The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 266 Everything is arranged for you
At the Hue Royal Palace, the celebration meeting was nearing its end. Lei Ahu, Huang Silang and their vanguard company received the most solemn commendation from Mo Zibu.

It's not just because they fight bravely, but also because there are too few such people among the Mo family's fellow villagers in western Guangdong.

As Mo Zibu knew well, Hexian was a country founded on commerce, and the people in western Guangdong had many opportunities, so few were willing to fight for their lives on the battlefield.

Among Mo Zibu's current military force, the more than 2,000 people from the western Guangdong townships and the more than 3,000 people from Chenjiamingxiang were all trained by Mo Zibu under the strict supervision of French instructors.

They look mighty and disciplined, and their fighting capacity is also good, but when they are on the battlefield, they always lack the ruthlessness to fight to the death.

Although there were some ruthless people among them, such as the hundreds of red-coated and silver-sword soldiers that the Chen family initially supplemented to Mo Zibu.

But by now, most of these people have become officers, and some have been injured and retired to serve as small vassals in Lower Burma, and can no longer be used as vanguards.

Therefore, at the critical moment, Mo Zibu used the Hakka people and the Annan people who followed him from Nghe An the most.

These people are truly ruthless. They never care about their lives in battle and dare to charge forward under hail of bullets.

But although these people are also Mo Zibu's confidants, their proportion is too large, which is not conducive to Mo Zibu's balance.

Now that there are fellow villagers from western Guangdong like Lei Ahu and Huang Silang who have the courage to fight to the death, Mo Zibu will naturally reward them handsomely.

Mo Zibu brought one of Zhang Fuluan's granddaughters to the banquet hall.

Thunderous cheers immediately erupted in the banquet hall, and envious eyes shot over crazily.

The reason these people were so crazy was that Zhang Fuluan was not just a powerful official, his sister Zhang Shishu was the queen of Ninh Phuc Shu, the seventh generation of Nguyen Lords.

Moreover, the mother of Zhang Fuluan and his sister Zhang Shishu was Nguyen Thi Ngoc Ran, the daughter of Nguyen Phuc Loan, the fifth generation Nguyen Dynasty King.

Therefore, he was not only a powerful official, but also a relative of Guangnan. In the eyes of people at that time, the identity and bloodline of Zhang Fuluan's descendants were still very noble.

But after the loud cheers, the atmosphere became a little dull.

In this era, family background was still more important. People of higher status felt that Mo Zibu's giving women of this level to soldiers was somewhat of an embarrassment to their class.

Lei Ahu was also somewhat unhappy because what he needed more now was money, land and a hardworking woman.

The advantages of Zhang Fuluan's granddaughter, a lady from a wealthy family, are of no use to them at all. She is even a burden and costs a lot of money to raise.

Mo Zibu laughed and shouted to the two of them, "Why? I've already given you three bonuses for your military merits, and now I'm giving you rewards, and you're still not happy?"

Mo Zibu's military merit has been upgraded to level three, which is basically equivalent to a promotion to a higher level of civilian rank. It will be paid out when he retires from the army.

In the military, once combat level and command skills are improved, it can also be used as a measure for promotion to military rank and position.

Lei Ahu didn't expect that the hesitation on his face was seen by Mo Zibu. He was shocked and was about to explain (quibble).

Mo Zibu laughed, let go of the two women he was holding, and went up to put his arms around the shoulders of the two brave soldiers, one on each side.

"No, I want something thrifty and frugal, with a big butt that can give birth to a son and work, right? Of course!"

After saying that, Mo Zibu embraced Lei Ahu and Huang Silang, and looked at the high-ranking officials of Hue Jinghan who were sitting and watching the ceremony.

"My soldiers are all rough men, they can't appreciate it. But I believe that your level of appreciation is definitely enough."

After hearing this, the group of high-ranking officials in Beijing and Han looked at each other in confusion, but soon someone understood.

When Huang Wufu went south, he occupied all their houses in Hue and looted all their gold, silver and treasures.

Although Mo Zibu will not return the gold and silver to them, he still has to return these houses.

At the same time, Zhang Fuluan and his followers also seized many properties of the noble families in Beijing and Han Dynasty, and Mo Zibu promised to return these to them.

But... you don't have a single soldier or a single sword now. You have to rely on the Xing Tang army soldiers to fight to the death to survive. And you still want to get the benefits from me, General Mo, for free?

If they were not needed to pacify the local area, restore production, and provide intellectuals to serve as officials, they would have been thrown into the garbage heap by Mo Zibu long ago.

Now this is the token of allegiance.

