Chapter 740 Information Transfer
After the garrison at the top of the city waited uneasily for more than an hour, the rangers who went out to reconnoiter finally brought back exciting news - the Mata Blue Army was boarding the ship and leaving the port, and the evacuation was very complete, because Before they left, they burned all the port buildings that had escaped the fire yesterday. Obviously, the Matalan people had given up their plan to occupy Batavia Port and destroyed the port facilities. On the one hand, they were unwilling to vent their anger, and on the other hand, they also wanted to cause more trouble for the Dutch's future reconstruction projects.
In order to ensure that the Matalan people were not being arrogant, Van Diemen sent several teams of people out of the city to investigate in various directions outside the city. Subsequently, the news coming back from various sources was consistent. The Matalan people had indeed withdrawn, but they had looted all supplies outside the city and all the plantations and farms were destroyed. The people who had not had time to evacuate into the city except for a few Except for a few old and weak people, almost all of them were kidnapped. It can be seen that the Matarans want to use this method to increase Batavia's economic losses as much as possible, but Van Diemen can't care about regrets now. Being able to escape the danger and escape with death is already a very worthy thing. thing. Having said that, similar things have happened twice in the past few years. Van Diemen was actually mentally prepared for the destructive measures that the Matalan people would take when evacuating.
That afternoon, after realizing that the Matalan people had retreated by boat, the Dutch fleet cruising in the outer sea finally sent several ships back to the port and then made contact with the city of Batavia. Half of the fleet's armed personnel landed in Batavia to assist the council and the military in maintaining post-war order in the city.
The final result of this battle that lasted for more than thirty days was still the same as the previous two times. The Ma Da Blue Army swallowed hard and chose to retreat. Of course, this result cannot be said to be a victory for the Dutch. This confrontation has already been broken into by the opponent. The losses suffered by the East India Company and the city of Batavia far exceeded the sum of the previous two Homer wars. , and its negative effects will last for a long time.
Although specific property damage statistics may take some time to come out, the general situation can be seen at a glance. The Port of Batavia has almost become a ruin, and all the buildings in the port have been basically destroyed. It is conservatively estimated that it will take more than half a year to completely restore the old appearance of the port. In addition, a large number of plantations and farms outside the city of Batavia were destroyed. It may take longer than rebuilding the port to resume production in these fields where tropical fruits and spices are mainly grown.
Another area that was severely damaged was the city defense system of Batavia City, especially the northern city wall. Many of the city walls had collapsed during days of fierce fighting and had lost their due function. The East India Company spent huge sums of money to build additional forts outside the city in the past two years. Although they made great contributions to this defensive battle, they were all turned into rubble during the battle. After the Ma Da Blue Army broke through the city, the two sides fought for days on the streets of the city, which also damaged a large number of buildings in the city. Especially within the two to three hundred meters around the Council Castle in the center of the city, almost no one could be seen. An intact building. If the Dutch want to rebuild these areas, the wealth they need to spend is by no means a small amount.
In addition to these losses that can be seen at a glance, another loss that cannot be ignored is the loss of the local population in this war. If the casualties, refugees, and people captured by the enemy are roughly added together, then this war caused a loss of at least tens of thousands of people to Batavia. Moreover, a considerable part of the lost population were young and strong men, which was quite bad news for the reconstruction work that required a lot of labor after the war.
In addition, during the days of fighting, a large number of corpses were abandoned inside and outside the city without time to bury them, which could easily lead to an outbreak of disease after the war. In addition, local food supplies have also been interrupted, and the time that the food reserves can be maintained is also very limited. There are many more troubles like this. For the East India Company, post-war Batavia can be said to be a very difficult mess to clean up.
The economic losses are not bad. After all, as long as the place remains, the East India Company can make profits by continuing to operate maritime trade between the East and the West. Sooner or later, Batavia will regain its status as a Southeast Asian trade center. The Dutch fleet, whose main force was Madalan, went out to attack ports all over Southeast Asia and made a lot of real money in this month. Although it may not be able to completely make up for the losses suffered by Batavia, it can subsidize part of the reconstruction project expenses to some extent.
