Chapter 243 Backlash
Hagen finally realized Gavin’s pain a few months ago.
The Acehnese are very cunning and do not fight head-on with the Dutch at all.
The search team sent by the Dutch may be attacked by the Acehnese at any time.
The Acehnese attack is very fierce and extremely efficient.
Yesterday afternoon a company of East India servants was attacked.
When the attack occurred, another Gurkha force was not far from the servant army that was attacked.
It only took the Gurkha troops half an hour to arrive at the site of the attack, which was extremely fast for the Dutch army.
When Gurkha arrived, the battle was already over.
A total of 150 people were wiped out in just half an hour.
The Acehnese even had time to clean up the battlefield, collect all the loot, and leave a letter to the Dutch.
It was this letter that finally made Hagen feel troubled.
The Aceh people claimed in the letter that whatever the Dutch did in Aceh, Aceh will be returned to the Dutch intact. Today's Lansha and Aceh are the future of Amsterdam and Rotterdam. .
Hagen didn’t know what the Acehnese would do.
But Hagen could imagine that if the tragedies of Lansha and Aceh really happened in the Netherlands, then the Dutch colonization in East India would collapse instantly.
The reason why the Dutch did whatever they wanted in the East Indies was that everything that happened in the East Indies had nothing to do with the Dutch mainland.
The East Indians could not threaten the Dutch mainland.
The army being attacked was not even a Dutch army, but a fratricidal war between East Indians.
If the East Indians have the ability to threaten the Dutch mainland.
Gavin would not dare order the massacre of Lansha, and Hagen would not bombard Aceh.
Now Hagen can only hope that the Acehnese are just talking and have no ability to threaten the Dutch mainland.
But the supporter behind the Aceh people is the Russian Empire.
Aceh may not be able to threaten the Dutch mainland.
The Russian Empire totally does.
So after Hagen finished his toast, Zobnin was invited to the small living room.
"What happens in East India is limited to East India. This should be our consensus."
Hagen hopes to reach an agreement with Zobnin.
“I agree!”
Zobnin surprised Hagen happily.
“So the war can only be in East India and cannot spread to Europe, otherwise it will arouse opposition from all European countries.”
Hagen spoke more bluntly, worried that Zobnin wouldn't understand.
“Yes, that should be the case.”
Zobu Ning was heartless and even raised his glass to signal to Hagen.
“That’s great, I’m glad we’ve reached a consensus.”
Hagen is happy and as long as the war doesn’t spread to the Netherlands, Hagen can continue.
"Wait, what's the consensus?"
Zobunin's words made Hagen feel bad.
“You don’t think I have the ability to influence those Acehnese people, do you? First of all, I have to declare that the Russian Empire has nothing to do with Aceh. The Slavs in Aceh are their personal actions and The Russian Empire has nothing to do with it.”
Hagen looked gloomy and mentally greeted the women in Zobnin’s family.
"Although I don't know what happened yet, I still want to remind you that if any innocent Russians are harmed in Aceh, you know the consequences - the Russian Empire will never sit idly by!"< br>
Zobnin made Hagen realize what true imperialism is.
Yes, the Russian Empire was behind Aceh.
But if the Dutch dare to hurt any Russian in Aceh, then Zobnin will let Hagen know how violent the crazy polar bear is.
“If any city in the Netherlands is attacked in any form, it will be a subversion of the civilized world and will be opposed by the whole world——”
Hagen knows The Netherlands was too weak to fight against the Russian Empire alone.
"Ha, don't just take the whole world for granted, you are not qualified to represent the whole world!"
Although Hagen still doesn't know how violent the polar bears are, he has seen how arrogant the Russians are.
“If Russia ceased to exist, there would be no need for this world to exist!”
Zobnin’s words made Hagen’s heart tremble.
External news from Aceh was completely cut off, and Hagen did not know what was happening in the Netherlands.
It was not until a week later that Hagen learned that on the day when the East Indian servants bombarded Aceh, an explosion occurred in an arsenal in Amsterdam.
The location of the arsenal is relatively remote, so the impact is not great.
The Dutch government immediately characterized the accident as an accident.
Hai Gen knew it was not that simple.
It is normal for arsenals to explode. In an era when smokeless gunpowder was unstable, it would explode wherever it was left untouched.
But it didn't explode sooner or later, but it happened to explode on the day when the East Indian Army attacked Aceh.
The Dutch government has not realized the connection between the two. Hagen only felt that his eyes were black and the soles of his feet were weak.
Another day later, Hagen once again received news from the Netherlands.
After the explosion of the arsenal in Amsterdam, the Dutch government received an anonymous letter claiming that the explosion of the arsenal was God's punishment for the Dutch invasion of Aceh. If the Dutch did not stop the invasion, the next explosion would be It's no longer an arsenal.
