Although the carrier pigeon is a good information transmission tool, its reliability is still relatively low, and it may not be able to fly to the intended destination due to various accidents, or the information strapped to the pigeon's leg may fall off on the way. Moreover, this method has an insurmountable fatal drawback, that is, the additional weight and volume that carrier pigeons can carry are very limited, which can only be used as a means of information transmission by intelligence personnel who can only write small pieces of paper in small characters, which greatly limits the detailed process of intelligence, and in many cases it is difficult to meet the actual needs of the military and intelligence departments. Therefore, for the sake of all considerations, the Ministry of Security did not attempt to use carrier pigeons, which were not too safe messengers, in the intelligence agencies of Batavia.

After listening to Hao Wanqing's explanation, Bai Kesi did not continue to dwell on this issue, after all, he is not a professional in this area, and the Haihan system is very opposed to the practice of laymen leading insiders and deciding the head of the buttocks. Members of the Executive Committee may challenge a particular task, but they may not interfere lightly with decisions made in their field of expertise.

"Can the military send a reconnaissance ship to the waters near Batavia to watch the battle?"

Now that the Ministry of Security has stated that there is no reliable means of transmitting information, the attention of the Executive Committee can only be returned from the Ministry of Security to the military. Although the opinion of the Executive Committee was not to send troops to intervene in the war in Batavia, it was still necessary to grasp the information on the trend of the war situation at the first time, after all, the outcome of this war may affect Haihan's future policy and attitude towards the South Asian region, and this is also the fundamental reason why the Executive Committee members gathered here for a meeting as soon as they received the news.

However, Yan Chujie's answer was also very helpless: "Anbuna Port is more than 600 nautical miles away from Batavia, and it takes almost half a month to come and go. But if you send a fleet south, you will easily expose your tracks. Probably none of the two sides of the war would be happy to see our fleet appear in the waters off Batavia, which could easily cause us unnecessary trouble. ”

Yan Chujie meant that the ship could be sent, but the military would not bear the consequences that might be caused by this. This cannot be blamed on Yan Chujie for shirking his responsibility, the navy has not many ships stationed on Ambuna Island, and the planned radius of action is far from reaching the position of Batavia, and forcibly sending them to the combat area to carry out reconnaissance missions is a difficult thing to do. If he was dragged into the war by mistake because he was discovered, it would be completely contrary to Haihan's original intention of watching from the wall.

Although Haihan has the soft power to surpass its competitors of the same era, it still can't come up with any effective solutions when it encounters such an unexpected situation. In the end, after a long day of discussions, only a temporary working group organized by the Ministry of Security and the military went south to Ambuna Island, waiting for an opportunity to try to get in touch with the intelligence agents lurking in Batavia. But everyone understands that such measures may not have any practical effect, and that in the current situation it is better than nothing, and that it is the intelligence agents of the Ministry of Security who are still in Batavia who are still uncertain.

8 July 1632, Northwest Coast of Java Island in the South China Sea, Batavia Harbor.

The sea outside the harbor was densely covered with the Mataran fleet, and Raden Langsang mobilized the naval forces of Java, Borneo, and Sumatra for this offensive. Due to the sheer size of the fleet, there are still a large number of ships on their way to the port of Batavia. The Mataran warships, which had already arrived here, numbered more than 1,000, and blocked the basin-shaped bay of Batavia on the periphery. The islands and reefs in the northwest sea outside the harbor have all been occupied by the army of the Mataran Kingdom as temporary anchorages.

Due to the suddenness of the incident, the Mataran army was not fully prepared when it set out, and the vanguard had arrived in the port of Batavia about ten days earlier, and engaged in a skirmish with the Dutch armed fleet stationed there. Although the Dutch were strong and good at naval warfare, the Mataran fleet, which had a numerical advantage, did not suffer much loss, and their ships were equipped with many small-caliber guns provided by the British, which made the Dutch sailing ships have to be a little more careful when fighting.

