Starting in Saarhu, it is a bit difficult to make a comeback.

Chapter 236 The return of a thousand-year-old province (seeking monthly tickets)

When the Spanish arrived in Manila, they discovered that this jungle-covered island actually contained a large number of gold and copper mines.

Although they have been developing on the island for decades, there are still a lot of gold deposits that they have not discovered.

Relying on the memories of his previous life and the most experienced prospectors transferred from Liaodong, Li Xianzhong finally discovered a large gold mine 38 miles northeast of Manila.

When the news that gold was rich near Manila spread back to China, the whole China was boiling.

Those businessmen who had not caught up with the first wave of investment immediately arrived in Manila with silver, and soon a "Manila Gold Rush" was set off.

Their arrival also accelerated the prosperity of Manila.

Shiploads of cement are constantly arriving in Manila from China.

Manila's port was really unable to meet the demand for berthing ships, so a new trestle was quickly built near the old port and planning for a new port began.

Another result is that there are not enough indigenous people on Luzon.

So a new profession appeared on the island, bounty hunter.

These people were hired by investors to go to the jungles deep in Luzon and other islands to capture indigenous people as miners.

Of course, the skills of the indigenous people were not good and they could only engage in simple ore mining and transportation work, so a large number of miners from China also came to Manila.

Especially those North Korean miners whose monthly salary is relatively cheap have become a hot commodity.

Chinese law stipulates that the ownership of mines belongs to the court, and mine owners only have the right to use the mines, and the tax rate is often as high as 3% or more.

Large mines must be government-run, and medium-sized mines must be jointly owned by the government and the private sector, with the official shareholding not less than 50%; only some small mines are allowed to be completely private, but the court will also send mining supervisors to constantly monitor the mining areas. scale, output and treatment of miners.

In order to encourage private capital investment in Manila, large mines allow private capital to account for 3% of the shares, and medium-sized mines can even account for 6% of the shares.

If a new mine is discovered by a private mine owner, it can enjoy a discount of 3% of the mineralization tax in the first three years.

Coupled with low labor costs, Manila attracted a large number of businessmen.

The imperial court's investment does not require the Ministry of Accounts to allocate silver. After a new mine is discovered, Liaodong Bank will lend money to the imperial court.

After all, there is a mine as collateral, and Liaodong Bank is not afraid that the money it has released will not be recovered.

Private capital invested in Manila and also borrowed heavily from Liaodong Bank.

One result is that in order to attract more deposits, Liaodong Bank raised the annual interest rate on deposits for the first time.

The annual interest rate for one-year deposits has been increased to 6%, three-year deposits to 7%, five-year deposits to 8%, and ten-year deposits to 10%.

The seizure of Spanish property alone has paid off the 200 million tael loan for this expedition to Manila. The Governor-General of Manila has also obtained a large amount of money by selling and leasing properties around Manila, and the land has been used to fund the development of Manila.

According to Zheng Zhilong’s estimate, Manila’s annual mining tax and commercial tax is likely to exceed 500 million taels.

This does not include the gold that the imperial court received based on its shares in the mine.

Zheng Zhilong believes that China’s investment in only half a year can far exceed the results of the Spaniards in the Philippines for decades.

Soon after, Zheng Zhilong sent people to occupy the Spanish Guam and completely drove them out of the Far East.

After several months, the main force of the 2 Forbidden Army who followed Li Xianzhong on his southern expedition has fully adapted to this life in the tropical rainforest.

After all, compared to six or seven years ago, China's use of Artemisia annua has become more mature.

Originally, Li Xianzhong was planning to send people to South America, but he did not expect that the Spaniards had already transplanted cinchona trees from South America to Manila.

They got cinchona easily, so they had double insurance.

The rare cases of malaria that cannot be cured by Artemisia annua can be treated with Cinchona cream.

After everything was ready, Li Xianzhong naturally took the next step.

Although there is gold in Manila, Manila alone is not worthy of him leading the main force of 2 forbidden troops south.

Li Xianzhong's next target is Annan.

After Qin Shihuang unified the six kingdoms, he sent his army all the way south to control Guangxi and Guangdong successively and included them in the original map of China.

