The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 184: Blocked, my old baby

Looking at Balamindin kneeling in front of him, Mo Zibu was in a trance. He also felt that he was really capable to be able to come up with such a clever trick to subdue Balamindin.

After understanding the whole situation, Mo Zibu was quite trusting of Balamindin.

It's very simple. If this old guy doesn't join him, he will die.

What? You said he could backstab Mo Zibu again and turn against the White Elephant King.

Stop joking. The White Elephant King is a king with the same personality as Emperor Wu of Han and Kangxi.

Even if Balamindin turned against them and made great contributions, they would definitely find a way to kill him in the future. Balamindin knew this very well and would never dare to gamble.

"General, I need to see your ability. Help me gather at least 10,000 people within ten days." Mo Zibu rarely beat around the bush at such times. He said directly:

"You know, until the White Elephant King's head is chopped off, we won't be safe at all.

I need to ensure that he does not invade Siam again, and you, without the White Elephant King, can gain a foothold in Pyin Oo.

"Yes, my king!" Balamindin immediately felt relieved when he heard Mozibu's straightforward words.

"So, General." Mozibu helped Balamindin up, "You should know how generous I am.

You can even recommend a few more powerful generals to me. After we kill the White Elephant King, you can form an alliance with General Suki and his men.

With my support, we will fight against Ava together. With a large number of people, we can pass on wealth and honor to our descendants."

After saying that, Mo Zibu picked up a bowl of wine and handed it to Balamindin, and they drank a bowl of wine together.

"I think that a tax of fifty thousand taels of silver a year for Pyin Oo and the surrounding towns is not excessive."

Balamindin felt more relieved. He silently calculated in his mind that if it was Pyin U Mow and the twenty cities around it, the territory would be quite large. In the Konbaung Dynasty, the tax revenue should be more than 500,000 taels.

Mo Zibu asked for one-tenth of the price, which was not very kind, but still a fair price.

"Your Majesty is merciful, but Pyin Uyen may not be able to gather so much silver." After Balamindin sat down in the correct position, he also began to bargain.

This was a good time for China. A large amount of silver flowed into China rapidly, even leading to the saying that too much silver flowing into China was not a good thing.

But outside of China and colonized Europe, silver was a very rare commodity.

Because they did not have enough products to obtain silver from outside the territory, they had to use silver to buy things, which was similar to the small countries in later generations that had perennial trade deficits.

Therefore, the tax revenue of 500,000 taels is just the theoretical income of Beimu. If you want him to really take silver, let alone 50,000 taels per year, even 30,000 taels would be a problem.

So Mo Zibu readily agreed, "A fixed amount of 5,000 taels of silver per year, and the rest can be replaced with grain, animal skins, sugar, or even serfs."

Upon hearing Mozibu's agreement, Balamindin and his three sons knelt down and kowtowed to Mozibu again, "Your Majesty, Balamindin, kowtows to my king."

Mo Zibu estimated that if he could successfully kill the White Elephant King this time, his influence would only reach as far as Bimbisara.

At the same time, in order to avoid taking too much responsibility, Mozibu was not planning to bring the 200-kilometer territory north of Pegu and south of Pyin U Mwe under the control of the Burmese General's Office.

So he planned to establish seven or eight vassal states under the tax-farming system, collect a fixed amount of tribute every year, and ask the Shogun's office to help deal with small-scale threats.

If the Konbaung Dynasty rises, let them pay money and invite Chinese soldiers to help.

Balamindin, whose status was confirmed, quickly contacted several guys who were quite powerful but had never been valued by the White Elephant King.

Mo Zibu immediately comforted and accepted them one by one, and made it clear that as long as they could make meritorious contributions, they would be canonized.

At the same time, after strict military discipline, Mo Zibu selected hundreds of low-ranking officers and non-commissioned officers from his main force who could communicate in simple Meng language.

They were arranged into the auxiliary troops as officers, and took control of the 12,000 auxiliary troops that Mo Zibu brought and carefully selected from Yangon.

As a result, although the number of Mo Zibu's core main forces was reduced to about 2,000 including the British and Dutch forces, the number of troops capable of conducting combat to a certain extent increased.

. . . .

January 1770, the th year of Emperor Qianlong's reign in the Qing Dynasty, AD, the th day of the th lunar month.

As the Spring Festival approaches, Mo Zibu, who has been resting in Pyin Uyen for over 20 days, is finally leaving. This time, I, King Mo, will not rush all the way there.

He wants to penetrate Ava as quickly as possible!

Because the White Elephant King is not completely powerless to resist. If he fights slowly, he can still mobilize tens of thousands of people.

Ava is a large city with strong defenses, and he has too few core elite troops, so he might not be able to take it down.

And now with local people like Balamindin leading the way, the White Elephant King was deceived by the illusion that he had stayed in Pyin Uy for almost a month, and thought that Mo Zibu was unable to continue heading north.

Before setting off, Mo Zibu summoned Li Yulong and several Manchurian envoys and had a drink with them under the guise of a fake drink.

"Brother, this time you may have to take a risk with me." Mo Zibu spoke in standard Mandarin.

