The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 253: The New Army's Feelings Have Still Cooled Down

The situation fell into a strange silence. The two sides, who seemed to be about to fight, not only did not fight, but even ignored each other.

In Hoi An City, Mo Zibu looked at the list handed over by the Internal Affairs Office and couldn't help scratching his head.

In just over three months, the entire Xing Tang army consumed a total of 350,000 shi of food and fodder.

This is because the Xing Tang Army only dispatched 12,000 combat soldiers, but in fact there were more than 20,000 Chinese volunteers and laborers.

And nearly 100,000 civilians were mobilized to transport food and supplies.

In addition to food and fodder, nearly 100,000 kilograms of gunpowder, 4,000 artillery shells of various types, and tens of thousands of kilograms of lead blocks were consumed.

The Internal Affairs Office reported these statistics to Mo Zibu, meaning that the current output of the two arsenals in Pattani and Nakhon Si Thammarat could no longer support a decisive battle of tens of thousands of people lasting for several months.

It will take at least four to five months to fully prepare these supplies.

Wow, it turns out that to play with the new army, you need CD, right?

This situation made Mo Zibu involuntarily think of Ruan Fuying.

In history, after Ruan Xiaoqiang took Mo Zibu's current copy, he would rest for about a year after fighting a battle.

Moreover, each soldier is only given five rounds of ammunition on the battlefield. If you are given more than five rounds and you still want to fight for me, King Nguyen, at the risk of your life, then you will have to pay for the lead bullets and gunpowder yourself, and it will be deducted from your military pay.

After he unified Vietnam and secured his position, he immediately disbanded all Western-style armies. It only took a few years for the Nguyen Dynasty army to quickly regress to the era of cold weapons.

Mo Zibu recalled that before he traveled through time, he had often laughed at Ruan Fuying's policy of making soldiers work for him at their own expense.

And like a fool, they had 30,000 of the strongest Western-style troops in East Asia, but they chose to destroy the Great Wall and interrupted all modernization efforts.

But now it seems that all this was unavoidable!
The biggest contradiction lies in the fact that, given Vietnam's national strength, if it wants to maintain a Western-style army and engage in industrialization, it has only one option: to continue expanding.

But with Ruan Xiaoqiang's ability and background, he was not as good as the Qing Dynasty. He didn't dare to think about going north, so he could only disband the Western Army and be a feudal emperor honestly.

All of this also gave Mo Zibu a very clear understanding of the garbage productivity of this era.

If this were to happen in later times, 350,000 shi of grain would only be 21,000 tons, enough for the entire city of Shanghai to consume in about one day.

Calculated at 3.5 yuan per kilogram, it is only 150 million yuan.

One hundred thousand kilograms of gunpowder is only fifty tons, which is the size of a small or medium-sized fireworks factory.

You should know that in later generations, the fireworks industry alone consumed 200,000 tons of gunpowder a year.

As for the price, it is even more insignificant. The most expensive price in later generations was only 30,000 yuan per ton, and 50 tons was only 1.5 million yuan.

However, what seemed like a drizzle to later generations was a huge mountain at that time.

Not to mention the high price of fifty tons of gunpowder, the key is the low production, and there is nowhere to buy it in a short period of time.

Even sulfur and saltpeter were absolutely strategically controlled materials. Both the Qing Dynasty and the Dutch in Batavia prohibited the export of these things.

For a moment, Mo Zibu wanted to follow Nguyen Phuc Anh's example and set a limit on the amount of gunpowder and lead bullets for each soldier, and deduct my salary if the amount exceeded the limit.

"Commodore Bonn, how much gunpowder does the navy have left in stock?" Mo Zibu asked the big-nosed Manuel Bonn beside him.

Although his command ability was far inferior to that of Major General Fragosse, he was very loyal and was Mo Zibu's eyes in the navy.

Manuel Bonn knew why Mo Zibu asked this and immediately replied:
"The navy still has 3.3 million pounds (about 150 tons) in its stores on ships and ashore.

Hoi An's squadron carried 88,000 pounds (40 tons).

The squadron's gunpowder reserve safety line is 55,000 pounds (25 tons), and if the army is short of it, 33,000 pounds (15 tons) can be allocated."

