The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 270 Intrigue and deception
In the eighth month of the lunar calendar in Nanyang, the scorching sun burns like a ball of fire in the sky, and this time is often the most critical period for rice growth.

General Mo Da, wearing a linen shorts and straw sandals, walked through the fields of Hue with his ministers and guards.

The 3,000 or so households in and around Hue are the core territory of Mo Tzu Bu.

Without them, General Mo Da, who was surrounded by the high-ranking officials of Hue and Jinghan in Hue City, would not even be able to sleep well.

So even though there were thousands of things to do, he still took out a lot of time, traveled through mountains and rivers, and checked almost every household.

Confirm whether the land, farm tools, oxen and women he distributed have been distributed to every military household.

Like the Hakka and Minnan households in Andai, the Hue households in Hue also use the cooperative model.

That is, for large-scale and important projects such as water conservancy and oxen, which cannot be built and maintained independently by individual households, the cooperative will take the lead in collective wisdom and effort, and the rest will be distributed to households.

The only difference is that the semi-military households in the Andai area are organized in the vassal model.

Some of the cooperatives belong to General Mo Da personally, but they are named after the government.

Some cooperatives belong to envoys, garrison commanders, city lords, etc. at all levels.

There are also those where dozens of households unite together to develop, which is similar to village self-governance.

In other words, in the Andai area, Mozibu's government only has two main trunks: military and political. The branches and leaves growing on the trunks are spontaneously filled in by the people below and are diverse.

The reason why there are so many names is because Mo Zibu’s base is too small.

In order to annex and hold the Andai area as quickly as possible, we have to delegate a large amount of power to the Chinese immigrants who have come here in exchange for their loyalty, and work together to stabilize this rare home.

This is also because Mo Zibu is still just a general who protects the country and the people, not a king, and cannot be granted titles such as duke, marquis, earl, viscount, and baron, so the titles are temporarily random.

But it is different in Hue. This is a well-established place that has been managed by the Annamites for hundreds of years. The people have basically been sinicized, or to be more precise, Confucianized.

In this way, there is no need to use the vassal system in this place. It must be ruled by itinerant officials, even if the Central Plains is restored in the future.

Therefore, Mo Zi Bu divided the households in Hue into three guards, the left, the middle and the right, and set up three thousand households to control them. They took turns to be responsible for catching thieves, investigating adultery and suppressing smuggling in Hue and its surrounding areas.

"General, General, I kowtow to you!"

Seeing Mo Zibu's flag passing by, a black man who was resting under a big tree by the field with two women immediately started shouting loudly in a somewhat strange Hakka dialect.

Of course, it was not Mo Zibu who said this strange thing, but Ye Xiaomei. Mo Zibu's Hakka dialect is now at the level where he can barely communicate with simple words, and his accent is still unrecognizable.

"How is it? Have the land and the house been divided? Have these two women also been divided?" Mo Zibu smiled and was not serious at all, just like chatting with neighbors.

In fact, this is the normal state. Generally speaking, there is basically no direct conflict between the upper and lower levels of society. All conflicts are digested and resolved at the grassroots level by officials of all sizes.

"It was divided, it was divided. We have a house, land, and a donkey. The older one has a ten-year-old daughter who can already take care of the housework. She's not a burden."

Following the direction the guy pointed, Mo Zibu realized that the big person he was talking about was an Annan woman who was kneeling by the field and dared not look up.

Maybe around 30 years old, which can indeed be considered a bit old in this era.

However, the other one was not very old, but his belly was already a little bulging, so he could hardly kneel down.

Mo Zibu also quickly asked the two women to get up.

But this Hue resident turned out to be a chatterbox. Seeing that Mo Zibu was not stern enough to frighten people, he continued to mutter:
"It's a pity that my contribution is too small!" Mo Zibu looked at his expression, as if he wanted to slap himself twice.

"When we were heading north from Songcheng, my uncle advised me to buy a better self-fired musket, but unfortunately I couldn't bear to do so and only bought a Foshan shotgun.

As a result, when I arrived at the battlefield, I found out that others fired two guns while I only fired one. When a fierce battle was about to begin, they saw that I was holding a bird rifle and didn't let me go.

And it can't be equipped with a bayonet. When the battle of Shunzhou was already disrupted, if I hadn't been lucky enough to pick up a spear on the ground, I wouldn't have been able to kill five people."

