Gan Hui publicized Storm's statement, and the fleet swept away the bad luck, and actually became strong-willed to fight!

With the blessing of Mazu Niangniang, the command of the Overseer, a good warship, and the results of hard training in peacetime, our army will win!

They rushed to repair the damaged places, and then puffed up their sails and slaughtered Batavia with murderous vigour!

……

In early spring, Batavia is a sunny place with a single coat (the highest temperature is over 30 degrees Celsius, and the lowest temperature is over 20 degrees Celsius) compared to the people on the northern continent who are still stuck in snow.

The so-called Batavia is Jakarta, Indonesia, which was founded in the 15th century A.D. and was originally called Kelapa, which means "coconut" in Malay, so Jakarta is also known as "Coconut City". The first Europeans to arrive here were the Portuguese, who built the first fort, which is still known as Sunda Kelapa. Sunda translates to "Sunda", and the strait between Java and Sumatra is the Sunda Strait, and the entire region of Malaya, Singapore, and Indonesia is also known as the Greater Sunda Islands. The Sunda Strait is an important international shipping route connecting the Pacific Ocean with the Indian Ocean.

In the early 16th century, Jakarta was conquered by Fatahillah of the Hindu kingdom of Bandeng, and renamed Jakarta, which means "City of Glory and Victory", and June 22, 1527 is recorded as the official founding day of Jakarta. In 1619, the Dutch East India Company conquered the area and named it Batavia, making it the capital of the Dutch East Indies.

The Dutch commercial colonial empire of the East was based on the island of Java, centered on the city of Batavia, and stretched west as far west as Persia, India, and Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka), as far east as the Maluku Spice Islands, and as north as China and Japan, making the Netherlands a vast colonial empire.

In 1619, the ambitious Jan Peterlsson Quint became the third governor of the Dutch East India Company, and it was he who laid the solid foundations of the Dutch commercial colonial empire in the East. It was under his leadership that the city of Batavia was the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company's empire, which was established after raiding and driving out the local Banten army, and was the political basis for Dutch rule over the colonies of Java and the entire East Indies.

The permanent occupation and administration of the city of Ba cost the Dutch a great deal of money and energy. In the early days, the area was sparsely populated, lacked food supplies, there was no timber to build ships and houses, the surrounding area was a desolate swamp, rare villages were inhabited, floods were flooded in the rainy season, and tigers, wild boars, rhinoceros, etc. were often infested, and at the same time, they were also surrounded by hostility and threats from the local kingdom.

The Dutch brought boulders from the quarries on the Coromandel coast in India, cut teak from Zabala in East Java, collected coral stones from the locals, and recruited a large number of reliable and hard-working Chinese laborers from China to build the ruins of Bacheng. Most of the major construction projects in Ba Cheng, such as the excavation of canals and drainage channels, the construction of houses and harbors, and the construction of walls and protective fortresses, were mostly contracted by Chinese. The Chinese craftsmen were skilled in brick-making and bricklaying, which was highly appreciated by the Dutch.

……

In fact, the Dutch who entered Southeast Asia operated mainly under the name of the Dutch East India Company, which was founded on March 20, 1602, with a V connecting O and C, with the abbreviation of Amsterdam at the top.

After the establishment of the Dutch East India Company, the United Republic of the Netherlands (States-GeneraloftheNetherlands) gave the company a monopoly for a period of 21 years to colonize Asia, which was the world's first multinational corporation and the first company to issue shares, which was also the world's first mega company, the government held shares, had the right to support the war with salaries, sign treaties with foreign countries, mint currency, establish colonies, etc., in the past 200 years, It has an important influence on world trade, pays 18% of dividends to the government every year, and sends a large number of merchant ships and personnel overseas to open up trade and establish colonies.

The main source of its profits came from the occupied Spice Islands, which were exported back to the Netherlands ---- spices produced in the islands and elsewhere, with huge profits. For example, in 1610, the Dutch East India Company shipped back to the Netherlands worth 8.8 million guilders, and at that time, the price was about 220 guilders for a teacher in the Netherlands, and the spices alone could support 40 million teachers.

