Chapter 663 The house leaked and it rained all night

Before solving the problem on Natuna Island, Batavia also suspended all shipping missions from Northeast Asia that need to cross the South China Sea to ensure that no more sailing ships belonging to the East India Company will fall into the hands of this group of pirates. And maritime transportation

The loss that the interruption will bring to the East India Company is also a huge amount that cannot be ignored. Most of those who are eager for the company to send troops to conquer Natuna Island again are the ones who have suffered losses as a result.

This account is very easy to calculate. It has been nearly four months since the merchant ships repeatedly disappeared in April. In other words, one-third of the whole year has been wasted because of this. The victims are not in the mood.

Put this matter off until next year.

If there are those who advocate war, there will naturally be those who advocate peace. Not everyone is accustomed to using force to resolve disputes, not to mention that the results of the previous use of force were so bad. Some people pointed out that during this period, people who passed through the Natuna Islands

The merchant ships of the Ming Dynasty were not robbed, which shows that the local pirates were consciously targeting the merchant ships of the Netherlands. However, no one knew why they targeted the East India Company in this way. The peace faction suggested that the merchants of the Ming Dynasty be used as intermediaries.

Discuss the conditions with the other party first, and then clarify the whole story. If you really can't reach an agreement, it's not too late to use force to solve the problem.

The main war party naturally sneered at this. If the dispute can be resolved through negotiation, then why does the company still maintain thousands of armed forces? They have already done so many votes, and they are specifically targeting the Netherlands.

The merchant ship's attack shows that they are not afraid of you at all. This foot has already stepped on your own face. How can you still have the shamelessness to negotiate? If you can still swallow your anger like this, it is simply a shame for the East India Company!

Governor Cohen himself is actually more inclined to use force to solve the problem, because this opponent with an unknown background has appeared with obvious malice from the beginning. Cohen did not feel the slightest possibility of reconciliation from the other party's behavior. Moreover, the company's armed forces this time

The company suffered heavy losses on Natuna Island. Even Broward died in the battle. If retaliation is not carried out, where will the company's face be and how will it explain to the families of these victims?

But how to start, this really puts Governor Cohen in a dilemma. If Spikes' description is not an exaggeration, then the company must at least organize a larger army than last time to regain the territory from the pirates.

Na Islands. However, this was not an easy task for the East India Company. In addition to the need to mobilize combatants from various colonies in the Far East, the funds and materials needed to prepare for the cross-sea expedition were also considerable.

In addition, who should be appointed to lead the army is also an extremely troublesome matter. Both Spikes and Brouwer have fought for the company, and their abilities are quite outstanding. Cohen originally arranged for them to go out together in order to buy double insurance. And except for

Apart from them, there are only a handful of senior officers in the company who can command large-scale military operations. Most of them still have their own posts. It does not mean that they can be released immediately after being transferred. After thinking about it, Cohen felt that only those who had just returned from

Delnate returned to Anthony van Diemen in Batavia.

Due to Van Diemen's outstanding achievements in the expedition east of Java, Cohen has submitted an application to the domestic parliament, recommending that Van Diemen be promoted to Admiral of the Far East. In terms of professional qualifications, Van Diemen is definitely qualified for this position.

.However, in view of the previous disastrous defeat, Cohen still has doubts about whether Van Diemen can bring a victory to the company. Without further understanding the strength of his opponent, Cohen will not dare to easily attack Natuna Island again.

Note.

While Cohen began to secretly mobilize manpower and prepare supplies, he ordered the company's intelligence department to collect information from the Chinese maritime merchants who traveled between Ming Dynasty and Batavia in recent months, trying to find out who the pirates on Natuna Island were.

What's the background? However, Haihan had anticipated this situation in advance, so they carefully concealed their identity after occupying the local area. For this purpose, they also sent hundreds of Portuguese people to replace the Dutch, and relied on this method

Deceived the Ming merchants who passed by. Although there are actually many differences in appearance between the people of the two countries, for ordinary Ming merchants, they could not distinguish these tall-nosed and deep-eyed merchants from their appearance.

people.

