The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 179 King Mo's Eagerness to Seek Talent
In mid-July, while the Qing army continued to attack Laoguantun, Mozibu led his troops to advance into Pegu and Shalian.

This time, it was not a few thousand people, but an army of 30,000.

The Mon and Karen leaders who received the reward from Mozibu were very excited and gave their all to provide Mozibu with a fairly good auxiliary force.

These guys are all local veterans and old natives. With them fighting for their lives, the other Mon and Karen people in Lower Burma could not resist at all, and many people were successfully mobilized.

Balamindin had already fled north by this time, so Pegu and Tharlian encountered little resistance.

At the end of July, Mo Zibu arrived in Yangon and joined forces with Li Xianwen's 6,000 troops, and began a fierce attack on Yangon, the most important stronghold of the Burmese army in Lower Burma.

Yangon has strong defenses and many cannons. After Mozibu burned, killed and looted in Pyin Uyen last time, the White Elephant King reinforced the city and moved a large number of Burmese people here, making it very difficult to attack.

However, Minha in Yangon City was isolated and helpless, and there was no possibility for him to hold on, unless he was a god like Zhang Xun or Xu Yuan.

In early August, after twenty days of fierce attacks day and night, Yangon was finally unable to hold on. The Burmese general Minha set fire to the gunpowder depot and committed suicide. Most of the Burmese troops in Yangon were killed.

Mo Zibu entered Yangon and basically recovered the territory of the Mon Pegu Dynasty.

After occupying Yangon, Mo Zibo moved his base camp from Toungoo to here.

He dispersed his tens of thousands of troops and led them to attack everywhere under the leadership of the Mon and Karen people who were loyal to him, clearing out the Burmese who had escaped the net in the entire Irrawaddy River Plain, and at the same time conquering the Mon and Karen people who refused to come to Yangon to pay homage.

Mo Zibu even offered a bounty. For every Burmese captured, the reward would be 100 Anfa Dabao copper coins minted by Hexian.

One hundred Wen Anfa Dabao could buy 40 kilograms of rice, which was also a disguised way of promoting currency and preparing for the right to mint coins.

The entire Lower Burma was divided by Mo Zi Bu, so the circulation of currency was naturally controlled by Ha Tien.

By the end of August, Mozibu had basically cleared Lower Burma, including the mouth of the Irrawaddy River.

Generals Su Kyi of Pegu, U Win of Yangon, Ming Xin of Mawlamyine, and others, whom he officially appointed, entered their respective cities with their subordinates and began to administer.

Chen Jiansheng, a native of Fuqing in Tuwa, was jealous and did not want to stay in Tuwa any longer. He begged Mo Zibu, asking him to use his contribution in taking Tuwa to make him an earl like Chen Guangtai, who could command tens of thousands of people.

How can I describe this person? He is not very content, very ambitious, and very smart.

He knew that Tuwa, a place with dangerous mountains and rivers and adjacent to Mo Zibu's fiefdom, although relatively poor, was precisely the place that Mo Zibu would never give up.

If he stayed in Dawei, he would be just a local official, but if he left Dawei and went to Lower Burma, he would be a prince who established a territory.

Mo Zibu's popularity is so high now, and his fierce army is about to be invincible. Although he is outnumbered, this is his chance.

It is because we have a small population that we need to establish borders and build territories. If there were 20,000 tigers and wolves like this in the future, all places would become like Tuwa. How could such a good opportunity come from?

For Mo Zibu, if they were in the country, or in a peaceful environment, people like Chen Jiansheng would be something that those in power would need to be wary of.

But in Nanyang, where the Han people are rare and many are attached to their hometowns, such ambitious people are the subordinates he needs most.

It's good to have big ambitions. Nanyang is so big that it can accommodate a hundred Han princes.

If there really were a hundred Chen Jianshengs, Mo Zibu would laugh in his dreams. Even if each of them only brought a thousand fellow villagers to Southeast Asia, that would be a hundred thousand people.

Therefore, Mo Zibu decisively agreed to Chen Jiansheng's request. He not only changed the name of Zhitong City, north of Zhuma City, to Tongzhou and granted it to Chen Jiansheng, but also allowed him to lead 6,000 households and 30,000 people as the Earl of Tongzhou.

Another mine owner, Chen Jianchang, was also made an earl and was in charge of 3,000 households and more than 10,000 people in the south of Pegu.

