At the end of October, 1663 AD, Batavia City, Java.
Under the rule of Dutch colonists, the residents of this city located on the southernmost island of Java in the Southeast Asian Islands were actually mainly Chinese.
As early as when Anthony Van Diemen was the governor of Batavia, the Dutch East India Company began to recruit a large number of Chinese people. In the eyes of the Dutch colonists at that time, the Chinese were not only diligent, but also cowardly by nature, and were very good businessmen and workers.
Of course, using the Chinese to build Batavia was the only option for the Dutch, because they had no one else to use. The colonists from Europe simply couldn't adapt to the heat and humidity of Java. They couldn't stand the heat even if they stayed in a house that could block the sun and heavy rain. How could they be expected to build their own cities?
As for the indigenous people on Java Island, not to mention that they are not as diligent and good at business as the Chinese. Even if the Dutch are willing to tolerate their laziness, not many people can use them. Because the Dutch colonists had not yet conquered the entire island of Java during this era. What they occupy is only the city of Batavia, which is located on the edge of a bay in the west of Java Island, and some surrounding ancillary areas.
Before the arrival of the Dutch, this territory was a city-state subordinate to the Banten Sultanate in western Java. The rulers of the city-state were envious of the prosperity of Banten, the capital of the overlord state, Banten, so they welcomed the Dutch East Indies who were unable to gain a foothold in Malacca at that time. Companies go to them to settle.
After the Dutch arrived, they built castles and sent warships to disrupt the normal trade of Banten Port, which angered the Sultan of Banten. As a result, the Sultan of Banten teamed up with the British to attack the Dutch castle in Batavia. However, Sultan Banten's fighting skills were not very good, and the siege ended in failure. When the Banten people retreated, they also captured the local ruler of Batavia and moved away most of the residents.
When the Dutch saw that all the rulers and residents of Batavia had fled, leaving an empty city behind, it looked good, so they simply occupied it.
This is how the Dutch first colony on the island of Java came about!
This kind of behavior of doves occupying magpie's nests is of course very hateful, so Batavia ruled by the Dutch became a thorn in the side of the feudal rulers who believed in Tianfang religion on Java Island. The conflict with the Banten Sultanate was not completely over yet. The powerful Matalan Sultanate sent troops to besiege Batavia twice. During the second siege of Batavia, the Matalan Sultanate's Agong The Sudan even dispatched an army of up to 100,000 people.
Although the two Batavia offensive and defensive battles resulted in a victory for the Dutch, they did not have the power to take advantage of the victory to destroy the Batavia Kingdom, or even prevent the Batavia Kingdom from continuing to grow. After their second defeat In the more than thirty years since the establishment of the Matalan Kingdom until now, this country has continued to grow on the island of Java, and now it has ruled all the territory on the island of Java except Banten and Batavia. And he continues to eye Batavia and Banten!
Faced with the threats from the local regimes of Matalang and Banten, two nearby Java Islands, how could the Dutch colonists in Batavia dare to use a large number of local indigenous people?
Even after the Celestial Empire awakened, the Dutch East India Company still had no way to expel the Chinese in Batavia. Not only was it unable to expel them, but because the Ming Dynasty began to implement the "grain and rice" policy, the Dutch colonists had to introduce more Chinese. , allowing them to contract the fertile land around Batavia for rice cultivation.
So starting from the late 1750s, more Chinese immigrants began to pour into Batavia. By the end of 1662, 121 of the 130 rice plantations opened around Batavia belonged to Chinese immigrants.
In Batavia, most of the people walking on the streets were Chinese faces tanned by the scorching equatorial sun. Most of the shops on both sides of the street are run by Chinese. These shops are not all small businesses, but there are also many large businesses. Yiguandang (the name of the Zheng family's trading house), Huang Chamber of Commerce, Shachuan Gang (the head office of Shen Tingyang's family business), Jiale City Bank, Guanglian Bank (a large commercial bank in Guangzhou), Foshan Iron Industry Co., Ltd. Large commercial houses in China such as Jingdezhen Porcelain Company, Jingdezhen Porcelain Company, and Mancini Tea Company (a tea store opened by Zhu Cixiang in the name of Mary Mancini, mainly exporting Keemun black tea), are also Both opened semicolons in Batavia.
Due to the arrival of a large number of Chinese businessmen and large Chinese commercial banks, the Governor's Palace in Batavia even opened a "China District" for the use of large Chinese commercial banks, the Chinese embassy, and Chinese schools that taught Confucian classics.
This "Chinese Quarter" is separated from the old city of Batavia by a canal that leads directly to the harbor. Through a bridge over the canal, you can enter the "Dutch Quarter", which is also full of Chinese.
Because the "China District" of Batavia is in the west of the city, close to the territory of the Sultan of Banten, the land route from Banten to Batavia leads to the "China District". John Matsolko, the Governor of the Dutch East India Company who had just visited the Banten Palace, was riding a Western-style four-wheeled carriage built in Shanghai and passed through the "China District" that was already under military martial law. "street.
The Dutchman, who had been governor of the East India Company since 1653, had never been more anxious.
The emperor of the Chinese dynasty no longer bothers to conceal his ambitions for the Straits of Malacca!
After defeating the four-nation coalition of Pattani-Perak-Johor-Aceh and completely annexing Pattani, the Chinese emperor disclosed his next target-the Strait of Malacca!
He has even thought about the aftermath plan after conquering the Malacca Peninsula and Sumatra - the Malacca Peninsula and Sumatra will be divided into twelve parts, and then handed over to the emperor's twelve sons to rule, and twelve dependencies will be established. A vassal principality in the Celestial Dynasty.
According to publicly circulated news, the emperor has been using titles and land to recruit important ministers for these twelve vassal principalities... He even published news of the recruitment in newspapers, even Batavia locals This news was reprinted in a Chinese business newspaper!
Governor Matsolko, who was originally a guest at the Banten court and lobbied the Banten Sultan to join the "Malacca League" against the Chinese Empire, had to interrupt his visit after receiving the news and hurried back to Batavia to take charge. .
On his way back to Batavia, he issued an order to implement mobilization and martial law in Batavia.
The target of mobilization was all adult Dutch men living in Batavia - Batavia's standing army was too small, only 2,000 men, and they were also restrained by the overseas Chinese in Batavia and could not leave the city at all. Combat. In order to send troops to Malacca when necessary, Governor Matsolko had to mobilize.
As for martial law, it is even more necessary, because the overseas Chinese in Batavia are not unarmed... and they also have their own organizations, such as the hometown association and the Confucian Classics School, with the Confucian Classics School and the Ming Dynasty Embassy as the core , formed a loose Chinese association.
Governor Matsolko is really surrounded by internal and external troubles now!
For the governor of the East India Company, probably no place was truly safe except for the exceptionally strong Batavia Fort (located north of downtown Batavia).
Even if martial law was declared, and even if the streets of Batavia's China District were full of armed East India Company mercenaries, Matsolko would not feel the slightest bit safe.
He knew that he would not be able to expel the Chinese in Batavia until the Ming army invaded the territory. As for the massacre, he could not even think about it... because what he stood behind was not a great empire. But a trading company! Amsterdam shareholders are very satisfied with the dividends provided by the East India Company over the years, and the ultimate source of these dividends is trade with the Chinese and financial services dependent on trade.
