The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 10: Autonomous City - Hoi An
Hoi An is located in the central part of Annam, about 20 kilometers south of Da Nang, a famous tourist destination in Vietnam. The ancient city of Hoi An still exists very intact, and traces of the Chinese people's migration to Southeast Asia can be seen everywhere.

At this time, Hoi An's status was far beyond what it could be compared to in later generations.

In terms of population alone, Hoi An is the second largest city in Annam after Hanoi. Its population is larger than that of Hue, the capital of the Nguyen Dynasty in Quang Nam, which is 100 kilometers away, with at least 250,000 people.

This is a very astonishing number. You should know that at that time, the population of the Nguyen Dynasty's Quang Nam Kingdom, including the Ng family's Ha Tien port country, was only more than three million, which means that almost one-fifteenth of the country's population was here.

This city was once the capital of Champa, but it rose to prominence during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, which was the 16th century.

Because at this time, a major event happened that was earth-shattering for both the Ming Dynasty and Annan.

In the sixth year of the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty, the Kingdom of Annan, which had been caught in constant war, finally ushered in the dawn of peace. Mo Dengyong, the living Cao Cao in Vietnamese history, forced Emperor Le Gong of the Later Le Dynasty to abdicate and established the Moc Dynasty of Annan.

Mo Dengyong is a talented person. Not only is he capable of governing a country and fighting wars, he is also a very abstract "talent".

This man was born into a Tanka family, or perhaps he had Tanka blood. Both his father and son generations originally fished in Dongguan.

Life was not very rich, but if we didn't catch any fish today, we would go hungry tomorrow.

Fortunately, poverty breeds change. Life was already so difficult that getting harder didn't seem like a big deal. So when Mo Dengyong was a teenager, his father took the whole family to Annan to make a living.

They stopped fishing and started beating people instead.

At that time, the political situation in the Le Dynasty of Vietnam was in chaos, and warlords were fighting each other. As long as you had the strength and the courage to kill people, you would have no worries about food. Mo Dengyong pretended to be a descendant of Mo Tingzhi, the top scholar of the Chen Dynasty of Annan, and successfully mixed in with the Annan people.

After more than 30 years of struggle, Mac Dang Dung usurped the throne of the Le Dynasty, established the Mac Dynasty, and became the ruler of Annan.

However, since he was a foreigner, he did not have deep roots in Annan. Below him, there were local nobles and ministers who were fighting in armed forces and were dissatisfied. Above him, there were the remnants of the Le Dynasty who kept going to the suzerain Ming Dynasty to complain about him.

At that time, Jiajing had just ascended the throne and was still a passionate emperor determined to work hard to govern the country and enhance the prestige of the Ming Dynasty. He was not the Wanshou Emperor who had trained his body to resemble a crane.

After receiving the plea from the remnants of the Later Le Dynasty in Annan, Jiajing immediately decided to send Qiu Luan to Guangdong and Guangxi to prepare for military intervention.

It has been a long time since I, the Ming Dynasty, have felt like a father, except for the Joseon Dynasty. I, the Emperor Wanshou, am very excited!

When the news reached Mo Dengyong, it was like a bolt from the blue.

His position was already unstable. If the Ming Dynasty launched another military campaign, he would probably become a laughing stock for being both the founding emperor and the one who destroyed his country.

But Mo Dengyong's brain was extraordinary. He was able to climb from a foreign boatman fishing in Dongguan to the high position of King of Annan in just over 30 years. He must have some skills.

In a hurry, Mo Dengyong suddenly came up with a very abstract and good idea.

You say I usurped the throne, right? But if I simply destroyed Annan, wouldn't this usurpation of the throne be established?

So, Mo Dengyong made up his mind and wrote directly to the Ming Dynasty, requesting to give up its independent status, submit the country of Annan, and place it under the jurisdiction of Qinzhou Prefecture, Guangxi.

Mo Dengyong fled from Dongguan to Annan. He could not understand how difficult it was for the King of Annan to gain the throne. He was just a son selling his father's land without any regret.

Jiajing originally wanted to help the Later Le Dynasty ascend the throne again in order to demonstrate the power of the Ming Dynasty, mainly his own power.