Hiss, Mo Zibu secretly took a breath of cold air and began to look directly at the short and stocky little black guy.

So you, a Huiliang man, stabbed five people to death just by picking up a spear, got military merit, and even got two wives. But you still think that you didn't kill enough people and didn't accomplish anything, right?

Xiao Heizi didn't notice Mo Zibu's surprised look. Finally, he said with some request:
"General, I still have the right to distribute 20 mu of land, but my land is already big enough. Can I transfer this to my brother in Daai Ridge?"

As he spoke, Xiao Heizi patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, General. My brother is very powerful. No matter how powerful the enemy is in Daai Ridge, my brother dares to go and beat him."

Hearing the three words "Daai Ling", Ye Xiaomei whispered a few words in Mo Zibu's ear, and Mo Zibu suddenly realized.

It turns out this guy is from Daailing, no wonder he is so fierce.

Where is this Daai Ridge?
At the border between Jiangxi and Fujian, to the west is the famous Ruijin, and to the east is the famous Hakka city and the highly combat-capable Tingzhou.

This place has been a place of great strength and bravery since ancient times. Their ancestors in those days made even the sage Wang Yangming very worried.

Of course, the situation was even more severe more than a hundred years later. If there was no one to give blind command in the Ruijin Soviet Area, Chiang Kai-shek would never have been able to take it down in his entire life.

Only then did Mo Zibu realize that his reputation for attracting Hakkas had spread to Ji'an and Yuanzhou in central Jiangxi.

Almost all Hakkas in northern Fujian and central and southern Jiangxi know that there is a Nanyang Hakka King named him.

Thinking of this, Mo Zibu became even more excited. There are more than 10 million Hakka people living in central and southern Jiangxi. They are generally very strong in combat and are very good settler soldiers.

"Call them down, call them all down. I will take in as many as you can from Da'ai Ling. Those who have land will farm it, and those who don't will be treated as my husbands. If you do meritorious service, I will share the land with you."

The more people like this, the better. Mo Zibu waved his hand and immediately agreed.

Xiao Heizi was overjoyed and went home with his two wives, saying that he would ask someone to write a letter back home.

After just a short delay, all the Hue military households around came. They carried food, rice wine and rice water, and happily presented them to General Mo.

Mo Zibu also smiled and followed these military households to have a meal by the field.

After visiting these military households and ensuring that all 3,000 Hue households had received their share of houses and land based on their military achievements, and that a hierarchical system for military households had been established, Mo Zibu began his return journey only after the military judges and training officers, dispatched by the Military Sima Office and the Military Commissioner Office, had arrived.

However, there are also hidden worries. Along the way, Mo Zibu investigated and dealt with a total of six cases of illegal activities by grassroots military officers.

They were quite shrewd and did not dare to directly seize the meritorious land, but they dared to conspire with the high-ranking officials in Jing and Han around Hue.

They made profits by replacing sick oxen from high-ranking families in Beijing and Han Dynasty, adult cattle with sub-adult calves, and upper fields with middle fields, etc.

"These six cases aren't serious issues, but military law cannot be relaxed for a moment. The Sima Office must continue to conduct strict investigations. No matter who he is, if he dares to commit a crime, he must be apprehended immediately."

After instructing the military commander Wu Shixiu, Mo Zibu said to Zheng Qing, the left clerk and deputy military officer of the Criminal Department,
"Here at the Ministry of Justice, we must also strengthen supervision over those high-ranking families. We must use severe punishments to tell them that if anyone dares to collude with military officers again, I will directly raid their homes."

When they arrived at Xiangcha County, Wu Hanzhu, the right clerk and assistant military officer of the Household Department, came to report anxiously.

The farming around Hue was not carried out very well this year because many old farmers who were familiar with the farming season around Hue were killed.

The newly settled Hakka military households in Hue still farmed according to their hometown habits in northern Guangdong and southern Jiangxi, resulting in certain losses.

How to say it, in a place like Annan where three crops are harvested a year, early rice is usually planted in January and February at the beginning of the year. Based on the four-month maturity period, the harvest is in May and June.

Late rice is planted from June to July and harvested from October to November.

Judging from the actual growth time, this is equivalent to only two seasons, so the remaining harvest is called medium-season rice, which is usually planted in the gaps between March and October.

In this way, early rice and late rice are harvested once each, and mid-season rice is harvested twice in between. However, since mid-season rice is subject to various conditions, the amount of grain harvested twice may be similar to that of early and late rice.

