Batavia more than half a year ago. us

A light rain washed the streets, and the palm trees on the roadside gently swayed their foliage in the wind. The rain washed away the dust that had accumulated on the leaves, and the green was dazzling.

Dutch soldiers ran downstairs, leather boots with iron heels rattling the stone road. German military orders resounded throughout the streets.

There was a knock on the door outside, and the landlord stepped forward to open the door. Enzo puts down Claudius. Ptolemy's Cosmology, got up and closed the window, grabbed his saber in his left hand, and descended the wooden ladder to the first floor.

4 company soldiers walked into the courtyard. Seeing that the landlord's face had turned very pale, Enzo tapped him twice on the shoulder and took the initiative to meet him.

Enzo asked, fluent in Dutch, "Gentlemen, what is the matter?" ”

The non-commissioned officer who led the team looked Enpu up and down, and the person who came was wearing a black round hat, a strong uniform, and a company-standard officer's sword at his waist. The non-commissioned officer's eyes blinked twice, and he waved his hand to signal the soldier to put the gun on his back, he vaguely remembered that he had seen this Chinese in the company, he didn't know the specific rank, but he was definitely much higher than him.

The non-commissioned officer leaned on the heel of his shoe, made a bang, and bent down slightly: "Sir, we are arresting Javanese bandits, and the commander ordered us to search from house to house." ”

Enzo stretched out his right index finger and waved, "I don't have Javanese here." ”

"Yes, sir, excuse me."

The non-commissioned officer turned around and walked away with the soldiers.

Enzo closed the door, and the landlord gratefully bowed him. "Thanks to Mr. En, otherwise I would have to give these red-haired people a sum of money to send them away."

Enzo snorted nonchalantically and went back to his room. 100~10,000\ small! The mood of the saying is disturbed. He had borrowed the book from the Latin school in the city, and he had read it countless times when he was young, but this time he returned to Batavia and borrowed it again, and his mood was very different. Scenes from childhood come to mind.

At one point, he also thought that Ptolemy's book was full of errors and omissions, and criticized it among his classmates. But now that you think about it, Ptolemy lived in a time when there was no reliable empirical means of evidence, and he predicted the existence of the southern continent with a naïve philosophical outlook. It was Ptolemy and countless scholars before him who perfected this prophecy that led to the Age of Discovery, when the Spaniards set out from the Peruvian port of Callao and made several expeditions westward. Unlike the new shipping routes to Asia, which existed in reality, the southern continent was merely the imagination of scholars.

Enzo sighed, and the teacher had told him that the boy would have two dreams in his heart, one to be a geographer and the other to be a captain to explore the seaway. Enzo chose the second path, and he was willing to contribute to the great geographical discoveries of mankind.

But such opportunities were not many in the United East India Company.

The Spaniards were fanatical missionaries, and just to deliver more lambs to God, they could set off wave after wave of voyage expeditions at any cost.

The Dutch were tough, capable, and well-armed, but the Dutch were sane merchants, their ambitions were conditional, and they would never have been able to launch any adventure unless it was profitable.

Enzo, who had thought that his life had been insulated from the great discoveries, left Batavia after 10 years of service for the United East India Company.

His father was an important ally of the company, and Enzo himself received a full Dutch education, but his father's cooperation with the Dutch was more than 0 years ago. The company has become so powerful that the current Dutch governors have long forgotten about the past. As a yellow-skinned Chinese, Enzo found that he always had a ceiling on his head. He was an excellent officer, but he could only stay in the post of second officer, which made him very disappointed.

After retiring from the company, Enzo also returned to his home country and lived in Zhangzhou for a short time. It made him even more uncomfortable, and Enzo felt that on the mainland, he was a complete foreigner. Until the founding of Jincheng, without the oppression of the Malay aristocracy, he returned to his true hometown, Pattani. To his delight, this country, which combines Chinese tradition and European culture, seems to be exactly what he dreamed of. After studying at Kaneshiro Sea School for one year, he was exceptionally graduated. In terms of navigation, he could even work as a teacher in school, where he was hungry for 1 year to learn naval warfare and gunnery.

Originally, Enzo thought that after graduation, he would be sent to serve on a warship until he had enough experience to become a naval captain. This is not a dream, the leader of the country that is now loyal is a Chinese, which gives Enzo the goal to strive for, in Jincheng, he will not meet the yellow ceiling.

If it weren't for the opportunity offered by Kaneshiro, he might have served silently on the armed merchant ships of the Dutch until his death.

