Spanish expeditionary force to Luzon. At this time, the Chinese expedition to the South Seas The military fleet has left Manila for a month. Although it is too late to adjust the strength of the troops going to Southeast Asia, Luzon Island's combat readiness against the Spaniards will therefore be more complete. Therefore, Yin Feng rewarded Ben Caderas heavily. He also asked him to give some symbolic money, let Ben Cadras become a shareholder of China Company, and assigned Bernardo to be his deputy.
…
The heavy rain before dusk, which is common in tropical places, was pouring down. In the tropical jungle in the northeastern part of Java Island, thousands of Chinese people were trudging through the rain with difficulty.
In just one month, the war situation in Java changed dramatically. In the city of Semarang in Central Java, a loosely combined Chinese armed force and the Madalan army besieged the Dutch stronghold. However, they were defeated by the Dutch fleet that arrived in time. Although the Chinese Company People were also sent to participate in the battle, but the main force of the Chinese armed forces in Semarang was a loose alliance of Chinese families outside the two major Chinese companies, Zhonghua and Huatian. The orders were not unified and the equipment was poor. Therefore, they could not compete with the fully armed soldiers. In a battle between the Dutch navy, the Dutch fleet commanded by Dutch Admiral Joris Spielbergen and Vice Admiral Vitelt bombarded the port of Semarang and defeated the army of the Madalan Kingdom. After landing, they were defeated in a land battle. After the Battle of Semarang, the Madalan army split into two factions. One group supported the current king Pakubwono, and the other supported the king's younger brother. The Maduraan army took the opportunity to surround the capital of the Madalan Kingdom. And joined forces with the Dutch to attack Surabaya, which was controlled by Chinese armed forces.
These Chinese armed forces that are moving to Surabaya are disbanded Chinese armed forces from Semarang, Batavia and other places. There are three thousand in number. In fact, only half of them can fight. The rest are old, weak, women and children who have fled. Li Lihua was also in the team. Magaro led more than 100 black guards to protect her. Thanks to Magaro's black soldiers and the hundreds of personnel stationed in Java from the Chinese Company, without them fighting desperately, these thousands of soldiers would not be able to survive. The people may have been defeated by the Dutch in the coastal jungle area.
The heavy rain stopped in an instant. The soaked refugees supported each other and trudged forward in the forest with one foot deep and one foot shallow. From time to time someone fell down, and his companions pulled him up: "Let's go, let's go." We can't stop, Hong Mao and the natives are right behind us,"
As the fleeing team dragged themselves through the woods for several miles, the humid and hot air could be heard from time to time, the cries of babies, the screams and moans of the wounded, and the cries of women.
Li Lihua vaguely thought that she had returned to the Luzon Island of that year: countless refugees died on the road while fleeing to Badayan, with indigenous soldiers blocking the road in front of them and the Spaniards chasing after them.
Now the pursuers have become the Red-haired Dutch, and the ones harassing and attacking the Chinese teams are the Javanese natives.
Her clothes had been torn by branches, her face was covered with mud, and her hair was messy. Almost no one knew that she was the woman of Yin Feng, the overlord of the East Asia Sea. Magaro and the members of the Black Guard protected her loyally and also served as Forwards and defenders.
Li Lihua walked back and forth in the team, constantly encouraging the refugees: "Work harder. When we reach Surabaya, it is the territory of our Tang people. We can hold on there until Captain Yin of the Zhonghua Company sends someone to rescue us." , ”
All the refugees, except the employees of Zhonghua Company, were skeptical of her words. A little boy in the team asked loudly: "Will Captain Yin really come to help us?"
"Definitely," Li Lihua said to the boy. At the same time, she was also saying to herself: "He is the savior of our overseas Tang people. Only he can save us."
"You are from the China Company. Come on, you and the Huatian Company are the same. You are just grabbing land here and pissing off the Dutch. As a result, those of us from the Tang Dynasty who have settled here for hundreds of years will suffer." Suddenly an old man said The team members spoke lukewarmly: "We have heard about Captain Yin rescuing people in Luzon; if his brother-in-law was not in Manila, would he have gone to rescue people?"
Li Lihua's face suddenly turned red, and she was so angry that she didn't know how to retort. Wu Hao, the captain of the Batavia Chinese Merchant Guard Team who had been behind her, jumped out suddenly, pointed at the old man angrily and yelled: "Shut up. You old thing, ask yourself, if it were you, would you risk your life to save thousands of people who have nothing to do with you? The red-haired barbarians can treat us like dogs, aren't you people who have been around all year round? Is it caused by enduring humiliation and living an ignoble existence?"
