Aceh, April 28, 1724.

Captain Harvey Simmons has been in the city of Aceh for five days, waiting for the repair of the merchant ship he is travelling on, and then he will return to Europe, his hometown of Kuromori.

He was a mercenary by profession and had been in the service for the Dutch East India Company for twelve years. From a high-spirited young man, after experiencing all kinds of hardships and hardships, he is now an exhausted "old man".

Although he was only 35 years old, he was in the prime of his life. But he felt that he was already like an old man in his old age, and he desperately needed a peaceful place to soothe his wounded heart.

Since last year, when the top officials of the East India Company reached a peaceful transfer with the Qi people to the city of Batavia, a large number of Qi military and police officers have been stationed in the city and have begun to carry out the so-called "law and order purification" operation. Many religious figures, tribal leaders, businessmen, and scholars who had openly opposed Qi or organized violent attacks on Qi territory were arrested by the Qi military and police and quickly put on trial.

During the brutal arrests, countless civilians were affected, and the prisons throughout Batavia were overcrowded for a time, so much so that the Qi people had to build several temporary prisons on the outskirts to hold a large number of arrested natives.

After a brief trial, more than 400 of them were sentenced to death, either hanged in Batavia Square or shot to death by the sea. In addition, more than 2,000 people were sentenced to hard labour and exiled to Africa or some unknown island in the Pacific.

The former magistrates and magistrates of the East India Company lodged serious protests against the brutality of the Qi people, arguing that they were killing innocents in vain, and had reason to suspect that they were deliberately purging the upper echelons of the indigenous population in order to weaken the sense of collective resistance of the indigenous people. Such behaviour is extremely barbaric and cannot be tolerated by the civilized world.

However, the Qi people threw out the crime files, which not only contained descriptions of the various crimes committed by the natives, but also the personal confessions of the parties concerned, as well as the corresponding signatures and drawings. This evidence suggests that the natives sentenced to capital punishment were a group of vicious thugs. They sneaked into the territory of the Qi Kingdom, attacked towns and plantations, killed people, pointed walls, burned houses, and destroyed crops.

As a veteran mercenary accustomed to all kinds of conspiracies and crimes, Captain Harvey Simmons scoffed at the so-called criminal evidence presented by the Qi people. After a brutal torture, it is not difficult to get those natives to admit the facts of those false crimes, even to make him confess that he committed the crime of killing his parents and brothers.

Of course, some of these convicted natives may have committed serious crimes in the territory of Qi State, but the number is definitely not so large. You must know that the large and small settlements and plantations established by the Qi State on the island of Java, in addition to the heavily armed army stationed to patrol, they also have a strict grassroots management system, as well as a large number of militia organizations, it is not so easy for a few natives to sneak in and launch sabotage attacks.

To put it bluntly, the Qi people want to completely purge the indigenous forces after receiving Batavia, so as to eliminate potential ethnic contradictions in the future.

As the Qi forces grew deeper and deeper on the island, various repressive policies against the indigenous people and the True God Cult followed. The Qi people banned the spread of the True God Cult in their territories and imposed a special poll tax on devout True God believers. For the restoration of dilapidated and old temples of the true gods, various obstacles are also erected to allow them to perish.

They also set up large-scale education in the local area, forcibly sending countless indigenous children to schools to learn Chinese, experience Chinese culture, and get close to the oriental civilization, so as to better assimilate and absorb the local indigenous people.

I have heard from those company employees who are familiar with the situation of Java Island that more than 50 years ago, on this fertile and abundant island, there were several princely kingdoms, a thousand-year-old Javanese civilization, and a population of more than 2 million people.

Looking at the current situation, there are not many temples, castles, palaces, mausoleums and other buildings that reflect the local civilization and historical and cultural heritage. Although this rich island has experienced many wars and turmoil, and damaged many castles and monuments, under the connivance and destruction of the Qi people, more relics representing indigenous culture have completely disappeared, and the size of the indigenous population has plummeted to less than one million.

In the increasingly prosperous cities and villages, they are replaced by typical Qi architecture - tall and thick cement buildings, as well as buildings and houses full of oriental charm.

Over time, as the number of Qi people on the island grows, and as the level of development deepens, Harvey Simmons believes that all indigenous civilizations will disappear completely, and even the traces left by the Dutch East India Company in Batavia will be erased one by one.

Yes, with its strong national strength and developed economy, the Qi State is increasingly showing confidence in its own civilization and trying to expand this civilization to more countries and regions in order to show their influence.

Regarding the East Indies under their noses, the people of Qi unabashedly said that this vast sea area and islands are all their core interests, and there can only be one voice. Naturally, there can only be one civilization here, the Hanzhou civilization, which integrates thousands of years of Eastern Chinese civilization.

After the expiration of the time limit for the East India Company's employees and mercenaries, nearly 30 percent of them would choose to join the Qi nationality and serve the Qi nation instead, cheering to be a member of this powerful nation.

However, Captain Harvey Simmons did not do this, he witnessed the tyranny and domineering of the Qi people in Batavia, and also felt their domineering national sentiments, and learned that the Qi people strictly controlled and restrained various religions. He believed that he should return to Europe, to his homeland. After all, there was an environment he was familiar with, a culture like him, and a religion that comforted the soul.

Aceh is the capital of this kingdom, and it is also a large city, with a population of more than 60,000, but the layout and architecture of the whole city are very poor. Not to mention that it is far inferior to the cities of the Qi people, even Batavia is much inferior. Most of the houses in the city are made of wood, and the roofs are covered with dilapidated coconut flakes or tiles, and a nice house can only be found at intervals of five or six hundred meters.

