Van Eidenberg, who was appointed by the Government of Guyana as the Governor of the East Indies, had been troubled for some time, both by the growing awakening of the indigenous consciousness in the colonies and by the armed rebellion in Borneo. The latter, on the other hand, is a new problem, and the new is intertwined with the old, which annoys Mr. Edenberg so much that he is not at all in the mood to go on vacation.

On the question of the growing awakening of national consciousness in the colonies, the question dates back decades. Dr. Koop, a Dutch man at the time, had mentioned in his book the self-identity of the indigenous peoples of the East Indies Colonies, and he believed that in order to eliminate the growing sense of independence of the indigenous peoples, it was necessary to solve their "welfare" problem, and the core of this problem was concentrated in the issue of political participation, and Dr. Koop advocated giving the indigenous peoples a small amount of political power. in exchange for their "loyalty" to the Royal Government

It was this Dr. Koop, who later became the Prime Minister of the Netherlands, and his idea of exchanging "welfare" for "loyalty" became widely known. Later Dutch Socialists further developed this theory, arguing that "the government of the East Indies should serve the people of the East Indies", according to which power in the Dutch East India colonies would eventually be transferred from The Hague to Batavia. From the hands of European colonial officials to local officials in Indonesia, from the hands of the governor-general to the hands of local governments, and finally to the great goal of "domination".

But this was only a cover-up, only to appease the intellectuals of the indigenous population, as a European country that had colonized the East Indies for centuries, the Netherlands never voluntarily gave up its rule over the East Indies, and it was only because of the changing situation that the Dutch politicians had to change their tactics to moderate the indigenous revolt, which had been inflated since the end of the Russo-Japanese War. Japan defeated Russia. It did indirectly impact the colonization of Asia by the Europeans.

So, with regard to the awakening of national consciousness in the colonization of the East Indies in recent years, Governor Edenberg did not bear the main responsibility, but that responsibility should have been borne by his predecessors, at least Edenberg himself thought so.

But the question of armed rebellion in Borneo is not something that can be easily shirked, and it is the most troublesome and troublesome problem for Governor Idenberg, who never imagined that a group of Korean people would start an armed rebellion in the East Indies, and the most helpless thing is that the pretext of the rebellion of these armed rebels is "British hostility"

Britain is hostile to you, so why don't you go and make trouble with Britain, and go to this Dutch colony to make trouble, are you wrong on the map?

Governor Edenberg even thought that the Korean expatriates who had started an armed rebellion in Bori might not be able to tell where the boundary between the British colonies and the Dutch colonies was, and perhaps the armed rebels would return to the British colonies after they had figured out the problem, but the ensuing events shattered Governor Edenberg's dreams, and the armed Korean expatriates not only did not return to the British colonies in North Borneo, but settled in the Dutch colonies. Not only did it take over all the government offices in the occupied towns, but it also set up a so-called "Liaison Committee of the Goryeo Volunteers", apparently with the intention of staying there for a long time. That's not going to work. It was a colony of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and as long as the Dutch ruled the East Indies, the Crown Government would not give up its rule there, so the Governor of Edenberg had been busy with the deployment of troops and ships in the past few days to prepare for an expedition to Borneo to restore the Crown Government's rule there.

Just yesterday, the expeditionary fleet had left Batavia and embarked on the expedition, and Governor Idenberg was expecting the expedition to return good news, but before the fleet could go far, a fleet of ill-intentioned men suddenly came outside the port of Batavia.

This fleet is the Chinese Navy's ocean-going assault fleet, which is said to have intercepted and shelled Japanese merchant ships, but this time it came around from the Indian Ocean, and at first it was said that it needed to replenish supplies and coal.

But not long after, one of the ocean-going assault ships suddenly broke into Batavia's territorial waters. This made the atmosphere in the harbor tense, and the port immediately informed the Governor's Palace of the situation, and the Governor of Edenberg was thus more troubled than the troubles of Borneo. Because the fleet that was flaunting its might outside the port of Batavia was China's naval fleet, and China was now ruled by a "mad president" under whom China had just defeated Japan in the war.

Since he is a "madman", then it means that no one can predict his next move.

In such a situation, who can guarantee that the "mad president" will not make a surprise attack on Batavia? You must know that whenever the Great War of Throwing off the Yuan broke out, the European powers only took care of the east through Dan. Frozen Holland itself was not a guarantee that it would not suffer the direct impact of war, let alone the East Indies colony.

