The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 112 The Benefits of Being a Son-in-Law
Mo Zibu no longer dared to underestimate the heroes of the world. Looking at his third brother Ou Zirong who hurriedly ran over, Mo Zibu's impression of Zhang Fuluan changed greatly.

This change of opinion was not because I had a good impression of Zhang Fuluan.

Instead, Mo Zibu discovered that Zhang Fuluan was able to dominate the government because he really had the means. This directly posed a huge problem for He Xian.

He was able to endure the pain of losing his son and did not blindly mobilize forces to deal with He Xian. Instead, he waited for the right opportunity to deliver a fatal blow. He is indeed an old thief.

"Old Fifth, what do you think we should do? Two thousand soldiers of Ruan Zhongming have already set up camp on the road from Hexian to Jiading.

The day before yesterday, he came to my father's house to discuss and asked us to allow him to set up checkpoints to collect commercial taxes. This is not a commercial tax at all, it is clearly a city tax.

Moreover, this bandit brought the families of the soldiers from the left camp, totaling to more than 10,000 people. They come to our house every day making a fuss, demanding that we provide wood, lime, bricks and stones to help them build houses.

Damn it, they think Hexian Town is the Ruan family's territory and want to live here permanently!"

Mo Zibu's cheeks twitched as he listened. What Ou Zirong said was just superficial. The key point was that the Hexian standing army had only one or two thousand people.

The reason why there are so few is that among the more than 200,000 people controlled by Ha Tien, there are only 50,000 to 60,000 Chinese, and the rest are Zhenla people.

The Ou family was not confident in them. These people were only suitable for being recruited as auxiliary troops during large-scale conscription, and it was impossible for them to be sent in to guard Hexian.

Among the 50,000 to 60,000 Chinese, 4,000 to 5,000 were Chaozhou people. They were not counted as the core members of the Ou family, but only as vassals who were allowed by Ou Tianci to develop the local area.

In other words, the only people Hexian could truly trust were his 40,000-plus fellow countrymen from western Guangdong and more than 10,000 early Han Chinese relatives who had become assimilated into the Jing ethnic group.

They are also scattered throughout Hexian. There are only about 20,000 people in Hexian City.

Therefore, on weekdays, the size of the standing army can only be maintained at a maximum of a thousand people, and the remaining manpower must be invested in land reclamation, commerce, port management and other aspects.

The original plan was to let Song Fuqia and his eight hundred men in, and the Mo family could still barely cope with it.

Now Nguyen Trung Ming's two thousand soldiers and eight thousand family members are blocking the door directly, which puts great pressure on Ha Tien.

Moreover, Ha Tien is a port city, and its main business is trade. It is naturally afraid of the risk of war. If someone were to threaten it like this, no ship would dare to come in a few months.

The only solution must be for Nguyen Tin Thu to meet some of Ruan Zhongming's demands and give up his interests to achieve harmony.

My goodness, has Duke Zheng's attack on Duan Yuyan turned into inviting a wolf into the house?

Meanwhile, Ou Zirong was still regretting his decision, "Thinking back to the time when the Fifth Battalion of Soldiers had just entered Jiading, my grandfather was still alive, and my uncle was not yet dead, we should have rebelled right away.

If we had recaptured Jiading back then, we wouldn't have allowed the Five Battalions to grow so powerful that it would have been difficult for us to fight them."

"Okay, Third Brother, what's the point of saying those words of regret." Mo Zibu stood up anxiously and walked around for a few steps, but then a plan slowly emerged in his mind.

"Since Nguyen Trong Ming is here on the pretext of seizing Siam, why don't we take advantage of his tactic? Have father mobilize his troops and bring Nguyen Trong Ming with him to attack Siam."

Ou Zirong suddenly widened his eyes with an expression that said, "Are you crazy?"

“Old Five, you really want to fight Siam!

Although we are not very close to the Teochew people, we can't kick them when they are down. This is an unjust act and will be criticized!"

Mo Zibu glanced at Ou Zirong and realized that his third brother was not just pretending, but really believed it. He immediately felt a little more favorable towards him.

"Hey, Third Brother, Siam doesn't belong entirely to the Chaozhou people now.

Let's go to Chimthaburi and see if Ruan Zhongming and the clan members behind him will follow! "

Mo Zibu pulled up Ou Zirong's arm and walked away. "We can't discuss this here. We have to go and discuss it with Uncle Zheng. Come on, will you come with me?"

"Zheng, Uncle Zheng?" Ou Zirong was shocked. "How do you calculate it from? Zheng Guoying is a few years younger than our eldest brother!"

. . . .

Zheng Xin actually knew that Ou Zirong was coming, but he did not ask anything. He just waited for Mo Zibu to bring Ou Zirong to meet him.
After hearing Mo Zibu's introduction, Zheng Xin nodded in agreement. "I didn't expect Zhang Fuluan to be so ruthless. With just one move, he destroyed the possibility of our two families joining forces."

“As a vassal of Quang Nam, Ha Tien must obey the orders of the Hue court. Otherwise, if the Hue court cuts off the trade routes, Ha Tien will be unable to survive.

So my nephew suggested that my father pretend to obey orders and lead the army westward, pretending to attack Chanthaburi."

"If the Guangnan soldiers follow up, they will surely scare Chanthaburi Phraya out of his wits and ask us for help. Then Chanthaburi will surrender without a fight.

