The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 201 The Upper and Lower Limits of Han Officials in the Qing Dynasty
During the Qing Dynasty, eunuchs lived a very hard life. They had the power to approve documents in the Ming Dynasty, but in the Qing Dynasty, they even had to bear the brunt of the burden of the Imperial Household Department.

This is because in the Ming Dynasty, the completely incompetent relatives and meritorious officials were unable to fight against the civil officials, and the emperor needed eunuchs as his minions.

By the time of the Qing Dynasty, Manchus held 70% to 80% of the official positions in the world, so there was naturally no need for eunuchs.

These people quickly fell from the emperor's imperial secretariat to become real slaves. Many eunuchs with official positions could not even guarantee food and clothing in their later years, and those at the bottom were even worse off.

However, there are exceptions. After all, there are still some eunuchs who follow the emperor all year round. As long as they are smart, power and money are not a problem.

Gao Yuncong, the eunuch in charge of reporting to the deputy general manager, is such a smart man, and he is also incredibly courageous.

His most important responsibility was to be the guardian of Emperor Qianlong's most confidential records.

The so-called Daofu records are a kind of inner court records that began in the Yongzheng period. The emperor recorded all officials above the rank of prefect, including some very capable officials of the sixth and seventh ranks, in this small book.

The content includes what he did, his achievements, the spies sent to various places, the evaluation of this person by the Manufacturing Bureau, as well as the emperor's own comprehensive information and the impression he formed of this person after summoning them for comparison. All are recorded.

This thing is very important. It will tell you where a vacancy will occur in the future, who the officials will recommend, who will be accused, who will handle urgent matters, etc.

The emperor could use this small notebook to match the people and events reported by the ministers one by one, and thus judge whether the official could be promoted or whether he was likely to be framed.

This is very impressive, a top secret among secrets.

It can be said that whoever controls this little notebook can understand the emperor's mind and will be able to do whatever he wants in officialdom.

Gao Yuncong was extremely dissatisfied with the fact that he was in possession of such important secrets and was also the emperor's confidant. He worked hard and did a lot of work, but all he received was a salary of about 100 taels of silver a year.

There is also a sense of loss as if you have a mountain of treasure but end up with empty hands.

In addition, from the perspective of his background, Gao Yuncong also has a strong desire for wealth.

This person was from Suning County, Hejian Prefecture. His family was poor, but he was very smart since childhood and had an extraordinary talent for reading and writing.

Others couldn't understand even though they were taught in private schools, but he learned from a few half-baked old eunuchs and understood it immediately, and was able to apply it to other situations.

At that time in Hejian Prefecture, entering the palace to become a eunuch was a path to success for many children from poor families in the area.

Many old eunuchs who served in the palace would often return to their hometowns to stay together for warmth after being driven out of the palace.

Then these old eunuchs would select suitable children locally, teach them to read and write, and the rules of the palace, and find ways to help them enter the palace, or even castrate them in advance to make a profit.

The smaller the castration, the less suffering there will be.

Gao Yuncong was so smart that he was naturally chosen. After being castrated at the age of ten, he entered the palace.

Because he was willing to learn and work hard, was intelligent, and knew the rules of the palace early on, his career began to rise rapidly within a few years, until he became a close confidant of Emperor Qianlong.

If this happened in the Ming Dynasty, Gao Yuncong would have been one of the big bosses in the Imperial Household Department, and it would have been possible for him to live three, four, five thousand years old, become an ancestor, or even nine thousand years old.

In the Qing Dynasty, the emperor had a large number of bannermen and slaves in the Imperial Household Department, and his path had long been blocked. No one regarded a eunuch like him as a big shot.

So Gao Yuncong, who was mentally unbalanced, began to think about making a big fortune. Even if he didn't have power, some money would be fine.

He leaked Qianlong's core confidential provincial records to Manchu and Han officials headed by Yu Minzhong, mainly Han civil officials.

In exchange, these people helped their family buy land and property, and even brought his brothers as his followers to make money everywhere.

And this time, he got another huge secret.

Well, maybe not a big secret, but it's definitely a way to make money.

. . . .

For Han civil servants, the higher their positions, the more clearly they could see what the Qing Dynasty was like.