The British were also based in the western part of Java, in the Banten region south of the Sunda Strait, just over a hundred kilometers away from Batavia by land. However, the British did not dare to provoke the Dutch, because they had suffered a great loss at the hands of the Dutch in their early years.

After Cohen was appointed fourth governor of the Dutch East Indies in 1617, the English fleet came in and tried to build a castle on the same site and expel the Dutch. The war continued until 1619, when the Dutch had lost their stronghold, but Cohen did not give up, recalling all Dutch ships and men throughout the South Seas, and returning to Batavia in May of that year to fight the British.

The result of this decisive battle was that the Dutch not only recaptured their castle and drove the British away, but also pursued the British ships fleeing to Sumatra and the Malay Peninsula, and inflicted heavy losses on the British fleet in the waters near the port of Pattani in the Malay Peninsula. After the peace between the two countries in London in 1620, Cohen continued to do so and executed 30 Englishmen who had gone to the Maluku Islands to do business, forcing the British to withdraw from the East Indies altogether. In 1621, Cohen rebuilt the Dutch stronghold on the northern coast of West Java and named it after the Roman name "Holland", Batavia, which came to be known as Batavia.

In 1622, Cohen massacred the natives of the Banda Islands who traded with the British in order to dominate the nutmeg trade. More than 15,000 local natives died in the massacre, and all the remaining living were enslaved in other Dutch colonies in Songdao. Most of the Dutch castles in Penghu and Taiwan were built by these slave laborers from the South Seas.

Cohen's series of measures overwhelmed the British, and they finally gave up their hopes of occupying Batavia and established a foothold in the nearby Banten region. The first two times the Matalan sent troops to attack the city of Batavia, the British were already eager to try. However, due to Cohen's prestige, the British did not dare to openly participate in the war, so they could only secretly sell a batch of arms to the Madaran country after the war, hoping that they would be able to kill the old enemies in Batavia in the next war.

On the third day of Cohen's death, the British and the Mataran got the news almost at the same time. The ruler of Mataran, Raden Langsan, did not hesitate to declare war at the first opportunity, and sent envoys to various places to send orders to mobilize troops and assemble in Batavia. The British, however, were not sure whether the news of Cohen's death was true or false, so they did not choose to send their troops directly into the battle, but they nevertheless provided the Mataran nation with forty artillery pieces and corresponding ammunition, hoping that they would be able to break through the city of Batavia in this engagement.

Twenty days after Cohen's death, some 37,000 to 40,000 Mataran soldiers had reached the coast off Batavia, and small forces had landed on the coast of about 20 kilometres east and west of the port of Batavia and destroyed the surrounding plantations, farms, and all Dutch-owned properties.

However, the Dutch did not attempt to resist the invasion of the Mataran army in the open area outside the city, and abandoned these areas outside the city early, and the immigrants had already returned to the city. Therefore, the main losses during this period were concentrated in the economic aspect, and there was not much loss of personnel.

With the arrival of the Mataran fleet in batches, the gap in the number of ships participating in the battle between the two sides was further widened, and the Dutch galleons in the port of Batavia gradually fell into a disadvantage. The Batavian council, strongly advised by Van Dimen and other military personnel, had to order all ships to break through and leave the port, abandoning any intention of a decisive battle with their opponents at sea.

This was not the first time in history that this was the first time Cohen had used this tactic when the British attacked the area, and he personally led the fleet to break out and gather the forces of the various colonies before counterattacking. A few years ago, when the Matari attacked Batavia, Cohen also insisted on this approach, preserving his own strength from fighting hard with the opponent, and using Guò to defend the fortified city to consume the opponent's logistical supplies, and the ships that broke out could also harass the opponent's supply lines from the periphery. At least judging from the results of the first two times, this method is quite effective.

The Dutch flotilla, at the cost of more than two dozen ships, finally broke through. Fortunately, the ships that were sunk and injured were basically small boats, and the impact on the overall strength was not too great. But with the departure of the fleet, it means that the landing of the Mataran army in the port of Batavia will be unhindered, and there is only one obstacle in front of them, that is, Batavia City, which has experienced many baptisms of war.

