The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 108 The Hero's Decision

Mozibu's military meeting lasted until late at night, and then he had a long talk with Peter all night long, and they agreed on the framework for sending a delegation to Europe.

The gains were considerable. At least through the military discussion, the entire army determined its goals and put forward specific suggestions for improvement.

The most clear points now are that we must introduce the technology of shotgun shells and shrapnel bombs, and obtain field howitzers that can fire indirect fire.

Especially the howitzer, although it is still relatively primitive, it can fire shrapnel bombs and large-caliber explosive bombs. The former is used to attack infantry, and the latter is used to attack strongholds, both of which are extremely useful.

Secondly, Mo Zibu also thought that a batch of tiger squat cannons modified by Qi Jiguang should be imitated. This light artillery between mortars and mortars was not very useful to Europeans.

Because they have more artillery and are equipped with hunting soldiers, their proficiency in the use of muskets is generally higher than that of the East.

Therefore, small cannons like the Tiger Crouching Cannon, which have a very short range, cannot be used at all, or the risk of using them is too great to be worth the cost.

However, in the East, most people are in the era of semi-thermal weapons, so the powerful and easy-to-carry artillery such as the Tiger Crouching Cannon is useful. It can serve as a firepower supplement for the Kunlun Mountain Army, which does not have enough field artillery.

We have to find a way to form a hunting army, but even in Europe, the technology of rifles is still very immature.

A skilled European hunter who can fire three rounds in two minutes on the battlefield is considered a master, and Mo Zibu is not in great demand at the moment.

On the contrary, the purely melee teams that lag behind do need to be formed, because every time a gun is fired, it costs money, and Mo Zibu's small industry cannot withstand a few major battles.

Well, sometimes, especially in such troubled times, human life may not be as valuable as bullets and gunpowder.

What gave Mo Zibu the most headache was the cavalry.

At present, there are no cavalry talents on his side, and people like Mo Zibu who can ride horses are rare.

Furthermore, he had no warhorses, no place to raise them, no idea how to raise them, and even no means of affording them. He also had no horse breeds and no place to buy any, which was a real headache just thinking about it.

Finally, in addition to the deficiencies in equipment and arms, Mo Zibu also realized that with the current capabilities of the Kunlun Mountain Hall's soldiers and officers, it would be best not to deploy a large horizontal formation.

This will cause the already weak command system to malfunction, and in the future the company should play a greater role in combat.

Moreover, Mo Zibu felt that he must meet his father Ou Tianci again.

Originally, after Li Xianwen went back in his place, they agreed that Ou Tianci would give 50,000 taels of tax revenue from Hexian to Mo Zibu every year. Now it seems that this is far from enough.

Mo Zibu hoped to expand the army to a size of 5,000 naval and land forces. In addition, to fully arm it, it would require at least 150,000 men a year.

The biggest problem now is how to convince his father, Ou Tianci, to give him this money.

Just as Mo Zibu walked out of the room after a sleepless night, Sutaoyi suddenly erupted in thunderous cheers.

The sound came from far away and rose and fell like waves, scaring the chickens, ducks, dogs and geese in the entire Sotaoyi and making them run around in panic.

Before Mo Zibu could understand what was going on, Zheng Xin came galloping towards him from a distance. Seeing Mo Zibu, he shouted happily:

"Zi Bu, come with me to see a respected Chinese leader. With him, driving the Burmese away will be much easier!"

Upon hearing this, Mo Zibu quickly mounted his warhorse and followed Zheng Xin to the dock.

As soon as we arrived at the dock, we saw colorful flags flying and many large merchant ships coming to the port.

At the dock, an old man with white hair and beard, wearing a Thai-style stand-up collar red silk shirt, was walking towards Zheng Xin, surrounded by a group of Teochew people and Nazhen.

"Uncle, it's great to see you. I've been worried about you!"

From a long distance away, Zheng Xin ran over and prostrated himself in the dust.

The old man quickly ran over and helped Zheng Xin up. "Don't do this again, kid. You have to maintain your image."