Mo Zibu nodded. The army's current reserves still amounted to about 20,000 jin (10 tons), which, together with the navy's reserves, was enough to cope with emergencies. If anything failed, they could also transfer supplies from Guiren and Jiading.

However, the navy is Mo Zibu's current ballast. In case of any problems, it can also cover the army's evacuation from Hoi An. Generally speaking, it is best not to use the navy's gunpowder.

As for food, Mo Zibu picked up his pen and started writing a letter to Zheng Xin. Wasn't it for this day that he married Shishi?

So General Mo Da transformed himself into Mo Da's son-in-law, and asked Zheng Xin for 150,000 dan of grain without even saying the word "buy". He just asked Zheng Xin to deliver it.

After dealing with this, brothers Pei Dexuan and Pei Wenri walked in.

The Pei family's capture of Ruan Wenyue this time was considered a great achievement, and they basically established their foothold by Mo Zibu's side.

"General, Wu Wenchu has replied. If the general is magnanimous enough to forgive him for following the Nguyen brothers, he will immediately bring his men to Hoi An to pay his respects."

By this time, the Tây Sơn army had been largely pacified, but there were still two or three thousand of them scattered throughout the countryside, controlling some of the land close to the Shangren and even the Laotian Kingdom of Champasak.

Although they cannot pose too much of a threat, there is always some instability within the country. Mo Zibu is thinking about how to deal with these Xishan troops.

Pei Shichun came over hesitantly and told Mo Zibu that the leader of the remnants of the Xishan Army was his senior brother Wu Wenchu.

At first glance, these noble families may seem isolated, but upon closer inspection, they are just like the densely packed roots of an old tree.

The entire Guiren is the world of the Pei and Fan families. Everyone else, as long as they have some talent, is related to them.

Wu Wenchu's cousin Wu Meng was a fellow apprentice of Pei Shichun's father, Pei Laodi. Wu Meng's martial arts skills were even better than Pei Laodi's.

Therefore, when Old Man Pei went out to rob, Pei Changwu, Pei Shichun and Pei Dexuan's sister Pei Shiyan all went to Wu Meng's school to learn martial arts.

Wu Wenchu was their eldest senior brother. Historically, after Pham Thi Lien's death, Bui Shiyan married Nguyen Van Hue as her second wife. No wonder emperors throughout history were particularly wary of aristocratic families; once established, they quickly became powerful and ruthless, making everyone wary of them.

However, it is not a bad thing for Mo Zibu at the moment. At least he can immediately incorporate Wu Wenchu's forces to prevent them from causing trouble for him.

"Chun, go in person and tell your brother that if he's willing to come down the mountain, I'll give him a regiment number."

Hearing what Mo Zibu said, the Pei brothers were overjoyed and kowtowed to Mo Zibu repeatedly to express their gratitude.

After sending away the Pei brothers and Pei Shichun, Mo Zibu called over Wu Congzhou, Li Guangxian and Liang Wenying.

Last year, Liang Wenying married the sister of Li Xianwen, Mo Zibu's brother-in-law and sworn brother, so they are now a family.

Originally, Mo Zibu wanted to keep Liang Wenying by his side to serve as a chief guard alongside Chen Guangzu and Li Quan.

But later it was discovered that this person had read a lot of books on the mainland. Although he had no talent in commanding battles, he did have some level of ability in local governance.

Moreover, he has good martial arts skills and is barely at the level of a company commander as an officer, making him very suitable for maintaining local public order and suppressing barbarians in public security battles.

"Aying, get ready. I'll give you a hundred wounded warriors from each army. Go to the ship and take a look. Those who are old and ready to retire will be under your command.

Take them to Guiren and set up a Five Prefectures Inspection Office under the Second Master's command."

The five prefectures mentioned by Mo Zibu were the original base of the Tây Sơn Army, namely Guangnan, Qui Nhon, Phu An, Ping Kang and Pingshun.

Although the Han nobles in these five places followed Mo Zibu, there were still a large number of remnants of the Xishan Army and Champa people who had not been arrested, as well as barbarians such as Shangren who took the opportunity to come down the mountain to rob. The security situation was so bad that even Gotham would call him "Big Brother".

So Mo Zibu planned to let Liang Wenying do this specifically, and turned it into a government office specifically for suppressing bandits.