Just like religious leaders, most of them do not believe in miracles or divine revelations.

This is the case with the 56-year-old Yu Minzhong. As Qianlong's close minister and the most favored Han minister, he actually saw Qianlong more clearly.

As an official, you just need to please the emperor and do some work. The most important thing is, of course, to make money.

This gentleman dares to take any money.

He was the umbrella for the infamous Gansu relief fraud case. In history, he committed suicide by poisoning under the secret order of Emperor Qianlong, leaving behind a fortune of 5 to 6 million taels of silver.

He was much more shameless than Liu Tongxun, a favorite Han official of the same period.

Seeing the secret news from Gao Yuncong, Emperor Qianlong was preparing to appoint Wen Fu, a Manchu of the Bordered Red Banner, as the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang, and to send someone to infiltrate Hexian as an insider.

Yu Minzhong sneered, "Your Majesty is still so naive. Do you really think you can control the world by relying on a few million bannermen?

Report every twenty days. Do you know how far it is from Fuzhou to Nanyang?

It's good enough if the news can be passed on once every two months. If it really has to be reported once every twenty days, the insider will definitely be exposed.

Even if Wen Fu becomes the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang, do you think there is a bannerman in Fuzhou who is willing to go to Southeast Asia to become a scoundrel, and who can infiltrate the middle and higher levels of the Hexian people and successfully pass on the news?
If there were bannermen like this, they would have been promoted to officials long ago. The rest are just good-for-nothings, how can they accomplish anything?"

"Naive!" Yu Minzhong despised Qianlong in his heart.

Based on his understanding of the Manchu officials, especially Wen Fu, it is not certain whether Wen Fu has the ability to arrange the candidates to go to Southeast Asia.

Even if it is arranged, it is impossible to send back news once every twenty days.

To satisfy the emperor, Wen Fu could only send one genuine memorial out of every three he sent back. The rest were sent from the Governor-General's Office of Fujian and Zhejiang, where he would improvise and send something like, "The weather in Fuzhou has been fine recently. Is Your Majesty in good health?" These were seemingly greetings, but in reality were just requests for peace and well-being.

Thinking of this, Yu Minzhong called his nephew Yu Shihe in, asked him to memorize the above content, and then said to him:
“Find an excuse to go back to your hometown in Jintan in the next few days, and then pass this news to Hexian’s people in Songjiang Prefecture.

There was another piece of news that was told to the people in Hexian: Li Wenzhao, a Han army bannerman serving in the Ruyi Pavilion of the Imperial Household Department, would soon be transferred to be the supervisor of the Guangdong Customs.

Gao Yunhui, the fourth brother of Eunuch Gao Yuncong, will be Li Wenzhao's permanent attendant.

The success or failure of the Thirteen Hongs business that the Mo family is seeking depends on this."

Yu Shihe wrote down everything, but still a little worried, he asked, "Are we just going to pass on the news like this? This is a great favor to the Hexian Mo family, saving their lives."

Yu Shihe said this not to say anything else, but because he was afraid that King Mo would not be tactful and would get such important secret information but only take a few trivial things as a reward.

Yu Minzhong smiled faintly, "Don't worry, that river fairy Mo Zibu is more clever than a monkey when he gets his hair stuck on him. It's impossible for him not to understand this."

However, Yu Minzhong seemed to remember something and mentioned it a little more.

"I heard that the River Fairy King unearthed five palm-leaf sutras from the Ananda Monastery in Burma. They were brought from Nalanda Monastery by a distinguished Indian monk hundreds of years ago. They are supreme Buddhist treasures."

Thinking that he was going to take someone else's supreme Buddhist treasure, Yu Minzhong felt that he might be a little too greedy, so he added another sentence.

"In my opinion, after Wen Fu arrives in Fuzhou, he can only rely on one person, Cai Xin, the Minister of Rites who also oversees the Ministry of War.

Cai Ciming was from Zhangpu, and his family was a powerful family in southern Fujian. Many people from Zhangpu also went to Southeast Asia, so it was easy to get a few people to Hexian, and they were also easy to control.

Let Hexian pay more attention to those with the surname Cai in Zhangpu, or those who have ties to the Cai family."

. . . .

Nanyang, Nakhon Si Thammarat.