Then, there were not enough talents on Mo Zibu's side.

Now not only is Danlao lacking a prefect, but Tuwa is also missing a prefect, and the post of prefect of Luokun in Andai area is also vacant.

Mo Zibu spread his hands and looked at Luo Fangbai and said, "Fangbai, you see, there are opportunities everywhere in Nanyang. What is lacking is people like us Han people to venture into the Southeast Asian region.

I have no one available right now, so I'm afraid I can only ask Fangbai to go to Dawei to guard it for a while."

Mo Zibu now discovered that although Luo Fangbai was a martial arts expert, he did not seem to have much talent in military affairs.

He can indeed unite people and win the hearts of soldiers, and he should be good at building strong camps and fighting static battles, but he is not very good at winning by surprise, long-distance raids, or even training troops.

However, when it comes to government affairs, he is an expert at managing the economy, promoting people's livelihood, revitalizing finances, and even solving cases.

This should be a talent who is stronger than Sun Kewang in politics and strategy, but slightly inferior to Sun Kewang in military and government administration.

However, the Qing government was reluctant to give even one juren to such a great talent.

Luo Fangbai was also in a daze. Although Tuwa has only tens or hundreds of thousands of people now, it is a bit of a stretch to call it a prefecture on the mainland, but it should be regarded as an upper-middle-class county.

But on the mainland, a county magistrate like this could not even become a scholar, let alone a juren.

If a juren wanted to become a seventh-rank official after being imprisoned, he had to go to Yunnan, Guizhou, or Gansu.

Such a county magistrate would only give the title to the top candidate who was a Jinshi.

But in Southeast Asia, it is readily available. Judging from what King Mo meant, if Tuwa doesn't want to go, they can go to other places.

Luo Fangbai took a long breath. He was actually very obsessed with being an official. What he liked most was being an official. Therefore, when he came to Mo Zibu's place, Luo Fangbai felt that it was simply heaven.

"Your Majesty, I will obey your Majesty's orders. Furthermore, I have many good friends throughout Guangdong who I met during my school years. Several of them are quite talented. Please grant me some money as a settlement allowance so that I can recruit them to Southeast Asia."

When Luo Fangbai mentioned the word "classmate", he still felt a little ashamed, because Luo Fangbai was just a scholar, and his classmates must be only in Jiaying Prefecture.

But when Luo Fangbai said that they were in Guangdong province in the same year, it was obvious that they were the old scholars who had participated in the provincial examinations with him but failed for a long time.

However, Mo Zibu was very excited. With his conditions, he would not mind a scholar, or even a mute, as long as they had healthy hands and feet and could farm. "Okay, I will grant Fang Bai 200 taels of silver. You write a letter to all your classmates.

Not only talented scholars, but also old pedants who are ignorant of current affairs, as long as they come to Southeast Asia, I will give them official positions."

What's wrong with an old scholar who is ignorant of current affairs? He is still a literate scholar. Even if he cannot be a government official, he can still be a financial officer, manage a warehouse, calculate military rations, or even run a school, which is still very useful.

At a time when the Qing Dynasty had reduced the national literacy rate to 5/1000, old scholars could only barely make a living in China, but in Southeast Asia, they were considered high-tech talents.

Luo Fangbai was moved by Mo Zibu's eager attitude to recruit talents, and immediately went down to write letters to all his classmates whose addresses he knew.

. . . .

Hexian, Ou Tianci waved his hand and let his indignant second son Ou Zi flow down.

After communicating with Mo Zibu, Ou Tianci immediately promoted his second son Ou Zitang to the position of inspector of the fourth gate of Hexian.

On the one hand, he was planning to let his second son stay with him.

Just as Mo Zibu said, Ou Zitang is honest, honest and filial. He is definitely the best choice to keep by your side to provide for your old age. Any parents who have such a son will keep him by their side.

On the other hand, Ou Zitang was an inflexible person and could not tolerate any injustice. If he were to be the inspector of the four gates of Hexian, he would definitely clash with the evil Jiading Zuoying soldiers.

As for ordinary people, even if they had not suffered any injustice, when there was a conflict between the soldiers of the Zuoying Camp and Ou Zitong, they would naturally stand on Ou Zitong's side.

