The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 148 Another Pillar of Royal Power

Standing at the port of Thonburi City, Mo Zi Bu was unable to bring himself to persuade Taksin to capture Kamphaeng Phet as soon as possible.

Because what appeared before Mo Zibu's eyes was not a city with a large population, but...

Maybe this is a populous city, but all its residents are refugees.

Countless skinny Siamese people came to Thonburi from all over, bringing their families or in groups of three or four.

They heard that a new king of Siam had appeared, and that these people had been persecuted by the Burmese army for a year or two, and almost all of their food and production tools had been lost.

When they heard that there was a king again, they flocked to Thonburi, just like wandering children hearing the news of their parents' return, hoping to get the protection of the new king here, especially to be satisfied with food.

In just over ten days, the population of Thonburi suddenly expanded from a few thousand people to more than ten thousand people.

The other cities around Thonburi were also filled with Siamese people from all over the place, and this place instantly replaced Ayutthaya as the center of Siam.

The military rations would soon be insufficient. Zheng Xin had enough food to feed his 35,000 troops for half a year, but there were at least 200,000 disaster victims who needed relief. If he really wanted to provide them in large quantities, they would be finished in just over a month.

Zheng Xin was caught off guard by this situation. He had originally come to prepare for war, but he did not expect to have to go through a disaster relief first, a disaster relief that was beyond his ability.

In the temporary royal palace in Thonburi, Taksin convened a meeting of fifteen of his closest relatives.

In this situation, of course, everyone needs to work together, but at the meeting, almost all civil and military officials did not recommend disaster relief.

Some even suggested abandoning the victims and retreating back to Chanthaburi.

The implicit meaning is very clear, which is to let these characters compete for natural selection and then clean up the mess next year.

There were only two people who opposed it, one was Tong and the other was Mo Zibu.

Tong said to Taksin, "People who are at the end of their rope turn to the king for food. This has been the custom for thousands of years.

If Zhao wants to be the King of Siam, he must help them. If he retreats to Chanthaburi, Siam will appoint a new king the next day. With Zhao's status, I'm afraid he won't be able to save Chanthaburi."

Mo Zibu looked at Tong in surprise. He found that this guy was really willing to take risks and speak his mind at the critical moment.

The meaning of Tong is very clear. You, Zheng Xin, are a second-generation Chinese, but your mother is Siamese.

Your ancestors before you are all Chinese. Even your father has only been in Siam for more than 30 years, so it is difficult to call him a Siamese.

With this kind of background, why should the people of Siam support you as king?
It is definitely not enough to just expel the Burmese. You have to save the Siamese nation at this critical moment, show kindness to the people, and make them remember your kindness, so that you can rule this country.

If you really retreat to Chanthaburi, after a few years when the Siamese people have established a new king, they will definitely come back to take back Chanthaburi. By then, how many people will still support you, Taksin?

Tong calculated the key to Zheng Xin's foothold, while Mo Zibu calculated an economic account for Zheng Xin.

"Zhao, although there are many disaster victims right now, they are disaster victims, so their food doesn't need to be provided according to military standards."

Among Zheng Xin's army at this time, Mo Zibu had the best food and drink conditions.

I, Mo Dalongtou, train my soldiers twice a day and rest one day every three days. This high-intensity training is achieved by feeding them three meals a day with unlimited dry food, supplemented by a certain amount of fresh fish, chicken, duck and seafood.

It can be said without exaggeration that, apart from the difference in seasoning levels and the huge amount of oil and salt brought about by industrialization, the food in Mo Zibu's army was better than that of ordinary people in later generations.

Zheng Xin's army also had two meals a day. They could eat as much dry rice as they wanted. They didn't eat much meat, but their intake of oil and salt was basically sufficient.

Such living conditions are a luxury for ordinary people, whether in the Qing Dynasty in the north or in Europe in the west.