Mo Zibu wiped the cold sweat from his head. He was not scared by Qianlong. If Qianlong didn't have this kind of thought, then he would not even be qualified to have the Ten Perfect Martial Arts.

But you have to take this seriously. Joking aside, many emperors could not complete the three martial arts in their entire lives.

The person who made Mo Zibu break out in a cold sweat was Yu Minzhong. He was so damn awesome!

As Qianlong's most trusted Han minister, it would be an exaggeration to say that he played Qianlong at his fingertips, but he definitely wrapped Qianlong in a certain information cocoon.

Thinking about these years, the people recommended by Yu Minzhong always touched the heart of Emperor Qianlong. Then he was favored by the emperor and felt that the two of them had a mutual understanding. At the same time, he got great benefits from being recommended, and he got the best of both worlds.

Mo Zibuqing couldn't help but shudder. Damn, any emperor who had such a person by his side would feel cold behind his back.

Moreover, this person's ability is really not to be underestimated. Not only can he pass on information, but he can also grasp all the actions of Manchus like Wen Fu with almost 100% accuracy. It's really scary!
Mo Zibu immediately called over Chen Xu, his 'Jinyiwei Commander', who was a pirate from Xianyou, and explained the basic situation to him.

"You are to arrange two ships to go to Huangshan Mazhi and bring all of He Baifu's family members to Hexian for resettlement.

Tell He Baifu that I will give him the position of Dunsha garrison commander that he wants, but he has to do it well."

What could Mo Zibu do? Naturally, he had to show his power first and directly let Huangshan Ma Zhi, the big pirate He Baihang on Taiping Island, take action.

At this time, the route to Southeast Asia was fixed, and the ships were the same, so it was very easy to control.

As for appearing and disappearing mysteriously and hiding everywhere, that is the exclusive domain of pirates, and the common people who go to Southeast Asia don't have that.

Mo Zibu plans to screen all those who are traveling to Southeast Asia from Zhangpu and even the entire southern Fujian this month.

Throw all the captured members of the Zhangpu Cai family and their related personnel onto Natuna Island, or let He Baifu be directly imprisoned in Huangshan Mazhi.

A few months ago, He Baifu sent someone with gifts to visit Mo Zibu, hoping that he would come and seek refuge with him.

However, he hoped to go ashore and serve as the garrison commander of Dunsha County in Nakhon Si Thammarat, which was a high-ranking county magistrate, while Mo Zibu wanted him to serve in the navy, so the two sides failed to reach an agreement.

But now, when it comes to hiring people, I naturally don’t care about those things.

After arranging He Baifu to intercept, Mo Zibu called in Wu Rang, Lord of Song City, and Ye Fengchang, Lord of Jeddah, who happened to be in Luokun.

The former is from Yunxiao, Zhangzhou, south of Zhangpu, and the latter is from Xiamen, Quanzhou, north of Zhangpu. Both belong to the Southern Fujian system.

Now, with the examples of Wu Rang and Ye Fengchang, the Minnan people in Southeast Asia, except those in Java and Borneo, all hang out with Mozibu and regard Mozibu as their main people.

Even under Mo Zibu's command, there were people from Zhangpu.

With these local tyrants in southern Fujian, Mo Zibu believed that he could quickly dig out these traitors.

After all, Cai Xin's family is a top-notch wealthy family in Zhangpu, and they would not be willing to go to Southeast Asia to become a scoundrel.

They must find someone from the distant branch or in-laws of the Cai family in Zhangpu.

Also, to be a spy, one has to be at the middle level or above to get first-hand information, so it is impossible for ordinary people to do it, and the scope of investigation is much smaller.

Of course Wu Rang and Ye Fengchang agreed readily. They now had common interests with Mo Zibu. Seeing that Mo Zibu was thriving and gaining great benefits, they were naturally willing to serve him.

Of course, the Qing Dynasty was not unable to pull them over.

As long as Qianlong was willing to appoint Wu Rang as the prefect of Songcheng, Ye Fengchang as the prefect of Jida, or simply give them the title of Xuanweishi Tusi, they would definitely abandon Mo Zibu and follow the Qing Dynasty.

Unfortunately, the nature of the Qing government meant that they would not do so.

(End of this chapter)