It just so happened that a group of officers and soldiers were about to retire due to injuries, and some of the older pirates in the navy who originally belonged to Li Xianwen could be sent ashore.

"Here, Hu Cao, please quickly determine the losses in various places in this battle.

In addition, the number of vacant acres of land, the number of houses available for distribution, and the number of Champa women of marriageable age must also be investigated and registered for future immigration allocation."

The mother of Wu Congzhou, a military officer in the Household Department, was from Mingxiang. He grew up in Jiading and was also one of Wu Shizun's students.

The data that Mo Zibu needs most now is the losses and gains of this war.

Of the original three million people in Guangnan, there were about one million in the Southern Eight Camps of Gia Dinh, 800,000 in the five prefectures including Qui Nhon, and 1.3 to 1.4 million in the vicinity of Hue.

After a year or two of war, Mo Zibu detained the Champa people and the remnants of the Tây Sơn army.

It is estimated that the population south of Hoi An and north of Phan Thiet will be reduced by at least 300,000.

Then Mozibu needed to quickly understand the extent of the losses, as well as the number of land, properties and Champa women available for distribution in preparation for the upcoming Han immigration.

"The Li Cao side needs to quickly make a plan, focusing on how to allocate the immigrants from the mainland after they arrive, how many people can be accommodated in each county, and who should be given priority for resettlement, etc."

From Hoi An to Qui Nhon, there is a gap of hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom are from aristocratic families or small feudal lords like the Nguyen brothers. The quality of the land must be very high.

Although some of them promised to establish a local official system for the high-ranking families in Beijing and Han Dynasty in Guangnan, that is, all official positions and land would be contracted to them, and the court would only collect a tax price every year.

However, there were not many noble families in Beijing and Han Dynasty who received such treatment. They were only granted about four or five counties, and they were not in the richest areas.

Then it would be impossible to distribute the remaining good land to the people in Southeast Asia free of charge.

Mo Zibu's initial arrangement was to distribute it to the soldiers according to their military merits to offset part of the rewards and military pay.

After the soldiers took over these lands, those who had relatives and friends in their hometowns quickly asked them to go to Southeast Asia.

If there is no one left in the hometown, then it can be sold to the people who went to Southeast Asia. If it cannot be paid in one lump sum, it can be paid in installments of no more than ten years. The government will help collect the money and then hand it over to the soldiers.

As officials kept coming in for meetings and arrangements, I, General Mo, sat at my desk dealing with them, without even having time to lift my butt. By the time things were almost arranged, it was already dark.

Before he had time to rest, Ou Tianci sent Zheng Xiu north to Hoi An, but not to cause trouble, but to bring good news.

When I entered Jiading last year, the entire Mekong Plain was in turmoil due to the mischief of Nguyen Phuc Tam, the defender of Jiading, and his entanglements with the high-ranking officials of Beijing and Han Dynasty and the people of Minh Hung.

This resulted in a large amount of land being abandoned and water conservancy facilities being damaged. In particular, a small-scale famine occurred in the Chen family's territory.

But after his father Ou Tianci took office as the governor of Jiading, he repaired the water conservancy system and encouraged people to engage in agriculture and sericulture, achieving very good results.

This year, more than 7 million mu of land in Jiading has achieved a bumper harvest. It is estimated that in another month, the new rice can be transported to the army by sea ships.

But the only drawback is that the population is still too small.

Not only are large tracts of land undeveloped, but due to labor shortages, the cultivated area may even decline next year.

Because the political situation is stable this year, and it is also the year for the Mingxiang people to take charge of their own affairs, with a stable environment, many healthy women have become pregnant, and the labor force has declined significantly.

Damn it, Mo Zibu felt like cursing. A pregnant woman is a good thing on the mainland because there is no shortage of manpower.

However, under the rule of the Xing Tang Shogunate, a healthy woman's workload would be reduced by almost half when she became pregnant. After giving birth, she would have to take care of the child, and her workload would be reduced by half again for at least a year.

And there is no one to fill the gaps that have been lost.

At this moment, Mo Zibu didn't even want to fight anymore. The focus now was to recruit people.

It would be great if we could increase the number from 70,000 people per year to 200,000 people per year.

(End of this chapter)