Chapter 220: A Two-Handed Preparation

Dark clouds massed thickly, golden light pierced the barrier — the dense cloud layer in the sky had already blotted out the sunlight completely. Although by the clock it was three in the afternoon, the seas around Dayuan Island and beyond were now shrouded beneath the storm-black clouds, and only the occasional bolt of light splitting down through the cloud cover would remind a person that this was not yet night.

The Dutch East India Company fleet, flying the red-white-blue tricolor VOC flag, had now halted in the open sea off Dayuan, two kilometers from the channel mouth.

"Those exiled nobles have already dredged the channel open?" Lowering his telescope, the tall, resolute-faced Hans Putmans stood at the bow of the Middelburg and said in astonishment, "The last report did not mention this in any detail — otherwise, I imagine my flagship would be the Leeuwarden."

"These people possess many peculiar technologies, Your Excellency," Johannes van der Hagen, an old acquaintance of the Transmigrators, said deferentially at his side. "Perhaps in Mao Zhe's eyes this was not the most important matter — after all, the report mentioned far too many marvels."

"These questions should have answers soon enough… I can already see the dispatch boat pulling out of the channel. Mr. Mao Zhe will be aboard, correct?"

"That will certainly be the case, Your Excellency."

What the Dutch fleet had come to do — the story begins five months earlier.

Five months earlier, the day the Sloten, commanded by Pauw Nuyts, returned to Batavia, the whole of Batavia was thrown into an uproar.

The sitting Governor-General of Batavia, Governor Jan Pieterszoon Coen, after inspecting the cargo, reading the letters, and hearing the reports of Nuyts and the Strolling Quartet, immediately convened the City Council and informed all Batavia senior officials of the Dayuan Incident.

And after the meeting, Nuyts and several others, including Van der Hagen, instantly became the stars of Batavia — because Governor Coen had publicly displayed at the meeting the letter personally written to him by the "Governor-General of Dayuan" and the personal gifts: friendly commercial pledges and pearl ornaments of incomparable beauty.

All doubts vanished before the raw silk and porcelain carried out from the Sloten's hold. For an entire week the stars shuttled from one banquet to the next every day, ceaselessly describing every detail of the Crossing Faction to the great personages. Moreover, whenever they brought out those strings of pearl necklaces treated with later-generation inlay craftsmanship, they invariably drew endless gasps of wonder and admiration.

No one cared about that trifling loss of soldiers and a trading post. The United Provinces was now in its Golden Age, and the Dutch East India Company, which had contributed so indispensably to it, was the world's first true "borderless" commercial enterprise. These merchants, who could trade with their mortal enemies at any moment and sell out their motherland on the side, cared not a whit for those few lives — still less for a trading post that did not even qualify as a fort.

Governor Coen himself was of the same mind: open trade with that mysterious power.

As the Company's greatest founder in South Asia, a hero, an executioner, a perpetrator of genocide — Coen, who had never shown the Natives the slightest mercy, this time discovered in the Dayuan goods demand list that Nuyts had brought back the first solution that could satisfy both sides in the Java problem.

In 1628, Batavia's days were not easy.

Historically, during Governor Coen's second term — that is, the 1628–1629 term — the most powerful Mataram Sultanate on the island of Java twice laid siege to Batavia. In fact, not long after Nuyts and his party returned to Batavia, word that the Native kingdom was massing warriors in great numbers had already begun to spread through the city.

The Mataram Sultanate was the most powerful Native kingdom of the Java archipelago in the 16th and early 17th centuries; its current ruler was Mas Rangsang Sultan. Historically, this Sultan nearly unified all of Java and extended his power to Palembang in Sumatra as well as Banjarmasin and Sukadana in Kalimantan.

And starting this year (1628), Sultan Rangsang, believing his kingdom's power had reached its zenith, began issuing orders to gather warriors and prepare to uproot the sole thorn on the island of Java: the Dutch stronghold of Batavia.

Such sieges were brutal affairs. Over the course of several months the two sides waged a series of low-intensity attacks and defenses around the City Wall; the Natives were shot down in great numbers by firearms and cannon, and the Dutch fared no better: trapped by the siege, just as many died of disease and all manner of collateral harm.

Governor Coen himself was the best example. At this moment he still did not know that he would die the following year during the Native kingdom's second siege — of dysentery. Those besieged could not get clean water; even a governor in the prime of life at forty-three would, in the end, die of dysentery all the same.

And so Governor Coen, already sensing that war with the Natives was unavoidable, found that the Transmigrators' letter of intent to purchase Natives was like a pillow delivered just as he nodded off to sleep.

The concerns of those in power differ from those of other men. What Coen cared about was the enormous military expenditure Batavia spent every year driving out and slaughtering Natives. If there were now a channel to turn Natives into money, then without a doubt, the losses from future wars with the Natives could be minimized — and might even turn a profit. The example of the blacks was right there for all to see.

