Feeling that he had no other choice, the Governor went into a state of madness and vented all his anger on the local mob. More than two thousand Dutch soldiers and policemen spread into the city and opened fire almost whenever they saw running locals. Gunfire was everywhere in the city.
, howls, shouts, and even the "click-click-click" sound of machine guns. Several Maxim water-cooled machine guns were even dragged out and used.
Loudspeakers everywhere commanded in local language: "All locals stop running immediately, put their hands behind their heads and squat on the ground, otherwise they will be killed..."
On both sides of the street, there were piles of locals squatting on the ground in horror, holding their heads in their hands, looking around. Among them were many poor local women, with their dark feet bare but wearing high-end silk skirts.
They dressed up, staring with ignorant eyes, and looked around with the men. Most of the beautiful clothes on their bodies were torn, and some were stained with blood, but they still wore them with great interest.
A truck full of Dutch soldiers was speeding past on the street. It had a loudspeaker on the front and shouted "...or else we will all be shot...". In front of it, a local young man ran past shirtless and holding an arm in his arms.
Something. There was a burst of gunfire, and he was shot and fell to the ground. A truck sped by and rolled over him several times. He was bloody and bloody. The brand-new bicycle accessories in his arms were scattered on the floor. There were still five or six weapons on his dark arms.
Just a watch.
At an intersection, two locals squatted in the corner, holding their heads, and were being beaten by several Dutch policemen holding shields. They screamed miserably. I don’t know how these two locals made them angry. Several Dutch policemen cursed
He was beaten with police batons and kicked with leather shoes, almost to death.
Xiang Xiaoqiang and the overseas Chinese had watched them all the way out of the consulate. At first, they were frightened and hid behind the guns of the Dutch guards, like a group of stowaways, but they walked along the streets and alleys.
In less than ten minutes, everyone was marching openly in the middle of the road with their chests held high.
On the other hand, the Dutch soldiers in that platoon were all very nervous. They held their rifles flat and looked around, as if they were escorting not the Chinese who had always been bullied, but the royal family of their own country.
A local young man stood a few meters away, holding his brother who was beaten to a bloody pulp, pointing at the team and shouting something in grief and indignation.
The Dutch soldier next to him raised his gun and knocked him down without saying a word.
Among the Chinese corpses all over the street, there are occasional corpses of local people. The difference is that most of the Chinese corpses are horrific and ravaged in all kinds of ways, and more than half of them are women and children. Many of those killed a day or two ago have begun to decay.
Swarms of flies were buzzing around. However, the corpses of the locals were usually only young men with only one fatal gunshot wound.
However, the biggest difference is that the locals can only see one corpse a block or two away, while the Chinese corpses can be seen on average within a few steps.
Despite this, the riots are calming down after all, and more Chinese have been saved. The Chinese are the smartest. Although they see the government military and police suppressing, they understand everything. They know that all this is due to Xiang Xiaoqiang.
Xiang Xiaoqiang was now their hero. He was lifted up by the crowd and held above their heads amidst cheers for the rest of the way. The secretary of the consulate and two of Xiang Xiaoqiang's guards were also lifted up. If it weren't for the three
An old man repeatedly denied that he had a heart disease, but he was also lifted up.
Hundreds of Chinese carried Xiang Xiaoqiang and his party, singing the national anthem of the Ming Dynasty, and slowly entered the Batavia port like a victorious army.
In an instant, the entire Batavia port was boiling. They all knew the progress of the matter, and they cheered and rushed towards Xiaoqiang. Soon, thousands of people in the port also sang "Mountains and Rivers of the Homeland". Many people
Everyone had tears in their eyes and shouted Xiang Xiaoqiang's name. After the national song was finished, the whole port cheered "Xiang Xiaoqiang! Xiang Xiaoqiang!" one wave after another.
Qiu Qiu was busy among a group of nurses, leading people to treat and comfort women and children. At this time, she also looked at Xiang Xiaoqiang proudly and burst into tears with excitement.
A large number of expatriates with separated relatives flocked to the pier, hoping to find their relatives among the hundreds of new expats. From time to time, there was a burst of excited cries from the crowd as their relatives were reunited. However, more people never returned.
