The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 181: Rectify the Party’s Style Before Fighting

When Mo Zibu came to the city of Pyin U Lwin again, he felt an indescribable sense of absurdity.

Two years had passed since his last raid, but traces of artillery bombardment from the previous raid could still be seen on the walls of Pyin Uyen.

When the officials of the Konbaung Dynasty saw the white sun flag with a red border and a blue background, which often appeared in their nightmares, their minds immediately collapsed.

Before Mo Zibu started fighting, the officials slipped away from the north city gate, and the wealthy families also ran out of the city crying and dragging their families.

Before the city gates were broken, people started looting.

Of course, more restless people couldn't wait to run out of the city to greet them. They took the initiative to open the city gates and looked excitedly at the Hexian soldiers who served as the vanguard.

Chen Guangyao's cheek twitched, and he even recognized a few familiar faces.

They were all the guides for his side after the last looting of Pyin Uyen City. Unexpectedly, they were not purged and are still alive today.

Well, with these guides, things are actually easier.

"It's really weird! How could the White Elephant King be so weak?" Major Marco of the Dutch Army tightened his trousers.

Because there were two fist-sized golden Buddhas in his trouser pockets, they were always pulling his trousers down and he needed to raise them a little bit at all times.

"I now believe that this brave and generous Prince Ande is indeed blessed by God."

British Army Sergeant Green was grinning so hard that his face was about to break. Around his neck hung a heavy pearl necklace that was obviously not an ordinary item.

“I have also heard from pastors of foreign churches that Prince Andai received a call from the Lord in a dream.

The Lord told him that the terrifying white elephant that was destroying the civilized world must be punished, so he rescued a large number of French prisoners and was able to lead us deep into Burma so easily this time.

A Dutch Army guard also said this with a smile on his face. As he spoke, he patted the pocket on the left side of his uniform, which contained several large gold rings and a pile of silver coins.

“Yes, I believe that Prince Antai will soon be in the arms of the Lord, he is such a brave, far-sighted and generous nobleman.

I think I will be able to send home a hundred livres of silver soon, and my mother will no longer have to worry about my sister's dowry."

Another young Dutch defender also interrupted very happily, his face flushed with excitement.

Major Marco pondered for a moment, and the Golden Buddha pulled his pants down again.

That’s right, how much is the respect of the company’s directors worth?

Who cares about the company's interests or the national interests? I have served the company for more than ten years, and no one has given me two golden Buddhas.

Thinking of this, Major Marco, who had been worried about Mo Zibu's continued rise in Southeast Asia and the threat it would pose to Batavia's status in the future, finally came to his senses.

Why should a colonial major like him care so much? He should just make a few more golden Buddhas and then go back to his hometown of Leyton to buy a manor and live out his retirement in comfort.

Or, if Prince Andé thinks highly of me and is willing to give me a viscountship, or even a baronship if that's not possible, then I can serve him.

Mo Zibu was riding on his horse and saw that everyone in the Ha Tien Regiment, the Yi Cong Tuan, and the Anglo-Dutch Army, not only the officers but also every soldier, was carrying various gold, silver and jewelry. He knew that he had to reorganize it.

This was a situation he had never imagined. He had never thought that looting in Myanmar would be such an easy thing.

This is due to Myanmar's unique grassroots structure.

This country was established not long ago, or in other words, without the British in the 19th century, Myanmar would not have become a country like India.

The only thing that Myanmar is better than India is that it has had several periods of unification in history.

But this kind of unification often only lasts for a very short time, sometimes even only a dozen years.

This situation of long-term division and extremely short-term unification has led to division becoming the norm and mainstream in Myanmar.

The short-lived unification did not bring about cultural integration, and even the weights and measures, writing, and language failed to be unified.

Due to this constant division and conflict, any Burmese dynasty has very weak control over the grassroots.

Even in the Konbaung Dynasty, the only things the White Elephant King could directly control were the major cities and the serf villages directly under his jurisdiction.

The places that vassals can manage are generally called villages, but are actually towns or even counties.

The vast majority of rural areas, including some towns and counties, are actually managed by temples.

In the countryside of the Konbaung Dynasty, due to the vast land, sparse population, dense jungles and swamps, the government was unable to effectively manage such villages with only a few dozen or so people.

So they often went to temples to worship Buddha, and they naturally became religious, economic and political centers.

At the same time, after hundreds or thousands of years of development, these temples standing in the countryside often controlled large tracts of fertile land through mergers, donations and reclamation.

Not only did they have their own monk soldiers, they even had monks with official attributes who could provide the dynasty with manpower, food supplies, and loan services during wartime.