Therefore, from the confessions of the Ming Dynasty merchants, the Dutch learned another important fact - there were probably a large number of Europeans on the island, and judging from their appearance, they were most likely the Portuguese, old friends of the East India Company.

But according to Spikes, when the Dutch army attacked the local area, they saw no trace of the Portuguese at all. The personnel fighting on the battlefield can definitely be East Asians with yellow hair, black skin, and thin bodies. Even Spikes

No matter how confused you are, you will never mistake the Portuguese for East Asians. The previous evidence seems to be unable to confirm whether the Portuguese were directly involved in this matter. But this group of people actually came up with such a way to kill Li Daitao.

The fact that they concealed their plans from the outside showed that they had indeed planned to occupy the local area for a long time and it was not a temporary act.

As more and more information became available to him, Cohen became more and more convinced that his opponent was targeting the East India Company. Because of this, Cohen became increasingly cautious about launching another island-seizing campaign, because his opponent should also anticipate the East India Company's attack.

response to carry out targeted preparations locally.

After spending nearly two months in suspicion and uneasiness, Van Longen, another party involved in the Battle of Natuna, finally returned to Batavia. However, before the board of directors convened for the nth time regarding Natuna

During the hearing of the battle, Van Longen had already met with Cohen as soon as possible and reported another bad news to him-the garrison's armed fleet was recently defeated by the combined fleet of Ming Dynasty and Haihan off the coast of Fujian, and four ships were lost.

Armed sailing ship and over three hundred crew members.

"Why did Hans send troops to fight along the coast of Fujian? The mission of these armed sailing ships is to protect Damuan Port and the northern route, not to fight against the Ming Empire!" Governor Cohen's anger was written on his face. He really couldn't tolerate his subordinates.

Such foolish behavior - especially not long after the incident on Natuna Island - was a disaster for the East India Company.

Moreover, judging from the time mentioned by Van Longen, the war at Da Yuan Port broke out after he arrived there. In other words, Da Yuan Chief Hans knew that something had happened on the southern route, but he still rashly sent troops to open up the route.

Another battlefield. If Hans wasn't scrambling to show off his abilities at this moment, it would be because the fever had burned out his brain.

"According to Mr. Hans, the war broke out because our opponent launched a surprise attack on our fleet, and we were caught off guard and suffered such heavy losses." Van Longen said while thinking silently: Mr. Hans,

I can only help you so far.

When he was a senior official, Van Longen believed that the reasons that Hans and his nephew came up with were simply untenable. Governor Cohen was far smarter than them, and these little tricks would definitely be seen through at a glance. However, Hans gave him a lot of gifts in private.

By asking him to act on his behalf after returning to Batavia, Van Longen was also taking people's money to eliminate disasters for them. However, Van Longen was not optimistic about how effective this would be.

Sure enough, this statement attracted Cohen's refutation: "Sudden attack? How could our fleet appear on the Nanri Island you mentioned? As far as I know, it is close to the coast of Fujian. Didn't this guy Hans know that this would happen?

Directly provoking an attack from the Ming army? I think he just wants to be in the limelight at this time!"

After the battle with the Ming army during the Tianqi period, the East India Company chose to withdraw from Penghu and retreated to Damuan Port, trying to avoid another military conflict with the Ming Dynasty. This was not because the East India Company was afraid of war, but because it was out of fear of war.

considerations of interests.

First, a long-term battle with a behemoth like the Ming Dynasty in the local area will inevitably consume a lot of resources and energy of the East India Company. Although the opponent's army is not strong, the East India Company is an outsider after all. If the war continues, it will definitely not consume the Ming Dynasty.

Secondly, the war between the two sides also directly affected the East India Company's trade with the Ming Dynasty. Although the Ming Dynasty officially did not agree to establish trade relations with the East India Company, in fact, such trade relations not only existed but also amounted to huge amounts. Even Xu Xinsu did so in his early years.

He made his fortune by doing smuggling business with the East India Company. Once an armed conflict broke out between the two sides, the trade would have to be suspended. This was not a scene that the Dutch wanted to see.

In the past two years, in addition to the above two reasons, a new reason has been added: to avoid giving Haihan people the opportunity to interfere in Fujian affairs as much as possible.