It is rich in gold, abundant in fruits, and has a variety of fruits, as in the rest of the East Indies. The inhabitants here have dark skin and dress a bit like Malays.

There are scattered Aceh soldiers in the streets, armed with broadswords, round shields, spears, muskets, javelins, and blowpipes. The blowpipe has a blade attached to the wood, like an oriental lance, and is used to blow poison-stained darts. If a person is hit by a dart, he will soon die if he does not dig up the wound. When the enemy approaches, use the tip of the blowpipe as a lance, not to blow poison darts.

It is said that more than ten years ago, when the Qi State conquered the Kingdom of Aceh, it surrounded and suppressed the rebels in Aceh in the jungle, and many soldiers were killed and injured by this blowpipe weapon. They would hide in the grass or climb on trees, and blow poison darts by surprise when Qi soldiers passed by. This kind of attack often makes the soldiers of Qi State unable to guard against it. After the assault is complete, the rebels will quickly flee into the jungle and disappear without a trace.

The kings of Aceh - well, the Sudan should be precise, - had many elephants who, decades ago, when they fought the enemy, would have organized themselves to break through the enemy's lines. However, with the popularization of firearms, the role of this elephant soldier has become weaker and weaker. Elephants roam the city, and they remain the kingdom's most important weapons of attack.

It can be seen that the common people are very afraid of their Sudan, because he is very cruel and has many eyes and ears. He knows everything about him. He will also strictly enforce the law against the adulterous offenders. At the slightest mistake, the soldiers were ordered to cut off their hands and feet. As a devout believer in the True God Church, he allowed people to kill adulterers who committed adultery with their wives.

If a robber kills someone, he is sentenced to end his life on a sharpened stake. Oh God, this is definitely a very cruel punishment.

During his days in Aceh, Captain Harvey Simmons witnessed the tragic death of a convicted prisoner sitting on a sharpened stake with his hands tied so that he would not fall. The man wailed in pain while loudly cursing Su Dan's cruelty and his cowardice in the face of the Qi people. In order not to humiliate His Majesty Su Dan, the soldier later cut out his tongue and could only let out a low whimper.

In addition to this, Captain Harvey Simmons has seen a man sitting on a saw, one leg on this side and one there, sawed off from the middle, just because the man wanted to betray the rich master.

After seeing so much brutality, a captain of the East India Company once asked him what his people would think of him by treating his people with such brutality.

The king was silent for a moment, and then replied, "Only by doing this can I make my people obedient and submit to my rule." ”

From a political management point of view, all the people of this kingdom are like slaves to the rule of His Majesty Sudan. The laws are very severe, and the means of punishing crimes are very violent and horrific. If you make a small mistake, you will break your hands and feet. Such torture was not only used against ordinary people, but also against princes and nobles.

I have heard that a prince once complained that his father, His Majesty Sultan, was too flattering and too weak to the people of Qi Country. As a result, he was severely punished for slandering the royal power, his nose, ears, and upper lip were brutally cut off, and he was finally exiled to the island of Breve to fend for himself.

However, in this kingdom, the only person who can make His Majesty Su Dan jealous is the people of Qi.

More than ten years ago (1715), the Qi State launched a war against the Kingdom of Aceh under the pretext that its merchants and civilians had been innocently killed. In less than two months, the Qi army occupied the capital and royal palace of Aceh and captured the then Sudan Mahmoud Fosse. Subsequently, after more than two years of encirclement and suppression, most of the Aceh nobles and priests who rebelled against the Qi State were captured and killed, which can be regarded as a complete subjugation of the country.

His Majesty Su Dan, who was in office, was single-handedly supported by Qi State to come to power at that time. In order to consolidate his rule, and more importantly, to ensure the legitimacy of his throne, in addition to relying on the protection of the Qi people in terms of force, Su Dan could only adopt various harsh governance methods in the country, so as to improve his "prestige" and make everyone dare not have the psychology of resistance.

To the southwest of the city of Aceh, there was a military camp of Qi people, stationed about 1,500 people, to deter and monitor the country. In addition, on a small island about 15 kilometers north of the city of Aceh (present-day Indonesian Koh Ve), there was also a Qi naval base, which provided coal and water services for passing ships. It is reported that almost all of the aborigines on that island were "vacated" by the Qi people, and hundreds of immigrants moved in from their homeland and the Qin state.

In addition, the Qi people also established two strongholds in Rapids Bay (present-day Simawi City, Indonesia) and Bela Bend on the northern side of Sumatra Island, choking almost all the foreign trade routes of the Aceh Kingdom and firmly controlling the country.

Captain Harvey Simmons believes that as the Qi people gradually digest several major islands such as Java and Sulawesi, this Aceh kingdom will inevitably be wiped out and become the dust of history, and then the whole of Sumatra will be annexed.

Yes, the Qi people will definitely do this, and the kings of the several princely states on the island of Java have lost almost all their territories, and can only receive a pitiful amount of money from the Qi government every year, barely maintaining their former rich and luxurious life, and their authority and orders are limited to the palace. As long as the Qi people are willing, they only need to send a soldier to end their lives.

However, many princely kingdoms, including Sumatra, still have illusions, thinking that in the face of the strong invasion of Qi, as long as they shrink back and show their obedience, they can continue to survive. They are too naïve, the greed of the Qi people is endless, and their ultimate goal is to swallow all of the East Indies into their stomachs.

In this world, all backward and weak countries or nations have no future, and what is even more tragic is that there is a behemoth around them, eyeing them.

(End of chapter)