The Human Heart

On September 25, 1925, Dirk, Governor of the Dutch East Indies, issued a general martial-law order throughout the East Indies, requiring all natives who obeyed Dutch rule to remain in their current cities and forbidding them from traveling to other cities under any pretext.

Anyone who disobeyed this order would be treated as a rioter, and the Dutch Army could kill them without following any orders whatsoever.

That same day, the Dutch Army and the native army engaged in fierce combat outside Batavia. Cannon fire thundered across the land, and unless one watched carefully, it truly looked like an earth-shaking war of the ages.

Yet the actual battlefield left quite a few Australasia intelligence operatives clicking their tongues in surprise.

Rather than a fierce clash, the battle was more like one side carrying out a straightforward massacre of the other.

The several divisions stationed in Batavia were fairly capable. When fighting on the defensive, their combat power far surpassed that of the attacking native army.

If the natives had not possessed such overwhelming numbers, the balance between offense and defense might have shifted in an instant, with the Dutch Army becoming the side launching a counterattack.

It was at this moment that Muhammad received an order from Governor Dirk. His army was to be stationed southeast of Batavia, becoming the second line of defense between the city's outskirts and Batavia itself.

Although Governor Dirk allowed Muhammad's army to participate in the battle, he was no fool. He had not stationed Muhammad on the front line, lest Muhammad earn too much military merit during the war.

This left Muhammad's army between Batavia and the front line. It could quickly reinforce the front, but it could also rapidly withdraw into the city.

How could Muhammad not know what Governor Dirk was thinking?