The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 208 It’s time for dinner again, brothers
Li Acai is Li Guangcai, of course, you can also call him Li Cai.

In history, this guy was the angel venture capitalist when the Tây Sơn Dynasty started its rebellion. He later fought in collaboration with the Nguyen brothers and made considerable contributions. However, he later fell out with the Nguyen brothers.

In this time and space, Li Guangcai finally arrived at the place of his destiny, but it was not because he wanted to come here on his own, but because he was sent by Mo Zibu.

In the gathering hall of Niyu Village, Li Guangcai looked at the letter Mo Zibu had written to him and said to his confidants:
"The king has given us two options. The first option is to let us go ashore and return to our hometown to enjoy the good life of a local landlord.

Second, give us a small gold mine in Borneo, and we will kidnap one or two thousand Annamites to be their vassal and mine owners.

Which one do you think is better? "

A cousin of Li Guangcai scratched his head and asked doubtfully, "Boss, can we really get ashore?
The Cai family is a major merchant family. If they stamp their feet, Guangzhou will tremble. Can the king control the Cai family and prevent them from seeking revenge?"

"The Cai family is just a nobody. Your Majesty helped Emperor Qianlong defeat the Burmese. Now the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi and the Supervisor of the Guangdong Customs all obey your Majesty. As long as he says a word, the Cai family will not dare to speak out."

"That's good!" The trusted pirates breathed a sigh of relief.

“Boss, after we finish this deal and get the king’s money, let’s go back to our hometown in Huizhou.

Let’s buy all the land together so we can take care of each other.”

Li Guangcai was silent for a while, then nodded. He knew that these confidants had not said a word yet. They were still a little worried that if they stayed in Nanyang, they would be killed secretly by King Mo.

After all, what they did must not be leaked.

As a few people were discussing, their confidant who was on duty outside walked in.

"Boss, those Annan monkeys from Xishan Village are out. Here comes Bian Yue's third brother Hui, along with a full three hundred flying tigers in green clothes."

The so-called Flying Tigers are the elite soldiers that the Nguyen brothers raised with all their wealth in Xishan Village. They are all desperate criminals in Qui Nhon and have good combat effectiveness.

Li Guangcai laughed heartily, "Your Majesty is truly a god. These Hu brothers have long harbored the intention of killing officials and rebelling."

After saying that, he lit the letter sent by Mo Zibu on the oil lamp in public, and then waved his hand.

"Let's go and meet this great Annan man."

In the middle of the village, a big bull fell down with a scream. The Annan butcher who was in charge of slaughtering it shouted loudly, asking his apprentice to come up quickly and collect the bull's blood, as he dared not waste it.

Li Guangcai's cousin was holding a large black pottery jar filled with strong liquor.

The clear wine was poured into the black pottery bowl, which not only stirred up the rich aroma of the wine, but also produced a bunch of white wine bubbles, which was indeed a top-grade wine.

Even a hero like Hu Piyue couldn't help but feel his throat moving, and he felt a little greedy for wine. Hu Pihui was even more impatient and swallowed his saliva frequently.

Although white spirits at this time have begun to move towards highly distilled spirits and the technology has become relatively mature, there are still very few such spirits.

Because it was too expensive, one pound of grain had to be repeatedly distilled to produce two or three taels of wine. This was nothing in later generations, but at this time, it was basically no different from directly burning money.

Li Guangcai smiled complacently, then looked a little lonely, "This wine was originally given by the Prince Consort. I have never been willing to drink it, so I kept it until now."

When they heard Li Guangcai mention the prince consort, the people from Guangnan around him all showed concern on their faces.

Mo Zibu's cultural propaganda was very successful. Now when people in Guangnan talk about the prince consort, they must be referring to Mo Zibu and no one else.

"The prince consort is a hero!" Zhang Wenxian, whose father was killed by Zhang Fuluan and who had a blood feud with him, sighed.

Mo Zibu killed Zhang Fuluan's beloved son Zhang Fuyue, which was also a way to vent Zhang Wenxian's anger.

"In order to protect their master, they were able to endure such great humiliation. After breaking out of Hue, they did not forget to recruit heroes and brave men to clean up the world and eliminate the traitors."

After saying this, Zhang Wenxian looked at Li Guangcai steadily and said, "There's something I've always wanted to ask the boss. Since you serve under such a hero as the Prince Consort, why did you leave?"

Li Guangcai raised this question to bring out Zhang Wenxian's topic.

Because Annan is a little behind the mainland in this version, reputation is still very important in the underworld.

In fact, Li Guangcai's power was not much lower than that of the three Hu brothers, but he could not make much progress because many people thought he was a little disloyal.

Moreover, since he defected from Mo Zibu, he would naturally be considered to be easy to defect to the court. After all, the deep hatred between Mo Zibu and Zhang Fuluan was obvious.

Therefore, upon hearing Zhang Wenxian's question, Li Guangcai's cousin, who was pouring wine, said somewhat awkwardly:
"The Prince Consort's army has too many rules. Even if you don't clean the deck of a ship properly, you will be punished.

