Zhan Gui's original intention to befriend Jonke was originally from the assignment of the Haihan Security Department, rather than his own initiative. At the beginning, the military also planned whether to take Belitung Island with it when it went south, but later considered that it was too close to Batavia and it was difficult to guarantee a safe transition period to take over this place after the capture, so it had to give up this step first and chose to take the northern Abuna Islands as the main target.

The pepper planted on Belitung Island was not the target of Haehan, but the location of Tanjung Pandan Port, the capital of Belitung Island, on the western side of the island, where it was suitable for the construction of a port. The conditions of the port were obviously better than those of Ambuna Island, but it was difficult for the Dutch to make full use of them, so they had to temporarily choose a harbor on the south side of the island that was more convenient for the construction of a wharf as a colonial point. And if Tanjung Pandan is located in Haihan's management, there is no doubt that within a year or two, an outpost position for attacking the choke point of Southeast Asia will be built. However, in view of the fact that the current strength of the Haihan Navy is not strong enough to do whatever it wants under the nose of the East India Company, the military can only retreat for the time being and set up a springboard for the southward movement in the Ambuna Islands.

Two months ago, during the militia army's southward campaign to seize the Anbuna Islands, in order to prevent the scattered islanders from escaping the encirclement, the military and the Ministry of Security specially arranged for Zhan Gui to bring a fleet to Belitung Island in advance -- if anyone escaped from the island, they would definitely have to go south to report the news, and Belitung Island, which is more than 400 nautical miles south of Ambuna Island, was the first target for the escapees.

If such a thing really happens, then the people in Zhan Gui's fleet from the field team of the Ministry of Security will have to take decisive action. Either they will find an opportunity to do something on the island, or they will intercept the ships sent back to the Batavia base camp on the island in the open sea, in short, let the news of the change of ownership of the Ambuna Islands be kept secret for a while longer.

Fortunately, the surprise attack of the Haihan militia wiped out all the Dutch ships docked on Ambuna Island, and no fish slipped through the net, and Zhan Gui did not have to bear the risk of being exposed. Of course, the luckiest person is actually the mayor of Belitung Island, because if someone really escapes here from Ambuna Island, he is likely to be involved, and when the time comes, the killers in Zhan Gui's fleet will kill people overnight, and Mayor Jonk will definitely not escape as an insider.

However, Jonk didn't notice anything unusual about this, and he still thought that Zhan Gui was a friend worth dating. What he was thinking about now was not what kind of gift Zhan Gui would bring next time, but he wanted to ask Zhan Gui about what happened to the sea in the north when they met next time, so that all the Dutch merchant ships that had recently gone south disappeared without a trace.

Because the three commanders of the search and rescue fleet had drunk a little too much the night before, they were unable to set off early the next morning as scheduled. It was almost noon when the three of them came to the pier with the smell of alcohol, and after a brief lunch, the fleet untied the cable and hoisted the sails and sailed out of Belitung Port.

The next stop of the search and rescue fleet is the Tammelan Islands, which are about 25 nautical miles north of Belitung Island. The location of this archipelago is located right between Belitung Island and the Abuna Islands near the midpoint, where food and fresh water can be replenished at the local port. However, the East India Company did not settle immigrants here for no other reason, and it was indeed too small for colonial development. Only five of the 17 islands in the Tammelan archipelago are inhabited by indigenous people, and the variety of local products is far less than that of Belitung and Ambuna, with only coconut and sea cucumber being the main products.

Three days later, the search and rescue fleet arrived in Temmelan Islands, but here they also found nothing. The island's native chieftains could tell them even less information than Mayor Jonk. At least Jonk still has a clear concept of time and a record of ship docking, while the natives here live a chaotic and stiff life, and the entire tribe has only one witch doctor who is recording the time using the original method of staking carving, and as for when the last Dutch ship docked here, no one on the island can say the exact time.

"These stupid monkeys should have gone extinct sooner!" After returning to the ship, Spikes finally couldn't help but lose his temper: "These guys are much stupider than the blacks!

The reason for Spikes' tantrum is that in his dealings with the natives, he asked the natives to provide more locally produced fruits and vegetables, but the natives refused, because they did not want to work for the outsiders. Spikes offered to give silver coins in return, but the natives thought the silver coins were useless on the island - and this was true, as there was no established commercial system and the primitive means of bartering were still used.

Fortunately, it was not the first time that the three commanders had taken this route, and they knew how to send these extremely lazy natives, so they immediately took out the goods on the ship and traded with the natives, which succeeded in obtaining supplies. Of course, the transportation of these supplies on the ships had to be done by the fleet's own hands, and the natives here were not interested in doing any physical work other than subsistence.

"God testifies, sooner or later I will take all these monkeys and send them to the plantations in Surabaya to work as coolies, and let the whip teach them what to do!" Although this is not the first time this has happened, Spikes' anger is still uncontrollable.

"Alright, Mr. Spikes, stop complaining about these ignorant natives, and think about what we're going to do next. Brower grimaced Spikes' reluctance, "We now need to decide whether to prioritize this voyage or to launch a search operation in this area." ”

Since the local natives have not been able to provide any useful information, the commanders can now determine that the area where the Dutch ship crashed is north of Belitung Island, but it is not possible to determine exactly where. Located between Peninsular Malaysia and Kalimantan, the Tammelan archipelago is a relatively complex island, with the world's third largest island to the east, known as Kalimantan as Borneo at this time, and Bangka Island and the world's sixth largest island Sumatra Island to the south.

