Despite being warned of the impending uprising, the head of the Dutch East India Company's military, Bartholomeus Visscher, ignored his advisers and did not prepare reinforcements.

As the situation developed, the court of Pakubuwono II, Sunan of Mataram, decided to tentatively support the Chinese while seemingly helping the Dutch.

As the Dutch recaptured cities through the northern coast of Java, the rebellion led an attack on Pakubuwono II's capital at Kartosuro, forcing the Sunan to flee with his family.

[1] This revolt was quashed by Governor-General Adriaan Valckenier, who sent 1,800 troops, together with schutterij (militia) and eleven battalions of conscripts, to the two areas; they imposed a curfew on all Chinese inside the city walls to prevent them from plotting against the Dutch.

[1] When a group of 10,000 ethnic Chinese from nearby Tangerang and Bekasi was stopped at the gates the following day,[2] Valckenier called an emergency meeting of the council for 9 October.

[11] Meanwhile, in nearby Demak and Grobogan ethnic Chinese gathered in large assemblies and chose a new emperor, Singseh, and attempted to found their own nation.

[13] At the time, Visscher and his troops, numbering 90 able-bodied Dutchmen and 208 Indonesians, were without reinforcements[b] and received conflicting advice from Yonko and his uncle, Captain Que Anko.

[15] During a period of contemplation lasting from late 1740 and July 1741, Pakubuwono II and his advisers had been debating the possible benefits of joining the Chinese or holding out and rescuing the Dutch to gain a more favourable relationship.

[16] Pakubuwono II later secretly paid 2,000 real to Mas Ibrahim to begin attacks on the Dutch East India Company and its holdings; he also commanded his senior lords Jayaningrat and Citrasoma to be neutral in the conflict, and to let as many Chinese escape as possible.

[18][19] Within Pakubuwono II's capital at Kartosuro, he ordered the restoration of the siti inggil kidul (a kind of terrace) outside his court, thus giving him a reason to tell the Dutch that he had no manpower to spare.

[23] The following day, after being questioned by prosecutor Jeronimus Tonnemans Jr., Yonko, and Anko, Visscher became increasingly angry, breaking a table in half and yelling at his Chinese advisers.

[24] This caused Visscher, who had heavily invested in Yonko and had left a large amount of money with him, to take out his carriage and scream to the residents of Semarang to escape while it was still possible.

[24] Not long afterwards, news reached him that Yonko had not joined the insurgents but had been robbed, spending the night at his son's grave in Peterongan in depression.

[25] Several days afterwards, four regents – Suradiningrat from Tuban, Martapura from Grobogan, Suradimenggala from Kaliwungu, and Awangga from Kendal – arrived at Semarang, reporting that the 6,000 promised troops were on their way.

[14] With more uprisings appearing in eastern Java, the company was approached by Prince Cakraningrat IV of Madura, who offered to ally himself with the Dutch if they would support his bid to establish his own kingdom in the area;[32] Cakraningrat IV, formerly a great warrior for Mataram, had taken offence to being left out of Pakubuwono II's earlier war deliberations and was ready to launch a war of his own against the Sunan's forces.

[34] Throughout June and July Cakraningrat IV's troops attempted to kill all ethnic Chinese, first starting in Madura then spreading to Tuban, Surabaya, Jipang, and Gresik.

[34][37] However, after the Chinese joined the battle, the garrison soon fell, with Velsen being executed and other surviving troops being given the choice (or forced) to convert to Islam or be killed.

[28][39] With the superior Dutch firepower and tactics causing Pakubuwono II's troops to scatter, the siege was eventually broken and an expedition was able to reclaim Jepara.

[e][41] In March, a group of seven Dutchmen led by Captain Johan Andries, Baron van Hohendorff, arrived in Kartosuro to set the terms of his surrender.

[41] Unwilling to let the Dutch take his son, Notokusumo, then laying siege to Semarang, made a fake attack against the Chinese, in which the sick or injured were sacrificed while the healthy were allowed to escape, in order to give an appearance of loyalty.

[40][43][44] On 19 June, it was reported that Notokusumo's troops, now under the command of Kyai Mas Yudanagara, had left for Kartosuro to place Sunan Kuning on the throne.

[49] With their numbers reinforced by further troops led by Ngabehi Secanegara from Jepara and Captain Hendrik Brule from Semarang, Mom and Tanate recaptured the city without a fight on 28 August.

[48][50] The Chinese and Javanese rebel coalition, which was beginning to unravel, continued to hold Kartosuro until December 1742, being only chased out of the city when Cakraningrat IV came and retook it.

[50] Two months later the Chinese, accompanied by noted Javanese leader Pakunegara, made a last stand but were defeated and forced to run to the foothills along the southern coast.

[47] According to the noted scholar of Indonesia Merle Calvin Ricklefs, the new Sultan of Yogyakarta Mangkubumi went on to be the Dutch colonial government's "most dangerous enemy of the eighteenth century".