They are the cornerstone of Myanmar's grassroots governance.

After thousands of years of accumulation, temples are often very wealthy, and large amounts of gold and silver are used to decorate Buddha statues and other statues of gods. They are so conspicuous that people don't have to bother searching for them.

These provide great convenience for outsiders like Mo Zibu to rob.

Often when you go to the countryside, you don’t have to go through the trouble of looking everywhere, you can just go directly to the most magnificent buildings.

There must be a temple there. Most of the wealth within the radius of dozens of miles must be accumulated in the temple, and the wealth must be placed in the most conspicuous place.

What is even more exaggerated is that due to the strength of the Konbaung Dynasty, during the decades of its rise, Myanmar's inland areas were not threatened at all except for the incident when Mo Zi Bu came to cause trouble two years ago.

This led to the temples in the heartland of the Konbaung Dynasty having very poor awareness of defense. The White Elephant King's annual wars drew away a large number of monks and soldiers, weakening their resistance.

My goodness, when Mo Zibu really entered these places and started looting, those magnificent temples standing in conspicuous heights were simply unguarded small treasuries.

From Yangon to Pyay, Mozibu was robbing people all along the 300-kilometer road. Every time he robbed someone, he got gold coins all over the ground.

Originally, Mo Zibu was able to collect all the spoils and store them together, but in the end, the laborers could no longer move them.

The soldiers could only carry the most valuable gold and silver treasures on themselves, and even the lowest-ranking civilians could often be found with a few silver coins on their bodies.

"Your Highness, this won't do!"

Li Yulong came running over with his braids, followed by several Goshahas sent by Fuheng's nephew Mingde.

After witnessing Mo Zibu's skills and the fact that he was wholeheartedly "helping" the imperial court in fighting the Burmese, Li Yulong simply called Mo Zibu "Prince".

"We've made a ton of money along the way. Even an old man like me has managed to snatch a couple of hundred taels of silver.

Now we have captured a large city without bloodshed and gained even more. The brothers below are no longer in the mood to fight."

Mo Zibu rubbed his forehead with a headache. Even an old servant like Li Yulong could see that the men were no longer in the mood for battle, and naturally, Mo Zibu could see it too. Along the way, they had plundered at least four or five hundred thousand taels of wealth, along with countless cattle, sheep, and grain. They had even taken thousands of female slaves.

There were at least 200,000 taels of silver in the hands of the soldiers.

Considering the main force size of 2,800 people of Mo Zibu and the British and Dutch Army, you can imagine how much money these main soldiers have.

If he doesn't solve this problem, the war will indeed be impossible to continue.

This also served as a wake-up call to Mo Zibu. He rose too quickly and gained too much, and his soldiers also gained a lot.

Now it is difficult to motivate his army with high rewards alone.

If everyone on the battlefield is concerned about their lives, it will be difficult to deal with.

And now, taking advantage of the opportunity to rest in Pyin Uyen City, he must see how much support Mo Zibu can get from the officers and soldiers.

At night, Mo Zibu first summoned all the officers, and all those above the rank of Junior Guard came.

Under the bright whale oil candles, the room was silent. All the officers sat on small benches, waiting for Mo Zibu's lecture.

Mo Zibu didn't beat around the bush and said directly: "I know everyone has made a fortune recently, and I have made a fortune too.

I even heard someone say that now I can go back to Ha Tien and become a wealthy man. I don’t think that’s wrong; it’s human nature.”

After saying this, looking at the surprised expressions on the officers' faces, Mo Zibu changed the subject.

"But precisely because this is human nature, it shouldn't happen to you, because you are not ordinary people, not mortals.

You are heroes who follow me, Mo Zibu, through thick and thin, through thick and thin. You are the future heroes who will follow me!

I have made an agreement with you all that I, Mo Zibu, will put my head on my belt not for my own selfish reasons, but to provide a way out for the oppressed Han people and to establish a Taiping Heavenly Kingdom belonging to us Chinese in Southeast Asia.

Think about our ancestors. They were heroes and loyal ministers. They fought to the death and risked their lives to march south to prevent us from being shaved and dressed by the Eastern Tartars.

A country may be destroyed but its clothes remain; a body may die but its integrity remains.

I, Mo Zibu, cannot bear to see us Han people lose our country and home, and cannot let our descendants be overwhelmed by barbarians, just like the people who went to Southeast Asia in the late Song Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. I don’t want to become a member of the Min family or the Gui family.

I will rebuild my homeland in this southern part of the world, so that the sun and the moon will last forever!
I want everyone here to be not a fat pig who only knows how to live a life of luxury and debauchery, but a meritorious minister of the future new dynasty, and a hero of the Han Dynasty whose name will go down in history!