After Zheng Xin was helped up, he immediately took the old man's hand and walked forward to Mo Zibu's side, introducing him loudly:

"Uncle, this is the fifth son of the Hexian Mo family. He is a leader of the younger generation of Chinese people. He came to help us out of righteousness. Thanks to him, my nephew was able to escape the Burmese army's pursuit."

"Zi Bu, this is my uncle, the Minister of Finance of Siam, Mr. Zheng Huimosai of Phraya Singburi."

Mo Zibu knew who it was. This old man, who only retained the surname Zheng and the Siamese name Mo Sai, was the cousin of Zheng Xin's adoptive father Jie Xi.

The current Minister of Finance of the Ayutthaya Dynasty and a senior figure among the Teochew people in Siam.

"So it's my uncle in person. I've heard a lot about him in Ha Tien. Now that I see him, I can see he's truly one of the centenarians among the Chinese in Southeast Asia."

Mo Zibu was really rude. When he heard that he was Zheng Xin's uncle, he immediately called him Uncle.

Zheng Mosai glanced at Zheng Xin inconspicuously. Seeing that Zheng Xin's face was full of smiles without any falsehood, he helped Mo Zibu, who was also pretending to kneel, up and said with a chuckle:

“I would dare to say the word ‘centenarian’ in other families, but I dare not show off my skills in front of you, the Mo family.

I think in Nanyang, only your father, Master Mo Shilin, can truly be called a centenarian."

Although Zheng Mosai is Zheng Xin's uncle, he is actually younger than Lu Tianci, who is 67 years old this year.

Moreover, he is already old and frail, while Ou Tianci had a daughter this year, and their physical conditions are completely incomparable.

So in front of an old and strong man like Ou Tianci in the physical sense, he really doesn't deserve the title of centenarian.

"Since you are all young talents from Tangshan, come with me." As he said this, Zheng Mosai took Zheng Xin and Mo Zibu's hands and walked forward.

It was only when they arrived at the meeting house that Mo Zi Bu realized that Zheng Mo Sai hadn't simply broken out of Ayutthaya this time; he had brought with him a great reward. Zheng Mo Sai's family's fiefdom was in Sing Buri, approximately 110 kilometers north of Ayutthaya, west of the Chao Phraya River, and on the west bank of the middle reaches of the Chao Phraya River.

As the most powerful vassal in the area, the Zheng Mosai family owned a large amount of land and controlled the river's fishing and ports.

This is also the reason why Zheng Mosai was able to break out of Ayutthaya City at this time.

He dispatched the family's most elite navy to break through the blockade and force their way out of the Chao Phraya River.

The ship that Zheng Mosai sailed on this time was loaded with 1,500 pieces of Indian floral cloth, 500 pieces of Songjiang cloth, 200 pieces of Guangdong colored silk, and 100 pieces of Jiangnan brocade silk, all of which were handed over to Zheng Xin.

This was a huge fortune at that time. Most importantly, he could make uniform military uniforms for Taksin's troops, making the Siamese army that Taksin had recruited look more formal.

At the same time, Zheng Mosai also announced publicly that he would give Zheng Xin 10,000 Changs in military expenses every month.

At that time, a kind of silver bean that looked like a bullet was circulated in Thailand, so it was called bullet silver, and the subsidiary coins were various exquisite shells.

There are eight measurement units for bullet silver, including Chang, Zhu, Qian, Fang, and Songpai.

Among them, Chang has no actual currency and generally only appears in national budgets and large-scale transactions as a unit of measurement.

At this time, only three denominations, namely, Zhu, Qian and Fang, were popular. The other four smaller denominations would not appear until a hundred years later.

Among them, a zhu is approximately equal to four qian of silver, a qian is equal to one qian of silver, a square is approximately equal to five fen of silver, and the Song Dynasty version is two fen and five li of silver.

This type of silver bean cannot be broken up like silver when trading, and small amounts of change can only be supplemented with shells.

The exchange rate of Chang and Baht was 1 to . Ten thousand Chang was equal to Baht. One Baht was equal to four qian of silver. Baht was equal to taels of silver.

