1663 A.D., late October, Java, Batavia.

The inhabitants of this city, located on the southernmost tip of the Nanyang Islands, under Dutch colonial rule, are actually predominantly Chinese.

Back in Anthony. Fan. When Dimon was governor of Batavia, the Dutch East India Company began to recruit Chinese in large numbers. 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 laborers.

Of course, using the Chinese to build Batavia was also the only option for the Dutch, because they had no one else to use. The colonizers from Europe simply couldn't adapt to the heat and humidity of Java, and let them stay in houses that could shelter them from the sun and torrential rains, and they could not stand the heat, and they could still be expected to build their own cities?

As for the natives of Java, not to mention that they are not as industrious and good at business as the Chinese, even if the Dutch are willing to put up with their idleness, not many people can use it. Because the Dutch colonists had not yet conquered the entire island of Java in this era. All they occupied was the city of Batavia and some of its surrounding annexes, located on the edge of a bay in the western part of Java.

Before the arrival of the Dutch, the territory was part of the city-state of the Sultanate of Banten in western Java, and the rulers of the city-state, envious of the prosperity of the suzerainty of Banten, the capital of Banten, welcomed the Dutch East India Company, which was unable to establish itself in Malacca at the time, to settle with them.

After the arrival of the Dutch, they built a castle and sent warships to attack the normal trade of Banten Port, which annoyed the Sultan of Banten, and as a result, the Sultan of Banten and the British attacked the Dutch castle in Batavia. However, the Banten Sultan's skills in fighting the war were really not good, and the siege ended in failure. The Banten people also captured the local ruler of Batavia and moved most of the inhabitants as they retreated.

When the Dutch saw that the rulers and inhabitants of Batavia had run out, it looked good to leave an empty city, so they simply took it.

That's how the Dutch came to be in their first colony on the island of Java!

Of course, this kind of dove occupying the magpie's nest is very hateful, so Batavia, ruled by the Dutch, became a thorn in the side of the feudal rulers of Java who believed in the Celestial Religion. The conflict with the Banten Sultanate was not completely over, and the powerful Mataram Sultanate sent troops to besiege Batavia twice, including the second siege of Batavia, in which the Sultan of Agung of Mataram even sent an army of up to 100,000 men.

Although the results of these two Batavian offensive and defensive battles were won by the Dutch, they did not have the strength to take advantage of the victory to destroy the Mataran country, or even to prevent the Mataran country from continuing to grow, after their second defeat of the Matalan country until now, the country has continued to grow on the island of Java, and now dominates all the territory on the island of Java except Banten and Batavia. And continue to eyeing Batavia and Banten!

Faced with the threat of Mataram and Banten, two local authorities on the nearby island of Java, how could the Dutch colonists in Batavia City dare to make extensive use of the local natives?

Even after the awakening of the Celestial Empire, the Dutch East India Company still had no way to expel the Chinese in Batavia, not only could not be expelled, but because the Ming Dynasty began to implement the policy of "closing grain and rice", the Dutch colonists had to bring in more Chinese and let them contract the fertile land around Batavia City for rice cultivation.

So from the end of the fifties of the seventeenth century, more Chinese immigrants began to pour into Batavia. By the end of 1662, 121 of the 130 rice plantations that had been planted around the city of Batavia belonged to Chinese immigrants.

In Batavia, however, the streets are mostly filled with Chinese faces tanned by the scorching equatorial sun. Most of the shops on both sides of the street are also run by Chinese, and these shops are not all small trades, but also many big ones. Yiguan Dang (the name of the Zhengjia Commercial Bank), the Imperial Chamber of Commerce, the Shachuan Gang (the general number of the Shen Tingyang Family Commercial Bank), Jiale City Bank, Guanglian Bank (a large commercial bank in Guangzhou), Folian Bank (a commercial bank jointly established by Foshan Iron Industry), Jingdexing (a commercial house in Jingdezhen Porcelain Industry), Mancini Tea Company (Zhu Cihong and Mary. Mancini's name tea shop, which mainly exports Keemun black tea) and other large Chinese trading houses, also opened branches in Batavia.

Due to the arrival of a large number of Chinese merchants and large Chinese trading houses, the governor's palace in Batavia even opened a special "China Zone" for the use of Chinese large trading houses, the embassies of the Celestial Empire, and the Chinese schools where Confucian scriptures were taught.

This "Chinese Quarter" is separated from the Old Town of Batavia by a canal that leads directly to the harbor, and the bridge over the canal provides access to the "Dutch Quarter", which is also full of Chinese.

Because the "Chinese Zone" of Batavia is in the western part of the city, close to the territory of the Sultan of Banten, the land route from Banten to Batavia follows the "Chinese Zone". John Brown, Governor of the Dutch East India Company, who had just visited the court of Banten, had just visited the court of the Dutch East India Company. At this time, Matsolko rode in a Western-style four-wheeled carriage built by Shanghai Shenche and passed through the streets of the "China Zone", which was already under military martial law.

The Dutchman, who had been governor of the East India Company since 1653, had never been more anxious.

The emperor of the Celestial Empire no longer bothered to hide his ambitions for the Strait of Malacca!

After defeating the four-nation alliance of Pattani-Perak-Johor-Aceh and completely annexing Pattani, the Celestial Emperor revealed his next target - the Strait of Malacca!

He had even thought of a plan for the aftermath of the conquest of Malacca and Sumatra, which would be divided into twelve parts and given to the emperor's twelve sons to rule, and twelve vassal principalities dependent on the Celestial Empire would be established.

According to publicly disseminated information, the emperor was already using his title and land to recruit important ministers for the twelve vassal principalities...... He even published the news of the recruitment in the newspapers, and even reprinted it in a Chinese-language business newspaper published in Batavia!

Governor Matsorko, who had been a guest at the Banten court and had lobbied the Sultan of Banten to join the "Malacca League" against the Celestial Empire, had to interrupt his visit and hurried back to Batavia after receiving the news.

On his way back to Batavia, he gave the order to impose mobilization and martial law in Batavia.

The mobilization was aimed at all adult Dutch men living in Batavia, whose standing army was too small to 2,000 men, and who were too caught up in the Batavian diaspora to leave the city to fight. In order to send troops to Malacca when necessary, Governor Matsolko had to mobilize.

As for martial law, it is all the more necessary, because the Chinese diaspora in Batavia is not unarmed...... Moreover, they also have their own organizations, such as the Fellow Townsmen Association and the Confucian Academy, and also form a loose Chinese Association with the Confucian Academy and the Ming Embassy as the core.

Governor Matt Solko is now really surrounded by internal and external troubles!

For the governor of the East India Company, there was probably no place that was truly safe, except for the unusually fortified Batavia Batavia Fortress.

Even when martial law was declared, and even when the streets of Batavia's Chinese were littered with heavily armed East India Company mercenaries, Matsolko did not feel safe.

He knew that he would not be able to expel the Chinese in Batavia City until the Ming army pressed the border, and he couldn't even think of massacre...... Because behind him stands not a great empire, but a trading company! Amsterdam shareholders were very satisfied with the dividends paid by the East India Company over the years, and the ultimate source of these dividends was trade with the Chinese and the financial services attached to trade.