Although the atmosphere in Batavia was tense, the social order was not disrupted by this. After all, this is the third time in five years that the city has been attacked by foreign enemies, and the locals, whether they are Dutch, Chinese, or natives attached to them, are actually not too nervous. After all, they also knew that although the enemy was outnumbered, there was no good way to take the fortified Batavia City, and at most they would besiege it for a month or two, and when the opponent's supplies could not hold on, they would naturally have to withdraw their troops.

Of course, there will still be extraordinary policies in extraordinary times, and the council has already issued an order a few days ago that all food and supplies in the city must be uniformly distributed and arranged, and that anyone who tries to hoard goods, raise prices, or force buyers and sellers in wartime will be dealt with as collaborators with the enemy -- in short, they will be hanged. Gallows had been erected in the small square in the middle of the city, and several felons had been dragged out of the prison to execute in public as an example.

As one of the food suppliers of Batavia City, the "Dacheng Rice Shop", which is only 100 meters away from the Governor's Palace, was naturally temporarily incorporated into the direct organization of the Council. Early this morning, the council sent a team of people to begin counting the grain in the granary.

The boss of "Dacheng Rice Shop" is surnamed Cheng and his name is Cheng Dapeng. As you can tell from the name, this is a Han man, and like many Han people in the city of Batavia, he is also from the Liangguang region of the Ming Dynasty. This year is the third year that Cheng Dapeng has come to Batavia, compared to other Han compatriots who need to start from the bottom of the labor when they first arrive, Cheng Dapeng's Biquge www.biquge.info is obviously much higher, he brought his own funds and projects to Batavia to do grain trading, and his appearance in Batavia City is the identity of the boss.

Cheng Da Peng's main business is rice-based grain, which is organized from Annam and Champa and sent to Batavia by sea for sale. Although the cost of selling this channel is higher than that of locally grown grain, due to the limited area of land developed near Batavia and the frequent wars in recent years, locally produced grain alone is not enough to supply the market, so Cheng Dapeng's rice business has always been steadily profitable.

Cheng Dapeng has always had a good reputation in the local business community and the Chinese community, especially with the Su family, who have always controlled the position of the Chinese in Kapitan, and this relationship has also made "Dacheng Rice Shop" the exclusive food supplier of the Dutch Parliament.

The team sent by the council today to count the grain was led by Su Keyi of the Su family. Originally, this kind of thing didn't need to be done by a person of his level at all, but because the object was Cheng Dapeng, he specially took this errand and ran this trip himself.

"Brother Su Shi, why did you come in person?" Seeing Su Keyi appear, Cheng Dapeng was also slightly surprised, and hurriedly stood up from behind the counter to greet him.

The contemptible people were also worried that Boss Cheng would be dissatisfied with the decision of the council, so he came over to explain it to Boss Cheng. Su Keyi replied.

Cheng Dapeng said: "Brother Su Shi is too worried, since the council has been decided, the contemptible people will naturally obey the order. Besides, the soldiers outside the city are pressing the border, and it seems that it is a protracted war, and the food in the rice line of the contemptible people naturally has to accept the unified dispatch of the government. ”

"Boss Cheng is really a sensible person, and it seems that he is indeed contemptible. Su Keyi praised: "I was worried that Boss Cheng would not cooperate, so I specially asked the council for this errand, and planned to come over to persuade Boss Cheng to come." ”

Cheng Dapeng said with a smile: "No need to persuade, the contemptible people will open a position and let the people enter the warehouse to count." ”

Naturally, they don't need to handle specific things, and each of them has his subordinates responsible for counting and handing over matters. Cheng Dapeng invited Su Keyi to sit in the study in the backyard, Su Keyi also knew that the grain in the granary of the "Dacheng Rice Bank" was two or three hundred thousand catties, and it would not be able to be counted in a while and a half, and he, the person in charge, could only stay here and wait for the result, so he readily agreed