Not only do we follow the Prince Consort on the sea, but we are also really impatient to do these trivial women's chores."

However, Li Guangcai interrupted his cousin before he could finish his words.

"Don't make that excuse. We are the only ones who cannot stand the strict military discipline of the Prince Consort, nor do we want to follow him and fight for the Siamese and earn a living.

If you ask me, the prince consort cares too much about the Ruan family's kingdom.

Prince Ding is so incompetent, what's there to protect? Just raise an army in Hexian and fight from south to north."

Zhang Wenxian laughed out loud and stopped asking questions. He formed a simple judgment about Li Guangcai in his mind.

This man is somewhat brave, but has no political acumen. Even if he gathers hundreds of people, he still has strong pirate habits.

As for foresight, there was even less of it, because even if Zhang Wenxian had never been with the loyal and righteous Prince Consort Mo, he could still see through his tactics.

It's just that we use the reputation of loyalty and righteousness to train a usable army with as little money as possible.

Fighting for Siam was just a means to gain experience, train soldiers, and make strong allies.

If Li Guang could endure for a few more years, the prince consort would definitely come back to attack Jiading. All he needed was an excuse.

As for whether Mo Zibu was really as loyal as the folk rumors said, Zhang Wenxian didn't believe it at all.

He had been in the highest echelons of Hue, and he knew very well that those above him could not but be loyal, but they would definitely not be the only ones who cared about loyalty.

Those who only care about loyalty and righteousness must be people like Wen Zhonglie and Yu Zhongsu, but judging from the actions of the Mo family's son-in-law, it is obvious that he is not that kind of person.

Zhang Wenxian couldn't help but wonder whether these folk rumors were made up by Prince Consort Mo and continued to spread.

Because the literacy rate in Guangnan is not high, storytellers are very valuable.

But it seemed like in an instant, when these people talked about the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin, they always had to bring in the part about "protecting the master, enduring humiliation and bearing heavy burdens, killing the traitor and fleeing to the Southern Capital."

This kind of storytelling is disguised as stories from different dynasties, but it actually tells the story of Prince Consort Mo.

Hu Piyue didn't think as much as Zhang Wenxian. He laughed and felt that although Li Guangcai was a little unpersistent, he was still very straightforward, which was somewhat in line with his appetite as a hero.

Just at this moment, fresh cow blood was brought up, so everyone added a little bit to the wine bowl and couldn't wait to taste it.

Then roast beef and stewed beef offal were served one after another.

The leaders, both large and small, who rarely got to eat beef, feasted on it with their mouths drooling, and even the smaller minions could fill their bellies with small fish and shrimp mixed with chicken and duck. The atmosphere grew increasingly heated, and after a few rounds of drinking, everyone felt a little dizzy and relaxed, cursing Zhang Fuluan and even Prince Ding, Ruan Fuchun, to the point of utter bloodshed.

Seeing that the food was almost cooked, Hu Piyue let out a long sigh and began to complain.

"Hu has learned both civil and martial arts since childhood, and I wanted to sell my skills to the emperor. However, the current ruler is corrupt and the ministers are treacherous. I have the ambition to serve my country, but I have no place to use my skills."

Li Guangcai also pretended to knock his wine bowl heavily on the table, "This world is indeed unfair, but it's a pity that I am not from Guangnan, otherwise I would definitely come out and make a big fuss."

Hu Piyue immediately grabbed Li Guangcai's arm affectionately and said, "Brother, you can't go back to the Qing Dynasty, and you don't want to go to Siam, so why don't you stay here?

Don't think we are barbarians just because we are from Beijing. In fact, we are also Chinese. My ancestor, Hu Gong Xingyi, was a native of Jiangnan West Road in the Tang Dynasty and served as the governor of Yanzhou.

Hu Pifu was right. The ancestors of this group of people were indeed from Mingzhou, Zhejiang.

Hu Xingyi should have arrived in Vietnam in the early years of the Later Han Dynasty. Later, because he was proficient in martial arts and able to lead troops, he was noticed by Le Xun, the cousin of Le Huan, the founding emperor of the Le Dynasty of Annan, and was adopted as his son. From then on, he took the surname Le.

It was not until the period of Hu Jinli that they restored the Hu surname.

Li Guangcai was overjoyed and immediately stood up and said very cordially:

"So Brother Hu is also from my homeland, a Chinese citizen! Brother Hu, can I really take root here like your ancestors did?"

"Of course!" Hu Piyue also held Li Guangcai's arm and said with a double meaning:

"It's not just me, but all of Annan, even Dinh Bo-ling who broke away from the Central Plains to establish Da Nan, and later Le, Ly, and Chen, as well as the current Zheng and Nguyen Lords.

Whose ancestors were not Chinese who migrated south from the Central Plains? As long as they made military achievements, they would naturally be able to settle down here."

