After Li Lihua's various pleas, Surabaya City finally allowed more than a hundred old, weak, women, and children to take refuge in the city. Li Lihua rejected everyone's requests to let her enter the city, and headed northwest with the remaining more than 300 members of the China Company.
Along the way, they gradually gathered some scattered Chinese armed forces who were defeated. Some Madalan natives who supported the Chinese company also joined their fleeing team.
According to native legends, a mysterious armed force landed near Batavia a few days ago. They attacked the red-haired manors and churches around Batavia. They beheaded all the captured red-haired barbarians and then disappeared. .
Li Lihua, Wu Hao and others suspected that this was a reinforcement force from the Chinese Company. However, they heard from the natives that this force only numbered a few hundred people. They were not sure. Therefore, they did not move closer to Batavia. Instead, they continued to detour to Java. Head to the center of the island towards Cirebon.
Along the way, they broke through several blockades of the Dutch, Madalan rebels, and the Madura army. A scattered pile of Chinese refugees and indigenous escapees were organized by Wu Hao and other Chinese company personnel and divided into teams of more than a hundred people. Zhonghua The company's armed personnel were in the center to provide support, and were at the rear and in the vanguard. They lost more than a hundred brothers along the way. Even Magaro's black guards also lost more than ten people in the battle.
In the end, Li Lihua fell ill and was carried into a sugarcane planting estate south of the capital of Cirebon Sultanate.
This manor was purchased by a Chinese company from the Sultan of Cirebon. There are now more than a thousand refugees of all ethnic groups gathered in the manor. They are mainly Chinese. There are also Sundanese warriors who resisted the Dutch and Madura's army, as well as Mada. King Lan's more than one hundred troops were defeated.
The manager of the manor is Sun Yazhe, a young Peranakan who once went to Taiwan Military Academy to study. He used the support of the Sudan, mobilized local indigenous manpower, and combined with the abilities of Chinese craftsmen, has turned the manor into a fortress. Li Lihua is here He recuperated for more than ten days. During this period, the area around Cirebon was completely occupied by the Dutch and Maduraan troops. News from other parts of Java Island was also cut off.
There are only more than 300 people directly under the China Company in the manor. Including the more than 500 people brought by Li Lihua, there are insufficient weapons, equipment and ammunition. Self-protection is difficult. There is no way to rescue the surrounding Chinese settlements.
In a short period of time, more than 2,000 people took refuge in the sugar cane manor.
The advance team led by Yan Siqi finally learned the news about Cirebon. After landing in the jungle west of Batavia, they have been fighting guerrillas with the Dutch and indigenous people around Batavia. At the same time, they have been asking for news about Li Lihua. Finally A small officer in the captured Madura army heard a piece of news: Among the Chinese armed forces who fled to Cirebon, there was a Chinese woman wearing Western clothes.
Yan Siqi finally found Li Lihua one month after landing on Java Island.
He brought exciting news to the local Chinese company personnel: "The navy fleet, headed by five main warships, has arrived in Batavia."
When Yan Siqi came to Cirebon Sugar Cane Manor, Li Lihua's illness was slightly better. She was taking care of the old, young and sick inside and outside the manor, and coordinating the relationship between refugees of all ethnic groups. Her illness was actually caused by more than a month in the tropical jungle. Trekking. Due to lack of rest and nutrition.
Yan Siqi's face turned pale when he saw this. He pulled Wu Hao aside and whispered: "The eldest lady is such an important person. How can you make her work so hard."
Wu Hao lowered his head and sighed: "Brother Yan, I can't help it; the eldest lady must help..."
"This won't work. A fierce battle may break out here at any time. The eldest lady must be sent away... There is somewhere more secluded on the nearby coastline."
Wu Hao blinked and said, "Could it be that the captain's ghost ship is here?"
Ghost ships, ghost ships, etc. are the Sea Spirit and Starfish that have been rumored to be miraculous in various places, but no one has ever seen them in the daytime. People at the China Company call these two clipper ships this way.
"Yes. But someone has to go to the beach to send the signal." Yan Siqi said: "Now the sea is full of Dutch ships. We have to make an appointment with the Sea Spirit."
Wu Hao personally took the signal liaison officer of Yan Siqi's advance team to a bay in the west of Cirebon that night.
According to the agreement between the Starfish and Yan Siqi, the Starfish must cruise more than ten miles along the coast at night and hide among countless small islands in the Java Sea during the day.
The sailors of the Starfish saw the signal sent by Wu Hao and drove the Starfish to the vicinity of Cirebon the next day. However, Li Lihua and others could not leave. A large sea battle was taking place in the waters outside Cirebon Port.
This is a naval battle with the highest technological level in East Asian waters: the two warring parties are the Nanyang Task Force of the Chinese United Navy: five main battleships, twenty-five three-masted gunboats, thirty fast boats, and nearly a hundred more. Chinese-style fuchuan, fishing boats, and Malay dhows serve as auxiliary vessels. The entire fleet has more than 800 cannons of various sizes such as various cannons, French rapid-fire cannons, and howitzers. There are also long-range attack weapons such as thunderbolt rockets.