"To provide relief to the disaster victims, we can reduce the current supply to the army by half for able-bodied men and only give 30% to the elderly, weak, women and children. This will greatly slow down the rate of food consumption.

At the same time, we seized a large amount of gold and silver, which can be purchased at a high price. I will immediately send Wu Shiying to Ha Tien and transfer two months' worth of food for 100,000 men within ten days.

Besides, India is a vast country with abundant resources, so there is certainly no shortage of food. The King of Arakan is also an old friend of mine. If he can afford it, he can certainly get another two months' worth of food from these two places.

In this way, combined with organizing fishing and hunting for the people, we should be able to drag it out until May. With some collective savings, by June, the early rice planted this year can be harvested."

Hearing that the two most important ministers were in favor of staying, especially after Mo Zibu offered a solution, Zheng Xin felt much better. He nodded and said:

"What Phraya Andai and Luang Yukadrot said resonates with me. Now that the letter has arrived, how can we just stand by and watch the victims flee? Let's all work together, offer more suggestions, and overcome this difficult time together."

Now that the monarch had expressed his stance, naturally no one else could go against him. Chinese businessman Lin Wu, who had already donated a large amount of military rations, expressed his stance again and pledged to donate rice, fruit, dried fruit, salted fish, fresh fish, etc., which were equivalent to 200,000 kilograms of grain.

Mo Zibu saw Lin Wu grinning secretly, and it seemed that this guy's family fortune was almost gone. He had to admire his ruthlessness of not sacrificing his own children to catch the wolf.

Zheng Xin knew this of course, so he returned the favor by immediately announcing that Lin Wu's title would be promoted from Kun to Luan Samosakong.

This will motivate the people below. Minister of Civil Affairs Chen Sen said that he still has dozens of fishing boats and can order experienced disaster victims to go out to sea to fish, and all the catches will be used to feed the disaster victims.

(Luan) Huang Zhen also suggested to Zheng Xin that the people could be classified into categories.

The able-bodied men and women were allowed to start farming and assist in the construction of Thonburi City. Children could also do some collecting work within their ability. The wounded and sick were gathered together for unified treatment.

Zheng Xin accepted all of them, but there was one last option that no one mentioned, which was the army.

Because under the current circumstances, even if the army can afford it, if they continue to indulge in two extravagant dry meals, it will be too eye-catching and will reduce Zheng Xin's halo of saving the people at all costs.

Not to mention that there was still a bit of a supply shortage. But this was the army! If things weren't handled properly, there would be a mutiny, and at this point, no one knew if the Burmese army would suddenly come back to attack.

So in the dead silence, everyone turned their eyes to Mo Zibu and Tong.

Mo Zi Bu was the chief military general chosen by Taksin, and was given the vast Andai region as his fief. He was also Taksin's son-in-law.

Tongze was Zheng Xin's number one favorite minister. It was no exaggeration to say that when he went out, he was a general, and when he came in, he was a prime minister.

You two have gained the most benefits, so naturally you two will be the ones to do the things that offend others.

Tong and Mo Zibu looked at each other again.

Tong appeared calm on the surface, but he was very nervous inside. His influence in the army was already weak, and he couldn't afford to lose favor any more.

"King Zheng, I propose that we also reduce the number of troops in the army. We should select 15,000 elite soldiers from the 35,000, and their salaries will remain the same.

Secondly, another 10,000 elite soldiers will be selected from the 20,000 and sent back to Chanthaburi to defend against the movements of Tiepibi and others.

The final 10,000 men will have their salaries reduced by 30% and will be used to maintain order among the disaster victims and garrison the various cities."

Just when Tong was extremely nervous, Mo Zibu suddenly spoke. Even Chen Lian, Huang Zhen and others couldn't figure out what Mo Zibu was thinking.

But Mo Zi Bu knew what he was going to do. He was already preparing to withdraw from Siam because Mo Zi Bu could not assist Taksin for the rest of his life.