The Mandarin of later generations is a little different from the Beijing dialect of the time, but the difference is not that big. It just has more Jianghuai vocabulary and fewer vocabulary from Hebei and Northeast China.

Because Nanjing Mandarin and the Beijing Mandarin that took shape soon after actually have a great inheritance relationship.

Li Yulong found it very familiar. His accent was a little strange, but it sounded much more familiar than Cantonese.

And after all, it is Mandarin, which emphasizes squareness and elegance, lacking many Cantonese styles such as "diao", "hai" and "wen", and is indeed much more civilized.

When Li Yulong heard Mo Zibu affectionately calling him "brother" and toasting him, his old face relaxed and he hurriedly stood up and nodded.

"Oh, Your Majesty, please don't call me that. I'm just an old servant, and I don't deserve to be called your brother. It's my turn to toast you."

The two drank it all in one gulp, and Li Yulong was really touched.

"Your Majesty, you are in Tiannan. To be honest, you have never eaten a single meal of the Qing imperial rations. Now you have your own weapons and armor, and you have led tens of thousands of tigers and wolves to serve your country for thousands of miles. You are truly loyal!
No matter who it is, even those in the Forty-Nine Cities who are deeply favored by the Emperor, can only do this at best."

As he spoke, he looked at the Eight Banners sent to Beijing, gave a thumbs-up and asked, "Men, I'm sure Old Li wasn't talking nonsense. Your Highness's loyalty is rare in the world!"

Several bannermen tied their braids around their necks and collectively raised their wine bowls.

"Master Li is right. The prince's attitude towards the court and his master is truly beyond reproach. We, whose ancestors have been feeding us for generations, all admire him deeply. Let us offer a bowl of wine to the prince."

They drank another bowl, and Mo Zibu sighed, "Damn it, if it weren't for the purpose of dragging Fu Heng into Myanmar, more elite Qing soldiers would have been killed by the plague."

On the surface, Mo Zibu is extremely loyal.

These guys have seen how Mo Zibu has been doing things along the way.

Moreover, they followed Mo Zibu and each of them robbed gold, silver and jewelry worth hundreds of taels of silver. Naturally, they admired Mo Zibu even more.

"Your Highness is going to attack Ava? You must take me with you, even if it's not for the Emperor, but for the Governor.

Just for your loyalty, my old bones are willing to sacrifice themselves for your service. If you are not afraid of your life, what should I be afraid of?"

Although Li Yulong didn't read much, he had a very clear mind.

If First-Class Duke Fu Heng and the entire nation's elite troops were blocked at Laoguantun and unable to advance, Mo Zibu would pierce the Burmese bandits' lair from behind. Li Yulong couldn't even imagine how great this achievement was.

Afterwards, Emperor Qianlong of the Forbidden City did not give this old slave a lucrative job in the Salt Administration or the Weaving Bureau, which was considered as poor treatment for a meritorious official.

For such an opportunity to reach the sky in one step, you must risk your life for it!

What Mo Zibu wanted was their thinking and attitude, because he did not intend to accept the title, otherwise the benefits would be greatly reduced.

Therefore, he needed to use these people to convey the image of a loyal minister who was loyal to the Qing Dynasty and did not ask for anything in return to Emperor Qianlong and the Manchu high-level officials.

In order to facilitate Mo Zibu's future recruitment of personnel and purchase of supplies from the mainland, it would be best if Mo Zibu could plant a white glove in the Thirteen Hongs.

Of course, the profits can be handed over to Qianlong according to the rules, but Mo Zibu really needs this channel and the remaining profits.

However, Mo Zibu was still worried about one issue, so he asked a few Manchus to come closer, and then whispered:

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are here, and we want to serve the emperor, but I am afraid that Laoguantun will not be able to hold on!

I'm not worried about the governor, as he's a veteran Manchu official, but I can't say for the others. Don't wait until we crash into Ava, and the imperial army will already be back.

That would be a lot of fun for us men. We might even have our heads taken by the Burmese to build a Jingguan."

"Yes, yes, yes!" Li Yulong and others felt a chill on their necks when they thought about it. They nodded repeatedly, and it was indeed true.

"So I thought, if any two of you gentlemen can step forward, I will send ten locals who are familiar with the geography, equip them with good horses, and send them ahead of the main army, day and night, to the north to tell Master Fu.

Today is the 27th day of the 12th lunar month. Our army will have dumplings after the New Year and will set out on the 3rd day of the 1st lunar month. We will definitely arrive at the city of Ava on the 20th day of the 1st lunar month.

Then, within twenty days at the latest, before February 12, it will be decided whether we can capture Ava.

"Master Fu, please wait until the end of February. If I take Ava, all of Myanmar will be pacified. If I fail to take Ava, the Mongolian thieves will no longer dare to bar their teeth at the Qing Dynasty and will kneel down and surrender."

I, King Mo, am so cruel! I pushed the date back by more than a month. If you count the time when Fu Heng received the battle report, it would be at least two months.

Tsk tsk, if the nearly 20,000 Qing troops stayed in the wilderness for another two months in the cold wind, rain and most likely the attack of cholera, I wonder how many of them would die.

(End of this chapter)