To Enzo's surprise, after graduating from the Naval Academy, he was personally approached by the full-time admiral of the fleet and given a more important task to sail to the southern continent of Australia, which the East India Company called New Netherland. Enzo didn't hesitate to say yes, and this was his chance to make his dream come true.

A bolt of lightning appeared in the sky, and the sound of thunder woke Enzo from his memories. He took out his rain-proof cloak, tucked his books under his armpits, put on his hood, and walked towards the city's Latin school.

The Latin school had been built by Van Dimen not long ago, and Enzo had not studied at the school. However, the school's principal, Rev. Gandidius, was Enzo's Latin teacher in his youth, and when he returned to Batavia, Enzo went to visit the teacher and borrowed the book from the school.

The school was built in the Dutch ghetto behind Fort Batavia, and Enzo knew every alley and river in the city. Walking across the wooden bridge over the canal, Enzo came to the red brick school, greeted the doorman, and walked into the principal's office.

Pastor Gandis smiled and stood up from his chair and patted his hands on the student's arms.

Enzo bowed to the teacher first and handed the book with both hands, "Teacher, I'm leaving." ”

"I've heard that the Tasman diva is about to set sail."

"Teacher, starting tomorrow, I will have a lot of work, and I may not have time to come to school, so I came here today to say goodbye to you in advance."

"My dear student," said Gandid, "to follow your dreams, there are not many opportunities to witness a great geographical discovery. ”

"Yes, teacher, I have always followed your teachings."

Gandida took out a book from the cabinet, "This is Don Diego. De Prado. Tovar's nautical report, which records Pedro. Morality. Kyros' second voyage to the southern continent was valuable, and it took me a long time to get a copy and give it to you. ”

Enzo accepted the book and bowed again, "Thank you, teacher." ”

Gan Di Shi smiled and shook his head, "You Chinese have too much etiquette. I'm giving you the book in the hope that you'll make it off smoothly and bring me something. ”

"What do teachers need?"

Gandidis put on his glasses, opened his notebook, flipped to a page with leaves, and pointed to Enzo, "Enzo, the company has been on several expeditions in the southern continent, and Captain Pol has found an interesting plant there. According to the sailor's description, this tree and several plants of similar shape can repel mosquitoes, and I hope you will be able to get some species back this time. Let's see if we can grow it in Batavia. ”

Although mosquitoes are not known to be related to malaria, mosquitoes are always a nuisance in humid areas. If there is really a plant that can repel mosquitoes, it will also be a promising market discovery.

Enzo cherished the specimen, "Don't worry, teacher, I will definitely bring the seeds back." ”

Enzo also had a slight dabbling in botany, and he left school with a specimen of eucalyptus leaves.

Two days later, the Dutch announced that they had cracked a terrorist attack planned by the Javanese, revealing the facts to the entire population of the city.

A Javanese gang attempted to enter the arsenal of Batavia Fort and wreak havoc. The Javanese dug a tunnel near the powder magazine wall of Fort Pearl, and they covered the hole with earth every day, but because of the clever concealment, it was never discovered. The two sentries standing guard on the fortress never heard any movement.

The Javanese people took a hollow bamboo tube into the powder magazine, the bamboo tube was filled with gunpowder, and they burned one end of the bamboo tube outside the cave, and the flames ignited the gunpowder in the bamboo tube, and the fire was everywhere and roared. Probably because the Javanese did not calculate the amount of charge, the bamboo tube exploded like a firecracker, did not ignite the powder magazine, but exposed themselves and fell short.

This incident made the head of Van Dimen extremely angry. Having lived in Fort Batavia for many years, Empu knew that, like any other castle, the Fort Pearl contained more than 100 tons of gunpowder, and if it exploded, the 16 cannons and half a company of soldiers on it would fly into the sky.

The Dutch searched the city for two days and finally caught a bunch of unrelated Javanese. To deter the rebels among the natives, the Dutch held a public execution ceremony at the Gargefeld Execution Ground, east of Batavia.

Even without mobilization, the Chinese in half of the city poured into the execution ground in the wilderness, and the high-status Chinese brought their own benches, tables and chairs, and the slaves held up umbrellas and drank tea with melon seeds to watch the big show.

The main culprit was hung from the torture rack, and the masked executioner burned the prisoner's forehead with a red-hot iron. The prisoner let out an intonable scream. The executioner raised the soldering iron and greeted the crowd of onlookers, eliciting a cheer like a gladiator in an arena. In the midst of the frenzied shouts, the executioner cut off the thighs of the main culprit, and finally the hands, and the main culprit, who was divided into five pieces, screamed on the ground for a long time before dying. The accomplices were tied to the torture cart, and the grooms urged the horses pulling the cart to dismember the prisoners.