But all of this cannot be accomplished by me, Mo Zibu, alone.

I need you, I need you to not be blinded by the superficial wealth in front of you, and to join me in fighting for our country, our race, and our descendants."

This was the first time that Mo Zibu revealed his "real" vision for the future in front of everyone, which was to establish a Nanyang Great Han or Nanyang Ming Dynasty.

With a clang, Wu Wenyong stood up immediately after hearing Mo Zibu's words. He threw a gold brick and some gold leaves on his body directly onto the table in front of him.

"Your Majesty, Wu Wenyong doesn't want these gold and silver. They are useless. They can only buy hundreds or thousands of acres of land and support dozens of tenants.

I, Wu Wenyong, will follow the king. I will go to Dongjing (Hanoi) and become a meritorious official of the new dynasty, sharing the fate of the country, just like King Xu Da of Zhongshan.

As one of the few Annamites in Mozibu's core circle, Wu Wenyong has always been very sensitive in this regard, even a bit fanatical about being a convert.

"Okay, haha!" Mo Zibu laughed, "I was right about you, Wu Wenyong. You really are my King of Zhongshan."

"Your Majesty, you said that the descendants of Duke Zhongzheng are members of the royal family, and the descendants of Duke Zhongzheng's brothers are members of the royal family. Then what do I need these vulgar things for!" Brothers Chen Chengshan and Chen Chengji also stood up.

"Fifth Uncle, Wu Wenyong is the King of Zhongshan. Then I, Mo Zhengquan, will become Li Daozong, the King of Jiangxia in the future."

Wei Mo Zhengquan from the fourth company of the staff officers corps also stood up, and then a large group of officers with the surname Mo and Chen expressed their opinions.

Yuan Kaidao, Liang Wenying and the others took one look and stood up as well. "We are also willing to follow the king and restore the glory of our ancestors. If we follow the king and establish a new dynasty, why should we worry about not having gold and silver?"

Mo Zibu was overjoyed, as the officers were all his own people. It seemed that they had not been blinded by the small amount of money.

"Excellent! My brothers are of one mind with me. We are willing to spend a small amount of money today to strengthen discipline in our army. When I sit on the throne of the Le Dynasty King in Tokyo one day, I will repay you a hundredfold."

After making a promise for the future, Mo Zibu immediately announced that their gold and silver would be collected and no one in the army would be allowed to keep any of it. Everything would be distributed according to military merit after the battle.

After unifying the officers' thoughts, Mo Zibu summoned all non-commissioned officers above the rank of sergeant.

After repeating his bold words and future prospects, Mo Zibu said earnestly:

"Some people say you can go back home and become rich if you take the money now. Bah! Think about how you are robbing these wealthy Burmese men now.

Without the weapons in your hands and without our own country, how can you be a rich man? Even if you can be one, what about your sons and grandsons?

What happens to the Burmese today will be their tomorrow.

If you don’t want to have no descendants in the future, then just keep focusing on money.

Those who are willing to follow me, Mo Zibu, please hand over your gold, silver and jewelry now. I will have them transported to Yangon, and Master Zhongyi will register them one by one.

After the war, we will reward people according to their merits. Whoever has made the greatest contribution will be given a high position and money.

"Men in the army must follow the rules of the army. Anyone who dares to hide something or hesitate will be punished by military law!"

If it were an ordinary commander, this would be equivalent to blatant robbery under military law, which would definitely cause problems, but in Mo Zibu's case, the non-commissioned officers could only remain speechless.

Because as the head coach, Mo Zibu can be said to be a model of incorruptibility.

As a king, he didn't even build a palace. The only woman around him was his cousin from the Chen family. He even had only a few sets of clothes, and his food and clothing were not much different from theirs.

As a king, he can set an example and abide by military law and discipline, and the people below are also convinced.

After dealing with his own army, Mo Zibu called over the British and Dutch officers and non-commissioned officers and spoke to them very clearly.

Hand over your belongings now and have them shipped to Yangon for registration, and return them after the war.

Any future looting must be turned over to the public for distribution according to military merit.

If they disagree, Mo Zibu will arrange for them to return now. If they agree, they will continue to head north to Ava.

These officers discussed for a long time but still could not resist the temptation to go to Ava. They could get so many benefits just by attacking Pyin Uyen. What would happen if they broke through Ava?

Moreover, Mo Zibu's good character and honest style played a huge role at this time. Although these white people were greedy, they still trusted Mo Zibu.

So they all expressed their willingness to hand over their belongings. Even a troublemaker like Major Marco took the lead and handed over the golden Buddha on his body.

(End of this chapter)