Accordingly, Governor Edenberg kept walking around the Governor's Palace, and sent to the Chinese Consulate in Batavia to demand an immediate appointment with the consul.

The commander of the Chinese fleet is clearly dissatisfied with the port's refusal to allow warships to enter the port for repairs, and is now demonstrating.

So, should those two warships sail into the harbor for "repairs"? Governor Edenberg was still hesitant about this.

"Your Excellency, give orders. Although we do not have warships with the same combat effectiveness, we have coastal artillery, which is enough to threaten the two attack ships of the Chinese Navy. ”

Hustle, as Idenberg stood in front of the window of the reception room, a Dutch lieutenant admiral came up to him and whispered a few words in his ear.

"No fire! No provocation! ”

Edenberg glared at the unsuspecting lieutenant admiral, then paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, muttering a few words nervously.

"The Chinese should not take the initiative to open fire. It may just be a misunderstanding that China's naval commanders may have used a wrong chart. Or maybe they didn't understand what we were asking for. Once Mr. Consul comes over, we can resolve this misunderstanding. ”

"What if the Chinese took the initiative to open fire? Do we fight back? The lieutenant commander asked again.

Idenberg was stunned, yes, if the Chinese fleet took the initiative to open fire and provoke, would the coastal fortresses in Batavia return fire?

If you don't fight back, it will undoubtedly be tantamount to showing weakness, but if you fight back, relying on those few old-fashioned guns, you will not be able to confront those two latest warships at all, but will make the Chinese find an excuse to go to war.

The Dutch East Indies colonies had not been in such a serious crisis since the agreement with the British, although after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, there were some in the Dutch government that raised the issue of guarding against a maritime threat from Japan. However, as Japanese power entered the South Manchurian region, the Dutch government realized that the direction of Japanese expansion would be the East Asian continent, so it relaxed its naval construction of the East Indies colonies until this Chinese naval attack fleet appeared on the waters of Batavia. It was only the Dutch who truly realized the rise of Asian power.

No one knows better than Edenberg the weakness of the defense of the East Indies colonies, because the main enemy for a long time is the local indigenous population, the Dutch colonial army is actually not very strong, which can be seen from the performance of the Dutch colonial army in the "Borneo Dangerous Pine", this army is more than enough to deal with the indigenous tribes armed with bows and arrows, but if you really face a group of armed gangs armed with modern weapons, I am afraid it will not be easy to win.

In that year, the Japanese army defeated the Russian ** team, and now, the squadron ** team has defeated the Japanese army. If the analysis continues in this way, the defeat of the Dutch army by the squadron is probably not the arrogance of Mr. Governor-General, so there is a good reason why Governor Edenberg is so cautious.

"Mr. Governor! Telegraph! Telegram from The Hague! ”

A secretary from the Governor's Palace hurried over. A telegram was handed to Edenberg, a return call, taken from the Dutch government. Just now, Idenberg has informed the Dutch government about the provocation of the Chinese navy attack fleet outside the port of Batavia, and asked for instructions on how to deal with it. Now, the answer from the Dutch government has come.

"Mr. Edenberg, the Royal Government is very concerned about the situation in the East Indies Colonies, and understands the difficult situation you are facing, but given that war has begun in Europe, the sea routes have become very dangerous. It is impossible for the Royal Government to provide sufficient military aid and support, and now it can only rely on the forces of the colonies themselves, as far as the Chinese government is concerned. The Royal Government has decided to make diplomatic representations in the hope of resolving the issue peacefully.

In fact, perhaps the Chinese did not intend to attack the East Indies, so the Royal Government strongly recommends that you exercise restraint and do not take the initiative to fire artillery unless absolutely necessary, so as to avoid giving the Chinese an excuse for war, you can agree to the warships entering the port for maintenance, but these warships cannot be allowed to use the Badawi day as a supply base for naval attacks. ”

The telegram did not contain much, but the meaning was clear. That is, the first shot must not be fired.

Edenberg looked at this telegram, and his gloomy mood suddenly improved, as long as the royal government made its position clear, then he, the governor, could naturally act according to the instructions of the royal government.

"Okay, please tell the Chinese consulate. I agreed to let the two medium-sized ** ships enter the port of Batavia for repairs. Edenberg quickly gave the order, and with a telegram from the Dutch government in his possession, he could completely shirk the blame in the event that anyone was held accountable in the future, and the royal government had made it clear that it could not give him practical support anyway.