That means three harvests a year.

However, this rush planting, since it is carried out between early rice and late rice, is very demanding on the farmer's familiarity with the farming time, weather conditions, and the growth conditions in the field.

What's more difficult is that late rice is more easily affected by climate, and if the temperature drops too quickly, it will also affect the harvest.

In addition, if the early rice harvest is too abundant and absorbs too much nutrients from the soil, it will also cause a large-scale reduction in the late rice yield.

Therefore, there is an even greater need for guidance from experienced farmers who can predict the impact of the weather in advance and reduce the impact of poor late rice harvests by rushing to plant mid-season rice.

Sometimes it is even necessary to manually clear away some of the early rice that is growing very fast to leave room for the late rice to grow.

All these things are somewhat different from farming in northern Guangdong and southern Jiangxi.

When Mo Zibu was in the Andai area, the Malay natives had no idea how to farm, so no matter how the Hakkas planted the crops, they would get a better harvest than before.

But when it comes to the Annan people, who also know how to farm, the gap is immediately apparent.

Mo Zibu was overwhelmed by what he heard. It was already amazing that he could tell the difference between rice and weeds, so how could he understand all this?

But he knew how to solve it. After thinking about it, Mo Zibu said to Wu Hanzhu:

"There are many skilled farmers among the Mingxiang people in Jiading. Let Lin Tong take the lead, and the two of you go back to Jiading together.

Recruit 300 households of Minh Huong people to go north, place them among the 3,000 households in Hue, and teach them the local farming methods."

"Also, according to a report from the First Arsenal's board of directors, there's a master at the Tiangong Academy of Jiading Taoism who's skilled in making gunpowder who's eager to see me. He said he'll return to the mainland if I don't go. Ask Lin Tong to invite him to Hue for me."

Mo Zibu really didn't have time to go to Jiading, so he could only let Lin Tong represent him.

Li Yulong wiped the sweat from his forehead and said with emotion, "It's really not easy to be a good leader of a country!

I thought the prince was now enjoying fine wine, beauties, and luxury cars, but it turns out he's even busier than the governor."

Brother Li lived nearby, and there were frequent boats between Ha Tien and Guangzhou, so Li Yulong quickly arrived in Hue and met Mo Zibu.

Mo Zibu wiped the sweat from his head, smiled bitterly and said:
"Brother, you can see now that I'm extremely busy. How can I have the energy to attack Beihe? As long as the Zheng family doesn't come to cause trouble, I will definitely not go north."

Li Yulong nodded habitually, but slowly straightened his back a little, no longer looking like a slave. He was silent for a while, and finally spoke:
"Your Majesty, I have some friendship with you, and I know you will definitely go north.

Myanmar is such a hard bone, yet you took the risk to bite it hard. This Beihe is like a big piece of fat meat right in front of your mouth, how could you not eat it? "

"I know I can't persuade you, but there is one thing I want to say: while Li Zhitai is in Guangdong and Guangxi, please don't take any action.

As for me, when I go back, I will also persuade Mr. Zhitai to move to another place as soon as possible so that there will be no damage to the relationship between our two families.

Even if the wrath of thunder comes from the Nine Heavens, we can still turn things around."

Mo Zibu was stunned. Who said that the Qing Dynasty had no talents? This old dog was very clear-headed.

However, his cleverness was all about gaining benefits for himself. And Mo Zibu had a suspicion that this old man was trying to trick him.

So he thought about it, pretended to be done with it, and said to Li Yulong:

"Then please go back and tell Li Zhitai that I will definitely not be able to enter Annan's Eastern Capital within five years, but after five years, it's hard to say."

Humph, considering the weak state of Lord Zheng of Beihe now, Mo Zibu will definitely not let them live in peace for five years. He will take action in two or three years at the latest.

Li Yulong was a bannerman after all, and although Mo Zibu pretended to be very righteous, it was impossible for him not to be on guard.

Li Yulong believed it a little, because what Mo Zibu said was similar to what he estimated.

He witnessed with his own eyes that the area around Hue was almost reduced to a wasteland, and the city walls have not been repaired to this day.

Hoi An, which was once a prosperous commercial city, had half of the city burned down, and it would take more than three to four years to recover.

Even if we start fighting immediately, it will not be easy to destroy Beihe within two years, and even five years would be considered too short.

(End of this chapter)