Chapter 939 Belitung Island
The ownership of Belitung Island used to belong to a sultanate in central Sumatra. However, after the Dutch settled in Batavia, in order to establish a safe route to Northeast Asia, they sent armed sailing ships to attack this area. Clearances were carried out and a settlement was established on the south coast of the island seven years ago, with income derived from growing pepper on the island. However, the East India Company's ability to build and develop such island colonies was very limited. By the time Haihan attacked Amborna Island in 1631, the population of this colony, which was also a supply port in the South China Sea with Amborana Island, was still There are no more than a thousand people, and the scale of development is not even comparable to that of Ambrina Island at the same time.
It was not until Ambuna Island changed hands that the East India Company began to accelerate the dispatch of immigrants and armed personnel to the area in order to prevent Haihan from continuing south to seize Belitung Island. So far, the population of the colony on the south side of the island is about 3,000, of which only one-tenth is Dutch. The remaining population is composed of other nationalities, including Europeans, Malays, Han Chinese and other ethnic groups. , its racial complexity is almost the same as that of Amborna Island.
Of course, it is obviously not enough to rely on such a small population to fully control an island with an area of nearly 5,000 square kilometers. Therefore, although the East India Company unilaterally brought the island under its own rule, in fact, at least there are Seven to eight thousand indigenous people live scattered in various places and belong to various tribes. It can be said that most areas of the island are still in a state of anarchy.
From a geographical point of view, Belitung Island is located about 400 nautical miles south of Ampurna Island and about 200 nautical miles from Batavia further south. It is the only way for Java to enter the South China Sea from the north. If Haihan wants to suppress Batavia and control the Sunda Strait, this is obviously a better choice. The purpose of the joint fleet's trip to Belitung Island is more or less to inspect the actual situation here, collect the required information, and then the military general staff will evaluate whether it is necessary to seize the area, whether the conditions are mature, and what to do next. The military strength that needs to be invested and the defensive pressure that may be faced, etc.
Because he had already initialed a memorandum of understanding with the East India Company, at Yan Chujie's initiative, Van Diemen also sent a group of people to go north with the fleet. On the one hand, he notified the colonial settlement of Belitung Island of the peace news along the way, so that They provided supplies for the combined fleet. On the other hand, they went to Ambrosia Island in advance to make a forward stop for the negotiations next month.
Taking advantage of the time to obtain supplies at the port, Yan Chujie asked people on the ship to conduct a simple survey and mapping of the local topography and sea conditions. The conditions here are very simple, and there are no decent coastal defenses at all. Yan Chujie and others believe that as long as two to three companies of the army are deployed, and a few warships come close to the coast to provide fire cover, it will be enough to seize the port here. Take control. However, Haihan's real interest was not here, so the combined fleet did not stay at the local port for too long. After completing the supplies, it immediately continued to move northwest along the coastline.
After leaving this small port, the sailing ship carrying the Dutch envoy immediately headed north and returned to Amborna Island. The fleet's next itinerary was a military secret and the information was not allowed to be obtained by the opponent.
In addition to checking the East India Company's colonies on the island, the United Fleet also has two tasks to complete here. One is prospecting, and the other is investigating an alternative foothold selected by the military.
In addition to pepper, another specialty on Belitung Island is tin mine. In the time and space before traveling here, the tin produced on Belitung Island accounted for one-third of Indonesia's national tin production. However, in the original history, it was not until 1851, more than two hundred years later, that the Dutch discovered and mined tin deposits here. At present, this place is still in a state of neglect, leaving an opportunity for Haihan to take advantage of. .
The ductility of tin can be used to make extremely thin tin foil, which will not rust and can be widely used in food preservation and anti-corrosion. Tin cans are coated with a thin layer of tin on the iron sheet. With this After developing this technology, Haihan can produce canned food in large quantities, which is of great practical significance for both people's livelihood and the military. In addition, the chemically stable tin's anti-corrosion properties will also bring great progress to Haihan's chemical industry.