The old man lowered his head, muttered something, and walked forward slowly.
Wu Hao drew out his saber and wanted to rush over to argue, but was stopped by Li Lihua: "Haozai, forget it, they Tang people have lived here for a long time, and all their property was lost in this incident. It's just right to say these complaints. Excusable,"
There is a reason why Wu Hao is so angry: he is eighteen years old this year. He was eight years old when he was rescued by Yin Feng from Manila. He is a mixed race of Chinese and Tagalog natives. Both his parents died at the hands of the Spanish. It was Yin Feng who came out of Those who raised him with money, Wu Hao and Chen Zhongji, Cao Tai, the supervisor of Fengguiweibao Village during the Battle of Penghu, and the military supervisor officers of some other troops, are all from the so-called "ship owner's orphans" and are Yin Feng's most loyal advocates.
The fleeing team encountered the Madura indigenous army near Surabaya. At this time, the Tang people begged people from the China Company to come forward to meet the enemy, because among the Chinese armed forces on the island, only the armed forces of the China Company and Huatian Company had firearms. .
The bows, arrows, spears and crude matchlocks equipped by the Madura natives were simply not comparable to the Chinese company's weapons.
There were about 400 people in the China Company, including civilian secretaries, accountants, old people, women and children. Magaro and Wu Hao gathered more than 300 armed personnel of the China Company, including the black guards, and rushed to the front of the team, using Two rounds of neat volleys disrupted the queue of the Madura indigenous army, and then rushed forward in one go, stabbing the leader of the indigenous army to death with a bayonet, and soon dispersed the more than a thousand Madura troops blocking the way. army.
At this time, Surabaya was surrounded by Maduren troops and Dutch warships. The sudden appearance of Chinese armed forces from Central Java caused confusion in the besieging Maduren army and they gave way.
However, the local princes and Chinese armed leaders in Surabaya put forward conditions for the Chinese team that came to support. The local Chinese have already embraced Islam. Although this belief is rights-based, the level of piety is even lower than that of Malay Muslims. Not even half of them were available. The princely state guarding Surabaya nominally belonged to the Madalan Kingdom. The princes and Chinese leaders made a request: all Chinese must be Muslims, otherwise they would not be able to enter the city of Surabaya.
Many overseas Chinese who have lived in the local area for a long time have nominally believed in Islam, but only a handful of people from the Chinese Company are Muslims. This obviously difficult condition actually excludes the people from the Chinese Company and prevents them from entering the city. The local snakes knew very well that the melee in Java was actually caused by the conflict between the Dutch and the Chinese Company. Seeing that the Dutch side had the upper hand, they all tried to draw a clear line with the Chinese Company.
The city of Surabaya closed its city gates in front of more than 400 people from the Chinese Company and aimed its Borneo cannon at them.
Li Lihua finally stopped the furious Wu Hao: "Forget it, they don't welcome us, let's go to Cirebon. There are two company sugarcane estates there. The Sultan of Cirebon has always been very good to our company,"
Cirebon is located to the west of the north coast of Java Island. People from the Chinese Company set out from Surabaya and had to go back along the way they came.
Li Lihua looked at the staff of the China Company, which totaled less than 400 people, and sighed: "Brothers, I know that there are native-born boys among you who are also Muslims. If you are willing to stay in Surabaya, please feel free to do so. Bar,"
Several Peranakans looked at each other and shouted together: "Miss, we will follow you. We will follow you wherever you go."
The descendants of the so-called Cirebon Sultanate have continued until the 21st century in another time and space. Cirebon was once surrendered to the Mataram Kingdom, which succeeded the Tammu Kingdom.
As early as 1415, when Zheng He's fleet arrived in the Ming Dynasty, the area was still sparsely populated. As a supply base for the fleet, Zheng He immigrated a large number of Hui people from Yunnan, China to Southeast Asia, and established three Chinese Islamic communities in Cirebon. The starting point of the Cirebon Chinese community was that in 1526, the local Chinese peacefully surrendered to the Tammu Kingdom founded by the Chinese. In 1552, the local Chinese Muslims established the Cirebon Sultanate. The founder was originally a descendant of the royal family of the Tammu Kingdom and was also of Chinese descent. , the current Sultan of Cirebon, Wardahila, once defeated the invasion of the Sunda nation with the help of the Chinese Company, so he has a good relationship with the Chinese Company.
However, the power of the Dutch is expanding, and the balance of the war is tilting towards the Dutch. Faced with this fact, it is still unknown how the Sultan of Cirebon will treat the Chinese company.