After the great cause of Lingnan was pacified, the entire Lingnan was included in the territory of the Qin Dynasty. Lingnan included the western part of Guangdong and Guangxi and the central and northern parts of Annan.

Three counties were set up here: Nanhai County, Guilin County and Xiang County.

But since the death of the second emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Zhao Tuo, who was in Nanhai County at the time, saw that the Central Plains was beginning to be in chaos, so he took the opportunity to raise troops to block the road from Wuling to the Central Plains.

He also captured Xiang County and Guilin County, proclaimed himself King Wu of Nanyue, implemented a system of prefectures and counties, and established the South Vietnam Kingdom there.

However, although Annan established the South Vietnam State at this time, it was still a vassal state of South Vietnam.

During the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the Nanyue Kingdom was destroyed and Annan was once again included in the rule of the Han Dynasty.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established the old territory of South Vietnam as Jiaozhou and established nine counties and counties for unified management. Until the Sui and Tang Dynasties, South Vietnam was under the rule of China.

It was not until the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period that turmoil began to occur in the Central Plains, and they took the opportunity to seek independent independence.

The "Battle of Baiteng River" broke out between the Southern Han Dynasty and Jiaozhi, and the Southern Han Dynasty was defeated in this battle.

After Wu Quan defeated the Southern Han Dynasty, in 939 AD, he took advantage of the chaos of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms to break away from the jurisdiction of the Central Plains Dynasty and proclaimed himself king.

By 968 AD, the top warlord leader in Jiaozhi got rid of the Nanyue King and proclaimed himself emperor, which was known as the Ding Dynasty in history.

Whether counting from the time of the Nanyue Kingdom or the time when Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established Jiaozhou, Annan has been a territory of the Central Plains for more than a thousand years.

Objectively speaking, Annan did not go out independently at the hands of the Northern Song Dynasty.

However, after the Northern Song Dynasty wiped out the Southern Han Dynasty in 971 AD, it did not take advantage of the situation to regain Jiaozhi.

This was the main culprit that led Annan to finally go independent.

At that time, the "Ding Dynasty" had only been in existence for a few years, and the people in the country were unstable.

Moreover, Jiaozhi had only been independent for a short time and had not formed a strong national consciousness at all. As a Central Plains dynasty, it was easy for the Northern Song Dynasty to regain it.

However, the Northern Song Dynasty did not take advantage of the situation to regain Jiaozhi, but acquiesced in its independence.

Although the Southern Han Dynasty, as a local government, was directly responsible for Jiaozhi's independence at that time, the acquiescence of the Central Plains dynasty of the Northern Song Dynasty was the fundamental reason.

What is even more annoying is that in the 8th year of Xining in the Northern Song Dynasty (1075), Jiaozhi actually invaded Guangxi with troops, and even captured Nanning for a time, massacred nearly soldiers and civilians in Guangxi.

The Song Dynasty could not defeat the Liao Dynasty, nor could it help the Xixia Dynasty. Faced with the invasion of Jiaozhi, I was unable to punish them. After entering Jiaozhi, they were unable to break through. They were defeated in the second battle of Bai Dangjiang, and finally had to hastily negotiate a peace.

In the early Ming Dynasty, Annan began to engage in small actions on the border again.

Yongle Emperor Zhu Di naturally would no longer coddle little Annan.

Taking advantage of the opportunity when Annan had just usurped the throne, he forcibly escorted the Chen family of the previous dynasty back to the country to succeed to the throne.

The Li family sent troops to raid the Ming army that was escorting Chen family back home, and killed Chen family.

Zhu Di was furious and sent Zhu Neng, the commander-in-chief of the army, to confer the title "General of the Conquering Yi" with a sealed letter.

Later, he died of illness during the march and was replaced by deputy general Zhang Fu, led by left deputy general Mu Sheng, left staff general Li Bin, right staff general Chen Xu, etc. The number was 800,000, but the actual number was less than 300,000.

The Ming army was unstoppable along the way, annihilating more than 100,000 enemy troops and conquering Annan in just five months.