So he didn't care what the Siamese army felt about him. Mo Zi Bu was originally planning to inflict damage on the Burmese army, train the army, and then return to Ha Tien.

As for the situation after Siam, Mo Zi Bu just wanted to treat Zheng Xin as a blood bag.

Therefore, we must work hard now, without fear of offending any new Siamese nobles, so that when we ask Taksin for support in the future, we can ask for a high price.

As for Zheng Xin's fate, it really depends on his luck.

Because if Mo Zi Bu wanted to change Zheng Xin's fate, he had to stay in Siam and engage in intrigues with a group of foxes and jackals like Tong.

But Mo Zi Bu's base is in Ha Tien, Gia Dinh, and the entire Annan. It is impossible for him to stay in Siam for a long time, and his followers will not agree to Mo Zi Bu staying in Siam.

"Zi Bu, let your team come to guard the palace!" Zheng Xin looked at Mo Zi Bu and was quite moved.

Mo Zibu also knew what this meant. His army guarded the palace to show closeness, and secondly, he was not going to lower the living standards of Mo Zibu's soldiers. It would be easier to cover up if they were stationed in the palace.

After the military meeting ended, Mo Zibu quickly ordered Wu Shiying to return to Hexian.

At this time, my father, Ou Tianci, should be sending troops to the Tonle Sap Lake area. My mother, Chen, is the head of the family, and my cousin, Pei Jiannan, is assisting me. There is absolutely no problem in buying some food.

If there is not enough, you can buy it from your uncle Chen Dasheng. The Jiading Chen family has only lost control of Jiading City, but it is still the leader of the Jiading Mingxiang people. They also own a large amount of fertile land and are not short of food.

Mo Zibu himself was going to find General Suki.

The best route to buy grain from India and Arakan is not to use water transportation, but to transport it by sea to Myeik, the capital of Tanah Ratan, and then transport it to Prachuap Khiri Khan in Siam through the Mawdang Pass, and then load it onto ships.

This requires the cooperation of General Suki.

However, when Mo Zibu walked not far from the Mon military camp, he suddenly discovered that General Suki's Mon military camp had been surrounded by a large number of angry Siamese people.

The Mon people also made a lot of efforts in the Burmese army's capture of Ayutthaya. Therefore, although they rebelled, they still caused great anger.

These days, people often curse at them and throw stones, feces and other things at them.

Mo Zibu watched from a distance for a while and found that there were quite a lot of people here today, and among them were some people who did not look like disaster victims.

Someone is plotting this behind the scenes!

Mo Zibu simply retreated a little and watched quietly from a distance. A moment later, Wu Shiying ran over in a rage.

"Longtou, I went to the Minister of Finance to get money to buy rice, but the officials only gave me 30% of the money and then said there was no more."

Humph! Mo Zibu understood and shook his head. "Yes, yes, your method is too crude, is this all you can do?"
No, this doesn't seem like Tong's trick. He's not stupid enough to do something weird at this time.

"Bokang, hurry up and leave now!" Looking at Wu Shiying's confused expression, Mo Zibu could only explain briefly:

"Ten or twenty thousand silver coins are nothing. We, the River Fairy, can afford it. King Zheng's guilt is not easy to come by. Let's go!"

Mo Zibu was almost certain that this was done by someone close to Tong, and neither Zheng Xin nor Tong knew about it.

At this time, if we let Wu Shiying go quickly and make the matter a done deal, we can gain two things.

One is Zheng Xin's guilt and affirmation of Mo Zibu's broad-mindedness, and the other is Tong's disgrace.

Thinking of this, General Mozibusuki no longer cared and left quickly, asking Tong to make the matter bigger. Then he would come back to rescue General Suki and gain more gratitude.

Besides, General Suki hasn't sent anyone to look for Mo Zibu yet, which proves that he can still hold on and the situation is not critical yet.

Others are not in a hurry, so why should he be in a hurry?

(End of this chapter)