roccoschili Chapter 92 Sumatra
Chapter 92 Sumatra
Chapter 92 Sumatra
India's sabotage operations continued, and soon it was the beginning of the third year of the Hanchang era.
The Great Han Navy's Eastern Fleet and Southern Fleet departed from Shanghai and Bao'an Port respectively, and after passing through Luzon and Brunei, they replenished their forces with troops adapted to the Southeast Asian climate before sailing towards the Strait of Malacca.
Moving south from Luzon, the dry season arrives later and later, so military operations also begin later and later.
It's late autumn in Luzon, winter and the end of the year in Borneo, and the new year is just around the corner in Sumatra.
The two fleets carried not only the Han army and militia, but also members of the delegations from various Southeast Asian countries, including Johor Prime Minister Temenggong Daying Ibrahim, who had traveled north to pay tribute last year.
This year's operations of the Great Han Army and Navy include not only the largest island, Sumatra, but also a number of surrounding smaller islands.
This includes the Natuna Islands at the southern tip of the South China Sea and the Riau Islands opposite Singapore.
Therefore, after the fleet left Brunei, it first arranged for a transport fleet to carry two thousand militia members to the Natuna Islands to persuade the residents of the Natuna Islands to surrender.
At that time, the Natuna Islands had fewer than a thousand households and a total population of just over five thousand, the vast majority of whom were Chinese.
They were mostly descendants of Ming Dynasty loyalists who, after the Manchus entered the Central Plains, refused to submit to them and fled together to the Natuna Islands.
Due to the harsh local environment, the refugees lacked sufficient tools for production and had little contact with merchants.
During the two hundred years of the Qing Dynasty, the population not only did not increase, but actually decreased by half compared to the end of the Ming Dynasty.
The Qing dynasty ignored Ming dynasty immigrants overseas, regarding them as abandoned people of the Celestial Empire, and did not specifically launch a campaign to conquer the Natuna Islands.
After the Han fleet arrived at the Natuna Islands, the imperial envoy, accompanied by two thousand militia members, went ashore and announced the imperial decree to the Chinese leaders on the island, incorporating them and the newly arrived militia into a militia guard.
They used a large number of tools brought from the Han Dynasty to repair fields and houses, develop drainage canals, and improve living conditions.
More than two hundred years have passed since the Ming Dynasty, and the new dynasty, named after the Han, overthrew the Manchu Qing and once again expelled the Tartars.
These immigrants had few regrets left, so they naturally submitted to the Han Dynasty.
The other main fleets of the Great Han, along with the delegations from the princely states on both sides of the Strait of Malacca, continued southward to return to their countries.
When the large fleet approached the Strait of Malacca, the British Channel Colony naval patrol was taken aback, instinctively assuming that the fleet was also heading to India.
However, upon closer inspection, they noticed that the flags of the Malacca Peninsula were also present at the front of the fleet, especially the flag of the Temenggong of Johor. Only then did they realize that the Great Han's target this time was not India.
The patrol fleet immediately dispatched small fast boats to inform the Governor of the Straits Settlements and the naval fleet commander, while continuing to carefully watch the Han fleet pass through the strait.
The Great Han fleet ignored the British patrol fleet, passed them by, and then sailed separately toward Sumatra and the surrounding major ports.
Some of them traveled to various princely states such as Johor, Aceh, and Phagarujong.
The Han envoys and the tribute envoys from the Turkic state traveled together, accompanied by the Han army and militia that arrived by ship. They disembarked at the Turkic state's own port and read the emperor's edict to the Turkic state's monarch and ministers.
The rulers of larger local states were renamed kings and dukes, while the rulers of smaller local states were renamed marquises or earls. They were required to cooperate with the Han immigrants in reclaiming wasteland and establishing settlements, and were not allowed to interfere in the affairs of the Han military and civilians.
The Han army independently managed Han immigration affairs, while the local rulers continued to manage local affairs and regularly arranged for laborers to help the Han army and immigrants.
The specific rules are the same as those of Brunei and Sulu, other Borneo vassal states.
These princely states, aware of the situation in Luzon and Borneo, had already made the same preparations when sending envoys to the capital to pay tribute. Now, they received the imperial decree with mixed feelings.
After the Han army landed, they pacified the surrounding local lords who refused to submit, and arranged for militia to reclaim wasteland and cultivate land.
The whole process went very smoothly, and nothing particularly important happened.
However, the other part is a little more troublesome.
This targeted areas directly and indirectly controlled by the Dutch, such as the Batam Islands opposite Singapore, and Jambi and Palembang in south-central Sumatra.
In these places, the Han Dynasty would arrange for troops to escort envoys ashore, and first issue proclamations to the local Dutch and indigenous leaders, announcing that the Han emperor would bring Sumatra and the surrounding islands under his rule.
They demanded that everyone on the island either submit or leave immediately.
Unlike the approach taken a year ago when Borneo was handled, this time they were not given time to prepare or consider, and were required to make a choice on the spot immediately after being notified.
Among these places, there were some where the Netherlands did not have a long-term presence. The Netherlands governed these places through subjugated chieftains and traders, such as the Riau Islands opposite Singapore.
