Chapter 1202: Western Colonizers, Don't Leave! (Please Subscribe)

Java Island, Batavia Fortress.

When a light frigate of the Dutch East India Company returned to Batavia's harbor bearing the dire news that "a large Ming army has successfully landed on Temasek Island and along the Johor Strait," the rulers of the city immediately fell into panic. For they knew that the main force of the Dutch East India fleet lay in ambush at the mouth of the Klang River, not far from Temasek Island.

They had no reason to sit and watch several hundred ships' worth of Ming troops leisurely landing on Temasek Island and the northern shore of the Johor Strait — a landing operation could not be completed in just a day or two! For what had to come ashore was not only light infantry, but also large quantities of baggage and artillery. According to the Dutch frigate's reconnaissance, the Ming landing force had been at it for at least six days!

Six days!

God created the world in six days! Was that not enough time for Rear Admiral Tromp's fleet to sail from the mouth of the Klang River to Temasek Island? And these days the southwest wind had been blowing over the strait, a fairly favorable wind direction. So if Tromp's fleet had not come, something must have gone wrong.

Perhaps the main force of the Ming Nanyang Fleet had also entered the Strait of Malacca and forced Tromp's fleet back. It might even have defeated Rear Admiral Tromp's fleet — after all, their numerical superiority was terrifying!

And once Tromp's fleet withdrew, Johor Fortress was surely lost.

The more than ten thousand but fewer than twenty thousand native soldiers concentrated there had limited fighting ability and could not hold out for long, while the Shun army around Penang Island was too far from Johor Fortress — traveling overland would likely take twenty days (about six hundred kilometers), by which time Johor Fortress would certainly have fallen.

And once Johor Fortress and Temasek Island fell, the southeastern entrance to the Strait of Malacca would be under the control of the Great Ming Nanyang Fleet.

Although the Sunda Strait could still be used, how much longer could it remain open? Great Ming was not England or Portugal — in the Southern Seas this country was the Celestial Dynasty! The Westerners had only been able to gain a foothold in the Southern Seas by seizing the opportunity of the Celestial Dynasty's decline. But now the Celestial Dynasty had revived and come back fighting. So after Johor changed hands, the native states of the Southern Seas would certainly and swiftly realign themselves, and the Banten Sultanate, which had great conflicts with the East India Company, would surely go over to Great Ming's side.

By then, the Sunda Strait would also be locked shut! And Batavia would become the grave that buried the Dutch East India Company.

Realizing that catastrophe was upon him, Governor-General Maetsuycker immediately issued orders for all white civilians in Batavia to withdraw into the fortress, and also commandeered every sailing ship passing through Batavia — it seemed he was preparing to flee.

By the twentieth day of the seventh lunar month, another light frigate cruising the Makassar Strait brought fresh dire news — a massive Ming fleet had already passed through the Makassar Strait and was heading toward Java Island!

There was no need to say it: this must be coming to occupy Java Island! With no word at all from Rear Admiral Tromp, and the Ming fleet bearing down with such force, it looked very much as though the Dutch East India fleet had been defeated.

Governor-General Maetsuycker dared not wait any longer and immediately issued the order for a general evacuation, hoping to get the several thousand Westerners in Batavia out before the Ming fleet sealed off Batavia's harbor — to withdraw through the Sunda Strait, around Sumatra, to Aceh, and then decide what to do next.

Just as the Governor-General stood dazed at the window of his office in Batavia Castle, watching the Westerners below, now turned refugees, frantically packing their belongings and preparing to board ships and flee, one of his secretaries came running in panic to report — the Ming consul Wei Qingmu urgently sought an audience!

"Wei Qingmu?" Governor-General Maetsuycker thought: What is that fellow here for? To buy off this Governor-General? This Governor-General will not surrender! He was silent for a moment, then finally sighed: "Show him in."

Wei Qingmu appeared anxious, arriving drenched in sweat. Seeing Maetsuycker, he skipped even the pleasantries and came straight to the point: "Governor-General, are you people preparing to flee?"

"Flee?" Maetsuycker snorted. "This is not fleeing, it is merely a strategic relocation! Consul Wei, just you wait — we of the Dutch East India Company will certainly return!"