Furthermore, because this mysterious power on Dayuan had rather peculiar appetites, the Slave Trade neatly made up the share of goods for which they had little need of spices… No matter how one looked at it, the commercial list that Nuyts and his party had brought back was supremely well suited to Batavia's present commercial circumstances.

Governor Coen was therefore very satisfied.

And so, half a month after Nuyts reached port, he led five trade ships north to the coast of Bengal and India. The native princes of the Bengal region held nitre, while the Indian regions had all manner of furs and cotton — all goods urgently needed by the Dayuan side.

By the time Nuyts returned to Batavia once more, it was already April 1628.

The five trade ships had brought back full cargoes of nitre, hides, and cotton. And at this very moment, the two-and-a-half-month siege of Batavia had just drawn to a close: the Mataram Kingdom had withdrawn its forces not long before, and everything was developing in a splendid direction.

Then the dire news came.

A speedboat expelled by the Japanese Shogunate brought the entire staff of the Dutch Japanese Trading Post, along with the Shogun's decree terminating Japanese-Dutch trade. Once the origins of the affair were angrily sorted out, Mr. Pauw Nuyts was promptly confirmed by the Batavia Council as the culprit responsible for the whole debacle…

Not that Nuyts was wronged, of course.

The whole sordid mess between Japan and the Dutch has been recounted earlier and need not be repeated here. In short, during his years as Governor of Taiwan, Mr. Nuyts had failed to properly manage the conflict between the Company and the Japanese… Not only had he failed to manage it, he had inflamed the hostility between the two sides, and so this blame had to be borne by him.

And thus Mr. Nuyts was left out in the cold.

And thus the originally designated post of fleet Commander and diplomatic representative to Dayuan likewise drifted far away from Mr. Nuyts.

History here seemed to return to its original track: Hans Putmans, who historically should have assumed the post of Governor at the Dayuan Trading Post the following year, in this timeline took over Mr. Nuyts's position a year early, once again.

Hans Putmans was a native of Middelburg in the Netherlands. Historically, after this gentleman succeeded Nuyts, he campaigned everywhere against the Taiwan Natives, developed trade with the Ming, and launched the Battle of Liaoluo Bay; during his years as Governor, the Dayuan Trading Post not only turned a loss into a profit but also laid the foundation for substantial long-term growth. Among all the Governors of Taiwan, Hans Putmans was, without a doubt, the most outstanding.

And so in early May 1628, under the command of Hans Putmans — who had originally served as chairman of the Batavia Council — fifteen Dutch ships, large and small, formed a fleet and set out from Bacheng with their cargo, bound for Dayuan Island.

Yet after the fleet spent a month and a half reaching the open sea off Dayuan, it did not drop anchor; instead it assumed a formation ready to maneuver at any moment, awaiting the arrival of a messenger.

After this, the scene that opened this chapter unfolded: just as Putmans had wished, Mao Zhe, the Company's Junior Merchant stationed at Dayuan, came aboard the Middelburg by boat at the first moment.

Yet when Mao Zhe met Putmans, the very first question he was asked left him dumbstruck: "If we were to launch a war right now, would the fleet have any chance of retaking everything on the island?"

After hearing Putmans's idea, Mao Zhe's eyes went wide, and then, waving both hands, he said in astonishment, "Oh, my God — only a madman could conceive such an idea! Your Excellency, permit me to tell you plainly: there is no chance whatsoever of attacking the island before us!"

"Commercial Agent, do you think our strength is insufficient?" Putmans now fixed his gaze intently on Mao Zhe. "We have fifteen ships. On my flagship alone there are 125 crew and 251 soldiers; the soldiers of the entire fleet combined exceed a thousand men. We also have storming fortresses… Are these still not enough?"

"Not enough — not nearly enough!" Mao Zhe's face was now flushed red. "The soldiers on the island have long-range firearms and 1-pounder cannons; they also have fast schooners that can sail without relying on sails. Good God — did you not see those two ships before you came here?"

"I do not believe those two ships can pose much of a threat — they are too few in number, their tonnage too low." Putmans could not help glancing outside the cabin at this — the two destroyers of the Transmigrators were at that moment cruising the open sea off Dayuan and had not entered the harbor.

"As for those rifles and 1-pounder cannons…" Putmans now allowed his mustache to curl slightly upward. "The fleet has a total of twenty 24-pounder cannons. I believe that will be more than sufficient to suppress those peculiar weapons."

Mao Zhe was by now utterly speechless; he could only brace both hands on the tabletop and ask dejectedly, "Is attacking Dayuan Island Governor Coen's order? I thought the fleet had come here to trade."

"The ships carry goods — and also cannonballs. As for Governor Coen… I am presently executing the order from Dayuan: to confirm the cooperative qualifications of our trading partner."

"Very well. I believe I understand." Mao Zhe raised his head and asked, "What do you need me to do?"

"Tell me the detailed troop disposition on the island, and then go back and tell those Ming Dynasty Nobility that I need to meet with one of their number."

"Yes, Your Excellency."