After the Han army landed, the local chieftains hesitated for a moment before choosing to surrender one after another.
In recent years, the power of the Han Chinese in Southeast Asia has been at its peak, while the Dutch in Borneo dared not confront the Han Chinese and withdrew immediately upon receiving the notice, causing the fear of the Dutch among the surrounding natives to drop sharply.
Therefore, if it weren't for the Dutch army suppressing the situation, most of the princely states would no longer dare to oppose the Han Dynasty.
After taking control of the Riau Islands in Singapore, the Great Han Navy immediately sent more militia ashore.
They cleared land for farming on the two main islands of Batam and Bintan, while simultaneously beginning the construction of cities and port terminals.
In some of these areas, a small number of merchants and immigrants from the Netherlands lived.
For example, Palembang, as the central city of southern Sumatra, has nearly a thousand European immigrants, and more importantly, it has a total of more than one hundred Dutch troops stationed there.
When the Han envoy arrived with thousands of troops, the Dutch officials and soldiers in the city first adopted a tough stance at the docks, declaring to the Han envoy that this was Dutch territory.
The Han envoy, too lazy to explain, simply had his interpreter relay a message: "Tell them to have one hour to choose between surrendering or withdrawing immediately."
"An hour later, the Han army will take over Palembang and kill any opposing forces on the spot."
"This place now and in the future belongs to the Han Dynasty, so there's no need to reason with them."
The interpreter, accompanied by guards, went to deliver a message to the envoy, who in turn ordered his accompanying troops to immediately prepare for battle.
The soldiers pre-loaded their ammunition, fixed their bayonets, and lined up in several battle lines, awaiting the order to attack.
A thousand soldiers stared intently at the Dutchmen opposite them, ready to rush forward and kill all the enemies at any moment.
Of the Dutch soldiers opposite, less than a third were Dutch; the majority of the rest were surrendered natives, totaling only a little over a hundred.
Faced with the direct threat of the enemy, the soldiers whispered amongst themselves, shrinking back and not daring to move forward, or even look their opponents in the eye. The Dutch officials and officers were also sweating profusely.
After holding out for nearly half an hour, the Dutch officials and officers realized that it was irrational and foolish to fight against an enemy that outnumbered them by a thousand, and decided to retreat to Batavia.
In reality, when the Han envoys were allowed to land with their army, these Dutchmen had already lost the courage to confront them directly. Their current insistence was merely an attempt to save face for themselves.
After the confrontation, the Dutch retreated quickly, and the Han army took direct control of the towns and ports. All the Dutch living in the cities were expelled and not allowed to continue living there.
Palembang, formerly known as the Old Port Pacification Commissioner's Office in the early Ming Dynasty, was a rest and recuperation base in Southeast Asia controlled by Zheng He during his voyages to the Western Ocean. Four hundred years later, it was once again brought under the rule of the central dynasty.
In Sumatra and the surrounding islands, few of the Dutch in the vast majority of the Dutch settlements dared to confront the Han army head-on.
In the end, only two outposts clashed, and only one local area actually saw combat.
The Han envoy did not hesitate to order an attack. The local Dutch stronghold was immediately captured by the army, and all the Dutch were executed and their heads displayed to the public.
The Han army quickly gained control of the existing strongholds on Sumatra and the surrounding islands.
The reason why it was so smooth was that the larger princely states were traditional vassals of the Central Plains dynasties, and now they had basically submitted voluntarily.
Secondly, although the island is huge and there are many surrounding islets, most of the area is wilderness.
Sumatra has a total area of 470,000 square kilometers, equivalent to three Shandong provinces, but its estimated total population is only over three million.
It is equivalent to the entire Shandong or Henan provinces, with a total population of only about one million. The population density is less than half that of the northern provinces at the end of the Yuan and the beginning of the Ming dynasties.
By occupying some populous local strongholds, the Han Dynasty could be considered to have possessed the entire desolate island.
After the basic takeover was completed, the Han Navy began to split up and conduct detailed surveys of the coastline of Sumatra and the surrounding islets, and to collect information on the various settlements.
The focus is on finding suitable locations for building cities and ports in the bays, peninsulas, and estuaries at the southernmost tip of the island, to serve as forward bases for attacking Java.
When the Han Dynasty gained full control of Sumatra and the surrounding areas, the Dutch people on Sumatra gradually fled back to Batavia on Java.
As the Han Dynasty expanded in Southeast Asia, the Netherlands' sphere of influence shrank rapidly, and more than half of its efforts and accomplishments over the past two centuries vanished in just two years.
People who fled back to Batavia from Borneo and Sumatra brought back all sorts of bad news and feelings of grief and indignation, casting a pall of oppression and panic over the once prosperous country.
However, trade between Batavia and the Han Dynasty did not cease. Even though the Han Dynasty had once expelled the Britons, it did not impose any special restrictions on the Dutch people of Batavia, and they are still able to trade with the Han Dynasty's mainland.
This has led to a further sense of division within Batavia, preventing the formation of a widespread atmosphere of shared hatred against a common enemy.