On the other side was the Dutch fleet, which consisted of three warships, fifteen clippers and auxiliary battleships, and dozens of Madura brigantines, with a total of more than 500 cannons of various types.
The Dutch did not expect that the Chinese fleet would appear on the coast of Java so soon. The spies planted by Yin Feng in the Dutch East India Company fully played their role as effectiveness multipliers at this moment. Dutch Admiral Joris, the East India Company's commander The Governor of Batavia and others used the conflict between the Huatian Company and the China Company to suddenly launch a purge of people from the China Company, triggering a scuffle among people who knew all of Java. Before this, the leadership of the East India Company had not actually decided Start a war with Chinese companies.
The Dutch way of doing things is that they like to use committees to make democratic decisions. When there are three people present, everyone present will definitely be required to participate in the vote. As long as there are other people present, no Dutch person will ever make a decision alone. Therefore. Whether to go to war with our Chinese company to regain trade dominance and commodity pricing power within East Asia. This matter has been discussed within the company for a long time. It has not yet been decided.
This time Li Lihua came to Batavia. Her whereabouts were revealed to the Dutchman Van Leyden by a small leader of the Huatian Company, the former instructor of the China Company's escort team and the leader of the foreign mercenaries. The current Batavia garrison Commander Major Van Leyden decisively decided to capture Li Lihua. On the one hand, it forced the East India Company to make an early decision to start a war with our China Company. On the other hand, it could use Li Lihua as an important weight.
No plan can change as quickly as it did. Van Leyden did not expect that the Dutch sailors from Europe he sent underestimated the enemy. They did not expect to deal with the Chinese resistance at all. Therefore, they were defeated by the armed personnel of the China United Company in one blow. This triggered a melee throughout Java. This was beyond Major Leighton's expectation.
However, the East India Company had to start a comprehensive campaign to wipe out the Chinese Company.
When the Dutch wanted to come, given the communication conditions at the time, news of the melee on Java Island reached Manila. Then the Chinese Company gathered its forces and went south to attack Java. It would take at least three months. By then, the Dutch should be able to defeat the people on Java Island. Other resistance forces concentrated their forces to fight the Chinese decisively.
However, the Chinese spies lurking inside the East India Company's Batavia Governor's Mansion quickly conveyed the Dutch's decision. Due to the timely information obtained, the response speed of the China United Company completely exceeded the imagination of the Dutch. Ye Hua The Nanyang Task Force he led was advancing at full speed. Only two months after the incident at the Chinese Company Commercial Building, it had already arrived outside the port of Batavia.
Although the Dutch fleet and the Yehua fleet were the same in terms of the number of main battleships, at this time, the Dutch fleet was still scattered in Batavia, Surabaya, Semarang, Cirebon and other places.
In this way, the Chinese company's fleet got an opportunity to defeat the Dutch fleet one by one.
Two Dutch two-masted clippers on patrol duty outside the port of Batavia were the first to suffer. At dawn, they were attacked and besieged by dozens of Chinese warships. In a short time, they were bombarded into pieces and garbage. They sank. sea.
The Chinese fleet, led by five main battleships, rushed into Batavia Harbor and bombarded the Dutch forts. It also blocked the battleship Rotterdam brought by Vice Admiral Vitelt from Europe in the harbor. Although the well-trained Dutch sailors quickly opened the gun windows on the seaward side of the Rotterdam and tried to counter the Chinese bombardment, the Rotterdam was too late to pull anchor and set sail. It stayed in the port and became a fixed fort. It was completely lost. As a battleship. After a morning of bombardment, the Chinese fleet completely destroyed the Batavia port. The battleship Rotterdam and five other auxiliary battleships were all sunk and destroyed. Vice Admiral Vitert and his flagship Rotterdam They sank into the sea together.
The losses of Ye Hua's fleet were only a few gunners killed in the battle. More than thirty sailors and gunners were injured. Several warships' sail and cable systems were damaged.
In the next few days, Ye Hua's fleet was busy searching for the main force of the Dutch fleet in the sea north of Java for a decisive battle.
In Semarang, Ye Hua's fleet encountered another battleship "Hector" and another two-masted battleship "The Hague" brought from Europe by Vice Admiral Viterte.
Facing the sudden appearance of the huge Chinese United Company fleet, the Dutch couldn't help but panic. However, the well-trained Dutch reacted quickly and immediately turned around and fled westward.
The Dutch captain of the Hector responded in time. But The Hague fell behind. It was within the rocket range of the Flying Tiger and the Flying Leopard. It was very unlucky and was shot by five Thunderbolt rockets. In the end, it was hit by five Thunderbolt rockets. It burned into a ball of fire under the setting sun. In this encounter, twelve Dutch sailors were captured by Ye Hua's fleet.
The Chinese are coming.
The news quickly spread throughout Java.
In Semarang, Ye Hua's fleet landed 2,300 sailor musketeers. They carried 10 light field guns and a cannon for siege. They rushed towards Semarang like wolves and tigers. With the support of the Chinese residents in the city, .Semarang was occupied by the Chinese. 200 Dutch defenders abandoned the Semarang Fort and retreated to Batavia with their looted property.