The rapid rise of Haihan has actually attracted the attention of the East India Company, and it is not a matter of a day or two for them to secretly provide military assistance to the Fujian government. In Cohen's view, their ambitions have become obvious. Sooner or later, these Haihan people will

They will all extend their hands into Fujian, just like they did in Guangdong.

But Hans obviously did not understand this spirit well. The use of troops along the coast of Fujian undoubtedly gave the Haihan people an opportunity to take advantage of. In particular, Van Longen also mentioned that when the Haihan delegation visited Zhangzhou three months ago,

, the assassins sent by Shibazhi failed to assassinate, and as a result, the Haihan people retaliated and directly captured Nanri Island, which was originally occupied by Shibazhi - this was also the direct trigger for the subsequent intervention of the officials.

When Shibazhi makes trouble, at least Ming and Haihan will not direct their guns at the East India Company, although they may also know who is behind Shibazhi. But Hans rolls up his sleeves and ends up, which is not of the same nature.

It's the same. On the one hand, Ming can take this opportunity to avenge the Tianqi years. On the other hand, Haihan can also use his identity as an ally to participate in this war openly.

Cohen's temper got worse and he couldn't help but cough violently. His physical condition was already quite bad. If it weren't for several Chinese doctors who were recuperating him, he would have already become a historical figure.

After finally regaining his composure, Cohen said feebly: "Tell me in detail what you know about the battle process."

"Sir Governor, Mr. Van der Wegen, who led the army in the battle this time, is also back with me. Perhaps he will describe the battle process in more detail." Van Longen wished he could get himself out of this pile of rubbish as soon as possible, and said

I don't want to stay here any longer.

"Okay, you ask him to come see me as soon as possible. Also, you stay in the city. The board of directors will summon you soon to ask about the war on Natuna Island. During this period, don't go out and move around much, let alone talk to Spike.

Contact us, do you understand?" Cohen warned.

"Of course, I will strictly follow your order." Van Longen took out an envelope from his arms and handed it to Cohen respectfully: "This is a personal letter written to you by Mr. Hans from Taiyuan Port."

After completing the handover, Van Longen finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although there are still procedures such as hearings to go through later, in general he is relieved.

When Van Longen left Batavia two months ago, Cohen had promised him that as long as this errand went smoothly, he could inherit Van Diemen's position and take charge of the maritime trade of the colonies east of Java when he came back.

affairs. However, this mission turned out to be unsatisfactory beyond imagination. The Natuna Islands and the senior officials that Van Longen arrived at all suffered varying degrees of failure, and they did not dare to mention it again after returning. If you could choose,

He doesn't want to go to the northern waters anymore in the near future.

Van der Wegen was actually waiting outside the Governor's Mansion. When he saw Van Longen coming out, he quickly stepped forward to inquire about the news. Van Longen coughed dryly and said: "Governor Cohen wants to see you now, but after you go in, don't rush to shirk your responsibility, Mr. Governor."

They may ask you about the fighting process in great detail, answer his questions first, and remember not to contradict him."

It is precisely because of Van Longen's instructions that Van der Wegen was much calmer when he went in to meet Cohen, preventing Cohen's impression of him from deteriorating further. Hans's letter did not blindly avoid responsibility, but only used comparisons.

He used a lot of space to analyze the political situation in Fujian and explained his reasons for sending troops, which also restored Cohen's perception to a certain extent.

After reading Hans's letter, Cohen realized that Haihan's influence in Fujian could no longer be ignored. The Fujian government's attitude towards Shiba Zhi and the East India Company was largely due to the support given by Haihan. Especially

In terms of military affairs, Haihan was no longer satisfied with the superficial work of selling arms to the Fujian government and assisting in training the army. He directly sent an armed fleet to station along the coast of Fujian. This is undoubtedly a terrible signal and will definitely affect the East in the long run.

The interests of Indian companies in the Fujian region. From this perspective, Hans's attempt to interfere with this process by force was actually justified, but his approach was inappropriate and led to subsequent serious consequences.
Chapter completed!