Originally, the Ming army occupied Annan under the pretext of helping the Chen family restore their country. However, because they could not find any descendants of the Chen family, the Ming Dynasty established direct rule.

The Ming Dynasty re-established administrative divisions in Annan, with fifteen prefectures, thirty-six prefectures, and one hundred and eighty-one counties; five prefectures of Taiyuan, Xuanhua, Jiaxing, Guihua, and Guangwei were established, directly under the Chief Secretary, and under the jurisdiction of twenty Nine counties; and eleven wards, three institutes, and one city shipping department were established in important places, and Jiling Pass was renamed Zhenyi Pass, "generally maintaining the old organization with only slight gains and losses."

In this way, the Ming Dynasty incorporated Annan into its territory and became a county area directly ruled by the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, the Ming Dynasty incorporated Annan into the post station system of the Ming Dynasty, "opened the Yong'an and Wanning waterways, and set up delivery water stations as far as Qinzhou. Horse stations were also set up as far as Hengzhou."

But after all, Annan has been independent for more than 400 years and has formed a dominant ethnic group (Jing ethnic group).

The Ming Dynasty's more than 300 garrison consumed more than 7 million taels of silver every year, and its highest income was only taels.

It can be said that even the underwear is lost. Twenty years after finally occupying Annan, they had to abandon it.

The biggest difficulty in conquering Annan before the Ming Dynasty was military. Both the Northern Song Dynasty and Kublai Khan failed in their military attacks on Annan.

The failure of Ming Dynasty told Li Xianzhong that the fundamental reason was economics, and Ming Dynasty could not afford to pay compensation.

Today's Annan is a unified dynasty in name, but in fact it is in a period of division between the north and the south.

In the 1592th year of Wanli (), the Later Li Dynasty destroyed the Mo Dynasty and nominally unified the country, but Vietnam continued to be divided.

The north is controlled by the Zheng family, and the south is controlled by the Ruan family. The two families are constantly at war, known in history as the "Zheng-Nuan dispute."

The nominal co-owner, the Emperor of the Later Li Dynasty, was completely a puppet and was under the control of the Zheng family.

This provided convenient conditions for Li Xianzhong to send troops.

The Intelligence Department had already deployed in Annan a few years ago. The puppet emperor Li Weiqi was unwilling to be controlled by the Zheng family. The only one he could rely on was the Central Plains Dynasty.

At this time in history, Ming Dynasty was already too overwhelmed to take care of itself, so naturally he would not pay attention to Li Weiqi's request.

At this time, Li Guo of the Chinese New Dynasty gave Li Weiqi hope again.

First, businessman Liang San sold muskets to the Zheng family who controlled northern Annan.

Vietnam still mainly uses crossbows. After getting the blunderbuss, the Zheng family felt that the combat power of their army had greatly increased, and they wanted to destroy the Nguyen family group in the south.

At this time, the Ruan family also received the gun sold by the East Ryukyu Company.

After they spent a lot of money to purchase these weapons, they naturally wanted to unify Annan.

In fact, the two sides have fought many wars before, but neither one can do anything to the other.

On March 20, the first year of Qianxi, a war broke out between the two sides in Quang Binh Province in central Vietnam.

Since both sides used a large number of cannons, the casualties increased dramatically, and the battle lasted for three months without a clear winner.

In order to completely defeat the Ruan army on the opposite side, Zheng's lord Zheng Jie quickly mobilized a large number of troops from the north to go south, leaving the northern part of Annam empty of troops.

Sun Chuanting saw the opportunity and led 2 Chinese troops to invade Annan.

The Huaxia Army was under the banner of "supporting the Li family", and the Annan Army almost surrendered along the way.

Soon they captured Lang Son, an important town in northern Annam.

Lang Son is not only a transportation hub in North Vietnam, but also a barrier gateway to Long Thang Province, the capital city.

Lang Son City is surrounded by mountains such as Kaoma Mountain and Bawai Mountain and a series of highlands, and the terrain is very steep.

If you want to use troops in North Vietnam, Lang Son is the key place.

If you hold it, you can block the enemy in the mountains of Yuebei in the future; if you take it, you can reach Longsheng Mansion in a straight line.