Find loved ones.
Xiang Xiaoqiang was finally put to the ground by the expatriates, and he immediately discovered that there were several large ships in the port, and they were all flying the flag of the Ming Dynasty. People around him told him that they had just entered the port in the morning, and some had just entered the port from
Those who came from nearby, some of whom came from Siam, Malaya and other places yesterday, received domestic orders and came to pick up the expatriates. Now they are loading the expatriates.
In addition, there were several foreign ships, two Dutch ships, an American ship, a British ship, and a Japanese ship. They all sailed through the Malacca Strait to nearby waters and received orders from their own countries, saying that the Netherlands, the Ming Dynasty
A war is likely to break out during this period, so they came to pick up the nationals at short notice.
For a time, ships from various countries gathered in Batavia Bay.
Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at his watch. It was almost eight o'clock, with about ten minutes left. He ordered:
"Let everyone get on the boat quickly! Everyone must be on the boat before nine o'clock!"
The four Ming Dynasty ships in the port are all cargo ships, all exceeding 10,000 tons. In addition, there are two or three small cargo ships of several thousand tons. Among them, an 18,000-ton cargo ship happens to be an empty ship. It has just been unloaded in Singapore.
When I heard the call, I didn’t load any more cargo and came directly over. Although its tonnage is not as big as the Yongan Princess, because it is a cargo ship, it has a huge internal space and its transportation capacity far exceeds that of a cruise ship with exquisite interiors. This one ship alone can almost transport all the cargo in the port.
Most of the expatriates were transported away. Although the other three 10,000-ton cargo ships were not empty, they still had a lot of loading space.
It's eight o'clock.
The guard on the Yong'an Princess hurried down and handed Xiang Xiaoqiang a telegram. Xiang Xiaoqiang opened it and saw that it was a Ministry of Foreign Affairs telegram in the name of Zhu Yourong, informing Xiang Xiaoqiang to close the Ming Dynasty Consulate in Batavia and take the consul and all personnel with him.
At the same time, in Amsterdam, the Ming Dynasty Embassy in the Netherlands was closed.
The Ming Dynasty’s consulates in Rotterdam, The Hague, Breda, Hermont, Eindhoven, Leiden, Haarlem and other local cities were closed.
The Ming Dynasty's consulates in colonial cities such as Medan, Semarang, Bandung, Surabaya, and Palembang were closed.
The Ming Dynasty’s consulate in Dutch Guiana is closed.
The Ming Dynasty's diplomats stationed in the Netherlands and the Dutch colonies have burned documents, lowered the national flags, dismissed employees, closed their offices, brought their families with them, and carried their luggage to various ports to take ships back to the Ming Dynasty.
The entire Kingdom of the Netherlands, from the Queen to the Prime Minister, to officials at all levels, to the colonial governors, and to ordinary citizens, watched all this with helpless eyes, their faces turned ashen.
Now there are no diplomatic relations between the Ming Empire and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The next step is war.
Two 10,000-ton cargo ships were filled with expatriates and slowly left the port, heading north to British Malaya and the Kingdom of Siam (Thailand), the only remaining overseas vassal of the Ming Dynasty.
There are still one third of the expatriates in Hong Kong left.
In the command room of the Yong'an Princess, Xiang Xiaoqiang and his advisers were listening to the radio. The Chief of General Staff of the Ming Dynasty was answering reporters' questions in Nanjing. While they were listening, they gathered around the chart table to look at it. Qiu Qiu was standing aside.
They provide auxiliary explanations.
"... Just early this morning," the Chief of Naval Staff said, "three of our cruisers have set off south from the base in Siam. At the same time, one of our battleships and two cruisers have also set off from Zhanjiang.
The port set off southward... Of course, the mission of these two squadrons was not to directly attack the Dutch East Indies, but to guard the Red Sea-Gulf of Aden and the Cape of Good Hope respectively, preventing any reinforcements from the Netherlands from entering the Indian Ocean."
A reporter asked: "Mr. Marshal, as we all know, the Royal Netherlands Navy still has two battleships deployed in the Dutch East Indies. What does Mr. Marshal think of these two battleships? Do you think they will pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty Navy?