The head of the Song family quickly stood up. Although he was not a member of Zhang Fuluan's party, in order to win him over, Zhang Fuluan specially arranged for his granddaughter to marry the eldest grandson of the Song family.

Although the wedding has not yet taken place, the engagement does exist.

"General, the Song family is willing to pay one thousand taels of silver." The head of the Song family calculated it very clearly and knew that this money had to be paid.

It would be embarrassing for his family to let the woman who was engaged to his grandson be given away like a commodity.

It would be better to buy her, even if she becomes a concubine in the future, it is better than the general giving her as a reward to a soldier.

However, Mo Zibu ignored the offer. You are just treating a beggar like a fool. Zhang Fuluan's granddaughter is only worth one thousand taels of silver.

General Mo Da looked at the others, still grinning, and said, "Anyone else have an offer? Not just silver, but also grain, cloth, oxen, anything else. This general is willing to accept it."

As soon as Mo Zibu said this, the head of the Song family understood that he was dissatisfied with him for not contributing enough.

But it also indirectly proves that Mo Zibu really wants to return the large amount of land occupied by Zhang Fuluan to these people, so they need to bleed heavily.

Soon, the head of the Song family increased the silver to two thousand taels, and the remaining farmland, grain, oxen, cloth, etc. were worth four thousand taels of silver.

They spent a total of six thousand taels of silver to buy the granddaughter-in-law, Zhang Fuluan's eldest granddaughter, who originally belonged to their family, from Mo Zibu.

Then another granddaughter of Zhang Fuluan was bought by another wealthy family with an engagement for about 6,000 taels.

"Hahahaha." Mo Zibu laughed at Lei Ahu and Huang Silang. "I'm right, aren't I? There are many people who know what they're worth. How about we each take half of this four thousand taels of silver?"

The two men were overjoyed and immediately thanked him happily. There were 77 brave warriors in their vanguard company, three of whom were killed in battle and one was wounded and retreated.

Even if the four people who need relief can get more, the rest of the people can at least get twenty taels of silver each.

This is equivalent to an ordinary citizen's annual and a half income.

At that time, Annan was short of silver. When Zheng's army captured Hue, Zheng Sen's reward to 35,000 Zheng soldiers was only 100 taels of gold and 5,000 taels of silver, less than one tael per person. This shows how amazing the purchasing power of silver was in Annan, much higher than on the mainland.

With these two people taking the lead, Mo Zibu took advantage of the celebration banquet to make a lot of money from these high-ranking families in Hue.

After returning more than 80% of the occupied land to them, Mo Zibu recovered supplies worth 700,000 taels of silver.

Although there were only more than 60,000 taels of silver among them, various materials were piled up like mountains, especially precious oxen, mules, horses, donkeys, agricultural tools and other production materials and land in key areas.

With these, Mo Zibu selected 3,000 Chinese volunteers from Gia Dinh Dao and Andai areas who had followed him north and settled them in Hue.

The rewards for these people will be paid from this, and a large number of displaced Annan women will also be allocated to them. They will serve as the main force that General Mo Da relies on in Hue.

These people were called Hue households, and like the Hakka and Minnan households in the cooperatives in the Andai region, they would become Mo Zibu's David's army, responsible for suppressing the local area.

From this we can also see how important the Hakka people are to Mo Zibu when there are too few people from the Mo family’s hometown in western Guangdong, because most of these Hue households are also Hakkas.

. . . .

Fan Shilian was indeed a very beautiful woman, no, it should be said that she was a girl, because she was only fifteen years old.

She has a tall figure, fair skin, an oval face and big eyes. She speaks clearly and coherently, which is quite in line with Mo Zibu's aesthetic.

But Mo Zibu would not accept it, because he already has many women around him, but the only Han women he has are Chen's cousin Azhen and Ye Xiaomei.

Now, in order to control the brothers Pei Dexuan and Pei Rixuan to do his dirty work, he also wants to keep Pei Shiyan by his side.

At the same time, Pham Thi Lien and Nguyen Van Hue had an unclear relationship, his brothers Pham Van Xing and Pham Van Can also left with Nguyen Van Hue, and his half-brother Pham Diem was killed by the cavalry led by Pierre Ney sent by Mo Tz Bu.

Having a woman like this around, who is quite pretty, is simply asking for trouble.

But he could not be executed casually because he was the half-sister of Pei Dexuan brothers.

It's so fucking complicated.

Mo Zibu glanced at Wu Wenyong beside him. Although this guy was from Haiyang, that is, from Beihe where the Red River flows into the sea, he was abducted by Ruan Youqiu's peasant uprising army and taken to Nghe An since he was a child.

After that, he has been living in Nghe An and Thanh Hoa until he followed Mo Zibu, and then he grew rapidly. Now he is one of the most powerful generals on Mo Zibu's side.

