Chapter 426: Bombardment of Batavia

After this defeat, the Dutch-Indonesian authorities no longer had the possibility to compete with Liang Yao for the control of the Java Sea.

The Umbrella fleet, flying the umbrella flag and the Stars and Stripes, was no longer satisfied with just cruising in the waters near Batavia.

These ships even sailed to the sea less than 1 nautical mile away from the port of Batavia, and occasionally approached the port of Batavia to launch artillery fire.

The Dutch-Indonesian officers guarding the port could even clearly see the faces of the other crew members with a telescope.

The entire city of Batavia was forced to enter a state of war readiness. Previously, no one in the Dutch-Indonesian authorities would have thought that Batavia, as their base camp in the East Indies archipelago, the rear of the rear, would become the front line one day.

The Chinese army was going to land in Batavia, attack Batavia, and confiscate the property of the Dutch in Batavia, just like confiscating the property of the Dutch expatriates in Pontianak.

This news spread like wildfire in the city of Batavia.

This made the Dutch expatriates in Batavia even more panicked.

Previously, the Dutch-Indonesian authorities had exaggerated Liang Yao's cruelty by publicizing Liang Yao's cruel act of hanging prisoners of war in Pontianak, which had a very good effect in Batavia at this time.

Unfortunately, this was not the effect that the Dutch-Indonesian authorities headed by Tevez wanted.

Tevez and others hoped to make the Dutch expatriates in Batavia united and join the army to fight against Liang Yao by exaggerating Liang Yao's cruelty.

Obviously, Tevez overestimated the martial virtue of the expatriates in Batavia.

The Dutch expatriates in Batavia believed in Liang Yao's cruelty, but the more they believed in the rumored Liang Yao's cruelty, the less they dared to join the Dutch-Indonesian Army and Liang Yao's Western Brigade to fight.

The Dutch expatriates in Batavia were not the Boers with abundant martial virtues in South Africa. Compared with joining the army and going to the battlefield, they cared more about their gains and losses in the business field.

Since the Dutch-Indonesian authorities lost their control of the sea, the Dutch expatriates in Batavia began to suffer losses, and their losses are still expanding.

The Dutch expatriates in Batavia have reached their limit of patience with Tevez.

Many well-connected Dutch expatriates have written to Amsterdam to put pressure on Tevez, the incompetent governor of Batavia, to be replaced.

Since the East Indies fleet was almost annihilated, Tevez has been living in fear almost every day.

The sound of shelling on the seashore also reached the Governor's Mansion from time to time, which made Tevez even more upset.

To be honest, the shelling of Batavia by the Umbrella Company fleet did not cause substantial damage to the city of Batavia.

The effect of the shelling was more on the psychological level.

The shelling was gradually destroying the confidence of the Dutch expatriates in the city and disintegrating the morale of the Dutch-Indonesian army.

As for the Javanese living in Batavia, they did not feel much and were the most careless group in Batavia.

It made no difference to them whether the Dutch or the Chinese were in charge of Batavia.

The frustration of the citizens of Batavia and the low morale of the Dutch-Indian Army made Tevez realize that it was no longer realistic to continue the Dutch-Chinese War and gain more favorable bargaining chips for the Dutch-Indian authorities.

He should now seriously consider the issue of peace talks.

As the victorious party, Liang Yao, who was still in Pontianak at this time, could not be happy.

Once the cannon sounded, gold was worth a lot of money, which was an eternal truth.

In order to obtain the overseas territory of Borneo Island, he also paid a great price.

In less than half a year of war, he had consumed only 4.8 million US dollars in military expenses.

If the lost ships were counted, the loss would be even greater.

Even so, this was still the expenditure under the condition of fighting a favorable war.

Before the war, Liang Yao prepared a gold reserve of 10 million US dollars to deal with this war. Now the remaining gold reserves are estimated to support Liang Yao's Western Brigade in the East Indies for about 9 months of medium-intensity operations.

"We have gained control of the sea, and now we can take Batavia in one go!" Elvis looked very confident.

As a relatively pure soldier, he obviously doesn't care much about politics and economy.

"Fighting Batavia is just a word for Tevez, do you take it seriously?" Liang Yao rolled his eyes at Elvis.

By taking over half of Borneo Island, Liang Yao's strategic goal of this expedition has been achieved.

He has little interest in the South Borneo region, which has a high cost of ruling, not to mention Batavia, which has been run by the Dutch for more than 200 years.

Liang Yao currently has no foundation in Batavia, and taking Batavia is just adding to the burden.

Liang Yao intervened in the Dutch-Chinese War on Borneo Island, and Britain, France and other countries did not react too strongly, but it does not mean that they will not react if he further extends his hand to the wealthy Java Island.

The British do not want the Dutch to dominate Southeast Asia, and they do not want Liang Yao, an American Chinese, to dominate Southeast Asia.

Moreover, the Netherlands has not directly intervened in the Dutch-Chinese War for half a year, and a lot of the reasons are that Liang Yao intervened in the Dutch-Chinese War, and the main battlefield is still on Borneo Island.

Liang Yao has not yet touched the core interests of the Dutch.

If he really gets involved in Batavia or Java Island, the Dutch will definitely fight him to the death.

At that time, he will not only face the Dutch Indonesian authorities as a colonial government, but also face pressure from the entire Netherlands and even other European powers.

Liang Yao's attitude towards Batavia was also very simple. He could pretend to fight, and even launch a tentative attack to put pressure on the Dutch-Indonesian authorities, but he could not really take it down.

Liang Yao was more concerned about how much war savings he could get from the Dutch-Indonesian authorities to make up for the military expenses in the past six months.

"Kruger sent a telegram saying that Batavia Governor Tevez has arrived at the mouth of the Kapuas River and wants to meet with you."

Fremont said, holding the telegram he had just received from the telegraph room.

In the past six months, Liang Yao was not idle except for fighting.

The entire West Borneo region has initially built a telegraph network with Pontianak as the center.

Liang Yao was able to receive news from Dongwanlu, Luyi (Montradu), the mouth of the Kapuas River, and even the Kendawang area that had just been occupied in Pontianak.

"Tevez came to Pontianak in person, which means that they are more willing to negotiate now." Liang Yao smiled.

"Send a telegram to Kruger, and send the Governor of Batavia to Pontianak."

Tevez chose to come to Pontianak in person instead of contacting Liang Yao through letters or envoys, which shows that Tevez is now seriously considering the peace talks, which is a good signal.

The next thing Liang Yao has to consider is how to grab the biggest fruits of victory for himself at the negotiation table.

After fighting for half a year, it was all for this negotiation.