Before he died, one of the prisoners was shouting "Long live freedom" in Dutch. Probably there is no such thing as freedom in Javanese vocabulary.

The remaining prisoners were either hanged or beheaded. Their wives and children were taken to small islands in the open sea, where lime was burned and stone was mined, and they were to be enslaved for the rest of their lives. The Dutch used bloody means to intimidate the natives who dared to resist.

Enzo quietly withdraws from the crowd and walks across the city's famous 1-hole stone arch bridge to find a tavern on Main Street. Stepping up to the second floor, in the private room, there was already someone waiting for him.

Hug each other's fists, "Enzo", "Wu Zhixiang", "Yang Wei, Yang Bang". ”

Although they had known each other's existence for a long time, the four of them had only met for the first time at this time. Wu Zhixiang doesn't talk much, but he is steady. Yang Wei and Yang Bang are two brothers, and the elder brother Yang Wei impressed Enzo with the fact that he was wearing a bracer on his right hand and lost his palm. During the conversation, Yang Bang seemed more active.

Enzo explained to the trio, "I found Tasman yesterday, and the Dutch divided us into two ships. Lao Wu and I are on the Hemskeek, and the two Yang brothers are on the Zehan. ”

Yang Bang: "We can't be on the same ship?" ”

Enzo shook his head, "I tried, Tasman disagreed. ”

Yang Bang looked a little regretful, but Yang Wei said: "It's okay to be on two ships, you can spread the risk." ”

Wu Zhixiang: "What positions have the Dutch assigned to us?" ”

Enzo: "Lao Wu is the non-commissioned officer of the voyage on the ship, and Brother Yang is the captain of the sailors. ”

Yang Bang asked, "What about me?" ”

"Second Brother Yang is in Brother Yang's team."

Enzo continued: "Brother Wu and I both have experience serving on Dutch ships, but the two Yang brothers do not, and we must be cautious when the ship sets sail. ”

Yang Wei: "I can save it." ”

Wu Zhixiang: "What is the command class of the Dutch like this time?" ”

Enzo: "Tasman is the commander of the expedition. Fishair is the chief navigator, as you all know. In addition, the Dutch set up an officers' council in the fleet according to the old rules, and all major decisions were decided by the council. Tasman asked me to sit but I didn't have the right to vote. ”

Wu Zhixiang frowned, "There are no businessmen in the council of the expedition, right?" ”

Enzo smiled, "This time it's not business, there are no merchants." ”

According to the rules of the East India Company, the rank of the ground post was higher than that of the ship, and the trade post was higher than that of the officer. Only mixed on a ship, there is no future in the company. On every merchant ship, the biggest is not the captain, but the merchant who accompanies the ship. The merchant often gave dangerous orders regardless of the condition of the ship, which made the captains seldom able to work closely with the merchants, and even the sailors were disgusted with the well-dressed merchants.

"Old Wu, have you ever been to Mauritius?"

"I passed by there on the West Friesland, but I didn't make it. Just remember that the wind and waves were very strong. ”

"We're going to Mauritius this time, where we're going to sail to New Netherland on a westerly wind." Enzo said, "I don't need to say much about the danger of the roaring westerly wind belt, the voyage may be dangerous." When you get home, write a letter to your family. I sent them back to Jincheng. ”

A few people didn't say much, what the storm was like, the old sailors knew very well. After greeting each other, they dispersed.

The next day, August 14, 164, Anthony. Fan. Dimen at Batavia Fort Watergate with Ebel. Jensison. Tasman said goodbye.

"Captain Tasman, leave aside the legends of gold and Solomon's treasures, your mission is to explore the unknown parts of the Earth."

"Yes, Your Excellency."

"Keep going east, if you can, and I'm curious about the Rojac region."

The Rojac region refers to the vast South Pacific Ocean. The Spaniards traveled through the trade winds of the North and South Pacific, but the southern part of the South Pacific remained blank on the map.

"I will, Your Excellency." Tasman was a little excited, for the first time in the history of the United East India Company, it was not for trade and gold, but for geographical discoveries to explore new routes.

Van Dimen held out his right hand, "Come back safely, Mr. Captain." ”

"Thank you, Your Excellency."

A 7-gun salute was fired at Fort Batavia to salute the expedition.

The Hemskek and Zehan raised their sails and left Batavia and exited the Sunda Strait, heading west along the South Equatorial Stream of the Indian Ocean.

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