Since ancient times, when the Central Plains dynasty wanted to take Jiaozhi from the south, this was the place they had to pass through, and then they could pass on the message.

At this time, Zheng Jun, who was left behind, used his trump card, the War Elephant Troops.

In the era of cold weapons, war elephants were indeed very intimidating.

But now that we have entered the age of firearms, war elephants seem very useless.

After a burst of artillery fire, Annan's war elephants were frightened and ran around, but trampled many Annan soldiers to death.

The Chinese army took advantage of the situation and defeated Zheng's main force in one fell swoop.

After this battle, Zheng's troops in North Vietnam were almost completely lost.

Sun Chuanting took advantage of the situation and invaded Longsheng Mansion, the capital of Annan.

Zheng Jie, who was on the front line, was shocked when he heard that the Chinese army had occupied Long Thang House. He quickly sued for peace with the Nguyen family and agreed to cede all of Quang Binh Province to the Nguyen family.

The East Ryukyu Company had already informed the head of the Ruan family about the Chinese army's invasion of northern Annan.

Lord Ruan pretended to agree to Zheng Jie's peace proposal and took advantage of the situation to launch an attack after Zheng's army retreated.

Zheng's army was defeated, and even Zheng Zhi himself died in the rebellion.

Just as Lord Ruan was getting full of energy and was preparing to lead his army north to capture Longsheng Mansion in one fell swoop, he learned that his home base of Jiading Mansion had been captured by the Chinese army.

Li Xianzhong personally led 2 imperial troops to land at Cam Ranh Bay and captured Jiading Prefecture.

Then the Chinese army used its powerful firepower to defeat the main force of the Ruan family heading south in one fell swoop.

By July 7, the entire territory of Annan was controlled by the Chinese army.

Annan Emperor Li Weiqi never expected that China's Emperor Li Xianzhong would personally conquer Annan.

At this time, no matter how stupid he was, he knew that "it is easy to invite gods but difficult to send them away".

Li Weiqi asked to remove his imperial title and call himself King Annan.

And he knelt down and worshiped Li Xianzhong at Longsheng Mansion.

Li Xianzhong also understood that this puppet king was still useful at this time.

He officially issued an edict to confer the title of King Li Weiqi Annan.

However, he handed Li Weiqi a pile of bills.

It records all the expenses incurred by the Chinese Army to help him reset this time.

It was actually as high as 500 million taels of silver.

Annan doesn't have as many gold mines as the Philippines. If it costs only 500,000 taels, it might be possible to get it together.

Five million taels is probably not enough to pay off the interest in one year's income.

It doesn't matter if you don't pay yet, then use Annan's tax revenue and the port as collateral.

Soon Li Weiqi signed a lot of unequal treaties.

China not only obtained the right to garrison troops in Annan, but also controlled Annan's customs, taxation and many other rights.

It also temporarily took over a large area of ​​land north of the Red River.

And soon there was a large number of Chinese immigrants in these areas.

Just three months later, 50 people from Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi and other places settled in these places.

According to the treaty, as long as Annan did not pay off China's debts, Chinese residents would have permanent residence rights in these areas.

Moreover, these areas implement extraterritorial jurisdiction. Even if Chinese residents kill Annan people, Annan has no right to interrogate these Chinese people and can only leave it to China to judge.

Usually it's just a fine of a little money.

As a result, the entire Annan was quite dissatisfied with the Li Dynasty.

Large-scale peasant uprisings broke out in various places, demanding the overthrow of the Li Dynasty.

However, with the help of the Chinese army, the Li Dynasty's army quickly suppressed the uprisings in Annan.

However, the population of Annan was extremely reduced. At the beginning of the first year of Qianxi, there were nearly 700 million people in Annan, and by the end of the year, there were only more than 400 million left.

With the help of the puppet troops of the Li Dynasty, Annan only needs to garrison 30,000 troops, and even if he loses some money, it will not be too much.

Li Xianzhong believed that after two more years of hard work, Annan would basically lose its ability to resist Chinese rule.

That was the moment when Annan, once a "thousand-year-old province", truly returned to China!

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(End of this chapter)