The situation is most complicated in the west, where the Riau and Linga Islands outside the Strait of Malacca have always been active areas of piracy in the South China Sea, and the presence of Portuguese in the area has not changed the chaos in that area. And these two islands are only 150 or 60 nautical miles away from the Tameran Islands, and there is indeed the possibility that zài pirates will come out and make trouble.

To the north, in addition to the Abuna Islands, there are also the Anambas Islands to the northwest, where the complex island environment also provides easy hiding conditions for pirates. For the East India Company's search and rescue fleet, it is possible that the islands all harbored clues related to the disappearance of Dutch merchant ships.

"If we're going to search all these places, it's going to take at least a month or two, and that's not going to happen. Van Longen was the first to shake his head and vetoed: "Gentlemen, our fleet is not a professional combat fleet, and the search and rescue mission must be carried out in accordance with our actual situation." ”

Although Van Longen accepted Governor Cohen's assignment to lead the fleet to participate in the search and rescue mission, he was also aware that his fleet was limited in its capabilities and could only take on low-intensity military missions. And Brouwer's tone is to filter out all the places where there may be pirates in this area, which is actually a very risky approach for a fleet dominated by armed merchant ships. Van Longen is not worried that he will not be able to defeat the rabble of pirates, but he can't afford the possible losses, his ships are all ordered in the Dutch shipyard, once there is serious damage, the local shipyard in Batavia may not be able to repair, and then they have to hire people from the mainland to repair the ship, and the loss caused by this delay is great. So he tactfully made it clear to Brouwer that he was not willing to risk the fleet too much.

Brouwer could probably also anticipate Van Longen's little abacus, and he didn't say anything at the moment, but just turned his head to ask Spikes' opinion: "What do you think, Mr. Spikes?"

Spikes had also calmed down from his previous excitement at this time, and returned to the state of a professional: "I don't think there is much need to think about the east and the south, there are already company ships patrolling regularly in the south, and Borneo in the east...... We'd better not provoke them. ”

Neither Van Longen nor Brower disagreed with Spikes. There were many kingdoms in Borneo, among which the ruler of Sukkadana was loyal to the Mataran Kingdom on the island of Java, and the Mataran Kingdom was arguably one of the East India Company's most troublesome enemies during this period.

Not long ago, in 162 and 1629, the ruler of the Kingdom of Mataran, Langsan, twice led a large army against Batavia. If it weren't for the East India Company's military superiority, it would have lost its city long ago. Although the Mataran Kingdom was unable to defeat the East India Company outright, their sphere of influence expanded very rapidly during this period, unifying the regions of Central and East Java, and establishing dominion in eastern Sumatra and southern Kalimantan. The kingdom actually ruled over an area far greater than the East India Company colonists.

In the original history, until the second half of the 17th century, it is likely to be regarded as a provocation by the East India Company against the Kingdom of Matalan, and it is even possible to lead to another large-scale war between the two sides, which the three of them cannot afford to bear. Even if there is a good reason to go to Borneo, the Governor will never forgive such a low-level mistake.

After hearing Spikes's words, Brouwer replied unhurriedly: "According to you, there is no need to go to the west, which is so close to the place of the Portuguese that one of them will accidentally run into their fleet." ”

"Gentlemen, I'd better go to the Natuna Islands in the north first, after all, it is really our place, and it is too late for us to gather information before making further judgments. The man in charge, Janssen Sr., was a conscientious man, and he should have had a more complete record of the sailing schedule than Mr. Jonker. Van Longen listened to Brouwer's unkind tone, and hurriedly raised his own proposal to prevent the two from arguing.

The Dutch captains returning from the north preferred to call at the Natuna Islands rather than the port of Belitung near Batavia, as this was the first Dutch colony they saw after a long voyage south from Dayuangang, and almost every Dutch merchant ship heading south would use the Natuna Islands as a supply point on this voyage. There is undoubtedly more detailed information than the first two stops.

"That's probably the safest thing to do right now. Brauvaud said noncommittally, got up, and said, "Gentlemen, I need to go back to my ship and see if all the supplies are loaded on board." ”

"This guy...... I wish I could fight!" Spikes sputtered after Brower had left, "he is counting on this great military feat, so that he can outdo me in the race for the next governor." ”

Governor Cohen intends to choose one of Spikes and Brower as the next governor to be recommended to the company's board of directors, and many people already know this, including Van Longen. However, he doesn't want to get involved in this kind of high-level power struggle, if this team bets on the right treasure, it's fine, if it doesn't win, then the other party will have a bitter fruit after taking power. When Cohen became governor, he immediately sent several of his main rivals on expeditions to the remote uncharted seas, and more than half of them never made it back to Batavia alive.

Van Longen did not want his well-run maritime trade business to be abruptly interrupted and sent by the new governor to explore new routes across the ocean. Navigators might like that, but Van Longen was only a businessman, and he was only interested in business things. Whether it was an expedition or a war, that was not what he wanted to do. Therefore, he can only pretend not to hear Spikes's complaints in order to maintain his neutral position. All he could hope now was that once he arrived on Natuna Island, he would find some clear clues on the ground to settle the rift between the two senior officers.