Even if Ou Zitang was in the wrong, most people would think that the soldiers from Zuoying were at fault first.

This can be considered a benefit for honest people.

What's more, the soldiers of Zuoying have already started to have grudges against all the immortals in the river.

Sure enough, after several months of development, the reputation of the Zuoying soldiers began to become bad, and they were also confronted by Ou Zitong.

And Ou Tianci's attitude was ambiguous and seemed to have some reservations, which further increased the arrogance and resentment of the soldiers in the left camp.

The two sides have several frictions in the city every day. Now, they are just waiting for an explosive incident to happen and successfully ignite public opinion.

After Ou Zitang went out, the eldest son Ou Zihuang came in again.

Ou Tianci handed Mo Zibu's letter for help to Ou Zihuang for him to read. When Ou Zihuang opened it, he couldn't help but gasp.

"Father, isn't this a bit too exaggerated?" Ou Zihuang felt that everything was unreal.

"Old Five conquered the Meng people's territory so quickly, and they're missing as many as a hundred officials from top to bottom?"

"Take another look at this." Ou Tianci handed another letter to Ou Zihuang.

This is a letter written by a member of the Pei family to Ou Tianci, which describes in detail the details of the Battle of Zedi City.

Ou Zihuang felt that his three views had collapsed. Six hundred people were fighting against five thousand, two thousand against twelve thousand, and he only lost forty people while killing thousands of them. He beat the enemy commander and barely escaped with his life. Within a month, the whole of Lower Burma surrendered.

This guy is not some random person, he is the Burmese army that just destroyed Siam!
This... Our Mou family has never produced such a powerful person like Emperor Taizong of Tang or Emperor Taizu of Ming in our ancestors! How come it suddenly became like this when it came to the fifth brother?

Ou Zihuang said he couldn't understand it.

Ou Tianci burst into laughter, his heart filled with joy, it was great, after three generations of the Ou family, a talented and heroic leader finally emerged.

"Think about it, your grandfather and I, two generations, spent over eighty years to build up this small family business in Hexian. Your brother has already made many times more than us in just three years. He should be the head of the Lu family."

Without hesitation, Ou Zihuang also expressed his opinion, "Father, I understand. I have absolutely no objection. Zibu is the successor of our family."

The gap was too big. If Li Jiancheng relied on the support of his father Li Yuan and could see Li Shimin's taillights with a telescope, he would still have some desire to fight for it.

The difference between Ou Zihuang and Mo Zibu is probably like the difference between Emperor Ling of Han and Emperor Guangwu of Han. There is no comparison and they cannot compete at all.

"Good! You are worthy of being my, Ou Tianci's, son. You can take it and let it go." Ou Tianci walked over and patted Ou Zihuang on the shoulder.

"Don't worry, your brother won't treat you unfairly. Look, he has already written to me, wanting you to go to Luokun and help him govern Luokun Prefecture."

"In addition, your favorite concubine of Arakan has a younger sister who is fourteen years old this year. It is said that she is also very beautiful. Zibu has given her to you as well.

I will give you another fifty thousand taels as a personal stash, and you can also bring your confidants in Hexian with you to assist you."

When Ou Zihuang heard this, his eyes lit up and he asked in a trembling voice, "Zi Bu, are you really willing to trust me as your brother?"

Ou Zihuang was actually quite capable and was qualified to be the prefect of Luokun.

He was very excited at the moment. How to say it, although he was the eldest son, his father Ou Tianci was a very strict one.

Ou Zihuang had been under the strict control of Ou Tianci for forty years, and everything had to be done in accordance with the rules. Now, when he thought about being able to escape from his father's "clutches" and become the master of his own place, Ou Zihuang's soul was about to float away.

At the age of forty, I can finally take charge of my own life!
"Of course, your brother wants to be a great ruler like King Wu of Zhou and Emperor Gaozu of Han. How could he be reluctant to give up a Luokun governor?

You are his brother. Not to mention being the master of a place, you can be the master of any larger territory or any higher position in the future.

Besides, our Lu family is not a big clan. We only have a few brothers like you. How can he trust outsiders but not his brothers?"

"However," Ou Tianci's expression became serious, "after arriving in Luokun, you must know your limits and carry out Zibu's arrangements well. Don't listen to the instigation of those with ill intentions.

Otherwise, you will definitely be the one who suffers!"

(End of this chapter)