Of course, only some high-level people were troubled by the chaos after the war. The vast majority of ordinary people were still grateful that they could survive the war safely. Although Cheng Dapeng had experienced more serious wars and did not encounter any major disasters during the Batavia attack and defense, the past month still allowed him to relive the aftermath of the disaster. Feel. Dacheng Rice Company was very lucky in this disaster. There were no casualties or major property losses. Although most of the grain was seized by the council before the war and shipped away, the grain was not requisitioned without compensation. During the war, I will definitely settle the accounts slowly in the end. Fortunately, the Dutch won the battle. If they had lost, they would never have gotten back a single grain of these grains.
The Matalan people also hurriedly sent a fleet and asked the Mihang people to lead the way to Champa to buy grain. However, this fleet probably would not have the chance to return to Batavia. Because on the night the war ended, Bart came to the door and made the same request to Cheng Dapeng, hoping that he could go north as soon as possible to organize the purchase of a batch of grain and transport it back to Batavia. As for the ships, the council will select four or five merchant ships in good condition from the recently returned Dutch fleet for Cheng Dapeng to use.
Cheng Dapeng naturally would not refuse such a good thing, so he immediately agreed. It's just a pity that the two 400-material fortune ships originally owned by Dacheng Rice Shop were docked at the port and were requisitioned by the Matalan people. There is probably no chance of getting them back.
This time, Cheng Dapeng did not leave the job to his colleagues, but chose to go north in person. After the war, Batavia didn't have much valuable information for the time being, so he decided to go north in person to find an opportunity to report the battle situation to his superiors in person.
Cheng Dapeng's departure time was about eight days later than the previous group of colleagues who went north with the Ma Dalan fleet. Calculating the time, if the previous fleet had smooth sailing, they would have arrived at the Ambon Islands by this time. The sea is nearby. However, Cheng Dapeng was not in a hurry. He could be sure that before his colleagues returned from Champa, he would have arrived at the Ambon Islands and inform the local chief of the latest news. Then the superiors will naturally think of ways to ensure the personal safety of their colleagues in that fleet.
According to the armistice agreement signed by the Dutch and maritime parties last year and subsequent amendments and supplementary drafts, Dutch merchant ships can enter the port of Ambrosia to dock and obtain supplies after being disarmed. Moreover, Cheng Dapeng also said that he has a good relationship with the Haihan people, and the fleet can get better treatment when replenishing locally. Therefore, the East India Company has no objection to using Ambuna Port as one of the stops on this voyage. .
On August 25, Cheng Dapeng's fleet finally arrived at the port of Amborna. Outside the harbor, they first accepted the boarding inspection by port staff in accordance with local rules to ensure that there were no prohibited items or suspicious persons on the ship, and then guided them into the port and docked at the designated dock.
The safety regulations of the Port of Ambuna have extremely strict regulations on the scope of activities and objects that the Dutch crew can come into contact with before docking here, but these regulations obviously do not apply to Cheng Dapeng. He quickly contacted the port staff and persuaded them to inform Li Dagui. A few days ago, another fleet came to dock here, and the Haihan intelligence personnel among them were also handed over by Li Dagui. Although Li Dagui now spends more time dealing with civil affairs and commercial affairs, he still has not completely separated from his identity as an intelligence officer of the Ministry of Security. However, he actually did not know the identity of the intelligence chief arranged by the Ministry of Security in Batavia. After all, this was considered a secret among Haihan's senior officials, let alone a grassroots employee like him who was a naturalized citizen.
But after he heard the message from the port staff, he was able to confirm from the agreed code words that the other party should be one of the persons in charge of the Batavia Intelligence Station. He did not dare to neglect at the moment and sent people while rushing to the port. Notified Roger.
About half an hour later, Cheng Dapeng entered the port center to meet with Roger and Li Dagui under the pretext of "discussing the price of supplies." Since it is this kind of back-and-forth transaction, there is naturally a good reason to exclude the Dutch, and the Dutch will not be suspicious of it. After all, this is a transaction between Han people, as long as there are actual results in the end. . If some money can be saved in this step, the captain can easily put it into his pocket.