Although Mo Zibu decided not to enter Beihe to overthrow Lord Zheng for the time being, it was impossible for him to completely ignore them.

So Mo Zibu planned to appoint Wu Wenyong as the garrison commander of Shunzhou, and let him lead two regiments to be responsible for the area from Shunzhou to Lingxi Long Wall.

These two regiments, together with auxiliary troops, can maintain a strength of around 5,500 people. Zheng's army has just suffered a crushing defeat, and its main force has basically been lost. There will be chaos in Beihe in the future.

Then, using these 5,500 people together with Wu Wenyong who is familiar with Nghe An and Thanh Hoa will definitely cause great trouble to the Zheng Lord.

But as a king, he naturally won't completely trust someone. The same goes for me, General Mo Da. Unless it's someone like Chen Guangyao, I can never get his absolute trust.

So, Mo Zibu smiled and said to Wu Wenyong, "Ayong has been with me for seven years and has made many achievements along the way. He is 24 years old this year and still hasn't started a family. Why don't you take this girl in and take care of the important matter of your life?"

Wu Wenyong looked at the rather pretty Fan Shilian greedily, and the beard on his face seemed to have grown out.

But he suddenly knelt down in front of Mo Zibu and said, "General, I don't want this girl. If I can win your favor and marry a Mo girl, I will have no regrets in my life."

Mo Zibu was stunned for a moment, then he remembered that Wu Wenyong was of Annamian origin.

Moreover, he is not a Han Chinese from Annam. He is most likely a fellow villager of Le Loi and a Mang from Jiuzhen.

After becoming queen, the people of Qie Le Loi evolved from the Muong people to the Kinh people. Wu Wenyong's ancestors were farmers in Haiyang and none of them were officials, so they had not yet completed this evolution.

Therefore, Wu Wenyong felt a little inferior because of this. From his point of view, there was indeed no better choice than marrying a member of the Mo family branch.

Mo Zibu looked at him mischievously, "My ancestor, Lord Lin, didn't have many descendants, and there aren't many close relatives. In the past six or seven years, there haven't been any suitable candidates. If you want to marry, you can only marry someone from a branch family, and the generation is not high."

This is indeed the case with Mo Zibu's family. His last elder sister has already married Li Xianwen, and the remaining nieces of marriageable age have also been promised to others long ago. There is really no one suitable.

If there is anyone who is a good match for Wu Wenyong, the only one who can match him is Mr. Mo, who started out as a mad grenadier and is now the captain of the Longmen Regiment, and he has a cousin.

But if Wu Wenyong wanted to marry her, he would immediately become Mo Zibu's nephew-in-law, and his generation status would drop by two generations.

But Wu Wenyong didn't care. He knew even better than Mo Zibu which girls in the Mo family were waiting to get married. The most suitable one was the granddaughter of Mo Gong's uncle.

Wu Wenyong had even discussed this matter with Mo Gong, but for a high-ranking military general like them to marry, it would be better to obtain Mo Zibu's consent, so they did not start discussing the marriage. Now is a good opportunity to bring up this matter.

Therefore, Wu Wenyong, who had been prepared for this, kowtowed respectfully to Mo Zibu and shouted, "General, please grant me your blessing."

"Well, it seems that you have already had a goal, so I will let you be my grandson-in-law." Mo Zibu naturally did not object. Wu Wenyong was worth winning over.

Then, Mo Zibu looked at Chen Guangyao and said, "Ayao, Fan Shilian is yours now. Take her home and make her your concubine."

"Ah?" Chen Guangyao obviously wanted it, but he was a little embarrassed to say it, and even glanced at Pei Shichun behind Mo Zibu.

Mo Zibu laughed heartily and turned to look at Pei Shichun. "Chun, I really don't have a place to arrange for Fan Shilian. It's my fault. I forgot to ask your opinion, the mistress."

Pei Shichun really wanted to say, "General, it will be easier to deal with if you accept it," but she didn't dare.

Besides, Fan Shilian did have some kinship with her. It was better to keep him in her house than to leave him out in the open.

But I still felt a little uncomfortable in my heart, and said a little aggrievedly: "How dare I refuse the gift given by the elders?"

Mo Zibu laughed again, and the matter was settled.

In the past, he had done something to prevent Chen Guangyao from cheating in Arakan, but at that time many places still relied on Pei Shichun and others. Now it is different.

I only have this caring cousin, and I can’t let him get bronchitis.

Moreover, Chen Guangyao was to serve as a backup for Wu Wenyong and shoulder the important task of harassing the Bac Ha. Making an enemy of Nguyen Van Hue was always a benefit.

(End of this chapter)