But the result was completely unexpected. Before the troops even moved, Annan came to submit.

This was more than a hundred years after Le Loi, an Annanite, rebelled and declared independence during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong. It was the first time Annan returned to the Ming Dynasty!
Therefore, Emperor Jiajing was overjoyed and accepted Mo Dengyong's surrender. He appointed him as the Governor-General of Annan, and his descendants inherited the title. He directly abolished the Kingdom of Annan, and Annan became a special zone within the Ming Empire.

The impact of this thing is not just a simple change of appearance. After the internal submission, Annan is one step closer than North Korea. On the surface, it is now domestic.

It was legal and must be legal for the people of the Ming Dynasty to go to Annan to do business, mine, reclaim land, fish, and even build houses and move there.

As a result, Ming Dynasty merchants, pirates from Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian, as well as a large number of people who could not make a living in their hometowns, all went south to Annan.

Hoi An, located in central Annan, became a transit port for Ming Dynasty merchants to trade with Southeast Asian countries and India. Many people who went to Southeast Asia would stop by Hoi An.

In the following decades, Hoi An became more and more prosperous. Not only did it attract Ming Dynasty merchants and common people, but also a large number of Western adventurers, as well as Japanese ronin and pirates who had originally belonged to the Western Army and had lost their lords and titles after the defeat in the Battle of Sekigahara and had to flee to Southeast Asia to survive.

Today, Hoi An has a population of around 250,000, of which more than 60% are Chinese. There are a large number of Mazu temples, Guandi temples, etc. The most magnificent one is the Daming Guild Hall built during the Jiajing period.

In addition to the Chinese, there are also a large number of Japanese, Portuguese, and merchants and their families from other European countries in Hoi An.

They live in the smaller south of the city, while the Chinese live in the north. There is a bridge for communication between the two sides, but the boundaries are clear.

Of course, there are also many Annamites in Hoi An, as many as 50,000 to 60,000.

However, although they are locals, they have no share in trade and can only do some basic manual labor or send products from the fields to Hoi An City to sell.

The weakness of the Annamites in Hoi An was reflected in the governance of the city.

The Quang Nam Camp, a government office established by the Nguyen Dynasty in Hoi An, was a unique feature of the Quang Nam Kingdom. A camp was a military unit commanding approximately one thousand soldiers.

The camp is divided into special teams and teams. Each camp has two special teams, each special team has ten teams with a total of 500 people, and each team has 50 people.

Officers were called the camp commander, the commander of the army, the commander of the team, etc.

Gai is actually a transliteration, derived from the word "cha" (to send), and is pronounced as "gai" in Annan dialect.

When this military system was applied to local governance, the highest commander in charge of the camp would often be given the title of garrison commander, and would also be equipped with subordinate officials such as bookkeepers and clerks.

The actual power is roughly equivalent to that of the Qing Dynasty, where there was no governor in the province but a governor-general who was in charge of all military and political affairs.

The Quang Nam Camp was supposed to have 1,000 soldiers stationed in Hoi An, but how could the Chinese, Japanese and Europeans who had arrived in the city two hundred years ago allow the Quang Nam Nguyen family to control Hoi An?

Then they would become fat sheep in the hands of the Ruan family.

Therefore, under the physical persuasion of a group of Chinese pirates, Japanese ronin samurai, and Western adventurers, the Nguyen Dynasty of Quang Nam had to give up its dream of controlling Hoi An, and both sides made some compromises.

To this day, the so-called Guangnan Camp, the Guangnan garrison and camp in charge, has only more than 200 soldiers in Hoi An City, and can barely maintain public order at most.

Even these more than 200 soldiers were employed by Chinese businessmen, and when they were not on duty, they were considered employees of Chinese businessmen.

Therefore, the ones who really have the final say in Hoi An are the Chinese, Japanese and Westerners who form the city's autonomous chamber of commerce, and among them, the Chinese, due to their size, have a great deal of say.

This was also the reason why Ngo Tsz Bu's original goal was to ask Hong Ahan to send him to Hoi An.

Because as long as he arrived in Hoi An, his safety would be guaranteed unless Nguyen Tzu Bu shouted in the streets that he was Nguyen Tzu Bu to provoke the Nguyen family.

(End of this chapter)