"Cheng Dapeng, the intelligence officer of the Security Department stationed in Batavia, has met the chief!" Although Cheng Dapeng had not met Roger before, he only had to take a look at Roger's short hair, short shirt, and eyes. The confidence revealed in him immediately confirmed his identity. Without any introduction from Li Dagui, who was standing next to him, he stepped forward to see him and presented his identity certificate with both hands.
The identity certificates of the intelligence personnel of the Security Department are all manufactured in Sanya. For the sake of security and convenient storage, the identity certificates of the Security Department personnel are all in the form of dog tags. The dog tag only uses pinyin and Arabic numerals to indicate the wearer's name and the internal ID number of the Ministry of Security. There are not a single Chinese character, and outsiders cannot understand the content at all.
"No courtesy, sit down and talk!" Roger had already confirmed Cheng Dapeng's identity after checking his number plate. Although Roger is a member of the military, since he is the only time traveler in the area south of the Indochina Peninsula, the departments he serves are almost the best in Haihan, which naturally includes the "Security Department Nanyang Special" Temporary position such as "Inspector". Roger also got the true message on how to identify the identity of the intelligence personnel of the Ministry of Security.
In fact, when the previous Madalan fleet from Batavia arrived locally, the relevant information had already been passed to Haihan and was sent back to the headquarters via telegram as soon as possible. However, written information still has great limitations compared to oral information. The arrival of Cheng Dapeng can undoubtedly supplement the many missing details in the previous intelligence and fill in the results of the battle that Haihan is most concerned about.
At this time, Li Dagui intervened at the right time and introduced: "This is Chief Roger, the special director of Nanyang Affairs of the Executive Committee. I am Li Dagui, and he also worked under Minister Hao of the Ministry of Security before. Speaking of which, we can be regarded as half colleagues."
Roger was not exempt from the vulgarity, so the first question he raised was about the outcome of the Battle of Batavia: "Previously, your colleagues said that the Malayan Blue Army had already invaded the city of Batavia, and the Dutch had no way to recover. But why did you come here on a Dutch merchant ship this time? Is there any change?”
"Commander, the Dutch came back to life at the last moment." Cheng Dapeng replied: "The Dutch arranged a fleet outside Batavia. They did not come back until the city was broken, and captured the horse and blue in one fell swoop. The people hoarded various supplies on the beach, forcing them to go out for rescue. The Dutch in the city also took advantage of this to fight back and reoccupied the city of Batavia..."
Although Cheng Dapeng was not a high-ranking official, he knew that the leaders would definitely be very concerned about the outcome of the battle in Nanyang, so during the voyage here, he had already prepared a draft of how to describe it concisely and vividly. The situation of the last battle between the two armies was explained to the superiors. And this part of the battle was indeed the most dramatic part of the entire battle. Cheng Dapeng was talking enthusiastically, and Roger had been listening with interest, only occasionally interjecting to ask some detailed questions.
An hour had passed since then, and Cheng Dapeng had been talking about it until Bart came to ask him to go north to buy grain after the war, and then he finally finished narrating this episode of the war.
Roger was very attentive. After looking at the time, he asked: "I have to ask you about the details of some things, but if you stay here too long, will the Dutch doubt you?"
"It doesn't matter, I have already thought of an excuse." Cheng Dapeng responded: "The Dutch only care about whether they can get supplies here at a relatively low price, and my whereabouts are secondary. I will send someone to inform you later. The Dutch said that they had met an old acquaintance at the port and were invited to a banquet. It was already getting late and the Dutch would not go on the road in the dark. They would definitely stay here for the night before leaving. "
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Roger nodded and told Li Dagui: "Go and go through the supply procedures with the Dutch. Give them some sweeteners. Remember to express your gratitude to Cheng Dapeng, so as not to arouse the suspicion of the Dutch."
(End of chapter)