In addition, bronze, which is widely used in military applications, contains 5% tin. Haihan's mine in Shilu currently has stable copper production. Coupled with the tin mine, the cast iron cannons equipped by the army are expected to be gradually replaced with bronze cannons with better performance and longer life in the future. Tin brass, which is widely used on naval ships, is also an alloy composed of tin.
Of course, there is another use that cannot be ignored, which is to make movable type used for printing. Lead type in the general concept is actually a kind of tin alloy. When this product is widely used in the printing industry, Haihan's cultural promotion field will obviously make great progress. The cost of type printing is far lower than that of engraving printing, which is still commonly used in the Ming Dynasty. Although there are also printing workshops with homemade copper movable type and wooden movable type in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, their production capacity is far from the same level as that of Haihan. Yes. It is also expected that Haihan's printed books will impact the Ming Dynasty cultural market.
According to the information collected before crossing, there are a large number of tin ore veins on Belitung Island that can be mined open-pit, so this gives Haihan one more reason to win this place. In the past, the reason why Haihan didn’t come to seize this place was because Haihan’s own strength was limited and beyond his reach to Belitung Island. But now that Haihan’s maritime strength in the Far East has clearly surpassed that of the Dutch, it is natural to seize similar territory step by step. Belitung Island is a resource-producing place.
The fleet did not go too far after leaving the Dutch station. After walking west for about twenty nautical miles, it approached the coast and dropped several teams of people ashore to survey the surface conditions here. Of course, Zhang Yun would not miss this opportunity to land for inspection, and went ashore with his two apprentices carrying large and small bags.
The total population of this island of several thousand square kilometers is only about 10,000 people. It is considered a vast area and sparsely populated. Moreover, the Dutch "cleared" the indigenous residents on the island several times in the early years, so the indigenous tribes still on the island are still there. They basically gave up the offshore areas that were vulnerable to attack and moved to the inland areas of the island to settle. Therefore, the landing site chosen by Haihan was basically no different from an uninhabited land. However, in order to prevent some unexpected beasts from appearing on the island, Yan Chujie still sent a company of the army ashore to protect the two groups of people who were exploring mineral deposits and conducting biological research.
According to the map marks prepared in advance, the exploration team found two mineral veins just a few kilometers away from the coastline without much effort and collected dozens of kilograms of ore samples. On the contrary, Zhang Yun and his apprentice entered the dense forest and did not want to come out. They returned to the meeting place two hours later than the exploration team.
After leaving here, the fleet sailed around the southwest peninsula of Belitung Island from the sea, and then turned and sailed north. After about five hours of sailing, the fleet arrived at the mouth of a river. You can still see the relics left by the former indigenous tribes here, but now it has become a no man's land due to repeated raids by the Dutch. This place was chosen by the military. Although the river mouth here is not very wide and the size of the port that can be built will still be relatively limited, there are relatively concentrated tin ore veins in the upper reaches of the river. Water conservancy conditions can be used to transport ore to the seaside for processing. Of course, if conditions mature in the future, a freight railway can be built between the seaside smelting workshop and the mine in the same way as the Shilu Iron Mine was developed. The length of this railway is much shorter than the line from Changhua to Shilu. The straight-line distance is only about a quarter of it, and the construction cost will be reduced accordingly.
After the fleet docked at the mouth of the river, a simple shack was built on the spot. Zheng Zha and Fan Ji, who didn't know the news in advance, were very surprised by this, and they both asked Haihan why they wanted to build a temporary residence here. Haihan's answer was also very straightforward, and he was planning to settle here and build a colony.
Annan and Zhancheng both understood the principle of following Haihan to have meat. Although they did not understand the specific reason why Haihan chose this place, since they had already built temporary residences here, it meant that it was not a joke. This time Now that I've hit it, if I miss it again, it will be my own fault. At that moment, the two of them returned to the ship and transferred a team of men to station on the island - send some people to help you guard it. Since you want to develop here anyway, I will just follow you and drink some soup.