?”
Qiu Qiu smiled contemptuously when he heard this. Sure enough, the Chief of Naval Staff also laughed on the radio:
"Mr. Reporter, you have a small misunderstanding. That's right, the Netherlands does not have a capital ship. According to the definition of the Washington Naval Conference, only battleships and battlecruisers can be called capital ships. The current main force of the Dutch Navy is just a few cruisers.
As far as I know, the two ships currently in the Dutch East Indies are the 'Surabaya' and the 'Batavia Island'. These two ships have a displacement of only 6,670 tons and a 150mm main gun. They are light ships.
Cruiser... If nothing else happens, these two warships will not pose a threat to us... Of course, if the captains of these two ships are brave and courageous enough, they may cause us some trouble."
The last words, full of contempt, made the reporters present burst into laughter.
…
At eight-twenty, a guard hurried in and said that the Governor-General of East India wanted to see him. He was now off the boat.
Xiang Xiaoqiang was a little surprised. He didn't expect the Governor of the Dutch East Indies to come in person. It seemed that he had no temper at all. This was very different from his attitude when he first arrived yesterday.
Xiang Xiaoqiang stood on the gangway, looking down at the somewhat empty port. Just below the huge Yongan Princess, there were two cars parked on the pier, which looked like two beetles. Standing next to them were a few as small as ants.
The same people. The fat man in the front is the Dutch Governor-General in East India.
Xiang Xiaoqiang sighed softly, walked down the gangway and stood in front of him.
The governor took off his hat, wiped his sweat twice with a handkerchief, and then said respectfully:
"Your Majesty the Imperial Envoy, I am pleased to inform you that the riot in Batavia has been completely subsided... Perhaps you are interested in taking a look in the city?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang nodded, looked at his watch, and said:
"Well, time is running out, I hope your efforts can avoid a war."
The governor was half relieved and quickly asked Xiang Xiaoqiang to get into the car. Xiang Xiaoqiang and the governor got into one car, and asked Song Ruhai and the two guards to get into another car and drove to the city.
The streets of Batavia are calm and in chaos. Military police are enforcing security everywhere. In addition to the corpses everywhere on the ground, there are piles of locals squatting in the corners, guarded by armed military police. The only people walking on the street now are
Yes, only Chinese.
These surviving Chinese came out of their hiding places in twos and threes, started to put out fires in their homes, and searched for their family members among the corpses filled with flies. Many people found the corpses of their relatives and cried until they fainted.
Chinese women in Batavia began a suicide wave. Many Chinese women who had been imprisoned or even tied up for the past two days were rescued and then committed suicide. More women found out about their husbands and children.
The body was too horrible to look at, and then he committed suicide. Now the authorities have to allocate part of the police force to stop this wave of suicides.
The car was driving very fast, and the governor was determined to let Xiang Xiaoqiang see all the main streets of Batavia within twenty minutes to prevent him from using the excuse of not seeing everything to admit that the riot had subsided.
At 8:45, the car returned to the port after a frantic drive around the city.
The governor and his entourage stood together, looking at Xiang Xiaoqiang with almost pleading eyes. The governor looked like he was about to cry.
Xiang Xiaoqiang looked at the watch. There were still twelve minutes left before nine o'clock. Excluding the possible error of the mechanical watch, there were still ten minutes left.
Now Qiu Qiu is on the deck, clinging to the railing and looking at him. When he left just now, Xiang Xiaoqiang and Qiu Qiu agreed on a secret signal. This was a gesture that determined the life and death of a defeated gladiator in the ancient Roman arena.
Thumbs up, Qiu Qiu will send a report to Nanjing, saying that the riots have subsided and war will not break out.
Thumbs down, Qiu Qiu will send a report to Nanjing, saying that the riot has not subsided. Then at nine o'clock, war will be declared.
Now war or peace depends on Xiang Xiaoqiang's thumb.
Qiu Qiu held the railing and stretched her head anxiously, looking at him.
Xiang Xiaoqiang hesitated. Finally, he made up his mind and stretched out his arm.