That was nothing but tough talk; Maetsuycker himself did not believe it.

For after losing Batavia, the Spice Islands east of Batavia would certainly be lost as well! Those were the East India Company's most important source of profit. Without the spices of the Spice Islands, whether the East India Company could even continue to exist would be in question — so how could it return?

"Since you intend to return, why leave now?" Wei Qingmu said with a smile. "All this coming and going is such a bother. Better to simply stay in Batavia."

Stay? As prisoners? Or...

Maetsuycker stared at Wei Qingmu with an ashen face, waiting for him to continue.

Wei Qingmu said: "Ten days ago, your East India fleet fought a fierce battle in the southeastern Strait of Malacca, less than a hundred li from Temasek Island, against the escort formation of our Nanyang landing fleet. In that battle both sides suffered heavy losses, with more than ten warships on each side damaged or severely wounded. After the engagement ended, the East India fleet withdrew from the Strait of Malacca!

So the days of fighting and killing here in the Southern Seas are nearly over. Everyone can once again enjoy peace, do business together, and grow rich together. Governor-General, if you now take the Westerners of Batavia and leave, you will be missing an opportunity to grow rich!"

This battle, known to history as the Great Ming–Dutch Battle of the Malacca Strait, had no clear victor. Although it was the Ming fleet that withdrew first, they had accomplished their mission of blocking the Dutch fleet's continued eastward advance and protecting the safety of the landing fleet.

The Dutch, after the engagement ended, abandoned their anchorage at the mouth of the Klang River and withdrew to Penang Island to rest and refit — which is to say, they withdrew from the Strait of Malacca.

As for the losses on both sides, they were extremely severe!

Of the eleven Ming warships that took part in the battle, all were either sunk or heavily damaged. In the end, only four returned to the Temasek anchorage: the flagship Wuhan Prefecture, the Jiangbei of the Flying class, and the Dongsheng Guard and Yulin Guard of the Military Guard class. The remaining seven warships were either destroyed or run aground. Even the four warships that made it back to the anchorage were riddled with holes, scorched black all over, and practically written off.

The Dutch losses were even greater. Of their thirty-two ships, only twenty-one came staggering into Penang Island in the end; as many as eleven ships were destroyed or run aground, among them the battleship Seven Provinces, with a burden of 950 tons. And of the twenty-one warships that reached Penang Island, eight were so badly damaged as to be nearly beyond repair — among them the Zeeland Provincial Council.

In addition, the naval officers and men on both sides suffered heavy casualties. On the Great Ming side, the number of killed, severely wounded, captured, and missing exceeded 1,100!

Although the Dutch side left the battlefield later and had the chance to rescue officers and men who had fallen into the water, their losses in personnel still exceeded 1,300!

After the battered Dutch East India fleet withdrew to Penang Island, it suffered yet another blow: the Shun reinforcements that should have arrived there long ago were nowhere to be seen, and the western coast of the Malay Peninsula opposite Penang Island had already been occupied by Ming troops advancing south.

Left with no choice, the Dutch East India fleet had to continue retreating along the coastline of the Malay Peninsula, all the way toward Burma to find a place to repair their ships.

But Wei Qingmu did not yet know the whereabouts of the Dutch East India fleet at this time. He only knew that the Ming navy had won command of the seas around the Southern Seas archipelago! And so he had to carry out another important mission issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs — to ask the Dutch colonizers to stay!

Stay for what?

To stay and carry on colonization together, of course!

To later generations this would surely seem inconceivable. You have defeated the colonizers, and instead of promptly driving them out, you invite them to stay and continue colonizing — does that make any sense?

But Zhu Cilang, far away in Yingtian Prefecture, had his own economic and colonial calculations.

Economically, establishing the twelve duchies on the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra would require enormous investment, and that investment would require a great deal of trade before it could yield returns. So he did not want the sea-carters of Europe to leave the Southern Seas; on the contrary, he hoped they would stay, and ideally even take part in building the twelve duchies of the Southern Seas.

On the colonial question, the Western colonizers in the Southern Seas were not really true colonizers, because they would not settle many colonists there. It would be more accurate to call them investors and profiteers!

The twelve duchies of Great Ming, and the other duchies yet to be established, were the true colonizers.

(End of Chapter)