As for the East India Company, which originally claimed ownership of the island, who cares what the Dutch think at this time. Zheng Zha and Fan Ji had both listened to the negotiations between Van Diemen and Yan Chujie a few days ago, and they were very aware of the current strength comparison between the two families. The Dutch almost couldn't save Batavia, so how could they still have the energy to come to Belitung? island. Besides, Haihan chose to settle here, and it seemed that he was not in a hurry to kill all the Dutch on the island, so the possibility of a war breaking out was not high. Since the risk is not very high, then this investment is worth trying. The unknown is just the level of return. Anyway, with the vision and methods of the Haihan people, you will never lose money when doing business with them.
Compared with the previous landing survey, the work done by the Haihan Army here was much more detailed. Roger personally led the special operations brigade he trained to escort the mineral exploration team upstream along the river and entered. to inland areas.
Fortunately, the indigenous tribes that originally lived in this area seemed to have completely abandoned it, which made Roger, who had been nervous, a lot more relaxed. However, the exploration work in this area is scheduled to take three to five days, so Roger still has to keep his men alert enough during this period.
But after entering the interior, what caused the team the biggest trouble was not the expected natives, nor the poisonous insects and beasts in the forest, but the continuous rain. The rain made this small river with a small flow become turbulent, and the route along the river was often interrupted by swamps, ponds and even streams that appeared after rainfall. For this reason, Roger's team had to make a detour. A certain distance can be reached before heading to the predetermined target area.
"This damn weather!" Roger looked up at the rainy sky and cursed bitterly. Although he was wearing a raincoat and waterproof boots and was protected from the rain, the fate of his soldiers was not so good. Most people's raincoats had been soaked by the rain, and the straw sandals and cloth shoes on their feet had no resistance to the wet forest floor, and soon became a burden on their feet.
The logistics department has developed a new type of military raincoat covered with rubber coating. However, the output of this high-end product is still frighteningly low. Even Qian Tiandun's special operations battalion only received a small amount as experimental equipment. Roger was waiting for it. Don't even think about applying for a place like this.
There are no quick-acting cold medicines in this era. Once you catch a small cold in this tropical rainforest, it is likely to evolve into serious diseases such as typhoid, malaria, pneumonia, etc. in a short period of time, and you may even die as a result. And die. Roger has been in the South China Sea all year round, and of course he has seen many cases of slaves dying due to lack of medical treatment, so he is still very anxious about carrying out such a mission of marching in the rain and having to be stationed in the wild for several days. .
Two days after setting off, Roger had to lead the team back to the camp by the sea. Due to the weather, there was no dry firewood that could be used as fuel in the dense forests inland, and there was no way to build enough camp beds so that the soldiers did not have to sleep on the wet ground. In just two days, several people had already appeared. Got cold symptoms. Roger did not dare to be careless. If this disease spread among the army, the non-combat attrition rate would be very fast. At the moment, he could only return to the base camp to let the troops rest and recuperate.
As a result, the time to stay in Belitung Island will have to be extended backwards. After discussing with several senior officials, they decided to wait here for another week. If the rain still showed no sign of stopping, then they would give up the exploration mission and find another suitable time opportunity.
Fortunately, God seemed to be kind to this team. On the fifth day, the seemingly endless rain finally stopped without warning. Although it was difficult to tell how long this temporary fine weather would last, Roger led the team to set off again without hesitation. However, this time Yan Chujie gave all the portable waterproof tents he brought to Roger, and also assigned a dozen mules and horses to carry the baggage - all clean coal unloaded from the flagship. Put it in a bamboo basket and wrap it with a tarpaulin. If it starts to rain again in the forest, these clean coals can at least temporarily provide a warm and dry space for the soldiers to rest at night.
(End of chapter)