In those days, due to poor refrigeration technology, in order to preserve meat (long and sturdy animals had to be slaughtered in the autumn, but they could not be eaten at that time), Europeans had to use a large number of spices, but Europe did not produce spices, and those spices that were transported to Europe by land were of high value and were only available to the aristocracy.

It was not until the beginning of the Age of Discovery that spices were transported to Europe by sea in large quantities from Asia, so that more people in Europe could have meat to eat, and to a certain extent, Europeans grew up to be big thanks to the meat preserved by spices.

Then there are raw silk, textiles, porcelain and tea (tea exports were not strong, but with the promotion of Hongmaofan in the southeast province, tea sales strengthened), mainly from the Ming Kingdom, Batavia At the beginning of the founding of the city, the Dutch colonists tried their best to induce Chinese merchant ships to trade in order to obtain a large amount of Chinese silk, porcelain and tea. These goods are shipped to the European market and can be sold at a high profit. For example, in 1621, the Dutch East India Company trafficked Chinese raw silk to Europe, "gross profit reached 317%". When they enter and exit the Bacheng Customs, they can increase their customs revenue. Therefore, Kun did not hesitate to send ships to blockade the ports of Manila, which was occupied by the Spanish, Macao, and the Penghu Islands, which were occupied by the Portuguese, and coerced and lured Chinese merchant ships to trade in Batavia.

Chinese merchants (i.e., smugglers) brought silk fabrics, porcelain, tea, dried and fresh fruits, brocade, and calico to Batavia for huge profits. For example, in the late Ming Dynasty, Fu oranges were only 5 cents per 100 catties in China, and when they were shipped overseas, every 4 oranges were worth 2 cents. A merchant named Su He, because he couldn't buy valuables, he only got a thousand gold by selling lucky oranges."

OK, that's the end of the background.

……

Wow......

The rain was so heavy that the governor Jacques Specx (a veteran colonialist (Dutchman Jacques Specx arrived in Hirado in 1609 with two ships and received permission from Tokugawa Ieyasu to trade) looked through a large glass window at the rainy harbor and said nothing.

The governor had short blond hair, a mustache, and piercing eyes.

The city of Batavia, located on the coast, was the political, economic, and cultural fortress of the Dutch colonists, and after ten years of construction, he had built a port, forts, walls, residential areas and other structures of decent scale, and had frequent domestic trade with the Netherlands.

Every year around New Year's Day, Dutch merchant ships set sail from Amsterdam and reach Batavia in August or September (it can be seen that the speed is very fast, and the Dutch sea coachmen do not blow it), making Batavia very lively, where the goods collected from all over the world are packed and loaded onto ships, and then set sail back to Europe from October to December.

The Governor's Palace is a double-storey building built in 1626, which is a small building of European-style architecture, every time he sits on the second floor of the Governor's Palace, he can see the port (Yan Changwu's Governor's Palace in the middle of the Kaohsiung Military Port is also a similar layout, it seems that the heroes of the world have the same vision), see the number of merchant ships in the port, pride arises spontaneously, and there is no tiredness.

It's all your own merits!

But a series of messages he had recently received disturbed his mind, first of all, some European shipowners who had gone to trade with the local government under the powerful Eastern Ming Dynasty ---- the Southeast Province had all said that when they passed through Batavia, they all said that new warships were constantly being launched in the Southeast Province (this could not be hidden), and it was already clear what they wanted to do.

Of the four red-haired countries that were mainly active in Asia, the British fought fiercely with the southeast, and even the battleships were sold to the southeast, while the Spaniards and the Portuguese had been at peace with the southeast, and the Dutch and the southeast, it was inevitable that the southeast.

Speke thought for a moment and called the messenger to ask "Mr. Basten" to come.

The same Mr. Basten was the captain of the armed merchant ship "Dolphin", which was almost the largest ship owned by the East India Company, with a double gun deck and 54 guns (there were not so many, they were modified by the Governor), 26 of which were 24-pounder guns, which was very powerful.

Due to its heavy tonnage and slow speed, the "Dolphin" did not participate in the last expedition to invade the southeastern province.

After talking to Mr. Basten for a few words, Speke roared like thunder: "You damn fellow, you actually sold all the 24-pounder guns to the Southeast Mansion!" ”

Angry, the governor scolded without hesitation.