"Okay!" Li Guangcai pretended to think for a moment. "When I left the loyal and righteous prince consort, I took away three hundred high-quality muskets, four thousand pounds of gunpowder, and twenty thousand lead bullets. Together with these five hundred brave warriors under my command, I wouldn't say I can emulate your ancestors in founding a nation, but becoming a village chief or county magistrate is certainly possible."

Hu Piyue was so excited that he almost jumped up. He didn't expect that Li Guangcai had so many weapons!

Hu Pi Yue had lived for more than ten years, but he only had a few hundred swords, spears, rattan shields, and sixty muskets.

"Hahahaha, Brother Li, with such a good thing, you can be more than just a county magistrate, you can even be the governor of Guiren in the future!"

. . . .

France, Versailles Palace, Deer Park.

After several months of going back and forth, I, the third son of the Duke of Zhou, accepted everyone who came to me, and I had three daughters of Louis XV.

Seeing that if these Orientals were not sent away, Louis XV suspected that his new favorite Madame du Barry would be poached by Ou Zirong, and the secret agreement was finally basically confirmed.

Of course, Ou Zirong’s role was still very limited. The most important thing was that both parties needed this secret agreement.

France needs a fulcrum in the East, and Mozibu needs France's strong support.

This treaty, known as the Treaty of Versailles between France and France, stipulates.

1. France provided three warships to King Ha Tien.

Among them was the Crown Prince, a third-class sailing battleship that had just been repaired after participating in the Battle of Quiberon Bay during the Seven Years' War.

Built in 1738, this ship is a double-deck gunboat equipped with 26 36-pound cannons on the lower deck and 28 18-pound cannons on the upper deck.

The forecastle was equipped with 16 8-pound cannons, and on the open platform, there were 4 4-pound cannons that could be moved quickly to fire shotgun shells to wash the deck.

A total of 74 guns, displacement of 630 tons, and a crew of people (including officers).

With this tonnage, it can be called a giant battleship in the East. Just the 36-pound cannon on the lower deck is enough to withstand a single shot from it in the entire Far East.

According to the treaty, the Crown Prince will be renamed the Ha Tien Prince.

Captain Commodore Fragosselt, 37 officers, and 137 naval soldiers will serve on the Prince of Ha Tien for five years, with their salaries doubled by Ha Tien. The remaining sailors can be recruited in France.

The other ship was an Artois-class fourth-level sailing battleship, with a displacement of 1480 tons, 64 guns, and was also equipped with at least 26 24-pound cannons.

The other was the 36-gun fifth-class sailing frigate Charming, a new ship built in 1766 with a displacement of 930 tons and a maximum caliber of 12 12-pound cannons.

Like the Prince of Ha Tien, the officers and key sailors of these two warships were sent by France, with Ha Tien paying their salaries, while the ordinary crew were recruited by the mission itself.

2. France will support Ha Tien with 800 soldiers, led by French Major Reinstein, and their salaries will continue to be paid by Ha Tien.

3. France agreed to borrow 5.5 million livres, equivalent to approximately 620,000 taels of silver.

The amount is not large, but all of these loans will be used to purchase arms in France, and French merchant ships will be responsible for transporting them to Ha Tien.

4. France agreed to provide Ha Tien with 150 skilled technicians of various kinds, including a full set of firearms production technology, such as hydraulic boring machines.

5. Ha Tien promised to lift the ban on missionary rights in cities such as Ha Tien and Phnom Penh.

6. All coastal cities in Ha Tien are open to France, guaranteeing France's trade privileges and not opening them to other European countries.

7. This aid is a loan. Ha Tien needs to repay the principal and interest in five installments at an annual interest rate of 15% starting from the third year after the loan.

This is actually the covenant that can be seen on the surface, and there are three secret covenants.

First, Ha Tien promised that after five years of the secret agreement, he would build two third-class sailing battleships within three years and return them to the Kingdom of France, but the shipbuilding technicians would be dispatched by France and the technology would be transferred.

Second, Ha Tien promised that when France needed assistance in the East, no less than 3,000 soldiers would be dispatched to provide assistance.

Third, France promised that if Ha Tien was attacked by the Dutch in Batavia, it would retaliate by attacking the Dutch mainland.

These secret agreements made the two countries allies in fact.

Judging from the quantity, I, King Mo, have obtained a lot.

Among these three warships, especially the regular third-class battleship like Prince Ha Tien, and the arrival of an experienced French commodore who participated in the Seven Years' War, will greatly reverse the naval power comparison in the East.

Including the Lucky, a level 5 sailing cruiser, and the Treasure and Mermaid armed merchant ships that Mo Zibu currently owns, there are also dozens of various types of warships from the East.

Mo Zibu will have the full ability to fight against the Qing Navy, the Dutch Navy, and even the British Indian Navy.

The arrival of various technicians can also make up for the defect that Mo Zibu has difficulty recruiting the most critical gunsmiths from the Qing Dynasty.

In addition, some European technologies, such as hydraulic boring machines, had actually surpassed those of the Qing Dynasty.

By the time they reach the east, Mo Zibu should have taken back Jiading and have a sufficient rear base.

A storm is finally about to begin.

(End of this chapter)