"If the Guangnan soldiers don't follow us, then Chanthaburi will have no way to retreat, and we can attack without worry." Zheng Xin also continued with a smile. "If Chanthaburi asks the Guangnan soldiers for help, then we will show them some of our strength under the city of Chanthaburi and make sure they can't return to Ha Tien!" Mo Zibu finally said firmly.

"Hahaha, Zibu really understands me!" Zheng Xin laughed loudly. After his change of heart, he became more and more satisfied with Mo Zibu.

"Zi Rong, then please take my uncle, Old Master Mo Sai, to Hexian. Our families are both Chinese, so we should look after each other. If your father, Lord Ou, has any requests, we can discuss them."

After Ou Zirong and Zheng Mosai left, Zheng Xin found Mo Zibu.

"Zi Bu, King Runzhi of Nakhon Si Thammarat has made great contributions in providing warships, soldiers, and military rations. I have already planned to promote him to the title of Phraya Ratchaburi in the future."

Sure enough, after deciding to marry his daughter to Mo Zibu, Zheng Xin quickly found a way to make the cake for the Nguyen family, which was to move Wang Runzhi away from Luokun.

The city of Ratchaburi is about 25 kilometers west of Bangkok, on the edge of the Chao Phraya River Plain. It is located in the ruling core of Siam. Its prosperity is far beyond that of Nakhon Si Thammarat. Wang Runzhi will certainly be very satisfied.

At the same time, Ratchaburi City is very important. If it is given to a strong man, it will inevitably pose a threat to the Siamese court.

Wang Runzhi had neither the talent to command troops nor great ambitions. He was a scholar who knew when to advance and when to retreat. He was also good at governing the country. He was simply the perfect candidate for Phraya Ratchaburi.

Wang Runzhi had made great contributions, so it was very appropriate for him to be rewarded with Ratchaburi.

At the same time, the large piece of land that Zheng Xin promised to Mo Zi Bu actually had an owner.

There is the Wang family in Nakhon Si Thammarat, the Zhuang family in Khao Tou Lang, the Wu family in Songkhla, and the Wei family in Pattani.

Although Mo Zibu claims to be a lord, he actually does not have a stable territory of his own. Now that Wang Runzhi's family has been transferred away by Zheng Xin, Mo Zibu can use Luokun as his base.

Very good, very good. When the time comes, we will bring some more people from Annan, and we will also welcome other Chinese who have gone to Southeast Asia.

From then on, Nakhon Si Thammarat was made the capital, and arsenals were built in Nakhon Si Thammarat, while ore smelting plants were located in Pattani.

. . . .

Ha Tien, Nguyen Trong Minh, who had just enjoyed the beauty for a few days, was stunned. He looked at the solemn atmosphere in Ha Tien City. Not only did the Minh Xiang people begin to arm themselves, but even the Zhenla people outside the city and the small vassals under Ha Tien gathered together.

After only three days, Hexian's standing army expanded from just over a thousand to over ten thousand soldiers.

Although many of them were obviously laborers and fishermen pulled from the fields and waters, and their weapons were nothing more than broken swords and guns, they could still fight a favorable battle.

The more than 300,000 Guangnan people in Jiading and other places, except for the 8,000 soldiers of the Jiading Fifth Battalion, have similar equipment to this.

If the Mingxiang Society and Qinghe Society of the Chen family are included, Hexian's mobilization capacity is not weaker than the Five Battalions of Jiading, except that there may be a difference of three to several thousand combat soldiers.

Ruan Zhongming was frightened. He paced back and forth anxiously in the camp, thinking that Ou Tianci had made up his mind to rebel.

It’s not that he can’t win, but Ruan Zhongming is just the commander of the left camp!

A third-rank military officer forced a vassal king who could mobilize tens of thousands of people to rebel. No matter how you look at it, he is guilty. I am afraid that if the war goes against him, he will lose his head.

Thinking that he had only been there for less than ten days, he extorted five hundred taels of silver from Ou Tianci and building materials for seven hundred barracks. He also wantonly captured more than two thousand Zhenla people to serve as slave laborers to build houses for him.

As for the soldiers relying on the status of the suzerain state to force purchases and sales in Ha Tien and harass women and children everywhere, there are simply countless such cases.

In particular, he also built a tax checkpoint not far from the north gate of Hexian.

Damn, this must be what pissed off Ou Tianci!
Just when Ruan Zhongming was about to let his personal soldiers break out and ask for help from the royal family member Yan, someone came to report that the Lord of Hexian, Ou Tianci, had come in person.

"How many people are here?" Ruan Zhongming yelled with cold sweat on his forehead.

"How dare you! Does Ou Tianci think he's the Zhao Zilong of Changshan? He wants to force his way into the camp and capture me?"

The messenger's attendant was bewildered. He said hesitantly, "Sir, Lord Ou only brought about twenty followers with him. He came to discuss matters with you."

"Ah?" Ruan Zhongming let out a long sigh, patted his chest, and calmed his heart that was about to beat out.

"Quick, light my flag and follow me out of the camp to greet you."

　I'm going to take a day off tomorrow. Tiger has to write the last two chapters of Hanhai Tang'er Gui. I really can't delay it any longer. And with Tiger's coding speed of knowing the plot only half an hour earlier than the readers, I really can't write four chapters a day. Please forgive me.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)