The funny thing is that the Dutch government did not take this letter seriously, thinking that it was just a prank by a madman.
So two days later, the armored battleship "King" docked in the Rotterdam military port exploded again.
The last explosion in the arsenal only resulted in the deaths of two warehouse managers. These two warehouse managers were still employed from the colonies, so the impact was not significant. The "King" is the latest cutting-edge warship in service with the Royal Netherlands Navy. The explosion occurred near the ammunition depot of the "King".
The violent explosion caused the ammunition on the "King" to explode. This ironclad ship, which had been in service for less than half a year, disappeared from the water in only 5 minutes.
There were 156 Royal Navy officers and soldiers who sank with the "King".
Fortunately, of these 156 men, less than 20 were real Dutch, and the rest of the sailors were hired from the colonies.
I would like to insert a sentence here.
After the establishment of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, it suffered from a shortage of local manpower and could only hire a large number of sailors from the colonies to serve in the Royal Netherlands Navy.
There are currently about 10,000 colonial sailors serving in the Royal Netherlands Navy.
If the last explosion was a prank.
Then the explosion of the "King" finally attracted the attention of the Dutch government.
From arsenal to armored ship, this leap is huge and amazing.
Where will it be next?
What if the explosion occurred in a densely populated area in the center of Rotterdam?
What if it was the Capitol Building or even the Royal Palace?
Hagen received three telegrams from the Netherlands within one day. The Dutch government demanded that Hagen immediately stop the attack on Aceh and negotiate with the Acehnese to end the war as quickly as possible.
After receiving the telegram, Hagen cursed and hated the weakness of local politicians.
But after finishing the scolding, Hagen still had to hold his nose and find Dewey, because only Dewey could contact the Lansha Sultanate.
Sounds amazing.
Zobunin, a real Russian, cannot contact the Lansha Sultanate.
Dewey, an American, could.
But this is the fact.
The Deweys are also smart and drag Zobnin along to see Hagen.
Hagen looked at Zobnin with extremely hateful eyes.
But there was nothing we could do about Zobnin.
"I found the letter on my windowsill. I don't know when the letter appeared or who put it. Maybe Mr. Zobnin knows."
Dewey had nothing to do, he was just a Those who want to eat melons, but I don’t expect to be eaten melons.
“I know as much as you know.”
Zobunin held a nail clipper and trimmed his nails carelessly, filing them twice, blowing on them, filing them twice more, and blowing on them again ——
“Can you concentrate more? We are negotiating here!”
Dewey almost laughed out loud, the Russians were so interesting.
"What does it have to do with me? I don't know anything!"
Zobunin shouted that he was innocent, and the letter was not found on his window sill.
Dewey gritted his teeth.
The night before he found the letter, Zobnin and Dewey were drinking together in Dewey's room.
Dewey drank a little too much and found the letter when he woke up.
"Whether you know it or not, I have to say that the Acehnese people's request is impossible to achieve."
Hegen was filled with humiliation, but he had to swallow this breath.
The conditions proposed by the Acehnese in the letter were very harsh, requiring the Dutch East Indian colonial government to withdraw from Sumatra and at the same time compensate the Lansa Sultanate 100 million dong as war compensation.
This condition is unacceptable to Hagen.
But when it comes to negotiations, they ask for high prices and pay back on the spot. When the Dutch were negotiating with the East Indian kings in the past, they were very open-minded, but now it finally backfired on the Dutch.
"Then what else is there to say, bye-"
Zobnin stood up and left.
"Wait a minute, can you stop being so grumpy-"
Dewey grabbed Zobnin and refused to let Zobnin leave.
"Ha——"
Zobu Ning sneered, looking at Hagen like he was looking at prey.
Impossible?
Okay.
Then the explosion was light and did not hurt the Dutch people to their bones.
"On behalf of Amsterdam, I can agree to the independence of Aceh, and from a humanitarian standpoint, give Aceh some economic compensation-"
Hagen tried his best to describe the surrender in a euphemistic tone.
“You don’t seem to understand the situation clearly. Do you still feel aggrieved?”
Zobnin’s expression was colder than the Siberian cold wave.
“By coincidence, I also found a letter on the windowsill of my room.”
Zuo Bunin took out a letter and placed it in front of Hagen, and Shi Shiran left.
This time Dewey did not stop Zobnin from leaving.
Hegen didn't stop him either. He looked at the letter in a daze, and sweat suddenly appeared on his forehead.
Hagen's hands were shaking, and the thin letter paper seemed to be heavier than a thousand pounds.
Dewey wanted to know what the letter was about, but had no chance.
Because after Hagen read the letter, he fainted in his chair.
The letter paper fell lightly to the ground. Dewey only saw some names and addresses, and then he was asked out of the room by the medical staff swarming in.
(End of this chapter)