A sponsorship of 16,000 taels of silver per month is 192,000 taels per year.

I go!

Mo Zibu was amazed. No wonder there was cheers in Suo Taoyi after Zheng Mosai arrived. This was his dual identity as an elder and a financial sponsor!

With this money, Zheng Xin's career can finally start.

You must know that before this, Zheng Xin had only gathered followers, but there was no organization, official positions, military pay, rice supply, etc.

When Zheng Mosai arrived, everyone's hearts immediately fell. And most of the people in the room immediately looked at Zheng Xin.

It turned out that these days, after Zheng Xin raised the flag in Sattahip, more Chaozhou people came to surrender.

West of Chanthaburi, the Teochew people of Trat and Koh Chang not only protected Taksin's wives, concubines, and children, but also sent him five ships of rice and three hundred swords, spears, rattan shields and other weapons.

The rest of the Teochew people who were scattered in various places or escaped from Ayutthaya began to gather in Sattahip.

Many local elders and officials from nearby Siam also came from dozens of kilometers away to pay their respects to Zheng Xin.

In just over ten days, another five thousand people arrived. Now, Zheng Xin not only had tens of thousands of brave soldiers, but also twenty war elephants and more than a thousand musketeers.

And military funds are to be used on these people.

Some of them will be selected by Zheng Xin as his confidants, and some young men with good physical fitness may also become guards, so everyone is looking forward to how Zheng Xin will allocate this part of the military funds.

Zheng Xin also stood up and looked around. Every member he looked at puffed out his chest and bulged his belly, looking mighty, trying to win Zheng Xin's favor.

Mo Zibu also sat upright, but he felt a little bored.

At this critical moment, Zheng Xin must first organize his own guard corps to change the embarrassing situation that he is not as good as Mo Zibu in actual control of military force.

But in the end, Zheng Xin turned his gaze to Mo Zibu, and said with a gentle smile:

"Zi Bu, I would like to appoint you as the commander of the right wing army and give you a monthly military budget of 10,000 baht. Are you willing?"

Before he finished speaking, the venue immediately became noisy. No one expected that Zheng Xin actually thought so highly of Mo Zibu.

And he directly gave a quarter of the military budget to Mo Zibu instead of his real confidants.

Someone immediately wanted to stand up from their cross-legged sitting position to object, but Zheng Xin must have discussed this with Zheng Mosai. Zheng Mosai coughed lightly and glanced around majestically, and no one dared to move.

Mo Zibu also looked at Zheng Xin in disbelief. Ten thousand baht per month was four thousand taels of silver, totaling forty-eight thousand taels a year.

It sounds like it is not much in the Qing Dynasty, but it is quite a lot in Southeast Asia. The amount that Ou Tianci gave to his own son is only two thousand taels more than that every year.

More importantly, this not only represents trust, but also means that as long as Mo Zibu does not turn against Zheng Xin in the future, Zheng Xin will continue to provide this amount of military funds.

The 2,000-man navy and army under Mo Zibu's command will become Mo Zibu's private army in Siam.

After Zheng Xin established his country, he would be given a title equivalent to that of a Chinese vassal king, together with the land promised before.

Mozibu might even replace the historical Thong, Rama I, and become the largest faction and military leader under Taksin.

He is indeed a hero in history, who was able to make the most appropriate arrangements despite opposition from those close to him.

It would be a lie for Mo Zibu to say he wasn't moved. He immediately knelt on one knee and said, "Your Majesty, I thank you for your trust and respect. I am willing to follow you, even through fire and water."

　This Siamese man, whose Chinese surname was Zheng, was recorded as a merchant who had escaped from Ayutthaya. However, considering his assistance to Taksin, particularly his monthly provision of 16,000 taels of silver for military expenses, this was clearly not something an ordinary merchant could have done. Therefore, Tiger leaned towards the idea that he was the Chinese Minister of Finance, or Deputy Minister of Finance, who had fled Ayutthaya.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)